development effectually destroyed all those institutions of
feudalism which obstructed its progress, leaving only those which were
innocuous and safely to be ignored.

In capitalist society, the main class division is that which separates
the employing, wage-paying class from the employed, wage-receiving
class. Notwithstanding all the elaborate arguments made to prove the
contrary, the frequently heard myth that the interests of Capital and
Labor are identical, and the existence of pacificatory associations
based upon that myth, there is no fact in the whole range of social
phenomena more self-evident than the existence of an inherent,
fundamental antagonism in the relationship of employer and employee. As
individuals, in all other relations, they may have a commonality of
interests, but as employer and employee they are fundamentally and
necessarily opposed. They may belong to the same church, and so have
religious interests in common; they may have common racial interests,
as, for instance, if negroes, in protecting themselves against the
attacks made in a book like _The Clansman_, or, if Jews, in opposing
anti-Semitic movements; as citizens they may have the same civic
interests, be equally opposed to graft in the city government, or
equally interested in the adoption of wise sanitary precautions against
epidemics. They may even have a common industrial interest in the
general sense that they may be equally interested in the development of
the industry in which they are engaged, and fear, equally, the results
of a depression in trade. But their special interests as employer and
employee are antithetical.

It cannot be denied that, in certain circumstances, these other
interests may become so accentuated that the class antagonisms are
momentarily lost sight of, or completely dwarfed in importance; nor is
such a denial implied in the Socialist theory. It is not difficult to
see that in the case of a general uprising against the members of their
race, in which their lives are imperiled, Jewish employers and employees
may forget their _class_ interests and remember only that they are Jews.
So with negroes and other oppressed races. The economic interests of the
class may be engulfed in the solidarity of the race. It is not
difficult, either, to see that in the presence of some great common
danger or calamity, class interests may likewise be completely
subordinated. An admirable example of this occurred at the time of th