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Preface To Part I

THE MOTIVES.

This book was written in the hope of doing a little something to develop in young people the character of mind which is proof against political quackery — especially the quackery which proposes immediate cures by legislation for the abiding ills resulting from human weakness and ignorance. Since the Civil War, America has been cursed by such proposals probably more than any other country ever was. What beneficent institutions we have, have all been evolved through the long and painful struggles which have at the same time evolved character and morality. If Nature's ways are plain in anything, they are plain in showing that it is only for such prices that she yields such rewards. And yet of all our hard-bought institutions, there is scarcely one, from a stable currency down to the very right of accumulating property, that has lately escaped a strong attempt to overthrow it, and to substitute for it some invention of the moment — or rather some invention bearing a name of the moment, but being really a form of some protean error as old as history.

As these errors all propose to get along faster than Evolution, they would of course be impossible to a mind habitually recognizing the law of Evolution. Yet that law has not even been named, so far as I can recall at the moment, in any of the American elementary books on civic subjects that I have been able to get hold of.*

* There is abundant illustration of Evolution in Mr. Fiske's "Civil Government in the United States," but I believe the word is not even mentioned, perhaps because of the theological prejudices prevailing so far back in the dark ages as ten years ago.

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This may not in all cases be due to neglect, but sometimes to the conviction that it is useless to present the subject to the young. My view is more hopeful, and this book is, perhaps more than anything else, an attempt to saturate young people's minds with the realization that social institutions are evolutions, and therefore (I) that they can no more be modified by laws or votes or any other manifestations of human will than plants or animals can; but (II) that they can be modified as much as plants or animals can, tho only by the same means — careful study of their life-histories and habits, and cautious efforts in accordance with the proved conditions of their well-being; and (III) that they will be vitiated or destroyed by forced or ignorant treatment.

This is why I have spent so much time over such topics as early land-tenure and the relations of status and contract — in short, over the archaeology of the subject. I want to give the pupil a consciousness that enduring institutions are growths, and do not spring up responsive to any magician's wand, be it in the hands of Mr. Altgeld, Mr. Bryan, or even so good a man as Henry George — I want to accustom him, when any method is presented for his vote, to ask : Has this thing roots ?

A second motive for the book was to place before American youths at least one text-book that should not claim that our constitutions — state and national, present the final word of human wisdom. Perhaps the admission of notorious defects will bring upon the book charges of lack of patriotism, yet it is not written in a pessimistic spirit. The pessimist generally despairs because achievements fall short of ideals: the wise man compares, rather, what he and his have achieved, with what others have achieved. Our government may not be the best, but we are too near the best to despair. But if our government is ideally good already, why bother to teach anything about it ?: it can take care of itself; and in fact, until lately, our people have generally been taught to leave it to do so.

A third motive of the book has been to get some teaching on our constantly recurring questions of money,

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vii land-tenure, distribution and taxation, into places where Economics are not usually taught, and also to get into some places where Economics are taught, a fuller treatment of those four topics than is usually given.

A fourth intention has been to spread a just conception of Contract. The absence of such a conception is at the root of most of the labor troubles, not to speak of private breaches of faith. Those who realize the importance of the subject will not be impatient with the rather protracted and abstract discussion that prefaces the treatment of the laws relating to it.

In time the pupil will, as a voter, need to make up his mind on 'many hard subjects — so hard, some of them, that for his conclusions, or anybody's, to be taken seriously, seems almost ridiculous. But I am not sure that just that fact is not the most important of all that I want him to appreciate — the fact that in broad civic questions, the wisest man can only feel his way — as Lincoln did; and that of all pests for the voter to avoid, the chief is the man with a scheme — be it silverism, greenbackism, grangerism, socialism, communism, anarchism, or (I am tempted to add) protectionism and militarism, but sometimes there are circumstances justifying these two.

This attitude regarding a scheme may seem inconsistent with my close approach to recommending one regarding taxation. But that approach is only incidental to an effort to trace the indications of Evolution. If our men of schemes would honestly restrict themselves to such efforts, they would be less dangerous.

THE METHOD.

One of the most intelligent women of my acquaintance lately read one of the best books of my acquaintance— Professor Cooley's little pamphlet on Competition, and calmly told me that she had not found in it anything new except one point, which she questioned, and had noticed, on the margin, that I too had questioned. I asked: " Why, don't you think so-and-so and so-and-so are new ? " She had not noticed one of them: her head viii

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had been full of her boy who was wild to go to the army in the Philippines, and she had simply read the words, and had not read the thoughts at all. Now we all, especially the young and undisciplined, do more or less of that, especially in subjects which are somewhat abstract and new, as these must be to most pupils.

