176 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
basis alone. If all men were born equal, morally, physically, and intellectually, and if all were wise, virtuous, and altruistic, more ideal conditions would long ago have been attained. In numerous experiments, extending over a period of two thousand years, voluntary communistic and socialistic associations, made up of selected and sympathetic members, have proved disastrous failures ; however well intentioned, the system has failed to elimi- nate the element of selfishness from human actions, and has dulled and dwarfed the energies of men. Compulsory com- munism, which must include the idle, vicious, and incompetent, would prove even more disastrous.
The complex business of modern life cannot be administered collectively. It is the experience of mankind that individuals, working under the stress of competition, are able to manage great productive and commercial enterprises more efficiently and economically than government agencies with their handicap of officialism. Collectivism, in substance, has been tried on a large scale in Russia. Alexander II. was hailed with world-wide applause when he attempted to extend liberty to his people and freed, not three, but thirty million serfs. He intrusted the car- rying out of his plans to the most liberal reform element of the empire, which was especially friendly to the serfs. What has been the result ? According to the best authorities, the serfs are suffering greater hardships under the mir than under the dis- placed seigneurs who were restrained by the government. Land is held collectively for the people, and the authority has become collective. 1 " From the time of Proudhon to the present time all the world has recognized that there is no greater tyranny than that of collectivism. Thirty million serfs are oppressed by bonds stronger than those which the edict of 1861 was intended to break." Alexander II. was struck down by an anarchistic bomb after he had emancipated the serfs and tried to extend freedom to his people.
The socialistic legislation in Australia has not, according to credible reports, resulted in the general prosperity of the com-
1 See DE DISPRADES, " Present Conditions of the Peasants of Russia," American Academy of Political and Social Science, No. 34.
