The Political Doctrines of Sun Yat-sen: An Exposition of the San Min Chu ILinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
The Political Doctrines of Sun Yat-sen: An Exposition of the San Min Chu I
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Sun, Yat-sen, 1866-1925. San min zhu yi
Second—to follow again Professor Coker—the Western empirical collectivists
favor labor legislation, and government intervention for the protection of
the living standards of the working classes. This, while it did not figure
conspicuously in the theories of Sun Yat-sen,(196) was a striking feature
of all his practical programs.(197) In his address to Chinese labor, on
the international Labor Day, 1924, he urged that Chinese labor organize in
order to fight for its own cause and that of national liberation. It had
nothing to fear from Chinese capitalism, but everything from foreign
imperialistic capitalism.(198) Sun did not make a special hero class out
of the workers; he did, however, advocate their organization for the
purpose of getting their just share of the national wealth, and for
resistance to the West and Japan.
Third, the empirical collectivist tends to advocate price-control by the
state, if not over the whole range of commodities, at least in certain
designated fields. Sun was, has been stated, in favor of the regulation of
capital at all points, and of public ownership in some. This naturally
implies an approval of price-control. He more specifically objected to
undue profits by middlemen, when, in discussing salesmen, he said: “Under
ideal conditions, society does not need salesmen or any inducement to buy.
If a thing is good, and the price reasonable, it should sell itself on its
own merits without any salesmanship. This vast army of middlemen should
hence be made to remember that they should expect no more from the
nonproductive calling in which they are engaged than any other citizen
obtains through harder labor.”(199) In this, too, _min shêng_ coincides
with empirical collectivism; the coincidence is made easy by the relative
vagueness of the latter.
Fourth, in the words of Mr. Coker, “many collectivists look upon taxation
as a rational and practical means for reducing extreme differences in
wealth and for achieving other desired economic changes.”(200) Sun Yat-sen
agrees with this definitely; his land policy is one based upon taxation
and confiscation of the amount of the unearned increment (which, not
involving the confiscation of the land itself, is perhaps also taxation),
and proposes to apply taxes extensively. Quite apart from the question of
distributive justice, a heavy tax burden would be necessary in a country
which was being rigorously developed.
Fifth, empirical collectivists believe in land control, not only in the
cities, but in the open country as well, as a matter of agrarian reform.
We have seen that the land figured extensively in the ideology of _min
shêng_, and shall observe that Sun Yat-sen, in his plans for _min shêng_,
stressed the importance of proper control of land.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account