TEE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY 471 



THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES 



VI 



By Pkofessoe CHARLES F. EMERICK 



SMITH COLLEGE, NOKTHAMPTON, MASS. 



The Courts and Property. Ill 



The framers of the constitution were fearful of democracy and enter- 

 tained serious misgivings concerning the essential goodness of man. In 

 theology, many of them accepted the doctrine of original sin, total 

 depravity, infant damnation and the final perseverance of the saints. 

 In politics, they distrusted the masses, favored a restricted suffrage, 

 provided an electoral college for the choice of president, left the elec- 

 tion of United States senators to the legislatures of the several states, 

 contrived the system of checks and balances and established an appoint- 

 ive judiciary with power to set aside an act of Congress. The constitu- 

 tion was the work of the " solid, conservative, commercial and financial 

 interests of the country" who feared legislative tyranny and whose 

 solicitude never lost sight of the safety of property. For a long time, 

 however, the guaranties of property in the constitution were never 

 seriously put to the test. The one noteworthy exception was property 

 in slaves which the constitution failed to protect. Until recently the 

 ownership of property was widely diffused, and because of the abundance 

 of fertile land the man without property to-day stood an excellent 

 chance of becoming an owner to-morrow. There was no wage-earning 

 class destined to remain such to the end of its life. For a time the 

 scarcity of men willing to work for hire handicapped the development of 

 manufactures. It has not been the distinctive features of our form of 

 government so much as our environment that has given us peace with 

 plenty. 



It does not follow consequently that our governmental and economic 

 systems, under the conditions which obtain to-day, are proof against 

 socialism. The institution of private property depends upon the gen- 

 eral consensus of opinion which varies from age to age. It is a common 

 error to suppose that whatever is always will be. Take the right of a 

 man to interfere with the business of another by normal competition, by 

 way of illustration. This is regarded as a matter of course to-day, but 

 there was a time when the right to engage in a given trade was restricted 

 to the members of a certain guild, and a man was not at liberty to enter 

 any pursuit be might elect. The individual's position in the social order 



