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Two Kinds of Plunder
Mr. de Montalembert [politician and
writer] adopting the thought contained in a famous proclamation
by Mr. Carlier, has said: "We must make war against
socialism." According to the definition of socialism
advanced by Mr. Charles Dupin, he meant: "We must make war
against plunder." But of what plunder was he speaking? For
there are two kinds of plunder: legal and illegal.
I do not think that illegal
plunder, such as theft or swindling— which the penal code
defines, anticipates, and punishes—can be called socialism.
It is not this kind of plunder that systematically threatens the
foundations of society. Anyway, the war against this kind of
plunder has not waited for the command of these gentlemen. The
war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning
of the world. Long before the Revolution of February 1848 -- long
before the appearance even of socialism itself—France had
provided police, judges, gendarmes, prisons, dungeons, and
scaffolds for the purpose of fighting illegal plunder. The law
itself conducts this war, and it is my wish and opinion that the
law should always maintain this attitude toward plunder.
Clark Simmons, Webmaster
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