A few brief maxims may indicate the natural restrictions upon such methods. Coöperative consumption is successful: first, where those coöperating are fairly equal in wants and abilities, or closely related through kinship or friendship; second, where the range of coöperation includes common wants; third, where no one is given the advantage of credit; fourth, where mutual confidence selects and sustains a continuous management; fifth, where frequent and full reports can make the business plain to all concerned. It would be interesting to follow the growth of coöperative stores and banking associations from small beginnings to enormous enterprises, but the limits of this volume will not permit. This extension may be realized from the statement that the Rochedale coöperative societies of England now number nearly two thousand, with more than a million members and nearly seventy-five million dollars of capital.
Chapter XXVII. Economic Functions Of Government.
Governmental limits.—All society recognizes certain universal wants and the necessity of meeting these with essential order and the best economy. These universal wants enforce the organization of society under some form of government. Such an organization grows out of the necessity rather than the will of humanity. Hence government, local or more general, is the direct effort of individuals in society for the general welfare. Usually the best test of general welfare is the assent of the majority of mature and intelligent members of the community. In the history of the world, however, the importance of the object to be gained has overcome obstacles in the will of the governed as much as any other. Among children the right of the parent to govern for the welfare of the family is never questioned until character and wisdom are doubted. Among crude and disorganized bodies of people, superior wisdom and earnest purpose make leadership. Yet always, in the end, the ideal of welfare in any community implies growth of individuals into authority over themselves as one of its main objects, if not its chief one. Thus the best government for any community at any stage of its advancement is the one that best secures the welfare of all in existing circumstances.
It must be remembered that the chief elements of welfare are above government. All the kindly affections which make the chief bonds of society are to be cultivated by good government, but cannot be forced by any law, either positive or prohibitive. Individual character in all its proportions is individual growth, which can be fostered but not forced. All the catalogue of virtues is made up of elements of character, not one of which can be made by force. So government of every grade fosters the highest welfare of individuals by sustaining virtuous motives and restraining vicious ones, or rather by encouraging right action in its enjoyment of welfare and restraining wrong action by deprivation of welfare. Government, therefore, is best when its aims are distinctly confined to universal welfare. The distinctly personal wants can be best provided for by affording the best conditions for free exercise of individual powers. Governments can never wisely do favors for a class, since such favors weaken the power of government for promoting general welfare. What government does for any it needs to do for all. What it does for all it must secure to each in fair proportion. In any effort to extend the range of governmental action this natural limit of universal welfare for individuals must be considered.
Ends of government.—In this view of the reasons for organized government and its natural limits, certain universal wants can be clearly perceived. Most obvious is protection against external foes, personal or material. This universal need, in the presence of personal enemies, is so plain as to make the crime of treason notorious. The internal peace of society is just as evidently [pg 339] a universal necessity, and so any infringement upon the order of society, as agreed upon either by express statute or by the common law of established precedent, is punished as a crime against all. Personal violence, even in the shape of private vengeance for wrong done, is a menace to internal order, and so a crime against the whole organization. The mutual dependence of each upon all and all upon each in every-day transactions enforces the interest of the organization in personal contracts, and makes the government a partner with every right-doer against every wrong-doer in all attempts at fraud or abuse of power of every kind. This guardianship of personal freedom makes necessary the bulk of criminal law and most of the machinery of courts. The arbitration of disputes between interested parties is a natural sequence of the effort to prevent violence. Government does not and cannot right wrongs; it barely saves a remnant of good to the individual wronged, and furnishes a warning to others against future wrong.
Universal needs.—Every force, external or internal, which is likely to be injurious to the whole community, the whole community through its organization is obliged to combat. Hence the necessity for quarantine against infections diseases wherever found, and provision against destructive storms wherever possible. Protection against the ravages of insects falls into the same list, and so does every safeguard in which the whole community is interested. The same principle applies to positive provisions for welfare in economical ways of meeting universal wants. The universality of the need [pg 340] makes the water supply and the lighting of cities a proper work for the city organization. If the same machinery can provide most economically for larger personal wants without infringing upon the rights of all, simple economy invites it, and the principles of good government sustain it. The question of municipal lighting is simply one of true economy for the entire body of citizens.
For the same reason, that everybody needs it, the government is obliged to have control of the means of transit so far as ease and safety and economy to all require. Government must maintain highways suited to the needs of the community at all stages of its development. The question of city management of street car lines, beyond such control as secures safety and essential justice, is purely one of economy for all concerned; that is, for the entire community. This economy is not settled for one community by the conditions of any other. It must be decided in each community whose interests are to be served by the actual need and abilities of that community.
The same may be said in regard to all methods of providing ready communication of wants and abilities as needed for mutual welfare. The postal system is a natural government machine, because every citizen needs to be within reach of every other citizen in the same community. If government does not furnish the machinery, it must control it to the same end. The extent of the machine must be decided by the extent of the want. If the want is sufficiently universal, the organization cannot avoid providing the machinery. [pg 341] This principle applies to every form of communication devised or discovered. The question of government ownership of telegraph or telephone connections becomes one of simple economy, whenever the community finds such means of communication a matter of universal want. If economy or vested rights of individuals prevent such provision, government must still guard these universal interests by inspection and control. The exact point where government ownership becomes economical and legitimate must be decided by a careful weighing of the general interests of the whole community.