have looked at this claim by the light of history and my own
conscience, and it seems to me so looked at to be a most just
claim, and that resistance to it means nothing short of a denial of
the hope of civilization.

This, then, is the claim:--

_It is right and necessary that all men should have work to do
which shall be worth doing, and be of itself pleasant to do: and
which should be done under such conditions as would make it neither
over-wearisome nor over-anxious._

Turn that claim about as I may, think of it as long as I can, I
cannot find that it is an exorbitant claim; yet again I say if
Society would or could admit it, the face of the world would be
changed; discontent and strife and dishonesty would be ended. To
feel that we were doing work useful to others and pleasant to
ourselves, and that such work and its due reward _could_ not fail
us! What serious harm could happen to us then? And the price to be
paid for so making the world happy is Revolution."[38]

Are they willing to pay the price? Nora paid the price for her freedom
and paid it in full.

_She took nothing from strangers._

If they are unwilling to pay the price, what is there left for them save
the joyless sensuality and black despair of pessimism?

FOOTNOTES:

[7] "The Theory of Business Enterprise," Veblen, New York, 1904. Pages
351, 352. See also my article on Veblen the Revolutionist, International
Socialist Review, June, 1905, vol. V, page 726.

[8] Throughout this article "nihilism" is not used in its strict
technical or philosophical sense, but is used simply as a convenient
term by which to designate the aggregate of those aspects of Socialism
which, viewed from the standpoint of the existing regime, appear as
negative and destructive.

[9] "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy." Karl Marx,
New York, 1904. Pages 11, 12.

[10] "See Philosophical Essays," Joseph Dietzgen, Chicago, 1906. Pages
174 and 52.

[11] "Essays on the Materialistic Conception of History." Antonio
Labriola, Chicago, 1904. Pages 85, 86.

[12] l. c. pages 155-6, 158.

[13] "Philosophical Essays." Dietzgen. Page 86.

[14] "Socialism and Modern Science." Enrico Ferri, New York, 1904. Pages
60, 61.

[15] "Philosophical Essays." Dietzgen. Page 116.

[16] The reader will observe that Ferri reads into the Erfurt
pronouncement on religion (quoted in full abov