HB 172 
 
 .L36 
 
 Copy 2 mk 
 
 OF THE LAW AND OF ECONOMICS 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED «Y 
 
 SECRETARY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 BEFORE THE SIXTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIA 
 TION OF OFFICIALS OF BUREAUS OF LABOR STATISTICS. 
 
 MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, JULY II, I900. 
 
 WM. STANLEY RAY, 
 
 STATE IRINTER OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 1900. 
 
OF THE LAff AND OF ECONOMICS 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 . cr 
 
 SECRETARY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
 
 BEFORE THE SIXTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIA- 
 TION OF OFFICIALS OF BUREAUS OF LABOR STATISTICS. 
 
 MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, JULY II, I900. 
 
 WM. STANLEY RAY, 
 
 STATE PRINTER OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 1900. 
 
 Qjyi^\- 
 
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 'Mk^ 
 
 Offf 
 OCT 12 1908 
 
 (2) 
 
OF THE LAW AND OF ECONOMICS. 
 
 An Address Delivered h_v James W. Latla, Sccielai-.v of In(eiiial 
 Artaiis of PeiHisylvauia, before rlie Kitii Aiinaal Convention of 
 the National Association of Olticials of liuieatis of Labor Siatis- 
 ties, Milwaukee, ^^'is(■ollsin. July 11. 1!MH». 
 
 The wisdom of the jndg*' has often been (jiiestioned. his intejiiity 
 sometimes assailed, but the hnv he intei-piets has rarely been defied. 
 Whatever denunciation may reach other jiovernmental functions, 
 the law and its administration have always commanded respect, not 
 for the awe it insjiires or the fear it enj^enders. but for the inherent 
 regard its majesty invokes. The majesty of the law is the only sov- 
 ereign the Kepublic knows. Puncture the integrity of its enforce- 
 ment and the throne itself is threatened. Tlu^ complaints of the 
 disappointed suitor, the infrequent preference s of prejudice, the in- 
 <ideutal exhibitions of })assion, the rare sus])icions of corruption, the 
 (H-casionel tmcoriected errors of judicial incai>acity never disturb 
 the concession to the august supremacy of the law. Improvident 
 corj)oration legislation. ];ie-election legislation providing methods 
 that may subsecpiently be made o]»erative to overcome the i)t)iiular 
 will, obnoxious statutes, the repeal of which their rigorous enforce- 
 ment sometimes coerces, have in no wise imjiaired the exercise of 
 authoiity for the preservation of right, the i)rohibition of wrong. 
 The suitrcMue jiower of the State still rommands. The rule of action 
 it JM escribes is still the law. 
 
 The State jjrotects itself against tliose who would destroy it. so- 
 ( iety a.nainst crime, the individual against injury. Against tht» 
 person of the c<»nvict and the projierty of the deliniim^nt the law exe- 
 cutes its decrees. In the one instance the injury doiu^ society is 
 atoned for; in the other the wrongs done the individual ar<' righted. 
 The body answers for the (rime; the ]iro|)erly i-esjiouds for the d<'- 
 lincjuency. 
 
 The system of rules and regulations which is recogni/.ed as the law 
 that among men governs their intercourse with each other ami 
 protects society fiom crime, is that law of ]iersonal secuiity whos" 
 sii]>reuuicy commands resi»ecl. elicits obedience. The political ( n- 
 > ironment that concerns the administration of the governmental 
 functions that maintain li])erty, resist invasion, subdue riot, sup- 
 press insurrection, is the propagator of the more exalted si'uti- 
 
 (3) 
 
nieiit of patriotism, the patriotism that recognizes the flag of our 
 coiiniry as the common conservator of our national dignity, the 
 common arbiter of our national destiny. "In everything which 
 concerns civil and political liberty/' says an eminent text writer, "no 
 system has yet been devised that can be compared with the free 
 spirit of the English and American common law." 
 
