ABSTRACT
This chapters shows that Socialism, under the form of State Socialism, very nearly akin to Collectivism, is in France the culmination of a long past, the ultimate consequence of institutions already very old. State Socialism, or the centralisation of all the elements of a nation's life in the hands of the Government, is perhaps the most characteristic, the most fundamental, and the most obstinate of all conceptions of Latin societies. Far from deserving to be considered revolutionary, modern Collectivism should be regarded as a highly retrograde doctrine, and its disciples as timid reactionaries, limiting themselves to developing the most ancient and least elevated of the Latin traditions. One of the principal of Collectivism is the State monopoly of all industries and enterprises. All that in England, and especially in America, is founded and fostered by private initiative, is, among the Latin peoples, more or less in the hands of the Government.
