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PROCEEDINGS 


OF  THE 


American 
Political  Science  Association, 


AT  ITS 


THIRD  ANNUAL  MEETING 


HELD    AT 


PROVIDENCE,  R.  L,  DECEMBER  26  to  29,  1906. 


WICKERSHAM  PRESS, 
LANCASTER,  PA. 

1907. 


2% 


Copyright,  1907,  by 

THE  AMERICAN  POLITICAL  SCIENCE  ASSOCIATION. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


MM 

The  American  Political  Science  Association  : 

Constitution 5 

Officers  for  the  year  1906 7 

Officers  for  the  year  1907 g 

List  of  Members p 

The  Third  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Association  : 

Report  of  the  Treasurer I9 

Report  of  the  Secretary 2\ 

Program _>,, 

Papers  and  Discussions  : 

The  Revision  of  the  Geneva  Convention.     By  Rear  Admiral  C.  S. 

Sperry 33 

The  Newport  Charter.     By  Admiral  F.  E.  Chadwick 58 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  as  Modified  by  the  Civil  War. 

By  Wm.  B.  Weeden 67 

Government  of  Insurance  Companies.     By  Maurice  H.  Robinson  .     80 
Some  Observations  Concerning  the  Principles  which  Should  Govern 

the  Regulation  of  Life  Insurance  Companies.     By  Wm.C.  Johnson.    96 
Discussion:  L.  A.  Anderson,  Wm.  C.  Johnson,  W.  G.  Lang- 
worthy  Taylor,  Frank    E.  Horack,  Frederick    L.   Hoffman, 

F.  A.  Cleveland 124 

Hobbes'   Doctrine   of   the   State   of   Nature.     By  Charles  Edward 

Merriam 151 

Radicalism  and  Reform.     By  James  E.  Shea  .  .   .    158 

Helping  to  Govern  India.     By  Charles  Johnston       169 

The  Spanish  Administration  of  Philippine  Commerce.     By  Chester 

Lloyd  Jones 180 

Some  Effects  of   Outlying   Dependencies  upon  the  People  of   the 

United  States.     By  Henry  C.  Morris  .   .    194 

The  Need  of  a  Scientific  Study  of  Colonial  Problems.     By  Alleync 

Ireland ...  .   .    210 

Discussion  :  Poultney  Bigelow 221 

The  Question  of  Terminology.     By  Alpheus  H.  Snow 224 

Commercial  Relations  between  Dependencies  and   the  Governing 

Country.     By  O.  P.  Austin  .  245 

Report  of  the  Section  on  Comparative  Legislation  . 


CONSTITUTION 


OF 


The  American  Political  Science  Association 


ARTICLE  I. 

NAME. 

This  Association  shall  be  known  as  the  American  Political  Science 
Association. 

ARTICLE  II. 

OBJECT. 

The  encouragement  of  the  scientific  study  of  Politics,  Public  Law,  Ad- 
ministration, and  Diplomacy. 

The  Association  as  such  will  not  assume  a  partisan  position  upon  any 
question  of  practical  politics,  nor  commit  its  members  to  any  position 
thereupon. 

ARTICLE  III. 

MEMBERSHIP. 

Any  person  may  become  a  member  of  this  Association  upon  payment  of 
Three  Dollars,  and  after  the  first  year  may  continue  such  by  paying  an 
annual  fee  of  Three  Dollars.  By  a  single  payment  of  Fifty  Dollars  any 
person  may  become  a  life  member,  exempt  from  annual  dues; 

Each  member  will  be  entitled  to  a  copy  of  all  the  publications  of  the 
Association  issued  during  his  or  her  membership. 

ARTICLE  IV. 

OFFICERS. 

The  officers  of  this  Association  shall  consist  of  a  President,  three  Vice- 
Presidents,  a  Secretary,  and  a  Treasurer,  who  shall  be  elected  annually, 
and  of  an  Executive  Council  consisting  ex-ofl\c\o  of  the  officers  above  men- 
tioned and  ten  elected  members,  whose  term  of  office  shall  be  two  years, 
except  that  of  those  selected  at  the  first  election,  five  shall  serve  for  but 
one  year. 

All  officers  shall  be  nominated  by  a  Nomination  Committee  composed  of 
five  members  appointed  by  the  Executive  Council,  except  that  the  officers 
for  the  first  year  shall  be  nominated  by  a  committee  of  three  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  chairman  of  the  meeting  at  which  this  Constitution  is 
adopted. 

(5) 


6  CONSTITUTION. 

AH  officers  shall  be  elected  by  a  majority  vote  of  the  members  of  the 
Association  present  at  the  meeting  at  which  the  elections  are  had. 

ARTICLE  V. 

DUTIES  OF  OFFICERS. 

The  President  of  this  Association  shall  preside  at  all  meetings  of  the 
Association  and  of  the  Executive  Council,  and  shall  perform  such  other 
duties  as  the  Executive  Council  may  assign  to  him.  In  his  absence  his 
duties  shall  devolve  successively  upon  the  Vice-Presidents  in  the  order  of 
their  election,  upon  the  Secretary  and  'the  Treasurer. 

The  Secretary  shall  keep  the  records  of  the  Association  and  perform 
such  other  duties  as  the  Executive  Council  may  assign  to  him. 

The  Treasurer  shall  receive  and  have  the  custody  of  the  funds  of  the 
Association,  subject  to  the  rules  of  the  Executive  Council. 

The  Executive  Council  shall  have  charge  of  the  general  interests  of  the 
Association,  shall  call  regular  and  special  meetings  of  the  Association,  ap- 
propriate money,  appoint  committees  and  their  chairmen,  with  appropriate 
powers,  and  in  general  possess  the  governing  power  in  the  Association, 
except  as  otherwise  specifically  provided  in  this  Constitution.  The  Exec- 
utive Council  shall  have  the  power  to  fill  vacancies  in  its  membership  occa- 
sioned by  death,  resignation  or  failure  to  elect,  such  appointees  to  hold 
office  until  the  next  annual  election  of  officers. 

Five  members  shall  constitute  a  quorum  of  the  Executive  Council,  and 
a  majority  vote  of  those  in  attendance  shall  control  its  decisions. 

Ten  members  shall  constitute  a  quorum  of  the  Association  and  a  major- 
ity vote  of  those  members  in  attendance  shall  control  its  decisions. 

ARTICLE  VI. 

RESOLUTIONS. 

All  resolutions  to  which  an  objection  shall  be  made  shall  be  referred  to 
the  Executive  Council  for  its  approval  before  'submission  to  the  vote  of 
the  Association. 

ARTICLE  VII. 

AMENDMENTS. 

Amendments  to  this  Constitution  shall  be  proposed  by  the  Executive 
Council  and  adopted  by  a  majority  vote  of  the  members  present  at  any 
regular  or  special  meeting  of  the  Association. 


OFFICERS 


OF 


The  American  Political  Science  Association 

FOR  THE  YEAR  1906 


PRESIDENT. 
ALBERT  SHAW,  New  York  City. 

FIRST  VICE-PRESIDENT. 
ALBERT  BUSHNELL  HART,  Harvard  University. 

SECOND  VICE-PRESIDENT. 
F.  N.  JUDSON,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

THIRD  VICE-PRESIDENT. 
H.  A.  GARFIELD,  Princeton  University. 

SECRETARY  AND  TREASURER. 
W.  W.  WILLOUGHBY,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  Md. 

EXECUTIVE  COUNCIL. 

President,  Vice-Presidents,  Secretary  and 
Treasurer,  ex-officio. 

J.  A.  FAIRLIE,  University  of  Michigan. 

J.  H.  LATANfi,  Washington  ami  Lee  University. 

H.  P.  JUDSON,  University  of  Chicago. 

F.  J.  GOODNOW,  Columbia  University. 
B.  F.  SHAMBAUGH,  University  of  Iowa. 
L.  S.  ROWE,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
W.  A.  SCHAPER,  University  of  Minnesota. 
P.  S.  REINSCH,  University  of  Wisconsin. 

G.  G.  WILSON,  Brown  University. 

J.  A.  WOODBURN,  University  of  Indiana. 
(7) 


OFFICERS 

OF 

The  American  Political  Science  Association 

FOR  THE  YEAR  1907 


PRESIDENT. 
HON.  FREDERICK  N.  JUDSON,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

FIRST  VICE-PRESIDENT. 
ALBERT  BUSHNELL  HART,  Harvard  University. 

SECOND  VICE-PRESIDENT. 
H.  A.  GARFIELD,  Princeton  University. 

THIRD  VICE-PRESIDENT. 
PAUL  .S.  REINSCH,  University  of  Wisconsin. 

SECRETARY  AND  TREASURER. 
W.  W.  WILLOUGHBY,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  Md. 

EXECUTIVE  COUNCIL. 

President,  Vice^Presidents,  Secretary  and 
Treasurer,  ex-ofdcio. 

J.  A.  FAIRLIE,  University  of  Michigan. 

F.  J.  GOODNOW,  Columbia  University. 

H.  P.  JUDSON,  University  of  Chicago. 

J.  H.  LATANE,  Washington  and  Lee  University. 

STEPHEN  LEACOCK,  McGil-1  University. 

A.  L.  LOWELL,  Harvard  University. 
ALBERT  SHAW,  New  York  City. 

B.  F.  SHAMBAUGH,  University  of  Iowa. 
THEODORE  WOOLSEY,  Yale  University. 
JAMES  T.  YOUNG,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

(8) 


List  of  Members 


Adickes,  F.  Herr  Oberburgerrneister,  Frankfort-on-the-Main, 

Germany. 

Ames,  Charles  H.,  120  Boylston  St.,  Boston,  Mass. 
Ames,  H.  V.,  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Andrews,  Geo.  F.,  4  Young  Orchard  Ave.,  Providence,  R.  I. 
iley,  R.  L.,  201  N.  Ave.,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

Babb,  J.  E.,  Lewiston,  Idaho. 

Baetjer,  E.  J.,  1409  Continental  Bldg.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Bagge,  Gosta,  19  Birgerjorlsgatan,  Stockholm,  Sweden. 

Baker,  Alfred  L.,  209  La  Salle  St.,  Chicago,  111. 

Baldwin,  Simeon  Eben,  69  Church  St.,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Barnard,  James  Lynn,  108  Greenwood  Ave.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Barnett,  James  D.,  Oklahoma  University,  Norman,  Okla. 

Barnett,  James  F.,  126  N.  Lafayette  St.,  Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 

Barrett,    R.    C,    Iowa    State    College   of    Agriculture    and 

Mechanic  Arts,  Ames,  Iowa. 

Barrows,  Samuel  J.,  135  E.  I5th  St.,  New  York  City. 
Bates,  Charles  W.,  City  Hall,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 
Bates,  Octavio  Williams,  The  Mt.  Royal,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Beach,  W.  G.  Pullman,  Washington. 
Beddall,  Marcus  M.,  327  Story  St.,  Boone,  Iowa. 
Beer,  George  Louis,  329  W.  7ist  St.,  New  York  City. 
Beer,  William,  Howard  Memorial  Library,  New  Orleans,  La. 
Benneson,  Miss  Cora  A.,  4  Mason  St.,  Cambridge,  Mass. 
Benton,  E.  J.,  Adelbert  College,  Cleveland,  O. 
Bigelow,  Melville  M.,  Boston  University  Law  School,  Boston, 

Mass. 

Bigelow,  Poultney,  Malden-on-the  Hudson,  N.  Y. 
Bingham,  Hiram,  Washington  Road,  Princeton,  N.  J. 
Blakeslee,  G.  H.,  Clark  University,  Worcester,  Mass. 
Bondy,  William,  149  Broadway,  New  York  City. 
Bosc,  Henri,  93  St.  Jasques,  Marseilles,  France. 
Boston  Public  Library,  Boston,  Mass. 
Bourne,  H.  E.,  Western  Reserve  University,  Geveland,  O. 
Bowman,  Harold  M.,  Globe  and  Commercial  Advertiser,  New 

York  City. 

(9) 


IO  LIST    OF    MEMBERS. 

Boyle,  E.  Mortimer,  179  W.  88th  St.,  New  York  City. 

Brown  Undversity  Library,  Providence,  R.  I. 

Brown,  W.  E.,  Rhinelander,  Wis. 

Bryan,  Joseph,  28  Times  Bldg.,  Richmond,  Va. 

Bryan,  J.  W.,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Buckler,  Wm.  H.,  "  Evergreen,"  W.  North  Ave.,  Baltimore, 

Md. 

Bullowa,  F.  E.  M.,  32  Nassau  St.,  New  York  City. 
Burnett,  Geo.  R.,  Blees  Military  Academy,  Macon,  Mo. 

Caldwell,  Howard  Walter,  University  of  Nebraska,  Lincoln, 
Neb. 

Callahan,  J.  M.,  University  of  West  Virginia,  Morganton, 
W.  Va. 

Campbell,  R.  G.,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Carnegie  Library,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 

Cator,  George,  Maryland  Club,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Chapin,  Charles  V.,  Providence,  R.  I. 

Chapin,  Robert  Coit,  Beloit  College,  Beloit,  Wis. 

Chicago  Public  Library,  Chicago,  111. 

Clark,  Charles  A.,  800  First  Ave.,  Cedar  Rapids,  la. 

Clark,  W.  E.,  College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Cleveland,  F.  A.,  30  Broad  St.,  New  York  City. 

Clow,  Fred.  R.,  State  Normal  School,  Oshkosh,  Wis. 

Colby,  James  F.,  Dartmouth  College,  Hanover,  N.  H. 

Coker,  F.  W.,  Columbia  University,  New  York  City. 

Cole,  T.  L.,  Statute  Law  Book  Co.,  Colorado  Bldg.,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

Cook,  W.  W.,  210  Irving  St.,  Madison,  Wis. 

Convin,  E.  S.,  Princeton  University,  Princeton,  N.  J. 

Coudert,  Frederic  R.,  71  Broadway,  New  York  City. 

Crane,  R.  T.,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Creagh,  John  T.,  Catholic  University,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Cremen,  J.  F.,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Cutting,  R.  Fulton,  32  Nassau  St.,  New  York  City. 

Daisch,  John  Broughton,  Attorney-at-law,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Davis,  John,  515  Cass  Ave.,  Detroit,  Mich. 
Davis,  E.  H.,  Purdue  University,  Lafayette,  Ind. 
Dawkins,  Walter  I.,  408  Fidelity  Bldg.,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Dealey,  J.  Q.,  Brown  University,  Providence,  R.  I. 
Deemer,  Horace  E.,  Bed  Oak,  Iowa. 
Dennis,  A.  L.  P.,  Madison,  Wis. 

Dennis,  Alfred  P.,  Smith  College,  Northampton,  Mass. 
Dern,  George  H.,  36  H  St.,  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  II 

Dixon,  Frank  H.,  Dartmouth  College,  Hanover,  N.  H. 
Dodcl,  W.  F.,  210  A  St.,  S.  E.,  Washington,  D.  C 
Dodd,  W.  E.,  Randolph-Macon  College,  Asliland,  Va. 
Dodge,  J.  E.,  Madison,  Wis. 

Duniway,  C.  A.,  Leland  Stanford  University,  Cal. 
Dunlap,  Boutwell,  Catholic  University,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Dunning,  William  A.,  Columbia  University,  New  York  City. 
Dutcher,  G.  W.,  Wesleyan  University,  Middletown,  Conn. 

Eames,  Burton  E.,  113  Devonshire  St.,  Boston,  Mass. 
Ed\vards,    Franklin    Spencer,    Central    High    School,    Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

Egleston,  Melville,  26  Cortland  St.,  New  York  City. 
Elkus,  Abram  S.,  50  Pine  St.,  New  York  City. 
Elliott,  E.  G.,  Princeton  University.  Princeton,  N.  J. 
England,  J.  T.,  1507  Park  Ave.,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Erickson,  Halford,  Madison,  Wis. 
Evans,  Lawrence  B.,  Tufts  College,  Mass. 
Evans,  Rowland,  P.  O.  Bldg.,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Fairlie,  John  Archibald,  524  S.  State  St.,  Ann  Arbor,  Midi. 

Falkner,  Roland  Post,  San  Juan,  Porto  Rico. 

Fay,  Sidney  B.,  Dartmouth  College,  Hanover,  N.  H. 

Farnam,   Henry  Walcott,  43   Hillhouse  Ave.,   New    Haven, 
Gonn. 

Farrand,  Max,  Leland  Standford  University,  Cal. 

Faulkner,  C.  E.,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

Ferguson,  Henry,  Trinity  College,  Hartford,  Conn. 

Person,  Merton  L.,  Iowa  City,  la. 

Ficklen,  John  R.,  Tulane  University,  New  Orleans,  La. 

Finley,  John  Houston,  College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Fischer,  W.  J.,  National  Bank  of  Commerce,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Mack,  H.  C,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Fleming,  Walter  L.,  University  of  West  Virginia,  Morgan- 
ton,  W.  Va. 

Foote,  Allen  R.,  Board  of  Trade  Bldg.,  Columbus,  O. 

Ford,  Henry  J.,  2126  Mt.  Royal  Terrace,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Ford,Worthington  C.,  Library  of  Congress,  Washington,  D.  C 

Foster,  Frederic,  Westminster  Hotel,  Boston,  Mass. 

Fox,  George  L.,  University  School,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Freund,  Ernst,  University  of  Chicago,  Chicago,  111. 

edcnwald,  Herbert,  356  Second  Ave.,  New  York  City. 

Gannaway,  John  W.,  Milwaukee  Journal1,  Milwaukee,  V. 

Gardiner,  Kathbone,  Providence.  k.  1. 

Gardner.  Henry  B.,  54  Stimson  Ave.,  Providence,  k.  I 


12  LIST    OF    MEMBERS. 

Garfield,  H.  A.,  Princeton  University,  Princeton,  N.  J. 
Garner,  J.  W.,  University  of  Illinois,  Urbana,  111. 
Garrett,  Robert,  Continental  Trust  Bldg.,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Garrison,  George  Pierce,  University  of  Texas,  Austin,  Tex. 
Carver,  F.  H.,  Moringside  College,  Sioux  City,  la. 
Glasson,  William  H.,  Trinity  College,  Durham,  N.  C. 
Goodnow,  Frank  J.,  Columbia  University,  New  York  City. 
Goodwin,  Elliot  H.,  79  Wall  St.,  New  York  City. 
Gould,  E.  R.  L.,  281  Fourth  Ave.,  New  York  City. 
Goulder,  Harvey  D.,  Perry-Payne  Bldg.,  Cleveland,  O. 
Govin,  Antonio,  701  Dragones  St.,  Havana,  Cuba. 
Gray,    John    Henry,    Northwestern    University,     Evanston, 

Illinois. 

Gray,  R.  S.,  201  Bacon  Block,  Oakland,  Cal. 
Gregory,  Charles  Noble,  University  of  Iowa,  Iowa  City,  la. 
Grosvenor,  E.  A.,  Amherst  College,  Amherst,  Mass. 

Hammond,  John  H.,  59  Wall  St.,  New  York  City. 

Harding,  Albert  Spencer,  South  Dakota  Agricultural  College, 
Brookings,  S.  Dak. 

Harrison,  Lynde,  Exchange  Bldg.,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Hart,  Albert  Bushnell,  Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Hart,  Mrs.  Albert  Bushnell,  19  Craigie  St.,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Hart,  W.  O.,  134  Carondelet  St.,  New  Orleans,  La. 

Hartshorne,  Charles  H.,  239  Washington  St.,  Jersey  City, 
N.J. 

Haskins,  Charles  Homer,  15  Prescott  Hall,  Harvard  Univer- 
sity, Cambridge,  Mass. 

Hatten,  W.  H.,  New  London,  Wisconsin. 

Hatton,  A.  R.,  University  of  Chicago,  Chicago',  111. 

Hawkins,  Harold  B.,  423  Wisconsin  Ave.,  Madison,  Wis. 

Haynes,  George  H.,  Worcester  Polytechnic  Institute,  Wor- 
cester, Mass. 

Hazard,  Caroline,  Wellesley  College,  Wellesley,  Mass. 

Hebberd,  Robert  W.,  New  York  State  Board  of  Charities, 
Capitol,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

Henderson,  Ernest  F.,  i  Mercer  Circle,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Hepburn,  A.  B.,  83  Cedar  St.,  New  York  City. 

Hershey,  A.  S.,  Indiana  State  University,  Bloomington,  Ind. 

Herzberg,  Henry,  1624  Madison  Ave.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Hildt,  J.  C.,  Smith  College,  Northampton,  Mass. 

Holmes,  George  K.,  Dept.  of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Holt,  Henry,  29  W.  23d  St.,  New  York  City. 

Horack,  F.  E.,  University  of  Iowa,  Iowa  City,  la. 

Horwood,  H.  A.,  44  Walker  St.,  New  York  City. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  13 

Howard,  B.  E.,  2823  Orchard  Ave.,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 
Howard,  G.  E.,  University  of  Nebraska,  Lincoln,  Neb. 
Howe,  W.  W.,  708  Union  St.,  New  Orleans,  La. 
Rowland,  C  P.,  Mills  Bldg.,  New  York  Ci 
Huberich,  C.  H.,  University  of  Texas,  Austin,  Tex. 
Hudson,  Gardiner  K.,  Fitchburg,  Mass. 
Hull,  Charles  Henry,  Cornell  University,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 
Hunley,  W.  M.,  2  Roslyn  Ave.,  Walbrook,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Indiana  State  Library,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 
Indiana  University  Library,  Blooming-ton,  Ind. 
Ingalsbe,  Grenville  M.,  146  Main  St.,  Sandy  Hill,  N.  Y. 
lies,  George,  Park  Avenue  Hotel,  New  York  City. 

James,  J.  A.,  Northwestern  University,  Evanston,  111. 
Jenks,  Jeremiah  W.,  Cornell  University,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 
Jenny,  Ethel,  20  Berkeley  St.,  Cambridge,  Mass. 
John  Crerar  Libraiy,  Chicago,  111. 
Johns  Hopkins  University  Library,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Johnson,  Allen,  Bowdoin  College,  Brunswick,  Me. 
Johnson,  E.  H.,  Emory  College,  Oxford,  Ga. 
Judson,  F.  N.,  500-506  Rialto  Bldg.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 
Judson,  H.  P.,  University  of  Chicago,  Chicago,  111. 

Kansas,  Library  University  of,  Lawrence,  Kans. 
Keasbey,  Lindley  Miller,  University  of  Texas,  Austin,  Tex. 
Kelly,  Edmond,  82  Boulevard  Haussmann,  Paris,  France. 
Kern,  John  W.,  State  Life  Bldg.,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 
Kirk,  Wm.,  Brown  University,  Providence,  R.  I. 
Knapp,  Martin  A.,  Chairman  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion, Washington,  D.  C. 

Kodera,  Kenkichi,  14  Rue  de  Candolee,  Geneve,  Suisse. 
Kohn,  B.  E.,  2119  Callow  Ave.,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Kuhn,  Arthur  K.,  42  Broadway,  New  York  City. 

Lacy,  B.  W.,  Dubuque,  lowa, 

Lacock,  John  Kennedy,  21  Carver  St.,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Laird,  J.  W.,  107  Walden  St.,  N.  Cambridge,  Mass. 

I>ntnne,   John    Holladay,    Washington    and    Lee   University, 

Lexington,  Va. 

Lawson,  Victor  F.,  123  Fifth  Ave.,  Chicago.  111. 
Leacock,  Stephen,  McGill  University,  Montreal,  Can 
Lee,  G.  C.,  1707  Bolton  St.,  Baltimore,  M<1. 
Legg,  Chester  Arthur,  10  Oxford  St.,  Cambridge,  Mass. 
Lester,  Garenrr  B.,  1230  N.  Alabama  St..  Indianapolis.  Ind. 

ary  of  Parliament,  Ottawa,- Canada, 
Loeb.  ouri,  Columbia.  Mo. 


14  LIST    OF    MEMBERS. 

Loos,  I.  A.,  University  of  Iowa,  Iowa  City,  la. 
Low,  A.  Maurice,  1410  G  St.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Lowell,  A.  Lawrence,  843  Exchange  Bldg.,  Boston,  Mass. 
Lowell,  Francis  C,  Boston,  Mass. 

Ludington,  Arthur  Crosby,  Princeton  University,  Prince- 
ton, N.  J. 

McBain,  Howard  Lee,  1006  Floyd  Ave.,  Richmond,  Va. 

McCarthy,  Charles,  Madison,  Wis. 

McCormick,  S.  B.,  703  Home  Trust  Bldg.,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 

McElroy,  R.  M.,  86  Stockton  St.,  Princeton,  N.  J. 

McGill  University  Library,  Montreal,  Can. 

McKechan,  Charles  L.,  711  Bullitt  Bldg.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

McKeehan,  Joseph  P.,  Dickinson  School  of  Law,  Car- 
lisle, Pa. 

McLaughlin,  A.  C,  5811  Monroe  Ave.,  Chicago,  111. 

MacLean,  J.  A.,  University  of  Idaho,  Moscow,  Idaho. 

McNulty,  John  J.,  College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  N.  Y. 

McNulty,  William  D.,  141  Broadway,  New  York  City. 

McPherson,  Logan  G.,  1300  Pennsylvania  Ave.,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. 

Macy,  Jesse,  Iowa  College,  Grinnell,  Iowa. 

Maine,  Library  University  of,  Orono,  Me. 

Maiden  Public  Library,  Maiden,  Mass. 

Maltbie,  Milo  Roy,  City  Hall,  New  York  City. 

Marburg,  Theodore,  14  W.  Mt.  Vemon  Place,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Mather,  Samuel,  Western  Reserve  Bldg-.,  Cleveland,  O. 

Matthews,  J.  M.,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Mechern,  Floyd  R.,  5714  Woodlawn  Ave.,  Chicago,  111. 

Merriam,  C.  E.,  University  of  Chicago,  Chicago,  111. 

Michigan,  Library  University  of,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

Michigan  State  Normal  College,  Ypsii'lanti,  Mich. 

Mijent,  P.,  Technological  Institute,  St.  Petersburg,  Russia. 

Milburn,  Richard  M.,  Jasper,  Ind. 

Miller,  E.  T.,  University  of  Texas,  Austin,  Tex. 

Missouri,  Library  University  of,  Columbia,  Mo. 

Mitchell,  T.  L.,  Ely,  Nev. 

Moffett,  Samuel  E.,  16  Archer  Ave.,  Mt.  Vernon,  N.  Y. 

Moore,  John  Bassett,  Columbia  University,  N.  Y. 

Moore,  J.  R.  R.,  26  Whittier  St.,  N.  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Moran,  Thomas  Francis,  Purdue  University,  Lafayette,  Ind. 

Morey,  William  Carey,  Rochester  University,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Morris,  Henry  C.,  100  Washington  St.,  Chicago,  111. 

Morrisson,  James  W.,  Richmond,  Ind. 

Morse,  A.  D.,  Amherst  College,  Amherst,  Mass. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  15 

Moses,  Bernard,  University  of  California,  Berkeley,  Cal. 
Mount  Holyoke  College  Library,  South  Hadley,  Mass. 
Mtilkey,  Frederick  W.,  Mulkey  Block,  Portland,  Ore. 
Munro,  William  B.,  37  Dana  Chambers,  Cambridge,  Mass. 
Murphy,  S.  D.,  114  W.  2ist  St.,  Birmingham,  Ala, 

Nebraska,  Library  University  of,  Lincoln,  Neb. 

Needham,  C.  W.,  George  Washington  University,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

Ncill,  Charles  P.,  1429  N  Y.  Ave.,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Nelson,  H.  L.,  Williams  College,  Willamstown,  Mass. 

Xewberry  Library,  Chicago,  111. 

Newcomb,  Harry  Turner,  Washington  Loan  &  Trust  Bldg., 
Washington,  D.  C. 

New  York  Public  Library,  Astor  Library  Bldg.,  New  York 
City. 

New  York  State  Library,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

Nicholson,  Edward  K.,  Sanford  Bldg.,  Bridgeport,  Conn. 

Nieman,  L.  W.,  The  Milwaukee  Journal,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 

Norton,  J.  Pease,  563  Orange  St.,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Noyes,  G.  H.,  Northwestern  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company, 
Milwaukee,  Wis. 

Omaha  Public  Library,  Omaha,  Neb. 

Ontario  Legislative  Library,  Toronto,  Ontario,  Canada. 

Opdyke,  William  S.,  20  Nassau  St.,  New  York  City. 

Palmalee,  Prentice,  39  Wall  St.,  New  York  City. 

Parker,  B.  L.,  Green  Bay,  Wis. 

Parker,  F.  W.,  Marquette  Bldg.,  Chicago,  111. 

Parkinson,  J.  B.,  Madison,  Wis. 

Pearson,  George  G.,  Tufts  College,  Mass. 

Perrin,  John  W.,  Case  Library,  Cleveland,  O. 

Peterson,  Samuel,  University  of  Texas,  Austin,  Texas. 

Phelps,  Livingston,  51  Brattle  St.,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Philbrick,  Francis  S.,  1023  H  St.,  Lincoln,  Neb. 

Plum,  H.  G.,  University  of  Iowa.  Iowa  City,  la. 

Prescott,  A.  T.,  Baton  Rouge,  La. 

Princeton  University  Library,  Princeton,  N.  J. 

Rappard,  W.  E.,  8  \Yimhn>p  Hall,  Oimbrid^e.  Mass. 
Reeves,  Jesse  S.,  Richmond.  I  ml. 
Reeves,  Edith  M.,  117  Avon  Hill,  Cambridge,  Ma 
Reinsch,  Paul  S.,  University  of  Wisconsin,  Madison,  Wis. 
Kiiiiovalt.  K1.  ('..  16  Gramercy  Park,  New  York  City. 
Ripton,  B.  H.,  Union  College,  Schenectady,  N.  Y. 
Robinson,  Maurice  Henry,  University  of  Illinois,  Urban 


l6  LIST    OF    MEMBERS. 

Rose,  John  C,  628  Equitable  Bldg.,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Rowe,  Leo  S.,  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Rudd,    Charming,    George    Washington    University,   Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 
Rutter,  Frank  R.,  Dept.  of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Sanborn,  J.  B.,  Madison,  Wis. 

Schaper,  William  A.,  University  of  Minnesota,  Minne- 
apolis, Minn. 

Schofield,  William,  19  Gould  Ave.,  Maiden,  Mass. 

Schouler,  James,  60  Congress  St.,  Boston,  Mass. 

Scott,  G.  W.,  Library  of  Congress,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Scott,  J.  B.,  Department  of  State,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Scott,  R.  B.,  146  W.  Gorham  St.,  Madison,  Wis. 

Scovel,  Sylvester  F.,  University  of  Wooster,  Wooster,  O. 

Seager,  Henry  R.,  Columbia  University,  New  York  City. 

Seattle  Public  Library,  Seattle,  Wash. 

Seligman,  E.  R.  A.,  324  W.  86th  St.,  N.  Y.  City. 

Senties,  P.  J.,  2  A  de  Arquitectos  No.  i,  City  of  Mexico, 
Mexico. 

Shambaugh,  B.  F.,  State  University,  Iowa  City,  la. 

Sharp,  George  M.,  2105  St.  Paul  St.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Shaw,  Albert,  13  Astor  Place,  New  York  City. 

Shea,  James  Edward,  845  Tremont  Bldg.,  Boston,  Mass. 

Shepard,  Edward  M.,  26  Liberty  St.,  New  York  City. 

Shipman,  H.  R.,  27  Mercer  St.,  Princeton,  N.  J. 

Siebert,  Wilbur  Henry,  182  W.  loth  Ave.,  Columbus,  O. 

Silvey,  W.  W.,  1531  College  Ave.,  Topeka,  Kans. 

Sioussat,  St.  George  L.,  University  of  the  South,  Sewanee, 
Tenn. 

Sites,  C.  M.  Lacey,  Nanyang,  Shanghai},  China. 

Skinner,  James,  Marshall,  Barboursville,  W.  Va. 

Smalley,  H.  S.,  University  of  Michigan,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

Smith  College  Library,  Northampton,  Mass. 

Smith,  Howard  L.,  222  Langdon  St.,  Madison,  Wis. 

Smith,  Monroe,  Columbia  University,  New  York  City. 

Snow,  A.  H.,  2013  Massachusetts  Ave.,  N.  W.,  Washington, 
D.  C. 

Sparling,  S.  E.,  Madison,  Wis. 

Spencer,  Henry  Russell,  Princeton  University,  Princeton,  N.  J. 

Speranza,  Gino,  40  Pine  St.,  New  York  City. 

Springfield  City  Library  Association,  Springfield,  Mass. 

State  Normal  School,  Winona,  Minn. 

Stanch  ft,  Henry  C.,  Cornell  College,  Mt.  Vernon,  Iowa. 

Steiner,  Bernard  C.,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Balti- 
more, Md. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  1 7 

Stephenson,  G.  T.,  Warren  Place,  Pendleton,  N.  C. 

Stevens,  E.  Ray,  Madison,  Wis. 

Stirling,    Thomas,    Law    Dept.,    State    University,    Vermil- 

lion,  S.  Dak. 

Stockbridge,  Henry,  Law  Bldg.,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Stone,  A.  H.,  201  A  St.,  S.  E.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Stratton,  Daniel,  Neosha,  Mo. 

Straus,  Isidor,  Broadway  and  34th  St.,  New  York  City. 
Strong,  Josiah,  287  Fourth  Ave.,  New  York  City. 
Stroock,  Sol.  M.,  320-324  Broadway,  New  York  City. 
Sullivan,  James,  308  W.  97th  St.,  New  York  City. 

Tanaka,   J.,    Librarian,    Imperial   Library   of   Japan,    Uyeno 

Park,  Tokyo,  Japan. 

Tarrant,  W.  D.,  Court  House,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 
Teele,  R.  P.,  Department  of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Temple,  Henry,  400  Locust  Ave.,  Washington,  Pa. 
Texas,  University  of,  Austin,  Tex. 
Thruston,  G.  P.,  Perkins  Hall,  Cambridge,  Mass. 
Thurber,  Charles  H.,  29  Beacon  St.,  Boston,  Mass. 
Tooke,  C.  W.,  12  Syracuse  Bank  Bldg.,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Tufts  College  Library,  Tufts  College,  Mass. 
Tullis,  R.  L.,  317  Hibernia  Bank  Bldg.,  New  Orleans,  La. 
Tuttle,  A.  H.,  Ohio  State  University,  Columbus,  O. 

Ufford,  W.  S.,  301  N.  Charles  St.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Vassar  College  Library,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y. 
Vilas,  Charles  A.,  Wells  Bldg.,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 
Vincent,  George  E.,  University  of  Chicago,  111. 
Vincent,  John  Martin,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore, 
Md. 

Walling,  W.  E.,  3  Fifth  Ave.,  New  York  City. 

Walsh,  Thomas  F.,  Colorado  Bldg.,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Wang,  Chung  Hin,  126  Howe  St.,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Ward,  G.  C,  San  Juan,  Porto  Rico. 

Waters,  Asa  W.,  64  Oxford  St.,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Weber,  A.  F.,  N.  Y.  State  Dept.  of  Labor,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

West,  Max,  Dept.  Commerce  and  Labor.  Washington,  D.  C. 

e,  J.  LeRoy,  2400  W.  North  Ave.,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Whitney,  Edward  B.,  49  Wail  St.,  New  York  City. 
Whitten,  R.  H.,  State  Library,  Albany,  N.  Y. 
\\  hittlcsey,  W.  L.,  45  Wiggins  St.,  Princeton,  N.  J. 

ore,    I.    H.,    Law    School,    Northwestern    University, 

Chicago,  Til. 
Wilcox,  David,  Delaware  &  Hudson  Co.,  New  York  City. 


l8  LIST    OF    MEMBERS. 

Willoughby,  William  F.,  San  Juan,  Porto  Rico. 

Willoughby,  W.  W.,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Balti- 
more, Md. 

Wilmington  Institute  Free  Library,  Wilmington,  Del. 

Wilson,  George  Grafton,  Brown  University,  Providence,  R.  I. 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  Princeton  University,  Princeton,  N.  J. 

Winthrop,  Beckmon,  San  Juan,  Porto  Rico. 

Wisconsin,  Library  of  University  of,  Madison,  Wis. 

Wood,  Frank  J.,  Hamilton  College,  Clinton,  N.  Y. 

Wood,  Frederick  A.,  295  Pawtucket  St.,  Lowell,  Mass. 

Wood,  Stuart,  400  Chestnut  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Woodburn,  James  Albert,  Indiana  State  University,  Bloom- 
ington,  Ind. 

Woodruff,  Clinton  Rogers,  707  North  American  Bldg., 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Woolsey,  Theodore  S.,  Yale  University,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Wool  worth,  James  Mills,  First  National  Bank,  Bldg., 
Omaha,  Neb. 

Worcester  Library,  Worcester,  Mass, 

Wright,  Carroll  D.,  Clark  University,  Worcesfer,  Mass. 

Young,  Allyn  A.,  Leland  Stanford  University,  Cal. 
Young,  James  T.,  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia, 
Pa. 


Report  of  the  Treasurer  for  the  Year  1906 


Receipts. 

Fees,  life  membership  (6) $300.00 

Annual  dues 807.00 

Proceedings  sold 38.00 

Subscriptions  to  "  Review  " 14^5 

Interest  on  bank  deposit 29.16 

Contributions  to  fund  for  "  Review  " 870.00 

Total  receipts  to  December  29,  1906 $2,058.41 

Balance  on  hand  December  30,  1905 973-52 


Total $3,031.93 

Expenditures. 

Clerical  assistance $158.15 

Printing  and  mailing  Proceedings  for  1905 370.44 

Priming  "  Review,"  Vol.  I,  No.  1 467.96 

Miscellaneous  printing  and  stationery 131.80 

Purchase  of  books  for  "  Review  " 8.33 

Railway  expenses  for  Council  meetings 124.14 

Stenographer 6.00 

Stamps,  expressage,  and  miscellaneous  expenses  of  Secretary 07.00 

$1,363.82 
Balance  on  hand  December  29,  1906 1,668.11 

$3,031.93 
Submitted  December  29,  1906. 

W.  W.  WILLOUCHBY. 
Audited  and  found  correct 

JOHN  A.  FAIKUE, 
BF.NJ.  F.  SIIAMBAUCH. 

(19) 


REPORT  OF  THE  PROCEEDINGS 

OF  THE 

THIRD  ANNUAL  MEETING 

OF  THE 

American  Political  Science  Association. 


BY   THE   SECRETARY. 

The  Third  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Association  was  held  in 
dence,  Rhode  Island,  December  27  to  29,  1906,  under 
the  auspices  of  Brown  University.  The  meeting  was  in  every 
way  a  most  successful  one.  The  papers  read  were  interesting 
and  valuable,  the  number  of  members  registering  their  attend- 
ance considerably  larger  than  upon  any  previous  occasion,  and 
the  various  hospitalities  extended  of  the  most  delightful  char- 
acter. The  University  Club  opened  its  doors  to  its  many 
comforts,  and  the  Brown  Union  furnished  an  ideal  place  for 
social  rendezvous.  Wednesday  evening  the  Committee  of  Man- 
agement of  the  John  Carter  Brown  Library  tendered  a  recep- 
it  the  Brown  Union  to  the  members  of  all  the  Associa- 
tions holding  sessions  at  the  time  in  Providence.  These  other 
scientific  bodies  were  the  American  Historical  Association, 
the  American  Economic  Association,  the  American  Sociologi- 
cal Society,  the  New  England  History  Teachers'  Association, 
ami  the  Bibliographical  Society  of  America,  On  Thursday, 
a  luncheon  was  given  to  the  members  of  the  Associations  at 
the  Lyman  Gymnasium,  by  the  Corporation  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity, and  from  five  to  seven  upon  the  same  afternoon,  Mrs. 
un  B.  Weeden  received  the  members  at  her  beautiful 
home  iier  luncheon  was  tendered  the  Political  Science 

(21) 


22  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

Association  by  the  Trustees  of  the  Providence  Public  Library 
and  the  Trustees  of  the  Providence  Athenaeum  on  Friday  at 
the  Lyman  Gymnasium ;  and  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day  a 
large  smoker  to  all  the  associations  was  held  at  the  Trocadero. 
At  the  business  meeting  of  the  Association  the  following 
officers  were  elected  for  the  year  1907.  Hon.  Frederick  N. 
Judson,  of  St.  Louis,  President;  Professor  Albert  Bushnell 
Hart,  First  Vice-President ;  Professor  H.  A.  Garfield,  Second 
Vice-President;  Professor  Paul  S.  Reinsch,  Third  Vice-Presi- 
dent. In  the  places  of  Professors  L.  S.  Rowe,  P.  S.  Reinsch, 
G.  G.  Wilson,  W.  A.  Schaper,  and  J.  A.  Woodbury,  -whose 
terms  of  office  expired,  the  following  members  of  the  Execu- 
tive Council  were  elected :  Professor  A.  L.  Lowell,  of  Har- 
vard University,  Professor  James  T.  Young  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  Professor  Stephen  Leacock  of  McGill  Uni- 
versity, Professor  Theodore  Woolsey  of  Yale  University, 
and  Dr.  Albert  Shaw,  retiring  President  of  the  Association. 
Upon  the  invitation  of  the  University  o'f  Wisconsin  and  other 
institutions  of  Madison,  Wisconsin,  that  city  'was  selected  as 
the  place  of  meeting  of  the  Association  in  December,  1907. 

MEETINGS  OF  THE  EXECUTIVE  COUNCIL. 

During  the  year  several  important  meetings  of  the  Execu- 
tive Council  were  held. 

At  a  meeting  held  in  the  City  Club,  New  York  City,  No- 
vember 30,  1906,  the  following  members  were  present :  Albert 
Shaiw,  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  H.  A.  Garfield,  J.  A.  Fairlie,  F. 
J.  Goodnow,  B.  F.  Shambaugh,  G.  G.  Wilson,  and  W.  W. 
Willougihby.  Besides  routine  business,  the  principal  subject 
discussed  was  the  suggestion  offered  by  Professor  Goodnow 
that  there  should  be  undertaken  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Association  an  examination  of  the  problem  of  the  administra- 
tion of  criminall  justice  with  special  reference  to  American 
conditions.  Upon  motion  Professors  Goodnow,  Hart  and  Wil- 
loughby  were  appointed  by  the  Chair  a  committee  to  prepare 
and  submit  to  the  next  meeting  of  the  Council  a  report  con- 
taining suggestions  as  to  the  scope  and  method  of  conducting 
this  investigation. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  23 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Council  held,  December  26,  at  Pro- 
vidence the  following  members  were  present :  J.  A.  Fairlie, 
F.  J.  Goodnow,  A.  B.  Hart,  P.  S.  Reinsch,  W.  W.  Willoughby, 
and  G.  G.  Wilson.  A  Committee  composed  of  Professors 
Fairlie  and  Shambaugh  was  appointed  to  audit  the  accounts 
of  the  Treasurer.  Professors  Goodnow,  Dealey,  Haynes, 
Merriam  and  Shambaugh  were  appointed  a  committee  to 
nominate  officers  of  the  Association  for  the  year  1907.  Pro- 
fessors Garfield,  Reinsch,  and  Willoughby  were  appointed  a 
committee  to  supervise  the  printing  of  the  Proceedings  of  the 
third  annual  meeting.  A  standing  committee  composed  of 
Professors  Willoughby  and  Hart,  and  Dr.  Shaw  was  ap- 
pointed with  power  to  select  members  for  such  Boards  and 
Commissions  as  the  Council  might  create.  Professors 
Reinsch,  Hart  and  Willoughby  were  appointed  a  committee  to 
arrange  the  program  for  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Associa- 
tion in  1907. 

Professors  Goodnow,  Hart  and  Willoughby  submitted  the 
following  report  upon  the  proposed  investigation  of  Police 
Administration  which  was  unanimously  adopted: 

The  Political  Science  Association,  which  is  now  preparing  for 
its  third  annual  meeting,  has  already  proved  that  there  was  a 
vacant  field  for  it  to  occupy,  and  each  of  the  three  activities  al- 
ready developed  has  aroused  interest  and  concentrated  effort: 

(1)  the  annual  meetings  have  been  well  attended  and  profitable; 

(2)  the  annual  report  has  contained  material  important  alike  to 
the  student  and  to  the  public;  (3)  the  new  journal  promises  to 
take  its   place  among  the  special  publications  of  the  country. 
These  three  enterprises  are  not  all  that  the  Association  can  safely 
carry.     With  our  considerable  membership,  and  keeping  in  view 
the  widespread  interest  in  problems  of  government,  we  think  it 
the  obligation  of  the  Association  from  time  to  time  to  initiate 
new  lines  of  research  through  special  committees  or  commissions 
appointed  for  that  purpose.      The  success  of  kindred  societies, 
such  as  the  American  Historical  Association  and  the  American 
Economic  Association,  in  those  directions  is  an  encouragement 
and  an  incentive  to  their  younger  sister. 

From  the  other  side,  there  are  many   pressing  problems   in 


24  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

American  government  which  cannot  be  solved  without  bringing 
together  a  large  body  of  evidence:  if  there  were  no  Political 
Science  Associations,  some  of  these  problems  must  speedily  be 
faced  and  an  effort  made  to  supply  a  rational  basis  for  their  dis- 
cussion. The  conjunction  of  work  to  do  and  of  an  organization 
suited  to  confront  it  seems  to  throw  upon  the  Association  a  new 
duty. 

Many  of  the  American  problems  most  in  men's  minds  come 
home  to  only  a  portion  of  the  American  people :  the  labor  ques- 
tion for  instance,  which  is  so  absorbing  in  large  cities  and  in  the 
industrial  regions,  very  little  disturbs  the  rural  population;  the 
trust  problem,  though  it  affects  the  consumers  all  over  the  coun- 
try, is  especially  lively  in  the  centers"  of  manufacture  and  distri- 
bution ;  the  question  of  a  subsidy  applies  chiefly  to  the  seaboard 
ports  and  centers  of  ship-building.  Furthermore,  for  all  these 
questions  there  are  special  societies,  like  the  American  Economic 
Association,  which  have  the  machinery  and  the  will  to  investigate 
them.  The  work  of  the  Political  Science  Association  must  lie 
more  in  the  direction  of  governmental  problems — problems  which 
have  a  widespread  national  significance.  Among  such  questions, 
one  which  more  and  more  insistently  demands  attention  is  how 
to  deal  with  the  spirit  of  lawlessness  which  is  beginning  to  char- 
acterize us  as  a  people.  This  disregard  of  law  is  sometimes  due 
to  statutes  which  are  too  far  ahead  of  the  ethical  demands  of  the 
day  to  make  it  likely  that  they  will  be  enforced  by  officials  chosen, 
as  is  commonly  the  case  in  the  United  States,  by  popular  vote. 
Sometimes  it  is  due  to  the  feeling  that  the  people  make  the  laws, 
and  when  a  considerable  majority  dislike  them  they  may  be  dis- 
obeyed without  moral  responsibility;  but  the  great  part  of  the 
lawlessness  which  we  all  deplore  comes  from  an  indifference  to 
violation  of  statutes  upon  the  expediency  of  which  there  is  no 
disagreement.  Courts  and  juries  are  often  affected  by  this  in- 
difference to  law,  with  the  result  that  criminals  are  treated  with 
leniency  or  escape  altogether.  It  is  notorious  that  human  life  and 
property  are  becoming  unsafe  in  some  sections  of  our  country, 
and  unless  checked  by  more  rigorous  methods  of  legal  enforce- 
ment this  spirit  will  result  in  making  America  a  byword  among 
civilized  nations  for  disorder  and  barbarism.  It  has  already  re- 
sulted in  the  resort  to  extra-legal  methods  for  the  enforcement 
of  particular  portions  of  the  law  which  are  persistently  broken. 
The  resort  to  such  methods  naturally  does  not  tend  to  effect  a 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  25 

permanent  cure  of  the  evil  conditions  which  exist,  but  in  the 
opinion  of  many  of  our  thinking  men  is  itself  producing  condi- 
tions which  are  worse  than  those  it  is  sought  to  cure. 

Positive  infractions  of  law,  if  recorded,  can  foe  -studied,  and  in- 
ferences may  be  drawn  from  the  results;  but  unpunished  viola- 
tions, and  still  more  the  failure  to  comply  with  the  conditions  of 
law  —  for  instance,  to  report  cases  of  contagious  diseases  or  to 
inspect  the  condition  of  mine-workers — are  outside  of  statistical 
inquiry  and  very  difficult  to  reach  by  any  methods.  We  do  not 
see  how  this  Association  could  bring  to  bear  a  body  of  facts  which 
might  affect  public  opinion  on  that  side  of  the  subject.  At  the 
other  extremity  of  the  question,  however,  stands  the  official 
machinery  for  dealing  with  lawbreakers,  which  in  the  last  resort 
includes  the  courts ;  but  a  preliminary  to  the  action  of  the  prose- 
cutor and  judge  is  the  action  of  the  police.  Undoubtedly  one  of 
the  main  causes  of  American  lawlessness  is  the  inadequate  police 
protection  generally  accorded  to  the  law-albiding  people  of  the 
United  .States,  and  your  committee  have  carefully  considered 
whether  the  Association  might  not  initiate  an  inquiry  into  the 
character  and  efficiency,  or  lack  of  efficiency,  of  this  important 
part  of  our  government.  Such  an  inquiry  would  be  especially 
timely  in  view  of  the  fact  that  other  civilized  countries  have  a 
system  which  is  more  effective  for  the  detection,  the  apprehension 
and  the  speedy  trial  of  offenders  than  we  are  familiar  with  in 
the  United  States.  Our  first  difficulty  is  that  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, which  include  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  population  and  more 
than  ninety-nine  one-hundredths  of  the  area,  there  is  practically 
no  police  system  worthy  of  the  name.  Our  existing  method  of 
detection  of  crime  and  apprehension  of  criminals,  which  has  been 
inherited  from  England,  and  which  places  its  main  reliance  on 
the  county  sheriff  and  the  town  constable,  has  shown  itself  to  be 
of  no  real  value  in  the  conditions  which  now  exist.  It  has  been 
discarded  in  the  land  which  gave  it  birth.  It  should  be  subjected 
to  serious  modifications  in  the  land  which  adopted  it,  and  which 
with  few  exceptions  has  permitted  it  to  continue  unmodified. 

In  the  second  place,  although  all  the  cities  large  and  small  have 
a  police  force,  it  is  in  most  cities  imperfect,  and  in  some  cities  is 
believed  to  be  actually  in  league  with  crime.  It  ds  true  that  dur- 
ing the  nineteenth  century  important  modifications  were  intro- 
duced into  our  municipal  police  system  in  the  way  of  organiza- 
tion and  discipline.  So  far  as  the  frame  of  the  present  system  is 


26  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

concerned  it  leaves  little  to  be  desired ;  that  is,  we  have  a  profes- 
sional trained  police  which,  with  greater  or  less  regularity,  patrols 
the  streets  of  cities  by  day  as  well  as  by  night.  But  the  opera- 
tions of  that  force  and  the  conduct  of  its  members  leave  much  to 
be  desired.  Charges  of  bribery,  blackmail  and  corruption  are  per- 
sistently circulated  with  regard  to  the  police  of  almost  every  city 
of  the  United  States;  while,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  crimes 
which  are  reprobated  by  communities  of  the  lowest  moral  sense 
compatible  with  what  is  believed  to  be  civilization,  are  on  the 
increase.  The  police  problem  is  acute  in  almost  every  city,  and 
appears  to  'be  no  nearer  solution,  notwithstanding  the  many  reme- 
dies to  which  resort  has  been  had. 

The  trouble  with  the  police,  however,  does  not  stand  alone :  it 
is  allied  with  and  supplemented  by  a  very  defective  system  of 
criminal  justice,  which  through  its  effort  to  protect  private  rights 
and  save  the  innocent  from  punishment  has  developed  an  elab- 
orate and  technical  procedure  with  many  opportunities  for  carry- 
ing the  issue  from  one  court  to  another;  suspicion  is  often  cast 
upon  the  probity  of  jurors,  if  not  of  judges,  and  the  long  delays 
accompanying  many  criminal  trials  bring  the  whole  system  into 
disrepute. 

Although  closely  connected,  the  two  subjects  discussed  above 
are  separable :  the  first  part  is  the  legal  system  for  the  prevention 
of  crime,  and  the  detection  and  apprehension  of  criminals ;  the 
second,  the  system  adopted  for  the  prosecution  and  conviction  of 
those  charged  with  crime.  Upon  the  first  of  these  subjects  much 
light  can  be  thrown  by  the  experience  of  European  countries, 
which  contrive  to  keep  order  in  rural  communities,  in  which  un- 
derstandings between  the  criminal  and  the  guardian  of  the  public 
are  uncommon,  and  in  which  the  esprit  de  corps  of  the  police  force 
is  higher  than  in  America.  The  system  of  criminal  justice,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  based  upon  constitutional  provisions,  protecting 
private  rights,  and  is  difficult  to  alter  without  sweeping  constitu- 
tional changes,  in  which  the  experience  of  foreign  countries 
would  probably  give  little  aid.  Of  the  two  subjects,  the  first  is 
the  simpler,  the  more  concrete  and  the  more  pressing.  We  be- 
lieve that  a  society  acting  without  the  suspicion  of  political  or 
other  bias  is  especially  fitted  to  undertake  such  a  piece  of  re- 
search. 

We  therefore  make  to  the  Council  of  the  Political  Science 
Association  the  following  recommendations: 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  2/ 

1.  That  it  inaugurate,  through  the  Association,  an  investiga- 
tion of  the  American  system  of  police  protection  and  the  admin- 
istration of  criminal  justice. 

2.  That  the  investigation  be  devoted  primarily  to  the  methods 
of  detecting  crime  and   apprehending  criminals,  including  the 
organization  of  the  police ;  together  -with  the  system  of  keeping 
order  in  the  last  resort  by  the  militia  or  by  United  States  troops. 

3.  That  for  this  purpose  the  Council  create  a  Commission  on 
American  Police  Administration,  to  be  composed  of  ten  members, 
all  of  whom  need  not  necessarily  be  members  of  the  Association. 

4.  That  the  Council,  in  conjunction  with  the  Commission,  de- 
vise means  for  raising  the  necessary  funds  to  carry  on  a  search- 
ing investigation  in  all  the  states  of  the  Union  and  in  all  the 
cities,  upon  the  subject  for  which  the  Commission  is  created. 

5.  That  the   Commission   shall  make  annual    reports  to  the 
Association  of  the  progress  of  its  work  until  completed. 

6.  That  a  final  elaborate  report  shall  be  submitted,  which  shall 
include  a  body  of  recommendations  for  legislation  likely  to  rem- 
edy the  evils  of  the  present  system. 

All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted, 

F.  J.  GOODNOW, 
A.  B.  HART, 

W.    W.    WlLLOUGHBY. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Council  held  December  28  in  Pro- 
vidence, the  following  members  were  present:  Albert  Shaw. 
J.  A.  Fairlie,  H.  A.  Garfield,  F.  J.  Goodnow,  A.  B.  Hart, 
P.  S.  Reinsoh,  B.  F.  Shambaugh,  W.  W.  Willoug-hby,  G.  G. 
Wilson,  and,  by  invitation,  the  newly  elected  President  of  the 
Association,  Mr.  F.  N.  Judson,  and  the  new  members  of  the 
Council,  Professors  A.  L.  Lowell  and  Stephen  Leacock. 

Professor  W.  B.  Munro,  Mr.  G.  W.  Scott,  and  Mr.  Robert 
Whitten  were  appointed  a  committee  to  cooperate  with  similar 
committees  of  other  associations  with  reference  to  the  project 
of  preparing  an  international  catalogue  of  the  current  liter- 
ature of  the  social  sciences. 

The  standing  committee  on  appointments  to  Boards  and 
Commissions  was  instructed  to  consider  any  suggestions  that 
might  be  made  with  reference  to  a  better  organization  of  par- 


28  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

ticular  sections  of  the  Association,  and  to  authorize  sudi  action 
as  might  'be  deemed  desirable. 

The  general  question  of  instruction  in  Government  in  the 
secondary  schools  was  discussed,  and  Professors  Schaper, 
Reinsch,  and  Loeb  were  appointed  a  committee  to  make  a  pre- 
liminary investigation  of  existing  conditions,  and  to  report 
recommendations  as  to  the  action  to  be  taken  or  investigation 
to  be  made,  at  the  meeting  of  the  Council  in  Madison,  in 
December,  1907.  Twenty-five  dollars  was  appropriated  for 
postage  to  be  used  by  this  committee. 

It  was  decided  that  a  regular  meeting  of  the  Council  should 
be  held  each  year  in  New  York  City  upon  the  Saturday  fol- 
lowing Thanksgiving  Day. 


PROGRAMME  OF  THE  THIRD  ANNUAL  MEETING 

HELD  IN 

PROVIDENCE,  R.  L,  DECEMBER  27-29,  1906 


FIRST  SESSION. 

THURSDAY,  DECEMBER  27,  10:00  A.  11., 
MANNING  HALL. 

International  Law. 

A  Revision-  of  the  Geneva  Convention— Rear  Admiral  Charles  S.  Sperry, 
U.  S.  N.f  Newport,  Rhode  Island. 

The  Recent  Controversy  as  to  the  British  Jurisdiction  over  Foreign 
Fishermen  more  than  Three  Miles  from  Shore— Professor  Charles  Noble 
Gregory,  State  University  of  Iowa. 

The  Third  Pan-American  Conference— Professor  Paul  S.  Reinsch,  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin. 

SECOND  SESSION. 

THURSDAY,  DECEMBER  27,  3:00  p.  M., 

MANNING  HALL. 

Constitutional  Law  and  Administration. 

The  Newport  Charter— Rear  Admiral  F.  E.  Chadwick,  U.  S.  N.,  New- 
port, Rhode  Island. 

The  United  States  Constitution  as  Modified'  in  the  Civil  War— Mr.  W. 
B.  Weeden,  Providence,  Rhode  Island. 

Recent  Constitution- Making  in  the  United  States—  Professor  J.  Q.  Dca- 
ley,  Brown  University. 

THIRD  SESSION. 

THURSDAY,  DECEMBER  27,  8:00  p.  M., 

SAYLES  HALL. 

Joint  Meeting  with  the  American  Sociological  Society. 
Address  of  Welcome— President  W.  H.  P.  Fauncc,  of  Brown  Uni\ 

idential  Address— Dr.  Albert  Shaw,  President  of  the  American  Polit- 
ical Science  Association. 

Presidential  Adckess— Professor  Lester  F.  Ward,  President  of  the  Amer- 
ican Sociological  Society. 

(29) 


30  PROGRAMME   OF   THIRD   ANNUAL    MEETING. 

FOURTH  SESSION. 

FRIDAY,  DECEMBER  28,  10 :  oo  A.  M., 

SAYLES  HALL. 
Joint  Meeting  with  the  American  Economic  Association. 

THE  ORGANIZATION  AND  GOVERNMENT  CONTROL  OF  INSURANCE  COMPANIES. 

The  Government  Control  of  Insurance  Companies— Professor  Maurice 
H.  Robinson,  University  of  Illinois. 

Some  Observations  Concerning  the  Principles  which  should  Govern  the 
Organization  and  Regulation  of  Life  Insurance  Companies — Mr.  William 
C.  John-son,  New  York  Manager  of  The  Phoenix  Life  Insurance  Company, 
of  Hartford,  Conn. 

Discussion  by  Professor  W.  G.  Langworthy  'faylor,  University  of  Ne- 
braska; Dr.  F.  A.  Cleveland,  of  New  York  City;  Mr.  F.  L.  Hoffman, 
Statistician  of  the  Prudential  Life  Insurance  Company;  and  Professor  L. 
A.  Anderson,  of  the  Wisconsin  State  Board  of  Assessments. 

FIFTH  SESSION. 

FRIDAY,  DECEMBER  28,  3 :  oo  p.  M., 

MANNING  HALL. 
Political  Theories. 

Hobbes'  Doctrine  of  the  State  of  Nature— Professor  C.  E.  Merriam, 
University  of  Chicago. 

The  Radical  in  Politics — Mr.  J.  E.  Shea,  Boston,  Massachusetts. 
Some  Observations  on  Existing  Methods1  of  Amending  State  Constitu- 
tions— Professor  J.  W.  Garner,  University  of  Illinois. 

SIXTH  SESSION. 

FRIDAY,  DECEMBER  28,  8 :  oo  p.  M., 

MANNING  HALL. 

Business  Meeting  of  the  Association. 
Report  of  the  Treasurer. 
Report  of  the  Secretary. 

Report  of  the  Board  of  Editors  of  the  American  Political  Science  Re- 
view. 

10  p.  m.    Smoker  at  the  Trocadero,  Mathewson  Street. 

SEVENTH  SESSION. 

SATURDAY,  DECEMBER  29,  10:00  A.  M., 

MANNING  HALL. 
Government  of  Dependencies. 

Helping  to  Govern  India — .Charles  Johnston,  late  of  the  British  India 
Civil  Service,  Flushing,  N.  Y. 

Responsible  Government  in  ibhe  British  Colonial  System  —  Professor 
Stephen  Leacock,  McGill  University. 

Spanish  Administration  of  Philippine  Commerce  —  Professor  Chester 
Lloyd  Jones,  University  of  Pennsylvania. 


PROGRAMME   OF   THIRD   ANNUAL    MEETING.  3! 

Some  Effects  of  Outlying  Dependencies  upon  the  People  of  the  United 
States — Mr.  Hency  C.  Morris,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

The  Executive  Council  of  Porto  Rico  (read  by  title  only)— Hon.  William 
F.  Willoughby,  Treasurer  of  Porto  Rico,  San  Juan,  Porto  Rico. 

EIGHTH  SESSION. 

SATURDAY,  DECEMBER  29,  3:00  P.  M., 

MANNING  HALL. 

Section  on  Government  of  Dependencies. 

The  Need  of  a  Scientific  Study  of  Colonial  Problems — Professor  Alleyne 
Ireland,  Boston,  Mass. 

The  Question  of  Terminology— Mr.  Alpheus  H.  Snow,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Popular  Interest  in  Insular  Possessions — Mr.   Poultney  Bigelow,  New 
York,  N.  Y. 

Commercial  Relations  between  Dependencies  and  the  Governing  Country 
—Mr.  O.  P.  Austin,  Chief  of  United  States  Bureau  of  Statistics. 

General  Discussion  of  the  Aims  and  Methods  of  the  Section  on  Govern- 
ment of  Dependencies. 


PAPERS  AND  DISCUSSIONS 


THE  REVISION  OF  THE  GENEVA  CONVENTION, 

1906. 

BY   REAR   ADMIRAL   C.    S.    SPERRY, 

U.  S.  NAVY,  DELEGATE. 

In  June,  1859,  a  benevolent  Swiss  gentleman,  M.  Henri 
Dunant,  finding  himself  in  the  vicinity  of  Solferino,  visited 
the  battlefield,  and  his  book,  the  Souvenir  de  Solferino, 
aroused  the  profoundest  commiseration  for  the  suffering  of 
the  forty  thousand  wounded  for  whose  care  the  regular  sani- 
tary service  was  utterly  inadequate,  and  for  whose  succor  the 
unorganized  efforts  of  limitless  charity  were  unavailing.  M. 
Dunant  urged  on  the  public  attention  measures  for  the  amelior- 
ation of  the  condition  of  the  sick  and  wounded,  first  through 
the  Genevese  Society  of  Public  Utility,  of  which  he  was  a 
member,  and  later  through  the  Swiss  Federal  Council.  The 
Council  eventually  called  an  international  conference  and  after 
a  brief  session  in  Geneva  this  conference  adopted  The  Geneva 
Convention  of  August  22d,  1864. 

It  was  speedily  recognized  that  the  rules  needed  amendment, 
and  should  be  extended  to  maritime  warfare,  and  for  this  pur- 
pose the  so-called  Additional  Articles  were  adopted  by  a 
second  Conference  which  met  in  Geneva  in  October,  1868. 
The  Additional  Articles  were  never  ratified,  but  nevertheless 
they  repeatedly  served  as  a  rule  of  conduct  in  war  and  it 
should  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  a  well  digested  body  of 
rules,  such  as  the  Additional  Articles,  or  the  Brussels  Con- 
vention of  1874,  although  they  may  never  be  ratihc.l.  yet  serve 
as  a  basis  for  humane  consideration  and  for  future  confer- 
ences. No  such  labor  is  lost. 

(33) 


34  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

The  first  great  example  of  the  relief  of  suffering  in  war 
was  that  given  by  our  own  Sanitary  Commission,  constituted 
by  the  President's  order  of  June,  1861,  at  the  instance  of  a 
committee  of  delegates  from  various  earlier  societies  who  met 
in  Washington  in  May. 

