lines, gas supply and electric lighting, which, being monopolistic in their nature, must be either operated or regulated by some public agency. Then continually new ways are discovered of bettering general conditions by means of collective action. The tracing of malaria to a certain species of mosquito puts upon the community the burden of destroying the breeding places of anophcles. Hundreds of millions are spent by public health bodies which would not be so spent but for the discovery of the germ origin of disease. The advance of agricultural science poses problems of great practical moment which can be solved only in the government experiment stations. In the same way, determination of the laws of heredity may one day call into being state institutions for the custodial care of all defectives. Sometimes a new task is put upon government because the public has become aware of a social need hitherto unrecognized. This accounts for the provision of playgrounds in our cities, the establishment of social centers, the creation of public employment offices, the organization of forms of cooperation among farmers, the vocational guidance of youth, university extension and the determination of standards. The growing sensitiveness of society to bad conditions in any of its parts prompts it to sanction the use of government authority and money in order to level up districts or social classes which are at a grave disadvantage owing to preventable ill-health, bad housing, poor education, or lack of capital. Finally, in the degree that it is brought immediately under popular control the state loses its traditional harshness and arbitrariness. Its imperious tone departs, its old arrogance is forgotten, and it becomes suave and humane. As the people mark the change of temper in the state they cease to view it with their ingrained suspicion and jealousy and are more willing to avail themselves of its services. Altho year by year the state undertakes new duties, it has retired from certain fields which once it occupied. The state has found it best to withdraw entirely from the support of religion and to treat religion as a private matter. It is agreed, too, that the state should abstain from the propagation of every form of controverted opinion, leaving propaganda wholly to individuals and private associations. As the state multiplies its activities it is plain that, if the people are really to control this huge machine, СНАР. Growth of New Col lective Wants The People Feel More in the State Where the State Yields Ground CHAP. Shall the State be New Foundations? State Socialism Guild. So- they should be left undisturbed to make up their minds as to the worth of each of its services. It is therefore bad policy to use public money in praising, recommending or vindicating any public organ or service. The state may properly disseminate fact but should have no part in the formation of opinion about itself. THE STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT Not only are the functions of the state in constant flux, but its fundamental structure is open to question. It is a mooted point whether the executive should be constituted from the majority element in the legislature, as the parliamentary system requires, or independently chosen by the people, as the presidential system implies. Again, the principle upon which the citizens shall be grouped for political representation is by no means settled. When most electors are farmers the natural grouping is the neighborhood and delegates are chosen by districts. But the specialization required by modern machine industry brings it about that those of the same trade or craft have more interests in common than those living within a given area. Hence, it is contended that for representation citizens should be grouped by occupation or economic interest rather than by wards or districts. This is the principle of the sovyet, and its merits should be fairly considered without reference to its accidental association with Bolshevism. In the last quarter of a century there has been a marked trend toward the regulation and even management of industry by the state, i.e., state socialism. This, however, leaves the citizen so remote from that which most vitally concerns him, viz., the regulation of the industry in which he works, that his yearly vote may be a mere fribble and he little better than a state serf. It is urged that those in each branch of industry should organize themselves democratically and regulate its conditions and relations-guild socialism-leaving the state to regulate its relations to other organized industries and to the consuming public. This would be like the decentralization which took place in the autocratic state after the people gained control of it, save that in this case it is industries which claim autonomy rather than provinces and localities. WILL SOCIALIZATION CONTINUE? СНАР. LIII The Serv. of the Grows ice side State while the Wanes A generation ago Lester F. Ward declared, "We are in the stone age of politics." The development since he uttered this mot proves how profoundly true it was. The coercive side of the state has not grown, but there has been an amazing expansion on coercive the side of service. The symbols of force are vanishing from side state occasions and public buildings. The typical agents of the state are coming to be not soldier and policeman, but teacher, health inspector, coast guard and forest ranger. Ruthlessness is dying out of government, so that our great stone prisons and their steel cages may some day be looked on as curiously as we look on the "witch towers" of the Middle Ages in which demoniacs were tortured. The ideals, methods and manners of the state have changed immensely in the democratic era and are bound to undergo many other changes. |