ADMINISTRATIVE KKl'oRT XXXIII 



there is no recognition of owncrsliii. or .,t' title iuii„i,-:,l t.. 

 the natural coordinate riglits (.f sudi nicii :iih1 lM;ist>. 'I'm,., 

 there is amona- most tribes a vn-^iu* sense of i.rescrii.tive n;rl,t 

 to h)ng occupied territory, to tlie lionie of the Miu-i.-uts who 

 pky so prominent a role in primitive pliih.sopli\ , >,, th:it a trih.- 

 commonly feels it to be a riglit and a lihal .hitv to pn.tert tlie 

 home range against permanent invasion liv .diens: yet tlie 

 vague riglit so recognized scarcely applies to tlu- land jmt se. 

 bat only to tlie rights of the chase, iish(*ri<'s, fruits, Mud anv 

 cultivated products, personal habit;iti(»ns, (|u;ni-ies. orcl;i\ pits; 

 that is, to what may be called the usufruct of the >oil. In 

 fact, the attitude of the savage or barbariim t(»\\:u-d pntpcrtv 

 in land is nnich like that of American citizens during the last 

 century toward property in water, to wit, in the rains, rivers, 

 lakes, seas, artesian water, ordinary gr<»und wnter. et«-. hnring 

 recent decades the idea of propertv in wnter has grown uj) 

 in the less humid districts and is ra[)idly extending, yet the 

 development of this conception is slow, even in the minds of 

 the most intelligent people. Perhaps a (doser example ni;iy 

 be found in air as viewed by enlightened })eoples, for the 

 air is resfarded as essentially common to :dl living and hreath- 

 ino- thing-s, and its use as an iidierent riuht far transcending 

 conventional titles to personal »»r coininuiud jiroi>ei-ty. There 

 are indeed certain germs of connnun;d jjroperty right in 

 air, manifested in the occasional actions of neighborhoods 

 lookino- to the abatement' of certain nuisances, yet the 

 claims put forth in such actions relate rather to the tree 

 and common use, the usufruct, of the air than to it> possession 

 as property, so that our attitude toward air is clos,.ly analo- 

 gous to that of primitive folk towanl land. The residts of the 

 inquiries find ready application in .-.mnection with various 

 public questions. One of the conclusions is that primitive 

 folk cannot beat once transferred from flu- plane of ,-olh'.-five 

 interest in the usufruct of tlu' soil to that ..f in<liyidual land 

 tenure, anv more than the farnu-r of the .\tlant.c seaboard 

 could be brought in a dav to full nnder>fand.ng ot irngatHM. 

 water rights, with all the ..unplications of dams, sIumm-s. man. 

 ditches, gates, etc.; indeed, the education of the citizen lanners 



