THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY 473 



the steam roads of the country, or the street railway service of a city, 

 may turn out to be such an event. The anthracite coal strike un- 

 doubtedly was. No one would probably accuse so " safe and sane " an 

 organ as The New York Tribune of socialistic learnings, and yet this 

 paper remarked : 



The old doctrine that a man may do what he will with his own worked well 

 enough when the life of the community was not dependent on what he did own, 

 but some way or other it does not fit the case when a whole community is under 

 one control. It did not seriously matter if one mine was shut down and its 

 product cut off. The community could allow the owner to say it was his, and 

 his use of it did not concern them. But when all the coal mines are subject to 

 one will, the way that will works is of profound interest to those dependent on 

 it. The mines are at law unquestionably private property. Nobody can go into 

 court and get relief because the mines do not produce the coal he needs. But 

 there is a moral trust — even kings now admit that, even though they rule by 

 divine right, they hold a trust for their people. Prerogative and title are with 

 the operators, but the people must have coal, and if the operators forget the 

 moral obligations attached to their property-holding they will force the substitu- 

 tion of legal for moral obligation in some form or other.s* 



If the public mind veers strongly toward socialism, there are at least 

 three ways by which it may attain its goal. First, private property can 

 be more heavily taxed and more heavily subjected to the police power 

 of the state. All of the machinery required for these purposes already 

 exists. No constitutional change is necessary. Private property is held 

 subject to the right of the state to tax. In addition, in such cities as 

 New York, the building department supervises all structural changes or 

 defects in buildings ; the tenement-house department regulates the num- 

 ber of windows required for light and air and all alterations in houses 

 occupied by more than three families, and if its orders are not complied 

 with this department has power to vacate property and lock it up; the 

 fire-department prevention bureau has charge of such matters as fire 

 escapes; the board of health sees that certain sanitary requirements 

 are complied with ; the highway department requires abutting owners to 

 keep their sidewalks in repair; the state factory inspectors have super- 

 vision of establishments where one or more men are employed, and the 

 street-cleaning department looks after such things as garbage recep- 

 tacles. An increase in the scrutiny of the public eye in each of these 

 directions is easily conceivable. There is no hard and fast line between 

 "taxation, reasonable regulation and fair payment," on the one hand 

 and confiscation, on the other. The difference is a matter of degree and 

 of opinion. 



Secondly, a much more important gateway to socialism stands wide 

 open, namely, the regulation of bequest and inheritance, neither of 

 which is a property right under the federal and state constitutions. So 



a* Quoted by The OutlooTc, August 30, 1902, p. 1035. 



