Fourier wrote three works of importance. The first is the one already mentioned, “La Théorie des Quatre Mouvements et des Destinées Générales”—“The Theory of the Four Movements and the General Destinies”—published in 1808. The four movements were social, animal, organic, and material, giving us society, animal life, organic life, and the material world. The object is to show that one law, that of attraction, governs them all. Newton discovered the law of one movement, the material; Fourier, that this same law of attraction pervaded all four movements. This discovery prepared the way for the most astonishing and most fortunate event which could happen to this globe—viz., “the sudden passage from social chaos to universal harmony.”[67] This work was considered incomplete by Fourier himself, and the fantastic notions and ridiculous prophecies contained in it were the subject of so much ridicule and criticism that for a long time he would not mention the book, and was unwilling to hear others speak of it. When he was afterwards urged to republish it he refused, saying that it contained errors, and he should be obliged to rewrite it, to make it satisfactory to himself.[68]

Fourier’s chief work was his “Traité de l’Association Domestique Agricole ou Attraction Industrielle”—“Treatise on Domestic Rural Association or Industrial Attraction”—published subsequently in his complete works under the title of “La Théorie de l’Unité Universelle”[69]—“The Theory of Universal Unity.” The first edition appeared in 1822. The fourteen years between the appearance of the “Théorie des Quatre Mouvements” and the “Traité de l’Association” were passed in meditation, in revolving and evolving plans in his mind.

He worked out a complete philosophy in the “Traité.” His system not only included man and the earth, but the heavens above and the waters under the earth. His scientific notions were crude in the extreme. Nature was composed of eternal and indestructible principles—of God, active and moving principle; of matter, passive principle; and of justice or mathematics, the regulating principle of the universe, to which God himself was subject. One of the most curious features of Fourier’s system is the use he makes of figures. Pythagoras himself did not attach more importance to them. They revealed to him hitherto undisclosed secrets, so that he was able to give a precise answer to any conceivable question. They enabled him to prophesy. He foresaw that the existence of the human race on this earth was to continue until it completed a period of eighty thousand years. This period is divided into four phases, two of them ascending phases of vibration or gradation, and two descending phases of vibration or degradation. The following table gives the four phases:

The life of the race thus resembles the life of man. The earth is just progressing out of its infancy. It will have passed into the second phase when it has adopted Fourier’s plan of association. Its life up to the present time has been weak, childlike, and full of sufferings, but it is to receive reparation for this in seventy thousand happy years, surpassing in good fortune any previously described millennium. Lions will become servitors of man, and draw his carriage from one end of France to another in a single day; while whales will pull his ships across the waters, provided he does not prefer to ride on the back of a seal. Sea-water will become a more delightful beverage than lemonade; while a bright light at the North Pole will not only render that part of the world inhabitable, but will diffuse an exquisite aroma over all the earth. Our bodies are part of the earth, and it suffers with us. When we adopt Fourier’s scheme we shall cease to suffer, and shall release the earth from its ills. Our souls are also parts of the great world-soul, and no part can be in pain without bringing grief to the whole. As St. Paul has it, “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together.”

Fourier believed, further, in the immortality of the soul, in its existence hereafter, and in its previous existence. He held to the transmigration of the soul, and in its frequent return to this earth to partake in the happy future of the human race. According to him, mind is always joined to matter so that it may ever enjoy material pleasures. When the mind leaves one body it unites itself to another, and always to a higher one. It develops continually. It passes also from world to world, though ever and anon returning to the earth. Our souls will have existed in one hundred and ten different worlds before the end of our planetary system. The planets themselves have immortal souls, which are also subject to transmigration. At the expiration of eighty thousand years the soul of the earth will take up its abode in another and more perfect body.

But it is not necessary to devote more time to these nonsensical speculations. It is not on their account that Fourier is remembered. He himself recognized the fact that his chief merit was the production of his social system. On this point he says:

“But what do these accessories impart to the principal affair, which is the art of organizing combined industry, whence will issue a fourfold product; good morals; the accord of the three classes—rich, middle, and poor; the discontinuance of party quarrels, the cessation of pests, revolutions, and fiscal penury; and universal unity?

“My detractors condemn themselves in attacking me on account of my views touching the new sciences—cosmogony, psychogony, analogy—which lie outside of the domain of the theory of combined industry. Although it should prove true that these new sciences are erroneous and foolish,[71] it does not remain less certain that I am the first and the only one who has presented a plan for associating inequalities and for quadrupling the products of industry in employing such passions, characters, and instincts as nature has given us. This is the only point upon which people ought to fix their attention, and not upon sciences which have only been announced.”

The “Traité de l’Association” is prolix and tedious. It abounds in meaningless combinations of figures, letters, and hieroglyphics. New and strange words, coined without necessity, often render the thoughts difficult to understand. The wheat which it undoubtedly contains is buried beneath such an immense pile of chaff that it is too likely to be overlooked. Fortunately, Fourier has given us a better and more condensed exposition of his doctrine in the “Nouveau Monde Industriel et Sociétaire”—“The New Industrial and Social World”—published in 1829,[72] and the latest of his more important works.

