Let us suppose that we were running all our industries under just such a collective form of government as the Socialists propose to establish, and that, as a result, we were bound to see that every worker got the $5,000 a year he has been promised. Do you see what that would mean? Figure it out for yourself--multiply the 7,405,513 workers in the industrial plants by the $5,000 that each would have to be paid, and then remember that the seven millions of workers represent only a small proportion of the workers to whom this sum of money must be given by the Co-operative Commonwealth. Even counting the seven millions alone, we have a total of $37,027,505,000--almost twice as much as the “gross value” of all manufactured products in this country to-day. It is true that we do not know just how many men, women and children of working age there are who would have to be given a place in the collective pay-roll. In view of the total population of the United States, I do not think that any Socialist will accuse me of overstating the case if I assert that there would be 30,000,000 people to be provided for. What would this mean? Merely an annual pay-roll of $150,000,000,000--that’s all. Easy, isn’t it! At present, we manufacture less than $21,000,000,000 worth of goods--the consumable wealth produced in the United States is estimated by Socialists to be but $30,000,000,000 (_Appeal to Reason_, October 5, 1912); yet they ask us to get busy and undertake to meet a pay-roll that is at least fully five times greater than the total product to-day. And, if you want to be as conservative as the most conservative Socialist statistician who is dreaming these dreams, and allow that labor under Socialism will be rewarded with a meagre $2,000 a year, you will still have a pay-roll of $60,000,000,000 to provide for, or twice as much as we make. How are you going to meet it? As a practical man, John, I ask you: _How?_ Certainly not from the $21,000,000,000 produced each year in manufactures. If we add to this the total wealth represented by the agricultural, mining and fishing interests of this country, we shall still fall far short of the sum we require. How is it to be done? Absurd as all these promises are, we have not yet reached the limit--far from it! For example, we are told that in the Co-operative Commonwealth we shall have to work only half as long as we do now. In other words, the man who works eight hours a day now, will get along swimmingly by working four hours, and still receive the income promised--from $2,000 to $5,000 a year--for his effort. Are we to understand from this that, though the worker, with the best machinery and the most scientific management now possible, succeeds only in turning out less than $900 worth of goods in a year, he will be able, under collective management, to turn out from two and one-half to five times as great a product, while working just half as many hours?