CHAPTER VII.

THE SOCIALIZATION OF SOCIETY.

The soon as possible general expropriation of all the means of

production furnishes society with a new foundation. The conditions of

life and labor--in manufacture, agriculture, transportation and

communication, education, marriage, science, art and intercourse--are

radically changed for both sexes. Human existence acquires a new sense.

The present political organization gradually loses ground: the State

vanishes: in a measure it abolishes itself.

It was shown in the first part of this book why the State arose. It

arises, as the product of a social growth, from a primitive form of

society, that rested on communism and that dissolved in the measure that

_private property_ developed. With the rise of private property,

antagonistic interests take shape within society; in the course of its

development these antagonisms lead to rank and class contrasts, and

these, in turn, grow into enmities between the several groups of

interests, and finally into rank and class struggles, that threaten the

existence of the new social order. In order to keep down these rank and

class struggles, and to protect the property-holders, an organization is

requisite that parries the assaults on property, and that pronounces

"legal and sacred" the property obtained under certain forms. _This

organization and power, that guards and upholds property, is the State._

Through the enactment of laws it secures the owner in his ownership, and

it steps as judge and avenger before him who assails the established

order. By reason of its innermost being, the interest of a ruling

property class, and of the Government therewith connected, is ever

conservative. The organization of the State changes only when the

interest of property so demands. The State is, accordingly, the

_inevitably necessary_ organization of a social order that rests upon

class rule. The moment class antagonisms fall through the abolition of

private property, the State loses both the _necessity_ and the

_possibility_ for its existence. With the removal of the conditions for

rulership, the State gradually ceases to be, the same as creeds wane

when the belief ceases in supernatural beings, or in transcendental

powers gifted with reason. Words must have sense; if they lose that they

cease to convey ideas.

"Yes," interjects at this point a capitalist-minded reader, "that is all

very well, but by what 'legal principle' can society justify such a

change?" The legal principle is the same that ever prevailed, whenever

it was the question of changes and reforms,--_public policy_. Not the

State, but society is the source of right; the State is but the

committee of Society, authorized to administer and dispense right.

Hitherto, "Society" has been a small minority; yet it acted in the name

of the whole community (the people) by pronouncing itself "Society,"

much as Louis XIV. pronounced himself the "State,"--"_L'etat c'est moi_"

(I am the State). When our newspapers announce: "The season begins;

society is returning to the city," or "The season has closed; society is

rushing to the country," they never mean the people, but only the upper

ten thousand, who constitute "Society" as they constitute the "State."

The masses are "plebs," "vile multitude," "canaille," "people." In

keeping therewith, all that the State has done in the name of Society

for the "public weal" has always been to the advantage and profit of the

ruling class. It is in its interests that laws are framed. "_Salus

reipublicae suprema lex esto_" (Let the public weal be the supreme law)

is a well known legal principle of Old Rome. But who constituted the

Roman Commonwealth? Did it consist of the subjugated peoples, the

millions of slaves? No. A disproportionately small number of Roman

citizens, foremost among these the Roman nobility, all of whom were

supported by the subject class.

When, in the Middle Ages, noblemen and Princes stole the common

property, they did so "according to law," in the "interest of the public

weal," and how drastically the common property and that of the helpless

peasants was treated on the occasion we have sufficiently explained. The

agrarian history of the last fifteen centuries is a narration of

uninterrupted robbery perpetrated upon common and peasant property by

the nobility and the Church in all the leading countries of Europe. When

the French Revolution expropriated the estates of the nobility and the

Church, it did so "in the name of the public weal"; and a large part of

the seven million of landed estates, that are to-day the prop of modern

bourgeois France, owe their existence to this expropriation. "In the

name of the public weal," Spain more than once embargoed Church

property, and Italy wholly confiscated the same,--both with the plaudits

of the zealous defenders of "sacred property." The English nobility has

for centuries been robbing the Irish and English people of their

property, and, during the period of 1804-1832 made itself a present of

not less than 3,511,710 acres of commons "in the interest of the public

welfare." When during the great North American war for the emancipation

of the negro, millions of slaves, the regular property of their masters,

were declared free without indemnity to the latter, the thing was done

"in the name of the public weal." Our whole capitalist development is an

uninterrupted process of expropriation and confiscation, at which the

manufacturer expropriates the workingman, the large landlord

expropriates the peasant, the large merchant expropriates the small

dealer, and finally one capitalist expropriates another, i. e., the

larger expropriates and absorbs the smaller. To hear our bourgeoisie,

all this happens in the interest of the "public weal," for the "good of

society." The Napoleonites "saved Society" on the 18th Brumaire and 2d

of December, and "Society" congratulated them. If hereafter Society

shall save itself by resuming possession of the property that itself has

produced, it will enact the most notable historic event--_it is not

seeking to oppress some in the interest of others, but to afford to all

the prerequisite for equality of existence, to make possible to each an

existence worthy of human beings_. It will be morally the cleanest and

most stupendous measure that human society has ever executed.

In what manner this gigantic process of social expropriation will be

achieved, and under what modality, eludes all surmise. Who can tell how

general conditions will then be, and what the demands of public interest

will be?

In his fourth social letter to v. Kirchmann, entitled "Capital,"

Rodbertus says: "The dissolution of all capitalist property in land is

no chimera; on the contrary, it is easily conceivable in national

economy. It would, moreover, be the most radical aid to society, that,

as might be put in a few words, is suffering of rent-rising--rent of

land and capital. Hence the measure would be the only manner of

abolishing property in land and capital, _a measure that would not even

for a moment interrupt the commerce and progress of the nation_." What

say our agrarians to this opinion of their former political

co-religionist?

In the contemplation of how matters will probably shape themselves along

the principal lines of human activity, upon such a measure of general

expropriation, there can be no question of establishing hard and fast

lines, or rigid institutions. No one is able to forecast the detailed

molds in which future generations may cast their social organizations,

and how they will satisfy their wants. In Society as in Nature,

everything is in constant flux and reflux; one thing rises, another

wanes; what is old and sered is replaced with new and living forms.

Inventions, discoveries and improvements, numerous and various, the

bearing and significance of which often none can tell, are made from day

to day, come into operation, and, each in its own way, they

revolutionize and transform human life and all society.

We can, accordingly, be concerned only with general principles, that

flow inevitably from the preceding _expose_, and whose enforcement may

be supervised, up to a certain point. If even hitherto society has been

no automatic entity, leadable and guidable by an individual, much as

appearances often pointed the other way; if even hitherto those who

imagined they pushed were themselves pushed; if even hitherto society

was an organism, that developed according to certain inherent laws;--if

that was hitherto the case, in the future all guiding and leading after

individual caprice is all the more out of question. Society will have

discovered the secret of its own being, it will have discovered the laws

of its own progress, and it will apply these consciously towards its own

further development.

So soon as society is in possession of all the means of production, _the

duty to work, on the part of all able to work, without distinction of

sex, becomes the organic law of socialized society_. Without work

society can not exist. Hence, society has the right to demand that all,

who wish to satisfy their wants, shall exert themselves, according to

their physical and mental faculties, in the production of the requisite

wealth. The silly claim that the Socialist does not wish to work, that

he seeks to abolish work, is a matchless absurdity, which fits our

adversaries alone. Non-workers, idlers, exist in capitalist society

_only_. Socialism agrees with the Bible that "He who will not work,

neither shall he eat." But work shall not be mere activity; it shall be

useful, productive activity. The new social system will demand that each

and all pursue some industrial, agricultural or other useful occupation,

whereby to furnish a certain amount of work towards the satisfaction of

existing wants. _Without work no pleasure, no pleasure without work._

All being obliged to work, all have an equal interest in seeing the

following three conditions of work in force:--

First, that work shall be moderate, and shall overtax none;

Second, that work shall be as agreeable and varied as possible;

Third, that work shall be as productive as possible, seeing that both

the hours of work and fruition hinge upon that.

These three conditions hinge, in turn, upon the nature and the number of

the productive powers that are available, and also upon the aspirations

of society. But Socialist society does not come into existence for the

purpose of living in proletarian style; _it comes into existence in

order to abolish the proletarian style of life of the large majority of

humanity_. It seeks to afford to each and all the fullest possible

measure of the amenities of life. The question that does rise is, How

high will the aspirations of society mount?

In order to determine this, an administration is requisite that shall

embrace all the fields of social activity. Our municipalities constitute

an effective basis thereto: if they are too large to allow a ready

supervision, they can be divided into wards. As in primitive society,

all members of the community who are of age participate in the

elections, _without distinction of sex_, and have a voice in the choice

of the persons who are to be entrusted with the administration. At the

head of all the local administrations stands the central

administration--as will be noted, not a Government, with power to rule,

but an executive college of administrative functions. Whether the

central administration shall be chosen directly by popular vote or

appointed by the local administration is immaterial. These questions

will not then have the importance they have to-day: the question is then

no longer one of filling posts that bestow special honor, or that vest

the incumbent with greater power and influence, or that yield larger

incomes: it is then a question of filling positions of trust, for which

the fittest, whether male or female, are taken; and these may be

recalled or re-elected as circumstances may demand, or the electors may

deem preferable. All posts are for given terms. The incumbents are,

accordingly, clothed with no special "official qualities"; the feature

of continuity of office is absent, likewise a hierarchical order of

promotion. Hence it is also immaterial to us whether there shall be

middle stages, say provincial administrations, between the central and

the local administrations. If they are deemed necessary, they are set

up; if they are not deemed necessary, they are left alone. All such

matters are decided by actual exigencies, as ascertained in practice. If

the progress of society has rendered any old organization superfluous,

it is abolished without further ado and dispute, there being no longer

any personal interest in conflict; and new ones are similarly

established. Obviously, _such an administration, resting upon the

broadest democratic foundation, differs radically from what we have

to-day_. What a battle of newspapers, what a war of tongues in our

parliaments, what mountains of public documents in our bureaus, if but a

trivial change is made in the administration or the Government!

The principal thing to ascertain is the number and the nature of the

forces that are available, the quantity and nature of the means of

production,--the factories, workshops, means of transportation and

communication, land--and also their productivity. The next thing to

ascertain is the quantity of the supplies that are on hand and the

extent to which these can satisfy the wants of society. As to-day the

State and the several municipalities yearly cast up their budgets, the

thing will then be done with an eye to all the wants of society, without

thereby excluding changes that increased or new wants may demand.