The central idea of Fourier’s social scheme is association. The all-pervading attraction which he discovered draws man to man and reveals the will of God. It is passionate attraction—attraction passionnelle. It urges men to union. This law of attraction is universal and eternal, but men have thrown obstacles in its way so that it has not had free course. Consequently, we have been driven into wrong and abnormal paths. When we return to right ways—when we follow the directions given us by attraction, as indicated in our twelve passions or desires—universal harmony will again reign. Economic goods—an indispensable condition of human development—will be obtained in abundance. Products will be increased many fold, owing, first, to the operation of the passion to labor and to benefit society; secondly, to the economy of associated effort.

Since happiness and misery depend upon the latitude allowed our passions—our propensities—it is necessary to enumerate these. They are divided into three classes—the one class tending to luxe, luxisme, luxury; the second tending to groups; the third to series. By luxe is meant the gratification of the desires of the five senses—hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling—each one constituting a passion. These are sensual in the original sense of the word, or sensitive. Four passions tend to groups—viz., amity or friendship, love, paternity or the family feeling (familism), and ambition. These are affective. The three remaining passions are distributive, and belong to the series. They are the passions called cabaliste, papillonne, and composite. The passion cabaliste is the desire for intrigue, for planning and contriving. It is strong in women and the ambitious. In itself it would tend to destroy the unity of social life, as would also the passion papillonne, or alternante (the love of change). These are, however, harmonized by the passion composite (the desire of union). All twelve passions unite together into the one mighty, all-controlling impulse, called unitéisme, which is the love felt for others united in society, and is a passion unknown in civilization. It is rather difficult for the uninitiated to see how this differs from the passion composite, unless it be in strength. The following table serves to make the relations of the passions clearer:[73]

A social organization must be formed which will allow free play to our passions, so that they may combine harmoniously. Our present society, called civilization,[74] does not, and cannot, do this. It is a system of oppression and repression, and is necessarily a frightful discord. Harmony can only be found in combinations of suitable numbers in communities known as phalanxes, and occupying buildings called phalansteries. Each phalanx is a unit, a great family, and dwells in a single building, a phalanstery. What is it that determines the proper number for a single phalanx? It is again the twelve passions of man. These can be combined in eight hundred and twenty different ways in as many individuals, and no possible combination ought to be unrepresented in the workers of any phalanx, or there will be a lack of perfect harmony. But in every community there will be found old men, infants, and those disabled on account of illness or accident. Provision must also be made for absences. There ought not, then, to be less than fifteen or sixteen hundred members in a phalanx, though four hundred is mentioned as a possible but undesirable minimum. Eighteen hundred to two thousand members are recommended. A larger number would produce discord, and is, therefore, inadmissible. But a further arrangement is necessary. These different characters thrown together helter-skelter would no more produce harmony than it would for one blindfolded to draw from a bag two thousand combinations of notes for the piano and play them in the order in which they were drawn. On the contrary, they must be ordered intelligently in series, the series combined into groups, and the groups united into the phalanx. Those having similar tastes form a series, which must consist of some seven, eight, or nine members. Several series having related tastes and desires unite in a group. A group undertakes some one kind of labor, as the care of fruit-trees, and a series concerns itself with one particular branch of the labor of a group, as the care of apple-trees.

All labor becomes pleasant to man, as nature meant it should be. It is only when he is forced to do a kind which he does not like, or is obliged to over-work, that productive exertion becomes repulsive. This is avoided in the phalanxes, as each one is allowed to follow his own bent, being at perfect liberty to join any group of laborers or to change from group to group as he may see fit. In fact, the desire for change—the passion papillonne, or alternante—is so strong that at the expiration of two hours a change is usually made from one kind of labor to another. Work of this character becomes play, and children like it, while men are as fond of it as of athletic sports. We now discover men undergoing severe physical exertion for the sake of excelling in running, swimming, wrestling, rowing, etc. There will spring up a similar rivalry between groups of cultivators in the phalanxes. One set of laborers will endeavor to obtain more useful products from ten or one hundred acres than another similar group from the same extent of land of like quality. We find such a rivalry at present among cultivators of the soil, and it might undoubtedly be increased in organizations such as Fourier described. Every fall you see it reported in local papers that farmer A has raised, let us say, four hundred bushels of oats from ten acres; this at once provokes B to inform the world that his ten acres yielded five hundred bushels. C may report five hundred and fifty bushels in the coming year. This demonstrates the existence of a rivalry of a valuable kind, of which much might be made. But Fourier pushed things to an extreme when he thought that the productiveness of labor might thereby be increased fourfold, or even fivefold. He held that a man could produce enough under his social régime from his eighteenth to twenty-eighth year, so that he could pass the remainder of his life in elegant leisure. He maintained, too, that if England should introduce his socialistic phalanxes her labor would become so productive that she could pay off her national debt in six months by the sale of hens’ eggs. This is what he says on this point: “It is not by millions, but by billions, that we shall value the product of small objects which are to-day despised. It is now the turn of eggs to play a grand rôle, and resolve a problem before which those learned in European finance have grown pale. They only know how to increase public indebtedness. We are going to extinguish the colossal English debt on a fixed day with half of the eggs produced during a single year. We shall not lay violent hands on a single fowl, and the work of accomplishing our purpose, instead of being burdensome, will be an amusement for the globe.

“Let us make an arithmetical calculation. We wish to pay a debt of twenty-five billions during the year 1835, with hen’s eggs.

“Let us estimate, to begin with, the real value of these eggs. I appraise them at ten sous or half a franc a dozen, when they are guaranteed fresh and of a good size, like those of the hens of Caux....

