Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/341

Rh inimical to the ruling powers in the monopoly and military-ridden countries of Europe. Rents, debts and taxes became unbearably high; that is why, in my opinion, there is now, in Europe, the greatest and most hellish war of all time.

The crowned heads of Europe, and particularly of Germany and Austria, saw economic and political disaster ahead. Their only hope of continuing in power lay through warfare and the capturing of surrounding territory on which tribute could be levied. In no other way could wholesale repudiation of debts be much longer avoided.

Discontent, widespread political discontent, and anarchy, are the forerunners of strife and wars, just as surely as happiness and contentment are the harbingers of peace and good-will.

Political discontent is the result of political or economic injustice. This injustice results from special privileges. If, then, we abolish privilege and establish political and economic justice, so that every man will have full political rights and will get and have no more and no less than his fair share of all that is produced, we shall have removed the cause of discontent and, therefore, as I believe, that condition of society that makes wars not only possible but probable.

As chimerical and Utopian as this proposition may sound, it is, in my opinion, not only eminently sound and practical, but will soon be the working formula for governmental action throughout the civilized world. It is, in fact, already dimly recognized by numerous of our most advanced governmental groups, such as those of New Zealand, Switzerland, Oregon and western Canada, and its principles are making some headway in the United States and Great Britain, and even in China, Japan and Mexico. The "New Freedom" of Woodrow Wilson means, and can mean nothing else than, the abolition of privileges and the establishment of political and economic justice. Gradually and not very slowly are our governments getting away from the feudal, hereditary class, and war-like theory of society and are being reorganized on the theory of equality, freedom and peace. This process may be expedited as a result of the present European cataclysm.

There are two distinct kinds of special privilege—political and economic. The first relates to franchise rights and the second to property rights. When one man has a greater voting power than another, he has a political privilege. When one has greater property rights than another, he has a property privilege. Both forms of privilege are conferred by, and can, therefore, be abolished by governments.

Some of the worst forms of privilege were abolished by the Revolution in England, in 1688, by the Revolution in France, in 1789, by the Revolution in America, in 1776, and by the Civil War in the United