p. 13 | Property Rights by Mrs. D. A. Fitch

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 3, 1907

Property Rights

By Mrs. D. A. Fitch

MRS. D. A. FITCH

USUALLY property rights are more carefully regarded in the community than in the family, and who can say it is not in the home that habits concerning possession of property are taught both 'by precept and 'by practise?

The father gives Jamie a hen, the profits to belong to the boy, but when the poultry buyer comes along, the chickens reared at the cost of much labor and anxiety, are sold, and their price is put with the general fund. Jamie’s tears and words of disappointment are of no avail in setting matters right. “Right!” exclaims some parent who has been in the habit of dealing in the same unfair way. “Has not a father a right to make use of the money? Does it not really belong to him?” Yes, legally speaking, he has, but from a moral standpoint, no, many times no. It is not even good policy from either a business or a parental view-point. The boy is disheartened, discouraged for future efforts, and has been given a lesson that will cause him to have less regard for the property rights of members of his own home, and of his schoolmates as well. He thus sees no wrong in appropriating to his own use the book belonging to Mary, or the bat and ball in the yard of his neighboring playmate. Should he feel the need of a little money to use for a purpose not countenanced by the paternal holder of the family purse, he thinks it not out of place to help himself if he can.

Children should be taught to freely give as occasion may present itself, to “lend, hoping for nothing again,” but never to take that which belongs to another without the permission of the owner, nor to borrow with no intention of returning. Justly to regard property rights does not inculcate selfishness, but rather leads to an excellent system of honor and order in family, community, or country.

National City, Cal.