In such a situation, which was the necessary prelude to a better social order, it was necessary for the minority to be organized on military lines, to obtain a monopoly of legislation, and so to keep all power to itself, in order to hold the majority in tutelage and subject the nation to strong discipline. Thus the main energies of the community have till now been directed to maintaining itself as a community, and any efforts directed to improving the moral and physical welfare of the nation have necessarily been regarded as secondary.
Today this state of affairs can and should be completely altered. The main effort should be directed to the improvement of our moral and physical welfare; only a small amount of force is now required to maintain public order, since the majority have become used to work (which eliminates disorder) and now consists of men who have recently proved that they are capable of administering property, whether in land or money.
As the minority no longer has need of force to keep the proletarian class in subordination, the course which it should adopt is as follows:
(1) A policy by which the proletariat will have the strongest interest
in maintaining public order.
(2) A policy which aims at making the inheritance of landed property
as easy as possible.
(3) A policy which aims at giving the highest political importance
to the workers.
Such a policy is quite simple and obvious, if one takes the trouble to judge the situation by one’s own intelligence, and to shake off the yoke enforced on our minds by the political principles of our ancestors --principles which were sound and useful in their own day, but are no longer applicable to present circumstances. The mass of the popula-tion is now composed of men (apart from exceptions which occur more or less equally in every class) who are capable of administering property whether in land or in money, and therefore we can and must work directly for the improvement of the moral and physical welfare of the community.
The most direct method of improving the moral and physical welfare of the majority of the population is to give priority in State expenditure to ensuring work for all fit men, to secure their physical existence; spreading throughout the proletarian class a knowledge of positive science; ensuring for this class forms of recreation and interests which will develop their intelligence.
We must add to this the measures necessary to ensure that the national wealth is administered by men most fitted for it, and most concerned in its administration, that is to say the most important industrialists.
Thus the community, by means of these fundamental arrangements, will be organized in a way which will completely satisfy reasonable men of every class.'
There will no longer be a fear of insurrection, and consequently no longer a need to maintain large standing armies to suppress it; no longer a need to spend enormous sums on a police force; no longer a fear of foreign danger, for a body of thirty millions of men who are a contented community would easily repel attack, even if the whole human race combined against them.
We might add that neither princes nor peoples would be so mad as to attack a nation of thirty millions who displayed no aggressive intentions against their neighbours, and were united internally by mutual interests.
Furthermore, there would no longer be a need for a system of police spying in a community in which the vast majority had an interest in maintaining the established order.
The men who brought about the Revolution, the men who directed it, and the men who, since 1789 and up to the present day, have guided the nation, have committed a great political mistake. They have all sought to improve the governmental machine, whereas they should have subordinated it and put administration in the first place.
They should have begun by asking a question the solution of which is simple and obvious. They should have asked who, in the present state of morals and enlightenment, are the men most fitted to manage the affairs of the nation. They would have been forced to recognize the fact that the scientists, artists and industrialists, and the heads of industrial concerns are the men who possess the most eminent, varied, and most positively useful ability, for the guidance of men's minds at the present time. They would have recognized the fact that the work of the scientists, artists, and industrialists is that which, in discovery and application, contributes most to national prosperity.
They would have reached the conclusion that the scientists, artists and leaders of industrial enterprises are the men who should be entrusted with administrative power, that is to say, with the responsibility for managing the national interests; and that the functions of government should be limited to maintaining public order.'
The reformers of 1789 should have said to themselves as follows.
The kings of England have given a good example to monarchy by agreeing to give no order without the approval and signature of a minister. The magnanimity of the kings of France demands that they shew still greater generosity to their people, and that they should agree to make no decision affecting the general interests of the nation without the approval of the men most fitted to judge their decisionsthat is to say, without the approval of the scientists and the most eminent artists, without the approval of the most important industrialists.
The community has often been compared to a pyramid. I admit that the
nation should be composed as a pyramid; I am profoundly convinced that
the national pyramid should be crowned by the monarchy, but I assert that
from the base of the pyramid to its summit
the layers should be composed of more and more precious materials.
If we consider the present pyramid, it appears that the base is made of
granite, that up to a certain height the layers are composed of valuable
materials, but that the upper part, supporting a magnificent diamond, is
composed of nothing but plaster and gilt.
The base of the present national pyramid consists of workers in their routine occupations; the first layers above this base are the leaders of industrial enterprises, the scientists who improve the methods of manufacture and widen their application, the artists who give the stamp of good taste to all their products. The upper layers, which I assert to be composed of nothing but plaster, which is easily recognizable despite the gilding, are the courtiers, the mass of nobles whether of ancient or recent creation, the idle rich, the governing class from the prime minister to the humblest clerk. The monarchy is the magnificent diamond which crowns the pyramid.
From F.M.H. Markham (ed), Henri Compte de Saint-Simon (1760-1825) Selected Writings, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1952.