A
great many of the unfortunates now out of employment have been already
reduced to misery and want; but it is a mistake to suppose that the
philosophy of Socialism can afford them any relief or consolation, or
that it can incite them to mad deeds of violence. There are certain
demagogues in this country who, assuming to be Socialists, are ready to
stir up the popular mind, even to the shedding of blood; but such men
are few in numbers, and wield only a limited influence.
Now, Socialism holds that the impending reconstruction of society, which
Huxley predicts, will be brought about by the logic of events, and
teaches that the coming revolution, which every intelligent mind must
foresee, is strictly an evolution. Socialists of this school reason from
no assumed first principle, like the French, who start from "social
equality," or like Herbert Spencer, who lays it down as an axiom that
"every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes
not the like freedom of every other man;" but basing themselves squarely
on _experience_,--not individual but universal experience,--they
can, and do present clear-cut, definite solutions.
It is this true _German_ Socialism which Mr. Gronlund, in the work
previously alluded to, very clearly presents, and which should be more
generally understood than it is.
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