SOCIALISM 475 



competition — is incompatible with the converse doctrine that the 

 liberty of each is limited by the liberty of his fellows. 



More logical than Liberalism, SociaUsm has erected the theory 

 of the Rechtsstaat into a pohtical creed ; it has drawn from this 

 doctrine a pohtical and economic system, the avowed object of 

 which is to suspend the action of those developmental forces 

 which have given rise to all progress up till now.^ The increasing 

 competition between individuals has hitherto been the main 

 developing force underlying social evolution. But the Socialist 

 regime, assuming its advent to be inevitable, will put an end pre- 

 cisely to this competition ; it will giVe to all according to their 

 needs ; it will aboUsh poverty. It will be the object of Sociahsm, 

 in the words of Kautsky, to see that " the worker is secure in his 

 existence, even when not in work."^ And the late eminent geo- 

 grapher, Ehsee Keclus, expressed the ideal of commimism when 

 he wrote : 



" Beyond the mere ideal of daily bread and of material comfort, 

 beyond the ghtter of that social wealth which the cultivation of 

 the soil win produce, we see rising above the distant horizon a new 



^ It may be objected that this assertioix is not true ; and, as a matter 

 of fact, we notice that M. Georges Renard, one of the most distinguished 

 theorists of Socialism in France, and now Professor at the Ecole Poly- 

 technique, writes in a recent book : " Une selection des meiUeurs, portant 

 non plus sur quelques privilegies, mais sur tous les membres de la soci6te, 

 est desirable pour le bien de chacun et de la sooiete tout entifere. EUe 

 laisse subsister la hbre concurrence avec ce que cette emulation a de 

 stimulant pour I'aotivite et de fecond pour le progres general et parti- 

 cuher ; seulement, en egalissant entre les concurrents les conditions du 

 combat, eUe empeche la lutte pour la vie d'etre faussee dans ses resultats. 

 EUe permet a une elite de se former, mais a une elite reeUe, non plus 

 faotice et nominale " {Le Regime Socialiste, p. 10, Paris, lifth edition, 

 1905). Nevertheless, with all respect for M. Renard, his views are not 

 those of pure Socialism, the object of which is, by suppressing the struggle 

 for existence, to put an end to the suffering which it entails. And, further, 

 if the communistic theory of the State be put into practice, this struggle 

 is rendered impossible. 



* Karl Kautsky, The Social Revolution and on the Morrow of the Social 

 Revolution (EngUsh translation. Twentieth Century Press, 1903). 



