228 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 161 



degenerate into patronage, favoritism, sycophancy, 

 and intrigue. It is only necessary to notice the 

 doctrines which are affirmed and the propositions 

 which are put forward now, by the advocates of 

 interference, to perceive the full extent of this 

 danger. The views and propositions to which we 

 are treated contain all possible assumptions as to 

 facts, and all conceivable variety of views, whims, 

 and fads, about social affairs. Which of these 

 schools or tendencies would get the upper hand, 

 if our laws and institutions allowed anybody to 

 impose his notions on his neighbor's interest? 

 Any system of interference is necessarily arbi- 

 trary, and puts terrible power in the hands of the 

 administrative authority, whatever it is. The 

 value of laissez-faire and free competition is not 

 that that system gives any guaranties of ideal 

 result, or promises to fulfil any optimistic expec- 

 tations, but that it throws out arbitrary action, 

 and leaves rights and interests to be adjusted by 

 their own collision and struggle, until they find 

 their true resultant in the facts and conditions of 

 the case. This is said to develop egoism in each 

 of the parties to the struggle : but, if history 

 teaches any thing, it is, that, under the system of 

 interference, the regulator, whoever he is, devel- 

 ops his egoism at the expense of both the original 

 parties to the struggle. A democratic or socialistic 

 committee will surely prove no new device in 

 that respect. 



6. If it is true that we are going through a social 

 evolution which is about to produce great trans- 

 formations in society, especially as regards the 

 distribution of political and industrial power, that 

 is the strongest possible reason why all the people 

 who are ready at once with their notions about 

 what this evolution is going to produce, or ought 

 to produce, should be most carefully prevented 

 from meddling with it ; and why, on the other 

 hand, the evolution should be allowed to work 

 itself out freely, that we may see what it is, or is 

 to produce. 



7. I believe that it is a complete mistake to 

 interpret the course of things which we see as 

 moving towards more regulation. The one 

 supreme characteristic of our time is the thirst 

 of the individual for material comfort and lux- 

 ury. The socialists themselves bear strongest 

 witness to it. The whole motive of their doctrine 

 and work is that some people have not succeeded 

 in this ^reat pursuit of all. They demand a share, 

 or a bigger share, in whatV Nothing but the mate- 

 rial enjoyments won by modern industry. The 

 destructive work which is on foot is all aimed at 

 the vested interests which secure some in enjoy- 

 ment of tfoods, although they contribute no present 

 work to the productive effort of society. But that 



very temper which leads to, or allows, that de- 

 struction of vested interests, will support all rights 

 which are based on contribution to the productive 

 effort. The result will be ' the survival of the 

 fittest ' in its most pitiless form. The contest which 

 is often described as between labor and capital 

 is really between those who have and those who 

 have not. Plenty of laborers are to be found 

 amongst those who have. 



8. At the very time when it is proposed that our 

 legislatures shall widen their functions, and assume 

 more and more of the duties and reponsibilities of 

 the old police and bureaucratic despotisms, those 

 legislatures are showing themselves less and less 

 fit for such functions. While the tasks grow larger 

 and more complicated, the legislatures are less fit 

 by their membership and organization to deal with 

 the tasks, and every indication is that they will 

 become still less so. They fall more and more under 

 the dominion of plutocrats ; and, the wider the 

 f mictions they have, the more will it be possible 

 for plutocrats to attain their ends by legislative 

 corruption. Hence greater governmental func- 

 tions would simply enhance the greatest evil we 

 have to fear. Our legislatures also depart con- 

 stantly more and more from the character of great 

 councils, deliberating for the public and general 

 good, and tend more to the character of assem- 

 blies of the representatives of local and industrial 

 interests, who are compromising and adjusting 

 their conflicting interests, by a method which sim- 

 ply consists in combining for their own advantage 

 against those who are not on hand to fight their 

 battle on the legislative arena. Such, in a higher 

 degree, would be the only effect of subjecting more 

 interests to legislative control. 



It is one of the fashionable fads to suppose that 

 there is in the community an active principle of 

 'distributive justice' which is available to take 

 the place of supply and demand in regulating 

 rights and interests. It is sufficient to point to 

 political affairs as a test of the force, value, and 

 availability of such a sentiment. If a jury cannot 

 do justice in a petty criminal case without all the 

 apparatus and procedure of the court to instruct 

 and guide them, how can a popular and unguided 

 sentiment be available to decide the most delicate 

 questions of rights and interests ? 



There is one direction in which modern progress 

 has already developed a need for new institutions 

 or the modification of old ones ; that is, to con- 

 nect with liberty suitable and equivalent guaran- 

 ties of responsibility. It may not be going 

 beyond the limits of the subject to point out, in 

 closing, the line upon which fruitful reform effort 

 may be made by those who desire to work for 

 reform. W. G. Sumner. 