 The common law is a creature of conditions and necessities. It is 
 custom and usage gradually adopted, sanctioned by the courts. It 
 was before legislatures were, and has been since. All law did not 
 begin by legislative consent, and therefore the common law is not 
 as one of the earlier writers phrases it "statutes worn out by time." 
 A better comprehension of its origin and stability is supplied by Sir 
 Matthew Hale. "It is not," he says, "the product of the wisdom of 
 some one man or society of men in any one age, but the wisdom, coun- 
 sel, experience and observation of many ages of wise and observ- 
 ing men." It is indigenous where constitutional liberty thrives; 
 elsewhere it is an exotic. 
 
 "Wherein had this free spirit of the common law its earliest mani- 
 festations? The common law is a rich illustration of the processes 
 of evolution. Born of the villages in the jutting peninsulas that nar- 
 row the Baltic, and their adjacent lowlands, its traditional develop- 
 ments "preserved in a nation's memories'" reached their fullest frui- 
 tion in the treaty King John made with his barons in the beginning 
 of the thirteenth century. The age of. traditional rights was to 
 j>ass away and "the age of written legislation of parliaments and 
 statutes was to cdm'e." The youth in the academy, in his first at- 
 tempt at English composition, rarely fails to exploit something of 
 Kunymede, the Barons, King John and the charter. The profound- 
 est statesman finds inspiration in the theme, and so it will ever be. 
 
 The full intendment of this ancient declaration is frequently over- 
 looked. Had it been confined to the barons, as their prominence in 
 forcing its iiiitiative would indicate was jts purpose, its perpetuity 
 A'.'ould never have been stamped, as it has been, upon free institutions 
 everywhere. The rights secured were "not of baron and church- 
 men only, but of freeholder and merchant, of townsman and 
 villein." Where the privilege of the simple freeman is not secured 
 by the clause wiiich primarily affects the baron, a supplementary 
 clause is added to define and protect his rights. The merchant, it 
 was agreed, might go out of the kingdom and return at his pleasure. 
 He was to be protected by a uniform standard of weights and meas- 
 ures, and allowed to transact his business free from arbitrary tolls 
 and impositions. Trade was invited from abroad, and the foreign 
 merchant encouraged to visit the kingdom by the protection accorded 
 him. No fine could be levied to the utter ruin of anyone, and the 
 villein or rustic by fine or amercement was not to be deprived of his 
 
lioi>es, his caits, his ]ih)u;Lths, or iinitU'iiicnts of husbandry. An cx- 
 eniiition law had for tlio tiisl tinio declared its imipose. One of the 
 concludinii clauses is of forceful sij;iiiticance. It embodies jnovi- 
 sions so essiMitial to the niainlenance of constitutional ••■overnuH*nt 
 that with but little niodihcation Ihey have ever ai)iieared in the fun- 
 damental law of every fret state. "X(t freeman shall be taken or 
 imprisoned or disseized or outlawed or exiled or anywise destroyed; 
 nor will we <;(► upon him, nor send upon him, but by the lawful judj;- 
 ment of his peers or the law of the land. To none will we sell, to 
 n(.ne will we deny or delay, ri^ht or justice I" 
 
 What were the contemiKuaneous opjiortunities elsewhere, save 
 tiniler the favor of royal ]irerojiative. where the free spirit of the 
 common law was unknown? Mark the contrast t)f these insular con- 
 cessions Vvith the interruptions and restrictions that beset the 
 trader in the Latin countries of the Continent. The ki:>j!,"s rij^ht to 
 the market was assured by the law. When liis vinta«;e canu' to 
 town, the innkeeper closed his doors, the wine sho]) ceased to do 
 business until His Majesty's stock was disposed of. And there wei-e 
 other fr.rmidable rivals; the Sei<;neur and Abbe came after the 
 king and held the monojioly. "Where kinj;. noble, or cleric turned 
 tradesman for the noni e, the tradesman as such went juomptly to the 
 wall." 
 
