EDITOR'S TABLE. 



703 



mental, or physical competitors " to 

 whom he refers to be satisfied with 

 relatively inferior wages. When all 

 are fed from the same trough, it will 

 require much grace to be content 

 with less than an average share. 

 But perhaps grace will much more 

 abound under the socialistic regime 

 than it does amid the bustle and 

 strife of our present system. There 

 are, however, some special points to 

 be noticed in connection with otir 

 correspondent's theory. We can 

 not see that the parallel between the 

 establishment of democracy and the 

 suppression of private cajjital holds 

 good. A government of any kind 

 is either carried on in the interest 

 of the people or it is not. If it is, 

 and if it has not yet assumed a 

 democratic form, the people are en- 

 titled, when the proper moment has 

 come, to say : " We are quite capable 

 of managing this business of govern- 

 ment ourselves, through representa- 

 tives whom we shall freely elect; and 

 we release you — kings, potentates, 

 nobles — from all further responsibil- 

 ity on ovir behalf. " If it is not carried 

 on in the interest of the people, then 

 it is a mere tyi'anny, against which 

 the people have a right to rebel the 

 moment they feel strong enough to 

 do so. In seizing the government 

 they are seizing that which can not 

 belong by right to any private in- 

 dividual. The case is altogether 

 different when it comes to seizing 

 capital. Without aiming at a too 

 scientific definition, we may say that 

 capital is the unexpended portion of 

 each pei'son's earnings. He who 

 takes that takes what the individual 

 has a natural right to hold and to 

 employ. It is not customary to argue 

 that, because the time comes when a 

 young man assumes the direction of 

 his own actions, and no longer trusts 

 implicitly to paternal advice, he 

 should, to complete his emancipa- 

 tion, proceed to possess himself of 



the old gentleman's worldly means. 

 Yet socialists tell us that political 

 emancipation should logically be fol- 

 lowed by the appropriation of pri- 

 vate capital. 



To take another point. There is 

 waste of capital involved, no dovibt, 

 in many forms of competition; but 

 the regime of competition, or, as we 

 would say, of freedom, is on the whole 

 favorable in the highest degree both 

 to the production and to the conser- 

 vation of capital ; seeing that the in- 

 terests and the energies of all are 

 constantly engaged for both objects. 

 To be sure, there is clashing of inter- 

 ests here and there; but every one is 

 on the alert to do his best for that 

 portion of capital which he individu- 

 ally holds ; and, as a result, capital 

 is continually on the increase. The 

 pi-oof, if proof were needed, is found 

 in the fact that the I'ate of interest 

 tends continually to fall while the 

 rate of wages tends to rise. Is it at 

 all certain that under a socialistic 

 management of capital the same phe- 

 nomena would be witnessed ? Is it 

 certain that the energj^ activity, and 

 resource of the workers of the com- 

 munity would stand at the same level 

 at which they do to-day ? He who 

 says that they would, affirms that of 

 which he has no knowledge, and 

 which the experience of the world 

 so far can not be said to render j)rob- 

 able. 



What governments do under pres- 

 ent conditions is to take from the 

 citizens a portion of their eai'nings to 

 expend upon works in which the in- 

 terest of all is concerned, and which 

 require to be carried out with abso- 

 lute uniformity of principle and 

 method. Foremost in importance 

 among the necessary works of gov- 

 ernment is the administration of jus- 

 tice, including the protection of life 

 and property. Law must be the 

 voice of the community ; individuals 

 can not be left to make it or apply it 



