Laski recognises complete automony for all associations. He emphasises that the parts of the State are as real as the whole. "We do not proceed," he says, "from the State to the parts of the State on the ground that the State is more fundamentally unified than its parts, but we, on the contrary, adrnit that parts are as real and as self-sufficient as the whole." 52 The essence of his arguments may be stated in his own words. He says, "But because society is federal, authority must be federal, also. 53 Laski assailes the moral validity of the doctrine that attributes sovereignty to the State. The State, in his opinion, has no right to the allegiance of an individual except in so far as his conscience assents to. ''The claim of authority upon myself is....legitimate proportionately to the moral urgency of its appeal. He further said, ''The only State to which I owe allegiance is the, State in which I discover moral adequacy: and if a given State fails to satisfy that condition, I must, to be consistent with my own moral nature, attempt experiment... Our first duty is to be true to our con-science." He tersely summed up, "We give to this particular group (the State) no particular merit.''