The State and Society.
[CHAPTER XVI.
The Class-State and the Modern Proletariat.]
[1.—Our Public Life.]
The development of society has been a very rapid one in all civilized states of the world during recent decades, and any new achievement in any realm of human activity still hastens this development. Thereby our social conditions have been put into a state of unrest, fermentation and dissolution, the like of which had never been known before. The feeling of security of the ruling classes has been shaken, and the institutions are losing their old stability whereby they might resist the attacks that are made upon them from all sides. A feeling of discomfort, insecurity and dissatisfaction has taken possession of all strata of society, the highest as well as the lowest. The tremendous exertions made by the ruling classes to remove this unbearable state of affairs by patching and mending the body social, prove useless because they are insufficient. They only increase their sense of insecurity and heighten their discomfort and unrest. They have scarcely inserted one beam into the dilapidated structure in the form of some legislation, when they discover a dozen other decayed spots that require repairs still more urgently. At the same time they have constant quarrels and serious differences of opinion among themselves. A measure introduced by one party to appease the growing dissatisfaction of the masses, is condemned by the other party as an unpardonable weakness and leniency that is bound to stimulate a desire for still greater concessions. That is clearly seen by the endless discussions in all parliaments, whereby new laws and institutions are constantly being introduced without attaining any state of rest and satisfaction. Among the ruling classes themselves certain extreme differences exist, some of which are insurmountable, and these still intensify the social conflict.
The governments—and not only those in Germany—sway to and fro like reeds shaken by the wind. They must lean on something, for they cannot exist without a support, and so they incline first toward one side and then toward another. There is hardly a progressive state in Europe in which the government can count upon a permanent majority in parliament. Social extremes break up the majorities; and the constant fluctuations of the market, especially in Germany, undermine the last remnant of confidence that the ruling classes still placed in themselves. To-day one party is in control and to-morrow another. What the one has constructed with much difficulty is torn down by the other. The confusion increases, the dissatisfaction becomes more lasting, the struggles multiply and wear out more human strength in a few months than formerly in an equal number of years. Besides, the material demands, in the form of various taxes, are constantly increasing, and there is no limit to the public debts.
The modern state is by its very nature a class-state. We have seen how it became necessary to protect private property and to regulate, by means of laws and institutions, the relations of the proprietors to one another and to the non-possessors. Whatever forms the appropriation of property may assume in the course of historical development, it is established by the very nature of private property that the greatest proprietors are the most powerful persons in the state and shape it in accordance with their interests. It is, furthermore, established by the nature of private property that an individual can never obtain enough of same and employs all available means in order to increase it. He therefore endeavors so to shape the state that it may best enable him to attain his ends. Thereby laws and institutions of the state naturally develop into class laws and class institutions. But the powers of the state, and all who are interested in maintaining the present order, would not be able to uphold it long against the mass of those who are not interested in its maintenance, if this mass would recognize the true nature of existing conditions. This recognition must therefore be prevented at any cost. The masses must be maintained in ignorance concerning the nature of existing conditions. They must be taught that the present order has always existed and will always continue to exist, that seeking to overturn it, means to rebel against the institutions of God himself. That is why religion is made to serve this purpose. The more ignorant and superstitious the masses are, the more favorable are the circumstances to the ruling classes. To maintain them in ignorance and superstition is in the interest of the state; that is, in the interest of those classes who regard the state as an institution to protect their class privileges. These are, besides the propertied class, the hierarchy of church and state, who all unite in the common task of protecting their interests.
But, with the endeavor to win possessions and with the increased number of possessors, the general status of civilization is raised to a higher level. The circle of those increases who seek to participate in the fruits of progress and who succeed in so doing to a certain degree. A new class arises on a new basis. It is not regarded by the ruling class as being entitled to equal rights, but is prepared to venture anything in order to attain equality. Finally new class struggles arise and even violent revolutions, whereby the new class obtains recognition and power. Especially by espousing the cause of the mass of the oppressed and exploited, it attains the victory with their aid.
But as soon as the new class has come into power it unites with its former enemies against its former allies, and after some time class struggles begin anew. The new ruling class has meanwhile imprinted the entire body social with the character of its means of subsistence; but as it can increase its power and its possessions only by letting a part of its achievements fall to the share of the class that it oppresses and exploits, it thereby heightens the ability and understanding of that class. By so doing, the ruling class furnishes the oppressed class with the weapons that shall achieve its own destruction. The struggle of the masses now becomes directed against all class rule, in whatever form it may exist.
This last class is the modern proletariat, and its historical mission will be not only to achieve its own liberation, but also the liberation of all who are oppressed, which includes the liberation of woman.
The nature of the class state not only involves the political oppression of the exploited classes, it also involves that they are made to bear the heaviest burdens for the maintenance of the state. That is made easy when the burdens are imposed in such a manner that their true character is concealed. It is obvious that high direct taxes must foster a rebellious spirit if the income of those on whom they are imposed is a small one. Wisdom therefore bids the ruling classes to be moderate in this respect, and to introduce a system of indirect taxation instead by placing a tax on the most necessary commodities. Thereby the taxes are paid for in the price of the commodities in an invisible way, and the majority remain ignorant as to the amount of taxes that they actually pay. To what extent the consumer is taxed on bread, salt, meat, sugar, coffee, beer, oil, etc., is difficult to calculate, and most persons have no idea to what extent they are fleeced. These taxes weigh heaviest on large families; they are therefore the most unjust form of taxation imaginable. On the other hand, the possessing classes pride themselves on the direct taxes that they pay, and by the height of these taxes they measure the political rights that they enjoy and that they withhold from the non-possessing classes. Moreover, the possessing classes provide aid and assistance from the state for themselves by means of the tariff and other institutions that amount to millions of dollars annually at the expense of the masses. The masses are furthermore exploited by the increased cost of living as a result of capitalistic organization and the formation of trusts; these the state either favors by its policy or suffers to exist, and in some cases it even supports them by actual participation.
As long as the masses can be kept in ignorance concerning the nature of all these measures, they in no way endanger the state or the ruling social order. But as soon as the exploited classes become conscious of their exploitation—and the growing political education of the masses enables them to become so—the glaring injustice of these measures arouses bitterness and indignation. The last spark of confidence in a sense of justice of the ruling powers is destroyed. The true nature of the state that resorts to such measures, the true nature of the society that favors them, become recognized. The struggle for the ultimate destruction of both is the result.
In their endeavor to do justice to the most conflicting interests, state and society organize one institution upon another, but no old one is thoroughly removed and no new one is thoroughly carried out. Half measures are resorted to that fail to satisfy anyone. The new requirements of civilization that have grown up among the people require some consideration, if the powers that be are not to risk everything. To meet these requirements even insufficiently entails a considerable expense, all the more so because there are a number of parasites everywhere. But alongside of these new institutions all the old institutions that are averse to the purposes of civilization are maintained. As a result of social extremes they are even expanded and become all the more troublesome and oppressive, because increasing knowledge and judgment loudly proclaim them to be superfluous. The police department, the army, the courts, the prisons, all are extended and become more expensive; but thereby neither the outward nor the inward security is strengthened; rather the contrary takes place.
A highly unnatural condition has gradually developed in regard to the international relations of nations to one another. These relations increase with the growing production of commodities, with the increased exchange of commodities that is constantly made easier by improved methods of distribution, and by the fact that economic and scientific achievements are becoming the common property of all nations. Trade and customs treaties are made, and, with the aid of international means, expensive thoroughfares are constructed. (The Suez Canal, the St. Gothard Tunnel, etc.) Individual states support steamship lines that help to increase the traffic between various countries of the globe. The Postal Union was formed—a marked progress in civilization—international congresses are held for various practical and scientific purposes; the mental products of the several nations are disseminated among all the civilized nations of the world by translation into their respective languages, and by all these international activities the ideal of the brotherhood of man is fostered and increased. But the political and military condition of Europe and the rest of the civilized world forms a striking contradiction to this development. Jingoism and national hostilities are artificially fostered here and there. Everywhere the ruling classes seek to maintain the belief that the people are brimful of hostile feeling toward one another and are only waiting for an opportunity to attack and destroy each other. The competitive struggle of the capitalist classes of the various countries among themselves, becomes international, and assumes the character of a struggle of the capitalist class of one country against the capitalist class of another country. This struggle, supported by the political blindness of the masses, causes the nations to vie with one another in warlike preparations the like of which the world has never seen before. This rivalry created armies of a prodigious size; it created tools of murder and destruction for warfare on land and sea of such perfection, as could be made possible only by our age of advanced technical development. This rivalry creates a development of the means of destruction that finally leads to self-destruction. The maintenance of the armies and navies necessitates an immense expense that grows with every year and is ultimately bound to ruin the wealthiest nation. During the year 1908 Germany alone spent over 15 million marks ($3,750,000) for its army and navy, including the expenses for pensions and the interest on the national debt as far as same had been contracted for military purposes, and this sum is increasing annually. The following list, compiled by Neymarck, shows the combined military expenses of the European states:
| 1866. | 1870. | 1887. | 1906. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army and navy | 3,000 | 3,000 | 4,500 | 6,725 |
| National debts | 66,000 | 75,000 | 117,000 | 148,000 |
| Interest | 2,400 | 3,000 | 5,300 | 6,000[188] |
As shown by this list, Europe spends 6,725 million francs ($1,362,000,000) annually for armies and navies, and 6,000 million francs ($1,215,000,000) interest on debts that have mostly been incurred to serve warlike purposes. A fine state of affairs, indeed!
America and Asia have begun to follow the example set by Europe. The United States spent $967,000,000 in 1875, and $3,592,250,000 in 1907 and 1908. In Japan the expenses for army and navy, including the pensions, amounted to $51,250,000 in 1875 and to $551,000,000 in 1908 and 1909.
As a result of these expenses objects of education and civilization are grievously neglected. The expenses for external defense predominate and undermine the true purpose of the state. The growing armies comprise the healthiest and strongest elements of the nation, and for their education and training all physical and mental forces are employed, as if training for wholesale murder were the most important mission of our age. At the same time the tools of warfare and murder are constantly being improved. They have attained such a degree of perfection in regard to speed, range, and force of destruction, that they have become a terror alike to friend and foe. If this tremendous apparatus should be set in motion—which would imply that the warring European forces would take the field with from 16 to 20 million men—it would be seen that it has become uncontrollable and indirigible. No general can command such masses; no battlefield is large enough to draw them up; no administration can provide for their maintenance during any length of time. In case a battle had taken place there would not be sufficient hospitals to care for the wounded, and to bury the dead would become almost impossible. If we furthermore take into consideration what disturbances and devastations would be wrought by a European war on the field of economics, we may say, without fear of exaggeration: The next war will be the last war. The number of failures in business would exceed all previous records. The export trade would come to a standstill and thousands of factories would accordingly be forced to shut down. The supply of provisions would run short, whereby the cost of living would be enormously increased. It would require millions of dollars to support the families whose bread-winners had gone to war. But whence should come the means to meet all these prodigious expenses? At present the German empire alone spends from eleven to twelve million dollars daily to maintain its army and navy in readiness for war.
The political and military status of Europe has taken a trend of development that may easily end with a catastrophe by which bourgeois society will be engulfed. On the height of its development this society has created conditions which make its own existence untenable. Itself the most revolutionary society that has hitherto existed, it has furnished the means for its own destruction.
