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theless may (1) yield usually under capitalist rule not only a scanty provision for the family and the needs of the farming, but also a possibility to get a certain surplus which, at least in the best years, could be transformed into capital; and (2) need to employ (for instance in a family of two or three members) wage labour. As a concrete example of the middle peasantry in an advanced capitalist country we may take in Germany, according to the registration of 1907, a group with farms tilling from five to ten acres and in which farms the number of hired agricultural labourers makes about a third of the whole number of farms in this group[1]. In France, the country of a greater development of special cultures, for instance the vine yards, requiring special treatment and care, the corresponding group employs wage labour probably in a somewhat larger proportion.
The revolutionary proletariat cannot make it its object, at least for the nearest future, and for the beginning of the period of the proletarian dictatorship, to win this class over to its side. It will be sufficient to neutralise it—to make it take a neutral position in the struggle
- ↑ These are the exact figures: number of farms from 5 to 10 acres 652,798 (out of 5,736,082); they have all sorts of hired workers, 487,704—the number of workers with their families (Familienangehörige) being 2,013,633. In Austria, according to the registration of 1910 there were 383,351 farms In this group, 126,136 of them employing hired labour; 146,044 hired workers, 1,215,969 workers with their families. The total number of farms in Austria amounts to 2,856,349.
