The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-12

If the present tendency Of the legisla-
ture to interfere with private bust
ness continues, all occupations will
presently be inspected out Of exist
ence. We are getting to a point where
no man will be allowed to take a drink
of water unless he can show a license
allowing him to drink water, issued by
the state department, under authority
of the commissioner of streams wells
and fountains, and unless he has first
dissolved in the water that he drinks a
capsule stamped with the statement
that this water has been duly inspected
and found free of malefic microbes.
Everything on top of the earth and
under it is to be inspected and licensed
and harried with endless restrictions if
meddling people are to have their way,
until such a thing as individual initia-
/ tive and private responsibility comes to
an end.
One Of the finest specimens of this
| tendency that has come under our no
columns, and is covered by a bill now
| before the Legislature to prevent the
| Introduction into Minnesota of dis
ease affecting fruit trees, which is
known as the San Jose scale. This in
sect or parasite, or whatever it may be,
is, as the name implies, common to a
hot climate, and may be disseminated
from such a point of origin by the ex-
port of either fruit or trees. We be
lieve that there is nc good evidence
that it f1ourishes in cold climates 1t is,
in any event, only one out of hundreds
or thousands Of the diseases to which
fruit trees are liable, and against which
the hOrticulturist must make his con-
slant fight
Now, to prevent the spread in Mime
sofa of this disease whose name shows
its nativity, and which is not known to
be domiciled here, it is proposed that
we build UP an elaborate bureau of
state inspection and burden our
whole fruit industry with a complicated
system of veXatious restrictions. We
are to have a state inspector of or
chards or of San Jose scales, or what
ever he may call himself, with an am
pie army of deputies. He is to inspect
everything within the state, and can
enter any premises and do what he
pleases when he thinks that the San
Jose scale is on the rampage. In addi-
ton to that no nursery man within
the state can grow for sale or export
trees or shrubs without a license and
the payment of lot of fees and a Sc
ries of inspections. Nobody can i'm
port from without the state trees or
shrubs or vines without coming equally
reau. If the importation has not been
inspected, then it must be, or interstate
commerce is stopped until the con-
signee applies to the state bureau for
relief.
OF all the propositions to multiply
state machinery and tie the hands of
business, this seems to us to stand
about at the head in absurdity. And
in addition to the internal argument
against such Legislation, there stands
the fact that a national conference or
convention is now under way to pass
upon a proper system Of inspection and
regulation for horticultural products
covering the whole country If the
members of the Legislature have a care
for Minnesota's interests, they will
please leave some branch or detail Of
business in which a man can consult
an intelligent self-interest without sur
rounding himself with a body guard of
ofhcious inspectors of everything. The
very life is being inspected out of all
kinds of business by meddlesome leg
islatiOn. The man who talked about
firing a gun to kill a mosquito must
have had in mind some such perform
ance as this creation of a cumbrous and
costly bureau in Minnesota to keep out
the San Jose scale.