The necessity for such transformation consists in the fact that this is the only way of making labour at once attractive and productive, for “the sense of property is still the strongest lever in civilised society.”[535] “The poor individual in Harmony who only possesses a portion of a share, say a twentieth, is a part proprietor of the whole concern. He can speak of _our_ land, _our_ palaces and castles, _our_ forests and factories, for all of them belong partly to him.”[536] “Hence the _rôle_ of capitalist and proprietor are synonymous in Harmony.”[537] The worker will draw his share of the profits not merely as a worker, but also as a capitalist who is a shareholder in the concern, and as a member of the directorate, in which every shareholder has a voice. The administration of the business will form a part of his responsibilities. It is just what we are accustomed to call co-partnership. He will, moreover, participate in the privileges and management of the Phalange as a member of a consumers’ association. All this seems very complicated, but it was a part of Fourier’s policy to transmute the divergent interests of capitalists, workers, and consumers by giving to each individual a share in these conflicting interests.[538] Under existing conditions they are in conflict with one another simply because they are focused in different individuals. Were they to be united in the same person the conflict would cease, or at any rate the battle-ground would be shifted to the conscience of each individual, where reconciliation would not be quite such a difficult matter. A programme which aims, not at the abolition of property, but at the extinction of the wage-earner by giving him the right of holding property on the joint-stock principle, which looks to succeed, not by advocating class war, but by fostering co-operation of capital with labour and managing ability, and attempts to reconcile the conflicting interests of capitalist and worker, of producer and consumer, debtor and creditor, by welding those interests together in one and the same person, is by no means commonplace. Such was the ideal of the French working classes until Marxian collectivism took its place, and it is quite possible that its deposition may be only temporary after all. The programme which the Radical Socialists swear allegiance to, and which they set against the purely socialistic programme, is the maintenance and extension of private property and the abolition of the wage-earner. By taking this attitude they are unconsciously following in the wake of Fourier.[539] 3. BACK TO THE LAND The title at the head of this section is to-day adopted as a motto by several social schools. It also figured in Fourier’s programme long ago. Fourier, however, employed the phrase in a double sense.