ABSTRACT
The old socialists had been vividly impressed by how many servile remnants there were in the idea of renting labor. Constantin Pecqueur claimed to reduce all industry to two kinds: workers lending their labor in exchange for a salary, and proprietors lending their houses, lands, and capital. The university students who incline toward socialism bring with them ideological baggage irreconcilable with Karl Marx's views. Workers sell to the capitalist a commodity, labor power, which has its market price like all commodities. The difference between Marx and the orthodox economists is principally on the historical interpretation of the labor market as it is organized. In the program for the French Workers' Party the clause on the minimum wage was introduced over Marx's objections: in 1881 Joffrin did not want this demand to figure in his electoral manifesto presented to the Paris Municipal Council.
