Fourierism was brought to America about 1840, and soon found numerous advocates, including many names of which America is proud. Prominent among the leaders were Albert Brisbane,[88] the head of the movement, Horace Greeley, and Charles A. Dana. In his “History of American Socialisms,” Mr. Noyes mentions thirty-four experiments made by Fourierists in this country, all of which failed for some reason or other. The most remarkable of these experiments was Brook Farm. At first it was not called a phalanx, although from the start it combined many of the features of Fourierism, but it shortly fell in line and became a Fourieristic experiment. When it is mentioned that its leading spirits were George Ripley, Charles A. Dana, Margaret Fuller, and others of like character, it is needless to add that its moral basis was sound. Others, more or less connected with the experiment, were George William Curtis, Horace Greeley, Dr. Channing, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Its exceedingly interesting and pathetic history is to be found in Frothingham’s “George Ripley.”[89]
CHAPTER VI.
LOUIS BLANC.
Saint-Simon and Fourier are first among French socialists. In the history of society no socialistic systems occupy a higher rank than those to which they gave their names. France has, however, produced two other men who have taken positions as leaders in social movements. If Saint-Simon and Fourier take precedence over them in the hierarchy of socialists, there is certainly no Frenchman who can dispute their right to the next highest places. They were chiefs after Saint-Simonism and Fourierism had begun to wane and before German socialism had begun to exist. These two men were Louis Blanc and Proudhon, and it is necessary to devote a few words to them before passing over to a very brief consideration of the latest phases of French socialism.
Saint-Simon and Fourier were social reformers only. They divorced economic reform from politics. They did not seek to use the existing political machinery of society as a means to their ends. They appealed to religious fervor, to brotherly love, to self-interest, and to passionate attraction, and regarded these as quite sufficient moving and organizing forces. Although these men accomplished much, it was very little in proportion to their hopes and expectations. What they did bring to pass did not come precisely in the way they wished it. To all intents and purposes the great social problem seemed as far from solution as ever. The next step in the development of socialism was its connection with politics. A man was needed who should recognize the intimate relation between political and social life, and should take the lead in the attempt to use the power of the one to regenerate the other. Louis Blanc was the one destined to lead socialism into this way. This is his true significance. He was the first state socialist. He was a practical politician of too much influence to make it possible to ignore him, but politics were always a means, never an end. Louis Blanc is thus the connecting link between the older socialism, which was in many respects superstitious, absurd, and fantastical, and the newer, which is sceptical, hard, and practical.
Louis Blanc, journalist, author, politician, socialist, was born in Madrid, Spain, October 28, 1813. His parents were French people, who were living temporarily in Madrid, as his father had been appointed General Inspector of Finance under Joseph Bonaparte. They naturally left Spain soon after this and Louis Blanc passed his early years in Corsica, his mother’s native land. He studied in the College at Rodez, and went to Paris about 1830 to continue his studies. As the revolution had ruined his father, Louis appears for some time to have been obliged to live in cramped circumstances. He assisted himself at first by copying and teaching, but he soon began to make his influence as a writer felt. He became one of the editors of Le Bon Sens in 1834, was made editor-in-chief in 1837, and resigned in 1838, owing to a difference of views between him and the proprietors of the journal, regarding the railway question, they holding to the system of private railways while he favored state railways. He also contributed at the same time to the National, the Revue Républicaine and other papers, all of which were republican or radical periodicals. In 1839 he founded the Revue du Progrès, which became the organ of the most advanced democrats, and it was in this paper that his chief socialistic work, “Organisation du Travail”—“Organization of Labor”—appeared in 1840. It was published afterwards in book-form, and has achieved a world-wide fame. The ninth edition appeared in 1850. The first volume of his most important historical work, the “Histoire de Dix Ans”—“History of the Ten Years” (1830-40)—appeared in 1841. It was completed in sixteen volumes[90] in 1844. A twelfth edition was published in Paris in 1874, in five volumes. This is one of the most remarkable of histories. Few literary works have exercised a greater influence in shaping events. It held up the meanness, littleness, and narrowness of the reign of Louis Philippe to public gaze and contributed not a little to the overthrow of that monarch. It further contains a better account of the development of socialism during that period than can be obtained elsewhere. Louis Blanc was an actor in the events of the ten years described, and understood their import. He saw the separation growing ever wider and wider between the bourgeoisie and the fourth estate, and the political influence which the latter was beginning to acquire, and appreciated the significance of this development as no other writer. His work has consequently become an indispensable source of information regarding the reign of Louis Philippe. Next to the “History of the Ten Years” his leading historical work is the “History of the French Revolution”—“Histoire de la Révolution Française,” published in twelve volumes[91] in the years 1847-62. A second edition bears the date 1864-70. This work treats of a period which he did not understand so well as his own age. Viewing the events described through the eyes of a nineteenth century socialist, he does not always appreciate the underlying spirit. Nevertheless the work is a noteworthy one. “Charles Sumner used to say that the first volume was one of those profoundly philosophical studies which mark an epoch in literature and in the development of human intelligence.”