Statistics here play the chief _role_: they become the most important

subsidiary science of the new order: they furnish the measure for all

social activities.

Statistics are extensively used to-day for similar purposes. The

Imperial, State and municipal budgets are based upon a large amount of

statistical reports, made yearly by the several administrative branches.

Long experience and a certain degree of stability in the running wants

facilitate their gathering. Every operator of a large factory, every

merchant is, under normal conditions, able to determine accurately what

he will need during the next three months, and how he should regulate

his production and purchases. Unless excessive changes set in, his

calculations will be found safe.

The experience that crises are caused by blind, anarchic production, i.

e., that production is carried on without a knowledge of the volume of

supply, of sales and of demand of and for the several goods in the

world's market, has, as indicated in previous passages, caused large

manufacturers in several branches of industry to join in Trusts and

rings, partly with the view of steadying prices, partly also for the

purpose of regulating production by the light of previous experience and

of the orders received. According to the capability of each

establishment and to the probable demand, the output of each is

determined for the next few months. Infractions are punished with heavy

conventional mulcts, and even expulsion. The capitalists do not conclude

these agreements for the benefit of the public, but to its injury and to

their own profit. Their purpose is to utilize the power of combination

in order to secure the greatest advantages to themselves. This

regulation of production has for its object to enable the capitalist to

demand from the public prices that could not be got if the competitive

struggle was on between the several capitalists. These enrich themselves

at the expense of the consumers who are forced to pay whatever price is

demanded for the goods they need. As the consumer, so is the workingman

injured by the Trusts. The artificial regulation of production throws a

part of the working class out of work, and, in order that these may

live, they underbid their fellows at work. Thus the employer derives a

double advantage: he receives higher prices, and he pays lower wages.

Such a regulation of production by combinations of capitalists _is

exactly the reverse of that which will be practiced in Socialist

society_. While to-day the interests of the capitalists is the

determining factor, the interests of all will then be the guide.

Production will then be carried on for the satisfaction of human wants,

and not in order to obtain, through high prices, large profits for

private individuals. Nevertheless, the best planned combination in

capitalist society can not take in and control all the factors needed in

the calculation: competition and speculation run wild despite all

combinations: finally the discovery is made that the calculation had a

leak, and the scheme breaks down.

The same as production on a large scale, commerce also has extensive

statistics. Every week the larger centers of commerce and the ports

publish reports on the supply of petroleum, coffee, cotton, sugar,

grain, etc. These statistics are frequently inaccurate, seeing that the

owners of the goods frequently have a personal interest in concealing

the truth. On the whole, however, the statistics are pretty safe and

furnish to those interested, information on the condition of the

market. But here also speculation steps in, upsets all calculations, and

often renders all legitimate business impossible. Seeing how impossible

is a general regulation of production in capitalist society, due to the

existence of many thousands of private producers with conflicting

interests, it will be obvious why the speculative nature of commerce,

the number of merchants and their conflicting interests render equally

impossible the regulation of distribution. Nevertheless, what is done in

these directions indicates what could be done so soon as private

interest were to drop out and the interests of all were alone dominant.

A proof of this is furnished by the statistics of crops, that are yearly

issued by the leading countries of civilization, and that enable certain

general conclusions to be drawn upon the size of the crops, the extent

that they will supply the demand, and the probable price.

In a socialized society matters are fully regulated; society is held in

fraternal bonds. Everything is done in order; there, it is an easy

matter to gauge demand. With a little experience, the thing is easy as

play. If, for instance, the demand is statistically established for

bread, meat, shoes, linen, etc., and, on the other hand, the

productivity of the respective plants is equally known, _the average

daily amount of socially necessary labor is thereby ascertained. The

figures would, furthermore, point out where more plants for the

production of a certain article may be needed, or where such may be

discontinued as superfluous, or turned to other purposes._

Everyone decides the pursuit he chooses: the large number of different

fields of activity caters to the tastes of all. If on one field there is

a surplus and on another a dearth of labor-power, the administration

attends to the equalization of forces. To organize production, and to

furnish the several powers with the opportunity to apply themselves at

the right places will be the principal task of these functionaries. In

the measure that the several forces are broken in, the wheels will move

with greater smoothness. The several branches and divisions of labor

choose their foremen, who superintend the work. These are no

slave-drivers, like most foremen of to-day; they are fellow workers,

who, instead of a productive, exercise an administrative function

entrusted to them. The idea is by no means excluded that, with the

attainment of higher perfection, both in point of organization and of

individuals, these functions should alternate so that, within a certain

time, and in certain order, they are filled by all _regardless of sex_.

A system of labor, organized upon a plan of such absolute liberty and

democratic equality, where each stands for all, and all stand for each,

and where the sense of solidarity reigns supreme,--such a system would

generate a spirit of industry and of emulation nowhere to be found in

the modern economic system. Nor could such a spirit of industry fail to

react both upon the productivity of labor and the quality of labor's

product.

Furthermore--seeing that all are mutually active--the interest becomes

general in the best and most complete, as well as in the quickest

possible production of goods, with the object of saving labor, and of

gaining time for the production of further wealth, looking to the

gratification of higher wants. _Such a common interest spurs all to bend

their thoughts towards simplifying and quickening the process of labor.

The ambition to invent and discover is stimulated to the highest pitch:

each will seek to outdo the other in propositions and ideas._[176]

Just the reverse will, accordingly, happen of which the adversaries of

Socialism claim. How many are not the inventors and discoverers who go

to pieces in the capitalist world! How many has it not exploited and

then cast aside! If talent and intellect, instead of property, stood at

the head of bourgeois society, _the larger part of the employers would

have to make room for their workingmen, master mechanics, technical

overseers, engineers, chemists, etc._ These are the men, who, in

ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, make the inventions, discoveries and

improvements, which the man with the money-bag exploits. How many

thousands of discoverers and inventors have gone to pieces unable to

find the man of means ready to provide the wherewithal for the execution

of their thoughts; how many germs of inventions and discoveries have

been and continue to be nipped by the social stress for bare existence,

is a matter that eludes all calculation. Not the men of head and brain,

but those of large wealth are to-day the masters of the world,--which,

however, does not exclude the occasional and exceptional phenomenon of

brains and wealth being united in one person. The exception only proves

the rule.

Everyone in practical life knows with what suspicion the workingman

to-day regards every improvement, every invention introduced in the

shop. And he is right. He rarely derives any advantage therefrom; it all

accrues to the employer. The workingman is assailed with the fear lest

the new machine, the new improvement cast him off to-morrow as

superfluous. Instead of gladsome applause for an invention that does

honor to man and is fraught with benefit for the race, he only has a

malediction on his lips. We also know, from personal experience, how

many an improvement perceived by the workingman, is not introduced: the

workingman keeps silent, fearing to derive no benefit but only harm from

it. Such are the natural consequences of an antagonism of

interests.[177]

This antagonism of interests is removed in Socialist society. Each

unfolds his faculties in his own interest, and, by so doing,

simultaneously benefits the commonweal. To-day personal gratification is

generally antagonistic to the common weal; the two exclude each other.

In the new Order, the antagonisms are removed: _The gratification of the

ego and the promotion of the common weal harmonize, they supplement each

other._[178]

The marvelous effect of such a mental and moral condition is obvious.

The productivity of labor will rise mightily, and such increased

productivity makes possible the satisfaction of higher wants. Especially

will the productivity of labor rise through the discontinuance of the

present and enormous disintegration of labor, in hundreds of thousands,

even millions of petty establishments, conducted with imperfect tools.

According to the industrial census of the German Empire for the year

1882, there were 3,005,457 leading establishments, exclusive of

commerce, transportation, hotels and inns, in which 6,396,465 persons

were occupied. Of these leading establishments, 61.1 per cent. employed

less than 5 persons, and 16.8 per cent. employed from 6 to 50 persons.

The former are small concerns, the latter middle class ones. Through the

concentration of the small and middle class establishments into large

ones, equipped with all the advantages of modern technique, an enormous

waste in power, time, material (light, heat, etc.) space, now incurred,

would be avoided, and the productivity of labor would gain

proportionally. What difference there is in the productivity of small,

middle class and large establishments, even where modern technique is

applied, may be illustrated by the census of manufactories of the State

of Massachusetts for 1890. The establishments in ten leading industries

were divided into three classes. Those that produced less than $40,000

worth of goods were placed in the lowest class; those that produced from

$40,000 to $150,000 were placed in the middle class; and those that

produced over $150,000 worth of goods were placed in the upper class.

The result was this:--

Number of Percentage Productivity Percentage

Establishments. of All of of Total

Classes. Establishments. Each Class. Productivity.

Lower 2,042 55.2 51,660,617 9.4

Middle 968 26.2 106,868,635 19.5

Upper 686 18.6 390,817,300 71.1

----- ----- ----------- -----

3,696 100.0 549,346,552 100.0

The more than twice as large number of small establishments turned out

only 9.4 per cent. of the total product. But even the large

establishments could, with hardly any exception, be conducted far more

rationally than now, so that, under a system of collective production,

aided by the most highly perfected technical process, an infinitely

larger demand could be supplied.

Upon the subject of the saving of time, possible under a system of

production planted on a rational basis, Th. Hertzka of Vienna has made

some interesting calculations.[179] He investigated the amount of

labor-power and time requisite for the satisfaction of the wants of the

22 million inhabitants of Austria by means of production on a large

scale. To this end Hertzka gathered information upon the capacity of

large establishments in several fields, and he based his calculations

upon the data thus ascertained. In Hertzka's calculation are included

10,500,000 hectares of agricultural and 3,000,000 hectares of pasture

lands, that should suffice for the production of agricultural products

and of meat for the said population. Hertzka also included in his

computation the building of houses on the basis of a house of 150 square

meters, 5 rooms and strong enough to last 50 years, to each family. The

result was that, for agricultural, building, the production of flour,

sugar, coal, iron, machinery, clothing and chemicals, only 615,000

workingmen were needed, at work the whole year and at the present

average hours of daily labor. These 615,000 workingmen are, however,

_only 12.3 per cent. of the population of Austria, capable to work,

exclusive of all the women as well as the males under 16 and over 50

years of age_. If all the 5,000,000 men, and not merely the above figure

of 615,000, were engaged, then, _each of them would need to work only

36.9 days--six weeks in round figures_--in order to produce the

necessaries of life for 22 million people. Assuming 300 work days in the

year, instead of 37, and 11 as the present daily hours of work, it

follows that, under this new organization of labor, _only 1-3/8 hours a

day would be needed to cover the most pressing needs of all_.

