734 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and leading statesmen, in pursuit of party ends, bid for popular favor 

 by countenancing them. Getting repeated justifications from new 

 laws harmonizing with their doctrines, political enthusiasts and unwise 

 philanthropists push their agitations with growing confidence and suc- 

 cess. Journalism, ever responsive to popular opinion, daily strengthens 

 it by giving it voice ; while counter-opinion, more and more discour- 

 aged, finds little utterance. 



Thus influences of various kinds conspire to increase corporate ac- 

 tion and decrease individual action. And the change is being on all 

 sides aided by schemers, each of whom thinks only of his pet project, 

 and not at all of the general reorganization which his, joined with 

 others such, are working out. It is said that the French Revolution 

 devoured its own children. Here an analogous catastrophe seems not 

 unlikely. The numerous socialistic changes made by act of Parlia- 

 ment, joined with the numerous others presently to be made, will by- 

 and-by be all merged in state-socialism — swallowed in the vast wave 

 which they have little by little raised. 



" But why is this change described as ' the coming slavery ' ? " is 

 a question which many will still ask. The reply is simple. All so- 

 cialism involves slavery. 



What is essential to the idea of a slave ? We primarily think of 

 him as one who is owned by another. To be more than nominal, 

 however, the ownership must be shown by control of the slave's ac- 

 tions — a control which is habitually for the benefit of the controller. 

 That which fundamentally distinguishes the slave is that he labors 

 under coercion to satisfy another's desires. The relation admits of 

 sundry gradations. Remembering that originally the slave is a pris- 

 oner whose life is at the mercy of his captor, it suffices here to note 

 that there is a harsh form of slavery in which, treated as an animal, he 

 has to expand his entire effort for his owner's advantage. Under a 

 system less harsh, though occupied chiefly in working for his owner, 

 he is allowed a short time in which to work for himself, and some 

 ground on which to grow extra food. A further amelioration gives 

 him power to sell the produce of his plot and keep the proceeds. 

 Then we come to the still more moderated form which commonly 

 arises where, having been a free man working on his own land, con- 

 quest turns him into what we distinguish as a serf ; and he has to give 

 to his owner each year a fixed amount of labor or produce, or both, 

 retaining the rest himself. Finally, in some cases, as in Russia until 

 recently, he is allowed to leave his owner's estate and work or trade 

 for himself elsewhere, under the condition that he shall pay an annual 

 sum. What is it which, in these cases, leads us to qualify our concep- 

 tion of the slavery as more or less severe ? Evidently the greater or 

 smaller extent to which effort is compulsorily expended for the benefit 

 of another instead of for self -benefit. If all the slave's labor is for his 



