In an age of aggressive commercialism and material aggrandizement, questions concerning rights of possession and of property can but acquire great prominence, and it is not surprising, therefore, that to-day, as never before, many claims as to "Mine" and "Thine" are being vigorously challenged. This challenge is world-wide, insistent, vital. It is alike indifferent to customs, to traditions, to authorities, and to legal privilege. It addresses itself at once to the fundamental, the ultimate, and says, Show me the ethical ground of your asserted right of control and of appropriation! From every part of the world, from every level of civilization, and from every economic condition, the voice of this interrogation is being heard, and its demand is uniformly for "the square thing." Not infrequently it is but the assumed mask of a jealous avarice, the threatening brawl of that shiftless incompetency which would rob honest endeavor of its reward, and fatten through the sweat of another's brow. Quite as frequently, however, it is the appeal of a long-suffering people, the burden-bearers of the nations are crying unto their God,—and when this is the case, then violent or peaceful revolution is at hand and things are on the eve of betterment.
The sense of individual rights is, for the masses, a product of slow growth. It is subject to serious educational distortion, and may remain latent for a long period; but when once awakened it never sleeps again. Its primary and normal appearance is in the universal consciousness of a right to one's self, a right which is often asserted quite as vehemently by the boy as by the man, and more intelligently ofttimes, because more intuitively. It is the right to life and to the privilege of the pursuit of happiness, and it is recognized, explicitly or implicitly, in all laws and all constitutions that are worthy of the name.
The right to one's self being conceded, it is manifest that each has a right to the largest and best self he can realize. If, without trenching upon the rights of others, he can produce an article, be it a telephone or a treatise, with which he is able to render a larger service to humanity, the vantage constitutes a part of his larger self, and is included under the right to that self. This expansible right of undisturbed self-enlargement and possession is thus seen to inhere in creation,—the only creation of which man is capable; viz., the production or improvement of utilities, the realization of the best, the worthiest, the most useful selfhood. It is also seen that the possession of this right stimulates and measures legitimate growth and righteous endeavor; that it abridges no man's opportunity, while indefinitely enlarging and enriching every man's privilege and the welfare of all.
