The old idea of an encyclopaedia as a remote book, distant from every-day needs and the real public questions of the day, and to be consulted only for information about ancient history and medieval philosophy, was a wrong one. It was wrong in theory, if an encyclopaedia is to be a live and valuable book. And it was wrong in practice. It is not the case with the new Britannica. For the Britannica is full of information about current public questions; and even its treatment of the past, remote or near, is from a fresh and modern view-point, and is of the utmost value as throwing the light of history on the problems of modern politics and every-day life. The spirit of to-day is an intensely wide-awake and inquisitive one, and people are no longer willing to believe that “whatever is, is right”—much less that a thing is right because it has been, no matter how long. Indeed the very phrase “has been” as now used in the vernacular implies the outworn, the discarded. The Britannica, a book for intimate use on the questions of the day, is a record of what is, as well as of what has been, and of the great changes, the constant flux, of the past and of the present.

SociologyOne of our symptoms of health is the development of a social sense, or, better, a social conscience. This is due in no small degree to the work of Herbert Spencer in founding a new science, called by him Sociology. For an inspiring and stimulating starting-point for the study in the Britannica of the great social and political questions of the day let the reader study the article Sociology (Vol. 25, p. 322), by Benjamin Kidd, who wrote Social Evolution, and Principles of Western Civilization.

EducationEvolution, sociology, Spencerian psychology and the closer relation of the state to the individual are all important factors in the educational changes of the last few years; and their study is indispensable to a clear understanding of the great questions of education. A more concrete study may be based on the article Education (Vol. 8, p. 951) and particularly the part on education in the United States by Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University. An elaborate course of reading on education is given in another chapter of this Guide For Teachers. But it may be well to call attention here to the fact that there are in the articles on individual states sections on the educational system of each state; and in the separate articles on each city similar descriptions of schools in those cities; and also that either in the article on the city or town in which it is situated, or in a separate article there is an estimate, a description, and a historical sketch of each of the great universities and colleges of the country. This information is not merely of value if one wishes to understand in a general way the trend of education, but of particular interest to one who is choosing the school best adapted to a special need. In the same way there are articles on other great educational institutions—for example a general article on Museums of Science (Vol. 19, p. 64) and one on Libraries (Vol. 16, p. 545), as well as articles on such special institutions as the Smithsonian, or treatment of them in the article on the places where the institution is—as in the article on Washington for the Library of Congress, the article on New York City for the Metropolitan Museum, etc.

Defectives and Their TrainingBut government, particularly in America, besides taking a direct interest and responsibility in the education of its youth, has begun within the last few years to assume the task of uplifting those of its citizens who are below the normal. Modern methods of dealing with criminals and of caring for defectives and the insane are based on a principle entirely different from that which obtained 50, or even 20, years ago. The whole article Insanity (Vol. 14, p. 597) might well be read as a preliminary to a study of this topic, since it treats of idiocy and imbecility as well as of the more violent forms of mental disorder, and since it treats them all as forms of disease—the basis of the modern method of treatment which has substituted the hospital and the school for the mere place of detention. In particular, however, the last part of this article dealing with Hospital Treatment should be studied. It is by Dr. Frederick Peterson, the American specialist, and it describes the improved conditions of modern asylums. “Physical restraint is no longer practised.... The general progress of medical science in all directions has been manifested in the department of psychiatry by improved methods of treatment, in the way of sleep-producing and alleviating drugs, dietetics, physical culture, hydrotherapy and the like. There are few asylums now without pathological and clinical laboratories.... The colony scheme has been successfully adopted by the state of New York at the Craig Colony for Epileptics at Sonyea and elsewhere.... Many asylums have, as it were, thrown off detached cottages for the better care of certain patients.... But the ideal system is that of the psychopathic hospital and the colony for the insane.” It is with the “colony” plan that Dr. Peterson’s name is intimately connected, especially in New York state. In the Britannica article on New York state there is a full treatment (Vol. 19, p. 601) of the state’s charitable institutions, including its hospitals for the insane, the Craig Colony already mentioned, the Letchworth Village custodial asylum for epileptics and feeble-minded, and other institutions of the same kind. And in the same way the system in each state is described in the separate article on that state with special attention to the peculiar features in its administration of its hospitals and schools for insane and imbeciles.

The BlindThere has been a similar change in the education of the blind and the deaf—or rather education is now provided for these classes, whereas they formerly received none at all. And this education is coming under state control and, once under governmental supervision, is being transferred from departments in charge of penal or charitable institutions to the department of public schools. For the most striking instances of what has been accomplished by improved systems of training under private supervision see the articles on Samuel Gridley Howe (Vol. 13, p. 837), the great teacher of the blind at the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston; on his blind and deaf pupil, Laura Bridgman (Vol. 4, p. 559), and on Helen Adams Keller (Vol. 15, p. 718), another and even more remarkable blind and deaf student, whose education, coming as a product of a new sociology, has made her a most efficient social helper and social worker.

From these articles the student should go to Blindness (Vol. 4, p. 59), by Sir Francis J. Campbell, principal of the Royal Normal College for the Blind, Norwood, London; an article equivalent in length to 40 pages of this Guide. Its author, the founder of the college, is himself a blind man, who, born in Tennessee, in 1832, and educated at the Nashville school, and afterwards in music at Leipzig and Berlin, had from 1858 to 1869 been associated with Dr. Howe at the Perkins Institution, Boston, and was knighted in 1909 for his services to the education of the blind. The part of his article dealing with the education of the blind is, therefore, doubly valuable and interesting. The main topics with which it deals are: early training—other senses of the blind not naturally sharper than those of the seeing, but developed by cultivation of hearing and touch from early childhood; physical training to increase the average of vitality; mental training; early manual training; choice of occupation; piano-forte tuning; musical training; deaf-mutes should not be educated with the blind as their needs are so different; blind boys and blind girls should not be taught together, as coeducation promotes intermarriage, which is a calamity. The remainder of the article deals with types and books for the blind, appliances for educational work, employment, and biographical matter, with a list of prominent blind people. See also, for literary men who were blind, the articles on John Milton, William H. Prescott, and Philip Bourke Marston.

