The Labor enquirer., 1885-02-07

workers, and Is ! cesseless burden on
their lives IS L.
n Therefore the necessary fesulss Of this
|s0 called civilization are only too Obvious
I'm che lives Of its slaves, the workine
class; IN the enxiety and want Of leisure
.midst Which thex toll. in The squalor
and wretchednem in those parts Of our
great towns where they dwell; in the
degradation of their bodies, their
wretched health, and the shortness Of
their lives, in the terrible brutality 90
common among them. and which is in
dSed but the reflection Of the cynical
selashness found among the well-to-doi
classes, brutality as hideous as the
other; and lastly, in the crowd of Grim.
inals who are Is much manufacturers of
our commercial system as the cheap and
nasty wares which are made at once for.
the consumption and the enlargement Of
the poor.
What remedy then do we propose for
this failure of our civilization which is
nov admitted By almost eli thoughtfnls
people I. 1888,
We lsye alzaadE phoxn that the
worEsn. althaugh they pEodace al The
wealth Of society. haye no control OYER
it's production or distrib button the Peo-
PIE. who are the only really organic part
of society, are treated as q mere append
age to capital-as part of its machinery.
This must be altered from the founda-
ton; the land, the capital, the
machinery, factories, work shops, stores,
means of transit, mines, banking
short all the means ofthe production Of
wealth-must be declared and treated
as the common property Of all. Every
man will then receive the full value of
his labor. without deduction for the
pront Of q master and as all will have to
work, and the waste now incurred bv
the pursuit ofprofit will be at an end,
the amount of labor necessary for every
indiYid1al to perform n ordsr 70 carry
On che essential WORK 81 the world Will
Be reduced to somethfng IKE two or
three hours daily 50 that every one Will
have abundant leisure for following. in
tellectual or other pursuits congeniaI to
his nature.
This change in the method of !produc-
ton and distribution would enable
everyone to live decently, and free from
the sordid anxieties for daily livelihood
which at present weigh so heavily on the
greatest part of mankind.
But, moreover, mems social and moral
relations would be seriously modified by
this gain of economical freedom, and by
the collapse of the superstitions, moral
and other, which necessarily accompany
a state of economical slavery the test of
duty would now rest on the fnlflIment of
clear and well-defned obligations to the
com munity rather than on the molding
of the individual character and actions
to some pre-conceived standard outside
social responsibilities.
-four modern bourgeois property-mar-
iriage. maintained as it is by Its necessary
complement, universal venal prostitu-
ton, would give place to kindly and
human relations between the sexes. y
Education freed from the trammels Of
commereialism on the one hand and su-
perstition on the other, would become
reasonable drawing out of mems varied
faculties in order to fit them for a life of
social intercourse and happiness; for
mere work would no longer be proposed
as the end of life, but happiness for each
and all. q
Only by such fundamental changes in
the life of man, only by the transforma-
tion of Civilization into Socialism, can
those miseries of the world before-men-
toned be amended.
AS to mere politics, Absolutism, Con-
sstitutionalism, Republicanism, have all
been tried in. our day and under our
present social system, and all have alike
failed in dealing with the real evils of
life. 49, Il
Nor, on the other hand, will certain
incomplete schemes of social reform
now before the public solve thequestion.
Cooperation so.called that is, COM
petitfve cooperation for proft-would
merely rHcFssse the number OF small
joint stock capitalists, under the mask
OF cfeating an aristocracy OF labor. while
it-woald sintenafy the severity of labor
by1s temptation to ovefwofk.
Naturalization of the land alone,
which many earnest and sincere persons
are now preaching, would be useless 80
long as labor was subject TO the feecing
Of surplus value inevitable under The
Capitalist system.
M be{fer solution would be than State