The real nature of the question at issue is this : Are
there general tendencies which are more or less favorable
to a socialistic organization of production and distribu-
tion ? Every one will admit that industrial society must,
in the future, be shaped with reference to actual existing
social forces, although more than one outcome of these
forces is conceivable. Then, if we decide in the affirma-
tive, as we must, that there are certain social, or, speaking
more accurately, socio-economic forces, working favorably
to socialism, we have to decide whether the socialistic
outcome of this social evolution is that which is, on the
whole, the more desirable.
A part of this so-called scientific law of social evolution
is a doctrine of value, which makes value depend upon
labor-time, and finds the profits of capital and the source
of new wealth in a, surplus value created by labor, and
filched from labor by the capitalist. The scientific cast
which this law of value seems to give to socialism is
merely a superficial appearance. Socialism does not
depend upon a law of value ; and the refutation of any



178 SOCIALISM AND SOCIAL REITOHM.
particular socialistic law of value leaves socialism^ as a
practical force, as strong as it was before.