“Valuing at ten sous a dozen the guaranteed good, large, and fresh eggs of fowls, nourished with all the resources of art, we should have to count upon fifty billions of dozens of eggs in order to extinguish in a single year the English debt.

“The hen, the most precious of fowls, is a truly cosmopolitan bird. With suitable care she becomes acclimated everywhere. She flourishes on the sands of Egypt and among the glaciers of the North.

“I will prove that the hennery of one phalanx ought to contain at least 10,000 hens, not including the pullets, twenty times as numerous.

“Let us estimate that a hen lays 200 eggs a year. She ought not, perhaps, to be expected to do this under our present social régime, but well cared-for in a socialistic phalanx she could do rather more....

“Let us add up, and, after the manner of good housewives, neglect fractions.... Let us suppose that the hennery of each phalanx contains 12,000 hens, instead of 10,000.

“One thousand dozens of eggs at half a franc the dozen would amount to 500 francs. Multiplying this by 200, we would have from each phalanx a product valued at 100,000 francs. We must now multiply this by 600,000, the number of phalanxes, which gives a total product of 60,000,000,000.

“Now, as we have estimated the number of hens at 12,000 for each phalanx, in order to facilitate the calculation, it will be necessary to deduct one sixth from our product, which will leave 50,000,000,000. Divide this by two, and the quotient is 25,000,000,000, precisely the amount of the English debt expressed in round numbers.”—Q. E. D.

Of course, such amusing and ridiculous passages in Fourier’s writings do not give us any sufficient ground for condemning the cardinal principles of Fourierism.

Besides the productivity of labor by a rivalry between producers, the socialistic phalanx will avoid the waste of goods caused by industrial and commercial competition. Twenty men are often employed to do what three or four might accomplish with ease, were the labor properly organized. Think of the enormous loss to society of labor and capital due to a superfluity of retail shops all over a great country like the United States! It may not have occurred to some that whenever capital, consisting of economic goods, like houses, buildings, implements, etc., is not fully employed, or whenever men are waiting for work, economic power is being wasted. This view of the effects of competition ought to influence our legislators more than it does. Let us take the case of two parallel railroads, where one might do all the business. Thousands of acres of land are needlessly and forever removed from agricultural purposes, thousands of tons of iron and steel are diverted from other uses, the labor of hundreds of men is permanently wasted—in short, the millions sunk in the enterprise in the first place, together with the cost of maintaining and working it, are forever lost to the society. Competition thus often makes it cost far more to do a given amount of business than it would otherwise. If Fourierism could rid us of the evils of free competition without depriving us of the benefits we derive from it, it would, indeed, be in so far a great blessing to the world. Fourier felt positive that it could, but he has never succeeded in convincing a large number to put faith in his bright promises.

The economy of associated effort and associated life is one of the leading factors which will increase the wealth of man. Every square league of land has its one phalanstery occupied by a phalanx, consisting of some four hundred families. It costs no more to build a palace for all these families than it would to construct four hundred separate and uncomfortable cottages. While each family has its separate rooms, cooking is carried on in common, and great saving is thereby secured. A fire to cook four hundred dinners may not cost ten times as much as a fire to cook two, while it requires scarcely a greater exertion to watch a large roast than a small one. In the housing of animals, foods, implements, etc., a similar economy is secured. A large number working together afford every opportunity for a fruitful combination and division of labor. Other economies will be effected by the suppression of useless classes. In the new society there will be no soldiers of destruction, no policemen, agents of a discordant social régime, no criminals and lawyers, both products of civilization, of disharmony; finally, no metaphysicians and no political economists. Agriculture is the leading occupation, while commerce and manufacturing industry are reduced to a minimum. Products are conveniently exchanged among members of a commune, while phalanx exchanges superfluities with phalanx and nation with nation in the most economical manner.

Fourier’s socialistic system is not so pure a form of socialism as that of Saint-Simon, inasmuch as he retained private capital and, temporarily at least, inheritance. The division of products takes place in this wise: A certain minimum—a very generous one—is set apart for each member of the commune, and the enormous surplus is divided between labor, capital, and talent—five twelfths going to labor, four twelfths to capital, and three twelfths to talent. The division is made by the phalanxes through the agency of officers whom they elect. The maxim is not labor according to capacity and reward according to services, as with the Saint-Simonians, but labor according to capacity and reward in proportion to exertion, talent, and capital. Labor is divided into three classes—necessary, useful, and agreeable—the highest reward accruing to the first and the smallest to the last division, in accordance with the principles of equity.

Government—for which, however, there seems to be little need—is republican. Officers are elected. The chief of a phalanx is a unarch. The next highest officer is at the head of three or four phalanxes, and is called a duarch. Triarchs, tetrarchs, pentarchs, etc., follow; while the highest officer of the world is the omniarch, who dwells at Constantinople, the capital of the world.

