ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE LEO XTTT. 141
of the community. And a third advantage would arise from this : men would cling to the country in which they were born; for no one would exchange his country for a foreign land if his own afforded him the means of liv- ing a tolerable and happy life. These three important benefits, however, can only be expected on the condition that a man's means be not drained and exhausted by excessive taxation. The right to possess private property is from nature, not from man ; and the State has only the right to regulate its use in the interests of the public good, but by no means to abolish it altogether. The State is therefore unjust and cruel if, in the name of taxation, it deprives the private owner of more than is just.
52. In the last place employers and workmen may themselves effect much in the matter of which We treat, by means of those institutions and organizations which afford opportune assistance to those in need, and which draw the two orders more closely together. Among these may be enumerated: Societies for mutual help; various foundations established by private persons for providing for the workman, and for his widow or his orphans, in sudden calamity, in sickness, and in the event of death; and what are called "patronages" or institutions for the care of boys and girls, for young people and also for those of more mature age.
53. The most important of all are Workmen's Asso- ciations ; for these virtually include all the rest. History attests what excellent results were effected by the Artifi- cers' Guilds of a former day. They were the means not only of many advantages to the workmen, but in no small degree of the advancement of art, as numerous monuments remain to prove. Such associations should be adapted to the requirements of the age in which we live an age of greater instruction, of different customs,
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