ultimate ownership, of the winners in the game whatever the losers manage to save from the wreckage, as well as the belongings of those who have managed to keep their wealth although they have lost their economic position. By reason of the concentration of capital, those capitalists who have saved part of their capital, and even those who have managed to keep their capital intact, are unable to maintain their independence and to continue in the economic process as independent operators. First, because by reason of the concentration of capital, that is to say, by reason of the fact that, owing to the introduction of improved machinery, a large outlay of capital is necessary in order to carry on production on the new basis, the capital which formerly enabled a capitalist to operate independently is now insufficient for that purpose. So that even the capitalist who still possesses the amount of capital which he formerly possessed is unable to continue as an independent capitalist. And secondly, even if the amount possessed by such capitalist should be sufficient for the technical needs of the production-process on the new basis, he would still be unable to maintain an independent existence for the reason that under the new circumstances, with the lower rate of profit which follows, his capital would not yield sufficient revenue to maintain him, and certainly not enough to permit him to further accumulate. This creates what might be called a "reserve" army of capitalists, or rather, half-way capitalists, whose capitals go to swell the funds of the real capitalists in time of the expansion of economic activity, and these latter get most of the benefit derived therefrom. These supernumerary capitalists also usually furnish the funds for all sorts of crazy speculative ventures, which in their turn also accelerate the centralization of capital. This "between the devil and the deep sea" class is receiving constant accretions from above owing to the constant squeezing-out process of the devil on top by the continued accumulation of capital, and its numbers are as constantly being depleted by its lower strata sinking into
