374 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



and inefficient machine for preventing robbery and other crimes on the part of 

 rogues and burglars in the various forms in which they infest society. It 

 makes no attempt to show how things should be done well. That is not its 

 business. Any one who relies on the merely legal interpretation of his duties is 

 only doing enough to keep him out of Wormwood Scrubs. 9 



Once more, when boast is made of the protection afforded private 

 property by the courts, an important exception should be noted, namely, 

 promissory notes. Congress has the right at any time to emit bills of 

 credit and to declare them a legal tender in payment of pre-existing 

 debts. The man who lends another one thousand dollars to-day is with- 

 out any remedy at law if his debtor at the maturity of the loan tenders 

 him depreciated paper money which Congress has clothed with legal 

 tender power. In other words, a large class of property is in an impor- 

 tant respect well outside the protection of the courts. The only remedy 

 open to those opposed to debasing our monetary standard is political 

 action. It was this remedy and this remedy alone that brought about 

 the resumption of specie payments and subsequently prevented the free 

 coinage of silver. Even if the final decision of the Supreme Court in 

 the legal-tender cases had been adverse to the power of Congress to 

 issue the greenback, a large portion of the community, including the 

 great army of wage earners, would have suffered an irreparable loss 

 before the decision was reached. 



The property-owning interests dependent upon a protective tariff 

 for their prosperity are in a position similar to the holders of promissory 

 notes. The tariff schedules fixed by any Congress may be changed at 

 any time without the slightest obligation to compensate those whose 

 business interests are thereby disturbed. The courts can not be success- 

 fully invoked to stay the hands of Congress. Here as in the case of 

 promissory notes the parties interested are limited to political action, 

 and if the history of tariff legislation indicates anything it is that the 

 remedy is more than adequate. 



The case of the liquor traffic, a business in respect to which the 

 police power of the state is subject to a minimum of restraint by the 

 courts, illustrates the same point. The state may, if it deems wise, 

 prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages without 

 indemnifying any one for losses sustained. The liquor business is com- 

 monly regarded as disreputable. When run for profit, it is inconsistent 

 with the public good and it is accordingly subjected to all sorts of 

 restrictions. It is notorious that the business in many communities is 

 conducted in flagrant disregard of law. Comparatively few states, how- 

 ever, go so far as to try to prohibit the traffic. In most communities the 

 business flourishes and there is no lack of capital willing to assume the 

 risks incidental to embarking in it. As in the case of protection, the 



» Hartley Withers', ' ' Stocks and Shares, ' ' p. 145. 



