Torch of reason., March 19, 1903, Page 3, Image 3

THE TORCH OF REASON, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, MARCH lit, E. M. 303 (1903.)
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an unquestionable and sometimes individual development: they are But the state must not lead. It
S ummary .— This, then, is the
even a permanent advantage; they indispensable.
must create conditions, but not sum of the whole m atter: the end
have only the choice of denying
The point at which public com­ mould individuals. Its discipline of government is the facilitation of
their consciences or retiring from bination ceases to be imperative is must be invariable, uniform, im- ■ the objects of society. The rule of
business. In scores of such cases of course not susceptible of clear personal. Family methods rest governmental action is necessary
government has intervened and indication in general terms; but it upon individual inequality, state co-operation; the method of polit-
will intervene; but by way, not of is not on that account indistinct. methods upon individual eq u ality ., ical development is conservative
1 iit cri t i < X i C U, . > j Vr nJ# * i r4 t i i f • J l The
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making competition equal between are not indistinct because they are state order upon franchise, upon new ones, modifying old means to
those who would rightfully c o n -' marked only by the im m aturity of privilege.
accomplish new ends.
duct enterprise and those who the young and by the parental ami
T he S tate and E ducation . —In
L . U. O .’S F R E IG H T —
basely conduct it. It is in this and filial affections—things not all one field the state would seem at
way that society protects itself of which are defined in the law. first sight to usurp the family func- :
Why It Did Not Arrive On Time.
against permanent injury and de­ The rule that the state should do tion, the field, namely, of educa­
terioration, and secures healthful nothing which is equally possible tion. But such is not in reality .
equality of opportunity for self­ under equitable conditions to op­ the case. Education is the proper E ditor T orch of R eason :
Your favor from Kansas City at
development.
tional associations is a sufficiently office of the state for two reasons,
hand. Even without the snow and
S ociety greater than G overn ­ clear line of distinction between both of which come within tin
and corporations. principles we have been discussing. strikes your freight would not have-
ment .— Society, it m ust always be governments
remembered, is vastly bigger and Those who regard the state as an Popular education is necessary for been on time. None of the trunk
more im portant than its instru- optional, conventional union sim- the preservation of those condi­ roads have escaped congestion. At
ment, government. Government pb’> a mere partnership, open wide tions of freedom, political and so­ P ittsburg and vicinity there was
should serve society, by no means the doors to the worst forms of cial, which are indispensable to free an immense jam and they borrowed
3(X) locomotives of other roads and
rule or dominate it. Government Socialism. Unless the state has a individual development. And, in
devoted one Sunday to desperate
should not be made an end in it­ nature which is quite clearly de­ the second jilace, no instrum ent­
attem pts to untangle. Moved 50,-
self; it is a means only—a means fined by that invariable, universal, ality less universal in its power
000 stalled freight cars ! Lack of
to be freely adapted to advance the immutable mutual interdepend­ and authority than government
cars and of engines, the latter
best interests of the social organ­ ence which runs beyond the family can secure popular education. In
especially, has been the trouble
ism. The State exists for the sake relations and cannot be satisfied by brief, in order to secure popular
both East and West. I get a pretty
of society, not society for the sake family ties, we have absolutely no education the action of society as
criterion by which we can limit, a whole is necessary; and popular good inside view from one who is
of the State.
an officer on the Union Pacific
N atural L imits to S tate A c ­ except arbitrarily, the activities of education is indispensable to that railroad, and we have frequent
tion . —And that there are natural the state. The criterion supplied equalization of the conditions of
bulletins revealing the true in ­
and im perative limits to state ac­ by the native necessity of state re­ personal development which we wardness.
tion no one who seriously studies lations, on the other hand, ban­ have taken to be the proper object
If I ncle Sam had been owning
the structure of society can doubt ishes such license of state action. of society. W ithout popular edu­ and running all the main lines for
The state, for instance, ought cation, moreover, no governmen
The limit of state functions is the
several years past, there would
limit of necessary co - operation not to supervise private morals that rests upon popular action can have been congestion just the same
on the part of society as a whole, because they belong to the sphere long endure: the people must be and your freight would not have
the limit beyond which such com of separate individual responsi­ schooled in the knowledge, and if come through on time. For the
bination ceases to be imperative bility, not to the sphere of mutual possible in the virtues, upon which great increase of business in 1902-3
for the public good and becomes dependence. Thought and con­ the m aintenance and success of free could not have been foreseen .
