Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/730

THE ]ECONOMIC JOURNAL .;s ? proof that even now Marxism holds there but limited sway, ?-.d ?hat Berlin remains, as it was,'the territory selected by the fxanc-tirenrs of social politics for their incnrsions. l?ow however ?hat Liebknecht, the guardian of the genuine Ring, ? is chief editor of the Berlin official press-organ belonging to the party, the final and permanent conquest of the capital by the orthodox doctrine may follow at any time. And then the contemporary epoch o! German Social Democracy will stand exclusively under the constellation o! the doctrine according to Marx. But just as Marx's own attitude towards the existing con- stitution of society betrayed 'his fiaw'd heart 'twixt two extremes '--stubborn defiance depreciating every gift from the present State, and sincere appreciation for the State's provision for workmen on the English model--so in the whole development of the German labour movement since the death of Lassalle this same division of opinion is reflected. Originally Social I)emo- cracy looked very sceptically on the protection of labour, which held out the prospect of the possibility of real improvement in the situation of the labourLug classes. It saw no chance of a truly fertile and lasting utility o! any kind on the basis of the existing economic order. And all laboqr legislation was denounced as idle decorative painting in social politics, offering the people sham glistening tinsel instead of honest gifts. But in view of the mass of opposing evidence and under the weight of their responsibility towards the proletariate the Social Democrats could not long maintain this absolutely negative standpoint, and have gradually adopted generally and unambiguously the more optim- istic opinion, that a careful State-protection of labour is actually able to lift the labourers to a higher standard, physically, morally, and intellectually, or at the very least to hinder the degradation of the masses which is inevitable under capitalism. This admis- sion is rendered still more significant by a further declaration on the part of those leading members who set the pac. e, to the effect that no ' speedy ' collapse of the modern national economy could be looked for, and that the proletariate must therefore for better for worse make shift in their self-adjustments with the basis of the existing order of society. The latest move in our social politics has impelled Socialism to yet one step farther on the course once entered upon. In the central organ of that party appears the following declaration ?Tun.g from Liebknecht. 'We know that protection for See Lessing's Natlmn der Weise. [Editor.]