 The king, by the fiction of a divine light, was ])rt)ne to be a law 
 luito himself. The obedieme he yielded to his Parliament was a 
 reluctant obedience. The distinction between the constitutional 
 s(!vereigu and the sovereign of divine right, the sovereign absolute, is 
 forcefully suggested in a neatly constructed dis])atch of Lord Koberts 
 rejiorting one of his recent operations in ?5onth Africa. "I liope that 
 Her Majesty's government (uot hei- majesty) may consider the event 
 satsifactory. occurring as it does, on the auniveisary of Majuba." 
 Learned jurists interpreted the <-ommou law, >*cholai'ly commentators 
 expounded it, the king forgetful of his jdedges sonu'times interrujjted 
 the free spirit <»f its liberty. Though its force was at times sus- 
 pended, its substance was nevei- impaired. Cromwell ha<l overconu* 
 tlie divine dynasty and was ready to acce})t a constitutioi'al mon- 
 arcliy; but the King was utterly untrustworthy, and the army de- 
 fiant, intolerant, arrogant. The jjcaceful revolution later on 
 achieved wliat its bloodier predecessor had jirartically acc(unplished. 
 and thi' law was forever freed from othei- kiiigly interrujtt ions at 
 lionie. 
 
 The King was not so content to desist from i.itcrference with tlH» 
 operations of the comin«)n law in his colonial p(»ssessions. It was 
 no exotic when transplanted to tlu^ temperate zones of the Noith 
 American Continent. Heit^ it flourished with prodigious growth. The 
 Mayflower Pilgrims before they secured their landing i»laee soleuKily 
 
(j 
 
 covenanted, in the cabin of tlieir vessel, that the will of the majority 
 should be the law of the land. The Welcome bore across tempesln- 
 ous seas to her Pennsylvania destination the "Frame of (xovernment,'' 
 drafted by the Founder of the Province, as the creed of his ''Holy 
 Fxperinient."' Of its many potent declarations there was no more 
 forceful deliverance than this, "Any government is free to the people 
 under it, where the laws rule and the people are a party to these 
 laws." How nearly he had reached the ])hrase, with which amid the 
 perils of our civil war the immortal Lincoln subsequently electrified 
 the nation, "A government of the people, for the people and by the 
 people shall not perish from the earth!" More than one hundred and 
 fifty years before the United Colonies declared themselves a free and 
 independent nation they were approaching perilously near a Re- 
 public. 
 
 An American writer of much reputation has recently declared in 
 a magazine contribution of especial value, "The true principles of 
 leligious tolerance and political equality in all their bearings were 
 beyond the grasp of the seventeenth century.'' The qualification, 
 "in all their bearings," preserves the writer's conclusions to a better 
 fate than a critical analysis would otherwise accord them. The in- 
 tolerance that Avas furious in Great Britain, relentless in Massachu- 
 setts, was unknown in Pennsylvania. That Province greeted every 
 creed, doctrine and sect alike. Within its limits every man might 
 in truth and fact worshij) God according to the dictates of his own 
 conscience; nor could he, as the humorist has phrased it, prevent 
 every other man from worshiping God according to the dictates of 
 his. K^o conspicuous was I'ennsylvania for its absolute freedom of 
 worship, amid these prevalent intolerances that Goldwin Smith has 
 styled the Province "A religious museum." The exhibition is still on 
 view without charge. Maryland, Rhode Island and New York were 
 in their constructive period scarce a whit behind. Political equality 
 had a more universal acceptance than religious tolerance, certainly 
 upon this side of the Atlantic. The few years of theocratic govern- 
 ment in Massachusetts, that restricted the suffrage to the church, 
 disappeared before the seventeenth century went out. Representa- 
 tive government in some form prevailed in all of the colonies, and the 
 people seemed never better satisfied than when through their repre- 
 sentatives they were either delaying payment of or cutting down the 
 salaries of their royal governors. 
 
 The common law with its free spirit of liberty finds a more congen- 
 ial hoine wherever the flag floats "over the land of the free and the 
 home of the brave." It is fitted alike for all'colors, all races, all con- 
 ditions. Its firmest abiding place has been the Ignited States of 
 North America where the amplitude of its far-reaching equalities in- 
 cludes Saxon and Teuton, Latin and Celt, Slav and Scandinavian. 
 
Tlie distant oru-nt feels the stinuilns of its aitainalile possibilities, 
 atd the islands that were of the Spanish ^fain are looking- to the new 
 life its guarantees assure. It is as benelicent in peace as it is rigor- 
 ous in war. It has brought revolution to suceess, routed rebellion, 
 sui»pressed insurreetion, made a nation and set the bondman free. 
 It has created generals eajiable for the field, jurists learned for the 
 forum, statesmen skilled for the cabinet. The state, tlx' church, and 
 the fannly have ever bt-en its especial trusts, and to them all ii has 
 faithfully discharged the full purpose of its mission. 
 
