Liberals meant when they recognised the Right to Work. Further, when Bismarck was piloting his anti-Socialist legislation through the Reichstag in 1884, he declared that a recognition of the Right to Work was necessary as a part of the programme by which he was to kill the menace of Socialism by kindness. The Liberals had then abandoned the principles of individualism and were standing by those of wage slavery, and attacked Bismarck for his declaration. In reply to their leader, Richter, he said categorically: "I recognise unconditionally a right to labour." Hence, used as it has been in Germany, as a mere poor law claim, it has not only disappeared from the demands of the German Social Democrats, but has been opposed by them at International Congresses.
In this country, however, it has been revived in its true significance and is put forward more frequently than any single demand in the Socialist programme.
The reasons are obvious, and a narration of them will throw further light upon Socialist methods and purposes.
The Socialist revives the classical individualist claim that unless a man can find the means of life all theories about his liberty are but unreal shadows, and the duty imposed upon him to preserve his life cannot be borne by him. In society the right to work cannot be made effective except by the state. A man cannot go to any single employer and say: "I demand employment"; but he may
