Cambridge, and is besides an author on economical subjects, and a member of the House of Commons, has published an article in the Fortnightly Review,[1] "On the Recent Development of Socialism in Germany and the United States." He takes the ground that this development is but the natural result of the doctrine of unlimited state functions, and the extravagant notions of what government is capable of accomplishing, which are widely disseminated in both of these countries. In Germany, paternal government, centralization, bureaucracy, and compulsory military service, all conspire to fix deep in the national mind the idea of the omnipotence of the state, which has therefore only to exert its power and it can confer boundless good upon all its subjects. In this country governmental care-taking is most conspicuous in that protective system by which the people's industries are taken charge of by the state. The notion is thus fostered that the people owe their prosperity to the Government, and from this the inference is ready that the state is responsible for their prosperity. But the logic of protection does not stop with its application to business; if it can help people materially it can also help them mentally, and so the belief is now widely maintained that the state owes every citizen an education. With so much conceded, the socialist has no difficulty in drawing still further conclusions in the same direction, and so he plants himself at last on the high protective ground that Government shall take possession of all property and take care of everybody. After a careful survey of the claims of socialists and communists as shown by their works, and the proceedings of their Congresses, Prof. Fawcett sums up their programme in the following propositions:
"1. That there should be no private property, and that no one should be permitted to acquire property by inheritance. That all should be compelled to labor, no one having a right to live without labor.
"2. The nationalization of the land, and of the other instruments of production; or, in other words, the state should own all the land, capital, machinery—in fact, everything which constitutes the industrial plant of a country, in order that every industry may be carried on by the state."
The essence of socialism is thus the subversion of private independence and the substitution for it of entire dependence upon the state; that is, the protection of the citizen is to be no halfway matter, but thorough-going and complete. Carried to this conclusion, the doctrine is of course palpably absurd and insane, but have the people not been actually educated toward it by the established and extending doctrine of state omnipotence and protective guardianship of the people's business interests? It is now demanded that the state shall be simply consistent, and carry out its policy. The state has already far transcended its legitimate function of protecting the rights of its citizens by the enforcement of justice in social relations. It has, in fact, neglected and half forgotten this legitimate and incumbent duty in its zeal to take care of those interests and affairs of citizens with which it has no concern, because they are parts of the liberty and responsibility of individuals in free society. Yet this meddling policy of Government is undoubtedly strengthening, notwithstanding its multiform evils. We are boastfully told that the protective system is not declining in this country, as is evinced by the fact that fourteen hundred articles of commerce are the subjects of protective taxation, so that the prices of almost every purchasable thing are dependent upon legislation, while the people acquiesce in the policy as wise and proper. But this is only so much vantage-ground for the communist who demands the enlargement of the system on the basis of its
- ↑ Reprinted in The Popular Science Monthly Supplement for December.
