Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/444

 430 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

to conceive and explain the phenomena of social pathology by tracing them back to normal social life. M. BERNARD, in Revue penitentiaire, April, 1903.

A. B.

Criticism of Anarchy. There exists one similarity of aim between col- lectivism and anarchy. Both proclaim the necessity of socializing the instruments of production. But the one stops there, while the other goes to integral com- munism Collectivism renders production common, but lets alone individual con- sumption. Finally, collectivism proceeds from above, seeks the conquest of political powers to make them serve in the application of its principles ; anarchy proceeds from below, makes appeal to popular spontaneity and suppresses every vestige of government. It awaits the reconstruction by the free initiative of the citizens of a world of equality, of liberty, and of federal union on the ruins of our old world of centralization, of bondage, and of iniquity.

It is on the question of consumption that collectivists and anarchists differ. The collectivist school aims at a complete reconstruction of production. But in what concerns consumption it leaves things in almost the same state as before.

Entirely different is the anarchistic conception. The anarchist is not content to suppress private property in the instruments of production. He wishes to come to the one sole bond of absolute communism. He does not measure consumption according to production but according to needs. " To each according to his needs ; from each according to his powers."

The realization of anarchy is an affair of abundance. We do not measure the air we breathe, because the appropriation of it would be materially impossible and because it is sufficiently abundant to permit each of us to take as much as he desires without depriving anyone else. But is it equally so with wheat, fruit, clothes ? For some perhaps ; and in this case, in what concerns them at least, tak- ing from a common pile is possible. Where it is different, however, this system of distribution must be renounced to the day when the conditions of production should be entirely transformed.

Anarchists and certain collectivists reply that today a large part of the popu- lation live in ease and consume without producing. After the revolution every- body will work, and the allotment of work of those who produce will be diminished by so much. They add that the abundance of agricultural produce will render less costly the fabrication of machinery, and the cheapness of the machine will facilitate agricultural production.

Is it true that society at the present time offers us a number of idlers? Kropotkin admits exaggeration in this supposition. He adds, it is true, that they work for evil in the sense that the largest part of the produce is assigned to them, and they choose the least irksome work, while they leave the most irksome to the proletariat. But he concedes that they work, and, from his standpoint, one such concession is of no small value.

Workmen, however, exceed in number the bourgeoisie, especially the bour- geoisie idlers, and whatever hours of work might be given by these last would be far too small to compensate the immense diminution which would be produced in the labor of the proletariat. Justice would gain much in the new order of things ; production would perish there. ALFRED NAQUET, in Humanite nouvelle, June, 1.903. A. B.

The Sweat-Shop and its Remedies. It is a frequent fact in economic his- tory that independent producers become dependent upon other manufacturers and dealers. The producers become economically and socially dependent upon the seller of their goods, who in a way occupies the position of a manager or entre- preneur, but exercises no direct technical superintendence. This latter is a kind of middleman, who is a common factor in all classes of dependent industry, and who characterizes these as a special system of production.

When we speak of sweated trades, we immediately think of low wages, im- moderately long hours, unsanitary workshops, and all manner of objectionable features incident to the employment of women and children. These conditions