202 
THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. 
changed for the labour-notes and the labour-notes for them. 
This mechanism of exchange is ingenious. The larger co-opera 
tive stores in London give some idea of it, though they do not 
form an integral part of Collectivism. A more accurate con 
ception of the system would be gained by supposing that the 
“ Equitable Pioneers of Rochdale ” had been so successful that 
everything had passed into their hands—lands, houses, shops, 
factories, and working establishments of all kinds—and that all 
other districts had followed the example of Rochdale. 
Collectivism does not involve the complete abolition of 
hereditary succession ; but as all immovable property would 
belong to either State, Communes, or Corporations, and as every 
man would be obliged to live henceforth by the trade he 
exercised or by the function he fulfilled, it would follow that 
the power of accumulation would be very much reduced, and 
that the right of inheritance would be limited to movables. 
Dr. Schæffle seems almost to believe that such an ideal 
might be realized in the future ; at any rate, he points out clearly 
the condition of ultimate success. No Socialist reform, he says, 
can succeed which ignores the psychological fact on which the 
individualistic system at present rests, namely, that private 
interest is the great incentive to production. It is not by formal 
rules, nor by appeals to sentiments of duty and honour, that we 
can secure the care and zeal necessary for producing as much 
as possible at the lowest cost, without waste of time or material. 
The main difficulty lies in the efficient management of large 
industrial enterprises. It is through the want of good manage 
ment that so many co-operative societies have failed. Collec 
tivism assumes that bodies of working men are capable of 
carrying on collective industries with as much success as enter 
prises based on private property. Once they have given proof 
of this, the triumph of the new organization will only be a ques 
tion of time ; but so long as the labouring classes do not show 
themselves capable of doing without the guidance of masters, 
all attempts at hastening, by revolutionary means, the advent 
of the new order of things will only end in lamentable failure. 
Collectivism, also called by its advocates Communisme liber 
taire, has become the watchword of revolutionary Socialism