und that it had
too little of it for its growing population, it would go to war with the
weaker among adjacent tribes for the purpose of securing its territory;
but from this on the vanquished were not eaten, and it was morally wrong
to eat them. They were kept alive and put to work at raising harvests
for their conquerors, hence arose the institution of slavery, and hence
its moral rightness even in this country of the free, down to the
beginning of the generation to which I belong.

However, human slavery has never ended, nor will it ever end while the
competitive system for the production of the necessities of life for
profit rather than use continues. Human slavery is, so to speak, the
basic ingredient of this system.

Speaking broadly, there have been three forms of human slavery--the
chattel, feudal and wage slaveries--the third much worse than the first,
and the second intermediary between them.

The chattel slave, as the adjective signifies, was the property of his
master, as much so as were the horse or the mule with which he worked,
and he was cared for in much the same way and for about the same reason.

The feudal slave was as really a chattel as was his predecessor, only he
had to look out for himself to a greater extent; and, more was expected
from him of accomplishment for the opulence and glory of the master,
especially insofar as these depended upon the success of his wars.

The wage slave is, likewise, as really owned by his master as was the
chattel or the feudal slave; but, if the master has no need for his
service, he is altogether down and out, as the feudal slave was not and
still less the chattel, and he has accomplished at least ten times more
for his master than did either of his predecessors.

So far man has produced and distributed the necessities of life by a
competitive system. The existing form of this competition is known as
capitalism. It has supplanted, or at least overshadowed, every other
form and is, so to speak, monarch of all it surveys.

The system as it now stands divides the world into two spheres--a small
one, in which a few live surfeitingly by owning, and a large one, in
which the many live starvingly by working; and, yet, ultimately,
absolutely everything for both depends upon the worker and nothing at
all on the owner.

Yes, the worker is indispensable to the owner, as much so as (to use the
classical illustration) the dog to the flea; but the owner is no more
indi