 In tlie early middle ages nearly all there was of learning was em- 
 I'Odied in theology or law. Scarce any other branch of knowledge 
 was yet of suflicient compass to maintain for itself a se])arate estab- 
 lishment. (Questions of industrial i>o]icy were treated of as inci- 
 dental details in the one or the other of the two systems. It may not 
 be inappro])riate therefore, economics now conducting its own in- 
 dependent establishment, to }ilace it in touch with an ac(iuaintance 
 of its youth for a brief association. 
 
 More than a century since it began to be accepted with some 
 ciudity that the lives men lead and the callings men ]»ursue in the 
 relations that sustain the one and the conditions that su])port the 
 (»ther were collectively deducible to such ])rinci]iles as to evolve a 
 science. As this acceptance giew to conviction, the philosojiher 
 sought to so ai)ply the science as to deduce from it such a useful art 
 that its application might inure for the general betterment. Known 
 in its earlier conception as i)olitical economy, it has so bioadened it- 
 self as to include as well, sociology, which though of junior creation 
 now dominates it; and statistics still of later birth is also its close 
 cojielated adjunct. A science may be either the nu^thodical collec- 
 tion of certain associated principles, causes and effects verified by 
 observation, or it nuiy be the result of the research of discovery or the 
 a])i)lication of invention. The ultimate mission of sciem-e is that 
 Jt shall accomi)lisli a practical and substantial ]»urj)os,e. 
 
 Economics is made up of environment. It is the scientific reiulei'- 
 ing of educated observation. The better intelligences accept its prop- 
 ositions, recognize its conclusions. The prudent and thrifty abide 
 by its teachings. The ignorant and idle are restive under its re- 
 <piirements. 
 
 Man lives in a.n atmosphere of econcunics and yields unconscious 
 obedience to its behests. On terms of closest intimacy with its 
 operations, he yet is a stranger to the science as a science. The aim 
 of life in the material spheres is the satisfaction of desires. This 
 end is obtained by the unconscious obedience to the requirements of 
 a science with which the seeker for the end has but a i>artial ac- 
 <]uaintance. He prefers to accei)t the accinaintance for what it is 
 
8 
 
 woith, latliei- tliaii be burdened with the study that a broader knowl- 
 edge demands. 
 
 Economics is a science that subtly formulates its judgments, subtly 
 draws its conclusions. Its decrees are executed by the very virtue 
 of necessity. The state is the master of society, enforces resi)ect 
 through authority, executes its purpose by the inherent strength of 
 the laws it has created. Economics is so far dependent upon the 
 state that it survives only upon the social structure the State pie- 
 serves. Though neither of inspiration nor prophecy, economics 
 stands to material life as a creed does to spiritual. 
 
 Koman civilization was never softened by the acceptance of a 
 Christian faith. Whatever contributions its wise men may have 
 made to its stability, they never scientifically adjusted economical 
 conditions towards its permanency. There were discordant differ- 
 ences between its social classes. The central power claimed a 
 fancied omnipotence. The irresistable laws of human nature were 
 neglected. Patrician dignity was wounded if touched b}' the middle 
 class. This estrangement was Eome's sorest trial in the hour of her 
 greatest misfortune. The misfortune came when the northern bar- 
 barians overran the Provinces and the citj itself. Savagery has al- 
 ways accepted modern civilization or disappeared before it. Not so 
 with the ancient. The middle classes preferred its rough justice 
 to the tyrranous exactions of the patricians. The Roman arms could 
 not overcome the invasion, nor the influences of an effete and waning 
 civilization pursuade the savage hordes to accept it. 
 
