Legalized Immorality; C. Manion

Clarence Manion 426 IT must be remembered that ninety five per cent of the peace, order and welfare existing in human society is always produced by the conscien tious practice of man-to-man justice and person -to-person charity. When any part of this important domain of personal virtue is transferred to government, that part is automati cally released from the restraints of morality and put into the area of conscience-less coercion. The field of personal responsibility is thus re duced at the same time and to the same extent that the boundaries of irresponsibility are enlarged. Government cannot manage these fields of human welfare with the jus tice, economy and effectiveness that is possible when these same fields are the direct responsibility of mor ally sensitive human beings. This loss of justice, economy and effec tiveness is increased in the propor tion that such governmental man agement is centralized ....

Government cannot make men good; neither can it make them prosperous and happy. The evils in society are directly traceable to the vices of individual human beings. At Clarence Manion (1896-1979) long served as Dean of the College of Law of Notre Dame University. This article is from his book, The Key to Peace, published in 1950. A paperbacked edition of the book, covering the ideas in the Declaration of Independence and the basic institutions and practices of the American way, is available at $2.00 from The Foundation for Eco nomic Education, Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y. 10533.

LEGALIZED IMMORALITY 427 its best government may simply at tack the secondary manifestations of these vices. Their primary manifes tations are found in the pride, cov etousness, lust, envy, sloth and plain incompetency of individual people. When government goes far beyond this simple duty and deploys its forces along a broad complicated front, un der a unified command, it invariably propagates the very evils that it is designed to reduce. In the sweet name of "human wel fare" such a government begins to do things that would be gravely of fensive if done by individual citi zens. The government is urged to follow this course by people who consciously or subconsciously seek an impersonal outlet for the "primar ies" of human weakness. An outlet in other words which will enable them to escape the moral responsi bility that would be involved in their personal commission of these sins.

As a convenience to this popular at titude we are assured that "govern ment should do for the people what the people are unable to do for them selves." This is an extremely dan gerous definition of the purpose of government. It is radically different from the purpose stated in the Dec laration of Independence; neverthe less it is now widely accepted as cor rect. Here is one example of centralized governmental operation: Paul wants some of Peter's property. For moral as well as legal reasons, Paul is un able personally to accomplish this desire. Paul therefore persuades the government to.tax Peter in order to provide funds 'with which the gov ernment pays Paul a "subsidy." Paul now has what he wanted. His con science is cleariand he has proceeded "according to law." Who could ask for more?-why, Paul, of course, and at the very next opportunity. There is nothing to stop him now except the eventual exhaustion of Peter's re sources.

The fact that there are millions of Pauls and Peters involved in such transactions d(}es not change their essential and common characteris tic. The Pauls have simply engaged the government "to do for them (the people) that which they are unable to do for themselves." Had the Pauls done this indi yidually and directly without the help of the government, each of them would have been sub ject to fine an4 imprisonment. Fur thermore, nin~ty-five per cent of the Pauls would have refused to do this job because th~ moral conscience of each Paul would have hurt him if he ~id. However; where government does it for theJlll, there is no prose cution and no pain in anybody's con science. This encourages the unfor tunate impression that by using the ballot instead (}f a blackjack we may take whatever we please to take from our neighbor's store of rights and immunities. ® John Semmens TAX EXPENDITURES STIFLING, oppressive, and meddle some - these are the words which come readily to mind when one is forced to characterize the role mod ern government plays in the U.S.