Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: n PROPERTY IN MATTER AND PROPERTY IN FORCE As the wants of each person are met by the results of the efforts of others, there must be the exchange of the results of effort between different persons. As there is this exchange between persons living in one place and those living in another, there is the exchange of the results of effort through space. As there is the exchange of the results of effort produced at one time for those produced at another, there is the exchange of the results of effort through time. Exchange implies possession, and possession implies property. The essence of property is the right to hold, use, and dispose at will. It has been held for the common good that rights to property shall be protected by law. This means that no'one shall be dispossessed of that in which he has property except for the common good as prescribed by law, and in no event unless he is accorded just compensation. During the ages throughout which the law of property developed, it was not understood that all forms of existence are due to the reaction andinteraction between force and matter. The conception of the rights of property applied to concrete things—to forms of matter—and the conception of the rights to property in the main so applies to-day. Essential to property is the application of human effort, which first brings into possession that in which there is property, and the putting forth of effort when necessary to protect the rights of property in that which has been brought into possession. Such effort is primarily exerted by the person in protecting his rights. It is reinforced by effort applied through governmental agencies —through the administration and enforcement of the law which rests upon the consensus of public opinion that rights in property must be reco... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.