Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-11-29
Property Versus Life.
h. DIR. FRANK CRANE.

There are TWO ancient instincts that
| stand eternally opposed. and yet are
| present i'm almost every human breast.
one is the desire to own things. the
| other is the desire to enjoy fullness of
| life.
All the struggle for wealth and all the
worship of place and power are merely
forms of the craving for exclusive pos
session. The extreme of this Is seen in
the breed of black oxen which for GEN.
turtles has been reserved for the sole
of the japanese imperial family. or the
cream colored horses that draw the state
carriage for English royalty.
The money worship OF the twentieth
century i'm America is akin to the ancient
religions: both are based upon the pleas
ure of eXclusiveness. The value OF a
million dollars is not i'm what this sum
will buy. but i'm the amount OF things
it prevents other people, equally posses
sion mad. from acquiring. SO the desir-
abieness of black oxen and cream coloTed
horses is not due TO their superiority, but
simply to the fact that no others except
royal folks can use them.
Against this ownership lust the sages
have engaged in an age-old war. care
full study of Jesus convinces us that the
first step towards fullness Of life is to get
rid of owning property
This is q hard saying, and l fear the
reader is left unconvinced. Yet, for those
who enjoy thinking, this is a point well
worth mulling over. on rainy days.
In Maeterlnck's Blue Bird" a highly
symboiical play i'm which the author art
fully hints his theory of life, he gives
list of the luxuries, which all disappear
before the advent of Light There is the
Luxury of Satisfied Vanity, the Luxury
of Knowing Nothing, the Luxury of I'm
derstanding Nothing, the Luxury of Do
ing Nothing. and many others, and in
the list is put the Luxury OF Being q
Landowner.
Another item to ruminate upon; every
utopian scheme, every ideal system or
society worked out by dreamers, has in
cluded more or less OF the abandonment
of private ownership. The Mosaic law
had its year Of justice when land titles
reverted: the early Christian church had
all things i'm common; Buddha found the
true light only when he had renounced
ownership: socialism, communism, n.-
tionalism, Henry Georgeism, Bellamyism.
the Roman Catholic hierarchy, almost
every ideal plan Of millennial conditions.
has, consciously or not, aimed at the
property feeling, aimed to put the posses
sion OF goods in the hands of the COM
monwealth and not of the individual
Doubtless this is impractical. fmpos-
sible. and all that: still it's worth think
ing about, as said, rainy day.
And does not the tendency Of rich men
to endow institutions. such as colleges.
societies, hospitals and the like. indi-
cate the feeling that the safest place FOR
large wealth units is in the hands of
company Of men, and not In one mans
hands?
Is it not unthinkable. the idea of put
ting the post Office and the public school
again in private management? Ii seems
impossible for society to move back
ward from what communism IL has.
however loudly We cry for private own
ership.
And, to revert to the soul, ii is doubt
full if the soul is to be freed. and given
a chance for its fullest individualistic
expression, until il is relieved from the
burden Of possessions.
The more We think Of il the more we
are haunted by the suspicion that there
was a thirtieth century truth lurking
i'm Jesus saying to the rich young man
"One thing thou lackest. Sell all thou
hast and give to the poor, and come, fol-
low me-
Stay, Please don't label this
socialism" When you label thing Won
quit thinking about it and begin to hate
it.
Besides. this is not socialism. It's
much worse. / won't tell you what ii Is.