EDITOR'S TABLE. 



707 



a considerable increase in popula- 

 tion has occurred. During the same 

 period, freedom, the essential condi- 

 tion of growth, has made many con- 

 quests. The Inquisition has been 

 abolished. Religious toleration, with 

 a free press and free speech, has been 

 established. The right of association 

 has been recognized. The most oner- 

 ous and odious of the industrial regu- 

 lations of centuries of despotism have 

 been repealed. Indeed, the condi- 

 tions of social evolution are more 

 favorable in Spain than in any 

 of the great continental countries. 

 To be sure, she has, like Russia, Ger- 

 many, Fi'ance, and Italy, a power- 

 ful and corrupt bureaucratic system ; 

 but she does not have to bear the 

 burdens of an immense standing 

 army, nor is she subjected to its 

 centralizing and demoralizing influ- 

 ences. Unlike Russia and Germany, 

 she does not have a ruler that seeks 

 to impose his will upon her people, 

 and to force them to live in disre- 

 gard of their wishes. The bitter class 

 hatreds born of militancy do not ex- 

 ist in Spain that exist in Finance. 

 Although the Spanish population is 

 poor, it has not, as in Italy, been 

 driven by misgovernment and desti- 

 tution to brigandage and insurrec- 

 tion. 



While it can not be denied that 

 England and the United States are 

 nations in a state of rapid evolution, 

 their evolution is not taking place 

 in the way usually supposed. It is 

 not by acquisitions of foreign terri- 

 tory that nations grow great and 

 powerful. Such acquisitions may 

 be signs of decay, and, like certain 

 tumors, hasten death. If they are 

 due to the militant impulse — the 

 progenitor of the new colonies of 

 France and Germany — and require 

 standing armies to keep them in sub- 

 jection, causing a heavy drain upon 

 the resources of the mother coun- 

 try, they are a source of weakness. 



What constitutes the greatness of 

 England and the United States is 

 the increase of their populations, the 

 capacity of these populations for pri- 

 vate initiative, the development of 

 their resources, the discovery of new 

 methods of production, the improve- 

 ment of old methods of distribution, 

 the generous rewards bestowed upon 

 toil, the deference shown for the 

 rights of others — in a word, the 

 more perfect adjustment of life to 

 the conditions of existence. Were 

 it not for a change of policy that 

 has occurred in both countries, this 

 adjustment would continue until the 

 soil had been forced to yield the 

 largest product and the population 

 had reached its maximum in num- 

 bers, industrial skill, and social amel- 

 ioration. But this change is destroy- 

 ing freedom ; it is checking social 

 mobility; it is increasing the func- 

 tions and regulations of govern- 

 ment; it is adding to the army of 

 militant and bureaucratic parasites; 

 it is preventing labor from receiv- 

 ing its highest reward and the in- 

 dividual from attaining his greatest 

 happiness; to sum up, it is bringing 

 about just such a state as is deplored 

 in Turkey and China and working 

 the ruin of Italy and France. The 

 money taken from the individual 

 and spent in ways not his own has 

 reached an enormous sum, and is 

 constantly increasing. The discon- 

 tent and animosity growing out of 

 this aggression are increasing in 

 a like degree, taking the form of 

 labor insurrections, agitations for 

 the depreciation of the currency, and 

 the robbery of the rich under the 

 cover of inquisitorial and confisca- 

 tory taxes in support of schemes 

 for the benefit of the poor. In the 

 United States more particularly, 

 there has been a rapid development 

 of the militant spirit, which demands 

 the adoption of an imperial policy of 

 aggression and colonial expansion, 



