zens.

"But," it may be urged, "this means grey uniformity and the end of
everything beautiful in life and art."

"Certainly not," we reply. And, still basing our reasonings on what
already exists, we are going to show how an Anarchist society could
satisfy the most artistic tastes of its citizens without allowing them
to amass the fortunes of millionaires.

CHAPTER VIII

WAYS AND MEANS

I

If a society, a city or a territory were to guarantee the necessaries of
life to its inhabitants (and we shall see how the conception of the
necessaries of life can be so extended as to include luxuries), it would
be compelled to take possession of what is absolutely needed for
production; that is to say--land, machinery, factories, means of
transport, etc. Capital in the hands of private owners would be
expropriated, to be returned to the community.

The great harm done by bourgeois society, as we have already mentioned,
is not only that capitalists seize a large share of the profits of each
industrial and commercial enterprise, thus enabling themselves to live
without working, but that all production has taken a wrong direction, as
it is not carried on with a view to securing well-being to all. There is
the reason why it must be condemned.

It is absolutely impossible that mercantile production should be carried
on in the interest of all. To desire it would be to expect the
capitalist to go beyond his province and to fulfil duties that he
_cannot_ fulfil without ceasing to be what he is--a private manufacturer
seeking his own enrichment. Capitalist organization, based on the
personal interest of each individual employer of labour, has given to
society all that could be expected of it: it has increased the
productive force of Labour. The capitalist, profiting by the revolution
effected in industry by steam, by the sudden development of chemistry
and machinery, and by other inventions of our century, has worked in his
own interest to increase the yield of human labour, and in a great
measure he has succeeded so far. But to attribute other duties to him
would be unreasonable. For example, to expect that he should use this
superior yield of labour in the interest of society as a whole, would be
to ask philanthropy and charity of him, and a capitalist enterprise
cannot be based on charity.

It now remains for society, first, to extend this greater productivity,
which is limited to certain industries, and to apply it