That is why I have held to the method of question and answer. If that method could not have been used, I hardly should have dared attempt this sort of book, much less continue it after realizing its difficulties. Dialogue is more apt than consecutive statement, to help a pupil to think, to bring his attention up by a round turn when it begins to flag, and to drive in and clinch many a point which, under ordinary exposition, might not make a scratch. Moreover, there has been growing in me a general conviction that for instruction of the young in subjects touching so closely the new and strange fields of philosophy, the method of Socrates and Plato deserves better than the desuetude into which it has fallen.

Of course the Socratic method was not mere inane catechism. Aiming at first at very young pupils, I started with that ; but as I went on, I became convinced both that nothing worth teaching on the subject could be taught to very young pupils, and that a little expansion of the catechetical method might not be a bad thing for older ones.

Yet I know that I risk shipwreck by using even this approach to the Socratic method: the more intelligent teachers are, the more they prefer to make their own questions. But they will have plenty of chance with this book, if any of them use it ; for no sane being would follow my questions: they were not made for that purpose, but to prevent the reader from sliding over the points without their taking hold. Some of the questions need questioning- upon as much as the answers do. I am hopeful, too, that the pupil will prepare his lesson better with the aid of the questions, and that so the hardest part of the teacher's work will be lessened by what sometimes seems to have been the hardest part of mine.

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In addition to being out of fashion, the method has the disadvantage of making the book appear longer than it really is : for much space is inevitably given tip to unfilled lines, and some to questions necessary only for the method's sake.

As I have written conversations, I have followed so good an example as George Eliot's by representing the usual colloquial abbreviations. If dread of dulness has led to an excess of other colloquialisms, I think I can promise that the book will be found dull enough in spite of them.

I have also hoped to add life, as well as significance, even at the cost of interruptions, by frequent comparisons of early conditions with present ones.

I have not hesitated to repeat — even to repeat often, where the topic seemed worth iterating or presenting from several sides. The significance of the matters here treated is not as plain as that of the multiplicationtable, which needs to be presented but once.

I have not taken quite the pains to choose simple words that I would if writing a lecture for the same pupils: they have dictionaries, and should be led to the habit of using them. Regarding some words, however, I have had something to say which the dictionaries do not say in the same way, and the briefer dictionaries do not say at all.

In spite of a feeling against the name Civics, I have chosen it rather than Politics because it is wider in its usual connotations.

THE MATERIAL.

From the unlimited range of topics embraced in civic relations, how to select the little bookful best adapted to the needs of the average American youth, is a hard problem. Probably the authors of some of the other text-books would be more puzzled to find good reasons for my selections, than I am for theirs. They generally give much more attention than I do to the anatomy of the government — state minutely all the offices, national,

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state and local, and not only the qualifications legally required for them, but even for voting for them. Now most of these things, so far as they affect a vote, the voter, as he grows up, is pretty sure to learn from the world; and so far as they do not affect his vote, they must be relegated to the vast domain of useless knowledge — unless indeed he aspire to be, as a politician, something more than a mere voter. The few boys, however, who have this spark of aspiration, get it from the altar of genius, even if it be genius for nothing higher than running a primary : and genius teaches itself.

A man who tries to judge broad questions by details is not going to get anywhere: they involve too many details : he can compass but a small part of them, and is in danger of getting the wrong ones and missing the right ones. Broad questions can only be judged on broad principles. Then, it might be asked : Why expect the man of ordinary attainments to judge them at all ? I never have been able to find out why; but inasmuch as a vote has been given him, that responsibility has been laid upon him, whether he is fit for it or not. Well, with a fatuity equal perhaps to that which gave him the vote, I have tried in this little book to give him some notion of the broad principles on which the vote should be used. If Ethics — the profoundest and vaguest of all sciences, is taught in some shape from the cradle, is it plain that problems of Civics need be entirely neglected in all shapes, during adolescence ? Frankly, I do not expect to teach very much about them : but I do hope to give such a notion of how some sound principles look from the outside, that the voter can tell whether they are recognized or not by those who seek his suffrages, and give his vote accordingly.

