Socialism and Democracy in Europe

NG OF SOCIALISM-THE P

n his way toward the goal he seeks than any other he possesses. Because the modern state is democratic, and the democratic state bends in the direction of the mass. The revolutions attempted in the middle of the last century

ized actual political parties, and arrayed themselves against the older orders in the struggle for p

s a bourgeois movement, not a proletarian uprising, not a revolution in the sense that Marx, for instance, uses the word, it must not be forgotten that the proletarians were in the revolution. The dark and sullen background of that tragedy was the mass of unspeakably poor. They w

enturers to new and unexploited continents, and had backed the inventions of Arkwright and Hargreaves, were now in power in politics as well as in commerce and industry. A unity of purpose between industry and statecraft was thus achieved; new ideals became dominant. The patriarchal pre

ideal made governing an incident in the activities of a class whose dominating impulse was the

uman political experience. A larger group of citizens was drawn into the widening circle of governmental activities. It was an inevitable step. The discovery of the New World and the invention of machinery were making a new earth-an unattractive earth, but nevertheless a new one. The balance of power was shi

l, and economical values were distributed by custom and imposed by heredity, rather than by individual effort or individual capacity. When, therefore, this great change came over society, a change that would have been unthinkable in the days of Charlemagne or of Elizabeth,-a change that virtu

f the night and move sullenly upon the factories, to destroy their enemies, the machines. They pillage the buildings and threaten the house of their employer, whom they c

tence of their actions. In England a new movement begins. They try to re-enact the Elizabethan statute of laborers, to bring back the days of handicrafts, of journeyman and apprentice. They soon lea

poleon's campaigns; the new machine industry did not establish itself until after the enactment of protective tariffs and the creation "Zollverein," in 1818. This cemented the bourgeois interests. Manufacturers, traders, and bankers achieved a homogeneity of interest and ambition which was antagonistic to the spirit of the junker and the feudalist. The new bourg

e ruling class on the one hand, and of the banker and manufacturer on the other hand. When the interests of these two clashed he was alarmed, for he could neither rema

In 1844 the weavers of Silesia rose in revolt. There was rioting and bloodshed. This was followed by bread riots in various parts of Germany. In 1848 the whole country was in the turmoil of revolution, a revolution led by the upper middle class, but prompted and fired by the zeal o

ly superintended religion. A greater power than caste and tradition was slowly eating its way into this country, which had attempted to isolate itself from the rest of the world. This was the power of machine industry. It brought with it, as in every other country, a new class, the manufacturers, who, as soon as their business began to expand, sought

supported by the army, on the other."[2] This Parisian proletarian uprising was the red signal of warning to Germany and Austria. The bourgeois were now as anxious to rid themselves of the Socialist contingent as they had b

ook up arms and gave battle to the troops, consisted of the working classes of the towns. A portion of the poor

nd it at once arrayed the entire bourgeoisie of France against itself.... Marche, a workingman, dictated a decree wherein the newly formed provincial government pledged itself to secure the position of the workingman through work, to do away with bourgeois labor, etc. And as they seemed to forget this promise, a few d

ourgeois uprisings against feudal remnants in government. He is not always clear in his own mind

the other Continental attempts. The Parisians had piled bar

18th of March," and the Commune "as a lever for uprooting the economical foundations upon which rests the existence of classes, and therefore of class rule." Its acts of violence he

d see these uprisings in a different perspective. He acknowledged the mistake made by the Socialists in believing that they could by violence somehow become the deciding factor in the government, and therefore in the econo

They embraced bourgeois tradesmen and proletarian workingmen, who, in their new-found delirium, thought that with "the overthrow of the reactionary governments, the kingdom of heaven would be realized on earth."[7] "They had no idea," continues Kautsky, who speaks on these questions with a

taught the proletarians the folly of ill-timed violence; revealed to them the

he Channel to England and Ireland. But here revolution took a different course. In Ireland it was the brilliant O'Connell's agitation against the Act of Union; in England i

ass, but withheld it from the working class. A few radical members of Parliament met with representatives of the workingmen and drafted a bill. O'Connell, as he handed the measure to the secretary of the association, said: "There is your charter"-and the "People's Charter" it was called. Its "six points" were: Manhood suffrage, annual Parliaments, election by ballot, abolition of property qualifications

truggled to find vent for itself through any orifice; the poor patient, all sick from center to surface, complains now of this member, now of that: corn

tism, my friends, is no mere political movement, where the main point is your getting the ballot. Chartism is a kni

t carrying a torch, hence they were called "torchlight parades." These two spectacular features were soon adopted by American campaigners. A wild and desperate feeling seized the masses. "You see yonder factory with its towering chimney," cried one of its orators. "Every brick in that f

l, must be secret." The whole movement had all the aspects of a modern, violent general strike. Its papers, The Poor Man's Guardian, The Destructive, and others, were full of tirades against wealth and privilege. When the agitation became an uprising in Wales, there was a conflict between the Chartists and the police in which a number were killed a

THE PERIOD

not only stood under the standard of Daniel Manin in Venice, when that patriot again proclaimed a republic in the ancient city, and shared with Mazzini his

against the recrudescence of feudalistic ideals. In France Louis Philippe had attempted the part of a petty despot.

ts, the workingmen of France were sacking their capital because of an attempted revival of monarchic privilege, and the wor

st governmental power, from the absolutism of Prussian Junkerdom and the oppression of the Hungarians

ings. The unity of life makes their separation a myth. One is interwoven with

available instrument for effecting the change-the revolution-the Socialists preach, the transfer of productive enterprise from private

TNO

ion and Counter-R

ion and Counter-R

cit., pp

ssenk?mpfe in Fra

e International Workingmen's Associati

a rhetorical address to the Parisian Communards as

of the leagued reactionists th

but fell l

hem bandits, places them und

e permit

alling by hundreds under the blows of their murderers, let us say to them: Come to us, we are here

Paris are ours: we accept the responsibility

national, p. 342. This sentiment was al

Die Klassenk?mpfe

Friedrich Engels, p

och of Ref

ism was, after the Anti-Corn Law League had been formed, "purely a workingman's cause." It was "the struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie." "The demands hitherto made by him (the laborer), the ten-hours' bill,

of the Chartist Movement, 18