60 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The drift of current opinion is not hostile to property per se. Its 

 animus is rather against special privilege of all kinds. It is also bent 

 on subjecting property that has outgrown the restraints of competition 

 to political control. Where political control proves inadequate, how- 

 ever, there is a disposition to resort to collective ownership and opera- 

 tion. It is undeniable, also, that the right of private property in such 

 gifts of nature as forest and mineral wealth, and in the future "un- 

 earned increment" of land in large cities, is being more and more 

 called in question. But, on the other hand, practically every one recog- 

 nizes the indefeasible right of a man to property in any value that his 

 labor creates, and the great majority of minds approve the right to 

 property in the product which capital creates under competitive condi- 

 tions that are normal and fair. The preponderance of opinion still 

 strongly favors private ownership and initiative, and relies upon self- 

 interest as the fountain source of the additional capital required for the 

 further development of our resources. It is noteworthy that socialism 

 limits its attack on property to things instrumental in exploiting the 

 working classes. A member of the Socialist party in such good and 

 regular standing as Spargo contemplates the retention of private prop- 

 erty in a portion of producer's as well as of consumer's goods. In ap- 

 pealing to farmers and small dealers, socialism is under the necessity 

 of moderating its attacks on property, thereby losing something of its 

 purely proletarian character. It is significant, also, that the national 

 constitution of the Socialist party, approved by referendum in 1912, de- 

 clares that any member of the party 



who advocates crime, sabotage, or other methods of violence as a weapon of 

 the working class, to aid in its emancipation, shall be expelled from member- 

 ship in the party.ia 



There is little prospect of a contest in which all the property owners 

 will be found in one camp and all those without property in another. 

 The normal craving in every man of ambition to accumulate something 

 of his own works strongly against such an alignment. In most con- 

 tests, those who ride are not pitted singly against those who walk, but 

 various combinations of these two classes constitute the contending 

 parties. Moreover, the combinations are rarely the same in two succes- 

 sive contests. 



Many of the great reforms that have been adopted have not de- 

 stroyed property, but have changed conditions in such a way as to in- 

 crease the incentives in life, and to enlarge the sum total of things 

 capable of ownership. The abolition of slavery simply transferred slave 

 property from the master to him who had been the slave to the mutual 

 good of both parties. Railway control and effective regulation of trusts 



i» National Constitution of the Socialist Party, Section 6, Article II. 