Throughout  the  four  years  of  civil  war  the  agents  of  the 
Commission  were  on  every  battlefield  and  thousands  of 
wounded  were  relieved.  Millions  of  voluntary  contributions 
were  dispensed  in  aid  and  the  practices  established  in  that 
war  are  now  embodied  in  existing  conventions.  The  work  of 
the  Sanitary  Commission  still  lives  in  the  grateful  remem- 
brance of  thousands  of  veterans,  and  the  distinguished  gentle- 
men who  composed  that  commission,  some  of  whom  are  still 
living,  can  have  no  nobler  title  to  the  gratitude  of  their 
countrymen. 

The  Geneva  Convention  of  1864,  with  anticipated  amend- 
ments, was  adopted  as  Article  XXI  of  The  Hague  Convention 
of  1899,  and  at  the  same  time,  The  Hague  Conference  ex- 
pressed the  wish  that  a  conference  for  revision  should  be 
called  by  the  Swiss  Government  as  speedily  as  practicable. 
The  wars  in  South  Africa  and  in  Manchuria  intervened  and 
some  of  the  new  provisions  are  due  to  those  experiences. 
The  Conference  finally  met  in  Geneva  on  the  eleventh  of  June, 
1906.  Thirty-five  governments  were  represented  by  a  notable 
body  of  delegates:  There  were  fifteen  ambassadors  and  min- 
isters and  eighteen  officials  of  the  diplomatic  or  consular  ser- 
vice: thirty-eight  officers  of  the  army,  of  whom  twenty  were 
members  of  the  medical  or  sanitary  service :  two  naval  officers, 
eight  jurists  and  four  officers  of  Red  Cross  societies.  Al- 
though but  few  of  the  delegates  were  actually  officers  of  volun- 
tary aid  societies,  many  of  the  military  officers  had  been  inti- 
mately associated  with  their  work  and  many  had  served  in  the 
field  during  the  late  war  in  Manchuria,  so  that  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  delegates  were  entirely  familiar  with  the 
subject.  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  a  number  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished and  influential  members  of  the  First  Hague  Con- 
ference were  delegates.  At  the  first  plenary  session  of  the 
Conference,  June  I2th,  the  Honorable  Edouard  Odier,  Min- 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  35 

ister  of  the  Swiss  Confederation  to  St.  Petersburg  and  dele- 
gate was  elected  president  of  the  Conference. 

The  Swiss  Federal  Council  when  it  issued  the  call  for  the 
Conference  in  March,  1906,  submitted  to  the  several  govern- 
ments a  List  of  Questions  to  be  Examined  with  a  View  to  a 
Revision  of  the  Geneva  Convention  of  August  22d,  1864. 

These  questions,  which  had  been  prepared  with  great  care 
and  with  due  consideration  of  the  actual  conditions  developed 
during  the  great  wars  of  the  past  forty  years,  were  accepted 
as  a  basis  when  the  Conference  met.  No  questions  relating 
to  sea  warfare  were  taken  up  for  the  reason  that  the  only  rati- 
fied Convention  for  the  treatment  of  sick  and  wounded  in 
maritime  warfare  is  that  adopted  by  The  Hague  Conference 
of  1899  and  its  revision  and  extension,  in  conformity  to  the 
new  Convention  for  Land  Warfare,  would  naturally  be  taken 
up  by  the  next  Conference,  which  is  expected  to  assemble  at 
The  Hague  in  May,  1907. 

The  form  of  the  new  Convention  is  such  that  the  articles 
relating  to  the  conduct  of  forces  in  the  field  can  readily  be 
separated  from  the  diplomatic  provisions,  and  the  first  chapter 
is  logically  devoted  to  the  treatment  of  the  sick  and  wounded. 

CHAPTER  I. 
The  Sick  and  Wounded. 

ARTICLE  i. 

Officers,  soldiers,  and  other  persons  officially  attached  to  armies,  who  are 
sick  or  wounded,  shall  be  respected  and  cared  for,  without  distinction  of 
nationality,  by  the  belligerent  in  whose  power  they  are. 

A  belligerent,  when  compelled  to  leave  his  wounded  in  the  hands  of  his 
adversary,  however,  shall  leave  with  them,  so  far  as  military  conditions 
permit,  a  portion  of  the  personnel  and  materiel  of  his  sanitary  service  to 
assist  in  caring  for  them. 

ARTICLE  2. 

Subject  to  the  care  that  must  be  taken  of  them  under  the  preceding 
article,  the  sick  and  wounded  of  an  army  who  fall  into  the  power  of  the 
other  belligerent  become  prisoners  of  war,  and  the  general  rules  of  inter- 
national law  in  respect  to  prisoners  become  applicable  to  them. 
The  belligerc:  n   free,  however,  to  mutually  agree  upon  such 

-.  by  way  of  exception  or  favor,  in  relation  to  the  wounded  or  sick 
as  they  may  deem  proper.    They  shall  especially  have  authority  to  agree : 
•>  mutually  return  the  sick  and  wounded  left  on  the  field  of  battle 
after  an  engagement. 


36  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

2.  To  send  back  to  their  own  country  the  sick  and  wounded  who  have 
recovered,  or  who  are  in  a  condition  to  be  transported,  and  whom  they  do 
not  desire  to  retain  as  prisoners. 

3.  To  send  the  sick  and  wounded    of  the  enemy  to  a  neutral  state,  with 
the  consent  of  the  latter  and  on  condition  that  it  shall  charge  itself  with 
their  internment  until  .Che  close  of  hostilities. 

ARTICLE  3. 

After  every  engagement  the  'belligerent  who  remains  in  possession  of  the 
field  of  battle  shall  take  measures  to  search  for  the  wounded  and  to  pro- 
tect the  wounded  and  dead  from  pillage  and  ill-treatment. 

He  will  see  that  a  careful  examination  is1  made  of  the  'bodies  of  the  dead 
prior  to  their  interment  or  incineration. 

ARTICLE  4. 

As  soon  as  possible  each  belligerent  shall  forward  to  the  authorities  of 
their  country  or  army  the  marks  or  military  papers  of  identification  found 
upon  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  together  with  a  list  of  the  names  of  the  sick 
and  wounded  taken  in  charge  by  him. 

Belligerents  will  keep  each  other  mutually  advised  of  interments  and 
transfers,  together  with  admissions  to  hospitals  and  deaths  which  occur 
among  the  sick  and  wounded  in  their  hands.  They  will  collect  all  objects 
of  personal  use,  valuables,  letters,  etc.,  which  are  found  upon  the  field  of 
battle,  or  have  been  left  by  the  sick  or  wounded  who  have  died  in  sanitary 
formations  or  other  establishments,  for  transmission  to  persons  in  interest 
through  the  authorities  of  their  own  country. 

ARTICLE  5. 

Military  authority  may  make  an  appeal  to  the  charitable  zeal  of  the  in- 
habitants to  receive,  and,  under  its  supervision,  to  care  for  the  sick  and 
•wounded  of  the  armies,  granting  to  persons  responding  to  such  appeals 
special  protection  and  certain  immunities. 

The  provisions  of  this  chapter  embody  the  substance  of  the 
Convention  of  1864  and  of  the  Additional  Articles  of  1868, 
which,  as  before  noted,  were  never  ratified.  The  requirement 
that  a  sanitary  detachment  shall  remain  for  the  care  of  the 
wounded  left  behind  by  a  retreating  force  is  new.  The  pro- 
vision of  Article  2  that,  subject  to  the  special  care  prescribed 
by  the  Convention,  the  sick  and  wounded  become  prisoners  of 
war,  throws  about  them  the  stringent  protection  of  the  Hague 
Convention  in  all  that  relates  to  their  care,  maintenance  and 
correspondence  with  their  friends;  it  adds  to  their  security  by 
removing  all  question  as  to  their  condition  when  discharged 
from  hospitals.  The  remaining  paragraphs  of  Article  2  are 
intended  to  give  the  widest  range  to  the  humane  discretion 
of  the  commanders  in  the  field  and  to  cancel  certain  provisions 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  37 

of  Article  VI,  Convention  of  1864,  which  were  unanimously 
recognized  as  impracticable  or  obscure.  For  instance,  the 
mandatory  provision  of  Article  VI  that  those  whose  wounds 
have  made  them  incapable  of  further  service  shall  be  sent  back 
to  their  own  country,  immediately  raises  the  question  of  the 
difference  between  the  case  of  a  private  who  has  lost  an  arm 
and  of  an  officer  with  the  same  physical  disablity,  who  might 
be  invaluable  in  council.  The  provision  of  the  same  Article 
that  wounded  may  be  sent  back  by  the  enemy  commander  on 
condition  of  not  again  bearing  arms  during  the  war,  is  inad- 
missible, since  the  giving  of  a  parole  without  permission  of 
their  own  government  is  forbidden  by  the  laws  of  most  mili- 
tary states.  The  immediate  exchange  of  wounded  on  the  field 
of  battle  which  was  contemplated  and  possible  in  1864  has  be- 
come impracticable,  as  a^  rule,  because  of  changed  conditions. 
The  increase  in  the  effective  range  of  artillery  and  small  arms 
from  a  few  hundred  yards  to  thousands  of  yards  has  widened 
the  interval  between  the  lines  and  the  country  is  generally  ren- 
dered impassable  by  wire  entanglements,  mines,  pitfalls  and  en- 
trenchments ;  furthermore  the  whole  system  of  transport  is  ar- 
ranged for  operation  to  the  rear.  If  the  Japanese  had  at- 
tempted to  deliver  the  wounded  to  the  lines  of  the  retreating 
Russians  after  the  awful  carnage  of  Mukden  few  could  have 
survived;  as  it  was,  taken  to  the  rear  by  carefully  organized 
land  and  sea  transportation,  in  a  few  days  they  were  safely 
housed  in  Japanese  hospitals  and  received  every  care  and  con- 
sideration known  to  modern  science  and  humanity.  The  pro- 
vision relating  to  the  protection  of  the  dead  is  new. 

.Article  5  of  the  new  Convention  is  a  substitute  for  Article 
V  of  the  Convention  of  1864,  modified  on  the  lines  suggested 
in  Article  IV  of  the  Additional  Articles  of  1868.  The  prae- 
tiral  immunity  from  the  burden  of  war,  offered  by  Article  V 
of  1864  to  any  inhabitant  extending  aid,  made  a  \\  <  miuUM  man, 
or  even  a  dead  man,  a  valuable  asset.  A  suffering  soldier, 
regardless  of  his  condition,  might  be  dragged  into  any  infected 
i  beyond  the  reach  of  the  necessary  treatment  until  too 
late.  In  any  case,  the  inhabitants  are  entitled  to  protection 
under  the  stringent  rules  of  the  Hague  Convention 


38  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

CHAPTER  II. 

Sanitary  Formations  and  Establishments. 

ARTICLE  6. 

Mobile  sanitary  formations  («.  e.,  those  which  are  intended  to  accompany 
armies  in  the  field)  and  the  fixed  establishments  belonging  to  the  sanitary 
service  shall  be  protected  and  respected  by  belligerents. 

ARTICLE  7. 

The  protection  due  to  sanitary  formations  and  establishments  ceases  if 
they  are  used  to  commit  acts  injurious  to  the  enemy. 

ARTICLE  8. 

A  sanitary  formation  or  establishment  shall  not  foe  deprived  of  the  pro- 
tection accorded  by  Article  6  by  the  fact : 

1.  That  the  personnel  of  a  formation  or  establishment  is  armed  and  uses 
its  arms  in  self-defense  or  in  defense  of  its -sick  and  wounded. 

2.  That  in  the  absence  of  armed  hospital  attendants,  the  formation  is 
guarded  by  an  armed  detachment  or  by  sentinels  acting  under  competent 
orders. 

3.  That  arms  or  cartridges,  taken  from  the  wounded  and  not  yet  turned 
over  to  the  proper  authorities,  are  found  in  the  formation  or  establishment. 

The  terms  ambulance  and  hospital  used  in  the  Convention 
of  1864  have  been  replaced  by  sanitary  formation  and  estab- 
lishment, which  are  somewhat  broader  as  well  as  more  definite. 
The  terms  neuter  and  neutrality  used  in  the  Convention  of 
1864  were  held  to  be  inaccurate,  both  in  law  and  in  fact,  as  ap- 
plied to  sanitary  formations  in  the  field.  Certainly  there  is 
none  of  the  indifference  implied  by  neutrality  in  the  attitude  of 
a  patriotic  sanitary  personnel,  even  though  they  care  for  help- 
less friend  and  foe  alike.  Instead  of  using  those  terms  there 
is  a  positive  provision  that  sanitary  establishments  shall  be 
respected,  that  is,  not  fired  upon,  and  that  when  the  action  is 
over  they  shall  be  protected. 

A  most  definite  and  humane  extension  is  embodied  in  the 
new  Article  8.  Article  I  of  1864  provided  that  "Ambulances 
and  military  hospitals  should  be  protected  and  respected  by 
belligerents  so  long  as  any  sick  or  wounded  were  therein  " 
and  that  "  such  neutrality  should  cease  if  the  ambulances  and 
hospitals  should  be  held  by  military  force."  That  is,  they 
would  be  liable  to  capture  if  momentarily  vacant  or  if,  in  self- 
defense,  or  for  the  defense  of  helpless  wounded,  arms  were 
carried  or  used  either  by  an  armed  sanitary  personnel  or  by  a 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  39 

guard.  It  is  not  believed  that  any  such  stringent  rule  was 
ever  enforced  and  the  immunity  and  right  of  self-protection 
accorded  by  the  new  Convention  are  in  accord  with  humanity 
and  the  actual  practice  among  civilized  nations. 

CHAPTER  III. 
Personnel. 
ARTICLE  9. 

The  personnel  charged  exclusively  with  the  removal,  transportation,  and 
treatment  of  the  sick  and  wounded,  as  well  as  with  the  administration  of 
sanitary  formations  and  establishments,  and  the  chaplains  attached  to 
armies,  shall  'be  respected  and  protected  under  all  circumstances.  If  they 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy  they  shall  not  be  treated  as  prisoners 
of  war. 

These  provisions  apply  to  the  guards  of  sanitary  formations  and  estab- 
lishments in  the  case  provided  for  in  Section  2  of  Article  8. 

ARTICLE  10. 

The  personnel  of  volunteer  aid  societies,  duly  recognized  and  authorized 
by  their  own  governments,  who  are  employed  in  the  sanitary  formations  and 
establishments  of  armies,  are  assimilated  to  the  personnel  contemplated  in 
the  preceding  article,  upon  condition  that  the  said  personnel  shall  be  sub- 
ject to  military  laws  and  regulations. 

Each  state  shall  make  known  to  the  other,  either  in  time  of  peace  or  at 
the  opening,  or  during  the  progress  of  hostilities,  and  in  any  case  before 
actual  employment,  the  names  of  the  societies  which  it  has  authorized  to 
render  assistance,  under  its  responsibility,  in  the  official  sanitary  service  of 
its  armies. 

ARTICLE  11. 

A  recognized  society  of  a  neutral  state  can  only  lend  the  services  of  its 
sanitary  personnel  and  formations  to  a  belligerent  with  the  prior  consent  of 
its  own  government  and  the  authority  of  such  'belligerent.  The  belligerent 
who  has  accepted  such  assistance  is  required  to  notify  the  enemy  before 
making  any  use  thereof. 

ARTICLE  12. 

Persons  described  in  Articles  9,  10  and  n  will  continue  in  the  exercise 
of  their  functions,  under  the  direction  of  the  enemy,  after  they  have  fallen 
into  his  power. 

When  their  assistance  is  no  longer  indispensable,  they  will  be  sent  back 
to  their  army. or  country  within  such  period  and  by  such  route  as  may 
accord  with  military  necessity.  They  will  carry  with  them  such  effects,  in- 
struments, arms,  and  horses  as  are  their  private  property. 

ARTICLE  13 

While  they  remain  in  his  power,  the  enemy  will  secure  to  the  personnel 
mentioned  in  Article  9  the  same  pay  and  allowances  to  which  persons  of 
the  same  grade  in  his  own  army  are  entitled. 


4O  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

Chapter  III  expressly  extends  to  the  sanitary  personnel, 
official  and  voluntary,  the  respect  and  protection,  under  all 
circumstances,  which  Chapter  II  guarantees  to  sanitary  forma- 
tions and  establishments.  Immunity  can  only  be  forfeited  by 
acts  inimical  to  the  enemy  and  in  plain  violation  of  the  reason- 
able and  necessary  laws  of  war.  They  continue  to  perform 
their  functions  toward  the  sick  and  wounded,  irrespective  of 
nationality  when  they  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  be- 
coming practically  part  of  the  enemy's  sanitary  service  for 
the  time  being;  and  for  this  particular  reason,  the  Conference 
directed,  after  full  discussion,  that  the  pay  and  allowances  of 
the  personnel  should  be  those  of  persons  of  the  like  grade  in 
the  enemy's  service.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  this  is  a  charge 
upon  the  enemy,  not  required  to  be  reimbursed  by  the*  other 
belligerent. 

The  Geneva  Conference  of  1864  considered  the  subject  of 
voluntary  aid  societies,  but  their  organization  was  so  un- 
certain, and  so  undeveloped,  that  it  was  concluded  that  they 
could  not  safely  be  made  the  subject  of  international  engage- 
ments. In  the  interval  of  forty  years  many  Orders  and  So- 
cieties have  relieved  incalculable  suffering  on  the  battlefields 
of  the  world,  and  their  organization  and  work  have  become  so 
firmly  established  that  it  only  remained  for  the  Conference 
of  1906  to  recognize  by  treaty  the  actual  existing  practice. 
It  was  proposed  to  recognize  by  name  certain  of  the  Orders 
and  Societies  well  known  to  the  whole  world  for  their  humane 
activities,  but  it  was  decided  that  it  could  not  properly  be  done 
in  an  international  convention  since  they  are  entirely  depen- 
dent upon  the  state,  which  incorporates  as  many  or  as  few  as 
it  considers  advisable.  Since  the  Convention  extends  such 
wide  immunities  to  the  voluntary  societies  serving  in  the  field, 
and  lays  upon  them  such  weighty  duties,  the  first  considera- 
tion is  that  they  must  be  responsible,  which  necessitates  their 
incorporation  by  the  state  and  their  certification  to  opposing 
belligerents. 

The  regulation  of  neutral  societies,  affording  active  assist- 
ance to  belligerents  in  the  field,  has  been  peculiarly  embar- 
rassing, in  default  of  treaty  agreements.  It  has  been  almost 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  4! 

impossible  to  refuse  such  aid  offered  in  the  name  of  humanity, 
however  irresponsible  the  organization  might  seem,  and  yet 
the  acceptance  of  such  aid  in  South  Africa  resulted  in  viola- 
tion of  the  ordinary  laws  of  war  by  certain  of  the  voluntary 
personnel  and  their  conviction  and  imprisonment  by  sentence 
of  court  martial.  The  provisions  in  relation  to  neutral  socie- 
ties are  analogous  to  those  of  The  Hague  Convention  for 
hospital  ships. 

A  proposition  was  made  to  introduce  an  article  limiting  the 
activity  of  the  voluntary  aid  societies  to  the  second  line  and 
rear,  but  although  the  opinion  seemed  to  be  unanimous  that 
they  ought  not  to  be  intentionally  employed  under  fire,  it  was 
held  to  be  entirely  a  matter  of  internal  regulation. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Materiel. 
ARTICLE  14. 

If  mobile  sanitary  formations  fall  into  the  power  of  the  enemy,  they  shall 
retain  their  materiel,  including  the  teams,  whatever  may  be  the  means  of 
transportation  and  the  conducting  personnel.  'Competent  military  author- 
ity, however,  shall  have  the  right  to  employ  it  in  caring  for  the  sick  and 
wounded.  The  restitution  of  the  materiel  shall  take  place  in  accordance 
with  the  conditions  prescribed  for  the  sanitary  personnel,  and,  as  far  as 
possible,  at  the  same  time. 

ARTICLE  15. 

Buildings  and  materiel  pertaining  to  fixed  establishments  remain  subject 
to  the  laws  of  war,  but  cannot  be  diverted  from  their  use  so  long  as  they 
are  necessary  for  the  sick  and  wounded.  Commanders  of  troops  engaged 
in  operations,  however,  may  use  them,  in  case  of  important  military  neces- 
sity, if,  before  such  use,  the  sick  and  wounded  who  are  in  them  have  been 
provided  for. 

ARTICLE  16. 

The  materiel  of  aid  societies  admitted  to  the  benefits  of  this  convention, 
in  conformity  to  the  conditions  therein  established,  is  regarded  as  private 
property,  and,  as  such,  will  be  respected  under  all  circumstances,  save  that 
it  is  subject  to  the  recognized  right  of  requisition  by  belligerents  in  con- 
formity to  the  laws  and  usages  of  war. 

A  reasonable  distinction  is  made  between  mobile  sanitary 
formations,  which  are  to  be  returned  in  their  entirety,  and 
fixed  establishments  which  remain  subject  to  the  laws  of  war, 
as  regulated  by  The  Hague  Convention,  Article  LVI  of  which 
provides  that :  "  The  property  of  communes,  and  of  institu- 


42  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

tions  devoted  to  religion,  charity,  instruction,  and  to  the  arts 
and  sciences,  even  if  they  belong  to  the  state,  shall  be  treated 
as  private  property.  All  seizure  of,  and  destruction,  or  inten- 
tional damage  done  to  such  institutions  is  prohibited  and 
should  be  prosecuted." 

The  status  of  the  voluntary  aid  societies  varies  materially 
in  different  states,  some  being  entirely  supported  by  private 
contributions,  and  others  receiving  subventions  from  govern- 
ment. The  immunity  of  their  property  was  very  fully  dis- 
cussed, one  view  being  that  it  should  be  assimilated  to  that  of 
the  official  establishments  for  simplicity;  but  it  was  finally  de- 
cided to  treat  it  as  private  property  and  avoid  wounded  sus- 
ceptibilities and  possible  detriment  to  the  interests  of  the  so- 
cieties. The  right  of  requisition  is  regulated  by  Articles 
XLVII  and  LII  of  The  Hague  Convention,  which  forbid  the 
confiscation  of  private  property  and  provide  that  requisitions 
shall  only  be  made  for  the  necessities  of  the  army  and  shall  be 
paid  for  in  cash  if  possible ;  if  not,  a  receipt  to  be  given. 

It  is  well  to  note  that  the  full  significance  of  the  new 
Convention  can  only  be  appreciated  in  connection  with  the 
humane  and  stringent  provisions  of  The  Hague  Convention. 

CHAPTER  V. 
Convoys  of  Evacuation. 

ARTICLE  17. 

Convoys  of  evacuation  shall  be  treated  as  mobile  sanitary  formations  sub- 
ject to  the  following  special  provisions : 

1.  A  belligerent  intercepting  a  convoy  may,  if  required  by  military  neces- 
sity, break  up  such  convoy,  charging  himself  with  the  care  of  the  sack  and 
wounded  whom  it  contains. 

2.  In  this  case  the  obligation  to  return  the  sanitary  personnel,  as  pro- 
vided for  in  Article  12,  shall  be  extended  to  include  the  entire  military  per- 
sonnel employed,  under  competent  orders,  in  the  transportation  and  pro- 
tection of  the  convoy. 

The  obligation  to  return  the  sanitary  materiel,  as  provided  for  in  Article 
14,  shall  apply  to  railway  trains  and  vessels  intended  for  interior  naviga- 
tion which  have  been  especially  equipped  for  evacuation  purposes,  as  well 
as  to  the  materiel  belonging  to  the  sanitary  service,  which  has  been  used  to 
fit  out  ordinary  vehicles,  trains  and  vessels. 

Military  vehicles,  with  their  teams,  other  than  those  belonging  to  the 
sanitary  service,  may  ibe  captured 

The  civil  personnel  and  the  various  means  of  transportation  obtained  by 


;ERICAN  POLITICAL  SCIENCE  ASSOCIATION.  43 

requisition,  including  railway  materiel  and  vessels  utilized  for  convoys,  are 
subject  to  the  general  rules  of  international  law. 

Trains  or  convoys  conveying  sick  or  wounded  are  referred 
to  in  the  Convention  of  1864  by  the  highly  technical  and  ill 
defined  term,  evacuations,  with  the  vague  statement  that  they 
shall  be  protected  by  an  absolute  neutrality.  The  term  Con- 
voys of  Exacuation  employed  in  the  new  Convention  is  not 
entirely  satisfactory,  but  the  text  seems  to  make  the  meaning 
clear.  Their  treatment  is  assimilated  to  that  of  mobile  sani- 
tary formations  since  they  comprise  the  same  elements,  per- 
sonnel, materiel,  and  sick  and  wounded,  and  a  definition  of 
their  status  is  equally  necessary,  since  in  the  urgent  duty  of 
collecting  and  transporting  the  wounded,  they  are  likely  to 
come  into  contact  with  the  enemy. 

Hospital  trains  corresponding  to  mobile  sanitary  formations 
must  be  returned  in  their  entirety  and  even  the  sanitary  equip- 
ment of  military,  or  ordinary,  vehicles,  temporarily  used  for 
the  transport  of  wounded,  must  be  returned.  The  Hague 
Convention  for  Maritime  Warfare  defines  the  status  and  treat- 
ment of  hospital  ships  on  the  high  seas  and  therefore  this  Con- 
vention refers  specifically  to  vessels  employed  for  the  naviga- 
tion of  interior  waters. 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Distinctive  Emblem. 

ARTICLE  18. 

Out  of  respect  to  Switzerland,  the  heraldic  emblem  of  the  red  cross  on 
a  white  ground,  formed  by  the  reversal  of  the  federal  colors,  is  continued 
as  the  emblem  and  distinctive  sign  of  the  sanitary  service  of  armies. 

i.  i. K  19. 

This  emblem  appears  on  flags  and  brassards,  as  well  as  upon  all  materiel 
appertaining  to  the  sanitary  service,  with  the  permission  of  the  competent 
military  authority. 

ARTICLE  ao. 

The  personnel  protected  in  virtue  of  the  first  paragraph  of  Article  9.  and 
Articles  10  and  n.  will  wear  attached  to  the  left  arm  a  brassard  bearing  a 
red  cross  on  a  white  ground,  which  will  be  issued  and  stamped  by  com- 
petent military  authority,  and  accompanied  by  a  certificate  of  idcr 
the  case  of  persons  attached  to  the  sanitary  service  of  armies  who  do  not 
have  military  uniform. 


44  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

ARTICLE  21. 

The  distinctive  flag  of  the  convention  can  only  be  displayed  over  the 
sanitary  formations  and  establishments  which  the  convention  provides  shall 
be  respected,  and  with  the  consent  of  the  military  authorities.  It  shall  be 
accompanied  by  the  national  flag  of  the  belligerent  to  whose  service  the 
formation  or  establishment  is  attached. 

Sanitary  formations  which  have  fallen  into  the  power  of  the  enemy,  how- 
ever, shall  fly  no  other  flag  than  that  of  the  Red  Cross  so  long  as  they 
continue  in  that  situation. 

ARTICLE  22. 

The  sanitary  formations  of  neutral  countries  which,  under  the  conditions 
set  forth  in  Article  n,  have  been  authorized  to  render  their  services,  shall 
fly,  with  the  flag  of  the  convention,  the  national  flag  of  the  belligerent  to 
which  they  are  attached.  The  provisions  of  the  second  paragraph  of  the 
preceding  article  are  applicable  to  them. 

ARTICLE  23. 

The  emblem  of  the  red  cross  on  a  white  ground  and  the  words  Red 
Cross  or  Geneva  Cross  may  only  be  used,  whether  in  time  of  peace  or  war, 
to  protect  or  designate  military  formations  and  establishments,  the  person- 
nel and  materiel  protected  by  the  convention. 

Objections  have  been  made  by  certain  non-Christian  states 
to  the  use  of  the  Cross  on  the  flag  of  the  Convention  because 
of  its  supposed  religious  significance,  but  the  statement  con- 
tained in  Article  18,  which  is  true  as  a  matter  of  history, 
was  accepted  as  satisfactory  by  the  delegates  of  several  non- 
Christian  states  present.  The  Red  Cross  flag  is  firmly  fixed 
in  the  minds  of  the  whole  world  as  the  emblem  of  mercy  and 
it  was 'felt  that  any  change  would  be  detrimental  to  the  inter- 
ests of  humanity. 

The  restrictions  placed  upon  the  issue  and  use  of  the  Red 
Cross  flag  and  brassard  in  the  field  are  obviously  necessary 
to  prevent  abuse  by  individuals  and  also  to  establish  responsi- 
bility for  the  display  of  the  flag  in  improper  places,  or  in  undue 
numbers,  in  a  besieged  town;  a  procedure  certain  to  involve 
irritating  charges  of  bad  faith. 

The  Convention  of  1864  provided  that  the  national  flag 
should  always  be  displayed  together  with  the  Red  Cross,  but 
left  undecided  what  national  flag  should  be  displayed  over  a 
neutral  formation  in  the  service  of  a  belligerent,  an  uncer- 
tainty which  led  to  considerable  ill-feeling  in  South  Africa. 
Formations  in  the  power  of  the  enemy  fly  only  the  Red  Cross 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  45 

flag  since  to  hoist  the  enemy's  flag  would  be  humiliating  and 
the  display  of  the  flag  of  the  opposing  belligerent  might  lead 
to  dangerous  confusion. 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Application  and  Execution  of  the  Convention. 

ARTICLE  24. 

The  provisions  of  the  present  convention  are  obligatory  only  on  the  con- 
tracting powers,  in  case  of  war  between  two  or  more  of  them.  The  said 
provisions  shall  cease  to  be  obligatory  if  one  of  the  belligerent  powers 
should  not  be  signatory  to  the  convention. 

ARTICLE  25. 

It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  commanders-in-chief  of  the  belligerent  armies 
to  provide  for  the  details  of  execution  of  the  foregoing  articles,  as  well  as 
for  unforeseen  cases,  in  accordance  with  the  instructions  of  their  respective 
governments,  and  conformably  to  the  general  principles  of  this  convention. 

ARTICLE  26. 

The  signatory  governments  shall  take  the  necessary  steps  to  acquaint 
their  troops,  and  particularly  the  protected  personnel,  with  the  provisions 
of  this  convention  and  to  make  them  known  to  the  people  at  large. 

Article  25  is  an  important  safeguard  against  arbitrary  de- 
cisions in  unforeseen  cases. 

The  education  of  the  troops,  and  of  the  people  at  large  in 
the  provisions  of  the  Convention  is  a  matter  of  the  gravest 
importance,  too  often  neglected,  and  should  be  thoroughly  and 
systematically  accomplished  in  time  of  peace.  The  protected 
personnel,  military  and  voluntary,  are  as  impulsively  patriotic 
as  their  brothers  in  arms,  and  since  they  may  at  any  time  be 
called  upon  to  continue  the  performance  of  their  duties  under 
direction  of  the  enemy,  they  must  be  educated  to  instinctively 
avoid  any  action  which  could  be  held  to  be  an  abuse  of  the 
immunity  extended  to  them  in  the  cause  of  humanity.  The 
education  of  the  people  can  probably  be  best  effected  through 
the  wide  and  benevolent  activities  of  the  Red  Cross.  It  is  not 
safe  to  rely  upon  their  uninstructed  instinct  of  humanity. 

A  translation  of  the  Convention  is  appended  to  this  paper, 
and  the  Remaining  articles  require  no  comment.  There  was 
entire  unanimity  of  sentiment  from  first  to  last  in  the.  ex- 
tension of  the  humane  provisions  of  the  Convention  of  1864, 


46  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

no  proposition  of  that  kind  being  voted  down  and  questions 
of  detail  were  settled  speedily  and  satisfactorily. 

War  is,  and  must  remain,  the  ultimate  safeguard  of  the 
nation's  life  and  honor,  but  the  occasions  for  war  may  be 
limited  by  providing  ready  and  honorable  facilities  for  arbi- 
tration, and  by  treaty  definitions  of  neutral  and  belligerent 
rights  and  duties,  so  clearly  drawn,  and  so  practicable,  that 
they  do  not  raise  more  contentions  than  they  allay;  always 
remembering,  too,  that  agreements  which  unduly  restrict  the 
legitimate  operations  of  war  are  not  humane  but  only  serve 
to  prolong  the  sacrifice. 

CONVENTION  FOR  THE  AMELIORATION  OF  THE 

CONDITION  OF  THE  WOUNDED  OF  ARMIES 

IN  THE  FIELD. 


RATIFIED  BY  THE  UNITED  STATES,  JANUARY  2, 

His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  King  of  Prussia;  His 
Excellency  the  President  of  the  Argentine  Republic;  His  Maj- 
esty the  Emperor  of  Austria,  King  of  Bohemia,  etc.,  and  Apos- 
tolic King  of  Hungary;  His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Belgians; 
His  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of  Bulgaria;  His  Excellency  the 
President  of  the  Republic  of  Chile;  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of 
China;  His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Belgians,  Sovereign  of  the 
Congo  Free  State;  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Corea;  His 
Majesty  the  King  of  Denmark;  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Spain; 
the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America;  the  President  of 
the  United  States  of  Brazil  ;  the  President  of  the  United  Mexican 
States;  the  President  of  the  French  Republic;  His  Majesty  the 
King  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  Em- 
peror of  India;  His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Hellenes;  the 
President  of  the  Republic  of  Guatemala  ;  the  President  of  the  Re- 
public of  Honduras;  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Italy;  His  Maj- 
esty the  Emperor  of  Japan  ;  His  Royal  Highness  the  Grand  Duke 
of  Luxemburg,  Duke  of  Nassau;  His  Highness  the  Prince  of 
Montenegro;  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Norway;  Her  Majesty 
the  Queen  of  the  Netherlands  ;  the  President  of  the  Republic  of 
Peru;  His  Imperial  Majesty  the  Shah  of  Persia;  His  Majesty 
the  King  of  Portugal  and  of  the  Algarves,  etc.  ;  His  Majesty 
the  King  of  Roumania;  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  All  the 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  47 


Russias;  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Servia;  His  Majesty  the 

of  Siam;  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Sweden;  the  Swiss  Federal 

Council  ;  the  President  of  the  Oriental  Republic  of  Uruguay, 

Being  equally  animated  by  the  desire  to  lessen  the  inherent  evils 
of  warfare  as  far  as  is  within  their  power,  and  wishing  for  this 
purpose  to  improve  and  supplement  the  provisions  agreed  upon 
at  Geneva  on  August  22,  1864,  for  the  amelioration  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  wounded  in  armies  in  the  field, 

Have  decided  to  conclude  a  new  convention  to  that  effect,  and 
have  appointed  as  their  plenipotentiaries,  to  wit  : 

His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  King  of  Prussia: 

His  Excellency  the  Chamberlain  and  Actual  Privy  Councilor 

A.  de  Billow,  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipo- 

tentiary at  Berne, 

General  of  Brigade  Baron  de  Manteuffel, 
Medical    Inspector  and   Surgeon-General   Dr.   Villaret    (with 

rank  of  general  of  brigade), 
Dr.  Zorn,  Privy  Councilor  of  Justice,  ordinary  professor  at  law 

at  the  University  of  Bonn,  Solicitor  of  the  Crown  ; 

His  Excellency  the  President  of  the  Argentine  Republic  : 

His  Excellency  Mr.  Enrique  B.  Moreno,  Envoy  Extraordinary 

and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  at  Berne, 
Mr.  Molina  Salas,  Consul-General  in  Switzerland; 


Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  King  of  Bohemia,  etc.,  and 
Apostolic  King  of  Hungary  : 

His  Excellency  Baron  Heidler  de  Egeregg  et  Syrgenstein,  Ac- 
tual Privy  Councilor,  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister 
Plenipotentiary  at  Derm-  : 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Belgians  : 

Colonel  of  Staff  Count  de  T'Serclaes,  Chief  of  Staff  of  the 
Fourth  Military  District; 

Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of  r.nl-aria: 
Dr.  Marin  Rousscff,  Chief  Medical  Offic 
Captain  of  Staff  Boris  Sirmanoff  ; 

His  Excellency  the  Pi  )f  the  Republic  oi 

Mr.  Augustin  Edwards,  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister 
Plenipotentiary  ; 


48  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  China: 

His  Excellency  Mr.  Lou  Tseng  Tsiang,  Envoy  Extraordinary 
and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  The  Hague; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Belgians,  Sovereign  of  the  Congo 

Free  State: 

Colonel  of  Staff  Count  de  T'Serclaes,  Chief  of  Staff  of  the 
Fourth  Military  District  of  Belgium; 

His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Corea: 

His  Excellency  Mr.  Tsunetada  Kato,  Envoy  Extraordinary  and 
Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  Japan  to  Brussels; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Denmark: 

Mr.  Laub,  Surgeon-General,  Chief  of  the  Medical  Corps  of 
the  Army; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Spain: 

His   Excellency  Mr.   Silverio  de  Baguer  y  Corsi,   Count  of 
Baguer,  Minister  Resident; 

The  President  of  the  United  States  of  America : 

Mr.  William  Cary  Sanger,  former  Assistant  Secretary  of  War 

of  the  United  States  of  America, 
Rear-Admiral  Charles  S.  Sperry,  President  of  the  Naval  War 

College, 
Brigadier-General  George  B.  Davis,  Judge- Advocate-General 

of  the  Army, 
Brigadier-General  Robert  M.  O'Reilly,  Surgeon-General  of  the 

Army; 

The  President  of  the  United  States  of  Brazil: 

Dr.  Carlos  Lemgruber-Kropf,  Charge  d'Affaires  at  Berne, 
Colonel  of  Engineers  Roberto  Trompowski,  Leitao  d' Almeida, 
Military  Attache  to  the  Brazilian  Legation  at  Berne; 

The  President  of  the  United  Mexican  States : 
General  of  Brigade  Jose  Maria  Perez ; 

The  President  of  the  French  Republic : 

His  Excellency  Mr.  Revoil,  Ambassador  to  Berne, 
Mr.  Louis  Renault,  Member  of  the  Institute  of  France,  Min- 
ister Plenipotentiary,  Jurisconsult  of  the  Ministry  of  For- 
eign Affairs,  Professor  in  the  Faculty  of  Law  at  Paris, 
Colonel  Olivier  of  Reserve  Artillery, 
Chief  Surgeon  Pauzat  of  the  Second  Class ; 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  49 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain 

and  Ireland,  Emperor  of  India: 
Major-General  Sir  John  Charles  Ardagh,  K.  C.  M.  G.,  K.  C. 

L.  K,  C.  B., 

Professor  Thomas  Erskine  Holland,  K.  C.,  D.  C.  L., 
Sir  John  Furley,  C.  B., 
Lieutenant-Colonel  William  Grant  Macpherson,  C.  M.  G.,  R. 

A.  M.  C. ; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Hellenes : 

Mr.  Michel  Kebedgy,  Professor  of  International  Law  at  the 
University  of  Berne; 

The  President  of  the  Republic  of  Guatemala: 
Mr.  Manuel  Arroyo,  Charge  d'Affaires  at  Paris, 
Mr.    Henri   Wiswald,    Consul-General   at   Berne,    residing  at 
Geneva ; 

The  President  of  the  Republic  of  Honduras: 
Mr.  Oscar  Hcepfl,  Consul-General  to  Berne; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Italy : 
Marquis  Roger  Maurigi  di   Castel  Maurigi,  Colonel   in  His 

Army,  Grand  Officer  of  His  Royal  Order  of  the  SS.  Maurice 

and  Lazare, 
Major-General  Giovanni  Randone,  Military  Medical  Inspector, 

Commander  of  His  Royal  Order  of  the  Crown  of  Italy ; 

His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Japan : 

His  Excellency  Mr.  Tsunetada  Kato,  Envoy  Extraordinary  and 
Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  Brussels; 

His  Royal  Highness  the  Grand  Duke  of  Luxemburg,  Duke  of 

Nassau : 

Staff  Colonel  Count  de  T'Serclaes,  Chief  of  Staff  of  the  Fourth 
Military  District  of  Belgium ; 

His  Highness  the  Prince  of  Montenegro: 
Mr.  E.  Odier,  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipoten- 
tiary of  the  Swiss  Confederation  in  Rus 
Colonel  Miirset,  Chief  Surgeon  of  the  Swiss  Federal  Army ; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Norway : 
Captain  Daae,  of  the  Medical  Corps  of  the  Norwegian  Army ; 


5<D  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

Her  Majesty  the  Queen  of  the  Netherlands: 

Lieutenant-General  (retired)  Jonkheer  J.  C.  C.  den  Beer  Poor- 

tugael,  Member  of  the  Council  of  State, 
Colonel  A.  A.  J.  Quanjer,  Chief  Medical  Officer,  First  Class ; 

The  President  of  the  Republic  of  Peru : 

Mr.  Gustavo  de  la  Fuente,  First  Secretary  of  the  Legation  of 
Peru  at  Paris; 

His  Imperial  Majesty  the  Shah  of  Persia: 

His  Excellency  Mr.  Samad  Khan  Momtaz-os-Saltaneh,  Envoy 
Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  at  Paris; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Portugal  and  of  the  Algarves,  etc. : 
His  Excellency  Mr.  Alberto  d'Oliveira,  Envoy  Extraordinary 

and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  at  Berne, 
Mr.  Jose  Nicolau  Raposo-Botelho,  Colonel  of  Infantry,  former 

Deputy,   Superintendent  of  the   Royal   Military   College   at 

Lisbon ; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Roumania : 

Dr.  Sache  Stephanesco,  Colonel  of  Reserve; 

His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  All  the  Russias: 

His  Excellency  Privy  Councilor  de  Martens,  Permanent  Mem- 
ber of  the  Council  of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  of 
Russia ; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Servia: 

Mr.  Milan  St.  Markovitch,  Secretary-General  of  the  Ministry 

of  Justice, 

Colonel  Dr.  Sondermayer,  Chief  of  the  Medical  Division  of 
the  War  Ministry; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Siam: 

Prince  Charoon,  Charge  d' Affaires  at  Paris, 

Mr.  Corragioni  d'Orelli,  Counselor  of  Legation  at  Paris; 

His  Majesty  the  King  of  Sweden: 

M.  Sorensen,  Chief  Surgeon  of  the  Second  Division  of  the 
Army; 

The  Swiss  Federal  Council: 

Mr.  E.  Odier,  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipoten- 
tiary in  Russia, 
Colonel  Miirset,  Chief  Surgeon  of  the  Federal  Army ; 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  51 

The  President  of  the  Oriental  Republic  of  Uruguay : 
Mr.  Alexandre  Herosa,  Charge  d'Affaires  at  Paris, 

Who,  after  having  communicated  to  each  other  their  full  pow- 
ers, found  in  good  and  due  form,  have  agreed  on  the  following: 

CHAPTER  I. 
The  Sick  and  Wounded. 

ARTICLE  i. 

Officers,  soldiers,  and  other  persons  officially  attached  to  armies,  who  are 
sick  or  wounded,  shall  be  respected  and  cared  for,  without  distinction  of 
nationality,  by  the  (belligerent  in  whose  power  they  are. 

A  belligerent,  when  compelled  to  leave  his  wounded  in  the  hands  of  his 
adversary,  however,  shall  leave  with  them,  so  far  as  military  conditions 
permit,  a  portion  of  the  personnel  and  materiel  of  his  sanitary  service  to 
assist  in  caring  for  them. 

ARTICLE  2. 

Subject  to  the  care  that  must  be  taken  of  them  under  the  preceding 
article,  the  sick  and  wounded  of  an  army  who  fall  into  the  power  of  the 
other  belligerent  become  prisoners  of  war,  and  the  general  rules  of  inter- 
national law  in  respect  to  prisoners  become  applicable  to  them. 

The  belligerents  remain  free,  however,  to  mutually  agree  upon  such 
clauses,  by  way  of  exception  or  favor,  in  relation  to  the  wounded  or  sick 
as  they  may  deem  proper.  They  shall  especially  have  authority  to  agree : 

1.  To  mutually  return  the  sick  and  wounded  left  on  the  field  of  battle 
after  an  engagement. 

2.  To  send  back  to  their  own  country  the  sick  and  wounded  who  have 
recovered,  or  who  are  in  a  condition  to  be  transported,  and  whom  they  do 
not  desire  to  retain  as  prisoners. 

3.  To  send  the  sick  and  wounded    of  the  enemy  to  a  neutral  state,  with 
the  consent  of  the  latter  and  on  condition  that  it  shall  charge  itself  with 
their  internment  until  the  close  of  hostilities. 

ARTICLE  3. 

After  every  engagement  the  belligerent  who  remains  in  possession  of  the 
field  of  battle  shall  take  measures  to  search  for  the  wounded  and  to  pro- 
tect the  wounded  and  dead  from  pillage  and  ill-treatment. 

He  will  see  that  a  careful  examination  i-  made  of  the  bodies  of  the  dead 
prior  to  their  interment  or  incineration. 

ARTH  I.K  4 

As  soon  as  possible  each  belligerent  shall  forward  to  the  authorities  of 
their  country  or  army  the  marks  or  military  papers  of  identification  found 
upon  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  together  with  a  li-t  of  the  names  of  the  sick 

ikt-n  iti  charge  by  iiim. 

Belligerents  will  keep  each  other  mutually  advised  of  interments  and 

together  with  admissions  to  hospitals  and  deaths  which  occur 

among  the  sick  and  wounded  in  their  hands.    They  will  collect  all  objects 

of  personal  use,  valuables,  letters,  etc.,  which  are  found  upon  the  field  of 


52  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

battle,  or  have  been  left  by  the  sick  or  wounded  who  have  died  in  sanitary 
formations  or  other  establishments,  for  transmission  to  persons  in  interest 
through  the  authorities  of  their  own  country. 

ARTICLE  5. 

Military  authority  may  make  an  appeal  to  the  charitable  zeal  of  the  in- 
habitants to  receive,  and,  under  its  supervision,  to  care  for  the  sick  and 
wounded  of  the  armies,  granting  to  persons  responding  to  such  appeals 
special  protection  and  certain  immunities. 

CHAPTER  II. 
Sanitary  Formations  and  Establishments. 

ARTICLE  6. 

Mo-bile  sanitary  formations  (i.  e.,  those  which  are  intended  to  accompany 
armies  in  the  field)  and  the  fixed  establishments  belonging  to  the  sanitary 
service  shall  be  protected  and  respected  by  belligerents. 

ARTICLE  7. 

The  protection  due  to  sanitary  formations  and  establishments  ceases  if 
they  are  used  to  commit  acts  injurious  to  the  enemy. 

ARTICLE  8. 

A  sanitary  formation  or  establishment  shall  not  be  deprived  of  the  pro- 
tection accorded  by  Article  6  by  the  fact : 

1.  That  the  personnel  of  a  formation  or  establishment  is  armed  and  uses 
its  arms  in  self-defense  or  in  defense  of  its  sick  and  wounded. 

2.  That  in  the  absence  of  armed  hospital  attendants,  the  formation  is 
guarded  by  an  armed  detachment  or  by  sentinels  acting  under  competent 
orders. 

3.  That  arms  or  cartridges,  taken  from  the  wounded  and  not  yet  turned 
over  to  the  proper  authorities,  are  found  in  the  formation  or  establishment. 

CHAPTER  III. 
Personnel. 
ARTICLE  9. 

The  personnel  charged  exclusively  with  the  removal,  transportation,  and 
treatment  of  the  sick  and  wounded,  as  well  as  with  the  administration  of 
sanitary  formations  and  establishments,  and  the  chaplains  attached  to 
armies,  shall  be  respected  and  protected  under  all  circumstances.  If  they 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy  they  shall  not  be  treated  as  prisoners 
of  war. 

These  provisions  apply  to  the  guards  of  sanitary  formations  and  estab- 
lishments in  the  case  provided  for  in  Section  2  of  Article  8. 

ARTICLE  10. 

The  personnel  of  volunteer  aid  societies,  duly  recognized  and  authorized 
by  their  own  governments,  who  are  employed  in  the  sanitary  formations  and 
establishments  of  armies,  are  assimilated  to  the  personnel  contemplated  in 
the  preceding  article,  upon  condition  that  the  suid  personnel  shall  be  sub- 
ject to  military  laws  and  regulations. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  53 

Each  state  shall  make  known  to  the  other,  either  in  time  of  peace  or  at 
the  opening,  or  during  the  progress  of  hostilities,  and  in  any  case  before 
actual  employment,  the  names  of  the  societies  which  it  has"  authorized  to 
render  assistance,  under  its  responsibility,  in  the  official  sanitary  service  of 
its  armies. 

ARTICLE  n. 

A  recognized  society  of  a  neutral  state  can  only  lend  the  services  of  its 
sanitary  personnel  and  formations  to  a  belligerent  with  the  prior  consent  of 
its  own  government  and  the  authority  of  such  belligerent.  The  belligerent 
who  has  accepted  such  assistance  is  required  to  notify  the  enemy  before 
making  any  use  thereof. 

ARTICLE  12. 

Persons  described  in  Articles  9,  10  and  n  will  continue  in  the  exercise 
of  their  functions,  under  the  direction  of  the  enemy,  after  they  have  fallen 
into  his  power. 

When  their  assistance  is  no  longer  indispensable,  they  will  be  sent  back 
to  their  army  or  country  within  such  period  and  by  such  route  as  may 
accord  with  military  necessity.  They  will  carry  with  them  such  effects,  in- 
struments, arms,  and  horses  as  are  their  private  property. 

ARTICLE  13. 

While  they  remain  in  his  power,  the  enemy  will  secure  to  the  personnel 
mentioned  in  Article  9  the  same  pay  and  allowances  to  which  persons  of 
the  same  grade  in  his  own  army  are  entitled. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Mattricl. 
ARTICLE  14. 

If  mobile  sanitary  formations  fall  into  the  power  of  the  enemy,  they  shall 
retain  their  materiel,  including  the  teams,  whatever  may  be  the  means  of 
transportation  and  the  conducting  personnel.  Competent  military  author- 
ity, however,  shall  have  the  right  to  employ  it  in  caring  for  the  sick  and 
wounded.  The  restitution  of  the  materiel  shall  take  place  in  accordance 
with  the  conditions  prescribed  for  the  sanitary  personnel,  and,  as  far  as 
possible,  at  the  same  time. 

ARTICLE  15. 

lings  and  materiel  pertaining  to  fixed  establishments  remain  subject 
to  the  laws  of  war,  but  cannot  be  diverted  from  their  use  so  long  as  they 
are  necessary  for  the  sick  and  wounded.  Commanders  of  troops  engaged 
in  operations,  however,  may  use  them,  in  case  of  important  military  ncces- 
f ,  before  such  use,  the  sick  and  wounded  who  are  in  them  have  been 
provided  for. 

ARTICLE  16. 

The  materiel  of  aid  societies  admitted  to  the  benefits  of  this  convention, 

in  conformity  to  the  conditions  therein  established,  is  regarded  as  private 

property,  and,  as  such,  will  be  respected  under  all  circumstances,  save  that 

it  is  subject  to  the  recognized  right  of  requisition  by  belligerents  in  con- 

•y  to  the  laws  and  usages  of  war. 


54  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

CHAPTER  V. 

Convoys  of  Evacuation. 

ARTICLE  17. 

Convoys  of  evacuation  shall  be  treated  as  mobile  sanitary  formations  sub- 
ject to  the  following  special  provisions: 

1.  A  belligerent  intercepting  a  convoy  may,  if  required  by  military  neces- 
sity, break  up  such  convoy,  charging  himself  with  the  care  of  the  sick  and 
wounded  whom  it  contains. 

2.  In  this  case  the  obligation  to  return  the  sanitary  personnel,  as  pro- 
vided for  in  Article  12,  shall  toe  extended  to  include  the  entire  military  per- 
sonnel employed,  under  competent  orders,  in  the  transportation  and  pro- 
tection of  the  convoy. 

The  obligation  to  return  the  sanitary  materiel,  as  provided  for  in  Article 
14,  shall  apply  to  railwa}r  trains  and  vessels  intended  for  interior  naviga- 
tion which  have  been  especially  equipped  for  evacuation  purposes,  as  well 
as  to  the  materiel  belonging  to  the  sanitary  service,  which  has  been  used  to 
fit  out  ordinary  vehicles,  trains  and  vessels. 

Military  vehicles,  with  their  teams,  other  than  those  belonging  to  the 
sanitary  service,  may  ibe  captured. 

The  civil  personnel  and  the  various  means  of  transportation  obtained  by 
requisition,  including  railway  materiel  and  vessels  utilized  for  convoys,  are 
subject  to  the  general  rules  of  international  law. 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Distinctive  Emblem. 

ARTICLE  18. 

Out  of  respect  to  Switzerland,  the  heraldic  emblem  of  the  red  cross  on 
a  white  ground,  formed  by  the  reversal  of  the  federal  colors,  is  continued 
as  the  emblem  and  distinctive  sign  of  the  sanitary  service  of  armies. 

ARTICLE  19. 

This  emblem  appears  on  flags  and  'brassards,  as  well  as  upon  all  materiel 
appertaining  to  the  sanitary  service,  with  the  permission  of  the  competent 
military  authority. 

ARTICLE  20. 

The  personnel  protected  in  virtue  of  the  first  paragraph  of  Article  9,  and 
Articles  10  and  n,  will  wear  attached'  to  the  left  arm  a  brassard  bearing  a 
red  cross  on  a  white  ground,  which  will  toe  issued  and  stamped  by  com- 
petent military  authority,  and  accompanied  toy  a  certificate  of  identity  in 
the  case  of  persons  attached  to  the  sanitary  service  of  armies  who  do  not 
have  military  uniform. 

ARTICLE  21. 

The  distinctive  flag  of  the  convention  can  only  be  displayed  over  the 
sanitary  formations  and  establishments  which  the  convention  provides  shall 
be  respected,  and  with  the  consent  of  the  military  authorities.  It  shall  be 
accompanied  by  the  national  flag  of  the  belligerent  to  whose  service  the 
formation  or  establishment  is  attached. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  55 

Sanitary  formations  which  have  fallen  into  the  power  of  the  enemy,  how- 
ever, shall  fly  no  other  flag  than  that  of  the  Red  Cross  so  long  as  they 
continue  in  that  situation. 

ARTICLE  22. 

The  sanitary  formations  of  neutral  countries  which,  under  the  conditions 
set  forth  in  Article  n,  have  been  authorized  to  render  their  services,  shall 
fly.  with  the  flag  of  the  convention,  the  national  flag  of  the  belligerent  to 
which  they  are  attached.  The  provisions  of  the  second  paragraph  of  the 
preceding  article  are  applicable  to  them. 

ARTICLE  23. 

The  emblem  of  the  red  cross  on  a  white  ground  and  the  words  Red 
Cross  or  Geneva  Cross  may  only  be  used,  whether  in  time  of  peace  or  war, 
to  protect  or  designate  military  formations  and  establishments,  the  person- 
nel and  materiel  protected  by  the  convention. 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Application  and  Execution  of  the  Convention. 

ARTICLE  24. 

The  provisions  of  the  present  convention  are  obligatory  only  on  the  con- 
tracting powers,  in  case  of  war  between  two  or  more  of  them.  The  said 
provisions  shall  cease  to  'be  obligatory  if  one  of  the  belligerent  powers 
should  not  be  signatory  to  the  convention. 

ARTICLE  25. 

It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  commanders-in-chief  of  the  belligerent  armies 
to  provide  for  the  details  of  execution  of  the  foregoing  articles,  as  well  as 
for  unforeseen  cases,  in  accordance  with  the  instructions  of  their  respective 
governments,  and  conformably  to  the  general  principles  of  this  convention. 

ARTICLE  26. 

The  signatory  governments  shall  take  the  necessary  steps  to  acquaint 
their  troops,  and  particularly  the  protected  personnel,  with  the  provisions 
of  this  convention  and  to  make  them  known  to  the  people  at  large. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Repression  of  Abuses  and  Infractions. 

ARTICLE  27. 

The  signatory  powers  whose  legislation  may  not  now  be  adequate  en- 
gage to  take  or  recommend  to  their  legislatures  such  measures  as  m 
necessary  to  prevent  the  use,  by  private  persons  or  by  societies  other  than 
those  upon  which  this  convention  confers  the  right  thereto,  of  the  emblem 
or  name  of  the  'Red  Cross  or  Geneva  Cross,  particularly  for  commercial 
purposes  by  means  of  trade-marks  or  commercial  labels. 

The  prohibition  of  the  use  of  the  emblem  or  name  in  question  shall  take 
effect  from  the  time  set  in  each  act  of  legislation,  and  at  the  latest  five 
years  after  this  convention  goes  into  effect.  After  such  going  into  effect, 
it  shall  be  unlawful  to  use  a  trade-mark  or  commercial  label  contrary  to 
such  prohibition. 


56  PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE 

ARTICLE  28. 

In  the  event  of  their  military  penal  laws  being  insufficient,  the  signatory 
governments  also  engage  to  take,  or  to  recommend  to  their  legislatures, 
the  necessary  measures  to  repress,  in  time  of  war,  individual  acts  of  pillage 
and  ill-treatment  of  the  sack  and  wounded  of  the  armies,  as  well  as  to 
punish,  as  usurpations  of  military  insignia,  the  wrongful  use  of  the  flag 
and  brassard  of  the  Red  Cross  by  military  persons  or  private  individuals 
not  protected  'by  the  present  convention. 

They  will  communicate  to  each  other  through  the  Swiss  Federal  Council 
the  measures  taken  with  a  view  to  such  repression,  not  later  than  five  years 
from  the  ratification  of  the  present  convention. 

General  Provisions. 

ARTICLE  29. 

The  present  convention  shall  be  ratified  as  soon  as  possible.  The  ratifi- 
cations will  be  deposited  at  Berne. 

A  record  of  the  deposit  of  each  act  of  ratification  shall  be  prepared,  of 
which  a  duly  certified  copy  shall  be  sent,  through  diplomatic  channels,  to 
each  of  the  contracting  powers. 

ARTICLE  30. 

The  present  convention  shall  become  operative,  as  to  each  power,  six 
months  after  the  date  of  deposit  of  its  ratification. 

ARTICLE  31. 

The  present  convention,  when  duly  ratified,  shall  supersede  the  Conven- 
tion of  August  22,  1864,  in  the  relations  between  the  contracting  states. 

The  Convention  of  1864  remains  in  force  in  the  relations  between  the 
parties  who  signed  it  but  who  may  not  also  ratify  the  present  convention. 

ARTICLE  32. 

The  present  convention  may,  until  December  31,  proximo,  be  signed  by 
the  powers  represented  at  the  conference  which  opened  at  Geneva  on  June 
n,  1906,  as  well  as  by  the  powers  not  represented  at  the  conference  who 
have  signed  the  Convention  of  1864. 

Such  of  these  powers  as  shall  not  have  signed  the  present  convention  on 
or  before  December  31,  1906,  will  remain  at  liberty  to  accede  to  it  after 
that  date.  They  shall  signify  their  adherence  in  a  written  notification  ad- 
dressed to  the  Swiss  Federal  Council,  and  communicated  to  all  the  con- 
tracting powers  by  the  said  Council. 

Other  powers  may  request  to  adhere  in  the  same  manner,  but  their  re- 
quest shall  only  be  effective  if,  within  the  period  of  one  year  from  its 
notification  to  the  Federal  Council,  such  Council  has  not  been  advised  of 
any  opposition  on  the  part  of  any  of  the  contracting  powers. 

ARTICLE  33. 

Each  of  the  contracting  parties  shall  have  the  right  to  denounce  the 
present  convention.  This  denunciation  shall  only  become  operative  one 
year  after  a  notification  in  writing  shall  have  been  made  to  the  Swiss  Fed- 
eral Council,  which  shall  forthwith  communicate  such  notification  to  all 
the  other  contracting  parties. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  57 

This  denunciation  shall  only  become  operative  in  respect  to  the  power 
which  has  given  it. 

IN  FAITH  WHEREOF  the  plenipotentiaries  have  signed  the  present 
convention  and  affixed  their  seals  thereto. 

Done  at  Geneva,  the  sixth  day  of  July,  one  thousand  nine  hundred  and 
six,  in  a  single  copy,  which  shall  remain  in  the  archives  of  the  Swiss  Con- 
federation, and  certified  copies  of  which  shall  be  delivered  to  the  contract- 
ing parties  through  diplomatic  channels. 

[Here  follow  the  signatures.] 


FINAL  PROTOCOL  OF  THE  CONFERENCE  FOR  THE 
REVISION  OF  THE  GENEVA  CONVENTION. 

The  conference  convened  by  the  Swiss  Federal  Council  with  a  view  to 
the  revision  of  the  International  Convention  of  August  22,  1864,  for  the 
amelioration  of  the  condition  of  soldiers  wounded  in  the  field,  met  at 
Geneva  on  June  n,  1906.  The  Powers  hereinafter  enumerated  took  part 
in  the  conference,  for  which  they  had  named  the  following  delegates : 

GERMANY,  &c.,  &c. 

******** 

In  a  series  of  meetings  held  between  the  nth  of  June  and  the  5th  of 
July,  1906,  the  Conference  discussed  and  decided  upon  the  text  of  a  con- 
vention to  bear  date  of  July  6,  1906,  for  the  submission-  to  the  plenipoten- 
tiaries for  their  signatures. 

In  addition  thereto,  and  in  conformity  with  Article  16  of  the  convention 
for  the  pacific  settlement  of  international  conflicts,  of  the  2O,th  of  July, 
1899,  which  has  recognized  arbitration  as  the  most  efficacious,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  most  equitable  means  of  settling  litigations  which  have  not 
been  determined  through  the  diplomatic  channels,  the  Conference  has  ex- 
pressed the  following  wish. 

The  Conference  expresses  the  wish  that,  to  reach  an  interpretation  and 
an  application  as  exact  as  possible  of  the  Convention  of  Geneva,  the  con- 
tracting Powers  shall  submit  to  the  Permanent  Court  of  The  Hague,  if 
the  case  and  the  circumstances  permit,  the  differences,  which  «n  time  of 
peace,  may  arise  between  them  as  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Convention. 

This  wish  was  voted  for  by  the  following  states: 

[All  excepting  three.] 
******** 

This  wish  was  rejected  by  the  following  states:  Corea,  Great  Britain, 
and  Japan. 

IN  FAITH  WHEREOF  the  delegates  have  signed  the  present  protocol. 

Done  at  Geneva,  the  sixth  day  of  July,  one  thousand  nine  hundred  and 
six.  in  a  single  copy,  which  shall  remain  in  the  archives  of  the  Swiss  Con- 
federation, and  certified  copies  of  which  shall  be  delivered  to  the  contract- 
ing parties  through  diplomatic  channels. 

[Here  follow  the  signatures.] 


THE  NEWPORT  CHARTER. 

BY   ADMIRAL   CHADWICK. 

Newport,  with  the  exception  of  three  years,  was  until  1853 
administered  under  the  town-meeting  system.  It  had,  in  1784, 
made  a  trial  of  a  city  charter,  but  it  was  so  unsatisfactory  that 
it  reverted  to  the  town  meeting  three  years  later.  The  reason 
of  this  reversion  in  March,  1787,  as  given  in  Rhode  Island 
Schedules  for  1786-1790,  is  worth  quoting.  The  petition  to 
the  Legislature  complained  that  since  the  incorporation,  about 
two  years  since,  they  had  "  experienced  many  Inconveniences 
and  Indignities  unknown  to  them  before  said  Incorporation, 
injurious  to  their  Property  and  civil  Liberty  and  incompatible 
with  the  Rights  of  Freemen :  That  the  Choice  of  the  Mayor, 
Aldermen  and  Common  Council  is  effected  by  a  few  leading, 
influential  Men,  who  when  chosen,  have  the  Appointment  of 
all  the  City  Officers,  independent  of  the  Sufferages  of  the 
People,  which  they  conceive  to  be  a  Derogation  of  those 
Rights  and  Immunities,  which  Freemen  are  indisputably  en- 
titled to,  and  for  which  so  much  B'lood  and  Treasure  has  (sic) 
been  exhausted."  It  reads  uncommonly  like  a  complaint  of 
to-day. 

The  "  town  meeting  "  may  thus  be  taken  as  Newport's  form 
of  government  for  two  hundred  and  more  years.  In  1853, 
when  a  new  trial  of  a  charter  was  made,  the  place  had  about 
12,000  inhabitants,  half  its  present  number.  That  it  was  still 
not  too  large  for  the  town-meeting  system  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  Boston  remained  a  town  until  1822,  at  which  time  it 
had  43, OCXD  population.  Brookline,  perhaps  the  most  admir- 
ably administered  community  in  the  United  States,  remains  a 
town,  although  with  a  population  of  25,000,  and  an  electorate 
of  about  4,100. 

Newport,  with  its  city  government  of  the  usual  kind  in  the 
United  States — a  mayor,  a  board  of  five  aldermen  and  a  Coun- 
cil of  fifteen  members — was  no  worse  off  than  most  other 

(58) 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  59 

places.  The  system  is  simply  fundamentally  bad,  and  can, 
under  our  electoral  methods,  only  work  towards  an  oligarchy, 
and  this  oligarchy,  as  a  rule,  made  up,  to  put  it  mildly,  of  not 
the  best  citizens.  Our  cities  have  copied  the  patterns  of  gov- 
ernment established  for  the  states,  i.  e.,  a  governor,  a  lower 
and  an  upper  house;  a  system  excellent  for  a  state  in  which 
the  legislature  is  a  law-making  body,  but  foolish  for  a  town 
in  which  the  chief  concern  is  administration.  So  far  have  we 
carried  imitation,  that  the  mayor  of  the  pettiest  city  now  in- 
dulges in  his  inaugural  address,  quite  after  the  manner  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States. 

