EDITOR'S TABLE. 



847 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



ENCROACHMENTS OF THE STATE. 



THE article by Dr. Shaw, in a re- 

 cent number of the " Contem- 

 porary Eeview," on " The American 

 State and the American Man," has start- 

 ed inquiry as to the extent to which in- 

 dividual liberty is being encroached upon 

 in this country by the extension of 

 State functions. The result bas been 

 to show that, in most of the States of 

 the Union, a rapid process is taking 

 place of transference to the government 

 of functions and responsibilities here- 

 tofore devolving on the private citizen. 

 It would almost seem as if people had 

 found a new toy the power of legis- 

 lative action and were playing with it 

 with a kind of greedy zest. According 

 to the accounts furnished, there is a 

 perfect rain, not to say deluge, of statu- 

 tory regulations on every conceivable 

 subject proceeding from our State Leg- 

 islatures. Acts of incorporation are 

 granted to every body of persons who 

 come forward and claim that it would 

 be a public benefit if they were granted 

 the powers and privileges of a corpora- 

 tion, and intrusted with the control of 

 some particular art or profession. The 

 general result of this legislative activity 

 is that free competition is suppressed, 

 and individuals are released to a large 

 extent from all responsibility of choice 

 as to how or through whom they shall 

 get this thing or that thing done. The 

 State legalizes certain schools of medi- 

 cine and refuses to legalize others. It 

 makes the taking out of its certificates 

 obligatory on all who would engage in 

 the profession of teaching. It provides 

 for the inspection and stamping of va- 

 rious articles of merchandise. It seeks, 

 as far as possible, apparently, to reduce 

 the life of each individual citizen to a 

 kind of safe mechanical routine. So 



soon, indeed, as a burden of responsi- 

 bility begins to be felt in any quarter, 

 some busy law-maker, moved by some 

 interested party, offers to lighten the 

 load by a special act of legislation. 

 What should not be lost sight of is, that 

 there is always somebody who stands 

 ready to make money out of each new 

 law inscribed on the statute - book. 

 Back of the whole body of oleomarga- 

 rine legislation stands the farmer who 

 does not want his butter -trade sub- 

 jected to a trying competition. And 

 so with all special laws of a protective 

 kind. "We hear of a demand made in 

 one quarter for the incorporation of 

 the music-teaching profession, so that 

 henceforth no one may venture to in- 

 culcate the elements of music save in 

 accordance with the views and theories 

 of the incorporators. Of course, these 

 public - spirited ladies and gentlemen, 

 who are so anxious to protect the com- 

 munity from the injury which might 

 be inflicted by ill-prepared music-teach- 

 ers, have their own interests to serve 

 in the business. Competition will be 

 restricted, and all who want to teach 

 will have to pass through the probation 

 which it may please the incorporators 

 to prescribe. People who want to earn 

 an honest living by imparting the lit- 

 tle they know will find their pathway 

 blocked by a special law passed in the 

 interest of the magnates of the pro- 

 fession. 



Dr. Shaw, in the article above re- 

 ferred to, says that there is no use in try- 

 ing to draw a distinction between func- 

 tions that the State may properly under- 

 take and those which it should abstain 

 from assuming. The sooner, he holds, 

 we come down to the position that every 

 thing is a lawful subject of State inter- 

 ference, and that the question is never 



