process of Centralization of wealth accompanying the Concentration of capital, as Bernstein would have us believe, that there is apparently a wide diffusion of small incomes which are not the proceeds of wages. This phenomenon is due, first, to the fact that with the concentration of capital wage-slavery has been growing upwards, embracing constantly new occupations, such as by their character and remuneration were not properly within its domain on a lower rung of capitalistic evolution. This class has been particularly increased by the development of the corporation. And secondly, to the increase of the class of people, who, although not possessing any property, still manage to maintain themselves in real or apparent independence and without coming, formally at least, within the purview of wage-slavery.
This brings us to the question of the effect of the recent economic development on the character of the middle class. Before passing, however, to the examination of that question, we desire to note the fact that much of the talk and statistics about the supposed slowness of the process of the concentration of industrial undertakings is due to the merely apparent and formal independent existence of many undertakings and undertakers that are really mere dependent parts of a large, concentrated, industrial enterprise. And we also desire to mention here the fact that Heinrich Cunow, one of the ablest of the younger generation of socialist writers in Germany, has done splendid service in pointing this out.
But, one may ask, while it may be true that the processes which you have described show that not all the members of the present or former middle class can remain in their position of small capitalists, deriving their income from the possession of property, there still does remain this "new" middle class which is not reduced to the position of proletarians. This "new" middle class, while it possesses no property, or not sufficient property to count economically, is still a class distinct and apart from the proletariat, and if numerous enough is a force to be reckoned with. And as to
