12 PROHIBITION. 



character be formed. If it be said that the doctrine of equal liber- 

 ty is surrendered in the case of infants, it is because they are infants, 

 and cannot be made responsible for their parents' acts. Their lib- 

 ert}"^ begins with their capacity to show that they are responsible. 

 "But has not a child a right to be well born ? If so, the State should 

 regulate offspiing." Yet, not even here as its last resort, and with 

 Plato for a guide, can paternalism find lodgement. Force can nev- 

 er supplement the defects of the parrental instinct. 



Again it ma}^ be claimed that if a purely defensive governmeut 

 is the onl^r correct one, "It could not educate the children, take 

 care of the sick, or relieve the poor. ' ' Certainly not any more than 

 it can teach religion. "Then it cannot employ inspt^ctors of meat 

 or milk, institute sanitary regulations, erect light-houses, grade 

 streets, build bridges and sewers, improve navigable streams, issue 

 money, or carry tlie mails. " Most assuredl}" does the doctrine of 

 equal liberty and a defensive government allow people to volunta- 

 rily provide these things for themselyes, ".as their intex'est may 

 appear. " 



"But can large enterprises be carried on by voluntary associa- 

 tion?" Yes, the continent has been spanned with rails, the sea 

 dotted with sails, the Alps have been tunneled, a canal is being dug 

 across the Isthmus, the desert of Sahara is about to be watered, all 

 b}- private enterprise. And did not the government keep her dead- 

 headism screened from competition, some Yankee would have, long 

 ago, given us penny postage and the postal telegraph. A Chicago 

 daily, by ocean cable, gave us a whole revelation from God to man, 

 the following morning after it appeared in London. Meanw hile the 

 only distinguishing feature characterizing governmental supervis- 

 ion, is its emplo3nient of an espionage of the mails. 



But it may be said, "The doctrme of paternalism is not incon-* 

 sistent with but inclusive of the doctrine of equal liberty. '' So far 

 is this from the truth that where the execution of the doctrine of 

 paternalism begins that of ecjual liberty leaves oft". Where paternal- 

 ism is simply advisory or I'ecommendatory, it falls outside of the 

 category of governnient. Paternalism in government, imposed by 

 force, however good or benelicial in design, is pure tyranny.* 



Many pretended justilications of paternalism grow out of pre- 

 vious vi(jlatious of liberty. Fencing laws, for instance, are un- 

 warranted iisurj)ati()ns of liberty. So are all stock laws. No man 

 should be compelled to fenee against another's stock, neither should 

 another's stock be proiiiljiU-d from running on the public domain. 



* The more paternal the Ki'veniment the more it i(> hated, until people put out 

 their eyt-H. pull out their teeili, cut off their llngerM, uud lie uljout tlieir tuxes, to es- 

 cape itM service. 



