Criminality and economic conditions

by Willem Adriaan Bonger

As to intellectual culture a great part of the petty bourgeoisie takes rank between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Generally the children of this class are better taught than those of the proletariat. But since the field of their ideas is very restricted and the struggle for existence requires all their time, their intellectual level remains in general much below the average level of the bourgeoisie. Others still who are of the lowest stratum of the petty bourgeoisie have the same development as the proletariat.

The petty bourgeoisie is recruited from the descendants of the same class, then from among the bourgeois who have failed in business, and finally from former proletarians. These last are those who cannot sell their labor for some reason, and try to gain a livelihood by making an insignificant capital of value in trading. Their plane of living does not differ from that of the proletariat unless by being lower.

As to the relation of the petty bourgeoisie to the other classes, it is naturally hostile to the bourgeoisie, since it is that class which has deprived it, or is still depriving it, of its influence. This hostility is, however, of a different kind from that which the working class feels toward the bourgeoisie. The petty bourgeoisie envies the bourgeoisie; it desires also to become rich, and thereby powerful. [[269]]On the other hand it feels no community of interest with the working class, whose fixed determination to be free from the wage system it holds in abhorrence. The political position of the petty bourgeoisie, placed as it is between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, has necessarily become an equivocal one.

C. The Proletariat.

The proletariat, that class of persons who do not possess the means of production and who can exist only by the sale of their labor, dates from modern times. Between the independent artisan and the modern proletarian comes the journeyman as a link in the chain. The difference, however, between the journeyman and the proletarian is great. The journeyman generally lodged with his master, worked with him, and was considered as a member of the family. And since the means of production necessary were still quite limited, the journeyman by saving his wages had a chance some day to become master. With this hope he came to consider himself as having common interests with his employer.

The situation of the proletarian is entirely different. His work is entirely separate from that of his employer; the lengthening of the working-day does not imply that the capitalist works longer also. The workman lodges apart, and it makes little difference to the employer how his employes are housed and fed. The means of production being very dear, and the knowledge necessary to direct any business being lacking, the proletarian can almost never become an employer.

As has been shown it is the ruined members of the petty bourgeoisie who have formed the first stock of the proletariat. But although this class is still reinforced in the same way the greatest part of the proletariat is now composed of the descendants of proletarians.

We can easily comprehend the situation of the proletariat provided we do not lose sight of the basis of the present economic system, that is, the fact that the object of production is to gain for some the largest possible surplus-value at the expense of the rest of the population. The child of the proletarian is set to work at an age when the child of the bourgeois parents is still leading a care-free life, with nothing to do but to develop his powers. When taken to the factory the young proletarian finds himself in the midst of ignorant and coarse men caring nothing for him, and soon picks up their bad habits. It is in this environment that the proletarian will pass [[270]]the greatest part of his life without hope of ever raising himself above it.

The greater part of the trades practiced have an unfavorable effect, frequently even very harmful to the health of the workmen (on account of great heat, too much dust, injurious gases, etc.). These prejudicial influences might be checked or prevented, but it costs money to make a factory sanitary, with no immediate return, and hygienic suggestions are therefore generally not followed. A number of trades constantly threaten the workers with death or mutilation; but although safety devices can almost always remove the danger, for the reason above stated they are still many times left untried.

As regards the length of the working-day, moderate work is a pleasure, excessive work mere torment. Except in so far as the laws and the labor unions have intervened, the day has been prolonged until there is left only the time absolutely necessary for food and sleep. Many workmen are not even given the night for sleeping, for in many factories the night force succeeds that on duty in the daytime. We may read in the holy Scriptures that a day has been set aside for rest, but this does not prevent Sunday from being a day of work under the capitalistic system, even though we are supposed to be living in a Christian society.