592 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and twenty million dollars, or six per cent, are devoted to the legiti- 

 mate functions of government — namely, the maintenance of police 

 and courts — and one hundred and forty million dollars to the 

 support of the military establishment.* All the rest is expenditure 

 that should no more be intrusted to the Government — that is, sub- 

 ject to the application of political instead of business methods — than 

 the expenditure of a household, or a farm, or a cotton mill, or an 

 iron foundry. Even if it were a legitimate expenditure of the Gov- 

 ernment, it could not be collected nor expended without injustice. 

 Tax laws have never been and never will be framed that will not 

 permit some one to escape his share of the burdens of the community; 

 and the heavier those burdens are, as they are constantly becoming to 

 an alarming degree, the more desperate will be the effort to shirk 

 them — the more lightly will they rest upon the dishonest and un- 

 worthy, and the more heavily upon the honest and worthy. More- 

 over, it has never been possible, and it never will be possible, to 

 expend money by political methods without either waste or fraud, 

 and most usually without both. 



Such a volume of legislation and taxation permits of the easy de- 

 tection of the vital difference between the theory and practice of 

 politics. According to the text-books and professors, politics is the 

 science of government. In countries like the United States, where 

 popular institutions prevail, the purpose of its study is the dis- 

 covery and the application of the methods that shall enable all citi- 

 zens, rich and poor, to share alike in the inestimable privilege of 

 saying what laws they shall have, and bear in proportion to their 

 means the burdens it entails. Such a privilege is supposed to confer 

 innumerable benefits. Every one is assured of scrupulous justice. 

 He is made to feel profound gratitude for his happy deliverance from 

 the odious tyranny and discrimination of a monarchy or an aristocracy. 

 The participation of everybody in the important and beneficent work 

 of government possesses a rare educational value. It leads the igno- 

 rant and indifferent to take a deep interest in public questions, and 

 to attempt, as their strength and ability allow, the promotion of the 

 welfare of their beloved country. Thus they escape the deplorable 

 fate of burial in the sordid and selfish pursuit of their own affairs, and 

 the consequent dwarfing of their minds and emotions. Rising to 

 broader views of life and duty, they become patriots, statesmen, and 

 philanthropists. 



Enchanting as this picture is, one that can be found in the 

 speeches of every demagogue, male and female, as well as in the 

 works of every political philosopher of the orthodox faith, it has no 



* These figures represent the expenditures before the war with Spain. That deplorable 

 event will increase them considerably. 



