A CONSERVATIVE SOCIALIST. * IT is always assumed that the doctrine,
as distinct from the policy, of Socialism is ultra-revolutionary; but is this so ? The essential Socialist doctrine, whether right or wrong, is that the economic development of society issuing in aggre- gated capital and the large system of production, leads inevitably to some form of Socialism, the only question con- cerning which is whether or no it is to be democratic. Now, assuming that this diagnosis were correct, and assuming that some form of collective ownership and control of pro- duction and distribution could be peacefully established, is it not extremely likely that Socialism as an economic system would be found the most conservative system of society ever known to civilised man P A kind of social equilibrium would have been established which would afford no loophole for change. The means of living fairly well having, ex hypo- titesi, been secured to all, no social contest would be possible. But the progress of mankind, it is admitted by Marx, has been produced by social contests for the means of living; therefore the impetus to progress having ceased, progress itself would slacken, and something like a Chinese system of society would set in, social custom and established institutions being fixed and crystallised. It might well be, therefore, that Socialism, if it could ever be established in the rigid German fashion, would suit the spirit of a materialist conservatism much more closely than is generally supposed. England produced in the person of Robert Owen a conservative and even aristo- cratic Socialist, the first person to coin that name ; and in the person of Karl Rodbertus Germany produced another con- servative Socialist, one of the most remarkable economic thinkers of our century.
In this work Professor Gonner has given us an exposition and a criticism of the work of Rodbertus, the first adequate review of this important thinker in the English language, though it is a quarter of a century since Rodbertus's death. Except that we should have liked a fuller account of the life of Rodbertus, we have nothing but praise for this able work. Whatever the author's own views may be, he writes without bias in a purely objective way, able to appreciate various schools of thought and points of view, and well equipped for his task by a complete grasp of the history of economic theories. In many ways this is a model of what a critical treatise on economics should be. The work is divided into three parts. In the first the position and characteristics of Rodbertus are considered, the leading features of his teach- ing are set forth, and there is a sketch of a system based on that teaching. In the next part the nature and growth of society, its principles of life and action, the modern State and its principles, and the subject of private property in land and capital, are considered. Then, in the next part, fundamental economic conceptions as to value, wages, rent, capital, and interest are expounded, and Rodbertus's theory of dis- tribution is examined. And finally, the State as an industrial organism is considered, a problem which leads up to the criticism of the efficiency both of the present system and of the Socialist system. If any fault is to be found with this last part, it is that it is a little too compressed considering the vastness and complexity of the subject, so that one must weigh carefully every line so as to be sure he has caught the meaning.
It is singular that we should owe a system of Socialism to a Prussian squire, yet this is what Rodbertus was after serving for a time in the State service. He had received a legal education, and he distinguished himself for some years by his political activity. He was a member of local bodies, and of the united Landtag of Prussia, where he championed German political unity, and for a few weeks he was Prussian Minister of Education. In 1849 his public career ended, and he retired to his Pomeranian estate to devote himself to his social and economic studies until his death in 1875. His quiet life is a striking contrast to the turbulent and brilliant career of Lassalle, and the hard, bitter existence in exile of Karl Marx. He is always and before all things a student and thinker, never an agitator. He is, as Professor Gonner says, " singularly and pleasingly unpartisan. No party can claim him wholly and entirely. No doubt he builds on a broad Socialist basis; but his Socialism is not
• The Social Philosophy of Rodbertus. By E. C. B. Groaner, M.A. London : 51..teuilllan and Co. [is. IA
active, vehement, aggressive, and one-sided." His method of treating social problems was in large measure determined by his legal education and administrative experience as well as by his conservative and philosophic temperament. He recognised how slowly the world moves, and how difficult is the administration of human affairs. Hence, the revolutionary Socialists of Germany with their hard dogmas, their violent passions, and their belief in the possibility of sudden social changes, have never taken kindly to Rodbertus.
Rodbertus derived his social and economic conceptions from the study of history. "He thinks," writes Professor Gonner, "as it were, in history, and history it is which per.
meates his whole body of doctrine Among political thinkers Burke, perhaps, is the one most closely akin to him in this respect. In both are present the same statesmanlike use of history and the same intuitive feeling for fact, not as illustration, hardly as the basis on which to build, but rather as the veritable presentation of theory at a given time." Social life, Rodbertus teaches, is the creation of history, as individual life is the outcome of the cosmic process. " Physical creation is essentially an individualising process, while history is a socialising process." There is, perhaps; a fallacy here ; for surely, we may assert, the socialising process of history produces a far greater individual than the " forked radish with a head fantastically carved " of mere physical Nature. The historical growth of society is divided by Rodbertus into three epochs : the State of Pagan Antiquity, the Christian Teutonic State; and the State of the Future (die melt Itrohere Staatordnung der Zukunft). Between these three epochs come transitional periods of dissolution and formation in which Individualism rules ; but the normal condition of mankind is that in which social forces are supreme. The present time is that in which Individualism has become strong enough to destroy the old social, family, and economic bonds, and to sweep men into the great net of capitalism. Under this state of things Rodbertus holds with the average Socialist that the working classes are as truly enslaved as in former times, though the form of the slavery is different; and he holds also that, under this condition, poverty must persist and increase. One would say that he must draw the inevitable conclusion,—Socialist revolution or remedial measures directly intended to lead to Socialism; but he does not. With the ordinary remedial measures he will have little to do ; indeed, he argues strongly against some of them. With revolution he will have nothing to do, and for this reason : in his eyes " culture " is the most important aim of society, and the " surplus " of wealth which labour creates should go to the spread of culture. But workmen do not realise the importance of culture, and if they had the chance to-day they would appropriate to physical satis- factions this surplus of wealth on which the entire fabric of higher civilisation depends. We must, there- fore, according to Rodbertus, wait patiently until the world-forces have dissolved the present economic structure, when, with a wiser race of men, the new Socialist fabric of society will be reared. It must not be supposed that Rodbertus contented himself with generalising, for he endeavoured to anticipate and to provide for the actual business needs of the community, particularly in the pro- visional stage towards the new order. His capacity for grasping the details of finance and business was very remark- able, and all his practical proposals are ingenious. But the interesting fact to be noted about him is the paradox (if one may call it so) that while he was absolutely convinced of the necessity and certainty of Socialism as the next world-order, he was also as fully convinced that Socialism was impossible now on account of the want of moral strength and the lack of appreciation of any high standard of life on the part of the mass of mankind.
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