Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-09-29
Socialism.

In the light of modern investigation,
what future has socialism, as a political
movement, before it2 The Darwinians
have term which expresses the tenden-
cy constantly showing itself in the ami
nal world toward return to primitive
types and FORMS Long after the struggle
for existance has produced permanent
modification in a species. individual
members of it appear of the type as it
existed before tile modification became
fixed. The same sort of atavism, as if is
called. exhibits itself in the mental onera-
IONS OF the human race; and it it is now
clear that the socialistic projects with
which reformers have perplexed md dis
1urDed the world tor the last hundred
years have their root in this curious ten
dency. One OF the most interesting chan.
tiers in NJ. Laveleye's book is devoted
to showing that, in the classical world
utoplan speculation Of all kinds. was
based on living tradition of the sSatur
man days." when property did not exist.
but when men lived together as brothers.
Ihls Is now seen not to be mere
fancy, but memory of a real commu-
nlstlc state of society, in which individ-
ual ownership did not exist, and men
were brothers in a literal sense, the fam
lily being the social unit. The tendency
always existing to throw halo about the
past, produced a feeling that this early
condition of society had been much bet.
Ter than the existing state; and it is easy
to see how, reinforced by highly specu-
Iative philosophy, it might account for
| large part of the Platonic scheme for the
reorganization of the would. With the
dls ppearance OF the classical world, the
TRADITION OF Punitive communism, as a
lost utopia, died out, and left nothing
out abstract philosophizing for new
schemes to be based upon. Accordingly.
we ilnd that for the last 100 years the So
clalsts have rested their case upon the
abstract sense Of justice and assumed
equality of rights. Now this basis has
been swept away by the discovery that
the assumed equality of rights is opposed
to great economical law, which in all
ages and in all countries has been SLOWLY
compelling the substitution of the system
OF individual for communistic ownership.
There is lett then, at one extreme, the
modern philosophical socialism of M.
Laveleye, the principal objection to which
Is that it remains to be proved to have
any lasting hold upon oppinion; at the
other we discover Justus Schwab and
"Cluzen' Maddox plotting over their
beer for a redistribution of the worlds
goods.
To say that there is a connection be-
tween Plato and the pot-house COM
munlsm OF Chicago and New York may
seem grotesque fancy. but it is certain
thai our Schwabs' minds, could their
operations be exhibited, would in social
speculation betray much closer resem-
blanoe 10 the Platonist mental oper
atoms than to those of most of their
living fellow-creatures. When they
dream of world in which there shall be
no more property, or in which every man
shall have his just share of it, this mental
operation presents case of atavism which
carries US back to an intellectual condi-
tlon 1000 years Old. Atavism, however,
can never BE- living social force. It is
opposed by the whole weight OF accunlu-
lated civilization and progress attained
since the primitive Schwabs wandered
naked through the German forests. To
suppose that il is to succeed is to Suppose
that the world is to go backward, and
that we are to relapse into the primeval
night and chaos out Of which we sprung.
Civilization may be destroyed, but not
revcrsei-and, if the chain of reasoning
furnished by modern investigation is
not altogether wrong, mankind at large
will in the future be less, and likely to
risk plunge into the bog of primitive
communism in the hope of overtaking the
glimmer of what long and weary pur-
suit has proved to be social ignas .fatuus.
Atlantic Monthly.