224 CONSERVATION 



True, these interests are in the hands of show — that our wisest plan is to let 



individuals, who look only to their own things take their own course ;" and, in 



immediate profit, and not to the public his The Study of, Sociology (page 21) 



advantage, or to the distant future, he says : "The one thing needful is to 



They are not only selfish ; they are maintain the conditions under which 



often ignorant, short-sighted and un- the natural actions have fair play." 



conscious of much of the work that Some of the saner writers, it is true, 



they do. But society is a complex and as John Stuart Mill, in Chap. XI. of 



delicate machine, the real Author and his Political Economy, where he dis- 



Governor of which is Divine. Men are cusses "the grounds and limits of the 



often His agents, who do His work, and laisser-faire, or non-interference prin- 



know it not. He turneth their selfish- ciple," recognize the possibility of ex- 



ness to good ; and ends which could not tending that principle much too far. 



be accomplished by the greatest sa- Mill satisfied himself with maintaining 



gacity, the most enlightened and dis- that "laisser-faire is the general rule, 



interested public spirit, and the most but is liable to large exceptions." 



strenuous exertions of human legisla- (Page 573.) 



tors and governors, are eflfected direct- The striking politico-scientific and 



ly and incessantly, even through the economic fact to-day is the number of 



ignorance, the wilfulness and the ava- exceptions which every advanced na- 



rice of men. Man cannot interfere tion is finding. It is true, Mr. Spencer 



with His work without marring it. listed many of these, pilloried them as 



* * * Laisser-faire ; 'these things horrible examples, and pointed to them 



regulate themselves,' in common phrase ; as evidences of "The coming slavery," 



which means, of course, that God regu- "The sins of legislators," "The new 



lates them by His general laws, which Toryism" and "The great political 



always, in the long run, work to good, superstition ;" but society marches 



In these modern days, the ruler or gov- straight on and, long before his death, 



ernor who is most to be dreaded is, not the great English philosopher was rec- 



the tyrant, but the busybody. Let the ognized as, sociologically, a "voice 



course of trade and the condition of crying in the wilderness." 



society alone, is the best advice which Speaking of Say's "Devil's philoso- 



can be given to the legislator, the phy," Doctor Hale says, "We have now 



projector and the reformer. Busy your- gotten well beyond that." A striking 



selves, if you must be busy, with indi- example of the distance which we have 



vidua! cases of wrong, hardship, or suf- actually gotten beyond it is found in 



fering ; but do not meddle with the the article by Mr. John Martin in "The 



general laws of the universe." World's Work" for September last, en- 



In the same vein, Say (Political titled "Our Government's Widespread 



Economy, page 88) says : Socialistic Activities." The editors ex- 



"The grand mischiefs of authorita- plain that "Mr. Martin uses the word 

 tive interference proceed not from oc- socialism in its broad sense to denote 

 casional exceptions to established max- a wide range of activities beyond those 

 ims, but from false ideas of the nature that pertain to the individual." He 

 of things, and the false maxims built begins with the statement that, "De- 

 upon them. It is then that mischief is mocracy in this country has acted social- 

 done by wholesale, and evil pursued istically and communistically to a de- 

 upon system." gree which few Americans realize." He 



This, of course, is the doctrine on then discusses "socialism for the farm- 



which Mr. Herbert Spencer earnestly er," "in reclamation work," "in the 



insisted from the days of his Social swamps," "in t"he forest," "in our colo- 



Statics, in 1850, until his death. In nies," "in the canal zone," "in the con- 



the book named, for example, (page sular service," "in public utilities," and 



334) we find him saying: "Political "in National legislation," and ap- 



economy has shown us in this matter — proaches his close with the following 



what, indeed, it is its chief mission to paragraph : 



