a good deal worse than it is, before it can become better.

But we also know that in the fullness of time the Logic of Events will, imperatively, demand a change from this Social Anarchy to true Social Order.

CHAPTER III.

THE CULMINATION.

"Real history is a history of tendencies, not of events."Buckle.

"Nothing would lead the mass of men to embrace Socialism Sooner than the conviction, that this enormous accumulation of Capital in a few hands was to be, not only an evil in fact if not prevented, but a necessary evil beyond prevention.

"If such a tendency should manifest itself, it would run through all forms of property. A Stewart or a Claflin would root out small trades-people. Holders of small farms would sink into tenants. The buildings of a city would belong to a few owners. Small manufacturers would have to take pay from mammoths of their own kind or be ruined. * * * * If this went to an extreme in a free country, the 'expropriated' could not endure it. They would go to some other country, and leave the proprietors alone in the land. or they would drive them away. A revolution, slow or rapid, would certainly bring about a new order of things.”—“Communism and Socialism," by Dr. Th. D. Woolsey.

That Capital-not "Wealth," not "Property" but Capital— in private hands involves the dependence of the masses; that ur Established Order is nothing but Established Anarchy

are the conclusions we have arrived at. of things last forever?

Will such a state

Here we meet with one of the greatest obstacles with which Socialists have to contend: the notion that whatever is, is the immutable order of nature. Because the wage-system and the "Let-alone" policy now prevail and have prevailed as far back as any one can remember, people, even well-informed people, fancy that this policy and that system constitute the necessary conditions for civilized society. Socialists hold that this is a fundamental error. They say, with all advanced scientists, that what is has grown out of something else that was, and that the present is the parent of the future. The history of our race is a series of preparations.

In the ancient states where the civilization of our race commenced there was no wage-system; there was Slavery. The master was lord of the persons of his slaves, lord of the soil and owner of the instruments of labor. We who have reached a higher stage of development look very properly back with horror on this ancient Slavery; and yet we should not forget that we are indebted to this same Slavery for our civilization. Progress takes place, only, when either some individuals control other individuals, or when they voluntarily cooperate together. But voluntary cooperation is a hard lesson for men to learn; and, therefore, progress has to commence with compulsory cooperation; with control of everything,—with Slav

ery.

Look at our Indian tribes. They work, in their way, as well as civilized people do. Yet they are strangers to progress. Why? Because they never accumulated any wealth. And they accumulated no wealth, because they worked as isolated individuals; because they never have known any division of labor. Now Slavery was to our race, the first division of labor; it was the first form of cooperation; for it is too often overlooked, that division of labor is at the same time cooperation in labor. The ruling principle during Slavery was, of course, Despotism, the irresponsible will of the lord.

Feudalism, and Serfdom constitute the next great period in the history of our race, coming in contemporaneously with

the ascendancy of Christianity and the dominion of the northern barbarians. Under it the lords of the soil were the dominant class; but the persons of the workers were free, though they were attached to the soil where they were born. This change conferred an immense gain on the working multitude. They were now invested with the most elementary right of all: that of creating a family for themselves. And their belonging to the soil was far from being altogether an evil, since it conferred on them the right to claim support from the soil.

The ruling principle during that period was Custom, which proved itselfa most efficient protector of the workers. It fixed, strictly, and in many countries with the utmost particularity in details, the amount of work due to their lord for the use of the soil, and all other rights and duties of every class and individual. "Freedom" during the middle ages meant the enjoyment of those rights which Custom thus gave. It may well be a question, whether the workers of that long era were not a happier class than our wage-workers.

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During those two stages of development " Capital" was unknown and unheard of. There was Wealth, there were Revenues. plenty of means of enjoyment. The great folks lived in splendor, certainly; but they did not, and could not capitalize their possessions.

Remember that best of economic definitions of Capital, which we adopted: "That part of wealth, employed productively, with a view to profit, by sale of the produce." During Slavery and Serfdom Wealth was not employed productively with a view to profit, by sale of the produce, but with a view to immediate, personal enjoyment. The lords could not make their possessions grow by "profit," by "fleecings," could not invest them. They could not levy tribute on anybody but their own slaves, their own serfs.

But the progress of mankind demanded that another step should be taken. The iron bands of Custom had to be sundered and that is done by an assertion of the independence of the individual in the form of Unrestricted Private Enterprise; which fructifies the germ of Capital, already found in the previous accumulations of wealth. Private Enterprise commences,

in the closing years of the Middle Ages, by suddenly advancing commerce to an unprecedented degree and developing the Commerce of the World. It gives rise to the discoveries and inventions which now crowd upon each other; foremost among which are the discovery of America, the invention of the printing press and the steam engine. These in their turn nourish Capital. It becomes an infant. grows up to youth and manhood, bursts completely the fetters of the Middle Ages by the ever memorable French Revolution, and has developed in our days into a giant by division of labor being carried to an extent, not dreamt of before; or-what is the same thing-by a greater cooperation in production than was known before. Thus we have arrived at the third stage in the development of our race: this era of Capital and Individualism. Wealth during all three periods governed the world, controlled the masses. but never before in the form of Capital. Our Plutocracy, our industrial, commercial and moneyed aristocracy, whom the French called " the Third Estate;" those who by the control of the instruments of labor have acquired the more advantageous position, are now our masters, the dominant power, who by laws and usages, enacted by themselves, have made this advantageous position of theirs a permanent one. The workers have hardly occasion to rejoice at the change. They are free to own land, but have not the means to buy it. They have personal liberty, yes. They are no longer bound to the soil; they have got the barren legal right to go where they please. But they have, at the same time, lost the right to claim support from the soil. Their liberty is one that benefits their masters, rather than themselves. The power of discharge and the advantage of having everywhere an army of proletarians to hire from, is vital to the growth of Capital. The workers have lost the power they as serfs possessed to labor to advantage for themselves, for in all branches of industry wholesale production has supplanted domestic industry. They have cooperation in production with a vengeance -think of Plugson and his spinners. The division and enjoyment of the products on the other hand, is entirely onesided.

The Plutocracy, the fleecing class and their retainers, is in