d into law or even
to be more powerful than law. So is it, as we have seen, with the idea
of inalienable rights in natural property that may be held even out of
all proportion to any proper use that the owners may be able to make of
it; and so is it with the idea of inviolable natural privileges to those
who control facilities that depend on public patronage for their
commercial success. The man himself may hold one kind of personal
morals, but the group of which he is a part may hold a very different
kind. It is our problem, in dealing with the resources of the earth, to
develop in the group the highest expression of duty that is to be found
in individuals.

The restraint of the group, or the correction of the group action, is
applied from the outside in the form of public opinion and in attack by
other groups. The correction does not often arise from within. The
establishing of many kinds of public-service bodies illustrates this
fact. It is the check of society on group-selfishness.

These remarks apply to the man who stands at the foundation of society,
next the earth, as well as to others, although he has not organized to
propagate the action of his class. The spoliation of land, the
insufficient regard for it, the trifling with it, is much more than an
economic deficiency. Society will demand either through the pressure of
public opinion, or by regularized action, that the producing power of
the land shall be safeguarded and increased, as I have indicated in an
earlier part of the discussion. It will be better if it comes as the
result of education, and thereby develops the voluntary feeling of
obligation and responsibility. At the same time, it is equally the
responsibility of every other person to make it possible for the farmer
to prosecute his business under the expression of the highest standards.

There is just now abroad amongst us a teaching to the effect that the
farmer cannot afford to put much additional effort into his crop
production, inasmuch as the profit in an acre may not depend on the
increase in yield, and therefore he does not carry an obligation to
augment his acre-yields. This is a weakening philosophy.

Undoubtedly there is a point beyond which he may not go with profit in
the effort to secure a heavy yield, for it may cost him too much to
produce the maximum; so it may not be profitable for a transportation
company to maintain the highest possible speed. With this economic
question I ha