Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/130

 1 1 6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

contrast with their legal equality. Equal before the law, the hungry proletarian and the millionaire are separated by an abyss which seems to grow wider every day. The economic problem is literally one of life and death. The rich live long and the poor die early. The for- mer attain an average of 55 to 56 years, the latter 28 years. The mor- tality of infants among the noble families of Germany is 5.7 per cent., while among the poor of Berlin it is 34.5 per cent. Diseases arise from the conditions under which workingmen labor and live. Marriage is hindered and prostitution increased by poverty. The children of the poor are so stupefied by hunger that they learn nothing at school. According to Gladstone, life is a battle for mere existence for nine- tenths of men. Intemperance is a necessary product of bad feeding. Crime is a natural fruit of extreme poverty. In Italy 88 per cent, of the convicts belong to the poor classes, and only 12 per cent, to the rich, while the poor represent less than 88 per cent, of the population. "The sociological world rests entirely on the economic element, and this alone gives us the key to the immense mystery of the social uni- verse." This is the reason that capitalists hate the political economy of this age; because it discloses the cause of social evils to be the foundation of their possessions. Liberty is a fine word. There is no real freedom without money. A poor man is a slave of those who have capital. If two men are of equal power and you leave them free the more robust will not hesitate, if he is a cannibal, to kill and eat the weaker ; if he is a pagan or a planter he will make him a slave ; if he is a capitalist he will make him work for him in return for a plate of beans. The new school of economists recognizes these truths, aban- dons laissez faire, and consents to government protection of the liberty of the poor.

Property is a sacred word. It is thought necessary to fortify it by appeal to ethical theory. Some writers have traced the origin of prop- erty to occupation : the man who first used the land had a right to it. But this theory is legend, not history. The stronger races have always dispossessed the weaker, and used both land and people ; the Hebrews did that with Canaan, and the Puritans took New England on the same terms. If we adopt the explanation that human needs are the founda- tion of property, this also must be surrendered; for it is precisely those who most need property who have the least of it. Rosmini advocated the view that property is a necessary expression of personality. But then all men should be proprietors, since they are all persons. Or, if one