And What Is Liberty, Whose Very Name

Law Cannot Organize Labor And Industry Without Organizing Injustice.

It Is Not True That The Legislator Has Absolute Power Over Our Persons And Property. The Existence Of Persons And Property Preceded The Existence Of The Legislator, And His Function Is Only To Guarantee Their Safety.

Now, Legal Plunder Can Be Committed In An Infinite Number Of Ways. Thus We Have An Infinite Number Of Plans For Organizing It: Tariffs, Protection, Benefits, Subsidies, Encouragements, Progressive Taxation, Public Schools, Guaranteed Jobs, Guaranteed Profits, Minimum Wages, A Right To Relief, A Right To The Tools Of Labor, Free Credit, And So On, And So On.

[socialists Claim] That We Reject Fraternity, Solidarity, Organization, And Association; And They Brand Us With The Name Of Individualists. We Can Assure Them That What We Repudiate Is Not Natural Organization, But Forced Organization. It Is Not Free Association, But The Forms Of Association That They Would Impose Upon Us. It Is Not Spontaneous Fraternity, But Legal Fraternity. It Is Not Providential Solidarity, But Artificial Solidarity, Which Is Only An Unjust Displacement Of Responsibility. Socialism . . . Confounds Government And Society.

You Compare The Nation To A Parched Piece Of Land And The Tax To A Life-giving Rain. So Be It. But You Should Also Ask Yourself Where This Rain Comes From, And Whether It Is Not Precisely The Tax That Draws The Moisture From The Soil And Dries It Up. You Should Also Ask Yourself Further Whether The Soil Receives More Of This Precious Water From The Rain Than It Loses By The Evaporation?