experienced and able men, in shaping its policy and adjusting its affairs, cannot intelligently or safely be subjected to the arbitrary interference of men less in number or experience; cannot be safely taken out of the hands of owners and transferred to the hands of those whose interests are merely perfunctory.

CHAPTER X.

VALUE OF PRIVATE OWNERSHIP AND INTERESTGOVERNMENT CONTROL: ITS INADEQUACY.

When anything goes wrong in the world, or seems to go wrong, the ignorant and thoughtless everywhere, rise up and call upon the government to interfere, as if a perfunctory body, made up of agents, loosely selected at best, were more trustworthy than the masses, from which it derives life. Government interference is the sine qua non of young people, the hopeful, confiding, and simple. It is the panacea of cranks and schemers. It is never fully adequate. It lacks in intelligent interest, energy, and adaptability. It, moreover, has the effect to weaken personal interest and individual effort. Its substitution for private effort is to trade off the practical experience and enthusiasm of a nation for the service of hired men. But in questioning the ability of governments to carry on affairs effectively and economically, the basis of objection should not be misunderstood. It is not that the subordinate officials of a government, those who really do its work, are not able and trustworthy, but that they lack the peculiar kind of executive and administrative talent that is needed.

The carrying on of government is a business in which the government employe performs duties

somewhat analagous to those of a merchant, manufacturer, or banker. He both originates and directs. He is not fitted for such duties. His genius lies in another direction. He lacks the self-reliance, the aggressiveness, the foresight, the instinct of trade, the amiability, that the merchant possesses. If he had these qualities, he would not be working for the government; he would be a trader, manufacturer, banker, or capitalist. Moreover, the incentive of personal gain, the propelling force of the world, is lacking. Thus essential qualities, necessary to carry on any kind of business successfully, are wanting. Their absence is fatal. This is why everything a government does is poorly done compared with the achievements of private individuals.

Nothing that the industry, ingenuity, or enterprise of a people leads them to do on their own account, should be undertaken by a government.

The intervention of governments in the affairs of business emasculates men, dulls their inventive genius, chills their ardor, robs them of their inde pendence, lessens their patriotic instincts, reduces their sense of personal obligation. It takes the affairs of a nation (so far as the intervention extends) out of the hands of natural leaders, and puts them into the hands of clerks; it is to substitute mediocrity for talent, mechanical effort for creative genius, perfunctory service for interested effort. The few men of wise judgment and great experience, who have charge of the great departments and bureaus of a government, are not sufficient in number to relieve the service of this just criticism. Thus,

our Interstate Commerce Commission, and the Board of Trade, of England, with their staffs, while made up of men of great ability, are as a drop in the bucket. They are, in fact, only equal in number to the practical men that every railroad finds it necessary to employ for its own use.

Governmental management lacks spirit, alertness, and a desire to please. It is at once meddlesome, slow, cumbersome, and bumptious. The absence of gain robs it of energy and a desire to please. Its acts are lacking in promptness and natural adjustment. It is slow to make changes; is loth to run counter to established practices, even when the interests of a country demand it. It is governed by precedent, instead of practical needs; by formulas, instead of principles; by the adaptations of theorists, instead of business men. It lacks commercial shrewdness. Under it, circumlocution, instead of being a mere incident of business, becomes a ruling principle, impossible to overcome or mitigate, because carried out ostensibly in the interests of the people.

In the ratio that corporate service falls below the high standard of private endeavor, so does governmental service fall below that of private corporations. It lacks the vitalizing force infused into corporate life by the owner; it lacks his directing energy and intelligence, his genius and self-interest, his personal concern, and supervisory usefulness. It is mechanical and plodding. Thus in no instance has the train-service of railroads managed by governments kept pace with that of lines operated by