free and easy of access, has become a country of highly
organized concentrated wealth power, owned by a small fraction of the
people and controlled by a tiny minority of the owners for their benefit
and profit. The country which was rightfully called "our United States"
in 1840, by 1920 was "their United States" in every important sense of
the word.

FOOTNOTES:

[39] "Estimated Valuation of National Wealth, 1850-1912," Bureau of the
Census, 1915, p. 15.

[40] "Addresses of President Wilson," House Doc. 803. Sixty-fourth
Congress, 1st Session (1916), p. 13.

IX. THE DIVINE RIGHT OF PROPERTY

1. _Land Ownership and Liberty_

The owners of American wealth have been molded gradually into a ruling
class. Years of brutal, competitive, economic struggle solidified their
ranks,--distinguishing friend from enemy; clarifying economic laws, and
demonstrating the importance of coordination in economic affairs.
Economic control, once firmly established, opened before the wealth
owning class an opportunity to dominate the entire field of public life.

Before the property owners could feel secure in their possessions, steps
must be taken to transmute the popular ideas regarding "property rights"
into a public opinion that would permit the concentration of important
property in the hands of a small owning class, at the same time that it
held to the conviction that society, without privately owned land and
machinery, was unthinkable.

Many of the leading spirits among the colonists had come to America in
the hope of realizing the ideal of "Every man a farm, and every farm a
man." Upon this principle they believed that it would be possible to set
up the free government which so many were seeking in those dark days of
the divine right of kings.

For many years after the organization of the Federal Government men
spoke of the public domain as if it were to last indefinitely. As late
as 1832 Henry Clay, in a discussion of the public lands, could say, "We
should rejoice that this bountiful resource possessed by our country,
remains in almost undiminished quantity." Later in the same speech he
referred to the public lands as being "liberally offered,--in
exhaustless quantities, and at moderate prices, enriching individuals
and tending to the rapid improvement of the country."[41]

The land rose in price as settlers came in greater numbers. Land booms
developed. Speculation was rife. Efforts were made to secure additional