Dependence upon it on one side always sooner or later calls out force on the other side. The whole problem of the intelligent use of force is one too large to go into here. I can only say that when the forces in possession are so blind and stubborn as to resist by force the free use of intelligence in effecting social change, they not only encourage dependence upon the method of force in those who see the need of social change but they give the latter its maximum of justification. In conclusion, I wish to emphasize a point implied in the earlier discussion. The question of the practical significance of liberty is much wider than that of the relation of government to the individual, to say nothing of the monstrosity of the doctrine that assumes that under all conditions governmental action and individual liberty are found in separate and independent spheres.
Government is one factor and an important one.
But it comes into the picture only in relation to other matters. At present, these other matters are economic and cultural. With respect to the first point, it is absurd to conceive liberty as that of the business entrepreneur and ignore the immense regimentation to which workers are subjected, intellectual as well as manual workers. As to the second point, the full freedom of the human spirit and of individuality can be achieved only as there is effective opportunity to share in the cultural resources of civilization. No economic state of affairs is merely economic.