And yet I am far from believing that all of even this little book can have much meaning before it is illuminated by experience. I do believe, however, that much here which may be memorized as little more than dogmatic statement, will gain meaning from day to day, until it becomes significant ; and I have even some hope that if the desperate experiment fails with the young,

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xi the labor may be rewarded by clarifying to some maturer minds a grave problem or two, through the same courses of thought (even if borrowed thought) that have, I assume, clarified them to my own.

It may seem inconsistent with the foregoing talk about broad principles, that the book includes some groups of such specific rules of the Municipal Law as a layman ought to know. Not only, however, do I think that their value makes them a justifiable part of the only teaching of civic relations that most of my hoped-for readers are apt to get, but I have tried to put even such matter in such a way that it will do its share in impressing the main lesson of the book — the evolution of all the elements of social order, especially the inevitably imperfect evolution of some of the most important elements— " the glorious uncertainties of the law."

The original design included a second part, on the Evolution of Government, to be issued in the same volume with the first. The first part, however, as is usually the case, outran expectation; and as it has a certain completeness in itself, and is long enough to take up the time given in the majority of classes to the subject, and especially as it contains most of the 44 practical " matter contemplated in the entire scheme, it has been thought best to publish it without waiting for the completion of the second part; and perhaps to let the completion of that part depend upon the reception accorded to the very uncertain experiment as tried in the present volume.

Although in this paTt the evolution of several institutions has been considered, the evolution of government in general has not. The intention for the second part, has been not only to give an account of that, but also, as a natural concomitant, to give a fuller idea of the structure of government, tho substituting for much of the detail usually given in books for the same grade of pupils, some of the criticism and suggestion usually avoided.

I let the foregoing paragraph stand to emphasize this one. Since that one was written, I have reread Mr.Fiske's xii

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44 Civil Government in the United States," and I realize more fully than I did in my first reading that it is in many respects what, while writing my first part, I have come to intend my second part to be. If I ever carry out that intention, it will be because of the other respects, and especially because of a desire to reach minds less mature than perhaps Mr. Fiske's book can reach.

Meanwhile, and perhaps afterwards (if there ever should be an afterwards), Mr. Fiske's book is the best one I know to supplement what I have tried to do here.

AUTHORITIES.

In addition to some of the older authorities which are already matters of course, I am specially indebted to the following, most of which are rapidly becoming matters of course, if not so already. I let the list grow larger than is usual in acknowledgments, in order that it may serve as a brief bibliography for the use of teachers. — The late David A. Wells's 44 Recent Economic Changes " and 44 Theory and Practice of Taxation," * Professor Mayo-Smith's 44 Economics and Statistics," President Hadley's 44 Economics," Professor Adams's 44 Finance," Professor Daniels's 44 Elements of Public Finance," Professor Seligman's books on Taxation, Mr. Shearman's 44 Rational Taxation," Judge Baldwin's 44 Modern Political Institutions," Mr. Mallock's 44 Labor and the Popular Welfare " and 44 Classes and Masses," Professor Goodnow's 44 Municipal Problems," Doctor Shaw's books on Municipal Government, the valuable quarterly on 44 Municipal Affairs " published by the Reform Club, especially Dr.

* Two real books that ought to be read by every human being old enough and civilized enough to understand them; this, too, in spite of the fact that the latter was largely written during the lamented author's last illness, and therefore lacks the terseness and vigor of his earlier work. It appeared after the chapters on taxation in this present volume were written, but it was still possible to inject from that work much of whatever good they may contain.

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Maltbie's number on " Municipal Functions," and Mr. Godkin's " Problems of Democracy " as well as The Nation from the time he founded it. A word of acknowledgment is also due to the excellent articles on Civic questions in Johnson's Cyclopaedia.

Among elementary books for pupils, I have found help in Mr. Raleigh's admirable little " Elementary Politics " (which, unfortunately for us, was written for England), Professor Robinson's " Elementary Law," Professor Bolles's u Commercial Law," the summary of Municipal Law in Mr. Young's " Government Class Book," Mr. Fiske's "Civil Government in the United States," (tho its field is very different from that of this volume,) and in several features of Mr. Martin's "Civil Government." His summary of the " Establishment of Liberty in England " (of course not touched in my present volume), seems to me a little gem, tho possibly rather condensed for the young pupil. I have also found Mr. Ford's " American Citizen's Manual " and Mr. Bartlett's " What I ought to know about the Government of my Country " handy for quick reference. If I have done what I have attempted, as well as these authors have done the very different things which they attempted, I ought to be content.

