410 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



A PERNICIOUS POLITICAL TENDENCY. 



THERE is no more important subject 

 for consideration in the present 

 day than that which is involved in the 

 question whether the powers of govern- 

 ment ought to be extended or restricted. 

 The tendency, as every one must be 

 aware, is toward extension, not restric- 

 tion, and one of our contemporaries, 

 the " Christian Union," snubs a corre- 

 spondent who suggests restriction by 

 telling him that he is "about half a 

 century behind the times." The ear- 

 liest form of government, it proceeds to 

 say, is military despotism, the next is 

 one of police regulation ; while the 

 happy dispensation under which we 

 now live is one of industrial co-opera- 

 tion. Government is " organized to do 

 for the community, by community ac- 

 tion, whatever it can do better in that 

 way than in any other." This is a little 

 enigmatical, suggesting as it does that 

 "government" might proceed in a 

 great many other ways than by com- 

 munity action ; but we may perhaps 

 assume the meaning to be that govern- 

 ment is organized to do for the com- 

 munity whatever can be better done 

 through its agency than by any form of 

 private effort or enterprise. 



The first objection we make to this 

 position is, that a great deal of ambi- 

 guity attaches to the word "better" as 

 here employed. The resources of the 

 Government are practically boundless ; 

 and that the Government, with bound- 

 less means, should do a particular work 

 " better " than it would be done by pri- 

 vate individuals with limited means, 

 is not quite decisive of the question 

 whether the Government should under- 

 take the work or not. Anything can 

 be done well if money without stint is 

 applied to it; but the question remains, 

 Are government methods of doing work 



really beneficial to the people ? If the 

 Government undertook to manage all 

 the private gardens in the country, on 

 the understanding that it might levy 

 whatever taxes were necessary for the 

 purpose, no doubt there might be a 

 considerable improvement, on the aver- 

 age, in the way in which lawns and 

 flower - beds and vegetable patches 

 would be kept. It would take time to 

 organize the necessary army of garden- 

 ers and laborers ; but the thing could 

 probably be accomplished in the end. 

 There would be fat places for the poli- 

 ticians and clerkships without number, 

 in addition to the actual outside work- 

 ers ; but the vast machine would sooner 

 or later be brought into motion ; and 

 then no doubt some people, carried 

 away by their admiration for the great- 

 er uniformity of government work, 

 would proclaim that the principle of 

 state management had scored another 

 triumph. But meanwhile where would 

 the money come from? Would the 

 whole question of expediency be decid- 

 ed by pointing to the fact, if it were a 

 fact, that, on the average, gardens were 

 kept in better shape by the Govern- 

 ment gardeners than they had been by 

 the private owners? Would not the 

 question of economy call loudly for 

 consideration? And would it not be a 

 further question whether Government 

 was not doing more harm by diminish- 

 ing the power of individual initiative 

 than it was doing good by keeping 

 hedges, and borders, and walks in su- 

 perior trim ? 



When, therefore, we hear of Govern- 

 ment doing this or that thing " better " 

 than private enterprise would do it, we 

 should like to go below the surface of 

 things and examine a little into under- 

 lying questions, economical and moral. 

 Every one seems to admit that a be- 



