XXXII.

OF "LOCAL OPTION."

841. "Local option" is an application of the principle of Decentralization, which I explained to you in Section VIII.

342. In our political system, as you have read, some things are assigned to the Federal Government, some to the state government, and some by this to the county, city, and township governments. Of late, it has been seen by wise men that some matters which have been usually left to the state, or to the counties and cities, might advantageously be assigned to the smaller political subdivisions.

In some

343. For instance, a compulsory school law is found to be very difficult of enforcement over a whole state. parts public opinion would readily sustain such a law; in others it is opposed, and where this is the case such a law is likely to be a dead letter. Again, a law refusing liquorlicenses would be sustained by public sentiment in some localities, but would be openly violated in others, where the public opinion was decidedly hostile to it.

344. If, now, instead of adopting one rule for all the people of a state, the Legislature should empower every township, city-ward, or school-district to declare by a vote of its citizens, to be taken once a year, that within the limits of such a subdivision licenses should be granted, or refused, it is evident that, as each of these small subdivisions would decide for itself, its inhabitants would be directly thrown upon their responsibility. If the majority wished tippling-shops, they would vote for licensing them; if they wished to extirpate them, they would vote to refuse licenses; but it would be certain that public sentiment would enforce the law. Moreover, by such an expedient the friends of temperance would be able to raise the question once a year, to bring it prominently

before the people in each locality, and to show the people, by statistics and facts, the economical advantages of temperance. This course has been pursued for a number of years in the township of Vineland, in New Jersey, and the people annually vote to refuse all licenses to sell liquor. They have found, as the result of their firmness, that crime and pauperism are almost entirely banished from their town.

345. The expedient of local option can be usefully extended to other measures of policy; and if this is done, it will, by and by, bring us back to the town-meeting system of New England, which I described to you in Section XV., and thus one of the most important political reforms possible in our system would be brought about; for thus the people of a small locality, in public meeting assembled, would once more discuss their local affairs, and vote directly upon the policy they wish to pursue and the money they are willing to spend for public purposes.

XXXIII.

OF CORPORATIONS.

346. A Corporation is an association of persons united to promote a common purpose, either of morals, pleasure, or business. Thus a church, a library association, a college, a Masonic or other benevolent society, an insurance or railroad or telegraph company, is a corporation.

347. Corporations are called in law "artificial persons," which means that they have no natural existence, but are the creatures of law. It is commonly said of them that they "have neither bodies to be kicked nor souls to be damned," which means that they are not amenable to the usual penalties for misconduct. It is, therefore, necessary and proper to limit strictly their powers and privileges, to impose severe penalties for their misconduct, and to enable the public to hold them quickly and easily to account in the courts. Leg

islative bodies, whose first duty is to protect the rights of the people, may justly regard corporations with suspicion, and scrutinize with great care all grants of power to such bodies.

348. But the right of free association for business and other purposes is of so great importance that it ought not to be unduly hampered. All persons in a state ought to have equal rights to form corporations, under general laws, carefully drawn; and it ought never to be necessary to go to a legislative body for a special charter, or instrument creating a corporation. General laws should equally limit and define their powers and privileges, and impose equal penalties for misconduct. Thus a general railroad law should stand on the statute-book, subject to which any body of men within the state might form themselves into a railroad company; and the same is true of telegraphs, steamships, library societies, churches, etc. Thus monopolies would be prevented, and a fruitful source of corruption in legislative bodies removed. For where special charters are granted, it is a common occurrence to see rival companies struggling against each other before legislative committees, and using bribery to gain their ends or defeat their opponents.

349. While the rights and powers of corporations ought to be rigorously defined and limited, those which are granted them are as sacred as any personal rights, and ought to be as. secure against attack. A corporation, when it does wrong, or exceeds its powers, is amenable to the courts; to drag it before a Legislature or Congress, for what is called "Investigation," is not only unjust, but tends invariably to the corruption of the legislative body. For the corporation will defend itself; and, being a creature without a soul, whose members feel no personal or moral responsibility for the corporate acts, it is very likely to be unscrupulous in self-defense if it is attacked in an unjust way.

350. As corporations have unusual powers, and are often in the nature of monopolies, the governments which create them may rightly require of them reports of their operations at regular and fixed intervals; and provide penalties for failure

to report regularly or correctly, as well as for violation of the law under which they exist. In this way accurate information concerning them is made accessible to the public. With the help of such information, and with unrestricted liberty to form new corporations, subject to equal and general laws, restrictions, and penalties, monopolies may and will be kept in order. It depends, however, upon the vigilance of the people to do this; for corporations, like governments, are always ready to presume upon the ignorance and carelessness of the people.

XXXIV.

OF CONFEDERATION AND UNION.

351. You already know from history that our country was first settled mainly by English people, who were formed into different colonies, subject to the British crown. The English eventually acquired all the settled parts of our Atlantic seaboard.

352. The management of colonies by all the European governments was, at that time, conceived in the most narrow and selfish spirit. A colony was held, by the ablest statesmen of the last century, to be rightly treated as a dependency whose inhabitants were to enrich only the government whose flag they served, and the nation from which they were derived; and the people of a colony were therefore forbidden to trade with foreign nations, and even to manufacture for themselves many articles which were produced in the mother country.

353. The British Navigation Act closed the North American ports to all but English ships, forbade any but English subjects to engage in foreign trade, and prohibited the exportation of sugar, tobacco, cotton, wool, and other products of the colonies, to any country but England. Also the English colonists were forbidden to establish manufactures of several kinds, because it was held that they would thus injure the industries of England.

354. It was this interference with the right to produce what they pleased, and to freely exchange their products where they could do so most advantageously, which began that alienation from England which ended in the Revolutionary War and the independence of the colonies. The greater part of the wrongs set forth in the Declaration of Independence grew out of the efforts of the English government to confine the commerce of the colonies to the mother country; out of the determination of the Americans freely to produce what they pleased, and freely to exchange their products wherever it was to their advantage to do so. I call your attention to this fact, in order that you may see the extreme importance which civilized men attach to these rights.

355. At the close of the Revolutionary War the colonies, which had become states, formed themselves into a Confederation; but, jealous of their separate independence, and fearful of a new master, the states, in the Articles of Confederation, reserved, each to itself, almost all the powers of government.

356. The government of the Confederation had no president or other executive; it had no power over individuals, either to tax, to coerce, or to punish them. It consisted of a Congress of delegates elected by the state Legislatures, and upon this Congress were devolved certain duties, which, however, it had no power to perform. All its determinations were to be carried into effect by the states, whom, however, it had no power to coerce.

357. The states, under the Confederation, reserved to themselves the power of the purse. The Congress could declare the amount of revenue needed to carry on the general government, but the taxes were laid and collected by the states, according to a general apportionment, and when, as sometimes happened, some states did not pay in their quota, the Congress had no power to enforce its payment. The Congress had authority to declare war, but it could not raise a single soldier that was reserved to the states. The Congress was made an arbitrator between the states: but it was powerless to enforce its decisions. Finally, the states, which alone