VI ADMINISTRATIVE NIHILISM :>.">!) 



or the cure of disease. Those who hold these 

 views support them by two lines of argument. 

 They enforce them deductively l>y ariniiii-- tVoin 



) an assumed axiom, that the State has no right to 



do anything but protect its subjects from a^nTrs- 



sion. The State is simply a policeman, and its 



jcUity is neither more nor less than to prevent 



robbery and murder and enforce contract.s._ Tt is 



' not to promote good, nor even to do anything to 

 prevent evil, except by the enforcement of 

 penalties upon those who have been guilty of 

 obvious and tangible assaults upon purses or 

 persons. And, according to this view, the proper 

 form of government is neither a monarchy, an 

 aristocracy, nor a democracy, but an asty 'nomocracy, 

 or police jgovernment. On the other hand, these 

 views are supported a posteriori, by an induction 

 from observation, which professes to show that! 

 whatever is done by a Government beyond these! 

 negative limits, is not only sure to be done badly, 

 but to be done much worse than private enterprise 

 would have done the same thing. 



I am by no means clear as to the truth of the 

 latter proposition. It is generally supported by 

 statements which prove clearly enough that the 

 State does a great many things very badly. But 

 this is really beside the question. The State 

 lives in a glass house ; we see what it tries to do, 

 arid all its failures, partial or total, are made the 

 most of. But private enterprise is sheltered under 

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