vested rights of individuals prevent such
provision, government must still guard these universal interests by
inspection and control. The exact point where government ownership becomes
economical and legitimate must be decided by a careful weighing of the
general interests of the whole community.

_Universal education._--The necessity for universal intelligence is so
evident that governments not only recognize and foster benevolent efforts
of individuals for education, but rightly make the organization itself a
direct force in maintaining educational institutions. Public schools are
now universally recognized by most enlightened people as meeting a
universal need, and therefore one of the essentials of good government.
How extensive such provision should be is still an unsettled question. In
fact, it can never be finally settled in any growing community, because
the universal need of the community becomes more and more extended. So far
as universal intelligence depends upon the higher intelligence of leaders
in the community, the whole mass is interested in the training of that
higher intelligence. The very nature of education, shedding its light over
all in its neighborhood, makes every member of the community a sharer in
the advantages of university training. Hence governments rightly and
economically administer educational systems which involve the welfare of
all. The same responsibility makes improper the use of public funds in
support of private institutions without such restrictions as insure the
good of all.

The propriety of governmental control of churches and religious training
must rest upon the same basis of principle. Religion is of such a personal
nature, so wholly a matter of conscience, that it cannot be said in any
proper sense to be universal. Yet the need of religions sentiment and
freedom in development of that sentiment is universal. The state does well
to provide security for religious thought, practices and fostering
influences in all governmental machinery. On this ground the civil law
protects a Sabbath. The state church has had its apparent reason for
existence, and still has in many parts of the world, from the close
connection between religious training and popular education. Naturally
state churches emphasize the educational side of religions institutions.
The world is coming to see more clearly the dividing line between
information or thought about religion and religious action in faith, i