seek to distribute more
widely the property rights which make them to-day the privilege of a
minority. But they will refuse to submit to the naive philosophy which
would treat all proprietary rights as equal in sanctity merely because
they are identical in name. They will distinguish sharply between
property which is used by its owner for the conduct of his profession
or the upkeep of his household, and property which is merely a claim on
wealth produced by another's labor. They will insist that {83}
property is moral and healthy only when it is used as a condition not
of idleness but of activity, and when it involves the discharge of
definite personal obligations. They will endeavor, in short, to base
it upon the principle of function.

{84}

VI

THE FUNCTIONAL SOCIETY

The application to property and industry of the principle of function
is compatible with several different types of social organization, and
is as unlikely as more important revelations to be the secret of those
who cry "Lo here!" and "Lo there!" The essential thing is that men
should fix their minds upon the idea of purpose, and give that idea
pre-eminence over all subsidiary issues. If, as is patent, the purpose
of industry is to provide the material foundation of a good social
life, then any measure which makes that provision more effective, so
long as it does not conflict with some still more important purpose, is
wise, and any institution which thwarts or encumbers it is foolish. It
is foolish, for example, to cripple education, as it is crippled in
England for the sake of industry; for one of the uses of industry is to
provide the wealth which may make possible better education. It is
foolish to maintain property rights for which no service is performed,
for payment without service is waste; and if it is true, as
statisticians affirm, that, even were income equally divided, income
per head would be small, then it is all the more foolish, for sailors
in a boat have no room for first-class passengers, and it is all the
more important that none of the small national income should be
misapplied. It is foolish to leave the direction of industry {85} in
the hands of servants of private property-owners who themselves know
nothing about it but its balance sheets, because this is to divert it
from the performance of service to the acquisition of gain, and to
subordinate those who do creative work to those who do not.

The course of w