In a great many of our municipalities a desperate state of affairs gradually begins to prevail, since it becomes almost impossible to satisfy the annually increasing demands. These demands are especially heavy in our rapidly growing large cities and industrial centers, and most of them cannot meet the demands made upon them in any other way than by raising the taxes and by borrowing. Schools, building of streets, illumination, water-works, sanitation, educational and wellfare work, police and administration entail constantly increasing expenses. Besides, the well-to-do minority makes very heavy demands on the community. Higher institutions of learning are demanded, the building of museums and theatres, the laying out of fine residential districts and parks, with appropriate illumination, pavement, etc. The majority of the population may object to these privileges, but they are an innate part of the nature of conditions. The minority are in power and they use this power to satisfy their requirements of civilization at the expense of the community. These increased requirements are justified, too, for they represent progress. Their only shortcoming is that they are mainly enjoyed by the possessing classes alone, while they ought to be for the common enjoyment of all. Another evil is that the administrations are often expensive without being good. Not infrequently the officials are incompetent and lack proper understanding; while town or city councillors are generally so much engaged with the care for their private existence that they are unable to make the sacrifices that a thorough performance of their duties would require. Often public positions are used to further private interests to the detriment of the community. The tax-payers must bear the consequences. A thorough and satisfactory reform of these conditions cannot be attained by present-day society. In whatever form the taxes may be levied, the dissatisfaction increases. In a few decades most of the municipalities will be unable to satisfy their demands by the present form of taxation and administration. In the municipalities, as in the state, the need of a thoroughgoing transformation becomes manifest. In fact, the greatest demands for purposes of civilization are made upon them; they form the nucleus from which the social transformation will proceed as soon as the will and power for such transformation exist. But how shall this be attained while private interests control everything and public interests are of secondary importance?
This is, briefly stated, the condition of our public life, which is but a reflection of the social condition of society as a whole.
[188] A. Neymarck—La Statistique international des valeurs mobilières. Bulletin de l’institut international de statistique. Copenhagen, 1908.
[2.—Aggravation of Social Extremes.]
In present-day life the struggle for existence is becoming increasingly difficult. The war of all against all is raging and is waged relentlessly, often without any discrimination in the methods employed. The French saying: “Ote-toi de la, que je m’y mette” (get out of there that I may take your place), is practiced in actual life. The weak must make way for the strong. If the material force of money, of property, does not suffice, the meanest methods are resorted to that a desired aim may be attained. Lies, fraud and deception, forgery and perjury, the worst crimes are committed for this end. As one individual is arrayed against another in this warfare, thus we find class against class, sex against sex, age against age. Advantage is the only arbiter of human relations; every other consideration is set aside. As soon as advantage requires it, thousands upon thousands of workingmen and women are cast out into the street, and become public charges or enforced vagabonds. In masses workers wander from place to place through the length and breadth of the land, and society fears and despises them more and more as the duration of their unemployment makes their external appearance more shabby, and, eventually, also demoralizes their character. Respectable society does not know what it means to do without the simplest requirements of order and cleanliness for months, to wander about with an empty stomach, and to reap nothing but ill-disguised disgust and contempt from those who are the upholders of this system. The families of these unfortunates suffer the hardest privations and become dependent on public charity. Sometimes despair drives parents to awful crimes against their children and themselves, to murder and suicide. Especially during hard times these deeds of despair increase to an appalling degree. But the ruling classes are not perturbed by such occurrences. The same editions of the daily papers that report such deeds, caused by poverty and despair, also contain reports of festive revelries and glittering official pageants, as if there were joy and abundance everywhere.
The general need and the increasingly difficult struggle for existence drive more and more women and girls into lives of degradation and ruin. Demoralization, brutality and crime increase, while the prisons, the penitentiaries and the so-called reformatories can hardly contain the mass of their inmates.
Crime is closely connected with social conditions. Society does not wish to admit this fact. Like the ostrich, that conceals its head in the sand not to see approaching danger, we deceive ourselves in regard to these conditions that should lead to self-accusation. We try to persuade ourselves that it is all due to laziness, love of pleasure and lack of piety on the part of the workingmen. This is self-delusion and hypocrisy of the worst kind. As social conditions grow more unfavorable for a majority of the population, crimes become more numerous and more severe. The struggle for existence assumes its most cruel and violent form and creates a condition in which men regard one another as mortal enemies. Social bonds are severed and human beings treat each other with hostility.[189]
The ruling classes who do not see, nor wish to see, to the bottom of things, seek to remedy these evils in their own way. When poverty and need increase, and, as a result, demoralization and crime increase likewise, the source of the evil is not sought out in order to plug up this source, but the products of these conditions are punished. As the evils grow and the number of evil-doers increases, persecutions and penalties are made more severe. The belief seems to be that the devil can be driven out by Satan. Even Professor Haeckel deems it justifiable to punish crime with severe penalties and to resort to capital punishment.[190] On this point he is fully agreed with reactionaries of all shades who otherwise are his mortal enemies. Haeckel holds the opinion that incorrigible criminals and wrong-doers should be exterminated like weeds that rob the plants of air, light and the soil to grow in. If Haeckel had devoted himself partly to the study of social sciences instead of devoting himself to the natural sciences exclusively, he would know that these criminals could be transformed into useful members of human society, if society would offer them the needful conditions of existence. He would know that the extermination of individual criminals would no more prevent the perpetuation of new crimes, than weeds could be prevented from growing while their roots or their seeds remained. Man will never be able to prevent absolutely the formation of harmful organisms in nature. But he will be able so to improve the social order that he himself has created, that the conditions of existence shall be favorable to all, that each individual shall be enabled to develop freely, and shall no longer be compelled to satisfy his hunger, his desire for possessions, or his ambitions, at the expense of others.[191]
They who seek to remove crime by removing its causes cannot favor violent methods of repression. They cannot prevent society from protecting itself in its own way against criminals whom it can, of course, not give free scope, but they demand all the more urgently a transformation of society that would mean a removal of the causes of crime.
The connection between social conditions and misdemeanors and crimes has frequently been shown by statisticians and political economists.[192] One of the most frequent misdemeanors, that is regarded as a misdemeanor by our society, in spite of all its Christian teachings about charity—is mendicancy. In connection with this subject the statistics of the Kingdom of Saxony teach us that the increase of the great crisis that began in Germany in 1890 and attained its height from 1892 to 1893, the number of persons punished for mendicancy increased likewise. During 1890 the number of persons punished for this misdemeanor was 8,815; during 1891, 10,075, and during 1892, 13,120. Similar facts were observed in Austria, where, during 1891, 90,926 persons were convicted of mendicancy and vagrancy, and 98,998 persons during 1892.[193] This is a considerable increase.
Pauperization of the masses on the one hand and increasing wealth on the other is the stamp of our period. The trend of present-day development may be well judged from the fact that in the United States five men—John D. Rockefeller, the late Harriman, J. Pierpont Morgan, W. K. Vanderbilt, and G. J. Gould—in the year 1900, owned together over 800,000,000 dollars, and that they possessed sufficient influence to control the economic life of the United States and partly also that of Europe. In all civilized countries the large combinations of capitalists form the most noteworthy phenomenon of the recent period and are constantly gaining more social and political importance.
[189] Plato already recognized the results of such conditions. He wrote: “A state in which classes exist is not one single state but two. The poor form one, and the rich form the other. Both dwell together, but always way-lay one another. Finally the ruling class becomes unable to wage a war, for then it depends upon the masses whom, when armed, it fears more than the enemy.”—Plato, The State. Aristotle says: “Widespread poverty is an evil, for it can hardly be prevented that such persons become promoters of disorder.”
[190] Natural History of the Creation.
[191] A similar thought is expressed by Plato in his “State”: “Crimes are caused by ignorance, by bad education and institutions of the state.” Plato was better acquainted with the nature of society than many of his learned followers two thousand and three hundred years later. That is not very encouraging.
[192] M. Sursky—New facts concerning the economic causes of crime. “New Era.”
[193] H. Herz—Crime and Criminals in Austria. The author says: “The prevailing economic status must be taken into consideration in the judgment of crime. The organization of production and consumption and the distribution of wealth has a marked influence on crime in many ways.”
[CHAPTER XVII.
The Process of Concentration in Capitalistic Industry.]
[1.—The Displacement of Agriculture by Industry.]
The capitalistic system of production not only dominates the social organization but also the political organization. It influences and controls the thoughts and sentiments of society. Capitalism is the ruling power. The capitalist is lord and master of the proletarian, whose labor power he buys as a commodity to be applied and made use of, at a price that oscillates according to supply and demand and the cost of production, as with every other commodity. But the capitalist does not buy labor power “to please God,” or to render a service to the workingman—as he sometimes seeks to present it—but to obtain surplus value by it, which he pockets in the form of profit, interest and rent. This surplus value squeezed out of the workingman—inasmuch as it is not spent by the employer for his personal enjoyment—is crystallized into capital, and enables him steadily to enlarge his plant, to improve the process of production, and to employ more labor power. Thereby again he becomes enabled to encounter his weaker competitor, as a horseman, clad in armor, might encounter an unarmed pedestrian, and to destroy him.
This unequal struggle is developing more and more in all domains, and woman, furnishing the cheapest labor power, beside the child, plays an important part in this struggle. The result of these conditions is, that the line of demarcation becomes sharper between a relatively small number of powerful capitalists and the great mass of non-possessors of capital, who depend upon the daily sale of their labor power. With this development the position of the middle classes is becoming more and more unfavorable.
One line of industry after another, where until recently the small manufacturers predominated, are being taken hold of by capitalistic enterprise. The competition of the capitalists among themselves compels them constantly to seek new realms to be exploited. Capital goes about “like a roaring lion seeking something to devour.” The small men are ruined, and if they do not succeed in finding some other field of activity—which is becoming increasingly difficult—they sink down into the class of wage-workers. All attempts to prevent the decline of handicraft and the middle class by means of laws and institutions that have been taken from the shelves of the past, prove useless. They may deceive one or another for a little while in regard to his true position, but soon the delusion is dispelled by the force of facts. The process of absorption of the small ones by the great ones is becoming clearly evident to all with the unrelenting force of a natural law.
In what manner the social structure of Germany has been transformed during the brief period of twenty-five years—from 1882 to 1895 and from 1895 to 1907—that may be seen by a comparison of the census figures from these years, as shown by the following table:
| Persons gainfully employed in principal calling | Increase (+) or decrease (−) since 1882 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1882 | 1895 | 1907 | ||
| Agriculture | 8,236,496 | 8,292,692 | 9,883,257 | + 1,646,761 = 19.89 |
| Industry | 6,396,465 | 8,281,220 | 11,256,254 | + 4,859,789 = 75.98 |
| Commerce and Traffic | 1,570,318 | 2,338,511 | 3,477,626 | + 1,907,308 = 121.46 |
| Domestic service | 397,582 | 432,491 | 477,695 | + 74,113 = 18.63 |
| Public service and learned professions | 1,031,147 | 1,425,961 | 1,738,530 | + 707,383 = 68.56 |
| No occupation | 1,354,486 | 2,142,808 | 3,404,983 | + 2,050,497 = 151.40 |
| Total | 18,986,494 | 22,913,683 | 30,232,345 | +11,245,851 = 53.95 |
| Persons gainfully employed including their families | Increase (+) or decrease (−) since 1882 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1882 | 1895 | 1906 | ||
| Agriculture | 19,225,455 | 18,501,307 | 17,681,176 | − 1,544,279 = 18.18 |
| Industry | 16,058,080 | 20,253,241 | 26,386,537 | +10,328,457 = 64.25 |
| Commerce and Traffic | 4,531,080 | 5,966,836 | 8,278,239 | + 3,747,159 = 82.69 |
| Domestic service | 938,294 | 886,807 | 792,748 | − 145,546 = 15.57 |
| Public service and learned professions | 2,222,982 | 2,835,014 | 3,407,126 | + 1,184,144 = 53.33 |
| No occupation | 2,246,222 | 3,327,069 | 5,174,703 | + 2,928,481 = 130.36 |
| Total | 45,222,113 | 51,760,284 | 61,720,528 | +19,878,066 = 34.27 |
These figures show that during the twenty-five years referred to, a considerable shifting of the population and its occupations has taken place. The population employed in industry, commerce and traffic has increased at the expense of the agricultural population. Almost the entire increase in population—6,548,171 from 1882 to 1895, and 9,950,245 from 1895 to 1907—has been absorbed by the former. Although the number of persons gainfully employed in industry as their principal calling has increased, this increase has not kept pace with the general growth of the population, and the number of the members of the families of persons so employed has even decreased by 1,544,279 = 8 per cent.