While there are grades in society, the rich and powerful are so animated by the spirit of association—unitéisme—that the differences give no offence. Familism, the love of those nearest and dearest, loses its excluding character. The law of social attraction, “while it conserves the ties and affections of the family, will destroy its exclusive interests. Association will mingle it to such an extent with the great communal or phalansterian family that every narrow affection will disappear, that it will find its own interest in that of all, and will attach it sincerely and passionately to the public concern (chose publique).”[75]

Fourier favored the so-called emancipation of woman, and assigned her a high rank in society. He found the economic, legal, and social position of woman at any given period, or in any country, an exact measure of the true civilization of said period or country. At the same time he was obliged to allow many things which good men generally regard as degrading to woman, as he started from the belief that all natural desires and propensities were good. It is much to be feared that he would practically have abolished marriage and the family, as we now understand these institutions. It is altogether probable that Fourier would have been more successful in his propaganda had his ideas in every respect been more in consonance with the teachings of Christian morality.

Fourier was naturally a man of peace. Holding, as he did, that a single experiment would convince the world that his system of phalanxes was the only correct organization, he could not consistently advocate a violent revolution. He believed that the millennium was to dawn in a few years, even within a shorter period than ten years. Once he advised his followers not to purchase real property, as the progress of Fourierism would soon cause it to depreciate in value. His disciples have been disappointed in their hope that men would speedily accept the principles of their master, but they have ever opposed violence.

Kaufmann, in his “Schäffle’s Socialism,” thus sums up the chief merits of Fourier’s teachings: “There is a good deal of truth in some of his critical remarks. The importance of co-operative production has been recognized chiefly in consequence of his first pointing out the economical benefits of the association. The narrow-minded fear of wholesale trade, and machinery, too, was in a measure dispelled by Fourier’s unqualified recognition of their value. His remarks on the unnecessary hardships of labor and the evil consequences of excessive toil have had their influence on modern factory-laws for the protection of labor and the shortening of the labor hours. Sanitary reforms, and improvements of the laborer’s homestead, which have become the question of the hour, owe not a little of their origin to the spread of Fourier’s ideas.”

Fourier’s first adherent was Just Muiron, who attached himself to the master in 1813, and remained a faithful follower for many years. He wrote two works,[76] in which he exhibited the vices of our existing industrial society and explained the metaphysical principles of Fourierism. Gradually others joined the movement, of whom the most important was Victor Considerant, the author of “La Destinée Sociale, Exposition Élémentaire, Complète de la Théorie Sociétaire”—“Social Destiny, a Complete Elementary Exposition of the Social Theory”—published in the years 1834-38, in three volumes, and in a new edition, in 1851, in two volumes. This is the ablest presentation of the doctrine, and has become, as another writer has said, the text-book of the school. Among other members of note may be mentioned Baudet-Dulary, the deputy who, in 1832, offered an estate for an experimental association; Madame Gatti de Gammond, author of the best short and popular exposition of Fourierism;[77] Madame Clarisse Vigoureux, a wealthy and talented lady;[78] Charles Pellarin, the able biographer of his master;[79] finally, Jules le Chevalier, a former Saint-Simonian, and author of a Fourieristic work of importance.[80] When the Saint-Simonians separated, a considerable number of them passed over to Fourierism. It will be seen that the new doctrine lacked neither wealth nor ability. Its numbers were at first small, but after the death of Fourier the school received large accessions of adherents. The disciples published a paper, which, under various names,[81] and with breaks in its appearance, was published as a weekly, monthly, and daily. The disciples finally formed “The Society for the Propagation and Realization of the Theory of Fourier”—“La Société pour la Propagation et pour la Réalisation de la Théorie de Fourier”—which is probably still alive. At any rate, a writer[82] stated in 1872 that it was then in existence, in possession of a capital of seven hundred thousand francs, and was still determined to labor for the good cause. All the strictly Fourieristic experiments tried in France thus far have failed. Possibly another trial may be more successful. At present the school embraces only a small number of peaceful socialists, living mostly in Paris. Victor Considerant, now seventy-five years old, is among these.

One of the best fruits which Fourier’s teachings have borne may be found in a social community at Guise, in France, where capital and labor are associated much after his plans, although all objectionable and immoral elements appear to have been left out. The founder is Jean Godin, a wealthy manufacturer, and a Fourierist with modified views, who has used his wealth to benefit his own laborers directly and immediately, by providing them with comfortable homes, amusements, instruction, etc., and laborers, as a class, indirectly and remotely, by paving the way for a higher form of social life, a certain kind of co-operation. He himself says of the Familistère at Guise, as the building in which the community lives is called, that it “is the first example of a capital resolutely employed under a single direction, with the view of uniting in one place all the things necessary to the life of a large number of working families; it is the first example of an administration concentrating operations so diverse in order that the results may accrue to the greatest good of the families, removing thus useless intermediaries: all this in preserving, by an economic organization, the capital engaged in the enterprise.”[83]

While the community resembles a phalanx, as described by Fourier, in many respects, it also differs from it in many others. It resembles it in its abode, constructed much like a phalanstery, and with a large share of the elegance and comfort so glowingly pictured by Fourier. It resembles it also in securing economy and increased comfort by associated effort. Further resemblance is found in the care for the children, the sick, the aged, and the disabled, in the provision for education and recreation, and in the attempt to realize a condition of things fitting those who believe in the brotherhood of man. Differences are found in the large share of power which M. Godin has reserved for himself, the removal of obviously ridiculous and fantastic contrivances, and in the absence altogether of agriculture, which Fourier considered the chief occupation of regenerated society. The establishment consists of iron, copper, sugar, and chiccory factories. M. Godin regrets that agriculture has not been included in the pursuits, but it does not seem to have been found practicable.

