Socialism is science applied to all realms of human activity.
[283] The immense ignorance of the Socialist-killer, Ferdy, is most clearly seen from the following sentences, perpetrated on page 40 of his book: “The Socialists will go further in their demands than the Neo-Malthusians. They will demand that the minimum wage be so fixed that every workingman can beget the largest possible number of children according to the social supply of food. As soon as Socialism has drawn its ultimate conclusions and private property has been abolished, even the most stupid would soon begin to question: why should I work longer and harder because my neighbor chooses to thrust a dozen new members into society?”
It would be well to know the A B C of Socialism before venturing to write about it and such utter nonsense as that!
[Conclusion.]
We have shown, in the course of our argumentation, that the realization of Socialism does not imply arbitrary destruction and construction, but a process of historical evolution. All factors active in the process of destruction, on the one hand, and in the process of construction on the other, act as they are bound to act. Neither “brilliant statesmen” nor “demagogues who incite the people,” can direct matters at their will. They believe that they are pushing, and are being pushed, themselves. But the day of fulfilment is not distant.
In the course of these expositions, we have frequently referred to an over-production of goods that leads to crises, a phenomenon peculiar to bourgeois society, that was not met with at any previous stage of development.
But bourgeois society does not only create an over-production of goods and workers, but also an over-production of intelligence. Germany is the classic land where this over-production of intelligence takes place on a large scale, intelligence that the bourgeois world no longer knows how to employ. A condition that has for centuries been regarded as a misfortune to German development, has been instrumental in producing this phenomenon. It was the great number of small states that impeded the development of capitalism on a large scale. The large number of small states decentralized the intellectual life of the nation by creating many small centers of intellectual life, that exercised their influence upon the whole country. In comparison with a single central government the numerous states required a very large official apparatus, for whose members a higher education was needful. So a larger number of high schools and universities sprang up than in any other European country. The ambition and jealousy of the various governments played an important part in this development. It was the same when some of the governments began to introduce obligatory public education. In these instances the desire not to be excelled by the neighboring state has had a good effect. The demand for intelligence rose when increasing education, hand in hand with the material advance of the bourgeoisie, awoke a desire for political action, for popular representation and self-government. The governmental bodies were small and represented only small countries and districts, but they caused the sons of the upper classes to covet seats in them and to adapt their education accordingly.
As it was with science, so with art. No other country of Europe has, in proportion to its size, so large a number of artists, so many art-schools and technical schools, so many museums and art collections, as Germany. Other countries may have a greater accumulation of art in their capitals, but no other country possesses such a distribution of art thruout its entire realm. Only Italy can vie with it.
This entire development led to a deepening of the German intellect. The absence of great political struggles gave people time and leisure, as it were, to lead a contemplative life. While other nations wrestled for the control of the world market, divided the earth among themselves, and carried on great internal political struggles, the Germans quietly remained at home, dreaming and philosophizing. But this dreaming and philosophizing, favored by a climate that necessitated hard work and a domestic life, gave the Germans that keen, observing intellect that distinguished them after they had awakened. While the English bourgeoisie had won a determining influence over the state as early as the middle of the seventeenth century, and the French bourgeoisie had come into power at the close of the eighteenth century, it was not until 1848 that the German bourgeoisie succeeded in winning a very modest influence over the powers of the state. But the year 1848 was the year of birth of the German bourgeoisie as a self-conscious class, that entered the arena as an independent, political party, represented by “liberalism.” Here, too, the peculiar nature of German development manifested itself. The leading men were not manufacturers, merchants, men of commerce and finance, but chiefly professors, writers, jurists and doctors of all academic faculties. They were the German ideologists, and their work was shaped accordingly. After 1848 the bourgeoisie was, for the time being, silenced politically; but they employed the time of political graveyard tranquility during the fifties to promote their task all the more thoroly. The outbreak of the Austro-Italian war, and the beginning of the Regency in Prussia, caused the bourgeoisie again to reach out after political power. The movement for national unity (“Nationalverein”) began. The bourgeoisie was too far developed to tolerate any longer the numerous political barriers, that were also economic barriers, between the various states. They threatened to become revolutionary. Bismarck grasped the situation, and made use of it in his way to reconcile the interests of the bourgeoisie with the interests of the Prussian monarchy, toward which the bourgeoisie had never been hostile, as it feared the revolution and the masses. Finally the barriers fell that had prevented its material development. Aided by Germany’s wealth in coal and minerals, and by the presence of an intelligent, but easily contented working class, the bourgeoisie, within a few years, attained such a gigantic development, as has not been attained by the bourgeoisie of any other country in an equally short time, with the exception of the United States. Thus Germany quickly came to hold the second place in Europe as an industrial and commercial state, and she is anxious to obtain the first.