The DeafDeaf and Dumb (Vol. 7, p. 880) is by the Rev. Arnold Hill Payne, chaplain to the Oxford Diocesan Mission to the deaf and dumb, late normal fellow of the National Deaf Mute College, Washington, D. C., and author of many books on the subject. He points out the mistaken use of the word “dumb”—“In the case of the deaf and dumb, as these words are generally understood, dumbness is merely the result of ignorance in the use of the voice, this ignorance being due to deafness.” After discussing causes of deafness, the condition of the deaf in childhood, their natural language, which the contributor thinks is “sign” rather than purely oral, and their social status, he deals with education of the deaf, giving an elaborate historical account including the “oral” revival in Germany and the work in the United States of Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet—see also the separate article on him and his two sons (Vol. 11, p. 416)—and of the National Deaf-Mute College at Washington, D. C. (on which see also the article Washington, D. C.). This interesting article closes with a section on the blind-deaf, telling the story of several remarkable cases in England less well-known and more recent than Laura Bridgman or Helen Keller.

PsychologyThis chapter began with a reference to the article on Sociology with the recommendation that it be used as a basis for the study of present-day problems. The reader will often have heard vague allusions to sociology, and his reading this article in the Britannica will certainly sharpen and define his own idea of the meaning and the value of the science. Has he not heard much oftener of psychology, and heard it mentioned as if it were some sort of magic spell to charm away many of the difficulties of our modern complex world? But has he a full comprehension of the meaning of psychology and of the knowledge newly gained in regard to the “psychology of the senses”? The corrective for any vagueness of ideas about psychology is best found in the article Psychology (Vol. 22, p. 547) by Professor James Ward, whose articles for the Britannica have been reprinted and used as text-books in schools and colleges all over the country. Put in a few words, the lesson of psychology is that the senses, sensations, thoughts and feelings, which, even when they are our own, we too often speak of as if they were things apart and independent, are subject to certain natural laws in much the same way as are the forces treated by the science of physics. The reader who would study the subject of psychology in the Britannica should make use of the analysis of many articles in the chapter in this Guide For Teachers.

CrimeAs with general education, special education of defectives, state training of feeble-minded, and restraint of the insane, so with the state’s attitude toward the criminal there has been in recent years a great change which is still working toward full fruition, so that prison administration, children’s courts, delinquency, probation, etc., are live topics of interest.

Just as the whole new science of sociology was based by Spencer on biology and on the Darwinian theory of evolution, so in this field of delinquency a “science” has been devised called criminology by its “inventor” Cesare Lombroso. The article Lombroso (Vol. 16, p. 936) in the Britannica criticizes his theories as showing “an exaggerated tendency to refer all mental facts to biological causes.” His theory of a criminal type points to a “practical reform ... a classification of offenders, so that the born criminal may receive a different kind of punishment from the offender who is tempted into crime.” The article Criminology (Vol. 7, p. 464), by Major Arthur Griffiths, Inspector of Prisons, should be read carefully. It lists the supposed criminal traits as follows:

Various brain and cerebral anomalies; receding foreheads; massive jaws, prognathous chins; skulls without symmetry; ears long, large and projecting; noses rectilinear, wrinkles strongly marked, even in the young and in both sexes, hair abundant on the head, scanty on the cheeks and chin; eyes feline, fixed, cold, glassy, ferocious; bad repellent faces.... Other peculiarities are:—great width of the extended arms, extraordinary ape-like agility; left-handedness as well as ambi-dexterism; obtuse sense of smell, taste and sometimes of hearing, although the eyesight is superior to that of normal people.... So much for the anatomical and physiological peculiarities of the criminal. There remain the psychological or mental characteristics, so far as they have been observed. Moral insensibility is attributed to him, a dull conscience that never pricks and a general freedom from remorse. He is said to be generally lacking in intelligence, hence his stupidity, the want of proper precautions, both before and after an offence, which leads so often to his detection and capture. His vanity is strongly marked and shown in the pride taken in infamous achievements rather than personal appearance.

Although Major Griffiths thinks that criminality is oftener due to environment than to congenital defects, he closes his article with this estimate of what has been accomplished by Lombroso and his followers:

The criminologists have strengthened the hands of administrators, have emphasized the paramount importance of child-rescue and judicious direction of adults, have held the balance between penal methods, advocating the moralizing effect of open-air labour as opposed to prolonged isolation, and have insisted upon the desirability of indefinite detention for all who have obstinately determined to wage perpetual war against society by the persistent perpetration of crime.

The article Crime (Vol. 7, p. 447) is full of interesting statistics and facts. It tells us that “the growth of criminals is greatly stimulated where people are badly fed, morally and physically unhealthy, infected with any forms of disease and vice,” and after proving by the records of various countries that men everywhere are more addicted to crime than are women, ends with this statement: “It has been well said that women are less criminal according to the figures, because when a woman wants a crime committed she can generally find a man to do it for her.”

Other important articles on the subject are Deportation (Vol. 8, p. 56) and Prison (Vol. 22, p. 361). For English prison reforms, see also the article on John Howard and that on Elizabeth Fry, with an outline of the growth in Pennsylvania and New York (Auburn and Sing Sing), of the method of solitary confinement and of its adoption in England, and of the development in New York (see also the article on Elmira for the work of Zebulon R. Brockway), and in Massachusetts (Concord), of distinct and different treatment for first offenders.

Children’s CourtsJuvenile Offenders (Vol. 15, p. 613) describes the work of Charles Dickens and others in England, the reform in Europe and in the United States; the philanthropic criminal code proposed by Edward Livingston (see the biographical article, Vol. 16, p. 811); the Randall’s Island House of Refuge, the Elmira (N. Y.) Reformatory, the reformatory for women at Sherborn, Massachusetts, and the George Junior Republic at Freeville, New York, and its offshoots—see also the separate article George Junior Republic (Vol. 11, p. 749); and the Borstal scheme, a modification of the American state reformatory system adopted in England in 1902.