My hearty thanks are due to Mr. Theodore Neu for rare intelligence, interest, and suggestiveness in reading the proofs and preparing the index.

I am also under very great obligations to Professor Goodnow for reading the proofs, and for calling attention to errors. Of course he is not responsible for those which remain. I shall be similarly grateful to any one pointing out any of them.

March i, 1901.

Preface to Part I page v

PRELIMINARY SURVEY.

Chapter I. — Functions and Influence of Government.. i

Sec. i. Illustrations. 2. Government's Functions Classified. 3. Protection of Rights. 4. Promotion of Convenience. 5. Taxation. 6. Some General Results of Bad Government. 7. Responsibility for Bad Government. 8. Good Government requires Effort. 9. Extent of Government's Influence. 10. Money.

Geographical Divisions of Government.

Sec. 11. Each Citizen Lives under Several Governments. 12. Overlappings of Local Governments. 13. Functions of Local Government. 14. Of County Government. 15. Of State Government. 16. Of National Government.

Departments of Government.

Sec. 17. Legislative, Judicial, Executive. 18. Sources of Government. 19. The Three Departments Illustrated in Civil and Criminal Suits. 20. Legislative, Judicial and Executive Functions in Local Government. 21. The Functions in Counties. 22. The Three Functions in States. 23. The Same Functions in the Nation.

Chapter IV. — Rights to Liberty 25

Sec. 31. Limits of Liberty. 32. Barbarian Liberty and Civilized Liberty. 33. Duties Balancing Rights to Liberty. 34. State's Right to Restrain Liberty. 35. " Eternal Vigilance." 36. Constitutional Defences; Bill of Rights. 37. The Man with a Pull. 38. Opinion. 39. Laws Threatening Liberty.

Chapter V. — Rights to the Pursuit of Happiness 34

Sec. 40. A General Name for Many Rights. 41. Restricted, as All Rights are. 42. The Right to Work. 43. Trade-Union Rules against Violence. 44. The Boycott. 45. Duties Conditioning the Right to Work. 46. Society's Alleged Duty to Provide Work. 47. The English Poor Law and the French Workshops. 48. Public Charity. 49. The Right to Work Involves Rights of Property and Exchange. 50. Limited, like all other Rights. 51. The Rights to Work, to Property and of Exchange Involve Rights to Contract, 52. and to Reputation. 53. State does not Furnish Means to Happiness, but only Rights to Work for them. 54. Evolution of Property Rights. 55. Their Sources — Raw Material, Labor, Ability.

Chapter VI. — Rights to Real Property 45

Sec. 56. Land and Sea the Source of Raw Material. 57. Early Conditions. 58. Communistic Ownership. 59. The Feudal System. 60. Why an Advance on Communism. 61. When Established. 62. Evolution of Hereditary Feudal Relations. 63. Guardianship; Disposal by Marriage. 64. Domesday Book. 65. Evolution of Private Ownership. 66. Scutage. 67. Leases for Labor. 68. Money Commutation of Labor Leases. 69. Land- Tenure in America. 70. Land-Tenure Similar among All Peoples of the Same Grade. 71. Private Property in Land a Great Stimulus to Ability. 72. The Strong Man's Chance not at the Expense of the Weak. 73. Proportion of Private Owners Increases with Civilization. 74. Landowners the Best Guardians of Government, 75. and the Most Thrifty Citizens. 76. Exaggerated Claims from the Foregoing Advantages. 77. The Right to a Home. 78. The Right to a Living. 79. Land Valueless to All but Able Men. 80. Proposed Reversion to Government Ownership. 81. Landowners Support the Government under Either System. 82. Some Advocate Robbery, which would Disappoint them. 83. The Only Way to Help the Poor is to Help them Help themselves. 84. The Moral Arguments — Original General Ownership. 85. Attempt to Remedy Injustice some-

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xvii times only Increases it. 86. Performing Duties of Ownership Breeds Rights of Ownership. 87. Rights in Improvements. 88. The Unearned Increment. 89. Not Characteristic of Land alone.

90. All Schemes to Abolish Private Ownership are Retrogressive.

91. Private Property in Land of Universal Importance. 92. Rights in Land Limited like All Rights. 93. Rights of Eminent Domain.

