est conduct in a classless society; and, I am
inclined to think that a generation to whom the idea of status will have
become wholly alien will find the word "social" entirely adequate for
this purpose, though I frankly confess it is not adequate for us

"In the days of the years we dwell in, that wear our lives away."

My statement that the Revolutionary worker abstains from crimes against
property from expediency rather than from principle must not be
construed into an allegation that fear of personal punishment is the
only ground for abstaining from such crimes. If it were not for the
stupidity and malice of our opponents I would feel that I was insulting
my readers by making this explanation; but for their benefit be it said
that in a society based economically upon the institution of private
property social life is impossible without respect (respect here refers
to acts, not to mental attitude) for private property. Crimes against
property are distinctly unsocial. But respect for the rights of property
is rapidly disintegrating both among trust magnates and proletarians.
The Natural Rights Philosophy[6] still has much vitality in the middle
classes, but as a broad statement it will hold good that the millionaire
or the proletarian who shows respect for private property (the private
property of others, be it understood) does so chiefly on grounds of
expediency.

The socialist materialist is well content to leave this whole question
of ethics to adjust itself, since he knows that equality of condition,
the economic basis of Socialism, will necessarily evolve a mode of
living, and standards of conduct in perfect harmony with their economic
environment.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] It may be as well to state that this was written before the writer
had read Karl Kautsky's illuminating work, "Ethics and the Materialist
Conception of History."

[6] For a fuller discussion of the relation of current conceptions of
property-rights to the Natural Rights Philosophy see Veblen's "The
Theory of Business Enterprise," Chapters II and VIII, and La Monte's
paper "Veblen, The Revolutionist," International Socialist Review, Vol.
V. pp. 726-739.

THE NIHILISM OF SOCIALISM.

"In their negative proposals the socialists and anarchists are
fairly agreed. It is in the metaphysical postulates of their
protest and in their constructive aims that they part company. Of
the two, the socialists are more widely