Newport  is  one  of  several  small  places  peculiarly  condi- 
tioned. It  is  without  manufactures  or  commerce,  and  its 
well-being  depends  entirely  upon  the  fact  that  a  large  number 
of  wealthy  people  have  adopted  it  as  a  summer  residence. 
This  class  pays  63  per  cent  of  the  taxes,  the  total  of  which  in 
1906  was  $573,754.80,  on  a  real  estate  valuation  of  $36,001,- 
600,  and  a  personal  of  $11,811,300,  or  a  total  of  about  $48,- 
000,000.  The  tax  rate  was  $12.00  the  thousand. 

It  would  be  supposed  that  common  sense  would  lead  to  the 
nursing  of  the  goodwill  of  such  a  valuable  element  as  are  our 
summer  residents,  and  this  is  undoubtedly  the  attitude  of  the 
mass  of  our  citizens,  but  there  has  not  been  heretofore  the  in- 
telligence in  the  city  government  itself  to  recognize  this. 
Broadly  speaking  .there  has  been  not  so  much  an  antago: 
as  a  careless  attitude  towards  the  summer  people  on  the  part 
of  the  government,  which,  for  instance,  saw  greater  advant- 
ages in  laying  concrete  sidewalks  ( wholly  at  the  city's  expense, 
be  it  said)  in  the  voting  districts,  than  in  spending  money  on 
the  upkeep  of  the  roads  so  necessary  for  the  use  of  pleasure 
vehicles. 

The  result  of  the  general  dis  »n   with   this  crude 

and  unintelligent  attitude  of  the  administrative  authorities 
was  the  formation  in  September,  1905,  of  a  municipal  associa- 
tion devoted  to  bettering-  municipal  conditions  which  limited  its 
membership  to  those  who  were  willing  to  support  principles 
which  may  be  condensed  as  follows:  the  use  of  the  referen- 
dum, by  which  is  meant  the  right  and  opportunity  of  the  citi- 


6O  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

zens  to  vote  upon  all  important  matters  affecting  the  property 
and  welfare  of  the  city;  the  careful  safeguarding  of  the  city's 
property  and  franchise  rights  and  the  conduct  of  its  busi- 
ness upon  business  principles;  that  citizenship  involves  a  re- 
sponsibility that  cannot  be  evaded  or  ignored  without  contri- 
buting to  the  forces  of  evil ;  that  by  nominations  of  its  own  or 
through  the  endorsement  of  nominations  by  others  the  as- 
sociation will  seek  to  secure  the  choice  of  the  best  men  avail- 
able, irrespective  of  party. 

The  municipal  election  of  1905  did  not  materially  better 
matters,  and  it  was  determined  by  the  association  to  endeavor 
to  formulate  a  new  charter  which  might  enable  the  city  to 
work  towards  something  better  than  what  it  has  been  ex- 
periencing. A  committee  of  27  was  named  by  the  associa- 
tion, care  being  taken  to  select  from  both  political  parties,  and 
it  may  be  said  that,  apart  from  questions  of  races  (and  we 
have  many  in  Newport),  that  the  committee  represented  every 
phase  of  our  population. 

In  the  first  offgo,  the  chief  idea  was  to  give  the  mayor 
much  greater  power;  an  idea  prevalent  everywhere  in  the 
United  States  and  indicative  of  a  weakening  of  the  self-reliance 
so  necessary  to  the  continued  existence  oif  popular  govern- 
ment. A  vote  in  favor  of  this  extension  of  the  mayor's 
power  as  a  fundamental  was  thus  carried  at  one  of  the  earliest 
meetings.  Inquiries  were  sent  officially  to  various  places  re- 
questing copies  of  new  charters,  and  private  inquiries  were 
also  made  by  members.  A  letter  from  the  secretary  of  the 
City  Club  of  New  York,  in  response  to  one  of  the  latter, 
gave  a  clue  which  resulted  in  the  adoption  of  an  entirely 
new  course.  The  secretary  said  he  had  heard  that  Mr. 
Alfred  D.  Chandler,  of  Brookline,  Massachusetts,  had  some 
particular  views  as  to  charters.  Correspondence  with 
Mr.  Chandler  brought  his  views  developed  in  a  bill  which 
he  had  formulated  for  presentation  to  the  Massachusetts 
legislature,  but  which  was  never  presented.  This  pro- 
posed bill  was  the  outcome  of  the  apprehension  of  some 
of  the  prominent  citizens  of  Brookline  that  the  growth 
of  their  electorate  might  tend  to  make  their  town  meeting  un- 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  6 1 

wieldy.  Several  tried  their  hands  on  proposed  charters,  but 
Mr.  Chandler's  draft,  clinging  to  the  town-meeting  principle, 
proposed  what  he  called  a  "limited  town  meeting,"  of  240  per- 
sons, to  be  elected  by  the  whole  electorate,  and  to  have  the 
powers  of  the  full  town  meeting.  It  was  this  principle  which 
the  Newport  committee  of  the  Municipal  Association  adopted 
and  built  upon.  The  resulting  charter,  in  its  essentials,  is 
broadly  as  follows :  The  governing  power  is  vested  in  a  body 
of  195,  thirty-nine  from  each  ward,  to  which  is  assigned  the 
name  of  Representative  Council,  which  has  the  powers  in  gen- 
eral of  a  town  meeting;  the  executive,  in  a  mayor  and  five 
aldermen  (one  alderman  from  each  ward),  elected  for  one 
year;  these,  speaking  generally,  have  the  powers  of  selectmen 
of  a  town.  The  cause  of  the  choice  in  Newport  of  the  par- 
ticular number,  195,  for  the  Representative  Council,  was  due 
to  the  wards  being  five  in  number;  to  the  making  the  term  of 
office  three  years;  and  to  the  renewal  of  one-third  of  the 
Council  yearly.  This  number  was  also  regarded  as  a  fair 
mean ;  as  not  too  large  for  orderly  procedure,  and  large  enough 
to  be  fairly  representative  of  all  classes  in  a  place  of  25,000 
•  itants.  In  a  larger  town  it  could  very  properly  be  raised 
to  as  many  say  as  300,  which  would  not  at  all  be  excessive, 
there  being  many  deliberative  bodies  in  the  world  of  such 
numbers. 

1 1  was  arranged  that  in  the  first  election  nominations  should 
be  made  of  thirteen  members  for  one  year,  and  the  same  num- 
ber for  two  and  for  three  years ;  thereafter  thirteen  new  mem- 
!d  be  elected  each  year  in  each  ward.  Under  the  con- 
stitution of  the  state  of  Rhode  Island,  no  person  is  allowed  to 
vote  in  the  election  of  the  city  council  of  any  city,  or  upon 
any  proposition  to  impose  a  tax  or  for  the  expenditure  of 
money  in  any  town  or  city,  unless  he  shall  within  the  year 
preceding  have  paid  a  tax  assessed  upon  property  valued 
at  least  at  $134.  This  confines  the  votes  for  members  of  the 
Representative  Council  to  about  3,800  of  the  5,100  of  the 
general  electorate  of  the  city.  The  only  pers<  er  the  law 

voted  for  by  the  whole  of  the  electorate  are  the  mayor  ami 
school  board ;  the  aldermen  were  placed  by  me  charter  under 
e  voted  for  by  the  tax-paying  vote. 


62  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

The  election,  in  order  to  separate  it  from  party  elections,  is 
fixed  for  the  first  Monday  in  December;  nomination  papers 
are  filed  with  the  city  clerk  at  least  twelve  days  before  this 
date;  all  candidates  must  give  a  written  acceptance  of  candi- 
dacy ;  thirty  signatures  at  least  of  tax-paying  voters  in  the  ward 
are  necessary  to  nominate  for  the  Representative  Council ;  one 
hundred  of  tax-paying  voters  of  the  city  to  nominate  for 
aldermen ;  one  hundred  of  the  general  electorate  to  nominate 
for  the  school  committee;  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  of  the 
general  electorate  to  nominate  for  mayor.  No  one  can  sign 
the  papers  of  more  persons  than  he  is  allowed  to  vote  for. 
Though  the  aldermen  must  be  residents  of  the  wards  for 
which  they  stand,  they  are  voted  for  by  the  whole  of  the  tax- 
paying  voters  of  the  city ;  the  influence  of  ward  feeling  which 
so  foolishly  and  unreasonably  exists  is  thus  largely  eliminated 
in  the  election.  Nothing  can  appear  upon  the  nomination 
papers  except  the  name,  residence  and  acceptance  of  the  can- 
didate, the  office  for  which  nominated,  and  the  names  and  ad- 
dresses of  the  nominators.  Nothing  can  appear  upon  the  bal- 
lots except  the  name  of  the  candidate,  his  residence,  the  office 
for  which  nominated,  and  such  other  non-political  facts  as  the 
laws  of  the  state  may  require. 

The  Representative  Council  meets  the  first  Monday  in  Janu- 
ary, or  at  such  times  as  it  may  adjourn  to;  it  must  also  meet 
upon  the  written  request  of  twenty-five  members  or  upon  the 
request  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen;  such  requests  to  be  filed 
with  the  city  clerk ;  it  chooses  its  own  chairman ;  the  city  clerk 
is  the  clerk  also  of  the  Council;  it  determines  its  own  rules 
and  judges  of  the  election  of  its  members;  its  meetings  must 
be  with  open  doors  and  its  records  open  to  public  inspection; 
any  taxpayer  or  voter  may  speak,  but  unless  a  member,  shall 
not  vote  at  its  meetings;  no  compensation  is  allowed  its 
members. 

The  Representative  Council  at  the  beginning  of  the  year 
elects  a  city  treasurer,  a  city  clerk,  a  judge  of  probate,  a  pro- 
bate clerk,  a  collector  of  taxes,  a  city  solicitor,  an  assessor  of 
taxes,  and  all  such  other  city  officers  provided  by  law  or  as  may 
be  necessary  and  proper.  It  may  delegate  to  the  Board  of 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  63 

Aldermen  the  election  of  any  officers  not  specially  named,  or 
by  special  act  required  to  be  elected  by  the  Council;  it  fixes 
salaries  and  defines  the  duties  of  officers;  it  may  by  a  vote 
of  two-thirds  of  all  the  members  remove  an  officer  for  miscon- 
duct or  incapacity. 

A  very  important  procedure  was  taken  from  the  usage 
of  Brookline.  On  the  first  meeting1  in  January,  the  chairman 
of  the  Representative  Council  appoints  a  committee  of  twenty- 
five  of  the  members,  five  from  each  ward,  to  consider  the 
budget  for  the  ensuing  year,  and  make  report  to  an  adjourned 
meeting.  This  report  must  be  printed  and  distributed  to  all 
tax-paying  voters  at  least  seven  days  before  the  meeting  pf 
the  Council  to  consider  it.  Every  one  is  thus  fully  informed 
in  regard  to  the  proposed  expenditure  before  the  subject  comes 
to  a  vote.  A  vote  of  the  Council  in  favor  of  any  proposition 
involving  the  expenditure  of  ten  thousand  dollars  or  more  does 
not  become  operative  for  seven  days;  if  in  this  time  a  petition 
be  filed  with  the  city  clerk,  signed  by  at  least  ten  qualified  elec- 
tors from  each  \vard,  in  addition  to  at  least  one  hundred  quali- 
fied electors  of  the  city,  the  question  must  be  submitted  to  the 
people.  A  petition  of  a  hundred  qualified  electors  may  also 
oblige  the  Council  to  consider  a  question  involving  an  ex- 
penditure exceeding  ten  thousand  dollars;  if  this  be  disap- 
proved by  the  Council,  a  referendum  to  the  people  may  be 
called  for  by  twice  the  number  of  petitioners  in  the  precc-lini; 
case. 

The  mayor  is  president  and,  cx-ofl\cio,  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Aldermen.  The  mayor  may  investigate  all  depart- 
ments and  has  power  to  suspend  any  city  official,  ami  bring 
the  case  before  the  whole  Board  of  Aldermen.  If  the  I 

in  the  charges,  the  official  i  ^ed;  if  not,  he  is  re- 

1  to  duty.     The  ofii>  ten  days,  however,  in  which 

to  make  appeal  to  die  Representative  Council,  whose  action 
is  final. 

Hie  Board  of  Aldermen  form  the  several  committees  for 

the  administration  of  the  city  departnn  reports  their 

condition,  with  recommendations,  annually  to  the  Representa- 

t  ouncil.  which  rqx>rt  must  be  published;  it  also  attends 


64  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

the  meeting's  of  the  Council  and  gives  such  information  as  may 
be  required.  The  mayor  and  aldermen  receive  salaries  to  be 
fixed  by  the  Council,  but  may  receive  no  other  compensation 
for  services  rendered  the  city;  they  may  not  be  interested  in 
any  city  contract  nor  may  any  of  them,  stockholders  in  a  cor- 
poration, vote  upon  a  proposition  or  with  reference  to  a  con- 
tract between  the  city  and  such  corporation. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  system  developed  in  this  charter  is 
one  of  extreme  simplicity.  It  unites  all  legislative  power  in 
a  single  body,  and  establishes  a  small  committee  to  carry  the 
authority  of  this  body  into  effect ;  it  brings  back  to  the  people 
in  a  very  effective  degree  the  authority  which  has  been  taken 
from  them  by  political  rings  and  combines;  it  separates  the 
municipal  from  state  and  national  elections;  it  separates  the 
power  authorizing  the  spending  of  money,  from  the  power 
which  expends,  thus  vastly  increasing  the  difficulty  of  a  vicious 
combine ;  in  the  words  of  the  "  Explanatory  Statement " 
which  accompanied  the  act  when  brought  before  the  legisla- 
ture, it  "is  absolutely  open  to  the  knowledge  of  all  the  peo- 
ple; gives  the  right  to  every  one  to  speak  upon  any  proposi- 
tion; allows  no  opportunity  to  stifle  any  question;  makes  it 
easy  for  any  one  to  bring  forward  any  subject  for  consider- 
ation ;  opens  the  budget  to  full  inspection  and  discussion  by  the 
people  before  it  is  adopted;  in  a  word,  makes  the  public  the 
master  it  should  be  in  all  questions  affecting  its  civic  welfare." 
It  does  all  this  and  effectively,  in  case  the  people  are  equal  to 
governing  themselves.  My  own  belief  is  that  they  are.  I 
have  a  firm  faith  in  the  wish  and  capacity  of  the  mass  of  men, 
if  their  hands  are  free,  to  do  that  which  is  best  for  their  com- 
munity. Were  this  not  so,  it  is  plain  that  we  should  always 
be  on  the  retrograde.  Our  political  woes  are  due  to*  the  fact 
that  the  public  will  has  not  free  expression  in  our  country  to- 
day, in  either  national,  state,  or  municipal  questions.  It  is  the 
oligarchic  rule  Which  permeates  our  system,  which  is  our  bane. 
The  great  problem  is  to  get  back  to  the  people;  in  the  New- 
port charter  I  believe  we  have  done  this  for  Newport,  effec- 
tively. 

It  is  of  course  vain  to  hope  that  partisan  politics  will  all  at 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  65 

once,  or  perhaps  ever,  wholly  be  eliminated.  The  idea  of  al- 
ways lining  up  on  party  lines  has  became  too  deeply  ingrained 
in  the  less  thoughtful  of  our  electorate  throughout  the  country 
to  expect  this,  and  there  are  sure  to  be  many  representatives 
in  the  council  to  \vhom  petty  likes  and  dislikes  will  be  much 
more  than  the  city's  welfare.  How  great  the  influence  of 
such  feeling  is,  was  shown  in  the  charter  election  of  December 
4,  when,  with  three  exceptions,  the  representatives  of  the  sum- 
mer residents,  our  chief  taxpayers,  failed  of  election.  Our 
electorate  is  not  wise  or  broad  enough  to  see  the  unfairness 
of  refusing  representation  to  such  an  interest,  and  that  such 
action  practicaly  establishes  "  taxation  without  representa- 
tion." 

A  short  comparison  of  our  Newport  charter  with  its  al- 
most antipodal  of  Galveston,  is  not  inappropriate.  This  lat- 
ter replaces  a  government  of  a  mayor  and  sixteen  aldermen 
with  one  by  five  commissioners.  Three  of  these  were  in  the 
first  offgo  appointed  by  the  governor,  but  a  question  as  to  the 
constitutionality  of  this  procedure,  on  the  ground  that  the 
citizens  had  no  voice  in  the  selection  of  the  officers  administer- 
ing their  government,  being  decided  adversely,  the  whole  five 
are  now  elective.  With  these  five  rest  all  the  powers  of  the 
city :  the  selection  of  officers,  the  establishment  of  ordinances. 
the  levying  and  assessment  of  taxes,  and  all  administrative 
functions.  Thus  far  the  scheme  has  been  very  successful; 
this  success  being  one  of  course  due  wholly  to  the  character 
of  the  corn-mi ssioners.  The  great  question  is  how  long  the 
city  will  be  able  to  elect  such.  It  is  safe  to  predict  that  it  will 
end,  as  all  such  efforts,  if  experiences  teaches  anything,  in  the 
election  of  the  seeker  after  power,  and  the  city  in  the  hands  of 
its  five  administrators  and  governors  will  be  no  better  off  than 
in  the  hands  of  its  former  sixteen. 

I  beg  to  add  a  few  words  as  to  my  views  of  the  abstract 
principles  of  municipal  government.  'ear  that  a  : 

cipal  corporation  does  not  differ  in  principle  from  any  other 
joint  stock  company;  that  the  members  of  this  corporation 
are  shareholders  in  a  company  whose  property  is  chiefly  the 
property  of  those  owning  property  within  the  municipality. 


66  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

These  property-holders  contribute  to  the  expenses  of  the  cor- 
poration according  to  the  value  of  their  holdings  exactly  as 
the  stockholders  in  a  railway  contribute  to  its  upkeep  and 
betterments.  In  the  one  case  we  pay  in  assessments;  in  the 
other  it  is  taken  from  dividends.  Being  a  joint  stock  corpor- 
ation, it  necessarily  follows  that  every  stockholder,  whether 
resident  or  not,  should  have  at  least  one  vote,  whether  man, 
woman,  or  estate. 

Of  a  total  of  about  5,800  Newport  taxpayers  (residents, 
corporations,  banks  and  estates)  only  768  pay  taxes  of  $100 
or  more,  and  but  222  pay  $500  or  more.  This  last  number, 
or  less  than  four  per  cent,  of  the  taxpayers,  pay  63  per  cent,  of 
the  taxes,  or  $360,137  of  the  total  $573,755  of  the  taxes  of 
this  year.  The  768  who  pay  $100,  or  more,  pay  $473,454. 
Of  this  number,  234  are  women,  who  pay  $203,791,  or  43%. 
That  those  who  contribute  so  largely  to  the  expenses  of  a  cor- 
poration should  have  no  voice  in  naming  the  committee  which 
is  to  handle  its  funds,  seems  to  me  a  monstrous  illogicality. 
The  question  is  one  in  no  wise  connected  with  the  subject  of 
woman  suffrage;  it  is  a  simple  business  principle.  That  it  is 
not  subversive  of  our  views  in  general  as  to  the  voting  of 
women,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  England  they  have,  as 
taxpayers  or  heads  of  households  or  a  business,  been  able  to 
vote  in  municipal  elections  since  1869.  Such  women  form 
there  about  twenty  per  cent  of  the  whole  municipal  vote.  I 
would  thus  put  it  as  a  plain  abstract  business  right  that  every 
taxpayer  in  the  municipality,  whether  resident  or  not,  and  ir- 
respective of  sex,  should  have  a  vote  in  the  affairs  of  a  muni- 
cipal corporation.  Our  new  charter  gives  women  taxpayers 
the  right  to  speak  at  the  meetings  of  the  Representative  Coun- 
cil, but  I  fancy  this  right  will  be  seldom  used.  I  can  see  no 
harm  in  going  as  far  as  England  has  done  in  this  matter,  and 
there  is  certainly  justice  and  right  in  doing  so. 


THE   CONSTITUTION   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES, 
AS  MODIFIED  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

BY  WILLIAM   B.   WEEDEN. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  one  of  the  greatest 
monuments  of  human  history.  It  was  not  a  sudden  creation, 
according  to  Mr.  Gladstone's  hasty  generalization;  for  our 
scholars  agree  that  it  was  a  growth  essentially.  It  is  perhaps 
the  greatest  achievement  recorded  of  compromise,  which  is  the 
genius  of  political  development.  Cherishing  theories  of  Aris- 
totle and  Montesquieu,  nourished  by  the  Common  law  and 
English  political  experience,  strengthened  by  the  steady  pro- 
gress of  the  colonies,  the  statesmen  assembled  in  the  conven- 
tion of  1787  embodied  the  knowledge  of  their  time.  The 
serene  Washington,  the  practised  and  facile  Franklin,  the  far- 
seeing  constructive  Hamilton,  with  Madison,  Wilson,  Morris, 
Sherman  and  their  fellows  filing  in ;  these  makers  of  the  con- 
stitution brought  the  largest  capacity  to  the  conformation  of  a 
written  instrument,  which  embodied  the  widest  experience  in 
the  art  of  government. 

The  pregnant  phrases  of  the  Preamble — forged  out  by 
Hamilton  and  Madison — though  they  soon  became  important 
guides  to  the  meaning  of  the  whole  instrument,  do  not  appear 
to  have  attracted  much  attention  or  excited  discussion.1 

It  may  be  instructive  to  consider  the  ideas  of  J.  Randolph 
Tucker,  expressed  after  the  facts  of  the  Civil  War  had  il- 
lustrated the  genius  and  force  of  the  original  Constitution. 
Liberty  if  the  "  gift  of  God!"  and  the  body-politic  is  "  man's 
trustee,  not  his  master."  ta  the  body-politic  rests  on  right- 
ful sovereignty,  the  de  facto  institution  must  be  taken  to  be 
the  sovereign  power.  His  great  authority,  Bluntschli,  says 
"  each  man  is  at  the  same  time  member  of  the  sovereign  ami 
subject  to  the  sovereign."  '  He  sets  forth  the  essential 

1  Thorpe,  Constitutional  History  U.  5.,  v.  3,  p.  467. 

2  Tucker,  Constitution  V.  S.t  vol.  i.  p.  14.  •  Ibid.,  p.  57. 

(67) 


68  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

acter  of  legitimate  government :  "  The  supremacy  of  the  Con- 
stitution-making power  over  all  acts  of  government,  lies  at 
the  foundation  of  our  political  law,  and  is,  in  its  full  force,  the 
great  American  discovery  in  the  science  of  government."  4 
Very  forcibly  he  condemns  usurpation :  "  The  idea  that  usur- 
pation is  necessary  or  a  supposed  extension  as  a  consequence 
of  custom  or  progress  of  society  can  make  jural  any  power  not 
constitutionally  conferred,  is  contrary  to  American  political 
science,  fatal  to  the  liberties  of  the  people."  5 

The  actual  results  of  the  Civil  War  are  nowhere  better 
stated.  It  "  decided  the  restoration  of  the  Union  under  the 
Constitution  as  a  whole — the  bundle  of  burdens  and  of  bene- 
fits. To  that  decree  the  seceding  States  bowed  as  final  .  .  . 
the  war  itself  did  not  change  the  Constitution  in  any  of  its 
terms  or  provisions,  has  been  fully  sanctioned  by  the  decisions 
of  the  Supreme  Court."  6 

These  profound  conceptions  come  to  us  as  the  product  of 
time,  but  their  germs  were  planted  in  1787,  in  the  formation 
of  the  instrument,  which  we  are  now  to  investigate. 

It  is  agreed  that  our  present  organization  is  a  national  and 
federal  government,  combining  the  States  and  based  on  demo- 
cracy. In  the  beginning,  democracy  was  not  developed  so 
far.7  The  convention  of  1787  was  an  advisory  body  only, 
assembled  with  indefinite  powers,  which  were  delegated  from 
the  sovereign  power  of  the  States.  Direct  ratification  by  the 
people  or  a  plebiscite  could  be  attained  only  through  the 
States.  Virginia,  New  Jersey  and  Pinckney  of  South  Can> 
lina  submitted  plans.  The  initiation  of  the  convention  is 
ascribed  to  Alexander  Hamilton  who  had  elaborately  advo- 
cated national  consolidation  to  Duane  seven  years  previously; 
an  idea  shadowed  forth  by  Franklin  in  1775.  The  practical 

4  Ibid.,  p.  62. 

6  Ibid.,  p.  67.  And  on  the  limitations  of  governmental  power  he  cites 
two  great  authorities.  "C.  J.  Chase  adds  to  Marshall  with  great  force. 
And  if  the  property  of  an  individual  cannot  be  transferred  to  the  public, 
how  much  less  to  another  individual."  Ibid.,  p.  77. 

6  Ibid.,  p.  339. 

7  Tucker,  vol.  i,  p.  318;  Thorpe,  vol.  i,  305. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  69 

formation  of  the  convention  is  due  to  Madison  and  his  skill- 
ful management.  Hamilton  said  little  until  after  much  de- 
bate, for  his  theories  of  national  power  were  hardly  supported 
by  his  own  State.  He  then  submitted  a  scheme  condemning 
both  the  leading  plans,  especially  that  of  New  Jersey.  Briefly 
he  would  exclude  State  sovereignty,  "  for  a  federal  govern- 
ment was  an  association  of  independent  communities  in  one."  * 
There  was  much  interesting  discussion,  and  not  altogether 
along  sectional  lines  in  general,  as  is  often  supposed.  Repre- 
sentation and  taxation  of  slaves  gave  much  trouble.  Roger 
Sherman  disapproved  importation,  but  thought  it  best  to 
leave  the  matter  as  the  Convention  found  it.  Importation  of 
slaves  was  finally  continued,  largely  through  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia,  for  Virginian  interest  did  not  lie  that  way.  No 
one  thought  of  prohibiting  slavery.  The  true  opposition  in 
debate  was  against  the  hard,  bony  structure  of  a  federal  gov- 
ernment; in  this  regard  individuals  from  every  section  put 
forth  strong  objections. 

The  early  discussions  9  might  be  termed  heterogeneous  ex- 
position. They  revealed  personal  and  local  characteristics, 
conveying  impracticable  notions;  which  fell  away  after  sen- 
sible recognitions  and  conciliatory  consideration  of  the  in- 
evitable grand  categories,  into  which  Hamilton  and  Madison 
had  already  cast  the  future  of  the  national  government. 
State  Right  and  jealous  reservations  of  State  prerogative 
first  underlay  the  action  of  almost  all  the  delegates  North 
or  South.  Property  as  well  as  slave  representation  instead 
of  purely  popular  representation,  at  times  nearly  sundered  the 
assembly.  Perhaps  Gerry  of  Massachusetts  was  most  con- 
spicious  in  distrusting  democracy,  though  his  fellows  were 
numerous  and  willing.  The  jealous  opposition  of  small  States 
to  the  necessary  power  of  the  larger,  loomed  up  at  every  turn 
of  debate.  Since  the  changes  wrought  by  time  and  progress, 
we  are  astounded  that  New  York  aligned  herself  to  protect  her 

•  Ibid.,  p.  376. 

•  Details  of  the  Convention  are  taken  broadcast   from  Thorpe's  first 
volume. 


7O  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

small  neighbors.  Rufus  King  said  generously  he  would  never 
"  accede  to  a  plan  of  inequality  (i.  e.  through  representation) 
which  put  ten  states  at  the  mercy  of  Massachusetts,  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Virginia.  Roger  Sherman  of  Connecticut  was  a 
firm  believer  in  State  sovereignty  and  would  have  submitted 
the  Constitution  to  ratification  by  States,  when  Madison  de- 
manded a  plebiscite.  Martin  of  Maryland  thought  the  pur- 
pose of  the  general  government  should  be  to  preserve  the 
States,  not  to  govern  individuals.  Ellsworth  of  Connecticut, 
while  acting  for  State  sovereignty,  really  contributed  a  prin- 
ciple of  largest  national  import.  He  said  that  the  people 
would  reluctantly  submit  to  a  Constitution  which  disfran- 
chised them,  and  that  States  were  the  best  judges  of  the  cir- 
cumstances of  their  own  people,  and  of  the  qualifications  of 
voters. 

The  timely  prohibition  of  taxes  on  exports — natural  to  us — 
was  a  rank  innovation  then,  in  spite  of  Adam  Smith's  argu- 
ments against  them.  The  matter  was  debated  with  prejudice, 
rather  than  discreetly.  Wilson,  the  ablest  constitutional 
lawyer  and  a  stronger  nationalist  than  Hamilton  even,  ur- 
gently supported  a  tax.  A  tribunal  oi  last  resort  to  regu- 
late relations  between  the  States  and  central  government  was 
delimited  vaguely  in  Article  IX,  the  powers  of  the  judiciary 
being  but  dimly  indicated.  The  authority  of  the  Supreme 
Court  was  elastic  rather  than  definite. 

After  much  forlorn  debate  including  efforts  to  adjourn- 
nominally  to  consult  constituents — a  crisis  was  averted  by 
appointing  a  Committee  on  Detail  of  Five;  or  as  we  should 
say,  a  steering  committee,  on  which  South  Carolina,  Virginia, 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut  and  Pennsylvania  were  repre- 
sented. Selections  for  committees  were  personal  rather  than 
sectional,  being  all  made  by  ballot.  It  shows  how  fully  the 
controlling  ideas  of  Hamilton  and  Madison  had  permeated 
the  Convention  through  debate  that  neither  was  placed  on  this 
influential  committee.  Discussion  went  on  meanwhile,  and 
in  some  days  the  committee  reported  an  actual  draft  of  the 
Constitution. 

Much  difficulty  had  been  overcome  in  adjusting  principles 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  J\ 

of  representation,  in  the  qualifications  both  of  voters  and  rep- 
resentatives to  Congress.  Some  would  have  had  a  landed 
estate  prescribed  for  all  members  of  the  government.  But 
the  shrewd  Franklin  said  some  of  the  worst  rogues  he  had 
known — had  been  rich.  Into  slave  representation,  the  per- 
sonal element  entered,  but  the  factor  of  property  occasioned 
quite  as  much  trouble.  Hamilton  and  Madison  favored  im- 
migration, but  the  majority  foreshadowed  the  modern 
"  Know  Nothing,"  literally.  Curiously,  Dickinson,  Morris 
and  the  nationalists  mostly  inclined  to  a  restricted  franchise. 
Discussion  opened  wide  difference  of  opinions,  which  might 
have  fettered  the  United  States.  Franklin  wisely  disliked 
anything  tending  to  "  debase  the  spirit  of  the  common  people." 
With  Ellsworth,  Mason,  Rutledge,  as  representing  Connecti- 
cut, Virginia,  South  Carolina,  he  'believed  in  extension  of 
suffrage,  and  these  men  comprehended  the  true  genius  of 
America. 

The  times  were  far  from  comprehending  the  outcome  of  a 
solid  control  of  "  army  and  navy,"  likewise  of  the  State 
militia.  When  we  consider  the  tenacious  antagonism  of  the 
fathers  to  monarchical  or  imperial  government,  we  may  won- 
der at  their  liberal  treatment  of  this  important  detail.  It  was 
arranged  "  to  raise  and  support  armies,"  and  provide  a  navy; 
while  authority  over  the  militia  gave  much  difficult}-,  owing 
to  State  reservations  so  often  mentioned.  Mason  and 
Pinckney  would  give  control  to  Congress,  while  Dickinson, 
Ellsworth  and  Gerry  believed  the  States  would  hardly  sur- 
render it. 

The  American  Executive  of  the  twentieth  century  was  as 
little  imagined  or  appreliended  then,  as  the  constitutional  re- 
gulation of  the  planet  Mars.  Constituting  the  office  caused 
much  labor,  and  the  method  of  election  to  it,  even  more.  The 
Convention  followed  largely  the  precedents  in  State  gov- 
ernments. The  States  seemed  to  a#ree  on  unity  in  the  Exe- 
cutive better  than  on  most  points.  The  title  of  President  was 
the  oldest  used  in  America,  An  Executive  Council  was  much 
mooted,  among  other  checks  to  restrain  the  government.  \\V 
must  remember  that  we  are  viewing'  the  government  of  the 


72  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

United  States  after  long-  and  successful  operation.  To  the 
fathers,  it  seemed  essential  to  impose  all  possible  checks  and 
•balances.  In  rejecting  an  Executive  and  advisory  council, 
Mason  said  they  were  experimenting,  for  even  the  Grand 
Signior  had  a  Divan.  Franklin,  Wilson,  Dickinson  and  Madi- 
son favored,  but  only  three  States  finally  voted  for  this  restric- 
tion of  the  Executive.  Participation  in  legislation  had  been 
scanty  in  the  practice  of  Colonies  and  States;  such  conduct 
reverted  to  the  ways  of  the  early  English  kings.  The  veto 
was  instituted  at  last,  after  much  dispute.  Gerry  considered 
that  the  holding  of  the  presidency  of  the  Senate  by  the  Vice- 
President,  would  be  dangerous  on  account  of  his  inevitable 
intimacy  with  the  President. 

The  Committee  of  Detail  quietly  entertained  many  .clauses, 
debate  would  have  rejected.  Later  on,  the  pregnant  and  fam- 
ous sweeping  clause  authorized  Congress  "  to  make  all  laws 
which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into  execu- 
tion the  foregoing  powers,"  etc. 

A  final  Committee  on  Revision  was  raised — Hamilton  and 
Madison  serving — and  it  assigned  the  whole  written  expres- 
sion to  Gouverneur  Morris,  a  master  of  style.  Urging  the 
adoption  of  the  revision,  the  veteran  Franklin  contributed  a 
moving  letter  begging  that  every  member  "  would  with  me 
on  this  occasion  doubt  a  little  of  his  infallibility."  It  was 
considered  that  this  pathetic  appeal  turned  the  scales.  Yet 
only  little  Delaware  and  Pennsylvania — justifying  its  proud 
title  of  Keystone  State — signed  the  Constitution  through  every 
delegate.  The  punctilious  Mason,  the  hypercritical  Gerry,  the 
juridical  Ellsworth,  the  broad  Dickinson,  all  failed  to  approve. 

Whatever  the  Convention  intended,  it  made  a  firm  Union, 
which  gathered  strength  as  government  went  on,  endured 
wars  and  survived  the  perils  of  prosperity.  The  same  laws 
control  the  relations  of  Union  and  States  to-day,  as  prevailed 
in  the  Constitution  of  1787. 

Twelve  amendments — added  up  to  the  year  1804 — which 
worked  out  principles,  did  not  change  the  character  of  the 
instrument.  In  the  early  ipart  of  the  century  Chief  Justice 
Marshall  developed  the  latent  federal  powers  of  the  Constitu- 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  73 

tion,  first  instituted  by  Hamilton,  with  far-reaching  effects,  as 
we  shall  see. 

The  Missouri  Compromise  in  1820,  the  legislative  agitation 
concerning  slavery  1850-1854,  the  Dred  Scot  decision  of  1857, 
all  tended  to  aid  new  popular  conceptions  of  the  Constitution. 
As  Mr.  Wilson  10  suggests  "  the  life  of  each  succeeding  gen- 
eration must  inevitably  be  read  into"  the  written  instrument. 
Extreme  Southern  leaders  thought  secession  both  a  sovereign 
and  a  legal  right.11  Mr.  Willoughby  12  finds  in  their  con- 
ceptions of  the  States  "  individual  and  sovereign  political  en- 
tities." 18  According  to  Wilson,  the  men  of  the  South  did 
not  intend  a  serious  war  but  they  meant  to  bring  about  a  con- 
stitutional crisis.  Neither  legislative  nor  juristic  process 
could  satisfy  their  political  desires.  The  sources  of  the  con- 
stitution were  not  juristic,14  and  revolution  only  could  pro- 
duce a  new  birth. 

Manifestly,  both  South  and  North  did  not  comprehend  the 
developing  powers  of  the  constitution  as  interpreted  by  Mar- 
shall, which  inevitably  must  exert  new  vital  force  in  its  own 
protection.  The  defeat  at  Bull  Run,  instead  of  overcoming 
the  North,  as  the  South  hoped,  only  stimulated  new  political 
effort  as  a  constitutional  sequence.  Congress  proclaimed  that 
"  the  maintenance  of  the  Constitution,  the  preservation  of  the 
Union  and  the  enforcement  of  the  laws  are  sacred  trusts, 
which  must  be  executed. "  The  attack  on  Fort  Sumter  imme- 
diately caused  the  Executive  to  put  forth  powers  not  expressly 
conferred  by  constitution  or  laws.15  This  true  survival  of 
the  kingly  power  was  fully  sustained  by  the  people,  though  its 
exercise  was  hardly  anticipated  by  our  forefathers. 

The  Civil  War  brought  great  change  into  every  department 
of  the  government.  Perhaps  the  judiciary  yielded  least,  and 

10  History  American  People,  vol.  iv,  p.  201. 

11  Ibid.,  p.  190,  and  Burgess,  Civil  War  and  Constitution,  vol.  i,  p.  75. 
"  American  Constitutional  System,  p.  12. 

11  American  People,  vol.  iv,  p.  208. 

14  Burgess,  Political  Science  and  Constitutional  Law,  vol.  i,  p.  108. 

>•  Burgess.  Civil  War  and  Constitution,  i :  228. 


74  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

reverted  most  steadily  to  its  original  courses.  Suspension  of 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  by  the  President  excited  violent 
discussion.  It  was  claimed  that  it  could  -be  suspended  only 
through  act  of  Congress.  This  was  technical,  as  Congress 
finally  gave  the  President  ample  and  explicit  authority.  It 
seems  to  be  impossible  to  fully  protect  personal  liberty  by 
nullifying  arrest,  and  to  guard  the  state  against  secret  treason 
in  the  same  statute.  William  III  "  wrongfully  "  suspended 
the  writ  in  1696,  thereby  saving  his  own  life  and  preventing 
invasion  of  England.  Parliament  thanked  -him  for  exceed- 
ing his  lawful  authority.16 

Emancipation  was  not  a  constitutional  process,  though  its 
effects  prevailed  in  modifying  the  instrument.  The  changes 
in  the  constitution  were  inherent,  through  the  I3th,  I4tfli  and 
1 5th  amendments,  abolishing  slavery  and  granting  new  rights 
—both  to  persons  and  property ;  and  were  generative  through 
a  new  spirit  created  out  of  the  life  of  the  time. 

Thaddeus  Stevens,  the  "  most  dominating  spirit  Congress 
had  ever  known  "  17  imposed  the  fourteenth  amendment,  in- 
tending to  bring  about  "  dominance  of  negroes  in  the 
South/' 18  by  principles  in  the  Constitution  itself.  The  negro 
vote  followed  in  the  I5th  amendment.  Results  actually  at- 
tained for  the  negro,  differed  much  from  the  anticipation ;  but 
enormous  changes  were  engendered  in  the  condition  of  per- 
sons and  property.  States  were  not  dwarfed  into  municipali- 

16  I  am  indebted  to  W.  E.  Foster  for  suggestion  in  this  matter.     Provi- 
dence Public  Library  has  a  large  collection  of  original  pamphlets,  giving 
opinions  of  Binney,  Curtis,  and  many  others  on  these  disputed  points  bear- 
ing on  constitutional  development.     Horace  Binney  contended  (Privilege 
of  the  Writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  Philadelphia,  1862,  p.  52)  :   "  The  Constitu- 
tion intended,  that  for  the  defence  of  the  nation  against  rebellion  and  in- 
vasion, the  power  should  always  be  open  (i.  e.,  of  suspension  of  writ)  in 
either  of  these  events,  to  be  used  by  that  department,  which  is  the  most 
competent  in  the  same  events  to  say  what  the  public  safety  requires  in  this 
behalf.    The   President  being  the  properest  and  safest  depository  of  the 
power,  and  being  the  only  power  which  can  exercise  it  under  real  and 
effective  responsibilities  to  the  people,  it  is  Iboth  constitutional  and  safe  to 
argue  that  the  Constitution  has  placed  it  with  him." 

17  Thorpe,  3  :  404. 

18  Wilson,  5:58. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  75 

ties  as  Randolph  Tucker  19  shows.  Yet  the  fundamental  re- 
lations of  the  federal  government  and  the  States  have  been 
agitated  to  the  foundations.20  Now,  the  courts  have  given 
the  widest  interpretation  of  "  lilberty  "  to  the  citizen.  Citizen- 
ship was  not  defined  in  1787."  According  to  Thorpe,2*  one 
of  the  greatest  constitutional  results  of  the  Civil  War  is  that 
sovereignty  abides  with  the  constituency  and  not  with  the 
agent ;  "  that  it  exists  with  the  people  of  a  State  and  not  in 
the  State  as  a  Corporation."  The  constituency  are  safe,  as 
Tucker  proves  by  citing  Cooley,  for  legislators  have  their  au- 
thority measured  by  the  Constitution.28 

in  1861,  poor  Sambo  carried  his  masters  and  his  north- 
ern brethren  far  beyond  the  intended  revolution,  so  in  the  con- 
stitutional amendments,  he  opened  unknown  paths  and  possi- 
bilities in  civic  development.  The  Slaughter  House  Cases 
soon  swept  away  the  fancied  legal  distinction  between  black 
and  white  men.  Turning  to  a  great  field  of  governmental 
energy,  that  practical  agency  of  federal  and  State  relations, 
known  as  the  police  power,  let  us  consult  Freund.24  He  re- 
gards the  restraining  influence  of  the  original  constitution  on 
the  police  power  of  the  States,  as  more  important  than  the 
opportunity  for  positive  police  legislation  on  the  part  of  Con- 
gress. From  causes  we  have  observed  in  our  study  the  fath- 
ers did  not  mean  to  subject  outright  the  State  police  power  to 
federal  control.  On  the  other  hand,  the  fourteenth  amend- 

— though  \visely  limited  by  the  courts — was  capable  of 
subjecting  all  legislation  to  federal  control. 

\\  e  now  come  to  the  present  regulation  of  interstate  com- 
merce. Here,  as  in  the  larger  political  principles  involved, 
Marshall  had  laid  sure  foundations  -when  he  declared  in 
Cohens  vs.  Virginia  that  the  United  States  were  a  single 

•n.  This  pregnant  decision  was  better  comprehended 
after  the  national  development  in  1865.  The  courts  discov- 

"  Tucker,  2:848. 

*°  Baldwin,  Two  Centuries  American  Law,  p.  36- 

"  Wrlloughby.  p.  241.  »*  Thorpe,  3 :  5». 

«»  Tucker,  i :  379  >4  PoKcf  Power,  p.  65. 


76  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

ered  then  that  the  national  and  State  courts  were  sovereign  in 
their  own  jurisdictions,  -but  each  was  not  sovereign  in  the  ob- 
jects committed  to  the  other.25  Moreover  Justice  Bradley  de- 
clared in  1887  that  the  legal  development  of  the  last  fifteen  years 
had  obliged  the  Supreme  Court  to  revert  to  Marshall's  fun- 
damental principles,  even  to  the  modification  of  action  by  the 
Court  in  the  intervening  period.  "  Tom  Scott,"  in  the  op- 
portunity of  the  Civil  War,  developed  systems  of  long  and 
combined  transportation,  ready  to  be  fitted  to  the  new  com- 
mercial necessities.  The  regulating  act  adumbrated  in  1866 
was  passed  February  4,  1887,  and  it  regarded  especially  the 
long  and  short  haul  and  non-pooling.  So  confused  was  the 
discussion  that  a  member  finally  termed  the  act  "  one  which 
nobody  understands,  nobody  wants,  and  everybody  is  going 
to  vote  for."  26 

The  fundamental  rights  of  property  were  protected  against 
State  interference  by  the  federal  power.27  This  has  now  be- 
come of  practical  effect.  For  example,  much  harsh  legisla- 
tion: against  Corporations  in  Texas  was  overthrown.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  law  df  Texas  forbidding  railways  to  allow  John- 
son grass  or  Russian  thistle  on  roadbeds  was  sustained  by  the 
Supreme  Court  which  remarked  "  some  play  must  be  allowed 
for  the  joints  of  the  machine."  Justice,  though  blind,  usu- 
ally comprehends  the  situation,  and  in  this  instance  person 
and  ^property  were  both  involved.  The  far-reaching-  effects 
on  federal  and  State  relations  are  gradually  becoming  mani- 
fest. In  November  a  decision  in  a  Kentucky  case  is  re- 
ported, which  changes  one  branch  of  State  taxation.  Hither- 
to in  many  of  our  States  domiciled  inhabitants  have  been 
taxed  cm  all  their  (personal  property  wherever  situated;  in. 
other  words,  for  property  in  another  state,  it  was  a  tax  in 
personam.  The  U.  S.  Supreme  Court  held  that  "  the  taxa- 
tion of  such  property  within  the  domicile  of  the  owner  par- 
takes rather  of  the  nature  of  an  extortion  than  a  tax." 
Surely  this  is  justice. 

25  Thorpe,  3:521.  z9  Judson  Interstate  Commerce,  p.  4. 

27  Ibid.,  p.  50.  28  Ibid.,  p.  143. 

29  Simeon  E.  Baldwin,  Yale  Review,  15 : 255. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  JJ 

As  the  nineteenth  century  waned,  new  and  enlarged  powers 
were  prevailing  in  the  commercial  world.  In  1787,  foreign 
commerce  was  the  immediate  cause  of  failure  in  the  Con- 
federation and  of  calling  the  Convention.  A  century  passed; 
there  came  a  commerce  even  greater  than  the  foreign.  Noah's 
Ark  and  the  Great  Eastern  alike  had  been  superseded;  yet 
greater  were  the  changes  on  land.  The  twenty-one-foot  iron 
rail  laid  after  the  manner  of  English  turnpike  to  accommodate 
a  possible  farmer  \vith  his  own  steam-wagon  had  stretched 
3000  miles  across  a  continent.  Fraught  with  larger  conse- 
quences, were  the  alliances  merging  rails  into  systems  tens 
of  thousands  of  miles  long.  The  wealth  of  Ormus  and  of 
Ind  sought  by  Columbus,  dwindled  beside  the  loads  of  mer- 
chandise summoned  by  the  genius  of  steam. 

Among  other  great  principles  emphasized  and  formulated, 
the  Supreme  Court  by  mandatory  injunction  affirmed  that  rest 
was  injurious ;  that  "  traffic  must  flow  as  it  is  wont  to 
flow."  80 

In  1895,  the  law  of  common  carriers  was  enlarged  by  the 
Court,  "  not  changed  "  to  regulate  steam-transportation  in  a 
pregnant  saying.  "The  constitution  has  not  changed." 
"  But  it  operates  upon  modes  of  interstate  commerce,  un- 
known to  the  fathers,  and  it  will  operate  with  equal  force  upon 
any  new  modes."  81 

None  of  the  changes  induced  by  these  processes  are  of 
greater  import  than  the  regulation  of  railway  rates.  By  the 
Elkins  amendatory  act  of  1903  "  the  public  rate  is  the  legal 
rate  and  all  rebates  are  unlawful."  Under  this  act  corpor- 
ations are  being  incriminated,  but  a  new  and  stringent  statute 
was  added  last  winter.  By  the  "  judicial  process  of  inclusion 
and  exclusion,"  these  mighty  throbs  of  the  interstate  puls< 
be  harmonized  ultimately. 

These  railway  corporations,  subject  to  double  obligations 
are  fairly  liable  to  governmental  control,  but  "power  to  re- 
gulate is  not  power  to  destroy."  "  Monopoly  needs  close 

10  Judson.  Intfrstatf  Commerce,  p.  127.  *l  Ibid.,  p.  4. 

"  Noyes,  American  Railroad  Rates,  p.  3- 


78  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

watching,  but  it  often  serves  the  public  better  than  competition. 
The  matter  is  difficult,  for  the  practice  of  rating-  on  the  value 
of  service — "  all  the  traffic  will  bear  " — comes  from  the  old 
English  canals,  which  took  the  heaviest  tolls  on  most  valuable 
goods.  There  is  consequent  local  discrimination.  But  it  has 
been  proven  that  some  legislation  is  necessary,  and  railways 
must  help  conservative  legislation.88 

Judicial  process  only  can  determine  the  effect  of  our  late 
legislation,  but  we  may  consult  the  opinion  of  one  versed  in 
the  experience  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission.  Mr. 
Prouty  says  84  it  will  "  prevent  more  than  it  will  correct." 
That  the  payment  of  rebates  will  mainly  cease.  That  "  dis- 
criminations between  localities  will  largely  continue,  and  this 
will  be  the  most  fruitful  source  of  complaint  in  time  to  come/' 
How  can  it  be  avoided  "  unless  waterways  can  be  shut  up  and 
geographical  position  ignored?" 

Perhaps,  the  greatest  constitutional  lesson  for  our  gener- 
ation educated  by  the  Civil  War,  is  furnished  by  the  principle 
of  a  resultant  in  political  and  legal  development.  Legislators 
are  practically  circumscribed  by  expected  results,  while  a  re- 
sultant includes  unforeseen  impulses.  When  one  taps  a  bil- 
liard ball,  the  direct  stroke,  the  oblique  tendency  of  a  whirling 
sphere,  the  deviating  incidence  of  angles,  above  all,  the  tem- 
peramental impulse  of  the  player,  combine  in  a  final  movement, 
which  though  finite  surpasses  the  imagination.  Though  poli- 
tical and  juristic  results  are  finite,  they  bewilder  finite  minds. 

The  Revolutionary  War  culminating  in  the  Constitution 
only  made  the  federal  government  a  "  passive  non-infringer 
of  individual  liberty."  3r>  According  to  Judge  Baldwin  3C  "  a 
new  burst  of  idealism  followed  the  Civil  War."  The  fram- 
ers  of  the  fourteenth  amendment  sought  and  gained  a  new 
foundation  of  all  personal  rights,  in  the  support  of  the  Judi- 
ciary. A  momentous  innovation,  for  history  had  not  so  vin- 

38  Ibid.,  p.  259. 

34  American  Review  of  Reviews,  July,  1906,  p.  70. 

3°  Burgess,  Political  Science  and  Constitutional  Law,  i :  185. 

38  Two  Centuries  American  Law,  p.  27. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  79 

dicated  the  person  in  clan-growth,  feudal  organization  or  dele- 
grated  suffrage.  Legislators  then  fondly  expected  to  lift  the 
black  man  bodily  into  aJl  the  powers  of  citizenship,  even  if 
whites  were  incidentally  oppressed. 

What  was  the  resultant?  Negro  protection  and  develop- 
ment have  been  remanded  to  State  control,  as  rigidly  as  Ran- 
dolph or  Roger  Sherman  might  have  desired.  In  another 
direction.  Congress  and  the  Courts  are  exceeding  any  legal 
conception  possible  fifty  years  ago,  as  they  fashion  and  secure 
resultant  privileges  for  property  and  commercial  develop- 
ment. Call  it  providence,  call  it  evolution — these  ways  are 
exceeding  strange. 

\Ve  need  the  powers  of  Hamilton  and  the  great  makers  of 
the  constitution  to  interpret  the  whole  scope  of  the  instru- 
ment, after  the  development  of  more  than  a  century.  The 
government  created  by  the  constitution  has  survived  the  con- 
flicts of  war,  internal  crises,  and  the  greater  perils  of  pros- 
perity. Inasmuch  as  the  written  instrument  embodies  the 
conscientious,  vital  force  and  expanding  power  of  a  great 
people,  it  looms  up  more  largely  than  ever  in  the  advancing 
drama  of  the  civilized  world. 


GOVERNMENT  REGULATION  OF  INSURANCE 
COMPANIES. 

BY   PROFESSOR   MAURICE  H.   ROBINSON, 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

The  risks  or  hazards  to  which  man  and  his  economic  inter- 
ests are  subject  may  be  separated  into  two  classes :  ( i )  specu- 
lative risks  resulting  from  general  price  fluctuations,  and  (2) 
the  risks  of  production  and  consumption.1  The  former  fall 
upon  a  class  as  a  whole,  and  hence  are  not  readily  transferred 
by  insurance.  The  latter  affect  either  individuals  or  small 
classes.  They  may  therefore  be  borne  by  those  upon  whom 
they  originally  fall,  or  they  may  be  shifted  to  other  shoulders, 
or  finally  they  may  be  distributed  over  the  group  as  a  whole. 
Primitive  races  are  not  only  largely  under  the  dominion  of 
the  aleatory  forces,  but  they  have  no  systematic  method  of 
distributing  the  losses  arising  from  this  source.  Conse- 
quently the  weaker  individuals  and  those  less  endowed  with 
foresight  are  rapidly  eliminated.  Nevertheless,  the  natural 
law  of  survival  has  never  been  allowed  to  operate  without 
restraint.  The  family,  the  tribe  and  the  nation  in  ancient 
times  provided  more  or  less  effectively  for  the  weak  and  un- 
fortunate. Christianity  introduced  a  new  ideal  and  a  new  in- 
stitution :  the  ideal  of  a  universal  brotherhood  and  the  church 
as  the  active  agency  by  which  the  burdens  were  alleviated. 
The  church  came  to  regard  the  care  of  the  unfortunate  and  dis- 
tribution of  alms  as  its  duty  if  not  its  inherent  right.  It  thus 
gained  a  hold  upon  medieval  society  which  it  could  probably 
never  have  attained  upon  purely  religious  grounds — a  fact 
which  may  partially  account  for  its  early  hostility  to  all  forms 
of  life  insurance.  Gradually  the  church  has  either  aban- 
doned or  been  forced  to  give  up  this  field  to  various  voluntary, 

1  For  a  more  complete  analysis  of  the  classification  of  risks,  see  Prof.  H. 
C.  Emery  on  "  The  Place  of  the  Speculator  in  the  Theory  of  Distribution," 
and  articles  there  cited  in  Publications  of  the  American  Economic  Asso- 
ciation, Third  Series,  Vol.  I,  No.  i,  pp.  103  et  seq. 

(80) 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  8 1 

industrial  and  social  organizations  whose  bond  of  union  is 
economic  rather  than  religious.  These  organizations  are  ( i ) 
those  formed  primarily  for  industrial  purposes  including  the 
guild,  the  labor  union,  the  combination  and  the  corporation. 
While  established  for  other  purposes,  each  of  these  institutions 
exercises  a  profound  influence  in  distributing  the  risk  of  in- 
dustry to  the  individual  members  of  the  group;  and  (2)  those 
organized  primarily  for  transferring  risks,  that  is  the  insur- 
ance companies.  The  insurance  companies  were  slow  in  de- 
veloping, but  once  their  economic  function  was  appreciated 
their  growth  has  been  phenomenally  rapid.  They  have  thus 
taken  upon  themselves  many  erf  the  burdens  formerly  assumed 
by  the  family,  the  church,  and  the  state.  The  state  there- 
fore, as  the  ultimate  sufferer  from  the  losses  which  the  insur- 
ance companies  may  lighten  by  transferring  to  many  shoulders, 
is  forced  by  every  mandate  of  self-interest  to  see  that  all  forms 
of  legitimate  insurance  are  so  conducted  in  principle  and 
practice  that  its  benefits  may  minister  to  the  largest  possible 
number  consistent  with  safety  and  economy.2 

Insurance,  therefore,  necessitates  the  organization  of  the 
several  groups  upon  which  the  risks  naturally  fall  into  per- 
manent associations.  Such  organizations  are  theoretically 
possible  without  the  intervention  of  the  state.  But  under  such 
circumstances  rights  and  duties  must  necessarily  be  settled 
within  the  company  itself.  A  government,  with  courts  to  ad- 
judicate controversies  and  an  army  to  enforce  discipline,  be- 
comes essential  to  the  existence  of  these  organizations.  Such 
a  condition  needs  only  to  be  mentioned  to  be  discredited.  The 
state  exists  to  establish  and  maintain  justice  and  protect  life. 
liberty  and  property.  As  the  relations  of  individuals  are  com- 
ing to  be  determined  more  and  more  through  their  member- 
ship in  various  economic  and  social  organizations,  the  state 
is  in  duty  Ixniml  to  extend  its  functions  until  it  includes  the 
direct  regulation  of  all  association  within  its  bordc; 

*  For  arguments  opposing  regulation,  see  paper  by  Henry  C.  Lippincott, 
on  "  State  Supervision  Not  Properly  a  Function  of  Government,"  "  In- 
surance Press,"  Nov.  7,  1906;  and  "Testimony  of  J.  H.  Mclntosh,  in  Hear- 
ings before  the  Judiciary  Committee,  H.  of  R.,  in  Relation  to  Insurance," 
1906,  pp.  120-137. 


82  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

The  above  considerations  apply  to  all  forms  of  associations 
which  are  economic  in  their  purpose.  The  state  is  under 
further  and  especial  obligations  to  regulate  insurance  com- 
panies. The  contract  between  the  company  and  the  insured  is 
necessarily  of  a  contingent  nature 3  and  often  extends  over  a 
long  period  of  time.  The  ability  of  the  insured  to  continue 
payments  may  be  impaired.  To  forfeit  payments  already 
made  as  was  the  custom  in  the  early  days  of  life  insurance, 
defeats  the  purposes  for  which  insurance  exists.  Such  a  prac- 
tice not  only  leaves  the  policyholder  without  protection  but  also 
absorbs  the  means  with  which  he  might  have  protected  ham- 
self  in  his  hour  of  distress.  To  render  insurance  safe,  the 
payments  must  be  larger  than  is  usually  necessary  to  meet 
mortality  losses  and  the  expenses  of  conducting  the  business. 
Hence  a  return  in  the  form  of  dividends.  Payments  less 
dividends  thus  constitute  the  net  cost  of  the  policy.  If  the 
price  of  groceries  is  exorbitant  at  A's  store  the  housekeeper 
is  in  a  position  to  patronize  B  or  C.  If  company  A  is  ex- 
travagant in  its  management  or  unfair  in  its  distribution  of 
dividends,  what  recourse  has  the  policyholder?  To  surrender 
his  policy  ?  Even  under  the  most  liberal  surrender  values  and 
with  the  most  meager  dividends  such  a  process  is  always 
costly.  His  old  policy  has  been  more  expensive  than  a  term 
policy  for  the  same  period  and  the  new  policy  purchased  in  its 
place  must  be  taken  out  at  an  advanced  age  and  therefore  at  a 
higher  annual  expense.  Indeed  the  only  recourse  the  individ- 
ual policyholder  has  had  under  such  conditions  in  the  past  ex- 
cept for  the  slight  aid  given  by  the  state  and  the  stress  of  com- 
petition has  been  an  early  death.  Again,  the  enforcement  of 
the  contract  often  falls  upon  the  widow  or  orphaned  children 
who  have  in  many  cases  neither  the  means  nor  the  ability  to 
protect  themselves,  and  in  this  case  to  employ  counsel  usually 
makes  insurance  too  expensive  to  be  expedient.  From  these 
considerations  it  may  be  concluded: 

( i )  That  regulation  is  a  necessary  function  of  government ; 

»  Rosselet,  F.,  Fourth  International  Congress  of  Actuaries,  Vol.  II,  p. 
240. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  83 

(2)  That  insurance  conducted  by  large  organizations  re- 
quires more  regulation  than  that  by  smaller  ones;  * 

(3)  That  short-term  insurance  such  as  fire,  marine,  casualty, 
surety  etc.,  demands  less  regulation  than  full  life  insurance; 

(4)  The  insurance  usually  taken  by  the  economically  weaker 
classes  such  as  industrial  insurance  and  certain  forms  of  as- 
sessment  insurance  demands   more  efficient   regulation  than 
that  patronized  by  the  economically  stronger  classes ;  and 

(5)  So  salutary  is  the  effect  of  insurance  in  all  its  legitimate 
forms  that  wherever  and  whenever  the  state  is  unable  to  se- 
cure safe  and  economical  insurance  from  private  companies 
through  effective  supervision  it  would  seem  to  be  its  proper 
function  if  not  its  duty  to  undertake  to  provide  such  insur- 
ance through  its  own  direct  agency. 

The  ultimate  social  and  economic  purposes  which  the  state 
has  in  view  should  largely  determine,  first,  the  scope  and  char- 
acter of  such  regulation,  and  second  the  particular  govern- 
ment authorities  to  which  the  supervision  may  properly  be  in- 
trusted. 

From  the  social  standpoint  the  object  should  'be  to  provide 
insurance  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  weaker  industrial  classes 
so  economical  and  so  safe  that  such  classes  may  enjoy  its 
benefits  as  fully  and  freely  as  their  means  allow.  From  the 
economic  standpoint  the  purpose  should  be  to  secure  an  organ- 
ization for  each  company  so  efficient  and  safe  that  insurance 
may  be  provided  at  the  least  possible  cost  and  so  representa- 
tive in  ks  government  that  every  interest  may  receive  its  bene- 
fits in  equitable  proportion  to  its  contributions  to  the  common 
fund.  To  secure  these  ends  four  radical  changes  in  our  pres- 
ent policy  of  insurance  legislation  and  administration  is  de- 
sirable if  not  absolutely  necessary. 

(1)  In  laws  relating  to  incorporation  and  internal  gxwem- 
ment  of  insurance  companies; 

(2)  In  the  provisions  for  a  reasonable  and  adequate  system 
of  publiY 

4  This  principle  is  applied  in  Germany.  Sec  paper  by  Dr.  Von  Knebel 
Douberitz,  of  Germany,  in  Fourth  International  Congress  of  Actuaries, 
Vol.  II,  p.  230. 


84  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

(3)  The  transference  of  the  control  of  the  interstate  in- 
surance from  the  state  to  the  federal  government ;  and 

(4)  In  the  abolition  of  much  of  the  present  restrictive  legis- 
lation. 

First,  the  insurance  company  must  be  made  up  of  many 
individuals  in  order  to  be  safe  and  economical.  Its  man- 
agement must  be  intrusted  to  a  few  to  be  efficient.  Hence 
arises  the  problem  of  establishing  and  maintaining  a  strong 
and  responsible  government.  The  failure  to  accomplish  this 
necessary  end  has  been  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  our  recent 
insurance  troubles.  The  Armsitrong  reports  says: 

"  Notwithstanding  their  theoretical  rights,  policyholders  (have 
had  little  or  no  voice  in  the  management.  Intrenched  behind 
proxies,  easily  collected  by  subservient  agents  and  running  for 
long  periods,  unless  expressly  revoked,  the  officers  of  these  com- 
panies have  occupied  unassailable  positions  and  have  been  able  to 
exercise  despotic  power.  Ownership  of  the  entire  stock  of  an 
unmixed  stock  corporation  could  scarcely  give  a  tenure  more 
secure.  The  most  fertile  source  of  evils  in  administration  has 
been  the  irresponsibility  of  official  power."  5 

The  first  step  then  to  be  taken  in  effecting  this  reform  conu 
sists  in  remodeling  our  laws  relating  to  the  business  organiza- 
tion of  the  companies.  At  this  point  the  insurance  problem 
is  a  part  of  the  larger  corporation  problem — and  even  more 
complicated.  For  the  insurance  company  is  mutual  in  its 
natural  and  therefore  likely  to  be  such  in  its  organization. 
The  policyholder  thus  occupies  a  dual  position,  at  once  stock- 
holder and  patron.  He  understands  the  latter  position,  but 
usually  has  failed  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  his  well-being  as 
a  patron  depends  upon  how  efficiently  he  performs  his  duty 
as  a  stockholder.  This  will  be  no  easy  problem  to  solve.  Its 
effective  solution  will  largely  depend  upon  three  conditions: 
first,  the  active  interest  of  the  policyholder;  second,  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  machinery  provided  by  which  he  expresses  his 
will  as  to  the  personnel  of  the  management  and  the  policy  of 

6  Report  of  Armstrong  Committee,  Vol.  X,  pp.  366-7. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  85 

the  company ;  and  third,  the  system  of  publicity  provided  upon 
•which  his  judgment  rests. 

The  present  condition  is  exceptional.  The  policyholders 
are  thoroughly  arroused  by  the  revelations  of  the  Armstrong 
and  other  investigating  committees.  The  conitrol  of  vast  in- 
terests is  at  stake.  Such  a  campaign  as  that  which  has  been 
•waged  is  likely  to  occur  only  once  or  twice  in  a  lifetime. 
When  apathy  succeeds  interest,  then  the  machinery  governing 
the  election  of  directors  and  the  dissemination  of  information 
needs  to  be  so  easily  and  almost  automatically  operated  that 
the  administration  shall  under  all  circumstances  be  at  once 
efficient  and  responsible.  When,  in  the  progress  of  time  and 
a  fuller  understanding  of  this  problem  much  of  the  restrictive 
legislation  of  the  present  day  shall  have  been  outgrown  and 
abandoned  the  future  historian  will  point  to  the  Armstrong 
legislation  chiefly  as  the  first  conscious  attempt  to  control  in- 
surance companies  through  responsible  self-government. 

