WHANGAREI MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT CLASS.

Northern Advocate, 5 October 1889, Page 3

WHANGAREI MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT CLASS.

FEBDHfAND LASSALLE. It was about 1862 that he became the champion of socialism in Germany. Between that time and his death, which happened in 1864, he is said to have accomplished alone in Germany what the revolution had done in France. He came to an untimely end at the age of 39 years. He met a young girl of twenty, named Helena von Doenniges, and fell desperately in love with her ; and after a second interview they vowed to marry each other in spite of all obstacles. The girl's father, one of the old school of politicians, did not care to have Lassalle for a son-in-law. The result was the girl was compelled by the influence of her family to marry another. He tried to see her but was refused. He demanded satisfaction in insulting terms from her father. The consequence was a duel in which Lassalle was fatally wounded, and in three days he expired. The main contention of Lassalle was that the working man could not by his own efforts better his condition on account of what he tanned : ' the iron law of -wages." This iron law is that level to which, in society as it is now constituted, and under the law of supply and demand, the average wages of labourers are reduced to the minimum necessary for existence and reproduction. Though wages may vary and rise considerbly in times of prosperity, yet the iron law is always in operation, and eventually brings wages to the minimum upon which it is possible to live. This theory is not peculiar to him, it is in fact the common theory of economists. It is expressed clearly by one of them thus: "The simple working man who only has his two hands, possesses nothing unless he is able to sell his labour to others. He may sell it cheap or dear, but the price more or less high does not depend on himself alone, it is the result of the bargain he makes with his employer. The latter pays as little as he possibly can, and since he can choose from among a vast number of labourers, he prefers the one who will work at the lowest rate. The In I>i mrers are thus obliged to lower their pric- :i competition with one another. In ever^ ..l:id of labour it must therefore result— and such is actually the case— that the wages of the labourer are limited to the exact amount necessary to keep hi n alive." The idea of Marx and LassaUe is that capital or the capitalist gets all i<..j profit, and that this is not right. They uiamtain that labour should have all the profits. We cannot gainsay the fact that the tyranny of capital does exist and the iron law is in operation, but as we pointed out in the case of Marx, Lasalle has also left some important factors out of the case. For instance, custom in many cases has fixed the rate of wages, and also many employers are really desirous of dealing in a fair manner with their employees. Though there are circumstances which mitigate to a certain extent the severity of the law, yet we are compelled to admit that where competition is unrestrained and labour is treated solely as an article of merchandise the complaint of the socialist is just. As the ideas of these two men underlie almost all tho present theories of socialism, by clearly underatanding^nem we shall know what modern socialism Jfeally is in its destructive aspect, and to a graft extent in its constructive-wjspect as well, jfci ey maintained tlmt/hojßfc^ industdV system was unjust to th<*%BßH^^Bclass, i^p that on account of the and the fo^HWveT and tS^HJ^KeaPMtimum possible for existence^^jßß^HJossiblS^i the working clashes, as a^^^^H|HH)anentljHnprove their condition. w^^HBPCf this contaßion on their part not beinj^^nolly groundless we shall give a few extracts. " What do you mean by the nation Signor Minister ? Is it the multitude of the miserable ? Then, we, indeed, are the nation. Look at our pale and emaciated fuces, at our bodies exhausted by excessive labour and insufficient food. We sow and rea;> the wheat, but never eat whito bread. We cultivate the grape but never drink its wine. \V« raisa the cattle but never taste meat. We are clad in rags, we dwell in dens of infeci ion, we freeze in winter and in summer wo starve. Our only nourishment on the Italian soil is a handful of maize, made costly by the tux. The burning fever devours us in the dry regions, and in the wet ones we are the prey of the fever of the marsh. Our end is a premature death in the hospital, or in our miserable cabins. And iv spite of all this, Sienor Minister, you recommend us not to expatriate ourselves ! But can the land, where even the hardest labour cannot earn food, be called a native country." Extract from a petition of the peasants Lonbardy. " The agricultural labourers in England are so miserably poor that, if they were converted into slaves to-morrow it would be for the interests of their owners to feed them far better than they are fed at the present time." Professor Fawcett. " Year by year, without a break, unnumbered women have to work from morn till night in order to earn from 1/ to 1/2 per day by making draper's card board boxes, to which industry some contribute their own paste ; others providing thread laboriously make shirts at 3/4 a piece. In short, Gd or 8d a day is the wage of women toiling 14 or 16 hours out of the 24 in a city that boasts itself the richest in the world." National Review. " The reports on sweating in various provincial centres have sometimes been described as overdrawn. This was particularly tho case at Manchester. It, however, so happens that at the Manchester City Police Court a woman has just been acquitted for attempting- to commit suicide, though her only excuse was the extremely low wages she had earned when working for a sweater. During the whole ot the previous week she had worked as a costume finisher from half-past eight in the morning till seven in the evening, and yet only