Children’s Courts (Vol. 6, p. 140) calls attention to the origin of these tribunals in the United States, in Massachusetts and Illinois, and their success in Chicago, Indianapolis, Denver and Washington, leading to their adoption in England; see also the article Probation (Vol. 22, p. 404) in general and, for particular and local methods, the articles on Birmingham (Vol. 3, p. 985), Boston (Vol. 4, p. 294), Chicago (Vol. 6, p. 124), Colorado (Vol. 6, p. 722), Egypt (Vol. 9, p. 29), Illinois (Vol. 14, p. 308), and Utah (Vol. 27, p. 818). The articles on individual states also contain detailed information about local penal institutions of all kinds.

The reader should also study the articles Police (Vol. 21, p. 978), Finger Prints (Vol. 10, p. 376), Identification (Vol. 14, p. 287), Punishment (Vol. 22, p. 653), Capital Punishment (Vol. 5, p. 279), Guillotine (Vol. 12, p. 694), Hanging (Vol. 12, p. 917), and Electrocution (Vol. 9, p. 210), the last by Professor Edward Anthony Spitzka, the American authority on the subject. In the article on Utah, already mentioned, the reader will find that “a person sentenced to death may choose one of two methods of execution—hanging or shooting.”

AlcoholIf a respectable citizen of a century ago could return to earth he could not fail to be greatly surprised at dinner, whether in a private home or in a hotel, to see how much less alcoholic beverages are used, how much lighter they are, and how much more common are other drinks. If he “returned” to certain parts of the United States he would find that he could get no alcohol except on a doctor’s prescription stating the reason why the patient needed it, and he would learn that such a prescription could be filled only once, and then only by a registered pharmacist of good character. No matter to what place he came back, he would find a constant interference with or supervision of the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcoholic liquors on the part of the government. He would probably wonder why the state should interfere with private and personal liberty in such matters. We have already pointed out that the state now does interfere, and that this is one of the distinguishing marks of the government of the day. For information on this particular form of interference, its prevalence, its necessity, and its advisability, the student may confidently turn to the Britannica. The hygienic side of the question is outlined in the chapter of this Guide on Health and Disease. The social or sociological side claims our attention here. Read the article Drunkenness (Vol. 8, p. 601), and for the relation between alcohol and mental disease, the section Toxic Insanity (Vol. 14, p. 609) in the article on Insanity already mentioned, and also Neuropathology (Vol. 19, p. 429); then the article Inebriety, Law of (Vol. 14, p. 409); that on Liquor Laws (Vol. 16, p. 759), with a special section referring to the United States, which deals with local prohibition, state prohibition, public dispensaries, and taxation; and for a general and elaborate summary of the whole question the article Temperance (Vol. 26, p. 578) equivalent to about 50 pages of this Guide, by Dr. Arthur Shadwell, author of Drink, Temperance and Legislation. In the section on the Use and Abuse of Alcohol Dr. Shadwell summarizes the results of modern scientific investigation of the abuse in its bearings upon crime, poverty, insanity, mortality, longevity, and heredity.

In such articles as those on Theobald Mathew (“Father Mathew”) (Vol. 17, p. 886), Neal Dow (Vol. 8, p. 456), John B. Gough (Vol. 12, p. 282), and Frances E. Willard (Vol. 28, p. 658) the reader will find biographies relating to the temperance movement; and in the separate articles on states there is information about state prohibition, local option, and the state dispensary system.

Heredity and EugenicsDr. Shadwell’s remarks on the relation of alcoholism to heredity may remind us that the very word “heredity” would seem strange to the typical man of a century ago, whose return to life we have imagined. We should be no more shocked by the occasional crudeness of his intimate and excited phraseology than he would be at our frankness in discussing even in mixed company such subjects as birth, reproduction, sexual morality, the social evil and the white slave trade. The growth of interest in these topics may be traced in part to Darwin, Huxley and Mendel, to what they did to make biology a science. Read in the Britannica the interesting story, in the article Mendelism (Vol. 18, p. 115), of the investigations of Gregor Mendel, Abbot of Brünn, in his cloister garden, in crossing peas and classifying the inheritance of peculiarities. Then read the articles Heredity (Vol. 13, p. 530), by Prof. Chalmers Mitchell, and Hybridism (Vol. 14, p. 26), by the same contributor, and turn to the articles Eugenics (Vol. 9, p. 855) and Sir Francis Galton (Vol. 11, p. 427), for an account of the attempt to found a practical science to improve the breed of men.

Especially within the last few years has the public conscience been aroused on the white slave traffic and prostitution, both in Great Britain and the United States, and particularly in the great cities, where this form of vice, if left under the jurisdiction of the police, gives rise to a singularly dangerous form of corruption and to the general disrepute of the defenders of public safety. The many important aspects of the subject, which need not be rehearsed here, are to be found in Dr. Shadwell’s article Prostitution (Vol. 22, p. 457) and Dr. Edmund Owen’s article Venereal Diseases (Vol. 27, p. 983).

One of the remedies most commonly suggested for the evils of prostitution in general and of the white slave trade in particular is a minimum wage. Dr. Shadwell’s article on prostitution gives “excessively laborious and ill-paid work” as only one of many secondary causes for women’s taking to a life of evil repute. Indolence, love of excitement, dislike of restraint, and abnormal sexual appetite, he counts as primary causes; and among secondary causes he names the difficulty of finding employment; harsh treatment at home, promiscuous living among the overcrowded poor; overcrowding in factories; the example of luxury, self-indulgence and loose manners set by the wealthy; demoralizing literature and amusements; and the arts of profligate men. But the subject of wages is an important one in itself, and as an introduction to the study of the labour question, it may well be taken up here, even if the efficacy of minimum-wage laws, or of any legislation, in producing a higher sexual morality has been exaggerated.

Wages and LabourRead the article Wages (Vol. 28, p. 229, equivalent to 20 pages of this Guide), by Joseph Shield Nicholson, professor of political economy at Edinburgh University. The difficulty of an exact definition, and, specifically, of one that distinguishes between “wages” and “profits,” leads the author to adopt as the best the definition of Gen. Francis A. Walker, the American economist, “the reward of those who are employed in production with a view to the profit of their employers and are paid at stipulated rates.” The distinction between a nominal and real wage is based on the difference between the money value and the purchasing value of the wage as affected by variation in the cost of living. Irregularity of employment and other elements of uncertainty, such as liability to accident or to occupational diseases, are factors to be considered in estimating real wages. Professor Nicholson discusses the wage-fund theory, corrects it by Adam Smith’s observation that wages are paid from the product of labour; and treats “relative” wages, the state-regulation of wages (which he does not consider feasible); poor relief in aid of wages; factory legislation; trade unions; the effects of machinery on wages; and the progress of the working-classes.

