Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-10-28

powerless to prevent"
"Of course, ambitious and INSCRIPTIONS
men will secure the offices, and education
will aid them in their selfish purposes but
would not those purposes be thwarted, and
better government secured, by raising the
standard of knowledge among the people
at large %
Very little. The current theory lie that
if the young are taught what is right, and
the reasons why it is right, they will do
what is right when they grow up. But,
considering what religious teachers have
been doing these 1000 years, it seems to
me that all history is against the conclu.
siop, as much as is the conduct Of these
well educated citizens have referred to ;
and do not see why you expect better re.
suits among the masses. Personal inter-
ests will sway the men in the ranks
as they sway the men above them,
and the education which fails to
make the last consult public good rather
than private good will fail to make the first
doit. The benefits of political purity are
so general and remote, and the profit to
each individual so inconspicuous, that the
common citizen, educate him as you like,
will habitually occupy himself with his
personal affairs, and hold it not worth his
while to fight against each abuse as soon
as it appears. Not lack of information,
but lack of certain moral sentiments, is the
root of the evil"
".You mean that people have not a suffi.
Gent sense of public duty 2"
"Well, that is one way of putting it
but there is more specific way Probably
it will surprise you if say that the Amer.
can has not, think, sufficiently quick
sense of his own claims, and, at the same
time, as necessary consequence, not a
sufficiently quick sense of the claims oil
others-for the two traits are originally re.
lated. observe that you tolerate various
small interferences and dictations which
Englishmen are prone to resist. lam told that
the English are remarked on for their ten.
dency to grumble in such cases and have
no doubt that 1T is true"
Do you think it worth while for people
to make themselves disagreeable by resent.
ing every trhing aggression? We Amer
leans think it involves too much loss OF
time and temper and doesn't pay"
Exactly. That is what l mean by
character. 1t is this easy going readiness
to permit small trespasses, because it would
be troublesome or profitless or unpopular to
oppose, which leads to the habit of &C
quiescence in wrong and the decay of free
Institutions. Free institutions can be
maintained only by citizens, each of whom
is instant to oppose every illegitimatc act,
every assumption of supremacy, every Of
fetal excess of power, however trivial it
may seem. As Hamlet says, there is such
a thing as greatly to find quarrel in a
straw when the straw implies principle.
II, as you say of the American, he pausss
to consider whether he can afford the time
and trouble whether it will pay cor.
ruption is sure to creep in. All these
lapses from higher TO lower forms begin in
trlfing ways, and it is only by incessant
watchfulness that they can be prevented.
As one of your early statesmen said The
price of liberty is eternal vigilance But
1t is far less against foreign aggressions
upon national liberty that this vigi.
lance is required than against the in
sidious growth of domestic interference
with personal liberty. In some private
administrations which 1 have been
concerned with, | have often insisted, much
to the disgust of officials, that instead of
assuming, as people usually do, that things
are going right until it is proved that they
are going wrong, the proper course is to
assume that they are going wrong until it
is proved that they are going right. You
will find, continually, that private corpora.
tions, such as joint-stoek banking compa.
MES, come to grief from not acting upon this
principle. And what holds of these small
and simple private administrations, holds
still more of the great and complex public
administrations. People are taught, and,
l suppose, believe, that the heart of man
is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked ! and yet, strangely enough, be.
lieving ythis, they place implicit trust in
those they appoint to this or that function.
l do not think SO ill of human nature but,
on the other hand, do not think SO much
of human nature as to believe it will do
without being watched"
g You limited that while Americans do
not assert their own individualities suffi
GENTLY in small matters, they, reciprocally,
do bot sufficiently respect the individuality
of otl ers."
"Did 1? Here, then, comes another of
the inconveniences of interviewing. /
should have kept this opinion to myself if
J on had asked me no questions, and now l
must either say what do not think, which
l cannot, or l must refuse to answer,
which, perhaps, viii be taken to mean
more than | intend, or l must specify at
the risk of giving offense. As the least
evil l suppose / must do the last. The
trait refer to comes cut in various ways,
small and great. 1t is shown by the disre-
spectful manner in which individuals are
dealt with in your journals-the placardipg
OF public men in sensational headings, the
dragging of private people and their affairs
into print. There seems to be a notion
that the public have right to intrude on
private life as far as they like; and this
taks to be kind of moral trespassing. 1t
is true that during the last few years we
have been discredised in London by certain
weekly papers which do the like Except
in the typographical display bu. in our
daily press, metropolitan and provincial,
there is nothing of the kind. Then, in a
large way. the trait is seen in this damag-
ing of private property by your elevated
railways without making compensation !;
and it is again seen in the doings of rail.
way governments, not only when over
riding the rights of shareholders, but in
over Courts of justice and
State Governments. The fact is that free
can he properly worked only
by men each of whom is jealous of bis o wn
rights, and also alphabetically jealous of
the rights of others-will neither himself
agrees on his neighbors in small things or
great, nor tolerate aggression on them by
others. The republican form of govern
ment is the highest form of government,
but because of this it requires the highest
type of human nature-a type nowhere at
present existing. We have not grown up
to it, nor have you"
"But we thought, Mr.. Spencer, you
were in favor of free government in the
sense of relaxed restraints, and letting men
and things very much alone-or what is
called laissez taire ?"
That is persistent misunderstanding
of my opponents. Every where, along with
the reprobation of government intrusion
into various spheres where private activi.
ties should be left to themselves, have
that in its special sphere, the
of equitable relations among
governmental action should be ex.
tended aud elaborated"
''To return to your various criticisms,
must then understand that you think I'm.
favorably of our future ?"
"No one can form anything more than
vague and general conclusions respectipg
your future. The factors are too numer.
Gus, toe vast, too far beyond measure in
their quantities and intensities. The
world has never before seen social phenom