Chapter V THE MARKET ECONOMY CONQUERS PLANNING

‘The economic policy began with the slogans of “Free Market Economy” and of “Liberalization”. It ended in the spring with import controls, which demonstrates the failure of the whole policy, above all as regards foreign trade … In the meantime nearly all principles and theories which the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs has repeatedly put forward here … have completely failed…. You will agree with me that the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, who campaigned for a removal of State controls, is now about to re-introduce controls which will work ineffectively … after the whole economic policy has gone wrong.’

It is not so long ago—on October 11, 1951, during the Korean crisis—that the speaker of the largest opposition party of the German Federal Parliament put forward these hypotheses which today seem unrealistic. In the meantime the sovereignty of the consumer in West Germany, and the free formation of prices in almost all sectors of the economy, have become a reality. Every businessman can and may produce and sell freely what the market demands. Furthermore, he is free to manage, to modernize, and to invest his money against other businessmen in the competitive market.

The opening quotation brings to mind how passionately the quarrel over the principles of the market economy raged only a few years ago. Hostility to the free market among the opposition was almost unanimous—if from different motives. Some tended to deny the validity of these principles, while others believed it impossible to realize them in a post-war Germany with its productive capacity destroyed and with its millions of refugees.

Today this lively and vital battle has become a thing of the past. Records of the discussion which then took place read today like pages of a thrilling novel. It is worth while to leaf through these pages of recent German history. The first post-war German Parliament, the Economic Council in Frankfurt, and later the Federal Parliament of the first period of the legislature, lived through exciting days of passionate parliamentary debate.

In the days of currency reform the largest opposition party, the S.P.D., made it clear that it did not want freedom from controls for the German people. I intended to remove, in the course of currency reform, all controls affecting production, trade, and, above all, the consumer. We read in the records of the memorable Meeting of the 18th Economic Council of the combined British and American Zones, which took place immediately before currency reform of June 17 and 18, 1948, the argument of the economics spokesman of the S.P.D., Dr. Kreyssig. His view was that since Germany had not had a normal economy for years, currency reform would be unable to work any miracles. He called for Government controls over the economy and, in particular, stressed the need for directing the most essential consumer goods where they would be most needed. Prophesying a catastrophe if prices were decontrolled, he believed that German industrialists would promote a Morgenthau policy which would be even more disastrous than the one put forward by Morgenthau himself. The S.P.D. was firmly convinced that only through systematic planning and a systematic guidance of the economy could it return to a healthy state.

Thus Dr. Kreyssig clarified what the S.P.D. had said at earlier meetings of the 14th Economic Council on April 21 and 22, 1948. At this meeting I had outlined my plans for currency reform:

‘Naturally, in these discussions, my aim is not only to achieve merely a substantial closing of the gap between the supply of goods and the demand for them, but to attack the evil at its root. Any solution which would force us, in spite of slight easements, to continue with the present form of government controls, including the price freeze, in our future economic system would be disastrous. Any solution which does not lay the ghost of the price frozen inflation, but on the contrary further increases surplus purchasing power, would necessarily require further action in respect of currency….

‘In decisively opposing this economic principle I am by no means advocating a return to the liberal economic policies of the past and the irresponsible free-booting methods that prevailed.

‘That today’s system will either have to adopt freer market economic methods, or else sink to absolute totalitarianism, everyone who is conscious of the overbearing character of our economic situation will have to acknowledge….’

Different Conceptions

Dr. Kreyssig, of the S.P.D., made it clear that his conception was fundamentally different. But it is only fair to remember that some who did not support the S.P.D. thought along the same lines—which is perhaps not surprising, as industrial production then amounted to 50% of that of 1936, while the population had increased by millions.

Dr. Kreyssig maintained that only through a carefully developed plan could Germany once again find her feet, and attacked those in favour of free enterprise. Another S.P.D. deputy, Herr Schoettle, today the chairman of the budgetary committee of the Federal Parliament, supported Dr. Kreyssig in his view that the economic situation could not improve through individual enterprise. He wanted over-all political decisions from the top, from which would stem definite plans and guiding principles to encourage this or that section of the economy.