Labour LegislationThe subject of factory legislation brings us back to the general topic of “state interference with private matters” as the old school of political scientists would have called it. Two treatises in the Britannica are important for the study of this subject—the general article Labour Legislation (Vol. 16, p. 7), equivalent to 70 pages of this Guide, by Adelaide Mary Anderson, principal lady inspector of factories to the British Home Office, and Carroll D. Wright, late U. S. Commissioner of Labor; and the article Employers’ Liability and Workmen’s Compensation (Vol. 9, p. 356), which is of peculiar interest now that in the United States recent laws in regard to employers’ liability and workmen’s compensation have shown a change in legislative theory and practice. Statutes of this kind have been passed by the legislatures of several states where nothing of the sort would have been attempted a generation ago, although legislatures have always been readier than courts to approve radical laws, and have been far more readily influenced by popular sentiment. After their passage they have in some states been held unconstitutional, and in other states the highest court has recognized them as valid; the decisions perhaps depending to some extent on the attitude of the court toward the opposed claims of capital and labour. Here as elsewhere the student should remember that much information of a local character is to be found in the articles on different states of the Union. The article Labor Day (Vol. 16, p. 6) describes an official recognition of the claims of labour in the United States.

Organized LabourOn labour organizations and their work see the articles: Trade Unions (Vol. 27, p. 140), and particularly the section Economic Effects of Trade Unionism, and the section on trade unions in the United States, by Carroll D. Wright, late U. S. Commissioner of Labor, who deals with such topics as railway brotherhoods, national unions, the “International,” Knights of Labor, American Railway Union, federations of labour, especially the American Federation of Labor, and estimated strength of trade unions. For the earlier history of trade unions or similar organizations see Trade Organization (Vol. 27, p. 135), Gilds (Vol. 12, p. 14), Livery Companies (Vol. 16, p. 809), and Apprenticeship (Vol. 2, p. 228).

Strikes and Lock Outs, particularly the sections Economic Effects (Vol. 25, p. 1028), Important British Strikes and Lock Outs (p. 1029), and on strikes in the United States (p. 1033),—the last by Dr. Carroll D. Wright, who describes, among others, the Homestead strike of 1892, the Pullman strike of 1894, the steel strike of 1901, and the coal strike of 1902. For these and other strikes see the local articles on such storm-centres as Homestead, Pullman, Leadville, Cripple Creek, Chicago.

See also Boycott (Vol. 4, p. 353); and Injunction (Vol. 14, p. 570), and, for a “classic” use of the injunction against boycott, the article on William Howard Taft (Vol. 26, p. 354);

Arbitration and Conciliation (Vol. 2, p. 331) for attempts by the state to regulate the relations of capital and labour at variance.

Related topics which have not been analyzed here will be found in the articles Unemployment (Vol. 27, p. 578), Labour Exchange (Vol. 16, p. 7), and Vagrancy (Vol. 27, p. 837).

ImmigrationClosely connected with the American labour problems, since growing American industries demand a supply of workmen that cannot be filled by natural increase in the population, is the question of immigration. The article Migration (Vol. 18, p. 427) is divided into two parts, the second dealing with migration in zoology. The first section, dealing with emigration and immigration and internal migration of populations, is for the most part by Richmond Mayo-Smith, late professor of political economy and social science in Columbia University, New York City. It is appropriate that the subject should be treated by an American and with special attention to the United States, since this country owes its origin to an immigration three centuries ago; as the presence of many recent immigrants puts a strain on our powers of assimilation and gives rise to other serious problems; and as internal migrations are markedly affecting social conditions. In a preliminary historical sketch the author deals with: prehistoric migrations in search of booty, through the desire of the stronger to take possession of the lands of the weaker, or by pressure of population on the food supply; Greek and Roman colonization; the German conquest; minor migratory movements such as the introduction of Flemish weavers to England and the forced migration of the Huguenots from France; the great colonization period after the discovery of America; and modern migration—characterized by its magnitude, by the change of the emigrant’s political allegiance, and by the circumstance that it is a movement of “individuals seeking their own good without state direction or aid.” In a statistical discussion of immigration to the United States (Vol. 18, p. 430) there is much valuable information. “At first the Irish and Germans were most prominent. Of later years, the Italians, Czechs, Hungarians and Russians were numerously represented.” Immigration to other countries, especially Canada and South America; the balance of migration and temporary emigration; and the effects of migration on the country “from which” and the country “to which”—are topics considered in the article, which also discusses the restriction of immigration. As to Asiatic immigration see California (especially p. 20, Vol. 5), San Francisco (p. 148, Vol. 24), and Coolie (Vol. 7, p. 77). See also the article United States, section Population and Social Conditions (p. 634, Vol. 27), and, in separate articles on states and larger cities of the United States, the analysis of foreign-born population, that of foreign parentage, etc. For instance, in the article Massachusetts (Vol. 17, p. 854), there is a most interesting account of the varying sources of immigration and of the replacing of Irish labour by Canadians and Italians. Boston is the second immigrant port of the country. A large part of the transatlantic immigrants pass speedily to permanent homes in the West, but by far the greater part of the Canadian influx remains there.

The article on New York City (p. 617 of Vol. 19) remarks that

there are in New York City more Germans than in any city of Germany, save Berlin, and more Irish than in Dublin. There are many well-defined foreign communities in the city, such as “Little Italy” about Mulberry Street, “Chinatown” on Mott, Pell and Doyers Streets, the Hebrew quarter on the upper Bowery and east of it, a “German Colony” east of Second Avenue below Fourteenth Street, French quarters south of Washington Square about Bleecker Street and on the West Side between Twentieth and Thirty-fourth Streets; a Russian quarter near East Broadway, a “Greek Colony” about Sixth Avenue in the 40’s, and negro quarters on Thompson Street and on the West Side in the 50’s, and there are equally well-defined Armenian and Arab quarters.

