account.

FOOTNOTE:

[9] _Kropotkin: In Russian and French Prisons._ London, 1887.

CHAPTER XIII

THE COLLECTIVIST WAGES SYSTEM

I

In their plans for the reconstruction of society the collectivists
commit, in our opinion, a twofold error. While speaking of abolishing
capitalist rule, they intend nevertheless to retain two institutions
which are the very basis of this rule--Representative Government and the
Wages' System.

As regards so-called representative government, we have often spoken
about it. It is absolutely incomprehensible to us that intelligent
men--and such are not wanting in the collectivist party--can remain
partisans of national or municipal parliaments after all the lessons
history has given them--in France, in England, in Germany, or in the
United States.

While we see parliamentary rule breaking up, and from all sides
criticism of this rule growing louder--not only of its results, but also
of _its principles_--how is it that the revolutionary socialists defend
a system already condemned to die?

Built up by the middle classes to hold their own against royalty,
sanctioning, and, at the same time strengthening, their sway over the
workers, parliamentary rule is pre-eminently a middle-class rule. The
upholders of this system have never seriously maintained that a
parliament or a municipal council represent a nation or a city. The most
intelligent among them know that this is impossible. The middle classes
have simply used the parliamentary system to raise a protecting barrier
against the pretensions of royalty, without giving the people liberty.
But gradually, as the people become conscious of their real interests,
and the variety of their interests is growing, the system can no longer
work. Therefore democrats of all countries vainly imagine various
palliatives. The _Referendum_ is tried and found to be a failure;
proportional representation is spoken of, the representation of
minorities, and other parliamentary Utopias. In a word, they strive to
find what is not to be found, and after each new experiment they are
bound to recognize that it was a failure; so that confidence in
Representative Government vanishes more and more.

It is the same with the Wages' system; because, once the abolition of
private property is proclaimed, and the possession in common of all
means of production is introduced,--how can the wages' system be
maintained in any form? This is, nevertheless, what coll