etitive
struggle was on between the several capitalists. These enrich themselves
at the expense of the consumers who are forced to pay whatever price is
demanded for the goods they need. As the consumer, so is the workingman
injured by the Trusts. The artificial regulation of production throws a
part of the working class out of work, and, in order that these may
live, they underbid their fellows at work. Thus the employer derives a
double advantage: he receives higher prices, and he pays lower wages.
Such a regulation of production by combinations of capitalists _is
exactly the reverse of that which will be practiced in Socialist
society_. While to-day the interests of the capitalists is the
determining factor, the interests of all will then be the guide.
Production will then be carried on for the satisfaction of human wants,
and not in order to obtain, through high prices, large profits for
private individuals. Nevertheless, the best planned combination in
capitalist society can not take in and control all the factors needed in
the calculation: competition and speculation run wild despite all
combinations: finally the discovery is made that the calculation had a
leak, and the scheme breaks down.

The same as production on a large scale, commerce also has extensive
statistics. Every week the larger centers of commerce and the ports
publish reports on the supply of petroleum, coffee, cotton, sugar,
grain, etc. These statistics are frequently inaccurate, seeing that the
owners of the goods frequently have a personal interest in concealing
the truth. On the whole, however, the statistics are pretty safe and
furnish to those interested, information on the condition of the
market. But here also speculation steps in, upsets all calculations, and
often renders all legitimate business impossible. Seeing how impossible
is a general regulation of production in capitalist society, due to the
existence of many thousands of private producers with conflicting
interests, it will be obvious why the speculative nature of commerce,
the number of merchants and their conflicting interests render equally
impossible the regulation of distribution. Nevertheless, what is done in
these directions indicates what could be done so soon as private
interest were to drop out and the interests of all were alone dominant.
A proof of this is furnished by the statistics of crops, that are yearly
issued by the leading countries of civilization, and that e