Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 80.djvu/618

614 may hope, however, that the game of life will become so interesting that it will not be necessary to play for stakes.

17. ''The homes and tools of production to he owned by those who use them. The excess wealth to he owned by the locality, the state and the nation. The enterprises to he operated in the manner that gives the greatest economic efficiency and social welfare.'' The homes should be owned by those who live in them—tenements and apartments, as well as city and country houses. Taxation of homes should be adjusted so that homes of average value are exempt or lightly taxed, while those of greater value are subject to a progressive tax, becoming prohibitive for palaces or estates. The tools of production should he owned by those who use them. The industrial slavery which has resulted from the passing from individual production to group production can be abolished only by group ownership. The group might be the community, but when possible it should be those who work in the factory, cultivate the farm, sail the ship, etc. The ownership and conduct of industries should be vested where the maximum economic efficiency and conditions most favorable to those who work will result. We all agree that the nation should own and manage the postoffice, the states the roads, the cities the water supply. The extension of state ownership and conduct is entirely a matter of economic efficiency and social welfare. The state should own large natural resources and enterprises, which by the nature of things are monopolies or can most advantageously be conducted as such. The nation should now conduct the telegraph and express service, probably the business of insurance; it or the states should own, but probably not conduct the railways. The states should own the mines and water power; the cities the means of transportation and illumination and the telephones; but at present they can probably be conducted most advantageously by private enterprise. Under existing conditions of human nature place must be given for competition and savings, and an official bureaucracy must be avoided.

18. Education and research to he promoted to the limits permitted hy the resources of the state. It is the great triumph of our industrial democracy that it has supported free education as has no other nation. But we have still to learn what kind of education is of most worth and to extend it to every individual at every age. Together with the bearing and rearing of children, the greatest service to mankind is creation in science and art and their useful applications. In both cases production has been left to fundamental instincts; but these should be reinforced in all possible ways. Payment should be made for services to society no less than for services to individuals, for which only the present competitive system provides. We admit that research must be paid for by society; university chairs are given as rewards, research institutions are endowed, the government undertakes scientific work.