Industry (including the building trades and mining), commerce and traffic, present a different aspect. Here the number of persons gainfully employed and their families have considerably increased; in fact, they have increased more rapidly than the population. The number of persons employed in industry exceeds the number of persons employed in agriculture by 1,372,997 = 15 per cent. The number of the members of their families exceeds the number of the members of families of persons employed in agriculture by 8,705,361 = 49 per cent. The numbers of persons employed in commerce and traffic, together with their families, show a still greater increase.
The result is that the agricultural population, which is the real conservative portion of the population and forms the mainstay of the old order of things, is being repressed more and more and overtaken by the population engaged in industry, commerce and traffic. That the number of persons engaged in learned professions and their families have increased likewise, does not alter these facts. The strong increase in the number of persons having no occupation and their families is due to the growing number of persons living on their rents, including accident, invalid and old-age insurance, the greater number of persons dependent on charity, students of all sorts, and inmates of poorhouses, hospitals, insane asylums and prisons.
Another characteristic fact is the slight increase in the number of persons employed in domestic service and the direct decrease in the number of servants. This shows, firstly, that fewer persons can afford to employ domestic help; it shows furthermore that proletarian women who strive for greater independence, like this profession less and less.
In 1882 the number of persons engaged in agriculture as their principal calling constituted 43.38 per cent. of persons gainfully employed; in 1895, 36.19 per cent., and in 1907 only 32.69 per cent. The agricultural population—including the families of those gainfully employed in agriculture—in 1882 constituted 42.51 per cent. of the entire population; in 1895, 35.74 per cent., and in 1907 only 28.65 per cent. Those employed in industry as their principal calling constituted, in 1882, 33.69 per cent. of the entire population; in 1895, 36.14 per cent., and in 1907, 37.23 per cent. Including their families, they constituted 35.51 per cent. in 1882; 39.12 in 1895, and 42.75 in 1907. The following figures show the percentage of persons employed in commerce and traffic:
| Persons employed. | Including their families. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1882 | 8.27 | 10.02 |
| 1895 | 10.21 | 11.52 |
| 1907 | 11.50 | 13.41 |
We see, then, that in Germany, at present, 56.16 per cent. of the population (in Saxony even 74.5 per cent.) depend upon industry and commerce, and that not more than 28.65 per cent. (in Saxony only 10.07 per cent.) are engaged in agriculture.
[2.—Increasing Pauperization.—Preponderance of Large Industrial Establishments.]
It is also important to state how the population employed in gainful occupations is divided among independent workers, employes and laborers, and what proportion of each of these is furnished by either sex. This information may be gathered from the table on the following page.
[[Version of the table for narrower screens]]
| Independent Persons | Employees | Wage-workers | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1882 | 1895 | 1907 | 1882 | 1895 | 1907 | 1882 | 1895 | 1907 | |
| Agriculture: | |||||||||
| Male | 2,010,865 | 2,221,826 | 2,172,740 | 60,763 | 78,066 | 82,548 | 3,629,959 | 3,239,646 | 3,028,983 |
| Female | 277,168 | 346,899 | 328,234 | 5,881 | 18,107 | 16,264 | 2,251,860 | 2,388,148 | 4,254,488 |
| Total | 2,288,022 | 2,568,725 | 2,500,974 | 66,644 | 96,173 | 98,812 | 5,881,819 | 5,627,794 | 7,283,471 |
| Industry: | |||||||||
| Male | 1,621,668 | 1,542,272 | 1,499,832 | 96,807 | 254,421 | 622,071 | 3,551,014 | 4,963,409 | 7,030,427 |
| Female | 579,478 | 519,492 | 477,290 | 2,269 | 9,324 | 63,936 | 545,228 | 992,302 | 1,562,698 |
| Total | 2,201,146 | 2,061,764 | 1,978,122 | 99,076 | 263,745 | 686,007 | 4,096,243 | 5,955,711 | 8,593,125 |
| Commerce: | |||||||||
| Male | 550,936 | 640,941 | 765,551 | 138,387 | 249,920 | 426,220 | 582,885 | 836,042 | 1,354,482 |
| Female | 150,572 | 202,616 | 246,641 | 3,161 | 11,987 | 79,689 | 144,377 | 365,005 | 605,043 |
| Total | 701,508 | 843,557 | 1,012,192 | 141,548 | 261,907 | 505,900 | 727,262 | 1,201,047 | 1,959,525 |
| Altogether: | |||||||||
| Male | 4,183,469 | 4,405,039 | 4,338,123 | 295,957 | 582,407 | 1,130,839 | 7,763,858 | 9,071,097 | 13,694,160 |
| Female | 1,007,218 | 1,069,007 | 1,052,165 | 11,311 | 39,418 | 159,889 | 2,941,455 | 3,745,455 | 4,161,961 |
| Total | 5,190,685 | 7,474,046 | 5,390,288 | 307,268 | 621,825 | 1,290,728 | 10,705,324 | 12,816,552 | 17,856,121 |
This table shows that the number of persons independently engaged in agriculture increased by 280,692 from 1882 to 1895, an increase of 12.5 per cent.; but that from 1895 to 1907 it decreased by 67,751, so that from 1882 to 1907 the number of independent persons in agriculture has increased by only 212,941 = 9.2 per cent. On the other hand the number of workingmen that had decreased by 254,025 = 4.3 per cent., from 1882 to 1895, has, since 1895, increased by 1,655,677 = 29.4 per cent. Upon examining this increase more closely we find that it is mainly due to female members helping to support the families. (Among the total increase of 1,990,930 are 170,532 male and 1,820,938 female.) When we take only the rural day-laborers and help into consideration, we find that the male workers have decreased by 381,195 persons, while the female workers have increased by 45,942 persons. Altogether this shows the considerable decrease of 335,253 persons among agricultural laborers. In agriculture, then, not only the number of independent persons, but also the number of help and day laborers has decreased. The increase in the agricultural occupation, compared to the previous census, is due to the greatly increased assistance from members of the families, especially the female members.
The industrial occupation presents a different picture. In a term of 25 years the persons independently employed decreased by 234,024 = 10.6 per cent., while the population increased by 36.48 per cent. Mechanics, working alone or working with two assistants, have mainly disappeared. The number of wage-workers has increased by 1,859,468 from 1882 to 1895, and by 2,637,414 from 1895 to 1907. When we count only the wage-workers proper, not including the members of their families who assist at their work, we find that their number has increased from 5,899,708 in 1895 to 8,460,338 in 1907. Three-quarters of all persons employed in industrial occupations are wage-workers (75.16 per cent.).
In commerce and trade we find the opposite ratio. Here the number of persons independently engaged has greatly increased, but the number of employes and workers has increased likewise. The number of women independently engaged in commerce has increased especially; they chiefly are either widows who seek to make their living as small dealers, or married women who endeavour to increase their husbands’ income. The number of persons independently engaged in commerce increased by 310,584 = 44.3 per cent., from 1882 to 1907. But the number of employes and wage-workers has increased still more (by 364,361 = 258.8, and by 1,232,263 = 169.4 per cent.). This shows how tremendously commerce and trade have developed, particularly from 1895 to 1907. There are almost twice as many employes as prior to that period, and among these almost six times as many female employes.
During the period from 1882 to 1907 the entire number of persons independently engaged in the three occupations increased by 5.7 per cent.; it did not keep pace then with the increase in population (36.48 per cent.). The number of employes increased by 325.4 per cent., and the number of wage-workers by 39.1 per cent. We must furthermore take into consideration that among 5,490,288 independent persons, many lead an entirely proletarian existence. Among the 2,086,368 manufactories enumerated there were no less than 994,743 small producers who worked alone and 875,518 who did not employ over five assistants. In commerce there were, in 1907 among 709,231 establishments, no less than 232,780 maintained by the owners without assistance. There were, besides, 5240 porters, errand-boys, etc., and thousands of insurance agents, book agents, etc.
Another point to be considered is that the number of independent persons in the three occupations does not coincide with the number of establishments. If a firm, for instance, has dozens of branch establishments, as is frequently the case in the tobacco trade, or if a concern runs a number of stores, each branch is enumerated as an individual establishment. The same is true of industrial enterprises, when, for instance, a machine factory also runs an iron foundry, a carpenter shop, etc. The figures then do not convey sufficient information regarding the concentration of capital on the one hand and the standard of living on the other. And yet, in spite of all these deficiencies, the results of the latest census of June 12, 1907, present a picture of the most powerful concentration of capital in industry, commerce and traffic. They show that, hand in hand with the industrialization of our entire economic system, a concentration of all the means of production into a few hands is rapidly progressing.
The independent small manufacturers and traders working alone, of whom there still were 1,877,872 in 1882, have become fewer again since 1895. In 1895, 1,714,351 were enumerated, and in 1907 only 1,446,286; a decrease of 431,586 = 22.9 per cent. The number of small producers and dealers has rapidly decreased from census to census. In 1882 it was 59.1 per cent.; 1895, 46.5, and, 1907, only 37.3 per cent. of all persons gainfully employed. At the same time the number of large manufacturing and commercial enterprises has grown from 22.0 to 29.6, and (1907) to 37.3 per cent. From 1895 to 1907 the number of persons employed by small concerns increased by 12.2 per cent.; the number of those employed by concerns of medium size, by 48.5 per cent., and the number of those employed by large concerns, by 75.7 per cent. Among 5,350,025 persons industrially employed in 1907, the by far largest group is employed by large concerns, while, in 1882, a greater number of persons were small, individual producers. In the seven following branches of industry the large concerns predominate, employing more than half of all persons engaged in these industries. Of each 100 persons the following percentage were employed by large concerns:
| Mining | 96.6 | per cent. |
| Machine manufacture | 70.4 | “ |
| Chemical trades | 69.8 | “ |
| Textile trades | 67.5 | “ |
| Paper trades | 58.4 | “ |
| Industry of pottery and earthenware | 52.5 | “ |
| Industry of soaps, fats and oils | 52.3 | “ |
In the other groups industry on a large scale already predominated in 1895, and everywhere its predominance has been still further increased. (In the malleation of metals, 47.0; in the polygraphic trades, 43.8; in traffic, 41.6, and in the building trades, 40.5 per cent. of all persons were employed by large concerns.) We see, then, that in almost every branch development has favored industry on a large scale.
The concentration of manufacture and the concentration of capital, which are one and the same thing, take place particularly rapidly wherever capitalistic production obtains full control. Let us, for instance, consider the brewing industry. In the German brewery-tax district, excluding Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden and Alsace-Lorraine, there were:
| Number of breweries. | [Commercial] | Producing 1000 hectolitres of beer. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1873 | 13,561 | 10,927 | 19,655 |
| 1880 | 11,564 | 10,374 | 21,136 |
| 1890 | 8,969 | 8,054 | 32,279 |
| 1900 | 6,903 | 6,283 | 44,734 |
| 1905 | 5,995 | 5,602 | 46,264 |
| 1906 | 5,785 | 5,423 | 45,867 |
| 1907 | 5,528 | 5,251 | 46,355 |
So the number of breweries decreased, from 1873 to 1907, by 8033 = 59.3 per cent.; that of breweries decreased by 5676 = 51.9 per cent., but the production of beer increased by 26,700,000 hectolitres = 135.7 per cent. This signifies a downfall of the small concerns and a tremendous growth of the large concerns, whose productivity has been multiplied. In 1873, 1450 hectolitres and in 1907 8385 hectolitres were produced by each brewery. It is the same wherever capitalism rules.
