"So free in its institutions, so mild in its laws, so secure in the title it confers on every man to his own acquisitions,"--the words were prophetic. At the moment when they were uttered the forces were busy that were destined to realize Webster's dream, on an imperial scale, at the expense of the freedom which he prized. Men were free to get what they could, and once having secured it, they were safeguarded in its possession. Property ownership was a virtue universally commended. Constitutions were drawn and laws were framed to guarantee to property owners the rights to their property, even in cases where this property consisted of the bodies of their fellow men. The movement toward the protection of property rights has been progressive. Webster as a representative of the dominant interests of the country a hundred years ago rejoiced that every man had a secure title to "his own acquisitions," at a time when the property of the country was generally owned by those who had expended some personal effort in acquiring it. It was a long step from these personal acquisitions to the tens of billions of wealth in the hands of twentieth century American corporations. Daniel Webster helped to bridge the gap. He was responsible, at least in part, for the Dartmouth College Decision (1816) in which the Supreme Court ruled that a charter, granted by a state, is a contract that cannot be modified at will by the state. This decision made the corporation, once created and chartered, a free agent. Then came the Fourteenth Amendment with its provision that "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law." The amendment was intended to benefit negroes. It has been used to place property ownership first among the American beatitudes. Corporations are "persons" in the eyes of the law. When the state of California tried to tax the property of the Southern Pacific Railroad at a rate different from that which it imposed on persons, the Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional. This decision, coupled with that in the Dartmouth College Case secured for a corporation "the same immunities as any other person; and since the charter creating a corporation is a contract, whose obligation cannot be impaired by the one-sided act of a legislature, its constitutional position, as property holder, is much stronger than anywhere in Europe." These decisions "have had the effect of placing the modern industrial corporation in an almost impregnable constitutional position."[44] Surrounded by constitutional guarantees, armed with legal privileges and prerogatives and employing the language of liberty, the private property interests in the United States have gone forward from victory to victory, extending their power as they increased and concentrated their possessions. 3. _Safeguarding Property Rights_