Second,  such  regulation  depends  upon  intelligent  action  by 
the  policyholders  and  such  action  is  possible  only  when  based 
upon  full  and  accurate  knowledge  of  facts  and  conditions. 
Its  success  necessitates  a  system  of  adequate  publicity  both  as 
to  financial  conditions  and  as  to  methods  of  operation.  Pub- 
licity is  also  the  most  powerful  deterrent  to  fraudulent  and  sel- 
fish management  known  to  political  science.  Says  Commis- 
sioner Garfield  in  his  last  report: 

"A  most  striking  and  important  result  immediately  followed 
the  investigation  of  the  Bureau — the  railroads  cancelled  substan- 
tially the  secret  rates,  illegal  or  improper  discriminations,  and  in 
many  cases  the  discrimination  in  open  rates.  Thus  a  widespread 
system  of  railway  discrimination  was  wiped  out  of  existence  be- 
cause of  the  discovery  of  the  agents  of  the  Bureau,  and  before 
any  prosecutions  were  brought  thereon.  The  shippers  of  oil  ad- 
e  the  Bureau  that  for  -the  first  time  in  many  years  they  are 
now  rapidly  obtaining  equality  of  treatment  from  the  transpor- 
tation companies."  * 

'Hie   various  investigations  into  the  insurance  companies' 
•  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Corporations,  1906,  pp.  4-5. 


86  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

management  will  undoubtedly  prove  more  valuable  for  the 
publicity  given  to  their  affairs  than  from  their  influence  on 
legislation. 

Two  methods  of  securing  publicity  are  practicable : 

1.  Through  government  investigations  and  examinations; 
and 

2.  Through  independent  audits  by  professional  accountants. 

The  former  is  the  method  generally  employed  in  this  coun- 
try, Germany,  France  and  Switzerland.  The  latter  is  confined 
chiefly  <to  England,  and  there  has  proved  a  most  valuable  aid 
to  the  government  and  to  the  policyholder.  As  is  well- 
known,  the  regulation  of  insurance  companies  in  England  is 
entrusted  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  which  relies  chiefly,  not  upon, 
examinations  by  government  officials,  but  upon  the  report  of 
the  companies  regularly  audited  by  public  accountants.!  It  is 
perhaps  more  to  the  credit  of  the  effectiveness  of  the  inde- 
pendent audit  than  to  any  other  regulative  device  tftiat  we  may 
attribute  the  -high  standing  of  the  English  insurance  com- 
panies. Public  attention  has  been,  repeatedly  called  to  the  de- 
sirability of  uniform  accounting  and  the  independent  audit 
by  public  accountants  appointed  by  and  in  the  interests  of  the 
policy  holders,  by  the  American  Association  of  Public  Accounr- 
tants  on  several  occasions  8  and  lately  by  the  Massachusetts 
Commission  on  Insurance  Law.  The  report  of  the  latter  says : 

"  The  recent  investigations  in  New  York  have  revealed,  among 
other  evils,  two  serious  defects  in  the  internal  and  external  regu- 
lation of  insurance  companies:  namely,  an  unscientific  and  in- 
efficient system  of  internal  accounting,  bookkeeping  and  auditing, 
and  a  superficial  and  inadequate  examination  of  the  companies 
by  the  insurance  department  of  that  State.  As  a  result  the  offi- 
cers of  the  companies  have  wasted  funds  by  unauthorized,  illegal 
and  improper  expenditures ;  misleading  financial  statements  have 
been  made  to  insurance  department,  policyholders  and  the  public 

7  "On  the  Province  of  State  Supervision  of  Life  Insurance  Companies," 
by  James  Chisholrn,  Fourth  International  Congress  of  Actuaries,  Vol.  I,  p. 
1006  et  seq. 

8  Journal  of  Accountancy,  April,  1906,  p.  525 ;  August,  1906,  pp.  290,  297 ; 
November,  1906,  p.  74. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  87 

and  the  majority  of  directors  and  trustees  have  'been  kept  in 
ignorance  of  many  doubtful  and  irregular  transactions." 

The  committee,  therefore,  advocates  the  passage  of  an  act 
compelling  companies  to  adopt  a  uniform  system  of  accounting 
and  to  submit  to  independent  auditing  "by  certified  public  ac- 
countants and  concludes : 

"If  the  system  proposed  had  been  established  in  New  York 
several  years  ago  many  of  the  familiar  evils  of  the  past  two  years 
would  have  been  averted.  It  would  have  been  impossible,  under 
such  a  system,  for  the  officers  of  the  greater  companies  to  have 
concealed  their  transactions  from  the  policyholders  or  the  insur- 
ance departments." 

Third,  in  centralized  governments  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  local  or  the  federal  government  is  best  fitted  to 
exercise  efficient  control  over  insurance  companies  does  not 
arise.  In  England,  France,  Italy,  Russia,  Sweden,  Belgium, 
and  other  states  of  this  form,  insurance  is  naturally  regulated 
by  the  general  government.  In  federal  governments  this 
problem  may  under  certain  conditions  assume  proportions  that 
entirely  overshadow  all  others.  Theoretically  the  solution  is 
simple  enough.  All  economic  activities  that  are  entirely  local 
are  properly  regulated  by  the  local  government.  All  economic 
activities  that  are  interstate,  are  properly  regulated  by  the 
federal  government.  Such  is  the  distribution  of  functions  in 
regard  to  the  regulation  of  insurance  in  Germany,  Switzer- 
land, Canada  and  Australia.  Such  is  the  distribution  of  func- 
tions in  regard  to  commerce  and  transportation  in  the  United 
States.  With  respect  to  insurance  the  United  States  has 
clung  to  a  method  all  other  federal  governments  have  dis- 
carded and  which  she  too  has  abandoned  for  all  other  simi- 
larly organized  economdc  institutions.  The  reasons  for  this 
anomalous  situation  are  not  far  to  seek : 

( i )  Insurance  is  a  modern  institution.  When  the  federal 
constitution  was  adopted  insurance  so  far  as  at  existed  was  en- 
tirely kxal  in  character.  As  the  insurance  business  de- 
veloped and  companies  were  instituted  their  regulation  was 


88  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

assumed  by  the  state  governments  without  any  direct  consider- 
ation of  either  its  advantages  or  disadvantages ; 

(2)  The  transference  of  the  control  of  the  insurance  com- 
panies from  the  states  to  the  federal  government  under  the 
authority  granted  congress  by  the  commerce  clause  would  be 
attended  with  far-reaching  legal  and  economic  consequences. 
This  follows  from  the  doctrine  that  a  state  has  no  power  to 
impose  restrictions  on  commerce  among  the  states  even  in  the 
absence  of  federal  legislation,9  except  such  as  may  be  neces- 
sary for  the  enforcement  of  its  police  regulations.      Conse- 
quently insurance  officials  would  be  forever  protected  on  ac- 
count of  past  offences  from  either  criminal  prosecutions  or 
civil  suits  brought  under  laws  of  other  states.    And  further,  all 
rights  of  the  policyholders  under  the  statutes  of  other  states 
would  be  invalid.10     And 

(3)  The  state  governments  naturally  enough  object  to  loss 
of  power  and  lessened  patronage. 

The  present  method  of  regulation  has,  however,  become 
well-nigh  intolerable.  The  companies  have  been  subject 
neither  to  effective  self-government  nor  to  wise  public  control. 
Irresponsible  management  on  the  one  hand,  fifty  self-seeking 
state  jurisdictions  with  conflicting  statutes,  retaliatory  meas- 
ures, "hold-up"  acts,  fake  examinations,  and  unequal  if  not  ex- 
orbitant taxation  on  the  other,  until  insurance  in  some  of  its 
forms  has  become  unduly  expensive  and  often  more  risky 
than  the  hazards  which  it  is  its  function  to  alleviate.  Why, 
it  may  be  asked  in  all  seriousness,  with  fifty  states  and  ter- 
ritories constantly  at  work,  grinding  out  statutes,  and  fifty  in- 
surance departments  continually  examining  companies  and 
issuing  voluminous  reports,  why  has  our  insurance  history 
been  disgraced  by  one  period  of  widespread  bankruptcy,  and 
now  by  another  of  extravagant  and  fraudulent  business  man- 
agement. Is  it  lack  of  authority?  In  the  words  of  the  Arm- 
strong report : 

"  This  condition  has  not  resulted,  as  has  been  stated,  from  lack 

•  Welton  vs.  Missouri,  91  U.  S.  Reports,  275. 

10  Unpublished  address,  Prof.  F.  Green,  Urfoana,  111. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  89 

of  legal  authority  either  to  inquire  into  the  irregularities  now  ex- 
posed or  to  compel  reports  which  would  have  exposed  them.  No 
substantial  amplification  of  the  powers  or  authority  of  the  de- 
partment seems  necessary."  ll 

The  failure  of  the  present  system  is  due  chiefly  to  the  fact 
that  it  fails  to  recognize  the  essential  principles  that  apply  to 
the  regulation  of  insurance  companies. 

(1)  The  government  authorities  controlling  any  economic 
organization  should  include  within  its  geographical  limits  the 
constituent  economic  society  thus  regulated. 

(2)  The  insurance  company  is  an  indivisible  and  inviolable 
organism  l2  and,  therefore,  must  of  necessity  be  regulated  as 
a  unit. 

(3)  The  several  states  are  primarily  interested  in  the  oper- 
ations of  the  interstate  insurance  companies  only  so  far  as  they 
affect  the  citizens  of  that  state. 

State  regulation  is  therefore  destined  to  fail.  For  if  the 
several  states  attempt  to  regulate  all  the  companies  operating 
within  their  borders  as  organic  units,  fifty  statutes  relating  to 
the  method  of  organization  result.  Unless  such  legislation 
is  uniform  each  insurance  company  will  find  itself  compelled 
to  withdraw  from  all  states  whose  legislation  is  not  in  har- 
mony -with  that  in  which  it  has  its  charter.  Again,  if  the 
states  attempt  to  regulate  the  companies  only  so  far  as  their 
operations  within  their  geographical  borders  are  concerned,  no 
sufficient  safeguard  against  a  contaminated  business  manage- 
ment, the  fruitful  soil  of  most  of  the  evils  that  arise  within 
its  own  domain,  is  provided. 

As  the  failure  of  state  regulation  has  become  more  and  more 
apparent  and  as  the  fundamental  reasons  therefore  have  been 
gradually  appreciated,  a  growing  and  persistent  demand  for 
federal  regulation  has  developed.  The  strength  and  vitality  of 
this  demand  is  indicated  by  the  following  phenomena: 

i .  The  replies  to  the  letter  sent  out  by  Senator  Dryden  to 

1 1  Report  of  Armstrong  Committee,  Vol.  X,  p.  job. 
13  Cf.  papers  by  Adan  and  Lc  Jeune,  Third  International  Congress  of 
Actuaries,  London,  1900. 


9O  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

some  eight  thousand  associations  and  individuals  throughout 
the  United  States  in  September,  1905,  asking  for  an  expres- 
sion of  opinion  on  the  suggestion  of  President  Roosevelt  that 
interstate  insurance  companies  'be  regulated  and  brought  under 
federal  control  showed  that  83.3%  of  those  answering  were 
in  its  favor;  13 

2.  The  work  of  the  National  Association  of  Insurance  Com- 
missioners, a  body  that  has  accomplished  more  than  any  one 
other  single  agency  for  uniformity  of  state  legislation  and  ad- 
ministration is  in  itself  a  tacit  admission  of  the  desirability 
of  uniformity,  a  condition  whch  onfly  federal  regulation  can 
successfully  accomplish ; 

3.  The  agitation  in  the  present  congress  in  behalf  of  the 
Ames  bill  is  based  upon  and  supported  by  the  same  demand; 
and, 

4.  The  organization  of  the  life-insurance  companies  into 
a  permanent  association,  as  proposed  by   President  Morton 
of  the  Equitable  in  a  circular  letter  of  December  3,    1906, 
which  has  recently  been  perfected  and  is  to-day  in  session  in 
New  York  is  in  answer  to  the  demand  for  uniformity  of  laws, 
governing  t!he  regulation  of  insurance  companies. 

None  of  these  organizations  for  securing  uniform  statutes 
seem  likely  to  accomplish  the  desired  end.  The  National  As- 
sociation of  State  Insurance  Commissioners  has  been  at  work 
•for  37  years  and  the  task  before  it  grows  larger  and  more 
hopeless.  The  "  model  "  act  for  the  District  of  Columbia  has 
received  the  approval  of  many  of  the  leading  authorities  on 
this  question  and  yet  when  one  stops  to  consider  that  this  same 
act  was  devised  "  to  get  around  the  inability  of  congress  to 
legislate  "  under  the  commerce  clause  of  the  constitution,  and 
further,  that  the  present  statutes  governing  the  insurance  busi- 
ness in  the  District  of  Columbia  enacted  as  recently  as  1901,  to 
use  the  exact  words  of  the  Commissioner  Insurance  for  the 
District,  "  are  the  worst  in  existence  "  14  one  may  well  stop  to 

18  "  The  Commercial  Aspects  of  Federal  Regulation  of  Insurance,"  by 
John  F.  Dryden,  p.  17. 

14  Hearing  before  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary  in  Relation  to  Insur- 
ance, Wasfh.,  1906,  p.  140. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  QI 

inquire  whether  the  leopard  is  to  change  his  spots  or  whether 
we  may  yet  find  that  figs  are  to  be  gathered  of  thisitles. 

Of  the  two  methods  by  which  direct  federal  regulation  may 
be  secured  that  by  the  amendment  to  the  national  constitution 
is  far  preferable  from  every  standpoint  except  that  of  practi- 
cability. For  it  would  effect  no  change  in  a  legal  status  of 
either  officers  or  policyholders  and  again,  it  would  avoid  a  long 
period  of  litigation  and  judicial  decision  in  the  courts.  It 
would  seem  from  past  experience,  however,  that  only  in  case 
of  a  great  popular  uprising  is  it  possible  to  change  our  funda- 
mental laiw.  Such  'being  the  case,  is  it  possible  to  secure 
federal  regulation  by  act  of  congress? 

Agitation  for  such  regulation  began  in  1865  as  a  direct  out- 
growth of  the  passage  of  .the  national  banking  act  of  the  pre- 
ceding year.  A  memorial  was  presented  to  congress  asking 
relief  from  the  burdens  of  state  supervision.  The  first  bill 
actually  introduced  was  in  the  year  1868  following  the  lines 
marked  out  by  this  memorial.  In  1877  as  a  direct  outgrowth 
of  the  insurance  bankruptcies  of  1874  a  second  attempt  was 
made,  but  without  result.  The  Patterson  bill  of  1892,  the 
Platt  bill  in  1897,  and  the  Dryden  bill  in  1906  have  followed 
in  succession.  The  political,  economic,  and  social  difficulties 
in  the  path  of  federal  regulation  by  acts  of  congress  have  al- 
ready been  indicated.  In  addition  to  these,  however,  there  is 
a  constitutional  question  involved  which  political  scientists 
may  consider  and  constitutional  lawyers  argue,  but  only  the 
Supreme  Court  may  finally  decide.  The  question  is,  Has  con- 
gress authority  under  the  clause  granting  it  power  over  com- 
merce among  the  several  states  to  regulate  interstate  insurance 
companies?  The  Supreme  Court  in  a  series  of  deci 
Paul  vs.  Virginia  (8  Wall.  168)  1868,  Hooper  vs.  California 
(155  U.  S.  648)  1894,  N.  Y.  Life  Insurance  Co.  vs.  Cravens 
(178  vs.  389)  1899,  and  Nutting  vs.  Massachusetts,  183  vs. 
553'  I9OI»  nas  definitely  stated  ttiat  "  issuing  a  policy  of  in- 
surance is  not  a  transaction  of  commerce  "  and  "  these  con- 
tracts are  not  articles  of  commerce  in  any  proper  meaning  of 
the  word  The  court  also  went  so  far  as  to  declare  in  Paul 
vs.  Virginia  that  "  such  contracts  are  not  interstate  trans- 


92  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

actions,  though  the  parties  may  be  domiciled  in  different 
states  "  on  the  ground  that  the  contract  was  not  completed 
until  the  policy  was  delivered  in  the  state  where  the  insured 
lived. 

Notwithstanding  the  decision  of  the  court,  in  these  and 
other  cases,  a  considerable  number  of  men  whose  opinions  are 
eminently  worthy  of  respect  believe  that  federal  regulation 
through  this  method  is  the  only  practicable  one  and  that  it  is 
worth  while  to  test  the  constitutionality  of  such  an  act. 
They  look  for  a  favorable  decision  on  the  following  grounds : 

1.  In  all  the  cases  above  referred  to  the  issue  was  brought 
under  a  state  statute.     In  none  of  them  was  the  validity  of  an 
act  of  congress  called  in  question.     In  none  of  them  did  the 
decision  hinge  upon  the  constitutional  classification   of  the 
business  of  insurance; 15 

2.  The  Supreme  Court  has  shown  a  tendency  in  some  of 
the  more  recent  cases  to  adopt  a  more  liberal  interpretation 
of  the  meaning  of  the  commerce  clause.     In  the  lottery  case 18 
it  was  held  by  a  majority  of  the  court  on  the  construction  of  a 
federal  statute  that  the  transportation  of  lottery  tickets  by 
express  involved  interstate  commerce,  and  it  was  therefore  a 
valid  act.      Further,  the  clause  is  to  be  interpreted  in  the 
light  of  present  conditions  and  consequently  in  the  words  of 
Justice  Brewer  "  it  operates  to-day  upon  modes  of  interstate 
commerce  unknown  to  the  fathers,  and  it  will  operate  with 
equal  force  upon  any  new  modes  of  such  commerce  which  the 
future  may  develop."  1T     If,  therefore,  the  transportation  of 
lottery  tickets  from  state  to  state  is  interstate  commerce  and 
the  word  "  commence  "  is  to  be  interpreted  in  terms  of  its  pres- 
ent-day meaning,  is  it  not  to  be  concluded  that  insurance  may 
yet  be  held  by  the  court  to  be  a  part  of  or  at  least  involve 
commerce? 

3.  Again,  it  is  evident  from  the  language  used  that  the 

15  Majority  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Insurance  Law,  Am.  Bar  Asso- 
ciation, Aug.  24,  1905. 
i«  188  U.  S.,  321. 
17  In  re  Debs,  158  U.  S.,  591. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  93 

court  had  in  mind  the  transaction  by  \vhich  the  contract  be- 
tween the  company  and  the  insured  was  completed.  That  is, 
the  delivery  of  the  policy  to  the  policyholder  by  the  company's 
resident  agent.  Such  a  transaction  is  evidently  not  com- 
merce in  its  ordinary  meaning  of  the  word.  This  act,  how- 
ever, while  an  important  part  of  the  work  of  the  company, 
from  the  legal  point  of  view,  is  of  minor  importance  from 
the  economic  standpoint.  A  more  complete  analysis  discloses 
that  the  insurance  company  is  engaged  in  creating  time  utili- 
ties and  selling  the  commodities  by  which  such  utilities  are  for 
the  time  being  represented  to  those  who  are  in  need  of  them. 
A  simple  case  will  illustrate :  An  insurance  company  for  and 
in  consideration  of  the  sum  of  $432  or  thereabouts,  will  sell 
to  a  man  of  35  years  of  age,  in  good  health,  $.1000  in  gold  or 
other  lawful  money,  payable  upon  proof  of  his  death.  Here 
is  a  purchase  and  a  sale,  the  essential  element  of  trade  or 
commerce.  That  the  trade  is  in  terms  of  gold  or  other  lawful 
money  does  not  prevent  it  from  being  commerce,  otherwise 
those  who  buy  and  sell  gold  and  gold  coin  must  be  excluded 
from  that  field  of  economic  activity.  Neither  is  it  an  essen- 
tial condition  of  commerce  that  the  commodities  be  "  subjects 
of  trade  and  barter  offered  in  the  market  "  that  is,  bought  for 
the  purpose  of  selling  again  for  the  sake  of  a  profit.  Such  a 
limitation  of  the  term  would  exclude  the  farmer  who  sells  eggs 
direct  to  his  city  customer  from  partaking  in  commerce,  while 
admitting  the  retailer  who  buys  to  sell  again.  Under  this 
ruction  a  retail  clothing  store  would  not  be  engaged  in 
commerce  when  selling  articles  of  clothing  of  its  own  manu- 
facture to  the  individual  who  is  to  wear  them,  tout  would  be  so 
engaged  when  selling  clothing  made  by  the  regular  manufac- 
turers of  clothing.  Commerce  refers  to  an  especial  kind  of 
business  transaction,  that  is,  the  process  by  which  titles  to 
commodities  and  other  economic  utilities  are  transferred.  The 
banker  who  buys  and  sells  commercial  paper  is  engaged  in 
commerce,  so  is  the  broker  when  buying  and  selling"  seem 
so  is  the  real-estate  agent  when  buying  or  selling  land ;  so  is 
the  manufacturer  who  sells  his  own  goods;  and  so  is  the  in- 
surance company  when  selling  insurance  The  term  insurance 


94  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

has  at  least  three  meanings  as  ordinarily  used :  ( i )  as  a  legal 
term  it  refers  to  the  formation  and  character  of  the  contract 
between  the  parties;  (2)  as  a  commercial  term  it  refers  to 
the  process  by  which  the  relations  between  the  -parties  are  es- 
tablished; and  (3)  as  an  economic  term  it  refers  to  the  effect 
of  the  institution  upon  the  distribution  of  wealth.  The  courts 
have  confined  their  attention  chiefly  to  the  first  meaning-  and 
have  failed  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  the  second.  From 
the  standpoint  of  the  company  the  commercial  process  of  sell- 
ing insurance  is  second  in  importance  only  to  the  actuarial 
basis  upon  which  its  security  rests.  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  when  the  Supreme  Court  is  obliged  to  pass  upon  the  con- 
stitutionality of  an  act  of  congress  which  declares  that  inter- 
state insurance  business  is  interstate  commerce,  and  that  poli- 
cies are  articles  of  commerce  and  instrumentalities  thereof,18 
it  will  consider  from  every  point  of  view  the  terms  commerce 
and  insurance,  and  when  it  does  so  it  will  be  obliged  to  recog- 
nize the  fact  that  insurance  involves  commercial  transactions 
ii,  indeed,  it  is  not  predominantly  an  integral  part  of  com- 
merce itself. 

4.  Certain  other  considerations  are  entitled  to  a  hearing. 
James  Wilson  speaks  of  "bills  of  exchange,  policies  of  in- 
surance and  other  mercantile  transactions;"19  Hamilton  in 
his  opinion  upon  the  constitutionality  of  'the  proposed  United 
States  Bank  objected  to  the  enumeration,  of  the  powers  of 
congress  as  stated  by  the  Attorney  General,  on  the  ground  that 
among  other  powers  he  had  failed  to  include  "  the  regulation 
of  policies  of  insurance."  20  Furthermore,  insurance  laiw  had 
its  origin  in  and  is  generally  treated  as  an  integral  part  of 
the  law  merchant  or  commercial  law ;  and  again,  the  regulation 
of  insurance  is  in  the  most  advanced  commercial  countries  ad- 
ministered as  a  part  of  the  department  of  commerce. 

Fourth.  When  a  responsible  government  has  been  provided 
for  our  various  insurance  companies,  ensuring  an  administra- 

18  Dryden  Bill,  Sec.  16. 

19  Wilson's  Works,  I,  p.  335. 

20  Hamilton's  Work,  Lodge's  ed.,  Ill,  p.  203. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  95 

tion  at  once  representative  and  efficient,  when  an  adequate  sys- 
tem of  publicity  has  been  established  through  which  the  policy- 
holders  and  the  administration  are  kept  in  vital  touch,  when, 
further,  the  government  which  regulates  is  in  economic  har- 
mony with  the  insurance  institutions  which  it  controls,  then, 
and  not  till  then,  will  it  be  possible  to  abandon  the  policy  of  re- 
strictive legislation,  -which  has  been  at  once  the  necessary  con- 
comitant and  the  vital  weakness  of  state  regulation. 


SOME  OBSERVATIONS   CONCERNING  THE  PRIN- 
CIPLES   WHICH    SHOULD    GOVERN    THE 
REGULATION  OF  LIFE  INSURANCE 
COMPANIES. 

BY  WILLIAM  C.  JOHNSON, 

MANAGER  AT  NKW  TORK  OF  THE  PHCHNIX  MUTUAL  LIFE  INSURANCE  COMPANY. 

To  the  individual  physical  life  there  is  no  end  more  certain 
than  death,  and  in  turn  nothing  more  uncertain  than  when  that 
end  may  be  reached.  In  a  group  of  lives  sufficiently  large  for 
the  fair  operation  of  the  laws  of  average,  it  will  be  found, 
however,  that,  while  no  intelligent  or  safe  prediction  may  be 
made  concerning  the  length  of  any  individual  life,  it  can  read- 
ily be  told  how  many  of  the  group  will  die  each  year.  In 
other  words,  it  will  be  found  that  there  is  a  law  of  mortality, 
whose  operations  are  so  exact  that,  while  they  are  subject  to 
slight  fluctuation  from  year  to  year,  it  is  possible  to  predict  in 
advance  with  practical  certainty  what  will  be  the  average  life- 
time of  the  group  and  the  rate  at  which  the  lives  will  fail. 

As  with  the  advance  of  civilization  the  life  of  the  individual 
became  more  complex,  and  his  responsibility  to  those  around 
him  more  marked,  with  an  increasing  necessity  of  adequately 
equipping  dependents  if  they  were  to  conquer  in  the  struggles 
of  life,  men,  subject  to  the  same  hazards  and  facing  all  an  ulti- 
mate event,  the  only  uncertainty  affecting  which  was  the  mo- 
ment of  its  occurrence,  combined  together  for  mutual  protec- 
tion, that  from  a  fund  created  by  the  contributions  of  the  many 
provision  might  be  made  for  those  dependent  upon  the  few 
lives  (their  individual  identity  not  known)  which  experience 
indicated  might  be  expected  to  fail  year  by  year.  The  prin- 
ciple underlying  this  form  of  co-operation  was  indemnity— 
to  indemnify  the  families  of  those  overtaken  by  death  for  the 
loss  of  a  productive  life,  a  life  of  money  value  to  them.  It 
may  be  said  in  passing,  as  applicable  to  all  forms  of  insurance, 
that  its  sole  legitimate  purpose  is  to  furnish  protection  against 

(96) 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  97 

some  hazard,  through  the  promise  of  indemnity — the  promise 
to  make  good  any  loss  which  may  occur  upon  the  happening 
of  the  contingency  insured  against;  as  in  fire  insurance,  the 
loss  of  one's  house ;  in  marine  insurance,  the  loss  of  one's  ship 
or  goods;  in  life  insurance,  the  loss,  to  those  dependents  to 
whom  the  benefit  is  payable,  of  the  value  of  one's  life.  This 
principle  underlies  all  insurance,  that  it  furnishes  indemnity 
(not  profit) — the  making  good,  in  a  measure  at  least,  for  a 
loss  which  has  occurred.  To  make  use  of  insurance  for  other 
ends  is  violative  of  its  true  principles  and  purposes. 

When  men  entered  upon  the  task  of  providing  indemnity  for 
the  families  of  those  who  should  die,  by  distributing  the  loss 
among  those  who  survived,  they  necessarily,  as  the  business, 
from  its  character,  could  not  be  carried  on  by  a  single  person, 
but  only  by  the  co-operation  of  many  individuals,  formed  asso- 
ciations or  companies  to  provide  the  machinery  through  which 
the  cost  might  be  collected  and  the  indemnity  paid. 

It  was  in  1762  that  the  first  society  to  insure  people  for  the 
whole  of  life  and  promising  a  determinate  sum  in  return  for  a 
fixed  premium  was  chartered  in  Great  Britain,  and  now,  as 
then,  the  business  is  conducted  by  associations,  societies  or 
companies  chartered  by  the  Government  and  possessing  only 
such  privileges,  rights  and  powers  as  have  been  granted  them 
by  the  people.  It  has  been  said  that  the  one  proper  purpose 
of  government  is  to  keep  the  peace  and  do  only  those  things 
which  are  essential  to  that  end,  and  that  legislation  founded  on 
any  other  principle  is  unsound.  Those  who  hold  this  view 
have  failed,  it  seems  to  me,  to  appreciate  the  real  significance 
of  the  increasing  complexity  of  our  modern  business  life,  and 
to  differentiate  between  the  control  Government  should  exer- 
cise over  individuals  and  the  regulation  to  which  it  should 
subject  its  corporate  citizens,  chartered  as  they  are  by  the 
State's  authority,  endowed  with  great  powers  and  privileges 
which  do  not  pertain  to  the  individual,  seeking  to  exchange 
their  securities  for  the  savings  of  the  people,  or  to  grant  their 
facilities  to  those  who  are  willing  and  able  to  pay  for  the  ser- 
vice they  may  render.  Creatures  of  the  people,  the  State 
surely  has  the  power  to  regulate  their  transactions  for  the  pro- 


98  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

tection  of  its  citizens.  Even  though  one  'bear  in  mind  the  rule 
laid  down  by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  in  the  oft- 
quoted  Dartmouth  College  case,  the  State  clearly  has  the  right 
to  regulate  the  conduct  of  its  corporate  creatures,  to  such  an 
extent  at  least  as  its  restrictions  are  regulative  and  supervisory 
and  do  not  extend  to  a  denial  to  the  corporations  of  the  right 
to  exercise  their  essential  functions.  Particularly  is  this  neces- 
sary of  insurance  companies,  since  the  growth  of  the  business 
has  been  such  that  their  operations  now  touch  the  interests  of 
almost  every  family,  and  are  of  vital  importance  to  the  in- 
dividual, the  community  and  the  State. 

An  insurance  company,  whether  it  be  a  stock  corporation, 
the  ownership  of  which  is  definitely  vested  in  individuals,  or  a 
mutual  company,  conducted  for  the  benefit  of  the  policyholders 
alone  by  officers  and  trustees  dependent  upon  the  confidence 
and  goodwill  of  the  members  for  a  continuance  of  their  trus- 
teeship, is  conducted  by  a  few  individuals  for  the  benefit  of  the 
large  number  of  persons  comprising  the  general  membership. 
It  might  be  said  that  a  stock  company  is  conducted,  not  for 
the  members,  but  for  its  stockholders,  yet  this  is  true  in  only 
a  very  limited  sense.  Irrespective  of  the  form  of  control, 
whether  mutual  or  stock,  and  the  slight  tax  put  upon  the  earn- 
ings for  the  stockholders  if  it  be  a  proprietary  institution,  the 
business  of  life  insurance  is  essentially  mutual  in  its  character. 
Its  conduct  is  possible  only  because  men  join  together — co- 
operate— to  form  an  alliance  against  misfortune.  Subject  to 
mutual  hazards,  with  similar  interests  to  protect,  men  in  life 
insurance  mutually  share  the  cost  of  furnishing  protection  to 
all,  and  indemnity,  as  it  may  be  needed,  to  the  dependents  of 
each.  In  its  essence  the  business  is  based  on  co-operation  for 
a  given  purpose  and  mutuality  in  sharing  the  cost  and  the 
benefits,  irrespective  of  whether  it  is  conducted  by  the  mem- 
bers, or  by  shareholders  who  possess  a  proprietary  interest. 
The  company  is  created,  built  up,  maintained  and  enabled  to 
fulfil  its  purpose  of  indemnifying  the  families  of  those  of  its 
members  who  die,  solely  because  a  large  number  of  persons,  in 
advance  of  any  benefit  paid,  entrust  the  substantial  sums  rep- 
resented by  their  premium  payments  to  the  small  group  who 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  99 

are  actually  charged  with  the  administration  of  the  company. 
The  State  gives  to  the  managers  of  a  life  company  great  and 
unusual  privileges,  including  the  right  to  solicit  and  receive 
from  countless  thousands  of  its  citizens  payments  made  in  ad- 
vance for  a  benefit  contracted  to  be  paid  after  the  purchaser 
is  dead.  These  payments  amount,  in  many  companies,  to  mil- 
lions of  dollars  per  annum;  in  some  companies  to  tens  of  mil- 
lions per  annum;  and,  generally  speaking,  the  disbursements 
from  the  vast  funds  thus  created  are  to  women  and  children, 
just  deprived  of  their  natural  protector,  inexperienced,  help- 
less, afflicted.  There  is  no  higher  form  of  trusteeship  than 
that  which  a  life-insurance  company  undertakes,  and  it  is  right 
that  the  trustees  of  such  enormous  funds,  contributed  by  so 
many  different  individuals  from  all  sections,  should  be  held 
to  a  strict  responsibility  by  the  Government  which  has  author- 
ized the  inception  and  development  of  the  business.  The  ob- 
ject and  purpose  of  this  regulation  is  obviously  that  Govern- 
ment should  protect  such  of  its  citizens  as  are  policyholders 
by  seeing  to  it  that  the  insurance  companies  soliciting  their 
patronage  and  contributions  are  maintained  in  a  healthy  fin- 
ancial condition;  that  they  are  honestly  and  prudently  con- 
ducted, and  that  the  funds  collected  from  the  people  are  ap- 
plied solely  to  the  purpose  for  which  contributed.  The  only 
object  which  justifies  the  State  in  regulating  the  operations 
of  its  life  companies,  is  the  safeguarding  of  the  interests  of 
its  citizens  insured.  The  Government,  the  creator  of  cor- 
porations, possessing  and  exercising  the  right  and  the  power  to 
regulate  their  operations,  we  may  properly  discuss  the  history 
of  governmental  regulation  of  insurance  in  dealing  with  the 
principles  upon  which  that  regulation  should  be  founded. 

I  in:  HISTORY  OF  REGULATION. 

GREAT   BRITAIN. 

England  is  the  home  of  the  world's  first  regular  life  com- 
panie  ;he  domicile  of  more  well-established  offices  than 

are  to-day  transacting  business  in  the  United  States;  the  ma- 
jority of  IK  companies  were  organized  and  had  been  doing 
business  for  many  years  before  insurance  became  general  in 


IOO  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

this  country.  Of  eighty  life  offices  now  doing  an  active  busi- 
ness in  England,  fifty-three  of  the  number  were  organized 
more  than  half  a  century  ago,  and  seven  of  them  more  than 
one  hundred  years  ago.  The  business  there,  during  all  the 
period  of  its  rapid  growth  here,  has  been  conservatively  and 
economically  conducted,  with  complete  freedom  from  scandal 
and  without  any  such  instances  of  infidelity  to  the  interests  of 
the  policyholders  as  have  been  disclosed  on  this  side.  It  is 
true  that  conditions  have  differed.  The  business  in  England 
has  been  of  gradual  and  steady  growth  among  a  conservative 
people.  Here  —  particularly  in  the  last  quarter-century  —  its 
development  has  been  so  great  that  we  can  scarcely  compre- 
hend what  the  figures  mean  when  we  recite  the  amount  of 
assurance  now  outstanding.  There  the  business  has  slowly 
developed  in  an  ancient  nation;  here  it  has  more  than  kept 
pace  with  the  rise  of  a  new  nation  abounding  with  natural  re- 
sources and  wealth,  its  people  noted  for  the  freedom  of  their 
expenditures  and  for  the  ample  provision  they  seek  to  make 
for  their  families.  That  the  great  spread  of  the  life-assur- 
ance idea  in  America  should  have  led  to  conditions  different 
from  those  existing  in  a  land  where  its  growth  has  been  more 
gradual,  is  not  a  matter  of  surprise.  But  the  character  of 
the  business  of  the  British  offices,  which  now  have  in  force 
over  a  billion  pounds  of  outstanding  assurance,  protected  by 
assets  valued  at  more  than  three  hundred  million  pounds, 
and  which  has  been  so  generally  conducted  with  a  singular  de- 
votion to  the  interests  of  the  policyholders,  leads  us  to  inquire 
what  part  governmental  regulation  has  played  there  in  foster- 
ing the  development  of  the  business  through  the  protection 
of  the  interests  of  the  insured. 

The  answer  to  the  inquiry  is  a  short  one.  In  Great  Britain 
a  charter  for  a  life  company  can  be  procured  without  too  great 
difficulty;  no  permanent  deposit  is  required  to  be  made  with 
the  Government ;  there  is  no  statutory  standard  of  solvency  to 
be  observed ;  there  is  not  imposed  on  the  companies  the  use  of 
any  given  table  of  mortality  or  rate  of  interest;  there  is  no 
department  of  government  charged  with  the  supervision  of 
assurance  companies,  or  authorized  to  examine  them;  and,  in 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  IOI 

fact,  there  is  complete  freedom  from  governmental  control  of 
the  details  of  the  business,  the  sole  requirement  being  that  each 
company  shall,  once  in  five  years,  file  a  valuation  and  detailed 
report  of  its  business  with  the  Board  of  Trade.  This  is  pub- 
lished in  the  Blue  Book;  and  in  making  its  valuation,  each 
company  has  to  declare  the  basis  upon  which  it  figures  its  re- 
serves— the  mortality  table  and  rate  of  interest  used — and 
make  an  exhibit  of  its  financial  condition  accordingly.  In 
other  words,  the  English  Government  relies  solely  for  the 
proper  regulation  of  its  life-assurance  companies  upon  pub- 
licity, and  the  force  of  a  competition  which,  both  following 
and  anticipating  publicity,  leads  to  a  healthy  rivalry  to  see 
which  company  can  show  the  best  returns  to  policyholders. 
Doubtless  also  reliance  is  placed  upon  the  integrity  and  fidelity 
to  their  stewardship  of  the  managers  of  the  companies,  a  re- 
liance justified  not  only  in  England  by  the  sound  management 
of  the  companies  and  the  fair  dealing  which  has  characterized 
their  relations  with  their  members,  but  as  well  in  the  United 
States  by  an  honest,  prudent  and  faithful  administration  of  the 
funds  and  affairs  of  the  great  majority  of  our  companies  which 
has  been  but  emphasized  by  the  disclosure  of  different  ideals 
of  management  in  a  few  conspicuous  instances. 

The  statutory  provisions  covering  the  operations  of  life-as- 
surance companies  in  Great  Britain,  since  the  adoption  of 
•which  they  have  been  particularly  free  from  cause  for  criticism, 
are  embodied  in  the  "  Life  Assurance  Companies'  Act,  1870." 
The  framers  of  the  Act  aimed  at  allowing  the  companies  full 
freedom  in  their  conduct  of  the  business,  while  compelling 
them  to  make  public  the  result  of  their  operations,  believing 
publicity  would  do  more  to  secure  sound  management  than  any 
other  method  which  might  be  adopted.  The  provisions  of  the 
Act  were  wisely  founded  on  the  preservation  of  corporate 
initiative  and  scope  of  administration  adapted  to  the  cir- 
cumstances of  each  company,  while  demanding  the  publica- 
tion in  systematic  form  of  the  methods  adopted  and  the 
results  achieved.  It  encourages  both  freedom  of  enterprise 
and  publicity  of  record,  such  publicity  enabling  the  public  to 
lulraw  its  confidence  and  refrain  from  membership  if  the 


IO2  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

official    returns    disclose    reason    therefor.      As    an    English 
authority  has  well  said : 

'  The  authors  of  that  Act  displayed  a  sound  and  sagacious 
judgment  and  appreciation  of  the  true  basis  of  British  commer- 
cial enterprise  'when  they  scrupulously  adhered  to  the  mainten- 
ance of  corporate  liberty  of  organization  and  method  with  the 
public  declaration  of  such  prominent  details  as  would  enable  an 
opinion  to  be  formed  upon  the  practical  wisdom  and  judicious- 
ness of  administration." 

Thus  regulation  in  Great  Britain  has  taken  the  form  of 
requiring  publicity  only,  leaving  the  trustees  free  to  conduct 
the  details  of  the  business  as  they  will,  so  long  as  they  do  it  in 
the  open ;  and  leaving  the  public,  unguided  by  any  government 
certificate  of  solvency  or  character  whether  of  great  or  little 
value,  charged  with  the  responsibility  of  protecting  its  own 
interests  through  inquiry,  through  judgment  based  on  the  pub- 
lished reports  and  the  exercise  of  an  intelligent  discrimination 
and  selection.  The  public  has  protected  itself  far  better  under 
this  system  than  the  State  can  protect  its  citizens  through 
paternalistic  methods. 

THE  UNITED  STATES 

Governmental  regulation  in  the  United  States  has  taken  a 
very  different  form,  and  the  situation  has  been  rendered  much 
more  complex  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  Federal  Government 
has  never  exercised  jurisdiction  over  interstate  insurance  trans- 
actions (not  regarding  them  as  falling  within  the  constitu- 
tional definition  of  interstate  commerce),  and  has  left  the  in- 
dividual States  to  control  the  operations,  not  only  of  their  own 
companies,  but  of  all  the  companies  doing  business  within  their 
borders.  As  most  of  the  well-established  companies  do  busi- 
ness in  practically  all  the  States,  and  as  a  corporation  of  one 
State  lacks  any  inherent  right  to  transact  business  within  the 
other  States,  but  can  enter  them  only  as  a  matter  of  favor  and 
grace  upon  complying  with  such  requirements  as  to  admission 
as  may  be  exacted,  it  follows  that  our  companies  are  subject 
to  and  must,  to  do  business  throughout  the  United  States,  be 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  103 

governed  by  the  regulations  of  fifty  different  State  and  Terri- 
torial Governments,  whose  rules  of  control  and  of  taxation 
are  by  no  means  uniform. 

Then,  on  the  whole,  a  line  of  regulation  quite  dissimilar  to 
that  followed  in  England  has  been  adopted  in  America.  The 
States  have  established  statutory  standards  of  solvency,  re- 
quiring that  the  assets  of  a  life  company  should  at  all  times 
at  least  equal  the  net  value  of  its  outstanding  policies  (such 
net  value  being  the  difference,  according  to  the  stated  Table  of 
Mortality,  between  the  aggregate  net  single  premiums  for  the 
sums  insured  at  the  then  ages  of  the  insured  and  the  present 
value  of  all  net  premiums  therafter  receivable  on  the  policies 
outstanding,  in  accordance  with  the  same  Table  of  Mortality). 
This  standard  of  solvency  has  possessed  no  magic  to  keep  any 
company  from  actual  insolvency,  and  in  conspicuous  instances 
has  served  as  a  hard-and-fast  rule  to  destroy  organizations 
whose  so-called  "  legal  reserves  "  were  temporarily  impaired, 
yet  which  were  not  only  able  to  meet  all  current  liabilities,  but 
were  in  such  a  condition  that,  treated  by  a  more  flexible  rule, 
their  reserves  could  have  been  restored  and  the  companies 
maintained  as  going  institutions — to  the  great  benefit  of  their 
policy-holders,  whose  insurance  was  in  fact  destroyed  through 
unnecessarily  enforced  liquidation. 

The  adoption  of  a  statutory  standard  of  solvency  has  been 
accompanied  in  most  States  'by  the  creation  of  an  Insurance 
Department — a  bureau  of  Government  charged  with  the  duty 
of  supervising  the  operations  of  all  insurance  companies  oper- 
ating in  the  State,  and  armed  by  law  with  the  power  to  make 
an  examination  at  will  of  the  affairs  of  any  company  doing 
business  within  its  borders.  The  next  step  toward  State  re- 
gulation of  insurance  has  been  the  appointment  as  head  of  the 
Insurance  Department,  not  of  some  man  capable,  owing-  to 
familiarity  with  the  business,  of  really  conserving  the  interests 
of  the  policyholders  through  an  intelligent  supervision,  but 
usually  of  some  politician  or  party  worker,  to  whom  the 
"  job,"  with  its  salary,  is  given  as  a  reward  for  "  loyalty  to 
the  organization." 

The  result  of  this  mode  of  selecting  men  for  the  office  of 


104  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

Commissioner  of  Insurance  has,  in  most  instances,  been  a  mere 
perfunctory  performance  of  its  duties.  The  power  to  examine 
companies  has  been  abused  rather  than  used.  When  the  ex- 
aminations were  made  in  good  faith,  they  were  directed  chiefly 
to  a  verification  of  the  company's  last  annual  statement,  and 
did  not  go  into  the  question  of  character  of  management. 
Though  directed  to  the  ascertainment  of  solvency  alone,  the 
report  frequently,  in  terms,  was  a  certificate  of  good  man- 
agement. The  effect  of  such  reports  was  to  lull  the  public, 
through  dependence  upon  official  indorsements,  into  a  sense  of 
security.  Thus,  to  an  extent,  State  guardianship  has  been  al- 
lowed to  usurp  the  place  of  responsibility  and  control  by  the 
parties  actually  interested.  Such  guardianship,  largely  inef- 
fective, injures  rather  than  benefits  the  policyholders,  for,  re- 
lying upon  it,  the  members  do  not  investigate  and  study  the 
operations  of  their  companies.  They  accept  the  license  or  re- 
port issued  by  the  State  as  a  certificate  of  character,  leave  it 
to  the  State  to  do  their  thinking  for  them,  and  as  a  result  lose 
the  advantage  of  actual  knowledge  and  the  intelligent  dis- 
crimination which  follows  it.  The  method  is  injurious  to  the 
real  interests  of  the  citizen,  which  is  always  the  case  when 
governments  attemtps  to  do  for  an  individual  what  that  in- 
dividual should  do  for  himself. 

The  power  to  examine,  moreover,  has  on  many  occasions 
been  used  by  unscrupulous  officials  "  for  purposes  of  revenue 
only,"  and  the  instances  are  well  known  where  officials  of  dis- 
tant States  have  visited  cities  where  were  located  many  com- 
panies, both  life  and  fire,  and  made  a  pretence  of  "  verifying 
the  last  annual  statement"  for  "the  protection  of  policyholders 
residing  in  our  State."  These  "  verifications  "  were  of  a  most 
casual  nature;  half  a  dozen  of  such  so-called  examinations 
were  often  conducted  concurrently,  the  representative  of  the 
distant  State  spending  a  few  hours  only  in  each  office.  The 
expense  of  these  examinations  was  of  course  collected  from 
the  companies,  and  -was  usually  regarded  as  an  individual  per- 
quisite by  the  examiner  or  the  Commissioner  he  represented. 
It  consisted  of  a  very  liberal  per-diem  for  the  examiner  and 
his  assistant,  their  hotel  bills,  and  mileage  from  the  distant 
State  to  the  place  of  examination. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  1 05 

The  mileage  and  hotel  bills  were,  with  the  charges  for 
"  services,"  presented  to  each  of  the  companies  "  examined  " 
on  such  a  trip  (even  though  the  expense  was  actually  only  in- 
curred once),  and  any  question  concerning  the  payment  of 
the  bill  was  met  by  an  immediate  threat  to  revoke  the  com- 
pany's license  in  the  given  State.  This  was  State  "  supervis- 
ion "  at  its  worst,  and  it  may  be  said,  for  the  credit  of  the 
States,  that  this  particular  form  of  "  regulation  "  is  less  heard 
of  now  than  it  was  a  few  years  ago.  It  is  significant,  how- 
ever, talcing  supervision  at  its  best  in  the  United  States,  that 
the  statutory  standard  of  solvency  has  been  "  useful  "  chiefly 
in  forcing  into  liquidation  companies  intrinsically  solvent;  that 
State  supervisors  have  given  the  public  no  protection  or  warn- 
ing against  companies  actually  being  mismanaged — and  that 
the  various  States  and  their  officials,  with  the  power  at  hand 
for  years  past  to  thoroughly  examine  any  company  doing 
business  within  its  borders,  never  in  any  way  discovered  or 
warned  the  public  against  the  evils  which  were  recently  laid 
bare  in  an  examination  conducted  by  a  Legislative  committee. 

The  expense  of  the  maintenance  of  all  these  numerous  State 
Insurance  Departments  and  of  the  examinations  which  they 
make  is  collected  from  the  policy  holders,  through  a  direct 
charge  on  the  companies  in  some  instances  for  the  expense  of 
the  investigations,  and  otherwise  through  taxation.  There  are 
Insurance  Departments  in  a  considerable  number  of  States 
which  are  efficiently  conducted,  and  which  render  some  real 
service  to  the  policyholders ;  yet,  taking  State  supervision  on 
the  whole,  as  it  has  existed  in  the  United  States,  has  the  pro- 
tection afforded  the  policyholders  through  it  been  worth  what 
it  has  cost  them?  Has  it  been  justified  by  the  results?  An- 
other answers: 

"  Have  failures  'been  prevented  and  losses  avoided  ?  Has  it 
been  impossible  for  fraudulent  assessment  isrn  to  flourish  and 
count  its  deluded  and  disappointed  victims  by  the  millions?  Has 
not  the  State  invariably  yielded  to  the  clamor  of  promoters  and 
their  expectant  victims,  and  put  its  broad  seal  of  approval  upon 
impossible  schemes  of  insurance,  inevitably  certain  to  bring  dis- 


IO6  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

aster?  Has  it  prevented  the  misapplication  of  trust,  funds  and 
their  diversion  from  those  to  whom  they  belonged  ?  Has  it  pro- 
moted equity,  scowled  on  discriminations,  rebuked  extravagance, 
condemned  nepotism,  and  denounced  self-adjusted  salaries?  Has 
speculation  in  trust  funds  been  prevented  ?  We  know  the  things 
existed  in  some  companies,  and  we  place  the  responsibility  for 
them  squarely  upon  the  State,  where  it  belongs,  since  the  State 
has  undertaken  a  guardianship  which  I  will  not  say  it  could  not 
better  perform,  but  which  will  never  be  adequately  performed 
until  those  interested  perform  it  for  themselves." 

Like  the  poor,  however,  State  supervision  will  doubtless 
always  be  with  us,  and  the  -most  that  can  be  expected  is  that 
the  Insurance  Departments  of  all  the  States  will  emulate  the 
example  of  those  most  efficiently  conducted  to-day,  and  that, 
out  of  the  present  confusion  of  statutory  and  departmental 
regulations  (varying  as  they  do  in  the  different  States)  may 
come  a  degree  of  uniformity,  followed  by  a  co-operation  be- 
tween the  States,  so  that  one  may  not  duplicate  the  work  of 
another,  as  in  examinations,  etc.,  except  for  some  special  and 
controlling  reason.  It  is  also  to  be  hoped  that  state  insurance 
officials  will  confine  their  activities  to  their  proper  province  of 
seeing  that  the  companies  obey  the  laws  and  so  openly  con- 
duct their  business  with  an  efficient  accounting  to  the  policy- 
holders  that  the  public  can  intelligently  protect  its  own  inter- 
ests; and  not  attempt,  as  has  been  done  in  some  oases,  to  in- 
terfere with  company  managements  and  dictate  how  the  de- 
tails of  the  business  should  be  conducted. 

THE  EFFECT  OF  PUBLICITY. 

With  this  review  of  the  object  and  history  of  regulation,  it 
may  be  pointed  out  that  heretofore  no  efficient  publicity  or 
actual  accountability  for  surplus  funds  has  been  required  in  the 
United  States.  There  have,  it  is  true,  been  many  of  our  old 
companies  which  have  voluntarily  made  annual  accountings  to 
their  policyholders,  and  concerning  whose  management  there 
has  not — shall  we  say  as  a  consequence? — been  any  substantial 
criticism  uttered.  Yet,  in  the  past,  the  companies  prudently, 
conservatively  and  honestly  managed,  have  not  done  as  much 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  IO/ 

business  as  other  companies  which  refrained  from  annual  ac- 
countings to  their  members,  and  in  whose  conduct  extravagant 
and  improper  methods  of  management  have  been  recently  dis- 
closed. In  fact,  the  companies  which  were  actually  doing  least 
for  the  individual  policyholders  were  most  largely  receiving 
the  patronage  of  the  public.  The  reason  for  this  is  that  the 
poorly  managed  companies  have  been  able  to  conceal  the  fact 
through  lack  of  publicity  and  accountability,  and  through  ex- 
travagant expenditures  thus  concealed  have  been  given  an 
advantage  in  the  hiring  and  compensation  of  agents.  With 
annual  accountability  enforced  of  all  companies,  the  results  in 
each,  as  to  cost  and  surplus  earnings,  would  be  clearly  known 
to  every  individual  who  cared  to  inquire.  In  no  business  is 
there  sharper  competition  than  in  life  insurance,  and  with  pub- 
licity and  accountability  enforced  the  law  of  self-preservation 
would  require  every  carelessly  managed  company  to  mend  its 
ways,  for  failing  to  do  so  its  results  would  fall  below  those  of 
its  rivals,  and  it  would  lose  the  confidence  and  patronage  of  the 
people,  who,  with  publication  of  methods  and  results  required, 
will  never  be  as  blind  about  insurance  matters  hereafter  as  in 
the  past.  Fostered  by  publicity  and  annual  accountings,  com- 
petition in  life  insurance  will  no  longer  be  directed  toward  size 
or  rapid  growth,  but  there  will  certainly  be  a  competition  in 
economy,  to  see  which  company  can  give  insurance  at  the 
lowest  cost  to  the  policyholders ;  and  under  such  competition 
there  would,  through  the  outworking  of  a  natural  law,  be  a 
reduction  of  expenses  to  as  low  a  point  as  efficiency  and  ex- 
perience would  warrant,  without  the  damage  which  may  follow 
an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  State  to  interfere  with  freedom 
of  management  in  its  details. 

PRINCIPLES  OF  CONTROL. 

Consequently  we  hold  t/uit  the  fumiiinii'ntul  principle  upon 
which  all  sound  governmental  regulation  of  life-insurance  com- 
panies should  be  based  is  the  requirement  of  complete  publicity 
concerning  their  operations,  accompanied  by  a  detailed  and  fre- 
quent accountability  for  all  surplus  and  other  funds. 

Let  the  State  require  of  all  life-insurance  companies  the 


IO8  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

utmost  publicity  concerning  their  management;  let  it  insist 
upon  all  their  transactions  being  carried  out  in  the  light  of  day; 
let  it  demand  of  the  trustees  a  regular  and  public  accounting 
for  the  funds  entrusted  to  their  care,  and  you  then  enable  the 
policyholders  to  readily  ascertain  whether  their  company  is 
being  properly  conducted,  and  to  protect  their  own  interests 
accordingly. 

Last  year  a  legislative  investigation  of  a  few  great  American 
companies  disclosed  the  fact  (scarcely  a  matter  of  wonder  in 
view  of  the  period  of  growth  and  expansion  through  which 
their  business  had  recently  passed)  that  there  had  been  in  such 
companies  extravagance,  improper  expenditures  and  other 
evils  embodying  a  disregard  of  a  faithful  trusteeship.  All 
join  in  condemning  the  evils  disclosed,  and  among  insurance 
men  and  citizens  generally  there  is  no  dispute  as  to  the  gen- 
eral facts  nor  as  to  the  necessity  of  making  their  repetition  im- 
possible. But  what  is  the  sound  method  of  insuring  such 
reform  ? 

We  certainly  should  not,  by  complex  regulations  affecting 
many  features  and  details  of  a  situation,  seek  to  do  that 
which  can  be  accomplished  more  easily  and  with  equal  cer- 
tainty by  a  few  simple  fundamental  requirements. 

What  is  necessary  for  thoroughgoing  insurance  reform  is 
a  maximum  of  publicity,  strict  accountability  and  a  minimum 
of  legislation. 

THE  TEST  OF  RECENT  LEGISLATION. 
If  we  refer  to  the  statutory  enactments  following  the  recent 
investigation  we  may  see  to  what  extent  the  laws  passed  de- 
part from  or  run  counter  to  sound  principle.  The  investiga- 
tion disclosed  evils — evils  which  had  arisen  in  a  period  of 
forced  growth,  whose  disclosure  shocked  all  men.  Their 
occurrence  was  to  a  large  extent  possible  only  because  of  a  lack 
of  publicity  concerning,  and  accountability  for,  the  surplus 
funds  arising  under  policies  on  which  the  dividends  were  de- 
ferred for  long  periods  of  years.  The  lawmakers,  if  we 
can  judge  from  the  laws  adopted,  seemed  unconscious  of  the 
truth  that  the  mere  disclosure  of  the  facts  and  the  deeper  sense 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  lOO, 

of  trusteeship  which  such  disclosure  enforced,  together  with 
a  consequently  more  intelligent  attitude  toward  the  subject  by 
the  public,  of  themselves  rendered  a  recurrence  practically  im- 
possible. Evil  cannot  thrive  in  the  broad  light  of  day.  The 
majority  of  citizens  are  honest,  and  a  dishonest  man  or  cor- 
poration cannot  permanently  retain  the  confidence  or  patrotir 
age  of  the  public.  That  which  must  be  done  openly,  under  the 
scrutiny  of  all  men,  will,  on  the  whole,  be  done  fairly  and 
honestly.  As  another,  a  most  intelligent  and  faithful  State 
Insurance  Commissioner,  has  said: 

"  The  great  remedy  for  whatever  evils  have  thus  far  been  found 
in  insurance,  or  whatever  evils  may  be  found  in  the  business  in 
the  future,  lies  in  full  and  complete  publicity.  I  am  clearly  of  the 
opinion  that  more  actual  good  has  been  accomplished  by  the  pub- 
licity incident  to  the  Armstrong  Committee  investigation  than  will 
ever  be  accomplished  by  the  Armstrong  laws,  so-called,  and  this 
observation  is  not  meant  to  be  in  any  sense  a  reflection  upon  the 
recent  New  York  enactments.  I  simply  desire  to  emphasize  my 
belief  in  publicity  rather  than  in  wholesale  legislation,  designed 
to  cover  every  detail,  as  the  effective  remedy  for  evils  of  what- 


DEFERRED  DIVIDENDS. 

The  evils  which  were  discovered  last  year  had  been  rendered 
possible  chiefly  through  the  abuse  of  the  deferred  dividend 
plan.  The  obvious  remedy  was  to  require  publicity  and  strict 
annual  accountability  under  such  contracts  in  the  future.  The 
practice  of  deferring  the  distribution  of  dividends  or  bonuses 
has  been  in  common  use  in  England  ever  since  the  business 
was  founded,  with  benefit  rather  than  injury  to  the  policyhold- 
crs.  It  has,  or  it  has  not,  an  office  to  perform  in  connection 
with  American  life  insurance.  Lack  of  accountability  under 
it  here  had  given  rise  to  extravagance  and  grave  evils.  If  ac- 
countability had  been  imposed  and  the  plan  has  a  legitimate 
place  in  the  business,  it  would  have  survived  without  injury 
to  the  public;  if  it  could  not  survive  under  a  compulsory  ac- 
countability it  would,  and  should,  die  a  natural  death.  Sound 
legislation  would  have  given  protection  against  the  abuse  of 


IIO  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

the  plan,  and  left  natural  laws  to  determine  the  question  of  its 
survival.  Was  the  action  of  the  lawmakers  guided  by  sound 
principles  of  publicity  and  accountability?  Not  at  all.  The 
deferred  dividend  contract  was  prohibited  by  statute.  This 
prohibition  renders  it  impossible  to  safely  transact  certain 
forms  of  substandard  business,  thus  preventing  a  class  of 
citizens  most  needing  insurance  from  procuring  it  (though  it 
is  clearly  in  the  interest  of  the  State  that  they  should  be  able, 
through  insurance,  to  protect  their  dependents) ;  and  as  indi- 
cated, the  prohibition  was  wholly  unnecessary.  It  was  not 
the  deferred  dividend  contract  which  caused  the  evils,  but  the 
abuse  of  it — and  accountability  would  have  cured  the  abuse. 

LIMITATIONS  OF  EXPENSE. 

The  investigation  disclosed  evils  of  extravagance,  both  in 
general  expenses  and  in  agency  expense.  It  was  the  abuse  of 
the  deferred  dividend  contract  which  alone  rendered  such  ex- 
travagance possible.  The  cure,  through  publicity  and  account- 
ability, of  such  abuse  of  deferred  dividends,  would  also  neces- 
sarily, almost  automatically,  have  put  a  stop  to  undue  expendi- 
tures, for  with  every  company  required  to  account  to  its  policy- 
holders  annually,  showing  the  surplus  earned  on  each  policy,  a 
premium  would  have  been  put  on  economy,  and  all  companies 
would  be  compelled  to  approximate  the  prudent  and  economi- 
cal management  of  the  most  conservative,  or  would  lose  the 
confidence  of  the  public  through  failure  to  give  equally  favor- 
able results.  Did  the  Legislature  cure  the  evil  by  such  funda- 
mental requirements  ?  On  the  contrary,  it  put  on  the  statute 
books  a  limitation  of  the  total  amount  any  company  might 
disburse  for  expenses  per  annum.  Companies  differ,  among 
other  things,  in  age,  in  size,  in  financial  strength,  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  business  they  have  in  force,  in  standing,  in  repu- 
tation, in  earning  power,  in  the  percentage  which  they  have 
added  to  the  net  premium  for  expenses.  The  lawmakers 
ignored  such  considerations,  and  adopted  a  limitation  of  ex- 
penses which  is  applicable  to  all  alike;  which  bears  with  un- 
equal force  upon  different  ones;  which  renders  it  impossible 
that  new  companies  should  be  organized;  and  which  throws 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  I  I  I 

obstacles  in  the  way  of  upbuilding  into  strong  and  useful  in- 
stitutions those  smaller,  younger  or  weaker  companies  now 
existing,  whose  preservation  and  growth  the  State  is  in  real- 
ity especially  interested  in  fostering. 

There  had  been  extravagance  in  the  agency  field.  With 
publicity  and  accountability  it  could  not  exist.  But  was  that 
the  remedy  applied?  No;  but  for  the  first  time  in  history 
there  has  been  written  on  the  statute  books  a  law  establishing 
for  labor  not  a  minimum  but  a  maximum  rate  of  compensa- 
tion. The  sufficiency  of  the  provision  does  not  for  the  mo- 
ment enter  into  our  argument,  though  it  will  be  referred  to 
later  as  indicating  the  practical,  as  well  as  the  theoretical,  ob- 
jections to  such  laws.  Sufficient  or  insufficient,  the  principle 
underlying  such  legislation  is  unsound.  The  trustees  and  offi- 
cers of  life-insurance  companies  are  charged  with  the  duty  of 
conducting  their  business  efficiently;  a  healthy  growth  and 
the  steady  introduction  of  a  reasonable  number  of  new  lives 
(the  effect  of  which  is  to  reduce  the  death  rate)  is  beneficial 
to  the  members,  and  lessens  the  cost  of  their  insurance. 
Through  the  limitation  first  of  agency  expense  and  then  of 
total  expenses,  the  power  and  discretion  of  the  officers  are 
taken  from  them,  and  yet  they  are  left  with  the  responsibility. 
The  State  should  either  leave  both  the  power  to  manage  and 
the  responsibility  of  management  with  the  officers  of  the  com- 
pany, safeguarding  the  interests  of  the  public  through  the  re- 
quirement of  adequate  publicity  and  accountability,  or,  if  it 
desires  to  exercise  the  power  of  controlling  the  details  of  the 
business,  it  should  itself  assume  the  responsibility  as  well. 

To  deal  for  a  moment  with  the  merits  rather  than  the  prin- 
ciples of  such  regulation,  the  provision  made  for  agency  ex- 
pense is  possibly  sufficient  for  the  great  cities  and  for  well- 
established  companies  in  the  thickly  populated  sections.  Com- 
panies differ  in  very  many  respects,  however;  and  what  would 
be  sufficient  for  a  company  of  size  and  fine  reputation,  which 
has  been  doing  business  in  a  given  territory  for,  say,  half  a 
century,  which  has  thousands  of  satisfied  policyholders  there- 
in, and  which,  accordingly,  finds  it  comparatively  easy  to  pro- 
cure new  business,  may  be  wholly  insufficient  for  a  company 


112  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

perhaps  in  every  way  just  as  good,  which  is  new  to  that  par- 
ticular field,  and  lacks  history  or  policyholders  in  that  com- 
munity. This  is  true  of  companies  of  equal  merit  but  with 
different  histories  in  the  given  field,  and  the  inequality  is  more 
marked  when  we  consider  the  case  of  the  smaller,  weaker  or 
younger  companies,  which  it  should  be  the  purpose  of  the 
State  to  preserve — not  destroy. 

Territories,  as  well  as  companies,  differ;  and  a  compensa- 
tion which  may  be  adequate  in  cities  like  New  York  or 
Chicago,  where  an  agent  has  opportunity  to  write  a  great  deal 
of  business,  may  be  wholly  insufficient  in  the  sparsely  settled 
agricultural  districts,  where  there  is  but  a  limited  amount  of 
business  to  be  procured  in  any  event,  and  where  the  agent  must 
travel  long  distances,  at  much  expense  of  both  money  and 
time,  to  get  even  that.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  general  opinion  of 
conservative  insurance  men,  who  are  quite  in  sympathy  with 
the  demand  for  economy,  that  this  measuring  of  all  com- 
panies and  all  territories  by  the  same  yard-stick  of  expense, 
will  result  in  the  loss  to  the  companies  of  some  of  their  very 
best  and  most  persistent  business,  namely,  that  arising  from 
the  agricultural  communities,  and  in  the  loss  to  the  State  which 
must  necessarily  follow  the  failure  of  any  class  of  its  citizens 
to  make  provision  for  their  dependents. 

