y in which we read: "If these
measures" (confiscation of all private property) "be carried out,
without compensation (though not without such relief to expropriated
individuals as may seem fit to the community), rent and interest will
be added to the reward of labour, the idle class now living on the
labour of others will necessarily disappear, and practical equality of
opportunity will be maintained by the spontaneous action of economic
forces with much less interference with personal liberty than the
present system entails."

The absurdity of the demand for "the entire product of labour," which
is raised by Socialists on behalf of the labourer is clear even to the
most superficial thinker. The majority of Socialists know quite well
that writing off, repairs, renewals, the replacing of machinery, the
enlargement of factories, &c., cannot be done gratis, that the
distribution of the whole produce of labour to the workers can be
effected only by neglecting and destroying the means of production.

The impossibility of giving to the worker the "whole product of his
labour" by abolishing the private capitalist is clearly recognised and
honestly admitted by the German Socialists. Kautsky, for instance,
writes: "If the income of the capitalists were added to that of the
workers, the wages of each would be doubled. Unfortunately, however,
the matter will not be settled so simply. If we expropriate
capitalism, we must at the same time take over its social
functions--among these the important one of capitalist accumulation.
The capitalists do not consume all their income; a portion of it they
put away for the extension of production. A proletarian _regime_ would
also have to do the same in order to extend production. It would not
therefore be able to transfer, even in the event of a radical
confiscation of capital, the whole of the former income to the working
class. Besides, a portion of the surplus value which the capitalists
now pocket, they must hand over to the State in the shape of taxes.
For these reasons our Socialists are guilty of wilful deception if
they tell the workers that under a Socialist _regime_ their wages
would be doubled and trebled."[191] Nevertheless, the doctrine and the
demand that "the labourer is entitled to the entire product of his
labour" is not abandoned by British Socialists, apparently because it
is extremely useful for arousing the passions of the workers against
the capitalists in accordance