Hertzka further computes the articles of luxury that the better situated

demand, and he finds that the production of the same for 22 million

people would require an additional 315,000 workingmen. Altogether,

according to Hertzka, and making allowance for some industries that are

not properly represented in Austria, one million in round figures, equal

to 20 per cent. of the male population able to work, exclusive of those

under 16 and above 50 years of age, would suffice to cover _all the

needs of the population_ in 60 days. If, again, the whole male

population able to work is made the basis of the computation, these

would need to furnish but _two and a half hours work a day_.[180]

This computation will surprise none who take a comprehensive view of

things. Considering, then, that, at such moderate hours, even the men 50

years old--all the sick and invalid excepted--are able to work;

furthermore, that also youths under 16 years of age could be partially

active, as well as a large number of women, in so far as these are not

otherwise engaged in the education of children, the preparation of food,

etc.;--considering all that, it follows that even these hours could be

considerably lowered, or the demand for wealth could be considerably

increased. None will venture to claim that no more and unforeseen

progress, and considerable progress, at that, is possible in the

process of production, thus furnishing still greater advantages. But

the issue now is to satisfy a mass of wants felt by all that to-day are

satisfied only by a minority. With higher culture ever newer wants

arise, and these too should be met. We repeat it: _the new Social order

is not to live in proletarian style; it lives as a highly developed

people demand to live, and it makes the demand in all its members from

the first to the last_. But such a people can not rest content with

satisfying merely its material wants. All its members are to be allowed

fullest leisure for their development in the arts and sciences, as well

as for their recreation.

Also in other important respects will Socialist society differ from the

bourgeois individualist system. The motto: "Cheap and bad"--which is and

must be standard for a large portion of bourgeois production, seeing

that the larger part of the customers can buy only cheap goods, that

quickly wear out--likewise drops out. Only the best will be produced; it

will last longer and will need replacing at only wider intervals. The

follies and insanities of fashion, promoted by wastefulness and

tastelessness, also cease. People will probably clothe themselves more

properly and sightfully than to-day, when, be it said in passing, the

fashions of the last hundred years, especially as to men, distinguish

themselves by their utter tastelessness. No longer will a new fashion be

introduced every three months, an act of folly that stands in intimate

relation with the competitive struggle of women among themselves, with

the ostentatiousness and vanity of society, and with the necessity for

the display of wealth. To-day a mass of establishments and people live

upon this folly of fashion, and are compelled by their own interests to

stimulate and force it. Together with the folly of fashion in dress,

falls the folly of fashion in the style of architecture. Eccentricity

reaches here its worst expression. Styles of architecture that required

centuries for their development and that sprang up among different

peoples--we are no longer satisfied with European styles, we go to the

Japanese, Indians and Chinese--are used up in a few decades and laid

aside. Our poor professional artists no longer know whither and whereto

they should turn with and for their samples and models. Hardly have they

assorted themselves with one style, and expect to recover with ease the

outlays they have made, when a new style breaks in upon them, and

demands new sacrifices of time and money, of mental and physical powers.

The nervousness of the age is best reflected in the rush from one

fashion to the other, from one style to the other. No one will dare to

claim any sense for such hurrying and scurrying, or the merit of its

being a symptom of social health.

_Socialism alone will re-introduce a greater stability in the habits of

life._ It will make repose and enjoyment possible; it will be a

liberator from hurry and excessive exertion. Nervousness, that scourge

of our age, will disappear.

But labor is also to be made pleasant. To that end practical and

tastefully contrived workshops are required; the utmost precautions

against danger; the removal of disagreeable odors, gases and smoke,--in

short, of all sources of injury or discomfort to health. At the start,

the new social system will carry on production with the old means,

inherited from the old. But these are utterly inadequate. Numerous and

unsuitable workshops, disintegrated in all directions; imperfect tools

and machinery, running through all the stages of usefulness;--this heap

is insufficient both for the number of the workers and for their demands

of comfort and of pleasure. The establishment of a large number of

spacious, light, airy, fully equipped and ornamented workshops is a

pressing need. Art, technique, skill of head and hand immediately find a

wide field of activity. All departments in the building of machinery, in

the fashioning of tools, in architecture and in the branches of work

connected with the internal equipment of houses have the amplest

opportunity. Whatever human genius can invent with regard to comfortable

and pleasant homes, proper ventilation, lighting and heating, mechanical

and technical provisions and cleanliness is brought into application.

The saving of motor power, heating, lighting, time, as well as the

promotion of all that tends to render work and life agreeable, demand a

suitable concentration of the fields of labor on certain spots.

Habitations are separated from places of work and are freed from the

disagreeable features of industrial and other manual work. These

disagreeable features are, in their turn, reduced to the lowest measure

possible by means of suitable arrangements and provisions of all sorts,

until wholly removed. The present state of technique has now means

enough at command to wholly free from danger the most dangerous

occupations, such as mining and the preparation of chemicals, etc. But

these means can not be applied in capitalist society because they are

expensive, and there is no obligation to do more than what is absolutely

necessary for the workingman. The discomforts attached to mining can be

removed by means of a different sort of draining, of extensive

ventilation, of electric lighting, of a material reduction of hours of

work, and of frequent shifts. Nor does it require any particular

cleverness to find such protective means as would render building

accidents almost impossible, and transform work in that line into the

most exhilarating of all. Ample protections against sun and rain are

possible in the construction of the largest edifices. Furthermore, in a

society with ample labor-power at its disposal, such as Socialist

society would be, frequent shifts and the concentration of certain work

upon certain seasons of the year and certain hours of day would be an

easy matter.

The problem of removing dust, smoke, soot and odors could likewise be

completely solved by modern chemistry and technique; it is solved only

partially or not at all, simply because the private employers care not

to make the necessary sacrifice of funds. The work-places of the future,

wherever located, whether above or under ground, will, accordingly,

distinguish themselves most favorably from those of to-day. Many

contrivances are, under the existing system of private enterprise, first

of all, a question of money: can the business bear the expenditure? Will

it pay? If the answer is in the negative, then let the workingmen go to

pieces. Capital does not operate where there is no profit. Humanity is

not an "issue" on the Exchange.[181]

The question of "profit" has exhausted its _role_ in Socialist society:

_in Socialist society the only consideration is the welfare of its

members_. Whatever is beneficent to these and protects them must be

introduced; whatever injures them must stop. None is forced to join in a

dangerous game. If matters are undertaken that have dangers in prospect,

volunteers will be numerous, all the more so seeing that the object can

never be to the injury, but only to the promotion of civilization.

The amplest application of motor powers and of the best machinery and

implements, the utmost subdivision of labor, and the most efficient

combinations of labor-power will, accordingly, carry production to such

pitch that the hours of work can be materially reduced in the production

of the necessaries of life. The capitalist lengthens the hours of labor,

whenever he can, especially during crises, when the worker's power of

resistance is broken, and by squeezing more surplus values out of him,

prices may be lowered. In Socialist society, an increase of production

accrues to the benefit of all: _The share of each rises with the

productivity of labor and increased productivity again makes possible

the reduction of the hours of work, socially determined as necessary._

Among the motor powers that are coming into application, electricity

will, according to all appearances, take a decisive place.[182]

Capitalist society is now everywhere engaged in harnessing it to its

service. The more extensively this is done the better. The

revolutionizing effect of this mightiest of all the powers of Nature

will but all the sooner snap the bonds of bourgeois society, and open

the doors to Socialism. But only in Socialist society will electricity

attain its fullest and most widespread application. If the prospects now

opened for its application are even but partially realized--and on that

head there can be no doubt--electricity, as a motor power as well as a

source of light and heat, will contribute immeasurably towards the

improvement of the conditions of life. Electricity distinguishes itself

from all other motor power in that, above all, its supply in Nature is

abundant. Our water courses, the ebb and tide of the sea, the winds, the

sun-light--all furnish innumerable horse-powers, the moment we know how

to utilize them in full. Through the invention of accumulators it has

been proved that large volumes of power, which can be appropriated only

periodically, from the ebbs and tides, the winds and mountain streams,

can be stored up and kept for use at any given place and any given time.

All these inventions and discoveries are still in embryo: their full

development may be surmised, but can not be forecast in detail.

The progress expected from the application of electricity sounds like a

fairy tale. Mr. Meems of Baltimore has planned an electric wagon able to

travel 300 kilometers an hour--actually race with the wind. Nor does Mr.

Meems stand alone. Prof. Elihu Thomson of Lynn, Mass., also believes it

possible to construct electromotors of a velocity of 160 kilometers,

and, with suitable strengthening of the rolling stock and improvement of

the signal system, of a velocity of 260 kilometers; and he has given a

plausible explanation of his system. The same scientist holds, and in

this Werner Siemens, who expressed similar views at the Berlin

Convention of Naturalists in 1887, agrees with him, that it is possible

by means of electricity _to transform the chemical elements directly

into food_--a revolution that would hoist capitalist society off its

hinges. While in 1887 Werner Siemens was of the opinion that it was

possible, though only in the remote future, to produce artificially a

hydrate of carbon such as grape sugar and later the therewith closely

related starch, whereby "bread could be made out of stone," the chemist

Dr. B. Meyer claims that ligneous fibre could eventually be turned into

a source of human food. Obviously, we are moving towards ever newer

chemical and technical revolutions. In the meantime, the physiologist E.

