ut a
radical reconstruction of the law of property simply by proceeding
further on the lines on which we are already embarked, by insisting on
a certain standard, and that a high one, of house-room, sanitation,
food, and the like. We could thus ensure from the beginning for every
child at least a sound physical development; and that without
undermining the responsibility of parents. What else the state can do
it must do by education; a thing which, at present, I do not hesitate
to say, does not exist among us. We have an elementary system of cram
and drill directed by the soulless automata it has itself produced; a
secondary system of athletics and dead languages presided over by
gentlemanly amateurs; and a university system which--well, of which I
cannot trust myself to speak. I wish only to indicate that, in the
eyes of the new generation, breeding and education are the two cardinal
pillars of society. All other questions, even those of property and
government, are subordinate; and only as subordinate can they be
fruitfully approached. Take, for example, property. On this point we
have no prejudices, either socialistic or anti-socialistic. Property,
as we view it, is simply a tool for producing and perfecting men.
Whether it will serve that purpose best if controlled by individuals or
by the state, or partly by the one and partly by the other, we regard
as an open question, to be settled by experiment. We see no principle
one way or the other. Property is not a right, nor a duty, nor a
privilege, either of individuals or of the community. It is simply and
solely, like everything else, a function of the chain of births.
Whoever owns it, however it is administered, it has only one object, to
ensure for every child that is born a sufficiency of physical goods,
and for the better-endowed all that they require in the way of training
to enable them to perform efficiently the higher duties of society.

"And as property is merely a means, so is government. To us of the new
generation nothing is more surprising and more repugnant, than the
importance attached by politicians to formulae which have long since
lost whatever significance they may once have possessed. Democracy,
representation, trust in the people and the rest, all this to us is the
idlest verbiage. It is notorious, even to those who make most play
with these phrases, that the people do not govern themselves, that they
cannot do so, and that they woul