 Economics has never failed to meet new inventions, new conditions. 
 The trust was supposed to have dealt a staggering blow to the axiom 
 that "Competition is the life of trade." Whether competition does 
 not yet survive and is not yet ready wdtli its blow to equally stagger 
 the trust still awaits determination. Combination is the antithesis 
 of competition. Trade is no stranger to either. In a modest w-ay 
 combination has been the engine to stiffen a breaking or advance 
 a steady market. Tn a cruel wa^" it has been a method to carry to 
 commercial oblivion many who would have been glad to be permitted 
 to be advantaged by its opportunities. 
 
 By the law a man may do what he will with his own. A cardinal 
 tenet of the economic science is that all his belongings are his for 
 the satisfaction of his desires and it is of his own free will whether 
 he accepts or rejects the doctrines of religion. He must not violate 
 the rights of his neighbor, otherwise his morals, his gains, his labor, 
 his possessions are solely for his individual disposition. 
 
 The dogmas of the faith as expounded by the fathers were most 
 seriously opposed, because it was contended that with their accept- 
 ance, man surrendered his free agency. If it has been forordained 
 whatsoever should come to pass, then the purpose of man to work out 
 
his own salvation lias been denied him; it has been antieipated bv a 
 selection, in which he has had no part. The (.'hiistiau church was 
 rent in twain. Schism, creed and doctrine not content with intellec- 
 tual combat drenched (ontiiieiital Europe in bloody battle for more 
 than half a century. Hut the Christian faith still survives and man 
 is as fully recognized as a free aji;ent in things spiritual as it is ad- 
 mitted he is in tliinjis material. 
 
 Is that free aj^ency still conceded him in his material affairs? Has 
 the economic principle of the personal disposition of possessions for 
 the satisfaction of desires collapsed, v)r the law's provision that a man 
 nuiy do what he will with his own been suspended, because of ex- 
 isting social conditions beyond the reach of the economic art? Such 
 would seem to be the conclusion of the distinguished scholar who pre- 
 sides at that eminent seat of learning, the Yale University. In his 
 work, "Economics, an account of the Relations between Private 
 Property and Public \A'elfare."' Prof. Hadley subjects the question to 
 this treatment. "Although laws," lu^ says, "prescribing what a man 
 niay buy or sell have fallen into disuse, it must not be supposed that 
 every man exercises his intelligence and jileasure to buy wliat will 
 give him the most happiness." * * * "\ jarge part of the ex- 
 Ijense (►f niost people is regulated not by their own desires and de- 
 mands, but by the demands of the j)ublic sentiment of the com- 
 munity about them." » * * "The standard of life in every family 
 is fixed in large measure by social conventions." * * * >• \). 
 though we have made much jirogress in the direction of economic 
 freedom, it is a mistake to assume that the authority of custom in 
 these matters is a thing of the past. With most men custom regu- 
 lates theii" economic action more potently than any calculation of 
 utility which they ai'e able to make." There would be a loneliness 
 about the result of such a calculation that would severely neutralize 
 its utility, if custom were out of it entirely and individuality its 
 only basis. Isolation is a bane to usefulness. Its saving antidote is 
 comiianionshi]). The cloister and the closet life is a hindrance to 
 development. Nature makes the whole world kin. 
 
 Man must be within society to be within the pale of economic au- 
 thority. If he chooses to clothe or equij* himself in a strange garb, 
 deny the fashions and disjiort himself against the usages of society, 
 he is outside its jiale and its influence. His jileasures unfit him for 
 social contact. If he is not of contact with his fellows, he is not of 
 society and consequently not a subject for economic discussion. 
 Custom is a king in society without judicial or legislative restraint. 
 Obedience or exclusion is the alternative decree. Obedience would 
 be less onerous if extravagances were curtailed, foibles diminished 
 and waste eliminated. But these are of detail subject to change 
 and controllable by usage, they in no wise impair the structure itself. 
 
10 
 
 The social compact makes the state; the state preserves the social 
 compact. Why seek to establish a standard of economic freedom 
 apart from either the state or society? \>'ithont society and its cus- 
 toms and the state and its laws economics has no abiding place. 
 Nomadic life, rural life, sa\age life need no touch of economic direc- 
 tion, seek no help from economic guidance. Out of society where 
 will man find happiness? It cannot diminish his independence to 
 be where happiness only can be found. 
 
