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08 - Ways and Means - The Conquest of Bread · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eight, Ways and Means, Part One. If a society,
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  Speaker 1: a city, or a territory were to guarantee the necessaries
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  Speaker 1: of life to its inhabitants, and we shall see how
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  Speaker 1: the conception of the necessaries of life can be so
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  Speaker 1: extended as to include luxuries, it would be compelled to
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  Speaker 1: take possession of what is absolutely needed for production. That
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  Speaker 1: is to say, land, machinery, factories, means of transport, et cetera.
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  Speaker 1: Capital in the hands of private owners would be expropriated
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  Speaker 1: and returned to the community. The great harm done by
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  Speaker 1: bourgeois society, as we have already mentioned, is not only
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  Speaker 1: that capitalist sees a large share of the profits of
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  Speaker 1: each industrial and commercial enterprise, thus enabling them to live
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  Speaker 1: without working, but that all production has taken a wrong direction,
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  Speaker 1: as it is not carried on with a view to
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  Speaker 1: securing well being to all. For this reason we condemn it. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: it is impossible to carry on mercantile production in everybody's interest.
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  Speaker 1: To wish it would be to expect the capitalists to
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  Speaker 1: go beyond his province and to fulfill duties that he
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  Speaker 1: can and not fulfill, without ceasing to be what he is.
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  Speaker 1: A private manufacturer. Seeking his own enrichment. Capitalist organization, based
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  Speaker 1: on the personal interest of each individual trader, has given
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  Speaker 1: all that could be expected of it to society. It
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  Speaker 1: has increased the productive force of work. The capitalist, profiting
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  Speaker 1: by the revolution, affected an industry, by steam, by the
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  Speaker 1: sudden development of chemistry and machinery, and by other inventions
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  Speaker 1: of our century, has endeavored in his own interest to
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  Speaker 1: increase the yield of work, and in a great measure
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  Speaker 1: he has succeeded. But to attribute other duties to him
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  Speaker 1: would be unreasonable. For example, to expect that he should
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  Speaker 1: use the superior yield of work in the interests of
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  Speaker 1: society as a whole would be to ask philanthropy and
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  Speaker 1: charity of him, and capitalist enterprise cannot be based on charity.
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  Speaker 1: It now remains for society to extend this greater productivity,
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  Speaker 1: which is limited to certain industries, and to apply it
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  Speaker 1: to the general good. But it is evident that to
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  Speaker 1: guarantee well being to all, society must take back possession
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  Speaker 1: of all means of production. Economists, as is their wont
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  Speaker 1: will not fail to remind us of the comparative well
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  Speaker 1: being of a certain category of young, robust workmen skilled
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  Speaker 1: in certain special branches of industry. It is always this
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  Speaker 1: minority that is pointed out to us with pride. But
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  Speaker 1: is this well being, which is the exclusive right of
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  Speaker 1: a few secure tomorrow? Maybe negligence, improvidence, or the greed
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  Speaker 1: of their employers will deprive these privileged men of their work,
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  Speaker 1: and they will pay for the period of comfort they
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  Speaker 1: have enjoyed with months and years of poverty or destitution.
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  Speaker 1: How many important industries woven goods, iron, sugar, et cetera.
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  Speaker 1: Without mentioning short lived trades have we not seen decline
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  Speaker 1: or come to a standstill, alternately on account of speculations
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  Speaker 1: or in consequence of natural displacement of work, and lastly
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  Speaker 1: from the effects of competition due to capitalists themselves. If
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  Speaker 1: the chief weaving and mechanical industries had to pass through
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  Speaker 1: such a crisis as they have passed through in eighteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty six, we hardly need mention the small trades, all
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  Speaker 1: of which come periodically to a standstill. What two shall
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  Speaker 1: we say to the price which is paid for the
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  Speaker 1: relative well being of certain category is of workmen. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: it is paid for by the ruin of agriculture, the
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  Speaker 1: shameless exploitation of peasants, the misery of the masses in
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  Speaker 1: comparison with the feeble minority of workers who enjoy a
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  Speaker 1: certain comfort. How many millions of human beings live from
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  Speaker 1: hand to mouth without a secure wage, ready to go
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  Speaker 1: wherever they are wanted. How many peasants work fourteen hours
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  Speaker 1: a day for poor pittance. Capital depopulates the country, exploits
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  Speaker 1: the colonies, and the countries where industries are but little developed,
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  Speaker 1: dooms the immense majority of workmen to remain without technical education,
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  Speaker 1: to remain mediocre even in their own trade. This is
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  Speaker 1: not merely accidental. It is a necessity of the capitalist system.
