Looking Toward Socialism
By L. A. S.
The tendency toward a breaking up of long-settled ideas of property rights, is one of the most notable signs of the times which appears upon the surface of events in this country. It is a tendency which may well startle any one who is not too much engrossed in business or pleasure to be startled by anything. For example, it was recently proposed in Congress to enact a law putting a limit upon the size of private fortunes,—a law to say just how much property an individual might be permitted to acquire in this country, and just where he must stop and do nothing more in the money-making line. A bill was introduced by Mr. Griffith, of Indiana, fixing ten million dollars as the limit of the amount of property which any person in this country might lawfully hold. Any fortune larger than this, the bill declared, is a public nuisance and a menace to public and private welfare. The same was declared to be true of inheritances—no person ought to be allowed to inherit more than ten million dollars. The bill provided that if any person persisted in acquiring property beyond this ten-million-dollar mark, all the excess should go to the state to reduce the burden of taxation. Why not make the limit ten thousand dollars, instead of ten million dollars? This might just as well be done, so far as the principle of the proceeding is concerned. To allow that Congress has the right to legislate in this way is to allow that the government can fix any limit upon private fortunes which it may see fit. Another and perhaps still more striking instance of this tendency is to be seen in the proposition that the government seize and operate the coal mines of the country and the railways connected with them. This proposition is now before Congress, having been introduced by Mr. Jenkins, who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and an experienced legislator. The bill embodying this proposition reads:— “Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be and is hereby directed to investigate and report to this House, with all convenient speed, the opinion of that committee as to the power of Congress to declare that a necessity has arisen for taking possession of all coal, coal beds, and coal mines in the United States, and all lines of transportation, agencies, instruments, and vehicles of commerce necessary for the transportation of coal,7and that if, in the opinion of that committee, the power exists and a necessity for the exercise of such power has arisen, that committee forthwith report to this House a bill declaring the necessity, providing fully and in detail the occasions, modes, conditions, and agencies for said appropriation that will fully and completely exhaust the power of Congress in that regard.”
The taking of such action by Congress as is here proposed would be a long step toward realizing the program of Socialism; toward giving effect to the doctrine of “everybody own everything,” which, as things are in this world, could mean only an effort on the part of everybody to get control of everything, which would mean universal strife. The stress of the existing coal famine may seem to justify such radical measures for relief as the seizing of the coal mines and railways by the government, or the confiscation of car loads of coal by the people, as has occurred in some Western towns; but such things indicate, nevertheless, a rising tendency to break over and set aside long-established principles under which life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have been enjoyed in this country. As omens of a coming period of confusion and strife, they constitute a striking sign of the times. L. A. S.