of his statistical method becomes apparent. Aside from the fact that there is no standard by which you can measure the different grades or divisions of incomes as high, middle or low, and any such division must, therefore, necessarily be arbitrary, and aside from the fact that such standard must vary, not only from country to country, but even between places in one country and even in close proximity with each other, and (and that is of paramount importance) from time to time, there is the cardinal defect that income, as such, is no index whatever to either social or economic position. A man's income does not, necessarily, place him in any social position, and need not, necessarily, be the result of a certain economic condition, except under certain exceptional circumstances when, as Marx would put it, quantity passes into quality. The mere statement of a man's income does not, therefore, give his social position or economic condition, unless it be first proven that certain incomes can only be derived in a certain way, or from certain sources. Bernstein glides over carelessly from incomes to property, assuming that the derivation of a certain income implies the possession of a certain amount of property. But this nonchalance is due to an absolute lack of understanding of the real questions at issue. As a matter of fact, a given amount of income does not always, nor even in the majority of cases, indicate the possession of a given amount of property. A farmer, a manufacturer, a grocer, a teacher, an army officer and a mechanical engineer, may all have the same income, and yet their social position, their economic condition, and the amount of property which each possesses may be entirely and radically different. The question is, or should be, not what is a man's income, but what does he derive it from? And, under what conditions, and in what manner does he do it. And this does not mean merely that the inquiry should be directed to the amount of property he possesses, or whether he possesses any at all, but also, if he does possess property, to the question of what it consists of and how it is employed in order to yield the income. The importance