Similar results are shown by the German coal-mining industry and other mining industries of the German Empire. In coal mining the number of concerns that amounted to an average of 623, from 1871 to 1875, dwindled down to 406, in 1889. But at the same time the production of coal rose from 34,485,400 tons to 67,342,200 tons, and the average number of persons employed increased from 127,074 to 239,954. The following table illustrates this process of concentration in the mining of mineral coal and brown coal, until 1907:
| Year | Mineral Coal | Brown Coal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Concerns | Average No. Employed | Quantity 1000 tons | Number of Concerns | Average No. Employed | Quantity 1000 tons | |
| 1900 | 338 | 413,693 | 109,290.2 | 569 | 50,911 | 40,498.0 |
| 1905 | 331 | 493,308 | 121,298.6 | 533 | 54,969 | 52,512.1 |
| 1906 | 322 | 511,108 | 137,117.9 | 536 | 58,637 | 56,419.6 |
| 1907 | 313 | 545,330 | 143,185.7 | 535 | 66,462 | 62,546.7 |
We see, then, that, in the production of mineral coal since the seventies, the number of concerns has decreased by 49.8 per cent., while the number of wage-workers employed has increased by 216.9 per cent., and the output even by 420.6 per cent. The following table shows the development in the entire mining industry:
| Year | Number of Concerns | Average Number Employed | Quantity 1000 tons |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1871–75 | 3,034 | 277,878 | 51,056.0 |
| 1887 | 2,146 | 337,634 | 88,873.0 |
| 1889 | 1,962 | 368,896 | 99,414.0 |
| 1905 | 1,862 | 661,310 | 205,592.6 |
| 1906 | 1,862 | 688,853 | 229,146.1 |
| 1907 | 1,958 | 734,903 | 242,615.2 |
Here the number of concerns has decreased by 35.5 per cent., while the number of wage-workers employed increased by 164.4 per cent., and the output, 374.5 per cent. The number of employers had grown smaller but wealthier, and the number of proletarians had greatly increased.
In the industrial districts of the Rhine and Westphalia there still were 156 mines in 1907, but 34 of these controlled more than 50 per cent. of the output. Although the census enumerates 156 mines, the coal trust, which controls the mines with but a few exceptions, had only 76 members. To such extent the process of concentration has developed. According to the reports of February, 1908, the output of the coal trust amounted to 77.9 million tons of coal.[194]
In 1871 there were 306 blast-furnaces, employing 23,191 laborers and producing 1,563,682 tons of crude iron. In 1907, 303 blast furnaces, employing 45,201 laborers, produced 12,875,200 tons. In 1871 crude iron was produced at the rate of 5,110 tons for every blast-furnace; in 1907 at the rate of 42,491 tons for every blast-furnace. According to a list published in “Steel and Iron,” in March, 1896, only one blast-furnace in Germany was able to produce crude iron at the rate of 820 tons in 24 hours. But in 1907 there were 12 blast-furnaces that could, within 24 hours, produce 1000 tons, and more.[194]
In 1871–1872, 311 factories in the beet sugar industry consumed 2,250,918 tons of beets. In 1907–1908, 365 factories consumed 13,482,750 tons. The average consumption of beets per factory was 7,237 tons during 1871–1872, and 36,939 tons during 1907–1908. This mechanical revolution does not take place in industry alone, but also in commerce and traffic. The following table shows the development of German maritime trade:
| Year | Sailing vessels | Regist’d tonnage | Number of crew |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1871 | 4,372 | 900,361 | 34,739 |
| 1901 | 2,272 | 525,140 | 12,922 |
| 1905 | 2,294 | 493,644 | 12,914 |
| 1908 | 2,345 | 433,749 | 12,800 |
| 1909 | 2,361 | 416,514 | 12,844 |
| Less than in 1871 | 2,011 | less 483,847 | less 21,895 |
Sailing vessels, then, are considerably diminishing, and among those still existing the registered tonnage and the number of the crew is decreasing. In 1871 there were, for each sailing vessel, 205.9 registered tonnage and 7.9 members of the crew. In 1909 each sailing vessel had an average of but 176.4 registered tonnage, and only 5.4 members of the crew German maritime trade by steam navigation presents a different aspect, as the following table shows:
| Year | Ocean-going steamships | Regist’d tonnage | Number of crew |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1871 | 147 | 81,994 | 4,736 |
| 1901 | 1,390 | 1,347,875 | 36,801 |
| 1905 | 1,657 | 1,774,072 | 46,747 |
| 1908 | 1,922 | 2,256,783 | 57,995 |
| 1909 | 1,953 | 2,302,910 | 58,451 |
| More than in 1871 | 1,806 | 2,221,006 | 53,715 |
Not only had the number of steamships greatly increased, their tonnage had increased more still, but, in proportion to this increase the number of the crew had decreased. In 1871 a steamship had an average tonnage of 558 tons and a crew of 32.1 men. In 1909 it had an average freight capacity of 1230 tons and a crew of only 29 men.
The rapid increase of motor power employed is another symptom of capitalistic development. In the territory of the German “Zollverein,” according to Viebahn, 99,761 horse-power were used in 1861.[195] In 1875, in Germany, factories employing more than five persons, used, 1,055,750 horse-power, and in 1895, 2,933,526 horse-power, almost three times the number used in 1875. Railroads, street cars and steamboats are not contained in this list.
The following list shows the amount of horse-power used in Prussia:
| Stationary steam engines | Movable boilers and traction engines | |
|---|---|---|
| 1879 | 888,000 | 47,000 |
| 1896 | 2,534,900 | 159,400 |
| 1900 | 3,461,700 | 229,600 |
| 1905 | 4,684,900 | 315,200 |
| 1906 | 4,995,700 | 334,400 |
| 1907 | 5,190,400 | 363,200 |
So the amount of horse-power employed in Prussia in 1907 is six times greater than in 1879. How tremendously industry has developed since the census of 1895 can be seen by the fact that the number of stationary engines in Prussia has increased by 35 per cent. from 1896 to 1907. The productiveness of the machines has increased by 105 per cent. during this period. While, in 1898, 3,305 steam engines of 258,726 horse-power served to run dynamos, there are 6,191 of 954,945 horse-power in 1907. That is an increase of 87 and 269 per cent.[196] The following figures show the increased application of steam-power in the most important industries (expressed in horsepower):
| Industry | 1879 | 1897 | 1907 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mining and foundries | 516,000 | 1,430,000 | 2,284,000 |
| Masonry and bricks | 29,000 | 132,000 | 255,000 |
| Metallurgy | 23,000 | 57,000 | 113,000 |
| Machines | 22,000 | 61,000 | 329,000 |
| Textile | 88,000 | 243,000 | 323,000[197] |
Notwithstanding this fabulous development of the productive powers and the immense concentration of capital, attempts are still being made to deny these truths. Such an attempt was made at the eleventh session of the International Institute of Statistics in Copenhagen in August, 1907, by the French economist, Ives Guyot. On the basis of careless statistics, he moved to abolish the word “concentration” from statistics. Among others, Carl Buecher answered him as follows: “An absolute increase in the number of manufactories may easily coincide with a concentration of same. Wherever the census enumerates individual establishments, it is unavoidable that many should be counted twice. A bank with 100 trust-funds is counted as 101; a brewery that has opened and fitted out 50 saloons, is counted as 51 establishments. The results of such statistics prove nothing in regard to the phenomenon in question. Investigation so far shows that agriculture alone does not seem to be subjected to the process of concentration. It is evident in mining, commerce, transportation, building trades and insurance. In industry it is difficult to recognize, because every civilized nation in a healthy state of development must present an extension of industrial production, for the following four reasons: 1. Because occupations that were formerly domestic in character have been taken over by industry. 2. Because natural products have been replaced by industrial products (wood by iron; woad, madder and indigo by tar-colors, etc.). 3. Because of new inventions (automobiles). 4. Because of the possibility of exportation. For these reasons concentration on a large scale takes place in industry without any diminution in the number of establishments, even with an increase in same. Wherever industry creates commodities ready for use of a typical character, the destruction of the independent small concerns is inevitable. The capitalistic forms of production are accordingly rapidly developing in the most important lines of industry. It is not wise to oppose the Socialists where they are right, and they are undoubtedly right in their assertions in regard to increasing concentration.”[198]
The same aspect presented by the economic development of Germany is presented by all the industrial states of the world. All the civilized states endeavour to become industrial states more and more. They not only seek to manufacture articles of industry to supply their own demand, but also to export them. Therefore we not only speak of a national market, but also of the world market. The world market regulates the prices of countless articles of industry and agriculture and controls the social status of the nations. That industrial realm which has attained the greatest importance in regard to the relations of the world market, is the North American Union. Here the main impetus is given whereby the world market and bourgeois society are revolutionized. The census of the last three decades showed the following figures:
| 1880 | 2,790,000,000 | dollars |
| 1890 | 6,525,000,000 | “ |
| 1900 | 9,813,000,000 | “ |
| 1880 | 5,369,000,000 | dollars |
| 1890 | 9,372,000,000 | “ |
| 1900 | 13,000,000,000 | “ |
The United States, accordingly, is the leading industrial country of the world. Its exportation of products of industry and agriculture increase with each year, and the tremendous accumulations of capital that are a natural result of this development seek investment beyond the boundaries of the country, and influence the industry and trade of Europe to a marked degree. It is no longer the individual capitalist who is the motive power underlying this development. It is the group of captains of industry, the trust, that is bound to crush the most powerful individual enterprise, wherever it chooses to turn its activities. What can the small man amount to in the face of such development, to which even the great must yield?
[194] Otto Hué—History of the development of the mining industries.
[195] A. Hesse—Statistics of Trade.
[196] A. Hesse—Statistics of Trades.
[197] Prof. Dr. S. Reyer Kraft—Economic, Technical and Historical Studies in the Development of the Power of States.
[198] Bulletin de l’institut international de statistique. Copenhagen, 1908.
[3.—Concentration of Wealth.]
It is an economic law that, with the concentration of industry and its increased productivity, the number of workers employed relatively decreases, while the wealth of a nation, in proportion to the entire population, becomes concentrated in fewer hands. That can be clearly seen by the distribution of the income in various civilized countries.
Of the larger German states, Saxony possesses the oldest and best statistics on the income tax. The present law is in force since 1879. But it is advisable to take a later year, because during the first years the assessments were, on an average, too low. The population of Saxony increased by 51 per cent. from 1880 to 1905. The number of persons assessed increased by 160 per cent. from 1882 to 1904; the assessed income by 23 per cent. Until the beginning of the nineties an income up to 300 marks per annum was exempt from taxation, after that up to 400 marks. In 1882 the number of persons exempt from taxes were 75,697 = 6.61 per cent.; in 1904, 205,667 = 11.03 per cent. It must be noted that, in Saxony, the incomes of wives and of members of the family under 16 are added to the income of the husband and father. The taxpayers having an income from 400 to 800 marks formed 48 per cent. of those assessed in 1882; in 1904 only 43.81 per cent. A part of them had advanced into a class with a higher income. The average income of the taxpayers of this class had increased by 37 per cent—from 421 to 582 marks—during this period, but still remained behind the average of 600 marks. The taxpayers having an income from 800 to 1250 marks formed 12 per cent. of those assessed in 1882, and 24.38 per cent. in 1904. But those with an income from 1250 to 3300 marks formed 20 per cent. in 1882 and only 16.74 per cent. in 1904. In 1863 Lassalle computed that only 4 per cent. of all incomes in Prussia were over 3000 marks annually. When we consider that, in the meantime, rents, taxes and the cost of living have increased, and that the demands in regard to the standard of living have grown, it becomes evident that the position of the masses has relatively scarcely improved. The medium incomes of from 3,400 to 10,000 marks in 1904 formed only 3.24 per cent. of those assessed, and the incomes of over 10,000 marks less than 1 per cent. The number of taxpayers with incomes from 12,000 to 20,000 marks, 0.80 per cent. The number of incomes of over 12,000 marks has increased from 4,124, in 1882, to 11,771, in 1904; that is, by 188 per cent. The highest income in 1882 was 2,570,000 marks; in 1906, 5,900,600 marks. These figures show the following facts: The lower incomes have increased somewhat, but in many cases this increase has been more than equalized by the increased cost of living. The middle classes experienced the least improvement; but the number and the income of the richest people show the greatest increase. Accordingly the class extremes became more marked.
