St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-02-20
HIS MAJESTY THE MA.
,JORITY

JORITY.
The best form Of government possible
is a despotism-if you have the right
sort OF a despot. If he is unselfisll,
large-minded and broad minded, with a
knowledge of detail of all the affairs of
his subjects so that he will know the
bearings of his DEGREES in all their rami-
fications; if he be courageous and just
and humane. he is the best possible re-
ceptacleIof absolute poWer-that is. if you
are going in for any degree of paternal-
ism. In all the ages there have been,
out Of the thousands, two or three rulers
who were good despots; the others
have served to make the name the SYN
onym Of selishnesS, cruelty and injus-
tce.
Because despotisms have failed; be-
cause the right kind of despot comes
to throne so infrequently as to make
his coming one Of the accidents instead
of result of the system, it has been
falling into obSoieScence and been re
placed by theory, not yet fully worked
out in practice, that instead of trying to
| govern the Individual it is best for him
and for the aggregation of persons that
each be permitted to govern himself in
all things that do not deny similar
right to all others. This is the demo-
cratic idea Of government.
If we have discarded despotism in
these later and better days we have
survlVals of the despot with us yet, only
now we call him 1.-The majority" We
have hobbled him with constitutional
restrictions. clipped off some of his pow
ers for mischief and injustice. hut he
still has enough left to make it very UNI
comfortable for those into whose affairs
he protudes his officious nose. In one
way he is a more mlschievous power
than is the deSpot. for a piece of dyna-
mite can rid the world of the latter if he
go too far; but the majority can't be
reached that way, aud when it becomes
intrenched in the bigotry or prejudices
of those who form it, it is diff cult
thing to remove.
When the majority assumes the pa
ternalsm of the despot it always makes
a mess of it, just as he did. 1t hasn't
the sense to see what Bastiat calls 1.-The
things that are not SEEM" that is, it does
not sense the incidence of its DEGREES.
1t does not know that society is a related
whole with its parts interdependent
and that one cannot be affected without
affecting all. The majority never re-
members SUN NER's Forgotten Man."
The majority is not wise, nor has it the
wisdom OF its wisest members. 1t is
rarely but an average, and low one at
that. It does not even know that it
does not know.
So when the majority tries to remedy
what it imagines are the Ills Of the body
social or polite, it acts with the power
OF a despot and too often like one, and
an unwse one at that. 1t prizes into the
affairs of its subjects and tries to regu-
late them, and fails. 1t has an itch for
regulating. People are incapable of
choosing their doctors and lawyers and
dentists and druggists and engineers,
and so on, for themselves. and so the
majority selects them for them. AS
might have been expected, there are
Door lawyers and bad doe tors and worth
less dentists and careless engineers
galore; each has In the long run to es-
tablish his worthiness, just as he would
have had to do if the majority had left
him alone. Society gets just as much
OleOmargarine on its tables as it did be-
fore the majority said it should not be
made and set a salaried watch to see to
it, and milk gets just as much chalk and
water as it did before the majority I'M
dertook its guardianship. Men make
away with just as much or more liquors
in those states where the majority has
sought to say they should have none as
in any. All that has been accomplished
by these efforts to regulate is to make
men a bit more dishonest; to make
more sneaks, more liars and dissemblers;
more chances to get wealth by corr up
ton.
Just now the majority in Minnesota
is running swift race along the same
line to the same end. 1t means we'll
enough, but it doesn't know enough. 1t
should have and hasn't the wisdom of
omniscience, but it thinks it has and
acts as if it had. 1t is running the old
course of the wellmeaning, paternal-
istic despot. making the same mess of
what it touches, but without his risk of
losing its head suddenly. II it could
only know enough to know that men are
best off and states are best off when
men are left the most to themselves, it
would spend its session in repeating in :
stead of enaeting. But it won't, be-
cause, like quack doctor, it will not adj
nit that it can't cure the patient it is
helping to kill.