On the one hand, each laborer's task being short and easy, and the means for its successful accomplishment being equal in all cases, how could there be large and small producers? On the other hand, all functions being equal, either on account of the actual equivalence of talents and capacities, or on account of social co-operation, how could a functionary claim a salary proportional to the worth of his genius?
But, what do I say? In equality wages are always proportional to talents.What is the economical meaning of wages? The reproductive consumption of the laborer.The very act by which the laborer produces constitutes, then, this consumption, exactly equal to his production, of which we are speaking.When the astronomer produces observations, the poet verses, or the savant experiments, they consume instruments, books, travels, &c., &c.; now, if society supplies this consumption, what more can the astronomer, the savant, or the poet demand? We must conclude, then, that in equality, and only in equality, St.
Simon's adage--TO EACH ACCORDING TO HIS CAPACITY TO EACHCAPACITY ACCORDING TO ITS RESULTS--finds its full and complete application.
III.The great evil--the horrible and ever-present evil--arising from property, is that, while property exists, population, however reduced, is, and always must be, over-abundant.
Complaints have been made in all ages of the excess of population; in all ages property has been embarrassed by the presence of pauperism, not perceiving that it caused it.
Further,--nothing is more curious than the diversity of the plans proposed for its extermination.Their atrocity is equalled only by their absurdity.
The ancients made a practice of abandoning their children.The wholesale and retail slaughter of slaves, civil and foreign wars, also lent their aid.In Rome (where property held full sway), these three means were employed so effectively, and for so long a time, that finally the empire found itself without inhabitants.
When the barbarians arrived, nobody was to be found; the fields were no longer cultivated; grass grew in the streets of the Italian cities.
In China, from time immemorial, upon famine alone has devolved the task of sweeping away the poor.The people living almost exclusively upon rice, if an accident causes the crop to fail, in a few days hunger kills the inhabitants by myriads; and the Chinese historian records in the annals of the empire, that in such a year of such an emperor twenty, thirty, fifty, one hundred thousand inhabitants died of starvation.Then they bury the dead, and recommence the production of children until another famine leads to the same result.Such appears to have been, in all ages, the Confucian economy.
I borrow the following facts from a modern economist:--"Since the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, England has been preyed upon by pauperism.At that time beggars were punished by law." Nevertheless, she had not one-fourth as large a population as she has to-day.
"Edward prohibits alms-giving, on pain of imprisonment....
The laws of 1547 and 1656 prescribe a like punishment, in case of a second offence.Elizabeth orders that each parish shall support its own paupers.But what is a pauper? Charles II.
decides that an UNDISPUTED residence of forty days constitutes a settlement in a parish; but, if disputed, the new-comer is forced to pack off.James II.modifies this decision, which is again modified by William.In the midst of trials, reports, and modifications, pauperism increases, and the workingman languishes and dies.
"The poor-tax in 1774 exceeded forty millions of francs; in 1783-4-5, it averaged fifty-three millions; 1813, more than a hundred and eighty-seven millions five hundred thousand francs; 1816, two hundred and fifty millions; in 1817, it is estimated at three hundred and seventeen millions.
"In 1821, the number of paupers enrolled upon the parish lists was estimated at four millions, nearly one-third of the population.
"FRANCE.In 1544, Francis I.establishes a compulsory tax in behalf of the poor.In 1566 and 1586, the same principle is applied to the whole kingdom.
"Under Louis XIV., forty thousand paupers infested the capital.Mendicity was punished severely.In 1740, the Parliament of Paris re-establishes within its own jurisdiction the compulsory assessment.
"The Constituent Assembly, frightened at the extent of the evil and the difficulty of curing it, ordains the _statu quo_.
"The Convention proclaims assistance of the poor to be a NATIONAL DEBT.Its law remains unexecuted.
"Napoleon also wishes to remedy the evil: his idea is imprisonment.`In that way,' said he, `I shall protect the rich from the importunity of beggars, and shall relieve them of the disgusting sight of abject poverty.'" O wonderful man!
From these facts, which I might multiply still farther, two things are to be inferred,--the one, that pauperism is independent of population; the other, that all attempts hitherto made at its extermination have proved abortive.
Catholicism founds hospitals and convents, and commands charity;that is, she encourages mendicity.That is the extent of her insight as voiced by her priests.
The secular power of Christian nations now orders taxes on the rich, now banishment and imprisonment for the poor; that is, on the one hand, violation of the right of property, and, on the other, civil death and murder.
The modern economists--thinking that pauperism is caused by the excess of population, exclusively--have devoted themselves to devising checks.Some wish to prohibit the poor from marrying;thus,--having denounced religious celibacy,--they propose compulsory celibacy, which will inevitably become licentious celibacy.
