vidual profiteer exploits it to-day." Under competition the "profiteer" can only "exploit the community" by selling it something that it chooses to buy. How the consumers are to express their wishes under the Guild system is not clear. Presumably it would be by the votes of the majority—a cheerful prospect for those who like their clothes and boots comfortable rather than fashionable, and whose taste in other things happens to be eccentric.
It is on the subject of the wage system that Mr. Cole is most interesting and illuminating. He tells us (page 154) that "the wage system is the root of the whole tyranny of Capitalism; . . . there are four distinguishing marks of the wage system upon which National Guildsmen are accustomed to fix their attention. Let me set them out clearly in the simplest terms.
"1. The wage system abstracts 'labour' from the labourer, so that the one can be bought and sold without the other.
"2. Consequently, wages are paid to the wage-worker only when it is profitable to the capitalist to employ his labour.
"3. The wage-worker, in return for his wage, surrenders all control over the organization of production.
"4. The wage-worker in return for his wage