Chicago, as the article on that city shows, is the second largest Bohemian city in the world, the third Swedish, the fourth Norwegian, the fifth Polish and the fifth German.

Negro ProblemThe Southern states of the Union, though they have much less immigration than the North or West, have a population problem that is even more difficult in some respects—that of the negro. Many immigrant elements are readily “amalgamated” or assimilated into the native local population—by marriage, by trade, and indeed even by physical environment. It seems certain, for instance, that the physical type of the children of Italian or Hebrew immigrants in New York City is different from that of their parents and more like a local type, even in such respects as the shape and contour of the head and its ratio of length to breadth. But the negro does not assimilate physically or, to any considerable degree, mentally; and the communities in America in which he is most plentiful are so far from eager to assimilate him that they socially and politically isolate him. The reader should go to the article Negro (Vol. 19, p. 344), in which there is a general study of the race by T. Athol Joyce, assistant in the Department of Ethnography, British Museum, and a section on Negroes in the United States by Dr. Walter Francis Willcox, late chief statistician U. S. Census Bureau and professor of social science and statistics, Cornell University. The magnitude of the negro problem may be deduced from Professor Willcox’s remark that the present number of negroes in the United States “is greater than the total population of the United States was in 1820, and nearly as great as the population of Norway, Sweden and Denmark.” Birth and mortality statistics in regard to negroes show that they are increasing much less rapidly than whites; but it must be remembered that there is an absolute increase, that there is no prospect of the negro problem being solved by the dying out of the race, and that even the fact that negroes constitute a smaller proportion of the population than formerly does not greatly affect the problem. There is also much relevant information of value in the articles on the Southern states, particularly in the sections on population, education and government; and as to education see the articles Tuskegee (Vol. 27, p. 487), Booker T. Washington (Vol. 28, p. 344) and S. C. Armstrong (Vol. 2, p. 591). See also the article Lynch Law (Vol. 17, p. 169) by Prof. W. L. Fleming of the Louisiana State University.

TrustsThere is a very close relation between the economic problems connected with labour and those which have to do with capital and especially with capital in its organized and monopolistic forms. A monopoly of the supply, sale, or manufacture of any class of goods was, especially in England under the Tudors and Stuarts, a crown grant; and the theory of patent and copyright law is based on such grants, as is shown in the articles Monopoly (Vol. 18, p. 733), Letters Patent (Vol. 16, p. 501), and Patents (Vol. 20, p. 903). On the modern monopoly which, far from being cherished by government, is constantly being regulated, checked or “crushed,” see the article Trusts (Vol. 22, p. 334) by Prof. J. W. Jenks, formerly of Cornell and now of New York University, whose treatment is from the American point of view—the problem is peculiarly an American one—but with sections on European experience, including paragraphs on Great Britain, Germany, France and Austria.

Among the questions answered by this article—questions that are continually presenting themselves to the mind of every intelligent citizen, but that are seldom lucidly answered even by the most intelligent—are:

What are trusts? Why are they formed?

Why were they not formed before the latter years of the 19th century?

Why can combination be successfully applied in some industries and not in others? Why do some industries thrive better under competition than under combination? Why are some combinations bound to fail?

In what respect has the trust advantages over the individual competitor?

How do trusts benefit by protective tariffs and by discrimination in rates of transportation?

What has been the history of trusts in Europe?

The question of most interest to the ordinary person is: Do trusts raise prices? To this the Encyclopaedia Britannica answers: “Experience seems to show, beyond question, that whenever the combinations are powerful enough to secure a monopolistic control it has usually been the policy to increase the prices above those which obtained during the period of competition preceding the formation of the combination.” Besides this increased price, the evils of combinations are: loss to investors through promotion and speculation by directors; loss to wage-earners, corruption of legislatures, and the suppression of independent activity.

The most obvious remedies are “more rigid laws with reference to the methods of incorporation and to the responsibility of directors to stockholders and to the public,” greater publicity and closer government inspection, and the abolition of special favours granted by government and shipping companies.

Government ControlFor American legislation in regard to trusts see the article Interstate Commerce (Vol. 14, p. 711), equivalent to 10 pages of this Guide, by Prof. Frank A. Fetter, formerly of Cornell and now of Princeton University. This article shows the constitutional basis for action by the Federal government and the power given to Congress to regulate commerce among the several states; and it describes the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, amended in 1903 by the Elkins Act, and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. See also in the article United States, the section History, §§ 353, 357, 396 (pp. 725, 726, 733 of Vol. 27).

But although there have been great changes in the relation of government to the individual in his private and business life, the extent of practical government control is still much less than many theorists would like to see. It is true that in many countries of Europe railways are owned and operated by the state—see p. 826 of Vol. 22, in the article Railways. See also the article New Zealand and the summary of conditions there (p. 307, Vol. 25), in part as follows:

The government owns not only the railways, but two-thirds of the whole land, letting it on long leases. It sets a limit to large estates. It levies a progressive income-tax and land tax. It has a labour department, strict factory acts and a law of compulsory arbitration in labour disputes (1895). There are old-age pensions (1898), government insurance of life (1871) and against fire (1905). Women have the suffrage, and, partly in consequence, the restriction of the liquor traffic is severe. There is a protective tariff, and Oriental labour is excluded. The success of the experiment is not yet beyond doubt; compulsory arbitration, for example, did not work with perfect smoothness, and was amended in 1908.... It is fair to add that the experiment is probably on too small a scale to show what might happen in larger countries. New Zealand has only 100,000 sq. m. of territory and about one million of inhabitants, mainly rural and of picked quality. The conditions of combined isolation and security are not easily obtained elsewhere. The action of the state has been in the great majority of instances rather regulative than constructive.