Eiseler has actually produced grape sugar artificially, and thus made a

discovery that, in 1887, Werner Siemens considered possible only in the

"remote future." In the spring of 1894, the French ex-Minister of Public

Worship, Prof. Berthelot, delivered an address in Paris at the banquet

of the Association of Chemical Manufacturers upon the significance of

chemistry in the future. The address is interesting in more respects

than one. Prof. Berthelot sketched the probable state of chemistry at

about the year 2000. While his sketch contains many a droll

exaggeration, it does contain so much that is serious and sound that we

shall present it in extract. After describing the achievements of

chemistry during the last few decades, Prof. Berthelot went on to say:--

"The manufacture of sulphuric acids and of soda, bleaching and coloring,

beet sugar, therapeutic alkaloids, gas, gilding and silvering, etc.;

then came electro-chemistry, whereby metallurgy was radically

revolutionized; thermo-chemistry and the chemistry of explosives,

whereby fresh energy was imparted to mining and to war; the wonders of

organic chemistry in the production of colors, of flavors, of

therapeutic and antiseptic means, etc. But all that is only a start:

soon much more important problems are to be solved. About the year 2000

there will be no more agriculture and no more farmers: chemistry will

have done away with the former cultivation of the soil. There will be no

more coal-shafts, consequently, neither will there be any more miners'

strikes. Fuel is produced by chemical and physical processes. Tariffs

and wars are abolished: aerial navigation, that helped itself to

chemicals as motor power, pronounced the sentence of death upon those

obsolete habits. The whole problem of industry then consists in

discovering sources of power, that are inexhaustible and resortable to

with little labor. Until now we have produced steam through the chemical

energy of burning mineral coal. But mineral coal is hard to get and its

supply decreases daily. Attention must be turned towards utilizing the

heat of the sun and of the earth's crust. The hope is justified that

both sources will be drawn upon without limit. The boring of a shaft

3,000 to 4,000 meters deep does not exceed the power of modern, less yet

it will exceed that of future engineers. The source of all heat and of

all industry would be thus thrown open. Add water to that, and all

imaginable machinery may be put in perpetual operation on earth: the

source of this power would experience hardly any diminution in hundreds

of years.

"With the aid of the earth's heat, numerous chemical problems will

become solvable, among these the greatest of all--_the chemical

production of food_. In principle, the problem is solved now. The

synthesis of fats and oils has been long known; likewise are sugar and

hydrates of carbon known; nor will it be long before the secret of

compounding azote is out. The food problem is a purely chemical one.

The day when the corresponding cheap power shall have been obtained,

food of all sort will be producable with carbon out of carbon oxides,

and with hydrogen and acids out of water, and with nitrogen out of the

atmosphere. What until now vegetation has done, industry will

thenceforth perform, and more perfectly than Nature itself. The time

will come when everyone will carry about him a little box of chemicals

wherewith to provide his food supply of albumen, fat and hydrates of

carbon, regardless of the hour of the day or the season of the year,

regardless of rain or drought, of frost or hail, or insects. A

revolution will then set in of which no conception is so far possible.

Fields bearing fruit, wine-bearing mountain slopes and pastures for

cattle will have vanished. Man will have gained in gentleness and

morality seeing he no longer lives on the murder and destruction of

living beings. Then also will the difference drop away between fertile

and barren districts; perchance deserts may then become the favorite

homes of man being healthier than the damp valleys and the

swamp-infected plains. Then also will Art, together with all the

beauties of human life reach full development. No longer will the face

of earth be marred, so to speak, with geometrical figures, now entailed

by agriculture: it will become a garden in which, at will, grass or

flowers, bush or woods, can be allowed to grow, and in which the human

race will live in plenty, in a Golden Age. Nor will man thereby sink

into indolence and corruption. Work is requisite to happiness, and man

will work as much as ever, because he will be working for himself aiming

at the highest development of his mental, moral and esthetical powers."

Every reader may accept what he please of this address of Prof.

Berthelot; certain, however, is the prospect that in the future and in

virtue of the progress of science, wealth--the volume and variety of

products--will increase enormously, and that the pleasures of life of

the coming generations will take undreamed of increment.

An aspiration, deeply implanted in the nature of man, is that of freedom

in the choice and change of occupation. As uninterrupted repetition

renders the daintiest of dishes repulsive, so with a daily

treadmill-like recurring occupation: it dulls and relaxes the senses.

Man then does only mechanically what he must do; he does it without

swing or enjoyment. There are latent in all men faculties and desires

that need but to be awakened and developed to produce the most beautiful

results. Only then does man become fully and truly man. Towards the

satisfaction of this need of change, Socialist society offers, as will

be shown, the fullest opportunity. The mighty increase of productive

powers, coupled with an ever progressing simplification of the process

of labor, not only enables a considerable lowering of hours of work, it

also _facilitates the acquisition of skill in many directions_.

The old apprentice system has survived its usefulness: it exists to-day

only and is possible only in backward, old-fashioned forms of

production, as represented by the small handicrafts. Seeing, however,

that this vanishes from the new social Order, all the institutions and

forms peculiar thereto vanish along with it. New ones step in. Every

factory shows us to-day how few are its workingmen, still engaged at a

work that they have been apprenticed in. The employes are of the most

varied, heterogeneous trades; a short time suffices to train them in any

sub-department of work, at which, in accord with the ruling system of

exploitation, they are then kept at work longer hours, without change or

regard to their inclinations, and, lashed to the machine, become

themselves a machine.[183] Such a state of things has no place in a

changed organization of society. There is ample time for the acquisition

of dexterity of hand and the exercise of artistic skill. Spacious

training schools, equipped with all necessary comforts and technical

perfections will facilitate to young and old the acquisition of any

trade. Chemical and physical laboratories, up to all the demands of

these sciences, and furnished with ample staffs of instructors will be

in existence. Only then will be appreciated to its full magnitude what a

world of ambitions and faculties the capitalist system of production

suppresses, or forces awry into mistaken paths.[184]

It is not merely possible to have a regard for the need of change; it is

the purpose of society to realize its satisfaction: the harmonious

growth of man depends upon that. The professional physiognomies that

modern society brings to the surface--whether the profession be in

certain occupations of some sort or other, or in gluttony and idleness,

or in compulsory tramping--will gradually vanish. There are to-day

precious few people with any opportunity of change in their occupations,

or who exercise the same. Occasionally, individuals are found who,

favored by circumstances, withdraw from the routine of their daily

pursuits and, after having paid their tribute to physical, recreate

themselves with intellectual work; and conversely, brain workers are met

off and on, who seek and find change in physical labors of some sort or

other, handwork, gardening, etc. Every hygienist will confirm the

invigorating effect of a pursuit that rests upon alternating physical

and mental work; only such a pursuit is natural. The only qualification

is that it be moderately indulged, and in proportion to the strength of

the individual.

Leo Tolstoi lashes the hypertrophic and unnatural character that art and

science have assumed under the unnatural conditions of modern

society.[185] He severely condemns the contempt for physical labor,

entertained in modern society, and he recommends a return to natural

conditions. Every being, who means to live according to the laws of

nature and enjoy life, should divide the day between, first, physical

field labor; secondly, hand work; thirdly, mental work; fourthly,

cultured and companionable intercourse. More than eight hours' physical

work should not be done. Tolstoi, who practices this system of life, and

who, as he says, has felt himself human only since he put it into

practice, perceives only what is possible to him, a rich, independent

man, but wholly impossible to the large mass of mankind, under existing

conditions. The person who must do hard physical work every day ten,

twelve and more hours, to gain a meager existence, and who was brought

up in ignorance, can not furnish himself with the Tolstoian system of

life. Neither can they, who are on the firing line of business life and

are compelled to submit to its exactions. The small minority who could

imitate Tolstoi have, as a rule, no need to do so. It is one of the

illusions that Tolstoi yields to, the belief that social systems can be

changed by preaching and example. The experiences made by Tolstoi with

his system of life prove how rational the same is; in order, however, to

introduce such a system of life as a social custom, a social foundation

is requisite other than the present. It requires a new society.

_Future society will have such a foundation; it will have scientists and

artists of all sorts in abundance; but all of them will work physically

a part of the day, and devote the rest, according to their liking, to

study, the arts or companionable intercourse._[186]

The existing contrast between mental and manual labor--a contrast that

the ruling classes seek to render as pronounced as possible with the

view of securing for themselves also the intellectual means of

sovereignty--will likewise be removed.

It follows from the preceding arguments that crises and compulsory

idleness are impossible phenomena in the new social Order. Crises arise

from the circumstance that individualist, capitalist production--incited

by profit and devoid of all reliable gauge with which to ascertain the

actual demand--brings an overstocking of the world's market, and thus

overproduction. The merchandise feature of the products under

capitalism, of the products that their owners endeavor to exchange,

makes the use of the product dependent upon the consumer's _capacity to

buy_. The capacity to buy is, however, limited, in so far as the

overwhelming majority are concerned, they being under-paid for their

labor, or even wholly unable to sell the same if the capitalist does not

happen to be able to squeeze a surplus value out of it. _The capacity to

buy and the capacity to consume are two wholly distinct things in

capitalist society._ Many millions of people are in want of clothes,

shoes, furniture, linen, eatables and drinkables, but they have no

money, and their wants, i. e., their capacity to consume, remains

unsatisfied. The market is glutted with goods, but the masses suffer

hunger; they are willing to work, but they find none to buy their

labor-power because the holder of money sees nothing to "make" in the

purchase. "Die, canaille; become vagabonds, criminals! I, the

capitalist, can not help it. I have no use for goods that I have no

purchaser to buy from me with corresponding profit." And, in a way, the

man is right.

In the new social Order this contradiction is wiped out. Socialist

society produces not "merchandise," in order to "buy" and to "sell;" _it

produces necessaries of life, that are used, consumed, and otherwise

have no object_. In Socialist society, accordingly, the capacity to

consume is not bounded, as in bourgeois society, by the individual's

capacity to buy; _it is bounded by the collective capacity to produce_.

If labor and instruments of labor are in existence, all wants can be

satisfied; the social capacity to consume is bounded only by _the

satisfaction of the consumers_.

There being no "merchandise" in Socialist society, neither can there be

any "money." Money is the visible contrast of merchandise; yet itself is

merchandise! Money, though itself merchandise, is at the same time the

social equivalent for all other articles of merchandise. But Socialist

society produces no articles of merchandise, only articles of use and

necessity, whose production requires a certain measure of social labor.

The time, on an average requisite for the production of an article is

the only standard by which it is measured for social use. Ten minutes

social labor in one article are equal to ten minutes social labor in

another--neither more nor less. Society is not "on the make"; it only

seeks to effect among its members the exchange of articles of equal

quality, equal utility. It need not even set up a standard of use value.

It merely produces what it needs. If society finds that a three-hour

work day is requisite for the production of all that is needed, it

establishes such a term of work.[187] If the methods of production

improve in such wise that the supply can be raised in two hours, the

two-hour work day is established. If, on the contrary, society demands

the gratification of higher wants than, despite the increase of forces

and the improved productivity of the process of labor, can be satisfied

with two or three hours work, then the four-hour day is introduced. Its

will is law.

