THE LIMIT OF STATE ACTIOX. 531 



equality of rights and opportunities, the establishment and mainten- 

 ance of which we found to be the primary duty of the State. Yet, 

 the modern State has not only neglected to establish and maintain 

 the equal right of all to the use of the earth, but has established and 

 maintains by force the opposite condition. Private ownership of 

 land, unlimited by any condition which compels owners of more 

 valuable lots of land to compensate the community for the special 

 privilege which they enjoy, compelling non-owners to hand over to 

 others part of the wealth which they produce for mere permission to 

 live, is thus the fundamental infringement of the equal rights of all 

 and its abolition — i.e., the collection of the rental value of the land 

 for common use is the principal function of the State which it leaves 

 unperformed. 



Other functions, the neglect of which similarly abrogates the 

 equal rights of all, consist of special privileges of an industrial char- 

 acter. Wliile the great mass of industries by which men maintain 

 their lives in tiring service to their fellowmen are naturally free to 

 all, certain industries, arising in highly developed societies, are not 

 so free, but depend for their establishment and increase upon the 

 grant of a special privilege by the State to one or to a limited number 

 of persons — i.e., upon the transfer to them of part of the sovereign 

 prwer of the State. 



In order that private persons may hold and operate a railway, 

 the State, by special legislation, must transfer to them some of its 

 power of eminent domain — i.e., power to forcibly dispossess other 

 persons of land, and must secure to them the right of way over a 

 narrow but long plot of land. Such privileges cannot be granted 

 indiscriminately, and the grant of such privileges to a few, creating a 

 monopoly in transportation, seriously diminishes the rights of all 

 others, and establishes a condition of inequality of rights. Similarly 

 privileged industrial undertakings are privately-owned tramways, and 

 the supply of gas, water, electricity, hj'draulic and pneumatic pov.er 

 to modern cities. Such privileges are of the nature of monopolies, and 

 all of them, therefore, form part of the natural functions of the State, 

 which it neglects to perform. 



As already stated, space does not permit to enter upon the con- 

 sideration of the numerous interferences with equal rights which 

 arise from functions unjustly assumed by the modern State. But it 

 may be pointed out that little reflection will establish the fact that 

 this unjust assumption of functions by the State, and the sentiments 

 which compel such action, are the corollaries of the unjust transfer 

 of governmental functions to private persons. Because the State 

 neglects to perform functions naturally belonging to it, it is forced to 

 assume functions which do not belong to it, freedom being thus 

 hemmed in and reduced from both sides. In no other way than by 

 following the dictates of justice, through a strict regard of the ethical 

 line of demarcation between State and private functions, and not 

 by any balancing of advantages, can human beings reach the highest 

 state of general happiness of which their nature is capable. 