The social body consists of about fifteen hundred members. The familistère, or social palace in which they live, is thus described: it is “‘an immense brick edifice in the form of three parallelograms,’ each of which encloses an interior court, covered with a glass roof and paved with cement. The building is four stories high. The central parallelogram, or rectangle, is two hundred and eleven feet front and one hundred and thirty feet deep.... The stores of the association ... on the lowest story of the central portion of the building ... contain whatever is necessary for ordinary need and comfort, without reference to luxuries.... ‘In the social palace fifteen hundred persons can see each other go to their daily domestic occupations, reunite in public places, go to market or shopping, under covered galleries, without traversing more than two hundred yards, and, as comfortably in one kind of weather as in another.’”[84] There is also a large nursery, where children are taught “to associate equitably with one another.” They are brought there by the mothers at about ten in the morning, and are taken back to the family apartments between five and six in the afternoon. Many pleasant things are connected with the life in this social palace, as it is called. There are numerous concerts, and a theatre furnishes opportunity for theatricals. Even a billiard-room is provided for the amusement of the members. Two festivals are celebrated yearly—“The Festival of Labor,” in May, and the “Festival of the Children,” in September.[85]

The following are a few extracts from the declaration of principles with which their “laws” open:

The products are divided according to this socialistic—not communistic—scheme between labor and capital. It has existed upwards of twenty years thus far, and has prospered. This may have been due to the talent of M. Godin, its founder. Whether it will be able to maintain its existence after his death remains to be seen.[87]

M. Godin has described his views on social problems and his endeavors to benefit the laborers in a valuable work entitled “Solutions Sociales,” which should be read carefully by those who contemplate founding co-operative or other establishments for the benefit of the masses.

Fourierism was brought to America about 1840, and soon found numerous advocates, including many names of which America is proud. Prominent among the leaders were Albert Brisbane,[88] the head of the movement, Horace Greeley, and Charles A. Dana. In his “History of American Socialisms,” Mr. Noyes mentions thirty-four experiments made by Fourierists in this country, all of which failed for some reason or other. The most remarkable of these experiments was Brook Farm. At first it was not called a phalanx, although from the start it combined many of the features of Fourierism, but it shortly fell in line and became a Fourieristic experiment. When it is mentioned that its leading spirits were George Ripley, Charles A. Dana, Margaret Fuller, and others of like character, it is needless to add that its moral basis was sound. Others, more or less connected with the experiment, were George William Curtis, Horace Greeley, Dr. Channing, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Its exceedingly interesting and pathetic history is to be found in Frothingham’s “George Ripley.”[89]

CHAPTER VI.
LOUIS BLANC.

Saint-Simon and Fourier are first among French socialists. In the history of society no socialistic systems occupy a higher rank than those to which they gave their names. France has, however, produced two other men who have taken positions as leaders in social movements. If Saint-Simon and Fourier take precedence over them in the hierarchy of socialists, there is certainly no Frenchman who can dispute their right to the next highest places. They were chiefs after Saint-Simonism and Fourierism had begun to wane and before German socialism had begun to exist. These two men were Louis Blanc and Proudhon, and it is necessary to devote a few words to them before passing over to a very brief consideration of the latest phases of French socialism.

Saint-Simon and Fourier were social reformers only. They divorced economic reform from politics. They did not seek to use the existing political machinery of society as a means to their ends. They appealed to religious fervor, to brotherly love, to self-interest, and to passionate attraction, and regarded these as quite sufficient moving and organizing forces. Although these men accomplished much, it was very little in proportion to their hopes and expectations. What they did bring to pass did not come precisely in the way they wished it. To all intents and purposes the great social problem seemed as far from solution as ever. The next step in the development of socialism was its connection with politics. A man was needed who should recognize the intimate relation between political and social life, and should take the lead in the attempt to use the power of the one to regenerate the other. Louis Blanc was the one destined to lead socialism into this way. This is his true significance. He was the first state socialist. He was a practical politician of too much influence to make it possible to ignore him, but politics were always a means, never an end. Louis Blanc is thus the connecting link between the older socialism, which was in many respects superstitious, absurd, and fantastical, and the newer, which is sceptical, hard, and practical.

