permitted, even if he had the means or capital, to open an educational establishment, start a journal, undertake any private business on his own account, because the fields of education, journalism, and of all business are to be occupied by the State, and no chance will be allowed to any private competition.

All industries are to be controlled and directed by the State as in the St. Simonian scheme, from which collectivism differs only in not suppressing inheritance, and by its democratic character as viewed from the political side. Collectivism does not think it necessary to suppress inheritance; as under it there. would be so comparatively little left to inherit, it assumes that there would be no fear of a return of the great inequality of the old system from that side. And it permits private property in consumable goods and in things quæ non consumuntur usu, such as pictures, jewellery, houses, which may be bequeathed, but it so far restricts the right of property that no one will be allowed to make an incoine out of property without work. There must be no lending at interest, or advancing goods on credit to be repaid with interest, no letting of articles for hire, no leasing for rent, no private setting others at work with a view to make a profit out of their labour, though apart from this case, there does not seem to be any objection to asking another to do a service in return for an agreed-on payment.

As to distribution, each will receive in proportion to the amount and kind of his work the amount to be measured in time, by the number of hours of work of "average labour," skilled labour to rate

at so many times average labour; the value of unproductive labour, where of ordinary kind, as that of the policeman, to be measured by hours of work, where it is of a superior kind, as the labour of the magistrate or physician, to be determined arbitrarily by the Government, or perhaps in the case of the physician, partly, as now, by what the public will pay for it."

There will be no market in the Socialist kingdom, and no money. Markets and market prices are now useful to adjust supply and demand; this will be unnecessary under collectivism, because the State will do it through labour bureaus and statistics. At present markets afford the grand chances to the speculator and the cornerer, who can act on prices for their own profit but to the detriment of the public. The speculator and the cornerer, the engrosser (accaparer) of former times, will for the first time receive his effectual quietus, it is confidently believed, with the suppression of the market.

Even more important is the suppression of money, of gold, silver, and their representatives,—bank-notes, bills of exchange, etc. It is easy to some to accumulate money, and thence would come back inequalities; it is not so easy to accumulate consumable goods. Money is now chiefly needed as a general medium of exchange; something with which you can buy anything, something for which you can sell anything. It is mainly a convenient means of getting something you want for something you have to give, whether product or service. In the Socialist State you will get 7 Schæffle's "Quintessence of Socialism," p. 50.

for your work or your special services the desired things without the instrumentality of gold or silver or notes, simply by presenting your labour cheques at the State stores, or in some cases for your services you will get labour cheques directly from the purchaser. The only thing resembling money will be the labour cheque.

With money will go all private bankers and bill discounters, who now fulfil a useful function in lending at interest to borrowers, productive or unproductive, and in adapting supply of money to demand by altering the market rate of interest, but who would be unnecessary if there was no money, and who, by the power of extending or contracting their credit, have great power to encourage speculation, which sometimes ends in loss and ruin and crises, which would be impossible in the Socialist State.

As the State will undertake all industry, and will save the necessary collective capital, there will be no private investments. There will be no investment of money (or of labour cheques) at interest in companies' shares. There will be no borrowing by Government at interest. There will be no stock or share market any more than money market or produce market; no quotations; no buying or selling, real or fictitious. The old familiar social types, the banker, the stockbroker, and the comparatively new one, the financier, the company promoter, the speculator on the Stock Exchange, will disappear, as well as the much larger class who live on the interest or dividends of their investments.

II.

SUCH is the general outline of the scheme, to which it is easy to see many objections; and the first is that nothing could be produced either in the sphere of material or intellectual production unless what pleased the chiefs or heads of the departments of production. If by chance you and others should wish for things. that have not been produced, you cannot have them unless you can persuade the directors, because the State will possess and control all the instruments of production. At present it is demand which determines what shall be produced, and every conceivable demand is catered for. Under collectivism production will determine demand; at least demand will have to accommodate itself to production. If you would like a superior copy of a book, an engraving of a painting, a particular kind of furniture, a fabric for dress, you cannot have them under collectivism unless the directors in their wisdom have decided to produce such things, as most probably, the State being democratic as well as socialistic in constitution, it will not. There will be a great levelling down as well as a small levelling up in the quality of the things produced, while in variety there will be a great reduction, as all the rarer luxuries and choicer fabrics, such as now render attractive the brilliant shop windows in Regent Street or the Rue de Rivoli, will disappear.

By this power of producing only what pleased them the directors of production would very considerably affect our lives. The food we should eat, the clothes we should wear, the furniture of our dwellings, would

within limits not too wide be prescribed. To which the Socialists say in reply that it is absolutely necessary that the State should be sole producer to escape from the evils of the present system. Moreover, the State would produce things in general request. It would first produce an ample supply of good and unadulterated necessaries; after the necessaries it would only produce luxuries that were in general demand, and which did not take too much labour -that is too much time-to produce; because Socialists consider leisure itself as a luxury, and in the Socialist State it would not be desirable nor possible to force any one to labour beyond the time necessary for his own support. It is, they say, because there are now so many luxuries produced that men and women have to labour so long. In the Socialist State men would not give up their leisure for things that merely gratify the eye for a moment, or which minister to egregious vanity or love of ostentation. The needs of the generality would have to be considered, and rare or costly things could not be produced for superfine people, who, moreover, would be scarce in the Socialist community. There would, in fact, be no one to purchase rare luxuries if they were produced, as few people will have large salaries, though there will not be equality. But though luxuries that could be monopolized would be restricted, what may be called public luxuries and sources of common enjoyment, whether art galleries, public

8 It is really a doubtful point; but it is best to make the more reasonable supposition with Schæffle, that a certain degree of inequality will exist.