Lederer’s brief review examines a pamphlet collecting the dispute between the Korrespondenzblatt editors and Karl Kautsky over Der Weg zur Macht. Its central question is whether unions can still secure substantial gains despite rising prices and employers’ organizations, or merely defend earlier achievements.
Lederer identifies the Generalkommission’s empirical answer:
An der Hand einer Preisstatistik der wichtigsten Waren sucht die Generalkommission nachzuweisen, daß trotz bedeutender Arbeitszeitverkürzung die Löhne rascher gestiegen seien als die Preise und daß auch in Hinkunft, insbesondere bei weiterer Ausdehnung der Organisation, Erfolge möglich seien.
English translation: With the aid of price statistics for the most important commodities, the General Commission seeks to demonstrate that, despite a considerable shortening of working hours, wages have risen more rapidly than prices, and that in future too, particularly with a further extension of the organisation, successes remain possible.
The claim links past wage gains and shorter hours to the prospect of further organizational expansion. Lederer presents it as the commission’s attempted demonstration, not his own settled conclusion. He singles out newly used wage statistics from major unions and housing-price statistics compiled by printers as especially valuable evidence.
Eine kritische Beurteilung ist an dieser Stelle nicht möglich.
English translation: A critical assessment is not possible in this place.
This reservation defines the review’s scope: it maps the controversy and highlights its evidence without adjudicating it. The closing referral to the Sozialpolitische Chronik underscores the issue’s strategic relevance: its answer bears on the future forms of the workers’ movement.
This work was divided into 1 sections when it entered the library's research corpus—an apparatus for search and citation, not necessarily the author's own table of contents. Each title opens its summary.
Put a question to this work; the Librarian answers from its 1 sections and cites the passage.
Ask the Librarian