of the law.



CHAPTER IX

THE MATHEMATICS OF A DREAM


In the midst of the consternation his revelation had produced, Ernest
began again to speak.

"You have said, a dozen of you to-night, that socialism is impossible.
You have asserted the impossible, now let me demonstrate the inevitable.
Not only is it inevitable that you small capitalists shall pass away,
but it is inevitable that the large capitalists, and the trusts also,
shall pass away. Remember, the tide of evolution never flows backward.
It flows on and on, and it flows from competition to combination, and
from little combination to large combination, and from large combination
to colossal combination, and it flows on to socialism, which is the most
colossal combination of all.

"You tell me that I dream. Very good. I'll give you the mathematics
of my dream; and here, in advance, I challenge you to show that
my mathematics are wrong. I shall develop the inevitability of
the breakdown of the capitalist system, and I shall demonstrate
mathematically why it must break down. Here goes, and bear with me if at
first I seem irrelevant.

"Let us, first of all, investigate a particular industrial process, and