Bismarck and State Socialism

BISMARCK AND STATE SOCIALISM

William Harbutt Dawson

WAXKEEP PUBLISHING

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Copyright © 2015 by William Harbutt Dawson

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Bismarck and State Socialism

By William Harbutt Dawson

CHAPTER I.THEORY OF STATE SOCIALISM

CHAPTER II.EARLY ECONOMIC POLICY OF PRUSSIA

CHAPTER III.BISMARCK’S SOCIAL PRINCIPLES

CHAPTER IV.THE NEW EMPIRE

CHAPTER V.ABANDONMENT OF FREE TRADE

CHAPTER VI. THE STATE AS MONOPOLIST

CHAPTER VII.STATE RAILWAYS

CHAPTER VIII.INDUSTRIAL LEGISLATION

CHAPTER IX.INSURANCE OF THE WORKING CLASSES

CHAPTER X.BISMARCK’S PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION

CHAPTER XI.THE COLONIAL ERA

BISMARCK AND STATE SOCIALISM

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BY WILLIAM HARBUTT DAWSON

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CHAPTER I.THEORY OF STATE SOCIALISM

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IN CONSIDERING THE PLACE which State Socialism should occupy in a genealogy of economic systems, we shall be greatly aided if we remember that it is a perfectly organic development. It does not begin with a tabula rasa, or build up its structure of theory upon foundations prepared by a Cartesian negation of all existing beliefs. On the contrary, it is a product and a consequence of the past. The State Socialistic school occupies an essentially eclectic position. Adopting the leading principle underlying the historical method,—which may be regarded as having heralded this latest direction,—it enforces the relativity of economic doctrines, and rejecting no economic institution as intrinsically bad, and accepting none as intrinsically good, it seeks to gain recognition, both theoretically and practically, for those principles which investigation, analogy, and experience commend as expedient for the present time.

With the historical school State Socialists hold that in dealing with political economy we are not dealing with an exact science. Phrases such as orthodox economy, conventional economy, and the like, have no objective meaning, but represent only the economic conceptions of those who use them. There is no ultimate court of appeal before which economic doctrines can be arraigned in order to receive the verdict, This is onhodox, or This is heterodox.

In economics as a science we have to do less with absolute truth than with relative validity. One of the leading scientific exponents of State Socialism in Germany, who is also one of the foremost of that country’s living economists, Gustav Schmoller—professor of political economy at the University of Berlin reminds us that the smaller part of the teachings of political economy consists of scientifically established propositions; the larger part of dogmas which are believed by some and rejected by others, according to their party sympathies. All so-called political, moral, economical, and social principles are not so much the results of exact science as the deduced isolated doctrines of the systems and contemplations of the world held by schools and parties as the principles of freedom, authority, and justice, the principle of free competition, that of division of labor, that of labor-union; thus the doctrines of Adam Smith are the economic party-doctrines of Individualism and Liberalism. There are, however, two economic and philosophical estimates of society with which State Socialism may be brought into broad contrast. While Individualism restricts the functions of the State as much as possible, Socialism enlarges them; the Individualist would do everything without the State, the Socialist would do everything with it. State Socialism is the mean between these directions of thought; in it the two extremes meet. It seeks to abstract from Individualism so much as is necessary to the cultivation of individuality, and from Socialism so much as is required in order to give to manhood a fair chance of development.

The great disagreement between Socialism and State Socialism is that the former would entirely subvert the State, while the latter accepts its political form as it is. Socialism would abolish the existing political order altogether, while State Socialism would use the State for the accomplishment of great economic and social purposes, especially restoring to it the function, which Frederick the Great held to be the principal business of the State, of holding the balance (tetur la balance) between classes and parties. Thus we find Schmoller extolling the polity dominant in Germany, and expressing the conviction that a firm monarchy is a great blessing for a country when it is bound up with traditions like those of the Prussian monarchy, which recognizes its duties.

Again, as to Individualism, Slate Socialists would restrict the play of self-interest and egoism in the economic domain. Adopting the principle of the greatest happiness of the greatest number, they place the welfare of the community before that of the individual; the ideal should be extensive rather than intensive material prosperity. Importance is inevitably attached to ethics as a factor in economic dealings.

To use the words of Adolph Wagner, the foremost scientific representative of State Socialism in Germany, The relation of man to man should again be asserted in the economic relationships between various persons. Or, quoting from an academic colleague of that writer, Schmoller, State Socialism purposes the re-establishment of a friendly relationship between social classes, the removal or modification of injustice, a nearer approach to the principle of distributive justice, with the introduction of a social legislation which promotes progress and guarantees the moral and material elevation of the lower and middle classes.

