The Independents undoubtedly would have set about at once the task of realizing this programme. But we have seen that they had but a brief period of power; and the Social Democrats seemed less in a hurry to keep their promises.
For the moment the political revolution was enough to absorb all their activity, and they postponed the economic revolution. They declared that an industry cannot be socialized until it is “ripe” for such a measure. But, they further declared, this maturity cannot be suddenly effected by a vote of Parliament or even by the decision of the majority of the people. It is the product of a slow social development, which may find its expression in the vote of a majority, but which cannot be thereby hastened. To tell the truth, the Social Democrats, whom events had placed with their back to the wall, perceived how difficult it is to put into practice the vague theories with which they had heretofore contented themselves. Not only did they realize that the solution of economic questions raised by socialization is extremely difficult, but they became also convinced that it was necessary first to consolidate some of the elements of German economic life that had survived the war and its unhappy conclusion before proceeding to experiments which might accomplish their ruin. They resolved therefore to study the problems of socialization more deeply before passing to its realization. For this purpose they created, November, 1918, a “Committee on Socialization” which was not to be an official organ but a free scientific committee charged with the drawing up of reports and proposals on the question of socialization. It consisted of eleven members with Kautsky as chairman.
But the impatience of the masses did not give the Socialist Cabinet the respite they required. The people, who for years had been promised the abolition of private capitalist property, and who saw in the realization of the Socialist programme the end of the miserable situation into which the war and the revolution had plunged them, demanded immediate measures. The general strike which broke out in Berlin in March, 1919, and which, as we have seen, prompted the Cabinet to promise the “anchorage” of the Councils in the Constitution, also pushed it to prepare in haste two projects of law—one on socialization, the other on the regulation of the coal industry, the two projects being adopted within a few days by the National Assembly. The two laws carried the date of March 23, 1919. The first is what is called in Germany a “blanket law” or a “skeleton law.” It indicates the different forms according to which socialization of private enterprises may become operative, and the conditions in which these enterprises, once socialized, may be exploited. The second makes immediate application of these principles to the coal industry. In addition another law voted several days later, April 29, 1919, regulated according to the same principles the potash industry.
Whereupon the members of the Committee on Socialization, who complained of having their work constantly impeded by the Cabinet, and their recommendations remaining unheeded, handed in their resignations on April 7, 1919.
On the other hand, the Minister of Public Economy, the Social Democrat, Rudolph Wissel, finding the measures for socialization taken or proposed by the Cabinet too timid and insufficient addressed a memorandum to the Council of Ministers on May 7, which had great reverberation throughout Germany as soon as it became known.[67]
The Cabinet, said Wissel, followed a policy inconsistent and without unity. Within the Council of Ministers a decision on fundamental questions was avoided in order not to put the coalition in danger; and the few measures taken were compromises dictated by necessity.
Meanwhile the economic situation of Germany was in an almost desperate state, and a menacing catastrophe could be avoided only by completely transforming the system of production that prevailed in peace times. Wissel declared that he was not speaking of expropriation, for that would do no more than substitute the state for private capitalism, that is to say, one exploiter for another. But what he referred to was the restriction of illegitimate profits, the regulation of prices and the control of the distribution of profits. Production and consumption must be organized according to a co-ordinated plan in such a way that enterprises may be exploited in the interest of all and not to the exclusive profit of some. It was imperative to proceed by some solution as a whole and not by incoherent and isolated attempts.
The principal measures for which Wissel demanded immediate adoption were the following: