the part of an overwhelming majority of those born poor, they hold
themselves cheap in countless ways, and they accept as natural the use
of wealth for wanton pleasure and purposes absolutely mischievous, they
despair of effort in the public service, and find their only hope in
gambling, sharp greedy trading, or in base acquiescences to the rich.
The good New Republican can only regard our present system of Property
as a terribly unsatisfactory expedient and seek with all his power to
develop a better order to replace it.

There are certain lines of action in this matter that cannot but be
beneficial, and it is upon these that the New Republican will, no
doubt, go. One excellent thing, for example, would be to insist that
beyond the limits of a reasonable amount of personal property, the
community is justified in demanding a much higher degree of efficiency
in the property-holder than in the case of the common citizen, to
require him or her to be not only sane but capable, equal mentally and
bodily to a great charge. The heir to a great property should possess a
satisfactory knowledge of social and economic science, and should have
studied with a view to his great responsibilities. The age of twenty-
one is scarcely high enough for the management of a great estate, and
to raise the age of free administration for the owners of great
properties, and to specify a superannuation age would be a wise and
justifiable measure. [Footnote: Something of the sort is already
secured in France by the power of the _Conseil de Famille_ to
expropriate a spendthrift.] There should also be a possibility of
intervention in the case of maladministration, and a code of offences--
habitual drunkenness, for example, assaults of various kinds--offences
that established the fact of unfitness and resulted in deposition,
might be drawn up. It might be found desirable in the case of certain
crimes and misdemeanours, to add to existing penalties the transfer of