Chapter XVI

Property Versus Person

>>>>The rights of property have been so much extended that the rights
>>>>of the community have almost altogether disappeared, and it is hardly
>>>>too much to say that the prosperity and the comfort and the liberties of
>>>>a great proportion of the population has been laid at the feet of a small
>>>>number of proprietors, who neither toil nor spin.
>>>>-- Joseph Chamberlain

In a civilization frankly materialistic and based
upon property, not soul, it is inevitable that prop
erty shall be exalted over soul, that crimes against
property shall be considered far more serious than
crimes against the person. To pound one s wife to
a jelly and break a few of her ribs is a trivial offence
compared with sleeping out under the naked stars
because one has not the price of a doss. The lad
who steals a few pears from a wealthy railway cor
poration is a greater menace to society than the
young brute who commits an unprovoked assault
upon an old man over seventy years of age. While
the young girl who takes a lodging under the pre
tence that she has work commits so dangerous an
offence, that, were she not severely punished, she
and her kind might bring the whole fabric of prop
erty clattering to the ground. Had she unholily

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v?