Page:Friedrich Adolf Sorge - Socialism and The Worker (1890).pdf/14

 process of development in this, as in all changes that history has recorded so far. According to the reasoning of the Socialists this development will be as follows:—

Some time ago the middle-class formed the firm and solid foundation of society and State. Machinery was invented and a change occurred. Manufacturing, and even farming to a certain extent, were conducted on a large scale; the middle-class people were pressed down into a class of wage-labourers, and were employed in large numbers by the manufacturers or employers. More and more this middle-class cease to be property-holders; it is getting more and more difficult for the mechanics and small farmers to hold their ground; thus the middle-class is constantly decreasing, the class of wage-labourers increasing, until there will be only two classes of people—rich and poor. In this process the number of rich people is diminishing, wealth becoming concentrated in the hands of comparatively few persons who are getting enormously rich.

But this process must soon have its limit. There will be a time when the large mass of the working-people will feel its consequences unbearable, and will abolish it. That will be the time when Communism will enter into its rights. Labour will then be organised according to a certain reasonable plan, and since, tor that purpose, the use of the existing capital—comprising soil, houses, railways, shipping, manufactories, machines, &c.—will be necessary, those comparatively few possessors of all the wealth of the nations will have to be expropriated. Perhaps they then will consent themselves to such a measure, and give up everything necessary for production of their own accord, honoured and praised for their patriotism and humanity, and remunerated deservedly; perhaps they will use their ample means to resist the common demand, and will perish, overwhelmed by the newly-formed organisation of the State. As I hinted before, in the new order of things all branches of labour will be organised in a similar way to the arrangements we see to-day in large factories, large estates, or institutions of the Government. Unnecessary work will be avoided, and the reward for work done will be greater. Labour will not be wasted in making luxuries for the idle, but will be usefully employed in making the necessaries of life for other workers. It will be everybody's duty to work, hence everybody will have ample leisure for recreation and mental development. All will strive to ameliorate the conditions of the community they belong to; for, by doing so, everybody will improve his own private situation.

The basis of this state of things will be abolition of private property of individuals in such things as are necessary for production and transportation, such as land, factories, machines, railroads, &c., or which have been created for instruction and amusement, such as schools, colleges, museums, parks, &c. Personal property will be what is necessary or useful for private life. These are the outlines of a picture of future times. Nobody is able to state whether the development will go on exactly in the way we sketch out; but that does not matter, if only the underlying idea of Com-