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Show PEOPLE VS. GOVERNMENT. One hundred and one years ago, written in the, Edinburgh Review for January, 1830, Thomas Macauley said: "Our rulers will best promote the improvement im-provement of the people by strictly confining themselves to their own legitimate le-gitimate duties by leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities com-modities their fair price, industry an.-intelligence an.-intelligence their natural reward, idle -nes and folly their natural punishment punish-ment by maintaining peace, by de- fending property, by diminishing .the price of law, and by observing strict economy in every department of the state. "Let the government do this the people will assuredly do the rest." Macauley's injunction is as true and apt today as when it was written. Almost Al-most all our social and economic prob-; prob-; Iems have arisen when government j has failed to confine itself to its legi-I legi-I timate duties and has entered the I sphere of the individual and of busi-j busi-j ness. The greatest issue now before j the American public is people versus government bureaucracy versus indi-; indi-; vidualism and fundamental democratic democrat-ic principles. Modern office-holders would do well I to reflect on the words of a man who lived a ctntury ago and observed government gov-ernment with an insight that is all too rare. |