wing statement by one of the ablest exponents of this
doctrine will explain what this claim signifies--

"We claim an equal right to this 'inheritance of mankind,' which by our
institutions a minority is at present enabled to monopolize, and which
it does monopolize and use in order to extort thereby an unearned
increment; and this inheritance is true capital. We mean thereby the
principle, potentiality, embodied in the axe, the spade, the plough, the
steam-engine, tools of all kinds, books or pictures, bequeathed by
thinkers, writers, inventors, discoverers, and other labourers of the
past, a social growth to which all individual claims have lapsed by
death, but from the advantages of which the masses are virtually shut
out for lack of means. The very best definition of government, even that
of to-day, is that it is the agency of society which procures title to
this treasure, stores it up, guards and gives access to it to every one,
and of which all must make the best use, first and foremost by
education."

The conscious socialist is he who, recognizing in theory the nature of
this social property inherent in all forms of capital, aims consciously
at getting possession or control of it for society, in order to solve
the problem of poverty by making the wage-earner not only a joint-owner
of the social property in land but also in capital.

In other words, it signifies that the community refuses to sanction any
absolute property on the part of any of its members, recognizing that a
large portion of the value of each individual's work is due, not to his
solitary efforts, but to the assistance lent by the community, which has
educated and secured for the individual the skill which he puts in his
work; has allowed him to make use of certain pieces of the material
universe which belongs to society; has protected him in the performance
of his work; and lastly, by providing him a market of exchange, has
given a social value to his product which cannot be attributed to his
individual efforts. In recognition of the co-operation of society in all
production of wealth, the community claims the right to impose such
conditions upon the individual as may secure for it a share in that
social value it has by its presence and activity assisted to create. The
claim of the theoretic socialist is that society by taxing or placing
other conditions upon the individual as capitalist or workman is only
interfering to secure her own. Since it