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THE FIGHT FOR EXISTENCE 207
tainly a virtue. Absence of needs is the virtue of the Indian
pillar saint and of the Christian monk, but in the
eyes of the student of history and the political economist
it is quite a different matter. Ask all political
economists what is the greatest misfortune for a nation
The absence of wants. For these are the spurs
of its
development and of civilization. The Neapolitan lazaroni
are so far behind in civilization, because they have
no wants, because they stretch themselves out contentedly
and warm themselves in the sun when they have
secured a handful of macaroni. Why
is the Russian
Cossack so backward in civilization Because he eats
tallow candles and is
happy when he can fuddle himself
on bad liquor. To have as many needs as possible,
but to satisfy them in an honorable and respectable way,
that is the virtue of the present, of the economic age!
And, so long as you do not understand and follow that
truth, I shall preach in vain." (15) Other nations may
be slaves, he added, recalling the words of Ludwig Borne ;
they may be put in chains and be held down by force,
but the Germans are flunkies— it is not necessary to lay
chains on them— they may be allowed to wander free
about the house. Yet, while thus shaming the working
classes, he pleaded their cause as no other one has
pleaded it, and, after humiliating them, he held them
spellbound, as he traced the great role the working classes
were destined to play in the regeneration of all society.
The socialism of Lassalle had much in common with
that of Louis Blanc, and his theory of cooperative enterprises
subsidized by
the State was almost identical.
Chiefly toward this end he sought to promote workingclass
organization, although he also believed that the
working classes would eventually gain control of the entire
State and, through it, reorganize production. He