X. CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM.

The particular form that the Darwinian struggle for existence assumes in development is determined by men’s sociability and their use of tools. The struggle for existence, while it is still carried on among members of different groups, nevertheless ceases among members of the same group, and its place is taken by mutual aid and social feeling. In the struggle between groups, technical equipment decides who shall be the victor; this results in the progress of technique. These two circumstances lead to different effects under different systems. Let us see in what manner they work out under capitalism.

When the bourgeoisie gained political power and made the capitalist system the dominating one, it began by breaking the feudal bonds and freeing the people from all feudal ties. It was essential for capitalism that every one should be able to take part in the competitive struggle; that no one’s movements be tied up or narrowed by corporate duties or hampered by legal statutes, for only thus was it possible for production to develop its full capacity. The workers must have free command over themselves and not be tied up by feudal or guild duties, for only as free workers can they sell their labor-power to the capitalists as a whole commodity, and only as free laborers can the capitalists use them. It is for this reason that the bourgeoisie has done away with all old ties and duties. It made the people entirely free, but at the same time left them entirely isolated and unprotected. Formerly the people were not isolated; they belonged to some corporation; they were under the protection of some lord or commune, and in this they found strength. They were a part of a social group to which they owed duties and from which they received protection. These duties the bourgeoisie abolished; it destroyed the corporations and abolished the feudal relations. The freeing of labor meant at the same time that all refuge was taken away from him and that he could no longer rely upon others. Every one had to rely upon himself. Alone, free from all ties and protection, he must struggle against all.

It is for this reason that, under capitalism, the human world resembles mostly the world of rapacious animals, and it is for this very reason that the bourgeois Darwinists looked for men’s prototype among animals living isolated. To this they were led by their own experience. Their mistake, however, consisted in considering capitalist conditions as everlasting. The relation existing between our capitalist competitive system and animals living isolated, was thus expressed by Engels in his book, “Anti-Dühring” (page 293). This may also be found on page 59 of “Socialism, Utopian and Scientific” as follows:

“Finally, modern industry and the opening of the world market made the struggle universal and at the same time gave it unheard-of virulence. Advantages in natural or artificial conditions of production now decide the existence or non-existence of individual capitalists as well as of whole industries and countries. He that falls is remorselessly cast aside. It is the Darwinian struggle of the individual for existence transferred from Nature to society with intensified violence. The conditions of existence natural to the animal appear as the final term of human development.”

What is that which carries on the struggle in this capitalist competition, the perfectness of which decides the victory?

First come technical tools, machines. Here again applies the law that struggle leads to perfection. The machine that is more improved outstrips the less improved, the machines that cannot perform much, and the simple tools are exterminated and machine technique develops with gigantic strides to ever greater productivity. This is the real application of Darwinism to human society. The particular thing about it is that under capitalism there is private property, and behind every machine there is a man. Behind the gigantic machine there is a big capitalist and behind the small machine there is a small capitalist. With the defeat of the small machine, the small capitalist, as capitalist, perishes with all his hopes and happiness.

At the same time the struggle is a race of capital. Large capital is better equipped; large capital is getting ever larger. This concentration of capital undermines capital itself, for it diminishes the bourgeoisie whose interest it is to maintain capitalism, and it increases that mass which seeks to abolish it. In this development, one of the characteristics of capitalism is gradually abolished. In the world where each struggles against all and all against each, a new association develops among the working class, the class organization. The working class organizations start with ending the competition existing between workers and combine their separate powers into one great power in their struggle with the outside world. Everything that applies to social groups also applies to this class organization, brought about by natural conditions. In the ranks of this class organization, social motives, moral feelings, self-sacrifice and devotion for the entire body develop in a most splendid way. This solid organization gives to the working class that great strength which it needs in order to conquer the capitalist class. The class struggle which is not a struggle with tools but for the possession of tools, a struggle for the right to direct industry, will be determined by the strength of the class organization.

Let us now look at the future system of production as carried on under Socialism. The struggle leading to the perfection of the tools does not cease. As before under capitalism, the inferior machine will be outdistanced and brushed aside by the one that is superior. As before, this process will lead to greater productivity of labor. But private property having been abolished, there will no longer be a man behind each machine calling it his own and sharing its fate. Machines will be common property, and the displacement of the less developed by the better developed machinery will be carried out upon careful consideration.

