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and disagreeable labor will not be repeated by the new society, nor will it pay the highest wages to those whose task is the easiest and most agreeable. But, I would also like to point out to you that even under present circumstances the dangers and discomforts of most occupations might be prevented, or reduced to almost nothing by appropriate measures and an improved working apparatus. But that doesn't pay at present, and the bosses care not how many workers are crippled, or how many lives are destroyed; and for that reason they neglect to introduce measures of safety and comfort for the protection of their "hands." But in the future, when every worker is interested in his own and his fellow-workers' safety and happiness, such measures will be applied; and besides, for disagreeable and dangerous work the pay will not be only highest, but the time devoted to such work will be reduced considerably; I know very well that such a proposition will be ridiculed and laughed at. But that is immaterial. It is simply a just demand that the miner, who exposes his life when working thousands of feet below the surface of the earth, or of the carpenter and mason laboring hundreds of feet above, will be as well paid for a three or four hours' workday as the writer, the clerk, and book-keeper will for his pleasant and easy work in a comfortable and agreeable room for seven or eight hours' labor. The regulating of such and other exceptions upon the great field of social production will be done entirely according to the demand for these labors, and no one will have to complain of injustice in this respect.
Reporter: Very well. But don't you think that under such circumstances in a society where no one can become what is to-day called "rich" a state of general indifference will take place, when no one will have a special inducement to excel others? Will not ambition cease, and will not that be detrimental to society at large? Will there be anybody striving to make new discoveries and inventions, if it is not accompanied by personal gain and advancement?
Socialist: Your supposition is based upon the fallacious and barbarous view that it is "human nature" to seek nothing but to "make money." I say that such is not the case, It is
