[Footnote 203-4: _Les supériorités, qui ne sont dues qu'à, un usage plus intelligent et mieux réglé de nos facultés naturelles, loin d'être un mal, sont un véritable bien. C'est dans la plus grande prospérité, qui accompagne un plus grand et plus heureux effort, qu'est le principe de tout développement._ (_Dunoyer_, Liberté du Travail, IV, 9, 10.) But, indeed, the rich man should never forget that society "inasmuch as it permits the concentration of wealth in his hands, expects that he will employ it to better advantage than the mass of mankind would if that same wealth were equally divided among them." (_Brentano._)] SECTION CCIV. DISTRIBUTION OF NATIONAL INCOME.--MONEYED ARISTOCRACIES AND PAUPERISM. The extreme opposite of this, when the middle class disappears and the whole nation falls into a few over-rich men and numberless proletarians, we call the oligarchy of money, with pauperism as the reverse of the medal. Such a social condition has all the hardship of an aristocracy without its palliatives. As it is, as a rule, the offspring of a degenerated democracy,[204-1] it cannot in form depart too widely from the principle of equality. Only get rich, they cry to the famishing poor; the law puts no obstacle in your way, and you shall immediately share our position.[204-2] Here the uniformity and centralization of the state, which are an abomination in the eyes of genuine aristocracy, are carried to the extreme. Capital takes the place of men, and is valued more than men. All life is made to depend on the state, that its masters, the great money-men, may control it as they will. The falling away of all restrictions on trade, and of all uncommercial considerations relating to persons and circumstances, gives full play to capital, and speculators seek to win all that can be won. And, indeed, all colossal fortunes are generally made at the expense of others, either with the assistance of the state-power or by speculation in the fluctuations of values.[204-3] The dependence of proletarians on others is here all the greater, because from a complete absence of capital and land, so far as they are concerned, they are compelled, uninterruptedly, to carry their entire labor-force to market; and also because the supply of labor is made in masses embracing a large number of individuals, while the demand for labor lies in the hands of very few, and may be very readily and systematically concentrated.[204-4] So great and one-sided a dependence is, for men too far removed from one another for real mutual love, doubtless one of the greatest of moral temptations. It is as easy a matter for the hopelessly poor to hate the law, as it is for the over-rich to despise it.[204-5] Under such circumstances, the contagious power of communism, the dangers of which to order and freedom we have treated of in § So, is great. There is a dreadful lesson in the