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  Speaker 1: In order to remunerate certain classes of workmen, peasants must
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  Speaker 1: become the beast of burden of society. The country must
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  Speaker 1: be deserted for the town small trades must agglomerate in
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  Speaker 1: the foul suburbs of large cities and manufacture a thousand
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  Speaker 1: things of little value for next to nothing, so as
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  Speaker 1: to bring the goods of the greater industries within reach
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  Speaker 1: of buyers with small salaries. That bad cloth may sell.
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  Speaker 1: Garments are made for ill paid workers by tailors who
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  Speaker 1: are satisfied with the starvation wage. Eastern lands, in a
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  Speaker 1: backward state are exploited by the West in order that,
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  Speaker 1: under the capitalist system, workers in a few privileged industries
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  Speaker 1: may obtain certain limited comforts of life. The evil of
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  Speaker 1: the present system is therefore not that the surplus value
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  Speaker 1: of production goes to the capitalist as Robertus and Mark said,
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  Speaker 1: thus narrowing the socialist conception and the general view of
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  Speaker 1: the capitalist system. The surplus value itself is but a
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  Speaker 1: consequence of deeper causes. The evil lies in the possibility
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  Speaker 1: of a surplus value existing instead of a simple surplus
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  Speaker 1: not consumed by each generation. Four. That a surplus value
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  Speaker 1: should exist means that men, women and children are compelled
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  Speaker 1: by hunger to sell their labor for a small part
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  Speaker 1: of what this labor produces, and above all, of what
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  Speaker 1: their labor is capable of producing. But this evil will
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  Speaker 1: last as long as the instruments of production belong to
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  Speaker 1: a few, as long as men are compelled to pay
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  Speaker 1: tribute to property holders for the right of cultivating land
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  Speaker 1: or putting machinery into action, and the property holder is
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  Speaker 1: free to produce what bids fair to bring him in
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  Speaker 1: the greatest profits rather than the greatest amount of useful commodities.
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  Speaker 1: Well being can only be temporarily guaranteed to a very few,
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  Speaker 1: and is only to be bought by the poverty of
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  Speaker 1: a section of society. It is not sufficient to distribute
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  Speaker 1: the profits realized by trade in equal parts if at
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  Speaker 1: the same time thousands of other workers are exploited. It
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  Speaker 1: is a case of producing the greatest amount of goods
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  Speaker 1: necessary to the well being of all with the least
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  Speaker 1: possible waste of human energy. This cannot be the aim
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  Speaker 1: of a private owner, and this is why society as
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  Speaker 1: a whole, taking this view of production as its ideal,
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  Speaker 1: will be compelled to expropriate all that enhances well being
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  Speaker 1: while producing wealth. It will have to take possession of land, factories, mines,
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  Speaker 1: means of communication, etc. And besides, it will have to
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  Speaker 1: study what products will promote general well being, as well
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  Speaker 1: as the ways and means of production. Two How many
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  Speaker 1: hours a day will man have to work to produce
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  Speaker 1: nourishing food, a comfortable home, and necessary clothing for his family.
