1 86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of wealth in lands, money and other forms were granted by smaller polit- 

 ical units. This lavish generosity upon the part of governments had 

 the warm support of the whole body of the people because the greater 

 number of the individuals in the country were directly sharing in it or 

 expected further indirect benefits from the development that would 

 follow easy and cheap intercourse. 



In this era of expansion the people thought in round numbers and 

 on a grand scale. The superabundance of natural resources and the 

 size of the anticipated results would have made any close scrutiny of the 

 details of the transactions involved seem parsimonious cheeseparing, 

 petty querulousness likely to interfere with the success of the transac- 

 tion in hand and sure to delay the consummation unanimously wished. 

 The popular will demanded that the thing be put through. All inter- 

 ests had to be conciliated and the ways greased if speed were to be 

 attained. In thus doing business on wide margins and wholesale practi- 

 cally every one who helped the scheme forward felt a democratic right to 

 participate in the benefits conferred. Legislators and administrators 

 looked for an honorarium as a part of the exchange of courtesies incident 

 to the negotiations connected with any public improvement of impor- 

 tance. The people at large were more interested in the execution of the 

 proposed work than in the way it was carried out. Official parasitism on 

 public improvements, graft, was regarded lightly as merely a sharing in 

 the general distribution of the public largess. It was a commonplace; 

 beneficial to the recipients and injurious to no one because, forsooth, 

 it came out of the public abundance. 



Development was the word to conjure with during most of our past 

 and its magic opened men's minds to suggestion in every field of effort. 

 Very early the creation of manufacturing industry became a desider- 

 atum. The infant industry needed protection. Notwithstanding the 

 opposition of the South which then saw no promise of local benefit in 

 the policy, the rest of the country enacted a tariff that took the edge off 

 foreign competition if it did not entirely prevent it. Behind this barrier 

 there came into existence factories and mills for the production of com- 

 modities as varied as the resources of the country would supply with raw 

 material. The producers of this material rejoiced in the existence of a 

 market immediately at hand and felt the benefit of the policy that the 

 nation was more and more committing itself to carrying out. These 

 new and flourishing manufactories were the nuclei of an urban popula- 

 tion ready to purchase the products of farm and field : hence the agri- 

 cultural interests were persuaded that the value of their lands was en- 

 hanced and their labor made profitable by the legislative act that 

 brought the artisans and their families from Europe to the United 

 States. Some palatable arguments allured many into thinking that the 

 duties collected came from the foreigner, while others confident in the 