merely convenient for industrial science are private. Opinion is institutions depend. No free gov­ Public or private ownership would
or social enterprise. Co-operation optional. The state may intervene ernment can last in health if it have made no difference, that is if
is necessary in the sense here in­ only where common action, un i­ lose hold of the traditions of its we allow that the general pros­
tended when it is indispensable to form law are indispensable. W hat­ history, and in the public schools perity and big harvest would have
the maintenance of uniform rules ever is merely convenient is option these traditions may be and should existed just the same in either
of individual rights and relation­ al, and therefore not an affair for be sedulously preserved, carefully case. Here, in Nebraska, the roads
ships, indispensable because to the state. Churches are spiritually replanted in the thought and con­ are utterly unable to handle the
omit it would inevitably be to ham ­ convenient; joint-stock companies sciousness of each successive gen livestock and the grain offered
per or degrade some for the ad­ are capitalistically convenient; but eration.
them. Sometimes for weeks to­
vancement of others in the scale of when the state constitutes itself a
H istorical C onditions of G ov ­ gether they cannot keep even the
church or a mere business associa­ ernmental A ction , — W hatever
wealth and social standing.
mails and passenger coaches on
There are relations in which men tion it institutes a monopoly no view be taken in each particular time and if so how must the freight
invariably have need of each other, better than others. It should do case of the rightfulness or advisa­ suffer! Of course mails and pas­
in which universal co-operation is nothing which is not in any case bility of state regulation and con­ sengers take precedence, then live­
the indispensable condition of even both indispensable to social or in­ trol, one rule there is which, may stock, perishable freight, and then
tolerable existence. Only some dustrial life and necessarily mon­ not be departed from under any your “rush freight.” Last of all,
universal authority can make op­ opolistic.
circumstances, and that is the rule grain and all such stuff.
portunities equal as between man
T he F amily and the S ta te - of historical continuity. In poli­
All around us shippers of baled
and man. The divisions of labor It is the proper object of the fam­ tics nothing radically novel may hay and grain wait weeks to get
and the combinations of commerce ily to mould the individual, to form safely be attem pted. No result of “em pties,” and after succeeding in
may for the most part be left to him in the period of im m aturity value can ever lie reached in poli­ this and loading, we see them
contract, to free individual arrange­ in the practice of morality and tics except through slow and grad­ stalled for days in the yard in com­
ment, but the equalization of the obedience. This period of subor­ ual development, the careful adap­ pany with through trains of ordi­
conditions which affect all alike dination over, he is called out into tations and nice modifications of nary freight sidetracked.
may no more be left to individual an independent, self-directive ac­ growth. N othing may be done by
It is alisolutely necessary to fa­
initiative than may the organiza­ tivity. The ties of family affection leaps. More than that, each peo­ vor livestock, especially in severe
tion of government itself. C hurch­ still bind him, but they bind him ple, each nation, must live upon weather, yet it has not been kept
es, clubs, corporations, fraternities, with silken, not with iron bonds. the lines of its own experience. on time, and suffering to animals
guilds, partnerships, unions have He has left his “m inority” and N ations are no more capable of and severe loss to owners have re­
for their ends one or another spe­ reached his “m ajority.” It is the borrowing experience than indi­ sulted. My neighbors have suits
pending against the companies for
cial enterprise for the development proper object of the state to give viduals are. The histories of other damages on account of delayed
of man’s spiritual or material well­ leave to his individuality, in order peoples may furnish us with light, livestock. With the same shortage
being: they are all more or less that that individuality may add its but they cannot furnish us with of rolling stock all over the country
advisable. But the family and the quota of variety to the sum of conditions of action. Every nation the congestion would have been
state have as their end a general national activity.
Family disci­ must constantly keep in touch with greater under government owner­
ship because of lessened efficiency
enterprise for the betterm ent and pline is variable, selective, form­ its past: it cannot run towards its of the employees.
S hipper .
equalization of the conditions of ative: it must lead the individual. ends around sharp corners.
March 10, ’03.
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