Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-29
HANDIcAppING PROGRESS.

All legislation which tends to fetter hui
man activities. or which places the people
of one State or section at manifest disad-
vantage as compared with the people of
another State or section, handicaps pro-
gress. If, for example, a town surrounds
itself with toll roads, and makes every
traveller pay before he can enter it. that
town is injuring itself, because all who are
not compelled to trade with it viii GER
tainly prefer to go where no tolls are de-
manded. If State declares that all who
live within It's limits must subscribe TO GER
tain rules which hamper energy and
enterprise, settlement in that State will
be stopped, for the reason that there are
plenty of other States which do not i'm
pose any such limitations upon human
activity But this is not all. Not only
does such legislation prevent the advance
ment of community it saps it's strength
For whenever State begins to hedge
about enterprise and ambition, and to say
to its inhabitants, ''Thug far and no far.
6 Their shalt thou 90 in the accumulation
" of property, it at once makes it an OBJ
iect for all who possess ambition and en-.
ergy to emigrate II a State imposes
double taxation, if it discriminates
against certain classes of property, if
it undertakes to say that men shall
not do as they please with their capital
and their earnings, if it introduces Com
munistic theories under any pretext or
disguise whatever, it is in SO doing Gre
ating the strongest possible reasons for
abandoning it, in the minds of all intelli-
gent and progressive men. There is scarcely
conceivable limit to the follies and
fantasies which may be proposed in the
form of law, but there is an easily
reached and clearly defined boundary to
the endurance of such laws. All at
tempts to restore equality of con-
di5ion by legislation are worse than USE
less; they are mischievous. There are
always more than enough drones and
fools in any community, but the salt of
civilization is contributed by the minority
OF enterprising, sagacious, clear headed
men who lift themselves and their fortunes
above the level Of the crowd, and it is
against this class that all such foolish legis-
lation is in fact directed. The man who
never has had anything and never expects
to acquire anything, may be quite ready to
limit the accumulation of property by
law. But such men are far more often
burdens than aids to society, and their
ideas on such questions are OF no
value whatever, In proportion as the
freedom of the individual has been
enlarged, civilization has grown. In pro-
portion as the letters have been removed
from the energies of the superior minority,
the condition of the inferior majority has
been improved. The conditions which
make it possible for a few men to acquire
great wealth, also make it possible for
many men to acquire moderate wealth, and
Tor all men VINO possess any industry to
maintain themselves in comfort. Restrict
the opportunities OF accumulation, and you
apply to the State a sieve which will
sift out of it all it's most useful
and vigorous elements. Ii such
legislation as we have spoken of
could be enforced upon all alike, it would
produce stagnation and impoverishment
throughout the community. But as it can
only be enforced upon those whose native
operates as far more fatal him
drance to accumulation than any laws can
do, it must simply work as system of ma
tural selection, and in that way eliminate
the best citizens and leave the less valuable |
behind. A Legislature which cannot per- |
ceive these truths is unfit to perform its |
functions. A State which cannot realize
them is on the high road to retrogression.