The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1870-10-13
T'l.c Ncvv SOcialtsts-The lnlerDAil0nal
MOVcmcnt-lts Plans, Theories nnd
sS1sa

From the New York Tribune.
The present International Workingmens
Association is destined, / believe, to play
very conspicuous part in the history of this
generation, and purpose, therefore, 10 .ex-
plain To your readers something of Its char
acter and objects. Its foundation was very
difficult, almost hopeless undertaking, CON-
sidcring the mutual an.ipathy of European
nations, and the prcjudiccs common to all
workingmcn. 1t could have been started
only by a man who WIS as well acquainted
with the Latin race by 4 long sojourn among
them, us with the Gcrmanic, student of
history and political economy, man Of pro-
found learning, but, At the same time, of the
most catholic democratic inclinatlons. Such
man was found in Karl Marx. The French
social reformers had, till then, been educated
in one of the several Communist schools;
they were either Babouvis,s, or Cabctists, or
Fourieritcs. Their systems ignored liberty
and selEgovernment; they expected all good
things to come from above, from more or
less centralized and omniPotent government.
The English rcformcrs taught self-depend-
encc, and laid greater stress on liberty than
on equality; but they had no system, no
unity Of ideas, no common starting point and
aim. Their representatives, the Tradea
tuIOliS, stTuSSiCl Only ioi tHc VANS va ahS
day, but in their limited field they did 4
great deal of good. 5000.
1t was then by teaching English working
men the Frendh ideas of equality, and
French workingmen the English idea of
liberty and self-royernmem, that Marx be-
came a great social reformer. 1t was by
bringing them together in International Con.
crosses, and setting them to exchange ideas
g. ,,,,s,,,l that no
furnished them with corrective for their
one-sided ideas, and interested them in
thorough consideration Of the necessity of
future. higher and more humane develop
ment of society. NJ last, he embodied all
his ideas on that one subject in a work, writ
ten in German under the title of ''Das
Kapital," the frs; volume of which only has,
as vet, appeared. The essential portions Of
it have been translated by its adherents into
most of the living languages, and form the
new gospel OF the International Working
mems Assertion, which held its first Con-
srcss in London, in 1864, has since met in
Lausanne 1869, Brusck p86Sl, IND Hhel
(lS69l, and is now firmly established among
several millions Of the toiling masses of
| Great Britain, Frmee, Iseigihui, Swi<zeflmd-
Spain, Italy, HOLLAND, Germany, AlstrI,
Sweden and Russia.
THE NEW THEORY. .r, -r..t :
The fundamental idea Of this International
| Association is that society is gradually under
going a great change of production, con-
sumption, exchange aud ijeas, and that Inen
must accommodate themselves to this change.
1t is capital which is revolutioniEing society.
Each period Of history has its correspond
ing particular kind of production. Ii was
slave labor which characterized the prudaic-
| ton and social state of antiquity. The mid
die ages received their peculiar stamp by
| the division of labor and production for inn
mediate wants. h way the manufacturing
system which gave tlr; last century it. tran.
| STORY character, and it is the perfection Of
this system through new inventions and eci-
entific discoveries into the eakHtaliaio EPso-:
duction of the present time which imparts to
modern society It's 10 specific diyiiNH
Where formerly. you hai an indeps.kee
master mechanic, abe To- proadce avasiefy
of merchandise of a particular Kind in .
workman-like manner, YOU now see a de-
pendent slave, employed " capitalist, who
furnishes hin, with the material, tools and
| machinery, and realizes all the profits, pay
| ing him with only Portnn OF nh earnings
| called wages. This working man is no
longer independent, iniel6goit,- self-NAiant
| and an element of free community but a
prolttai.x. 1t is the evident tendency Of the
times to change all production into capitalist
production, and to divide society into twO
classes, capitalists who own everything, and
hands who own nothing, bU depeDd for
| their livelihood entirely on the capitalist
class. At least, tits Inevitable thA PnO1lne.
1 ton on large scale, being cheaper, mere
scientific and thorough, and economizing
time, force and capital should ff,ally do en-
tirely away with production on a small scale.
| When at last the soil is bought up by few,
when all the branches of labor are carried
on exclusively, or almost exclusively, by
machinery, when all the capital of a coun-
try is in the possession possession Of mon
eyed aristocracy, who, consequently, will
also frame all the laws, where shall the
enormous majority of poor men so. to find
some more profitable employment, to make
themselves Independent, or to enter by CO
operation into competition with the large
capitalist producer ------.-.
OBJECTS OF ASSOCIATION. - a.
The programme which Marx lAi1ous, and
which has been discussed and adopted by the
| four International Congresses, ia, in 3 con-