SURPLUS  FUNDS. 

Again,  some  of  the  companies,  through  the  deferred  divi- 
dend plan,  had  built  up  large  surplus  funds,  for  which  they 
were  not  held  to  any  strict  account.  Evil  had  followed,  due 
to  the  absence  of  accountability,  the  enforcement  of  which 
would  have  cured  it.  The  Legislature  again  ignores  the  ob- 
vious, and  for  the  first  time  in  history  we  find  the  State 
legislating  for  instability.  The  history  of  all  regulation  of 
fiduciary  institutions  shows  government  making  provision  to 
insure  the  absolute  security  and  solvency  of  corporations 
receiving  and  contracting  to  safeguard  the  surplus  earnings 
of  the  people.  In  recent  legislation,  however,  we  find  one  of 
our  States,  greatest  in  population  and  wealth  if  not  in  legis- 
lative wisdom,  defining  the  maximum  surplus  or  contingency 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  113 

reserve  which  a  company  shall  maintain.  Never  before  has 
the  State  attempted  to  take  all  discretion  from  the  managers 
of  its  corporate  creatures  and  actually  legislate  for  weakness 
and  insecurity  through  a  limitation  of  the  amount  of  surplus 
funds  which  a  company  may  accumulate.  The  evil  arising 
from  large  surplus  funds  held  free  from  accountability  could 
have  been  promptly  cured  by  fundamental  legislation  as  al- 
ready indicated,  and  by  the  adoption  of  a  sound  method  of 
taxation;  but  the  principles  which  should  govern  regulation 
seem  to  have  been  wholly  ignored,  and  a  "  short  cut  "  at- 
tempted which  improperly  impairs  the  discretion  of  managers 
and  is  an  infringement  upon  the  security  of  the  policyholders. 
It  is  far  more  important  that  insurance  should  be  absolutely 
secure  than  that  the  individual  member  should  receive  a  dol- 
lar or  two  extra  in  dividends. 

Thus,  if  we  carefully  study  the  principles  upon  which  regu- 
lation should  be  founded,  it  would  appear  that  the  State,  in 
recent  legislation,  had  adopted  a  cumbersome,  arbitrary,  pa- 
ternalistic and  dangerous  method  of  accomplishing  needed  re- 
forms, which  could  better  have  been  made  effective  by  a  few 
simple  requirements  directed  at  the  fundamentals  of  publicity 
and  accountability. 

The  lawmakers  have  seemingly  overlooked  the  fact  that 
integrity  and  fidelity  to  a  trust  can  no  more  be  created  or 
guaranteed  by  statute  than  can  the  fidelity  of  the  citizen  to 
his  marriage  vow  be  enforced  by  legislative  enactment.  What 
is  wanted  is  not  more  legislation,  but  more  character;  not 
statutory  restriction,  but  a  deepening  of  the  sense  of  trustee- 
ship and  such  a  public  operation  of  the  affairs  of  the  com- 
panies as  will  not  only  make  evil  or  extravagance  certain  of 
detection,  but  -will  enable  the  individual  citizen  to  judge  more 
intelligently  concerning  the  merits  of  the  administration  of 
his  company.  Soundness  and  integrity  of  management  arc 
not  as  apt  to  be  insured  by  the  creation  of  statutory  misde- 
meanors as  by  requiring  that  all  corporate  acts  shall  be  per- 
formed in  public.  It  may  well  be  repeated,  as  pointed  out 
by  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Birmingham  in  the  Commemoration 
Sermon  preached  by  him  at  Oxford  University  in  June  last 


114  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

(in  speaking  of  the  laboring  classes  and  their  apparent  belief 
that  legislative  enactments  covering  this  point  or  that  would 
better  their  condition),  that  what  is  needed  in  all  the  affairs  of 
life  is  not  so  much  new  law,  or  more  law,  or  the  experiments 
of  governmental  control,  as  character — an  intelligent  appli- 
cation of  right  principles  to  all  the  relations  of  men.  That 
legislation  affecting  insurance  corporations  will  prove  of  the 
greatest  value  which  most  deepens  the  sense  of  responsibility 
on  the  part  of  corporate  managers,  and  increases  the  intelli- 
gent discrimination  exercised  by  the  members  or  those  con- 
templating membership.  Men  should  be  encouraged  to  think 
and  act  for  themselves,  and  the  State  can  aid  in  developing 
self-reliance  on  the  part  of  its  citizens  by  the  requirement  of 
such  publicity  concerning  corporate  operations  as  will  give 
to  any  man  who  uses  his  intelligence  the  power  of  self -pro- 
tection. The  strength  of  the  State  is  dependent  upon  the 
character  of  its  citizens,  and  the  community  can  only  be  in- 
jured, not  helped,  by  government  attempting  to  exercise  on 
behalf  of  its  people  functions  of  judgment,  or  discrimination 
and  of  selection  in  the  conduct  of  private  affairs  which  the 
citizen  can  better  employ  himself,  and  the  use  of  which  would 
strengthen  and  improve  him.  Much  of  the  mistaken  inter- 
ference of  government  with  individual  affairs  springs  from  a 
disregard  of  the  unquestioned  truth  that  knowledge  comes 
from  experience  and  development  through  the  exercise  (not 
•through  the  non-use)  of  one's  faculties.  The  very  spirit  of 
our  democratic  institutions  calls  for  the  greatest  possible  free- 
dom of  action  on  the  part  of  the  people  in  private  affairs,  and 
through  that  freedom  character  is  developed,  both  from  the 
lessons  of  attainment  and  from  those  deeper  lessons  of  appar- 
ent failure  which  in  a  democracy  are  so  often  but  the  founda- 
tion stones  of  ultimate  achievement. 

No  observations  concerning  the  regulation  of  life  insurance 
could  be  complete  without  reference  to  the  demand  which  is 
being  made  in  some  quarters  for  a  standard  policy,  and  with- 
out calling  attention  to  the  lack  of  principle  upon  which  pres- 
ent methods  of  insurance  taxation  are  based. 


AMERICAN  POLITICAL  SCIENCE  ASSOCIATION.         115 

STANDARD  POLICY  FORMS. 

There  is  no  innovation  in  the  line  of  insurance  regulation 
more  actively  urged  at  the  present  moment  by  those  lacking 
experience  in  conducting  the  business,  and  certainly  no  pro- 
posal for  which  less  can  be  said,  than  the  demand  for  standard 
forms  of  life  policies.  It  is  argued  that  as  standard  fire 
forms  are  required,  the  same  rule  should  be  applied  to  life 
companies.  In  the  case  of  fire  insurance,  there  are  frequently 
many  policies  in  force  on  the  same  risk;  the  loss  incurred  is 
almost  always  a  partial,  not  a  total,  loss;  the  adjustment  of 
all  the  policies  is  usually  made  at  one  and  the  same  time  by 
an  adjuster  representing  all  the  companies,  and  the  many 
questions  arising  concerning  the  distribution  of  partial  losses, 
and  the  pro-rata  payable  by  each  of  the  several  companies 
involved,  have  seemed  to  many  States  to  justify  the  require- 
ment of  uniform  policy  provisions — so  that  the  liability  of 
each  company  may  be  defined  by  the  same  rule  and  clearly  un- 
derstood. In  life  insurance,  however,  there  is  nothing  pay- 
able except  in  the  event  of  a  total  loss  (death),  when  the  policy 
is  paid  in  full:  and  each  company  adjusts  its  own  claim  in- 
dependently of  the  others.  There  are  no  questions  of  partial 
loss  or  pro-rata  liability  to  arise,  and  the  reasons  which  are 
urged  for  standard  fire  forms  are  wholly  inapplicable  to  life 
insurance.  In  addition,  there  is  no  evil  needing  correction 
which  demands  that  the  State  should  deny  to  its  corporations 
and  its  citizens  the  free  right  of  contract.  Here  and  there  a 
policy  has,  it  is  true,  been  misrepresented  by  irresponsible 
agents,  whose  employment  was  a  natural  consequence  of  the 
high-pressure  methods  lately  in  vogue,  the  misrepresentation 
usually  taking  the  form  of  stating  twenty-year  deferred-divid- 
end policies  to  be  twenty-year  endowment  contracts.  The  re- 
quirement of  accountability  under  deferred  dividend  policies, 
the  abandonment  of  high  pressure  methods  and  the  discontinu- 
ance of  the  system  of  advances  to  agents  which  would  natur- 
ally follow  such  accountability,  would  speedily  cure  such  slight 
evils  as  may  have  existed  in  the  matter  of  misrepresenting  the 
policies  of  any  of  the  regular  life-insurance  companies.  There 
is  in  reality  no  evil  the  cure  of  which  would  not  be  better 


Il6  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

found  in  legislation  directed  at  the  fundamentals  of  pub- 
licity and  accountability,  rather  than  in  the  requirement  of 
standard  forms.  It  is  significant  that  there  is  no  demand 
from  policyholders  for  any  such  "  reform,"  the  cry  arising 
almost  wholly  from  those  who,  having  had  no  practical  ex- 
perience in  the  business  and  possessing  no  sound  knowledge  of 
its  history  or  the  principles  and  practices  underlying  its  opera- 
tion, have  taken  to  themselves  the  duty  of  suggesting  the  pass- 
age of  new  insurance  laws  to  legislators  equally  unfamiliar 
with  the  subject. 

If  those  who  urg-e  the  adoption  of  standard  forms  but  had 
the  opportunity  afforded  the  practical  insurance  man  of  exam- 
ing  the  policies  issued  by  the  American  companies  fifty  years 
ago,  forty,  thirty,  or  even  twenty  years  ago,  and  comparing 
them  with  those  issued  say  ten  or  five  years  ago — or  even 
of  comparing  the  latter  with  those  now  offered,  he  would 
find  that  through  the  lessons  taught  company  managers  by 
experience,  and  through  the  force  of  a  healthy  competition, 
policy  forms  had  become  more  and  more  liberal  each  year, 
had  been  framed  to  cover  a  constantly  increasing  number  of 
benefits,  had  omitted  restriction  after  restriction  formerly  en- 
forced, until  to-day,  if  the  policy  contracts  of  many  of  the 
companies  are  to  be  criticised  at  all,  the  criticism  must  be  that 
they  embody  too  great  freedom  from  restriction,  too  much 
liberality,  too  substantial  rewards  for  surrender,  rather  than 
that  they  fail  in  any  way  to  give  the  policyholders  full  value 
for  the  premium  paid.  And  the  significant  thing  is  that  this 
history  of  improvement  and  increased  liberality  in  policy  forms 
has  been  the  voluntary  act  of  the  companies,  due  to  the  guid- 
ance of  experience  and  the  force  of  a  free  competition  uncon- 
trolled by  the  State.  Policies  are  constantly  being  redrawn 
and  liberalized ;  the  development  in  forms  has  kept  pace  with 
the  increasing  complexity  of  modern  business  conditions,  and 
every  need  for  protection  that  has  arisen  has  been  met  by 
changes  and  improvements  in  the  life-insurance  contract.  Not 
until  the  current  year  has  any  State  sought  to  crystallize  into 
exact  language  and  put  into  inflexible  form  on  the  statute 
books  policy  forms  which  it  says  must  be  used  by  all  its  com- 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION. 

panics.     A   form  safely  applicable  to  all  companies,   young 
and  old,  weak  and  strong,  is  necessarily  less  liberal  than  that 
which  the  older  and  stronger  companies  could  issue :  and,  in 
fact,  in  the  one  State  where  the  idea  has  been  adopted,  the 
standard  form  is  inferior  to  and  less  advantageous  to  the 
policyholder  than  the  more  liberal  and  attractive  policies  now 
offered  by  many  well-known  and  conservative  companies.     A 
statute  attempting  to  establish  in  one  given  form  of  words  a 
contract  which  should  be  flexible  enough  to  cover  every  de- 
veloping human  need  would  most  certainly  put  a  stop  to  all 
improvement  and  progress.     Policy  forms  are  now  far  more 
liberal  and  more  fully  protect  the  insured  than  were  those 
of  but  a  few  years  ago.     The  limit  of  improvement  has  not 
been  reached,  and  unless  the  State  forbids  further  growth  by 
the  adoption  of  a  fixed  form,  the  prospect  of  now  materially 
reducing  expense  accounts  will  lead  many  of  the  companies  to 
further  liberalize  their  policies.     It  is  fair  to  point  out  that  had 
the  State  adopted  standard  forms  fifteen,  or  ten,  or  even  five 
years  ago,  those  who  read  these  lines  would  not  find  them- 
selves in  the  position  of  being  able  to  secure  policies  so  liberal 
and  so  fully  protecting  the  rights  of  both  insured  and  bene- 
ficiary, as  those  now  freely  and  voluntarily  offered  by  the  com- 
panies themselves.    To  all  who  have  understand ingly  reviewed 
the  history  of  the  development  of  policy  forms  in  American 
life  insurance,  the  proposition  to  now  standardize  policies  will, 
we  believe,  be  seen  to  have  less  to  recommend  it  (which  is 
saying  a  great  deal)  than  any  of  the  other  "  reforms  "  pro- 
posed. 

TAXATION. 

Speaking  broadly,  the  vast  amount  of  insurance  in  force  in 
our  companies  stands  as  a  monument  to  the  unselfishness  of 
man,  as  an  evidence  of  his  forethought,  his  affection,  and  his 
realization  of  responsibility,  for  those  dependent  upon  him. 
Death  to  the  individual  is  an  event  so  uncertain  in  the  hour  of 
its  occurrence  that  through  life  insurance  alone  can  material 
protection  be  certainly  given  to  those  who  otherwise  might  be 


Il8  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

unprovided-for.  Insurance  *  is  the  most  indispensable  and 
the  most  beneficent  institution  of  our  day.  It  is  a  very  prac- 
tical and  at  the  same  time  a  most  ingenious  method  of  equaliz- 
ing the  hazards  of  life.  To  secure  its  protection  men  toil  and 
deny  themselves  the  full  fruit  of  their  labor;  they  give  up,  in 
some  cases  almost  the  necessities,  in  all  cases  some  of  the  com- 
forts or  luxuries  or  pleasures  of  life,  that  those  to  come  after 
them  may  be  protected  from  adversity  and  want — that  chil- 
dren may  be  educated  and  brought  up  to  lives  of  usefulness. 
Founded  on  a  care  for  the  future  of  others,  a  care  which  can 
only  be  exercised  by  present  denial  and  sacrifice,  the  determine 
ation  to  insure  represents  the  best  and  most  unselfish  qualities 
of  human  nature.  Insurance  is  thrift,  nobler  than  other 
forms  in  that  it  is  exercised  not  for  self  but  for  others,  in> 
posing  a  present  burden  for  a  fulfilment  which  death  alone  can 
bring.  The  cost  of  insurance  is  a  tax  with  which  man  volun- 
tarily charges  himself  so  that  he  may  make  provision  for  his 
own  and  not  leave  his  dependents  to  be  cared  for  or  educated 
by  the  State.  Through  the  operation  of  the  business  of  life 
insurance  great  burdens  are  removed  from  the  State;  widows 
are  provided  for,  homes  are  maintained,  children  are  educated 
to  be  useful  citizens.  No  man  can  number  those  who,  through 
the  benefits  of  insurance,  are  saved  from  becoming  public 
charges — kept  from'  the  poorhouses,  the  asylums  and  the  or- 
phanages. Through  provision  made  for  children,  which  keeps 
them  from  poverty  and  an  environment  of  want  and  tempta- 
tion, who  can  tell  how  many  are  trained  to  honorable,  useful 
lives,  and  saved  ultimately  from  the  criminal  population  and 
the  prisons?  Clearly  as  men  more  and  more  make  provision 

1  In  speaking  of  insurance,  the  writer  refers  to  the  business  in  its  pure 
and  legitimate  iform,  under  which  protection  is  secured  for  one's  depend- 
ents, or  provision  made  for  one's  own  'later  years.  During  the  past  quar- 
ter century  excrescences  upon  insurance  contracts  have  led  to  the  creation, 
retention  and  misuse  by  some  companies  of  large  surplus  funds,  which 
have  been  pointed  to  as  justifying  a  demand  for  taxation.  These  phases 
cxf  the  business  are  speedily  passing,  and  are  ignored.  The  true  character 
of  life  insurance,  its  pure  practice  which  will  be  required  under  new  sys- 
tems of  publicity  and  accountability,  guided  by  a  more  intelligent  public 
interest,  are  alone  borne  in  mind  in  considering  questions  of  regulation. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION. 

for  their  dependents  through  insurance,  the  direct  burden  of 
the  State  in  caring  for  the  aged,  the  indigent,  the  orphaned  and 
the  degenerate  is  lessened.  All  thrift  is  beneficial  to  the  State, 
particularly  that  higher  form  which  provides  for  the  weak, 
the  young  and  those  unable  to  work.  The  government  which 
fosters  and  encourages  the  spread  of  life  insurance  shows  but 
an  enlightened  self-interest,  and  this  fact  has  been  behind 
much  of  the  demand  for  governmental  regulation  and  for  a 
control  which  its  authors  have  hoped  would  lower  the  cost  of 
insurance  protection,  so  that  the  public  might  be  led  to  insure 
even  more  freely  than  at  present. 

Yet  the  State  is  directly  responsible  for  a  substantial  addi- 
tion to  the  cost  of  insurance  to  its  citizens  through  methods 
of  taxation  which  are  unjustifiable  and  indefensible.  When 
an  insurance  company  is  taxed,  the  extra  expense  which  that 
tax  involves  is  borne  by  the  individual  policyholders.  This 
seems  to  have  been  overlooked  in  many  States,  which  have 
sought  to  meet  the  expenses  of  conducting  the  Government 
through  the  taxation  of  life-insurance  companies,  blind  to  the 
fact  that  when  they  tax  insurance,  they  are  merely  taxing  their 
own  citizens  who  are  insured,  levying  a  special  impost  on  that 
portion  of  their  people  who  are  the  most  thrifty  and  unselfish, 
and  who  are  thus  penalized  by  the  State  for  seeking,  through 
voluntary  provision  for  dependents,  to  relieve  the  community 
from  the  burden  and  expense  of  caring  for  those  who  other- 
wise might  be  left  destitute.  The  careless  man,  irresponsible, 
selfish,  who  makes  no  provision  for  his  family,  escapes  this 
form  of  taxation,  which  is  thrown  wholly  on  those  who  have 
already  taxed  themselves  for  the  benefit  of  their  dependents— 
and  the  State.  The  taxation  of  life  insurance  is  essentially 
a  tax  upon  a  tax;  it  discourages  the  making  of  provision  for 
dependents  by  adding  to  the  cost ;  ^penalizes  the  thrifty,  and 
is  nevertheless  a  most  popular  form  of  raising  money,  though 
clearly  against  public  policy  and  the  best  interests  of  the  people. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  companies — i.  e.,  the  policyholders— 
should,  through  taxation,  meet  the  cost  of  State  supervision, 
the  maintenance  of  governmental  insurance  departments,  etc. 
We  might  dwell  on  the  fact  that,  inasmuch  as  insurance  is 


I2O  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

for  the  benefit  of  the  State  as  a  whole,  the  cost  of  supervision 
might  properly  be  levied  on  all  citizens,  and  not  merely  on 
those  insured ;  but,  waiving  that,  and  admitting  that  the  policy- 
holders  should  meet  the  cost  of  supervision,  what  do  we  find  ? 

One  who  investigates  the  subject  will  discover  that,  with  but 
few  exceptions,  each  State  imposes  a  direct  tax  upon  the  com- 
panies, in  the  form  of  a  percentage  of  the  premiums  collected 
by  them  within  its  borders.  In  most  instances  this  percentage 
is  upon  the  gross  premiums  collected.  Four  States  fix  the  tax 
at  i  per  cent,  of  the  premiums ;  four  more  at  i  ^  per  cent. ; 
sixteen  collect  2  per  cent. ;  one  charges  2^4  per  cent. ;  seven 
collect  2l/2  per  cent.,  and  one  or  two  even  exact  3  per  cent.  A 
few  States  impose  no  tax,  and  in  several  States  the  tax  is 
based  on  reserves,  on  surplus  or  on  the  amount  of  business 
transacted.  Then,  in  addition,  many  of  the  States  have  on 
their  statute  books  a  so-called  retaliatory  law,  which  has  been 
well  described  as  "  a  relic  of  barbarism,"  and  which  is  the  pro- 
duct of  legislation  founded  on  no  principle  which  could  be 
seriously  discussed  among  thoughtful  and  civilized  men.  Re- 
taliatory provisions  operate  in  this  manner.  One  State  taxes 
insurance  companies  say  i  per  cent,  of  the  premiums  collected 
therein;  but  it  provides  that  if  another  State  should  tax  at  a 
higher  rate  companies  of  the  first  State,  then  the  latter  in 
turn  will  tax  companies  of  the  second  State  at  the  rate  im- 
posed on  its  own  companies  there.  The  theory  on  which 
these  provisions  were  enacted  evidently  was  that  they  would 
tend  to  reduce  the  taxes  charged  by  other  States.  In  this 
object  they  have  failed,  and  the  State  which  has  thought  that  a 
tax  of  say  I  per  cent,  has  been  all  that  should  properly  or 
equitably  be  charged  life  companies,  has  found  itself  in  the 
position  of  actually  collecting  a  tax  of  say  2  per  cent,  or  2l/2 
per  cent.,  with  no  more  justification  than  that  it  proposes  to 
do  a  wrong  within  its  own  borders  because  some  other  State 
first  sets  it  the  example  elsewhere.  If  sound  principle  were 
applied  to  insurance  legislation  and  taxation  in  America,  cer- 
tainly every  retaliatory  law  now  in  force  would  be  repealed, 
and  most  tax  laws  modified. 

A  few  instances  alone  will  show  that  present  insurance 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  121 

taxes  are  not  imposed  merely  to  meet  the  necessary  cost  of 
supervision. 

In  1905  the  receipts  and  disbursements  of  the  State  Insur- 
ance Departments  named  below  were  as  follows : 

Excess  of  Receipts} 
Receipts.  Disbursements.      aver  Disbursements. 

New  York $288,990.35  $152,814.99  $136,175.36 

Wisconsin 572,778-95  19,717-92  553.o6i.03 

Ohio 1,004,932.99  38,818.42  966,1 14.57 

Michigan 445,818.49  14,034-32  431,785.17 

Texas 329,992.00  16,019.00  3i3,973-OO 

These  States  have  been  taken  at  random  as  illustrating  a 
situation  which  exists  in  practically  all,  namely,  that  govern- 
ment regards  the  business  of  life  insurance  as  a  proper  source 
of  revenue  from  which  to  provide  for  many  of  its  general  ex- 
penses. Such  an  attitude  must  necessarily  be  founded  on  a 
superficial  comprehension  of  the  importance  of  the  business  to 
the  State  and  the  benefit  which  through  insurance  accrues  to 
its  people.  Take  a  State  which  levies  a  tax  of  2^2  or  3  per 
cent,  on  the  gross  premiums  collected  within  its  borders — it 
simply  requires  each  of  its  citizens  who  desires  one  hundred 
dollars1  worth  of  life  insurance  to  pay  $2.50  or  $3.00  per 
annum  for  the  privilege  of  being  able  to  purchase  it ;  it  makes 
an  arbitrary  and  substantial  addition  to  the  actual  cost  of  in- 
surance, and  compels  the  company  to  collect  it  annually  from 
the  policyholder,  on  the  State's  account,  something  which  the 
individual  does  not  realize,  as  it  appears  simply  as  a  part  of 
the  premium. 

In  1905  the  life-insurance  companies  doing  business  in  New 
York  State  paid  out  for  insurance  taxes,  licenses  and  fees 
almost  seven  and  one-half  million  dollars. 

Thus,  while  the  State  is  constantly  urging  legislation  de- 
signed to  reduce  the  cost  of  insurance  to  the  public,  and  so 
seemingly  realizes  the  benefit  which  must  come  to  its  people  as 
a  whole  through  the  extension  of  the  life-insurance  business, 
we  find  it  with  a  strange  inconsistency  making  a  direct,  un- 
necessary and  unjustifiable  addition  to  the  cost  of  insurance, 
which,  even  should  we  deduct  the  cost  of  State  supervision, 


122  PROCEEDINGS    OF 

now  amounts,  in  the  case  of  merely  that  group  of  companies 
doing  business  in  New  York  State,  to  over  $7,000,000  per 
annum.  The  reduction  in  the  cost  of  insurance  to  the  policy- 
holders,  which  the  State  could  promptly  effect  through  re- 
fraining from  taxing  this  form  of  thrift,  would  amount  to 
more  than  any  economy  in  general  expense  which  can  possibly 
be  enforced  by  statute.  Freedom  from  taxation  would  bring 
about  an  immediate,  certain  and  easily  measured  reduction  in 
cost,  without  any  possible  injury  to  or  interference  with  the 
business,  while  limitation  of  expenditures  by  legislation  prom- 
ises no  certain  result,  and  may  even  lead  to  an  actual  increase 
in  cost,  through  an  impairment  of  efficiency.  If  the  normal 
growth  of  the  insurance  business  be  not  checked  by  restrictive 
legislation,  and  if  the  rates  of  taxation  remain  as  at  present 
(they  have  been  steadily  increasing)  the  policyholders  will  in 
the  next  ten  years  pay  the  State  governments  more  than  One 
Hundred  Millions  of  Dollars  in  taxes.  It  is  not  to  be  believed 
that  people  realize  the  addition  Government  is  thus  un- 
necessarily making  to  the  cost  of  life  insurance,  or  the  extent 
to  which  the  burden  of  taxation  lessens  the  returns  which  could 
otherwise  be  expected  under  their  policies.  The  sums  now 
annually  collected  from  the  companies  as  taxes  would,  if  ap- 
plied to  the  purchase  of  insurance  at  the  average  rate  of  pre- 
mium, pay  for  additional  insurance  for  present  policyholders 
and  their  beneficiaries  to  the  amount  of  two  hundred  millions 
of  dollars.  The  moment  the  public  fully  appreciates  these 
facts  we  may  expect  a  demand  for  a  more  intelligent  and  less 
burdensome  system  of  insurance  taxation. 

I  have  said  that  any  evils  which  have  existed  in  the  business 
have  arisen  from  lack  of  publicity  concerning,  and  account- 
ability for,  surplus  funds.  Fundamental  legislation  on  this 
subject  will  render  the  recurrence  of  evil  impossible;  but  if, 
as  some  allege,  there  be  danger  in  the  accumulation  of  large 
surplus  funds,  their  maintenance  at  a  reasonable  figure  and 
the  prompt  distribution  of  moneys  accumulating  in  excess  of 
a  proper  margin  of  safety,  would  be  further  encouraged  by 
levying  any  tax  imposed  on  insurance  solely  on  surplus 
withheld  from  distribution.  The  premiums — the  cost  of  in- 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  1 23 

surance — should  not  be  taxed;  the  reserves  required  by  law 
to  be  maintained  for  the  security  of  the  business  and  the 
fulfilment  of  all  contracts,  should  not  be  taxed.  If  taxation 
of  insurance  is  to  be  justified  at  all,  then  let  it  fall  upon  any 
funds  held  by  the  companies  in  excess  of  the  minimum  neces- 
sary to  enable  them  to  fulfill  their  obligations.  A  man's 
surplus  money,  held  for  him  by  an  insurance  company,  may 
perhaps  be  taxed  like  his  other  property;  and  certainly  if  in- 
surance taxation  were  based  solely  upon  surplus  funds  with- 
held from  distribution,  the  companies  would  not  find  it  profit- 
able to  maintain  a  greater  surplus  than  prudence  and  safety 
required,  and  the  danger,  if  any,  of  such  accumulations 
would  be  minimized.  In  the  interests  of  the  State,  all  bur- 
dens and  additions  should  be  taken  from  the  price  paid  for 
insurance — the  premium,  and  the  companies  should  be  en- 
couraged to  further  reduce  the  cost  by  the  declaration  of 
prompt  and  liberal  dividends.  Both  objects  could  be  best 
secured  through  repealing  all  premium  taxes,  and  basing  in- 
surance taxation  solely  on  surplus  funds  withheld  from  dis- 
tribution. 

CONCLUSION. 

In  conclusion,  this  summary  of  the  views  herein  expressed 
is  submitted  for  your  consideration. 

1.  That  governmental  regulation  of  life  insurance,  aimed 
to  best  protect  the  interests  of  the  public,  should  be  along  such 
lines  as  will  most  surely  lead  the  public  to  form  and  follow  an 
intelligent  judgment  concerning  the  business  and  its  conduct 
by  individual  companies. 

2.  That  sound  regulation  should  encourage  individuals  to 
think  and  choose,  and  not  lead  them  to  depend  on  the  State  for 
a  semi-guardianship  which  can   never  be  satisfactorily   ful- 
filled. 

3.  That  to  this  end  what  is  required  is  detailed  publicity 
concerning  the  operations  of  the  companies  and  a  strict  ac- 
countability for  surplus  and  other  funds. 

4.  That  laws  under  which  the  State  interferes  with  details 
of  management,  or  dictates  methods  of  operation,  are: 


124  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

(a)  Unnecessary,   because  the  end  of  good   management 
sought  can  be  more  simply  and  more  certainly  attained  by 
other  methods. 

(b)  Unsound,  because  government  should  not  aim  to  do 
for  the  individual  what  the  individual  can  better  do  for  him- 
self, and  because,  with  legislation  governing  the  fundamentals 
of  publicity  and  accountability,  the  evils  which  have  led  to  the 
demand  for  interference  in  details  will  be  cured  by  the  almost 
automatic  operation  of  natural  forces — the  laws  of  progress 
and    the    effect    of    competition — which    are    always    to    be 
preferred  to  arbitrary  restriction. 

5.  That  all  so-called  retaliatory  tax  laws  should  be  re- 
pealed; and  that  all  laws  imposing  taxation  upon  life  insur- 
ance should  be  so  amended  that  insurance  should  'be  taxed,  if 
at  all,  only  to  the  extent  necessary  to  meet  the  cost  of  gov- 
ernment supervision;  this  tax  to  be  levied  solely  on  surplus 
withheld  from  distribution  (not  on  reserves  or  premium 
income) . 

DISCUSSION. 

MR.  ANDERSON  :  Mr.  President,  the  last  speaker  (Mr.  John- 
son) has  spoken  at  considerable  length  about  publicity,  limit- 
ing himself,  however,  to  general  principles.  I  would  like  to 
ask  him  one  or  two  specific  questions. 

First,  would  he  be  willing  to  publish  the  dividend  factors 
used  by  his  company? 

Second,  (would  he  be  willing  to  put  into  the  policy  a  table 
showing  how  much  was  collected  to  defray  expenses  of  man- 
agement, how  much  was  collected  for  cost  of  insurance,  and 
how  much  was  set  aside  each  year  as  a  reserve? 

MR.  JOHNSON  :  Might  I  enquire,  Mr.  President,  if  my  ques- 
tioner comes  from  Wisconsin? 

MR.  ANDERSON:  I  do. 

MR.  JOHNSON  :  The  questions  indicated  as  much  to  me,  for 
they  refer  to  ideas  embodied  in  the  report  of  an  Investigating 
Committee  which  has  been  in  session  in  Wisconsin,  and  which 
has  made  recommendations  to  the  Legislature  of  that  State 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  125 

on  this  subject  which  are,  to  my  mind,  more  impracticable  and 
unsound  than  any  of  the  many  other  radical  suggestions 
which  have  been  offered  elsewhere.  I  am  accordingly  very 
glad  of  an  opportunity  to  answer  the  questions.  I  judge  he 
desires  my  view  of  the  desirability  of  publishing  dividend  fac- 
tors and  of  including  in  policies  issued  a  table  showing  the 
division  of  the  premium  between  mortality,  expense  and  re- 
serve accounts,  rather  than  an  expression  of  what  might  be 
the  practice  of  any  particular  company  in  such  a  matter. 
What  will  best  serve  the  interests  of  the  public  (which  is  the 
question  that  interests  us  as  economists),  is  the  adoption  of 
such  regulations,  and  only  such,  as  will  lead  to  the  granting 
of  sound  insurance  at  the  lowest  possible  cost  to  the  individual 
policyholder.  The  object  of  all  insurance  legislation  should 
be  first  to  safe-guard  the  business,  to  render  it  absolutely  se- 
cure, and  then  to  so  regulate  its  conduct  that  the  public  will 
be  able  to  procure  all  necessary  information  concerning  the 
conduct  of  individual  companies,  and  to  judge,  from  the  re- 
quirement of  frequent  accountability,  which  is  rendering  the 
best  service.  Under  the  rules  of  publicity  and  accountability 
which  I  have  urged,  the  end  sought  would  be  obtained  through 
the  operation  of  natural  laws  of  selection  and  survival,  far 
better  than  by  an  attempted  regulation  of  the  details  of  the 
business  by  the  State.  In  my  judgment  the  publication  of 
the  factors  by  which  the  dividends  paid  by  the  Companies 
are  determined,  and  the  printing  on  policies  of  tables  show- 
ing the  division  of  the  premium  into  its  elements,  not  only 
would  not  help  in  accomplishing  the  end  sought,  but  would 
confuse  a  matter  which  is  now  none  too  clear  to  the  average 
policyholder.  The  student  can  readily  procure  the  details 
referred  to  from  an  analysis  of  the  companies'  reports  or  an 
examination  of  the  tables  on  which  their  rates  are  based.  The 
policyholder  is  not  interested  in  how  his  dividend  is  figured, 
but  in  what  his  dividend  amounts  to  in  dollars  and  cents,  and 
how  it  compares  with  the  dividends  paid  on  similar  policies 
by  other  companies.  What  affects  the  policyholder  is  the 
ultimate  result.  If  that  be  satisfactory,  information  concern- 
ing the  details  of  operations  which  lead  up  to  the  result  will 


126  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

prove  of  no  interest  to  the  members  at  large,  and  they  would 
not  appreciate  the  significance  of  the  various  elements  entering 
into  the  result  even  if  the  information  were  before  them. 
The  only  ones  who  would  be  interested  in  these  elements 
would  be  experts  and  students,  who  have  sufficient  specialized 
training  to  understand  the  significance  and  meaning  of  the 
details,  and  for  them,  as  indicated  above,  the  essential  facts 
are  already  at  hand.  The  case  of  the  general  policyholder 
may  be  likened  somewhat  to  that  of  a  sick  man  laboring  under 
the  agony  of  great  bodily  pain.  He  sends  for  his  physician, 
who  conies  and  prescribes  for  him,  relieving  him  from  the 
pain  and  restoring  him  to  health.  I  take  it  that  the  man  who 
is  thus  suffering  acutely,  is  much  more  interested  in  the  result, 
in  being  promptly  relieved,  than  in  the  question  of  how  the 
doctor's  prescription  may  be  compounded  and  whether  the 
drugs  used  are  intended  by  the  physician  to  act  upon  the  heart, 
upon  the  nerves  or  upon  the  kidneys.  The  end  sought  is  re- 
lief from  suffering,  and  he  would  prefer  to  have  it  promptly 
furnished  rather  than  to  have  the  relief  postponed  while  an 
earnest  but  impracticable  student  of  medicine  delivered  to 
him  a  dissertation  upon  the  character  of  the  various  drugs 
which  would  best  fit  his  case  and  upon  the  effect  which  each 
element  of  the  prescription  might  have  upon  the  different  or- 
gans of  the  body. 

Until  the  day  arrives  when  corporations  can  be  conducted 
without  the  intervention  of  human  beings  you  will  find  it 
necessary  to  consider  the  human  equation  even  in  connection 
with  the  management  of  an  insurance  company.  Corpora- 
tions differ  just  to  the  extent  that  individuals  differ  and  the 
exact  results  attained  in  the  different  departments  of  insur- 
ance administration  depend  largely  upon  the  experience,  the 
judgment,  and  the  knowledge  of  the  individuals  charged  with 
the  responsibility  for  the  work.  Just  to  show  you  what  con- 
fusion the  publication  of  dividend  factors  might  cause  to  the 
non-expert  policyholder  (and  the  great  majority  belong  to 
that  class)  let  me  refer  to  the  sources  from  which  so-called 
dividends  to  policyholders  are  made  up.  The  rates  of  an  in- 
surance company  are  based  upon  a  certain  table  of  mortality, 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  127 

it  being  assumed  that  the  reserve  to  be  accumulated  from  the 
premiums  will  earn  a  certain  rate  of  interest,  and  a  reasonable 
addition  being  made  to  the  premiums  for  expenses  and  con- 
tingencies. If  through  the  careful  selection  of  new  members, 
and  through  the  introduction  of  an  adequate  number  of  new 
lives,  the  actual  mortality  experienced  falls  below  that  indi- 
cated by  the  table  on  which  the  rates  are  based,  there  is  a 
saving  which  may  be  distributed  in  dividends  to  policyholders. 
If  the  actual  net  rate  of  interest  earned  by  the  Company 
exceeds  the  rate  which  it  has  assumed  the  reserves  will  earn, 
this  excess  interest  is  added  to  the  surplus  fund  and  may  be 
distributed  in  dividends  to  the  policyholders.  If  the  expenses 
are  less  than  the  amounts  added  to  the  premiums  for  expenses 
and  contingencies,  then  the  saving  on  this  account  is  also 
available  for  dividends.  There  are  other  minor  sources  of 
profit  (or  loss),  such  as  that  which  arises  from  the  sale  of 
securities  which  have  appreciated  (or  depreciated)  in  value; 
but  it  is  from  the  above  items  chiefly  that  dividends  arise. 
Now  to  show  you  the  misapprehensions  which  the  publication 
of  dividend  factors  might  give  rise  to,  and  the  harm  which 
might  be  done  by  such  an  unnecessary  practice,  let  us  con- 
sider the  case  of  three  different  companies,  all  amply  solvent, 
all  possessing  the  good  will  and  confidence  of  their  policy- 
holders  and  granting  sound  insurance  at  low  cost,  but  all  dif- 
fering in  the  details  of  their  conduct  owing  to  the  human  equ- 
ation which  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  in  considering  and  in 
dealing  with  this  or  any  other  question  of  an  economic  nature. 
The  first  Company,  we  may  assume,  is  one  which  is 
very  economically  managed,  in  which  the  expenses  fall  well 
within  the  provision  for  that  purpose  in  the  premiums,  thus 
giving  rise  to  a  substantial  fund  saved  for  the  policyholders 
and  applicable  toward  dividends.  Its  economical  methods 
have  been  accompanied  by  sound  financial  management,  so 
that  the  investments  have  not  only  been  made  without  loss,  but 
have  netted  a  rate  of  interest  substantially  in  excess  of  that  re- 
quired to  maintain  the  reserves,  thus  furnishing  another  con- 
tribution to  dividend  account.  The  Company,  however,  be- 
cause of  its  extremely  economical  basis  of  expenditure,  has 


128  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

been  able  to  procure  only  a  comparatively  small  new  business 
year  by  year,  and  the  fresh  lives  introduced  have  not  been 
sufficiently  numerous  to  markedly  affect  the  mortality,  which 
has  accordingly  approximated  the  table  rate.  Hence,  while 
there  has  been  a  substantial  contribution  to  the  surplus  fund 
from  which  dividends  are  paid,  both  from  the  savings  on  ex- 
pense account  and  the  excess  interest  earned,  there  has  been 
very  little  saved  on  mortality  account. 

Our  second  Company,  we  will  assume,  has  been  managed 
with  more  freedom  of  expenditure,  which  has  given  less  of  a 
contribution  to  dividend  account  from  expense  saving,  but 
which  has  resulted  in  the  procurement  of  a  much  larger 
volume  of  new  business,  the  fresh  lives  introduced  leavening 
the  entire  mass  of  policyholders  and  resulting  in  a  mortality 
rate  well  below  that  provided  by  the  table,  thus  giving  a  large 
contribution  to  dividend  account  from  mortality  saving,  a 
contribution  which  fully  offsets  the  increase  in  the  expense  ac- 
count over  Company  Number  One.  The  second  Company 
has  likewise  been  well  managed  financially  so  that  there  has 
been  a  contribution  to  dividend  account  from  excess  interest 
similar  to  that  in  the  first  instance. 

The  third  Company,  we  will  assume,  has,  owing  to  a  very 
excellent  repution,  been  able  to  get  an  adequate  amount  of 
new  business  and  so  have  the  benefit  of  a  low  mortality,  thus 
making  a  substantial  contribution  to  dividend  account,  while 
at  the  same  time  keeping  its  expenses  on  a  very  economical 
basis,  this  also  giving  rise  to  a  substantial  fund  for  dividends 
in  the  shape  of  expense  saving.  It,  however,  has  not  been 
as  well  managed  financially,  or  through  some  ill-fortune  has 
had  some  of  its  investments  turn  out  poorly  (investments  very 
possibly  which  were  originally  made  thirty  years  ago  by  some 
previous  management),  and  hence  instead  of  the  net  interest 
earned  exceeding  that  required  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
reserves  it  has  just  been  sufficient  for  that  purpose,  and  there 
is  accordingly  no  contribution  to  surplus  or  dividends  from 
interest  account. 

Now  the  dividends  paid  on  policies  by  these  three  companies 
are  practically  identical,  and  a  member  of  one  receives  his  in- 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  129 

surance  at  just  as  low  a  cost  as  the  members  of  the  other 
two.  It,  of  course,  is  of  value  to  the  Directors  and  the  Offi- 
cers of  each  Company  to  examine  the  details  of  their  business, 
the  results  on  the  different  accounts,  etc.,  and  take  such  steps 
as  may  be  necessary  and  possible  to  strengthen  the  weak  points 
and  bring  about  ultimately  a  saving  on  all  three  accounts. 
Yet,  of  course,  it  may  not  be  possible  to  overcome  the  effect 
of  some  early  mistaken  policy  as  to  investments,  for  instance, 
for  a  great  many  years  to  come.  There  are  companies  hold- 
ing in  their  investment  account  to-day  real  properties  title 
to  which  became  vested  in  them  thirty-five  or  forty  years  ago 
through  the  mistake  of  some  previous  management.  The 
properties  have  been  disposed  of  gradually  as  opportunity  has 
offered  to  do  so  profitably,  or  at  least  without  too  great  loss; 
but  the  effect  of  some  mistake  of  this  character  in  the  matter 
of  investments  may  not  be  fully  overcome  by  a  company  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century.  The  facts  are  also  of  interest  to  the 
student  and  to  the  insurance  expert,  but  I  cannot  see  of  what 
earthly  value  it  would  be  to  the  average  policyholder  who 
had  a  policy  perhaps  in  each  Company,  on  which  the  dividends 
were  identical  and  which  were  all  giving  him  his  insurance  at 
the  same  cost,  to  know  that  in  one  Company  the  larger  part  of 
the  dividends  came  from  expense  and  interest  savings,  in 
another  company  from  mortality  and  interest  savings,  and 
in  the  third  from  expense  and  mortality  accounts.  It  would 
do  the  average  policyholder  no  good  to  require  each  company 
to  publish  the  factors  used  in  the  computation  of  its  dividends, 
and  would  simply  arm  the  unscrupulous  with  a  new  method  of 
deceiving  and  confusing  the  public.  What  is  needed  is  to 
bring  out  the  simple  result  as  to  which  companies  are  granting 
insurance  at  the  lowest  cost,  and  confusing  details  as  to  how 
that  cost  is  arrived  at,  while  of  value  to  the  expert  and  pro- 
curable by  him  upon  an  analysis  of  the  official  reports  of  the 
companies,  would  be  of  no  possible  value  to  the  policyholder 
at  large. 

My  answer  on  the  subject  of  publishing  dividend  factors 
applies  in  large  measure  to  the  proposal  that  a  table  be  at- 
tached to  every  policy  showing  the  elements  into  which  the 


130  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

premium  is  divided,  its  application  to  expense  and  mortality 
accounts,  and  the  balance  of  the  latter  account,  i.  e.,  the  ter- 
minal reserve,  left  after  making  provision  for  current  mortal- 
ity. It  would  serve  no  good  purpose;  it  would  not  avail  to 
reduce  the  number  of  deaths,  or  to  increase  the  net  interest 
earnings,  or  to  lessen  the  sums,  for  instance,  which  the  com- 
panies are  compelled  to  pay  to  the  States  for  taxes  and  which 
would  otherwise  go  to  the  policyholders  in  dividends.  It  would 
be  just  as  proper  and  contribute  just  as  much  to  the  welfare 
of  the  public  for  the  State  to  require  the  publication  of  such 
a  table  upon  insurance  policies  hereafter  issued,  as  it  would 
be  for  government  to  insist  upon  the  publication  of  a  summary 
of  operating  expenses  on  the  reverse  of  every  railroad  ticket 
issued,  or  the  furnishing  by  the  Universities  every  term  to  each 
student  of  a  printed  statement  indicating  the  proportion  of 
his  tuition  fee  which  has  been  applied  to  the  salaries  of  the 
professors,  to  the  maintenance  of  buildings,  and  to  the  pur- 
chase of  supplies. 

Unorthodox  as  it  may  seem  in  this  day  when  the  interests 
of  the  policyholder  appear  to  have  been  taken  within  the  es- 
pecial care  of  those  who  lack  sound  knowledge  of  or  actual 
experience  in  the  conduct  of  the  business,  I  venture  to  say  that 
there  is  no  body  of  men  so  keenly  interested  in  any  and  every 
measure  which  will  actually  benefit  the  policyholder  through 
a  reduction  in  the  cost  of  life  insurance,  as  the  insurance 
managers  themselves,  and  I  can  only  say  that  if  the  laws  leave 
them  free  to  conduct  their  business  efficiently  without  being 
hampered  by  absurd  and  useless  restrictions,  but  with  such 
publicity  and  accountability  as  will  enable  the  public  to  see 
year  by  year  the  actual  results  attained,  the  problems  which 
have  been  given  so  much  consideration  within  the  last  year 
or  two  will  be  completely  solved,  and  you  will  soon  find  all 
the  companies  conducting  the  business  conservatively,  success- 
fully, with  due  regard  to  the  interests  of  the  policyholders,  and 
with  just  as  great  a  degree  of  economy  as  can  be  applied  with- 
out impairing  efficiency. 

MR.  ANDERSON  :  I  was  fully  aware  that  my  questions  would 
meet  with  opposition.  We  had  those  questions  discussed  at 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  13! 

the  meeting  of  the  general  agents  in  Milwaukee,  and  I  am 
quite  familiar  with  the  objections  that  have  been  made  against 
the  insertion  of  such  a  table  in  the  policy. 

I  would  like  to  say  just  another  word  since  the  Wisconsin 
Investigation  Committee  has  been  referred  to.  I  feel  that  I 
have  some  interest  in  the  work  of  that  committee,  having 
been  in  their  employ  as  secretary  from  the  time  the  work  be- 
gan until  it  was  finished. 

There  seems  to  be  an  impression  current  in  the  East  that 
the  recommendations  of  the  Wisconsin  Committee  are  un- 
reasonable. I  will  venture  to  say  that  when  the  report  comes 
from  the  printer  some  parts  of  it,  at  least,  will  not  appear  as 
bad  as  the  rumors  that  have  been  circulated  about  it.  Some 
parts  may  be  worse.  (Laughter.) 

I  want  to  correct  the  statement  made  by  my  friend,  Mr. 
Hoffman,  to  the  effect  that  the  Wisconsin  Committee  re- 
jected everything  recommended  by  the  Armstrong  Committee. 
The  fact  is  that  the  Wisconsin  Committee  adopted  many  of 
the  recommendations  of  the  Armstrong  Committee,  and  of  the 
Massachusetts  Committee  as  well. 

Perhaps  it  might  not  be  out  of  place  in  this  connection  to 
call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  are  three  kinds  of  in- 
surance investigations.  First,  there  is  the  actuarial  or  de- 
partmental examination  made  by  the  various  state  depart- 
ments, which  concerns  itself  almost  wholly  with  the  question 
of  the  solvency  of  the  companies.  That  is  to  say,  they  value 
the  policies  and  appraise  the  assets.  If  the  assets  are  suffi- 
cient to  cover  all  the  reserve  liabilities  and  leave  a  working 
surplus,  the  company  is  given  a  clean  bill  of  health  and  that 
is  the  end  of  it. 

Second,  there  is  the  lawyers'  investigation,  which  consists 
principally  of  calling  witnesses  to  the  stand  to  determine 
whether  or  not  there  have  been  any  questionable  transactions, 
and 

Third,  there  is  the  economic  and  social  investigation,  which 
may  or  may  not  include  both  of  the  other  two.  Its  object  is 
to  determine  the  economic  and  social  efficiency  of  insurance. 
That  is,  to  determine  what  is  actually  received  as  benefits  for 


132  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

the  premiums  paid,  as  well  as  to  determine  whether  or  not  the 
burdens  are  equitably  distributed  among  the  individual 
members. 

The  Wisconsin  Committee  has  gone  deeper  into  the  question 
of  insurance  from  the  economic  and  social  standpoint  than  any 
other  committee  ever  did.  I  cannot  at  this  time  discuss  in  de- 
tail the  data  gathered  by  our  committee,  but  will  state  very 
briefly  some  of  the  most  striking  results. 

First,  there  is  an  appalling  amount  of  social  waste  result- 
ing from  the  lapsing  of  policies  before  surrender  values  take 
effect,  as  well  as  from  the  heavy  surrender  charges  imposed 
by  many  companies  when  policyholders  surrender  their 
policies. 

Second,  the  lapses  appear  to  be  by  far  the  greatest  among 
the  small  policies,  and  this  goes  to  show  that  the  greater  part 
of  this  social  waste  is  borne  by  those  who  are  least  alble  to 
bear  it. 

Third,  panics  and  hard  times  have  considerable  effect  on 
the  lapses  and  surrenders,  especially  if  the  policies  have  been 
recently  issued  when  the  financial  disturbance  comes. 

Fourth,  quite  contrary  to  our  expectations,  and  contrary  to 
the  contentions  of  some  insurance  men,  the  annual-dividend 
policies  were  shown  to  be  much  more  persistent  than  the  de- 
ferred policies,  in  some  cases  the  difference  being  over  one- 
third. 

Fifth,  it  appears  that  the  present  method  of  loading  the 
premium  to  defray  expenses  is  unscientific  and  grossly  un- 
equal as  between  the  individual  policyholders  having  different 
kinds  of  policies,  and  for  this  reason  the  committee  recom- 
mended that  the  companies  be  required  to  show,  when  the  ap- 
plication is  written,  how  much  is  collected  each  year  for  the 
purposes  of  expense,  cost  of  insurance  and  reserve.  The  plan 
is  entirely  feasible;  it  is  perfectly  just,  for  it  is  publicity  of  the 
most  effective  kind. 

I  also  wish  to  say  that  I  heartily  agree  with  the  views  ex- 
pressed in  the  first  (Prof.  Robinson's)  paper  in  its  advocacy 
of  federal  supervision,  because  uniformity  in  the  legal  require- 
ments is  highly  desirable,  if  not  absolutely  essential,  to  an 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  133 

effective  control  of  the  business.  We  can  never  have  uni- 
formity as  long  as  forty  or  fifty  states  legislate  independently 
of  each  other  to  regulate  the  same  companies. 

W.  G.  LANGWORTHY  TAYLOR:  By  an  extension  of  the 
term  "  gambling  "  it  may  be  made  to  include  all  businesses : 
in  all  there  is  an  element  of  risk.  Howeer,  risk  is  the 
most  important  element  in  industrial  progress.  That  is  to 
say,  all  efforts  at  progress  are  tentative  and  all  industrial 
undertakings  are,  in  the  nature  of  things,  ventures.  Not 
only  may  outer  nature  'be  unpropitious  and  mechanical 
inventions  fail  when  put  to  the  test  of  wear  and  tear, 
but  demand  may  fail  to  be  aroused  or  may  suddenly  vanish 
after  it  has  long  been  relied  upon  as  a  constant  factor  in  the 
problem.  In  fact  that  business  which  is  looked  upon  as  furth- 
est removed  from  gambling  is  the  one  in  which  there  is  per- 
haps the  greatest  risk,  the  business  of  agriculture. 

But  provided  the  risk  be  incurred  for  the  purpose  of  creat- 
ing additional  values,  it  is  economically  praiseworthy  and  can- 
not be  called  gambling,  since  gambling  is  a  term  of  moral 
stigma.  The  American  people  is  considered  to  have  increased 
in  wealth  faster  than  any  other  and  this  is  partly  because  of 
the  well-recognized  fact  that  the  American  business  man  is 
more  willing  to  incur  risk  than  his  confrere  of  any  other  na- 
tionality of  equal  intelligence  and  technical  attainments.  This 
kind  of  risk  is  progressive  or  incurred  in  the  cause  of  indus- 
trial progress.  It  does  not  invite  government  interference 
and  the  presumption  in  this  case  is  against  government  regu- 
lation, at  least  according  to  the  theory  that  enterprise  is  rather 
a  matter  for  individual  than  for  government  initiative.  If 
government  interference  becomes  necessary  it  is  only  in  ex- 
treme cases  and  should  be  minimized.  Government  interfer- 
ence in  the  field  of  competitive  business  is  only  in  order  to 
secure  fair  dealing  between  men;  and  generally  publicity  of 
operations  involving  the  element  of  equity  or  trust  is  the  meas- 
ure of  public  control.  Especially  where  such  vast  investments 
are  involved  as  those  made  by  life-insurance  companies,  is  it 
generally  conceded  to  be  inadvisable  in  a  progressive  civiliza- 


134  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

rion  such  as  ours  for  government  either  to  take  over  the  busi- 
ness or  to  hamper  the  judgment  of  the  persons  upon  whom 
such  vast  interests  have  devolved. 

The  simple  theory  of  life  insurance,  however,  involves  no 
such  vast  accumulations  of  property  as  have  been  made  by  our 
insurance  companies.  The  reserves  involved  in  this  business 
do,  of  course,  amount  to  a  large  sum,  but  they  are  less  than  the 
sums  actually  in  the  hands  of  the  insurance  companies.  The 
risk  involved  in  life  insurance  is  much  less  than  the  risk  in 
other  businesses.  As  to  the  insured,  he  is  sure  to  die  anyhow  ; 
the  insurance  neither  accelerates  nor  retards  that  event;  and 
the  premium  is  fixed  beforehand.  Nor  does  the  insurer  take 
so  much  risk  as  is  taken  by  the  ordinary  business  man  or 
company,  for  on  a  sufficient  group  of  lives  the  mortality  tables 
give  a  pretty  accurate  prediction. 

Life  insurance  therefore  in  its  pure  form  is  perhaps  better 
calculated  to  be  managed  by  a  government  office  than  other 
business,  especially  if  the  government  has  a  debt  in  which  the 
reserves  may  be  invested  in  the  same  way  in  which  deposits  in 
the  Postal  Savings  Banks  in  France  are  invested  in  the  French 
national  debt.  But  there  are  grave  objections  to  the  taking 
over  of  life-insurance  business  in  its  pure  form  by  govern- 
ment, and  fortunately  no  one  is  proposing  that  that  be  done  in 
this  country. 

With  endowment  insurance  the  case  stands  very  differently. 
It  is  not  insurance  at  all  but  the  very  antipodes  of  insurance; 
the  buyer  of  this  risk  stands  to  gain  only  if  he  is  among  a 
small  number  of  survivors  from  a  larger  group.  The  buyer  of 
pure  life  insurance  (buys  a  legitimate  protection  and  may  not 
have  paid  too  much  even  though  he  lives  to  old  age  and  has 
accumulated  premiums  to  an  amount  double  the  insurance, 
as  occurred  in  a  case  with  "which  I  am  acquainted;  but  the 
buyer  of  an  endowment  policy  is  not  risking  his  own  death 
but  the  death  of  others.  He  is  gambling  on  his  own  survival 
and  on  the  decease  of  the  other  members  of  his  college.  It  is 
true  that  there  is  little  uncertainty  to  the  insurer,  since  here 
again  the  mortality  tables  apply;  nor,  since  the  college  of 
policyholders  is  a  large  one,  can  the  insured  seek  by  charm  or 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  135 

incantation  to  shorten  their  lives  to  his  own  advantage.  But 
he  is  a  stranger  to  them  and  he  buys  an  opportunity  to  inherit 
their  property.  Is  this  a  moral  and  civilized  proceeding?  Is 
it  desirable  from  any  point  of  view  that  the  hard-earned 
savings  of  industrious  men  be  gambled  away  to  strangers  in- 
stead of  remaining  in  their  own  families,  where  they  properly 
belong  after  the  decease  of  the  head  of  the  family?  It  is  not 
probable  that  the  endowment  principle  would  have  attained 
such  widespread  favor  if  the  matter  had  been  put  to  policy- 
holders  in  this  way. 

Naturally  insurance  solicitors  present  the  advantages  of 
insurance  very  differently.  Endowment  and  pure  insurance 
plans  are  so  mixed  up  in  the  policy  as  to  be  indistinguishable. 
For  a  lump  sum  the  prospective  insuree  is  told  that  he  receives 
protection,  and  then  is  agreeably  surprised  with  an  additional 
contract  to  pay  him  a  very  respectable  sum  at  the  end  of  say 
twenty  years  and  dividends  which  may  have  accrued  up  to 
that  time,  or  in  the  most  favorable  case,  dividends  payable 
annually  which  he  may  spend  or  apply  on  the  reduction  of  his 
premium  or  on  the  increase  of  his  policy.  Moreover  if  he  be- 
comes tired  of  his  contract  the  company  will  kindly  refund 
to  him  a  part  of  his  premiums  already  paid  and  thus  share  the 
loss  with  him.  What  could  be  more  attractive?  And  yet  if 
the  insuree  saw  clearly  that  he  could  obtain  simple  protection 
for  a  tithe  of  the  stipulated  premium,  he  would  think  a  second 
time  before  entering  into  the  more  onerous  obligation.  If  he 
took  the  surplus  and  regularly  deposited  it  in  a  savings  bank 
he  would  get  a  larger  return  than  he  receives  even  by  trading 
on  the  misfortunes  of  other  families,  and  would  not  run  the 
chance  by  his  early  death  of  presenting  them  with  a  windfall. 

The  endowment  feature  is  not  wholly  to  be  condemned. 
Great  numbers  of  persons  have  been  induced  to  make  savings 
who  would  not  have  taken  advantage  of  savings  banks,  and 
thus  perhaps  the  world  is  not  the  poorer  for  it  and  may  even 
be  richer.  The  benefit  of  this  form  of  investment  to  the  im- 
provident reposes  of  course  upon  the  fact  that  the  investment 
cannot  be  withdrawn  except  at  a  considerable  loss.  After  the 
contract  is  made  therefore  there  is  every  incentive  to  continue 


136  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

premium  payments,  and  thus  the  endowment  principle  must 
have  an  educational  feature  in  cultivating  that  spirit  of  sav- 
ing which  is  the  great  basis  of  modern  prosperity  and  es- 
pecially of  American  prosperity. 

From  the  financial  point  of  view,  however,  there  are  seri- 
ous objections  to  the  plan,  which  partly  counterbalance  the 
educational  benefit,  in  the  scales  of  social  utility.  Soundness 
of  a  great  social  financial  system  reposes  upon  the  obligation 
to  pay  upon  demand.  The  bank  system  has  grown  to  its  pres- 
ent importance  precisely  because  deposits  and  notes  are  pay- 
able upon  demand.  The  temporary  money  stringencies  which 
we  continually  witness  are  the  sign  of  the  effectual  operation 
of  the  adjustment  of  the  flow  of  capital  between  different 
localities  through  the  operation  of  this  simple  principle.  The 
institution  of  savings  banks  is  a  first  step  of  derogation  from 
this  principle;  but  savings  banks  have  undoubtedly  been  of 
more  benefit  in  inculcating  thrift  than  of  injury  in  the  im- 
mobilizing of  capital.  The  endowment  contract,  however, 
immobilizes  capital  for  much  longer  periods  than  savings 
banks.  The  dangers  to  which  the  whole  community  is  ex- 
posed from  this  exaggerated  immobilization  of  vast  sums  of 
capital  gathered  from  every  hamlet  in  the  land  and  put  at 
the  disposal  of  vast  schemes  of  financial  control,  have  been 
clearly  brought  to  light  by  the  investigations  of  the  Arm- 
strong Committee.  Enterprise  is  a  good  thing  but  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  too  much  enterprise.  Concentrated  capital 
held  subject  simply  to  a  distant  obligation  of  recall,  becames 
a  tool  for  raiding  methods  in  finance  and  for  guerrilla  war- 
fare between  financiers.  The  country  has  looked  with  alarm 
at  the  manner  in  Which  bold  financiers  have  been  able  to  cap- 
ture vast  enterprises  and  to  combine  them  into  vaster  ones  by 
the  employment  of  capital  not  their  own.  The  pickings  of  a 
few  insurance  officials  are  a  matter  of  little  moment  compared 
with  the  use  of  reserve  funds  collected  in  money  centers  for 
an  exaggerated  control  of  industrial  undertakings. 

This  evil  will  be  cured  by  Time  as  others  have  been  before. 
I  am  informed  that  there  is  already  a  marked  tendency  on  the 
part  of  policyholders  to  reject  this  feature  of  insurance. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  137 

The  solicitation  of  insurance  has  been  carried  much  too  far. 
It  has  been  a  natural  accompaniment  of  the  endowment  prin- 
ciple. The  possibility  of  collecting  vast  sums  is  in  itself  very 
attractive  and  even  though  they  are  to  be  paid  back  at  a  later 
date,  the  temporary  control  of  them  must  give  great  influence 
to  insurance  officials.  The  vast  army  of  agents  is  become  a 
vested  interest.  The  proposition  to  reduce  the  urgency  and 
insistency  of  the  hunt  for  possible  policyholders  is  a  very  seri- 
ous matter  to  the  agent.  It  seems  to  him  impossible  that  life 
insurance  can  survive  without  him ;  at  least  he  knows  he  can- 
not survive  without  it!  But  insurance  is  not  the  only  busi- 
ness in  which  solicitation  has  been  carried  too  far.  The  evils 
of  over- advertising  have  often  been  descanted  upon.  The 
mails  are  used  to  pester  the  whole  community  with  proposi- 
tions in  mining  stocks,  patent  medicines,  and  books,  craftily 
couched  to  catch  the  unwary.  Let  us  have  a  partial  return 
towards  buying  the  thing  we  know  we  want  at  the  place  where 
we  know  we  can  find  it! 

The  evils  of  over-solicitation  have  been  proved  in  many 
different  ways.  So  accustomed  are  life-insurance  men  to  its 
necessity  that  they  never  question  it.  Even  in  straight  life 
insurance  they  claim  that  an  infusion  of  fresh  lives  is  neces- 
sary in  order  to  keep  the  average  of  ages  uniform,  but  this 
certainly  cannot  be  true  if  the  premium  paid  by  each  individual 
represents  its  true  actuarial  worth  and  if  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  lives — say  a  thousand — be  included  in  the  group.  Be- 
yond a  certain  number,  additional  lives  add  nothing  to  the 
actuarial  necessities  of  the  case.  The  endowment  principle 
adds  enormously  to  the  desire  for  further  extension  of  busi- 
ness on  account  of  the  unrestrained  passion  of  men  for  the  ag- 
gregation of  big  capitals,  while  it  is  notorious  that  fraternal 
organizations  would  have  to  close  their  doors  very  quickly  if 
they  could  not  keep  down  the  assessments  by  new  insurance, 
and  that  even  new  insurance  cannot  keep  them  on  their  feet 
very  long. 

Perhaps  the  best  evidence  of  the  illegitimacy  of  undue  solici- 
tation is  to  be  found  in  the  enormous  number  of  lapses,  es- 
pecially in  industrial  insurance.  Thus  it  is  stated  in  the 


138  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

Armstrong  Report :  "  It  is  found  that  in  the  Ordinary  De- 
partment over  44%  lapse  during  the  first  three  years.  In  the 
Industrial  Department  between  62%  and  66%  lapse  in  the  first 
three  years."  (P.  337).  Stated,  in  another  way,  the  num- 
ber of  lapses  including  deaths,  which  amounted  to  less  than 
i%,  is  found  to  be  as  follows: 

Within  13  weeks 29% 

Within  13  to  26  weeks 12.8% 

Within  26  to  39  weeks 5.7% 

Within  39  to  52  weeks 3.8% 

Total  within  year 51.3%     (P.  338.) 