Chapter VII.— Law of Rights in Real Property 67

Sec. 94. The Law in General. 95. Real Estate and Personal Property. 96. Laws Protecting Ownership. 97. Damages for Trespass. 98. Right of Ejectment. 99. Laws affecting Transfers. 100. Livery of Seisin. 101. Statute of Frauds requiring Written Evidence of Transfer. 102. Contracts of Sale. 103. Deeds. 104. Seal and its Effect. 105. Essentials of Deeds. 106. Dower and Courtesy. 107. Value of Established Forms. 108. Registry; Title-Search. 109. Judgments, no. Statutes of Limitations ; Prescriptions, in. Title Insurance. 112. Clouds on Title. 113. Delivery of Deed. 114. Mortgages. 115. Bonds. 116. Leases. 117. Rights of Third Parties regarding Registry. 118. Effect of Fraud. 119. Land Differs from Negotiable Papers. 120. Technical Meaning of " Estate " in Land. 121. Rights under Estates for Years. 122. Repairs. 123. Subletting. 124. Terminability ; Notice. 125. Rights under Life Estate. 126. Under Estates at Will. 127. Appurtenances. 128. Party Walls. 129. Land beside Roads. 130. Land by Water. 131. Restrictions. 132. The Torrens System.

Chapter VIII. — Rights in Personal Property 90 Their Evolution

Sec. 133. Product Varies with Ability, 134. even the Product of the Lowest Laborers. 135. Difficulty of Adjusting Rights between Ability and Labor. 136. General Functions of Ability. 137. " Finds Work." 138. Increases Product. 139. Saves Waste. 140. Detailed Functions of Ability. 141. Prophesying Wants. 142. Raising Capital. 143. At the Works. 144. Outside of the Works. 145. Popular View of the Enterpriser. 146. Division of Labor. 147. Few Men can Conduct Large Enterprises. 148. Ability Outside of Tangible Production. 149. " The Great Industry " Cheapens Product. 150. Enterpriser's Income not at Expense of Labor. 151. Invention and Evolution. 152. Labor Abounds in Poorest Countries. 153. The Enterpriser must Pay Good Wages, 154. often in Bad Times. 155. Where Ability's Reward does Come from. 156. Why Returns of Labor are Nearly Fixed. 157. Why those of Ability Vary Widely. 158. Capital's Return more like Labor's than Ability's. 159. Ability cannot Waste Time and Strength in Grinding Labor or Capital. 160. Capital and Labor Powerless without Ability. 161, The xviii

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Rates o£ Division. 162. Enterprisers generally Get Less than Nothing. 163. Handworkers of Special Ability. 164. Property not all Tangible. 165. Comparative Profits in Different Fields of Ability. 166. Why so Few have Great Ability. 167. Discovery of the Foregoing Truths. 168. Ability Increasing. 169. Is Inequality of Fortune Right ? 170. Evils have their Uses.

Chapter IX. — Rights in Personal Property — Continued.. 111 Quack Schemes for Distributing them more Evenly. Sec. 171. Cause of Poverty. 172. Scamping Work. 173. Keeps the Scamper Out of Jobs. 174. He Gets only One Profit but Pays Many. 175. Cannot long Receive Good Wages unless Earned. Piecework. 176. Pretending and Forbidding Labor. 177. Destruction as an Aid to Production. 178. Only One Class of Many Schemes to Get Something out of Nothing. 179. People generally Consider only Income, not Outgo. 180. Anarchism. 181. Badness of Present Laws does not Prove Goodness of Proposed Changes. 182. Communism. 183. One Thousand Dollars Apiece. 184. Sudden Wealth a Doubtful Blessing. 185. Would Last but a Little While, 186. and then there would be Less than Now. 187. Meaningless without Robbery. 18S. Many Kinds of Wealth cannot be Divided without being Destroyed. 189. Socialism. 190. Wages could not Rise. 191. Impracticability of Political Management. 192. Losses to Education, Charity and Liberty. 193. Futility of Attempting it by Eminent Domain. 194. Effect on Laborers. 195. A Premium on Laziness. 196. Would Destroy Freedom. 197. The Unemployed. 198. Forcing Ability. 199. When Possible, will be Needless.

