The _Communist Manifesto_ called the birth-cry of modern Socialism--Conditions in 1848 when it was issued--Communism of the working class--Weitling and Cabet--Marx's parents become Christians--Marx and Engels--Religious spirit of Marx--Note upon the confusion of Marx with Wilhelm Marr--The _Manifesto_ as the first declaration of a working-class movement--Literary merit of the _Manifesto_--Its fundamental proposition stated by Engels--Socialism becomes scientific--The authorship of the _Manifesto_--Engels' testimony 53 CHAPTER IV THE MATERIALISTIC CONCEPTION OF HISTORY Socialism a theory of social evolution--Not economic fatalism--Leibnitz and the savage--Ideas and progress--Value of the materialistic conception of history--Foreshadowings of the theory--What is meant by the term "materialistic conception"--Results of overemphasis: Engels' testimony--Application of the theory to religion--Influence of social conditions upon religious forms--The doctrine of "free will"--Darwin and Marx--Application of the theory, specific and general--Columbus and the discovery of America--General view of historical progress--Antiquity of communism--Cooeperation and competition--Slavery--Serfdom--Class struggles--The rise of capitalism and the wage system 75 CHAPTER V CAPITALISM AND THE LAW OF CONCENTRATION A new form of class division arises in the first stage of capitalism--The second stage of capitalism begins with the great mechanical inventions--The development of foreign and colonial trade--Theoretic individualism and practical collectivism--The law of capitalist concentration formulated by Marx--Competition, monopoly, socialization--Trustification, interindustrial and international--Criticisms of the Marxian theory--Engels on the attempts to make a "rigid orthodoxy" of the Marx theory--The small producers and traders--Concentration in production--Failure of the bonanza farms and persistence of the small farms--Other forms of agricultural concentration--Farm ownership and farm mortgages--The factory and the farm--The concentration of wealth--European and American statistics--Concentration of the control of wealth independent of actual ownership--Growth of immense fortunes--General summary 113 CHAPTER VI THE CLASS STRUGGLE THEORY