"  In  1905,  1,253,635  Metropolitan  and  951,704  Prudential 
policies  lapsed  "  (Louis  D.  Brandeis,  The  Independent,  Dec. 
20,  1906,  p.  1478).  The  same  writer  says  that  the  Colum- 
bia National  Life  Insurance  Company  wrote  during  the  year 
1905,  103,466  industrial  policies.  At  the  end  of  the  year  it 
had  outstanding  only  63,497;  and  yet  of  the  143,863  policy- 
holders  only  699  had  died,  while  79,677  policies — that  is  114 
times  as  many — had  lapsed."  Professor  Allan  H.  Willett 
states :  "  Of  the  business  terminated  by  the  four  industrial 
companies  in  Connecticut  during  the  year  1903  4.41%  was 
terminated  by  surrender  and  no  less  than  90.10%  by  lapse. 
This  represents  an  enormous  tax  upon  the  resources  of  the 
laboring  classes."  (Political  Science  Quarterly,  Vol.  20,  p. 
471.)  The  same  author  states,  "  The  average  of  regular 
terminations  for  31  companies  reporting  to  the  ('Connecticut) 
Department  was  35.21%  of  the  total  terminations,  leaving 
64.79%  as  tne  share  terminated  irregularly,  of  which  all  but 
5%  was  by  lapse  or  surrender." 

Under  these  circumstances  some  recourse  to  state  inter- 
vention and  regulation  is  undoubtedly  indicated.  Whether 
complete  prohibition  of  deferred-dividend  contracts  is  advis- 
able may  be  open  to  question.  Certainly  the  policyholder 
should  be  notified  annually  of  the  exact  amount  due  to  him 
under  the  existing  condition  of  the  company.  That  require- 
ment would  prevent  the  companies  from'  holding  out  expecta- 
tions of  important  future  gain  from  the  investment  side  of 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  139 

insurance.  Perhaps  it  is  not  a  bad  scheme  to  restrict  taxa- 
tion of  insurance  companies  to  the  undistributed  surplus  of 
the  company;  and  further  than  this  the  utmost  publicity  of 
the  operations  of  insurance  should  be  secured. 

In  the  matter  of  securing  publicity  the  state  insurance  de- 
partments have  signally  failed.  They  have  rather  been 
agencies  for  the  promulgation  of  whitewashing  reports  which 
have  been  used  by  the  companies  as  advertisements  for  the 
further  spreading  of  endowment  policies.  Government  regu- 
lation should  not  forbid  the  spreading  of  endowment  insur- 
ance. The  general  tendency  towards  centralization  of  com- 
mercial regulation  in  this  country  indicates  that  something 
should  be  done  towards  stimulating  the  activities  of  the  federal 
government  in  the  matter  of  investigation  of  life-insurance 
methods  and  exposure  of  abuses.  The  Bureau  of  Corpora- 
tions already  has  the  power  to  investigate  life  insurance.  Let 
it  use  that  power.  If  it  needs  additional  money  and  men  for 
the  purpose  they  will  be  readily  forthcoming  when  the  atten- 
tion of  Congress  is  called  to  the  matter. 

Economically  speaking  insurance  is  not  commerce.  It  is 
finance.  The  essence  of  finance  is  the  contract  of  guaranty ;  and 
insurance  is  plainly  a  contract  of  guaranty.  But  the  lawyers 
are  taking  care*  of  the  constitutional  question  for  us.  They 
are  rapidly  deciding  that  insurance  is  commerce,  and  for  pres- 
ent purposes  it  makes  very  little  difference  on  what  constitu- 
tional theory  the  requisite  powers  are  given  to  the  central 
gx>vernment.  It  has  not  been  proposed  that  the  central  gov- 
ernment charter  insurance  companies  but  that  it  be  given 
additional  powers  in  enforcing  publicity.  Our  narrowing 
contact  with  foreign  countries  touches  us  in  insurance  as  it 
has  touched  us  already  in  commerce,  in  finance,  in  diplomacy, 
and  even  in  educational  questions.  We  want  to  take  every 
means  at  command  to  find  out  whether  our  insurance  mag- 
nates are  promoting  railroad  combines  and  whether  they  arc 
using  insurance  funds  in  participation  syndicates,  in  collateral 
trust  bonds,  or  in  bank  accounts  A  or  X. 

FRANK  E.  HORACK:  Without  entering  into  the  constitu- 


I4O  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

tional  or  legal  difficulties  to  be  encountered  and  overcome 
before  the  organization  and  government  control  of  insurance 
companies  by  the  National  Government  can  become  a  reality, 
I  want  to  emphasize  what  in  my  opinion  would  be  the  chief 
advantages  of  such  organization  and  control. 

The  fact  that  the  insurance  companies  themselves  are  work- 
ing toward  this  end  is  not  necessarily  against  the  proposition. 
Government  control  will  undoubtedly  benefit  the  insurance 
companies  by  giving  them  a  uniform  and  simplified  organiza- 
tion. This  must  mean  a  considerable  economy  in  manage- 
ment over  the  present  system.  Moreover,  I  believe  that  if 
means  are  found  to  bring  this  insurance  business  within  the 
power  of  the  National  Government,  it  will  hasten  the  move- 
ment for  the  organization  and  control  or  the  control  at  least 
of  industrial  and  business  corporations  engaged  in  interstate 
business. 

The  insurance  business  is  only  one  of  the  great  enterprises 
conducted  in  corporate  form  in  this  country  which  must 
sooner  or  later  come  under  the  surveillance  of  the  National 
Government.  President  Roosevelt  urged  national  legislation 
for  corporations  engaged  in  interstate  commerce  in  his  first 
message  to  Congress  and  this  year  to  the  second  session  of 
the  59th  Congress  he  again  calls  attention  to  the  need  of  se- 
curing Government  control  of  those  great  corporations  the 
operation  of  which  are  confined  to  no  one  State.  The  im- 
possibility of  securing  uniform  legislation  by  State  action  is 
apparent  to  any  one  who  has  given  the  subject  the  slightest 
thought. 

In  my  opinion  all  of  the  arguments  urged  in  favor  of  or- 
ganization and  government  control  of  insurance  companies 
may  well  be  applied  to  all  the  great  corporations  engaged  in 
interstate  commerce.  To  sum  up  briefly,  the  advantages  of 
Government  organization  and  control  are : 

1.  It  will  give  such  corporations  a  uniform  and  simplified 
organization. 

2.  It  will  make  possible  a  uniform  line  of  court  decisions 
respecting  the  powers  and  duties  of  such  corporations. 

3.  It  will  be  one  of  the  most  efficient  means  of  checking 
the  evil  of  overcapitalization. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  14! 

4.  It  will  give  (better  protection   to  policy-holders  and   to 
stockholders,  particularly  in  giving  them  information  as  to 
whom  their  associates  are. 

5.  It   will  give  American  companies  transacting  business 
abroad  a  better  standing,  as  well  as  better  protection. 

6.  It  will  check  excessive  profits  and  reduce  the  cost  of  in- 
surance. 

7.  It  will  put  a  stop  to  the  disgraceful  traffic  in  corporate 
charters  for  the  sake  of  the  fees  which  the  corporations  wil- 
lingly pay  for  immunities. 

8.  It  will  put  the  standard  of  corporate  legislation  in  this 
country  on  a  par  with  that  of  England  and  Germany. 

FREDERICK  L.  HOFFMAN:  The  address  of  Professor 
Robinson  before  this  Association  marks  an  important 
step  in  the  advance  of  insurance  science  as  a  branch 
of  economics.  The  observations,  on  the  whole,  are  sound 
and  in  conformity  with  the  facts,  and  the  address  illus- 
trates forcibly  the  value  of  independent  and  impartial  research 
work  in  practical  economics.  The  scientific  study  of  insur- 
ance has  been  almost  completely  neglected  by  economists,  with 
the  exception  of  the  valuable  monograph  of  Mr.  Allan  H. 
Willett  and  the  occasional  discussion  of  its  social  aspects  and 
importance  by  Prof.  Ely,  of  Wisconsin.  A  very  promising 
field  lies  open  to  any  one,  but  no  more  serious  error  could  be 
made  than  to  assume  that  all  the  knowledge  and  wisdom  re- 
specting the  business  is  to  be  found  in  the  Report  of  the  New 
York  State  Legislative  Committee,  or  in  the  Report  of  die 
Special  Committee  of  the  Legislature  of  Wisconsin.  Insur- 
ance has  a  wide  literature  and  most  interesting  history,  but 
few  trained  minds  in  economics  have  given  the  matter  serious 
concern,  and  the  subject  awaits  the  coming'  of  the  master  mind 
which  shall  successfully  differentiate  the  sound  theory  from 
the  unsound,  and  the  valuable  material  from  the  worthless. 
In  no  direction,  perhaps,  is  the  value  of  special  research-work 
on  the  part  of  trained  economists  better  illustrated  than  in  con- 
nection with  the  constitutional  aspects  of  the  problem  of 


142  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

Federal  supervision  of  insurance,  or  the  specific  question 
whether,  under  our  Constitution,  insurance  is  commerce  or  an 
element  of  commerce  within  the  meaning  of  the  Commerce 
Clause.  Now,  while  there  has  been  much  discussion  upon 
this  point,  there  has  been  practically  no  research-work  to  es- 
tablish with  accuracy  the  point  of  view  of  the  early  American 
statesmen  from  a  study  of  the  works  of  Hamilton  and  Wilson, 
the  early  American  State  Papers,  the  debates  of  Congress,  etc., 
not  to  speak  of  the  much-neglected  field  of  the  actual  practice 
of  ancient  and  modern  commerce  and  navigation. 

Much  valuable  material  will  be  found  in  the  early  diction- 
aries of  commerce,  and  dissertations  upon  the  Law  Merchant, 
maritime  law  and  custom,  and  even  international  law  contain 
much  that  will  prove  useful  and  suggestive.  In  other  words, 
there  is  urgent  need  of  a  comprehensive  inquiry  into  our  poli- 
tical and  commercial  history,  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  in  the 
early  debates  and  discussions,  insurance  has  been  considered 
an  element  of  commerce  in  the  same  sense  as  bills  of  lading 
and  bills  of  exchange.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  some  earnest 
student  of  economics  will  take  up  this  question  and  produce 
a  work  useful  for  practical  purposes  and  which  would  serve 
as  an  aid  in  the  successful  solution  of  the  pending  problems 
of  the  relation  of  insurance  to  the  State. 

Not  much  good,  however,  is  likely  toi  result  until  the  whole 
subject  of  insurance  is  included  within  the  scope  of  university 
education  and  until  the  science  of  insurance  is  taught  in  the 
same  manner  as  other  applied  sciences  are  now  being  taught 
in  our  great  institutions  of  learning.  An  excellent  beginning 
in  this  direction  has  been  made  in  Germany  by  the  establish- 
ment of  an  insurance  seminary  at  Gottingen,  under  Prof. 
Lexis,  and  of  an  insurance  course  in  the  Commercial  High 
School  at  Cologne  under  Prof.  Moldenhauer.  In  so  practical 
a  country  as  America,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  insur- 
ance has  not  long  since  attained  to  the  dignity  of  an  applied 
science  and  been  taught  as  such  in  our  universities.  By  such 
teaching  I  mean  more  than  the  actuarial  branch  of  the  business 
of  life  insurance,  for  I  would  make  the  instruction  include  every 
department  of  the  business,  or,  in  other  words,  represent  insur- 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  143 

ance  science  in  the  true  and  complete  sense  of  that  term.  The 
division  is  natural  into  different  sections — such  as,  first,  the 
economics  and  theory  of  risk  and  insurance ;  second,  the  history 
and  literature;  third,  the  law  of  insurance,  both  private  and 
administrative,  including-  State  supervision  and  control ; 
fourth,  the  mathematics  of  insurance,  or  the  practical  appli- 
cation of  the  doctrine  of  probability;  fifth,  the  finance  of  in- 
surance, including  the  doctrine  of  interest;  sixth,  the  admin- 
istration of  insurance  companies,  including  the  science  of  ac- 
counting; seventh,  insurance  medicine,  including  hygiene  and 
diseases  of  occupation;  eighth,  the  business  of  insurance  in 
practical  life,  or  its  social  aspects,  including  statistics,  com- 
parative experience,  social  utility,  etc. ;  ninth,  insurance  tech- 
nology, including  insurance  engineering,  prevention  of  fire 
waste,  etc. 

If  some  such  comprehensive  plan  were  introduced  into  one 
or  more  of  our  leading  universities,  in  place  of  the  present 
more  or  less  inadequate  method  of  instruction,  and  if  the 
co-operation  of  the  companies  were  enlisted  to  secure  material 
and  data,  literature  and  forms,  etc.,  the  step  would  mark  the 
beginning  of  a  new  era  and  the  result  would  be  to  substitute 
facts  and  truth  for  error  and  guesswork,  and  the  benefit  to 
society  and  the  State  would  be  incalculable. 

F.  A.  CLEVELAND,  PH.  D. :  The  papers  read  and  the  discus- 
sion following  seem  to  be  practically  in  accord  in  their  advo- 
cacy or  deferential  acceptance  of  the  principle  of  publicity. 
That  is  to  say,  the  need  for  state  control  over  insurance  com- 
panies is  accepted  and  publicity  is  held  a  necessary  incident 
thereto. 

Advocating  publicity,  Mr.  Johnson,  in  his  excellent  paper 
on  "  The  principles  which  should  govern  the  regulation  of 
life-insurance  companies,"  contrasts  the  almost  complete  ab- 
sence of  regulatory  acts  in  Great  Britain  with  the  voluminous 
State  insurance  legislation  in  the  United  States,  and  concludes 
that  the  one  provision — "  publicity  "  —in  Great  Britain  has 
given  a  complete  solution  of  the  problem  of  regulation,  while 
America  with  all  her  statutes — imjtiisatorial,  restraining  and 


144  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

mandatory — has  been  periodically  wrapped  in  scandal,  and 
both  policyholder  and  insurance  company  have  suffered  greatly 
from  an  inefficient  form  of  control. 

'  The  statutory  provisions  covering  the  operations  of  life 
insurance  companies  in  Great  Britain  (since  the  adoption  of 
which  they  have  been  particularly  free  from  cause  for  criti- 
cism) are  embodied  in  the  '  Life  Insurance  Companies'  Act, 
1870.'  The  framers  of  the  Act  aimed  at  allowing  the  com- 
panies full  freedom  in  their  conduct  of  business,  while  com- 
pelling them  to  make  public  the  results  of  the  operations." 
This  is  the  resume  given  by  Mr.  Johnson  of  the  English  situa- 
tion. His  interpretation  of  legislative  motive  is  that  the 
English  people  believed  that  publicity  would  do  more  to  se- 
cure sound  management  than  any  other  method  which  might 
be  adopted. 

The  conclusion  reached  by  Mr.  Johnson  seems  to  be  well 
supported  by  experience,  not  only  by  the  experience  of  in- 
surance companies,  but  also  by  English  practice  with  respect 
to  every  form  of  corporate  activity  and  executory  trusteeship. 
From  his  reasoning,  however  he  has  omitted  an  important 
feature  of  the  English  Statute  Law,  viz  the  "Companies'  Acts." 
requiring  an  independent  audit  of  all  corporations  registered 
under  the  act  of  1860,  and  specific  Acts  requiring  the  audit  of 
Savings  Societies,  Friendly  Societies,  Railway  Companies, 
Water,  Gas  and  Electric  Lighting  Companies,  etc.  While  the 
Act  of  1870,  regulating  life  insurance  did  not  make  obligatory 
the  appointment  of  independent  auditors  by  stockholders,  (or 
in  mutual  companies,  by  policy-holders,)  and  the  Companies' 
Act  of  1890  includes  only  such  insurance  companies  as  were 
registered  under  the  law  of  1862,  the  defect  in  the  law  is 
effectively  cured  by  an  enlightened  public  opinion  requiring 
financial  statements  to  be  certified  to  a  basis  of  credit  and 
public  faith.  One  authority  comments  as  follows:  "This 
[the  failure  to  impose  the  duty  of  an  independent  audit]  was 
certainly  a  grave  omission,  and  will  no  doubt  be  rectified  in  a 
future  Act,  as  there  is  no  class  of  company  which  so  impera- 
tively demands  a  strict  investigation  of  its  accounts.  It  is 
true,  however,  that  nearly  all  life-insurance  companies  have 
auditors." 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  145 

The  English  law  above  referred  to  is  the  result  of  the  in- 
vestment losses  and  scandals  which  occurred  in  the  early  part 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Between  1840  and  1870  Parliament 
had  enacted  numerous  measures  for  the  protection  of  stock- 
holders and  other  investors,  an  essential  provision  of  which 
was  that  the  stockholders  at  their  annual  meeting  (when 
officers  are  elected)  shall  appoint  an  independent  auditor. 
These  auditors  as  the  representatives  of  stockholders  and 
beneficiaries  were  given  access  to  all  books,  records  and  files 
kept  by  the  officers  and  trustees  of  the  Company  and  were 
held  civilly  and  criminally  responsible  for  the  truth  of  finan- 
cial statements  made.  Such  companies  as  do  not  specifically 
come  within  the  statutes  find  it  to  their  advantage  to  have  the 
certificates  of  auditors  on  their  statements. 

This  general  practice  supplements  the  specific  requirements 
that  corporations  shall  report  to  the  Board  of  Trade.  The 
independent  audit,  as  a  function  of  control,  is  seldom  touched 
on  in  discussions  pertaining  to  the  regulation  of  corporations ; 
Professor  Robinson's  paper  is  among  the  few  that  have  drawn 
attention  to  the  relations  of  an  audit  to  the  problem  of  public 
control.  If  there  is  anything  to  be  added  to  what  has  been 
said  it  is  along  this  line. 

The  contrast  between  the  English  method  of  control  and 
the  American  is  pointed.  England  throws  the  primary  bur- 
den of  control  on  the  stockholder  or  beneficiary,  and  by  law 
provides  the  means  necessary  to  its  enforcement.  To  restate 
the  provisions  of  English  law,  it  requires:  (i)  that  stock- 
holders shall  appoint  a  representative  to  inform  them  as  to 
the  manner  in  which  the  corporate  estate  which  is  in  the  pos- 
session of  officers  and  trustees  has  been  managed  and  to  re- 
port on  the  conditions  of  the  trust,  thus  placing  in  the  hands 
of  stockholders  and  beneficiaries  a  non-partisan  statement 
which  may  be  used  as  a  basis  for  protecting  the  rights  and 
equities  of  parties  in  interest;  (2)  that  the  officers  shall  make 
a  full  report  to  the  Board  of  Trade. 

In  the  United  States  we  have  followed  the  Continental 
practice.  We  have  assumed  that  the  Government  is  the 
guardian  of  the  stockholder.  Having  a  democratic  gov- 


146  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

ernment,  instead  of  adopting  the  democratic  rule  of  self- 
help  which  prevails  in  England,  we  have  assumed  that  it 
should  become  paternalistic.  Even  in  Germany  and  Russia, 
where  paternalism  has  advanced  to  a  point  which  we  cannot 
hope  to  attain,  government  regulation  has  proved  less  effective 
than  private  regulation  in  England  where  the  law  requires 
the  stockholders  and  the  trustees  to  inform  themselves, 
through  their  own  auditor,  as  to  the  conduct  of  affairs. 

Let  us  be  more  concrete  and  consider  corporate  conditions 
as  they  were  found  to  exist  in  our  insurance  companies.  The 
recent  investigations  have  proved:  (i)  that  for  years  there 
has  been  wholesale  peculation  and  subversion  of  funds;  (2) 
that  during  this  time  the  companies  have  been  under  constant 
scrutiny  by  departments  of  insurance  of  every  state  in 
which  these  companies  have  done  business;  (3)  that  in  nearly 
every  instance  the  public  officer  has  faithfully  executed  the  law 
governing  his  office. 

What  has  been  wrong?  The  wrong  has  lain  in  expecting 
of  the  public  officer  something  that  was  not  intended  or,  under 
the  statute,  was  not  included  among  his  duties.  The  public 
officer  was  created  to  protect  the  public  against  loss  from  in- 
solvency. The  Superintendent  of  Insurance,  like  the  Comp- 
troller of  the  Currency,  is  to  perform  the  duty  of  policing  the 
corporations  in  order  that  the  public  might  not  suffer  from 
the  impairment  of  capital  or  loss  of  funds  which  by  law  are 
required  to  be  kept  as  reserves  for  meeting  outstanding  obli- 
gations. This  duty  might  be  conscientiously  performed  and 
yet  millions  of  dollars  might  be  wasted  by  the  companies 
though  inefficient  or  extravagant  administration. 

Let  us  look  more  closely  to  the  practices  of  companies  which 
have  been  made  the  subject  of  criticism  and  consider  whether 
or  not  these  practices  come  fairly  within  the  purview  of  public 
regulation,  or  if  so  whether  the  public  officer  is  the  one  to 
to  apply  the  remedy.  The  causes  of  complaint  may  be  sum- 
marized as  follows :  ( i )  There  was  no  adequate  method 
whereby  the  administrative  officers  of  the  company  might 
know  whether  all  of  the  income  accruing  to  the  company  had 
been  realized,  and  consequently  no  adequate  administrative 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  147 

control  over  the  collecting  agents:  (2)  there  were  expendi- 
tures amounting  to  millions  of  dollars  per  year  over  which 
there  was  no  adequate  audit  or  accounting  control;  (3)  in 
some  instances,  even  such  audit  as  was  provided  for  by  the 
Company  was  from  three  to  four  years  behind — i.  e.  the  in- 
surance companies  were  doing  just  what  the  United  States 
Government  is  doing  to-day,  viz. :  paying  claims  against 
them,  then  auditing  these  claims  later,  seeking  to  hold  the  dis- 
bursing officer  responsible;  (4)  as  a  result  there  accumulated 
on  the  books  as  "  unadmitted  items  "  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  dollars,  which,  though  stated  as  assets  under  the  head  of 
"  due  from  agents,"  were  lost  to  the  company  and  thereby 
were  diverted  from  possible  use  as  dividends;  (5)  supplies 
amounting  to  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  per  annum 
were  purchased  at  exorbitant  prices,  and  in  some  instances,  at 
least,  with  collusive  intent;  (6)  salaries  were  arbitrarily  raised 
far  above  the  value  of  services  received;  (7)  there  were  loans 
to  friendly  interests  at  rates  below  the  market,  in  the  form  of 
call  loans  and  deposits;  (8)  there  was  subversion  of  funds  by 
agents  for  private  or  improper  purposes;  (9)  there  was  lack 
of  co-ordination  between  different  departments  of  the  service 
and  the  consequent  loss  in  administrative  efficiency;  (10)  there 
was  lack  of  intelligence  on  the  part  of  those  in  positions  of 
official  responsibility  as  well  as  on  the  part  of  the  board. 
Generally  speaking  the  whole  situation  may  be  summed  up  in 
the  statement  that  there  was  a  lack  of  intelligent  administra- 
tive and  directive  control  over  the  business  by  officers  and  by 
the  Board. 

The  administrative  side  of  the  corporate  problem  has  never 
been  appreciated  either  by  officer  of  state  or  by  publicist.  Few, 
if  any,  of  these  situations  might  be  reached  by  any  system  of 
direct  public  control.  These  are  administrative  questions 
and  situations,  to  reach  which  the  government  must  either  as- 
sume a  complete  direction  of  affairs  or,  as  is  done  in  England, 
require  that  the  stockholders  shall  annually  inform  them- 
selves by  their  own  chosen  representative  as  to  what  is  being 
done  by  officers  and  trustees,  and  require,  further,  that  the 
administrative  officer  shall  report  fully  to  the  state. 


148  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

In  Massachusetts  it  has  been  proposed  that  a  public  accoun- 
tant shall  be  employed  as  auditor,  but  that  his  employment 
shall  be  by  the  Superintendent  of  Insurance.  This  provision 
could  have  nothing  more  than  a  restraining  effect.  No  action 
might  be  taken  by  a  public  officer  except  such  as  would  be  in 
the  nature  of  police  regulation.  The  state  cannot  assume  to 
judge  for  stockholders  and  trustees  as  to  whether  an  employee 
is  rendering  efficient  service,  whether  his  salary  is  greater  than 
it  should  be,  whether  the  quality  of  goods  is  sufficient  for  the 
purpose  intended,  etc.,  etc.  Questions  of  economy  and  effi- 
ciency are  for  the  administration  to  consider  and  for  those 
who  are  interested  in  administrative  results. 

It  is  in  this  relation  that  the  regulative  superiority  of  the 
English  law  may  be  seen.  The  annual  audit  by  a  representa- 
tive of  the  stockholder  or  policyholder  is  a  critical  examina- 
tion which  takes  into  consideration  administrative  questions. 
The  report  of  the  auditor  is  to  the  share-proprietor  of  the 
business  or  to  his  direct  representatives,  the  trustees.  The 
public  accountant  not  only  has  to  do  with  the  protection  of 
the  estate,  as  has  the  public  officer,  (but  also  he  goes  into  every 
relation  of  economy,  efficiency,  operative  result  and  financial 
condition  in  which  the  proprietor  himself  or  the  officer  is  in- 
terested. He  is  the  personal  representative  of  the  proprietor 
and  the  professional  advisor  to  the  officer  and  trustee  on 
matters  of  administration.  The  public  examiner  on  the  other 
hand  is  an  advisor  of  a  department  of  state.  His  examin- 
ation can  -be  of  little  aid  either  to  officer  or  trustee,  and  can 
give  little  information  to  the  proprietor.  The  report  of  the 
public  accountant  goes  at  once  to  the  share-proprietor  or  to  his 
direct  representatives,  the  trustees,  who  may  correct  abuses. 
The  report  of  the  public  examiner,  if  it  may  contain  the  same 
information,  goes  to  the  public  officer,  who*  may  consider  it 
only  from  the  point  of  view  of  public  control.  He  is  not  in  a 
position  to  consider  or  act  on  matters  of  official  judgment. 
Regulation  by  the  state  at  best  cannot  reach  questions  of  ad- 
ministrative discretion. 

English  experience  has  taught  us  that  the  best  police  regu- 
lation over  an  agent  or  trustee  is  to  keep  his  acts  constantly 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  149 

before  his  principal,  who  may  find  a  remedy  in  the  courts  for 
any  and  every  breach  of  faith,  and  who  has  an  even  more  ef- 
fective remedy  in  his  right  to  dismiss  agents  for  failure  to 
exercise  good  judgment  in  the  management  of  his  affairs. 
For  either  remedy  the  priprietor  or  beneficiary  has  placed  in 
his  hands  the  evidence  necessary  to  its  intelligent  accom- 
plishment. 

Mr.   Johnson  announces  "  that  the   fundamental  principle 
upon  which  all  sound  governmental  regulation  of  life-insur- 
ance companies  should  be  based,  is  the  requirement  of  ( i )  com- 
plete publicity  concerning  their  operations  accompanied  by  (2) 
a  detailed  and  frequent  accountability  for  all  surplus  and  other 
funds."     He  has  shown  that  these  two  principles  are  operative 
in  England  which  makes  little  provision  for  their  enforcement, 
while  with  all  our  laws  they  are  inoperative  in  the  United 
States.     Professor  Robinson  in  his  paper  has  suggested  the 
salient  feature  of  the  English  law  which  makes  it  effective. 
There  cannot  be  complete  publicity  unless  a  critical  examin- 
ation is  made,  both  with  respect  to  compliance  with  law  and 
with  respect  to  administrative  economy  and  efficiency;  there 
can  be  no  effective  results  from  publicity  unless  the  whole 
financial  and  operative  situation   is  placed  before  both   the 
state,    the  stockholders   and   policyholders.     "  Complete  and 
frequent  accountability"  can  come  in  no  other  way;  it  can 
never  come  through  a  public  officer  except  under  a  system  of 
government  ownership.     The  last  principle  suggested  by  Mr. 
Johnson,  official  character,  can  be  made  effective  only  where 
there  is  a  direct  official  responsibility  enforced  by  the  share- 
proprietor  or  trustee.     This  also,  in  a  corporation  where  the 
share-owners  or  beneficiaries  are  widely  scattered,  can  come 
only  after  a  critical  examination  by  a  professional  advisor  to 
parties  in  interest. 

The  present  trend  of  legislation  is  to  add  more  restrictive 
and  mandatory  legislation  to  that  which  has  already  proved 
ineffective.  The  best  regulation  possible  to  business  is  to 
place  in  the  hands  of  parties  in  interest  data  which  will  enable 
them  intelligently  to  judge  as  to  the  manner  in  which  their 
affairs  are  being  managed.  This  can  best  be  done  by  means 


I5O  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

of  a  compulsory  audit  by  a  representative  of  the  proprietors 
and  beneficiaries — by  one  who  for  purposes  of  examination 
and  report  is  made  superior  to  the  officer  and  trustee.  The 
necessity  for  making  an  audit  compulsory  is  to  insure  that 
the  report  shall  go  to  the  real  parties  in  interest  instead  of 
being  buried  in  the  archives  of  state  or  concealed  from  view  by 
the  officers  whose  acts  are  being  reported.  The  necessity 
for  making  the  auditor  civilly  and  criminally  responsible  is  to 
make  the  responsibilities  of  an  examination  so  great  that  one 
not  trained  to  this  character  of  advice  cannot  afford  to  take 
the  risk  of  certifying  to  statements  of  financial  condition  and 
current  operative  results.  By  requiring  a  statement  of  af- 
fairs under  such  penalties  and  liabilities,  and  subject  to  review 
by  officers  of  state  charged  with  the  enforcement  by  law,  both 
public  control  and  private  control  over  insurance  companies 
will  be  made  most  effective. 


HOBBES'  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  STATE  OF  NATURE. 

BY   CHARLES   EDWARD   MERRIAM, 

UN1VBRSITY   OF  CHICAGO. 

In  Chapter  13  of  the  Leviathan  on  "  The  Natural  Condition 
of  Mankind  "is  found  Hobbes'  doctrine  of  the  state  of  nature 
as  it  is  generally  known.  This  may  be  briefly  summed  up  as 
follows :  In  faculties  of  mind  and  body,  men  are,  on  the  whole, 
so  nearly  equal  that  one  cannot  claim  for  himself  any  benefit 
to  which  another  may  not  pretend  as  well  as  he.  From  this 
equality  of  ability  arises  equality  of  hope  in  attaining  ends  de- 
sired. "And  therefore  if  any  two  men  desire  the  same  thing, 
which  nevertheless  they  cannot  both  enjoy,  they  become  ene- 
mies." There  are  three  principal  causes  of  quarrel  among 
men;  first,  the  desire  for  gain;  second,  for  safety,  and  third, 
for  glory.  Hence  where  there  is  no  common  power  to  keep 
men  in  awe,  "  they  are  in  that  condition  called  war,  and  such 
a  war  as  is  of  every  man  against  every  man."  This  war  need 
not  be  constant  conflict,  since  "  the  nature  of  war  consists  not 
in  actual  fighting,  but  in  the  known  disposition  thereto  during 
all  the  time  there  is  no  assurance  to  the  contrary."  In  such  a 
state  of  war,  actual  or  potential,  the  condition  of  man  is  most 
unfortunate  and  deplorable.  "  The  life  of  man  in  such  a 
state,"  says  Hobbes,  "  is  solitary,  poor,  nasty,  brutish,  and 
shor 

In  this  condition,  furthermore,  there  is  no  right  and  no 
wrong;  no  justice  and  no  injustice,  since  these  qualities  relate 
to  men  in  society,  and  not  in  solitude.  In  the  state  of  nature, 
force  and  fraud  are  the  cardinal  virtues.  Every  man  has  a 
right  to  what  he  can  get,  and  for  just  so  long  as  he  can  keep  it. 
Out  of  this  state  of  nature  and  into  a  political  condition, 
Hobbes  proposed  to  bring  men  by  means  of  a  social  contract, 
the  essential  condition  of  which  was  the  absolute  surrender 
of  die  power  and  the  judgment  of  all  individuals  .concerned  to 
a  sovereign  body,  individual  or  collective  in  its  character. 


152  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

Regarding  this  doctrine,  it  has  generally  been  stated  that 
Hobbes  developed  here  a  novel  and  original  idea  of  the  state 
of  nature  as  a  state  of  war;  that  a  characteristic  feature  of  his 
work  was  the  emphasis  placed  on  the  selfish  element  and  the 
failure  to  recognize  the  existence  of  social  qualities  in  human 
nature;  and,  furthermore,  that  this  theory,  so  understood,  was 
wholly  untenable,  both  logically  and  historically. 

The  purpose  of  this  paper  is  to  examine  Hobbes'  doctrine  of 
the  state  of  nature  in  order  to  determine,  first,  how  far  this 
idea  was  original  with  Hobbes;  second,  to  what  extent  the 
doctrine  was  consistently  maintained ;  third,  what  was  the  his- 
torical justification  and  explanation  of  the  theory. 

It  would,  in  the  first  place,  be  inaccurate  to  attribute  to 
Hobbes  the  origination  of  the  doctrine  that  the  state  of  nature 
is  a  state  of  war.  This  idea  was  much  older  than  the  Sage 
of  Malmesbury.  Theology  had  long  asserted  that  man  be- 
gan with  Paradise,  but  by  Adam's  fall  was  plunged  into  a 
state  of  woe.  The  violence  and  sinfulness  of  man  was  pre- 
sented by  the  early  Fathers  of  the  church  as  the  primary  cause 
of  the  establishment  of  government.  The  influence  of  Aris- 
totle upon  medieval  political  thought  was  strong  enough  to 
drive  this  doctrine  into  the  background  or  at  least  to  compel 
a  reconciliation  in  scholastic  style,  as  seen  in  the  teaching  of 
Thomas  Aquinas;  but  the  Calvinistic  theology  of  Hobbes' 
time  and  place  had  revived  this  old  doctrine  in  its  most  comr 
plete  form.  The  natural  condition  of  man  was  declared  wholly 
sinful  and  vile.  As  one  of  the  writers  phrased  it  "  Man's  na- 
ture is  as  full  of  sin  as  an  egg  is  full  of  meat."  His  weakness 
and  wickedness,  moreover,  were  not  confined  to  spiritual 
things,  but  extended  to  include  the  demoralization  of  his 
whole  being.  The  natural  state  of  man,  from  the  Puritan 
viewpoint,  was  a  wholly  desolate  one;  and  all  men  in  such  a 
condition  were  at  war,  not  only  with  each  other,  but  with  the 
Creator  and  the  whole  creation.  Out  of  this  condition  man 
could  emerge  only  by  an  act  of  grace — by  a  compact  in  which 
he  surrendered  himself  and  his  natural  right  to  do  everything 
and  received  in  return  a  guaranteed  right  to  do  anything  he 
ought  to  do, — "  right  "  being  what  the  spiritual  sovereign  de- 
clared to  be  right. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  153 

This  doctrine  in  its  political  form  was  boldly  advanced  by 
the  Puritan  contemporaries  of  Thomas  Hobbes.  The  most 
famous  of  these,  John  Milton,  declared  that  states  were  formed 
"  to  avoid  the  discord  and  violence  that  sprang  from  Adam's 
transgression ;"  and  that  magistrates  were  chosen  "  to  exe- 
cute   that  justice  which  else  every  man  by  the  bond 

of  nature  and  of  covenant  must  have  executed  for  himself  and 
for  another." 

In  brief,  then,  Hobbes'  doctrine  of  the  war  of  all  against 
all  was  only  an  application  of  the  current  theological  doctrine 
of  the  religious  "  state  of  nature  "  to  political  philosophy.  By 
mere  nature  men  were  irreligious;  so  by  mere  nature  Hobbes 
regarded  them  as  unpolitical.  By  compact  with  God  men  at- 
tained spiritual  peace;  so  by  mutual  compact  with  each  other 
•they  obtained  civil  peace.  The  state  of  nature  was  a  device 
borrowed  from  the  neighboring,  and,  to  Hobbes,  familiar  field 
of  theology. 

In  the  next  place,  how  far  did  Hobbes  consistently  maintain 
his  doctrine.  At  the  close  of  his  discussion  of  the  state  of 
nature,  Hobbes  observes  "  Thus  much  for  the  ill  condition 
which  man  by  mere  nature  is  actually  placed  in;  though  with 
a  possibility  to  come  out  of  it,  consisting  partly  in  the  pas- 
sions, partly  in  his  reason."  Hobbes  proceeds  then  to  show 
that  even  in  this  desperate  state  of  nature  there  are  three  kinds 
of  passion  that  impel  men  to  abandon  it.  First,  the  fear  of 
death ;  second,  the  desire  of  such  things  as  are  necessary  to  pro- 
mote a  living;  third,  a  hope  by  industry  to  obtain  them.  Not 
only  is  this  true,  but  "  reason  suggesteth  convenient  articles 
of  peace."  The  fundamental  law  of  nature  imposes  upon  the 
natural  man  some  fourteen  commandments  to  observe.  These 
are  ( i )  that  every  man  ought  to  seek  peace ;( 2  )  that  he  should 
be  willing  to  give  up  his  right  to  all  things,  provided  other 
men  do  the  same;  (3)  that  men  perform  their  covenants  made; 
(4)  to  be  grateful  for  a  favor  rendered;  (5)  and,  singularly 
enough  for  a  state  of  war,  the  command  of  complaisance  or 
iptability.  "  'Hie  observers  of  this  law,"  says  Hobbes, 
"may  be  called  sociable;  the  contrary,  stubborn,  unsociable, 
forward,  and  intractable;"  (6)  to  pardon  past  offences;  (7) 


154  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

to  punish  only  for  future  good ;  (8)  forbidding  open  declaration 
of  hatred  or  contempt  for  others;  (9)  forbidding  pride;  (10) 
forbidding  arrogance;  (n)  commanding  equity;  (12)  com- 
manding common  ownership  of  things  divisible;  (13)  com- 
manding respect  towards  mediators;  (14)  commanding  sub- 
mission of  controversies  to  arbitration.  To  these  laws  Hobbes 
added,  in  "A  Review  and  Conclusion,"  to  "  protect  in  war  the 
power  that  protecteth  in  peace."  And,  finally,  all  these  laws 
may  be  summed  up  in  one  law,  "  intelligible  even  to  the  mean- 
est capacity  "  "  Do  not  that  to  another,  which  thou  wouldst 
not  have  done  to  thyself."  These  laws  of  nature  are  "  im- 
mutable and  eternal,"  but  oblige  only  "  in  foro  interno,"  that 
is  to  say  "  to  a  desire  that  they  should  take  peace ;"  and  not  "  in 
foro  externo"  that  is  "  to  the  putting  them  in  action  always." 
Still  they  oblige,  and  are  intelligible. 

It  appears,  then,  that  the  fundamental  law  of  nature  com- 
mands all  men,  not  only  to  be  peaceable,  but  even  to  be  com- 
plaisant and  social.  Even  in  the  state  of  war,  Nature  com- 
mands the  belligerents  to*  be  socially  minded  and  love  one  an- 
other. In  short,  Hobbes  declared  that  man  is  actually  selfish 
and  hostile  to  his  fellows,  and  that  the  state  of  nature  is  a  war 
of  all  against  all,  yet,  almost  in  the  same  breath,  he  conceded 
that  both  passion  and  reason  impel  man  to  seek  the  society 
of  his  fellows. 

To  assert,  then,  that  Hobbes  "  ignored  the  fact  of  sociabil- 
ity," as  has  been  said,  is  unwarranted  by  an  examination  of 
his  philosophy.  Hobbes  himself  in  his  Philosophical  Rudi- 
ments (p.  2)  says  of  man  that  "  as  soon  as  he  is  born,  solitude 
is  an  enemy."  "  I  deny  not,"  said  he,  "that  men  (even  mere 
nature  compelling)  desire  to1  come  together."  Elsewhere,  he 
said  that  man  is  born  inapt  for  society,  merely  because  born 
an  infant.  He  becomes  fit  for  society  "  not  by  nature,  but  by 
education,"  although  some  "  remain  unfit  during*  the  whole 
course  of  their  lives." 

What  Hobbes  really  said  was  that  the  natural  state  of  man 
would  be  unsocial  and  warlike,  if  it  were  not  for  certain  na- 
tural instincts  and  for  natural  reason  which  made  him  social 
and  peaceful ;  in  other  words,  man  would  be  naturally  unpoli- 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  155 

tical,  if  he  did  not  possess  irresistable  inclinations  to  become 
political.  From  another  point  of  view,  the  natural  man  was 
man  at  his  worst ; — when  he  followed  his  better  instincts  or  his 
reason  he  became  unnatural  or  artificial.  In  this,  Hobbes  fol- 
lowed the  Puritan  tendency  to  regard  the  "  natural  "  as  the  es- 
sentially bad,  and  the  good  as  the  essentially  non-natural. 

It  is  just  here  that  the  contrast  between  Hobbes  and  Aris- 
totle is  most  pronounced.  When  Aristotle  declared  that  man 
is  by  nature  a  political  animal,  he  meant  "  natural  "  in  the 
sense  that  only  in  this  political  state  could  he  live  the  well- 
rounded  and  perfect  life.  The  natural  signified  to  him  the 
normal,  the  typical.  When  Hobbes  said  that  man  is  by 
nature  unpolitical,  he  meant  that,  abstracting  certain  instincts 
of  man,  and  considering  these  alone,  and  regarding  these 
selected  attributes  as  constituting  human  nature,  that  then,  man 
is  naturally  unpolitical ;  admitting,  however,  at  the  same  time 
that  in  order  to  live  what  Aristotle  called  the  "  good  life," 
man  must  be  political  and,  furthermore,  that  natural  law  so 
commands  him.  Hobbes'  "  nature "  was  a  special  part  of 
human  nature  treated  apart,  for  a  particular  purpose.  In 
reality,  Hobbes  and  Aristotle  agreed  perfectly  that  man  is 
normally  a  social  and  political  being,  but  Hobbes  insisted  upon 
considering  only  a  part  of  man's  lowest  instincts  as  "  natural," 
while  Aristotle  included  the  higher  as  well  as  the  lower. 

In  this  doctrine,  Hobbes  agreed  with  the  Naturrccht  school 
in  general,  although  he  was  personally  hostile  to  the  Revolu- 
tionary movement.  The  explanation  of  this  attitude  is  fairly 
clear,  when  we  consider  the  fundamental  purpose  of  the  liberal 
thinkers.  Historically  considered,  the  task  of  the  democratic 
theorists  was  to  find  a  form  of  justification  for  resistance  to 
organized  and  established  government.  With  this  end  in 
view,  they  entered  on  an  examination  of  the  foundation  of 
government  and  the  philosophy  of  obedience.  In  opposition 
to  divine  right,  hereditary  privilege,  custom,  tradition.  "  the 
mystery  that  doth  hedge  about  a  king,"  they  declared  that  gov- 
ernment was  essentially  artificial  in  its  character, — a  voluntary. 
conscious  product  of  human  intelligence  and  will ;  and  they  as- 
serted that,  since  the  state  was  a  human  creation,  just  powers 


156  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

of  government  could  be  obtained  only  by  the  consent  of  those 
creating  it.  Practically  all  of  the  i/th  and  i8th  century  theor- 
ists of  the  liberal  school  agreed  in  pronouncing  the  civil  state 
as  unnatural.  Man  might  possess  all  manner  of  qualities  or 
virtues,  except  that  in  no  event  might  he  naturally  possess 
political  characteristics.  Singularly  enough,  the  normal  man 
upon  whom  their  political  theory  rested,  was  considered  as  de- 
void of  every  political  feeling  or  instinct,  and  was  regarded 
as  essentially  unpolitical.  As  in  the  case  of  Hobbes,  however, 
a  closer  examination  reveals  the  fact  that  this  process  of  rea- 
soning really  involved  the  division  of  human  nature  into  two 
parts.  Although  "  naturally  "  man  is  a  stranger  to  political 
life  and  looks  askance  at  government,  as  one  who  would  not 
be  entangled  in  its  net,  yet  he  possesses  irresistible  impulses  to 
enter  the  civil  condition,  and  inevitably  passes  over  into  it. 
Naturally  'he  is  out  of  society,  but  inevitably  he  comes  in. 

Man's  indifference  to  civil  society  was,  then,  only  tempor- 
ary, and  for  purely  philosophical  purposes.  Assuming  that 
man  exists  naturally  out  of  society  and  independent  of  all  con- 
trol, he  enters  the  state  only  through  the  gateway  of  the  social 
contract.  His  voluntary  and  conditional  entrance  makes  pos- 
sible agreement  and  counter-agreement,  with  those  possibili- 
ties of  broken  contract,  upon  which  the  philosophy  of  resist- 
ance rested:  and,  indeed,  upon  which  the  modern  system  of 
constitutionally  protected  private  rights  is  based. 

Without  the  doctrine  of  the  "  consent  of  the  governed  "  in 
its  various  forms,  it  would  not  have  been  easy  to  justify  re- 
bellion against  the  powers  of  absolutism,  intrenched  as  they 
were  behind  the  bulwarks  of  custom  and  divine  right.  Had 
there  been  no  pre-political  state  of  nature,  had  political  life 
been  considered  as  natural  as  other  parts  of  human  existence, 
there  need  have  been  no  contract,  no  terms  of  agreement  with 
the  government,  no  right  of  resistance  when  the  conditions 
were  broken  by  the  ruler.  If  government  had  been  natural, 
obedience  to  it  would  have  been  natural ;  resistance,  unnatural 
and  abhorrent. 

Viewed  in  this  way,  the  doctrine  of  the  state  of  nature  was 
the  corner-stone  upon  which  the  revolutionary  philosophy 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  157 

rested.  Perhaps  some  other  stone  would  have  been  found  and 
used,  had  this  not  been  at  hand;  but,  already  quarried  by  the 
ecclesiastical  revolutionists  of  the  preceding  century,  it  was 
admirably  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  political  revolutionists 
as  well. 

To  sum  up,  then :  first,  Hobbes'  doctrine  of  the  state  of  nature 
as  a  state  of  war  was  not  an  original  concept,  but  an  applica- 
tion of  the  Puritan  idea  of  the  general  depravity  of  human 
nature  to  political  speculation.  Second,  although  Hobbes  taught 
that  man  was  not  by  nature  a  political  animal,  he  held  that 
both  instinct  and  reason  impelled  him  to  be  political — which 
was  much  the  same  thing.  Third,  Hobbes'  doctrine  of  the  state 
of  nature  was  a  part  of  the  Naturrecht  philosophy  which 
made  this  theory  a  foundation  for  the  whole  philosophy  of 
obedience  and  disobedience  to  government.  It  was  a  philoso- 
phical device  for  justifying  revolution,  although  Hobbes  did 
not  so  employ  or  intend  it. 


RADICALISM  AND  REFORM. 

BY  JAMES  E.  SHEA, 

BOSTON,  MASS. 

In  connection  with  every  phase  of  thought  and  activity 
among  men  there  have  appeared  two  distinct  classes  of  minds, 
the  optimists  and  the  pessimists.  The  former  are  naturally 
Conservatives  as  the  latter  are  Radicals.  These  minds  are  al- 
ways considered  as  extremes  in  their  day  and  generation  and 
we  find  these  opposite  poles  of  thought  protruding  in  either 
direction  beyond  the  settled  convictions  of  the  masses. 

First,  let  me  point  out  a  distinction  between  Radicalism  and 
Conservatism  in  the  most  general  idea  of  them.  There  is  a 
sort  of  Conservatism  which  stands  only  upon,  advantages  held 
in  possession.  It  says :  "  I  have  wealth,  I  have  respectability, 
I  am  well  off  here  and  well  guaranteed  for  the  hereafter. 
Any  change,  good  or  bad  in  itself,  will  be  bad  for  me.  Change 
is  my  enemy:  I  bolt  and  bar  my  doors  and,  so  far  as  I  can, 
the  doors  of  the  world  against  it."  There  is,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  sort  of  Radicalism  which,  (though  often  a  fair  thing 
in  the  mouth,  means  in  the  heart  of  it ;  "  You  are  in  place  and 
I  am  out.  You  have  and  I  want.  Any  change  gives  me  a 
chance,  and  the  'more  change,  the  better  are  my  chances." 

For  more  than  a  century  there  has  been  a  vast  movement 
of  mind  in  the  western  world  which  now  receives  the  general 
name  of  Radicalism,  or,  going  back  to  the  beginning  of  Radi- 
calism in  modern  history,  we  should  fix  the  time  of  its  ap- 
pearance when  Martin  Lutiher  attached  certain  daring  theses 
to  the  gates  of  the  council  church  of  Wittenberg.  In  the  next 
century  it  assumed  shape  in  English  and  New  English  Puri- 
tanism, in  the  next  played  a  subordinate  part  in  the  American 
Revolution,  while  in  France  it  became  meantime  a  speculative 
mania,  warring  in  the  name  of  reason  on  all  the  higher  ante- 
cedent experience  of  humanity.  Which  mania,  getting  to  be 
practical,  broke  out  in  the  immeasurable  frenzy  of  the  Re- 
volution of  1789. 

(158) 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  159 

Now  the  old  Radicals  were  distinguished  by  some  well 
marked  mental  and  moral  characteristics.  Their  creed  was, 
to  put  it  briefly,  that  the  whole  social  order  ought  to  be  based 
on  a  few  universal  and  self-evident  propositions. 

From  certain  maxims  and  assumptions  they  deduced  a 
scheme  of  polity  which  they  believed  witfi  all  the  earnestness 
of  unshakable  conviction.  Such  things  as  custom  or  tradi- 
tion or  even  expediency  -they  deemed  of  small  account.  They 
began  by  assuming  that  there  are  certain  natural  rights  or 
rights  of  man,  and  from  these  they  concluded  that  certain 
consequences,  such  as  universal  suffrage,  must  necessarily 
follow. 

To-day,  the  written  constitutions  which  were  regarded  as  so 
many  bulwarks  of  individual  rights  and  of  certain  funda- 
mental principles,  are  found  to  be  either  somewhat  hampering 
to  progress  or  are  liable  to  be  stretched  in  interpretation  so 
as  to  cover  accomplished  facts.  We  do  not  now  think  of  a 
fixed  order, — of  a  state  of  things  in  which  no  great  changes 
are  to  be  made.  In  other  words,  we  have  arrived  at  a  differ- 
ent conception  of  human  progress  from  that  entertained  by 
the  Radicals  of  old.  The  notion  of  definite  creation  is  aban- 
doned, both  in  science  and  in  politics,  and  has  been  replaced 
by  the  idea  of  organic  growth. 

There  is  not  a  principle,  however  sound  and  excellent  when 
tempered  with  the  necessary  qualifications,  which  does  not 
become  false  and  pernicious  when  pushed  to  excess  and  ex- 
alted above  all  exception  to  a  sweeping  generality.  It  was  a 
wise  observation  of  Aristotle:  "That  in  courses  respecting 
our  duties  sweeping  doctrines  are  more  doubtful,  limited  ones 
more  true,  since  our  duties  always  relate  to  specific  things." 

But  the  would-be  reformers  of  the  Radical  type  are  too 
much  in  haste  to  stop  for  the  slow  processes  of  induction  and 
the  gradual  teaching  of  experience.  They  must  have  every- 
thing done  at  once. 

They  have  a  newly  invented  panacea  for  the  evils  of  the 
body  politic,  a  universal  elixir  to  preserve  it  in  perpetuity. 
All  the  complicated  and  jarring  elements  of  men's  natures  and 
social  relations  are  to  be  brought  into  an  order  so  exact  and  a 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

harmony  so  perfect  and  peaceful  that  a  little  child  might 
lead  them. 

With  them  the  problems  of  statesmanship  are  very  simple. 
They  believe  that  it  is  only  necessary  to  comprehend  and  to 
apply  the  laws  of  nature  and  the  maxims  of  morality,  and 
that  there  are  wanted  but  half  a  dozen  honest  men  to  save 
a  city.  From  such  premises  they  go  to  the  furthest  logical 
extremes,  they  hold  all  compromise  to  be  immoral  and  that  to 
be  moderate  in  principle  is,  in  fact,  to  be  unprincipled. 

If  the  prevailing  nature  of  the  old  Radicalism  is  considered, 
it  will  also  be  found  to  have  been  Puritan  in  the  fullest  sense 
of  the  word,  and  by  Puritanism  is  meant  a  certain,  high,  un- 
bending and  always  non-materialistic  way  of  looking  at  life 
and  approaching  great  questions.  The  true  Puritan  looks 
rather  to  the  ends  and  purposes  of  things  than  to  the  pleasures 
of  the  moment. 

The  old  Radical  spirit  was  hard,  earnest,  unyielding,  and 
based  deep  in  a  traditional  Puritantism.  As  often  as  not,  the 
old  Radicals  were  men  of  strong  religious  conviction  and  deep 
piety.  Even  when  they  did  not  belong  to  some  form  of  Non- 
conformity and  took  Tom  Paine  for  their  gospel,  they  were 
essentially  serious-minded  men. 

Very  different  is  the  type  of  Radicalism  now  in  the  ascen- 
dant ;  the  new  Radical  is  as  essentially  unpuritanical  as  his  pro- 
totype was  puritanical.  He  is  as  hungry  for  pleasure  and  the 
lightening  of  the  burden  of  life  as  the  other  was  to  improve 
his  moral  and  intellectual  status.  He  wants  a  good  time  in 
the  most  natural  sense  and  a  pleasant  life  of  the  kind  that 
a  great  city  provides. 

The  old  Radical  used  to  be  sneered  at  as  a  person  incapable 
of  luxury,  and  therefore  unable  to  sympathize  with  his  fellow 
man  in  his  desire  for  amusement.  The  new  Radical  knows  no 
such  incapacity.  He  is  distinctly  capable  of  luxury  and  means 
to  have  it.  It  is  not  so  much  that  the  new  Radical  is  irreli- 
gious, as  that  he  is  non-religious.  Religion,  either  in  the  way 
of  attack  or  defense,  does  not  attract  or  interest  him :  he  leaves 
it  on  one  side  as  something  outside  the  range  of  pressing  prac- 
tical questions  that  interest  him,  or  else  he  looks  on  it  as  an 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  l6l 

entirely  extinct  volcano,  a  thing  for  gentle  laughter  and  good- 
natured  contempt. 

In  any  case,  I  wish  to  point  out  that  the  religious  element  is 
gone,  and  with  it  the  temper  of  the  idealist.  This  lack  of 
Puritan  paste  in  his  composition  makes  the  Radical  of  to-day 
merely  enthusiastic  rather  than  earnest.  He  will  grow  senti- 
mental over  objects  that  interest  him,  but  he  does  not  exhibit 
that  power  of  taking  hold  of  an  idea  and  freezing  to  it  which 
characterized  the  old  Radical. 

It  would,  of  course,  be  unfair  to  attack  Radicalism  on  this 
ground,  or  to  speak  as  if  it  were  something  peculiar  to  it  to 
take  the  materialistic  view  of  life.  This  hunger  after  comfort 
has  invaded  every  class  and  is  quite  as  rife  among  the  rich 
and  fairly  well-to-do  as  among  the  poor.  It  is  to  be  regretted, 
but  it  is  none  the  less  true,  that  as  a  whole  we  have  lost  the  old 
Puritan  austerity  and  earnestness  and  turned  towards  the  de- 
lights of  bodily  comfort,  towards  an  amusing  and  joyous  life 
rather  than  one  of  intellectual  and  moral  interests.  The  peo- 
ple may  not  be  in  the  least  more  criminal  or  more  immoral, 
but  unquestionably  they  are,  as  a  whole,  more  set  on  having  a 
good  time  than  they  were. 

Now,  no  movement  in  social  reform  which  entirely  ignores 
religion  and  the  religious  needs  of  the  nation,  in  the  long  run, 
prevails.  For  a  time  it  may  appear  to  catch  on,  but  in  the 
end,  the  want  of  the  religious  element  will  be  felt  and  will 
bring  it  to  ruin.  It  may  do  very  well  for  a  time,  but  the  vital- 
ity which  the  religious  spirit  alone  supplies  is  soon  found  to  be 
lacking  and  there  is  a  collapse. 

Radicalism  may  be  very  proud  of  the  fact  that  it  is  entirely 
unconnected  with  religion  to-day,  but  in  the  end  it  will  find  that 
fact,  not  a  strength,  but  a  weakness. 

Radicalism  is  characterized  less  by  its  principles  than  by  the 
manner  of  their  application.  Its  political  doctrine  is  that  of 
democracy  and  as  a  general  thing  liberal  men  will  approve  of 
it.  And  though  democracy  may  be  the  parent  of  Radicalism, 
this  is  no  dishonor  to  the  parent.  Democratic  ideas  in  a  justly 
liberal  sense  must  necessarily  have  some  offshoots  which  arc 
deformed,  because  so  many  persons  can  appreciate  mere  li- 
cense who  cannot  appreciate  true  liberty. 


1 62  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

There  is  something  of  paradox,  yet  more  of  truth,  in  the 
remark  of  Burke  "  that  in  proportion  as  certain  doctrines  are 
metaphysically  true  they  are  practically  and  politically  false." 

They  keep  the  mind  always  dwelling  on  first  principles,  con- 
templating extreme  cases ;  they  keep  society  always  in  its  ele- 
ments; they  are  always  beginning;  always  laying  the  founda- 
tions, by  admitting  nothing  on  the  authority  of  their  predeces- 
sors, every  generation  must  make  the  world  over  again;  there 
can  be  no  sudi  thing  as  a  steady  advance  from  age  to  age. 
Your  Radical  never  regards  government  as  something  to  live 
under,  in  peaceful  contentment,  but  as  something  to  be  made 
and  unmade. 

Who  would  raise  the  slightest  objection  against  Liberty, 
Equality,  Fraternity  and  the  responsibility  of  power,  universal 
suffrage,  even  ?  But  what  are  you  to  understand  by  "  Lib- 
erty "  ?  Should  it  be  the  universal  leveling  of  all  social  en- 
joyments to  the  plane  of  the  lowest  class?  Should  fraternity 
encourage  idleness  and  vice?  Should  national  sovereignty 
and  the  responsibility  of  power  constitute  a  permanent  insur- 
rection and  take  away  the  right  of  decision  from  peaceable  ma- 
jorities to  confer  it  upon  turbulent  minorities  ?  Does  univer- 
sal suffrage  admit  of  absolutely  no  limit? 

The  Radical  rushes  into  every  innovating  enterprise  without 
waiting  to  inquire  whither  it  leads.  The  reformer,  cherishing 
a  profound  love  and  veneration  for  the  institutions  under 
which  he  is  living,  seeks  their  amendment  only,  not  their  sub- 
version. The  Radical,  extending  his  condemnation  from  the 
abuses  of  these  institutions  to  the  institutions  themselves, 
would  gladly  witness  their  overthrow.  The  one,  aware  that 
the  balance  of  the  social  state  can  not  be  insured  without 
some  abridgment  of  the  privileges  of  a  state  of  nature,  cheer- 
fully submits  to  the  restrictions  placed  upon  his  personal  rights. 
The  other  is  perpetually  at  war  with  these  restrictions,  though 
society  could  not  exist  without  them.  The  Reformer,  tracing 
the  evils  of  the  social  state  to  their  true  fountain  in  the  de- 
pravity of  the  heart,  and  aiming  at  a  permanent  cure,  resorts 
to  those  notions  of  education  and  religion  adapted  to  effect  a 
radical  change  in  the  human  mind,  and  thus  applies  his  reme- 
dies to  the  seat  of  the  disease. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  163 

Such  are  the  general  attributes  by  which  Radicalism  is  con- 
trasted with  the  right  mode  of  reform.  It  has  zeal  without 
knowledge  where  knowledge  is  most  of  all  requisite.  Radical 
reformers  are  always  driving  with  all  their  forces  at  some  one 
object,  in  comparison  with  which,  whatever  may  be  its  real 
value,  they  deem  everything  else  insignificant.  In  the  earlier 
stages  of  their  efforts,  they  are  seen  groping  after  some  sim- 
ple, unqualified  principle  on  which  their  own  mind  can  rest 
and  by  which  they  can  act  upon  the  public.  And,  since  they 
care  nothing  for  that  depth  and  sagacity  of  mind  which  would 
enable  them  to  discern  the  true  bounds  of  principles,  how  far 
they  apply  and  where  and  when  the  application  of  them  fails, 
they  soon  arrive  at  some  unlimited  generality  of  doctrine  and 
their  business,  thenceforward,  is  to  carry  it  into  effect,  even  in 
cases  where  its  application,  to  the  unsophisticated  mind,  must 
appear  plainly  unjust  and  pernicious. 

It  is  submitted  to  the  reflecting  student  whether  this  is  not 
the  course  pursued  by  many  of  the  reformers  of  the  present 
day.  As  has  been  said  recently  by  an  eminent  authority: 

"  They  have  perverted  democracy  into  a  despotism  of  dema- 
gogues; divorced  political  power  from  political  burdens;  substi- 
tuted centralization  for  self-government;  universal  interference 
and  legislative  regulation  for  individual  liberty  and  freedom  of 
contract;  the  dictation  of  the  majority  for  personal  independ- 
ence ;  phrases  for  principles ;  popularity-hunting  for  public  spirit ; 
cosmopolitan  theories  for  patriotic  traditions." 

It  would  be  endless  to  trace  all  the  ways  in  which  this  lack 
of  sober  judgment  and  common  sense  is  betrayed  by  the 
Radical  reformers.  One  of  the  most  common  is  to  overlook 
all  obstacles  to  the  speedy  triumph  of  their  cause.  Says  Paine, 
in  the  Second  Part  of  his  Rights  of  Man,  "  I  do  not  believe 
that  monarchy  and  aristocracy  will  continue  seven  years 
longer  in  any  of  the  enlightened  countries  of  Europe." 

It  belongs  to  the  very  idea  of  the  Radical  to  be  self-confident 
and  dogmatical, — intolerant  of  adverse  opinion.  He  is  al- 
ways aroused  by  the  mention  of  the  word  "  Reform,"  always 
enthusiastic  over  any  new  movement,  no  matter  what  name 


164  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

it  may  take  or  what  it  proposes  to  do.  He  sees  the  millenium 
dawning  on  the  land  every  time  a  new  departure  is  taken.  If 
he  can  only  see  some  kind  of  a  change,  he  does  not  care  much 
what  it  is,  so  long  as  it  is  new  and  claims  to  be  progressive. 

The  habit  of  extreme  generalization  applied  to  the  subject 
of  natural  rights  furnished  Rousseau  and  Paine  with  diose  un- 
limited maxims  which  captivated  the  common  mind  with  their 
clearness,  and,  when  carried  into  application,  produced  the 
French  Revolution. 

And  through  the  fond  credulity  of  our  nature,  when  we  hear 
one  loudly  professing  his  sympathy  with  the  suffering  or  see 
him  making  a  show  of  unwonted  zeal  in  a  good  cause,  we  are 
apt  to  take  him  at  his  word  and  to  believe  him  to  be  as  much 
more  'humane  and  philanthropic  than  other  men  as  he  pre- 
tends to  be. 

This  credulity,  or  to  name  it  more  justly,  gullibility  of  hu- 
man nature  is  one  of  the  chief  instruments  by  which  impostors 
of  every  sort  promote  their  ends,  and  it  is  by  no  means  neces- 
sary that  one  should  possess  great  ability  or  render  eminent 
public  services  in  order  to  reach  a  high  place  in  public  esti- 
mation. However  moderate  may  be  his  talents  and  however 
little  he  may  have  done  for  the  public  good,  he  will  yet  be  taken 
by  the  great  world  to  excel  others  as  much  in  merit  as  he  can 
surpass  them  in  bustle  and  display. 

Hence  it  is  that  some  men  of  the  worst  character,  by  putting 
forth  specious  professions,  often  reap  from  the  public  a  harv- 
est of  golden  opinions,  while  the  truly  deserving  are  left  with 
no  reward  except  the  satisfaction  of  their  own  sense  of  duty 
well  performed. 

The  fact  that  Radicalism,  as  often  formulated  by  its  lead- 
ers, meets  among  the  working  classes  a  very  wide  reception 
proves,  indeed,  that  the  Radicals  are  spreading  something,  but 
it  does  not  prove  tfhat  what  they  are  spreading  is  Radicalism. 
What  I  here  seek  to  point  out  is  that  the  thing  which  is  uttered 
by  them  with  a  certain  aim  and  with  a  certain  meaning,  takes 
on  another  meaning  as  it  enters  the  ears  of  the  working  classes, 
and  presents  to  their  minds  aims  of  quite  a  different  kind. 

Radicalism  is,  in  this  respect,  rather  an  antagonism  than  a 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  165 

principle.  It  has  less  of  political  desire  or  of  aspiration  than 
of  the  spirit  of  contest  against  privilege.  It  would  be  absurd 
to  suppose  that  the  ordinary  Radical  argued  politics  or  con- 
sidered them  on  scientific  principles,  so  much  as  with  piqued 
feelings  and  with  resentment.  The  main  idea  is  to  pull  down 
and  not  to  build  up.  There  may  be  a  dominance  of  principle 
in  a  small  minority  but  there  is  a  dominance  of  feeling  in  the 
great  majority. 

Radicalism,  speaking  loosely,  is  hatred  of  class  privilege. 
It  is  a  sentiment  which  is  fanned  by  discontent. 

This  brings  us  down  to  the  bed-rock  truth  that  only  as  a  peo- 
ple grow  better  and  wiser  do  they  make  intelligent  progress 
toward  the  higher  social  state.  The  great  task  before  reform- 
ers is  to  forward  the  mental,  moral  and  spiritual  revolution 
involved  in  their  ideal.  This  accomplished,  all  other  reforms 
are  easy. 

