Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has been preserved.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.For a complete list, please see the end of this document.
PRICE 10 CENTS
Socialism, Revolution
and Internationalism
By GABRIEL DEVILLE
SOCIALISM, REVOLUTION
AND
INTERNATIONALISM
A LECTURE
DELIVERED IN PARIS, NOVEMBER 27, 1893, BY
GABRIEL DEVILLE
Translated by
ROBERT RIVES LA MONTE
CHICAGO
CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
1907
PRESS OF
JOHN F. HIGGINS
CHICAGO
Socialism, Revolution and Internationalism.
I
Socialism, revolution, internationalism—these are the three subjectsregarding which I beg your permission to say what—with no pretence ofbeing infallible—I believe to be the truth. At the risk of tellingyou nothing new, I will simply try to speak truth. Those who reproachthe socialists for constantly repeating the same thing, have, nodoubt, the habit of accommodating the truth to suit their taste forvariety. On the other hand, to talk of socialism is to do whateveryone else is doing at this time, but I will speak to you of itfrom the standpoint of a socialist, and—unhappily—that is not as yetequally common.
The signal and distinctive mark of modern socialism is that it springsdirectly from the facts. Far from resting on the imaginary conceptionsof the intellect, from being a more or less utopian vision of an idealsociety, socialism is to-day simply the theoretical expression of [4]thecontemporaneous phase of the economic evolution of humanity.
At this point we are met with two objections.
On the one hand, because we say that socialism springs from the facts,we are accused of denying the influence of the Idea and the liberaldefenders of the Idea rise up in revolt; they can calm themselvesagain. How could we deny the influence of the Idea, when socialismitself is as yet, as I have just pointed out, only a theoreticalexpression, i.e., an idea, which we nevertheless believe has acertain influence?
We merely assert that a truth, irrevocably established by science as avalid generalization, does not cease to be a truth when it is appliedto human history and socialism. This truth is the action of theenvironment: all living beings are the product of the environment inwhich they live. To the environment, in the last analysis, to therelations necessarily created by the multiple contacts, actions andreactions of the environment and the environed are due all thetransformations of all organisms and, in consequence, all thephenomena that emanate from them. Thought is one of these phenomena,and, just like all the others, it has its source in actual facts. Tosay that socialism springs from the facts, is then simply to place thesocialist idea on the same plane with all other ideas. In so