3.—Organization of Labor.

In a number of other very essential points the socialistic co-operative system will differ from the bourgeois individualistic system. The cheap and poor goods that make up a large portion of bourgeois production, and necessarily must make up a large portion of it, because a majority of the customers can afford to purchase only cheap goods that wear out quickly, will be eliminated. Only the best will be produced that will last long and will not have to be renewed as often. The fads and follies of fashion that only favor extravagance and bad taste will disappear. Doubtless our wearing apparel will be better suited to its purpose and more tasty than to-day—for the fashions of the last century, especially those of the men, have been conspicuous by their bad taste—but new fashions will no longer be introduced every few months. The present follies of fashion are caused, on the one hand, by the competition of women among themselves, and on the other by conceit and ostentation and the desire to display one’s wealth. Moreover, a great many persons depend upon these follies of fashion to-day, and it is to their interest to encourage and stimulate them. Together with the follies of fashion in dress, the madness of fashion in the style of dwellings will disappear. Here eccentricity is rampant to-day. Styles that have required centuries to become evolved among various nations—we are no longer satisfied with European styles, but turn to those of the Japanese, Indians, Chinese, etc.—are used up in a few years and set aside. Persons engaged in mechanical arts hardly know what to do with all the designs and models. They have barely adapted themselves to one style, trusting to recover their expenses, when a new style appears that necessitates further sacrifices of time and money and of physical and mental forces. In this mad rushing from one fashion to another and from one style to another the nervousness of our age is vividly reflected. No one would claim that there is any sense or reason in this rush and haste, or that it might be regarded as a healthful state of society.

Socialism will give greater stability to the habits of life. It will make rest and enjoyment possible and will liberate us from the present haste and excitement. Nervousness, the scourge of our age, will disappear.

Work will be made as agreeable as possible. To accomplish this, the places where production is carried on will be furnished practically and tastily, every means will be resorted to that danger may be eliminated, and that evil smells, smoke, etc., and all unpleasant and harmful factors will be done away with. At first the new society will produce with the means of production taken over from the old society. But these are insufficient. The workshops are scattered and are not properly constructed or furnished, and tools and machinery do not come up to the demands of the great number of persons employed and their desire for safety and comfort. To create a great many large, light, airy, well-equipped workshops becomes an imminent necessity. The arts and crafts, genius and skill, are immediately given a vast realm of activity. All branches of machine manufacture and the manufacture of tools, the building trades and the trades of interior decoration find ample opportunity for occupation. Whatever the human mind is able to invent in the way of convenient and agreeable buildings, appropriate ventilation, lighting and heating, and technical and mechanical improvements, will be instituted. To save motor-power, light and heat, as well as time and labor, and to insure the comfort of the workers, it will become desirable to concentrate the workshops in definite places. The dwellings will be separated from the workshops and freed from the unpleasantness of industrial activity; and the unpleasantness will be diminished and finally abolished by all sorts of institutions and appliances. Even the present status of technical knowledge gives us sufficient means to deprive the dangerous occupations, like mining, the chemical trades, etc., of their dangers entirely. But these means are not applied in bourgeois society, because they entail a heavy expense and because no one is duty bound to do more for the protection of the workingman than is absolutely necessary. The dangers of mining, for instance, could be removed by working the mine in a different manner, by a thorough system of ventilation, by the installation of electric light, by a considerable shortening of the hours of work, and by a frequent change of shifts. It does not require special ingenuity to find safety appliances that will make accidents in the building trade next to impossible and to make this sort of work particularly agreeable. For instance, ample contrivances might be made to shield the workers at large buildings and at all out-of-door work from the sun and the rain. In socialistic society, which will control an abundance of labor power, it will also be a simple matter to have frequent relays of new workers and to concentrate certain tasks upon definite seasons or definite hours of the day.

The problem of abolishing dust, smoke, grime and unpleasant odors, can also be solved entirely even to-day by chemistry and mechanics. But it is not done, or insufficiently done, because the private employers do not care to meet the heavy expense. The future places of production, wherever they may be, below the earth or above, will differ most favorably from the present ones. In private industry improved appliances are mainly a question of money. If they pay they will be established. If they do not pay, the health and life of the workingman are of no concern.[216]

In socialistic society the question of profits will have ceased to exist. This society will recognize no other consideration but the welfare of its members. What is to their advantage must be established. What is likely to harm them must be refrained from. No one will be compelled to enter into dangerous undertakings. If tasks are undertaken that entail dangers one may be assured that there will be many volunteers, all the more so because the undertakings will not serve destruction but the advancement of civilization.