As  an  economic  creed,  Socialism  may  be  said  to  have  SockiiMn
two  aims,  a  negative  and  a  positive,  each  directed  ^  ^^
primarily  to  the  betterment  of  the  condition  of  the  '••»»^
so-called  working  or  wage-earning  classes.    Consid-  haTinca
ered  with  reference  to  its  negative  side,  Socialism  ap-  JJJdTpoI.
pears  as  a  movement  of  protest  against  the  existing  iHvMt
economic  order.    Socialists  teach  that  society,  mider
the  present  capitalist  and  wage  system,  is  divided
into  two  great  economic  classes.    One  of  these  classes
includes  a  comparatively  small  body  of  men,  the
capitalists,  who  own  substantially  all  the  tools  and
implements  of  industry  by  means  of  which  wealth  is
created.    This  class  very  largely,  if  not  wholly,  de-
termines the  conditions  imder  which  labor  is  carried
on  and  the  wages  which  the  workers  shall  receive.
The  other  and  vastly  greater  class  consists  of  the
employees  or  wage-earners  who  do  practically  all
the  work  of  creating  wealth  with  these  tools  and  im-
plements of  industry.    Against  this  division  of  soci-
ety and  the  consequences  flowing  from  it  Socialism
brings  its  indictment.^

The  Socialist  protests  (i)  against  the  exploitation
of  the  wage-earner  by  the  capitalists.  By  this  the
Socialist  means  to  say  that  the  wage-earners  as  a
class  are  universally  getting  less  for  their  services

^OuOook.  LXXXIV,  10  (1906);  ibid,  XCV,  831  (1910).
78  Political  Parties  and  Practical  Politics

than  they  are  really  worth,  while  the  capitalist  profits
thereby  unreasonably  and  unjustly.  This  exploita-
tion is  regarded  as  an  inevitable  result  of  the  private
ownership  of  the  means  of  the  production  and  dis-
tribution of  wealth.