In his investigations of the distribution of income in Prussia from 1892 to 1902, Professor Adolf Wagner has ascertained the following facts. He divides the population of Prussia into three large groups: The lower group (lowest up to 420 marks; medium, 420 to 900; highest, 900 to 2,100); the middle group (lowest, 2,100 to 3,000; medium, 3,000 to 6,000; highest, 6,000 to 9,500 marks); the upper group (lowest from 9,500 to 30,500; medium, 30,500 to 100,000, and highest over 100,000). The entire income is divided almost equally among these three groups. The 3.51 per cent. of the upper group control 32.1 per cent. of the entire income. The lower group, including the 70.66 per cent. of those exempt from taxation, also controls an income of 32.9 per cent. of the entire income; and the middle group, with 25.83 per cent. controls 34.9 per cent. of the entire income. If we take into consideration only those incomes that are subject to taxation, we find that all those having an income from 900 to 3000 marks, who formed 86.99 per cent. of those enumerated in 1892, and 88.04 per cent. in 1902, controlled over half of the assessable income, 51.05 per cent., in 1892, and 52.1 per cent. in 1902. Incomes of over 3000 marks, which formed, respectively, 13 and 12 per cent. of those enumerated, controlled about 49 per cent. of the entire assessable income in 1892 and 48 per cent. in 1902. The average income of the small taxpayers throughout Prussia amounted to 1374 in 1892 and to 1348 in 1902; it had, accordingly, diminished to 1.89 per cent. On the other hand the average income of the large taxpayers has increased from 8,811 marks, in 1892, to 9,118 marks, in 1902, or by 3.48 per cent. Upon the upper group, which formed only 0.5 per cent. of all those enumerated in 1892 and 0.63 per cent. in 1902, 15.95 percent. of the entire income devolved in 1892, and 18.37 per cent. in 1902. The increase is slightest with the lowest and medium class of the middle group. It is somewhat greater with the highest class of the lower group. But it is greatest and increasingly great from class to class, with the highest class of the middle group and with the entire upper group. The greater the income of a group of those enumerated, the richer they are; the more, accordingly, their number relatively increases. The number of those having high and highest incomes increases, who, on an average, also attain increasingly large incomes. In other words, a growing concentration of incomes takes place, not only among particularly rich individuals, but among the economically high and highest group of the population, that is rapidly growing and yet comprises a relatively small number. “This shows that the modern economic development has indeed been favorable to the entire population by increasing the income and by increasing the number of members of each economic-social class, but that the distribution has been a very uneven one, the rich being mostly favored, then the lower classes, and the middle class least. It shows, accordingly, that the social class differences, inasmuch as they depend upon the size of the income, have increased.”[199]
The Prussian income-tax assessments of 1908 show that there were 104,904 taxpayers with an income of more than 9,500 marks, representing a total income of 3,123,273,000 marks. Among these were 3,796 with an income of more than 100,000 marks, representing a total income of 934,000,000 marks; 77 were enumerated with an income of more than a million. The 104,904 taxpayers, or 1.78 per cent., with an income of more than 9,500 marks, represented the same total income as the 3,109,540 (52.9 per cent.), with an income of from 900 to 1,350 marks.
In Austria about 24 per cent. of the assessed net income devolved upon approximately 12 to 13 per cent. of the taxpayers having incomes of from 4,000 to 12,000 crowns. If the incomes up to 12,000 crowns are taken together, this group comprises over 97 per cent. of the taxpayers and 74 per cent. of the income. The remaining 3 per cent. of the taxpayers control 26 per cent. of the assessed income.[200] The minimum exempt from taxation is higher in Austria than in Prussia—1,200 crowns, or 1,014 marks. The small taxpayers having an income of from 1,200 to 4,000 crowns formed 84.3 per cent. of all taxpayers in 1904. The number of richest persons having an income of more than 200,000 crowns was 255 in 1898, and in 1904 it was 307, or 0.032 per cent. of all taxpayers.
In Great Britain and Ireland, according to L. G. Chiozza Money, half of the national income (over 4,150,000,000 dollars) belongs to one-ninth of the population. He divides the population into three groups: The rich, with an income of more than 700 pounds sterling; the wealthy, with an income of from 160 to 700 pounds sterling; and the poor, with an income of less than 160 pounds sterling.
| Class | Persons | Including families | Income in pounds sterling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rich | 250,000 | 1,250,000 | 585,000,000 |
| Wealthy | 750,000 | 3,750,000 | 245,000,000 |
| Poor | 5,000,000 | 38,000,000 | 880,000,000 |
According to these figures, more than one-third of the national income belongs to one-thirtieth of the population. The investigations of Booth for London, and of Rowntree for York, have shown that thirty per cent. of the entire population lead an existence of direst life-long poverty.[201]
For France, E. Levasseur compiled the following figures, on the basis of the statistics of inheritance: “Two-fifths of the national wealth are owned by 98 per cent. having less than 100,000 francs; about one-third is owned by a small group of 1.7 per cent., and a quarter of the entire national wealth belongs to a wee minority—0.12 per cent.”[202]
All these figures show how great are the numbers of the non-possessing masses, and how thin the strata of the possessing classes.
“The growing inequality,” says G. Schmoller, “is undeniable. It cannot be doubted that the distribution of wealth in Central Europe, from 1300 to 1900, became increasingly unequal, though of course the inequalities varied in the different countries. Recent development, with its growing class distinctions, has greatly increased the inequalities in income and wealth.”[203]
This capitalistic process of development and concentration, that takes place in all civilized countries, combined with the prevailing anarchy in the methods of production, that so far was unable to prevent the formation of trusts, inevitably leads to overproduction and to an overstocking of the market. We enter upon the crisis.
[199] Adolf Wagner—A contribution to the method of statistics of the national income and national wealth and further statistic investigations of the distribution of the national income in Prussia, founded on the new income statistics, 1892–1902. Gazette of the royal Prussian bureau of statistics, 1904.
[200] F. L.—The distribution of the income in Austria. Leipzig, 1908.
[201] L. G. Chiozza Money. Riches and Poverty. London, 1908.
[202] E. Levasseur.
[203] G. Schmoller—Principles of Economics. Vol. II.
[CHAPTER XVIII.
Crisis and Competition.]
[1.—Causes and Effects of the Crises.]
The crisis arises because no standard exists whereby the real demand for a commodity may at any time be measured and ascertained. There is no power in bourgeois society that is enabled to regulate the entire production. In the first place, the consumers of a commodity are scattered over a wide area, and the purchasing ability of the consumers, who determine the consumption, is influenced by a number of causes that no individual producer is able to control. Moreover, every individual producer must compete with a number of other producers whose productive abilities are unknown to him. Each one seeks to defeat his competitors by every means at his command: by a reduction in prices, by advertising, by giving credit for prolonged periods, by sending out drummers, and even by cunningly and insidiously disparaging the products of his competitors, the latter means being especially frequently resorted to during critical times. The entire realm of production accordingly depends upon the subjective discretion of the individual. Every manufacturer must dispose of a certain quantity of goods in order to subsist. But he seeks to sell a far larger quantity, for this increased sale determines not only his larger income, but also the probability of his triumphing over his competitors. For a while sales are insured, they even increase; this leads to more extensive enterprises and to increased production. But good times and favorable conditions tempt not only one but all manufacturers to multiply their efforts. Production by far exceeds the demand. Suddenly it becomes manifest that the market is over-stocked with goods. The sales slacken, the prices fall, production is limited. To limit production in any branch means to decrease the number of workers employed in this branch, and a reduction in wages, whereby the workers in turn are compelled to limit their consumption. The inevitable result is, that production and consumption in other branches slacken likewise. Small dealers of all kinds, shopkeepers, bakers, butchers, etc. whose chief customers are workingmen fail to dispose of their goods and also suffer want.
The effects of such a crisis may be seen from the statistics of the unemployed that were compiled by the trade-unions of Berlin at the close of January, 1902. In Berlin and suburban towns there where over 70,000 persons who were entirely unemployed, and over 60,000 who were partly unemployed. On February 13, 1909, the trade-unions of Berlin took another census of the unemployed and found that there were 106,722 unemployed persons (92,655 men and 14,067 women).[204] In England there were 750,000 unemployed persons during September 1908. These figures represent workingmen and women who were willing and eager to work but unable to find work. The deplorable social conditions of these human beings may be easily imagined!
Since one industry furnishes the raw material to another and one depends upon the other, the ills that befall one must affect the others. The circle of those affected widens. Many obligations that had been entered upon in the hope of prolonged favorable conditions cannot be met, and heighten the crisis that grows worse from month to month. A heap of accumulated goods, tools and machines becomes almost worthless. The goods are frequently sold underprice and this often leads to the ruin of the owners of such goods as well as to the ruin of dozens of others who in turn are compelled to sell their goods underprice also. But even during the crisis the methods of production are constantly improved in order to meet the increased competition, and this means again forms a cause for new crises. After a crisis has lasted for years and over-production has gradually been removed by selling the products underprice, by limiting production and by the ruin of smaller manufacturers, society slowly begins to recuperate. The demand increases again, and promptly the production increases also, slowly and carefully at first, but more rapidly with the prolonged duration of favorable conditions. People seek to reimburse themselves for what they have lost and seek to secure their portions before a new crisis sets in. But as all manufacturers are guided by the same impulse, as they all seek to improve the means of production in order to excel the others, a new catastrophe is ushered in more rapidly and with still more disastrous results. Countless lives rise and fall like bubbles, and this constant reciprocal action causes the awful conditions that we experience during every crisis. The crises become more frequent as production and competition increase, not only among individuals, but among entire nations. The small battle for customers, and the great battle for markets becomes increasingly severe and is bound to end with enormous losses. Meanwhile goods and supplies are stored away in masses, but countless human beings who wish to consume but are unable to buy, suffer hunger and privation.
The years 1901 and 1907–08 have proven the correctness of this representation. After years of business depression, during which capitalistic development nevertheless continued to progress uninterruptedly, the upward course set in, stimulated to no slight extent by the changes and new equipments that the army and navy required. During this period a tremendous number of new industrial enterprises sprang up, and a great many others were increased and expanded to attain the development made possible by their technical means and to heighten their productivity. But in the same way the number of enterprises increased that were transferred from the hands of individual capitalists to capitalistic associations (stock companies), a transformation that is always accompanied by an enlargement of the manufactory. Many thousands of millions of marks represent the newly formed stock companies. Moreover, the capitalists of all countries seek to form national and international agreements. Trusts spring up like mushrooms from the ground. These endeavour to determine the prices and to regulate production on the basis of exact statistical research to avoid over-production and reduction in prices. Entire branches of industry have been monopolized in this way to the advantage of the manufacturers and to the disadvantage of the workers and the consumers. Many believed that thereby capital had obtained the means that would enable it to dominate the market in all directions. But appearances are deceiving. The laws of capitalistic production prove stronger than the most cunning representatives of the system, who believed to have regulated it. The crisis came, nevertheless, and it was seen again that the wisest calculation proved faulty and that bourgeois society cannot escape its fate.
But capitalism continues in the same manner since it cannot change its substance. By the way in which it is bound to act, it upsets all laws of bourgeois economics. Unrestricted competition—the alpha and omega of bourgeois society—is supposed to place those most capable at the helm of all enterprises. But experience shows that as a rule it places those at the helm who are most shrewd and cunning and least troubled by a conscience. Moreover, stock companies set aside all individuality. The trust goes further still. Here not only does the individual manufacturer cease to be an independent person, the stock company too becomes a mere link in a chain that is controlled by a board of capitalists whose main purpose is to plunder the public. A hand full of monopolists become the masters of society; these dictate the prices to be paid by the consumers for commodities, and to the workers their wages and standard of living.
This development shows how superfluous private enterprise has become, and that production conducted on a national and international scale is the goal toward which society is bent. The only difference will ultimately be that organized production and distribution will benefit the entire community instead of benefiting the capitalistic class only, as is the case to-day.
The economic revolution above described, which is rapidly driving bourgeois society to the heights of its development, is constantly intensified by new, important events. While Europe is being more threatened each year, both in its foreign and domestic markets, by the rapidly growing North American competition, new enemies are arising in the far East who make the economic conditions of the entire world still more critical.
