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SCIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 192. 



vastly more than it used to. It no longer 

 refers chiefly to the provision of vessels, 

 forts and weapons, but rather to the bring- 

 ing-up of generations of young men trained 

 by school, college, political life and the 

 great national industries to habits of self- 

 direction and of disciplined cooperation. 

 This bringing-up is best secured under free 

 institutions,which leave everything possible 

 to the initiative of the citizen. 



This principle — that government should 

 do nothing which any other agencies can do 

 as well — being admitted and established, 

 the next question to be considered is 

 whether the legitimate activities of our 

 government in time of peace, activities 

 directed toward constructive and wholly 

 beneficent objects, should not be increased. 

 On this point I cannot help thinking that 

 the lesson of the war is plain and convinc- 

 ing. It is undeniable that our people have 

 rejoiced in the exhibition of power which 

 the government has given during this war. 

 We have all derived great satisfaction from 

 our government's display of power, exer- 

 cised with promptness, foresight and the 

 sagacious adaptation of means to ends. It 

 is human nature always and everywhere to 

 enjoy such success as the government has 

 won, even when it costs heavily in blood and 

 money. To have the consciousness of pos- 

 sessing power, and to display the power pos- 

 sessed, is a national gratification. Now, this 

 sort of satisfaction ought to be obtainable in 

 peace as well as in war ; so that the power of 

 the United States, displayed in peace for 

 ends wholly constructive and beneficent, 

 ought to be in some measure comparable 

 with the power the government is capable 

 of displaying for destructive ends in war. 

 How can the United States put forth, dur- 

 ing the long periods of peace, a beneficent 

 power comparable to the destructive power 

 it wields in war, without violating the prin- 

 ciple of leaving to its citizens every field of 

 activity which they can till to advantage. 



If we examine the fields of activity which 

 must perforce remain to the government 

 we shall find that they will amply suffice 

 for the exercise of power enough to gratify 

 the most ambitious and the most benevo- 

 lent citizen of the Republic. Let us briefly 

 survey some of these fields. The first I 

 shall mention is the fostering of commerce. 

 This function obviously belongs to the gen- 

 eral government, which has power not only 

 to regulate, but to annihilate at will, the 

 trade of its citizens with foreign countries. 

 The war with Spain has distinctly enlarged 

 the moral outlook of our people. It has 

 presented to them wholly unexpected prob- 

 lems concerning the responsibility of a for- 

 tunate people for the welfare of the less 

 fortunate. It has suggested to them that 

 a policy of political seclusion and commer- 

 cial isolation is not worthy of a strong, free 

 and generous people, and that such a policy 

 is not the way to the greatest prosperity and 

 the most desirable influence. 



Another great fleld of beneficent activity 

 for our government is the procuring of just 

 and humane conditions of labor in indus- 

 tries which cannot be carried on within the 

 jurisdiction of any single State, because 

 they necessarily cover several States. The 

 great functions of the national government 

 in this respect are now only beginning to 

 be exercised. In the Ninth Annual Eeport 

 of the Inter-State Commerce Commission 

 on the Statistics of Eailways in the United 

 States, a report dated June 30, 1897, 1 read 

 that in the year 1896 the number of rail- 

 road employees killed in the service was 

 1,861, and the number injured 29,969, the 

 number of men employed on the railroads 

 of the United States in that year being 

 826,620. In the same year there were 

 killed and wounded in coupling and un- 

 coupling alone 6,614 trainmen, 1,744 switch- 

 men and flagmen, and 328 other employees, 

 making a total of 8,686 killed and wounded 

 in coupling and uncoupling alone. Do not 



