the doors to all, so
that each can take what he needs. The communalization of clothing--the
right of each to take what he needs from the communal stores, or to have
it made for him at the tailors and outfitters--is a necessary corollary
of the communalization of houses and food.

Obviously we shall not need for that to despoil all citizens of their
coats, to put all the garments in a heap and draw lots for them, as our
critics, with equal wit and ingenuity, suggest. Let him who has a coat
keep it still--nay, if he have ten coats it is highly improbable that
any one will want to deprive him of them, for most folk would prefer a
new coat to one that has already graced the shoulders of some fat
bourgeois; and there will be enough new garments, and to spare, without
having recourse to second-hand wardrobes.

If we were to take an inventory of all the clothes and stuff for
clothing accumulated in the shops and stores of the large towns, we
should find probably that in Paris, Lyons, Bordeaux, and Marseilles,
there was enough to enable the commune to offer garments to all the
citizens, of both sexes; and if all were not suited at once, the
communal outfitters would soon make good these shortcomings. We know how
rapidly our great tailoring and dressmaking establishments work
nowadays, provided as they are with machinery specially adapted for
production on a large scale.

"But every one will want a sable-lined coat or a velvet gown!" exclaim
our adversaries.

Frankly, we do not believe it. Every woman does not dote on velvet nor
does every man dream of sable linings. Even now, if we were to ask each
woman to choose her gown, we should find some to prefer a simple,
practical garment to all the fantastic trimmings the fashionable world
affects.

Tastes change with the times, and the fashion in vogue at the time of
the Revolution will certainly make for simplicity. Societies, like
individuals, have their hours of cowardice, but also their heroic
moments; and though the society of to-day cuts a very poor figure sunk
in the pursuit of narrow personal interests and second-rate ideas, it
wears a different air when great crises come. It has its moments of
greatness and enthusiasm. Men of generous nature will gain the power
which to-day is in the hand of jobbers. Self-devotion will spring up,
and noble deeds beget their like; even the egotists will be ashamed of
hanging back, and will be drawn in spite of themselves to admire, if