roperty, the rudiment of a later developed
idea, or sentiment, of rights possessed? Resentment is felt only when
one is deprived of something he feels he is entitled to. Granting that
nature has not endowed man with rights, it has imbued him with a
belief that he has rights, and also with a disposition to defend them.

Man is also born into a material world of natural forces, and hence to
gratify his desire to live and serve his own welfare and that of his
offspring, he must adapt himself to his environment, fit himself to
withstand heat and cold, provide himself with food and shelter. He not
only desires to, but he must, exercise his powers of mind and body and
hence should be free to exercise them to that extent at least. Nature
does not feed, clothe and shelter man. It only provides the raw
material which man must himself find, take, and convert by his labor,
manual and intellectual, into food, clothing, shelter, and whatever
else he desires.

But man is also born into association with other men, into some sort
of social organization, and well for him that he is. It is not
society, however ill organized, that has caused, or today causes,
poverty. That is the primitive condition of the human race. It is only
through some social organization ensuring to man freedom for his labor
and security for his savings that he can escape poverty. If each
individual by his own unaided efforts had to find the raw material,
mold it to serve his needs and desires, and also defend it from
attacks by others, his life would be one of dire poverty, scarcely
above that of the higher animals.

Further, nature has so formed man that he not only needs but desires
association with other men. Children instinctively flock together for
common play, and this social instinct continues through life and
extends to work as well as play. We find men everywhere in the
civilized world voluntarily entering into associations for various
purposes thought by the members to be of service to themselves or
others. But there is over and surrounding these associations that
larger association, racial or territorial, which we call society. This
is the necessary association into which man is born and in which he
must live if he desires other than mere animal life. This society must
be maintained if the race of men, as men and not as mere animals, is
to continue. Indeed, society itself has a sort of instinct for
self-preservation. It is not a mere aggregation of i