Although  wealth  has  increased  enormously,  the  condition  of 
the  poor,  especially  in  large  cities,  has  not  improved,  but  has 
become  'harder.  This  very  progress,  leading  to  more  extrava- 
gant habits  and  to  ever-increasing  accumulations  of  popula- 
tion in  large  cities,  has,  in  some  respects,  aggravated  the  con- 
dition of  large  masses,  who,  either  from  their  own  fault  or  the 
fault  of  circumstances,  have  fallen  out  of  the  ranks  and  form 
the  waifs  and  stragglers  of  the  army  of  industry. 

There  is,  then,  much  justification  for  those  who  are  striving 
for  social  ameliorations  which,  even  if  unattainable,  are  hu- 
mane in  their  intention  and  desirable  in  their  end.  Nor  should 
we  lightly  discourage  the  spirit  which  busies  itself  in  philan- 
thropic speculation,  for  we  deem  it  fortunate  for  our  republi- 
can system,  in  these  days  when  commercial  considerations  have 
become  so  largely  the  measure  of  political  action,  that  some 
ardent  spirits  exist,  who  carry  their  ideas  to  the  verge  of  < 
travagance.  They  invigorate  and  preserve  the  sacred  flame 
which  otherwise  might  become  dim  and  even  extinct.  They 
quicken  those  whose  devotion  might  otherwise  become  slug- 
gish from  their  absorption  in  sordid  pursuits  and  material  oc- 
cupations. Their  too  ardent  zeal  serves  to  check  and  coun- 
i>alance  the  opposite  tendency  to  anti-liberal  opinions, 


1 66  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

which,  under  every  form  of  government,  exists  in  the  very 
nature  of  many  men. 

If  one  man  is  a  leveler  in  opinion,  another  is  a  monarchist 
in  feeling-,  so  that  there  is  a  counterbalancing  weight  on  either 
side,  and  it  is  chiefly  on  the  more  sluggish  mass  of  his  own 
party  the  Radical  exerts  a  salutary  influence. 

It  deeply  concerns  all  of  us  as  citizens  that  all  the  great  ten- 
dencies of  human  thought  are  rushing  to  this  issue  between 
Radicalism  and  Conservatism,  between  the  interests  of  the 
many  and  of  the  few,  between  peoples  and  plutocracies,  be- 
tween humanity  and  every  power  that  denies  its  claim. 

We  have  taken  into  our  own  hands  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment ;  we  are  directly,  personally,  every  one  of  us,  responsible 
for  the  exercise  of  it,  and  if  we  continue  to  be,  as  we  seem  to 
have  been,  insensible  to  the  magnitude  of  the  trust,  if  we 
proudly  claim  to  'be  free  citizen  electors  without  thoughtfully 
and  conscientiously  performing  the  duties  of  electors,  if  we 
vote  factiously  or  will  not  vote  at  all,  if,  beneath  the  majestic 
frame  of  a  free  representative  government  the  only  thought  of 
our  citizens  is  to  play  out  their  own  little  game  of  private  am- 
bition, of  money-getting  and  pleasure-seeking, — only  freer 
than  other  peoples  to  be  more  selfish  and  self-willed, — if  the 
arena  dedicated  to  sacred  Freedom  is  given  over  to  violent  and 
unscrupulous  party  contests,  if  demagogues  are  to  be  our  great 
men  and  the  wise  and  thinking  are  to  shrink  back  or  be  driven 
back  by  the  crowd, — then,  I  say,  official  conduct  and  morality 
will  continue  to  run  down,  and  our  general  government  will 
become  what  some  of  our  city  governments  now  are,  and  the 
time  will  come  when  majorities  may  -be  more  oppressive  than 
despots  and  we  shall  be  ready  to  flee  from  the  many-headed 
monster,  as  did  the  Roman  Republic,  to  a  one-man  power. 

In  the  economy  of  reformation  there  is  greater  need  of  the 
moderate,  prudent,  judicious  men,  than  of  those  freer  spirits 
who  throw  themselves  into  the  front  rank  and  make  the  most 
noise.  The  former  are  necessary  to  restrain  the  hot  passions 
of  the  over-zealous,  and  to  give  consistency  and  permanency 
to  the  results  of  their  actions. 

The  essential  thing  is  that  we  retain  and  make  our  own  all 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  l6/ 

things  which  we  have  proved  to  be  good  and  true.  The  fault 
of  many  who  call  themselves  Radicals  is  not  that  they  so  read- 
ily accept  new  phases  of  truth,  or  what  claims  to  be  such,  but 
rather  their  persistence  in  trying  to  overthrow  everything  that 
is  old. 

Instead  of  trying  to  get  to  the  roots  of  things  for  the  sake 
of  testing  their  genuineness,  they  frequently  attempt  to  pull 
everyhing  up  by  the  roots.  Such  a  destructive  disposition  is 
the  greatest  enemy  of  human  progress.  As  Phillips  Brooks 
says :  "  Radicalism  is  not  tearing  things  up  by  the  roots,  but 
getting  down  to  the  roots  of  things  and  planting  institutions 
anew  on  just  principles."  All  reform  should  have  regard  for 
righteousness  and  good  government  and  should  set  aside  the 
old  forms  and  traditions  only  as  it  shall  appear  that  they  have 
no  just  and  defensible  reason  for  their  existence. 

The  time  is  now  ripe  for  the  systematic  organization  of  the 
progressive  forces  for  the  real  business  of  politics.  There  is 
work  enough  and  to  spare  for  every  section  of  social  reformers. 

But  it  should  be  born  in  mind  by  those  who  are  emulous  of 
forming  and  directing  the  public  sentiment  by  abstract  propo- 
sitions and  general  rules,  that  however  clear  may  be  their  evi- 
dence, and  however  mighty  and  irresistible  their  influence  for 
a  season,  especially  with  the  mass  of  unenlightened  and  un- 
reflecting minds,  they  can  never  form  a  permanent  basis  for 
the  success  of  any  cause.  Their  falsity  will  soon  begin  to  be 
surmised  from  the  consequences  they  involve;  it  will,  ere  long, 
be  deeply  felt,  and,  at  length,  fully  detected  and  exposed. 
Common  sense  must,  sooner  or  later,  rebel  against  the  tyranny 
of  all  exclusive  and  extravagant  dogmas,  and  will  then  avenge 
itself  by  holding  up  to  universal  contempt  the  figment  by  which 
it  had  been  so  long  blinded  and  suppressed.  Reaction  of  this 
kind  must  inevitably  follow  whenever  the  fixed  limits  of  n. 
and  truth  are  overstepped  by  the  abstract  refinements  of  sophis- 
ticated reformers. 

The  real  life,  the  real  wealth  of  the  nation,  consists  in  things 
that  cannot  be  written  down,  in  the  unwritten  and  unt'oniiu 
lated  feelings  that  exist  between  class  and  class.     The  nation 
is  great  and  strong  in  which  these  feelings  are  feelings  of 


l68  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

mutual  trust;  and  when  each  class  feels  and  knows  its  own 
duties. 

Radical  views  are  dangerous  because  they  nurture  a  spirit 
of  discontent,  of  morbid  excitement,  of  restlessness  and 
change.  They  teach  utter  recklessness  of  consequences,  a  dis- 
regard of  existing  institutions,  a  contempt  of  authority,  pre- 
scription, usage,  and  whatever  in  the  majesty  of  government 
is  venerable. 

It  is,  perhaps,  for  all  these  reasons  that  Rohmer  attributes  to 
Radicalism  the  nature  of  the  boy.  It  has  the  same  capacity,  as 
well  as  the  same  defects.  It  is  enthusiastic,  imaginative,  to 
a  certain  extent  generous,  lives  in  an  ideal  world  pursuing 
a  single  idea,  and  pursuing  it  frantically  without  regard  to  the 
evils  caused  by  its  efforts  to  realize  it.  Happily,  the  idea  pur- 
sued is  often  a  good  one,  the  realization  of  which  compensates, 
more  or  less,  for  the  ills  which  it  has  caused.  Only  one  thing 
remains  to  be  desired,  namely,  that  the  end  be  not  attained 
with  such  violence  as  to  go  beyond  it  and  give  rise  to  a  reaction 
which  shall  call  everything  into  question  again. 


HELPING  TO  GOVERN  INDIA. 

BY   CHARLES  JOHNSTON, 
(BENGAL  CIVIL  SERVICE,  RETIRED.) 

The  other  day  I  read  an  article  on  India,  in  one  of  our 
popular  magazines,  in  which  the  writer  gave  the  British  Indian 
Government  much  severe  advice,  asking  why  they  did  not 
abolish  caste,  why  they  did  not  introduce  democracy,  and  so 
forth,  and  summing  up  the  whole  venture  as  a  huge  failure. 
The  writer  headed  his  article  with  "  Fighting  for  the  Common 
Cause,"  or  some  such  phrase;  and  as  I  read,  a  former  occasion 
on  which  I  had  heard  the  same  words  came  back  suddenly 
into  my  mind. 

It  was  at  the  junction  of  the  Nalhati  State  railway,  amid 
the  illimitable  rice  fields  of  Lower  Bengal,  where  I  was 
waiting,  far  on  in  the  night,  for  a  train  that  was  to  take  me 
to  my  first  post.  The  engine  driver  had  some  doubt  as  to  his 
skill,  so  he  spent  an  hour  or  two  practicing,  running  his  little 
train  back  and  forward  a  hundred  yards  or  so,  and  whistling 
shrilly  till  the  jackals  barked  back  at  him.  I  was  in  the  only 
first-class  compartment,  some  six  feet  square,  and  as  I  dozed 
uneasily,  I  was  conscious  of  high-pitched  voices  in  the  next 
compartment,  talking  the  Bengali  tongue,  which  I  had  studied 
industriously  at  home  for  the  last  two  years.  Finally,  with 
magnificent  rhetoric,  one  of  the  speakers  cried  "Amra  fighting- 
for-the-common-cause  hoilani !"  And  all  the  others  ap- 
plauded vehemently.  They  were  on  their  way  home  from  the 
Indian  National  Congress. 

We  started  after  midnight,  and  I  fell  asleep.  The  glisten- 
ing sun  of  the  early  morning  showed  the  vast  rice-fields  all 
about  us,  scrubby  with  brown  stubble,  as  the  winter  rice  had 
just  been  cut.  Here  and  there  and  everywhere  were  villages, 
brown  thatched  huts  clustering  under  groups  of  cocoa-nut 
palms  and  mangoes;  and.  though  it  was  still  chilly  morning, 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  natives  were  at  work  everywhere 
in  the  fields,  toiling,  as  they  toil  perpetually,  on  the  verge  of 

(169) 


PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

starvation.  As  I  had  come  by  way  of  Bombay,  crossed  the 
Deckan  to  Madras,  and  come  up  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  I  had 
gained  some  idea  of  the  vastness  of  India — nearly  two  mil- 
lion square  miles,  and  its  still  vaster  population,  of  three  hun- 
dred millions.  Here,  in  Bengal,  they  were  packed  terribly 
close,  for  you  can  travel  for  hundreds  of  miles  through  dis- 
tricts with  more  than  a  thousand  to  the  square  mile,  and  al- 
most wholly  an  agricultural  population.  There  is  the  true 
cause  of  the  perpetual  presence  of  hunger,  and  child-marriages 
are  universal  throughout  the  greater  part  of  India. 

I  was  ferried  across  the  Bhagirathi,  and  found  a  native 
driver  with  a  ramshackle  carriage,  and  two  ponies  of  skin  and 
bone  tied  to  it  with  ropes.  The  sun  had  already  gained 
strength,  and  one  felt  the  sting  in  the  sunlight  so  peculiar  to 
India.  The  only  word  of  my  painfully  learned  Bengali  he 
readily  understood  was  the  English  word  "  Collector,"  and 
after  three  hours  of  hot  and  dusty  driving  along  red  roads 
fringed  with  palm-fronds,  he  brought  me  safe  to  the  Col- 
lector's bungalow  on  one  side  of  the  great  grass  square  of  the 
Civil  Station. 

The  Collector  gave  me  charge  of  a  police-court,  in  which  I 
presently  found  myself  face  to  face  with  a  plaintiff,  a  prisoner, 
numbers  of  dusky  witnesses,  some  sleek  policemen,  and  a  row 
of  glib,  grinning  native  lawyers,  come  to  look  over  the  new 
"  Sahib."  Seated  in  the  chair  of  state  amid  this  waiting 
throng,  keenly  conscious  of  the  unfamiliar  tongue,  I  felt 
greatly  embarrassed,  especially  when  it  became  evident  that 
I  must  deliver  some  kind  of  judgment.  I  forget  what  I  de- 
cided. I  think  I  fined  the  plaintiff  and  dismissed  the  case, 
but  am  not  certain. 

While  unusual  this  would  not  have  been  illegal;  for  the 
Indian  Procedure  Code  contains  a  provision,  whereby  the 
plaintiff  may  be  punished  for  "  frivolous  and  vexatious  prose- 
cution." This  is  far  from  superfluous;  for  a  Bengali  who  has 
made  a  moderate  fortune,  does  not  think  of  buying  yachts  and 
automobiles,  but  looks  about  for  a  nice  estate  with  a  score  of 
pending  lawsuits  on  it,  and  settles  down  to  enjoy  these  to  the 
end  of  his  days. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION. 

In  that  dingy  court  I  dispensed  indifferent  justice  for  a  year, 
six  months  under  a  swinging  punka  that  made  eddies  in  the 
hot  air.  During  that  time  I  gradually  realized  what  it  is  the 
British  Government  does  for  India,  in  one  important  field. 
The  government  confers  on  India  the  assured  possession  of 
civil  rights, — security  of  person  and  security  of  property. 
This  is  something  India  never  enjoyed  under  the  many  forms 
of  native  and  foreign  Asiatic  rule  which  preceded  the  British 
Government;  and  it  is  an  inestimable  boon,  far  more  vital 
than  the  franchise  or  the  forms  of  democracy.  The  extent 
to  which  the  secure  possession  of  civil  rights  benefits  India 
came  home  to  me  gradually,  as  I  sat  there  day  after  day  in 
the  police-court,  receiving  crowds  of  dusky  litigants,  trying 
petty  assaults  and  small  theft  cases,  and  seeking,  as  far  as  the 
inventive  faculty  of  the  witnesses  made  it  possible,  to  render 
equal  justice.  The  courts  were  open  to  all.  Justice  was 
rapid  and  cheap,  and,  as  everywhere  throughout  the  Indian 
Empire,  wholly  impartial  and  impersonal. 

A  little  later,  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  another  of  the 
great  blessings  conferred  on  India  by  its  present  government  : 
security  of  contract.  The  general  idea  of  a  contract  in  India 
was  something  vague  and  entangling.  The  party  of  the  first 
part  immediately  tried  to  put  in  phrases  and  figures  favorable 
to  himself.  The  party  of  the  second  part  did  the  same.  The 
result  was,  that  the  two  copies  never  agreed,  and  the  little 
alterations  were  so  skillfully  made,  that  it  was  not  easy  to  de- 
tect them.  The  art  of  forgery  was  carried  to  a  high  degree 
of  perfection,  and  one  could  procure  documents  looking  cen- 
turies old,  within  a  few  days.  One  expedient  was  to  put  the 
document  on  the  floor  of  a  cage  in  which  mice  were  kept,  with 
the  result  that  in  a  week  or  two  the  parchment  looked  a  luin- 
years  old.  This  elasticity  has  all  been  done  away  with. 
and  contracts  have  acquired  a  rigidity  quite  foreign  to  the 
former  ideas  of  India.  The  contract  is  brought  to  the  court, 
a  copy  is  made  in  a  huge  ledger,  which  is  duly  signed  by  a 
court  officer,  and  the  two  parties;  and,  in  all  disputes,  this 
official  copy,  which  is  kept  in  the  court  safe,  is  taken  as  the 
standard.  In  this  way  the  principle  is  introduced  that  "  a 


172  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

bargain  is  a  bargain,"  and  a  degree  of  finality  hitherto  never 
known  in  India  is  assured  to  the  written  agreement. 

Security  of  contract  is  thus  added  to  security  of  the  person 
and  property ;  and  in  both  cases  any  native  can  learn  his  exact 
legal  position  without  the  slightest  difficulty.  For  the  Penal 
Code,  which  defines  the  rights  and  duties  of  the  individual,  and 
the  Contracts  Act  are  translated  into  every  one  of  the 
scores  of  languages  recognized  by  the  government  of  India, 
and  anyone  can  buy  a  copy  for  a  few  annas  in  the  native 
bazars.  The  Penal  Code  is  uniform  all  over  British  India, 
and  it  makes  no  distinction  of  race,  creed,  caste,  color  or  sex, 
dealing  even-handed  justice  to  all  alike.  Each  person,  as  a 
person,  has  his  or  her  defined  civil  rights;  and  the  whole  au- 
thority of  the  government  is  available,  and  rapidly  available, 
to  secure  them.  "  Justice  is  denied  or  delayed  to  no  one." 

When  we  come  to  the  laws  of  property,  this  uniformity  dis- 
appears. Property  in  India  is  inextricably  bound  up  with  re- 
ligious usages,  because  the  great  religious  reformers  of  past 
ages  almost  always  drew  up  a  code  of  laws  for  the  people,  such 
as  Moses  is  believed  to  have  drawn  up  for  the  Israelites.  In 
the  East,  these  religious  law-codes  remain  for  ages,  and  be- 
come inextricably  blended  with  beliefs  and  rites.  So  it  is  in 
India.  The  Hindus,  the  largest  sect'ion  of  the  population,  still 
regulate  their  family  affairs  by  the  Laws  of  Manu,  while  the 
Muhammadans,  who  come  next  to  them  in  number,  found 
their  family  life  on  the  precepts  of  the  Koran.  And  so  with 
the  Buddhists,  the  Jainas,  and  a  dozen  other  religious  com- 
munities. 

In  every  case,  the  British  Indian  government  has  followed 
the  principle  of  conservation.  The  religious  code  belonging 
to  each  community  has  been  confirmed,  and  family  affairs, 
questions  of  marriage  and  succession  and  so  forth,  are  regu- 
lated for  each  community  according  to  its  own  religious  laws. 
Thus  we  dispense  to  Hindus  the  precepts  of  Manu;  Moslems 
have  their  inheritance  cases  decided  according  to  the  doctors 
of  the  Koran;  for  Parsees,  the  Zoroastrian  regulations  are 
put  in  force;  and  perfect  justice  is  thus  secured  throughout  the 
whole  field  of  life  in  which  religious  considerations  are  domi- 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  173 

nant.  Here  again  is  a  tremendous  achievement  in  statesman- 
ship; something  the  like  of  which  the  world  has  hardly  seen 
in  past  ages.  Here  are  a  score  of  nations  to  whom  perfect 
equality  of  civil  rights  is  secured ;  a  score  of  religions,  each  of 
which  is  protected  and  conserved  in  a  spirit  of  perfect  tolera- 
tion ;  each  is  at  liberty  to  follow  its  own  precepts  in  its  special 
field,  and  is  at  the  same  time  compelled  to  extend  to  its  rivals 
the  same  toleration  which  it  enjoys  for  itself.  Here  is  a  very 
real  liberty,  such  as  might  by  no  means  be  secured  by  uniform 
democratic  government. 

For  uniform  democratic  government  presupposes  a  certain 
uniformity  in  the  citizens  of  the  democracy,  a  uniformity  of 
race,  a  common  tongue,  or  at  least  some  easy  mode  of  inter- 
communication, and  a  fairly  uniform  culture  and  public  opin- 
ion. Without  this  uniformity,  democratic  institutions  will 
mean  a  perpetual  oppression  of  minorities,  and  will  result  in 
anything  but  freedom.  But  the  principle  put  in  force  in  India 
does  result  in  a  very  large  measure  of  real  freedom.  There 
is,  first,  as  we  saw,  the  securing  of  universal  and  inviolable 
civil  rights,  with  open  and  equal  justice  to  all.  Then  there 
is  the  sympathetic  and  systematic  study  of  each  community,  to 
learn  its  religious,  moral  and  social  tradition,  its  mental  at- 
mosphere, its  ideals  and  usages.  And,  as  a  result,  there  is 
the  wise  and  uniform  application  of  these  religious  usages 
within  that  community,  in  the  way  which  best  suits  its  own 
genius  and  temper. 

There  has  also  been  a  systematic  cultivation  of  the  hun- 
dreds of  languages  and  dialects  spoken  by  India's  three  hun- 
dred millions.  Already  in  the  eighteenth  century  Sanskrit 
type  had  been  cast,  and  the  great  work  begun  of  getting  the 
priceless  literature  of  Ancient  India  into  print.  Warren  Hast- 
ings is  chiefly  remembered,  perhaps,  by  Macaulay's  essay,  and 
Sheridan's  denunciation.  But  it  should  also  be  recorded  of 
him.  that  he  was  the  first  patron  of  Sanskrit  literature,  and 
helped  to  publish  the  first  edition  of  the  Bhagavad  Gita.  Sir 
William  Jones,  the  founder  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal. 
and  thus  the  father  of  Orientalists,  was  an  Indian  jnd^e;  and 
hU  translation  of  Manu's  Law  Code  was  undertaken  for  the 


174  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

purely  practical  end  of  ascertaining  the  Brahmanical  law  of 
inheritance.  Colebrooke  and  Charles  Wilkins  were  also  Ben- 
gal civilians;  and,  in  later  days,  Max  Miiller's  splendid  edi- 
tion of  the  Rig  Veda  was  paid  for  by  the  Government  of  India. 

The  popular  tongues  are  not  less  carefully  studied.  It  is  an 
international  jest  of  some  antiquity,  that  Englishmen  never 
know  foreign  tongues.  The  truth  is,  that  no  nation  knows  so 
many,  or  has  reduced  so  many  to  writing  for  the  first  time. 
The  British  Indian  Government,  if  my  memory  serves  me, 
recognizes  over  a  hundred  different  tongues  and  idioms;  and 
there  are  at  least  a  few  officials  conversant  with  each  of 
them.  And  we  have  to  get  something  more  than  a  smattering 
of  these  tongues.  We  have  to  learn  to  read  them,  write  them, 
and  speak  them  fluently  to  the  natives,  using  the  proper  forms 
to  mark  all  the  shadings  of  social  rank.  The  members  of  the 
Covenanted  Civil  Service  generally  know  three  or  four  verna- 
culars well,  reading,  writing  and  speaking  them  fluently  and 
correctly.  I  shall  never  forget  my  first  oral  examination  in 
vernacular  Bengali,  after  I  had  been  five  or  six  months  in 
India.  I  had,  as  I  said,  studied  Bengali  at  home  for  two 
years,  and  could  read  ordinary  books,  full  of  Sanskrit  forms 
and  phrases,  fairly  well:  Miltonic  Bengali,  one  might  call  it. 
But  I  speedily  found  that  this  was  not  the  language  of  the 
tongues  of  the  people,  which  smacks  of  the  backwoods,  not  of 
Milton.  It  contained  all  kinds  of  age-old  words  that  were 
current  before  Sanskrit  first  came  down  the  Ganges  valley. 

On  the  morning  of  the  examination,  I  had  already  ac- 
quitted myself  tolerably  in  a  conversation  with  the  Sub-judge, 
a  Bengali  gentleman  who  spoke  the  bookish  tongue  that  I  had 
learned, — at  least  he  spoke  it  to  me.  Then  the  examiner,  a 
Scotch  Joint  Magistrate  called  Anderson,  called  in  a  dusky 
peasant  who  had  been  summoned  to  testify  in  some  case,  and 
who  was  sitting  at  the  door-sill,  smoking  a  cocoa-nut  water- 
pipe.  The  Sub-judge  brought  him  immediately  before  me, 
and  said  to  me  abruptly:  "  Talk  to  him  about  his  family!" 
It  would  be  hard  to  say  which  of  us  was  more  taken  back,  that 
skinny,  brown  peasant  or  myself.  I  managed,  with  much 
hesitation  and  difficulty,  to  enquire  after  the  number,  age  and 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  175 

well-being  of  his  daughters.  He  looked  as  if  he  expected  me 
to  make  him  a  proposal,  and  was  evidently  vastly  relieved 
when  he  was  dismissed,  and  I  was  told  to  study  six  months 
longer. 

By  dint  of  hammering  away,  the  Civilians  come  to  learn 
the  native  tongues,  in  all  their  richness  and  variety,  very 
thoroughly  and  correctly.  Most  of  them  also  know  Greek 
and  Latin,  and  two  or  three  modern  European  languages,  this 
as  a  result  of  the  severe  examinations  which  they  have  to 
pass,  to  enter  the  Indian  Civil  Service.  It  may  be  worth  men- 
tioning, that  the  total  number  of  Covenanted  Civilians,  for  the 
whole  of  India,  is  about  nine  hundred:  this  small  body  of 
picked  men  govern  with  admirable  care  and  impartiality  a 
population  of  three  hundred  millions.  This  gives  an  average 
of  about  three  hundred  thousand  wards  for  each  Covenanted 
Civilian,  and  one  may  say  that  such  a  government  represents 
a  tremendous  accomplishment  in  practical  statesmanship,  the 
like  of  which,  in  all  probability,  the  world  has  never  seen. 

Now  a  word  about  caste,  which  the  severe  critic  of  the 
popular  magazine  reproaches  the  British  Indian  government 
for  not  abolishing.  Caste,  in  modern  India,  means  two  things ; 
or  rather,  the  present  caste  system  has  grown  up  from  the 
coalescence  of  two  things.  The  first  is  difference  of  race. 
Under  the  system  consecrated  by  the  Laws  of  Manu,  an  ad- 
mirably conceived  polity  was  constructed  out  of  the  mutual 
relations  of  four  widely  different  races:  a  white  race,  now 
represented  by  the  Brahman  caste;  a  red  race,  ten  millions 
«i~  whom  still  inhabit  Rajputana;  a  yellow  race,  forming  then 
as  now  a  large  part  of  the  farming  population,  cultivators  of 
rice  and  silk,  and  closely  akin  to  the  Chinese;  and,  fourthly. 
a  black  race,  the  artisans  and  metal-workers,  whose  kindred 
fringe  the  Indian  ocean,  in  Australia  and  Melanesia.  To  this 
polity  was  given  the  name  of  Chaturvarnya,  "  the  Four-Color 
System,"  and  its  principle  was,  to  assign  to  each  race  the 
duties  and  functions  for  which  it  was  inherently  fitted,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  prevent  intermarriage  between  the  races,  as 
experience  had  shown  that  the  "mulatto"  (a  word  used  by 
Manu's  Commentator),  was  generally  inferior  to  both  par- 


176  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

ents,  and  was  very  prone  to  disease  and  weakness.  So  that 
the  Four-Caste  or  Four-Color  System  was  really  a  wonderful 
achievement.  The  United  States  is  at  this  moment  feeling 
after  the  solution  of  an  almost  identical  problem;  the  adjust- 
ment of  relations  between  the  white  races,  the  Red  Indians, 
the  "  Mongolians,"  and  the  negroes,  and  is  very  far  from 
having  solved  the  question  as  satisfactorily  as  had  been  done 
for  India  in  the  days  of  Manu's  Code.  This  is  the  first  part 
of  caste  in  India. 

The  second  part,  which  seems  to  have  sprung  up  among  the 
black  races  of  Southern  India,  is  very  like  the  Trade  Guild 
system  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  five  great  guilds  in  South- 
ern India,  were  the  workers  in  Gold,  Silver,  Bronze,  Iron  and 
Stone;  and  the  guild  system  secured  two  objects:  first,  the 
proper  training  of  apprentices,  who  learned  the  trade  from 
their  fathers;  and  second,  the  prevention  of  over-crowding 
in  any  given  industry.  As  a  result  of  the  first  condition,  we 
have  the  wonderful  artistic  skill  attained  by  Indian  artisans, 
whereby  common  brass  water-pots  and  cotton  cloths  become 
things  of  beauty,  fit  ornaments  for  a  cabinet  of  rarities. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  when  anyone  speaks  severely 
about  abolishing  caste,  he  is  speaking  under  a  misapprehen- 
sion as  to  what  caste  is.  No  doubt  the  progress  of  ages  has 
crystallized  many  of  the  caste  regulations  into  almost  mean- 
ingless and  sometimes  burdensome  forms;  and  the  segrega- 
tion of  races  has  weakened  India  nationally.  Yet  these  are 
matters  in  which  no  government  can  wisely  interfere,  without 
violating  the  very  principle  of  freedom,  in  whose  name  that 
interference  is  called  for.  Much  has  been  done,  as  we  saw,  in 
the  way  of  securing  absolutely  equal  civil  rights  for  Brahman 
and  Pariah  alike.  And  much  is  done  by  the  English  com- 
munity in  securing  social  intercourse  between  sections  of  the 
Indian  races,  who  would  not  ordinarily  meet  at  all.  Thus, 
one  has  seen  a  set  at  tennis,  in  which  the  four  players  were  a 
high-caste  Brahman,  a  Mohammedan  prince,  a  Eurasian  offi- 
cial, and  an  Englishman;  and  these  dissimilar  races  meet  in 
official  and  social  life  on  very  good  terms.  They  dine  to- 
gether, so  far  as  caste  laws  admit;  they  hunt  together;  they 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  177 

dance  together;  they  even  intermarry  to  a  limited  degree, 
where  there  is  not  too  great  physical  unlikeness  between  the 
races;  and,  taking  it  all  in  all,  no  community  in  the  world 
brings  together  more  widely  dissimilar  types  on  an  equally 
genial  and  kindly  footing. 

When  the  English  first  came,  India  was  a  great  assembly 
of  warring  nations,  each  practically  a  despotism,  as  were  all 
Asiatic  nations  from  immemorial  days.  The  peasant  was  a 
mere  pawn  in  the  game,  buffeted  this  way  and  that  by  the 
stronger  military  races,  taxed  according  to  the  whim  of  the 
local  "  publican,"  and  his  own  ability  to  pay,  and  with  slender 
security  of  life,  family  or  possessions.  The  English  came 
to  the  shores  of  this  warring  continent, — for  India  is  in  area 
a  continent — not  as  invaders,  but  as  traders,  just  as  the  Arabs, 
the  Portuguese,  the  Dutch  had  come  before  them.  It  was  by 
race-genius,  and  not  by  deliberate  intent,  that  this  handful  of 
English  traders  in  due  time  found  themselves  the  dominant 
power  in  India ;  and  the  same  race  genius  determined  the  man- 
ner in  which  they  worked  out  their  destiny  and  task.  Trad- 
ers they  remained,  until  the  great  Indian  Mutiny  of  1857,  for 
it  was  only  after  the  Mutiny  that  the  British  government  form- 
ally assumed  the  task  of  governing  India. 

Since  that  time,  India  has  been  practically  governed  by 
some  nine  hundred  Covenanted  Civilians,  who  have  secured 
lasting  peace  among  the  long  warring  nations,  establishing 
mutual  toleration  among  a  dozen  rival  religions,  administer- 
ing the  affairs  of  every  community  and  tribe  according  to  its 
own  spirit  and  tradition,  and  securing  to  all,  man,  woman  and 
child  alike,  the  inestimable  treasure  of  fixed  civil  rights. 

The  natives  of  each  province  already  have  a  very  large  part 
in  the  practical  work  of  government.  Besides  the  native  mem- 
bers of  the  legislative  Councils,  there  is  a  large  body  of  na 
officials  at  every  Civil  Station, — which  one  may  describe 
as  the  little  metropolis  of  a  million  natives.  Besides  very  re- 
sponsible persons  like  my  friend  the  Bengali  Sub-judge,  there 
were,  at  that  station,  four  or  five  very  well  paid  Bengali 
Deputy  Magistrates,  and  perhaps  a  couple  of  hundred  others 
— treasury  officers,  court  officials,  land  office  clerks  and  so 


178  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

forth.  Much  of  the  actual  toil  of  administration  is  carried 
on  by  these  native  officials,  who  probably  number  over  a  quar- 
ter of  a  million  in  all. 

To  them  must  be  added  a  very  worthy  body,  the  native 
Honorary  Magistrates,  gentlemen  of  the  Hindu  or  Moham- 
medan or  Jaina  community,  as  the  case  may  be,  who  come  to 
headquarters,  and  try  cases  on  one  or  two  days  each  week,  an 
institution  like  that  of  the  honorary  Justices  of  the  Peace  in 
England.  Much  is  also  done  to  train  the  natives  in  demo- 
cratic self-government  in  other  ways.  For  every  district,  con- 
taining, perhaps,  a  million  inhabitants,  there  is  a  popularly 
elected  District  Board,  composed  of  natives  with  whom  some 
English  official  is  generally  associated;  and  these  gentlemen 
have  many  responsible  tasks  of  practical  administration  to 
perform.  There  are  also  elected  municipal  councils,  almost 
exclusively  natives,  who  make  regulations  for  the  European, 
as  well  as  for  the  native  community.  And  there  are  Local 
Boards,  likewise  elected  from  the  body  of  the  natives,  who 
have  sub-divisions  of  Districts  to  look  after,  say  a  territory 
with  a  population  of  two  or  three  hundred  thousand  villagers. 

In  all  cases,  every  effort  is  made  by  the  English  officials  to 
get  the  natives  used  to  the  idea  of  voting,  of  elections  and  the 
rest  of  the  machinery  of  democracy.  It  has  been  my  lot  to 
go  out  camping  through  the  District,  to  hold  the  Local  Board 
elections,  and  I  can  testify  to  the  sincerity  and  thoroughness 
with  which  these  efforts  are  made.  I  can  also  testify  to  the 
wonder,  not  unmixed  with  suspicion,  with  which  the  Bengali 
villager  regards  the  whole  proceeding.  Many  a  time  have  I 
seen  in  his  eyes  just  such  a  look  of  misgiving,  of  uneasiness  as 
I  saw  in  the  eyes  of  that  lean  witness,  my  unwitting  examiner, 
when  I  began  to  "  talk  to  him  about  his  family." 

There  is  very  real  home-rule  in  India  in  another  way,  far 
more  congenial  to  Indian  blood.  Every  village  is,  in  a  sense, 
a  self-ruled  community,  with  its  five  elected  committeemen 
(panchayets),  under  a  headman,  who  choose  and  regulate 
their  own  village  policemen,  and  do  a  great  deal  in  the  way 
of  practical  administration  and  government  within  the  village. 
The  self-governing  village  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  oldest  things 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  179 

in  all  law  and  politics,  and  lies  behind  all  our  systems  of 
jurisprudence.  The  Sanskrit-speaking  Brahmans  found  it 
there,  when  they  came  down  the  Ganges  valley  milleniums  ago. 
The  conquering  Moguls  found  it,  when  they  broke  through 
into  the  Punjab  from  the  wilds  of  Afghanistan  and  Turkestan. 
They  scattered  their  "  publicans "  through  the  villages,  to 
squeeze  what  they  could  out  of  the  natives.  And  the  English 
found  installed  villages  and  publicans  alike;  and,  taking  the 
latter  to  be  land-owners  and  not  mere  tax-farmers,  they  turned 
them  into  the  "  landed  gentry  "  which  stands  between  the 
rulers  and  the  peasants  throughout  India  to  this  day.  But 
the  self-governing  village  survives  immortal. 

In  India,  therefore,  the  Civilians  hold  the  balance  among 
a  score  of  nations,  now  brought  together  in  a  single  great 
federation,  and  held  together  in  the  bonds  of  peace.  This  is 
the  political  achievement.  Legally,  this  has  been  accom- 
plished :  to  the  countless  millions,  one-fifth  of  the  entire  human 
race,  who  swarm  over  the  valleys  and  among  the  hills  of 
India,  there  is  secured  personal  liberty  with  the  rights  of 
property  to  a  degree  never  before  enjoyed  by  an  Asiatic  na- 
tion. Socially,  what  has  been  done  is  not  less  wonderful. 
Races  as  unlike  as  any  on  earth,  not  merely  the  very  diverse 
peoples  of  the  old  "  Four-Color  System,"  but  large  intrusive 
elements  from  Arabia,  Palestine,  Armenia,  Persia,  Turkestan, 
China  and  the  islands  of  the  sea,  have  been  brought  into  a 
condition  of  stable  equilibrium,  where  all  live  their  lives  un- 
molested by  the  others,  in  many  ways  serving  and  supplying 
each  others*  needs.  From  the  standpoint  of  religion,  a  marvel 
has  also  been  attained.  A  score  of  creeds,  Brahmanism,  Islam, 
Buddhism,  Zoroastrianism,  Judaism,  Christianity,  and  many 
more  whose  very  names  are  strange  outside  India,  live  side  by 
side  in  perfect  mutual  toleration,  each  conceding  to  all  others 
the  liberty  it  claims  and  enjoys  for  itself.  These  are  some  of 
the  tasks  which  one  shared  in  "  hdping  to  govern  India." 


THE  SPANISH  ADMINISTRATION  OF  PHILIPPINE 

COMMERCE. 

BY   CHESTER  LLOYD   JONES. 

The  administration  of  Philippine  commerce  stands  in  sharp 
contrast  to  the  Spanish  policy  in  South  America.  In  the  one 
case  all  imports  and  exports  under  the  national  flag  were  en- 
couraged to  the  utmost.  In  the  other  a  definite  limit  was 
placed  upon  both  not  only  as  to  the  means  provided  for  trans- 
portation, but  also  upon  the  value  of  the  trade  to  be  allowed. 
The  trade  of  South  America  was  protected  by  the  squadrons 
of  the  royal  navy,  but  the  struggling  commerce  of  the  Western 
Islands,  as  they  were  called,  had  to  fight  its  own  battles  against 
English,  Portuguese  and  Dutch  freebooters  as  well  as  the  pir- 
ates of  the  surrounding  Asiatic  nations.1  Unjust  as  this 
treatment  seems,  from  the  Spanish  point  of  view  it  was  ad- 
mirably well  planned  and  consistent.  In  both  cases  the  im- 
pelling motive  was  the  same — the  advancement  of  the  interests 
of  the  home  country. 

The  mines  of  South  America  contributed  to  the  national 
wealth  without  interfering  with  the  industry  of  the  mother 
land,  and  the  growth  of  the  settlements  there  led  to  an  ever 
increasing  demand  for  the  products  of  Spanish  vineyards  and 
the  looms  of  Andalusia.  The  trade  with  America  was  con- 
sidered highly  desirable,  for  goods  went  abroad  and  precious 
metals  returned.  But  the  Philippines  could  offer  no  such  ad- 
vantages. They  had  no  important  mines  and  the  undeveloped 

1  Blair  and  Robertson :  The  Philippine  Islands,  Cleveland,  1903. 
Vol.  IV.     Report  of  the  Governor,  1576.    Chinese  pirates. 
Vol.  VII.     Page  67,  Salazar  to  Felipe  II,  1588.    English  corsairs. 
Vol.  XL     Page  292,  Mindanao  pirates.     Page  305  et  seq.,  Dutch  free- 
booters (1602). 

Vol.  XVII.     Page  100,  Dutch  freebooters. 

Documentos   Ineditos.,  America  y  Oceania.     Vol.  VI,  311-44   (1612). 
Vol.  VI.     Page  345  et  seq.  (1635). 

(180) 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  l8l 

native  industry  2  did  not  allow  of  great  trade,  even  in  goods 
for  goods.  The  only  possible  basis  of  development  was  the 
trade  to  China.  This  commerce,  however,  was  of  a  kind 
least  to  be  desired.  Since  there  was  no  return  trade  it  meant 
that  the  cargo  of  Asiatic  goods  would  be  paid  for  in  coin  and 
would  incur  a  constant  drain  of  the  precious  metals  to  the 
countries  of  the  far  east  "  whence  it  never  returned."  3 

Almost  from  the  beginning  of  Spanish  settlement  the  Philip- 
pine Islands  promised  to  win  an  important  share  of  Asiatic 
commerce.  Chinese  ships  came  to  trade  at  Manila  and  a 
yearly  shipload  of  Asiatic  goods  left  the  colony  for  America. 
No  restriction  was  placed  upon  traffic  and  it  promised  to 
make  Manila  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of  the  trading  capitals 
of  the  East.  The  market  was  crowded  with  grain  and  flour, 
precious  stones  from  India  and  Ceylon,  cinnamon,  pepper  and 
nutmegs  from  Sumatra,  carpets  and  rugs  from  Bengal,  Cam- 
bojan  mother  of  pearl,  silks  of  all  designs  and  colors,  velvets, 
damasks,  china,  porcelain  and  lacquer  work.4 

It  was  upon  this  flourishing  commerce  that  the  disfavor  of 
the  home  country  fell.  The  conditions  in  Spain  at  the  time 
were  singularly  inauspicious.  The  national  debt  was  large 
and  depressed  the  country  by  heavy  taxation.  Now  the  islands 
brought  in  a  new  competition  to  the  already  languishing  Span- 
ish industry.  A  fair  consideration  of  Colonial  claims  was  not 
to  be  expected  under  the  conditions  and  the  merchants  of 
Seville  and  Cadiz  aroused  themselves  to  secure  the  suppression 
of  the  new  traffic.8 

2  Zuniga,  Joaquin  Martinez  <le;  Estadismo  de  la  :lipinas.  Madrid, 

1803  (Retana's  edition,  1893),  Vol.  I,  p.  160,  native  weaving,  tto    i  1803). 

•  Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  XIII,  p.  258  (1604).    Zuftiga,  Vol.  I.  p.  170 
et  seq.  (1803). 

4  Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  310-12.  As  early  as  1587  this  trade 
amounted  to  2,000,000  pesos.  Audiencia  to  Felipe  II  (1588). 

Azcarraga  y  Palmero,  M.,  La  Libertad  de  Comercio  en  las  Islas  Fili- 
Madrid.  1871,  pp.  39-44,  describes  market,  society,  etc.,  of  that  period 
U.  1590). 

Documcntos  Ineditos.  Vol.  VI,  p.  345,  describes  trade  of  1635. 

•  Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  VI,  p.  279  ct  scq.  (1586).    Petition  of  Seville 
merchants;  Vol.  XVII,  p.  215  et  seq.    Viceroy  of  Peru  defends  Philippine 
trade  (1612).     Azcarraga,  p.  45  ct  scq. 


1 82  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

Accustomed  to  their  monopoly  of  colonial  commerce 
through  the  famous  House  of  Trade  they  looked  upon  the 
prosperity  of  Manila  as  based  upon  a  violation  of  their  own 
rights.  The  manufacturing  interests  also  joined  the  opposi- 
tion because  of  the  competition  in  the  American  market  of 
Chinese  with  Spanish  silks.  It  was  proven  that  the  decline 
of  the  Spanish  silk  industries  dated  from  the  same  period  as 
the  growth  of  the  Philippine  commerce.  There  was  no  diffi- 
culty in  convincing  the  manufacturers  that  the  former  was 
caused  by  the  latter.6 

It  is  clear  that  the  commerce  of  the  islands  did  interfere 
to  some  degree  with  the  profits  of  Spanish  industry  and  trade.7 
But  the  real  cause  of  the  decline  of  the  silk  industry  from  the 
flourishing  condition  under  Charles  V  lay  at  home  8  and  not 
in  the  competition  from  the  far  East.  The  persecution  of 
the  Moriscoes  9  deprived  Spain  of  the  peoples  who  had  been 
the  backbone  of  her  industry  and  the  tripling  of  the  taxes  un- 
der Philip  II  crushed  all  spirit  from  industrial  enterprise. 

The  falling  off  of  the  profits  on  American  trade  also  had 
but  little  connection  with  the  rise  of  the  Philippine  com- 
merce. It  was  brought  about  by  the  production  of  goods  in 
the  colonies,  by  overstocking  the  market10  and  by  the  steady 
increase  of  wholesale  smuggling  not  only  from  foreign  coun- 
tries but  through  Seville  itself.11  Yet  the  merchants  and 

6  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  Antonio  Jose,  Extracto  historial  del  expediente  que 
pen-die  en  el  Cause  jo  Real,  Madrid',  1736.      Extended  discussion  of  both 
arguments. 

7  This   was  admitted  even  Iby  the  Viceroy  of   Mexico,   who  defended 
Philippine  trade  1731.     Alvarez  de  Abreu,  p.  135. 

8  Azcarraga,  p.  83,  citing  Duque  de  AlmodovaT  in  Vol.  V  of  Establici- 
mientos  ultramarinos  de  las  naciones  europeas  en  las  indias  occidentales 
(1790). 

Haebler,  Konrad,  Die  Wirtschaftliche  Bliite  Spaniens  in  16  Jahrhundert 
und  ihr  Verfall,  p.  44  et  seq. 

Colmeiro,  Manuel,  Cortes  de  los  antiguos  reinos  d>e  Leon  y  Castilla, 
Madrid,  1883-4,  Introduction,  p.  195  et  seq. 

9  Haebler,  p.  70  et  seq. 

10  Moses  Bernard,  Amer.  Hist.  Asso.,  1894,  The  Casa  de  Contra taccon 
of  Seville,  p.  93  et  seq.  passim.    Alvarez  de  Abreu,  pp.  73-4. 

11Tornow,  Max  L.,  The  Economic  Condition  of  the  Philippines,  Nat. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  183 

manufacturers  alike  were  jealous  of  any  competition  which 
seemed  to  threaten  their  interests.  The  King  himself  was 
anxious  to  grasp  at  anything  which  promised  to  recall  the 
prosperity  that  had  fled  from  his  country  and  he  was  easily 
won  over.  In  1593  12  a  royal  decree  was  issued  that  all  trade 
of  the  Philippines  with  America  should  cease  with  the  ex- 
ception of  two  ships  to  ply  once  a  year  from  the  islands  to 
Acapulco,  Mexico,  with  a  cargo  valued  at  250,000  duros.  On 
the  return  voyage  a  shipment  of  500,000  duros  in  silver  was 
allowed.  No  Spanish  ships  were  to  be  allowed  to  trade  be- 
tween Manila  and  China. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  system  which  by  its  repres- 
sion of  all  individual  enterprise  kept  the  Philippines  a  frontier 
post  rather  than  a  colony,  through  the  greater  part  of  their 
Spanish  history.  That  any  trade  at  all  was  allowed  was  due 
only  to  the  realization  that  otherwise  not  even  the  semblance 
of  Spanish  authority  could  be  maintained.13  At  first  the  new 
restrictions  were  not  enforced,  as  was  to  be  expected  when 
the  very  people  to  whom  the  enforcement  of  the  law  was  en- 
trusted were  the  ones  it  most  harmed.  The  evasions,  how- 
ever, did  not  escape  the  notice  of  Seville  and  in  1604  meas- 
ures were  adopted  to  make  the  prohibitions  effective.14  The 
decline  of  Spanish  trade  to  Peru  was  due,  it  was  maintained, 
to  the  competition  of  Chinese  goods  transhipped  from 
Mexico.18  Thereafter  all  trade  between  Mexico  and  Peru 

Geog.  Mag.,  Vol.  10,  pp.  33-64.    Washington,  1899,  p.  49  ct  seq.;  Haefoler, 
p.  81  ct  seq.;  Azcarraga,  p.  58;  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  pp.  73-4. 

Moses  Bernard,  passim.  Attempts  were  made  to  prevent  colonial  pro- 
duction as  late  as  1803. 

12  For  the  gradual  extension  of  the  restrictions  on  trade  up  to  1595  see: 
Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  VI.  p.  282  (June,  1586),  p.  284  (Nov.,  1586); 
Vol.  VII,  p.  263  (1590);  Vol.  VIII,  p.  313  (1593).  and  Vol.  XII,  p.  46 
(1595) ;  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  p.  i  et  seq.;  Azcarraga,  op.  48-9. 

»«  Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  XIII.  p.  258.  Royal  decree  1604.  Alvarez 
de  Abrcu,  pp.  37,  38,  53  (for  1718-22). 

14  Azcarraga,  p.  51;  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  p.  204  ct  scq.,  review*.  la\\ 
evasions. 

13  Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  XIII.  p.  249.    -Royal  decree  on  commerce 
with  New  Spain 


184  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

was  to  cease.16  All  ships  to  the  Philippines  were  to  sail  on 
royal  account  and  no  one  was  to  have  a  share  in  the  trade  ex- 
cept the  Spanish  inhabitants.17 

As  the  Spanish  were  excluded  from  trading  with  China  di- 
rectly, they  were  forced  to  depend  upon  the  Chinese  to  bring 
their  goods  to  Manila.18  Minute  regulations  governed  this 
trade.  The  Asiatics  could  not  come  to  the  city  to  barter  their 
goods  but  had  to  sell  them  by  a  peculiar  wholesale  method. 
On  the  arrival  of  a  ship  guards  were  placed  upon  it  to  see  that 
no  goods  were  illegally  landed.  Duly  appointed  officers  then 
bargained  for  the  cargo  and  if  a  sale  was  made  the  goods  were 
taken  ashore  and  "  distributed  among  the  inhabitants  accord- 
ing to  their  capital."  19  This  was  the  "  pancada  "  or  whole- 
sale purchase  adopted  in  1 589  20  and  used  until  the  commerce 
was  opened  to  European  nations  in  i/Ss.21 

The  reliance  upon  Asiatics  to  bring  the  goods  to  Manila 
proved  especially  unfortunate  for  Spanish  shipping  for  it 
made  impossible  the  development  of  a  national  merchant 
marine  in  that  part  of  the  world  with  the  result  that  the 
Spanish  flag — the  first  to  enter  the  eastern  seas,  permanently 
disappeared.  Other  European  nations  pushed  on,22  however, 
and  shared  not  only  the  Eastern  trade  to  Europe  but  even 
brought  cargoes  to  Manila.  Nominally  such  trade  was  il- 
legal but  the  captains  regularly  evaded  the  law  by  flying  the 
Moro  flag.  The  claim  was  made  that  one  of  the  Moro  sailors 

!«  Recopilacion  de  las  leyes  de  Indias,  lib.  IX,  tit.  XXXV,  Jeyes  LXXI  to 
LXXVIII  (1604),  Madrid,  1864.  Azcarraga,  p.  73;  restriction  lasted  until 
1774- 

17  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  pp.  28-33,  i°8>  204.     Numerous  evasions  of  the  law 
even  by  Mexican  viceroys  reviewed.     The  restrictions  noted  were  included 
in  the  earlier  decree  but  had  never  been  observed. 

18  See  Cedilla  of  1593,  noted  above,  and  Azcarraga,  pp.  74-5. 

19  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  p.  2  et  seq.;  also  p.  125. 

20  Blair  and   Robertson,   Vol.   VII,   p.    137.      Royal   decree  establishing 
pancada,  9  Aug.,  1589. 

21  Azcarraga,  pp.    141-2;   also   Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.   XIV,  p.    108 
ct  scq.,  from  Morga,  Sucesos1  de  las  Islas'  Filipinas,  Mexico,  1609. 

22  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  p.  75   (1723).     English,  French  and  Dutch  enter- 
prises monopolizing  the  trade. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL    SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  185 

was  the  captain  and  the  European  only  an  interpreter  —  a 
transparent  subterfuge,  that  never  failed  of  success  when  ac- 
companied by  certain  valuable  courtesies  to  the  officers  of  the 
port.28 

The  management  of  the  shipping  to  America  was  also  char- 
acteristic. During  the  early  years  every  Spanish  citizen  of 
the  islands  shared  the  benefit  of  the  commerce  but  it  gradually 
fell  into  the  control  of  those  who  held  membership  in  the 
board  of  trade  or  were  influential  in  official  circles.24  The 
available  space  in  the  vessel  was  divided  into  a  number  of 
parts  each  of  which  corresponded  to  a  "  boleta  "  or  ticket.25 
These  tickets  were  divided  among  those  entitled  who  could 
lade  whatever  cargo  they  wished.  The  favorite  shipments 
were  silks  which  gave  much  the  greatest  return  on  the  capital 
invested  on  account  of  their  small  bulk  and  the  inability  of 
the  officials  to  check  undervaluation.26 

Owing  to  the  difficulty  of  punishing  offences  in  a  country 
so  remote  there  appeared  from  the  first  great  abuses  in  the 
management  of  the  commerce.  Everyone  strove  to  secure  as 
large  a  share  as  possible 27  and  dishonesty  in  some  form 
touched  every  person  from  the  Governor  General  down  to  the 
humblest  seaman.  Command  of  an  Acapulco  Galleon  was  the 
greatest  favor  within  the  governor's  gift.  The  salary  of 
4000  duros  for  the  round  trip  was  increased  by  a  "  gratuity  " 
from  the  shippers,  reaching  to  at  least  three  and  often  four 
times  that  amount.  This,  with  the  goods  shipped  on  his  own 

"  Zuniga,  Vol.  I,  p.  264. 

Azcarraga,  pp.  76,  114-6.  French  and  English  chiefly  engaged  in  this 
illicit  trade,  c.  1771. 

24  Zuniga,  Vol.   I,  p.  433.     Dependence  upon  the  religious  orders   for 
loans.    Methods  of  trade  (1803). 

Tomas  de  Corny n,  The  State  of  the  Philippine  Islands  (translation,  Lon- 
don, 1821;  original,  1810),  p.  67  (1810). 

25  Zuniga,  Vol.  I,  p.  266  ct  seq.    Unsuccessful  efforts  to  secure  honesty 
in  division  of  cargo  space. 

26  So  large  a  part  of  the  cargo  was  of  silks  that  it  was  often  called 
simply  "the  cloth"  (1803). 

Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  XI.  p.  272.    Felipe  III  Co  the  Governor  (1602). 
Alvarez  de  Abreu,  pp.  29-34  (1705-14),  pp.  101-2  (1724). 
17  Zuniga,  Vol.  I,  p.  434  ft  scq. 


1 86  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

account  and   various   commissions   assured   the   appointee   a 
comfortable  fortune  from  a  single  voyage.28 

The  Governors  too  abused  their  power  by  appropriating  a 
large  part  of  the  ship  for  the  use  of  themselves  or  their  friends. 
Their  greed  often  brought  into  peril  the  entire  commerce. 
Not  satisfied  with  falsifying  the  allotments  29  of  space  they 
loaded  large  quantities  of  their  own  goods  in  the  best  part  of 
the  vessel,  forcing  those  who  had  permission  to  trade,  to  pile 
in  their  shipments  wherever  room  could  be  found.  Sheds 
often  had  to  be  built  on  deck  and  part  of  the  armament  re- 
moved. Thus  the  galleons  left  the  harbor  so  heavily  laden 
that  when  storms  came  the  ship  had  to  be  lightened  and  the 
consignments  of  those  not  in  the  favor  of  the  governor  were 
first  sacrificed  for  the  common  good.80  The  highest  ecclesias- 
tics were  no  less  eager  to  abuse  their  position  than  were  the 
royal  officials.  In  one  instance  a  ship  sailed  for  Mexico  en- 
tirely on  the  account  of  the  archbishop  and  certain  other  offi- 
cials— outside  of  royal  registry  and  notwithstanding  that 
priests  31  as  well  as  royal  officers  were  strictly  prohibited  from 
having  any  part  in  commerce.  Even  the  common  sailors 

28  Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  X,  p.   101   (1597),  describes  abuses;  Vol. 
XII,  p.  70  and  Vol.  XIII,  p.  259,  documents  concerning  efforts  to  secure 
accountability  of  officers;  Vol.  XIII,  p.  261,  classes  of  officers  forbidden 
to  engage  in  trade. 

Azcarraga,  pp.  63-4. 
Zufiiga,  p.  267. 

29  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  p.  29  (1699) ;  also  pp.  98-9  (1724).    Azcarraga,  p. 
49.    Zufiiga,  Vol.  I,  p.  269  (1803). 

30  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  p.  98-9,  protest  against  abuses,  1724.    Azcarraga, 
p.  50,  50,000,000  duros  lost  in  i/th  century  through  overloading.    Zufiiga, 
Vol.  II,  pp.  50-4,  mentions  six  vessels  lost  in  the  i8th  century.     Blair  and 
Robertson,  Vol.  X,  p.  102  (1597),  p.  131  (1598)  and  163;  Vol.  XI,  p.  115; 
VoK  XII,  p.  48,  etc.    Vol.  VIII,  p.  261,  gives  royal  decree  aimed  to  pre- 
vent overloading. 

81  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  p.  30  (1702) ;  also  pp.  101-2  (1724),  and  p.  210. 

Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  252  (1592).  Vol.  X,  p.  100  (i597) 
priests  in  trade;  Vol.  X,  p.  148,  governor  in  trade. 

In  later  years  the  religious  orders  loaned  their  funds  to  merchants  in- 
stead of  trading  directly.  Interest  to  Acapulco,  50%.  Zufiiga,  Vol.  I,  pp. 
254-6.  Rules  changed  later  when  enforcement  found  impossible.  Zuniga, 
I,  p.  266. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  187 

shared  in  the  booty  by  being  allowed  to  ship  large  chests  of 
goods  entered  as  "  clothes."  82 

The  limitations  on  the  amount  of  silver  to  be  returned  were 
also  regularly  evaded.88  It  was  by  no  means  uncommon  for 
2.000,000  84  duros  to  go  in  a  single  vessel  and  reports  were 
made  of  the  shipment  of  4,000,000. 86  Detection  of  the  frauds 
proved  impossible  even  when  the  officials  tried  to  stop  them 
which  was  not  often  the  case.3*  If  the  royal  officers  grew 
vigilant  for  infractions  small  boats  were  sent  to  sea  with  the 
extra  silver  where  they  would  meet  the  galleon  and  deliver  the 
contraband  coin.  On  arrival  at  Manila  other  boats  would 
land  the  surplus  outside  the  port  so  that  when  the  cargo  was 
examined  no  infraction  of  the  law  could  be  found.37 

The  restrictions,  however,  though  constantly  evaded  were 
far  from  being  without  effect.  The  limitation  of  transporta- 
tion facilities  was  observed  and  placed  a  definite  check  on  the 
possibilities  of  abuse.  The  prohibition  of  transfer  of  goods 
from  Mexico  to  the  South  American  Colonies,  though  evaded 
by  shipments  through  Nicaragua,  cut  down  the  market  and 
lessened  profits  of  the  trade.  The  limitation  of  the  value  of 
the  cargo  also  had  its  influence.  For  more  than  two  centuries 
a  continuous  contest  was  maintained  with  the  Seville  and 
Cadiz  interests  38  in  the  attempt  to  raise  the  value  of  the  trade 

82  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  p.  32  et  seq.  (1714) ;  also  p.  84  (1723)  and  p.  103 
(1724). 

••  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  p.  28.  84  Idem,  p.  31 ;  also  pp.  127-9. 

85  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  pp.  54-00,  abuses.  3,000,000  or  4,000,000  duros 
taken  back.  Azcarraga,  pp.  55-8,  Seville  charged  that  one  ship  had  a 
cargo  worth  10,000,000  duros.  Comyn,  p.  76  (1810),  "Many  ships  have 
brought  3,000,000  duros."  Zuniga,  Vol.  I,  pp.  269-70,  evasions ;  "  return 
nearly  3,000,000." 

8$  Azcarraga,  p.  51 ;  Documentos  Ineditos,  Vol.  VI,  p.  368  et  seq.  Effort 
to  get  honest  administration  in  1636. 

"  Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  XI,  p.  118  (1509) ;  Vol.  XII,  p.  68  (1602). 

88  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  p.  29  ft  seq.,  for  steps  leading  up  to  this  increase. 
P.  37,  Viceroy  of  Mexico,  argues  for  extension  of  permission.  Pp.  54-74, 
arguments  of  Manila  and  Seville.  Pp.  130-193,  renewed  contest  in  1731. 
P.  210,  King  grants  extension  permanent  (1834). 

Azcarraga,  p.  54  et  seq. 

Documentos  Ineditos.  Vol.  VI,  p.  298,  Viceroy  of  Peru  defends  Philip- 
pines; Vol.  VI,  p.  345,  Report  of  Procurador  orf  Manila. 


1 88  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

allowed.  In  the  early  part  of  the  i8th  Century  after  repeated 
efforts  an  extension  to  500,000  duros  was  obtained.39  Con- 
fined within  this  limit  the  traffic  remained  up  to  the  time  when 
the  revolution  in  Mexico  brought  it  to  an  end. 

It  was  not  unknown  to  the  home  government  that  the  policy 
pursued  was  crushing  one  port  for  the  advantage  of  another 
but  so  long  as  Seville  remained  in  power  no  rational  action 
concerning  Philippine  commerce  could  be  hoped  for.40  A 
change  in  policy  gradually  came  after  the  middle  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  when  the  Seville  monopoly  was  steadily  de- 
clining in  royal  favor.41  Spain  no  longer  had  a  silk  industry 
to  protect  and  the  colonial  trade  was  to  an  ever  greater  ex- 
tent composed  of  foreign  products  re-exported  from  Spain.42 
Consequently  less  anxiety  was  felt  in  keeping  trade  confined 
to  its  former  limits. 

In  1765  Carlos  III  sent  out  a  ship  to  encourage  direct  trade 
with  the  islands,43  but  the  inhabitants  of  Manila  far  from  be- 
ing pleased  by  the  prospect  of  a  new  commerce  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  it  and  the  ship  returned  with  goods  pur- 
chased on  the  King's  account.  Later  expeditions  were  no  bet- 
ter received  and  the  communication  was  given  up  in  1783. 
Meanwhile,  a  second  attempt  was  being  made  by  establishing 
a  monopoly — the  Royal  Philippine  Co.44  Lines  of  ships  were 
to  be  maintained  between  the  islands  and  America  and  Spain,42 

39  Alvarez  <le  Abreu,  p.  44  et  seq.,  discussion  leading  up  to  increase 
(1718-22)  reviewed. 

Zuniga,  Vol.  I,  p.  269-70  (1803). 

Azcarraga,  p.  51.     Special  exceptions  to  law  noted. 

40  Azcarraga,  pp.  68-9.     Other  economic  results  of  exclusivism. 

41  Moses,  Bernard.     The  seat  of  the  monopoly  was  removed  to  Cadiz  in 
1718  and  its  privileges  limited  in   1728.     Other  ports  were  opened  after 
1765. 

42  Azcarraga,  pp.  60-4.     Decline  of  Spanish  silk  importation. 
48  Azcarraga,  pp.  117-8. 

44  Comyn,  p.  84  et  seq. 

Azcarraga,  p.  114  et  seq.  Failure  of  the  earlier  attempt  of  1733.  See 
also  pp.  119-41. 

Zuniga,  Vol.  I,  p.  493  et  seq. 

45  Recur,    Carlos,    Filipinas,    Estudios    Administrativos    y    Comerciales, 
Madrid,  1879,  pp.  20-2,  reviews  company's  privileges  and  the  rules  on  trade. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  189 

but  the  trade  from  Mexico  to  the  Philippines  was  to  be  left 
undisturbed,  and  most  of  the  vexatious  restrictions  which  had 
harrassed  Philippine  trade  were  removed.  Native  products 
were  to  enter  Spain  duty  free,46  and  the  Asiatic  trade  long 
carried  on  by  Europeans  under  the  ill  concealed  disguise  of 
the  Mpro  flag  was  thrown  open  to  all  nations.  "  For  the 
first  time  European  flags  entered  the  Bay  of  Manila  in  the 
guise  of  peace  and  commerce."  47 

Better  days  seemed  coming  and  the  Company  looked  for- 
ward to  a  rapid  development  of  the  islands.  But  local  pre- 
judice again  proved  too  strong.  The  merchants  of  Manila 
did  everything  in  their  power  to  hinder  the  new  project,  and 
it  was  soon  evident  that  it  was  doomed  to  failure.  After 
successive  deficits  it  finally  closed  its  accounts  in  i83O.48 
Meanwhile  the  troubles  of  the  mother  country  were  bringing 
about  the  abolition  of  many  of  the  remaining  restrictions  on 
the  colonial  trade.  In  1803,  on  account  of  the  war  in  Europe, 
the  trade  with  Peru  was  again  opened  49  after  a  lapse  of  210 
years.  In  1809  an  English  50  house  was  allowed  to  establish 
itself  in  Manila,  and  in  1814,  at  the  making  r>1  of  peace,  it  was 
stipulated  that  all  the  colonial  ports  of  entry  should  be  opened 
to  free  foreign  trade.  Spanish  America  was  now  in  revolt 
against  the  mother  country,  and  the  last  Acapulco  Galleon 
sailed  in  1815  to  return  in  1821  in  the  final  voyage  in  the 
trade  which  had  been  the  most  characteristic  feature  of  the 

46  Arenas,  Rafael  Diaz,  Memoria  sabre  el  Comercio  y  Navegacion  de  las 
Islaa  Filipinas,  Cadiz,  1838,  p.  I,  states  that  not  till  1820  were  all  taxes 
on  Philippine  products  in  Spain  removed. 

47  Azcarraga,  pp.  141-2. 

48  Tornow,  pp.  49-50.    New  regulations  in  Codigo  de  Comercio,  July  15, 
1833.     Final  settlement  of  Company's  accounts,  1834.     Sec  also  Arenas,  p. 
5;  also  Azcarraga,  p.  146. 

Andrce,  Karl,  Geographic  des  Wdthamfels,  Vol.  II,  pp.  443-8. 