Louis Blanc, journalist, author, politician, socialist, was born in Madrid, Spain, October 28, 1813. His parents were French people, who were living temporarily in Madrid, as his father had been appointed General Inspector of Finance under Joseph Bonaparte. They naturally left Spain soon after this and Louis Blanc passed his early years in Corsica, his mother’s native land. He studied in the College at Rodez, and went to Paris about 1830 to continue his studies. As the revolution had ruined his father, Louis appears for some time to have been obliged to live in cramped circumstances. He assisted himself at first by copying and teaching, but he soon began to make his influence as a writer felt. He became one of the editors of Le Bon Sens in 1834, was made editor-in-chief in 1837, and resigned in 1838, owing to a difference of views between him and the proprietors of the journal, regarding the railway question, they holding to the system of private railways while he favored state railways. He also contributed at the same time to the National, the Revue Républicaine and other papers, all of which were republican or radical periodicals. In 1839 he founded the Revue du Progrès, which became the organ of the most advanced democrats, and it was in this paper that his chief socialistic work, “Organisation du Travail”—“Organization of Labor”—appeared in 1840. It was published afterwards in book-form, and has achieved a world-wide fame. The ninth edition appeared in 1850. The first volume of his most important historical work, the “Histoire de Dix Ans”—“History of the Ten Years” (1830-40)—appeared in 1841. It was completed in sixteen volumes[90] in 1844. A twelfth edition was published in Paris in 1874, in five volumes. This is one of the most remarkable of histories. Few literary works have exercised a greater influence in shaping events. It held up the meanness, littleness, and narrowness of the reign of Louis Philippe to public gaze and contributed not a little to the overthrow of that monarch. It further contains a better account of the development of socialism during that period than can be obtained elsewhere. Louis Blanc was an actor in the events of the ten years described, and understood their import. He saw the separation growing ever wider and wider between the bourgeoisie and the fourth estate, and the political influence which the latter was beginning to acquire, and appreciated the significance of this development as no other writer. His work has consequently become an indispensable source of information regarding the reign of Louis Philippe. Next to the “History of the Ten Years” his leading historical work is the “History of the French Revolution”—“Histoire de la Révolution Française,” published in twelve volumes[91] in the years 1847-62. A second edition bears the date 1864-70. This work treats of a period which he did not understand so well as his own age. Viewing the events described through the eyes of a nineteenth century socialist, he does not always appreciate the underlying spirit. Nevertheless the work is a noteworthy one. “Charles Sumner used to say that the first volume was one of those profoundly philosophical studies which mark an epoch in literature and in the development of human intelligence.”[92] Another writer says of this history: “By many eminent judges this has been considered the most satisfactory history of the revolution yet produced. It gives evidence of careful and ingenious research, abounds in most striking delineations of character, and is written with great energy and brilliancy of style. The portraiture of Robespierre, and the description of events leading to his fall, are among the most satisfactory accounts of the subject ever presented.”[93]

Louis Blanc was prominent in the Revolution of 1848. He was made a member of the Provisional Government in February, 1848, and with his colleagues, Albert, a workman, and Ledru-Rollin, a former member of the assembly, attempted to commit the government to the introduction of a large number of socialistic measures. The majority were, however, opposed to him, and he did not meet with a great measure of success, although the droit au travail was proclaimed. This is the technical term for the right of laborers to demand work from the government if they cannot find it elsewhere.[94] He demanded the creation of a ministry of labor and progress—ministère du travail et du progrès—which should concern itself with the interests of labor. Unable to obtain the consent of the majority of his colleagues, Louis Blanc tendered his resignation, but was finally induced to withdraw it and content himself with the presidency of a powerless commission appointed to meet in the Luxembourg and debate. That was all—debate. But what does debate without authority signify in a revolution? It means the loss of precious time and of all real influence. It is contemptible and ridiculous in the eyes of the masses at such times. Louis Blanc was lost when he consented to the formation of a debating club as a substitute for a ministère du progrès. This was the purpose of the government. They made a pretext of carrying out what was implied in the droit au travail by the erection of national workshops—ateliers nationaux. The real purpose of the ministers was the discredit of Louis Blanc, who had proposed ateliers sociaux in his “Organisation du Travail.” They planned the foundation of sham national workshops, which should fail and demonstrate the impracticability of his scheme, and they carried out the programme to the letter. M. Marie, the Minister of Public Works, intrusted the management of the ateliers to Émile Thomas, one of Louis Blanc’s worst enemies, informing Thomas that “it was the well-formed intention of the government to try this experiment of the commission of government for laborers; that in itself it could not fail to have good results, because it would demonstrate to the laborers the emptiness and falseness of these inapplicable theories and cause them to perceive the disastrous consequences flowing therefrom for themselves, and would so discredit Louis Blanc in their eyes that he should forever cease to be a danger.”[95] The false reports which were continually being circulated concerning the ateliers nationaux, especially their unjust attribution to him, were a constant source of annoyance to Louis Blanc. It is probable, however, that these falsehoods have done more harm to the defenders of law and order than to the socialists. The true state of the case is now generally known, and adds bitterness to the minds of French and German laborers. The continual circulation of the falsehood that Louis Blanc had tried his ateliers sociaux and they had failed, enabled Lassalle to begin an account of them with the startling phrase: “Die Lüge ist eine europäische Macht”—“Lying is one of the great powers of Europe.”[96]

Louis Blanc’s power was of short duration. Although he sacrificed his popularity with the laborers in his endeavors to maintain peace and order, he was accused of participation in their rising of May 15, and fled to Belgium, thence to England, where he lived until the overthrow of Napoleon III., in 1870. Louis Blanc was, on the whole, well received in England, and maintained himself by literary work of various kinds. He wrote an account of the Revolution of 1848, which was published in two volumes, in 1870, in Paris. He was the English correspondent for the great French newspaper Le Temps. His letters, interesting and valuable essays on life in England, were published in four volumes in 1866 and 1867, in Paris, and in an English translation in London in the same years.[97]

The 8th of September, 1870, witnessed his return to France, where he labored for the Government of the National Defence. He was elected to the National Assembly, February 8, 1871, and took his place on the extreme Left. During the rising of the Commune of Paris he again lost popularity with laborers of revolutionary sympathies, by opposing the insurrection and taking the part of the Government of Versailles. The law of March 14, 1872, directed against the International Workingmen’s Association, even found in him a supporter, although its severity is certainly extreme. It was under this law that Prince Krapotkine was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.

