ialists of
Germany.]

This scheme, like the first, is absolutely absurd. It would permit all
to demand more than they needed, would encourage sloth, would bankrupt
the state, and would occasion discontent among skilled workingmen. Under
this system, too, the entire population would neglect the more
distasteful occupations, and ill-feeling and jealousy would arise in the
hearts of those failing to obtain congenial positions.

As diligence should be a determining factor in the arrangement of the
wage scale, in considering the remaining systems we shall assume that
the wages are those for men whose diligence may be termed first class.

Many Socialists, foreseeing the evils of a mad rush to obtain the
attractive positions, yet realizing how intolerable it would be for the
state to drive its citizens into uncongenial occupations, have
endeavored to find a way out. Several solutions have been proposed,
among which is the one we shall call the third system.

In the third system, occupations may be chosen by those qualified to do
the work. The recompense would be the same for all, but with the hours
of toil lessened in proportion to the disagreeableness of the work.
["Looking Backward," by Bellamy, Chapter 7, Social Democratic Publishing
Company of Milwaukee.] But such a system would give more reason than
ever for jealousy and discontent on the part of skilled workingmen, who
would be terribly incensed at seeing street cleaners and garbage
collectors for example receive salaries equal to their own and at the
same time enjoy shorter hours. This system would put a premium on such
occupations as sewer-cleaning and dish-washing, and would discourage
persons from pursuing occupations of the highest importance to the
country.

Morris Hillquit, writing in "Everybody's," December, 1913, page 826,
tells us that "the national government might well own and operate all
means of interstate transportations and communication, such as railroad
systems, telegraph and telephone lines; all sources of general and
national wealth, such as mines, forests, oil-wells; and all monopolized
or trustified industries already organized on a basis of national
operation.

"Similarly the state government might assume the few industries confined
within state limits; while the municipal government would logically
undertake the management of the much wider range of peculiarly local
business, such as street transportation and the supply of water, light,
he