The Psychology of Socialism
Book 3: Socialism As Affected By Race
Chapter 2: Socialism in England and America
Gustave Le Bon
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I. The Anglo-Saxon conceptions of the State and of education :- A nation is affected, not by the political system it may adopt, but by the conception it holds of the respective duties of the State and the individual--The Anglo-Saxon social ideal--This ideal remains the same under the most various political systems--The mental characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon -- Differences between his private and collective morality -Solidarity and energy--Anglo-Saxon diplomatists-How the qualities of the race are preserved by education-Characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon education--The results. 2. The social ideals of the Anglo-Saxon workers:-Education of the workers-How they become employers -- Rarity of social failures- Why manual work is not despised among the Anglo-Saxons-- Administrative capacities of the Anglo-Saxon workers-How acquired-Working men are often made justices of the peace in England-How the Anglo-Saxon worker defends his interests against his employer-Aversion of the English working man for State intervention-The American working man Industry and private enterprise in America--Collectivism and anarchy in England and America-Their disciples are gathered only from inferior trades exercised by the less capable workers-The army of Socialists in the United States-It will be necessary to fight against it.
I. THE ANGLO-SAXON CONCEPTIONS OF THE STATE, AND OF EDUCATION.
IT is above all in comparing the conceptions of the State held respectively by the English and the Latins that we perceive clearly that institutions are the outcome of race, and also to what an extent similar names may conceal profoundly dissimilar things. We may, as did Montesquieu, and many another, discourse upon the advantages, as far as we can perceive them, which a
(112) republic offers over a monarchy, or the reverse ; but if, under such dissimilar systems, we find nations possessing identical social conceptions, and very similar institutions, we must conclude that these political systems, nominally so different, have no real influence over the minds of the nations they are supposed to rule.
I have already insisted on this absolutely fundamental thesis in my preceding volumes. In my volume on the psychologic laws of the evolution of nations I have shown, with regard to neighbouring peoples, the English of the United States and the Latins of the Spanish American republics, that their evolution has not been the same, although their political institutions are very similar, those of the latter being in general copied from those of the former. Yet, while the great Anglo-Saxon republic is in the heyday of prosperity, the Spanish-American republics, notwithstanding an admirable soil and inexhaustible natural wealth, are in the lowest slough of decadence. Without arts, without commerce, without industries, they have one and all fallen into decay, bankruptcy, and anarchy. They have had so very many men at the head of affairs that a few of them must have been capable ; but none have been able to alter the course of their destinies.
The political system which a nation adopts is not a matter of great importance. This vain exterior costume is, like all costumes, without real influence on the mind of those it covers. The thing important to know, in order to comprehend the evolution of a nation, is the conception it holds of the respective duties of the State and the individual. The name, be it of monarchy or republic, inscribed on the pediment of the social edifice, has no virtue of itself.
What I am about to say concerning the conception of the State in England and America will justify the fore-
(113) -going assertions. Having already presented, in the above-mentioned volume, the characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon mind, I shall confine myself at present to briefly summing them up.
Its most essential qualities may be stated in a few words-enterprise, energy, strength of will, and, above all, self-control ; that is to say, that internal discipline which makes it needless for the individual to seek other guides than himself.
The social ideal of the Anglo-Saxons is very clearly defined, whether under the English monarchy or the republic of the United States. It consists in reducing the functions of the State to a minimum, and increasing the functions of the individual to a maximum, precisely the contrary of the Latin ideal. Railways, seaports, universities, schools, &c., are created solely by private enterprise, and the State-above all in America-has never any voice in such matters.
