n society would not exist for more than two
consecutive generations if everyone did not give infinitely more than
that for which he is paid in coin, in "cheques," or in civic rewards.
The race would soon become extinct if mothers did not sacrifice their
lives to take care of their children, if men did not give continually,
without demanding an equivalent reward, if men did not give most
precisely when they expect no reward.

If middle-class society is decaying, if we have got into a blind alley
from which we cannot emerge without attacking past institutions with
torch and hatchet, it is precisely because we have given too much to
counting. It is because we have let ourselves be influenced into
_giving_ only to _receive._ It is because we have aimed at turning
society into a commercial company based on _debit_ and _credit_.

After all, the Collectivists know this themselves. They vaguely
understand that a society could not exist if it carried out the
principle of "Each according to his deeds." They have a notion that
_necessaries_--we do not speak of whims--the needs of the individual, do
not always correspond to his _works_. Thus De Paepe tells us: "The
principle--the eminently Individualist principle--would, however, be
_tempered_ by social intervention for the education of children and
young persons (including maintenance and lodging), and by the social
organization for assisting the infirm and the sick, for retreats for
aged workers, etc." They understand that a man of forty, father of three
children, has other needs than a young man of twenty. They know that the
woman who suckles her infant and spends sleepless nights at its bedside,
cannot do as much _work_ as the man who has slept peacefully. They seem
to take in that men and women, worn out maybe by dint of overwork for
society, may be incapable of doing as much _work_ as those who have
spent their time leisurely and pocketed their "labour-notes" in the
privileged career of State functionaries.

They are eager to temper their principle. They say: "Society will not
fail to maintain and bring up its children; to help both aged and
infirm. Without doubt _needs_ will be the measure of the cost that
society will burden itself with, to temper the principle of deeds."

Charity, charity, always Christian charity, organized by the State this
time. They believe in improving the asylums for foundlings, in effecting
old-age and sick insurances--so as to _temper_ their pri