he rapidly altering styles of woman's
dress. One season silk stockings and low-cut waists are worn in the
middle of winter: the next, expensive furs appear in mid-summer. With
little reference to artistic effect, and with even less attention to the
needs of the individual, the procession of the styles moves across the
social stage with tens of millions eagerly watching for the tiniest
change in cut or color.

The devotion of an entire class to this conspicuous leisure has no
social justification save the silly argument that "it makes work." It is
one of the logical products of a stratified or class society where the
lower classes seek to ape the upper classes, while the latter engage in
a mad scramble to determine which shall set the most grotesque standards
of social conduct.

A producers' society will of necessity take a stand of far-reaching
consequence on the question of consumption. In the first place it will
realize that one of the most signal failures of the present order lies
in the inability of the people to find either happiness or growth in the
accumulation of possessions. If the multitude of things owned would
satisfy men's needs, the upper classes of the present society would be
the happiest that the world has ever known, since they are able to
command a quantity and a variety of things that far surpasses previous
historic records. Instead of bringing happiness, however, these things
have merely brought care, anxiety and finally disillusionment. Now, as
always, it is true that a man's life does not consist in the abundance
of his possessions, or, as Carlyle puts it, "Not what I have but what I
do is my kingdom."

The citizens of a producers' society will therefore teach to their
children, and will practice an abstemiousness in the midst of plenty--a
withdrawal from possessions--in order that the body may have enough, but
not too much, and that the spirit may be freed from an undue weight of
things. The Greeks understood the principle well; so did the American
Indians. They desired, not many things, but an enrichment of life, which
they realized could come only through understanding, tranquillity and
inner growth.

As a matter of course, a producers' society will enforce the axiom: No
luxuries for any until the necessaries are supplied to all. This
corresponds with the well-established practice of many primitive
peoples. It is likewise the application of the highest ethical
principles to economic life,