Chapter X. — Rights in Personal Property — Continued.. 129 Reasonable Methods for Diffusing them more Evenly. Sec. 200. Diffusion of Wealth Depends on Diffusion of Ability. 201. Diffusion Increasing. 202. " Rich Richer, and Poor Poorer " is not True in Civilized Countries. 203. Increase in Wages and Decrease in Other Prices Come largely from Capital's Share, 204. and from Labor's Increased Ability, 205. and from Diffusion of Honesty, 206. which makes Everybody's Money go Farther, 207. especially Honesty in Government, 208. and from Creating and Supplying New Wants, 209. mainly through Labor-Saving Machinery, 210. which, tho of Some Harm at the Outset, 211. is but Seldom of any Now. 212. A Man Secures Wealth Himself by Forehandedness against Hard Times, 213. in which Prices of Necessities Tend to Keep up, while those of Luxuries Fall. 214. By Cultivating Ability. 215. Poverty Seldom Blameless. 216. Most Rich Men Born Poor. 217. Happiness not Dependent on Wealth. 218. Wise Philanthropy Necessary to Civilization. 219. Should Continue on Present Lines. 220.

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Should Help only those that Cannot Work. 221. Benevolence does not Prevent Accumulating Wealth. 222. Province of the Law. 223. Cannot Discriminate between People. 224. Cannot Use Wealth Wisely. 225. Must not Paralyze Ability. 226. Duties of Wealth. 227. In Politics. 228. In Charity and Education or even in Sport. 229. America's Rich Men peculiarly Oblivious of Public Duty. 230. Useless Rich Man a "Dependent."

Chapter XI. — Rights of Property as Capital 153

Sec. 231. As much Entitled to Government's Protection as Wages. 232. A Man who can Use Money can Hire it. 233. What Capital Consists in. 234. Rent. 235. Interest. 236. Usury. 237. Laws against it Useless. 238. Disappearing from Enlightened Communities. 239. Hard on Borrowers. 240. Needs for Associating Capital. 241. Incorporations. 242. As Affecting Liability. 243. Perpetuity. 244. Stocks and Bonds. 245. Large Corporations not all Owned by the Rich. 246. Irresponsibility of Corporations. 247. Very Small Corporations Undesirable. 248. Why Labor Hates Corporations. 249. Danger of Monopoly.

Chapter XII. — Rights under Competition, Monopoly,

and Industrial Trusts 164

Sec. 250. Rights of and to Competition. 251. Hated by the Lazy and Stupid. 252. Benefits Illustrated : in Domestic Convenience; 253. in Locomotion; 254. in Commercial Traveling; 255. in Regulation of Prices, through Demand and Supply. 256. Minor Exceptions. 257. Evils in Competition. 258. Suppressing Incapacity not among them, 259. nor is Poverty; 260. but Wastefulness is. 261. Public Seldom Gains by Wasteful Competition. 262. Trusts. 263. Their Economy. 264. Their Monopoly Sometimes Causes its Own Cure, 265. and Sometimes does Not. 266. Property Rights do not always Include Monopoly Rights. 267. State Control: 268. by Fixing Prices; 269. by Eminent Domain. 270. Danger of Government Tyranny. 271. Effect of Great Aggregations of Capital on Legislation. 272. Socialism as a Remedy. 273. The Only Remedies.

Chapter XIII. — Rights in Natural Monopolies 177

Sec. 274. Some Things are Inevitably Monopolies, 275. but the Earth not one of them. 276. Why Railroads are Apt to be Monopolies. 277. Why they Need Government Authorization, 278. and should Pay for it. 279. So with Other Facilities. 280. Those in America being generally Grabbed by the Politicians. 281. Should not be Sold Outright. 282. How Natural Monopolies become Personal Property.

Chapter XIV. — Law of Rights in Personal Property 182

Sec. 283. Differences between Law of Personal Property and

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that of Land. 284. Personal Property Seldom Registered. 285. Important Kinds Passed by Endorsement. 286. Can Take One's Own wherever Found, and in Some Cases by Force. 287. Ownership of Some Kinds can be Lost without Neglect. 288. Can be Mortgaged without Registry if in Mortgagee's Possession. 289. Pledges. 290. Personal Property the Great Field of Contract.

Chapter XV. — Rights under Contract 186

Contract as an Element in Civilization.

Sec. 291. Difference between Contract Rights and Property Rights. 292. Contract, Agreement, Bargain. 293. Contract Possible only to the Free. 294. Contract an Education in Freedom.

295. Under Contract, only Able Employers can Secure Labor.

296. Status versus Contract. 297. Contract, Freedom and Private Property all Evolve Together. 298. As they Evolve, Militarism Declines, 299. because it is a Form of Status. 300. Fighting versus Producing. 301. Illustrated in Nations of To-day. 302. Why Private Property is Essential to Advance beyond Status. 303. Civilization and Trade Go Together. 304. Breaking Contracts and Advocating Socialism.