i 4 6 



which respond to its benefit directly or 

 indirectly. 



These laws, these institutions, these beliefs 

 transmitted by heredity or tradition finish by 

 concealing their economic origin, and philo- 

 sophers, jurists, and even the unlearned, defend 

 them as having their worth in themselves, 

 without seeing their real source ; but the latter 

 is none the less the only positive explanation 

 of these laws, these institutions, and these 

 beliefs. And therein is the strength of the 

 view of the genius of Marx.* 



As in the modern world, there are no more 

 than two classes with accessory varieties, on 

 the one side the workers, to whatever category 

 they may belong, and on the other the owners 

 of property who do not work, the socialist 

 theory of Marx leads us to this evident con- 

 clusion : since political parties are only the 

 echo and the speaking trumpet of class 

 interests, whatever varieties there may be, 

 political parties can only be substantially two 

 in number the socialist workers' party and 



* The Italian Chamber of Deputies has recently given 

 us a striking example. Qune, 1894.) Of the different 

 financial measures proposed by the government to remedy 

 the financial deficit, the Chamber approved : the increase 

 on the tax on salt ; the increase of twenty francs per ton 

 in the tax on corn ; but the increase of twopence in the 

 land tax was rejected. [Similar examples might be 

 quoted from the fiscal measures which our own govern- 

 ment adopted to find money for the South African War. 

 ED.] Here the direct influence of class interests is 

 evident. The contributions of the poor are augmented in 

 attacking salt and corn, the great landed proprietors are 

 given a gratuitous bounty by the increase of the duty on 

 corn, and a small increase of the land tax is refused. 



This is the triumph of the agrarians, who are recruited 

 from the Right as from the Left, over capital invested 



