Part 953

"There has probably been no more interesting appearance in the later political history of Germany than Lassalle's—no character that has secured more completely the attention of its world. There may be and there are many difficulties in the way of accepting Lassalle's political creed, but he had sufficient breadth and strength to win a secure place in the two widely separated domains of German science and politics and to profoundly influence the leading spirits of his time. … In addition to his worth in the department of science Lassalle was also a man of affairs, a practical politician, and—however large an element of the actor and sophist there may have been in him—the greatest German orator since Luther and John Tauler. Besides this, he was naturally heroic, as beautiful in person as Goethe; and when we remember that he was crossed in love and met in consequence with a romantic death at the age of thirty-nine, we see at once, as the publicist de Laveleye has suggested, the making of a story like that of Abelard. Lassalle has been the poetry of the various accounts of contemporary socialism, and has already created a literature which is still growing almost with the rapidity of the Goethe literature. The estimate of Lassalle's worth has been in each account naturally influenced by the economical or sentimental standpoint of the writer. To de Laveleye, who takes so much interest in socialism, Lassalle was a handsome agitator, whose merit lies chiefly in his work as interpreter of Karl Marx. To Montefiore he was a man of science who was led by accident into politics; and Franz Mehring, who was once the follower of Lassalle, in his 'Geschichte der deutschen Social-Demokratie,' discusses his career in the intolerant mood in which one generally approaches a forsaken worship. {2950} The Englishman John Rae, on the contrary, in his account of socialism, makes Lassalle a hero; and in the narrative of the talented Dane, Georg Brandes, Lassalle is already on the broad road to his place as a god. In the same spirit Rudolf Meyer in his work 'The Fourth Estate's Struggle for Emancipation' does not hesitate to use the chief hyperbole of our modern writers, and compares Lassalle with Jesus of Nazareth. Heine also, who saw in his fellow Israelite that perfect Hegelian 'freedom from God' which he himself had attempted in vain, hails Lassalle as the 'Messiah of the age.' Among Lassalle's more immediate disciples this deification seems to have become a formal cultus, and it is affirmed, hard as one finds it to believe the story, that after Lassalle's death he became an object of worship with the German laborers. … The father of Lassalle was a Jewish merchant in Breslau, where the future 'fighter and thinker' as Boeckh wrote mournfully over his tomb, was born on the 11th of April, 1825. The Israelite Lassal, for so the family name is still written, was a wealthy wholesale dealer in cloth, and with a consciousness of the good in such an avocation had from the first intended that Ferdinand should be a merchant. … But this was not his destiny. … The first feature in Lassalle was his will, the source of his strength and his ruin, and one can find no period in his life when this will seemed in the least capable of compromise or submission. … When he decided to become a Christian and a philosopher instead of a merchant, the family had nothing to do but to accommodate themselves as best they could to this arrangement."

_L. J. Huff, Ferdinand Lassalle (Political Science Quarterly, September, 1887)._

"It was in 1862 that Lassalle began his agitation in behalf of the laboring classes, an agitation which resulted in the formation of the German Social Democratic Party. Previous to his time, German laborers had been considered contented and peaceable. It had been thought that a working men's party might be established in France or England, but that it was hopeless to attempt to move the phlegmatic German laborers. Lassalle's historical importance lies in the fact that he was able to work upon the laborers so powerfully as to arouse them to action. It is due to Lassalle above all others that German working men's battalions, to use the social democratic expression, now form the vanguard in the struggle for the emancipation of labor. Lassalle's writings did not advance materially the theory of social democracy. He drew from Rodbertus and Marx in his economic writings, but he clothed their thoughts in such manner as to enable ordinary laborers to understand them, and this they never could have done without such help. … Lassalle gave to Ricardo's law of wages the designation, the iron law of wages, and expounded to the laborers its full significance, showing them how it inevitably forced wages down to a level just sufficient to enable them to live. He acknowledged that it was the key-stone of his system and that his doctrines stood or fell with it. Laborers were told that this law could be overthrown only by the abolition of the wages system. How Lassalle really thought this was to be accomplished is not so evident. He proposed to the laborers that government should aid them by the use of its credit to the extent of 100,000,000 of thalers, to establish co-operative associations for production; and a great deal of breath has been wasted to show the inadequacy of his proposed measures. Lassalle could not himself have supposed that so insignificant a matter as the granting of a small loan would solve the labor question. He recognized, however, that it was necessary to have some definite party programme to insure success in agitation. … On the 23d of May, 1863, German social democracy was born. Little importance was attached to the event at the time. A few men met at Leipsic, and, under the leadership of Ferdinand Lassalle, formed a new political party called the 'Universal German Laborers' Union' ('Der Allgemeine Deutsche Arbeiterverein'). … Lassalle did not live to see the fruits of his labors. He met with some success and celebrated a few triumphs, but the Union did not flourish as he hoped. At the time of his death he did not appear to have a firm, lasting hold on the laboring population. There then existed no social-democratic party with political power. Although Lassalle lost his life in a duel [1864], which had its origin in a love affair, and not in any struggle for the rights of labor, he was canonized at once by the working men. … His influence increased more than ten-fold as soon as he ceased to live."

