The Online Library of Liberty

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• Introduction.
• Biographical and Critical.
• Author’s Preface to the First French Edition.
• Author’s Preface to the English Edition.
• Book I.: Evolution and Retrogression.
• Chapter I.: Social Retrogression.
• Chapter II.: Socialist Programmes.
• Chapter III.: Character of Political and Intellectual Progress.
• Chapter IV.: Character of Social Progress.
• Chapter V.: The Evolution of Property.
• Chapter VI.: Doctrinal Contradictions of the Socialists.
• Chapter VII.: Practical Self-contradiction of the Socialists.
• Book II.: Socialistic Sophisms.
• Chapter I.: Labour and Wealth.
• Chapter II.: On the Limits of Collectivist Society.
• Chapter III.: The Law of Supply and Demand.
• Chapter IV.: The %u201ciron Law%u201d of Wages.
• Chapter V.: Integral Wages.
• Chapter VI.: To Each According to His Needs.
• Chapter VII.: The Abolition of Wages.
• Chapter VIII.: Machinery.
• Chapter IX.: Excessive Production.
• Chapter X.: Economic Crises.
• Chapter XI.: Cheapness.
• Chapter XII.: The Game of the Gullible.
• Chapter XIII.: Socialistic Methods.
• Chapter XIV.: Facts Compared With Socialist Statements.
• Chapter XV.: Redistribution of Wealth.
• Book III.: Socialistic Legislation.
• Chapter I.: Putting Socialistic Sophisms In Force.
• Chapter II.: The Regulation of Child Labour.
• Chapter III.: Female Labour and the Law.
• Chapter IV.: Compulsory Idleness of Lying-in Women.
• Chapter V.: National Labour and Foreign Workmen.
• Chapter VI.: Trade Syndicates.
• Chapter VII.: Registry Offices.
• Chapter VIII.: Nature of %u201clabour Laws.%u201d
• Book IV.: Socialistic Morality and Respect For the Law.
• Chapter I.: Contempt For the Law.
• Chapter II.: Servile Labour and Free Labour.
• Book V.: Strikes and Social War.
• Chapter I.: Cost and Consequences of Strikes.
• Chapter II.: The Causes of Strikes.
• Chapter III.: During the Strike.
• Chapter IV.: Social War.
• Book VI.: Responsibilities.
• Chapter I.: Parliament and Strikes.
• Chapter II.: Subsidies to Strikers.
• Chapter III.: The Executive, the Judicature, and Strikes.
• Chapter IV.: Liberty and Anarchy.
• Chapter V.: The Socialism of Employers.
• Chapter VI.: Militarism, Protection, and Socialism.
• Conclusion.

CHAPTER II.

ON THE LIMITS OF COLLECTIVIST SOCIETY.

Society—What is it?—Does it Include all Mankind?—To what Groups do the Programmes of the Collectivists apply?

The Gotha Programme says: “As labour which is profitable to all is only made possible by society, the general produce of labour should belong to society, that is to say, to all of its members, all being under an obligation to work.”

Society? but what constitutes society? What is this society? Does it include all mankind? According to the Socialist formula one ought to believe so: “The enfranchisement of labour necessitates the transmission of the implements of labour of the whole of society  . . .” The whole of society, be it understood; and, in fact, we must deal with the whole of society, because otherwise some will be disinherited of their share of the common good—there will be some privileged and some plundered.

But, then this organisation will encompass the wandering Mongol of the Gobi desert, the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego, the Touareg of the Sahara, the negroes of Central Africa, and the Papuans of New Guinea. All these will have their share in the distribution of “the general produce of labour.”

If the Socialist pretends that I make him talk absurdities, I answer that I have put to his account only that which I have borrowed from him, and that the logical interpretation of his text is really that which I give it. I grant that the ambition of the Gotha Socialists may be more modest, and that they used the word “Society” only out of hypocrisy, so as not to make use of the word “State.” But I put this question to them: What is this “Society” of which you speak? Is it a geographical and political expression used to designate a group of human beings, whose members and positions on the map of the world have been determined by the fortunes of war? Is Germany a homogeneous society to your Collectivist apprehension, in spite of the particularist traditions of its provinces? Are you going to construct a Collectivist society in Austria, with its Germans, Hungarians, Tchechs, and Poles? Will Denmark constitute a Collectivist society? And Russia, along the vast extent of her frontiers, from the Behring Straits to the Baltic, should she too undertake “to impose his task upon each of her 113 millions of inhabitants,” and to give him afterwards “a sufficient portion for the satisfaction of his reasonable needs.”

This problem, which the Socialists of Gotha and Erfurt, as well as those of France, abstain from tackling, is, however, worth the trouble of considering; because, though Communism is possible for a convent, it becomes quite another question when it is a case of applying it to millions and millions of beings, having neither the same degree of civilisation, nor the same habits, nor the same ideas of life.

In passing, we point out these slight difficulties, but we are well aware that they will not arrest the fanatics of Collectivism.