Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/348

* SOCIALISM. 294 SOCIALISIC mocracy, and has a world-wide significance, serv- ing as a fundamental basis for every social demo- cratic platform since adopted tkroughout the world. This programme reads as follows : "The economic development of industrial so- ciety tends inevitably to the ruin of small in- dustries which are based upon the workman's private ownership of the means of production. It separates him from these means of production, and converts him into a destitute member of the proletariat, while a comparatively small num- ber of capitalists and great land-owners obtain a monopoly of the means of production. "Hand in hand with the growing monopoly goes the crusliing out of existence of these shat- tered small industries by industries of colossal growth, the development of the tool into the ma- chine, and a gigantic increase in the productive- ness of human labor. But all the advantages of this revolution are monopolized by the cap- italists and great land-owners. To the proleta- riat and to the rapidly sinking middle classes, the small tradesmen of the towns, and the peasant proprietors ( Bauern ), it brings an increasing uncertainty of existence, increasing misery, op- pression, servitude, degradation, and exploita- tion ( Ausbeutung ). Ever greater grows the mass of the proletariat, ever vaster the army of the unemplo.ed, ever sharper the contrast be- tween oppressors and oppressed, ever fiercer that war of classes between bourgeoisie and prole- tariat which divides modern society into two hos- tile camps, and is the common characteristic of every industrial country. The gulf between the propertied classes and the destitute is widened by the crises arising from capitalist production, w'hich becomes daily more comprehensive and omnipotent. "Private ownership of the means of produc- tion, formerly the means of securing his product to the producer, has now become the means of expropriating the peasant proprietors, the arti- sans, and the small tradesmen, and placing the non-producers, the capitalists, and large land- owniers in possession of the products of labor. Nothing but the conversion of capitalist private ownership of the means of production — the earth and its fruits, mines, and quarries, raw mate- rial, tools, machines, means of exchange — into social ownership, and the substitution of social- ist production, carried on by and for society in the place of the present production of commodi- ties for exchange, can effect such a revolution that, instead of large industries and the steadily growing capacities of common production being, as hitherto, a source of misery and oppression to the classes whom they have despoiled, they may become a source of the highest well-being and of the most perfect and comprehensive harmon.v. "This social revolution involves the emancipa- tion, not merely of the proletariat, but of the whole human race, which is suffering under ex- isting conditions. But this emancipation can be achieved by the working class alone, because all other classes, in spite of their mutual strife of interests, take their stand upon the principle of private o^Tiership of tht means of production, and have a common interest in maintaining the existing social order. "The struggle of the working classes against capitalist exploitation must of necessity be a po- litical struggle. The working classes can neither carry on their economic struggle nor develop their economic organization without political rights. They cannot effect the transfer of the means of production to the community without being first invested with political power. "It nnist be the aim of social democrac,y to give conscious unanimity to this struggle of the working classes, and to indicate the inevitable goal. "The interests of the working classes are iden- tical in all lands governed b,y capitalist methods of production. The extension of the world's conuneree and production for the world's mar- kets make the position of the workman in any one country daily ujore dependent upon that of the workman in other countries. Therefore, the emancipation of labor is a task in which the workmen of all civilized lands have a share. "The German Social Democrats are not, there- fore, fighting for new class privileges and rights, but for the abolition of class government, and even of classes themselves, and for universal equality in rights and duties without distinction of sex or rank. Holding these views, they are not merely fighting against the exploitation and oppression of the wage-earners in the existing social order, but against every kind of exploita- tion and oppression, whether directed against class, party, se.x, or race. "Starting from these principles, the German Social Democrats demand, to begin with (i.e. of the present State) : " ( 1 ) Universal, equal, and direct suffrage by ballot, in all elections, for all subjects of the Em- pire over twenty years of age, without distinc- tion of sex ; proportional representation, and, until this system has been introduced, fresh divi- sion of electoral districts by law after each cen- sus; two years' duration of the legislature; holding of elections on a legal day of rest; pay- ment of the representatives elected ; removal of all restrictions upon political rights, except in the case of persons under age. "(2) Direct legislation b,y the people by means of the right of initiative and of veto ; self-gov- ernment by the people in Empire, State, .province, and eommime; election of magistrates by the people, with the right of holding them responsi- ble; annual vote of the taxes. "(3) Universal military education; substitu- tion of militia for a standing army ; decision by the pojiular representatives of questions of peace and war; decision of all international disputes by arbitration. "(4) Abolition of laws which restrict or sup- press free expression of opinion and the right of meeting or association. "(5) Abolition of all laws which place the woman, whether in a private or a public capa- city, at a disadvantage as compared with the man. "(6) Declaration that religion is a private matter; abolition of all appropriations from pub- lic funds for ecclesiastical and religious objects; ecclesiastical and religious bodies are to be re- garded as private associations which order their affairs independently. " ( 7 ) Secularization of education ; compulsory attendance at public national schools : free edu- cation, free supply of educational apparatus, and free maintenance to children in schools, and to such pupils, male and female, in higher educa-