Not all the government’s work, however, takes the form of protection and regulation. Its functions are constructive as well. Through its various departments it actively promotes the general interest and thereby the interests of each citizen. It not only protects the public health by regulations and restrictions; it fosters and promotes things that help to raise the general standards of health among the people. It does not merely make rules to prevent ships from colliding with one another; it sets out buoys and beacons, builds lighthouses, and maintains life-saving stations. It does not merely protect agriculture[agriculture] by regulations to prevent the spread of noxious weeds and pests; it actively assists the improvement of agriculture by means of experiment stations and the distribution of educational literature. The government, indeed, is the greatest of all the agencies through which society undertakes its tasks of using the resources of nature to the best advantage, eliminating friction and waste, adjusting the conflicting claims of individuals, and giving to each and all an equal opportunity.
The citizen’s obligations to his government.
From all this it ought to be apparent that the state and its government are the agencies through which the individual obtains rights, protection, assistance, and liberty. But neither rights nor liberty can be achieved without incurring an obligation in return. To the state, which secures us rights and liberties, we owe the duty of patriotism. Patriotism is not a mere sentiment. It is a concrete expression, by thought, word, and act, of the citizen’s respect for the state to which he belongs. It should be based upon recognition of the fact that without the security, the justice, and the freedom which the state provides, life would not be worth living. Patriotism is a mixture of pride, gratitude, and faith,—pride in the great community to which a man belongs, gratitude for what it is doing, and faith in what it may do for posterity.
The limits of governmental action.
How Far should Governments Go?—One of the live questions of the present day concerns the extent to which the government ought to go in trying to fulfil these various purposes. Should it merely make laws, coin money, establish post offices, maintain an army, or should it actively engage in such activities as operating the railroads, the coal mines, and even the factories of the country? On the one hand there are those who take an individualistic or laissez-faire attitude towards governmental policy and maintain that the government should interfere as little as possible with the daily life of the people. It should confine itself, the individualist claims, to political matters purely, leaving economic affairs entirely alone. At the other extreme are the socialists, who believe that the government ought to step in and directly control all important agencies of production. It should own all the land, the public utilities such as railroads and telegraph lines, the mines, and all the agencies of production (pp. 481-488).
Both individualism and socialism represent extremes; most men take a midway stand as regards the proper functions of government. The greatest good of the greatest number among the people cannot be secured unless the government interferes to some extent with the free play of economic forces. It must prevent gross injustice wherever gross injustice appears. No government fulfils its highest aim unless it becomes an ever-active force in making our common life more human and more fruitful in the good will of class toward class and of man toward man. On the other hand it must take care not to invade the field of private enterprise so far as to take upon itself greater burdens than can be properly carried.
Too much government is as bad as too little. In a democracy, where public officials are chosen by popular vote, often with little reference to their personal ability, there are obvious limits to what a government can do and do well. The individualist starts with the assumption that governments are always inefficient when they meddle in affairs of everyday life. The socialist, on the other hand, assumes that governments can always secure better results than private enterprise in any field of economic activity. The truth, as usual, lies between the extremes. To fix a rigid line between the two sets of functions, as one would draw the boundary of two countries on a map, is impossible. To attempt this would be to forget that civilization is ever moving on, bringing new social needs in its train. Every proposal to extend the functions of government must be determined on its own merits and not upon the basis of its conformance to any rule.
Government as a science.
The World a Great Laboratory for Experiments in Government.—Everywhere throughout the world the process of experiment in forms of government is going on, twenty-four hours a day, in ceaseless round. And it has been going on for more than two thousand years. Every experiment in political organization that the human mind can suggest has had, or is having, its trial somewhere. During the past few years we have seen earth’s proud empires pass away and new republics rise in their stead, just as two thousand years ago the great Roman republic collapsed and an empire took its place. The astronomer who scans the heavens with his telescope commands no such laboratory of endless experiment and sees no such continuous panorama of change as the student who watches with naked eye the political activities of his fellow-men. That is what makes the study of government, when carefully pursued, the most interesting and most instructive of all studies. “On earth”, as the poet Pope has said, “there is nothing great but man”. And it is in his organized activities that man shows himself at his best.
General References