of the rich. Mere
wealth, whether in money or precious gems and jewels, need not trouble
us. Non-productive wealth is outside of our calculation. In the next
place, as I have attempted to make clear, the petty business, the
individual store, the small workshop, and the farm operated by its
owner, would not, necessarily, nor probably, be disturbed. We have to
consider only the great agencies of exploitation, industries operated by
many producers of surplus-value for the benefit of the few. Let us, for
example, take a conspicuous industrial organization, the so-called Steel
Trust. Suppose the Socialists to be in power: there is a popular demand
for the socialization of the steel industry. The government decides to
take over the plant of the Steel Trust and all its affairs, and the
support of the vast majority of the people is assured. First a
valuation takes place, and then bonds, government bonds, are issued.
Unlike what happens too often at the present time, the price fixed is
not greatly in excess of the value the people acquire--one of the means
by which the capitalists fasten their clutches on the popular throat.
The Socialist _spirit_ enters into the business. Bonds are issued to all
the shareholders in strict proportion to their holdings, and so the poor
widow, concerning whose interests critics of Socialism are so
solicitous, gets bonds for her share. She is therefore even more secure
than before, since it is no longer possible for unscrupulous individuals
to plunder her by nefarious stock transactions.

So far, good and well. But, you may rightly say, this will not eliminate
the unearned incomes. The heavy stockholders will simply become rich
bondholders. Temporarily, that is true. But when that has been
accomplished in a few of the more important industries, they will find
it difficult to invest their surplus incomes profitably. There will also
be a surplus to the state over and above the amounts annually paid in
redemption of the bonds. Finally, it will be possible to adopt measures
for eliminating the unearned incomes entirely by means of taxation, such
as the progressive income tax, property and inheritance taxes. Taxation
is, of course, a form of confiscation, but it is a form which has
become familiar, which is perfectly legal, and which enables the
confiscatory process to be stretched out over a long enough period to
make it comparatively easy, to reduce the hardship to a minimum. By
means of a progressiv