the people
of the contradiction between the economic development and the social
principle of freedom and equality, that hovers over their minds as the
ideal, and is realized in political life."

[170] Dr. E. Sax says in his work "Die Hausindustrie in Thueringen,"
among other things, that in 1869 the production of 244 1/4 million slate
pencils had given from 122,000 to 200,000 gilders in wages to the labor,
but the final price paid by the consumer rose to 1,200,000 gilders; it
was, accordingly, at least six times as much as the producer received.
In the summer of 1888, there were 5 marks paid at first hand for 5
hundredweights of shellfish; the retailer paid the wholesale dealer 15
marks; and the public paid 125 marks. Moreover, large quantities of
foodstuffs are destroyed because the prices will not pay for
transportation. For instance, in years of great herring draughts, whole
boatloads are turned to manure, while inland there are hundreds of
thousands of people who can buy no herrings. It was likewise in 1892
with the large potato crops in California. And yet sense is claimed for
such a state of things.

[171] The industrial census of June 5, 1882, gives Germany 386,157 large
and 154,474 small stores, a total of 531,631. In the large shops, there
were 705,906 persons employed.

[172] Dr. Rud. Meyer, "Das Sinken der Grundrente."

[173] "Die Fideikommisse in den westlichen Provinzen Pruessens."

[174] For further details see, "Das soziale Elend und die besitzenden
Klassen in Oesterreich," T. W. Teisen.

[175] A German idiom, expressive of dumb bewilderment, uses the simile:
"Like oxen before a mountain."--THE TRANSLATOR.

CHAPTER VII.

THE SOCIALIZATION OF SOCIETY.

The soon as possible general expropriation of all the means of
production furnishes society with a new foundation. The conditions of
life and labor--in manufacture, agriculture, transportation and
communication, education, marriage, science, art and intercourse--are
radically changed for both sexes. Human existence acquires a new sense.
The present political organization gradually loses ground: the State
vanishes: in a measure it abolishes itself.

It was shown in the first part of this book why the State arose. It
arises, as the product of a social growth, from a primitive form of
society, that rested on communism and that dissolved in the measure that
_private property_ developed. With the rise of private property,
antagonistic intere