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SOCIALISM: POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE

by

ROBERT RIVES LA MONTE







     "I will make a man more precious than fine gold;
     even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir."
                            --_Isaiah xiii, 12._


Chicago
Charles H. Kerr & Company
1907

Copyright 1907
by Charles H. Kerr & Company


[Illustration: logo]

Press of
John F. Higgins
Chicago




TO

M. E. M. AND L. H. M.




PREFACE


Of the papers in this little volume two have appeared in print before:
"Science and Socialism" in the International Socialist Review for
September, 1900, and "Marxism and Ethics" in Wilshire's Magazine for
November, 1905. My thanks are due to the publishers of those periodicals
for their kind permission to re-print those articles here. The other
papers appear here for the first time.

There is an obvious inconsistency between the treatment of Materialism
in "Science and Socialism" and its treatment in "The Nihilism of
Socialism." I would point out that seven years elapsed between the
composition of the former and that of the latter essay. Whether the
inconsistency be a sign of mental growth or deterioration my readers
must judge for themselves. I will merely say here that the man or woman,
whose views remain absolutely fixed and stereotyped for seven years, is
cheating the undertaker. What I conceive the true significance of this
particular change in opinions to be is set forth in the essay on "The
Biogenetic Law."

Some Socialists will deprecate what may seem to them the unwise
frankness of the paper on "The Nihilism of Socialism." To them I can
only say that to me Socialism has always been essentially a
revolutionary movement. Revolutionists, who attempt to maintain a
distinction between their exoteric and their esoteric teachings, only
succeed in making themselves ridiculous. But, even were the maintenance
of such a distinction practicable, it would, in my judgment, be highly
inexpedient. As a mere matter of policy, ever since I first entered the
Socialist Movement, I have been a firm believer in the tactics admirably
summed up in Danton's "_De l'audace! Puis de l'audace! Et toujours de
l'audace!_"

Should any reader find himself repelled by "The Nihilism of Socialism,"
let me beg that he will not put the book aside until he has read the
essay on "The Biogenetic Law."

I do not send forth this little book with any ambitious hope that it
will be widely read, or even that it will convert any one to Socialism.
My hope is far more modest. It is that this book may be of some real
service, as a labor-saving device, to the thinking men and women who
have felt the lure of Socialism, and are trying to discover just what is
meant by the oft-used words 'Marxian Socialism,' Should it prove of
material aid to even _one_ such man or woman, I would feel that I had
been repaid a hundred-fold for my labor in writing it.

                                               ROBERT RIVES LA MONTE.
Feb. 7, 1907.




TABLE OF CONTENTS


                                                    PAGE

SCIENCE AND SOCIALISM                                 15

     I. THE MATERIALISTIC CONCEPTION OF HISTORY       25

    II. THE LAW OF SURPLUS-VALUE                      34

   III. THE CLASS STRUGGLE                            46

MARXISM AND ETHICS                                    57

INSTEAD OF A FOOTNOTE                                 75

THE NIHILISM OF SOCIALISM                             81

THE BIOGENETIC LAW                                   131

KISMET                                               143




SCIENCE AND SOCIALISM[1]

(International Socialist Review, September, 1900.)


Until the middle of this (the nineteenth) century the favorite theory
with those who attempted to explain the phenomena of History was the
Great-Man-Theory. This theory was that once in a while through infinite
mercy a great man was sent to the earth who yanked humanity up a notch
or two higher, and then we went along in a humdrum way on that level, or
even sank back till another great man was vouchsafed to us. Possibly the
finest flower of this school of thought is Carlyle