332 Involution and Social Reform : 



importance in American politics, the country over. It is 

 hard to see how either of these desiderata is to be obtained 

 by increasing the number of official positions and functions 

 and creating a necessity for more legislative measures. 

 Kather it would seem to be the true course to abolish a 

 great many of the offices we have, and to dispense with a 

 considerable i)ortion of the laws on our statute-books. The 

 business condition of the country is much better settled 

 Avhen Congress is not in session. Those States wliich have 

 adopted for their legislatures the biennial session rule, have 

 found it greatly to their advantage. If the legislature 

 seldom meets there is so much less opportunity for schemes 

 of jobbery, while people can live and justice be adminis- 

 tered under the organic law and the general statutes which 

 all our States have had from the beginning. So-called 

 "private bills" are the curse of our Congressional and 

 State legislation. The lower house of Congress has almost 

 ceased to be availaljle for the discussion and enactment of 

 measures aifecting the general welfare. It is merely a 

 vehicle for the promotion of ])rivate schemes, and its action 

 is the resultant of the conflict of j)rivate interests, each 

 seeking by force, frauds or compromise the passage of its 

 own bills. It Avere far better to have no legislature for an 

 interval, than to have this unseemly strife kept up through 

 several months of each year. In executive offices, longer 

 terms and stricter accountability will tend to create a better 

 state of things, while the reforms in the civil service which 

 have been effected, and others which are proposed, are of 

 great value for their salutary results. 



]>ut it is not so nuicli my purpose to particularize by 

 indicating si)ecial reforms for special cases, as to remark 

 the fact that, in America and in England at least, the 

 ])ractical workers for reform, and their proposed measures, 

 are the most scientific. In England this is illustrated in 

 the new and simplified judicial i)r()cedure, in the Corrupt 

 I'ractices Act, and in the various Home Kule movements. 

 In our own country, the three most salient reforms of 

 to-day Civil-Service, Tariff, and ]>allot-]leform are tlie 

 offspring of tlioi-ouglily scientific thought, starting from 

 conditions, gathering the facts, exposing the evils and their 

 causes, and selecting the a])propriate remedy. This is very 

 encouraging. Two extreme and opposite habits of mind 

 should always 1)0 avoided and deprecated; the one, that of 



