fully examine into the question in order to ascertain whether there was any basis of fact for such assumption, and if the assumption was correct how long such new lease would last. Bernstein declines at the decisive moment to commit himself. True to his nihilistic-opportunistic instinct he leaves the question an open one, which does not, however, prevent him and his friends from holding language as if they had squarely met the issue and settled it.
A careful examination of the question will show, however, that, both as a matter of abstract reasoning and as a matter of concrete fact, Imperialism cannot save the capitalist system, although it undoubtedly may prolong its existence. If the Marxian analysis of the capitalist system of production is correct, and that system does suffer with the inherent malady of ever increasing overproduction because of the ever increasing diminution of the share of the workingman in the product of his labor, then it follows as a logical conclusion that the mere extension of that system to new fields cannot save it, for the system would then carry with it its fatal malady to these new fields. And it is to a mere extension of the capitalist system that Imperialism reduces itself in the last analysis. For it must be remembered that capitalism cannot open a new market for its products without making the new territory part of its own system of production. It is the curse of capitalism that by the very processes with which it creates its new customers for its goods it makes of them competitors in the business of producing these goods. Therein lies the difference between the old and the new forms of colonization. That is why colonial dependencies, colonial empires in the old sense of the word, are no longer possible, except as a temporary and passing stage. Of course while this stage lasts it is of some relief to the mother country suffering from being heavy with surplus-product. But the infant colonies grow very rapidly, and with the ripening age of capitalism the offspring develop marvelous pre-