 And then the learned author turns to the present business methods 
 as another formidable barrier to the free exercise of individual judg- 
 ment. "The success of advertising," he declares, "shows how little 
 intelligence is habitually exercised in these matters." Solicitation 
 so induces buyers that, as he deduces it, "three-quarters of them ex- 
 ercise no choice at all." The drummer, the newspaper, the poster, 
 the five cent store and the bargain counter, to follow the professor's 
 own forcible diction, are '^the drums and trumpets" that abuse man's 
 "nominal freedom" and "tell him in stertorian tones what he wants 
 to buy." 
 
 A baigain like an agreement is a meeting of two minds, or in 
 familiar parlance "it takes two to make a bargain." The satisfac- 
 tion of desire or the right to do what he will with his own is not the 
 purchaser's exclusive right. A like privilege prevails equally with 
 the seller. The over-persuasion of the vendor in no way disturbs 
 the right of the purchaser to think for himself. A horse trade is 
 pi'overbial as a fine illustration of David Harum's paraphrase of the 
 (Tolden Eule, "Do unto the other feller the way he'd like to do unto 
 you. an' do it fust.* In no other transaction are the faculties so 
 sti'aiiied, the wits so quickened, the iie so frequent, except the veri- 
 est guA- venture upon the market. Is the shop-keeper the sole arbiter 
 of \\\.< own bargain counter? ITe may at times lure the unwary, but 
 he is H*» apt to meet not a few. notably of the other sex, ei.ually quick 
 wined v\ith himself. If the merchant be at all fair in his ethics, may 
 uot his experienceassure abetter bargain than not infrequently would 
 be induced by the crude notions of his customers? American women 
 were never better dressed, American children were never better 
 clothed than they are to-day. Americans were never better fed, 
 never better housed than they are in this the close of this wonderful 
 nineteenth century. An excellent fit and tasty pattern are the notice- 
 able feature of the dress of women of every class, and men are a close 
 second. Has not the trader, with his training, added something to 
 these conditions, esjjecially among those whose employment and 
 situation have limited their opportunity for choice? Independent 
 action cannot be measured by a failure to assert it where the right to 
 independent action exists; nor economic freedom be impaired for 
 lack of knowledge or opi)ortunity to best maintain it. 
 
11 
 
 For the present, it would seem, that society must be content with 
 observation for a reasonabh' assurance of its betterment in diet and 
 dress, t^^ociology demands a statistical basis, declines to infer and 
 is slow to act on estimation. Its better i»hilos(»j)hical su-itjcs- 
 Tion is that as social statistics i)resent the most delicate (piestioiis. 
 "with facts themselves so elusive as to escape exact expression." cor- 
 rect analysis and interpretation are attended with much hindiance. 
 Statistical data that wouhl express the motives of men's actions are 
 unattainable. If they weie. it is admitted it wouhl be seen how 
 in many oases "the narrow line of family relation nuikes itself felt in 
 the broader manifestation of social life." "The family is the im- 
 portant factor in the j^rowth of population." "Family life is the 
 f(!Uudation of the moral life of the community." 
 
 Th«^ family, the dwellinii and the waj»e have been in many details 
 subjects for wide sociolo<tical treatment from etfective statistical 
 data and classification. "All social conditions have intimate 
 connections with the family and family life." While in France 14 
 per cent, of families consist of one individual, there are but 7 per 
 cent, of such families in (Germany and :>.()."> j)er cent, in the T'nited 
 States. Everywlieie there are more families than dwellinji,s. In the 
 I'nited States there are 1(1.5 jicr cent, more families than dwellinojs. 
 In the agricultural states of the south the excess is very small, while 
 ill ^Massachusett^s it is :\o per cent., in Rhode Island 43.5, in New York 
 4(>.5. It is, of courst', in the cities where there are the largest num- 
 ber of persons and families to a house. In New York 4(» per cent, 
 of the dwellin«:s have one family. 11 per cent, two families and 43 i)er 
 cent, three families and more. In Brooklyn 51 i)er cent, one family, 23 
 per cent, two families. iV; jiei' cent, three or more, while Thiladelphia 
 has almost as many houses as families. Of riiiladelphia it may also 
 be noticed that desi)ite tlu> n.arked tendency towards decrease in the 
 size of the family in citi«'s. that <-ity seems less affected by the de- 
 crease, and the number of persons to the family is <ireater there than 
 i!'. any of the larmier cities of the countiy. 
 
