The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-19
THE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT

THE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT.
If one can feel safe in making any
deductions from history, one of them
that seems to have warrant is that,
among progressive nations, there has
been an Increasing limitation put upon
the functions of governments. There
have been fluctuations, strong reac-
tions towards absoiutism, and, even in
republics, eccentricities of action that
temporarily made the name of republic
nlisnomer. Even yet, and in our own
republic. probably the most advanced of
all governments there are visible ten
denotes which head toward absolutism;
but when the points of observation are
century apart it remains true that
the steady process is one of transmuta-
tion of power in government to liberty
In the Individual. But governments yet
assume SO many of the functions of
monarchies and the assumption is re-
SE1ed with such indifference by the
people, unquestioned as if accepted as
of the primal order of things, that gov
ernment seems to De more within the
region of empiricism than of science.
When, therefore. one finds a book
with the title of 1.-THE Functions of
Government" one reads it with curios-
fly, and, if he cannot accept its views,
he at least accepts it as one of the en-
couraging signs of the times, as an
evidence of continuing progress that
the subject is being discussed at all
Frank d. Larrabee, lawyer of Min
heapolis, has put into a book of a couple
of hundred pages his answer to the
inquiry of mis- title and done it very
entertainingly and not uninstructiveIy.
The writer has evidently been led to
the investigation by the issues and side
Issues raised in the late campaign and
the coincident financial depression. He
finds no canse for the latter in the form
of our government, the productivity of
the land or the habits Of the people.
and concludes that it is due to either
not enough government or too much
This leads by easy transition to the
question. What are the proper func-
tions Of government" Mr.. Larrabee
applies logically the constitutional dec
laration that all political power is in
herent in the peOple-a declaration null
lifted in the practice of regarding the
state supreme, except so far as its DOW
ers are restricted by the constitution
and defines state as possessing dele
gated powers only, ali not thus dele
gated remaining in the body of the peo-
pie. Did this conception rule the indi-
yidual would have a much larger meas
ure of liberty than he now enjoys and
he would not be constantly threatened
with measures regulative of his con-
duct. 1t would also render an inven-
tory of the functions Of government
more easily taken and reduce govern
{ ment to a science instead of being, as
now, largely a matter of whim.
After demonstrating that the func-
tons of government are not socialistic
and that the anarchists negation of
government is fallacious, the writer
proceeds to consider the relations of
the government to the exclusive right
of land occupancy, and, by a homelier
process, arrives at Henry Georges doc
trine Of the appropriation of economic
rent. Most who have followed the ar
gument of Mr.. George with unbiased
mind are carried irresistibIy along
with him to his conclusion that he who
has the exclusive right to occupy land
Should pay into the common treasury
the value Of the right, i'll recognition
of the equal rights of those excluded
by his occupancy. To a much larger
extent than is generally suspected the
Idea of Mr.. George has been accepted
not TO the extent of its logic, but as
presenting a just basis of taxation to
provide the necessary revenues of the
state and its minor divisions. To mo-
nopolics, natural or artificial, the writer
applies the same principle of govern
mental relation.
The larger portion of the book. show
ing its inspiration is given to a con-
sideration Of the relations Of govern
ment TO money II We arc not mis-
taken, Mr.. Larrabee is one of these
Democrats VINO went reluctantly into
the free coinage whirl Of the party, not