For they would secure industrial obedience by coercion, • 166 not through the worker’s desire to earn his living. And this is the essence of slavery • 166 Next let us consider the means by which the great directors of industry compete against one another • 167 Under capitalism they do so, owing to the fact that the man who cannot direct industry so as to please the public loses his capital, and with it the means of direction • 167 The wage-system is the only efficient means of competition of this kind • 168 The socialists, though they affect to be opposed to competition altogether, • 168 re-introduce it into their own system, • 170 the only change being that it is associated with the slave-system, which is very cumbrous and inefficient • 170 Competition between employers, then, is a part of every system that permits of progress; • 172 and since the re-introduction of slavery is practically impossible, we must regard the wage-system as a permanent feature of progressive societies • 172 We might reduce society to ashes, but this system and capitalistic competition would arise out of them; • 173 for capitalistic competition means the domination of the fittest great men • 174 The industrial obedience of the many to the few is the fundamental condition of progress • 174 CHAPTER IV THE MEANS BY WHICH THE GREAT MAN ACQUIRES POWER IN POLITICS In discussing the means by which the great man wields power in politics, the debatable question differs from the question raised by his power in industry; • 176 for the points that are debated in the case of the great wealth-producer are admitted by all in the case of the governor • 176 The greatest democrat admits that the governor must be an exceptional man, • 177 and also that he must be chosen by elective competition • 177 There is a competitive element even in autocracies, • 178 and democracies are essentially competitive • 178 All parties also agree that laws must be enforced by pains and penalties • 179 Democrats are peculiar only in their theory that the sole greatness required in their governors is a perceptive and executive greatness, which will enable them to carry out the spontaneous wishes of the many • 179 This is the only point in which the democratic theory differs from the aristocratic • 180 The democratic ruler is, theoretically, a balance for weighing the wills of the many, • 181 or a machine for executing their “mandates”; • 182 and there are signs which might suggest that the few in politics are really becoming the mere instruments of the many • 182 But these signs are deceptive; for what seems the will of the many, really depends on the action of another minority • 183 Opinions, to derive power from the numbers who hold them, must be identical; • 184 but they seldom are identical till a few men have manipulated them • 184 Thus what seems to be the opinion of the many is generally dependent on the influence of a few • 185