earned 2/2. She lived on tea and bread, and out of these wages 6d was deducted in consideration of the hot water supplied for her tea ! Then she had to repay the loan of Cd to tho forewoman. With the remaining 1/2 she had to meet her rent, which amounted to 2/6 per week. All this was corroborated by the evidence of others who worked in the same place." Lancet. These simple but saddening facts may -well stir every right thinking man to the very innermost recesses of his being, and we can only wonder at the long suffering patience of these miserable workers. But what is THE BEICEDY proposed by these leaders of reform. Lassalle thought that the state could do all that was required. He would have co-operation under the control and assisted by the state. He did not believe in voluntary co-operation as the English plan, but it must be state co-operation; He only thought of Germany, and hoped that tho state would be able, by making a law, to reform the social state of tho whole nation. Marx on the other hand looked upon the social question as an international one, and saw no hope of reform until every throne and altar had been overturned by a universal revolution. The great end to be attained was the union in one person or class of persons the two at present opposing interest, capital and labour. It is now time for U3 to glance at that famous society THE INTEBNAHONAIi. This society sprang from similar causes to those which have brought into existence international exhibitions and such institutions, inconceivable to our forefathers. Because the nations are being brought so close together by steam and electricity, their interests are becoming more arid more" identical with one another. As a consequence of international trade wages must tend to tho same level in all countries, and sooner or later the lowest rate of wages will be the standard for all countries. To prevent the importing of labour from other countries by employers, to counteract the attempts of the working classes to keep up a high rate of wages, it was found necessary to unite all the countries of Europe if possible iv one great international society of working men. I The society was started just after the International Exhibition at London in 1862. It appears that certain manufacturers thought it would be a good thing to send delegates from the French working men to the London

fcßii«..!j t TW—— mil 1 1 whiip— ■■— Ttirr Exhibition. Nap- iron HI was favourable to it .-iiij facilitated tlinir jmrney j n every wJ LT : iile delegates wero chosen by univevpnl suitrajjc among the sever.nl trades. They wem wolc.nied l.y thu Kn»li>.li working men. am) at :i fete of - internatioiutl fratoinii-fiti^n " t! c question of wages was disciiFsetl. The problem to be solved was how to secure a. sufficient remuneration to the working man. This was in reali y ihe beginning of the international. On the 28th September, 1564, a great meeting of working men of all nations was held in London. The meeting appointed a provincial committee to 'draw up the statutes of tho society. Marx was the principal mover in the scheme. The purpose of the association, nccording to the first" article on their programme was "the joint action for tho advancement and the complete emancipation of the working classes." The society held congresses in various countries of ISurope, and gradually increased in numbers and iniluence. It never seems to have orignated a strike, but it indirecilv assisted unions when en strike. Radical "ideas began to find a place in the discussions, and Mars: who would have confined tho operations of the society to tho labour question alone could not do so. It gradually changed from being a society for maintaining a high rate of wages to one that aimed completely to overthrow the wage system, this modem frnn of slavery, as it was called. In Ib 0, Bakunin, the Eussian Nihilist, attended the congress as the representative of the silk-winders of Lyons and the machinists of Naples, nc. impartf-d to the society an extreme tendency, he wanted the destruction of all ihe .states, and upon their ruins to be built an international state composed of the millioijs of workers. From this time the transformation of society by a revolution became the ruling idea of the society. Anarchy found it way into the ranks of the international nnd it was split up and finally divided into two parties, split up again by personal jealously, it soon ceased to exist. To enter into a detailed account of the society is pot possible in our limited time. Let it suffice to s.iy it was the first grand attempt to unite all the working classes of all nations into one vast society; but it failed to accomplish the purpose of it 3 founders, because the working classes were not ready to join heartily in such a movement. If we would understand Ihe goal to which socialism tends we must look at the teaching and aims of BAKUNIN. Ho is called the apostle of, Nihilism, but it would b.e a great mistake to think of his influence as limited to Russia alone. He is th'i last resort of socialism and its logical issue. His influence is permeating the whole of Europe, and society will have to reckon with it in the future. He was born near Moscow in 1814, and he belonged to the Russian aristocracy. He was connected with the army, and being quartered in Poland he saw the evils of despotism, and he conceived a deadly hatred to it. In 1546 he went to Germany, and in 1847 to Paris. He returned to Germany and took an active part in insurrections in 1849. He was taken prisoner and condemned to death. His sentence was commuted to perpetual imprisonment, and having been claimed by Russia, he was confined in a fort at St. Petersburg. After eight years imprisonment, the imprisonment was commuted for exile in Siberia. He found a rehtive there in the capacity of Governor, aud he appears to have enjoyed complete liberty. He managed to escape by ship and arrived in England by way Japan aud America in IS6I. In 1865 he was in Italy