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  Speaker 1: The question has often preoccupied socialists, and they generally came
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  Speaker 1: to the conclusion that four or five hours a day
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  Speaker 1: would suffice on condition. Be it well understood that all
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  Speaker 1: men work. At the end of last century, Benjamin Franklin
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  Speaker 1: fixed the limit at five hours. And if the need
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  Speaker 1: of comfort is greater now, the power of production has
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  Speaker 1: augmented two and far more rapidly. In speaking of agriculture,
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  Speaker 1: further on, we shall see what the earth can be
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  Speaker 1: made to yield to man when he cultivates it scientifically,
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  Speaker 1: instead of throwing seed haphazard in a badly plowed soil,
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  Speaker 1: as he mostly does today. In the great farms of
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  Speaker 1: Western America, some of which cover thirty square miles but
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  Speaker 1: have a poorer soil than the manured soil of civilized countries,
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  Speaker 1: only ten to fifteen English bushels per English acre are obtained,
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  Speaker 1: that is to say, half the yield of European farms
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  Speaker 1: or of American farms in Eastern States. And nevertheless, thanks
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  Speaker 1: the machines which enable two men to plow four English
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  Speaker 1: acres a day, one hundred men can produce in a year
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  Speaker 1: all that is necessary to deliver the bread of ten
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  Speaker 1: thousand people at their homes during a whole year. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: it would suffice for a man to work under the
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  Speaker 1: same conditions for thirty hours, say six half days of
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  Speaker 1: five hours each, to have bread for a whole year,
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  Speaker 1: and to work thirty half days to guarantee the same
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  Speaker 1: to a family of five people. We shall also prove,
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  Speaker 1: by results obtained nowadays, that if we had recourse to
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  Speaker 1: intensive agriculture, less than six half day's work could procure bread, meat, vegetables,
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  Speaker 1: and even luxurious fruit for a whole family. And again,
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  Speaker 1: if we study the cost of workmen's dwellings built in
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  Speaker 1: large towns today, we can ascertain that to obtain in
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  Speaker 1: a large English city a detached little house as they
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  Speaker 1: are built for workmen, from fourteen hundred to eighteen hundred,
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  Speaker 1: half day's work of five hours would be sufficient, as
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  Speaker 1: a house of that kind last fifty years at least.
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  Speaker 1: It follows that twenty eight to thirty six half day's
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  Speaker 1: work a year could provide well furnished, healthy quarters with
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  Speaker 1: all necessary comfort for a family, whereas when hiring the
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  Speaker 1: same apartment from an employer, a workman pays seventy five
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  Speaker 1: to one hundred days work per year. Mark that these
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  Speaker 1: figures represent the maximum of what a house costs in
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  Speaker 1: England today, being given the defective organization of our societies.
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  Speaker 1: In Belgium, workmen cities have been built far cheaper. Taking
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  Speaker 1: everything into consideration, we are justified in affirming that in
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  Speaker 1: a well organized society, thirty or forty half day's work
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  Speaker 1: a year will suffice to guarantee a perfectly comfortable home.
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  Speaker 1: There now remains clothing, the exact value of which is
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  Speaker 1: almost impossible to fix because the profits realized by a
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  Speaker 1: swarm of middlemen cannot be estimated. Let us take cloth,
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  Speaker 1: for example, and add up all the deductions made by landowners,
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  Speaker 1: sheep owners, wool merchants and all their intermediate agents than
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  Speaker 1: by railway companies, mill owners, weavers, dealers in ready made clothes,
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  Speaker 1: sellers and commission agents, and you will get idea of
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  Speaker 1: what is paid to a whole swarm of capitalists for
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  Speaker 1: each article of clothing. That is why it is perfectly
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  Speaker 1: impossible to say how many days work in overcoat that
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  Speaker 1: you pay three or four pounds in a large London
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  Speaker 1: shop represents. What is certain is that with present machinery
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  Speaker 1: they no doubt managed to manufacture an incredible amount of goods.
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  Speaker 1: A few examples will suffice. Thus, in the United States,
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  Speaker 1: in seven hundred and fifty one cotton mills for spinning
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  Speaker 1: and weaving, one hundred and seventy five thousand men and
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  Speaker 1: women produce two billion, thirty three million yards of cotton goods,
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  Speaker 1: besides a great quantity of thread. On the average, more
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  Speaker 1: than twelve thousand yards of cotton goods alone are obtained
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  Speaker 1: by a three hundred days work of nine and a
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  Speaker 1: half hours each, say forty yards of cotton in ten hours.
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  Speaker 1: Admitting that a family needs two hundred yards a year
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  Speaker 1: at most, this would be equivalent to fifty hours work,
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  Speaker 1: say ten half days of five hours each. And we
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  Speaker 1: should have thread besides, that is to say, cotton to
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  Speaker 1: sow with and thread to weave cloth with, so as
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  Speaker 1: to manufacture a woolen stuffs mixed with cotton. As to
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  Speaker 1: the results obtained by weaving alone, the official statistics of
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  Speaker 1: the United States teach us that in eighteen seventy, if
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  Speaker 1: workmen worked thirteen to fourteen hours a day, they made
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  Speaker 1: ten thousand yards of white cotton goods in a year.