A fact that prevents other peoples from properly understanding the English character is that they forget to draw a very distinct line of demarcation between the individual conduct of the Englishman and his collective conduct. His individual morality is, as a general thing, very strict. The Englishman acting in the character of a private person is extremely conscientious, extremely honest, and respects his engagements in general ; but English statesmen, acting in the name of the collective interests of England, are of quite another complexion. They are often completely without scruple. A man who should point out to an English minister an opportunity of enriching himself without danger by having an elderly millionaire lady strangled, might be sure of being immediately sent to prison ; lout let any adventurer, Dr. Jameson, for example, propose to an English statesman-1 suppose to Mr. Chamberlain--that he
(114) should gather together a band of brigands; should invade, under arms, the ill-defended territory of a little republic in the south of Africa, massacre part of its inhabitants, take possession of the country, and thus augment the wealth of England-the adventurer is certain to receive a cordial welcome, and to see his proposition immediately accepted. If he succeeds, public opinion will be in his favour. It is by proceedings analogous to these that English statesmen have succeeded in conquering the greater number of the small kingdoms of India. It is true that other nations employ the same tactics in matters of colonisation ; if they are more prominent in English affairs, it is that the English, being abler arid more audacious, more often see their enterprises crowned with success. The wretched lucubrations which the makers of books call the laws of nations, international laws, &c., &c., merely represent a kind of code of theoretical politeness, fit only to distract the leisure of such elderly juriconsults as are too worn out to busy themselves in a useful occupation. In practice they mean precisely as much as do the formulae of protestation, consideration, and friendship at the end of diplomatic despatches.
The Englishman entertains, with regard to the individuals of his race-other races do not exist for himsentiments of fellowship which no other peoples possess in the same degree. These sentiments amount to a community of thoughts; the English national mind is very solidly constituted. An Englishman isolated in no matter what quarter of the world regards himself as a representative of England, and considers it his strict duty to act in the interests of his country. England for him is the first power III the universe, lire only power, in tact, of any account.
" In the countries where he is already preponderant,
(115) and above all in those where he wishes to be so, the Englishman," writes the Transvaal correspondent of the Temps, "begins by stating, as an axiom, his superiority over all the other peoples of the world. By his perseverance and tenacity, by his clannishness and force of will, he introduces his manners, his pleasures, his language, his newspapers, and even succeeds in transplanting his cookery ! The other nations he regards with sovereign disdain ; even with hostility, when their representatives show themselves inclined, or bold enough, to dispute with him the right of a little portion of colonial soil. In the Transvaal we have the daily proof of this. England is not only the paramount power, she is the first, the one and only nation of the world."
A French deputy, M. de Mahy, has cited in Parliament a good example of British solidarity. Uganda, as every one knows, is the finest province of Equatorial Africa. At one time we could have obtained it; we hesitated. A simple English missionary who happened to be on the spot took it upon himself, seeing the importance of the country, to sign a protectorate treaty with the native chiefs ; he then set out for London, and naturally obtained the most cordial reception from the English Government. All his clauses were ratified, and England became possessed of Uganda without expense. To complete her conquest she only had to shoot down a few thousand natives who had been converted by our missionaries, and who, for this reason, were suspected of favouring France.
This national unity, so rare among the Latin races, gives England an irresistible strength. This it is that makes their diplomacy everywhere so powerful. As the national mind has been a fixed quantity fur n lung period, their diplomatists all think in the same fashion on essential subjects. They receive perhaps less instruc-
(116) -tions than the agents of any other nation, and yet they have more unity of action and more sense of consequences than any others. They may be regarded as interchangeable pieces. Any English diplomatist succeeding any other English diplomatist will act exactly as his predecessor acted.[1] Among the Latins absolutely the reverse is true. In Tonkin, in Madagascar, and in our other colonies we have had precisely as many different political systems as governors, and we know whether the latter are often changed ! The French diplomatist creates a political system, but is incapable of possessing a policy.
The English system of education, though summary in appearance, does not prevent the English from producing a class of thinkers and scientists equal to those of the nations possessing the most cultured schools. These thinkers, recruited outside of the universities and societies, are characterised above all by an originality which only self-made minds can possess, and which is never found among those who have been poured into identical moulds on college benches ?