organising socialism. In 1869 he founded a society called " The Alliance of the Social Democracy." The pui-posu and temper of the Alliance may be learnt from the following extract from its prngramino • — " The Alliance declares itself atheistic. It desires the final and complete abolition of classes, and the political, economical, and social equalisation of tho two sexes. It wishes that land, instruments of production, and all other capital, should become the collective property of sodety as a whole, and should only bo utilised by the workers, that is by agricultural and industrial associations. It recognises that all political and authoritative states actually existing mu3t disappear in the universal union of free associations/ The Alliance endeavoured to join the iVernaticnal, but was not accepted by it, on the\roun<l that is also claimed to be iiiteniaiion;\ Consequently the Alliance pronounced ikown dissolution^and it was admitted into tl^taiteniatiouajjrsricljions. The ideas of BakiS^kwerc niombeis of the Intent^^lbal n^^^Hncd to various par's of Eurupe^nA^^^^K^n^lj^^^^ international in JBwff>r^^^^RD^»irre^^^^MP from taking n^Rn pul^^^^Brs^and in 1870 he died at BcjßK Although ami absorbed by ffie Interna'tior^^^pet the same principles are held by the .Nihilists or " The Association of the Internal ir>n:'.l Brothers." Their programme declares that tiie Association desires a universal revolution, at once social, philosophical, economical, and political, in order that the existing order of things, which is founded on property, on exploitation, on tho principle of authority, whether religious, i.ietaphisical, doctrinaire after the manner of the bourgeoisie, or revolutionary after the manner of the Jacobins, may bo absolutely overthrown so that not one stone of it shall remain upon another, first throughout Europe, and. then in the rest of the world, raising the cry of peace for the workers ! Liberty for the oppressed ! and death to tyrants, exploiters, and patrons of all kinds ! we wish to destroy all states and all Churches, with all their institutions and laws, religions, political, jurisdical, financial, magesterial, ocademical, economical, and social, in order that all these millions of poor human beings, who are cheated, enslaved, overworked, and exploited — having been at last delivered from their masters unit benefactors, whether official or officious, whether associations or individuals—may henceforth and for over breathe in absolute freedom." Bakunin, in a pamphlet entitled "The Principle of tha Revolution " points out the way this is to be accomplished. He says, " Ad"mitting iio other activity ttan that of destruction, we declare that the forms in which that activity should express itself may be widely varied : poison, poignarii, running noose. The revolution sanctifies all means without distinction." We are enabled to cive some extracts showing the organisation of the society as read from the cipher written by Bakunin, by the public prosecutor at the trial of JJetchaieff, July, 1871. " Tbe revolutionist is a man under a vow. He ought to have no personal interests, no business, no feelings, no property. He ought to be absorbed in one single interest, one single thought, one single pisdon — theJßevolution. He has only one aim, one social destruction. For that, and for nothing else, he studies mechanics, physics, chemif try, and sometimes medicine. "With the same object, he observes men, characters, the situations and all the conditions of the social order. He demises and detests existing morality. For him, everything is moral that helps ou the triumphs of the Revolution, everything is immoral and criminal that hinders it. Between him and society there is war — war to the death, ince^ant, irreconcilable. He ought to be ready to die, to endure torture, and with his own hands to kill all who placed obstacles in the waj of the Revolution. So much the worse for him if he has in this world auy ties of relationship, of friendship, of love. *He is no true revolutionist if these attachments stay his arm. Nevertheless, he must live in the midst of society, feigning to be what he 13 not. He must penetrate everywhere among the upper classes as well as among the middle — into the merchants shop, into the Church, Government offices, into the army, into the literary world, into the detective force, and even into the Imperial Palace. He must prepare a list of those who are condemned to death, and despatch them in order of their relative misdoings. A new member can only be admitted into the Association by an unanimous vote, and after his qualities have been proved, not by words only, but by deeds. Each companion should have under his control several revolutionists of the second or third degree, not wholly initiated. He should consider them as part of the revolutionary capital placed at his disposal, and he should expend them economically and so as to abstract the greatest possible profit out of them. The most valuable element are women who are completely initiated, and •who accept our whole programme. Without their aid we can effect nothing." Owing to th« despotism and oppression prevalent in Russia Nihilism is more destructive aud violent there than in other countries, but we have the spirit of Bakunin moving the socialists of Italy, Spain and France, but not so much the Germans, and very little if at all the English socialists. The socialists of Italy do not lag far behind the Russian?, e.g. They have declared that, " God is the people's greatest enemy, for He has cursed labour." "No more faith nor obedience to the supernatural, it is only on this condition that materialistic democracy will be able to construct a new societv." The now era will establish the free expansion of all human aspirations. All authority, human or divine, nmstjdisapnear, from God down to the meanest agent of police." 'Ihe great end desired by the Italians is "that veery cne should be able to do as he likes." (To be Continued.)