312 THE CLASS STRUGGLE RUSSIA AND GERMANY 313 fanatic and ordered the latter arrest. The colonies that Robert Owen founded did not last very long. The members soon began to quarrel among themselves. The colonies, which Robert Owen thought served as a stepping stone to the Socialist State, were soon ruined. Not a trace of them is left. Thus ended Socialism in the first half of the last century, which is known as the period of Utopian Socialism.
Scientific Socialism About a decade after the failure of the Socialist experiments of Robert Owen and his comrades, Karl Marx and his friend Frederick Engels let themselves be heard. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels agreed with their predecessors that the only way to free ourselves from the Insane Asylum is through Socialism. But they differed from the Utopians in the theory and in the means and ways with which to accomplish the selfsame end. The Utopian Socialists were, as far as philosophy is concerned, idealists. They believed in the power of the idea.
They did not know of a class struggle. They thought that Socialism can come into being at all times, and can be carried out by everybody regardless to what group or what class they belonged.
They contended that all depends upon the will of the people. The people only have to desire a certain system and it will take place. Marx, a materialist in philosophy, entertained a different point of view. He claimed that Socialism cannot be realized at all times and be carried out by everybody, but that it can only occur in a certain historical epoch, and can be carried out only by a certain class of people. The will of the people cannot change the economic conditions. On the contrary, the will depends upon the economic conditions. The will is not the cause, but it is rather the direct result. The economic conditions are not influenced by the consciousness, but the consciousness is influenced by the economic conditions. People are influenced by their class interest. class struggle exists. Idealistic motives will never convert a class whose interests are opposed to Socialism.
Robert Owen and his comrades desired to obtain Socialism when Capitalism was not yet sufficiently developed when the production was still carried on by hand worked implements.
Such a desire could only have been an illusion an Utopian dream. At such a time Socialism is a contradiction of the entire economic basis. When production is carried on by crude handimplements, private ownership is a necessity and the only thing possible. The quintessence of hand work is individualism. Then the division of labor does not exist. commodity is begun and finished by the self same worker. The qualification of the commodity depends entirely upon the skill of the worker. If the worker happens to be an efficient one, the product is good; if not, the quality of the product is not worth very much. The product bears in itself the individualism of the worker. In some of the small towns of Russia, and Roumania, where the liand worker is the chief producer, a specialist will be able to determine who the producer of a given article is, for the personality of the worker is impressed upon the commodity. If we have individualism in production then we must necessarily have individualism in consumption of the product. The form of consumption must be adapted to the form of production. Private ownership (which means individualism in consumption) must be the result of individualism in production (hand work. The failure of Socialism at such a time was a very natural thing.
The failure was rooted in the economical conditions of that time.
The situation has entirely changed since the time of the handworker. The primitive instruments, the hatchet, and the hammer, have been replaced by gigantic machines; the small shop, where the owner and his children and near relatives were the sole workers, has been replaced by huge factories where thousands of workers are employed; the small shopkeeper has been replaced by the powerful capitalist; the stage coach has been replaced by the great system of railways. In short the present production is based upon the division of labor. The factory worker does not do the whole work on any article, but works on only a very small part of the product. The process of manufacturing has become simply mechanical. The present system of production does not demand mental ability, but physical energy. The qualification and personality of the worker has no significance as far as the product is concerned. The modern product is the result not of an individual undertaking, but of a collective workmanship. The present system of production is Socialistic.
Since the consumption must be adapted to the production, the former must also be made Socialistic. How is it in reality?
At present the consumption is based upon the right of private ownership. The contradiction between the production which is socialistic and the consumption which is individualistic is very evident. This contradiction is the cause of the class struggle.
The workers who earn their livelihood in the collective atmosphere of the large factories become psychologically collectively inclined. They begin to demand, whether consciously or unconsciously, such a state of affairs where the consumption will be adapted to the production. They become the sponsors of Socialism. The wealthy class, the owners, who live comfortably in an atmosphere of private ownership, desire no change of