constitute a striking advance. They are the forerunners of a general and comprehensive plan of social legislation. They are of significance, not only because of what they actually embody, but for what they foreshadow in the way of future accomplishment. This is particularly true of such acts as the Massachusetts law establishing minimum-wage commissions for women's work and authorizing the payment of old-age pensions for laborers employed by cities and towns; the investigation of the subject of unemployment and the adoption of employers' liability, workmen's compensation, and insurance acts.

In the federal field much less has been accomplished, although legislative activity in this direction is not wholly lacking. The policy of the federal government in regard to a protective tariff, in respect to internal improvements, in the wholesale distribution of land may all be classified under the broad term of "social politics." The avowed purpose of fostering manufacturing by governmental action, of settling a vast territory by practically free grants of government land, and of stimulating and developing industry and agriculture by governmental grant and bonus are all evidences of national welfare work on a gigantic scale. Curiously enough, however, the opposition to these movements, particularly in the case of tariff and internal improvements, has been based, not on theoretical grounds, but largely on the constitutional principle of state's rights. At the same time those who have been most active in promoting these policies have often been the theoretical opponents of the economic doctrine of laissez faire. The manufacturer who demanded at Washington governmental action to protect his industry was often found at the state capital denouncing state interference with the conditions of his employees. We have often seen men bitterly opposing social politics in the abstract while encouraging and practicing it in the concrete.

The conservation policy of the United States government stands upon a somewhat different basis. In this case we have a consciously designed policy of preserving the natural resources of the country. This was based partly upon the desire to avoid evident waste of assets and partly upon a desire to prevent control by special as opposed to general interest. The broad policy of pre

serving and protecting of water-power, timber, minerals, and other similar resources of the country has been an illustration on a huge scale of what is properly known as social politics.

In other directions also the federal government has advanced. A conspicuous illustration of this has been the limitation of the hours of labor in public work or public contracts, and the regulations in regard to hours of labor on railroads; laws compelling the adoption of certain safety appliances on railroads, together with the employers' liability and workmen's compensation acts. The last Congress provided for the establishment of a children's bureau, and created a commission on industrial relations with broad powers of investigation, including an inquiry into the general condition of labor in the principal industries of the United States, into existing relations between employers and employees, into the effects of industrial conditions on public welfare and the rights and powers of the community to deal therewith, into conditions of sanitation and safety, into associations of employers and wage-earners, methods of collective bargaining, methods for maintaining satisfactory relations between employers and employees, bureaus of labor, and finally: "The commission shall seek to discover the underlying causes of dissatisfaction in the industrial situation and report its conclusions thereon." This inquiry may prove to be the beginning of a comprehensive social policy on the part of the United States, or of course it is possible that it will bear no fruit at all. It is significant in this connection that in his recent volume on Social Reform and the Constitution Professor Goodnow has stated that in general there is less constitutional difficulty in the way of a national policy of social reform than is found in the various states. For example, he has indicated that there are no constitutional objections, so far as the federal government is concerned, to the establishment of far-reaching plans of social insurance, while in the separate commonwealths these same measures might encounter fatal constitutional objections. Professor Goodnow says:

Who, in view of the history of the public domain, will venture to say that the constitution limits the power of Congress to dispose of the public funds as it sees fit in order to promote what it considers to be the "public welfare of the United States," to provide for which the constitution specifically says the taxing power may be used.

When we consider, therefore, the development in our urban communities, the results obtained in the several states of the Union, and the legislation completed and in prospect in our federal government, it seems likely that we may expect a régime of social politics in the United States within our day and generation. It is a striking fact that in the year 1912 a political party was organized on a platform strongly emphasizing social and industrial justice. Some of these measures have been championed for many years by the Socialist party, which, however, because of its weakness in America, was unable to make a deep impression. The Progressive party, polling at the last election over four million votes, adopted a sweeping program of social legislation. They declared in terms, both in state and in national platforms, for effective legislation looking to the prevention of industrial accidents, occupational diseases, overwork, and involuntary unemployment, for the fixing of minimum safety and health standards for various occupations, for the prohibition of child labor, for minimum-wage standards for working women, for the establishment of an eighthour day for women and young persons, for one day's rest in seven for all wage-earners, for an eight-hour day in continuous (twentyfour) industries, for publicity as to wages, hours, and conditions of labor, for standards of compensation for death by industrial accident and injury and trade disease, for "the protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use." And in order to carry out this program the Progressive party pledged itself to use all powers of federal and state government, not only up to the limit of the Constitution, but later by amendment of the Constitution if found necessary.

