Socialism, a general term applied to several schemes of social arrangement which advocate com- munity of property, and abandon or modify individual industry, the rights of marriage, and of the family. In discussing the subject of Socialism, two elements are to be considered : (1) the judgment of socialism on existing institutions and practices and on their results; (2) the various plans which it has proposed for doing better. Socialism affirms that the evils it complains of are ir- remediable in the present constitution of societv. In the opinion of Socialists, the existing arrangements of society in respect to property and the production and distribution of wealth are, as a means to the general good, a total failure. First among existing evils may be mentioned that of poverty. The institution of prop- erty is upheld and commended principally as being the means by which labor and frugality are insured their reward and mankind enabled to emerge from indigence. But Socialism urges that an immense proportion of the industrious classes are, at some period or other of their lives, dependent on legal or voluntary charity; that many are outstripped by others who are possessed of superior energy or prudence ; that the reward, instead of being proportioned to the labor and abstinence of the individual, is almost in the inverse ratio to it; that the great majority are what they are born to be — some to be rich without work, others to become rich by work, but the great majority' are born to hard work and pov- erty through life; that competition is, for the people, a system of extermination, resulting from the continual fall of labor. " Cheaimess," they say, "is advantageous to the consumer at the cost of introducing the seeds of ruinous anarchy among the producers." The Fourierists (M. Considerant, Destinee Sociule i, 3.5-37) enumerate the evils of existing civilization in the following order: " 1. It employs an enormous quantity of labor and of human power unproductively, or in the work of destruc- tion, e. g. in sustaining armies, courts, magistrates, etc.; in allowing 'good society,' )ieople who pass their lives in doing nothing, also in allowing philosophers, meta- physicians, political men, who produce nothing but dis- turbance and sterile discussions. 2. That even the in- dustry and powers which, in the present system, are de- voted to production do not produce more than a small portion of what they might produce if better directed and emjiloyed," e. g. "the wastefulness in the existing arrangements for distributing the produce of the coimtry among the various producers." Socialism seeks to put an end to the vices and suffering of men. not by indi- vidual regeneration and reformation, but by a new social organization. It is the employment of political and eco- nomic measures for a moral purpose. Proceeding upon the supposition that the individual is wholly or largely the creature of circumstances, it seeks to make the lat- ter as favorable as possible. Thus it makes a religion of social regeneration, and proposes to renovate the world by a new arrangement of property and industrial interests. Although in some measure anticipated by movements in the ancient world, socialism may be con- sidered a product of the French Revolution, which was an anarchic attack on the social system that had its roots in the feudalism of the Middle Ages. Tiie first to revive or bring socialistic ideas into general notice was Francois Noel Babeuf (1764-97), in his paper Le Tri- bun du Pet/pie. The idea from which he started was that of equality, and he insisted that there should be no other differences than those of age and sex ; that men differed little in their faculties and needs, and con- sequently should receive the same education and food. After his death his system, Babouvism, was for some time entirely forgotten, until, in 1834, Buonarotti again attempted its propagation in the Moniteur Republicain and Homme Libre, The three most noted develop- ments of Socialism are Communism, Fourierism, and
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Saint - Simonism or Iliimanitflrianism. The Niliilists of Kussia at this time attract coiisiikTable attention l>e- cause of the efforts niaile l)y the f;overiiment towanis their extinction. They beheve that, in order to hnnian |in)j;ress. it is not only possible, but absolutely necessary, to iM-ijin at once with the present complicated social phenonuna in the way of a sudiien and complete social reform, or with a revolution. In April, 1879, an attempt was made by one of their number to assassinate the emperor. Tiiis has led to the arrest of hundreds, many of whom have been sent to .Siberia. A number of 8«H-ialistic communities have been established in the United .Slates, some of which have already been no- ticed. .See Hakmomsts; .Ski-ah.vtists ; Shakkks. Others will be treateil in this article,
I. The Aimtna Society.— 'Vh'is society takes its name from the Hible (Cant. iv. 8), and has its location in Iowa, in the town of .\mana. The members call themselves the "True Inspiration Congregations" ( Wnlire Jimpinitions- (iemriwU /( I. anil are ( Jermans. Tliey came from (iermany in 1842. and settled near Buffalo, N. V.; but in 18.55 they removed to their present location. The " work of inspi- ration" bejjan far back in the 18th century, an account of the journeys, etc., of " Brother .lolm Frederick Rock" in IT 19 being given in the Tliirtu -sirth Collection of the [i>.<pirntion Reconl. Finally, in 1810, Michael kraiisert became what they call an " instrument," and to him were adiled several others, among them Christian Metz. who was for many years, and init il his death (18(j7), the spiritual head of the society. Another prominent '' instrument" was Barbara Heyncmann, whose husband, (Tet)rge Lantlman. became spiritual hea<l of the society. The removal to this country was inaugurated by Metz, who profi'sseil to have a revelation so directing,