It is supposed that there would be no financial panics, with their terrible consequences, in the socialistic state. Indeed, if the socialistic ideas could be carried out, panics would be impossible. Every new invention, every advance, would accrue to the benefit of all. The greater the product, the greater the value of each day’s labor; and each one would receive the full product of his labor, as no capitalist would retain a part. Capital exists and increases, but always remains common property. All could live better; since many fold as much would be produced as now. At present the chief difficulty appears to be to avoid over-production. Government appoints a committee in Prussia to inquire into the cause of the late depression, and they report over-production; in England, committees also investigate and report likewise; in America, business companies and factory owners explain their distress by over-production, and are obliged to enter into mutual agreements to produce less. In the socialistic state over-production is an impossibility. The great waste of competition, furthermore, would cease with the competition itself. Two railroads would not be built to perform the service which one could render as well, nor would six dry-goods shops exist in a town where two would be amply sufficient. This saving of capital, labor, energy, and talent would benefit all alike. Strikes, then unheard-of save as a reminiscence of the past, would no longer be a considerable element in the cost of production. Business failures would cease to impoverish the widow and the orphan. It is impossible at present to enter into a criticism of social democracy and attempt to separate the true from the false. The comparison, however, which social democrats make between the future organization of society and that of the army is suggestive. It might be that we could afford to put up with what that implies, if we attained thereby all that is hoped; still it is terrible to think of army discipline extending itself over society in all its ramifications. To many—to the majority—the restraint would be a very great evil. Then it must be remembered that army discipline is maintained at the cost of no inconsiderable amount of actual, positive suffering. As Roscher pointedly remarks, there are thirty offences punishable with death according to the military penal code. I have thus presented, in their most favorable aspect, the doctrines of social democrats, apart from the agitators who now preach them. The next chapter will afford an opportunity to judge whether or not the social democratic leaders of the present are men of such a character that it would be wise to give them despotic power over one’s life and actions.