prise may
develop to an extent or in directions which necessitate its
transformation to the category of essentially social properties. Hence,
it is not possible to give a list of things which would be socialized
and another list of things which would remain private property, but
perfectly possible to state the principle which must be the chief
determinant of the extent of socialization. With this principle in mind
it is fairly possible to sketch the outlines at least of the economic
development of the collectivist commonwealth; the conditions essential
to that stage of social evolution at which it will be possible and
natural to speak of capitalism as a past and outgrown stage, and of the
present as the era of Socialism.

Socialists, naturally, differ very materially upon this point. Probably,
however, an overwhelming majority of the leaders of Socialist thought in
Europe and this country would agree with the writer that it is fairly
probable that the economic structure of the new society will include at
least the following measures of socialization: (1) Ownership of all
natural resources, such as land, mines, forests, waterways, oil wells,
and so on; (2) operation of all the means of transportation and
communication other than those of purely personal service; (3) operation
of all industrial production involving large compound capitals and
associated labor, except where carried on by voluntary, democratic
cooeperation, with the necessary regulation by the state; (4)
organization of all labor essential to the public service, such as the
building of schools, hospitals, docks, roads, bridges, sewers, and the
like; the construction of all the machinery and plant requisite to the
social production and distribution, and of things necessary for the
maintenance of those engaged in such public services as the national
defense and all who are wards of the state; (5) a monopoly of the
monetary and credit functions, including coinage, banking, mortgaging,
and the extension of credit to private enterprise.

With these economic activities undertaken by the state, a pure democracy
differing vitally from all the class-dominated states of history,
private enterprise would by no means be excluded, but limited to an
extent making the exploitation of labor and public needs and interests
for private gain impossible. Socialism thus becomes the defender of
individual liberty, not its enemy.

V

As owner of the earth and all the major