Socialism: A Summary and Interpretation of Socialist Principles — Context and Discussion

Chapter III. These were not due to any carelessness upon the part of the present writer, but were reproduced from standard works, upon what seemed to be good authority--that of his youngest daughter and his intimate friend, the late Wilhelm Liebknecht. It is now known with certainty that the father of Karl Marx embraced Christianity of his own free choice, and not in obedience to an official edict.

These and some other minor changes having to be made, I took the time to rewrite large parts of the volume, making such substantial changes in it as to constitute practically a new book. The chapter on Robert Owen has been recast and greater emphasis placed upon his American career and its influence; in Chapter IV the sketch of the Materialistic Conception of History has been enlarged somewhat, special attention being given to the bearing of the theory upon religion. All the rest of the book has been changed, partly to meet the requirements of many students and others who have written to me in reference to various points of difficulty, and partly also to state some of my own ideas more successfully. I venture to hope that the brief chapter on "Means of Realization," which has been added to the book by way of postscript, will, in spite of its brevity, and the fact that it was not written for inclusion in this volume, prove helpful to some who read the book.

The thanks of the writer are due to all those friends--Socialists and others--whose kindly efforts made the earlier edition of the book a success.

YONKERS, N.Y., December, 1908.

Changed attitude of the public mind toward Socialism--Growth of the movement responsible for the change--Unanimity of friends and foes concerning the future triumph of Socialism--Herbert Spencer's pessimistic belief--Study of Socialism a civic duty--Nobility of the word "Socialism"--Its first use--Confusion arising from its indiscriminate use--"Socialism" and "Communism" in the _Communist Manifesto_--Unfair tactics of opponents--Engels on the significance of the word in 1847--Its present significance 1

ROBERT OWEN AND THE UTOPIAN SPIRIT

Utopian Socialism and Robert Owen--Estimates of Owen by Liebknecht and Engels--His early life--Becomes a manufacturer--The industrial revolution in England--Introduction of machinery--"Luddite" riots against machinery--Early riots against machinery--Marx's views--Owen as manufacturer--As social reformer--The New Lanark experiment--He becomes a Socialist--The New Harmony experiment--Abraham Lincoln and New Harmony--Failure of New Harmony--Owen compared with Saint-Simon and Fourier--Emerson's tribute to Robert Owen a fair estimate of the Utopists 16

THE "COMMUNIST MANIFESTO" AND THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT

The _Communist Manifesto_ called the birth-cry of modern Socialism--Conditions in 1848 when it was issued--Communism of the working class--Weitling and Cabet--Marx's parents become Christians--Marx and Engels--Religious spirit of Marx--Note upon the confusion of Marx with Wilhelm Marr--The _Manifesto_ as the first declaration of a working-class movement--Literary merit of the _Manifesto_--Its fundamental proposition stated by Engels--Socialism becomes scientific--The authorship of the _Manifesto_--Engels' testimony 53

THE MATERIALISTIC CONCEPTION OF HISTORY

Socialism a theory of social evolution--Not economic fatalism--Leibnitz and the savage--Ideas and progress--Value of the materialistic conception of history--Foreshadowings of the theory--What is meant by the term "materialistic conception"--Results of overemphasis: Engels' testimony--Application of the theory to religion--Influence of social conditions upon religious forms--The doctrine of "free will"--Darwin and Marx--Application of the theory, specific and general--Columbus and the discovery of America--General view of historical progress--Antiquity of communism--Cooeperation and competition--Slavery--Serfdom--Class struggles--The rise of capitalism and the wage system 75

CAPITALISM AND THE LAW OF CONCENTRATION

A new form of class division arises in the first stage of capitalism--The second stage of capitalism begins with the great mechanical inventions--The development of foreign and colonial trade--Theoretic individualism and practical collectivism--The law of capitalist concentration formulated by Marx--Competition, monopoly, socialization--Trustification, interindustrial and international--Criticisms of the Marxian theory--Engels on the attempts to make a "rigid orthodoxy" of the Marx theory--The small producers and traders--Concentration in production--Failure of the bonanza farms and persistence of the small farms--Other forms of agricultural concentration--Farm ownership and farm mortgages--The factory and the farm--The concentration of wealth--European and American statistics--Concentration of the control of wealth independent of actual ownership--Growth of immense fortunes--General summary 113

THE CLASS STRUGGLE THEORY