REMEDY OF COLLECTIVISTS

President Eliot gave the ninth of a series of lectures on "The Social Problem and Its Remedies" in New Lecture Hall yesterday afternoon. His subject was "The Collectivist's Remedy."

President Eliot said that the social evils of today are the results of tremendous revolutions which have taken place in the great industries of the world. Industrial and political liberty have been produced and in turn have produced the inevitable result of liberty, freedom to do evil.

The first great evil which has thus been produced is the congestion of population, for people seem to have a desire to gather together while exercising their rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Each man can use these rights as he sees fit and the result has been crowded city quarters which need water, light, and air. These needs have been answered by the collective forces of society.

To overcome the evils of disease and crime which exist in the land, the collectivists have secured the passage of legislation granting them powers to force the people, even in opposition to their rights of freedom, to live clean, healthy lives in proper homes. Where there is contagious disease, there we find the collectivists' forces at work to prevent its spread and overcome its danger. Industries, too, are under regulations which have been brought about by collectivistic influences in society. Everywhere the individual rights of men have been interfered with when the good of the community has been in question.

The collectivists have indisputably made great progress, which has sometimes been attributed to the socialists. Socialism is a word which is made to cover a great deal and which frightens people. But there is a great difference between collectivism and socialism, and many who call themselves socialists are in reality collectivists. True socialists have from the beginning condemned the right to hold private property and to transmit it in bequest or gifts. But collectivists have seen that the acquiring and transmitting of property has been one of the motives which have produced civilization from savagery and have accordingly believed in these rights. Though there are enormous fortunes in this country, there is also astonishing distribution of property, and collectivists have seen that where there is freedom, there will be riches amassed in private hands. These rights to property are going to be supported by the growing, intelligent agricultural population of the country.

So collectivism believes in the use by society, as a whole, of its collective forces for the welfare of all, and follows the motto "Each for all and all for each."