as such; he only objects to bequeathing it under conditions which determine that the inheritance of the multitude must be poverty.
In discussing this and kindred questions two guiding facts ought to be kept in mind. The first is that Socialism, on its moral side, is a means to the establishment of true individual liberty; and the second that Socialism, on its economic side, is a system under which an end will be put to exploitation. The second purpose of Socialism is that which sets the bounds to the ownership of private property.
All through history the limitation of the subjects and the rights of property has proceeded side by side with the expansion of liberty. Property in human beings has had to be denied, but it was defended most stoutly and was held to be an unassailable right by philosophers and humanists, as well as by the classes that enjoyed it. And yet the mere liberation of the human body from the scope of private property is not sufficient, because it has been found that the human will—the human personality—can be put in bondage through certain forms of economic possession, so that unless men are to abandon their pilgrimage in search of liberty they must supplement their anti-slavery campaigns with campaigns designed to put an end to private property in those economic forces which may be used to produce a slavery of the will. Now, how is property used at the present time?
In the first place, its chief function to-day,
