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GENERAL PURPOSES OF GOVERNMENT

The central idea of government is an organization through which the combined force of many may be exerted. The objects to be accomplished by the use of this force may be beneficial to all, to a few or to one alone, and they may benefit all or a part, but in unequal degrees. Where the government takes the form of an unlimited monarchy, the ruler has the power to take for himself and his favorities all of the benefits, and to place all of the burdens on the multitude. The monarch may desire the general welfare of his subjects, and may promote it in some ways, but the maintenance of his authority is dependent on suppressing popular impulses in public affairs. The average man magnifies his own merits and importance and minimizes those of others. He also sympathizes most with those near him. So it inevitably comes about in a despotism that the monarch and his favorites engross the benefits of the state's power, and by a law of moral compensation the excessive advantages enjoyed curse the favorites with low moral standards and such consequences as naturally result from them. Where the form of the government is that of an aristocracy, the beneficiaries may be more numerous, though not necessarily so. Where they act in concert the result is much the same as in the case of the despotism, but there are more heads to be gratified, and the rapacity of each is liable to encounter some resistance from the others. The proletariat are still without power to enforce their rights. In popular governments the theory is that powers are delegated to public servants, to be used for the benefit of all, and that the benefits and burdens of government are impartially distributed. An art, however, corresponding to that of the courtiers, develops in the republic, and through specious pretexts crafty men employ the powers of the state for their own enrichment in different ways, but with results similar to those of the courtier's fawnings. The form of the government does not eliminate the disposition to be unjust, nor are the balances of powers so adjusted as to enable the many who bear the burdens to effectually curb the rapacity of those who gain un

merited favors from legislatures, courts and administrative officers. Arbitrary laws sanctioning slavery, land monopoly, and special privileges in trade, transportation, manufacturing, mining and supplying various needs of the public, work out systems of favoritism and oppression. These are aside from the direct exercises of the powers of the government for the enrichment of the officials and their friends. Even in the best ordered republic the taxing power is exercised to some extent merely to favor a few persons.

The prudent individual seeks to mark out for himself a line of conduct reaching through some or all of the balance of his life, which he believes will conduce to his future welfare. He does best who follows a course which tends to continually make him stronger, better and happier. Close observance of the moral law and of every precept of it will generally tend to a long life of increasing enjoyment. Neglect of the needs of the body induces weakness and disease, neglect of the mind, ignorance and dependence; idleness and wastefulness poverty; hatred and envy, enmity and suffering. On the other hand the performance of every duty to himself and to others tends to health, prosperity and happiness. The rules by which the individual governs his own conduct are the product of his education, environment and native mental force. He may observe them steadily or spasmodically with corresponding results, but death ends the accessible record of success, failure, pleasure and pain. The state seeks to direct the destinies of many people. Its legitimate object is essentially similar to that of the private person, that is to promote the welfare and increase the happiness of its citizens, but it has no fixed limit of numbers of persons affected or duration of its influence. To accomplish this result it must cause the observance by the people of those rules of conduct which tend to propagate conditions favorable to human happiness, and to eliminate conduct destructive in its tendencies. The state looks not merely to the welfare of persons now living, but of the race in future generations. Its rules therefore must have a wider range of present application and look forward to more remote consequences. Though immoral conduct may appear profitable for

