THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY 479 



appear to many very preferable to a democratic republic which is constantly 

 menacing, disturbing, or plundering them.o 



These words suggest that the progressive who is true to the interests 

 of mankind is not invariably the foe of property. On the contrary, it 

 occasionally becomes his duty to defend the right of property against 

 its misguided opponents. The abolition of slavery does not justify a 

 crusade against property in general. Human chattels and property in 

 other things do not logically go together. From a social point of view, 

 the two are inconsistent, for the slave has neither the incentive nor the 

 opportunity to become a proprietor. The ownership of one's self is the 

 first prerequisite to the ownership of other things. The total abolition 

 of property rights, or even their drastic curtailment, would promote 

 equality of a certain kind, but it would be equality upon a low level of 

 misery. The lapse of one hundred and twenty-five years has rendered 

 the constitution in some respects unsuited to current needs, but this 

 should not blind us to the fact that the men of substance who brought 

 about its adoption served their day and generation well. They were the 

 real progressives of their time, though some of their work needs revision. 

 Likewise, the opponents of wholesale reductions in railway rates have at 

 times best served the people. Beyond doubt, also, there have been few 

 worse enemies of the ideal of equality than the paper money inflationists 

 who have flourished from time to time. The man who in the midst of 

 turbulence and disorder restores the conditions of orderly industry with 

 a firm hand is the friend not only of property but of labor. But a still 

 better friend of both is he who not only restores order, but who in addi- 

 tion prevents the recurrence of disorder by correcting the conditions 

 out of which it sprang. 



The cause of progress commonly enlists the services of the more 

 public-spirited portion of the community. The opponents of the liquor 

 traffic, for example, are undoubtedly less influenced by mercenary con- 

 siderations than are the liquor interests. It is well to bear in mind, 

 however, that those who take the side of reform at any time are not 

 always such disinterested patriots as one might suppose. Many men 

 engage in politics not for what they can make out of it in questionable 

 ways, but for the love of the game and to gratify the sense of power, 

 and are quite as likely to be found on the side of human rights as on 

 the side of those who have some pecuniary interests to subserve. As any 

 cause gains in prestige, it tends to attract more and more of this class. 

 Moreover, some humanitarian movements are well financed and conse- 

 quently attract a considerable number of those in whom sordid consider- 

 ations outweigh everything else. The men and women who espoused the 

 anti-slavery cause at the outset were actuated by high principles, though 

 doubtless some found in the opportunity for notoriety meat for their 



49 Lecky, op. tit., Vol. 1, pp. 259-260. 



