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If you exceed this proper limit—if you attempt to make the
law religious, fraternal, equalizing, philanthropic, industrial, lit-
erary, or artistic—you will then be lost in an uncharted territory,
in vagueness and uncertainty, in a forced utopia or, even worse,
in a multitude of utopias, each striving to seize the law and
impose it upon you. This is true because fraternity and philan-
thropy, unlike justice, do not have precise limits. Once started,
where will you stop? And where will the law stop itself?
The High Road to Communism
Mr. de Saint-Cricq would extend his philanthropy only to
some of the industrial groups; he would demand that the law
control the consumers to benefit the producers.
Mr. Considerant would sponsor the cause of the labor
groups; he would use the law to secure for them a guaranteed
minimum of clothing, housing, food, and all other necessities of
life.
Mr. Louis Blanc would say—and with reason—that these
minimum guarantees are merely the beginning of complete fra-
ternity; he would say that the law should give tools of production
and free education to all working people.
Another person would observe that this arrangement would
still leave room for inequality; he would claim that the law
should give to everyone—even in the most inaccessible ham-
let—luxury, literature, and art.
All of these proposals are the high road to communism; leg-
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islation will then be—in fact, it already is—the battlefield for the
fantasies and greed of everyone.
The Basis for Stable Government
Law is justice. In this proposition a simple and enduring
government can be conceived. And I defy anyone to say how
even the thought of revolution, of insurrection, of the slightest
uprising could arise against a government whose organized force
was confined only to suppressing injustice.
Under such a regime, there would be the most prosper-
ity—and it would be the most equally distributed. As for the suf-
ferings that are inseparable from humanity, none would even
think of blaming the government for them. This is true because,
if the force of government were limited to suppressing injustice,
then government would be as innocent of these sufferings as it is
now innocent of changes in the temperature.
As proof of this statement, consider this question: Have the
people ever been known to rise against the Court of Appeals, or
mob a Justice of the Peace, in order to get higher wages, free
credit, tools of production, favorable tariffs, or government-cre-
ated jobs? Everyone knows perfectly well that such matters are
not within the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals or a Justice of
the Peace. And if government were limited to its proper func-
tions, everyone would soon learn that these matters are not
within the jurisdiction of the law itself.
But make the laws upon the principle of fraternity—pro-
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claim that all good, and all bad, stem from the law; that the law
is responsible for all individual misfortunes and all social
inequalities—then the door is open to an endless succession of
complaints, irritations, troubles, and revolutions.
Justice Means Equal Rights
Law is justice. And it would indeed be strange if law could
properly be anything else! Is not justice right? Are not rights
equal? By what right does the law force me to conform to the
social plans of Mr. Mimerel, Mr. de Melun, Mr. Thiers, or Mr.
Louis Blanc? If the law has a moral right to do this, why does it
not, then, force these gentlemen to submit to my plans? Is it log-
ical to suppose that nature has not given me sufficient imagina-
tion to dream up a utopia also? Should the law choose one fan-
tasy among many, and put the organized force of government at
its service only?
Law is justice. And let it not be said—as it continually is
said—that under this concept, the law would be atheistic, indi-
vidualistic, and heartless; that it would make mankind in its own
image. This is an absurd conclusion, worthy only of those wor-
shippers of government who believe that the law is mankind.
Nonsense! Do those worshippers of government believe
that free persons will cease to act? Does it follow that if we
receive no energy from the law, we shall receive no energy at
all? Does it follow that if the law is restricted to the function of
protecting the free use of our faculties, we will be unable to use
our faculties? Suppose that the law does not force us to follow
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certain forms of religion, or systems of association, or methods
of education, or regulations of labor, or regulations of trade, or
plans for charity; does it then follow that we shall eagerly
plunge into atheism, hermitary, ignorance, misery, and greed?
If we are free, does it follow that we shall no longer recognize
the power and goodness of God? Does it follow that we shall
then cease to associate with each other, to help each other, to
love and succor our unfortunate brothers, to study the secrets
of nature, and to strive to improve ourselves to the best of our
abilities?
The Path to Dignity and Progress
Law is Justice. And it is under the law of justice—under the
reign of right; under the influence of liberty, safety, stability, and
responsibility—that every person will attain his real worth and
the true dignity of his being. It is only under this law of justice
that mankind will achieve slowly, no doubt, but certainly—God’s
design for the orderly and peaceful progress of humanity.
It seems to me that this is theoretically right, for whatever
the question under discussion—whether religious, philosophi-
cal, political, or economic; whether it concerns prosperity,
morality, equality, right, justice, progress, responsibility, cooper-
ation, property, labor, trade, capital, wages, taxes, population,
finance, or government—at whatever point on the scientific
horizon I begin my researches, I invariably reach this one con-
clusion: The solution to the problems of human relationships is
to be found in liberty.
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