In opposition to Dr. Kreyssig’s pessimistic views I said at the memorable meeting of the Economic Council a few hours before currency reform:

‘I believe that there is full agreement that the lesson has been learnt about the system of State control, after a period of chaotic and criminal financial, economic and currency policy. Not only has the collapse of this kind of order or apparent order taken place, but it has also brought about the collapse of the idea of all State controls….

‘Every segment of our population is longing to be freed from this straitjacket. The path must lead back to freer market economic systems, and towards the removal of the controls which have daily plagued every individual, consumer as well as producer.’

In view of the many demands for Government control over prices, I believed it right to speak openly in the Economic Council, and before any currency reform, of my basic beliefs that State controls and lack of freedom in price establishment cannot be separated from each other. Who demands the one must understand that the other will follow:

‘Let us make it quite clear—and the German people are well aware of it—that controls on the one hand and the price freeze and the fixing of prices on the other were the obvious signs of a maladministration under which the people groaned for fifteen years. If we are not resolved to end these classical symptoms of mismanagement, then the people will never believe that currency reform will lead to a return to prosperity….

‘It is impossible to try to drive the economy from two sides. It is not possible on the one hand by means of some magic key to control trade, and on the other to order things differently as a result of natural demand freely exercised by each individual citizen on the basis of a free choice of goods. I completely refute the principle of planning and controlling if it will plague the consumer or producer from morning to night.’

The Plunge into Cold Water

Dr. Kreyssig believed differently. He thought it wrong to throw the sick man into cold water and expect him to swim. The seriousness and extent of the disease of the German economy would be exposed to all on the day of currency reform. His party could not follow Dr. Erhard, because after currency reform, even if wages increased slightly, each worker would have to limit himself to the purchase of one pair of socks or a shirt.

The S.P.D. was ready to condemn immediately the social market economy, perhaps in anticipation that this criticism would soon no longer prove acceptable. Barely three weeks after currency reform Dr. Seuffert, speaking for the S.P.D. (then, as now, their specialist on financial political questions) declared at the 19th meeting of the Economic Council on July 8 and 9, 1948, that he did not believe that the people were glad to look into shop windows that were full, and that this development could only lead to further tensions. Possibly some were glad that this or that was once more available, but an improvement in the general position had not taken place.

In view of the developments during those first weeks and months after currency reform, the S.P.D. involved itself in ever-growing contradictions, due perhaps to its inability to change from its basic position of hostility. At the 20th meeting of the Economic Council on August 17-20, 1948, Dr. Arndt of the S.P.D. said that if any improvement had taken place it had come about as a result of the currency reform.

The S.P.D. made it clear that it intended to overthrow the initiator of the market economy. Increasingly, it realized how much the consequences of this economic policy would react on its own party. At the 20th meeting of the Economic Council it demanded that the Director for Economic Administration be removed—a demand which failed, after passionate discussion, by 47 to 35 votes.

Was the forecast of the S.P.D. that shortages would continue for years justified? Here are a few statistics taken at random:

	1949	1951	1953	1956
Leather shoes per million pairs	41.34	48.16	56.11	71.72
Spinning wool per ton	43.393	65.106	68.069	72.016
Spinning cotton per ton	144.729	216.944	238.285	277.049
Ladies’ stockings per million pairs	23.0*	46.7	79.2	151.8
Household and other china per ton	38.154	49.194	59.810	76.399
Cigarettes in milliards	22.09	26.64	34.76	48.86
Coffee (kilogramme per inhabitant consumption)	0.48	0.71	1.37	1.82

^*1950 figure, as 1949 figure not available

Between 1955 and 1956 production of consumer goods rose by another 8.3%

The remarkable declaration of Dr. Schoettle of the S.P.D., that millions of people would be unable to compete for years in a free market if money were the only criterion, forced one to the logical conclusion that the S.P.D. intended to introduce something other than money which would finally determine purchasing power. It is clear here that the S.P.D. felt that its continued hostility to the free movement of prices would lead to a system of rationing.

Dr. Schoettle predicted that my policy would expose large sections of the population to infiltration from the East.

Into the Arms of Communism?

What about this ‘despair’ which was to throw the people into the arms of Communism? At the elections for the first Federal German Parliament on August 14, 1949, the Communist Party received, with 1.362 million votes, 5.7% of the total. In the next Federal Parliamentary elections on September 6, 1953, it only got 2.2%, of 607,860 votes. In view of this fact it seemed a suitable moment to repeat my belief in the free market economy:

‘I can imagine what would have happened if we had not taken this path, but had worked more carefully, i.e. if we had slipped into currency reform half with coupons and half with freely determined prices. What authority would have been in a position, without knowing the market, to give out coupons or the right to procure even in the most general form?

