The Theory and Policy of Labour Protection

by A. Schäffle; etc. statutes Germany. Laws

If these representative and administrative bodies ever came into existence, they would slowly but surely oust, not only the whole existing organisation of Chambers of Commerce and Industrial Councils, but also the Reichstag itself, and the Imperial Government, as well as the local corporate bodies; they would tear down every part of the existing social edifice. By the combined action of the Social Democrats in the Reichstag with the increasingly democratic tendencies of the local bodies, all this might come to pass in a very short space of time.

I do not forget that the organisation is to be based in the first instance on equal representation of classes. On the first two, and eventually on the third, step of the judicial and representative edifice, as many representatives are given to capital as to labour. In so far the organisation is a hybrid of Capitalism and Social Democracy. For the moment, and in the present stage, it is, for this very reason, of special value to the Social Democrats, as it supplies a method of completely crippling the forces opposed to them in the existing order. For it will be sufficient in the day of fulfilment, i.e. when all is ripe for the intended change, to give one shake, so to speak, in order to burst open the half capitalistic chrysalis, and let the butterfly of a Social Democratic “People’s State” fly out.

The half capitalistic organisation would, I repeat, be of the greatest value at present, in the early preparatory work of the Social Democrats. First, because the working class would become practically and thoroughly accustomed to co-operation instead of to subordination as hitherto; this is the transition step which cannot be avoided, to the supremacy of the working class over the employers’ class. Then, too, the proposed organisation would offer an excellent opportunity for passing through the transition step by step, by the continued weakening of the capitalist order of society in all its joints. The struggle with capital would have the sanction and the organised force of legislation. It would receive legal organisation, and would even be legally enjoined. This legalised battle would proceed over the whole circuit of industrial activity, including trade and transport, and including also the state regulated portion of it.

In addition to this the organisation would be peculiarly fitted to cripple even the least objectionable bulwarks of capital, even the altogether unbiassed and nonpartisan operation of the local and district, and probably even ultimately of the imperial courts.

The apparently equal coupling of the influence of both classes would lead to the result that the class which had the more energetic representatives and the slighter interest in the maintenance of the “working rules” would be able at any moment and at any point in the national industrial life, to bring everything to a deadlock. The labour councillor would be dependent on the Labour Chambers, and they in turn would be entirely dependent on the leaders of labour. By the provision that the president shall have no vote, and a tie in voting shall therefore count as a defeat, the workmen’s electorate hold in their hands the power to obstruct at will any resolution, and especially to obstruct the issue of the working rules in any business, since the rules must be submitted to the approval of the Labour Chambers.

The function of “supporting the Labour Boards by advice and active help in all questions touching the industrial life of their district,” might very easily, by virtue of the above provision, be so abused by the Labour Chambers as to deprive individual industrial inspectors of all possibility of just and independent action, and hence by degrees to entirely cripple and destroy the value of the inspectorate as a whole; there can, I think be no doubt that before very long these powers would intentionally be used for this purpose.

The action of a positive Social policy would be hopelessly crippled by an equally balanced class representation, while at the same time the existing order of industrial life would be disturbed and shaken down to the very last and smallest branches of industry.

Nor would this be all, for such an organisation would secure fixed salaries for the staff of agitators in the Labour party, since the representatives would receive daily pay and defrayment of travelling expenses from the Imperial exchequer. Debates and discussions might be carried on without intermission, the pay continuing all the time, for each Labour Chamber would be convened, not only once a month, but also at any time at the request of one-third of the members of the Labour Chamber, therefore of two-thirds of the labour representatives in the chamber. By virtue of the provision which gives them unlimited right of intervention, pretexts for convening frequent meetings would never be wanting.

Hence it is evident that no more effectual machinery could be devised for the legal preparation for leading up the existing social order directly to the threshold of the “People’s State.” The attempt to convert the hybrid Capitalist-Socialist state to a pure Socialist state would be a perfectly simple matter, both in the Empire, the provinces, and the local districts, as soon as we had allowed Social Democracy one or two decades in which to turn the two-fold class representation to their own ends. By a single successful revolutionary “coup” in the chief city of the Empire, or in the chief cities of several countries simultaneously, representation of capital in the Labour Courts might be thrown overboard, and the “People’s State” would be ready; the parliament of a purely popular government would hold the field, and the present representation of the nation which includes all classes and watches over the spiritual and material interests of the whole nation, might without difficulty be swept away from Empire, province, district and municipality.