 The tenement house and the apartment house are modern innova- 
 tions. 'The tenement bodes of evil, unless its initside sanitary con- 
 dJtion!- for lijjht and air, and its inside for ventilation and cleanliness, 
 shall be ((mtrolled by ollicial supervision. The apartnuMit house is 
 not the American home. It is a nu'nace to the tireside. It offers 
 relief fioui the cares of house-keei»ing-. presents strong- temptations 
 to abandon family resixmsibilities. tends to lessen ])rogeny. and 
 extends enticing greetings to accept the gossipy comforts of its 
 proffered idleness. \\'ith such a contiMuplation .lohn Howard Payne's 
 muse would never have been thrilled to the production of his un- 
 eijualed vers(\ Xo such inspiration would »'ver have impelled the 
 creation of the l)eautiful stanzas of "Home. Sweet Ilonu'." The law 
 rarelv uiven to sentimental demonstration is awake To the invasion 
 
12 
 
 of the saci-ed piecincts of the liome. The state, wheu it delegates so 
 jireat a power as the light of eminent domain to the railway corpora- 
 tion, exempts from its operations the dwelling house when in the oc- 
 cupancy of its owner. The railway may take for a just compensa- 
 tion all other property essential to the proper development of its 
 fiauchiso, but the home is preserved inviolate against intrusion. 
 
 The American wage is the highest wage anywhere. The body of 
 workers is of the highest efficiency, and the results obtained from the 
 American wage are the best results. Whatever improvidence some- 
 times attends the wage earner's expenditures, he so adjusts his means 
 of livelihood to the jirices of the necessaries and comforts of life as 
 to assure to himself a better social condition than is anywhere else 
 attainable. His social contentment gives capital its confidence, 
 and his steady emjiloyment at remunerative rates is the foundation 
 for the best economic environment. 
 
 Hunger hinders progress. A poorly nourished community cannot 
 be expected to be ait enterprising community. Diet and the tene- 
 ment, like food and raiment, are in responsive relationship. If men 
 are better housed, it is conclusive that they will be better fed. 
 Cleanliness follow's, and health follows cleanliness. It is not so very 
 long ago, as history measures time, since society ate w^ith its fingers 
 instead of its fork. A gentlewoman of France boasted that she had 
 not washed her hands for eight days. Peter the Grreat was shunned 
 at the ( -ourt of Elizabeth because of his uncleanly w^ays and that 
 Court itself w^as quite culpable in a like direction. Lady Mary Wort- 
 ley Montague, ''the liveliest, wittiest, severest'' was said to be the 
 ''dirtiest"' woman of her time. Phillip II of Spain, commenting on a 
 most important state paper submitted for his criticism, where refer- 
 ence had been made to the presence of lice in the location of which 
 the paper treated, made the single marginal note, ^'they might have 
 been fleas." That portion of our urban population living by the 
 closest economy has better opportunity for cleanliness than in days 
 not so very distant was permitted to princes and potentates. There 
 is no house of modern construction without its bath, no matter liow^ 
 diminutive its proportions. The tenement, when sanitary ' inspec- 
 tion shall have wdder enforcement, will be supplied with like facili- 
 ties. The country side is apace with opportunities for like advan- 
 tages which have already found place in city life. 
 
 Public authority has a closer grip on sanitation than ever before. 
 There is a more generous disposition to deal with its exercise un- 
 complainingly. The aim of medicine is prevention rather than 
 remedy. Every menace to the public health is sought to be brought 
 within the purview of the law. Its police ])ow'er is summoned to 
 reach otherwise unsolvable problems. The Slaughter House cases, 
 commonly so styled, where Louisiana to ])rotect the health of the 
 
13 
 
 c'ty of >»'ew Orleans cirjited a liiij^e luonopoly, wliich it was con- 
 tended imiuiired piiviiejies and immunities fundamentalh' guaran- 
 teed; I lie cases sustaining the various statutes of the several states 
 regulaiing the pnntice <tf medicine, dentistry, ])harmacy to protect 
 the imblic against the ignorant and incomi)etent practitioner are 
 of the iHinierons instances of Ihe hiw's determination to invoke the 
 p(»Iice power alon(\ should olhci- reasons be wanting. 
 
