as a panacea by the fools and charlatans of reformism. As a matter of fact the disjointed violent intrusion of the State vies with speculation in increasing the chaos in the system of capitalist production during the period of capitalist decay. To transfer the principal branches of production and transport from the hands of individual trusts into the hands of the "nation", i. e., into the hands of the bourgeois State, the most powerful and greedy capitalist trust, signifies not the abolition of the evil but its unification.
The fall of prices and the rise of the rate of exchange is but a superficial and temporary state of things caused by the continuing disorganization. The fluctuation of prices does not affect the principal facts, namely the shortage of raw material and the fall of productivity. Having passed through a period of extreme tension due to the war, the working masses are incapable of working at the former rate and under pre-war conditions. The destruction within a few hours of values which it had taken years to create, the rabid, stupendous gambling of the financial clique, ever rising on the heaped bones and ruins caused by the war,—these object lessons of History are hardly helpful in maintaining an automatic discipline in the wage slavery of the working classes.
Bourgeois economic writers and publicists speak of a "wave of idleness" which is sweeping over Europe, undermining its economic future. The employers are endeavoring to mend matters by granting privileges to the upper strata of the working classes. But that is in vain! In order to revive and to increase the productivity of labor it is indispensable that the worker be fully guaranteed that every blow of the hammer will tend to increase his own welfare and enlightenment, without subjecting him to the danger of extermination. Only a Social Revolution is able to inspire him with this confidence.
The increase of the cost of living is a powerful factor of revolutionary agitation in all countries. The bourgeoisie of France, Italy and Germany and other States is endeavoring to ameliorate by charity the destitution caused by the high prices and to retard the growth of the strike movement. To recompense the agricultural class for a part of its expenditure of labor power the State, steeped in debt, indulges in dishonest speculation and the embezzlement of its own funds, making every effort to delay the hour of settlement. Even if there is a certain category of workers whose standard of life is somewhat higher than it was prior to the war this fact has no real relation to the actual economic position of the capitalist countries. True enough some ephemeral results are often obtained today by cheating out the morrow, but there is little doubt that this will lead to catastrophic destitution and poverty.
And the United States? "America is the hope of humanity"
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