ity remains, which is to give like for like, the
same for the same, neither more nor less. But this equity, society, as
at present constituted, cannot give. It is not in the nature of
present-day society for men to give like for like, the same for the same.
And so long as men continue to live in this competitive society,
struggling tooth and nail with one another for food and shelter, (which
is to struggle tooth and nail with one another for life), that long will
the scab continue to exist. His will "to live" will force him to exist.
He may be flouted and jeered by his brothers, he may be beaten with
bricks and clubs by the men who by superior strength and capacity scab
upon him as he scabs upon them by longer hours and smaller wages, but
through it all he will persist, giving a bit more of most for least than
they are giving.

THE QUESTION OF THE MAXIMUM

For any social movement or development there must be a maximum limit
beyond which it cannot proceed. That civilization which does not advance
must decline, and so, when the maximum of development has been reached in
any given direction, society must either retrograde or change the
direction of its advance. There are many families of men that have
failed, in the critical period of their economic evolution, to effect a
change in direction, and were forced to fall back. Vanquished at the
moment of their maximum, they have dropped out of the whirl of the world.
There was no room for them. Stronger competitors have taken their
places, and they have either rotted into oblivion or remain to be crushed
under the iron heel of the dominant races in as remorseless a struggle as
the world has yet witnessed. But in this struggle fair women and
chivalrous men will play no part. Types and ideals have changed. Helens
and Launcelots are anachronisms. Blows will be given and taken, and men
fight and die, but not for faiths and altars. Shrines will be
desecrated, but they will be the shrines, not of temples, but
market-places. Prophets will arise, but they will be the prophets of
prices and products. Battles will be waged, not for honor and glory, nor
for thrones and sceptres, but for dollars and cents and for marts and
exchanges. Brain and not brawn will endure, and the captains of war will
be commanded by the captains of industry. In short, it will be a contest
for the mastery of the world's commerce and for industrial supremacy.

It is more significant, this