THE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 277 
ernment, leaving the then relatively unimportant details of administra- 
tion—over which controversy arose whenever the subject was approached 
—to the sense of their successors; while they proceeded so circumspectly 
as to reveal implicitly rather than by explicit statement their chief— 
and history’s greatest—contribution to governmental principle, 7. ¢., the 
substitution of human power exercised through an electorate for the 
inscrutable might manifested through a hierarchy as the basis of gov- 
ernment. Strong as is the constitution in every feautre and depart- 
ment, its chief strength lies in that last-written but first-placed para- 
graph, “ We, the people of the United States, ... do ordain and estab- 
lish this Constitution.” With this utterance the mysticsm of the ages 
fell away, and the foundation of humane government became fixed 
forever; and the new light has already gone around the world and 
entered every land. 
Now in addition to the specific powers expressed in the first, second 
and third articles of the constitution, others are so clearly implied or 
expressed inter se that they were unhesitatingly exercised from the day 
the instrument was adopted. These embrace the administrative power 
implied throughout, together with that primary power ranking all the 
others combined (since they rest on and arise from it); 4.2, the te- 
terminative (or elective) power implied in the first, second, fourth, 
fifth and sixth articles and expressed in the preamble. So any com- 
plete enumeration of the powers of our government (or any other of 
representative type) necessarily comprises those pertaining to the five 
innate and coordinate functions involved in all governmental organiza- 
tions from the most primitive to the most advanced ; In logical order— 
which is that reflected in the constitution—they may be denoted (1) 
elective, exercised by the people; (2) legislative, exercised by the con- 
gress; (3) administrative, exercised by the president and his cabinet 
officers; (4) judicative, exercised by the court, and (5) executive, exer- 
cised primarily by the president. 
II 
The popular movement for the utilization of our waterways” first 
marked an awakened public sentiment; now it is stirring the national 
conscience in a manner not unlike the movement of 1776. A round 
century of public indifference since Gallatin followed Washington in 
pointing a way, and a half-century of national incompetence attested 
by the decline of river and canal navigation—these unwittingly set the 
alarm now ringing. As befits democracy, the awakening began with 
the extremities of the body politic; yet signs are not lacking that it is 
reaching the somnolent centers. When the declaration and the con- 
* Described in “Our Great River,” World’s Work for February, 1907 (Vol. 
XIII., pp. 8576-8584), and “Our Inland Waterways,” PopuLar ScIENCE 
Monraty for April, 1908 (Vol. LXXII., pp. 289-303). 