Socialism, etc.But in general governments have extended their control more or less along the conventional lines of law and legislative theory, and have not undertaken ownership and operation—even in New Zealand, as we have just seen, public action being “rather regulative than constructive.” See the general article Socialism (Vol. 25, p. 310) and biographies of those connected with the Socialist movement, such as Marx, Lassalle, Robert Owen, Rodbertus, Bebel, Liebknecht, Jaures, Ballance, William Morris, Edward Bellamy, and Henry George. On communism, see the article on that subject, the biographies of Owen, Saint-Simon, Fourier, Cabet, etc., and descriptions of the more important American communistic experiments in the articles on Brook Farm, Shakers, Amana, Nauvoo, Harmony, Oneida Community, Hopedale, etc. For communism merely as a business scheme see the article Co-operation (Vol. 7, p. 82) and the biographies of Raiffeisen and Schulze-Delitzsch.

FinanceWe have now run through the more strikingly novel public questions of the day, and we come next to questions which have been long discussed and longer recognized as being within the sphere of government. The one of these that is most intimately connected with the economic problems we have just been discussing is the subject of public finance and revenue. On this read the articles Finance (Vol. 10, p. 374), Taxation (Vol. 26, p. 458), and National Debt (Vol. 19, p. 266); and, on American public finance, see Vol. 27, p. 654; on Congressional legislation and finance, p. 661 of the same volume; for a general and statistical treatment of American finance, the sections headed Finance in each article dealing with a state of the Union, the articles Gold (Vol. 12, p. 192), Silver (Vol. 25, p. 112), and Bimetallism (Vol. 3, p. 946), and the biographies of Robert Morris (Vol. 18, p. 871), Alexander Hamilton (Vol. 12, p. 880), and Jay Cooke (Vol. 7, p. 73).

TariffOf perennial interest in the field of public finance is the question of tariff reform. This is true both in the United States and in the United Kingdom, but strangely enough “tariff reform” is used with absolutely opposite meanings in the two countries. Tariff reform in England is linked with Imperialism and means the introduction of higher tariffs for protection of colonial as well as British industries. In the United States the typical tariff reformer is usually an opponent of Imperialism (which, of course, does not mean the same thing in the two countries), and tariff reform here involves lowering duties, doing away with protection, and, in short, adopting approximately the very system now in vogue in the United Kingdom, and the very system that the followers of Joseph Chamberlain wish to replace with something not entirely unlike the American protective system as it has been since the Civil War. On this subject see the article Tariff (Vol. 26, p. 422), by the American economist, F. W. Taussig, professor at Harvard, the articles Protection (Vol. 22, p. 464), by E. J. James, president of the University of Illinois, and author of the History of American Tariff Legislation, and Free Trade (Vol. 11, p. 88), by the Venerable Dr. William Cunningham, Archdeacon of Ely, and author of The Growth of English Industry and Commerce; the biographies of Alexander Hamilton (Vol. 12, p. 880), and Henry Clay (Vol. 6, p. 470), for the foundation of American protection; and the articles on H. C. Carey (Vol. 5, p. 329), Friedrich List (Vol. 16, p. 776), and William McKinley (Vol. 17, p. 256) for the principal exponents, theoretical and practical, outside of Great Britain, of protection; the lives of Richard Cobden (Vol. 6, p. 607) and John Bright (Vol. 4, p. 567) and the article Corn-Laws (Vol. 7, p. 174) for the genesis of free trade in Great Britain; and the article on Joseph Chamberlain (in particular pp. 816–817 of Vol. 5) for English tariff reform in politics.

Banking LawsAnother topic in public finance of great interest at the present moment is the banking laws,—the interference of government with banking and similar business. Local regulations in regard to banking will be found in sections on legislation and finance in articles on each of the states of the Union. The article Oklahoma (Vol. 20, p. 57), for example, contains the following summary of the first radical state enactment—constitutional in this case,—providing bank guarantees:

The unique feature of the banking system (with amendments adopted by the second legislature becoming effective on the 11th of June, 1909) is a fund for the guaranty of deposits. The state banking board levies against the capital stock of each state bank and trust company, organized or existing, under the laws of the state to create a fund equal to 5% of average daily deposits other than the deposits of state funds properly secured. One-fifth of this fund is payable the first year and one-twentieth each year thereafter; 1% of the increase in average deposits is collected each year. Emergency assessments, not to exceed 2%, may be made whenever necessary to pay in full the depositors in an insolvent bank; if the guaranty fund is impaired to such a degree that it is not made up by the 2% emergency assessment, the state banking board issues certificates of indebtedness which draw 6% interest and which are paid out of the assessment. Any national bank may secure its depositors in this manner if it so desires. The bank guarantee law was held to be valid by the United States Supreme Court in 1908, after the attorney-general of the United States had decided that it was illegal.

More general treatment is to be found in the articles Banks and Banking (Vol. 3, p. 334), Savings Banks (Vol. 24, p. 243) and Trust Company (Vol. 27, p. 329); and see further the articles listed in the chapter in this Guide For Bankers and Financiers.

InsuranceAnother sphere of private finance over which government restriction and regulation has been greatly extended during the last few years, is insurance. The entire subject of insurance is, moreover, of interest not merely to the citizen as a member of the body politic but to the individual as the head of a family and as an investor for his own protection in old age. To every one, therefore, the article Insurance (Vol. 14, p. 656) will be of the utmost value, by reason of its rare combination of interest and authority. For a full analysis of this article and of related topics see the chapter in this Guide For the Insurance Man.

