+--------------------------+------+------------------------------------+ | | | Average membership per | | |House-| household. | |Classes. |holds,+---------+--------+--------+--------+ | |per |Males and|Full |Half- |Total | | |cent. |female. |workers.|workers.|workers.| +--------------------------+------+---------+--------+--------+--------+ | I. Agriculture yielding | | | | | | | net profit: | | | | | | | Trading farmers | 6 | 10.5 | 2.4 | 0.6 | 3.0 | | Farmers merely | 10 | 10.1 | 2.1 | 0.6 | 2.7 | | +------+---------+--------+--------+--------+ | All to the class | 16 | 10.2 | 2.2 | 0.6 | 2.8 | | II. Agriculture leaving a| | | | | | | deficit: | | | | | | | A. Farmers merely | 20 | 6 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 1.6 | | B. Farmers--laborers| 50 | 7.9 | 1.9 | 0.4 | 2.3 | | +------+---------+--------+--------+--------+ | All to the class | 70 | 7.4 | 1.7 | 0.4 | 2.1 | |III. Proletarians: | | | | | | | Employing labor | 9 | | | | | | Proletarians proper | 5 | | | | | | +------+---------+--------+--------+--------+ | All to the class | 14 | 3.8 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 1.1 | +--------------------------+------+---------+--------+--------+--------+ We find a clue to the coming development of the village in the fact that the main classes within the peasantry correspond to the age of the householders. It is but the minority of old-fashioned compound families that have stood their ground as virtual farmers; the middle economic group of the village, is formed by “the middlers” _i. e._ the householders of middle age, who count in their families half-workers or one adult worker besides themselves. The proletarians are recruited from among the youngest generations, who consist of husband and wife with their little children. Here we have the economic basis of the “struggle of generations” in the village, a topic which was very much discussed in Russian literature. The elders, the “middlers” and the young, represent the farmer of the old stamp and strong make, the modern peasant,--half farmer, half laborer at once,--and the proletarian, with their variance of views, which mirrors their diverse and antagonistic economic interests.[137] CHAPTER XI. INDIVIDUAL OWNERSHIP AND AGRARIAN COMMUNISM.