This originality of thought and style is found even in scientific works where one would least expect it to show itself. Let us, for instance, compare the scientific works of Tyndall, Kelvin, Tait, &c., with the analogous works written by our professors. On every page we find originality, on every page expressive and striking demonstrations, while the cold and correct works of our professors
(117) are all written on the same model. When we have read one we have read all. Their end is by no means science for its own sake; they are mere preludes to examination. This, by the way, is always carefully stated on the cover.
To resume : the Englishman seeks to make of his son a man armed for life, able to rely on himself, and to grow out of that perpetual tutelage which the Latins cannot shake off. This education gives, above all, and before all, self-control, which is the national virtue of England, and which would have sufficed almost of itself to assure her prosperity and greatness.
The above-mentioned principles resulting from those sentiments whose aggregate constitute the English national mind, we should naturally look to find them in all the countries inhabited by the same race, and notably in America ; and we do actually find them there. A judicious observer, M. de Chasseloup-Laubat, expresses himself as follows :
"The manner in which the Americans understand the functions of education in society is yet another cause of the stability of their institutions. They hold that general education, and not instruction, should be the aim of the pedagogue ; excepting, of course, a minimum of facts which they teach their children in the primary schools. In their eyes physical, intellectual, and moral education, that is to say, the development of the energy and endurance whether of body, mind, or character, constitutes, for every individual, the principal factor of success. Certain it is that the power to work, the will to succeed, and the habit of repeated effort towards a determined point are inestimable things, for they may be applied in every career at every moment ;while instruction, on the contrary must vary according to the pupil's condition, and the functions to which he is destined."
The ideal of the Americans is to prepare men to live,
(118) not to gain diplomas. Encouragement of initiative, development of will, the habit of thinking for oneselfthese are the results obtained. From these ideals to the ideals of the Latin races is a far cry. In the course of this investigation we shall see the differences between the two grow more and more accentuated.
2. THE SOCIAL IDEALS OF THE ANGLO-SAXON WORKERS.
But in England the Socialists are recruited above all from the working classes, not from the leisured classes. We must therefore abandon the preceding generalities, and inquire as to the sources of instruction and education of the Anglo-Saxon working man, and as to how his ideas are formed.
His instruction and education differ very little from those of the lower middle classes, being equally effected by contact with things themselves, and not at all by the influence of books. For this very reason there could not exist in England that profound gulf created between the different classes by the competitions and diplomas of the Latin nations. You may often find in France a factory hand or a miner who has become an employer; you will never find one who has become an official engineer, since in order to do so he would have first of all to pass through the schools that grant diplomas, and grant them only to those who enter the schools before twenty. The English working man, if he has sufficient capacity, becomes first foreman and then engineer, and cannot become an engineer in any other way. Nothing could be more democratic, and with such a system there should he neither waded abilities nor social failures. No one would entertain the idea of despising manual labour, so disdained and ignored by our bachelors and licentiates,
(119) since manual labour constitutes a necessary period of transition.
We have seen what are the English workman's sources of technical instruction ; we will now inquire into the sources of his theoretical instruction, of that kind of instruction which is so necessary when it follows or accompanies practice, instead of preceding it. The primary school having furnished him with the rudiments only of instruction, he himself feels the need of completing the process, and to this complementary study, of whose utility he is sensible, he carries all the energy of his race. This necessary complement he acquires easily by means of evening classes, which have been founded everywhere by private enterprise, the subjects of which always bear on what the students learn practically in the mine and workshop. Thus they always have the means of verifying the utility of what they learn.
To this source of instruction we must add the free libraries, which are founded all over the country, and also the newspapers and journals. No comparison can be made between the futile French journals, which have not a reader across the Channel, and the English journals, so rich in precise information of every kind. Journals dealing with mechanical inventions, such as Engineering, are read above all by workmen. The small popular provincial papers are full of instruction with regard to industrial and economic questions in all parts of the globe. M. des Rouziers speaks of his conversations with workshop hands, whose remarks showed him that they are " far better informed of the affairs of the world than the great majority of Frenchmen who have received what is conventionally called a liberal education." He quotes a discussion which lie hail with two of them on the question of bimetallism, the effects of the McKinley tariff, and so forth ; no elegant phrases, but just and practical observations.
