We have to ask, then, what is the equality which Proudhon desired? If he did not wish to place all on the same level as regards recompense, what did he wish? He tells us that “equality consists in the equality of conditions—that is, of means—not in the equality of well-being, which with equal means ought to be the work of the laborer.”[135] Was he not, then, a Saint-Simonian? did he not wish to proportion reward to services? He tells us distinctly, No.[136] He combats Saint-Simonism as unjust and impracticable. He also speaks of equality as the corner-stone of his system. The highest stage of society towards which we are moving he calls LIBERTY—that is, the synthesis of the thesis, community, and the antithesis, property—but “liberty is equality, because liberty exists only in the social state, and outside of equality there is no society.” And he again and again condemns inequality of wages and recompense in his new society. Some writers, dwelling merely upon his condemnation of community, have said that he was not in favor of equality. This is a mistake. But how are we to reconcile his statements? They are contradictories. Where is the synthesis? It is found in the fact that all will hereafter produce alike. When possession takes the place of property, each one will labor equally, and the products, being measured by labor-time, will be equal in value. Equality of conditions becomes absolute equality. “On the one hand, the task of each laborer being easy and short, and the means of performing it successfully being equal, how could there, then, be great and small producers? On the other hand, the functions all being equal, either by the real equivalence of talents and capacities or by social co-operation, how can a functionary, arguing from the excellence of his work, demand a proportional salary?” (_i.e._, a remuneration larger than the remuneration of others, in proportion to the superiority of his work). “But what do I say? In equality the salaries are always proportional to faculties. But what is the salary or remuneration received? It is that which composes the reproductive consumption of the laborer. The act itself by which the laborer produces is then this consumption, equal to his production. When the astronomer produces observations, the poet verses, the savant experiences, they consume instruments, books, travels, etc.; now, if society provides for this consumption, what other proportionality of honors can the astronomer, the savant, and the poet demand? Let us conclude, then, that in equality, and in equality alone, the adage of Saint-Simon, ‘To each one according to his capacity, to each capacity according to its works,’ finds its full and complete application.”[137]