MAN AND EQUALITY
When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the American Declaration of Independence that 'all man are created equal',he was not seeking to describe man's endowments,but their political and legal rights. He was not saying that man do not differ from one another in the powers and dimensions of their bodies,minds and characters. He was asserting that,despite variations and differences,they all possessed the right to equal political and legal treatment. We must,however,ask of what real value are political and legal equality to a man who has no bread to eat,no clothes to wear,no roof to shelter him,no chance to earn a livelihood? What we understand as a democratic society must providd for its citizen's minimum status as a member of that society,that keeps him from becoming a beggar,outcast or outlaw and that offers him some protection in his deprivation,losses and fears. In our time,the nations of the democratic world have installed elaborate systems of social security and welfare,ran...