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FIRST MEMOIR.
209

late the exportation of cattle and wheat,—an attack on property.

They would alter the assessment of taxes,—an attack on property.

They would educate the people gratuitously,—a conspiracy against property.

They would organize labor; that is, they would guarantee labor to the workingman, and give him a share in the profits,—the abolition of property.

Now, these same radicals are zealous defenders of property,—a radical proof that they know not what they do, nor what they wish.

3. Since property is the grand cause of privilege and despotism, the form of the republican oath should be changed. Instead of, “I swear hatred to royalty,” henceforth the new member of a secret society should say, “I swear hatred to property.”

Seventh Proposition.

Property is impossible, because, in consuming its Receipts, it loses them; in hoarding them, it nullifies them; and in using them as Capital, it turns them against Production.

I. If, with the economists, we consider the laborer as a living machine, we must regard the wages paid to him as the amount necessary to support this machine, and keep it in repair. The head of a manufacturing establishment—who employs laborers at three, five, ten, and fifteen francs per day, and who charges twenty francs for his superintendence—does not regard his disbursements as losses, because he knows they will return to him in the form of products. Consequently, labor and reproductive consumption are identical.

What is the proprietor? He is a machine which does not