the method of land tenure. Many of the serfs became peasant proprietors, while others were transformed into mere farm laborers, or drifted into the factory towns. The handicraftsmen thronged the factories and under the new "divine" (?) right of contract, sold their labor-power at whatever price the Capitalists chose to pay for it. Property in the lands and tools of production still continued. The Wages System was, in essence, another form of servitude, and fiercely aggravated by the fact that the payment of the stipulated wage cancelled all the obligations between the man and his master. The freedom so loudly proclaimed was, for the workers merely a freedom to change from a bad master to a worse one, or at the worst to starve. Realization of PROFITS was the sole consideration for continuing production. When profits ceased, industry ceased, or the scale of wages went down until there was a sufficient margin of surplus value to induce the proprietor to again open the factory doors.
Slave, Serf and Laborer
The Chattel Slave and Feudal Serf were, economically, more secure than the Wage Earner. They were never denied the privilege of producing for use. The more they labored, the more powerful and luxurious their masters became. But the Wage Slave may be denied the right to produce. He may be excluded from the lands, tools and machinery of production; and the more productive he is, the more likely is this fate to overtake him: for now he produces to sell, and if production passes the purchasing power of society, production must cease until the relative positions of the supply and demand may be naturally reversed and purchasing begin again. In fact it may even occur that the master class is forced to feed, clothe and shelter a portion of the workers in order to help reduce the surplus and tide over the workers to such time as production for sale can be profitably resumed.