Legislation and CourtsMuch of the earlier part of the present chapter has been devoted to the rapid extension of governmental control, regulation and supervision through legislation. Interesting and novel though this is, it is far less important for an intelligent comprehension of government than is a careful study of the foundations and principles of legislation. Only the specialist will wish to pursue a complete course in political science, but every well-informed citizen of the United States should study the general powers and functions of national and state legislatures and courts. This material is given briefly, lucidly and critically by the Hon. James Bryce, late British Ambassador to the United States, former President of the British Board of Trade, and author of The American Commonwealth, in the section Constitution and Government, article United States (Vol. 27, pp. 646–658). Part of this section deals with the governments of the states, as to which there is also special information in the section on government of the article on each state. Regarding city governments similar sections will be found in the articles on the larger cities. For a full analysis and a list of articles see the chapter For Lawyers in this Guide. Constitutional restrictions of all delegated powers must be continually kept in mind in the study of the action of legislatures and courts, and of the questions that arise in regard to legislation or to court decisions. Although the legislature represents the people more or less directly—the lower house being commonly called the House of Representatives—and so has delegated to it from the people the power of making laws, still, in the Federal and state constitutions (except those of a very recent date) there is a system of checks on every delegated power. The result is that an act passed by Congress does not become law without the approval of the president, nor, in most states, a local statute without that of the governor, and—more important—is not a valid law if the highest Federal Court (or, if it be a state enactment, the highest state court) holds it contrary to the terms of the constitution. |The System of Checks| For a summary of the historical arguments for this system of checks see the section on the Constitution (Vol. 27, p. 686), in the article United States and such biographical articles as James Madison (Vol. 17, p. 284); Alexander Hamilton (Vol. 12, p. 880), and Gouverneur Morris (Vol. 18, p. 869). The working of this system in nation and state has been greatly affected by the distinction between the legislators’ mandate and that of the judge. Legislators have shorter terms of service than judges, and especially judges of the higher courts, and so may be said to be in much closer and more constant contact with the people; and the legislator is bound by what he thinks the people need and want,—something that is continually changing. On the other hand, the judge is bound by the written law, unchanged and unchangeable except by constitutional amendments or slightly varying interpretation of the constitution. The result has been dissatisfaction with the courts and with legislatures. The definite expression of this dissatisfaction is in constitutional amendments or in new constitutions, adopted in order that future action of the courts may more nearly accord with the present sentiment of the people. The story of the constitution of each state in the Union is told, with a summary of important constitutional changes, in the section on government of each article on a separate state. In his analysis of the state constitutions, Mr. Bryce says (Vol. 27, p. 647):

Initiative, Referendum and RecallComparing the old constitutions with the new ones, it may be said that the note of those enacted in the first thirty or forty years of the republic was their jealousy of executive power and their careful safeguarding of the rights of the citizen; that of the second period, from 1820 to the Civil War (1861–65), the democratization of the suffrage of institutions generally; that of the third period (since the war to the present day), a disposition to limit the powers and check the action of the legislature, and to commit power to the hands of the whole people voting at the polls.

And at the close of his treatment of local government in the United States, the same authority writes (Vol. 27, p. 651):

Several state constitutions now contain provisions enabling a prescribed number (or proportion) of the voters in a state or city to submit a proposition to all the registered voters of the state (or city) for their approval. If carried, it takes effect as a law. This is the Initiative. These constitutions also allow a prescribed number of voters to demand that a law passed by the state legislature, or an ordinance passed by the municipal authority, be submitted to all the voters for their approval. If rejected by them, it falls to the ground. This is the Referendum. Some cities also provide in their charters that an official, including the mayor or a member of the council, may be displaced from office if, at a special election held on the demand of a prescribed number of the city voters, he does not receive the largest number of votes cast. This is the Recall. All these three institutions are in operation in some Western states and are spreading to some of the Eastern cities. Their working is observed with lively interest, for they carry the principle of direct popular sovereignty to lengths unprecedented except in Switzerland. But it is not merely to the faith of the Western Americans in the people that their introduction is due. Quite as much must be ascribed to the want of faith in the legislature of states and cities, which are deemed too liable to be influenced by selfish corporations.

In connection with the above reference to the referendum and initiative in Switzerland, see the description of the Swiss system of continuous control by the electors (Vol. 26, p. 243).

On previous experience, outside the United States, with the referendum and the initiative, see the article Referendum (Vol. 23, p. 1), by the Rev. Dr. W. A. B. Coolidge, an American whose life has been chiefly spent in, and devoted to the study of, Switzerland, where the system was evolved. In the United States the system was first tried in Oregon, and the student should read the description in the article Oregon of the legislative department (Vol. 20, p. 246), which also deals with the recall of officers. See also under Oklahoma (Vol. 20, p. 59), and the articles on South Dakota and Los Angeles.

SuffrageOn suffrage in the United States see p. 647 of Vol. 27, describing the requirements in different states and pointing out that “by the Federal Constitution state suffrage is also the suffrage for Federal elections, viz. elections of representatives in Congress and of presidential electors.” On representation see the passage on p. 653 of Vol. 27, a portion of which has been quoted above; and on representation in state legislatures see p. 647 of Vol. 27 and consult the articles on the separate states, where in the sections headed Government there is also supplementary information about election and ballot laws. It is interesting to note, in the articles on Mississippi, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Oklahoma, that these states have practically disfranchised the negro. For a concrete instance of the awkward working of the electoral college, in the choice of the president in 1876, see the article Electoral Commission (Vol. 9, p. 172). On the position of aliens see the articles Allegiance (Vol. 1, p. 689) and Naturalization (Vol. 19, p. 275); and articles on various states. In the article Oregon, for instance (Vol. 20, p. 245), the reader will find that “the constitution provides that no Chinaman, not a resident of the state at the time of the adoption of the constitution, shall ever hold any real estate or mining claim, or work any mining claim in the state.”

See also, on the whole subject, the articles Ballot (Vol. 3, p. 279); Vote (Vol. 28, p. 216); Voting Machines (Vol. 28, p. 217); Election (Vol. 9, p. 169); Representation (Vol. 23, especially pp. 112–116, for proportional voting, second choice voting, etc.), and Women (Vol. 28, p. 782) for the history of the woman’s suffrage movement. In that connection it is curious to note in this article (p. 787) that, owing to an oversight in the wording of the first constitution of New Jersey, women could vote in that state from 1776 to 1807. For any thorough knowledge of practical, as contrasted with theoretical representative government in the United States, the student should read what Mr. Bryce has to say about Party Government (Vol. 27, p. 658–660); a large part of the article on the history of the United States after the adoption of the Constitution (Vol. 27, pp. 688–735); articles on the great parties, Federalist (Vol. 10, p. 235), Democratic (Vol. 8, p. 2), and Republican (Vol. 23, p. 177); and the lives of the great party leaders from Hamilton and Jefferson to McKinley, Roosevelt, Bryan and Woodrow Wilson. A fuller outline for the study of United States history will be found in another chapter of this Guide, on History of the United States.