How much social labor will be requisite for the production of any

article is easily computed.[188] The relation of the part to the whole

of the working time is measured accordingly. Any voucher--a printed

piece of paper, gold or tin--certifies to the time spent in work, and

enables its possessor to exchange it for articles of various kinds.[189]

If he finds that his wants are smaller than what he receives for his

labor, he then works proportionally shorter hours. If he wishes to give

away what he does not consume, nothing hinders him. If he is disposed to

work for another out of his own free will, so that the latter may revel

in the _dolce far niente_,--if he chooses to be such a blockhead,

nothing hinders him. But none can compel him to work for another; none

can withhold from him a part of what is due him for labor performed.

Everyone can satisfy all his legitimate desires--only not at the expense

of others. He receives the equivalent of what he has rendered to

society--neither more nor less, and he remains free from all

exploitation by third parties.

"But what becomes of the difference between the lazy and the

industrious? between the intelligent and the stupid?" That is one of the

principal questions from our opponents, and the answer gives them no

slight headache. That this distinction between the "lazy" and the

"industrious," the "intelligent" and the "stupid" is not made in our

civil service hierarchy, but that the term of service decides in the

matter of salary and generally of promotion also--these are facts that

occur to none of these would-be puzzlers and wiseacres. The teachers,

the professors--and as a rule the latter are the silliest

questioners--move into their posts, not according to their own

qualities, but according to the salaries that these posts bring. That

promotions in the army and in the hierarchies of the civil service and

the learned professions are often made, not according to worth, but

according to birth, friendship and female influence, is a matter of

public notoriety. That, however, wealth also is not measured by

diligence and intelligence may be judged by the Berlin inn-keepers,

bakers and butchers, to whom grammar often is a mystery, and who figure

in the first of the three classes of the Prussian electorate, while the

intellectuals of Berlin, the men of science, the highest magistrates of

the Empire and the State, vote with the second class. There is not now

any difference between the "lazy" and the "diligent," the "intelligent"

and the "stupid" for the simple reason that what is understood by these

terms exists no longer. A "lazy" fellow society only calls him who has

been thrown out of work, is compelled to lead a vagabond's life and

finally does become a vagabond, or who, grown up under improper

training, sinks into vice. But to style "lazy fellow" the man who rolls

in money and kills the day with idleness or debauchery, would be an

insult: he is a "worthy and good man."

How do matters stand in Socialist society? All develop under equal

conditions, and each is active in that to which inclination and skill

point him, whence differences in work will be but insignificant.[190]

The intellectual and moral atmosphere of society, which stimulates all

to excel one another, likewise aids in equalizing such differences. If

any person finds that he cannot do as much as others on a certain field,

he chooses another that corresponds with his strength and faculties.

Whoever has worked with a large number of people in one establishment

knows that men who prove themselves unfit and useless in a certain line,

do excellent work in another. There is no normally constructed being who

fails to meet the highest demands in one line or another, the moment he

finds himself in the right place. By what right does any claim

precedence over another? If any one has been treated so step-motherly by

Nature that with the best will he can not do what others can, _Society

has no right to punish him for the shortcomings of Nature_. If, on the

contrary, a person has received from Nature gifts that raise him above

others, _Society is not obliged to reward what is not his personal

desert_. In Socialist society all enjoy equal conditions of life and

opportunities for education; all are furnished the same opportunities to

develop their knowledge and powers according to their respective

capacities and inclinations. In this lies a further guarantee that not

only will the standard of culture and powers be higher in Socialist than

in bourgeois society, but also that both will be more equally

distributed and yet be much more manifold.

When, on a journey up the Rhine, Goethe studied the Cathedral of

Cologne, he discovered in the archives that the old master-builders paid

their workmen equal wages for equal time. They did so because they

wished to get good and conscientious work. This looks like an anomaly to

modern bourgeois society. It introduced the system of piece-work, that

drives the workingmen to out-work one another, and thus aids the

employer in underpaying and in reducing wages.

As with manual, so with mental work. Man is the product of the time and

circumstances that he lives in. A Goethe, born under equally favorable

conditions in the fourth, instead of the eighteenth, century might have

become, instead of a distinguished poet and naturalist, a great Father

of the Church, who might have thrown St. Augustine into the shade. If,

on the other hand, instead of being the son of a rich Frankfort

patrician, Goethe had been born the son of a poor shoemaker of the same

town, he never would have become the Minister of the Grand Duke of

Weimar, but would probably have remained a shoemaker, and died an

honorable member of the craft. Goethe himself recognized the advantage

he had in being born in a materially and socially favorable station in

order to reach his stage of development. It so appears in his "Wilhelm

Meister." Were Napoleon I. born ten years later, he never would have

been Emperor of France. Without the war of 1870-1871, Gambetta had never

become what he did become. Place the naturally gifted child of

intelligent parents among savages, and he becomes a savage. _Whatever a

man is, society has made him._ Ideas are not creations that spring from

the head of the individual out of nothing, or through inspiration from

above; they are products of social life, of the _Spirit of the Age_,

raised in the head of the individual. An Aristotle could not possibly

have the ideas of a Darwin, and a Darwin could not choose but think

otherwise than an Aristotle. Man thinks according as the Spirit of the

Age, i. e., his surroundings and the phenomena that they present to him

drive him to think. Hence the experience of different people often

thinking simultaneously the same thing, of the same inventions and

discoveries being made simultaneously in places far apart from each

other. Hence also the fact that an idea, uttered fifty years too early,

leaves the world cold; fifty years later, sets it ablaze. Emperor

Sigismund could risk breaking his word to Huss in 1415 and order him

burned in Constance; Charles V., although a more violent fanatic, was

compelled to allow Luther to depart in peace from the Reichstag at Worms

in 1521. Ideas are, accordingly, the product of combined social causes

and social life. What is true of society in general, is true in

particular of the several classes that, at given historic epochs,

constitute society. As each class has its special interests, it also has

its special ideas and views, that lead to those class struggles of which

recorded history is full, and that reach their climax in the class

antagonisms and class struggles of modern days. Hence, it depends not

merely upon the age in which a man lives, but also upon the social

stratum of a certain age in which he lived or lives, and whereby his

feelings, thoughts and actions are determined.

Without modern society, no modern ideas. That is obvious. With regard to

the future social Order, it must be furthermore added that the means

whereby the individual develops are the property of society. Society

can, accordingly, not be bound to render special homage to what itself

made possible and is its own product.

So much on the qualification of manual and brain work. It follows that

there can be no real distinction between "higher" and "lower" manual

work, such as not infrequently a mechanic to-day affects towards the

day-laborer, who performs work on the street, or the like. Society

demands only socially necessary work; hence all work is of equal value

to society. If work that is disagreeable and repulsive can not be

performed mechanically or chemically and by some process converted into

work that is agreeable--a prospect that may not be put in doubt, seeing

the progress made on the fields of technique and chemistry--and if the

necessary volunteer forces can not be raised, then the obligation lies

upon each, as soon as is his turn, to do his part. False ideas of shame,

absurd contempt for useful work, become obsolete conceptions. These

exist only in our society of drones, where to do nothing is regarded as

an enviable lot, and the worker is despised in proportion to the

hardness and disagreeableness of his work, and in proportion to its

social usefulness. To-day work is badly paid in proportion as it is

disagreeable. The reason is that, due to the constant revolutionizing of

the process of production, a permanent mass of superfluous labor lies on

the street, and, in order to live, sells itself for such vile work, and

at such prices that the introduction of machinery in these departments

of labor does not "pay." Stone-breaking, for instance, is proverbially

one of the worst paid and most disagreeable kinds of work. It were a

trifling matter to have the stone-breaking done by machinery, as in the

United States; but we have such a mass of cheap labor-power that the

machine would not "pay."[191] Street and sewer cleaning, the carting

away of refuse, underground work of all sorts, etc., could, with the aid

of machinery and technical contrivances, even at our present state of

development, be all done in such manner that no longer would any trace

of disagreeableness attach to the work. Carefully considered, the

workingman who cleans out a sewer and thereby protects people from

miasmas, is a very useful member of society; whereas a professor who

teaches falsified history in the interest of the ruling classes, or a

theologian who seeks to befog the mind with supernatural and

transcendental doctrines are highly injurious beings.

The learned fraternity of to-day, clad in offices and dignities, to a

large extent represents a guild intended and paid to defend and justify

the rule of the leading classes with the authority of science; to make

them appear good and necessary; and to prop up existing superstitions.

In point of fact this guild is largely engaged in the trade of quackery

and brain-poisoning--a work injurious to civilization, intellectual

wage-labor in the interest of the capitalist class and its clients.[192]

A social condition, that should make impossible the existence of such

elements, would perform an act towards the liberation of humanity.

Genuine science, on the other hand, is often connected with highly

disagreeable and repulsive work, such, for instance, as when a physician

examines a corpse in a state of decomposition, or operates on supurating

wounds, or when a chemist makes experiments. These often are labors more

repulsive than the most repulsive ones ever performed by day-laborers

and untutored workingmen. Few recognize the fact. The difference lies in

that the one requires extensive studies in order to perform it, whereas

the other can be performed by anyone without preparatory studies. Hence

the radical difference in the estimation of the two. But in a society

where, in virtue of the amplest opportunities of education afforded to

all, the present distinction between "cultured" and "uncultured" ceases

to exist, the contrast is likewise bound to vanish between learned and

unlearned work, all the more seeing that technical development knows no

limits and manual labor may be likewise performed by machinery or

technical contrivances. We need but look at the development of our art

handicrafts--xylography and copper-etching, for instance. As it turns

out that the most disagreeable kinds of work often are the most useful,

so also is our conception regarding agreeable and disagreeable work,

like so many other modern conceptions, utterly superficial; it is a

conception that has an eye to externals only.

* * * * *

The moment production is carried on in Socialist society upon the lines

traced above, it no longer produces "merchandise," but only articles of

use for the direct demand of society. Commerce, accordingly, ceases,

having its sense and reason for being only in a social system that rests

upon the production of goods for sale. A large army of persons of both

sexes is thus set free for productive work.[193] This large army, set

free for production, not only increases the volume of wealth produced,

but makes possible a reduction of the hours of work. These people are

to-day more or less parasites: they are supported by the work of others:

in many instances they must toil diligently in return for a meagre

existence. In Socialist society they are superfluous as merchants,

hosts, brokers and agents. In lieu of the dozens, hundreds and thousands

of stores and commercial establishments of all sorts, that to-day every

community holds in proportion to its size, large municipal stores step

in, elegant bazaars, actual exhibitions, requiring a relatively small

administrative personnel. This change in itself represents a revolution

in all previous institutions. The tangled mass of modern commerce is

transformed into a centralized and purely administrative department,

with only the simplest of functions, that can not choose but grow still

simpler through the progressive centralization of all social

institutions. Likewise does the whole system of transportation and

communication undergo a complete change.