‘It has been suggested that State control and free price establishment could be separated, as if it were conceivable that one could have the one and leave the other. Upon closer inspection this proves to be a complete illusion. Economic control and price policy belong together like Siamese twins, but, like them, they are no more than a monster.’

The same meeting of the Economic Council performed another historic task: it abandoned the wage freeze, that typical product of the war years and State controls. The introduction of this law, which had been of the greatest consequence, took only a few minutes.

The Senseless General Strike

The meeting of the Economic Council had taken place immediately before the date of the general strike, which for the first, and so far for the last, time in German history attempted to ‘sweep away’ the free market economy through industrial action. My views in regard to these intentions were:

‘I believe that in fact this strike is unjustified. If it is meant to draw my attention to the fact that things are not yet quite in order, that much remains to be done, and that all of us carry a social obligation to create a more favourable relation between wages and prices, then I can tell you that this strike is as unnecessary as a hole in the head. You must believe me when I say that I know what lies before us.’

At the 27th meeting, December 2-3, 1948, Dr. Kreyssig (S.P.D.) described my policy as catastrophic. The battle continued in the following weeks. The Opposition demanded an independent price bureau, which would have taken over price policy from me. To this I replied at the 28th meeting:

‘… If the demand for an independent price bureau had any sense at all, then it could only be that an independent office would be in a position to remove faster and more effectively the economic tensions from which we suffer. I have often indicated here that it is quite wrong to regard much of the political play with prices as a result of economic policy. It has become clear in the meantime that this price adjustment and the new level of prices were the necessary result of currency reform.

‘Now it is a question of adjusting the level of prices to the volume of money as altered through currency reform and also to international price levels….

‘An independent price bureau would either pursue the same price policy … or, if it were to follow another kind of policy, it would be a reactionary policy, which would result in goods vanishing once more from the market, and would bring back all the circumstances of a price frozen inflation.’

With the currency reform, the veil which had made all calculation impossible had been torn off the economy; behind lay pseudo-employment. Even before currency reform I pointed to the necessary process of change, coupled with a temporary increase in unemployment, which would have to be part of the bargain. The increase of unemployment was a worry. It was a question of keeping one’s nerve. At the 37th meeting of the Economic Council of May 23-25 I declared:

‘We must do everything to solve this serious social problem. But do not forget what I have been saying for some time: we must follow a moderate credit policy. We must not take the pressure off the economy, because the inner structural fault of the German economy shown up by the past fifteen years must be corrected. We must not give up the idea of modernizing the economy as much as possible and of removing everything without a real social or economic function.

‘The fall in prices since January has indirectly led to an improvement of the position and a rise in real purchasing power. On that credit policy is based. If we now altered course radically, if we allowed a generous loosening up to take place, then it is to be feared that this socially healthy process would come to a stop sooner than the social condition of our people warrants in the circumstances.’

The S.P.D. took the opportunity of this difficult situation to speak of ‘the latent crisis of the market economy’, to which I replied:

‘I believe that we must not be dogmatic in our views. The last three-quarters of the year showed us how problematic the workings of a planned economy are. Figures can be made to prove anything, but figures are washed away by reality.

‘That is true for all schemes, notably for those which will have to be thought up to meet the danger of increasing unemployment; for the investment plans which we have carried out, and for the efforts we are making to find capital to finance these plans.

‘Personally, I strongly oppose arbitrary measures for capital investment. All will depend on the investment of capital in an organic manner. I am convinced—whether you believe me or not, and much I have said in the building has not been believed—that we can overcome the present stagnation through the market economy, while the rigidity of planning would certainly lead us deeply into trouble….’

