The day when the labourer may till the ground without paying away half
of what he produces, the day when the machines necessary to prepare the
soil for rich harvests are at the free disposal of the cultivators, the
day when the worker in the factory produces for the community and not
the monopolist--that day will see the workers clothed and fed, and there
will be no more Rothschilds or other exploiters.

No one will then have to sell his working power for a wage that only
represents a fraction of what he produces.

"So far, so good," say our critics, "but you will have Rothschilds
coming in from the outside. How are you to prevent a person from
amassing millions in China, and then settling amongst you? How are you
going to prevent such a one from surrounding himself with lackeys and
wage-slaves--from exploiting them and enriching himself at their
expense?

"You cannot bring about a revolution all over the world at the same
time. Well, then--are you going to establish custom-houses on your
frontiers to search all who enter your country and confiscate the money
they bring with them?--Anarchist policemen firing on travellers would be
a fine spectacle!"

But at the root of this argument there is a great error. Those who
propound it have never paused to inquire whence come the fortunes of the
rich. A little thought would, however, suffice to show them that these
fortunes have their beginnings in the poverty of the poor. When there
are no longer any destitute, there will no longer be any rich to exploit
them.

Let us glance for a moment at the Middle Ages, when great fortunes began
to spring up.

A feudal baron seizes on a fertile valley. But as long as the fertile
valley is empty of folk our baron is not rich. His land brings him in
nothing; he might as well possess a property in the moon.

What does our baron do to enrich himself? He looks out for peasants--for
poor peasants!

If every peasant-farmer had a piece of land, free from rent and taxes,
if he had in addition the tools and the stock necessary for farm
labour--Who would plough the lands of the baron? Everyone would look
after his own. But there are thousands of destitute persons ruined by
wars, or drought, or pestilence. They have neither horse nor plough.
(Iron was very costly in the Middle Ages, and a draught-horse still more
so.)

All these destitute creatures are trying to better their condition. One
day they see on the road at the confines of our b