Page:The fallacy of danger from great wealth.djvu/40

 some other part of the system of industry, and such loss is greater than any gain.

Attacks upon private property are not new. Socialists and communists and other advocates of different methods of holding and distributing wealth have had their little day before the present generation. The celebrated Brook Farm, for example, had a collection of really choice men and women, many of whom later became useful and famous in the world. But they could not endure the unnatural life of that select community. If socialism was not possible for them, it is much less possible for the mixed multitude. One can read of failure after failure of such communities, and there is little serious attempt in our day to revive them.

Present attacks are in a different form. Recently it has been suggested that taxes ought to be levied upon the rich for the purpose of taking away their wealth or a great part of it. We have also heard much to the effect that the government must "control" great wealth. Great industries are attacked in some instances apparently only because they are great. The mere greatness has seemed to alarm some people. Instead of