Did an easy optimism lie behind this statement or was this realism to be confirmed by events? Let us take a few of the important economic data of the next two years:

	30.6.49	31.12.49	30.6.50	31.12.50	30.6.51
Employed	13.49	13.56	13.85	14.16	14.72
Unemployed (in millions)	1.283	1.559	1.538	1.690	1.326
Index of Industrial Production (1936=100)	87.4	96	107.6	126.3	130.9

Unemployment Worries

Troubled by a level of unemployment of more than 1½ million at the end of 1949, but forgetting the increase in the number of employed and the steep increase in industrial production, the S.P.D. renewed its offensive on the market economy at the 36th plenary session of the Federal Parliament on February 9, 1950. Here the Minister for Economic Affairs of North Rhine Westphalia, Dr. Noelting (who has since died), declared for the Opposition that the situation in the labour market had never been more alarming since the end of the war. The stabilization of economic conditions was not even in sight, while the German economy seemed to be stagnant at a level of about 95% of 1936, while population had increased by 20%.

Certainly, Dr. Noelting seemed to be right, but only for a little while. The index of industrial production had dropped from 102.2 in November 1949, to 90.9 in January 1950, but within the year—by November 1950—it had shot up to 133.3 and increased further to 147.8 by November 1951.

Dr. Noelting continued that, for the Social Democrats, the development of employment and unemployment figures was the decisive economic barometer. One wonders whether this statement is still valid for the S.P.D. today, when it is the best proof of the soundness of the market economy. What are the figures?

	Yearly Average	Yearly Average
	1949	1956
Employed	15.543 million	18.06 million
Unemployed	1.230 „	0.761 „

Away from the Path of Righteousness?

In view of the unemployment then prevailing Noelting demanded that an anti-deflationary economic policy should be pursued to break the spiral of unemployment, lack of purchasing power, and slackening turnover. I could not fail to reply to this advice.

‘A deflationary crisis is a condition marked by a reluctance to invest; it is a condition leading to a continuing hoarding of money and disinvestment. I declare that just the contrary is true of our present economy. There is a noticeable demand for capital for investment….

‘You can say what you will: the moment you set about creating milliards in order to attain the goal of full employment from one day to the next, you are in fact introducing price increases. If your dogma does not allow this, you must again establish comprehensive Government institutions to prevent such price increases artificially, a situation that will lead us back to the forms of State controls which we have happily overcome.’

Dr. Kurt Schumacher, the chairman of the S.P.D., also went into attack. In stressing that a liberal economic policy must not be pursued for its own ends, but must protect the country from the possibility of a return to earlier conditions of unfulfilled demand, rationing, and the annihilation of the capital market which might lead to a return of State controls, I underlined that our economic policy was based on a Christian conception. Replying to Dr. Schumacher’s question as to what I knew of a Christian conception, I said: ‘That economic policy is Christian which helps people, each individual human being—and that is the economic policy which we are pursuing.’

The S.P.D. continued to demand credit expansion to overcome unemployment, but such an expansion of credit would have resulted in rising prices during this phase of developments and thus would have endangered the stability of the currency. On July 1, 1950, the S.P.D. Deputy, Kurlbaum, a well-known German economist and member of important German economic undertakings, said that a sufficient expansion of credit was only possible if some restraints were kept in being to counteract an undesirable trend of prices. On July 28 the S.P.D. again went into battle with a demand for the ‘removal of the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs from his office’, which was defeated by 187 votes to 142, with 28 abstentions. I then declared:

‘No, ladies and gentlemen, you want to remove a man who has successfully resisted you. Finally I only wish to say one thing in reply to your demand—how well that would suit you!’

Patent Recipes are Useless

The passionate parliamentary debates about the preservation, and even more about the approval, of the market economy during the Korean crisis and the resulting boom began with the 102nd meeting. They were critical weeks during which many other deputies of the Federal Parliament began to doubt whether it was possible or justified to continue the market economy. During this meeting, on November 15, 1950, one of the S.P.D. speakers, in connection with the new difficulties appearing in the basic materials sections, asked whether the Federal Government, and particularly the Minister for Economic Affairs, would draw the necessary conclusions from the collapse of economic policy.

At the meeting of the Federal Parliament on November 14, 1950, I tried to get approval for a rational view in respect of coal supplies:

‘It is easy after the event to say that developments could have been foreseen in the spring. No country could have done this. The whole world has experienced the same trends as we have in Germany. I can disclose that more and more European countries have been approaching us to ask how we have managed to keep prices more stable than elsewhere in Europe….’