After his return to Paris Louis Blanc published a work on questions of the time, entitled “Questions d’Aujourd’hui et de Demain.”[98] He continued to advocate quietly his doctrines in behalf of oppressed humanity, and had so gained in public estimation that upon his death, on the 6th of December, 1882, in Cannes, France, the Chamber of Deputies voted him the honor of a state funeral.[99]

Louis Blanc’s is a character which it is difficult to resist loving, so frank, generous, simple, and whole-souled was he. If he erred, it was largely because he attributed to others that warmth and devotion for common interests which he experienced, and that high point of honor which guided him. His tender solicitude and affection for his wife was beautiful, while his love for his brother Charles, the writer on art, has been celebrated far and wide. It is even said that his diminutive size was due to his sacrifices in behalf of the younger brother, to whom he gave the largest share of the lunch which they carried to school. A sympathetic chord seemed to connect them, for when Charles was ill in the summer of 1882, Louis, to whom the news had not been communicated, said to his friends, “Charles is ill: he is in danger.” So it proved, for Charles soon died. The affliction was a heavy blow to the surviving brother, and probably hastened his own death, which happened only a few months later. “Charles Blanc was a kind of complement to Louis. The delicacy of his (Charles’s) intellectual nature was a source of ever-new delight to the politician and man of the people, whose heart throbbed for all the woes and wants of humanity, and whose life was devoted to action rather than to the contemplation of art.”[100] This intimate affection had been noticed long before, and Alexander Dumas had them in mind when he wrote his “Les Frères Corses”—“The Corsican Brothers.”

Louis’s purity of character and his honesty of purpose were remarked by every acquaintance. Mr. Smalley[101] applies to him what Emerson said of Charles Sumner: “He was the whitest soul I ever knew:” and continues: “If ever a man lived free from stain, it was he who has just died. All his life long the fierce light of passionate political and still more passionate social controversies beat upon him. He made innumerable enemies; he was the object of innumerable calumnies. Not one of his enemies hated the man, not one of the calumnies touched his private worth.” Karl Blind, his friend, thus describes his personal appearance: “A very small, but elegantly formed man; of almost Napoleonic features, as may be common to many Corsicans; entirely beardless, which was rare in the revolutionary days. The glance of his dark, prominent eyes, brilliant, almost sparkling; his thick, dark-brown hair, long and straight; the color of his countenance rather dark. Notwithstanding his short figure—for he was not taller than Thiers—an impressive appearance.”[102]

An examination of Louis Blanc’s social philosophy is best begun by asking the question: what is in his opinion the aim of life? The answer to it is the starting-point from which all his arguments proceed. Louis Blanc finds the purpose of human existence to be happiness and development. Any acceptable, any tolerable organization of society must make both possible for every single human being. While development may come first, “it is repugnant to reason to admit in the theory of progress that humanity ought forever to be a victim of I do not know what strange and terrible combat between the flesh and the spirit.”[103] But what does development imply? It signifies that every one should enjoy precisely those means which are required for his largest mental, moral, and physical growth; or, to express it in a word, for the perfection of his personality. These requirements are for each individual his needs. The next question we have to ask is this: Does our present society guarantee to every member of it his needs? If it does not, it must be condemned. Obviously it does not. It is a war of all against all, a bellum omnium contra omnes. It is a society whose fundamental principle is competition, and competition means universal warfare. Every man’s hand is against his brother. Individualism reigns, the principle of which is that, “taking man outside of society, it renders him the sole and exclusive judge of that which surrounds him, gives him an exalted sentiment of his rights without indicating to him his duties, abandons him to his own powers, and proclaims laissez-faire as the only rule of government.”[104] The result of this is want and misery, rendering the fulfilment of his destiny impossible to man. This must be corrected by a new organization of labor, which, abandoning individualism, private property, and private competition, the fundamentals of existing society, shall adopt fraternity as its controlling principle. “Fraternity means that we are all common members (membres solidaires) of one great family; that society, the work of man, ought to be organized on the model of the human body, the work of God; and found the power of governing upon persuasion, upon the voluntary consent of the hearts of the governed.”[105]

Let it not be objected that our aim, the abolition of misery, is materialistic. “The most exalted spiritualism reposes on the suppression of misery. Who does not know it? Misery restrains the intelligence of man in darkness, in confining education within shameful limits. Misery counsels always the sacrifice of personal dignity and almost always demands it. Misery places him whose character is independent in a position of dependence, so as to conceal a new torment in a virtue and to change into gall what there is of nobility in his blood. If misery creates long-suffering, it engenders also crime.... It makes slaves; it makes the greater part of thieves, assassins and prostitutes.”[106] The work before us is then eminently moral. It is the work which God would have us do. In Louis Blanc’s own words: “In demanding that the right to live should be regulated, should be guaranteed, one does much more than demand that millions of unhappy beings should be rescued from the oppression of force or of chance; one embraces, in its highest generalization and in its most profound signification, the cause of humanity; one greets the Creator in his labor. Whenever the certainty of being able to live by one’s labor does not result from the essence of social institutions, iniquity reigns.” The first step then is the contrivance of means which shall guarantee to every one the certainty of finding work i.e., the droit au travail. This must be accomplished by the erection on the part of the state of social workshops, ateliers sociaux, “destined to replace gradually and without shocks individual ateliers.”[107] Violence of every kind is deprecated as injurious, as productive of ruin.[108] The poor cannot now combine and produce for themselves without the intervention of capitalists, because they lack the instruments of labor. It is the function of the state to furnish these and thus become the banker of the poor. It must found the ateliers sociaux, pass laws for their government, watch over the administration of these laws as of other laws, and do this for the profit of all.[109] For the first year only the state regulates the “hierarchy of functions,” that is to say, assigns to each one his place in accordance with his ability, his faculties. After the expiration of the first year the laborers will soon become acquainted with each other, and will then elect their own chiefs.[110] This all requires funds. Whence are they to come? The state is to grant its credit in aid of the ateliers, and for this credit no interest is to be charged; it is to be gratuitous. The state will repay the loans by general taxation and by the revenues derived from the management of railways, which must become public property, and from other public undertakings, as mines, insurances, and banking.[111]

