further and say that, in a sense, Marx was one of the most idealistic of philosophers. And the sense in which we mean this is in relation to this very question of the influence of ideas. Marx believed in the reality of ideas, both as to origin and influence. There were philosophers who, like Hegel, did not believe in the reality of our material world. They believed that the only real world was the world of ideas, and that the material world was only a manifestation of the development of the absolute idea which developed according to laws of development contained within itself. To such philosophers there could, of course, be no question of the influence of ideas on the course of history. To them there was nothing real in the whole course of history except this development of the idea. These philosophers are, of course, the real idealists (and, incidentally, more deterministic than Marx). But of those philosophers who believe in the materiality of the material world, Marx is easily foremost in the reality which he ascribes to ideas. According to Marx, ideas are firmly rooted in reality and are therefore of abiding influence while they last, and not easily susceptible of change. In this he radically differs from whose to whom ideas have a mere aërial existence, coming from the land of nowhere, without any particular reason in our historic existence and, therefore, vanishing without regard to our social environment, its needs or tribulations. This Marxian esteem of ideas must always be borne in mind when discussing the influence of the human being as a factor in the making of his own history. Let us, therefore, keep it in mind in the following discussion.
What are the characteristics of the socialist system of society in which it differs chiefly from our present capitalist system? First, the social ownership of the means of production—the absence of private property in them. Secondly, the carrying on of all industry on a co-operative basis—the absence of industrial individual enterprise. Thirdly, the management of all industrial enterprise democratically—all "captains" of industry and all other industrial dig-
