“We pledge ourselves to keep his name and his works ever in remembrance, and to do our utmost for the dissemination of the ideas given by him to the world. “We promise, in honor of the memory of our great departed, to dedicate our lives to the cause of which he was a pioneer—the struggle in which he left so noble a record—and never, at any moment, to forget his great appeal, ‘Workmen of the world, unite!’” Similar resolutions were adopted at the other meetings, in Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, etc. Marx’s followers boast particularly of two discoveries which he made—viz., the correct theory of the development of history and his doctrine of value. While it is not true that these were, by any means, entirely original with him, no one would dispute that his presentation is worked out in an original and remarkable manner. His theory of history is that it is a development, and is shaped at each period by the economic life of the people, by the manner in which goods are produced and distributed. He takes, as his starting-point, the fact that men must eat, drink, wear clothes, and find shelter from rain, snow, and cold. Art, religion, and science come after the satisfaction of these elementary wants. The production of wealth by slaves gave form to the history of the classical world, while that of the Middle Ages is dominated by serfdom and its accessories. The governing idea of the present age is capitalistic production—that is to say, concentration of large masses in factories, running a race with immense machines, and systematically robbed by their employers. When we take the view that history is a growth governed by the necessities of production, past ages do not seem so inhuman as they otherwise do. It has hitherto been necessary that the vast majority should toil incessantly, while only few devoted themselves to the pursuit of the higher goods. The processes of production were so primitive and imperfect that it was physically impossible for the many to enjoy leisure for cultivating their minds and bodies. Hence it was that the ancients regarded slavery as necessary and natural. Plato and Aristotle both considered it a law of nature, just the same as it has hitherto been supposed that private property in land and capital was a law of nature; whereas, as already shown by Rodbertus, they are all only institutions of positive and changeable law. Private property in the instruments of production can be abolished, as private property in human beings has been. This abolition could not, however, take place until society had made such advance in the art of producing goods that all requisites for human existence and progress could be produced without requiring the unceasing toil of the vast majority. That time has come. It is now easy to produce all the requirements of civilization and at the same time to leave leisure to each one to make the most of himself. Aristotle, in defending slavery, uttered words which