The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-07-18

his attacks on. property rewarded by
Obscurity, poverty, and the absolate
refusah Of the French people to
trouble +hemselAeswith his parado.es;
and the disciples-of SAINT Simon had
already been, scattered over the
world. Some OF them had takento
literature; some had been distinguish
ed by their orthodoxy as political
economists. some and among them
Enfantin himself. had become CT, il
engineers; andsto most of them. the
memsry of the queer community
which. they had, found in Paris must
have seemed like the record of
craZY dream. The remains Of En-
fantin, now fill a neglected grave in
Pere- la. Chaise. Nay, the working
people Of France appear to have
almost entil ely cast off their Soeialis-
tic heresies. Political freedoms has
taught them much in the school of
pratice. Their experience of in
dustrial cooperation has revealed the
weakness and the limitations of the
system. The Communism tended to
show all butt the wilder revolutionary
spirits that society could not be
wnenched cut of its old place Thus
the later congresses of the French
working people have displayed a
healthy return to the prosaic belief
that there is no shortcut to the eX-
tinction Of poverty. and that the
expectations Of socialism are delusive.
dreams.
At the very moment whens SocialiS+
tic ideas were beginning to fade away
in France they were beginning to-
take hold of Germany. Some of her
political economists displayed an
intrepity of speculation which outdid
the flights of their French compeers.
Lassalle advocated the reorganization
Of society with brilliant eloQuence.
and Karl Marx and other innovators
followed with more sweeping designs.
Now the aim of the Democratic As
ISOLATION OF German Workmcn and
the International is to destroy the
capitalist class. not Orgy in Germany.
but throughout Europe. The leaders
do not pretend to believe that thes
can reach their goal by Me avenues
of peace, or that .hev are ready to
wait for the slow effect of natural
change. They frankly put their trust
in revolution. Csne OF the darkest
days in their calendar is the day on
which the Paris Commune WAS over
thrown: for that body made the first
great attempt. they think. to set up
the sovereignty of the working
people. Religion they attaca rs We
hemently as property. No sustained
effort to destroy the hardships of this
world will be made, they hold. until
they root out the belief that there is
any other scene of happiness than the
present.
They teach that doctrine with Ger
man thoroughness and pedantry. All
the spurts of French impiety seem to
be little more than idle trifing in
comparison with the dull, monoto-
noussolemn outpouring of German
atheism. 1t may seem strange that
the destructive tenants of socialism
should have taken SO firm a hold of a
nation which is the most generally
educated in Europe, and which has an
incOmparably large cultivated class.
with all the science of the world at
its command. But there will seem
less cause for wonder if we look a,
German society. During the last few
years a sudden rise of prices has
greatly multiplied the amount of mis-
chief especially in Berlin and the other
great towns. And there are less OBJ.
vious explanations of the sociaistic
outbreak. The people are only begin
ming to he a nation in the English
sense of the word. They have been
kept in the leading-strings of the gov
eminent until they as naturally seek
aid from it in all affairs of general in
terest as Englshmen rely on their
own mother wit. Ministers like Prince
Bismark. are deeply mistaken If they
think that, on seeing the hand of the
state powerful i'll every part of socie-
~. half-taught artisans will not credu-
lousy listen to the theory that the
state can reorganize society itself
The want of popular freedom. has.
meanwhile. been attended by capaci-
ty and passion for philosophical spec
ulalion such as no modern country RI
vailed. Metaphysical and political or
theological systems are always closely
akin. If we look at the dominant
metaphysical ideas of one generation,
we can usually predict the political or
religious tendencies of the next. In
Germany there has been such an abyss
between thinking and action that the
almost diseased speculative activity
of the nation has not been refined in
by the despotism OF practice. The
same result was seen in France
until political responsibility sobered
even the lightest spirits. \ further
cause of socialism has been tie de-
structive effect of philosophical sys-
TENS on inherited beliefs. But. as
men will not consent to live long with
6ht an ideal, the German skeptics go
for it to the dream of a regenerated
society in which the foul bl ITS of our
civilization shall have disappeared.
Another cause is the aristocra.i. con-
stitution of the empires and the crush
ing weight or its military spirits NAV
have no belief in the decisions of so.
cialism. and yet they may % ,ai d them
as the only means of overthrowiny
the present political fabric. Nodoubt
the socialists are comparatively small
class. and good sense will ultimately
he as fatal to their follies as it was to
those of their French teachers. But
m arn ~ k.rI IL