2lJO ADMINISTRATIVE NIHILISM 



VT 



good opaque bricks and mortar. The public 

 rarely knows what it tries to do, and only hears of 

 failures when they are gross and patent to all the 



f world. Who is To say how private enterprise 

 would come out if it tried its hand at Slate work? 

 Those who have had most experience of joint- 

 stock companies and their management, will 

 probably be least inclined to believe in the innate 

 s- superiority of private enterprise over State 

 management. If continental bureaucracy and 

 centralisation be fraught with multitudinous evils, 

 ' surely English beadleocracy and parochial ob- 

 struction are not altogether lovely. If it be said 

 that, as a matter of political experience, it is found 

 I to be for the best interests, including the healthy 

 and free development, of a people, that the State 

 should restrict itself to what is absolutely neces- 

 Isary, and should leave to the voluntary efforts of 

 individuals as much as voluntary effort can be got 

 I to do, nothing can be more just. But, on the 

 Dther hand, it seems to me that nothing can be 

 jless justifiable than the dogmatic assertion that 

 {State interference, beyond the limits of home 

 md foreign police, must, under all circuiust 

 lo harm. 



Suppose, however, for the sake of argument, 

 that we accept the proposition that the functions 

 of the State maybe properly summed up in the 

 one great negative commandment, "Thou shalt 

 not allow any man to interfere with the liberty uf 