With the abolition of classes the entire civilized world will become one great productive community. Within this community mutual struggle among members will cease and will be carried on with the outside world. It will no longer be a struggle against our own kind, but a struggle for subsistence, a struggle against nature. But owing to development of technique and science, this can hardly be called a struggle. Nature is subject to man and with very little exertion from his side she supplies him with abundance. Here a new career opens for man: man’s rising from the animal world and carrying on his struggle for existence by the use of tools, ceases, and a new chapter of human history begins.

Library of Science for the Workers

To understand modern Socialism, you must understand Evolution. Socialists predict the speedy end of the capitalist system as a result of irresistible NATURAL LAWS, the workings of which have been studied for two generations since their discovery. Most of the books in which these laws are explained are too difficult to read and too expensive to buy, except for the leisure class. The ten books here described will give you a clear understanding of the great process in which Socialism is the next step.

  1. The Evolution of Man. By Wilhelm Boelsche. Contains absolute proof of the truth of Darwin’s theory of the descent of man. Illustrated.
  2. The Triumph of Life. By Wilhelm Boelsche. Describes the resistless triumph of the Life Force over all obstacles. Illustrated.
  3. Life and Death. By Dr. E. Teichmann. A study in biology, explaining how and why life began and how the life of each individual ends.
  4. The End of the World. By Dr. M. Wilhelm Meyer. A study of the natural forces that will some time destroy all life on earth. Illustrated.
  5. The Amazons. By Emanuel Kanter. An excellent analytical study of the phenomenon of ancient fighting women, the Amazons, from the standpoint of dialectical materialism.
  6. Germs of Mind in Plants. By R. H. France. A remarkable work proving that “mind” is not limited to man or even to animals, but is found in plants also. Illustrated.
  7. The Struggle Between Science and Superstition. By Arthur M. Lewis. This book deals with what is on the whole the most interesting and dramatic element in social development. Side by side with the struggle between social classes, there is waged a bitter conflict between ancient ignorance and new knowledge. The new knowledge is the natural ally of the essential social class—the proletariat.
  8. Science and Revolution. By Ernest Untermann. A history of the growth of the Evolution theory, showing how at every step it was fought by the ruling classes and welcomed by the workers.
  9. Social and Philosophical Studies. By Paul Lafargue. The causes of belief in God and the origin of abstract ideas explained in a brilliant and convincing way.
  10. Evolution, Social and Organic. By Arthur M. Lewis. A volume of popular lectures in which the relation of the evolution theory to Socialism is fully explained.

These ten volumes are handsomely bound in cloth, in volumes of uniform size. Price, 60c each postpaid.

CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
341–349 East Ohio Street, Chicago

The Origin of the Family

PRIVATE PROPERTY AND THE STATE

By Frederick Engels

The book on which are based all subsequent works on property and the State written by Socialists and Communists. What is the State? How did it arise? Does it represent all the people? Will it ever disappear? What is its function? When did Private Property arise? And how? Has the institution of the Family changed and evolved? Just now all over the world socialists, anarchists, syndicalists and communists are divided upon the subject of the State, its origin, its function and its future. Which group are you in, and do you know why? This book explains these vital questions for you. Cloth, 217 pages. 60 cents.

Socialism

UTOPIAN AND SCIENTIFIC

By Frederick Engels

When may we expect a proletarian revolution? Can we plan to have it at a certain time? Can we carry a revolution by propaganda? Does it depend on what we desire? We all want tickets to the New Society of the Workers. How can we know how near we are historically? Engels gives us the signs in this book. They never fail. When we understand them we can know how to use social and economic forces to carry us forward to the New Day. Cloth. 60 cents; paper, 25 cents.

CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
CO-OPERATIVE PUBLISHERS, CHICAGO

CAPITAL

A Critique of Political Economy

By Karl Marx

This work is beyond comparison the greatest of all Socialist books. It is a scientific analysis of the society in which we live, showing the precise method by which the capitalists grow rich at the expense of the wage-workers.

