REVIEW QUESTIONS.

1. If the Biblical account of the earth's origin is to be interpreted as a literal statement of facts then to whom does the earth belong?

2. If the scientific account of the origin of the earth is to be accepted, then to whom does the earth belong?

3. Give an account of the development of the earth; of the beginning and the forming of the planets; the producing of the rings of Saturn; the moon; and the earth's surface.

4. Give an account of the origin of coal, of oil, and of the preparation of the soil for cultivation.

5. Does the question of the justice of man's joint ownership of the earth involve the question of intentions or of conscious design in nature?

6. When man first became a conscious factor in his own development, how did he regard himself as related to the earth? Was his earliest use of the earth under monopoly or Collectivism?

7. Can man live without the earth?

8. Has man a right to his life regardless of the consent of others?

9. Has he a right to the earth regardless of the consent of others?

10. Why has the most conscious part of the earth the right of mastery or ownership?

11. Why has man a right to the earth as its final and highest product?

12. Who would be entitled to the earth under the argument of adaptation?

13. Where is man's place in nature so far as nature herself may indicate?

14. If the strongest are to have the earth, who will get it in the future? Why?

15. What is meant by the nature of things?

16. Why are all men entitled to the earth in the nature of things?

17. Why is the collective use of the earth necessary?

18. Why is Socialism necessary to the collective use of the earth?

CHAPTER XVI

RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACIES

250. The Fall of Democracy.-Democracy once ruled the world in its economic interests, and through these, all other interests as well. This was the case under barbarism. When war became the chief industry, and the military master the master of the industries, as well as of war, then despotism succeeded Democracy. Collectivism yielded to monopoly, and equality of opportunity to inequality. The individual workman no longer depended for his own existence on his own efforts, but first of all on the consent of his industrial master.

251. The Struggle for Democracy.-The struggle for Democracy anywhere is a step towards its re-appearance everywhere. So far as the struggle for Democracy has been effective in religious or political organizations, these struggles have not only had their economic causes, but they are also having their economic results.

252. Political Democracies Among Industrial Masters. Socialism asks for Democracy in industry. Has Democracy been recently tried in other fields? Has the tyranny of private monopoly been overthrown any

where else in such a way as to suggest a like victory at the workshop and in the market place? Heretofore all revolutions under the monopoly of capitalism have been revolutions by which some inferior class has sought to overthrow the authority of some superior class whose rule it had found unbearable. In no case has any successful revolution gone to the bottom and sought to enfranchise those who were the servants of the rebels, as well as to overthrow those who were their masters. As a result all Democracies under civilization have been limited in their citizenship to those who had been able to overthrow their masters, and have never extended to the field of industry in which these political democrats were themselves oppressing their industrial dependents. Nevertheless, the overthrow of the masters, in any event, and the world's ability to get along without them anywhere, once established, has always strengthened the claims of Democracy and has had the distinct effect of bringing nearer the coming of Socialism, under which industrial Democracy will dispose of the industrial masters, along with the utter destruction of the whole human relationship of mastery and servitude.1

1. "The struggle for emancipation through the exercise of legislative power, as we have said, is indispensable in conducting the social struggle. Those who do not possess it are condemned to perpetual passivity. The unique method which they employ against the ruling classes is aptly called the struggle for emancipation. might of ideas is on their side, a significant statement which needs careful explanation.

The

"The superior classes, as we have seen, cannot rest content with the fact of superiority; political relations need to be confirmed; might must be turned into right. It seemed simple enough for them to say: Let this be right. But every right has its obverse obligation; however comprehensive, it has its limits at which obligations begin, the rights of those who hitherto have had none. So the rights of the rulers produced the rights of the ruled. The germ was there and it must develop.

"But more than this; the human mind probes to the foundation of things seeking the principle of causation and analyzing the change of phenomena to find their eternal unchanging essence. Now in the changing phases of right the enduring principle is the idea. Thus rights not only lead to obligations, but also to the idea of right.

