704 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



for themselves. Closely following 

 upon the necessity for common laws 

 is the necessity for common action 

 ia various matters pertaining to the 

 good order and health of the com- 

 munity. A true test of that which 

 belongs to the sphere of government 

 and that which belongs to the sphere 

 of individual action lies in the essen- 

 tially restrictive character of govern- 

 mental action. Government says, 



"Thou shalt not "; but when we 



come to the proper sphere of indi- 

 vidual liberty, we find numberless 

 openings for positive constructive 

 action. Government does not 

 say, "Thou shalt go to church"; 

 but individual enterprise gives us 

 churches to go to if we feel so dis- 

 posed. Even in the matter of educa- 

 tion the mandate of Government is 

 not so much "Thou shalt be edu- 

 cated " as " Thou shalt not through 

 ignorance be a menace to society." 

 If the Government says, " Thou shalt 

 be vaccinated," the real meaning is, 

 " Thou shalt not become a means of 

 spreading infectious disease." 



It is quite true that the state in 

 our time manifests a disposition to 

 betake itself to many lines of con- 

 structive work ; but how far, in doing 

 so, it makes a profitable use of the 

 capital it disposes of— capital taken 

 in taxes from the free industry of 

 the country — we are not prepared to 

 say ; though we doubt much whether 

 in any case the balance sheet is a 

 favorable one. With large means at 

 their command it is easy for public 

 functionaries to show material re- 

 sults of a more or less imposing 

 kind; but what we do not see is the 

 amount of individual initiative and 

 resourcefulness which the rival ac- 

 tivity of the state obscures and sup- 

 presses. The post office is often 

 pointed to as a very beneficent form 

 of state activity; biit it is certain 

 that it is not an illustration of the 

 profitable employment of capital. 



Were all the functions of modern 

 life carried on upon similar financial 

 principles, there would be much more 

 poverty in the land than there is. 

 Tlie free industry of the country 

 amasses capital upon which the Gov- 

 ernment draws, and, so long as indus- 

 try is in the main free, the Govern- 

 ment can afford to commit many 

 follies without inflicting fatal evil on 

 the community ; but tie up industry in 

 socialistic bonds, and many singular 

 and undesirable results might fol- 

 low. 



We do not feel much encouraged, 

 therefore, by the assurance our cor- 

 respondent gives that, under social- 

 ism, individual competition would 

 still flourish, and that exceptional 

 talents would still reap exceptional 

 rewards. We are not specially in- 

 terested in competition as such, nor 

 do we sympathize any more with 

 the man of exceptional than with 

 the man of ordinary ability. What 

 we are interested in is the freedom 

 of the individual citizen to use, and 

 develop, and profit by, and render 

 profitable to others, such natural fac- 

 ulties as he may possess to the utmost 

 extent. What we are also interested 

 in is the free development of the 

 moral life of the community, under 

 the action of a growing sense of re- 

 sponsibility of man to man. We do 

 not want stereotyped characters or 

 enforced virtues; we want men to 

 grow into a recognition of their 

 duties to one another, and we believe 

 they will do so if the political power 

 will only keep its hands off matters 

 that do not belong to it. There is 

 no agency more effectual in repress- 

 ing the better instincts of the human 

 heart than compulsion or the threat 

 of compulsion; and the air to-day is 

 full of threats of compulsion. We 

 are not doing good or getting good 

 fast enough, and a lot of extra-good 

 people — as they think themselves — 

 are going to help forward our moral 



