PRESENT POLITICS 187 



strength of the expanding nation felt this was another of those beneficent 

 acts of a government rich and solicitous for the well-being of all its 

 citizens. The smoking stacks, the revolving wheels and the hum of the 

 looms were referred to with pride as evidence of success in constructive 

 legislation. As time went on faith in the possibility of legislating the 

 country into prosperity continuously grew stronger and grants of pro- 

 tection became as common as grants of land. The favors were passed 

 around by mutual consent and bargaining until customs duties were 

 placed upon the importation of so many articles that precise knowledge 

 of the effect of the whole system is beyond the grasp of even diligent 

 students. The degree of industrial peace within our walls and pros- 

 perity in our palaces was commonly accepted evidence of the success of 

 the American policy that silenced to most ears the doctrinaire objections 

 of a discredited minority. 



Parallel with national aid to industry were the grants and franchises 

 given by local and municipal governments with a view to promoting 

 public improvements within their jurisdictions. Street railways were 

 essential to the development of towns and every inducement was offered 

 to capital to lead it to go into their creation. The anticipated benefits 

 were great, and the average citizen, who was busy trying to acquire his 

 share of the collateral gains that were expected to accrue to the com- 

 munity, did not pay much attention to the terms of the contracts, while 

 his representatives frequently exacted from the promoters of the new 

 enterprises the customary informal fees to which in an era of acquisition 

 they felt they were entitled. Fortunes were made all around them 

 through the simple process of taking with governmental sanction and 

 public approbation the lands, the bonds, the tariffs and the franchises 

 that were to be had as part of the great scheme of continental develop- 

 ment. There was nothing unusual in picking up these fragments when 

 there were basketfuls being passed. The practise was common and 

 hardly unclean. 



From the conditions indicated in this brief analysis of our economic 

 development it is easy to see how certain ideas came to prevail widely 

 in the minds of Americans. At the bottom of our thinking has been the 

 conception of a boundless productive continent to be parceled out by the 

 government among its citizens. We have had the feeling that " the 

 government " apart from the people as a body is wealthy. " Uncle Sam 

 is rich enough to give us all a farm " is a popular expression of the 

 notion. A professor in a well-known university has a stock question 

 that he asks year after year concerning who shall meet the expense of a 

 proposed scheme for social improvement, and the invariable answer is : 

 " Let the government pay for it." 



Along with the idea that the government possessed an all but inex- 

 haustible store was the collateral feeling that doles should be given to 