(120)
So much for theoretical instruction. But how does the working man acquire those general economic ideas which exercise his judgment and help him to manage his affairs ? Simply by taking part in the direction of the undertakings in which he is interested, instead of getting them attended to by the State or by an employer. The smallest labour centres possess co-operative, friendly, insurance, and other societies, directed solely by working men. Thus the Anglo-Saxon workers find themselves daily confronted with realities, and soon learn not to meddle with impossibilities and dreams. "Great Britain," writes M. des Rouziers, 11 by means of this multitude of autonomous societies-co-operative societies, temperance associations, mutual aid societies, trades-unions, &c.-is preparing generations of capable citizens, and at the same time prepares herself to suffer, without violent revolution, the political transformations which may take place." As a proof of the practical ability which the English working man thus acquires, M. des Rouziers mentions that in one year seventy working men were made justices of the peace, while there were twelve in Parliament, in the last Liberal Administration of 1892, amongst them an Undersecretary of State. The sums deposited by working men in trades-unions, private societies, and savings banks, are valued at £320,000,000.
It is easy to perceive that these results are purely the consequence of racial characteristics, and not of environment, from the fact that workers of different race, placed beside English working men, and subjected to conditions absolutely identical, present none of the qualities I have just described. Such, for example, are the Irish hands in the English shops. M. des Rouziers, with many others, has noted their inferiority, which persists equally in America. "They show no desire to better themselves; they are satisfied as soon as they have enough to eat." In
(121) America, the Irish, like the Italians elsewhere, scarcely ever exercise any other trades than those of beggar, politician, bricklayer, servant, or rag-picker.
Thoroughly impressed with the necessities of economics, the English working man is perfectly able to discuss his interests with his employer, and at need to force his demands by a strike ; but he is not jealous of him, and does not hate him, precisely because he does not consider him to be made of different clay. He knows exactly what his employer gains, and consequently what he can give. He will only risk a strike if, after due deliberation, he decides that the disproportion between the respective remuneration of capital and labour is too great. " He does not seriously abuse his employer for two reasons : if he abuses him he ruins him, and if he ruins him he is no longer an employer." The idea of forcing State intervention between worker and master, so dear to our Socialists, is altogether antipathetic to the English workman. To demand strike pay of the State would appear at once immoral and absurd. Taine, in his Notes sur l'Angleterre, had already noticed this aversion of the English working man for Government protection, and opposed this characteristic aversion to the constant appeal of the French working man to the State.
Otherwise than on the Continent, the English working man is the victim of economic fluctuations, and of the industrial disasters thereby occasioned ; but he has too much of the sense of necessities and the knowledge of affairs to hold his employer responsible for such accidents. He will have nothing to do with the dithyrambics on the exploiters of labour, and infamous capital, so dear to our Latin demagogues. He is well aware that the labour question is not limited to the conflict between labour and capital, but that both are subject to an equally important factor-demand. He accordingly submits when he
(122) judges a reduction of salary or a term of enforced idleness to be inevitable. Thanks to his enterprise and his education he can even change his calling at need. M. des Rouziers makes mention of English masons spending six months of the year in the United States in order to find work there, and of other workers who, finding themselves ruined by the importation of Australian wool, sent out delegates to study the question on the spot. They bought Colonial wool on the spot, and very soon, by opening a new branch of trade, transformed the conditions of life in their district. Such energy, enterprise, and ability among workmen would seem very extraordinary in a Latin country. We have only to cross the Atlantic in order to find these qualities yet further developed among the Anglo-Saxons of America, in which country, above all others, no one ever counts on the State. It would never enter an American's mind to require the State to establish railways, ports, universities, &c. Private enterprise alone suffices for all such matters, and is shown above all, and to a most remarkable degree, in the construction of the immense railroads which enmesh the great Republic. Nothing could better show the gulf which separates the Latin from the Anglo-Saxon mind in matters of enterprise and independence.