The telegraph, railroads, Post Office, river and ocean vessels, street

railways--whatever the names of the vehicles and institutions may be

that attend to the transportation and communication of capitalist

society--now become _social_ property. Many of these institutions--Post

Offices, telegraph and railroads generally--are now State institutions

in Germany. Their transformation into social property presents no

difficulties: there no private interests are left to hurt: if the State

continues to develop in that direction, all the better. But these

institutions, administered by the State, are no Socialist institutions,

as they are mistakenly taken for. They are business plants, that are

exploited as capitalistically as if they were in private hands. Neither

the officers nor the workingmen have any special benefit from them. The

State treats them just as any private capitalist. When, for instance,

orders were issued not to engage any workingman over 40 years of age in

the railway or marine service of the Empire, the measure carries on its

brows the class stamp of the State of the exploiters, and is bound to

raise the indignation of the working class. Such and similar measures

that proceed from the State as an employer of labor are even worse than

if they proceed from private employers. As against the State, the latter

is but a small employer, and the occupation that this one denies another

might grant. The State, on the contrary, being a monopolistic employer,

can, at one stroke, cast thousands of people into misery with its

regulations. That is not Socialist, it is capitalist conduct; and the

Socialist guards against allowing the present State ownership being

regarded as Socialism, or the realization of Socialist aspirations. In a

Socialist institution there are no employers. The leader, chosen for the

purpose, can only carry out the orders and superintend the execution of

the disciplinary and other measures prescribed by the collectivity

itself.

As in the instance of the millions of private producers, dealers and

middlemen of all sorts, large centralized establishments take their

place, so does the whole system of transportation and communication

assume new shape. The myriads of small shipments to as many consignees

that consume a mass of powers and of time, now grow into large shipments

to the municipal depots and the central places of production. Here also

labor is simplified. The transportation of raw material to an

establishment of a thousand workers is an infinitely simpler matter than

to a thousand small and scattered establishments. Thus centralized

localities of production and of transportation for whole communities, or

divisions of the same, will introduce a great saving of time, of labor,

of material, and of means both of production and distribution. The

benefit accrues to the whole community, and to each individual therein.

The physiognomy of our productive establishments, of our system of

transportation and communication, especially also of our habitations,

will be completely altered for the better. The nerve-racking noise,

crowding and rushing of our large cities with their thousands of

vehicles of all sorts ceases substantially: society assumes an aspect of

greater repose. The opening of streets and their cleaning, the whole

system of life and of intercourse acquires new character. Hygienic

measures--possible to-day only at great cost and then only partially,

not infrequently only in the quarters of the rich--can be introduced

with ease everywhere. To-day "the common people" do not need them; they

can wait till the funds are ready; and these never are.

Such a system of communication and transportation can not then choose

but reach a high grade of perfection. Who knows but aerial navigation

may then become a chief means of travel. The lines of transportation and

communication are the arteries that carry the exchange of

products--circulation of the blood--throughout the whole body social,

that effect personal and mental intercourse between man and man. They

are, consequently, highly calculated to establish an equal level of

well-being and culture throughout society. The extension and

ramification of the most perfect means of transportation and

communication into the remotest corners of the land is, accordingly, _a

necessity and a matter of general social interest_. On this field there

arise before the new social system tasks that go far beyond any that

modern society can put to itself. Finally, such a perfected system of

transportation and communication, will promote the decentralization of

the mass of humanity that is to-day heaped up in the large cities. It

will distribute the same over the country, and thus--in point of

sanitation as well as of mental and material progress--it will assume a

significance of inestimable value.

* * * * *

Among the means of production in industry and transportation, land holds

a leading place, being the source of all human effort and the foundation

of all human existence, hence, of Society itself. Society resumes at its

advanced stage of civilization, what it originally possessed. Among all

races on earth that reached a certain minimum degree of culture, we find

community in land, and the system continues in force with such people

wherever they are still in existence. Community in land constituted the

foundation of all primitive association: the latter was impossible

without the former. Not until the rise and development of private

property and of the forms of rulership therewith connected, and then

only under a running struggle, that extends deep into our own times, was

the system of common ownership in land ended, and the land usurped as

private property. The robbery of the land and its transformation into

private property furnished, as we have seen, the first source of that

bondage that, extending from chattel slavery to the "freedom" of the

wage-earner of our own century, has run through all imaginable stages,

until finally the enslaved, after a development of thousands of years

re-convert the land into common property.

The importance of land to human existence is such that in all social

struggles the world has ever known--whether in India, China, Egypt,

Greece (Cleomenes), Rome (the Gracchi), Christian Middle Ages (religious

sects, Munzer, the Peasants War), in the empires of the Aztecs and of

the Incas, or in the several upheavals of latter days--the possession of

land is the principal aim of the combatants. And even to-day, the public

ownership of land finds its justifiers in such men as Adolf Samter,

Adolf Wagner, Dr. Schaeffle, who on other domains of the Social Question

are ready to rest content with half-measures.[194]

The well-being of the population depends first of all upon the proper

cultivation of the land. To raise the same to the highest degree of

perfection is eminently a matter of public concern. That the

cultivation of the land can reach the necessary high degree of

perfection neither under the large, nor the middle, least of all under

the small landlord system, has been previously shown. The most

profitable cultivation of land depends not merely upon the special care

bestowed upon it. Elements come here into consideration that neither the

largest private holder, nor the mightiest association of these is equal

to cope with. These are elements that lap over, even beyond the reach of

the State and require international treatment.

Society must first of all consider the land as a whole--its

topographical qualities, its mountains, plains, woods, lakes, rivers,

ponds, heaths, swamps, moors, etc. The topography, together with the

geographical location of land, both of which are unchangeable, exercises

certain influences upon climate and the qualities of the soil. Here is

an immense field on which a mass of experience is to be gathered and a

mass of experiments to be made. What the State has done until now in

this line is meager. What with the small means that it applies to these

purposes, and what with the limitations imposed upon it by the large

landlords, who even if the State were willing, would check it, little or

nothing has been done. The State could do nothing on this field without

greatly encroaching upon private property. Seeing, however, that its

very existence is conditioned upon the safe-keeping and "sacredness" of

private property, the large landlords are vital to it, and it is

stripped of the power, even if it otherwise had the will, to move in

that direction. Socialist society will have the task of undertaking vast

improvements of the soil,--raising woods here, and dismantling others

yonder, draining and irrigating, mixing and changing of soil, planting,

etc., in order to raise the land to the highest point of productivity

that it is capable of.

An important question, connected with the improvement of the land, is

the contrivance of an ample and systematically planned network of rivers

and canals, conducted upon scientific principles. The question of

"cheaper" transportation on the waterways--a question of such gravity to

modern society--loses all importance in Socialist society, seeing that

the conceptions "cheap" and "dear" are unknown to it. On the other hand,

however, waterways, as comfortable means of transportation, that can,

moreover, be utilized with but slight expenditure of strength and

matter, deserve attention. Moreover river and canal systems play

important _roles_ in the matter of climate, draining and irrigation, and

the supply of fertilizers and other materials needed in the improvement

of agricultural land.

Experience teaches that poorly-watered regions suffer more severely from

cold winters and hot summers than well-watered lands, whence coast

regions are exempt from the extremes of temperature, or rarely undergo

them. Extremes of temperature are favorable neither to plants nor man.

An extensive system of canalization, in connection with the proper

forestry regulations, would unquestionably exercise beneficent

influences. Such a system of canalization, along with the building of

large reservoirs, that will collect the water in cases of freshets

through thaws or heavy rainfalls, would be of great usefulness. Freshets

and their devastating results would be impossible. Wide expanses of

water, together with their proportional evaporations, would also, in all

probability, bring about a more regular rain-fall. Finally such

institutions would facilitate the erection of works for an extensive

system of irrigation whenever needed.

Large tracts of land, until now wholly barren or almost so, could be

transformed into fertile regions by means of artificial irrigation.

Where now sheep can barely graze, and at best consumptive-looking pine

trees raise their thin arms heavenward, rich crops could grow and a

dense population find ample nutriment. It is merely a question of labor

whether the vast sand tracts of the Mark, the "holy dust-box of the

German Empire," shall be turned into an Eden. The fact was pointed out

in an address delivered in the spring of 1894 on the occasion of the

agricultural exposition in Berlin.[195] The requisite improvements,

canals, provisions for irrigation, mixing of soil, etc., are matters,

however, that can be undertaken neither by the small nor the large

landlords of the Mark. Hence those vast tracts, lying at the very gates

of the capital of the Empire, remain in a state of such backward

cultivation that it will seem incredible to future generations. Again, a

proper canalization would, by draining, reclaim for cultivation vast

swamps and marshes in North as well as South Germany. These waterways

could be furthermore utilized in raising fish; they could thus be vast

sources of food; in neighborhoods where there are no rivers, they would

furnish opportunity for commodious bath-houses.

Let a few examples illustrate the effectiveness of irrigation. In the

neighborhood of Weissensfels, 7 1/2 hectares of well-watered meadows

produced 480 cwt. of after-grass; 5 contiguous hectares of meadow land

of the same quality, but not watered, yielded only 32 cwt. The former

had, accordingly, a crop ten times as large as the latter. Near Reisa in

Saxony, the irrigation of 65 acres of meadow lands raised their revenue

from 5,850 marks to 11,100 marks. The expensive outlays paid. Besides

the Mark there are in Germany other vast tracts, whose soil, consisting

mainly of sand, yields but poor returns, even when the summer is wet.

Crossed and irrigated by canals, and their soil improved, these lands

would within a short time yield five and ten times as much. There are

examples in Spain of the yield of well-irrigated lands exceeding

thirty-seven fold that of others that are not irrigated. Let there but

be water, and increased volumes of food are conjured into existence.

