Socialism and Democracy in EuropeOrth, Samuel Peter
History
Socialism and Democracy in Europe
Orth, Samuel Peter
Democracy; Socialism
"9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries;
gradual abolition between town and country, by a more equable
distribution of population over the country.
"10. Free education for all children in public schools,
combination of education with industrial production," _etc._
Though the "Manifesto" was written in 1848, neither Marx, who lived
until 1882, nor Engels, who died in 1895, made any alteration in it,
on the ground that it had become "a historical document which we have
no longer any right to alter."[3]
"However much the state of things may have altered during the last
twenty-five years, the general principles laid down in this manifesto
are, on the whole, as correct to-day as ever."[4]
On one very important point, however, they could not refrain from
further comment. The revolutionary language in the original draft
would be radically mollified if written at the time of the joint
preface in 1872. The example of the Paris Commune was disheartening.
It demonstrated that "the working class cannot simply lay hold of the
ready-made state machinery and wield it for its own purposes."[5]
These, then, were the principles of the international movement of
which the "Manifesto" was the supreme expression. When labor had
revived from its first stupor, after the hard blows it received in the
years of revolution, the "Manifesto" was translated into several
Continental languages. With the revival of internationalism, it has
been translated into every language of the industrial world, and I am
told a Japanese and a Turkish edition have been issued. This is a
gauge of the spread of international Socialism.
In 1862 a number of French workingmen, visiting the International
Exhibition in London, were entertained by the Socialist exiles, and
the question of reviving an international movement was discussed. Two
years later, in St. Martin's Hall, London, workingmen from various
countries organized a meeting and selected Mazzini, the Italian
patriot, to draw up a constitution. But the South European view of
class war was out of accord with the German and French views, and
Mazzini's proposals were rejected. Marx then undertook the writing of
the address. He succeeded remarkably well in avoiding the giving of
offense to the four different elements present, namely, the trade
unionists of England, who, being Englishmen, were averse to
revolutions; the followers of Proudhon in France, who were then
establishing free co-operative societies; the followers of Lassalle in
Germany and Louis Blanc in France, who glorified state aid in
co-operation; and the less easily satisfied contingent of Mazzini from
Spain and Italy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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