Page:Jean Jaurès socialist and humanitarian 1917.djvu/51

 Again he says, "Not one (human being) should be deprived of the sure means of labouring freely without servile dependence on any other individual" and, "As the community can only ensure the rights of the individual by putting the means of production at his disposal, the community itself must have the sovereign right of ownership over all the means of production."

Jaurès made an onslaught in Etudes Socialistes against those Radicals who, while agreeing to a certain number of reforms in the position of the workers, describe themselves as the firm upholders of "private property," using this term as if it expressed something which was absolutely permanent and which ought to be held sacred, and implying that its present form is the only right one. Jaurès shows how property has changed in character from time to time, first meaning slavery or the entire right of one man over another. "Individuals owned them, disposed of them, forced them to labour, gave them away as presents, sold them or left them to their heirs." Then came the change to serfdom, which meant a more complex relation. The right over the serf's labour still existed, but the serf could not be disposed of so easily. He had a little more power over himself. Even now, however, every element of servitude has not disappeared in the position of the worker; the capitalist system