Competition drives the capitalist around the globe, as the Communist Manifesto expresses it. He is constantly seeking new markets, that is, countries and nations where he can dispose of his goods and create new demands. One side of this endeavour may be seen from the fact that since a few decades the various states are eagerly engaged in colonization. Germany was foremost among these and succeeded in taking possession of large tracts of land, but these possessions are chiefly occupied by people of a very primitive degree of civilization who have no demand worth speaking of for European products. The other side of this endeavour is directed toward carrying capitalistic civilization to nations who have already attained a higher degree of civilization, but who until recently were rigorously opposed to modern development. Such are the East Indians, the Japanese, and especially the Chinese. These are nations that comprise more than one third of the entire population of the earth. When once given an impetus they are well able—as the Japanese have already demonstrated during the war with Russia—to develop the capitalistic method of production quite independently, and to do so, moreover, under conditions that will be accompanied by disastrous results to the more advanced nations. The ability and skill of these nations is well known, but it is equally well known that their wants are few—due to a great extent to the warm climate—and that, when compelled to do so, they rapidly adapt themselves to changed conditions. Here the old world, including the United States, is being confronted by a new competitor who will demonstrate to the whole world that the capitalistic system is untenable. In the meanwhile, the competing nations, especially the United States, England and Germany, seek to outdo one another, and all means are resorted to in order to obtain the largest possible share in the control of the world’s market. This leads to international politics, to interference in all international events of importance, and in order to interfere successfully, the navies especially are developed and increased as never before, whereby the danger of great political catastrophes is heightened anew. Thus the political realm grows with the realm of economic competition. The contradictions grow on an international scale, and in all countries that have undergone a capitalistic development they bring forth similar phenomena and similar struggles. Not only the method of production but also the manner of distribution is responsible for these unbearable conditions.
[204] Unemployment and Statistics of the Unemployed in the Winter of 1908 to 1909. Berlin, 1909.
[2.—Intermediate Trade and the Increased Cost of Living.]
In human society all individuals are linked to one another by a thousand threads that become more complicated and interwoven with increasing civilization. When disturbances occur they are felt by all members. Disturbances in production affect distribution and consumption and vice versa. A marked characteristic of capitalistic production is the concentration of the means of production in increasingly large factories. In distribution the opposite trait becomes manifest. Whoever has been driven by competition out of the ranks of independent producers, in nine cases out of ten seeks to win a place as dealer between producer and consumer to obtain a living.[205] This accounts for the surprising increase of persons engaged in intermediate trade, dealers, small shopkeepers, hucksters, agents, jobbers, etc. as has been statistically proven in a previous chapter. Most of these persons, among whom we find many women independently engaged in business, lead a precarious existence. Many, in order to subsist, must cater to the basest fashions of their fellow-men. This accounts for the tremendous prevalence of advertising especially in regard to everything in connection with the gratification of the love of luxury.
Now it cannot be denied that in modern society the desire for the enjoyment of life is very noticeable, and viewed from a higher standard this fact is gratifying. People begin to understand that in order to be human they must lead lives worthy of human beings, and they seek to gratify this desire in the manner in which they conceive the enjoyment of life. In the display of wealth society has become much more aristocratic than in any former period. The contrast between the richest and the poorest is greater than ever. On the other hand, society has become more democratic in its ideas and laws.[206] The masses demand greater equality, and since in their ignorance, they do not yet recognize the means to achieve true equality, they seek it in trying to ape those in superior social positions and to obtain every enjoyment within their reach. Various stimulants serve to gratify this desire and the results are frequently detrimental. A desire that is justified in itself leads to devious paths in many cases; it even leads to crimes, and society punishes the perpetrators without changing matters in the least.
The growing number of persons engaged in intermediate trade has led to many evils. Though the persons thus engaged work hard and are frequently burdened with care, most of them form a class of parasites who are unproductive and live on the products of the labor of others as well as the employing class. An increased cost of living is the inevitable result of intermediate trade. The price of provisions is thereby raised to such extent that they sometimes cost twice and three times as much as is obtained by the producer.[207] But if provisions can not be raised in price any more, because a further raise would limit the consumption, they are diminished in quantity and quality, adulteration of food and the use of incorrect weights and measures is resorted to. The chemist Chevalier reports that among various articles of food he found the following number of methods of adulteration: coffee, 32; wine, 30; chocolate, 28; flour, 24; whiskey, 23; bread, 20; milk, 19; butter, 10; olive oil, 9; sugar, 6, etc. A great deal of fraud is practiced in the grocery stores with goods that have been previously measured or weighed and packed. Frequently only 12 or 14 ounces are sold for a pound, and in this way the lower price is made up for. Workingmen and other persons of small means suffer most from these fraudulent methods, because they are obliged to buy on credit and must therefore hold their peace even where the fraud is perfectly evident. In the bakery trade also incorrect weight is frequently resorted to. Swindle and fraud are inevitably linked with our social conditions, and certain institutions of the state, for instance high indirect taxes and duties, favor swindle and fraud. The laws enacted against the adultery of food accomplish but little. The struggle for existence compels the swindlers to resort to more cunning methods, and a thoroughgoing and severe control rarely exists. Serious control is also made impossible because it is claimed that in order to detect every adultery, an expensive and extensive organization would be required and that legitimate business would also be damaged thereby. But wherever the control does interfere successfully, a considerable increase in prices ensues, because the low prices were possible only by means of adulteration.
In order to diminish these evils from which the masses always and everywhere suffer most, cooperative stores have been established. In Germany especially army and navy stores and civil service stores have been developed to such an extent, that many commercial enterprises were ruined by them. But the workingmen’s cooperative stores have also developed tremendously during the last decade and have partly even undertaken the manufacture of certain commodities. The cooperative stores in Hamburg, Leipsic, Dresden, Stuttgart, Breslau, Vienna, etc., have become model establishments and the annual sales of the German cooperative stores amount to hundreds of millions of marks. Since a few years the German cooperative stores have central establishments in Hamburg where the goods are purchased wholesale on the largest scale; this enables the various branch stores to obtain these goods at the lowest possible price. These cooperative stores prove that the scattering methods of intermediate trade are superfluous. That is their greatest advantage beside the other advantage that they furnish reliable goods. The material advantages to their members are not very great nor do they suffice to bring about any marked improvement in their social status. But the establishment of these cooperative stores proves the existence of a widespread recognition that intermediate trade is superfluous. Society will ultimately achieve an organization that will do away with commerce, since the products will be turned over to the consumers without the aid of other intermediate agents than are required by transportation from one place to another and by distribution. When the common purchase of food has been achieved, the common preparation of food on a large scale appears to be the next logical step. This again would lead to a tremendous saving in labor power, space, material and many other expenses.
[205] “The decline of ancient handicraft is not the only cause that accounts for the great increase in the small retail trade. The growing industrialization and commercialization of the country notwithstanding its tendency toward manufacture on a large scale always furnishes new ground for small businesses. Inventions that create new branches of industry also cause the rise of new small establishments for the distribution of these products. But the main cause of the great increase in retail trade is,—as expressed in a report submitted to the government of Saxony by the Dresden chamber of commerce,—that trade on a small scale has become the rallying place of many persons who despair of making their living in any other way.” Paul Lange—Retail Trade and Middle Class Politics. “New Era.”
[206] In his first adaption of Rau’s “Text Book of Political Economy,” Professor Adolf Wagner expresses a similar thought. He says: “The social struggle is the conscious contradiction between the economic development and the social ideal of freedom and equality as expressed in political life.”
[207] In his book on “Domestic Industry in Thuringia,” Dr. E. Sax tells us that in 1869 the production of 244½ million slate pencils had yielded 122,000 to 200,000 florins in wages to the workingmen, but their final sale had yielded 1,200,000 florins, at least six times as much as the producers had received. During the summer of 1888, 5 marks were paid for 5 hundred-weights of haddock by the wholesaler. But the retailer paid 15 marks to the wholesaler, and the public paid the latter 125 marks. Large quantities of food moreover are destroyed because the prices do not make their transportation worth while. For instance, during years when the catch of herrings has been an over abundant one, loads of them have been used as manure, while there were thousands of persons in the interior who could not afford to buy herrings. The same occurred in California in 1892 when the crop of potatoes was too abundant. When in 1901 the price of sugar was very low, a trade paper seriously suggested to destroy a greater part of the supplies so that the price could be raised. It is well known that Charles Fourier was inspired to his ideas of a social system because while he served as apprentice in a commercial house in Toulon, he had been ordered to throw a load of rice over board to raise the prices. He reasoned that a society which resorts to such barbarous and irrational methods must be founded on a false basis, and so he became a socialist.
[CHAPTER XIX.
The Revolution in Agriculture.]
[1.—Transatlantic Competition and Desertion of the Country.]
The economic revolution in industry and trade has also largely affected agricultural conditions. The commercial and industrial crises affect the rural population likewise. Hundreds of thousands of members of the families of farmers are temporarily or permanently employed in industrial establishments of various kinds. This manner of employment constantly expands, firstly, because the great number of small farmers do not have enough work on their own farms to keep themselves and the members of their families usefully employed, and, secondly, because the large farmers find it profitable to have an important portion of the products of their soil transformed into industrial commodities right on their own farms. In this manner they save the heavy expense of shipping the raw material, for instance, potatoes and grain for the manufacture of alcohol, beets for sugar, cereals for flour or for brewing beer, etc. They, furthermore, are enabled to establish a mutual relation between agricultural and industrial production and can employ the labor power on hand to better advantage. The wages are lower and the workers are more willing too than those in cities and industrial centers. Expenses of buildings and rents as well as taxes are considerably lower too, for the large land owners in the rural districts are both the makers and executors of the law; they furnish many representatives from their midst and control the administration and police force. That is why the number of factories in the country increases each year. Agriculture and industry are becoming more and more closely linked, and the large agricultural establishments mainly profit from this fact.
The capitalistic development that the large estates have undergone, in Germany as elsewhere, has created conditions similar to those in England and the United States. We no longer meet with those ideal conditions in the country that still existed a few decades ago. Modern civilization has gradually taken possession of the country, too, in the remotest places even. Militarism especially has unintentionally exercised a revolutionary influence. The great increase in the standing army has made itself especially severely felt in the open country. A great portion of the troops for the standing army is drawn from the rural population. But when the peasant’s son, or day laborer or farm-hand, returns to the country, after an absence of two or three years, from the city and the barracks, where the atmosphere has not been an exactly moral one, he has become acquainted with many new ideas and requirements of civilization that he seeks to satisfy at home as he did away from home. To make this possible his first demand is for higher wages. The old modesty and contentedness have been shattered in the city. In many cases he prefers to stay away from the country altogether, and all endeavours, supported by the military authorities, to lead him back, remain unsuccessful. Improved means of traffic and communication also tend to raise the standard of requirements in the country. By his associations with the city the farmer becomes acquainted with the world in an entirely new and tempting way; he is influenced by ideas and learns of requirements of civilization that have been entirely foreign to him until then. That causes him to become dissatisfied with his position. The increased demands made upon the population by state, county, community, etc., affect the peasant as well as the rural worker and make them more rebellious still. To this other most important factors must be added.
European agriculture, and especially German agriculture, has entered upon a new phase of its development since the close of the seventies of the last century. While, until then, the nations depended upon the farm products of their own agriculture, or, as England, upon that of the neighboring countries—France and Germany—the situation now began to change. As a result of the tremendously improved means of transportation—navigation and the construction of railways in North America—provisions began to be shipped from there to Europe and lowered the prices of grain, so that cultivation of the chief kinds of grain in Middle and Western Europe became far less profitable, unless the entire conditions of production could be changed. Moreover, the realm of international grain production greatly expanded. Besides Russia and Roumania, who made every endeavour to increase their export of grain, products from Argentine Republic, Australia, India and Canada appeared upon the market. In the course of development another unfavorable factor was added. Influenced by the causes above enumerated, the small farmers and rural workers began to desert the country. They either emigrated beyond the seas or scores of them moved from the country to the cities and industrial centers, so that labor power in the country became scarce. The antiquated, patriarchal conditions, especially in Eastern Europe, the ill-treatment and almost servile status of the farm-hands and servants still heightened this desertion of the country. To what extent this shifting of the population has affected the rural districts from 1840 until the census of 1905, may be seen from the fact that during this period the Prussian provinces—East-Prussia, West Prussia, Pomerania, Posen, Silesia, Saxony and Hannover—lost 4,049,200 persons, and Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden and Alsace-Lorraine had a loss of 2,026,500, while Berlin increased by migration by about 1,000,000 persons, Hamburg by 402,000, the Kingdom of Saxony by 326,200, the Rhine provinces by 343,000, and Westphalia by 246,100.[208]
[208] Quarterly Gazette for Statistics of the German Empire.
