Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/58

 54 the trust, the universal provider. He will never gather all trade unto himself. Indeed, one can foresee that with an improvement in taste and a strengthening of individuality, machine production of articles of personal use will diminish rather than increase; but even then, the facilities for transport and the convenience of great central stores, like the modern Whiteley's, will secure the survival of capitalist concentration in the distribution of these articles of taste, and a concentrated system of distribution will secure a concentrated system of production. For instance, the "artistic" productions in cabinet-making sold in some of our department stores are made in workshops which themselves are small, but which depend for their existence solely upon the patronage of these stores. The warehouse system in the boot and shoe trade is of the same nature. Hundreds of small manufacturers bring their products once, or oftener, a week to these buying warehouses connected with thousands of centrally controlled shops open all over the country. The manufacturer remains a "small" man, he depends upon the warehouses for his existence, he is generally financed by them, his profits are often not more than wages, he is practically in the position of an employee, his profits are cut down by an operation of economic law which, in respect to him, is far less curbed and controlled than it is in respect to the ordinary factory workman who is a member of a trade union. The statistics of independent capitalists and employers must therefore be read with