ths, often to crime; and society intervenes
in its own way, without thereby improving matters in the least.

The increasing mass of the middlemen draws many evils in its wake.
Although this class toils arduously and works under the load of heavy
cares, _the majority are parasites, they are unproductively active, and
they live upon the labors of others, just the same as the capitalist
class_. Higher prices is the inevitable consequence of this industry.
Food and other goods rise in price in such manner that they often cost
twice or many times as much as the producer received for them.[170] If
it is thought unadvisable or impossible to materially raise the price of
the goods, lest consumption decline, they are artificially deteriorated,
and recourse is had _to adulteration of food, and to false weights and
measures_, in order to make the requisite profits. The chemist Chevalier
reports that he knows, among the several adulterations of food, 32 for
coffee, 30 for wine, 28 for chocolate, 24 for meal, 23 for brandy, 20
for bread, 19 for milk, 10 for butter, 9 for olive oil, 6 for sugar,
etc. The Chamber of Commerce of Wesel reported in 1870 that an extensive
system of swindle was practiced in the shops in the sale of
ready-weighed articles: for 1 pound, 24 or 26 pennyweights were given,
and in that way twice as much was gained as the difference in the price.
Workingmen and small traders who get their goods on credit and who must,
accordingly, submit, even when the fraud is obvious, fare worst of all.
Grave abuses are also perpetrated in bakeries. Swindling and cheating
are inseparable from our modern conditions, and certain government
institutions, such as high indirect taxes, are direct incentives
thereto. The laws against the adulteration of food alter matters but
little. The struggle for existence compels the swindlers to resort to
ever shrewder means, nor is there any thorough and strict inspection.
Leading and influential circles of our ruling classes are even
interested in the system of swindle. Under the pretext that, in order to
discover adulterations a more comprehensive and more expensive
administrative apparatus is required, and that "legitimate business"
would suffer thereby, almost all inspection, worthy of the name, is
lamed. If, however, laws and measures of inspection do actually
intervene, they affect a considerable rise in the price of the
unadulterated products, seeing that the lower price was made possible