_R. T. Ely, French and German Socialism in Modern Times, chapter 12._

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1862-1872. The International in Europe.

The International came into being immediately after the holding of the International Exhibition at London, in 1862. At least it was then that it took bodily shape, for the idea, in its theoretical form, dates from much earlier. … In 1862 certain manufacturers, such as M. Arlès-Dufour, and certain newspapers, such as 'Le Temps' and 'L' Opinion Nationale,' started the idea that it would be a good thing to send delegates from the French working men to the London Exhibition. 'The visit to their comrades in England,' said 'L' Opinion Nationale,' 'would establish mutual relations in every way advantageous. While they would be able to get an idea of the great artistic and industrial works at the Exhibition, they would at the same time feel more strongly the mutual interests which bind the working men of both countries together; the old leaven of international discord would settle down, and national jealousy would give place to a healthy fraternal emulation.' The whole programme of the International is summed up in these lines; but the manufacturers little foresaw the manner in which it was going to be carried out. Napoleon III. appeared to be very favourable to the sending of the delegates to London. He allowed them to be chosen by universal suffrage among the members of the several trades, and, naturally, those who spoke the strongest on the rights of labour were chosen. By the Emperor's orders, their journey was facilitated in every way. At that time Napoleon still dreamed of relying, for the maintenance of his Empire, on the working men and peasants, and of thus coping with the liberal middle classes. At London the English working men gave the most cordial welcome to 'their brothers of France.' On the 5th of August they organized a fête of 'international fraternization' at the Freemasons' Tavern. … {2951} They proposed to create committees of working men 'as a medium for the interchange of ideas on questions of international trade.' The conception of a universal association appears here in embryo. Two years afterwards it saw the light. On the 28th of September, 1864, a great meeting of working men of all nations was held at St. Martin's Hall, London, under the presidency of Professor Beesly. M. Tolain spoke in the name of France. Karl Marx was the real inspirer of the movement, though Mazzini's secretary, Major Wolff, assisted him—a fact which has given rise to the statement that Mazzini was the founder of the International. So far was this from being the case that he only joined it with distrust, and soon left it. The meeting appointed a provisional committee to draw up the statutes of the association, to be submitted to the Universal Congress, which was expected to meet at Brussels in the following year. In this committee England, France, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, and Germany were represented; and afterwards delegates from other countries were admitted. They were fifty in all. They adopted none of the ways of a secret society. On the contrary, it was by publicity that they hoped to carry on their propaganda. Their office was in London. … Mazzini, by his secretary, Wolff, proposed a highly centralized organization, which would entrust the entire management to the leaders. Marx took the other side. … Marx carried the day. Soon, in his turn, he too was to be opposed and turned off as too dictatorial. Mazzini and his followers seceded. … The progress of the new association was at first very slow." After its second congress, held at Lausanne, in 1867, it spread rapidly and acquired an influence which was especially alarming to the French government. In 1870 the International was at the summit of its power. In 1872 its congress, at the Hague, was a battlefield of struggling factions and clashing ideas, and practically it perished in the conflict. "The causes of the rapid decline of the famous Association are easy to discover, and they are instructive. First of all, as the organizer of strikes, its principal and most practical end, it proved itself timid and impotent. The various bodies of working men were not slow to perceive this, and gave it up. Next, it had taken for motto, 'Emancipation of the workers by the workers themselves.' It was intended, then, to do without the bourgeois-radicals, 'the palaverers,' 'the adventurers,' who when the revolution was made, would step into power and leave the working men as they were before. The majority of the delegates were nevertheless bourgeois; but, in reality, the sentiment of revolt against the aristocratic direction of the more intelligent members always persisted, and it fastened principally on Karl Marx, the true founder of the International, and the only political brain that it contained. But to keep in existence a vast association embracing very numerous groups of different nationalities, and influenced sometimes by divergent currents of ideas, to make use of publicity as the sole means of propaganda, and yet to escape the repressive laws of different States, was evidently no easy task. How could it possibly have lasted after the only man capable of directing it had been ostracized? The cause of the failure was not accidental; it was part of the very essence of the attempt. The proletariat will not follow the middle-class radicals, because political liberties, republican institutions, and even universal suffrage, which the latter claim or are ready to decree, do not change the relations of capital and labour. On the other hand, the working man is evidently incapable of directing a revolutionary movement which is to solve the thousand difficulties created by any complete change in the economic order. Revolutionary Socialism thus leads to an insoluble dilemma and to practical impotence. A further cause contributed to the rapid fall of the International, namely, personal jealousies."

