e that the public has a claim upon the farms of
the country of $7,000,000,000, it must be remembered that this sum has
been divided among about 70,000,000 different people, and that this
division has been in progress for over two centuries. When the benefits
of our natural resources are so widely distributed as this, there can be
little occasion to alarm ourselves regarding injustice through the
private control of farming lands.

This, however, is somewhat apart from our argument. The main point, of
which we must not lose sight, is that the private ownership of those
gifts of Nature which are widely distributed operates to the general
benefit of the community far more than any system of public ownership
that could be devised. But, on the other hand, in the case of natural
agents limited in amount, it is practically certain that sooner or later
a monopoly will be established by their private owners, to the serious
detriment of the public at large. The sovereign right of the public in
this latter case to take such steps as are necessary for its proper
protection, is something which both _a priori_ reasoning and judicial
decisions amply prove.

The great problem of monopoly would be a far easier one to solve, both
theoretically and practically, were it as easy to regulate justly those
forms of monopoly whose strength lies in combination only, as it is
those whose power depends on the possession of gifts of Nature, which we
have just considered. In dealing with trusts, monopolies in trade, and
labor monopolies, we are in danger, on the one hand, of sanctioning
oppressive interference with private business, and on the other of
permitting a license in the conduct of private business which encourages
its managers to continue to extort unjust gains from the public. In the
face of this difficulty, which careful consideration shows to be very
serious, and in the dread of other evils, such as the government proving
incompetent to safely undertake these new and strange responsibilities,
we may well feel like trying to get along with the aid of those old
defenses against monopolies that have always, until the modern
concentration of industry was accomplished, been ample to hold them in
check.

But the one argument which prevents this is the fact that this tendency
to concentration and consolidation is still actively at work. In the
words of Prof. Ely: "Production on the largest possible scale will be
the only practical mode of pr