412 proceedings: anthropological society 



"the heirs of all the ages," but too many of us are younger sons, and 

 the owners of privilege always endeavor to transmit to their blood or 

 business descendants as much advantage as possible. One set of 

 privileges consists in patents of nobility and governmental privileges 

 attached thereto. Another is the ownership of some economic neces- 

 sity, such as land, mineral or oil deposits, power sites, franchises in- 

 volving control of means of communication or the furnishing of articles 

 of general necessity or utility, the control of industrial establishments, 

 and so on. 



In connection with these various types of control it must not be 

 forgotten that the value of each, as a money making proposition, de- 

 pends without exception on society, because if society did not endorse 

 privileges and purchase commodities there would be no value in owner- 

 ship. To this must be added the service which society performs in 

 defending and preserving the source of income. Such considerations 

 limit very much our estimate of the service which even the most cap- 

 able beneficiary of privilege performs; and when, under the action of 

 our laws of inheritance, the source of income passes to another, the 

 moral right of the heir, measured in terms of service, becomes much 

 less. Nevertheless, it is possible that sources of income of the several 

 kinds enumerated may descend indefinitely in particular strains of 

 blood, and under such circumstances there appears to be little differ- 

 ence in position between those who enjoy titles of nobility and those 

 who enjoy titles to industrial sources of income. The fact that control 

 of income-yielding property may be ended by sale or bankruptcy does 

 not alter the fact, so long as the general condition exists, any more 

 than the banishment of a single nobleman and the confiscation of his 

 possessions alters the fact of the existence of a titled nobility. 



The ultimate solution of this question appears to involve one of 

 two courses of action: either some method of binding together use and 

 ownership so tightly that he who uses a thing will not be excluded 

 from at least partial ownership in it, or ownership vested in the state 

 or some other collective and immortal body, use being granted individ- 

 uals during the limited period of their lives. The accumulations of 

 human society, its capital, are primarily collective accomplishments 

 and, therefore, society has a prior right to them. Whatever service 

 the individual may perform, he cannot properly maintain a vicarious 

 right to compensation after his death in the persons of his descendants 

 or successors. 



The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, 

 Dr. John R. Swanton; Vice-President, Mr. William H. Babcock; 

 Secretary, Miss Frances Densmore; Treasurer, Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt; 

 Councillors, Dr. Truman Michelson, M*\ Neil M. Judd, Mr. Francis 

 LaFlesche, Dr. C. L. G. Anderson, and Dr. Edwtn L. Morgan. 



Frances Densmore, Secretary. 