Where are the private individuals, where the States, able to operate

upon the requisite scale? When, after long decades of bitter experience,

the State finally yields to the stormy demands of a population that has

suffered from all manner of calamities, and only after millions of

values have been destroyed, how slow, with what circumspection, how

cautious does it proceed! It is so easy to do too much, and the State

might by its precipitancy lose the means with which to build some new

barracks for the accommodation of a few regiments. Then also, if one is

helped "too much," others come along, and also want help. "Man, help

yourself and God will help you," thus runs the bourgeois creed. Each for

himself, none for all. And thus, hardly a year goes by without once,

twice and oftener more or less serious freshets from brooks, rivers or

streams occurring in several provinces and States: vast tracts of

fertile lands are then devastated by the violence of the floods, and

others are covered with sand, stone and all manner of debris; whole

orchard plantations, that demanded tens of years for their growth, are

uprooted; houses, bridges, dams are washed away; railroad tracks torn

up; cattle, not infrequently human beings also, are drowned; soil

improvements are carried off; crops ruined. Vast tracts, exposed to

frequent inundations, are cultivated but slightly, lest the loss be

double.

On the other hand, unskilful corrections of the channels of large rivers

and streams,--undertaken in one-sided interests, to which the State ever

yields readily in the service of "trade and transportation"--increase

the dangers of freshets. Extensive cutting down of forests, especially

on highlands and for private profit, adds more grist to the flood mill.

The marked deterioration of the climate and decreased productivity of

the soil, noticeable in the provinces of Prussia, Pomerania, the

Steuermark, Italy, France, Spain, etc., is imputed to this vandalic

devastation of the woods, done in the interest of private parties.

Frequent freshets are the consequence of the dismantling of mountain

woodlands. The inundations of the Rhine, the Oder and the Vistula are

ascribed mainly to the devastation of the woods in Switzerland, Galicia

and Poland; and likewise in Italy with regard to the Po. Due to the

baring of the Carnian Alps, the climate of Triest and Venice has

materially deteriorated. Madeira, a large part of Spain, vast and once

luxurious fields of Asia Minor have in a great measure forfeited their

fertility through the same causes.

It goes without saying that Socialist society will not be able to

accomplish all these great tasks out-of-hand. But it can and will

undertake them, with all possible promptness and with all the powers at

its command, seeing that its sole mission is to solve problems of

civilization and to tolerate no hindrance. Thus it will in the course of

time solve problems and accomplish feats that modern society can give no

thought to, and the very thought of which gives it the vertigo.

The cultivation of the soil will, accordingly, be mightily improved in

Socialist society, through these and similar measures. But other

considerations, looking to the proper exploitation of the soil, are

added to these. To-day, many square miles are planted with potatoes,

which are to be applied mainly to the distilling of brandy, an article

consumed almost exclusively by the poor classes of the population.

Liquor is the only stimulant and "care-dispeller" that they are able to

procure. The population of Socialist society needs none of that, hence

the raising of potatoes and corn for that purpose, together with the

labor therein expended, are set free for the production of healthy

food.[196] The speculative purposes that our most fertile fields are put

to in the matter of the sugar beet for the exportation of sugar, have

been pointed out in a previous chapter. About 400,000 hectares of the

best wheat fields are yearly devoted to the cultivation of sugar beet,

in order to supply England, the United States and Northern Europe with

sugar. The countries whose climate favors the growth of sugar cane

succumb to this competition. Furthermore, our system of a standing army,

the disintegration of production, the disintegration of the means of

transportation and communication, the disintegration of agriculture,

etc.,--all these demand hundreds of thousands of horses, with the

corresponding fields to feed them and to raise colts. The completely

transformed social and political conditions free the bulk of the lands

that are now given up to these various purposes; and again large areas

and rich labor-power are reclaimed for purposes of civilization.

Latterly, extensive fields, covering many square kilometers, have been

withdrawn from cultivation, being needed for the manoeuvering and

exercising of army corps in the new methods of warfare and long

distance firearms. All this falls away.

The vast field of agriculture, forestry and irrigation has become the

subject of an extensive scientific literature. No special branch has

been left untouched: irrigation and drainage, forestry, the cultivation

of cereals, of leguminous and tuberous plants, of vegetables, of fruit

trees, of berries, of flowers and ornamental plants; fodder for cattle

raising; meadows; rational methods of breeding cattle, fish and poultry

and bees, and the utilization of their excrements; utilization of manure

and refuse in agriculture and manufacture; chemical examinations of

seeds and of the soil, to ascertain its fitness for this or that crop;

investigations in the rotations of crops and in agricultural machinery

and implements; the profitable construction of agricultural buildings of

all nature; the weather;--all have been drawn within the circle of

scientific treatment. Hardly a day goes by without some new discovery,

some new experience being made towards improving and ennobling one or

other of these several branches. With the work of J. v. Liebig, the

cultivation of the soil has become a science, indeed, one of the

foremost and most important of all, a science that since then has

attained a vastness and significance unique in the domain of activity in

material production. And yet, if we compare the fullness of the progress

made in this direction with the actual conditions prevailing in

agriculture to-day, _it must be admitted that, until now, only a small

fraction of the private owners have been able to turn the progress to

advantage_, and among these there naturally is none who did not proceed

from the view point of his own private interests, acted accordingly,

kept only that in mind, and gave no thought to the public weal. The

large majority of our farmers and gardeners, we may say 98 per cent. of

them, are in no wise in condition to utilize all the advances made and

advantages that are possible: they lack either the means or the

knowledge thereto, if not both: as to the others, they simply do as they

please. Socialist society finds herein a theoretically and practically

well prepared field of activity. It need but to fall to and organize in

order to attain wonderful results.

The highest possible concentration of productions affords, of itself,

mighty advantages. Hedges, making boundary lines, wagon roads and

footpaths between the broken-up holdings are removed, and yield some

more available soil. The application of machinery is possible only on

large fields: agricultural machinery of fullest development, backed by

chemistry and physics could to-day transform unprofitable lands, of

which there are not a few, into fertile ones. The application of

accumulated electric power to agricultural machinery--plows, harrows,

rollers, sowers, mowers, threshers, seed-assorters, chaff-cutters,

etc.--is only a question of time. Likewise will the day come when

electricity will move from the fields the wagons laden with the crops:

draught cattle can be spared. A scientific system of fertilizing the

fields, hand in hand with thorough management, irrigation and draining

will materially increase the productivity of the land. A careful

selection of seeds, proper protection against weeds--in itself a head

much sinned against to-day--sends up the yield still higher.

According to Ruhland, a successful war upon cereal diseases would of

itself suffice to render superfluous the present importation of grain

into Germany.[197] Seeding, planting and rotation of crops, being

conducted with the sole end in view of raising the largest possible

volume of food, the object is then obtainable.

What may be possible even under present conditions is shown by the

management of the Schnistenberg farm in the Rhenish Palatinate. In 1884

the same fell into the hand of a new tenant, who, in the course of eight

years, raised three or four times as much as his predecessor.[198] The

said property is situated 320 meters above the level of the sea, 286

acres in size, of which 18 are meadows, and has generally unfavorable

soil, 30 acres being sandy, 60 stony, 55 sand loam and 123 hard loam.

The new method of cultivation had astonishing results. The crops rose

from year to year. The increase during the period of 1884-1892 was as

follows per acre:

Product. 1884. 1892.

Rye 7.75 cwts. 19.50 cwts.

Wheat 3.50 " 15.30 "

Barley 12.00 " 18.85 "

Oats 7.00 " 18.85 "

The neighboring community of Kiegsfeld, the witness of this marvelous

development, followed the example and reached similar results on its own

ground. The yield per acre was on an average this:

Product. 1884. 1892.

Wheat 10 to 12 cwts. 13 to 18 cwts.

Rye 12 to 15 " 15 to 20 "

Oats 7 to 9 " 14 to 22 and even 24

Barley 9 to 11 " 18 to 22 cwts.

Such results are eloquent enough.

The cultivation of fruits, berries and garden vegetables will reach a

development hardly thought possible. How unpardonably is being sinned at

present in these respects, a look at our orchards will show. They are

generally marked by a total absence of proper care. This is true of the

cultivation of fruit trees even in countries that have a reputation for

the excellence of these; Wurtemberg, for instance. The concentration of

stables, depots for implements and manure and methods of

feeding--towards which wonderful progress has been made, but which can

to-day be applied only slightly--will, when generally introduced,

materially increase the returns in raising cattle, and thereby

facilitate the procurement of manure. Machinery and implements of all

sorts will be there in abundance, very differently from the experience

of ninety-nine one hundredths of our modern farmers. Animal products,

such as milk, eggs, meat, honey, hair, wool, will be obtained and

utilized scientifically. The improvements and advantages in the dairy

industry reached by the large dairy associations is known to all

experts, and ever new inventions and improvements are daily made. Many

are the branches of agriculture in which the same and even better can be

done. The preparation of the fields and the gathering of the crops are

then attended to by large bodies of men, under skilful use of the

weather, such as is to-day impossible. Large drying houses and sheds

allow crops being gathered even in unfavorable weather, and save losses

that are to-day unavoidable, and which, according to v. d. Goltz, often

are so severe that, during a particularly rainy year, from eight to nine

million marks worth of crops were ruined in Mecklenburg, and from twelve

to fifteen in the district of Koenigsberg.

Through the skilful application of artificial heat and moisture on a

large scale in structures protected from bad weather, the raising of

vegetables and all manner of fruit is possible at all seasons in large

quantities. The flower stores of our large cities have in mid-winter

floral exhibitions that vie with those of the summer. One of the most

remarkable advances made in the artificial raising of fruit is

exemplified by the artificial vineyard of Garden-Director Haupt in

Brieg, Silesia, which has found a number of imitators, and was itself

preceded long before by a number of others in other countries, England

among them. The arrangements and the results obtained in this vineyard

were so enticingly described in the "Vossische Zeitung" of September 27,

1890, that we have reproduced the account in extracts:

"The glass-house is situated upon an approximately square field of 500

square meters, i. e., one-fifth of an acre. It is 4.5 to 5 meters high,

and its walls face north, south, east and west. Twelve rows of double

fruit walls run inside due north and south. They are 1.8 meters apart

from each other and serve at the same time as supports to the flat roof.