Certainly, it could not be denied, the coal situation had become difficult. But mining belonged to those spheres where the principles of market economy were most difficult to practise. Was the admittedly difficult position which seemed to give the Opposition the right to criticize really so catastrophic? The supply of pit coal at this time (including coking coal and briquettes) gives some idea:

The Coal Position (in million tons)

	Production	Imports	Exports	Available
1950	103.0	4.3	24.1	83.2
1951	109.9	9.8	23.6	96.2
1952	113.6	12.2	23.3	102.5

At the height of the Korean conflict the S.P.D. renewed its attempt to destroy the social market economy. Even today the parliamentary records of those months reproduce something of the passions of this quarrel. Dr. Noelting, at the 126th meeting of March 14, 1951, formulated his sharp attack on the Chancellor and on his Minister for Economic Affairs by pointing to a steep rise in prices. He believed that much more could have been done to soften the impact of this price rise. Is it really true that this rise in prices attacked the German consumer with full force? What does an international comparison show?

Cost of Living Price Index ( 1950 = 100)

	June	Sept.	Dec.	March	June
	1950	1950	1950	1951	1951
U.S.A.	99	102	104	107	108
Great Britain	100	100	102	104	109
Belgium	98	104	102	109	110
France	96	102	106	115	112
Sweden	99	100	104	113	117
W. Germany	99	100	101	106	108

Dilettantism and Facts

In the same speech Minister Noelting said that it was the wrong price policy, begun in the summer of 1948 with the removal of price regulations, which had led to the present critical state. If everyone could invest as they wished, then everyone would need more coal, steel, electricity and gas, all in short supply. Increases in production and capacity should, in part at least, be directed to open up bottlenecks. These bottlenecks were the cause of the decline in exports, thus increasing indebtedness abroad.

Liberalization could not be undertaken without a timetable; Dr. Erhard’s view that, if Germany bought from abroad, then other countries in turn would buy from Germany, had proved erroneous, with the result of increasing debts. Germany, being the weakest link in the chain of European countries, should not try to be a pace setter. A frivolous dilettantism, a doubtful megalomania had reigned, and all of the S.P.D.’s warnings had been thrown to the wind.

Is this judgment of ‘dilettantism’ and ‘doubtful megalomania’ confirmed by sober facts? When Minister Noelting painted this sombre picture in March 1951, our trade balance with the E.P.U. was in deficit by DM 25.5 milliard, but already the next months brought an appreciable improvement in this trade balance. The statistics of the BDL show the facts:

Trade Balance in DM million

						Total
	April	June	Aug.	Oct.	Dec.	1951
Imports	621.1	575.5	690.7	677.6	782.7	8872.5
Exports	848.2	889.1	949.6	939.7	1152.1	10627.6
Balance	+227.1	+313.6	+258.9	+262.1	+369.4	+1755.1

In view of these facts it was right to reject the advice of Noelting that we should be satisfied with the role of ‘fellow-traveller’. Noelting continued his speech, in which he demanded a reduction of the salary of the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, by saying that more luxury had been allowed than had been warranted with the index of production at 117.

Was this emotional accusation, which affected many listeners, based on fact? Britain, which had been cited as an example, had in 1951 the largest trade deficit in postwar times, £1,197 million. The Labour Government resigned in October 1951, after one and a half years, to make room for a Conservative Government.

Noelting pointed to the impossibility of an economic policy which in its dogmatic rigidity had moved into a vacuum. State controls, he continued, were never desirable, but sometimes essential. The Minister for Economic Affairs had held that a little planning was as impossible as a little pregnancy. That was why the S.P.D. believed that only a little Erhard would remain in the future. In the name of the S.P.D., he asked the Federal Parliament to decide to reduce the salary of the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs.

Economic developments furnished thé best reply to Noelting’s speech. Here are a few of my remarks at the same meeting:

‘I should like to establish that our economic policy has managed to re-create a purpose in the lives of our German people; that the important basic democratic rights—free choice of job and free choice for the consumer—have been won; that only as a result of this economic policy the German people have been able to believe in their work; that this economic policy has resulted in safeguarding the currency; and that we have been successful in rebuilding foreign trade from nothing. …

‘The basis of our economic policy remains. … Though we persist in our principles, we are prepared (because of the developments provoked by the Korean conflict) to change methods and procedure. We wish to maintain the function of the market. But we realize that some freedom of movement and some lack of restrictions will have to be replaced by well-planned and logical rules.’

