The Saint Paul globe., 1896-11-30
are willing to confer" Is that an
unreasonable demand?"
MIR. HonGsoN TAKEs ApyICE.


Mr.. Thomas c. Hodgson compliments
us by following our advice to keep on
reading the G 10 b and write to us
when he feels his need of further in
formation. A letter published else
where admits of briefer reply than his
former communication. Concerning
"paternalism, he would have saved US
and himself some trouble by merely re-
ferring to Websters dictionary, in
which he will find the following defini-
ton:
Paternal government, the assumption by the
governing power of a quasi-fatherly relation to
the people, involving strict and intimate
supervision of their business and social con-
Germs, upon the theory that they are incapable
Of managing their own affairs
The word paternalism, like most
others, wanders in it's practical appli-
cation from it's strict significance ety.
mologieally. There are certain neces-
sary functions of the state which re-
semble those of the head Of a family.
In political science, however, paternal-
ism has come to mean that theory Of
possible extension of such authority
and interference by the state, while
opposed to it stands the system of
individualism, which considers the pa
taxes, a necessary evil, but holds that
it should be confined to the narrowest
possible limits. This asserts that
the state is justified. in per
secure to each man every right that
does not conflict with the enjoyment
Of equal liberty of others, and which
shall then leave all the members of the
state free to work out their own sal
walton or destruction, according to
their individual characters. No system
of paternalism, as Webster defines it,
can ever mean anything other than
''favoritism," as Mr.. Hodgson under
stands it. 1t might be different in a
millennial state made up of perfect peo-
pie. Human nature being what it is
today, the assumption by "the state"
| of complete fatherly powers means that
the men in office for the time being, who
constitute "the state,' shall have such
vast opportunities for personal profit
and for intrenching themselves in
place as men have never yet been
found able to resist. Therefore, pater-
nalism, besides tending to dwarf and
decay the individual power, is neces-
sarily full of unfortunate abuses, and
the most powerful agent in the world
to build up monopoly, to divide people
into permanent classes and to make
the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Mr.. Hodgson's application Of his no
ton of the financial question will not
hold water for a moment. 1t is puz-
zling to find a man so generally intel
ligent who can say: 'The law of 1873
struck down the only competition gold
had" The law of 1873 did nothing what
ever except to recognize in a statute
a condition of things which already
existed in fact. 1t was the people Of
the whole world who, by their acknowl-
edgment of the law Of supply and de-
mand, and by refusing to accept in
their trade relations sixteen ounces Of
gold, made permanent the divergence
from the old ratio Furthermore, how
this country could establish "protec-
tion" of gold by acknowledging
CT Il
else, and that was uniformly adopted
in the mercantile transactions which
register relative values, it will puzzle
any one to understand. The difference
gold, which is uniform all over the
world, and which denotes a value that
gold would continue to possess if every
legal tender law in existence were re-
pealed tomorrow, and enacting by law
a mint price for silver which is 100
per cent above it's commercial value in
every country in the world, seems to US
to be too great to allow of any COM
parison.
Free coinage at the ratio of 16 to 1
proposes to furnish an arbitrary mar
ket for single product at double the
! price which any one would pay for it
voluntarily. If this is not protection,
there is no such thing as protection.
Therefore, when Mr.. Hodgson asserts
that there is direct, persistent and
eternal antagonism between an oppo-
sition to protection and the support of
the gold Standard we cannot accuse
him, as he does US, of "a collision of
IDEAS" For at least two objects are
necessary to a collision.
WILL MAKE TROUBLE