Even in the most civilized, progressive lands man is dependent on nature. The constant thought of much the largest portion of mankind is for the procurement of those things that will sustain, prolong and render their lives more comfortable. The vast majority of men are closely bound to the soil and their whole life is a struggle for the means to live. Even the large majority of those whose condition is the most tolerable, find life an endless struggle and anxiety their constant companion. Such a thing as a free choice of life is out of the question for the vast majority of men born upon the earth; their residence, occupation, hours of labor, method of life, are fixed almost irrevocably in obedience to the demands of their physical being. After those whose conditions of life are the most tolerable, come a great mass whose existence is most precarious, dependent upon the condition of the harvest, the condition of trade, the amount of rain or snow, the quantity of sunshine, and a thousand circumstances far beyond their control. As a consequence of his desire for life and the means that make it certain and pleasant, man has ever turned his attention toward the conquest of nature, reducing vegetable and animal life to his control. But his conquest does not end here. Not vegetables and animals alone must be his slaves, but man as well. Ever has man enslaved his fellow; from the beginning of his career upon the earth he has sought to make his own existence pleasanter and more certain by compelling others to toil for him. In its more primitive stages slavery was enforced by the ownership of the man. In its later and more refined stages it is carried on by the ownership of the things from which man must live. All life comes primarily from the earth and without access to this great first source of being, man must die. Passing from the ownership of individuals, rulers have found it easier and more certain to own the earth—for to own the earth is to fix the terms on which all must live. More and more does the master seek to control access to land, to coal, to timber, to iron, to water—these prime requisites to life. More and more certainly, as time and civilization move on, do these prime necessities pass to the few. Every new engine of production makes it easier for the few to reduce the earth to their possession. Even land itself is of no value without the railroads, the harbors, the mines and the forest. Everywhere these have passed into the hands of the few. From the private ownership of men, the rulers have passed to the private ownership of the earth and the control of the land. The rulers no longer have the right to buy and sell the man, to send him here and there to suit their will. They simply have the power to dictate the terms upon which he can stand upon the earth. With the mines, the forests, the oil, the harbors, the railroads, and the really valuable productive land in the rulers’ hands, the dominance and power