The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-01-17

session of such little portion thereof as
he can use, and in fact does use, without
detriment to an equal right of use by
others?
SIN the glamour of these suggestions
it is too often forgotten that the govern
ment frequently blunders and mistakes.
but by reason of its large resources and
limited scope of action it is enabled to
prevent serious injury from such blum
ders and mistakes; that it does not fol-
low that, even if it does a few things
well, it would be equally successful in
the discharge of larger and more COM
prehensive functions, but, on the contra
~, would be very likely to fail through
the magnitude and number of its added
labors.
IF the expenditure of $50O,00O,OOO a
year in carrying on the functions of gov
eminent today draws to the national cap
ital a horde OF lobbyists, eager to share
in the distribution of such sum, will the
peril of pure administration be dimin-
ished if to these expenditures be added
the one thousand million and more neces-
sary for the operation of the railways
alone? If the tens of thousands of gov
eminent employees are today no inconsid-
cradle factor in political strife, of how
much greater significance will that factor
become when those tens of thousands
are increased by the hundreds of thous-
ands now in the railway service?
What, in view of such an enormous
pressure, would be the chance of civil
service reform? While it may be that
large private holdings of unused lands
are detrimental to the public welfare, is
it not true that ownership is the strong
inducement to all valuable improve
ments thereon, and is it clear that the
public veal will be subserved by taking
away from individual effort such induce
ment?
so in respect to the second of these
movements, while it is undoubtedly true
that man by entering 500 iety relinquish-
es some of his natural unlimited freedom
of action, and must so regulate his life as
not to injure the we'll being of those
about nim, it is curious to notice the
growing disposition to subject all the
ways of man's life to such rules and
restrictions as command illustration as
any is in the matter of drunkenness.
"Dealing with it society at first seized
the drunkard as the obvious nuisance:
then it throttled the saloon as the place
| of temptation, and finally-to remove the
cause-it prohibits altogether and
absolutely the manufacture and sale of
liquor. Every advancing step has COM
PEELED a closer watch over individual
! the daily life to the surveillance of the
i policeman, until today there can be
found in the legislation of some of our
states statutes opening even the sacred
| precincts of home to the eager steps of
the searching consta bulary But this is
| only one of many instances of like inter-
| ference. The health officer goes, accom-
panied by policeman, and the drainage,
the stable, the ash pile, and the waste
basket, are all subject to his control.
"The state compels the education of
the child, limits the age and specifies
! the condition under which he NAV be
employed to assist in the family sup
port; it prescribes the hours of labor for
! the adult; looks into the mines and
factories and the work of transportation,
and regulates how they shall all be car
ried on; prohibits the sale of oleomar-
garine and other supposed noxious arti-
cles. In short, society, through the po-
liceman, stands opposite every indi-
vidual in the thousand activities of life,
controlling and regulating all, and does
this in the exercise of that mysterious
and underlined police power, which is
said to be able to do all things deemed
by the majority of the people for the
health, morals, and safety of the COM
munity.
st seems often as though that func-
ton of the policeman was not that of
protection against crime, but that of reg
ulation and watch over the daily life of
each individual
Far be it from me to condemn all
! these various interferences with personal
action. On the contrary, many of them
are, in my judgment. demanded by the
most sacred interests of each and all.
And yet do we need the revelation of the
| Lexow committees investigation to sug-
gest the possibility of peril from toe
much domination of the policemenr'