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III

Saint-Simon's next two major publications, although his most substantial works, are in the main only elaborations of the ideas sketched in the Organisateur. We can watch, however, how he moves more and more in the direction of that authoritarian socialism which was to take definite form only after his death in the hands of his pupils. In the exposition of his Système industriel (1821) 13.42 --really more systematic than anything that had yet come from his pen--his main theme is the ``measures finally to terminate the revolution.'' He no longer attempts to conceal his dislike for the principles of liberty and for all those who by defending it stand in the way of the realization of his plans. ``The vague and metaphysical idea of liberty'' ``impedes the action of the masses on the individual''13.43 and is ``contrary to the development of civilization and to the organization of a well-ordered system.''13.44 The theory of the rights of men13.45and the critical work of the lawyers and metaphysicians have served well enough to destroy the feudal and theological system and to prepare the industrial and scientific one. Saint-Simon sees more clearly than most socialists after him that the organization of society for a common purpose,13.46 which is fundamental to all socialist systems, is incompatible with individual freedom and requires the existence of a spiritual power which can ``choose the direction to which the national forces are to be applied.''13.47 The existing ``constitutional, representative, or parliamentary system'' is a mongrel system that uselessly prolongs the existence of antiscientific and antiindustrial tendencies13.48 because it allows different ends to compete. The philosophy that studies the march of civilization,13.49and the positive scientists13.50 who are able to base scientific policy on coordinated series of historical facts,13.51 are still to provide the spiritual power. Much more space, however, is now given to the organization of the temporal power by the industrialists--a theme which is further developed in the Catéchisme des industriels (1823) 13.52

To entrust the entrepreneurs with the task of preparing the national budget and therefore with the direction of the national administration is the best means of securing for the mass of the people the maximum of employment and the best livelihood.13.53 The industrialists, by the nature of their various works, form a natural hierarchy and they ought to organize into one big corporation which will enable them to act in concert for the achievement of their political interests; in this hierarchy the bankers, who from their occupations know the relations between the different industries, are in the best position to coordinate the efforts of the different industries, and the biggest banking houses in Paris, by their central position, are called upon to exercise the central direction of the activities of all industrialists.13.54But while the direction of the work of all productive workers is to be in the hands of the entrepreneurs as their natural leaders, they are to use their powers in the interests of the poorest and most numerous classes;13.55the subsistence of the proletarians must be secured by the provision of work for the fit and by the support of the invalids.13.56 In the one great factory which France will become, a new kind of freedom will exist: with the formula which Friedrich Engels was later to make famous, we are promised that under the new and definite organization, which is the final destiny of mankind,13.57 the governmental or military organization will be replaced by the administrative or industrial.13.58The obstacle to this reorganization are the nobles and the clergy, the lawyers and the metaphysicians, and the military and the proprietors who represent the two past eras. The bourgeois, who have made the revolution and destroyed the exclusive privilege of the nobility to exploit the wealth of the nation, have now merged into one class with the latter, and there are now only two classes left.13.59 In the political struggle for the right to exploit, which has continued since the revolution, the industrialists, that is, all those who work, have not yet really taken part. But

the producers are not interested in whether they are pillaged by one class or another. It is clear that the struggle must in the end become one between the whole mass of the parasites and the whole mass of the producers till it is decided whether the latter will continue to be the prey of the former or whether they will obtain the supreme direction of a society of which they form already by far the largest part. This question must be decided as soon as it is put directly and plainly, considering the immense superiority of power of the producers over the nonproducers.

The moment when this struggle must assume its true character has actually arrived. The party of the producers will not hesitate to show itself. And even among the men whom birth has placed in the class of parasites, those who excel by the width of their views and the greatness of their souls begin to feel that the only honorable role which they can play is to stimulate the producers to enter into political life, and to help them to obtain in the direction of the common affairs the preponderance they have already obtained in society.13.60


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