The most horrible aspect that will come from the war with Germany will not be the sacrifices of men and women for their country, for there is always compensation for such sacrifices, but the rapacity of private greed that will trade upon the exigencies and necessities of the people cast into the throes of the war which will pile up individual fortunes at the expense of the great masses of the people, declared Christopher H. Garnett, chairman of the State Corporation Commission, last night at the thirteenth annual meeting of the Richmond Association of Credit Men.
Mr. Garnett was speaking on some limitations upon the right of private property, which, he said, like every other right claimed by the individual, had its limitations. He traced from the earliest beginnings and its gradual developments, and declared that it was not, as people are accustomed to believe in every day thinking, to be looked upon as absolute.
"Even the casual reader of the newspapers must have observed," he continued, "that during the course of the present war the nations of Europe brought face to face with problems which threatened their very existence. I have not hesitated to trench further and further upon what used to be considered the sacred rights of private property. England has not hesitated to confiscate one-half of the income of her citizens, to seize and take over all railroads and other forms of public transportation, to take from the country the wealth of the people, and the wealth of the people.  Trol of their owners, the mines and other forms of wealth. 