770 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
established new associations on modern methods of organization. The beginnings already made justify good hopes, and present a prospect that the master handicraftsmen may join in a form of common production and common sale of their common products, by a method according to which they can enjoy the advantages of the modern great industry and, at the same time, retain at least a part of the advantages of their former complete independence as masters. Thereby would arise a mixed form of purely indi- vidualistic and purely communistic trades, which appears to be a natural step of economic progress. Frankfort-on-the-Main has shown itself hitherto as an especially favorable field for these experiments. Still higher than these associations of handicrafts- men do the National Socialists esteem the value of the working- men's societies of consumers. In Germany these are still very young and not at all numerous. The cause of this lies in the fact that formerly Lassalle denounced the thoroughly middle-class associations of Schulze-Delitsch as not at all adapted to the needs of the workingmen. This view of Lassalle was maintained until lately by the workingmen, who were busy enough with trades unions and political affairs, and only recently have the consu- mers' societies, favored by the workingmen's party, grown apace among the workingmen themselves. The industrial kingdom of Saxony seems especially to be a fruitful soil for their growth. It is one of the chief efforts of the National Socialists to cultivate this movement by all available means, and thus to organize and assist the workingmen, not only as workingmen, but also as con- sumers. Here again England, with its powerful consumers' socie- ties, serves as an example for the National Socialists.
Most highly prized of all by the National Socialists are the peasants' associations, which have grown up everywhere in great numbers as agencies for the purchase of fodder, artificial fertil- izers, seeds, and agricultural implements and machines; for the marketing of draft oxen, animals for slaughter, horses, butter, milk, fruit, vegetables, seeds, and cereals ; for dairy, breeding, herd-book, and distillery purposes ; for drainage and irrigation, slaughtering and baking ; and for culture of fields and fruits. The National Socialists hope from their development an even