This discussion put me in a very difficult position. The general state of nerves in the world concerning the control of raw materials led to conditions where only by accepting such controls were we able to receive certain raw materials. The International Materials Conference began its activities. Personally I regarded these methods as ineffectual, and in fact we protected ourselves rather cunningly by giving only some statistics. That in the main was what ‘controls’ consisted of, and later I received the satisfaction of being proved right internationally in my belief.

The development of the Korean boom in the meantime was not only a cause for worry for the Opposition. A few months later—at the 167th meeting of the Federal Parliament on October 11, 1951—the S.P.D. thought that the end of market economy was about to come.

Was the S.P.D. right in its judgment of popular opinion? In North Rhine Westphalia the last general elections for the Länder Parliament had taken place on August 16, 1950, with 2.29 million votes for the C.D.U. In the next election, for the Federal Parliament on September 6, 1953, 3.92 million voted for the C.D.U. In Hesse at the Länder election of November 19, 1950, 348,148 votes went to the C.D.U., and on September 6, 1953, 849,125. These figures speak for themselves.

During the period of passionate parliamentary debate the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs had no doubts that the few controls arising from the Korean crisis, which had served mostly to impress opinion abroad, would soon be abandoned.

A New Conciliatory Tone

Thus ended the last large-scale discussions in the German Parliament about the ‘to be or not to be’ of the market economy. In the Federal Parliamentary elections of September 6, 1953, the electors replied with such conviction that the Opposition felt that it was pursuing the wrong path in its criticism. Although in later years further discussions took place, according to the records of the Federal Parliament, there is not a single one which can in any way be compared in violence or emotion with the discussions in the period of the Economic Council and the first legislature.

What a different, more conciliatory tone reigned later, when the economic situation was discussed at the 106th meeting of the Federal Parliament which took place in Berlin on October 19, 1955. Here Dr. Heinrich Deist, a leading member of the iron and steel industry, and highly regarded by the S.P.D., declared in the name of his party that they were proud of the fact that they had based their political, economic and social order on fundamental freedom. Such a development would have been impossible without the participation of all sections of the population, or without the interplay of power of the different political groups which was part of the important basic elements of political democracy.

Securing the stability of the currency had been one of the most important tasks, and everything would have been in vain, had not full attention been given to this task. All efforts to secure the stability of the currency would be supported by the S.P.D. They were living in a time of intensive economic activity, but it was wrong to speak of an overheating of economic developments. The economic system of the free world would in future depend on a high degree of employment coupled with stable prices and a stable currency.

This basically conciliatory position—leaving on one side some differences of opinion—also governed the second major economic debate at the 153rd meeting on June 26, 1956. Turning towards the Opposition I declared:

‘I am glad to be able to establish that we do not differ greatly in our diagnosis of the economy. Everything mentioned by you as regards the importance of prices, the utilization of capacity, the lengthening of delivery dates as a sign of a dangerous trend of which we should beware, I fully agree with.

‘I also agree with you that the critical sector is to be found on the investment side….

‘Even the analysis of the situation in foreign trade with its creation of large surpluses I regard as right, and I believe that the whole House agrees with me. But I should like to establish that, if in this connection the impetus to reduce customs duties has come from the Ministry for Economic Affairs, this has not been due to a complaint from O.E.E.C., but, on the contrary, the momentum we have developed and the wish to lower duties which we have proclaimed, has probably smoothed many paths for the O.E.E.C. in Paris.’

And at the conclusion of extensive discussions with S.P.D. spokesmen:

‘On the whole I should like to state that I consider this discussion fruitful, and it is without irony, but sincerely felt, when I say that I am glad that in the course of many years I have been able to battle with the Opposition in the realm of economic policy.’

It must nevertheless be doubted whether this conciliatory tone in the economic policy field led to a closer relationship between Government and Opposition. A few weeks after this debate the Parliamentary group of the S.P.D. once again spoke of the ‘questionability of the economic policy of the Federal Government’, and of ‘the dishonesty and irresponsibility of the economic propaganda of the Government and coalition parties during the past seven years’.

This also reflects the conflict between the liberal economic forces within the S.P.D. and those unable to detach themselves from the socialist doctrines of the old school.