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the capitalist as a class and the worker as a class, which is the very essence of the capitalist form of production, is built the whole superstructure of capitalist jurisprudence, capitalist laws of property, capitalist ethics, in a word, the whole of capitalist ideology. And whatever real reforms may be brought in, the exploitation of the workers will continue, and the morals of capitalists will be the generally accepted morals of society, so long as the capitalist form of production endures. Only with the "expropriation of the expropriators" and the substitution of production for use instead of for profit will the workers, the vast majority of the nation be rescued from exploitation and really become free men in body and in mind.
THE MATERIALIST CONCEPTION OF HISTORY.
We cannot go more fully into this subject here, but before leaving Marx's theoretical system we desire to say a few words on the Materialist Conception of History. For of all the theories ever promulgated, this has been the most popularly misunderstood, and it is of the very essence of the Marxian teaching.
Of course it goes without saying that we do not mean by this conception that the individual of any given epoch is actuated by his own material gain to act as he does. On the contrary, the materialist is the first to recognise the enthusiasm, ideals and aspirations of individuals. The philosophic materialists, those who accept Marx's materialist conception of history most completely are the very individuals who are most ready to sacrifice, and have sacrificed, their own material advantages for the sake of their ideals, witness as only one example the numberless Marxian socialists in Russia who have given up and are daily prepared to give up their all, including their life, for the cause dearest to their hearts, the social revolution. What distinguishes the materialist is not that he is a man without ideals, and denies the possession of these to other men, but that he probes deeper into the reality of things and inquires whence come these ideals and enthusiasm—why these particular ideals and morals and thoughts at this particular epoch.
