3. The DISTRIBUTIVE STATE is a state in which a determining number of the citizens, a number sufficient to colour the habits, laws and conditions of the whole society, is possessed of the means of production, as private property, divided among the various families. The word “distributive” is an ugly, long word, only used for want of a better; but the reason that we have to use such a tiresome word is an odd and paradoxical reason well worth grasping. The Distributive State is the natural state of mankind. Men are happiest in such conditions; they can fulfil their being best and are most perfectly themselves when they are owners and free. Now whenever you have natural and good conditions, not only in Economics but in any other aspect of life, it is very difficult to find a word for it. There is always a word ready for odd, unnatural conditions: but it is often difficult to find a word for conditions normal to our human nature. For instance: we have the words “dwarf” and “giant,” but we have no similar common, short word to describe people of ordinary stature. So it is with the Distributive State. We have to use an ugly new word, because men more or less take for granted this state of affairs in their minds, and have never thought out a special word for it. However, a name it must have; so let us agree to call that kind of society in which most men are _really_ free and dignified and full citizens, not only possessing rights before the law, but _owning_, so that they are at no other man’s orders but can live independently, “The Distributive State.” Then we have these three main types of Society within human experience: the Servile, the Capitalist, the Distributive. To put these three estates clearly before our minds, let us describe the kind of thing you would see in any one of the three. In the _Servile State_, as you travelled through the country, you would most ordinarily see working on the fields men who were the slaves of a master. That master would own the land and the seed, and the food and the houses, and the horses and ploughs and everything, and these men you would see working would be compelled to work for their master, and he would have the right by law to punish them if they did not.