SUPPOSE, now, that we had such a social order as we have
been praying for in the preceding chapters, --an order in
which justice and economic democracy prevailed, in which
all unearned incomes were stopped, in which men had the
right to a living as they now have the right to life, and in
which the chances of prosperity and distinction were open
to all on fairly equal terms. How, then, would these free
and equal men act together in their economic relations?
Should they compete? Should they coöperate? Should
the bulk of productive work be done by small economic
units in open competition, diversified, perhaps, by the
public management of some great natural monopolies?
Or would the christianizing of the social order call for the
creation of a great coöperative system of production, diver-
sified by small and scattered sections of private and com-
petitive effort?

The former was the ideal taught by the old political
economy, and has been the inspiration of many of the finest
upper-class champions of democracy and human rights.
It takes its most militant and influential form to-day in
the philosophy of the Single Tax, and we could ill spare
the brave spirit and indoctrinating power of that move-
ment from our public life. ¹ But it seems to me to ex-
haust its great moral force in the opposition against un-
just privilege, and to lack constructive faith. In the noble

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