274 The Ideal State 



selling their beds, and built factories, in which employ- 

 ment was given to their brethren on strike. Soon a 

 new furnace was required, and the workers, without 

 help from mechanics or masons, built the second one in 

 about a fourth of the time usually required, and gave 

 work to other members of the Union out on strike or 

 unemployed. The manufacturer was beaten and was 

 finally absorbed by the Trust, which granted all the 

 demands of the Union for its members. 



The Trust endeavoured to crush the Union, but the 

 latter was able to build new factories, so that the Trust 

 found its business curtailed and profits reduced. The 

 Trust then tried underselling and inducing the banks to 

 refuse credit. This failed, for the superiority of their 

 manufactured article won the day. Each factory was 

 able to produce a bottle of such quality that although 

 it was necessary to sell at higher prices than the Trust, 

 the Union could dispose of its whole output in advance. 

 At the present time there are 3500 members in the 

 Union, of whom the Trust employs 1000 and the co- 

 operative factories 2500. Every member is a share- 

 holder, even those working for the Trust. 



Por and Atkinson point out the two factors which 

 have secured their success. " The first is their technical 

 efficiency, their professional consciousness brought out 

 in their effort to create collectively something new and 

 positive. The second factor is their moral solidarity, 

 evolved by their Socialist training. ... In their 

 struggle they forgot their immediate interests and 

 worked with all their energy for the liberation of their 

 whole class from capitalism. They were dominated by 

 a social vision, by a greater sense of human fraternity. 

 A wonderful discipline prevails, which guarantees a 

 continuous process of production, and fires each worker 

 to work at his best. In all the factories there is not a 

 single overseer. The moral solidarity created by the 