The absorption of private industry will be gradual. The public ateliers will all be united from the start into a grand federation, and will form a mutual insurance company, so that the losses of one may be made good by the profits of others. One part of all profits will be set aside for this purpose.[112] Capitalists will at once be invited to join these associations, and will be paid interest on whatever capital they put into the ateliers, besides receiving their wages like other laborers. While no one is to be forced by law to join the social workshops, the competition of the ateliers sociaux, working without the payment of interest and with all the advantages of a vast combination, will before long become so severe that all private employers will be glad to fall in line to save themselves from ruin. Then the socialistic state will have been formed. It is for the interest of the rich as well as the poor. They will then enjoy safety, tranquillity and the satisfaction of observing universal happiness, whereas they are now harassed by all sorts of dangers and anxieties, born of individualism and private competition.[113]

We have finally to inquire what is the principle in accordance with which functions (positions, offices) and remuneration are distributed among the workers in the ateliers sociaux? What is the ideal of social justice?

First, as to the social hierarchy, or social rank. Faculties, powers, abilities, are of almost infinite variety in man. They are, however, all talents meant to be used for others. Have I great strength? In giving it to me God measured thereby my obligations to society. The same holds regarding mental acumen, profundity of thought, poetic imagination, a fine voice, etc. We must then be so placed that we can use to the full our capacities. These are the measure of our rank in the ordering of society. “Man has received of nature certain faculties—faculties of loving, of knowing, of acting. But these have by no means been given him in order that he should exercise them solitarily; they are but the supreme indication of that which each one owes to the society of which he is a member; and this indication each one bears written in his organization in letters of fire. If you are twice as strong as your neighbor it is a proof that nature has destined you to bear a double burden.[114] If your intelligence is superior, it is a sign that your mission is to scatter about you more light. Weakness is a creditor of strength; ignorance of learning. The more a man can (peut), the more he ought (doit); and this is the meaning of those beautiful words of the gospel: ‘Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.’ Whence the axiom, From every one according to his faculties; that is one’s duty.”[115]

But this is only one half of the formula of ideal justice. It shows what each is to give. What is each to receive? We saw that the Saint-Simonians constructed their social hierarchy in accordance with capacity. They added, however, that reward must be proportioned to works. “To each one according to his capacity, to each capacity according to its works.” But is that a high moral standard? Ought we to complete our formula in that way? Is it not selfish and hard? Would it not condemn the weak and feeble to extinction? Has not God, in our wants, our needs, given us a different indication? So thought Louis Blanc. Not equality, but needs, are to determine the distribution of products. Each one must have whatever he truly needs, in so far and in proportion as the means of society will admit it. “All men are not equal in physical force, in intelligence; all have not the same tastes, the same inclinations, the same aptitudes, any more than they have the same visage or the same figure; but it is just, it is in the general interest, it is in conformity with the principle of solidarity, established in accordance with the laws of nature, that each one should be placed in a condition to derive the greatest possible advantage from his faculties in so far as this can be done with due regard to others, and to satisfy as completely as possible, without injuring others, the needs which nature has given him. Thus there is no health and vigor in the human body unless each member receives that which is able to preserve it from pain and to enable it to accomplish properly its peculiar function. Equality, then, is only proportionality, and it exists in a true manner only when each one in accordance with the law written in some shape in his organization by God himself, produces according to his faculties and consumes according to his wants.”[116] Here we have the formula of perfect justice complete.

We see, then, that Louis Blanc was not an égalitaire. He opposed equality as unnatural and unjust.[117] He was, however, unwilling to adopt works as a basis of inequality. It would, nevertheless, amount in the end to pretty much the same, although the animating spirit might be different. Who would occupy the superior positions in Louis Blanc’s ideal state? Naturally the ablest, the largest natures. But those are precisely the ones whose needs are greatest. The true wants of the ignorant day laborer are simple and easily satisfied. Books tire him, grand music wearies him, while he turns away uninterested from the greatest painting of an old master. How different are the wants of a sensitive, refined nature like Louis Blanc himself; how much larger, how much more expensive to gratify! It is, indeed, pleasant to think of society as one vast Christian family, in which each would gladly contribute to the common good in proportion to his faculties, and in which all would cheerfully accord to every member whatever he truly needed for his most perfect development. But does the attempt to bring about such a state of society take men as they are or presuppose them as they ought to be? It is truly a glorious ideal! but will it ever become a reality this side of the golden gates of Paradise?