St. Paul daily globe., 1894-01-07
COOP Law AND coon LOGIC.

The decision of the state supreme
court adverse to the right of the state;to
engage in the elevator business istbased
OH good common sense and good law,
and is in strict agreement with we'll
established Democratic theory and prec-
edent 1t will not be palatable, how
ever. to the few impracticables who
hold it to be the duty of the state to ex-
ercise guardianship over all the pri-
vate affairs Of the individual-to pro-
tect him against the consequences, of
his own folly. The court holds that .'if,
in the exercise OF the police power to
regulate this business, the state itself
has right to erect and operate one ele-
vatOr at Duluth, it has the power 10
erect and operate twenty if necessary at
the same point, and also to erect and
operate elevators at every point in the
state where there is grain to be handled
and stored"
And the court might have gone fur
ther to illustrate the abSurdity of tho
idea of paternalism. 1t might have said
that, If the power of the state coulI be
exercised for the operation Of the ele-
vators, it could with equal propriety be
used to conduct the traffic in dryrg0ods
and groceries. boots and shoes, clothing,
candy and peanuts. The man who felt
himself aggrieved at the price charged
him for bale of hay might with equal
propriety ask that the state assume
jurisdiction over the sale of that com
modify, while he who did not approve of
the tone of his newspaper might require
the state to conduct it in conformity to
his notions of policy and politics. The
individual would have to abdcate all
occupations, and consent to abide what
ever might be furnished by the state,
whether it might he good, bad Or indif-
fereht.
There is no limit to the absurdities
that result from such theories. They
are born of the vagrant's notion that
the world owes all men living. They
underlie socialism and communism.
They are destructive of all individual
ity. and of all human enterprise. They
are, furthermore, destructive of ali free
government, and tend towards the ere
alton Of an absolute despotiSm--a des-
potism that is calculated to rivet the
chains of governmental control upon
the limbs OF The people, in whatever avo-
cation they might choose to engage.
The court deprecates the manifest tend
ency towards such conditions. 1.-The
time was" it says. "when the policy
was to cOnfine the functions of govern
ment to the limits strictly necessary to
secure the enjoyment Of life, liberty
and property. The old Jeffersonian max
i'm was that the country is governed the
best that is governed the least. At
present the tendency is all the other
way. and towards socialism and pa
terna!iSm in government"
The decision is timely and neces-
sary one. 1t is a rebuke to that species
of demagogy that has Of late been
dangerously rampant, especially in the
West-a demagogy tnat eeks to dis
credit and destroy business enterprise,
to array the shiftless in hostility against
the Industrious and thrifty, to encour-
age lawlessness by Insisting that the
indolent have a right to share in the
profits of industry.
Judge Mitchell is entitled to the
thanks of the community for having so
clearly set forth the true theories of gov
ernment, and placed a bar to any fur
ther progress in the direction of social
ism. His decision will stand the lscru-
tiny of the highest court in the land, for
it is both good law and good logic.