472 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY 



was determined by the status into which he happened to be born and 

 not by competition. Accordingly, the courts in place of upholding the 

 right of competition as at present were once inclined to look upon it 

 with disfavor. 32 Likewise, property rights are no more absolute than 

 is the right of competition. Slave property, once nation-wide, became 

 sectional and then disappeared altogether. Property in general depends 

 as much upon considerations of social utility as property in slaves. For 

 a long time it was restricted to movables. At first it included only 

 weapons and ornaments. Gradually it came to include domestic ani- 

 mals. The ownership of land was vested in the community and not in 

 private hands until comparatively recent times. The powers and fran- 

 chises granted corporations are wholly optional with the several states, 

 and depend upon considerations of social expediency. But for the social 

 will embodied in positive law, there would be no such thing as theft. 



At the present time property rights are being modified in various 

 directions. There is a strong tendency to municipalize or nationalize 

 certain industries. In Ireland, the property rights of the large land- 

 owners have been abridged by Parliament. Railway and other labor 

 organizations that occupy a strategic position are altering the distribu- 

 tion of the social income and are establishing a sort of joint proprietor- 

 ship. This is the effect of "full crew bills." According to the com- 

 mittee of railway managers, the demands of the railway employees on 

 the eastern roads at the present time for an advance of wages are 

 equivalent to putting the income of three hundred and forty millions at 

 five per cent, ahead of the first mortage bonds of the roads. 33 The 

 modification of the liability of employers at common law, the enactment 

 of workingmen's compensation acts and more ample provision for play- 

 grounds, art, music and education by taxation and private benevolence 

 point to the growth of collective property. The social obligations rest- 

 ing upon private property are increasing. The abridgment of property 

 rights is reflected in the lighter punishments provided for offenses 

 against property. Imprisonment for debt has been abolished. The 

 branding of thieves and vagabonds has been discarded. Capital punish- 

 ment for crimes against property no longer exists. Many punishments 

 which appear cruel and unusual in the light of to-day did not appear so 

 at all to our forefathers. As humanitarian considerations have gained 

 ground, private property has lost something of the sanctity in which it 

 was once held. 



It is remarkable how quickly even the staunchest defenders of prop- 

 erty sometimes face about and demand an abridgment of property 

 rights. All that is needed is some event that brings out clearly the 

 opposition between private and public interests. A strike that ties up 



32 Bruce Wyman, "Control of the Market," pp. 11-12. 



33 The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, July 12, 1913, p. 76. 



