the tendency to hoard wealth would largely
disappear. In the same way we must regard the possibilities of the
exploitation of man by man developing in the Socialist state, through
the wastefulness and improvidence of the one and the frugality,
abstinence, and cunning of the other, as slight. With the credit
functions entirely in the hands of the state, the improvident man would
be able to obtain credit upon the same securities as from a private
creditor, without extortion. Society would further secure itself against
the weakness and failure of the improvident by insuring all its members
against sickness, accident, and old age.

VIII

The administration of justice is necessarily a social function in a
democratic society. All juridical functions should be socialized in the
strict sense of being maintained at the social expense for the free
service of its citizens. Court fees, advocates' charges, and other
expenses incidental to the administration of justice in present society
are all anti-democratic and subversive of justice.

Finally, education is likewise a social necessity which society itself
must assume responsibility for. We have discovered that for
self-protection society must insist upon a certain minimum of education
for every child able to receive it; that it is too vital a matter to be
left to the option of parents or the desires of the immature child. We
have made a certain minimum of education compulsory and free; the
Socialist state would make a minimum--probably much larger than our
present minimum--compulsory, but it would also make _all_ education
free. From the first stages, in the kindergartens, to the last, in the
universities, education must be wholly free or equality of opportunity
cannot be realized. So long as a single barrier exists to prevent any
child from receiving all the education it is capable of profiting by,
democracy is unattained.

Whether the Socialist state could tolerate the existence of elementary
schools other than its own, such as privately conducted kindergartens,
religious schools, and so on, is by no means agreed upon by Socialists.
It is like the question of marriage, a matter which is wholly beyond the
scope of present knowledge. The future will decide for itself. There are
those who believe that the state would not content itself with refusing
to permit religious doctrines or ideas to be taught in the schools, but
would go further, and, as the protector of the child, gu