The railroad industry is regarded, in the United States, as any other industry. Undertaken by associated individuals, it is only maintained if it be productive. The thought would never occur to any one that the shareholders might, as in France, be requited by the Government. The largest lines at present running were in every case begun on a small scale, in order to limit risk. A line is extended only if its commencement be successful. By this simple means the American lines have reached a development unequalled in any European nation, despite the protection of their Governments. Yet nothing
(123) could be more simple than the administrative machinery of these enormous concerns ; a very small number of interested and responsible officials suffices to conduct them.
Let us examine," writes M. L. P. Dubois, "the simple, precise, and rapid working of the administrative machinery. No bureaux, no irresponsible clerks, preparing reports which their chiefs sign without reading. The motto is ' each for himself.' The work, necessarily divided, is at the same time decentralised ; from top to bottom of the scale each has his own functions and his own responsibilities, and does all by himself ; it is the best of all systems for discovering individual qualities. Errand-boys and type-writer girls for writing letters to dictation are the only personal auxiliaries. Nothing drags : every matter must be settled within twenty-four hours. Every one is as busy as he can be, and from the president to the simple clerk every one works nine hours a day. Consequently the headquarters of a great railroad require only a small staff, and occupy only a small space; the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railway, which has more than six thousand miles of lines in the Western States, occupies only one story of its building in Adams Street, Chicago ; the St. Paul Railway does the same.
The president personally directs the entire business ; he is the commander-in-chief. He is a universal person ; all important questions of every branch of the service are submitted to him ; he is by turns engineer, economist, and financier ; an advocate in the courts of justice, a diplomatist in his relations with the Legislature. He is always in the breach. Often a president will have passed through all the stages, active or sedentary, of the service ; one began as machinist in the service of the company he now directs. All are men of the high worth entirely characteristic of the best type of the American business
(124) man, formed by practice, and through practice led to general ideas."
The preceding remarks enable us easily to foresee what small chance of success our ideas of State Socialism, so natural to the Latin peoples, can have among the Anglo Saxons. It is, therefore, not astonishing that the completest discord should immediately occur when the delegates of Anglo-Saxon and Latin workers respectively encounter one another at a Socialist congress. The English race owes its power to the development of private enterprise, and the limitation of the attributes of the State. Its progress is therefore the reverse of Socialism, and it only prospers by the fact.
Yet both England and America also have heard the worst forms of collectivism and even anarchy preached. For several years we have seen the progress of Socialism in England, but we see also that it gathers its recruits almost exclusively from among the trades which are badly paid, and which are consequently exercised by the less capable workers, that is, by those " unfit," to whom I shall subsequently devote a chapter. These alone demand, and these alone are interested in demanding, the nationalisation of the soil and of capital, and the protection of Government intervention.
But it is more especially in the United States that the Socialists possess an immense army of disciples ; an army which grows every day more numerous and more menacing, recruited from the increasing flood of immigrants of foreign blood, without resources, without energy, and without adaptability to the conditions of existence in their new country, who to-day form an immense social drain. The United States already foresee the day when it will he necessary to plunge into blood' warfare to defend themselves against these multitudes. It will be a merciless war of extermination, which will
(125) recall, but on a far larger scale, the destruction of the barbarian hordes to which Marius was forced, that he might save Roman civilisation from their invasion. Knowing the qualities of the two combatants, the issue of the conflict is certain ; but it will undoubtedly be one of the most frightful struggles that have ever been recorded by history. Yet only, perhaps, at the price of such holocausts can the holy cause of the independence of man and the progress of civilisation be saved ; that cause which more than one nation seems ready to-day to abandon.
