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Page 22
But let us go to the root of the matter. We are deceived by money. To
demand the co-operation of all the citizens in a common work, in the
form of money, is in reality to demand a concurrence in kind; for every
one procures, by his own labour, the sum to which he is taxed. Now, if
all the citizens were to be called together, and made to execute, in
conjunction, a work useful to all, this would be easily understood;
their reward would be found in the results of the work itself.
But after having called them together, if you force them to make roads
which no one will pass through, palaces which no one will inhabit, and
this under the pretext of finding them work, it would be absurd, and
they would have a right to argue, "With this labour we have nothing to
do; we prefer working on our own account."
A proceeding which consists in making the citizens co-operate in giving
money but not labour, does not, in any way, alter the general results.
The only thing is, that the loss would react upon all parties. By the
former, those whom the State employs, escape their part of the loss, by
adding it to that which their fellow-citizens have already suffered.
There is an article in our constitution which says:--"Society favours
and encourages the development of labour--by the establishment of public
works, by the State, the departments, and the parishes, as a means of
employing persons who are in want of work."
As a temporary measure, on any emergency, during a hard winter, this
interference with the tax-payers may have its use. It acts in the same
way as securities. It adds nothing either to labour or to wages, but it
takes labour and wages from ordinary times to give them, at a loss it is
true, to times of difficulty.
As a permanent, general, systematic measure, it is nothing else than a
ruinous mystification, an impossibility, which shows a little excited
labour _which is seen_, and hides a great deal of prevented labour
_which is not seen_.
VI.--The Intermediates.
Society is the total of the forced or voluntary services which men
perform for each other; that is to say, of _public services_ and
_private services_.
The former, imposed and regulated by the law, which it is not always
easy to change, even when it is desirable, may survive with it their own
usefulness, and still preserve the name of _public services_, even when
they are no longer services at all, but rather _public annoyances_. The
latter belong to the sphere of the will, of individual responsibility.
Every one gives and receives what he wishes, and what he can, after a
debate. They have always the presumption of real utility, in exact
proportion to their comparative value.
This is the reason why the former description of services so often
become stationary, while the latter obey the law of progress.
While the exaggerated development of public services, by the waste of
strength which it involves, fastens upon society a fatal sycophancy, it
is a singular thing that several modern sects, attributing this
character to free and private services, are endeavouring to transform
professions into functions.
These sects violently oppose what they call intermediates. They would
gladly suppress the capitalist, the banker, the speculator, the
projector, the merchant, and the trader, accusing them of interposing
between production and consumption, to extort from both, without giving
either anything in return. Or rather, they would transfer to the State
the work which they accomplish, for this work cannot be suppressed.
The sophism of the Socialists on this point is, showing to the public
what it pays to the intermediates in exchange for their services, and
concealing from it what is necessary to be paid to the State. Here is
the usual conflict between what is before our eyes and what is
perceptible to the mind only; between _what is seen_ and _what is not
seen_.
It was at the time of the scarcity, in 1847, that the Socialist schools
attempted and succeeded in popularizing their fatal theory. They knew
very well that the most absurd notions have always a chance with people
who are suffering; _malisunda fames_.
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