— 36 —
stances have to belong to the whole people, to the commonwealth, and not to any individual, or corporation of individuals?
Socialist: They would belong to the people.
Reporter: I can also imagine how everything might be produced according to a rationally prepared plan. I can also see how a number of experts, elected for that purpose in an honest manner by the people, might agree, after having gathered the necessary statistics, upon the amount of commodities to be produced for the use of the whole people; and I also think that honest experts, in whom the people can trust, would manage things better than the present politicians, who are not experts and who have to be dishonest under the present system, while the experts of the future could be easily controlled by the people who know what they want and how things must be done, and who will neither have an opportunity, nor any desire to be dishonest, because dishonesty lacks its motive when property is held in common . . . . But why is it, that you are smiling Mr. Socialist?
Socialist: I am smiling, Sir, because I am glad to see that you have made good progress in reasoning during the time of our conversation. From being a man who believed that the Socialists wanted to smash all machinery, you have become a zealous and able defender of our ideas.
Reporter: Not yet. I have yet some grave objections in store for you. But, indeed, I admit that I think the question is well worth discussing. As I say, I can imagine how production might be remodeled according to your plan, and that thus great advantages would be gained for society; but, I don't believe that such a mode of production would result beneficially to the individual worker. I think that there would be a lack of discipline, and that laziness would prevail to a great extent among people who are not under the orders of a boss in whose interest it is to make the workers exert themselves to their utmost capacity.
Socialist: You misjudge humanity. To the contrary, people would be more industrious and more willing to work than they are to-day. As long as the present system prevails, the work-
