Authoritative distribution is the dominant method in patri archal tribes, in communal societies, and in monastic and other religious orders. Each person works at what he is com manded to do, and some one in authority (patriarch, head of the community, father of the monastic order) portions out the tasks and the rewards. In the family this rule largely pre vails, and even after the children have come to years of dis cretion they not infrequently accept, from habit or affection, the will of the parents, and give up their entire wages to re ceive back a portion. The method of charitable distribution while the child is young gradually changes to authoritative distribution after the child becomes a worker. The untrained and indocile youth, however, is made the subject of com pulsory distribution.
The collection and distribution of taxes is by public au thority. No attempt is made to give back an exact equivalent to each taxpayer. The money is taken and spent by authority. The new forms, or at least the new extensions, of taxation, es pecially of incomes and inheritances at progressive rates, are very important examples of authoritative distribution. The courts sometimes find themselves obliged to apply the method of authoritative distribution, although they do it unwillingly. They try to confine their efforts to interpreting the contracts men have voluntarily entered into, and they avoid, as far as possible, the making of contracts or the fixing of rates. Authoritative distribution is exemplified in the work of many commissions appointed by law to fix rates or settle disputes, such as boards of conciliation and arbitration and railway com missions.
§ 12. Progressive versus reactionary. Distribution in the present economic system, in all its modifications in the various industrial states of the world, thus is revealed by our examination to be determined, not by a single principle, but by an eclectic grouping of various principles and methods. It is further revealed not as final truth fixed in its details, not as an absolute expression of human wisdom, but as a constantly changing result of human experience. The world of free parliamentary governments is a vast laboratory of experi mentation wherein the institutions of property and the process of distribution are being shaped by the forces of public opinion. Changes are constantly embodied in legis lation, in judicial interpretation, and in the administration of the laws."
The different individuals and groups in our society take various attitudes in respect to our present economic system and to the views just expressed. Indeed, opinions are in numerable and grade off with manifold differences of degree and in detail from one extreme to the other. However, all opinions on this subject may be classified broadly in two groups—conservative and destructive (or disruptive) ; the one favoring the present economic system in its essentials, the other rejecting the essentials of the present system. Each of these broad groups may again be subdivided : the con servatives having two wings, the stand-pat conservatives (the extreme being the reactionaries) and the other the progressive conservatives. (It need hardly be said that progressive is not used here with reference to any political party or group that has been designated by that name.) The reactionary conservatives are numerically a small group, but in wealth, social position, and political influence are very powerful. They favor the existing order, excepting in those features designed to limit wealth and the use of monopolistic power. The stand-pat conservatives are a much larger group of moderately well-to-do, including most of the residents on "Main Street," who like things just as they are.
§ 13. Progressive versus radical. The conception of the present economic system outlined above may likewise be called is Almost every chapter of this volume gives examples of these state ments; but recall especially chs. 17, 22, 23, 29, 31, 33.
conservative, but it must be modnied by the adjective pro gressive, or liberal, as contrasted with reactionary. In this view the central features of the present economic system must continue much as they are, and progress must be won by gradual correction of evils. These are recognized to be many, and to call constantly for remedial legislation and remedial effort in our rapidly shifting industrial conditions. The progressive-conservatives believe that the evils are not due solely or mainly to the "present economic system"; they believe that a workable economic system cannot be de vised by doctrinaire philosophers as a thing apart from hu man nature, a thing to be declared absolutely good or bad without reference to the kind of people who compose the com munity. The present economic system can be made better only slowly and as the individuals who compose the com munity keep pace with growth in virtue and wisdom. There fore, the progressive-conservative sees that much of the task of social progress is individual and family education, moral izing the oncoming generations with the old-fashioned virtues of thrift, honesty, loyalty, and duty. All such suggestions are impatiently and angrily rejected by the more radi cal social reformers, who (again with varying emphasis and with many gradations of opinion) advocate abandoning the present economic system and substituting for competition with private property a universal principle of authority.