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  Speaker 1: Thirteen years later, in eighteen eighty six, they wove thirty
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  Speaker 1: thousand yards by working only fifty five hours a week.
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  Speaker 1: Even in printed cotton goods they obtained weaving and printing
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  Speaker 1: included thirty two thousand yards in two thousand, six hundred
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  Speaker 1: seventy hours of work a year, say about twelve yards
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  Speaker 1: an hour. Thus, to have your two hundred yards of
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  Speaker 1: white printed cotton goods, seventeen hours of work a year
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  Speaker 1: would suffice. It is necessary to remark that raw material
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  Speaker 1: reaches these factories in about the same state as it
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  Speaker 1: comes from the fields, and that the transformations gone through
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  Speaker 1: by the piece before it is converted into goods are
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  Speaker 1: completed in the course of these seventeen hours. But to
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  Speaker 1: buy these two hundred yards from the tradesman, a well
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  Speaker 1: paid workman must give at the very least ten to
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  Speaker 1: fifteen days work of ten hours each, say one hundred
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  Speaker 1: to one hundred fifty hours. Find as to the English peasant,
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  Speaker 1: he would have to toil for a month or a
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  Speaker 1: little more to obtain this luxury. By this example, we
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  Speaker 1: already see that by working fifty half days per year
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  Speaker 1: in a well organized society, we could dress better than
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  Speaker 1: the lower middle classes today. But with all this we
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  Speaker 1: have only required sixty half day's work of five hours
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  Speaker 1: each to obtain the fruits of the earth, forty for
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  Speaker 1: housing and fifty for clothing, which only makes half a
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  Speaker 1: year's work, as the year consists of three hundred working days.
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  Speaker 1: If we deduct holidays, there remains still one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty half day's work which could be made use of
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  Speaker 1: for other necessaries of life, wine, sugar, coffee, tea, furniture, transport,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera, et cetera. It is evident that these calculations
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  Speaker 1: are only approximate, but they can also be proved in
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  Speaker 1: another way. When we take into account how many in
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  Speaker 1: the so called civilized nations produced nothing, how many work
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  Speaker 1: at harmful trades doomed to disappear, and lastly, how many
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  Speaker 1: are useless middlemen. We see that in each nation the
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  Speaker 1: number of real producers could be doubled, and if instead
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  Speaker 1: of every ten men, twenty were occupied in producing useful commodities,
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  Speaker 1: and if society took the trouble to economize human energy,
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  Speaker 1: those twenty people would only have to work five hours
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  Speaker 1: a day without production decreasing, and it would suffice to
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  Speaker 1: reduce the waste of human energy at the service of
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  Speaker 1: wealthy families or of those administrations that have one official
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  Speaker 1: to every ten inhabitants, and to utilize those forces to
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  Speaker 1: augment the productivity of the nation, to limit work to
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  Speaker 1: four or even to three hours, on the condition that
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  Speaker 1: we should be satisfied with present production. After studying all
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  Speaker 1: these facts together, we may arrive then at the following conclusion.
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  Speaker 1: Imagine a society comprising a few million inhabitants engage in
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  Speaker 1: agriculture and a great variety of industries Paris, for example,
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  Speaker 1: with the department of Senewas, Suppose that in this society
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  Speaker 1: all children learn to work with their hands as well
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  Speaker 1: as with their brains. Admit that all adults save women,
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  Speaker 1: engaged in the education of their children, find themselves to
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  Speaker 1: work five hours a day from the age of twenty
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  Speaker 1: or twenty two to forty five or fifty, and they
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  Speaker 1: follow occupations they have chosen in any one branch of
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  Speaker 1: human work considered necessary. Such a society could, in return
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  Speaker 1: guarantee well being to all its members, that is to say,
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  Speaker 1: a more substance financial well being than that enjoyed today
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  Speaker 1: by the middle classes. And moreover, each worker belonging to
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  Speaker 1: this society would have at his disposal at least five
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  Speaker 1: hours a day which he could devote to science, art,
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  Speaker 1: and individual needs, which do not come under the category
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  Speaker 1: of necessities, but will probably do so later on, when
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  Speaker 1: men's productivity will have augmented and those objects will no
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  Speaker 1: longer appear luxurious or inaccessible. End of Chapter eight,