The causes of this recent and rapid development in American political thought and in American political policy are numerous. Among them a few may be mentioned. The rapid growth of great cities has forced many of these problems to the attention of the community in a striking manner. In congested cities like New York and Chicago the "let alone" policy of government becomes untenable and impossible. The state or the city must regulate individual conduct for the protection of safety, health, and life.

When the fathers founded the Republic the United States was a rural nation. At that time only 3 per cent of the population lived in cities, while the census for 1910 showed 46.3 per cent of our people living in urban communities. In a number of states like Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois more than 50 per cent of the population is urban. This fact has operated powerfully to bring about the development of social policy within the city and to force the recognition of it in state and in nation.

Again, the rapid growth of great industries in the United States has tended to precipitate this problem. Large-scale industry has made it almost impossible for an individual workingman to protect himself in respect to wages, hours, or other conditions of labor. He has therefore been driven into some form of organization, and to organized demand for state intervention to protect him. Organized labor has been an important factor throughout the land in the formulation of, and the agitation for, social legislation. Labor has never taken any effective form as an organized political party in this country but has carried on a vigorous propaganda for labor legislation.

The development of the doctrine of conservation during the last ten years, applied as it has been to forests, mines, and waterpower, has strongly affected the general conception of the scope and purpose of government. The idea of conservation by the government of interests belonging to the whole society has been extended to the conservation of human resources as well. Having familiarized the public with the idea of conserving timber as a matter of national economy, it was an easy step to the idea of conserving human beings and human energy as a matter of practical economy as well as humanity.

Almost at the same time the so-called efficiency doctrine appeared and was widely heralded in industry. The accountants, the teachers of shop management like Taylor and Emerson, the industrial engineers and doctors have begun a study of the conservation and effective application of human energy which has had a pronounced effect upon social thinking. They have extended the study of organization and machinery to the human machine

itself and endeavored to find out what possibilities lie in the human being in the way of accomplishment and achievement. This has doubtless been a minor element in the general process, but approaching the subject from the side of private business, it has unquestionably been an influence which cannot be ignored.

Another reason for the development of these policies is the advance of science, whether in the form of public sanitation or of social science. Much of the advance made in the field of labor legislation has been made possible by a study of industrial hygiene. The effects of modern industrial methods and processes upon life, safety and health have been studied and made plain during the last ten years and in response to this there has come a flood of legislation. Detailed investigations like those of Miss Josephine Goldmark have contributed materially to the development of social policy. The argument presented to the Supreme Court of Illinois in defense of the ten-hour labor law for women was much more like a treatise on industrial hygiene than a legal argument. It dealt more with a discussion of medical facts than with precedents gleaned from the law books. Concrete studies of the effect of child labor upon later development, of the effects of bad working conditions for women upon the future of the race, of overstrain and overwork in all occupations have made much easier the pathway of social legislation. The clearer these studies have been and the more graphically the results have been presented, the more quickly and decisively have results been secured.

On the other hand, the study of the anatomy and physiology of society has helped to give not only detailed information but a point of view necessary to the formulation of a comprehensive policy. The scriptural phrase "We are all members of one body" has been translated into the language of social science by the studies of hundreds of observers and the analyses of trained minds. We now begin to know in a scientific sense how and why we are all members of one body.

Whatever may be our opinion as to the present status of the science of society or the possibilities of future development of that science, no impartial observer can fail to perceive that study of