s many people as we need."

"But everybody cannot work in the fields."

"There, at last, you have hit the bull's eye--that is where the shoe
pinches. Agriculture offers a certain means of livelihood to all who
can and will work properly. But that does not suit the lazy beggars.
The work is too hard, and, more particularly, the discipline on an
estate is too strict for their fancy. They would rather be in the town,
rather starve in a workshop, or ruin their lungs in a factory, because
there they have more freedom--that is, they can go on the spree all
night and shirk their work all day, if they like--they can play the
gentleman, and think themselves as good as any general or minister.
Under these circumstances, it is no wonder that they soon come to want,
and instead of admitting that it is entirely the fault of their own
pigheadedness and perversity, they go and turn unruly against the
government. They should be turned out neck and crop, the whole pack of
them."

"Don't excite yourself so, Paul," warned Malvine gently, as her husband
grew crimson in the face and ceased to eat.

Wilhelm remained unruffled. "So you think the Socialist Act was quite
justified?"

"Justified! Why, my only objection to it is that it is much too mild. A
State has a right to use every means it can--even the sharpest--to
defend itself against its deadly enemies. To deal mildly with the
enemies of society is to be unjust to us, the orderly and industrious
members of the community, who work hard to get on, and who don't want
to be for ever trembling for their well-earned possessions, because
thieves and vagabonds--as is the way of all robbers--would like to
enjoy the good things of this life without working for them."

"My good Paul, that is the language of fanaticism, and, of course, it
is useless to try to reason against that. Only let me tell you this. I
do not believe that the Socialists want to rob anybody; I do not
believe that they are enemies to the State and to society. They too
desire a State and a society, but different from the existing ones;
they too have an ideal of justice, but it is not the one that has
become traditional with us. Under the new order of things, as they have
arranged it in their minds, there should be room for every individual,
every opinion, all sorts and conditions of men. What the ruling classes
say against them to-day has been said against the adherents of all new
ideas since the beginning of time. Whoeve