 Observe the contrast when learned men even were calh'd ujion to 
 deteiiniiic cjuestions of like imjiort in the olden time. A street in 
 old I'aris, on wiiich was located a convent, was to be paved at the 
 expense of the inhabitants. When the convent was solicited for its 
 share of the contributicm the abbess declined to respond, maintaining 
 that the vows of In 1- order invoked nothing in the matter of jiublic 
 cleanliness. On appeal to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction upon which 
 rested the ultimate (U'termination of the issue, the abbess was sus- 
 tained njion the ground that there was no ])recedent for taxing re- 
 ligion in the interests of science. Municipal authority did not al- 
 ^\ays choose to ass<Mt itself, but whenever it did its efforts were 
 exerywhere defied <lespit(^ tin* ravages of disease and the frequent 
 recurrence of the plague. 
 
 The college ])rofessor has latterly l)ecome a valuable instructor in 
 Ihe lessons of every day life, and his own better familiarity with those 
 veiy less(»ns has by no means lessened his o]»{)oitunities. Known 
 lieretofore only to his jtupils, his faculty, in his class room and his 
 study, the whole reading public now claim his aciiuaintanceship. 
 His appearance on the lecture })latform, his numerous contributions 
 to nuiga.'iciae and jteriodical, his scholarly additions to literature, 
 science, art, history, in book and pamphlet, have so widened his inllu- 
 <Mice that the jmblic as well as the student have the advantage of his 
 attainments. A] jlication of occurrence to princi])le, analysis, illus- 
 tration have riit-asurably enlarged tiie usefuhiess of the text book, 
 t(» which, until recently, the jirofessor's authorship had been ahnost 
 solely confined. If the iiu])il was lettei' jieifect in text book lore, 
 he had a reasonable expectancy of a satisfactoiy acquaintance. 
 Memory had not that intinmte assochition with understanding which 
 l»y a better developed system it is now sought to encourage. 
 
 The .\merican ]»eoi»le have but scant tolerance for inherited dis- 
 tinction, whether of title or based upon what some one else has done. 
 On the other hand, the American looks kindly -niton military titles, 
 ui>on ])rofessional titles, upon jtolitical titles." In themselves they 
 represent achievement and stand for personal effort and succes.^. 
 When distinction is once won and worthily won. he who secures it 
 ntM-ei- fails of a'pprecialive recognitii)n. All men who have won dis- 
 
14 
 
 tinctiou have contributed sojiietliiug to the state. None more than 
 tliose who write. 
 
 Where is thei'e more resourceful history, reminiscent and philo- 
 sophic, riper scientific criticism, richer biographical review, than 
 from his vast acquirements John Fiske has supplied to American 
 literature? Where has the culture of the faculty been better pre- 
 sented for public apprecation than by Woodrow Wilson, Moses C^ut 
 Tyler, Franklin Henry Giddings, Benjamin Ide Wheeler? Who 
 would ever have felt, despite of what he knew before, that he ever 
 had close acquaintance with Napoleon and his times, after William 
 Milligan Sloane has so opportunely drawn us to such an intimate 
 relationship with that momentous period? ^Vho will fail to render 
 grateful tribute to John Bache McMaster for the exhaustive research 
 Avhich has enabled him, in such graceful deliverance, to acquaint us 
 so accurately with every phase of the career of our great Republic, 
 whether in the days of its cheering prosperity, or in the days of its 
 grave vicissitudes? Who is richer in variety of attractive themes, 
 presented with instructive method and in pleasing- diction, than 
 Harry Thurston Peck? Where is there better fulfillment of so mod- 
 est an introduction, "This book is an attempt to apply the methods 
 of modern science to the problems of modern business," than in 
 Ailhur Twining Hadley's substantial contribution to economic liter- 
 ature in his "account of the relations betw^een private property and 
 public welfare?" 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 013 477 736 9#