“It would seem then,” said I, “that the state has become a large factor in the business of the country, and there has been a great centralization of power.”
“That is true,” he answered, “there has been a remarkable evolution and yet a perfectly natural and logical one. The very first principle on which a state is organized is the defense and protection of all—the weaker as well as the stronger members—against a common external foe. The second principle which is easily derivable from the first is the protection of the members of the society from each other. Under this principle the weaker will be protected from the stronger, first in his person, second in his property. It was the theory of many in all former times that the functions of the state ought to end there. Some said, that to go any further would contravene the wholesome natural law of selection, and interfere against the survival of the fittest. Nature left to herself, would put down and finally exterminate the weakest of the race mentally and physically, leaving always the strongest and best to survive, and so constantly improve the race. But if that consideration were to prevail there should never have been any protective organization of tribes and states in the first place. If when a community were attacked each individual ran away or hid as best he could, the enemy would catch and destroy the less swift and strong and the less shrewd and wary, and so select the best for survival. But under the organization, they stand together, and if the enemy is beaten off, the weak and inferior members are saved with the best. The only consideration on which this is right must be that the weaker members of the society are worth more to the state than they cost, and therefore to the extent that they are protected by the organization they are selected by nature in this roundabout way for survival, for the benefit of the state.
“The further defense of the weak against the strong within the social organization, must be on the same principle. And this principle having been admitted there is no logical end to it short of protection against every advantage the strong or the superior or the more wary can possibly take or attempt. In a civilized society the oppression of the weak is no longer so much from personal violence or robbery, but it takes the more subtle form of absorbing their wealth under forms of law and business formulas, so that in such a society the weak and unwary are valuable to produce wealth, but are robbed of it, practically by a few.
“If the state would get the benefit of the exertions of its members, it must protect them from these depredations, whether they are perpetrated under the forms of highway robbery or of the laws of trade. In short the protection of the individual by the state cannot logically terminate till it prevents everyone from acquiring property he has not earned and rendered a fair equivalent for.”
“Then ought it not also to protect society against the extortions of anyone who would compel it to pay too much for something he alone could produce?”
“Of course that is included in the first.”
“Well then, does not that imply also that the state shall insure a fair return for the work of every individual to himself?”
“No,” said he, “that does not follow, unless the individual performs such work as the community wants. If a man is free to do as he likes, and he must be, he may sometimes choose to do something of no use to anyone else. Then of course no one else should be obliged to take the useless thing and pay for it. But if a man has nothing to do, the state should upon his application furnish him employment and pay him for his work when done under instructions.”