253. The Early Church. The early Christian church came into world-wide influence so largely and so rapidly because of its connections with the ancient labor unions and the slaves' associations. These unions and associations were in every respect as fully democratic as possible under the limitations of secrecy made necessary by the enmity of the government of the

"If the obligation could be called the consequence of right in space, the idea was its consequence in time. Whoever asserts his rights cannot escape their consequences. Thus the rulers themselves forge weapons with which the ruled and powerless classes successfully attack them and complete the natural process. The egoism of the powerful prepares the way for the uprising of the weak.

"The idea of right is not a purely fanciful conception. It has power to influence men and can be practically applied. Men grow accustomed year by year to submit to rights; they use legal forms constantly and learn to respect rightful limitations, until finally the conception, the very idea, of rights pervades and controls them. In this way the idea of right becomes the fit weapon for those who have no other.

"But its application is not simple. The legal bulwarks of the powerful will not yield to a simple appeal to ideas as Jericho's walls fell at the blast of trumpets; and, besides, the propertyless and powerless are unable to use such mental weapons immediately. Again we see the egoism of the one class promoting the social evolution of the whole. The bourgeoisie in the struggle, with the other property classes, is the first to appeal to universal human rights, to freedom and equality.

"It claims to be contending, not for itself alone, but for the good of the whole folk. And it succeeds not without the support of the masses whom it flatters and to whom it discloses the resplendent goal of freedom and equality. Its might, like that of the higher class, is now based on right, and though for the moment what it has won seems to be clear gain, it has found the yoke of legal logic about its neck and must submit to its ideas.

"For the lowest classes participation in the struggle was a profitable experience. Even the slight amelioration of their condition was an advantage. It taught them many a lesson. But it is hard for them, relying simply on ideas, to undertake the social struggle, for political regulations are firmly based on the possession of material goods and are defended by the middle class also, and moreover as time goes on some of their ideas prove false and indefensible.

"But in spite of exaggerations they are logical consequences of principles which the ruling class asserted in its own interest and from which the middle class profited, declaring them at the time to be universal. They cannot be wholly eradicated; they aid the struggle for the emancipation of the fourth class powerfully. They inspire the masses with fanaticism and the struggle for the emancipation succeeds."-Gumplowicz: The Outlines of Sociology, pp. 148-149.

Caesars.2 The old church was not a respecter of persons. It did not act in any matters of importance without conference and agreement with the brothers, and these democratic fraternities of the working people, lasted for at least two hundred and fifty years. These examples of Collectivism, of Democracy and of Equality were so real and far-reaching that the later military organization of the church has been unable to utterly destroy them.1

254. Ecclesiastical Rebels.-Bodies of worshipers who did not yield to the new authorities on the development of the military model of church organization still clung to the traditions of the earlier Democracies.

2. "Still another peculiarity of the labor organizations was that they were secret. All through the vista of a thousand years during which we know them they were strictly a secret order. This habit of secrecy proved of greatest value during persecutions. Being legalized by a law so much revered, they were seldom molested except when persecuted on account of their political activities. Then it was that their discipline of profound secrecy proved of greatest value. After the amalgamation of the Christians with them their secrecy was so great that for ages they maintained themselves in spite of the most searching detectives of the Roman police the world over; and the evangelizing agents continued the preaching of the original doctrines and ideas until at last they assumed the mastery and conquered the Roman world."-Ward: Ancient Lowly, Vol. II., p. 105.

"Sodalicia" is one of the names applied to the ancient Roman labor organizations. Certain organizations within the Roman Catholic church are today known as "Sodalities." (Sodalis Companion.)

"What became of all of these incomes into the eranos-(labor unions)? They went to buy, in quantities and at wholesale, without the usual middleman and his system of selfish profits, the food for the common table, to which all the members had an equal democratic right. Why not? Each, without exception, paid into a common fund the same sum in form of periodical dues sufficient to keep him or her supplied with nourishment which under that system of the syssitoi was furnished by the society out of these inpouring funds; and it had a complete set of cooks, buyers, waiters, and officers of every kind to carry out the system to perfection." Ward: Ancient Lowly, Vol. II., p. 263.

3. "In the great community of the lovers of Christ bond and free' were alike. There was no distinction in the sight of God, none in the church. They recognized slavery as they recognized the tyranny of Cæsar, but they put the slave, in their treatment and in their language, on the like footing with his owner."-Brace: Gesta Christa, p. 45.

4. "It is striking that with the demand for freedom from feudal