[2.—Peasants and Great Landowners.]
As a result of all these changes, agriculture began to suffer from a want of capital. Accordingly the former line of development, whereby the great landowner bought up the small and medium-sized farmers and made them part of his property, gave way to the opposite tendency. But this pressure also brought about, that the clumsy character of agricultural enterprises was gradually modified, because people recognized that it would no longer do to follow the beaten path, but that it had become necessary to adopt new methods. The national government, as well as the state governments, endeavored to relieve agriculture from its exigency by appropriate trade and tariff policies and by direct expenditures for various improvements. Recently the medium and great landowners are quite successful again wherever the farms are conducted in keeping with modern technical development, as may be gathered from the fact that the prices of farms have greatly increased.
If agriculture is to prosper in capitalistic society, it is necessary that it should be conducted by capitalistic methods. Here, as in industry, it is important that human labor should be replaced or aided by machinery and technical improvements. That this is being done may be seen from the following: During the period from 1882 to 1895 the number of steam-ploughs employed in agriculture in Germany has increased from 836 to 1696, and the number of steam-threshing machines has increased from 75,690 to 259,364. Compared to what might be done in the way of agricultural machinery, these figures are still exceedingly low and prove the undeveloped state of agriculture; they also prove that lack of means and the small size of the individual farms have so far made the application of machinery impossible. The machine, in order to be truly advantageous, requires application on a large area of land devoted to cultivation of the same kind of crop. The great number of small and medium-sized farms, the scattered fields and the great variety of crops have prevented a successful application of machinery. The [tables on page 351] show how the farming area is distributed in the German Empire.[209]
Among the 5,736,082 farms counted in 1907 there were no less than 4,384,786 of less than 5 hectares = 76.8 per cent., that can furnish but a poor existence to their owners, unless the soil is particularly good, or unless devoted to horticulture. A great many of them could not even be used in this way, since there are 2,731,055 farms among them of one hectare, and less, in area.
| Farms | Number of Farms | Increase or Decrease | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1882 | 1895 | 1907 | From 1882 to 1895 | From 1895 to 1907 | |
| Less than 2 hectares | 3,061,831 | 3,236,367 | 3,378,509 | +174,536 | +142,142 |
| 2 to 5 ha. | 981,407 | 1,016,318 | 1,006,277 | + 34,911 | − 10,041 |
| 5 “ 20 “ | 926,605 | 998,804 | 1,065,539 | + 72,199 | + 66,735 |
| 20 “ 100 “ | 281,510 | 281,767 | 262,191 | + 257 | − 19,576 |
| Over 100 “ | 24,991 | 25,061 | 23,566 | + 70 | − 1,495 |
| 5,276,344 | 5,558,317 | 5,736,082 | +281,973 | +177,765 | |
| Farms | Farming area in hectares | Increase or Decrease | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1882 | 1895 | 1907 | From 1882 to 1895 | From 1895 to 1907 | |
| Less than 2 hectares | 1,825,938 | 1,808,444 | 1,731,317 | − 17,494 | − 77,127 |
| 2 to 5 ha. | 3,190,203 | 3,285,984 | 3,304,872 | + 95,781 | + 18,888 |
| 5 “ 20 “ | 9,158,398 | 9,721,875 | 10,421,565 | +568,477 | +699,690 |
| 20 “ 100 “ | 9,908,170 | 9,869,837 | 9,322,106 | − 38,333 | −547,731 |
| Over 100 “ | 7,786,263 | 7,831,801 | 7,055,013 | + 45,538 | −776,788 |
| 31,868,972 | 32,517,941 | 31,834,873 | +648,969 | −683,068 | |
But even among the farms of more than 5 hectares there are many that yield only a poor product, notwithstanding hard and long labor, owing to poor soil, unfavorable climate, bad location, lack of proper means of transportation, etc. It may be said without exaggeration that fully nine-tenths of the farmers lack the means and the knowledge to cultivate their soil as it might be cultivated. Neither do the small peasants receive a fair price for their products, since they depend upon the intermediate trader. The dealer who traverses the country on definite days or in definite seasons and usually trades off his merchandise to other dealers again, must obtain his profit. But to gather in the many small quantities means much more trouble to him than to procure a large quantity from a great landowner. The peasants owning small and medium-sized farms therefore receive less for their products than the great landowners, and if their products are of inferior quality, which is frequently the case owing to their primitive methods, they must accept almost any price. Sometimes they cannot even wait for the time when their product will bring the highest price. They owe money on rent, interest and taxes, they must repay loans, or must settle bills with tradespeople and mechanics, therefore they are obliged to sell no matter how unfavorable the time may be. In order to improve their property, or to satisfy joint-heirs or children they have mortgaged their farms. As they have few lenders to choose from, the conditions are not very favorable. A high rate of interest and definite dates of payment weigh heavily on them. A poor harvest or a faulty speculation in regard to the kind of product that they expected to sell at a good price often drive them to the verge of ruin. Sometimes the products are bought and the capital is loaned by one and the same person, and in that event the peasant is entirely in the hands of his creditor. In this manner the peasants of entire villages and districts are sometimes in the hands of a few creditors. This is the case with the peasants who raise hops, wine, tobacco, and vegetables in Southern Germany, and on the Rhine, and with small farmers in Central Germany. The creditor fleeces the peasants mercilessly. He allows them to remain on their farms as apparent owners, but as a matter of fact they no longer own them. Frequently the capitalistic exploiter finds this method far more profitable than to cultivate the land himself, or to sell it. In this manner thousands of peasants are recorded as owners of farms who are virtually not the owners. As a matter of fact, many great landowners, too, who managed badly or were unfortunate or took the property under unfavorable conditions, fell victims to capitalistic extortioners. The capitalist becomes master of the soil, and, in order to increase his profits, he divides up the farm into lots, because in this way he can obtain a far higher price than if he sold it undivided. With a number of small proprietors he furthermore has the best prospect to continue his usurious trade. As is well known, in the city, too, those houses yield the highest rents that contain the largest number of small apartments. A small number of farmers take the opportunity and buy portions of the divided estate. The capitalistic benefactor is willing to turn over larger portions to them also upon a small payment. The remainder of the price he takes as mortgage at a high rate of interest, and there the difficulty begins. If the small farmer is fortunate and succeeds in making his farm pay he escapes; otherwise his lot will be as described above. If the small farmer loses some of his cattle, that is a great misfortune for him; if he has a daughter who marries, the purchase of her outfit increases his debts and he loses a cheap labor power; if a son marries, the latter demands his share of the farm, or a payment in money. Frequently he cannot afford even necessary improvements. If his stock does not provide sufficient manure—as is often the case—his soil becomes poorer in quality, because he cannot afford to buy manure. Sometimes he is too poor to buy good seed even; the use of machinery is denied him, and a change of crop adapted to the chemical nature of his soil is frequently unfeasible. Neither can he apply advantageous methods offered by science and experience in the improvement of his stock. Lack of proper fodder, lack of proper stalls, lack of other necessary appliances, prevents it. So there are many causes that make existence difficult to the small farmer.
It is quite different with the large estates, where a comparatively small number of farms cover a large area. We see from the statistics that 23,566 farms, having an area of 7,055,013 hectares of cultivated soil, cover 2,019,824 hectares more than the 4,384,786 farms having an area of less than five hectares. But the numbers of the farms and the numbers of the owners do not coincide. In 1895 there were no less than 912,959 leased farms of all sizes, 1,694,251 farms that were partly owned and partly leased, and 983,917 farms that were cultivated in different ways, as farms loaned to officials, as part of communal property, etc. On the other hand, single individuals own a number of agricultural estates. The greatest German landowner is the King of Prussia, who owns 83 estates, with an area of 98,746 hectares; other great German landowners are:
| Prince of Pless | owning | 75 | estates of | 70,170 | hectares |
| Prince Hohenzollern-Sigmar | “ | 24 | “ | 59,968 | “ |
| Duke of Ujest | “ | 52 | “ | 39,742 | “ |
| Prince Hohenlohe-Oehringen | “ | — | ——— | 39,365 | “ |
| Prince of Ratibor | “ | 51 | “ | 33,096 | “ |
In 1895 the entailed estates in Prussia comprised an area of 2,121,636 hectares, or 6.09 per cent. of the entire area of the land. The 1045 entailed estates were owned by 939 proprietors, and their common property was by 206,600 hectares larger than the entire Kingdom of Wurtemberg, which covers an area of about 1,915,000 hectares. The large landowners are naturally interested in maintaining the present conditions. Not so the small proprietors, who would draw great advantages from a rational transformation of the conditions. It is an innate characteristic of large ownership of land that it seeks to enlarge its possessions more and more, and to take possession of all the farms within reach. It is so in Silesia, Lausitz, the Dukedom of Hessia and in other districts from which purchases of peasants’ estates on a large scale are frequently reported.
