FERDINAND  LASSALLE.

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back  does  not  exist  in  large  enterprises  operating  in  hundreds
of  thousands,  because  the  salaries  of  the  directors  form  only
a  small  fraction  of  the  total  transactions  ;  but  co-operative
societies,  founded  on  the  savings  of  working  men,  would  almost
always  be  very  small  undertakings.
These  objections,  inherent  to  the  co-operative  system,  were
clearly  pointed  out  even  by  its  partisans  at  the  debates  of  the
working  men’s  congress,  which  met  in  Paris  in  October,  1876  ;
at  the  same  time  a  remarkable  progress  in  the  economic
education  of  the  French  labouring  classes  was  put  beyond
a  doubt.  Thus  the  congress  at  once  admitted  the  payment
of  interest  and  even  a  dividend  upon  capital,  thus  abandoning
the  chimera,  so  long  cherished,  of  gratuitous  credit.  Citizen
Nicaise,  reporter  to  the  sixth  commission,  uttered  some  very
sensible  words  on  this  head  :  “  Cabet’s  maxim,  from  each
according  to  his  strength.,  to  each  according  to  his  needs,  does  not
suit  us  because  it  is  unjust  If  I  must  work,  I  who  am  sober
and  industrious,  for  him  whose  laziness  is  as  great  as  his
appetite  is  enormous,  I  should  be  tempted,  unless  I  were  a
saint,  to  conceal  my  power  of  working  in  order  to  satisfy  that
desire  of  better  living  which  is  inherent  in  human  nature.
Saint-Simon,  in  the  midst  of  errors  which  do  not  here  concern
Us,  enunciated  a  far  superior  principle  :  To  each  individual
according  to  his  capacity,  'to  each  capacity  according  to  its  works.
We  accept  this  rule.”  The  principle  upon  which  Louis  Blanc
wished  to  found  the  co-operative  factory  is  here  distinctly
repudiated,  while  the  efficacy  of  individual  interest  as  an  incentive ­
  to  action  is  placed  in  a  clear  light.  That  is  the
necessary  foundation  of  all  economic  work,  of  all  administration, ­
  and  of  all  political  organization.  Everywhere  human
affairs  will  be  well  or  ill  carried  on,  in  proportion  as  the
responsibility  of  each  is  well  or  ill  defined.  “  We  believe  that
we  shall  be  more  in  unison  with  the  general  opinion  of
working  men,”  continued  Citizen  Nicaise,  “in  founding  our
associations  upon  the  principle  of  paying  interest  and  even
dividends  upon  capital.  If  the  savings  of  the  working  men  do
not  find  an  advantageous  investment  in  the  associations,  they
will  continue  to  take  a  direction  more  to  their  interest,  and  the