198 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and banking in relation to which the function of the state has 

 always been recognized we are lamentably in need of reform. 

 But if the state can not overtake those duties which are so neces- 

 sary and persistent that they were forced on the attention of the 

 strongest supporters of laisser faire, how can we possibly justify 

 the assumption of new functions which rest upon no better prin- 

 ciple than the vague idea that the state ought to do something ? 

 Not only theoretically but practically signs of a reaction in favor 

 of the old position are rapidly increasing. The experiments al- 

 ready made at playing the role of omnipotence and omniscience, 

 against which governments were so emphatically warned by 

 Adam Smith, have begun to bring forth thorns instead of figs. 

 A government which lends its power and assistance to one set of 

 people must be prepared to act in a similar manner in all similar 

 cases. If once this principle is abandoned, governmental action 

 becomes either a matter of chance or depends upon clamor and 

 jobbery. It is wonderful how quickly the human mind discovers 

 analogies in grievances, and how soon one cry leads to another. 

 How can we justify the use of state credit for the purchase of 

 lands in Ireland and fishing boats in Scotland if we are not pre- 

 pared to give similar aid to the poor of England who are simi- 

 larly situated ? If we grant judicial rents in the country, why 

 not in the towns, and if we fix by law one set of prices why not all 

 prices ? We must not be content with looking at the immediate 

 effects of legislation; we must consider also the secondary and 

 more remote consequences. The British Government is begin- 

 ning to find that the camel is getting too far into the tent. The 

 admission of a single ear is nothing to the admission of the hump 

 and the knees and the rest of the beast. Now the ear may be 

 interpreted to mean the grant of a few thousand pounds to Scot- 

 tish fishers, the hump is universal old-age pensions at a cost of 

 some fifteen or twenty millions a year, and for the knees you may 

 take the nationalization of land at a cost of some two thousand mil- 

 lions, and for the whole beast you have the complete socialist pro- 

 gramme. The conclusion that when the beast was in the Arab 

 was out needs no interpretation. We have not yet reached the 

 limits of tolerable taxation, but at the present rate of growth of 

 imperial and local expenditure we are rapidly approaching those 

 limits. It has been firmly established in theory, and confirmed 

 by the experience of many nations, that excessive taxation is ruin- 

 ous to a country. It may be replied that those who demand a 

 large increase of expenditure for public purposes do not propose to 

 tax the poor, but only to take the superfluities of the rich to take, 

 as is sometimes said, twenty shillings in the pound from that part 

 of every income which extends above four hundred pounds a year. 

 The certain effect of this kind of taxation would be that in a very 



