in dollars and cents, it nevertheless becomes a disconcerting fact to a teacher of ambition when the financial returns of his efforts will not permit him and those dependent on him to live equally as well as the common laborer. Acknowledging that a popular electorate is safe only when it is an educated electorate, does not the filling in of the ranks of the teaching profession with mature, well-trained, and well-paid teachers become a matter of no small concern to the government which has taken over education as one of its important functions?

Social Welfare.-When individualistic theories prevailed it was not regarded as the function of the state to protect its citizens against unhealthful and insanitary conditions. What protection was accorded in this line was left almost entirely to private initiative. But the changes from the individual to the social theory of the functions of government have brought a radical transformation in this regard. The entrance of the state came first into the matter of the protection of the people from the ravages of dangerous diseases. With the increased concentration of population in cities and the consequent spread of diseases through unhealthful and insanitary conditions, the control of the state over conditions affecting the health has been rapidly extended. The development of medical science and the related sciences of sanitation and sanitary engineering have augmented the powers of public control. It has become the function of the state to assist in preventing the spread of contagious diseases by quarantine, vaccination, and other measures, to establish laboratories, and to conduct investigations as to health conditions, to assist in maintaining reasonable standards of purity in water, food, and drugs, and to join in the maintenance of conditions conducive to the health and vigor of all citizens. This function is performed by Federal, state, and local officers through boards of health and other officers who conduct investigations, inspect sanitary conditions, and who, through numerous agencies, disseminate informa

tion and advice with respect to affairs related to the maintenance of good health. In no line has the growth of state powers touched more vitally the life of its citizens and rendered a more direct service to the individual.1

Just as in the case of health the changes in conditions, the development of medical science, and the emergence of new points of view have placed upon the government duties and responsibilities in the field of charities and corrections.

The old idea of charity was to provide free soup for those who lined up at the door, or to gather them into the almshouse-in short, to relieve the immediate wants of the poor; the new thought is to help a family to regain its earning power. The old system produced a class of chronic dependents; the aim of the new is to remove the cause of dependence by cultivating self-respect.2

In short, the state has gradually assumed a responsibility for the care of the dependent, the defective, and the delinquent. This responsibility may be assumed by a subsidy to private charitable and correctional institutions with a system of inspection of the work performed by them, or the establishment and maintenance of state institutions. To illustrate the extraordinary growth of government functions in this field the state of Illinois has established and maintains twenty-two institutions with plants valued at approximately one million each, and having on the average more than a thousand inmates in each, and costing for maintenance more than six million dollars annually.3 Owing to the variety of functions performed, the similarity of the problems of administration involved, and the necessity of some effective check upon the financial methods of these state institutions, an effort has been made to establish centralized control and supervision over all the institutions by means of a state board of control. As in

1 See J. T. Young, The New American Government and Its Work, pp. 419–433. 2 Ibid., p. 433.

3

3 Cf. E. C. Hayes, "Democratization of Institutions for Social Betterment" in Cleveland and Shafer, Democracy in Reconstruction (Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1919), p. 140.

other fields, there are not merely difficulties of administration to encounter, but also greater difficulties are involved in the determination of how far the duties and responsibilities of the state should be extended in the care of the dependent and defective classes, as well as in the removal of the conditions which foster such classes. Ten years ago a noted historian observed that

the transformations through which the United States is passing in our own day are so profound, so far reaching, that it is hardly an exaggeration to say that we are witnessing the birth of a new nation in America. The revolution in the social and economic structure of this country during the past two decades is comparable to what occurred when Independence was declared and the Constitution was formed.1 What then appeared as a revolution has been carried beyond all anticipations by the stress and strain of war and by the necessary readjustments to return to a peace basis. Governments assumed functions which seem to have exceeded the expectations of the advocates of socialism. But the period of reaction has set in, and again, it is contended, that government functions should be reduced, that the protective functions of government be continued, but that the commercial, ministrant or developmental functions by which governments assist individuals in business, education, and social welfare should be reduced. The central issue of politics and government, then, is what are the functions which governments should perform and to what extent should individuals and their rights, privileges, and actions be subjected to social control.

That things are not fixed and unchangeable is indeed one of the first principles of life. Evidences of changes, adaptations to new circumstances and proposed revisions to meet the new conditions, are constantly being made. And government, like all other human products, is subject to the perpetual flux. The institutions amid which we now live are in the process of becoming something different.

1 R. J. Turner, "Social Forces in American History," American Historical Review, vol. xxi, p. 217.

Political facts are elusive and evanescent. We no sooner have laid hold on facts than transformations take place that render facts uncertain and subject all information to a serious element of error. It is extremely difficult to discern the progressive and retrogressive changes in human affairs. All that can be done is to catch interpretative glimpses of the complex movements in which we participate. In the trenchant words of Lord Morley, "The fundamental reform for which the times call is rather a reconsideration of the ends for which all civilized government exists, in a word, for the return to a saner measure of social values."1

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

JAMES BRYCE, Modern Democracies, 2 vols. (The Macmillan Company, 1921).

A suggestive analysis of the principles and problems of democratic government and the application of these principles and problems to the operation of government in France, Switzerland, Canada, United States, Australia and New Zealand. See especially Parts I and III.

C. E. MERRIAM, American Political Ideas (The Macmillan Company, 1920).

FREDERICK A. CLEVELAND and JOSEPH SCHAFER, Editors, Democracy in Reconstruction (Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1919).

1 Miscellanies, vol. iv, p. 271.

Prepare a chart showing the present party divisions in the United States. Show how these parties are related to the standard divisions as between the radicals and conservatives.

INDEX