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 772 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

they shall become peasant property and support a peasant popu- lation. The National Socialists work for the method of the for- mation of rented estates ; they demand that the state, as the greatest and most non-partisan capitalist, shall make this eco- nomical manipulation unselfish ; that whenever a new peasant property is established, the state shall retain the first right of purchase, and thereby, as well as through the principle of rent, retain a sort of superior proprietorship. This position would be strengthened if mortgage credit were also socialized by the state, and would be still more strengthened and confirmed, without becoming oppressive, by helping to impress a half indi- vidualistic, half socialistic character of the rural form of proprie- torship and cultivation on the already extensive association. A third earnest social and political demand of the National Social- ists and of the land reformers is the communalization of ground in cities and their surroundings, in order to put a stop to the usury of dwelling owners and to the swindling operations of builders of houses. In this field the success of agitation is already greater than in the others.

In respect to the great industry the National Socialists are more conservative in demands than in respect to the rural land- lordism which is doomed to decay. For the great industry is still a relatively new system, is in the line of development, and cannot be so easily as the Social Democrats ordinarily imagine radically changed and transformed. Yet the National Socialists are friendly to the idea of socializing certain particular indus- tries, as those of electricity, mines, ship-building, in the same way as that in which the railroads have been nationalized. They also decidedly favor the taking over by urban administration of the gas and water supply, of street-car transportation, and of similar profitable agencies in cities. In general, they sharply watch the tendency toward combinations of particular industries, since every such combination implies the beginning of the con- quest of the existing Manchesteristic, anarchical method of industry, and the beginning of a systematic organization of pro- duction, wages, and fixing of prices. Of course, this works at first exclusively to the advantage of the managers. But it would