Superintendent Holmann, representing the government, gave it as his opinion that the nationalization of Austrian coal mines would require an amount of capital so extravagant that it would be impossible to procure it. Moreover, he considered that it would be a mistake to hope for large results from such nationalization, as it would have all the economic defects and inconveniences of similar monopolies everywhere. The project was, therefore, abandoned.

And yet M. Milhaud can say: "The unceasing march toward nationalization and municipalization is supported, stimulated and commanded by economic evolution."

Neither government nor municipal monopolies are novelties; they are antiques. To represent them in the light of consequences of modern economic changes is to commit a solecism. They are not indicative of evolution, but of retrogression.

As a matter of fact, if throughout the world we compare the economic activity of private undertakings with those of governments, either local or state, the latter appear almost insignificant. The 338 Swiss municipalities may be each in itself most interesting in its public economic activities. But Switzerland has only 3,763,000 inhabitants, and the importance of their activities is therefore limited.

CHAPTER III

RESULTS OF EXPERIENCE

The Meagreness of the Socialist Program.-Those Who Have Office and Those Who Want It.-The Programs of Government and Municipal Operation Condemned by Experience, and from the Double Point of View of Quality and Cost of Service.-State and Municipal Ownership Show Incontestable Inferiority.-The Utility and Danger of Such Experiments.

They

Socialist programs are pitifully meagre. would not amount to anything but for the weakness and hunger for popularity of candidates for office and the desire of deputies, municipal councillors and mayors to eliminate their competitors. Political ambitions form the cornerstones of such programs, and, if officials did not find in them promises of an increase in power for themselves and of employment for their sons, sons-in-law and nephews they would vanish in air.

Against a wider extension of public economic responsibilities nothing but experience stands in the way. But it condemns unreservedly any such extension. From the point of view, both of the quality and of the cost of service, state and municipal ownership show incontestable inferiority to private enterprise.

The experiments with State and Municipal Social

ism have resulted so disastrously that their opponents might even see an advantage in hastening and multiplying them. Unfortunately human experiments are not like those of a laboratory. When they occur they invariably displace and break something. They provoke passions; they create conflicting interests. They exert material influences which may be ruinous, and moral influences which can be even more destructive. After men have become addicted to habits of mendacity and spoliation, it is difficult to teach them not to look upon the services that they render as pure and simple sources of remuneration.

CHAPTER IV

THE STATE A DISHONEST MAN

1. In Foreign Affairs Machiavelli Is Still Our Moral Guide.-In Domestic Affairs the End Justifies the Means for Socialists and Interventionalists.—The Sovereignty of the "End in View."

2. Bismarck, Ramsay Macdonald and the Railways.-MM. Pelletan and Waddington.

3. Our Professors of Law, the Heirs of the Lawyers of Philippe Le Bel.-Partial Confiscation of the Railways. -Approval of the Principle by Paul Pic.

4. The Agreements of 1883.-The Guaranty of Interest of the Orléans and Midi Railway Lines and M. Barthou. -Decree of the Council of State.-The Millerand Interpellation, 1895.-The Political Crisis.-Governmental Disregard of Judicial Decisions.-Last Resource of the Orléans Company.-The Confirmatory Decree of the Council of State of July 26, 1912.—Anarchistic Lack of Conscience.

5. Giolitti and the Insurance Companies.-National and International Confiscation.-A Legal Excuse.-M. Jèze. "An Administrative and Not a Fiscal Monopoly."-A Legal Error.-Precedents for Confiscation. -Progress Condemns Precedents of Rapine and Violence. Return to Confiscation a Proof of Retrogression. Individual Ownership One of the Conditions of National and International Law.-An Error of Fact.-Profits of the Italian Monopoly.

6. The Italian Law of 1903.-Repeal of Municipal Concessions. The Congress of Municipal Undertakings.

7. The Rambla Case.

8. Equal Tolls on the Panama Canal.-Article 8 of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty.-The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty. Exemption of American Ships Engaged in Coast Trade.-The Lodge Bill.-Bad Faith.-A Lobbyist.-British Protests.-Mr. Taft.-Supreme Court of the United States.-Under the Circumstances There Can Be No Third Disinterested Party. 9. The Discomfiture of the New York Street Railways.— Restrictive Legislation in New Jersey.-Police Power, Private Property, and Constitutional Guaranties.

10. Examples of a Model Employer.

1. It is still generally understood that in matters of foreign policy the statesman should have no moral guide other than Machiavelli. In regard to domestic affairs the unanimity of opinion is scarcely so perfect. Nevertheless, statesmen who believe that every government ought to be "an honest man" are still the exception; and not alone Socialists, but also Interventionalists are characterized by utter unscrupulousness when the question arises of substituting collective for individual action. The end justifies the means. To objections made in the name of property rights and of respect for contracts, the end in view is declared sovereign. Let me cite a few characteristic facts in proof of such a statement.

2. Bismarck organized a campaign against the private railway companies, diverted traffic from them, bought their stock secretly, and molded public opinion into favoring the purchase he had planned.

The parliamentary chairman of the Labor party in Great Britain, J. Ramsay Macdonald, in a debate with