of insidious foes from within? Are our liberties placed more in
jeopardy by the assaults of an enemy who plans our destruction three
thousand miles away than of the enemy within our very bosoms? Was it
the puissance of the barbarian arms or the corruption and enervation
of the character of her people which worked the downfall of Rome? Was
it influences from _without_ or influences from _within_ which
corrupted the integrity of the people of Sparta and led to their
subjugation by a more sturdy people? Let us learn by the striking
examples of history. A people's greatness should be measured, not by
its magnificent palaces, decked out in all the gaudy splendors of art
and needless luxuries, the price of piracy or direct thievery; not in
the number of colossal fortunes accumulated out of the stipend of the
orphan and widow and the son of toil; not in the extent and richness
of its public buildings and palaces of idle amusement; not in vast
aggregations of capital in the coffers of the common treasury--capital
unnecessarily diverted from the channels of trade, extorted from the
people by the ignorance of their "wise men," who seek in vain for a
remedy for the evil, _because they do not want to find one_.[11] A
people's greatness should not be measured by these standards, for
they are the parasites which eat away the foundations of greatness and
stability. On the contrary, such greatness is to be found in the
general diffusion of wealth, the comparative contentment and
competency of the masses, and the general virtue and patriotism of the
_whole_ people. It should, therefore, manifestly be the end and aim of
legislators to so shape the machinery placed in their hands as to
operate with the least possible restraint upon the energies of the
people. It should not be the studied purpose to enrich the few at the
expense of the many, to restrain this man and give that one the
largest possible immunity. No law should be made or enforced which
would abridge my right while enlarging the right of my neighbor. That