THE "DISMAL SCIENCE" DECADENT 



225 



"So far are theory and action di- 

 vorced, that we can picture a city al- 

 derman lauding private enterprise as 

 the source of American greatness, and 

 denouncing collective enterprise as im- 

 possible. And yet. he walks down a 

 city street, which the city sweepers are 

 cleaning and the city repairers improv- 

 ing, to the city subway by which he 

 reaches his office in the City Hall. 

 There he washes his hands in city 

 water and runs the waste into a city 

 sewer. He turns on the city electric 

 light, and reads the mail which Na- 

 .tional departments have brought him 

 from the ends of the earth. He glows 

 with pride as he reads how gallantly 

 his National army has subdued some 

 Indians, and how cleverly his National 

 navy has rounded Cape Horn. From 

 his city newspaper, the City Record, he 

 discovers that a meeting held the night 

 before has decided to interfere social- 

 istically with the outrageous capitalist 

 management of the street cars. Before 

 long, perhaps, his- children come in 

 from the city school, where they have 

 had a school meal at cost price, to tell 

 him that they are going to play that 

 afternoon in the city playgrounds, and 

 that his wife wishes him to call her up 

 on the co-operative telephone to set an 

 hour for their walk in the city park 

 before taking the city ferry to the city 

 swimming baths. They all want him 

 to take them later to hear the city band, 

 though the lads would prefer to put in 

 an hour or two at the city gymnasium, 

 and the girls at the city library," etc. 



That Mr. Martin's closing pungent 

 paragraphs are adapted from a similar 

 statement made by Mr. Sidney Webb, 

 some fifteen years ago, regarding B'rit- 

 ish conditions, does not rob them of 

 their interest and appositeness. The 

 fact is that, while the civilized world is 

 by no means ready to repudiate, in toto, 

 the principle of private ownership of 

 productive agencies, and reasonable 

 freedom of individual initiative, it has 

 long since made up its mind that the 

 sacred principle of laisscr-faire is more 

 honored in the breach than in the ob- 

 servance ; and that the constant study 

 of the legislator must be to see that 

 the strong, in pursuing their per- 



sonal ends, do not trample the weak 

 into the mire, and that private concerns 

 and interests do not menace the public 

 interests. 



In his special message transmitting 

 the report of the National Conserva- 

 tion Commission, President Roosevelt 

 voices fundamental truths too easily 

 lost sight of in the struggle for money. 

 He says: "The function of our gov- 

 ernment is to ensure to all its citizens, 

 now and hereafter, their rights to life, 

 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

 * * * We should do all in our 

 power to develop and protect individual 

 Hberty, individual initiative, but subject 

 always to the need of preserving and 

 promoting the general good. When 

 necessary, the private right must yield, 

 under due process of law and with 

 proper compensation, to the welfare of 

 the commonwealth * * * no man 

 and no set of men should be allowed 

 to play the game of competition with 

 loaded dice. The unchecked existence 

 of monopoly is incompatible with 

 equality of opportunity. The reason 

 for the exercise of government control 

 over great monopolies is to equalize op- 

 portunity." The President names 

 many of the policies mentioned by Mr. 

 Martin : those relating to public lands, 

 forests, reclamation, pure food, Panama 

 Canal, holding the remaining supply of 

 unappropriated coal, conserving re- 

 sources, bettering of country life, im- 

 proving waterways, protecting chil- 

 dren from excessive toil and ensuring 

 them educational opportunities, and 

 the like ; and declares that all these 

 acts "fit in as parts of a consistent 

 whole ;" that they "are integral parts 

 of the same attempt, the attempt to 

 enthrone justice and righteousness, to 

 secure freedom of opportunity to all of 

 our citizens, now and hereafter, and to 

 set the ultimate interest of all of us 

 above the temporary interest of any 

 individual, class or group." 



These principles are unquestionably 

 sound, and the science of economics or 

 politics, however ancient or "classic," 

 which cannot be made to square with 

 them, must give place to one which 

 will. 



