ETHICS OF THE COMPETITIVE PROCESS I /I
%
activities assumed by the state, not because their exercise is a sine qua non of the state's existence, but because their public administration is supposed to be advantageous to the people), I called attention to the fact that this latter class is separable into two divisions which may properly be termed socialistic and non- socialistic. The socialistic duties properly comprehend only activities which can and will be exercised by the people if left to their private initiative. Their assumption is, therefore, to that extent, a curtailment of industrial freedom of the people. The non-socialistic duties include those which, if not assumed by the state, either cannot or will not be exercised at all. As I said in the work to which I have referred
They are duties not essential to the state's existence, and yet, from their very nature, not likely or even possible of performance by private parties. Such duties as these are, therefore, not socialistic, because their public assumption does not limit the field of private enterprise, nor in any way interfere with private management of any sort of industry. As a rule they are powers educational in character rather than coercive, directive rather than controlling. Under this head come all those administrative duties that are of an investigating, statistical character, and consist, not in the interference with industry, but in the study of conditions and the diffusion of the informa- tion thus obtained. Work of this kind is that performed by the United States Departments of Labor and Agriculture, by the Bureau of Education, the Fish Commission, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, by the Census Bureau, etc. Public libraries and reading-rooms, boards of health, the provision of public parks, and certain branches of education also come under this head. Their purpose is not to interfere with the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest, but to transform the environment and, by diffusing sounder infor- mation concerning the character of the conditions and the nature of the forces by which man is surrounded, to render it possible for him either to harmonize his efforts with them or to direct his strength and intelligence to a modification of them. In fine, to increase his opportunities. 1
But even the ownership and direct operation of industrial concerns by the state are not necessarily excluded by the adop- tion of the competitive principle. As long as it appears that a given industry, if left in private hands, will almost inevitably be subjected to the control of some one or few commercial " trusts," whereby true or healthy competition is rendered impossible, the assumption by the state of its management will at least
1 The Nature of the State, pp. 347, 348.
