continuing to exist under a Socialist regime. Kautsky, perhaps the
ablest living exponent of the Marxian theories, leader of the "Orthodox"
Marxists, admits this. He has very ably argued that the ripeness of
society for Socialism, for social production and control, depends, not
upon the number of little industries that still remain, but upon the
number of great industries which already exist.[100] The ripeness of
society for Socialism is not disproved by the number of ruins and relics
abounding. "Without a developed great industry, Socialism is
impossible," says this writer. "Where, however, a great industry exists
to a considerable degree, it is easy for a Socialist society to
_concentrate production, and to quickly rid itself of the little
industry_."[101] It is the increase of large industries, then, which
Socialists regard as the essential preliminary condition of Socialism.

Far more important than the increase or decrease of the number of units
is their relative significance in the total production, a phase of the
subject which is rather disingenuously avoided by most critics of
Marxism. Mr. Lucien Sanial, a Socialist statistician of repute, and one
of the profoundest Marxian students in America, has shown this in a
number of suggestive tables. For example, he takes twenty-seven typical
manufacturing industries for the years 1880, 1900, and 1905, and
compares the number of establishments in each year with the total amount
of capital invested and workers employed. In 1880 the number of
establishments was 63,233; in 1900 the number was 51,912, and in 1905 it
was only 44,142. From 1880 to 1905 there had been a decrease in the
number of establishments of 35.3 per cent, of which 15 per cent took
place within the last five years. But within the same period there had
been an increase in the amount of capital invested in these twenty-seven
industries as follows: from $1,276,600,000 in 1880 to $3,324,500,000 in
1900 and to $4,628,800,000 in 1905--a total increase from 1880 to 1905
of 262.6 per cent. On the other hand, the number of wage-workers
increased in the same period only 60.2 per cent, the number in 1905
being 1,731,500, as against 1,611,000 in 1900 and 1,080,200 in 1880.

In another table, forty-seven industries are taken. These forty-seven
industries comprised 29,800 establishments in 1900; five years later
there were but 26,182. In 1900 the total capital invested in these
industries was $1,005,400,000, and in 19