_E. de Laveleye, The Socialism of To-day, chapter 9._

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1866-1875. Rise and growth of the Patrons of Husbandry, or Grangers, in the United States.

The order, composed of farmers, known as Patrons of Husbandry, or Grangers, was founded in 1866. It grew rapidly during the first decade of its existence, and reported a membership, in November, 1875, of 763,263. After that period the numbers declined. The general aims of the order were set forth in a "Declaration of Purposes," as follows: "We shall endeavor to advance our cause by laboring to accomplishing the following objects: To develop a better and higher manhood and womanhood among ourselves. To enhance the comforts and attractions of our homes, and strengthen our attachments to our pursuits. To foster mutual understanding and co-operation. … To discountenance the credit system, the mortgage system, the fashion system, and every other system tending to prodigality and bankruptcy. We propose meeting together, talking together, working together, buying together, selling together, and in general acting together for our mutual protection and advancement, as occasion may require. We shall avoid litigation as much as possible by arbitration in the Grange. … We are not enemies to capital, but we oppose the tyranny of monopolies. We long to see the antagonism between labor and capital removed by common consent and by an enlightened statesmanship worthy of the nineteenth century. … Last, but not least, we proclaim it among our purposes to inculcate a proper appreciation of the abilities and sphere of woman, as is indicated by admitting her to membership and position in our order."

_R. T. Ely, The Labor Movement in America, chapter 3._

See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1877-1891.

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1867-1875. The Brocton Community of the Brotherhood of the New Life.

The Community of the Brotherhood of the New Life was established at Brocton, on the shore of Lake Erie, by Thomas Lake Harris, in 1867. Harris had been, partly at least, the founder of an earlier community at Mountain Cove, in North Carolina, which went to pieces after two years. For some time he travelled and lectured in America and England, and during a certain period he engaged in business as a banker, at Amenia, in Dutchess county, New York. He possessed qualities which exercised a fascinating influence upon many people of superior cultivation, and made them docile recipients of a very peculiar religious teaching. He claimed to have made a strange spiritual discovery, through which those who disciplined themselves to the acceptance of what it offered might attain to a "new life." {2952} The discipline required seems to have involved a very complete surrender to the leader, Harris; and it was on such terms, apparently, that the Community at Brocton—or Salem-on-Erie as the Brotherhood renamed the place-was constituted. Among those who entered it was the brilliant writer, diplomatist, and man of society, Laurence Oliphant, who joined, with his wife, and with Lady Oliphant, his mother. The connection of Oliphant with the society drew to it more attention than it might otherwise have received. The Community bought and owned about 2,000 acres of land, and devoted its labors extensively and with success to the culture of grapes and the making of wine. The breaking up of the Brotherhood appears to be covered with a good deal of obscurity. Harris left Brocton in 1875 and went to California, where he is reported to be living, at Sonoma, on a great estate. Some of the Brotherhood went with him; others were scattered, and the Brocton vineyards are now cultivated by other hands.

_W. E. K., Brocton (Buffalo Courier, July 19, 1891)._

ALSO IN: _M. O. W. Oliphant, Memoir of the life of Laurence Oliphant._

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1869-1883. The Knights of Labor.