First come technical tools, machines. Here again applies the law that struggle leads to perfection. The machine that is more improved outstrips the less improved, the machines that cannot perform much, and the simple tools are exterminated and machine technique develops with gigantic strides to ever greater productivity. This is the real application of Darwinism to human society. The particular thing about it is that under capitalism there is private property, and behind every machine there is a man. Behind the gigantic machine there is a big capitalist and behind the small machine there is a small capitalist. With the defeat of the small machine, the small capitalist, as capitalist, perishes with all his hopes and happiness.

At the same time the struggle is a race of capital. Large capital is better equipped; large capital is getting ever larger. This concentration of capital undermines capital itself, for it diminishes the bourgeoisie whose interest it is to maintain capitalism, and it increases that mass which seeks to abolish it. In this development, one of the characteristics of capitalism is gradually abolished. In the world where each struggles against all and all against each, a new association develops among the working class, the class organization. The working class organizations start with ending the competition existing between workers and combine their separate powers into one great power in their struggle with the outside world. Everything that applies to social groups also applies to this class organization, brought about by natural conditions. In the ranks of this class organization, social motives, moral feelings, self-sacrifice and devotion for the entire body develop in a most splendid way. This solid organization gives to the working class that great strength which it needs in order to conquer the capitalist class. The class struggle which is not a struggle with tools but for the possession of tools, a struggle for the right to direct industry, will be determined by the strength of the class organization.

Let us now look at the future system of production as carried on under Socialism. The struggle leading to the perfection of the tools does not cease. As before under capitalism, the inferior machine will be outdistanced and brushed aside by the one that is superior. As before, this process will lead to greater productivity of labor. But private property having been abolished, there will no longer be a man behind each machine calling it his own and sharing its fate. Machines will be common property, and the displacement of the less developed by the better developed machinery will be carried out upon careful consideration.

With the abolition of classes the entire civilized world will become one great productive community. Within this community mutual struggle among members will cease and will be carried on with the outside world. It will no longer be a struggle against our own kind, but a struggle for subsistence, a struggle against nature. But owing to development of technique and science, this can hardly be called a struggle. Nature is subject to man and with very little exertion from his side she supplies him with abundance. Here a new career opens for man: man’s rising from the animal world and carrying on his struggle for existence by the use of tools, ceases, and a new chapter of human history begins.

Library of Science for the Workers

To understand modern Socialism, you must understand Evolution. Socialists predict the speedy end of the capitalist system as a result of irresistible NATURAL LAWS, the workings of which have been studied for two generations since their discovery. Most of the books in which these laws are explained are too difficult to read and too expensive to buy, except for the leisure class. The ten books here described will give you a clear understanding of the great process in which Socialism is the next step.

  1. The Evolution of Man. By Wilhelm Boelsche. Contains absolute proof of the truth of Darwin’s theory of the descent of man. Illustrated.
  2. The Triumph of Life. By Wilhelm Boelsche. Describes the resistless triumph of the Life Force over all obstacles. Illustrated.
  3. Life and Death. By Dr. E. Teichmann. A study in biology, explaining how and why life began and how the life of each individual ends.
  4. The End of the World. By Dr. M. Wilhelm Meyer. A study of the natural forces that will some time destroy all life on earth. Illustrated.
  5. The Amazons. By Emanuel Kanter. An excellent analytical study of the phenomenon of ancient fighting women, the Amazons, from the standpoint of dialectical materialism.
  6. Germs of Mind in Plants. By R. H. France. A remarkable work proving that “mind” is not limited to man or even to animals, but is found in plants also. Illustrated.
  7. The Struggle Between Science and Superstition. By Arthur M. Lewis. This book deals with what is on the whole the most interesting and dramatic element in social development. Side by side with the struggle between social classes, there is waged a bitter conflict between ancient ignorance and new knowledge. The new knowledge is the natural ally of the essential social class—the proletariat.
  8. Science and Revolution. By Ernest Untermann. A history of the growth of the Evolution theory, showing how at every step it was fought by the ruling classes and welcomed by the workers.
  9. Social and Philosophical Studies. By Paul Lafargue. The causes of belief in God and the origin of abstract ideas explained in a brilliant and convincing way.
  10. Evolution, Social and Organic. By Arthur M. Lewis. A volume of popular lectures in which the relation of the evolution theory to Socialism is fully explained.

These ten volumes are handsomely bound in cloth, in volumes of uniform size. Price, 60c each postpaid.

CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
341–349 East Ohio Street, Chicago