Municipal GovernmentBut the Federal government and even the state governments do not touch any one of us so closely as does the local government of our city and township; and Mr. Bryce gives (Vol. 27, p. 650) a valuable criticism of the American system of local government,—which, in some cities, indeed, seems a lack of system in the business sense of that word, and a control of the government by political parties prone to corruption, bribery and the granting of special privilege. Mr. Bryce dwells on the over-developed power of the state in legislating for the cities or other minor governmental units, and the consequent activity of local city interests in state and national politics, but he also points to the growing tendency of the states to permit cities to enact their own charters. The movement to take the city government out of politics has reached its greatest force—and its greatest success—in government by commission.

In 1902 the city of Galveston, in Texas, adopted a new form of municipal government by vesting all powers in a commission of five persons, elected by the citizens on a “general ticket,” one of whom is mayor and head of the commission, while each of the others has charge of a department of municipal administration. A similar plan, differing in some details, was subsequently introduced in the city of Des Moines, in Iowa; and the success which has attended this new departure in both cities has led to its adoption in many others, especially, but not exclusively, in the Western states.

For a fuller account see the articles on Galveston and Des Moines, where, as in other articles on towns and cities, there is a summary of their government and particularly of the distinctive features of local administration.

International RelationsWhat we have said, up to this point, has all dealt with our country as a self-contained unit—except that we have touched on tariffs and on immigration and on the treatment of aliens. In the article Alien (Vol. 1, p. 662) the reader will find the sentence: “In the United States the separate state laws largely determine the status of an alien, but subject to Federal treaties.” And Mr. Bryce (Vol. 27, p. 652) characterizes some of the powers allotted to the national government “which relate to its action in the international sphere.” See particularly Mr. Bryce’s remarks (Vol. 27, p. 656) on the powers of the president:

In time of war or of public disturbance, however, the domestic authority of the president expands rapidly. This was markedly the case during the Civil War. As commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and as ‘charged with the faithful execution of all laws,’ he is likely to assume, and would indeed be expected to assume, all the powers which the emergency requires. In ordinary times the president may be almost compared to the managing clerk in a large business establishment, whose chief function is to select his subordinates, the policy of the concern being in the hands of the board of directors. But when foreign affairs reach a critical stage, or when disorders within the Union require Federal intervention, immense responsibility is then thrown on one who is both commander-in-chief of the army and the head of the civil executive. In no European country is there any personage to whom the president can be said to correspond. He may have to exert more authority, even if he enjoys less dignity, than a European king. He has powers which are in ordinary times narrower than those of a European prime minister; but these powers are more secure, for instead of depending on the pleasure of a parliamentary majority, they run on to the end of his term.

In this connection you should read the articles International Law and International Law (Private), Treaties, Peace, Peace Conferences, Pan-American Conferences and Arbitration, International; the last showing plainly how large a part the United States has played in promoting better international feeling throughout the world.

Such articles as these tell how peace has changed from a purely negative condition to a positive subject of international regulation and an object of active political effort. They answer the following concrete questions on the subject:

What was the earliest plan of peace known to history? What were the Pax Romana, the “Truce of God,” the “Grand Design” of Henry IV, and other schemes for the preservation of peace?

What was the greatest deliberate effort ever made to secure the peace of the world?

What has been done by the two Hague Conferences, and when will the next one be held?

How far can disarmament be carried out?

What standing-peace agreements have been executed?

What is the history of popular effort for international peace, and what peace societies exist to-day?

What are the present recognized limitations of international arbitration?

What are the first steps toward an era of universal peace?

What has been accomplished by the Pan-American Conferences?

International AffairsOn international affairs of to-day in which the United States has a special interest there is a wealth of information in the Britannica. The first topic that will naturally present itself to the mind of the reader is the Panama canal. On this see the article Panama Canal (Vol. 20, p. 666), with a large-scale map, a history of the project and a description of the engineering features; and on the politics, national and international, of the question of building the canal, the articles Colombia, Panama, Roosevelt, United States, History (Vol. 27, pp. 730 and 732), John Hay, and Pauncefote.

Our relations with Colombia in connection with the canal will naturally lead the student to a general consideration of the relation of the United States with the Latin-American countries. Here the most interesting factor is the Monroe Doctrine, which has been characterized “as one of the things that every one knows about but that few can explain.” Read the article Monroe Doctrine (Vol. 18, p. 738), by Dr. T. S. Woolsey, Professor of international law, Yale University; the article James Monroe (Vol. 18, p. 736), and, in the article United States, History § 156 (Vol. 27, p. 695).

A second topic in the story of Latin-America and the United States is Cuba; and this part of the story has probably never been told as accurately and interestingly as in the articles Cuba (Vol. 7, p. 594), and Havana (Vol. 13, p. 76) in the Britannica, both by Dr. F. S. Philbrick.

American relations with the Orient is a third subject of importance in the foreign affairs of the United States; and in this subject the most interesting topic is Chinese and Japanese exclusion. On this see the articles California, San Francisco, Coolie, and United States, History § 339 (Vol. 27, p. 723). At the end of the article Japan (Vol. 15, p. 156) there is a section on The Claims of Japan, by Baron Dairoku Kikuchi, which is of great interest in this connection.

Sea-PowerThe place of the United States as a world power, we are proud to say, depends little on its army or navy—because of its enormous latent strength, its commanding geographical position, etc. But the comparatively greater importance of navy over army is now admitted by nearly every serious thinker—it was the concrete lesson of the Spanish-American War of 1898 as it was the point of the valuable historical essays on sea-power written before and since that war by the American naval officer, Rear-Admiral A. T. Mahan. The American navy and the navies of the world are matters of interest to every one—and like all matters of importance they are to be found treated in the Britannica.

In general see the elaborate articles Navy (Vol. 19, p. 299); Sea-Power (Vol. 25, p. 548); and Sea, Command of the (Vol. 24, p. 529); and for a detailed course of reading on naval history and theory see the chapter in this Guide For Naval Officers.

The Greater United StatesThe topics just discussed will serve as an introduction to the study of the Imperial United States, which may be pursued in the articles Alaska, Hawaii, Philippine Islands, Porto Rico, Guam and Cuba, and the articles on the towns and cities in the outlying possessions.

The result of reading these articles will be a determination to know more about your country, to master its history, its industries and its commerce as well as its political conditions.