Socialism,
A word now employed in several different senses.
Loosely, it includes all schemes for abolishing social inequality, and in this sense it is generally distinguished as utopian socialism, under which designation communities like those of the Essenes, the early Christians, and the Shakers in the
United States at the present day, and the ideal commonwealths of
Plato, More, and Harington, are to be classed.
St. Simon (1760-1825),
Owen (1771-1858), and
Fourier (1768-1830) were the leading modern Utopians.
Scientific socialism is an economic theory which affirms that the materials from which labor produces wealth—
i. e., the land—should be the property of the community, not of individuals forming a separate class.
Socialists also demand that the existing capital, having (as they contend) been unjustly appropriated by the landholding class or its assignees, be restored, with the land, to the community.
It vests all authority in the hands of delegates elected by the community, and seeks to substitute public co-operation for private enterprise in supplying all social needs.
Modern socialism is of
European origin.
In the first half of the nineteenth century,
F. D. Maurice (1805-72), and
Charles Kingsley (1819-75), two English clergymen, advocated a large extension of the system of co-operation.
The work begun by them is carried on on more extended lines by Christian socialism, which “claims to be the result of applying
Christ's teaching to national, social, and commercial life, and not merely to personal conduct.
Those who hold this view maintain that
Christ said little as to a future state, but much of bettering the conditions of life in this world.
They point out that he consistently placed the community before the individual, and taught that the foundation of society is brotherhood, not competition for profit, as now with us. Christian Socialists adopt that name because they believe that a really Christian society must be what is called socialistic.”
Scientific socialism embraces:
1. Collectivism: An ideal socialistic state of society, in which the functions of the government will include the organization of all the industries of the country.
In a collectivist state every person would be a state official, and the state would be coextensive with the whole people.
Safeguards would be provided against the formation of an oligarchy by the controlling officials.
2. Anarchism (meaning mistrust of government, and not abandonment of social order) would secure individual liberty against encroachment on the part of the state in the socialistic commonwealth.
Anarchists deny that the legislation of yesterday is enlightened enough for the affairs of to-day, and seek to make laws and other institutions as fluid as possible.
They admit no authority except that which carries conviction, and would treat an incorrigible criminal as a dangerous lunatic.
The assassins of the
Empress of
Austria, the
King of
Italy, and
President McKinley are the practical exponents of this criminal theory.
They are divided into Mutualists, who hope to attain their ends by banks of exchange and free currency, and Communists, whose motto is “From every man according to his capacity, to every man according to his needs.”
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The following is a short chronology of the leading events in modern socialism:
| Sir Thomas More publishes his Utopia. | 1516 |
| A work on socialism, Civitas Solis, by Campanella, appears | 1623 |
| Shakers form their first complete community at Mount Lebanon, N. Y. | 1787 |
| Francois Noef Baboeuf, leader of the French communistic insurrection of 1796, at Paris, is guillotined | May 24, 1797 |
| Harmonists settle in Pennsylvania | 1804 |
| Charles Fourier, French (1772-1837), publishes his work, The theory of the four movements and the General destinies | 1808 |
| Zoarites settle in Ohio | 1817 |
| Robert Owen advocates a socialistic community before the English House of Commons' committee on the poor-law | 1817 |
| Count C. H. de Saint-Simon, founder of French socialism, author of Nouveau Christianisme, and other socialistic works, born 1760, died | 1825 |
| Constitution of the “New harmony community of equality,” signed | Jan. 12, 1826 |
| Unsuccessful trial of Fourierism made on an estate near Versailles; only one during the lifetime of Fourier | 1832 |
| Louis Blanc, French (1813-82), publishes his Organization of labor in the Revue du Progres | 1840 |
| Pierre Joseph Proudhon publishes his work, What is property?
affirming, “Property is theft” | 1840 |
| Albert Brisbane publishes his Social destiny of man | 1840 |
| Karl Rodbertus, German (1805-75), publishes his book, Our economic condition | 1842 |
| Christian Metz establishes a community at Ebenezer, N. Y. | 1842 |
| A column in the New York Tribune edited by Albert Brisbane, the apostle of Fourierism | 1842 |
| Brisbane establishes in New York an independent paper called the Phalanx, organ of Fourierism | Oct. 5, 1843 |
| Convention of Associationists at Clinton Hall, N. Y. | April 4, 1844 |
| “Brook farm,” established in 1842, adopts the principles of Fourierism | 1844 |
| The Phalanx succeeded by the Harbinger, and published at Brook Farm | June 14, 1845 |
| Erick Janson forms a Swedish colony of Pietists and Separatists at Bishop Hill, Ill. (incorporated in 1853） | 1846 |
| Decline of Fourierism in the United States marked by the Greeley-Raymond controversy, | Nov. 20, 1846, to May 20, 1847 |
| Oneida community established | 1847 |
| Christian socialism, under Kingsley, Maurice, Hughes, etc., arises in England about | 1850 |
| Ferdinand Lassalle founds the German Social Democratic party | 1862 |
| Universal German Laborers' Union, under the leadership of Lassalle, formed at Leipsic | May 23, 1863 |
| Delegates of all nations in St. Martin's Hall, London, form the International Workingmen's Association | Sept. 28, 1864 |
| Band of disciples of Lassalle organized in New York | 1865 |
| Universal congress, for advancement and complete emancipation of the working-classes, at Geneva, Switzerland | Sept. 3, 1866 |
| Karl Marx, German (1818-83), publishes his work, Das Kapital, called the Bible of the Social Democrats | 1867 |
| Brocton community founded by Rev. Thomas Lake Harris | Oct., 1867 |
| Catholic socialism in Germany organized | 1868 |
| International congress at The Hague (six delegates from America) results in the formation of a new international association on anarchistic principles under leadership of Michael Bakounine, and removal of seat of general council of the old association, which soon after ceased to exist, to New York. Congress held | Sept. 2-7, 1872 |
| “Union of social politics” formed by German professorial socialists at Eisenach | Oct., 1872 |
| Universal socialistic congress opens at Ghent | Sept. 9, 1877 |
| Workingmen's party in the United States reorganized as “The socialistic labor party” | Jan., 1878 |
| Henry George publishes his work entitled Progress and poverty | 1879 |
| Social Democratic federation organized in England, favoring “Co-operative communism, international republicanism, and atheistic humanism” | 1881 |
| Leading principles of state socialism of Bismarck announced in an imperial message to the German Reichstag | Nov., 1881 |
| Great mass-meeting held in Cooper Union, New York City, to honor the memory of Karl Marx (died March 14, 1883） | March 19, 1883 |
| William Morris, poet, author of the Earthly paradise, H. M. Hyndman, H. H. Champion, and John Burns, become leaders of the “Socialistic League,” formed | 1886 |
| Bellamy's Looking backward published. | 1888 |
Quite a large number of clubs were organized in various parts of the country soon after the publication of
Mr. Bellamy's book, but few survived in 1901.
