They could not escape the
necessity of intensifying production. They had not only promised peace, but
bread, and bread comes only from labor. Every serious student of the
problem has realized that the first great task of any Socialist society
must be _to increase the productivity of labor_. It is all very well for a
popular propaganda among the masses to promise a great reduction in the
hours of labor and, at the same time, a great improvement in the standards
of living. The translation of such promises into actual achievements must
prove to be an enormous task. To build the better homes, make the better
and more abundant clothing, shoes, furniture, and other things required to
fulfil the promise, will require a great deal of labor, and such an
organization of industry upon a basis of efficiency as no nation has yet
developed. If the working class of this or any other country should take
possession of the existing organization of production, there would not be
enough in the fund now going to the capitalist class to satisfy the
requirements of the workers, _even if not a penny of compensation were paid
to the expropriated owners_. Kautsky, among others, has courageously faced
this fact and insisted that "it will be one of the imperative tasks of the
Social Revolution not simply to continue, but to increase production; the
victorious proletariat must extend production rapidly if it is to be able
to satisfy the enormous demands that will be made upon the new regime.
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