It is important to bear in mind that though the term State Socialism is frequently, and not unnaturally, associated with the industrial legislation passed by Prince Bismarck during the past ten years, as though it signified nothing else, this economic movement extends to many directions. Everywhere the social idea is conspicuous. According to Wagner, indeed, we have

now entered the social period, which is characterized by new economic ideas, new political views, and a new direction in practical life. The claims of society as opposed, or as superior, to those of the individual, should therefore receive prior consideration. Economic institutions are to be judged from the standpoint of the public weal. The standard is not, What will be good for the individual citizen? but What will most benefit the whole community? By their social value, their capacity for promoting social welfare, must the plexus of institutions, organizations, and arrangements, in and by means of which the economic life of the nation is carried on, be tried. Extended State activity in the economic domain is a necessary consequence of this estimate of society. Social interests can only be properly safeguarded when the State directly concerns itself with them. The aim must, therefore, be to widen the economic jurisdiction of the State. In Wagner’s words, the task of the time is to make national economy ( Volkswirthschaft) rather State economy (Staatswirthschaft). The non-intervention principle must be abandoned, since it has only led to greater and ever greater class and personal inequalities, and therefore to growing social disorganization and discontent. The State Socialists do not, like the Socialists, propose to reduce mankind to a dead level of monotonous uniformity. They recognize the existence of individual differences, yet say that many of these are quite as much the result of civilization—the result of social and economic institutions—as they are natural. Inequalities not due to the natural peculiarities of the individual should be checked, discouraged, and counteracted. The weak in the economic struggle," to quote Prince Bismarck’s phrase, are entitled to help and protection according to their necessities. Not the strong and efficient but the feeble and defective parts of the social machinery need the special care of the State. Apart, however, from the strictly ethical characteristics of State Socialism, there is the purely economic side. The State may adopt measures, legislative and otherwise, directly intended to further the nation’s material interests, as, for instance, in the domain of home or foreign trade, or it may itself take part in the processes of production and distribution. No department of economic activity should on principle be closed to the State; whether it should or not participate, side by side with private enterprise, is a matter of expediency and public interest. Where the State cannot with advantage undertake economic functions, they may be suited to public bodies, the principle of collectivism being still asserted.

We should not expect the advocates of so liberal an economy as State Socialism to be unanimous as to the application of the principles common to all of them. A tool which comprises when of such different minds as Wagner, Schmoller, Albert Schaffle, Gustav Schonberg, and Held, could not by any possibility preserve agreement in matters of detail. Moreover, the cloak of State Socialism is thrown over the tatters of many theories and proposals, wild or at least unpractical, for which the scientific representatives of the system should not be made responsible. It is evident that the principles of State intervention in economic affairs and State care and protection for the poorer classes being posited, it is difficult to say how far these principles should be carried. The State Socialists say that this must be determined by expediency, and by circumstances of time and place. Yet even here we stand on very insecure ground, and it must always be more or less a matter of subjective judgment beyond what limits the State may not with advantage and propriety go. Instead, therefore, of comparing the positions of the leading representatives of this school of political economists in Germany, it will be more useful to glance at the main doctrines advanced by the man who has done more than anyone else to give to State Socialism at once scientific form and scientific foundation, Adolph Wagner.

Wagner, it should be premised, is prepared to extend the province of government beyond the limits set by most economists of his direction. He lays especial emphasis upon the untenability of the idea of finality in economic institutions. In estimating the value of economic principles, it seldom becomes a question of either, or; it is rather a matter of more or less.

The bounds of the State’s functions have not, like the earth’s foundations, been fixed from of old, that they should not be removed. The jurisdiction of government is a matter not of principle but of expediency. Wagner entirely rejects Kant’s State, with its narrow functions, but he will not accept the eudemonistic ideal of Wolf as applicable to the present. He opposes the State’s passivity in social affairs on the one hand, and he deprecates extreme intervention on the other. He takes his stand upon the ground of the existing (der Boden der Wirklichkeit), acknowledging the social and economic system and the civil law which are in vogue, with the reservation that they must undergo further organic development. He advocates a reform which, to use his own words, is neither subversion, nor stagnation, nor retrogression. With Wagner the social question in reality resolves itself into the amelioration of the working classes, and it is essentially on their behalf that he calls for greater State activity in the domain of economics. Self-help is laudable and desirable, and he would encourage it in every way. He grants the right of coalition, and expects much from the development in Germany of trades-unionism and cooperation. Organization and combination may be rough and ready weapons wherewith to carry on struggles between capital and labor, but as the capitalists swear by the doctrine of free competition, it is but logical to allow to the working classes the arbitrament of coalition, and, if necessary, of the strike. He holds that the State has no right, and no interest, to discourage labor combinations which restrict themselves to economic purposes; all it can fairly do is to prevent and punish excess, violence, and menace. But self-help, though admirable so far as it goes, is not enough. Unaided the working classes will never achieve their emancipation from capitalistic fetters. The assistance of the State is necessary, and that assistance should be given in no stinted measure. Incidentally, it may be noted that Wagner does not allow that free competition is an unmixed blessing. Its advantages are great, but they have in the past been exaggerated, and they are also accompanied by many serious disadvantages. He would not dream of going back to the guild system, thus renouncing some of the best results of the modern system of production, but he is prepared to consider whether a certain restriction of personal freedom might not be beneficial in such matters as migration and settlement (in order to prevent over-population in towns, to the disadvantage of the country), marriage (so as to check premature and improvident unions), and even handicraft (in the interest of more skillful and conscientious production).

The great thought which underlies