VOLUME I, entitled “The Process of Capitalist Production,” is practically complete in itself. It explains the thing which, up to the time that Marx came on the scene, had confused all the economists, namely, Surplus Value. It explains exactly how the capitalist extracts his profits. This volume might be called the keystone of the Socialist arch. 869 pages, $2.50.

VOLUME II, “The Process of Circulation of Capital,” explains the part that the merchant and the banker play in the present system, and the laws that govern social capital. Unravels knots in which previous writers had become entangled. 618 pages, $2.50.

VOLUME III, in some respects the most interesting of all, treats of “The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole.” Predicts the Rise of Trusts and makes clear the Cause of Panics and Industrial Crises. Shows how the small capitalist is swallowed. Explains for all time the subjects of Land, Rent and Farming. 1,048 pages, $2.50.

The complete work sells for $7.50, and contains over 2,500 large pages, in three handsome volumes, bound in cloth and stamped in gold. Any capitalist publishing house would charge at least double our price. Ours is a socialist co-operative house, owned by three thousand comrades who expect no dividends but have subscribed for shares to make possible the circulation of the best socialist literature at the lowest possible prices. Ask for catalog.

CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
341–349 East Ohio Street, Chicago

CENTENARY EDITION

The Positive Outcome of Philosophy

By Josef Dietzgen

One of the best books we have ever published is THE POSITIVE OUTCOME OF PHILOSOPHY. We have sold many thousands of Josef Dietzgen’s books, and readers everywhere have testified to their educational value and to the enjoyment and enlightenment they obtained from the study of Dietzgen.

December 9th, 1928, was the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Josef Dietzgen. To commemorate the event we published, with the kind assistance of his son, Eugen Dietzgen, a new translation of THE POSITIVE OUTCOME OF PHILOSOPHY. This new translation from the original German is by W. W. Craik, an Englishman, resident of Hamburg.

Good as our former edition was, we do not hesitate to assert that this translation is immensely superior. It is in clear and expressive English, which simplifies the study. Craik has certainly done his work well.

To those who have formerly read the philosophy of Josef Dietzgen, it is not necessary to comment upon its merits, but to those who have not yet participated in this pleasure we wish to give here a brief outline of its content.

It deals with the nature and substance of thinking. It strips the human mind of the mysticism that is usually attached to it, and shows the functioning of the brain as a perfectly natural process. Just as Karl Marx and Frederick Engels traced history and economics along evolutionary lines, to the logical conclusion that a new social order is inevitable, so Josef Dietzgen traced the evolution of human thought, as expressed through philosophy, to its positive outcome. He shows that the natural sciences have taken over every branch of the old-time philosophy, leaving only the thinking process itself to be explained. This latter he accomplishes in a masterly fashion in his chapter on “The Nature of Human Brain-Work.”

The Centenary Edition of THE POSITIVE OUTCOME OF PHILOSOPHY is handsomely bound in maroon cloth with gold stamping and contains a portrait of its famous author. Price $2.00, postage paid.

CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
341 East Ohio Street, Chicago

ANTI-DÜHRING

Herr Eugene Dühring’s
Revolution in Science

By Frederick Engels

Also contains “The Mark” and the author’s introduction to “Socialism, Utopian and Scientific”

Part I treats with Philosophy, giving the most comprehensive statement of Marx and Engels with regard to this question than anywhere else in their published writings. Part II is, in effect, an outline and introduction to the three volumes of Capital, along with interesting data on the force theory and warfare and militarism. Part III explains the basis of modern socialism in its entire range of program, strategy and tactics.

Anti-Dühring is the only work compressing into one volume the Marxian world-outlook in its relation to the various fields of knowledge and science and the society of the future. Engels says of this work: “I had to treat of all and every possible subject, from the concepts of time and space to bimetallism; from the eternity of matter and motion to the perishable nature of moral ideas; from Darwin’s natural selection to the education of youth in a future society. Anyhow, the systematic comprehensiveness of my opponent gave me the opportunity of developing, in opposition to him, and in a more connected form than had previously been done, the views held by Marx and myself on this great variety of subjects. And that was the principal reason which made me undertake this otherwise ungrateful task.”

Price, postpaid, $2.00

Write for complete list

CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
341–349 E. Ohio St. Chicago, Illinois

Transcriber’s Notes:

Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.

Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.

Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.