remedy short of direct action by the government,
we shall have made a great advance.

But with this goal reached, new questions at once present themselves.
Can the interference of the government with private industries be
defended? How shall government exercise its control, so as to protect
the people without infringing vested property rights and discouraging
private enterprise? It may be objected, too, that, while our preceding
discussion has fully proved the weakness of other methods of dealing
with monopoly, compared with that by the direct action of government, it
has not been shown that the latter is practicable, or that it would not
be likely to result in more harm than good to the people at large.

These questions are coming before the people in a thousand practical
forms. They are being fought over in courts and legislatures and
councils, and are destined to be fought over at the polls. How important
their right decision is, we have already seen. Let us make some attempt
to find what this right decision is.

In taking up first the question of the rights of private property
holders, we touch a point over which there is likely in the future to be
serious dispute. A certain faction vigorously contend that past
precedents are no ground on which to base future action, and that little
attention need be paid to the rights of private owners if the public
interest is at stake. A far stronger and more influential faction are
jealous of every thing which seems to question their right to hold and
use their property in whatever way they see fit. But certainly, if their
claims are just, they need not fear the result of that investigation
which every idea we have inherited from former generations has in these
days to receive. It would be beyond the scope of our investigation to
make any exhaustive study of this subject, but it is necessary to note
some of the important facts in connection with property rights as light
upon the question at issue.

In the first place, it must be conceded that the question is to be
decided upon its merits, and not by precedent. It is of little use for
one faction to show, as they can, that the idea of private property is
largely of modern growth; or for their opponents to prove, as they may,
that the progress of law and government has been continually toward
better protection of the rights of property. The question must be, on
what grounds of inherent right or public expediency is property hel