comprising these two classes would steadily draw apart into two great
armies which were destined to battle to the death. Socialism denies
that employers and laborers have anything in common, and insists that
between these two groups a struggle must go on until the employing
class is abolished.

129. WHAT IS THE ULTIMATE AIM OF SOCIALISM?--Nothing could here be
more important than to know the ultimate aim of socialism,
nevertheless, there is among socialists no agreement as to the
framework of the system which they expect to substitute for
capitalism. All socialists desire collective ownership and direction
of the instruments of production, but beyond this there is practically
nothing in the way of a constructive socialist program. Generally, it
is declared that when capitalism has been abolished, the working
classes will organize industry on the basis of communal ownership. In
the socialist commonwealth there is to be no class struggle, for the
reason that there are to be no classes. There is to be a just
distribution of wealth, together with an abolition of poverty,
unemployment, and all forms of social injustice. But as to how this is
to be accomplished we have no proof. The so-called constructive
program of socialism is not so much a definite agreement as to aims
and methods, as it is a confused and disordered expression of the
attitude of different socialist groups toward capitalism. Indeed, when
socialists are asked to advance a concrete and definitely constructive
program, the reply is often made that the advent of socialism is so
far distant that the constructive side of its program is of no
immediate consequence.

130. NEGATIVE CHARACTER OF SOCIALISM.--But although the constructive
program of socialism is vague and unreal, its destructive or negative