“If the state would get the benefit of the exertions of its members, it must protect them from these depredations, whether they are perpetrated under the forms of highway robbery or of the laws of trade. In short the protection of the individual by the state cannot logically terminate till it prevents everyone from acquiring property he has not earned and rendered a fair equivalent for.”
“Then ought it not also to protect society against the extortions of anyone who would compel it to pay too much for something he alone could produce?”
“Of course that is included in the first.”
“Well then, does not that imply also that the state shall insure a fair return for the work of every individual to himself?”
“No,” said he, “that does not follow, unless the individual performs such work as the community wants. If a man is free to do as he likes, and he must be, he may sometimes choose to do something of no use to anyone else. Then of course no one else should be obliged to take the useless thing and pay for it. But if a man has nothing to do, the state should upon his application furnish him employment and pay him for his work when done under instructions.”
“I suppose there has been a change in the position of women since my day?”
“In politics and in business, there is now no distinction on account of sex. A woman may be president or governor of a state, a senator or judge. Women are to be found in every department of business, and are fully as successful as the men. This materially disturbed the organization of the family, as it was before your time. The man was then the legal and often the actual head of the family, and both the wife and the children were supposed to be under his authority within certain limits. But as the sphere of woman extended and she became better educated, she soon passed the condition in which she was content to be subordinate to the man. She insisted upon and of course secured a position of equality as to legal rights and equal authority in the family. In your day the principal occupation of women was in domestic life, keeping the house and rearing the children. As women became interested in wider activities, many of them began to seek ways of avoiding family cares. Co-operative house-keeping was tried in many cases, kindergartens taking charge of the children.