In Austria the large estates predominate far more than in Germany, or particularly in Prusia. Here, besides the nobility and the bourgeoisie, the Catholic Church has succeeded in taking possession of a lion’s share of the soil. The expropriation of peasants is in full swing in Austria also. In Styria, Tyrol, Salzburg, Upper and Lower Austria, etc., all means are applied to drive the peasants from their native soil and to turn their farms into gentlemen’s estates. The same scenes that were at one time enacted in Scotland and Ireland may now be observed in the most picturesque parts of Austria. Individuals, as well as societies, purchase enormous tracts of land, or rent what they cannot purchase, and transform them into hunting grounds. Trespassing on the valleys, hills and hamlets is prohibited by the new masters, and the stubborn proprietors of some estates, who refuse to comply with the demands of the gentlemen, are annoyed so long in various ways that they yield and sell their property. Soil that has been cultivated for ages, where for thousands of years many generations made a living, are transformed into a wilderness where deer may roam about, and the mountains that have been taken possession of by the capitalistic nobility or bourgeoisie are the hunting grounds of the chamois. Poverty spreads over entire communities because they are denied the right of driving their cattle on the Alpine pastures. And who are these persons who are robbing the peasant of his property and his independence? Besides Rothschild and Baron Meyer-Melnhof, the Counts of Coburg and Meiningen, Prince Hohenlohe, the Duke of Liechtenstein, the Count of Braganza, the Duchess Rosenberg, the Duke of Pless, the Counts Schoenfeld, Festetics, Schafgotsch, Trauttmannsdorff, the Baron Gustaedt Hunting Club, the Count Karoly Hunting Club, the Noblemen’s Hunting Club of Bluehnbach, etc. Everywhere the great landowners are extending their property. In 1875 there were only 9 persons in Lower Austria who owned more than 5000 yokes each, with an area of 89,490 hectares; in 1895 there were 24 persons who owned an area of 213,574 hectares. Throughout Austria the great landowners control an area of 8,700,000 hectares, while 21,300,000 hectares belong to the small landowners. The proprietors of entailed estates, 297 families, own 1,200,000 hectares. Millions of small landowners cultivate 71 per cent. of the entire area, while a few thousand great landowners control more than 29 per cent. of the entire area of Austria. There are few land-revenue districts in which there are no great landed proprietors. In most of the districts there are two or several landowners who exert a determining political and social influence. Almost half of the great landowners hold property in several districts of the country, a number of them in several crown-lands of the empire. In Lower Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia there is no district without them. Only industry succeeded in dislodging them to some extent; for instance, in Northern Bohemia and at the boundary of Bohemia and Moravia. In all other parts of the country the large estates are increasing: In Upper Austria, where, of all crown-lands, we still find a class of peasants that is fairly well off; in Goerz and Gradiaska, in Styria, Salzburg, in Galicia and Bukovina. They are increasing less rapidly in those countries that already are the domains of the great landowners—Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Lower Austria. In Lower Austria, of the entire ground comprising 1,982,300 hectares, 393 great landowners owned 540,655 hectares, and the Church owned 79,181 hectares; 13 estates comprise 425,079 hectares = 9 per cent. of the entire area; among these, Duke Hoyos-Sprinzenstein owns 33,124 hectares. The area of Moravia covers 2,181,220 hectares. Of these the Church owned 81,857 hectares, and 116 estates of more than 1000 hectares each comprised a larger area than the 500,000 estates up to 10 hectares, that form 92.1 per cent. of all estates. The area of Austrian Silesia covers 514,677 hectares. Of these the Church owned 50,845 hectares, and 79 proprietors together owned 204,118 hectares. Bohemia, with an area of 5,194,500 hectares, has about 1,237,085 great landowners. The distribution of property is characterized by an unusual number of estates of smallest dimensions, and by extensive large estates. Almost 43 per cent. of all the estates are smaller than ½ hectare, and more than four-fifths do not exceed 5 hectares. These 703,577 estates (81 per cent.) only cover 12.5 per cent. of the area of Bohemia. On the other hand, 776 persons own 35.6 per cent. of the entire area, while they only form 0.1 per cent. of all estates. The unequal distribution of property is more striking still when we analyze the larger class, those over 200 hectares. We then obtain the following result:
| 380 | persons own each | 200 | to | 500 | hectares | together | 116,143 | hectares |
| 141 | “ | 500 | “ | 1000 | “ | “ | 101,748 | “ |
| 104 | “ | 1000 | “ | 2000 | “ | “ | 150,567 | “ |
| 151 | “ | over | 2000 | “ | “ | 1,436,084 | “ | |
Of the last-named group, 31 persons own 5,000 to 10,000 hectares each; 21 persons own 10,000 to 20,000 hectares each, and the Princes Mor. Lobkowitz, Ferdinand Kinsky, Karl Schwarzenberg, Alfred Windischgraetz, the Dukes Ernst Waldstein, Johann Harrach, Karl Buquoy own 20,000 to 30,000 hectares each. Clam-Gallas and Lar. Czernin own over 30,000 each. The Prince of Lichtenstein owns 36,189 hectares; Prince Max Egon Fuerstenberg, 39,162 hectares; Prince Colloredo Mannsfeld, 57,691 hectares, and the Prince of Schwarzenberg, 177,310 hectares = 3.4 per cent. of the entire area of Bohemia. The Church owns 150,395 hectares = 3 per cent. of the area of Bohemia.[210] These figures were compiled in 1896; since then matters have grown still worse. According to the agricultural census of 1902 there were 18,437 estates (0.7 per cent. of the entire number) that covered 9,929,920 hectares, or one-third of the entire area. In the district of Schwaz seven Alps and in the district of Zell sixteen Alps that had hitherto served as pastures to the cattle, were shut off by the new landlords and transformed into hunting grounds. Pasturing of cattle is prohibited along the entire Karwendel range. The leading nobility of Austria and Germany, besides rich bourgeois parvenus, purchased areas up to 70,000 yokes, and more, in the Alpine regions and had them fenced in as game preserves. Entire villages, hundreds of farms disappear, the inhabitants are driven from their native soil, and the place of human beings and of animals intended for human food, is taken by deer and stags and chamois. Not a few of these men who have devastated entire provinces in this manner, afterwards speak on the needy condition of the peasants in the parliaments, and abuse their power to employ the aid of the state in the form of taxes on grain, wood, live stock, meat, whiskey, etc., at the expense of the propertyless classes.
In the most advanced industrial states it is not the love of luxury of the privileged classes that dislodges the small estates, as is the case in Austria. Here the increasing demands of a rapidly growing population make it necessary to organize farming along capitalistic lines, in order to produce the required amount of food. This may be observed in a country so highly developed industrially as Belgium. According to the “Annual Statistics,” quoted by Emile Vandervelde in an article, “Landed Property in Belgium During the Period from 1834 to 1899,” it says: “Only farms of less than 5 hectares, and especially those of less than 2 hectares, have diminished in number. But the farms of more than 10 hectares have increased to 3,789. The concentration of landed property that is in keeping with modern industry and cattle breeding on a large scale, may here be clearly observed. Since 1880 a development has set in that takes the opposite course of the one that took place from 1866 to 1880. While, in 1880, there still were 910,396 farms, only 829,625 remained in 1895; that means a decrease by 80,771 farms = 9 per cent., in fifteen years. As a matter of fact, this decrease has affected only farms of less than 5 hectares. On the other hand, farms of from 5 to 10 hectares increased by 675; those of from 10 to 20 hectares by 2,168; from 20 to 30 hectares by 414; from 30 to 40 hectares by 164, from 40 to 50 hectares by 187, and those of over 50 hectares by 181.”
[209] Karl Kautsky—The Agrarian question and temporary results of the agricultural census of June 12, 1901. Quarterly Gazette for Statistics of the German Empire, 1909.
[210] The Propertied and Propertyless Classes in Austria.—T. W. Teifen. Vienna, 1906.
[3.—The Contrast Between City and Country.]
The condition of the soil and its cultivation is of the greatest importance to the advancement of our civilization. The existence of the population primarily depends upon the soil and its products. The soil cannot be increased at will; the manner of its cultivation is therefore the more important. The population of Germany, which grows by about 870,000 persons annually, requires a considerable import of bread and meat, if the prices of the most necessary articles of food are still to be within reach of the masses. But here we are confronted by sharp-contrasting interests between the agricultural and industrial population. That part of the population that is not engaged in agricultural pursuits, is interested in obtaining articles of food at low prices, since their wellfare, both as human beings and as individuals engaged in industry and commerce, depends upon it. Every increase in the cost of articles of food leads to a deterioration in the standard of living of a large portion of the population, unless the wages of the population depending upon agricultural products should be raised also. But an increase in wages usually implies an increase in the prices of industrial products, and that may result in a decline of sales. But if wages remain stationary, notwithstanding the increased cost of articles of food, the purchase of other commodities must be limited, and again industry and commerce suffer.
Matters have a different aspect for those engaged in agriculture. Just as persons engaged in industry, they seek to obtain the greatest possible advantage from their occupation, and it does not matter to them from which particular product they obtain it. If the import of foreign grain prevents their obtaining the desired profit from the cultivation of grain, they devote their soil to the cultivation of other products that are more profitable. They cultivate beets for the manufacture of sugar, and potatoes and grain for the manufacture of whiskey, instead of wheat and rye for bread. They devote the most fertile fields to the cultivation of tobacco, instead of to the cultivation of vegetables and fruit. Others use thousands of hectares of land for pastures for horses, because horses bring high prices for military purposes. Moreover, great stretches of forest land, which could be employed for agricultural purposes, are reserved as hunting-grounds for sportsmen of rank. This is sometimes the case in regions where a few thousand hectares of forests might be cut down and transformed into fields, without any harmful results ensuing, due to a decrease in humidity by the cutting down of the forest. In this manner thousands of square miles of fertile soil might still be won for agricultural purposes in Germany. But this transformation is contrary to the material interests of a part of the bureaucracy, the forest- and game-keepers, as well as to the interests of the great landowners, who do not wish to give up their hunting-grounds and to deny themselves the pleasures of the chase. It is a matter of course that such clearing of forests could take place only where it would be truly advantageous. On the other hand, large areas of mountain and waste land might be planted with forests.
Recently the great influence of forests on the formation of moisture has been denied, as it appears, unjustly so. To what marked degree the forest influences the moisture of the land, and thereby the fertility of the soil, is shown by some striking facts given in the book by Parvus and Dr. Lehmann, “Starving Russia.” The authors assert, on the ground of their own observations, that the boundless and desultory devastation of forests in the most fertile provinces of Russia, was the chief cause of the failure of crops from which these at one time fertile regions suffered severely during the last few decades. Among many other facts, they pointed out that during the course of time five little rivers and six lakes disappeared in the government district of Stawropol; in the government district of Busuluk four rivers and four lakes disappeared; in the government district of Samara six small rivers, and in the government district of Buguruslan two small rivers disappeared. In the government districts of Nikolajewsk and Novousensk four rivers are barely maintained by the construction of dams. Many villages that formerly had running water in their vicinity are robbed of this advantage, and in many places the depth of wells is 45 to 60 yards. As a result of this dearth of water the soil is hard and cracked. With the cutting down of the forests the springs dried up and rain became scarce.
Capitalistic cultivation of the soil leads to capitalistic conditions. For a number of years a portion of our farmers derived enormous profits from the cultivation of beets and the manufacture of sugar connected with it. The system of taxation favored the exportation of sugar, and in such a manner that the revenue of the taxes on sugar-beets and on the consumption of sugar was to a considerable extent employed as bounties for exportation. The reimbursement granted to the sugar manufacturers per hundred-weight of sugar was considerably higher than the tax paid by them on the beets, and placed them in a position to sell their sugar at low prices to foreign countries, at the expense of the domestic taxpayers, and to develop the cultivation of sugar-beets more and more. The advantage gained by the sugar manufacturers under this system of taxation amounted to over 31 million marks annually. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of land that had formerly been devoted to the cultivation of grain, etc., were now employed to raise beets; countless factories were erected, and the inevitable result was the panic. The high profit obtained from the cultivation of beets also caused a rise in the price of property. This led to a wholesale purchase of the small farms, whose owners were tempted to sell by the high prices they could obtain for their property. The soil was made to serve industrial speculation, and the raising of grain and potatoes was relegated to soil of inferior quality, which heightened the demand for the importation of products of food. Finally the evils that had arisen from the allowance on export of sugar and had gradually assumed an international character, compelled the governments and the parliaments to abolish this system and thereby to revert to somewhat more natural conditions.
Under present-day conditions the small farmers cannot attain the social status to which they are entitled as citizens of a civilized state, no matter how hard they may work and how much they may deny themselves. Whatever the state and society may do to uphold these classes that form a considerable basis of the existing form of state and society, their endeavours remain patch-work. The agrarian taxes harm this portion of the agricultural population more than they benefit them. Most of these farmers do not produce as much as they need for the maintenance of their own families. They must purchase part of their supplies, the means for which they obtain by industrial or other additional labor. A great many of our small farmers are more interested in a favorable status of industry and commerce than in agriculture, because their own children make their living by industry or commerce, since the farm offers no employment and no income to them. One failure of crops increases the number of farmers who are obliged to purchase agricultural products. So how can agrarian taxes and prohibition of importation benefit those who have little to sell and must occasionally buy much? At least 80 per cent. of all agricultural establishments are in this position.
How the farmer cultivates his soil is his own affair in the era of private property. He cultivates whatever seems most profitable to him, regardless of the interests and requirements of society; so “laissez faire!” In industry the same principle is applied. Obscene pictures and indecent books are manufactured, and factories are established for the adulteration of food. These and many other activities are harmful to society; they undermine its morals and heighten corruption. But they are profitable, more so than decent pictures, scientific books and unadulterated food. The manufacturer, eager for profits, must only succeed in escaping the notice of the police, and he may ply his trade in the knowledge that society will envy and respect him for the money he has made.
The mammon character of our age is most forcibly expressed by the stock exchange and its dealings. Products of the soil and industrial products, means of transportation, meteorological and political conditions, want and abundance, disasters and suffering of the masses, public debts, inventions and discoveries, health or disease and death of influential persons, war and rumors of war often invented for this purpose, all these and many other things are made the object of speculation and are used to exploit and cheat one another. The kings of capital exert the most decisive influence on the weal and woe of society, and, favored by their powerful means and connections, they accumulate boundless wealth. Governments and officials become mere puppets in their hands, who must perform while the kings of the stock exchange pull the wires. The powers of the state do not control the stock market, the stock market controls the powers of the state.
All these facts, which are becoming more evident every day because the evils are daily increasing, call for speedy and thoroughgoing reforms. But society stands helpless before these evils and keeps going about in a circle like a horse in a treadmill, a picture of impotence and stupidity. They who would like to act, are still too weak; they who ought to act, still lack understanding; they who might act, do not wish to. They rely upon their power and think, as Madame Pompadour expressed it: “Après nous le déluge!” (May the deluge come after we are gone!) But what if the deluge should overtake them?