In a bed 1.25 meters deep, resting on a bank of earth 25 centimeters

strong and which contains a net of drain and ventilation pipes,--a bed

'whose hard ground is rendered loose, permeable and fruitful through

chalk, rubbish, sand, manure in a state of decomposition, bonedust and

potash'--Herr Haupt planted against the walls three hundred and sixty

grape vines of the kind which yields the noblest grape juice in the

Rhinegau:--white and red Reissling and Tramine, white and blue

Moscatelle and Burgundy.

"The ventilation of the place is effected by means of large fans, twenty

meters long, attached to the roof, besides several openings on the

side-walls. The fans can be opened and shut by means of a lever,

fastened on the roof provided with a spindle and winch, and they can be

made safe against all weather. For the watering of the vines 26

sprinklers are used, which are fastened to rubber pipes 1.25 meters

long, and that hang down from a water tank. Herr Haupt introduced,

however, another ingenious contrivance for quickly and thoroughly

watering his 'wine-hall' and his 'vineyard', to wit, an artificial rain

producer. On high, under the roof, lie four long copper tubes,

perforated at distances of one-half meter. The streams of water that

spout upward through these openings strike small round sieves made of

window gauze and, filtered through these, are scattered in fine spray.

To thoroughly water the vines by means of the rubber pipes requires

several hours. But only one faucet needs to be turned by this second

contrivance and a gentle refreshing rain trickles down over the whole

place upon the grape vines, the beds and the granite flags of the walks.

The temperature can be raised from 8 to 10 degrees R. above the outside

air without any artificial contrivance, and simply through the natural

qualities of the glass-house. In order to protect the vines from that

dangerous and destructive foe, the vine louse, should it show itself, it

is enough to close the drain and open all the water pipes. The

inundation of the vines, thus achieved, the enemy can not withstand. The

glass roof and walls protect the vineyard from storms, cold, frost and

superfluous rain; in cases of hail, a fine wire-netting is spread over

the same; against drought the artificial rain system affords all the

protection needed. The vine-dresser of such a vineyard is his own

weather-maker, and he can laugh at all the dangers from the incalculable

whims and caprices of indifferent and cruel Nature,--dangers that ever

threaten with ruin the fruit of the vine cultivator.

"What Herr Haupt expected happened. The vines thrived remarkably under

the uniformly warm climate. The grapes ripened to their fullest, and as

early as the fall of 1885 they yielded a juice not inferior to that

generally obtained in the Rhinegau in point of richness of sugar and

slightness of sourness. The grapes thrived equally the next year and

even during the unfavorable year of 1887. On this space, when the vines

have reached their full height of 5 meters, and are loaded with their

burden of swollen grapes, 20 hectoliters of wine can be produced yearly,

and the cost of a bottle of noble wine will not exceed 40 pennies.

"There is no reason imaginable why this process should not be conducted

upon a large scale like any other industry. Glass-houses of the nature

of this one on one-fifth of an acre can be undoubtedly raised upon a

whole acre with equal facilities of ventilation, watering, draining and

rain-making. Vegetation will start there several weeks sooner than in

the open, and the vine-shoots remain safe from May frosts, rain and cold

while they blossom; from drought during the growth of the grapes; from

pilfering birds and grape thieves and from dampness while they ripen;

finally from the vine-louse during the whole year and can hang safely

deep into November and December. In his address, held in 1888 to the

Society for the Promotion of Horticulture, and from which I have taken

many a technical expression in this description of the 'Vineyard', the

inventor and founder of the same closed his words with this alluring

perspective of the future: 'Seeing that this vine culture can be carried

on all over Germany, especially on otherwise barren, sandy or stony

ground, such as, for instance, the worst of the Mark, that can be made

arable and watered, it follows that the great interests in the

cultivation of the soil receive fresh vigor from "vineyards under

glass." I would like to call this industry "the vineyard of the

future".'

"Just as Herr Haupt has furnished the practical proof that on this path

an abundance of fine and healthy grapes can be drawn from the vine, he

has also proved by his own pressing of the same what excellent wine they

can yield. More thorough, more experienced, better experts and tried

wine-drinkers and connoisseurs than myself have, after a severe test,

bestowed enthusiastic praise upon the Reissling of the vintage of '88,

upon the Tramine and Moscatelle of the vintage of '89, and upon the

Burgundy of the vintage of '88, pressed from the grapes of this

'vineyard'. It should also be mentioned that this 'vineyard' also

affords sufficient space for the cultivation of other side and twin

plants. Herr Haupt raises between every two vines one rose bush, that

blossoms richly in April and May; against the east and west walls he

raises peaches, whose beauty of blossom must impart in April an

appearance of truly fairy charm to this wine palace."

The enthusiasm with which the reporter describes this artificial

"vineyard" in a serious paper testifies to the deep impression made upon

him by this extraordinary artificial cultivation. There is nothing to

prevent similar establishments, on a much more stupendous scale and for

other branches of vegetation. The luxury of a double crop is obtainable

in many agricultural products. To-day all such undertakings are a

question of money, and their products are accessible only to the

privileged classes. A Socialist society knows no other question than

that of sufficient labor-power. If that is in existence, the work is

done in the interest of all.

Another new invention on the field of food is that of Dr. Johann

Hundhausen of Hamm in Westphalia, who succeeded in extracting the

albumen of wheat--the secret of whose utilization in the legume was not

yet known--in the shape of a thoroughly nutritive flour. This is a

far-reaching invention. It is now possible to render the albumen of

plants useful in substantial form for human food.

The inventor erected a large factory which produces vegetal albumen or

aleurone meal from 80 to 83 per cent. of albumen, and a second quality

of about 50 per cent. That the so-called aleurone meal represents a very

concentrated albuminous food appears from the following comparison with

our best elements of nourishment:

Carbon-

Water Albumen Fat hydrate Cellulose Salt

Aleurone meal 8.83 82.67 0.27 7.01 0.45 0.78

Hen's eggs 73.67 12.55 12.11 0.55 0.55 1.12

Beef 55.42 17.19 26.58 .... .... 1.08

Aleurone meal is not only eaten directly, it is also used as a condiment

in all sorts of bakery products, as well as soups and vegetables.

Aleurone meal substitutes in a high degree meat preserves in point of

nutrition; moreover, it is by far the cheapest albumen obtainable

to-day. One kilogram of albumen costs:

In aleurone meal 1.45 marks

In white bread or white flour 4 to 4.5 "

In hen's eggs, according to the season 8 to 16 "

In beef 12 to 13 "

Beef, accordingly, is about eight times dearer, as albuminous food, than

aleurone meal; eggs five times as dear; white bread or common white

flour about three times as dear. Aleurone meal also has the advantage

that, with the addition of about one-eighth of the weight of a potato,

it not only furnishes a considerable quantity of albumen to the body,

but produces a complete digestion of the starch contained in the potato.

Dogs, that have a nose for albumen, eat aleurone meal with the same

avidity as meat, even if they otherwise refuse bread, and they are then

better able to stand hardships.

Aleurone meal, as a dry vegetal albumen, is of great use as food on

ships, in fortresses and in military hospitals during war. It renders

large supplies of meat unnecessary. At present aleurone meal is a side

product in starch factories. Within short, starch will become a side

product of aleurone meal. A further result will be that the cultivation

of cereals will crowd out that of potatoes and other less productive

food plants; the volume of nutrition of a given field of wheat or rye is

tripled or quadrupled at one stroke.

Dr. Rudolf Meyer of Vienna, whose attention was called by us to the

aleurone meal says[199] that he furnished himself with a quantity of it

and had it examined on June 19, 1893, by the bureau of experiments of

the Board of Soil Cultivation of the Kingdom of Bohemia. The examination

fully confirmed our statements. For further details Meyer's work should

be read. Meyer also calls attention to a discovery made by Otto Redemann

of Bockenheim near Frankfort-on-the-Main. After granulating the peanut

and removing its oil, he analyzed its component elements of nutrition.

The analysis showed 47 per cent. of albumen, 19 of fat and 19 of

starch--altogether 2,135 units of nutritious matter in one kilo.

According to this analysis the peanut is one of the most nutritious

vegetal products. The pharmacist Rud. Simpson of Mohrungen discovered a

process by which to remove the bitterness from the lupine, which, as may

be known, thrives best on sandy soil, and is used both as fodder and as

a fertilizer; and he then produced from it a meal, which, according to

expert authority, baked as bread tastes very good, is solid, is said to

be more nutritious than rye-bread, and, besides all that, much cheaper.

Even under present conditions a regular revolution is plowing its way in

the matter of human food. _The utilization of all these discoveries is,

however, slow, for the reason that mighty classes--the farmer element

together with its social and political props--have the liveliest

interest in suppressing them._ To our agrarians, a good crop is to-day a

horror--although the same is prayed for in all the churches--because it

lowers prices. Consequently, they are no wise anxious for a double and

threefold nutritive power of their cereals; it would likewise tend to

lower prices. Present society is everywhere at fisticuffs with its own

development.

The preservation of the soil in a state of fertility depends primarily

upon fertilization. The obtaining of fertilizers is, accordingly, for

future society also one of the principal tasks.[200] Manure is to the

soil what food is to man, and just as every kind of food is not equally

nourishing to man, neither is every kind of manure of equal benefit to

the soil. The soil must receive back exactly the same chemical

substances that it gave up through a crop; and the chemical substances

especially needed by a certain vegetable must be given to the soil in

larger quantities. Hence the study of chemistry and its practical

application will experience a development unknown to-day.

Animal and human excrements are particularly rich in the chemical

elements that are fittest for the reproduction of human food. Hence the

endeavor must be to secure the same in the fullest quantity and cause

its proper distribution. On this head too modern society sins

grievously. Cities and industrial centers, that receive large masses of

foodstuffs, return to the soil but a slight part of their valuable

offal.[201] The consequence is that the fields, situated at great

distances from the cities and industrial centers, and which yearly send

their products to the same, suffer greatly from a dearth of manure; the

offal that these farms themselves yield is often not enough, because the

men and beasts who live on them consume but a small part of the product.

Thus frequently a soil-vandalism is practiced, that cripples the land

and decreases the crops. All countries that export agricultural products

mainly, but receive no manure back, inevitably go to ruin through the

gradual impoverishment of the soil. This is the case with Hungary,

Russia, the Danubian Principalities, North America, etc. Artificial

fertilizers, guano in particular, indeed substitute the offal of men and

beasts; but many farmers can not obtain the same in sufficient

quantity; it is too dear; at any rate, it is an inversion of nature to

import manure from great distances, while it is allowed to go to waste

nearby.