ETHICS AND ECONOMICS. 779 



mankind. In addition to the security which, it gives to labor and 

 to property, it increases their value as well. "Social growth 

 creates a demand for a constantly increasing quantity of every 

 sort of staple goods. The greater the quantity demanded and 

 sold, the less is the cost of production per unit of product. Not 

 that the mere multiplication of human beings is itself creative of 

 wealth, but that the multiplication of utilities by the productive 

 labor of additional human beings enhances the utility created by 

 each one. It does this by creating the means for more perfectly 

 utilizing all labor and all means of production." * 



Let us now apply the principle of social duty and the test of 

 social well-being to some of the economic questions of the day. 

 Does our social duty, or the social welfare, require of us that we 

 shall surrender the right of private property, either in whole or 

 in part, as demanded by the communist and socialist ? "We have 

 already indicated some of the advantages which result to society 

 from the individualistic idea of property. It now remains to point 

 out the disadvantages which would be likely to follow from the 

 adoption of the communistic or socialistic ideal. The first pro- 

 poses to organize society " so as to distribute the annual produce 

 of the labor and capital of the community either in equal shares 

 or in shares varying not according to the deserts but according to 

 the needs of the recipient." f 



The decisive objection to this theory is, that it violates the 

 fi.rst principles of justice, in that it proposes to distribute rewards, 

 not in accordance with efforts expended, but in accordance to 

 need, no matter how that need was occasioned, whether through 

 the fault or the misfortune of the recipient. The unequal results 

 that are caused by equal freedom may be deplored and volun- 

 tarily alleviated ; but it would neither be wise nor well forcibly to 

 prevent these results by taking away from the more fortunate, 

 and thus preventing the natural penalty to be visited upon the 

 slothful and the idle. The inevitable result of such a policy 

 would be to decrease the amount to be divided by removing the 

 normal stimulus to industrial activity, and preventing the normal 

 check upon laziness. 



So far as socialism involves a similar theory, the same objec- 

 tions may be urged against it, but this word is generally used to 

 cover the proposition of substituting the governmental for pri- 

 vate and competitive management. Now, it is the testimony of 

 nearly every competent observer that governmental management 

 is less economical, less energetic, and less plastic than private 

 management. The result of its substitution would be in the long 

 run to lower the product both in quality and quantity, through 



* Franklin H. Giddings, in tlie "Quarterly Journal of Economics," April, ISSY, p. 371. 

 f Sidgwick, ' Political Economy," p. 526. 



