Page:Karl Kautsky - The Social Revolution - tr. Wood Simons (1902.djvu/170

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
164
THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION.
Number of Factories
With
1 to 5 6 to 50 No. of
Workers. Workers. Motors.
Spinners (materials not given) 275 3 2
Weavers (materials not given) 608 6 5
Rubber toys 4
Barbers, hairdressers, wig-makers 60,035 470 6
Cleaners of clothes and bootblacks 744 4 7
Chimneysweeps 3,860 26
Sculptors and painters 5,630 84 2

If we exclude painters, barbers, chimneysweeps, violin makers and, according to my opinion, also scavengers and bootblacks, this reduces the field of existing small businesses, in industries which are outside the field of competition of great industries, to practically nil.

Nevertheless it may be granted that the small industry will have a definite position in the future in many branches of industry that produce directly for human consumption, for the machines manufacture essentially only products in bulk, while many purchasers desire that their personal taste shall be considered. It is easily possible that even under a proletarian regime the number of small businesses may increase as the well being of the masses increases. The demand for products of hand labor as a result