[92] Another writer says of this history: “By many eminent judges this has been considered the most satisfactory history of the revolution yet produced. It gives evidence of careful and ingenious research, abounds in most striking delineations of character, and is written with great energy and brilliancy of style. The portraiture of Robespierre, and the description of events leading to his fall, are among the most satisfactory accounts of the subject ever presented.”[93]
Louis Blanc was prominent in the Revolution of 1848. He was made a member of the Provisional Government in February, 1848, and with his colleagues, Albert, a workman, and Ledru-Rollin, a former member of the assembly, attempted to commit the government to the introduction of a large number of socialistic measures. The majority were, however, opposed to him, and he did not meet with a great measure of success, although the droit au travail was proclaimed. This is the technical term for the right of laborers to demand work from the government if they cannot find it elsewhere.[94] He demanded the creation of a ministry of labor and progress—ministère du travail et du progrès—which should concern itself with the interests of labor. Unable to obtain the consent of the majority of his colleagues, Louis Blanc tendered his resignation, but was finally induced to withdraw it and content himself with the presidency of a powerless commission appointed to meet in the Luxembourg and debate. That was all—debate. But what does debate without authority signify in a revolution? It means the loss of precious time and of all real influence. It is contemptible and ridiculous in the eyes of the masses at such times. Louis Blanc was lost when he consented to the formation of a debating club as a substitute for a ministère du progrès. This was the purpose of the government. They made a pretext of carrying out what was implied in the droit au travail by the erection of national workshops—ateliers nationaux. The real purpose of the ministers was the discredit of Louis Blanc, who had proposed ateliers sociaux in his “Organisation du Travail.” They planned the foundation of sham national workshops, which should fail and demonstrate the impracticability of his scheme, and they carried out the programme to the letter. M. Marie, the Minister of Public Works, intrusted the management of the ateliers to Émile Thomas, one of Louis Blanc’s worst enemies, informing Thomas that “it was the well-formed intention of the government to try this experiment of the commission of government for laborers; that in itself it could not fail to have good results, because it would demonstrate to the laborers the emptiness and falseness of these inapplicable theories and cause them to perceive the disastrous consequences flowing therefrom for themselves, and would so discredit Louis Blanc in their eyes that he should forever cease to be a danger.”[95] The false reports which were continually being circulated concerning the ateliers nationaux, especially their unjust attribution to him, were a constant source of annoyance to Louis Blanc. It is probable, however, that these falsehoods have done more harm to the defenders of law and order than to the socialists. The true state of the case is now generally known, and adds bitterness to the minds of French and German laborers. The continual circulation of the falsehood that Louis Blanc had tried his ateliers sociaux and they had failed, enabled Lassalle to begin an account of them with the startling phrase: “Die Lüge ist eine europäische Macht”—“Lying is one of the great powers of Europe.”[96]
Louis Blanc’s power was of short duration. Although he sacrificed his popularity with the laborers in his endeavors to maintain peace and order, he was accused of participation in their rising of May 15, and fled to Belgium, thence to England, where he lived until the overthrow of Napoleon III., in 1870. Louis Blanc was, on the whole, well received in England, and maintained himself by literary work of various kinds. He wrote an account of the Revolution of 1848, which was published in two volumes, in 1870, in Paris. He was the English correspondent for the great French newspaper Le Temps. His letters, interesting and valuable essays on life in England, were published in four volumes in 1866 and 1867, in Paris, and in an English translation in London in the same years.[97]
The 8th of September, 1870, witnessed his return to France, where he labored for the Government of the National Defence. He was elected to the National Assembly, February 8, 1871, and took his place on the extreme Left. During the rising of the Commune of Paris he again lost popularity with laborers of revolutionary sympathies, by opposing the insurrection and taking the part of the Government of Versailles. The law of March 14, 1872, directed against the International Workingmen’s Association, even found in him a supporter, although its severity is certainly extreme. It was under this law that Prince Krapotkine was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.