nt minds somehow; and that the process
of direction must have some system at the back of it, by means of which
the orders issued to each labourer can be enforced--this system being
either a continuation of that which is in existence now, or another
which would to most people be in many ways more distasteful.

The socialists of to-day, in admitting that such is the case, have at
last placed themselves in a line with the sober realities of life, and
in doing so have assimilated their own analysis of production to the
analysis set forth in the beginning of the present volume.

Apart from the fact that, according to their constructive programme,
private capitalism would be abolished, and the sole capitalist would be
the state, the socialistic system of production, as they have now come
to conceive of it, would, in respect of the vital forces involved, be
merely the existing system continued under another name, with a
directing minority composed of exceptional men on the one hand, and a
majority composed of directed men on the other. But in the minds of many
socialistic thinkers the simplicity of the situation is obscured by the
vagueness of the ideas which they associate with the phrase "the state."
For them these ideas are like a fog, into which private capitalism
disappears, and in which the forces represented by it lose all definite
character. The state, however, is in reality nothing but a collection of
individuals; and if the state, besides being a political body, is to
become the sole industrial capitalist also, state capitalism, just like
private capitalism, will succeed or fail in proportion to the talents of
those to whom capital is intrusted as a means of directing the
labourers.

If, then, in any capitalistic country, such as Great Britain or America,
the business of production could become socialised to-morrow, the best
that could possibly happen would be the transformation of the present
employers into so many state officials, who industrially would be the
state itself. The only difference would be that they would have lost all
personal interest in the pecuniary results of the talents which they
would still be expected to exercise.[9]

Now, if such a transformation of circumstances could be suddenly
effected to-morrow, without any corresponding change in the dispositions
of these men themselves, there is theoretically no reason for supposing
that the process of production might not continue to be as efficien