pamphlet. This enthusiasm over ourselves is often repeated to such
a degree that none of us can sufficiently rejoice over ourselves,
that we are seriously convinced that art and science have never made
such progress as in our own time. And, as we are indebted for all
this marvellous progress to the division of labor, why not
acknowledge it?

Let us admit that the progress made in our day is noteworthy,
marvellous, unusual; let us admit that we are fortunate mortals to
live in such a remarkable epoch: but let us endeavor to appraise
this progress, not on the basis of our self-satisfaction, but of
that principle which defends itself with this progress,--the
division of labor. All this progress is very amazing; but by a
peculiarly unlucky chance, admitted even by the men of science, this
progress has not so far improved, but it has rather rendered worse,
the position of the majority, that is to say, of the workingman.

If the workingman can travel on the railway, instead of walking,
still that same railway has burned down his forest, has carried off
his grain under his very nose, and has brought his condition very
near to slavery--to the capitalist. If, thanks to steam-engines and
machines, the workingman can purchase inferior calico at a cheap
rate, on the other hand these engines and machines have deprived him
of work at home, and have brought him into a state of abject slavery
to the manufacturer. If there are telephones and telescopes, poems,
romances, theatres, ballets, symphonies, operas, picture-galleries,
and so forth, on the other hand the life of the workingman has not
been bettered by all this; for all of them, by the same unlucky
chance, are inaccessible to him.