THE STATE AS AJV EDUCATOR. 665 



than is necessary to protect his person and the remainder of his prop- 

 erty, you violate those very rights for the protection of which alone 

 governments are instituted among men. Then, before the state can he 

 justified in undertaking any enterprise, it must be shown, first, that the 

 thing to be done is necessary either for the maintenance of its own 

 existence or for the protection of the persons and property of its sub- 

 jects ; and, second, it must also be shown that it can be done better by 

 the state than by individual effort. 



There is at present in America a strong tendency to enlarge this 

 sphere of government. Indeed, it may be said that it is our national 

 weakness to look to the Government for everything. Thousands seek 

 to throw upon the state the responsibility for miseries brought on by 

 their own injudicious actions. The fact is that, beyond the safety of 

 person and property, government forms one of the least factors in that 

 complex product called happiness. Our greatest danger is the danger 

 of being governed too much. As a result of this tendency to increase 

 the domain of government, we have technical and professional colleges 

 established and maintained by the state. When tried by our first cri- 

 terion, I apprehend that it would be difficult to show that it is necessary 

 to educate physicians and lawyers at public expense in order to protect 

 persons and property ; and it may well be doubted whether the rapid 

 increase in the membership of these professions, due in no small degree 

 to these institutions, is a national blessing. " But," it is asked, " are 

 not the physician, the advocate, the engineer, necessary to the conven- 

 ience and happiness of the community ? " Certainly, so are food, cloth- 

 ing and shelter ; yet not even Bentham thought of providing these at 

 public expense. Then what special claims can these institutions have 

 upon the public ? The same arguments that w^ould justify the state 

 in educating the law^yer and doctor would also justify it in endowing 

 the grocer and clothier, for they, too, are necessary to the convenience 

 and happiness of society. 



Moreover, the state, by supporting these institutions of special edu- 

 cation, inflicts a positive injury upon society in crowding these favored 

 professions, by thus interfering with those laws of social equilibrium 

 which alone should govern the choice of vocation. Whenever the 

 state by special legislation renders one vocation more accessible than 

 another, it injures society by turning into one channel the intellectual 

 energy that rightfully belongs in another. If, then, our premise be cor- 

 rect, these expensive institutions of technical learning are beyond the 

 true province of the state. 



But if the state is not denied all right to teach, what instruction 

 shall she give ? I answer, those things that will enable the rising gener- 

 ation to perform intelligently their functions as citizens. Yet how many 

 leave our state institutions learned In the literature of Greece and Rome, 

 but ignorant of our own history ; conversant with the ideal republic 

 of Plato, but unacquainted with the writings of our own Hamilton ; 