short periods and to a limited class, time surely discloses its destructiveness. Bentham's test of utility, given general application to all alike and carried to its remote consequences, is a test of morality. His measurement of utility by the pleasure or pain produced may admit of more doubt, for the dividing line between sensations of pleasure and of pain is often incapable of ascertainment, and disagreeable sensation seem essential to our vital processes. Life, health, strength, knowledge, beauty, abundance of usable things, the love of friends and good will of all, are generally regarded as desirable. There are certain lines of conduct that tend to produce and preserve these blessings. There are others that prove destructive of them. It would seem that the legitimate function of the state is to search out and declare as substantive law what rules of conduct are beneficial in their tendencies, and what are destructive, and to devise governmental machinery designed to induce observance of the former and avoidance of the latter, and that moral improvement and material advancement should continually accrue as the product of legislative wisdom and foresight. To what extent such functions have been recognized and exercised by the governments of the leading nations of the earth is one of the main subjects of our inquiry. It will be found that the organized forces of society, especially in the hands of a single ruler, are often exerted to destroy, rather than to build up, and that all the nations of the earth look to armies and navies as means of gain and preservation, rather than to the cultivation of those firm bonds. of friendship which are indispensable to peaceful relations.

The rule of progress is good for evil, kindness to overcome hatred. Viewed merely as a cold and passionless artificial being, the true mission of the state is, and always must be, to keep people from harming each other, and to lead them to move in concord in the accomplishment of purposes beneficial to all. If all were fully employed in moral pursuits, crime would disappear as a necessary result.

Selfishness has its root in our natures, and care for self is a moral duty. Care for our progeny is both a privilege and a duty, and affords one of the most powerful incentives

to the accumulation of wealth and mastery over others. In the struggle to gain these many parents fail to comprehend the relative value of mere inherited wealth and of favorable conditions for their children to live natural useful lives. It is only when we clearly perceive that the welfare of our progeny is inevitably locked with that of the descendants of our neighbors, and that the only safety for any lies in high moral standards, justice to all, and the growth and extension of kindness both as a sentiment and a recognized rule of conduct, essential to human happiness, that it is possible to make the best provision for future generations. Instead of starting life with great wealth and a contempt for useful labor, it is far better for any normal healthy child to be trained to do his part and bear his share of the burdens of life, and taught that the largest and best life is that which accomplishes most for the good of others.

Not to destroy enemies by war, but to destroy enmity by kindness and friendly intercourse; not to punish criminals, but to eliminate crime by inducing right conduct; not to force the unwilling performance of duty, but to lead men to voluntarily follow high moral standards for the joy of well doing; not to enforce obedience to the arbitrary will of rulers, but to induce the acceptance of such direction as is essential to concert of action; not to stifle individual liberty, but to encourage and protect in all worthy efforts and enterprises, are the ideal purposes of governments and laws. How the nations of the earth have been afflicted with ignorance of these fundamental truths, how those in authority have disregarded them, and how the people have suffered by reason thereof, we shall see in our brief review of the rise and fall of states, and the principles by which they have been governed.

CHAPTER I

UNORGANIZED TRIBES

In the lowest social state we find individual liberty wholly unrestrained. The weak and despicable Digger Indians, dwelling in rocky and desert places, feeding on the most disgusting fare, though they have chiefs in accordance with the customs of the more vigorous branches of the Utah family, recognize no authority in them, and each individual follows the dictates of his own torpid will.

The lower Californians did not differ greatly from the Diggers in modes of life, though living under more favorable surroundings and exhibiting more providence in the manufacture of weapons and utensils. With well formed and vigorous bodies and not wanting in courage, they lived without habitations, government or laws and paired off at pleasure without a conception of the marriage relation. The Yaghans of Tierra Del Fuego, living in a most inhospitable clime and under circumstances rendering concert of action indispensable to even a small degree of comfort, yet dwell apart, each family by itself, naked and without shelter, recognizing neither chief nor laws and feeding on their own kind.

The Eskimos on the inhospitable shore of the Arctic Ocean, though far superior in industry, intelligence and nearly everything else, except cleanliness, are also said to recognize no authority. Probably this is due to the necessity for living in very small villages, owing to the barrenness of the country and the peculiar climatic conditions under which they live. The long night of winter prevents intercourse with others living at a distance and effectually isolates each group. During the brief but busy summer, hunting and fishing occupy their attention. For this concert of action in great numbers is not advantageous. More can be accomplished by separating than by combining. Isolated from the balance of the

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