SOCIALISM, the name given to a class of opinions opposed to the present organization of society, and which seeks to introduce a new distribution of property and labor, ia which organized co-operation rather than competition should be the dominating principle, under the conviction that the happiness of the race, and especially of the classes with out capital, would lie benefited thereby. Historically considered, socialism, like many of the significant phenomena of our age, is a product of the French revolution. That terrible outburst of popular discontent is most properly regarded as an anarchic attack on the social system that had its roots in the feudalism of the middle ages, The furious hatred of the court and the aristocracy, the passionate HY° of the "people," of "human ity," of "liberty," though called forth by special circumstances, and never formally worked out into a theory of social life, virtually contained in themselves the germs of all later proposed organizations. In the middle ages, the right of freely and fully enjoy ing life, property, and political independence was limited to a favored few; while the great masses were condemned to dumb servitude, and a perpetual Minority. Even the industrial population (lid not recognize the socialistic idea. The members of the differ ent guilds or fraternities claimed exclusive right to exercise certain branches of industry, and probably the great majority of the inhabitants of a town remained in a disregarded and dependent state. Amid such social conditions, resting, as they did, on a belief in the necessity of different distinct ranks, the free action of individual life, and even the vital progress of the whole community, became well-nigh impossible. We have not space here to trace the course of the various minor reforms that weakened the authority of the medheval theory of life; but we must, not omit to notice the speculations of the political philosophers of the 13111 c. in France, England, and Germany, as operating powerfully in favor of a new social system, in which the idea of humanity (assuming,' at the French revolution, as we have observed, the concrete form of the " people")stands out prominently. Nevertheless, the first shape that the modern spirit of industry took was not socialistic, in the strict and proper sense of the term; it was rather individualis tic, and found, as it still finds—for it is yet the prevailing theory—its natural expression in such proverb; as, " A fair field, and no fa•or;" " Every one for himself, and God for us all." But still. even this lawless individualism is to be regarded as a protest against
the false el/rat-legislation of preceding times, and as an assertion of the absolute right of each member or society to a share in the general welfare. That it has not universally com mended itself to civilized mankind as a perfect system, is demonstrated by the appear ance and temporary popularity of such schemes of society as those of Owen (q.v.), Fou tier (q.v.), St. Simon (q.v.), and the enthusiasm excited at intervals in different parts of Europe by the promulgation of extreme communistic opinions. See COMMUNISM. It is objected to socialism, under its various forms, that it makes human hapininess too much dependent on material gratifications; that it robs man of that energy that springs from ambition; that it unphilosophically ignores an individualism and inequality to which nature herself has givcn her inviolable sanction; and that, by the abolition of social rewards and punishments, it neither holds out any hope to the industrious, nor any apprehension among the indolent. On the other hand, we must admit that the vigorous assertion of socialistic principles has led men to a more liberal and generous view of humanity as a whole. Moreover, it has forcibly called public attention to numerom( evils that have sprung up along with the modern development of industry, for which no remedy—not even a name—had been provided; to the vitai interdependence of all classes; and to the inadequacy of the individual or "selfish" system, as it has been called, to redress the wrongs or cure the evils that inevitably spring from its own unchecked operation. The recent spread of socialistic opinions in Germany, taken in connection with the two attempts made on the life of the emperor, has led, in 1878. to special and stringent legislation designed to check the growth of socialism. In 1878 it was computed that there were in Germany 75 socialistic publications, with 135,000 regular subscribers. Sec COMMUNISM.