While we contend, therefore, that this reform of poor law administration is a matter calling for immediate action, because there is an admirable substitute at hand, it is admitted that the same cannot be said with regard to most of our other socialistic legislation. The reader should observe that the necessity of socialistic legislation has not been denied. A long course of aggressive interference with individual liberty has created a state of things which from time to time could only be rendered supportable by fresh acts of aggression. Lord Shaftesbury and Mr. Forster had perhaps no alternative before them but to substitute for the defective and atrophied sense of parental responsibility the protection to children given by the Factory and Education Acts. What we complain of is that modern politicians show no disposition to watch for and foster a re-quickening of those atrophied instincts of self-protection which have been replaced by the utterly imperfect machinery of regulations and inspectors. It does not appear to occur to them that this is the ultimate goal; and the tendency of the present day is to increase and multiply the duties of the State, and to trust less and less to the individual power of adjustment.

It is our business here to point out some of the imperfections of the State protection of labour. It may not be possible to show exactly how the ineffectual protection now given by the State can be replaced by healthier conditions.