49  Azcarraga,  p.  143. 
80  Tornow,  p.  49. 

51  Zuniga,  Vol.  I,  p.  265.  The  prohibition  against  foreigners  was  not 
strictly  enforced  in  the  later  i8th  century.  Zuniga  reports  foreign  shop- 
keepers in  Manila  in  1803. 

Azcarraga,  p.  147. 

Andrec,  p.  445. 


I9O  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

colonial  life  for  over  two  centuries.  This  hastened  the  change 
already  begun  in  the  character  of  the  Philippine  commerce. 
How  long  it  had  kept  its  peculiarly  Asiatic  cast  is  shown  in 
the  fact  that  even  as  late  as  1818  the  value  52  of  exports  of 
white  birds'  nests  exceeded  the  combined  value  of  the  exports 
of  sugar,  indigo,  hemp  and  cotton.  New  conditions  were  then 
introduced.  The  great  -exportations  of  Chinese  goods  to 
America  and  of  silver  to  China  and  Bengal,63  were  replaced 
by  cargoes  of  natural  products.  Silver,  silks  and  spices, 
which  led  the  list  in  1810  gave  way  to  sugar,  tobacco,  indigo 
and  hemp  by  i84O.54  Foreign  capital  came  to  the  island  and 
soon  drove  the  Spanish  from  their  last  commercial  stronghold 
—the  foreign  trade.56  In  1885  Manila  lost  her  monopoly 
of  foreign  commerce.56  This  brought  a  stimulus,  especially 
to  exports.  Negros,  for  example,  exported  in  1856  only 
760,000  Ibs.  of  sugar,  but  eight  years  later  sent  abroad  twenty- 
five  times  that  amount — a  development  paralleled  in  other 
ports.67 

Gradually  modern  ideas  were  working  their  way  into  the 

02  See  tables  in  Tornow,  p.  53  et  seq. 

68  Azcairaga,  p.  158. 

Arenas,  p.  4.  European  goods  drove  out  Bengal  goods.  Rise  of  trade 
to  England  and  the  United  States  (1838). 

84  Crampon,  Ernsit,  Le  Commerce  des>  lies  Philippines  (in  Societe  acad- 
emique  irudo-dhdnoise,  Bulletin  2°  ser.,  t.  3,  pp.  278-93.  Pads,  1890,  p.  279. 
Outlines  the  rapid  growth  of  sugar,  hemp  and  coffee  exportations  follow- 
ing the  opening  of  commerce  to  the  world. 

66  Andree,  p.  445;  also  Arenas,  p.  45.  Not  the  least  hindrance  to  trade 
was  the  multiplicity  of  coins  in  use.  In  1838  there  were  no  less  than  ten 
different  pesos  in  use,  besides  various  other  smaller  coins  often  debased 
and  counterfeited. 

58  Azcarraga,  p.  161,  1855  Zual,  Iloilo  and  Zarmboanga  opened;  Cebu 
1860. 

Crampon,  passim,  on  effect  of  opening  ports. 

Andree,  p.  445. 

Arenas,  p.  25  et  seq.,  describes  the  disadvantages  of  trade  when  Manila 
was  the  only  open  port  (1838). 

57  Crampon,  pp.  281-2:    Iloilo  ih<ad  rapid  growth  after  1880. 

Value  of  imports-exports  1880 549,419  piastres  (Mexican). 

Value  of  imports-exports  1881 4,663,379  piastres  (Mexican). 

Increase  chiefly  due  to  exportation  of  sugar  directly  to  foreign  countries 
instead  of  through  Manila. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  IQI 

islands,  making  a  marked  contrast  with  the  conditions  in  the 
long  period  of  forced  inaction.88  The  management  of  com- 
merce was  still  far  from  modern.  The  petty  extortions  of 
the  former  period  lived  on  in  the  details  of  the  administra- 
tion.8' Especially  was  this  true  in  the  harbor  and  customs 
charges,  which  made  Manila  a  port  which  all  ships'  masters 
were  glad  to  avoid.80  There  were  a  hundred  useless  rules, 
against  which  the  ship  might  unwittingly  offend,  and  their  vio- 
lation meant  the  payment  of  heavy  fines.  Failure  to  deliver 
exactly  the  number  of  bales  stated  in  the  manifest  was  pun- 
ished by  a  fine  of  1,000  duros  for  each  bale  lacking  or  in  ex- 
cess. Arbitrary  classifications  of  imports  were  made  which 
worked  injustice  in  the  collection  of  duties  and  the  port  offi- 
cials always  had  to  be  rendered  friendly  by  various  "  grati- 
fications." 

These  conditions  justify  the  conclusion  that  there  never 
was  true  freedom  of  commerce  in  the  Philippines  from  the 
time  the  trade  aroused  the  jealousy  of  Seville  to  the  end  of 
Spanish  dominion.  For  200  years  the  islands  were  shut  off 
from  the  world  at  large  almost  as  completely  as  if  they  had 
never  been  discovered.81  They  offered  nothing  to  the  colon- 
ist and  only  a  threat  to  the  prosperity  of  the  mother  country. 
The  commercial  policy  was  definitely  shaped  by  the  desire  to 
keep  the  colony  alive  and  yet  to  prevent  any  development  that 
might  conflict  with  home  interests.  From  this  long  period  of 

••  Azcarraga,  pp.  17-22.     Page  24,  increase  in  public  revenues  resulting. 

"Tornow,  pp.  49-50;  also  as  to  cumbersome  banking  methods  of  the 
Banco  Espanol  Filipino,  established1  1581. 

•°  Arenas,  p.  2;  restrictions  on  ships'  papers  discussed.  Limitation  as  to 
destination  removed  17  July,  1834. 

Azcarraga,  p.  148  ct  scq.     Spanish  ships  and  products  favored  by  the 
customs  schedule*  made  by  Juntas  in  1828  and  1855.     These  discritnina 
tions  in  favor  of  Spanish  ships  were  abolished  December  28,  1868,  but 
replaced  16  October,  1870. 

Tornow,  p.  52.     Up  to  1872  Spanish  flag  favored     In  that  year  had  a 
reduction  of  25%  of  customs-house  charges.    After  abolition  of  discnmi 
nations  Spanish  tonnage  steadily  declined. 

Tornow,  p.  34.    Endless  chicanery  practiced  by  customs-house  officials. 

91  Azcarraga,  p.  6.  Philippine  affairs  little  noticed  even  in  Spain  up  to 
1860. 


192  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

stagnation  the  revival  was  necessarily  slow.62  The  people 
grown  old  in  the  endless  routine  of  a  small  and  isolated  so- 
ciety, looked  with  distrust  on  any  change;  and  advance,  when 
it  came,  was  brought,  not  through  initiative  from  within,  but 
through  the  enterprise  of  foreigners. 

The  new  conditions  brought  problems  which  neither  the 
Asiatic  merchants  nor  the  Spanish  could  meet  and  the  control 
of  foreign  trade  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  English,  French 
and  Americans.63  The  opportunities  which  the  Spaniard 
had  always  neglected,  these  people  turned  to  their  own  ac- 
count and  though  constantly  interfered  with  by  an  officious 
government,  they  brought  to  the  islands  a  development  the 

62  Alvarez  de  Abreu,  p.  202.    One-half  of  the  Council  of  State  declared 
23  December,  1733:  "The  propagation  of  the  faith  is  the  only  reason  for 
maintaining  the  islands." 

Blair  and  Robertson,  Vol.  XIII,  p.  233.  Governor  to  Felipe  III,  July, 
1604;  not  more  than  1,200  Spaniards  in  the  islands. 

Zuniga,  Vol.  I,  p.  259  (1803).  "Spanish  families,  even  counting  those 
not  strictly  pure,  do  not  reach  over  1000."  Vol.  I,  p.  433,  describes  the 
paralyzing  effect  of  the  Acapulco  trade. 

M'Konochie,  Alexander,  A  Summary  View  of  the  Statistics  and  Existing 
Commerce  of  the  Principal  Shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  London,  1818,  p. 
127.  "Permanent  population  of  Spaniards  was  about  1,200"  (1818). 

Azcarraga,  p.  25.  Pure  white  families  numbered  not  more  than  9,000  in 
1861.  Page  37,  effects  of  exclusivisrn  upon  commerce.  Page  54,  white 
population  increased  very  little  during  I7th  century. 

63  Zuniga,  Vol.  I,  p.  265   (1803).     When  Asiatic  .trade  was  opened  to 
Europeans,  "Swedes,  Danes1,  English,  Bostonians   (sic),  French  and  Ar- 
menians "  monopolized  it. 

Comyn,  pp.  89-90  (1810).  North  Americans!  (sic),  English  and  French 
take  the  majority  of  Philippine  trade,  especially  in  liquors. 

Arenas,  pp.  76-77  (1838).  Chief  participants  in  importation  are  Eng- 
land, United  States  and  China.  One  or  two  French  ships  a  year.  Al- 
most all  the  products  of  the  Philippines  are  exported  by  foreigners  for  the 
United  States,  England  or  China. 

Cortez,  Balbino,  Estudios  del  Archipielago  Asiaitico  bajo  el  punto  de 
vista,  geographico,  historico,  agricola,  politica  y  comercial.  Madrid,  1861, 
p.  77.  Trade  to  Singapore  chiefly  in  hands  of  English  and  Germans. 

Azcarraga,  p.  29  (1871).  "Almost  all  foreign  commerce  done 

through  foreign  houses  .  .  .  English,  North  American  (sic),  German  and 
French.  Spanish  commerce  limited  to  coastwise  cargo  trade  (cabbtaje). 

Tornow,  pp.  50-51.  Up  to  1860  and  later  banking  done  almost  entirely 
through  two  large  American  houses.  "  Since  1896  there  has  been  no 
American  house  in  Manila."  English,  Germans  and  Swiss  most  important 
in  foreign  trade  in  1899  (1899). 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  1 93 

Spaniards  had  considered  impossible.*4  Exports  exceeded 
imports  and  the  native  products,  neglected  before,  became  the 
staple  articles  of  foreign  trade.  During  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, therefore,  the  character  of  Philippine  Commerce  under- 
went a  revolution,  but  the  government  failed  to  adjust  its 
commercial  policy  to  the  new  conditions  which  confronted  it 
and  to  the  end  of  Spansh  Dominion  continued  to  hamper  the 
trade  it  should  have  been  its  care  to  foster. 

64  Zuniga,  Vol.  I,  pp.  271-3.    Attitude  of  Spaniards  as  to  development 
of  the  islands  (1803). 


SOME   EFFECTS   OF   OUTLYING   DEPENDENCIES 
UPON  THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

BY    HENRY   C.    MORRIS, 

OF  CHICAGO. 

A  nation,  in  its  immaturity,  is  prone  to  look  only  at  the 
more  apparent  features  of  its  existence;  as  it  grows  in  power 
it  views  with  complacency  the  respect  paid  to  its  prowess,  the 
authority  which  it  is  -able  to  enforce  and  the  volume  of  com- 
merce it  maintains.  By  its  conduct  and  attitude  the  policies 
of  foreign  states  are  fixed ;  its  navy  controls  the  seas ;  its  army 
threatens  its  neighbors;  its  merchants  roam  through  the  more 
remote  quarters  of  the  earth ;  its  legislators  establish  laws  for 
multitudes  without  its  borders ;  its  ambassadors  are  consulted 
at  every  Court ;  its  rulers  gain  the  regard  and  affection  of  rival 
potentates  and  princes.  How  to  achieve  these  results,  so 
patent  to  the  observer,  forms  the  theme  of  many  arguments; 
but  how  few  of  the  people  realize  what  obligations  and  ef- 
fects are  reciprocally  imposed  upon  them  themselves;  how 
their  development,  temperament  and  institutions  may  be 
varied,  favored  or  thwarted  by  their  relations  with  foreign 
states. 

In  a  somewhat  different  degree  and  in  directions  which,  in 
various  instances,  have  been  diametrically  opposite,  the  admin- 
istration of  colonial  possessions  has  in  due  time  affected  the 
legislation,  the  morals,  the  tendencies  and  the  character  of 
every  nation  owning  them.  Can  the  United  States,  lately  under- 
taking similar  enterprises,  however  disguised  in  name,  claim 
to  be  exempt  from  the  rule  ?  Such  a  question  might  be  fairly 
answered  in  the  negative.  Assuming,  therefore,  that  there 
will  not  be  any  exception  from  the  usual  consequences  in  this 
respect,  what  are  some  of  the  more  general  effects  which  the 
Philippines,  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  Hawaii,  Guam  and  Panama 
will  exert  upon  the  home  country  irrespective  of  their  legal  or 
constitutional  relationship,  as  determined  by  the  Supreme 

(194) 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  195 

Court,  and  consequently  without  regard  to  the  nature  of  the 
tie  by  which  they  are  bound  ? 

Although  the  results  respectively  arising  from  the  control 
of  dependencies,  differing  in  geographical  situation,  may  in 
detail  be  widely  divergent,  they  are  in  the  general  sense  strik- 
ingly along  similar  lines;  in  each  individual  case  emphasis  may 
perhaps  be  laid  on  some  particular  feature,  but  the  same  ten- 
dency persists.  Possession  or  authority  presupposes  a  certain 
relationship  and  beyond  the  mere  reasons  for  acquisition,— 
which  may  have  been  momentary,  although  durable  in  results 
— some  cause  for  prevailing  conditions.  Heretofore  there  has 
always  existed  between  mother  country  and  colony  some  bond 
of  sympathy;  a  feeling  of  deep  interest  on  the  part  of  the 
paramount  state  or  its  people.  In  every  age  the  desire  for 
commercial  supremacy,  military  renown,  national  prestige,  re- 
ligious freedom  and  political  liberty,  or,  conversely,  escape 
from  intellectual  or  physical  servitude  has  been  a  moving  force 
to  colonizing  effort;  as  one  or  the  other  has  predominated,  the 
effects  have  varied.  Can  it  yet  be  said  what  motives  lie  at 
the  root  of  American  energy  in  distant  lands?  Are  our  peo- 
ple purely  philanthropic?  Are  they  mainly  ambitious  of  ex- 
tending the  national  domain,  or  are  they  attracted  by  the 
more  sordid  calculations  of  financial  gain?  To  what  extent 
are  these  aims  fixed  or  changing  and  how  far  are  they  con- 
scious or  voluntary?  In  time  of  war  and  physical  conflict 
the  impulses  of  rulers  and  people  are  sharply  defined  and 
clearly  enunciated,  but  after  the  stress  and  storm  they  in- 
evitably become  more  complex  and  less  apparent.  The 
masses,  in  a  large  measure,  lose  their  volition  and  leaving 
the  direction  of  affairs  more  and  more  to  those  charged  with 
their  administration,  they  unconsciously  drift  as  circumstances 
of  domestic  and  foreign  policy  necessitate.  A  people,  appar- 
ently moved  in  the  first  instance  solely  by  aspirations  for  re- 
ligious or  political  liberty,  may  soon  fall  a  victim  to  com- 
mercial ambition  or  to  the  race  for  wealth;  witness  the  ex- 
ample of  Spain  in  the  sixteenth  century  and  England  two 
hundred  years  later;  indeed,  the  original  economic  causes 
for  colonization  have  too  often  been  disguised  under  the 


196  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

enthusiasm  of  the  fervent  churchman  or  political  philosopher. 
The  mainsprings  of  many  such  movements  of  the  past  have 
only  in  recent  years  been  properly  recognized  and  credited 
with  their  due  importance.  Let  us  not  now  deceive  our- 
selves in  our  own  contemporaneous  history,  but  let  us  rather 
remember  that  sufficient  time  has  not  yet  elapsed  properly  to 
observe  conditions  with  impartiality  and  completely  to  judge 
of  the  results.  In  colonial  enterprises  the  modification  of 
ideals  is  in  itself  one  of  the  most  characteristic  effects.  The 
United  States  is  now  apparently  in  a  stage  of  transition;  ten 
years  ago  few  persons  would  have  admitted  that  a  war  would 
be  fought  with  a  foreign  power  for  the  extension  of  markets 
for  our  products  and  manufactures;  and  even  to-day  the  fact 
that  such  was  the  underlying  cause  for  the  conflict  with  Spain 
would  be  reluctantly  conceded ;  while  indeed  the  national  con- 
sciousness of  such  a  motive  at  that  time  can  be  truthfully 
denied,  nevertheless,  among  the  manifest  results,  next  to  the 
increase  in  area  and  population,  the  expansion  of  our  trade 
relations  is  the  most  apparent. 

The  statistics  of  trade  between  the  United  States  and  for- 
eign countries  as  given  by  "  Commercial  America  in  1905," 
a  publication  prepared  under  the  direction  of  O.  P.  Austin, 
Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  the  Department  of  Com- 
merce and  Labor,  show  a  very  material  growth  in  the  volume 
of  business  transacted  during  the  preceding  ten  years.  When 
the  figures  for  certain  special  localities  are  examined,  the 
effects  of  our  recent  development  are  peculiarly  evident.  Con- 
sidering in  the  first  place,  the  trade  with  our  newly  acquired 
dependencies  and  Cuba,  it  appears  that  the  imports  into  the 
United  States  were  as  follows: 

1895.  1905. 

Philippines $4,731,000  $12,658,000 

Porto  Rico 1,506,500  15,633,000 

Hawaii 7,889,000  36,1 12,000 


Total $14,126,000  $64,403,000 

Cuba 52,871,000  86,304,000 


Grand  total $66,997,000  $150,707,000 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  197 

On  the  other  hand,  the  exports  from  the  United  States  were : 

1895.  1905. 

Philippines $i  19,000  $6,200,000 

Porto  Rico 1,884,000  13,974,020 

Hawaii 3,723,000  1 1,753,000 


Total $5,726,000  $31,927,000 

Cuba 12,807,000  38,380,000 


Grand  total $18,633,000  $70,307,000 

Pursuing  the  inquiry  still  further  and  investigating  this 
time  the  status  of  our  trade  with  the  two  principal  indepen- 
dent powers  of  the  Orient,  it  appears  that  their  imports  into 
the  United  States  have  been : 

1895-  1905- 

Chinese  Empire $20,546,000  $27,885,000 

Japan 23,696,000  51,822,000 


Total $44,242,000  $79,707,000 

The  exports  from  the  United  States  were : 

7*95.  7905. 

Chinese  Empire $3,604,000  $53*453,ooo 

Japan 4,635,000  51,720,000 


Total $8,239,000  $105,173,000 

It  is  apparent  that  our  trade  has  not  only  been  growing 
with  the  flag  but  far  beyond  it;  nor  has  foreign  soil  formed 
a  serious  barrier  to  its  development  in  other  portions  of  the 
far  East.  Let  us  cite  some  further  statistics,  as  for  example 
for  British  and  Dutch  possessions;  first  for  imports  into  the 
United  States: 

1895-  1905. 

Hong  Kong. .  $776,500  $1.552,000 

British  Australia.  .  4,621,000  11,893.000 

British  East  Indies  ..  21.266.000  53.690,000 

Dutch  East  Indies.  7.727,000  18.463.000 

The  exports  for  the  same  period  from  the  United  States: 


198  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

1895-  I905- 

Hong  Kong $4,253,000  $10,770,000 

British  Australia 9,014,000  26,353,000 

British  East  Indies 2,854,000  7,548,000 

Dutch  East  Indies 1,147,000  1,670,000 

It  would  therefore  appear  that  the  extension  of  our  influence 
in  the  Pacific  has  not  merely  opened  up  markets  under  the 
protection  of  our  own  flag  and  laws,  but  has  done  infinitely 
more  in  developing  the  demand  for  our  products,  both  on  the 
part  of  independent  peoples  and  colonists  of  other  powers. 
Incidentally,  it  may  here  be  noticed  that  the  tonnage  of  Ameri- 
can owned  vessels  on  the  Pacific  Coast  increased  from  433,502 
tons  in  1895  to  821,710  tons  in  1905.  While  this  growth  is 
relatively  larger  than  that  for  Atlantic  and  Gulf  ports,  it  is 
regrettable  that  the  greater  portion  of  this  trade  should  still 
be  carried  in  foreign  bottoms. 

Aside,  however,  from  the  slow  growth  of  the  merchant 
marine,  the  commercial  achievements  of  Americans  in  the 
Orient  during  the  last  ten  years  may,  comparatively  speaking, 
be  termed  stupendous,  although  even  yet  we  control  only  a 
very  small  share  of  the  total  trade  and  considerably  less  than 
under  all  the  circumstances  we  should  have.  While  of 
course  without  the  consequences  of  the  war  with  Spain  there 
would  have  been  some  natural  progress;  while  the  forward 
movement  of  China  and  Japan  would  to  a  certain  extent 
have  drawn  our  attention  in  their  direction,  while  perhaps, 
certain  modifications  in  the  tariff  may  have  contributed  some- 
what to  the  results;  while  the  Boer  war  may  have  crip- 
pled for  a  time  our  greatest  competitor;  while  possibly 
Germany  might  be  cited  as  a  country  the  trade  of  which  has 
developed  without  the  impulse  of  war  and  prosperous  colonial 
possessions,  and  while  Americans  might  have  participated  in 
Chinese  trade  without  sending  their  troops  to  assist  in  the 
rescue  of  the  foreign  legations  at  Pekin,  still  it  is  extremely 
doubtful  if,  without  the  stimulus  inspired  by  the  broader  view 
of  the  world,  gained  by  our  military  and  naval  experience, 
coupled  with  the  acquisition  of  new  territories,  we  should  have 
accomplished  any  results  in  eastern  trade  comparable  to  those 
actually  achieved. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  199 

The  same  tendency  has  likewise  been  felt  nearer  home;  for 
instance,   examine  for  a  moment  the  course  of  trade  with 
our  neighbors  immediately  to  the  North  and  to  the  South. 
Their  imports  into  the  United  States  were: 

1895-  1905- 

Mexico $15,636,000  $46,471,000 

Canada 36,574,000  62,470,000 

Their  exports  from  the  United  States  were: 

1895-  1905- 

Mexico $15,006,000  $45,756,000 

Canada 52,855,000  140,530,000 

Throughout  all  the  tables,  next  to  the  enormous  percent- 
age of  increase,  the  most  significant  facts  to  be  noted  are  the 
relative  proportions  of  imports  and  exports  in  each  particular 
group.  In  the  case  of  the  dependencies  the  imports  into  this 
country  are  uniformly  in  excess  of  the  exports;  while  in 
other  instances,  the  exports  are  usually  the  larger.  While 
reference  to  the  details  of  European  trade,  would  be  extran- 
eous, it  may  be  of  interest  to  note  that  in  the  period  of  which 
we  are  speaking,  the  imports  of  Spain  into  the  United  States 
increased,  notwithstanding  the  interruption  occasioned  by  the 
war,  from  $3,575,000  to  $11,654,000  in  value;  while  the 
exports  to  that  country  grew  from  $10,927,000  to  $17,038,000. 

Before  concluding  this  discussion  of  commercial  develop- 
ment, it  appears  necessary  to  quote  one  more  table  summariz- 
ing the  growth  of  our  trade  relations  with  the  various  grand 
divisions  of  the  world. 

IMPORTS  INTO  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Percentage  of  Percentage  of 

Country.                    1895.            total  trade.  1905.  total  trade. 

Europe $383,646,000            52.41  $540,773.000  48.39 

North  America.     133,916,000             18.29  227,229,000  20.33 

Asia.                    .       77,626,000             10.61  161,983,000  14.50 

South  America.     112,167,000            15.32  150,796,000  13.49 

Ocean                        17,451,000              2.39  25,388,500  2.27 

Africa                          5.709,000                 .98  11,344,000  I.O2 


2OO  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

EXPORTS  FROM  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Percentage  of  Percentage  of 

Country.                   1895.           total  trade.  1905.  total  trade. 

Europe $627,928,000            77.76  $1,020,973,000  67.23 

North  America.     108,575,000             13.45  260,570,000  17.16 

Asia 17,325,000              2.15  128,505,000  8.46 

South  America.       33,526,000              4.15  56,894,000  3.75 

Oceania 13,109,000              1.62  33,079,000  2.18 

Africa 7,075,000                .87  18,541,000  1.22 

The  study  of  these  figures  is  significant;  while  in  every  in- 
stance of  course,  there  has  actually  been  a  large  increase 
during  ten  years,  both  in  imports  and  exports,  the  relative 
proportions  of  the  various  localities  indicate  striking  changes 
highly  important  to  us  when  deciding  upon  our  attitude  for  the 
future.  In  both  European  and  South  American  trade  relative 
losses  have  been  sustained ;  the  ratio  of  imports  from  Europe 
in  the  total  has  declined  from  52.41  per  cent  to  48.39  per  cent; 
that  of  the  exports  to  Europe  from  77.76  to  67.23  per  cent. 
In  the  case  of  South  America  the  decline  in  imports  has  been 
from  15.32  to  13.49  per  cent;  in  the  exports,  from  4.15  to  3.75 
per  cent.  In  every  other  instance  the  ratio  is  increasing;  that 
of  the  imports  of  other  countries  of  North  America  into  the 
United  States  has  risen  from  18.29  to  20.33  Per  cent;  that  of 
the  exports  from  the  United  States  to  them,  from  13.45  to 
17.16  per  cent.  In  the  Asiatic  trade  the  increase  in  imports 
into  the  United  States  has  been  from  10.61  to  14.50  per  cent; 
in  exports  from  the  United  States  from  2.15  to  8.46  per  cent. 
In  the  trade  with  Oceania  and  Africa  the  respective  ratio  to 
the  total  is  also  generally  larger.  With  these  conclusions  be- 
fore us  we  should  be  able  readily  to  perceive  where  our  great- 
est advantage  lies  in  building  up  and  fostering  trade  rela- 
tions. It  certainly  behooves  us  as  a  nation  especially  to  nur- 
ture our  interests  in  those  regions  where  they  are  rapidly 
developing. 

In  discussing  this  subject  Secretary  Shaw  has  lately  said : 

"  Where  shall  these  new  markets  be  found  ?  The  answer  is 
easy,  for  there  are  few  places  possible;  South  America  and 
South  Africa  import  $650,000,000  per  annum,  of  which  the 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  2OI 

United  States  contributes  a  paltry  12  per  cent.  Oriental  coun- 
tries import  a  thousand  millions,  of  which  the  United  States  con- 
tributes only  10  per  cent. 

"  Our  manufacturing  competitors  know  where  these  countries 
lie.  They  have  learned  their  languages,  have  studied  their  de- 
sires as  well  as  their  needs,  and  for  years  have  prosecuted  a  well- 
planned  and  well-executed  campaign  for  their  commercial  inva- 
sion, and  with  the  aid  of  a  large  merchant  marine  they  have  been 
successful.  We  scarcely  know  where  these  countries  are  on  the 
map.  We  do  not  understand  their  languages,  their  habits,  their 
needs  or  their  desires,  and  we  send  them,  all  combined,  less  than 
$150,000,000  of  our  more  than  $13,000,000,000  of  manufactures, 
and  this  pittance  we  send  in  foreign  bottoms  and  beneath  alien 
flags. 

"  Let  no  man  misunderstand  me,"  he  continues.  "  I  admire 
the  forethought,  the  enterprise  and  the  skill  of  our  foreign  com- 
petitors, and  I  bid  them  all  godspeed.  No  prosperity  can  come 
to  any  country  that  does  not  gladden  my  heart.  I  am  contend- 
ing only  that  we  shall  emulate  their  enterprise  and  enter  these 
markets  with  American  ships  laden  with  goods  especially  designed 
to  meet  the  desires  of  the  people  as  distinguished  from  our  con- 
ception of  what  they  ought  to  have.  Every  day  we  delay  hastens 
the  day  when  our  surplus  will  set  back  upon  us  like  a  belated 
tide,  to  the  inundation  and  swamping  of  our  prosperity,  which  is 
now  our  boast."  Such  is  Secretary  Shaw's  opinion. 

The  most  deplorable  feature  in  the  commercial  situation  of 
the  nation  for  many  years  has  been  and  still  is,  the  weakness 
of  the  merchant  marine.  The  people  of  the  United  States 
long  ago  lost  and  have  well-nigh  forgotten  their  early  glory 
as  a  sea-faring  race.  At  one  time  they  carried  ninety  per 
cent  of  their  exports  in  their  own  ships;  now  they  control 
only  nine  per  cent  and  allow  the  other  ninety-one  per  cent 
to  be  delivered  at  their  destination  by  foreign  craft.  Secre- 
tary Root  in  a  recent  speech  at  Kansas  City,  before  the 
Trans-Mississippi  Congress,  in  explaining  the  reasons  for 
this  condition,  well  said  : 

"  i.  The  higher  wages  and  the  greater  cost  of  maintenance  of 
American  officers  and  crews  make  it  impossible  to  compete  on 


202  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

equal  terms  with  foreign  ships.  The  scale  of  living  and  the 
scale  of  pay  of  American  sailors  is  fixed  by  the  standard  of 
wages  and  of  living  in  the  United  States,  and  these  are  main- 
tained at  a  high  level  by  the  protective  tariff.  The  moment  the 
American  passes  beyond  the  limits  of  his  country  and  engages  in 
ocean  transportation  he  comes  into  competition  with  the  lower 
foreign  scale  of  wages  and  of  living. 

"  2.  The  principal  maritime  nations  of  the  world,  anxious  to 
develop  their  trade,  to  promote  their  ship-building  industry,  to 
have  at  hand  transports  and  auxiliary  cruisers  in  case  of  war, 
are  fostering  their  steamship  lines  by  the  payment  of  subsidies. 
Against  these  advantages  of  his  competitor  the  American  ship- 
owner has  to  contend.  And  it  is  manifest  that  the  subsidized 
ship  can  afford  to  carry  freight  at  cost  for  a  long  enough 
period  to  drive  him  out  of  business.  We  are  living  in  a  world 
not  of  natural  competition,  but  of  subsidized  competition.  State 
aid  to  steamship  lines  is  as  much  a  part  of  the  commercial  system 
of  our  day  as  state  employment  of  consuls  to  promote  business. 
Plainly  these  disadvantages  created  by  governmental  action  can 
be  neutralized  only  by  governmental  action,  and  should  be  neu- 
tralized by  such  action." 

Upon  the  same  occasion  the  distinguished  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  likewise  said : 

"  If  this  country  ever  develops  international  merchants  it  will 
accomplish  it  by  granting  them  encouragement,  not  alone  by 
dredging  harbors  and  deepening  channels,  but  by  assuring  them 
a  merchant  marine  in  which  to  carry,  under  most  favorable  terms, 
the  products  of  our  farms,  our  mines,  our  forests  and  our  fac- 
tories. And  without  international  merchants  sustained  by  a  mer- 
chant marine  we  will  never  put  these  products  into  the  ports  of 
countries  unable  to  maintain  merchant  ships  with  which  to  come 
after  them. 

"  A  fraction  of  the  amount,  $465,000,000,  spent  in  the  last 
decade  on  the  Isthmian  Canal,  on  rivers  and  harbors,  in  aid  of 
shipping  and  on  the  revenue-cutter  service  would  give  us  what 
we  once  had,"  Secretary  Shaw  concluded, — "  a  merchant  marine 
— and  assure  us  international  merchants.  The  products  of  our 
ever-increasing  labor  would  then  be  carried  where  the  United 
States  as  a  commercial  country  is  now  unknown." 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  203 

The  President  himself  in  his  last  message  strongly  urges 
the  passage  of  the  ship-subsidy  bill  now  pending  in  Congress. 
To  those  who  have  the  welfare  of  our  oversea  possessions  at 
heart,  the  subject  must  be  of  deep  and  abiding  interest.  The 
requirements  of  colonial  commerce  will,  without  doubt,  enlist 
and  train  up  a  body  of  seamen  peculiarly  adapted  to  it;  the 
ordinary  development  incidental  to  the  progress  of  our  outly- 
ing territories  will  in  time  give  a  renewed  impulse  to  the 
American  merchant  marine,  while  on  the  other  hand,  with  its 
rapid  and  regular  expansion  the  prosperity  of  these  regions  is 
intimately  associated.  Whatever  method  therefore  may  even- 
tually be  adopted  for  the  purpose,  the  restoration  of  a  proper 
share  of  the  ocean  carrying  trade  to  the  flag  is  of  paramount 
importance. 

Contemporaneously  with  the  extension  of  our  commerce, 
we  are  slowly  preparing  to  work  out  a  new  economic  system. 
With  the  control  of  the  fiscal  regulations,  both  for  producer 
and  consumer  in  our  hands  it  has  been  discovered, — at  least 
by  those  who  are  sufficiently  enlightened  to  recognize  the 
fact — that  arbitrary  rules  will  not  change  the  natural  course 
of  trade;  that  where  we  wish  to  sell,  we  must  buy;  that  if  we 
would  buy  we  must  not  surround  ourselves  with  artificial  bar- 
riers which  restrict  the  egress  of  our  own  goods  as  much  as 
the  ingress  of  colonial  products.  We  are  gradually  learning 
that  the  admission  of  the  staple  products  of  the  dependencies 
upon  the  markets  of  this  country  inevitably  promotes  the  pros- 
perity of  their  producers,  renders  them  better  able  to  care  for 
themselves,  reduces  our  expenditures  on  their  behalf,  increases 
the  sales  of  our  own  merchandise  to  them  and  especially,  above 
every  other  consideration,  fosters  a  more  friendly  feeling  on 
their  part  toward  us.  This  discussion  indeed  would  scarcely 
be  complete  without  a  suggestion  of  the  breach,  which  will 
probably  be  made  in  our  tariff  doctrines  by  the  exigencies  of 
colonial  trade;  coincident  with  this  tendency  will  undoubtedly 
be  the  competition  which  certain  existing  monopolies  will 
meet.  On  the  other  hand,  the  cheapness  of  labor  in  the  de- 
pendencies is  likely  to  impair  the  higher  rate  of  wages  at  home 
and  seriously  to  endanger  the  existence  of  labor  organizations. 


2O4  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

Whether  results  of  such  an  opposite  character  in  the  social 
order  will  be  unequivocally  beneficial  to  the  community  can- 
not yet  be  foretold. 

Another  condition,  purely  financial,  can  be  anticipated,  if  it 
has  not  already  been  experienced;  so  long  at  least  as  a  depen- 
dency is  in  a  large  measure  undeveloped,  considerable  sums 
of  money  necessarily  flow  to  it;  the  needs  of  the  government 
alone  for  administrative  purposes  do  not  limit  the  amount. 
Commercial,  agricultural,  educational  and  philanthropic  enter- 
prises draw  their  funds  from  the  parent  state  and  to  the  ex- 
tent of  their  requirements  reduce  the  resources  available  for 
domestic  and  other  purposes.  In  some  degree  the  United 
States  is  now  feeling  the  effects  of  the  demands  which  the 
Philippines,  Cuba  and  Hawaii  are  directly  or  indirectly  mak- 
ing upon  its  currency.  Granting  even  that  the  appropria- 
tions in  the  budgets  of  the  dependencies  are  covered  by  local 
taxation,  there  are  several  millions  of  American  capital  en- 
gaged in  private  colonial  investments.  How  much  has  been 
diverted  from  circulation  abroad  and  what  surplus,  if  any,  is 
naturally  seeking  an  outlet  from  the  country  are  perhaps  open 
questions. 

Upon  this  subject  Secretary  Root  says: 

"  Since  the  first  election  of  President  McKinley  the  people  of 
the  United  States  have  accumulated  for  the  first  time  a  surplus 
of  capital  beyond  the  requirements  of  internal  development.  We 
have  paid  our  debts  to  Europe  and  have  become  a  creditor  in- 
stead of  a  debtor  nation.  We  have  faced  about. 

"  Our  surplus  energy  is  beginning  to  look  beyond  our  own 
borders,  throughout  the  world,  to  find  opportunity  for  the  profit- 
able use  of  our  surplus  capital,  foreign  markets  for  our  manu- 
factures, foreign  mines  to  be  deveolped,  foreign  bridges,  rail- 
roads and  public  works  to  be  built,  foreign  rivers  to  be  turned 
into  electric  power  and  light." 

Basing  our  conclusions  upon  this  authoritative  statement 
of  the  facts,  can  there  be  any  doubt  that  such  an  excess  is  pre- 
ferably and  more  safely  invested  under  the  protection  of  our 
own  flag  and  laws  in  such  opportunities  as  the  dependencies 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  2O5 

afford,  than  if  it  were  subjected  to  the  uncertainties  of  alien 
sovereignty  and  legislation? 

The  American  people  who  solved  its  difficulties  with  the 
aborigines  by  their  practical  annihilation  and  endeavored  on 
the  other  hand  to  settle  the  negro  question  by  elevating  the 
blacks  to  its  own  level,  is  again  confronted  in  the  Philippines 
by  a  race  problem,  the  more  serious  as  it  is  the  more  complex. 
Shall  we,  in  this  instance,  annihilate  the  natives  of  the  soil  or 
eventually  raise  them  politically  and  intellectually  to  our  stand- 
ards? The  first  solution  by  reason  of  their  numbers  is  not 
probable;  is  the  latter  possible?  Has  not  our  experience  with 
an  inferior  race  of  the  East  already  shaken  our  ideal  of  the  po- 
tential equality  of  all  men?  Has  not  the  experiment — so  far 
very  brief  but  still  likely  long  to  endure, — had  a  reflex  action 
on  our  attitude  toward  the  negro?  Have  not  the  enthusiasm 
and  ardor  of  ante-bellum  and  civil  war  days  for  his  political, 
social  and  educational  equality, — so  greatly  cooled  in  the  suc- 
ceeding forty  years — been  seriously  chilled  by  the  events  oc- 
curring during  the  last  decade  in  the  Pacific  and  nearer  at 
home  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico?  While  every  effort  should  be 
made  to  grant  equal  justice  to  all  citizens,  irrespective  of 
color  or  race  and  all  should  have  our  deepest  sympathy  and 
profound  assistance  in  their  struggles  and  aspirations,  such 
questions  may  well  and  reasonably  be  propounded  and  their 
ultimate  answers  confided  to  the  men  of  a  subsequent  gener- 
ation. 

What  influence,  if  any,  it  may  also  well  be  asked,  will  the 
control  of  races  in  the  dependencies  have  upon  our  theories 
of  government  and  their  application  to  our  domestic  affairs? 
At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  inhabitants  of  the  thirteen 
colonies  were  chiefly  of  European  origin.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  negro  factor,  the  growth  of  which  precipitated 
the  problems  of  the  Civil  War,  the  influx  of  individuals  of 
alien  race — I  do  not  mean  nationality — has,  throughout  our 
history  been  slight;  as  a  people  we  have  been  homogeneous. 
Indeed  the  fear  of  contamination  is  evidenced  by  the  laws 
against  miscegenation  and  in  its  most  patent  form  by  the 
Chinese  exclusion  act;  but  now  in  the  Philippines,  the  task 


2O6  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

of  absorbing  into  our  body  politic  and  social  many  tribes  of 
Malay  blood  is  imposed.  Admitting  the  eventual  adoption  of 
a  form  of  control  beneficial  to  them,  will  not  our  own  views 
of  government  ultimately  be  modified,  even  perhaps  involun- 
tarily, by  contact  with  them.  In  the  organization  of  our 
colonial  administration  we  have,  naturally,  followed  a  course 
peculiar  to  ourselves;  in  general,  we  have  disregarded  the 
methods  elsewhere  in  force  and  devised  our  own  system. 
Whether  or  not  the  results  already  achieved  are  satisfactory 
is  not  here  at  issue,  except  in  so  far  as  experience  shall  here- 
after cause  a  change.  The  idea  of  government  by  legislative 
control  has  prevailed ;  the  affairs  of  a  dependency  in  the  tropics 
have  for  once  been  placed  under  the  direction  of  a  commission 
directly  subject  in  turn  to  the  action  of  an  elective  body  sev- 
eral thousand  miles  away.  In  the  ultimate  reservation  of 
power  to  Congress,  in  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  Philip- 
pines have  no  representation  and  irrespective  of  constitutional 
limitations,  we  are  challenging  failure,  such  as  Spain  met  in 
South  America  and  Cuba,  and  Great  Britain  at  an  earlier  date 
encountered  in  the  American  colonies.  Should  success  be 
achieved,  we  shall,  as  a  nation,  have  demonstrated  greater 
capacity  for  colonial  administration  than  any  of  our  predeces- 
sors. The  existence  of  such  misgivings  nevertheless,  does  not 
necessarily  imply  the  establishment  of  an  Insular  Legislature, 
either  of  the  type  of  that  which  is  about  to  be  inaugurated  in 
the  Philippines  or  to  which  a  practically  independent  form  of 
government  shall  be  granted;  they  rather  involve  a  change  in 
our  own  point  of  view;  the  withdrawal  from  or  renunciation 
by  Congress  of  the  greater  part  of  its  authority;  the  creation 
of  a  special  colonial  office ;  the  transfer  of  the  executive  power 
in  the  islands  from  a  body  of  men  with  divided  obligations  to 
a  single  individual  charged  with  the  highest  degree  of  respon- 
sibility and  aided  by  a  select  council.  But  in  arriving  at  this 
solution  our  ideals  of  popular  government,  as  heretofore 
cherished,  would  be  grievously  shattered.  Such  a  revulsion 
of  sentiment  might  readily  effect  a  reaction  at  home;  so  that 
not  only  in  Asia,  but  likewise  in  America,  unexpected  but  not 
irrational  application  might  be  made. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  207 

Long  before  any  such  radical  change  takes  place,  the  influ- 
ence of  the  returning  thousands  of  our  soldiers  and  sailors  will 
be  felt.  The  experience  gained  by  them  will  naturally 
broaden  the  scope  of  their  observation;  knowledge  of  the 
wider  field  of  military  and  naval  achievement  cannot  fail  to 
impart  to  their  friends  at  home  a  higher  regard  for  the 
larger  interests  of  the  country.  Any  local  or  petty  differences 
will  be  reconciled  in  the  effort  to  promote  the  national  welfare. 
These  considerations  will  inevitably  tend  to  a  stronger  central- 
ization of  authority  in  the  hands  of  the  Federal  Administra- 
tion. The  possibility  of  a  conflict  with  a  friendly  power  be- 
cause of  some  state  school  law  or  the  jeopardizing  of  millions 
of  property  on  account  of  sectional  prejudice  against  the 
yellow  race,  will  be  removed  when  the  national  jurisdiction 
over  such  matters  is  not  defied.  A  deeper  study  of  foreign 
institutions  will  show  that  our  own  views  are  not  always  in- 
disputably correct;  not  only  in  the  executive  but  likewise  in 
the  judicial  branch  similar  effects  will  be  noticed.  With  the 
growth  of  litigation  involving  interests  in  the  dependencies,  at- 
tention will  more  and  more  be  paid  to  precedents  of  alien 
origin  and  to  this  extent  the  rules  laid  down  by  the  Courts 
will  draw  their  doctrines  from  the  broader  principles  of  fun- 
damental equity  which  partake  of  an  international  character. 
Through  Cuba,  the  Philippines  and  Porto  Rico,  a  stronger 
tinge  of  Spanish  law  will  be  imparted  to  our  jurisprudence. 
Such  changes,  far  from  being  detrimental,  must  inevitably  im- 
press us  with  a  more  liberal  conception  of  our  duties  as  a 
nation. 

The  United  States  has,  within  eight  years,  advanced  with 
giant  strides,  for  it  the  era  of  isolation  is  closed;  its  people 
have  begun  to  take  a  lively  part  in  the  wider  interests  of  hu- 
manity; its  opinion  on  a  vast  variety  of  subjects  has  been 
expressed,  welcomed  and  respected  by  the  great  powers  of 
which  it  has  suddenly  become  one.  With  the  acquisition  of 
dependencies  the  nation  has  not  only  been  brought  face  to 
face  with  problems  purely  incidental  to  them,  but  it  has  like- 
wise learned  that  the  assumption  of  these  obligations  involves 
as  a  necessary  correlary,  manifold  duties  toward  other  states. 


2O8  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

While  its  fleets  operate  on  the  farther  waters  of  the  Western 
Sea,  its  statesmen  and  diplomats  do  not  forget  to  confer  and 
debate  with  their  contemporaries  to  the  East  of  the  Atlantic. 
And  here  emphasis  may  well  be  laid  upon  the  transition  of 
which  we  have  lately  been  witnesses;  the  step  which,  coin- 
cident with  the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century,  will  probably 
mark  the  advent  of  a  ne  wage.  As  the  mediaeval  era  was 
finally  closed  with  the  frequent  navigation  of  the  Atlantic 
by  Europeans,  so  another  epoch  terminated  when  the  United 
States  and  Japan  began  to  compete  for  the  mastery  of  the 
Pacific.  The  scepter  of  power  then  passed  from  the  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean;  so  now  the  Eastern  fringe  of  the  At- 
lantic is  apparently  destined  soon  to  lose  its  supremacy;  for 
the  United  States  at  least  the  outlook  is  toward  the  Occident. 
If  in  council  the  nations  of  Europe  still  rule,  the  field  of  ac- 
tion lies  in  Asia;  the  East  has  become  the  West. 

One  of  the  most  important  doctrines  of  American  policy, 
it  is  felt  by  many,  is  jeopardized  by  the  expansion  of  American 
interests.  The  Monroe  Doctrine  as  well  as  the  protective 
tariff,  our  distinguished  fellow-citizen  Professor  John  W. 
Burgess  considers  doomed  to  annihilation.  In  his  address 
at  the  University  of  Berlin  last  October  he  said : 

"  There  are,  for  instance,  two  tenets  which  have  almost  come 
to  be  looked  upon  as  sacred  as  articles  of  faith  in  American  poli- 
tics the  abandonment  of  which  no  outside  power  could  even  dare 
to  hint  at  without  danger  of  arousing  the  enmity  of  the  Union. 
I  refer  to  the  protective  tariff  and  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 

"  Our  politicians  seem  not  to  have  the  slightest  appreciation 
of  the  fact  that  both  these  political  tenets  have  almost  got  to  be 
antiquated,  that  the  political,  geographical  and  constitutional 
changes  among  the  powers  of  Europe,  as  well  as  the  assumption 
by  the  United  States  of  its  place  as  a  world-power,  have  rendered 
both  almost  meaningless." 

May  it  not  well  be  questioned  whether  our  policy  will  be 
changed  to  the  extent  that  Professor  Burgess  seems  to  anti- 
cipate ?  Of  the  other  nations,  those  the  more  deeply  interested 
in  similar  problems  of  expansion  have  sufficient  work  to  do 
for  coming  centuries.  If  in  the  past  we  have  barred  the  en- 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  2O9 

try  of  European  states  to  the  American  Continent,  we  have, 
on  the  other  hand,  repeatedly  manifested  our  good  faith  and 
disinterestedness  in  disavowing  any  intention  whatever  to  ex- 
tend our  own  sovereignty.  There  has  been  no  cause  for 
jealousy  or  envy.  With  all  due  regard  to  the  possibilities  of 
our  future  growth  as  a  nation  in  strength  and  authority,  there 
is  not  any  apparent  reason  why  we  should  abandon  the  faith 
of  our  fathers.  While  maintaining  indeed  the  authority  of 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  in  its  application  to  Central  and  South 
America,  it  is  likely  that  we  shall  formulate  some  analogous 
theory  of  non-intervention  in  the  affairs  of  the  Pacific.  The 
older  policy  may  well  be  extended  in  principle  so  as  to  apply 
to  the  new  and  wider  conditions  of  our  national  life. 

While  always  taking  pride  in  our  peace-loving  disposition, 
we  Americans  have  fought  bloody  conflicts  and  won  great 
triumphs  at  arms;  even  now,  while  planning  the  construction 
of  the  most  powerful  battleships  and  an  increase  in  military 
armament — both  the  inevitable  consequences  of  widely  scat- 
tered possessions — we  are  ready  to  submit  our  contentions 
with  foreign  powers  to  an  international  tribunal  and  are 
participating  both  in  South  America  and  in  the  North  of 
Europe  in  the  deliberations  of  conferences  designed  to  mini- 
mize the  chances  of  war  and  to  relieve  such  conflicts,  when 
they  occur,  of  their  worst  horrors.  Without  our  outlying  de- 
pendencies would  these  discussions  have  had  the  same  interest 
for  us?  In  our  broader  relationships  with  other  states,  in 
our  wider  view  of  humanity,  in  the  development  of  more  lib- 
eral policies, — especially  in  commercial  connections — and  in 
the  newly  created  outlets  for  our  energies,  both  in  military 
and  civil  life,  the  control  of  dependencies  is  working  in  our 
national  fabric  innumerable  moral,  social,  intellectual,  eco- 
nomic and  political  changes.  Some  influences  are  undoubt- 
edly beneficial,  others  may  be  detrimental.  It  behooves  us, 
therefore,  as  a  people  by  introspection  and  reflection  carefully 
to  observe  and  study  these  phenomena;  while  we  weigh  and 
examine  them  let  us  not  forget  the  fate  of  other  nations! 
The  discussion  of  the  effects  of  outlying  dependencies  upon 
people  of  the  United  States,  their  institutions  and  policies  is, 
therefore,  peculiarly  appropriate  at  this  time. 


ON  THE  NEED  FOR  A  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF 
COLONIAL  ADMINISTRATION. 

BY  ALLEYNE  IRELAND,   F.   R.   G.   S., 
AUTHOR  OF  "TROPICAL  COLONIZATION,"  "THB  FAR  EASTERN  TROPICS,"  BTC. 

Those  who  have  had  occasion  to  make  a  special  study  of 
colonial  affairs  cannot  have  failed  to  observe  that  the  subject 
of  colonial  administration  is  one  which  is  assuming  from  year 
to  year  a  higher  degree  of  importance,  and  is  drawing  to  itself 
a  constantly  increasing  share  of  public  attention. 

This  access  of  interest  in  a  branch  of  investigation  hitherto 
very  generally  regarded  as  a  curious  by-product  rather  than 
as  a  vital  part  of  Political  Science,  has  served  the  useful  pur- 
pose of  disclosing  to  the  student  in  this  neglected  field  the  fail- 
ure of  the  great  majority  of  recent  writers  to  approach  the 
colonial  problem  in  that  scientific  spirit  which  in  other  depart- 
ments of  study  is  alone  held  to  justify  a  public  expression  of 
opinion. 

Indeed,  so  wide  is  the  range  of  occupations  which  have 
added  their  followers  to  the  ranks  of  writers  upon  colonial 
government — a  range  which  embraces  lawyers,  doctors,  sol- 
diers, sailors,  politicians,  presidential  candidates,  ministers  of 
the  gospel,  labor  leaders,  poets,  geologists,  engineers,  and  pro- 
fessors of  subjects  as  wide  apart  as  ethics  and  zoology — that 
one  is  almost  tempted  to  believe  that  a  knowledge  of  callig- 
raphy is  regarded  as  the  only  qualification  necessary  for  a 
writer  on  colonial  topics. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  injury  which  has 
been  done  to  the  cause  of  a  scientific  study  of  colonial  adminis- 
tration by  the  torrent  of  ignorant  and  often  violently  preju- 
diced writing  which  has  in  recent  years  flooded  the  periodical 
press  of  this  country  and  overflowed  into  the  book  stores. 
Not  only  has  the  public  mind  become  saturated  with  misin- 
formation, but  the  easy  confidence  with  which  uninformed 
writers  have  handled  the  most  difficult  administrative  prob- 

(210) 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  211 

lems  has  fostered  the  idea  that  the  political  principles  and 
social  ideals  of  the  North  American  continent  afford  a  per- 
fectly satisfactory  standard  by  which  to  adjust  the  adminis- 
trative policy  for  the  governance  of  tropical  races. 

I  propose  in  this  address  to  examine  some  of  the  fallacies 
which  have  vitiated  the  greater  portion  of  the  recent  liter- 
ature of  colonization,  and  to  suggest  certain  general  principles 
for  the  regulation  of  serious  inquiry  in  the  future.  I  con- 
sider myself  fortunate  in  that  my  views  are  to  be  laid  before 
a  body  which  is  at  once  capable  of  weighing  whatever  force 
may  lie  in  my  argument,  of  detecting  any  errors  into  which 
I  may  have  fallen,  and  of  lending  to  such  portion  of  my  opin- 
ion as  it  may  accept  an  authority  which  it  would  be  alike  pre- 
sumptuous and  futile  to  claim  for  an  individual  view. 

Before  proceeding  further  I  may  say  that  throughout  this 
address  I  use  the  word  "  colony  "  and  its  derivatives  to  ex- 
press that  degree  of  administrative  and  political  dependence 
which  is  found  only  in  tropical  and  sub-tropical  areas  where 
the  mass  of  the  population  is  of  a  different  race  from  that  of  the 
sovereign  nation.  There  is  in  fact  no  problem  of  colonial  ad- 
ministration in  the  great  self-governing  colonies,  where  the 
population  is  preponderatingly  white,  since  the  administration 
of  such  territories  is  in  the  hands  of  elected  legislatures  and 
differs  only  in  name  from  the  administration  of  countries 
which  are  independent  sovereign  states. 

That  fallacy  which  more  than  any  other  has  introduced  a 
serious  element  of  confusion  into  the  discussion  of  colonial 
affairs  in  this  country — a  fallacy  which  has  permeated  the 
literary  expression  of  the  anti-imperialist  movement — is  the 
inclusion  within  one  series  of  premises  of  matter  bearing  upon 
several  perfectly  distinct  and  entirely  different  questions; 
that  is  to  say  upon  the  question  as  to  whether  there  is  any 
moral  justification  for  the  subjection  of  one  race  under  the 
rule  of  another;  the  question  as  to  whether  such  subjection  is 
in  conformity  with  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  the 
question  as  to  whether,  if  the  act  of  subjection  is  morally  justi- 
fiable in  theory  and  is  also  constitutional,  the  probability  of 
misgovernment  of  the  subjected  race  is  not  great  enough  to 


212  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

over-ride  the  theoretical  permissibility  of  the  relation;  and 
finally  the  question  as  to  whether  any  advantage  is  likely  to 
accrue  to  the  sovereign  state  from  its  control  of  dependencies. 

The  separate  discussion  of  these  subjects  would  furnish  us 
with  a  great  deal  of  interesting  and  valuable  material;  and 
each  question  is  probably  susceptible  of  an  elucidation  which 
would  effect  to  the  satisfaction  of  serious  students  a  final  dis- 
position of  the  points  raised.  But  the  confusion  of  these  is- 
sues has  produced  a  dialectic  of  colonization  utterly  false  and 
worthless,  and  has  obscured  the  vital  fact  that  the  four  mat- 
ters for  determination  belong  respectively  to  the  distinct  do- 
mains of  morals,  law,  administration  and  economics. 

If  this  confounding  of  principles  were  the  only  serious  de- 
fect in  recent  utterances  on  the  subject  of  colonization  the  re- 
sults would  be  sufficiently  deplorable;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact 
it  has  very  commonly  been  the  case  that  where  writers  have 
avoided  a  confusion  of  categories  they  have  fallen  into  the 
error  of  seeking  to  determine  the  moral  equation  of  coloni- 
zation by  an  inductive  process  from  observed  results  instead 
of  by  a  deductive  method  from  the  first  principles  of  morals 
and  of  ethics. 

Thus  the  morality  of  colonization  has  been  made  to  depend 
upon  the  character  of  the  effects  which  race  subjection  has 
produced  in  various  instances.  This  has  resulted  in  the  for- 
mation of  two  schools  of  opinion,  one  maintaining  the  moral- 
ity of  colonization  on  the  ground  that  the  results  are  generally 
favorable  to  the  subject  race,  the  other  condemning  its  im- 
morality because  the  results  are  generally  unfavorable;  and 
we  find  writers  of  distinction  who  change  from  one  principle 
to  the  other  as  the  progression  of  their  information  brings  into 
view  facts  favorable  or  otherwise  in  regard  to  the  effect  of 
colonial  government  upon  subject  races. 

Let  me  refer  to  a  single  instance  of  this  kind  of  thing.  In 
an  address  before  the  American  Historical  Association  in 
1901  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams  said  "  What  is  true  of  India 
is  true  of  Egypt.  Schools,  roads,  irrigation,  law  and  order, 
and  protection  from  attack,  she  has  them  all— 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  213 

'  But  what  avail  the  plow  or  sail, 
Or  land  or  life,  if  freedom  fail.' 

"A  formidable  proposition,  I  state  it  without  limitations, 
meaning  to  challenge  contradiction,  I  submit  that  there  is  not 
an  instance  in  all  recorded  history  ....  where  a  so-called 
inferior  race  or  community  has  been  elevated  in  its  character 
....  through  a  condition  of  dependency  or  tutelage." 

In  1906,  in  an  article  entitled  "  Reflex  Light  from  Africa  " 
which  appeared  in  the  Century  Magazine  for  May,  Mr. 
Charles  Francis  Adams  says :  "  One  thing  seems  clear,  with- 
out being  reduced  to  servitude,  the  inferior  race  must  be  re- 
cognized as  such,  and,  in  some  way,  so  dealt  with.  Until 
subject  to  British  domination,  the  Soudan,  and  Uganda  also, 
were  internal  hells  and  external  nuisances;  and  as  they  then 
were,  time  out  of  mind  they  had  been.  One  has  but  to  read 
Baker's  account  of  the  conditions  which  prevailed  in  that 
region  anterior  to  1890  to  appreciate  the  utter  fallacy  of  the 
theoretical  rights-of-man  and  philanthropical  African-and- 
brother  doctrines.  In  plain  vernacular  English,  they  are  all 
'  rot ' ; — *  rot '  which  I  myself  have  indulged  in  to  a  consider- 
able extent,  and,  in  face  of  observable  facts  which  would  not 

down,  have  had  to  outgrow The  British  policy  as 

seen  in  operation  in  Egypt  may  be, — I  believe  it  is, — a  great 

discovery, — a  veritable  advance  in  human  polity As 

for  British  rule  in  the  Soudan  and  Uganda,  it  dates  only  from 
1898.  That  thus  far  it  has  been  one  of  unmixed  beneficence, 
I  bear  witness." 

To  the  student  of  colonial  administration  Mr.  Adams'  frank 
abandonment  of  his  former  views  is  less  remarkable  than  the 
unshaken  confidence  with  which  for  many  years  he  expressed 
those  earlier  opinions  which  as  soon  as  he  made  any  practical 
study  of  the  subject  he  was  forced  to  disavow. 

There  is  indeed  a  school  of  thought  which  has  formulated 
what  is  in  fact  a  real  principle  in  regard  to  the  colonial  rela- 
tion; and  this  principle  is  that  the  worst  possible  form  of 
self-government,  however  disastrous  and  oppressive  its  oper- 
ation, is  a  moral  phenomenon ;  and  that  the  best  possible  form 


214  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

of  dependent  government,  whatever  its  advantages  for  the  de- 
pendent race,  is  an  immoral  phenomenon. 

Now  although  I  believe  this  principle  to  be  utterly  false  in 
substance,  it  has  at  least  the  form  of  a  scientific  theory,  for  it 
does  not  seek  to  furnish  a  moral  axiom  depending  for  its 
morality  upon  the  observed  results  of  its  own  operation,  but 
views  all  facts  from  the  standpoint  of  a  single  great  hypo- 
thesis, namely  that  the  ultimate  regeneration  of  humanity  can 
be  effected  only  by  the  extension  of  self-government. 

To  those  holding  this  view  the  idea  of  self-government  is 
the  major  premise  of  every  syllogism  of  a  sociological  schema, 
and  bears  to  their  investigations  just  the  same  relation  as  the 
law  of  gravitation  bears  to  the  investigations  of  the  astro- 
nomer or  the  atomic  theory  to  those  of  the  chemist. 

In  point  of  form  this  is  just  as  it  should  be,  for  it  is  clear 
that  the  morality  of  the  principle  involved  in  colonial  subjec- 
tion cannot  be  judged  by  the  results  of  a  colonial  policy,  the 
Tightness  or  wrongness  of  the  principle  being  necessarily  in- 
herent and  entirely  apart  from  and  prior  to  its  application. 

If  this  were  not  so,  and  the  morality  of  the  principle  were 
made  to  depend  upon  the  effects  of  its  application,  there  could 
exist  side  by  side  two  moral  principles  relating  to  the  same 
matter  and  in  complete  conflict  with  one  another.  To  put  the 
matter  in  a  word,  the  morality  of  the  colonial  relation  cannot 
be  affirmed  from  any  number  of  instances  in  which  that  re- 
lation can  be  shown  to  have  achieved  beneficent  results  for 
the  dependent  race,  nor  can  its  immorality  be  predicated  from 
a  history  of  oppression  and  tyranny.  If  the  morality  of  colon- 
ization is  to  be  determined  it  can  only  be  done  by  viewing  the 
subject  from  the  standpoint  of  some  great  hypothesis,  such, 
for  instance,  as  the  right  of  the  world  as  a  whole  to  enjoy 
the  natural  resources  of  the  whole  earth. 

But  this  very  method  of  judging  by  results,  which  is  false 
and  unscientific  when  applied  to  the  moral  principle  of  coloni- 
zation, is  precisely  the  method  which  must  be  followed  when 
the  subject  under  investigation  is  an  applied  science  of  colon- 
ial administration,  for  in  such  an  inquiry  it  must  be  deter- 
mined at  the  outset  what  those  objects  are  with  the  attain- 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  215 

ment  of  which  colonial  administration  is  concerned;  the  ex- 
amination of  methods  must  follow,  and  it  is  only  by  finding 
out  how  far  these  methods  have  in  practice  produced  the  de- 
sired results  that  a  code  of  administrative  principles  can  be 
formulated. 

There  has  been  a  great  lack  of  frankness  amongst  writers 
on  colonial  affairs,  in  Europe  as  well  as  in  this  country,  as  to 
the  motives  which  lead  the  great  powers  to  maintain  depen- 
dencies in  tropical  and  sub-tropical  countries. 

The  attitude  of  those  who  say  "  We  have  gone  to  this 
barbarous  country  in  order  to  uplift  the  native,  to  confer  on 
him  the  blessings  of  Christianity,  to  civilize  him,  and  to  make 
his  burden  light "  is  only  a  degree  less  foolish  than  that  of 
those  who  say  "  We  have  gone  to  this  fertile  and  rich  territory 
for  the  wicked  purpose  of  developing  its  resources,  and  as  our 
only  object  is  wealth  we  can  succeed  only  by  oppressing  the 
native,  by  cheating  him,  and  by  subjecting  him  to  the  horrors 
of  a  cruel  and  tyrannical  administration. 

The  plain  fact  is  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  Brookes 
in  Sarawak,  no  one  has  ever  undertaken  the  administration 
of  a  dependency  from  simple  motives  of  pure  benevolence  to- 
wards the  natives.  The  object  of  colonization  in  the  tropics 
is  and  always  has  been,  with  the  exception  I  have  noted,  to 
establish  and  develop  a  profitable  commerce.  That  this  is  in 
itself  a  perfectly  legitimate  purpose  and  one  which,  if  carried 
out  by  humane  methods,  is  compatible  with  a  general  improve- 
ment in  the  condition  of  the  natives,  can  hardly  be  disputed. 

If  we  accept  commerce  as  being  the  mainspring  of  tropical 
colonization  it  becomes  a  very  simple  matter  to  establish  cer- 
tain standards  which  may  be  used  for  the  purpose  of  compar- 
ing with  one  another  various  systems  of  colonial  administra- 
tion. 

Broadly  speaking,  it  may  be  said  that  there  are  two  active 
principles  from  which  two  totally  different  methods  of  colon- 
ization derive  their  main  characteristics— one  is  the  principle 
of  development,  the  other  the  principle  of  exploitation. 

The  character  of  a  colonial  administration  which  is  con- 
cerned with  the  development  of  a  country  is  almost  always 


2l6  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

beneficent,  for  it  rests  upon  the  assumption  that  in  the  long 
run  the  best  commerce  may  be  established  if  the  native  popula- 
tion is  prosperous  and  contented,  if  the  country  is  gradually  re- 
sponding to  a  scientific  utilization  of  its  resources,  aad  if  the 
trade  is  so  conducted  as  to  yield  a  fair  share  of  its  benefits  to 
the  native. 

Where  exploitation  alone  is  the  aim  of  the  administration 
the  character  of  the  foreign  rule  is  sure  to  be  oppressive  and 
will  in  all  probability  be  barbarous  and  inhuman.  The  dif- 
ference of  method  which  follows  the  adoption  of  one  or  an- 
other of  these  principles  of  development  or  exploitation  is  due 
to  a  perfectly  simple  cause,  namely  that  where  the  aim  is 
development  the  sovereign  power  has  the  strongest  possible 
motives  for  securing  a  progressive  improvement  in  the  terri- 
tory and  in  its  people,  whereas  if  exploitation  alone  is  desired 
the  authorities  devote  themselves  to  getting  as  much  as  pos- 
sible out  of  the  country  in  the  shortest  possible  time,  regard- 
less of  the  permanent  injury  that  may  be  done  to  the  true  in- 
terests of  the  territory. 

Not  a  little  confusion  has  arisen  in  recent  discussions  of 
colonial  affairs  through  the  failure  to  perceive  the  radical 
difference  between  a  policy  of  development  and  one  of  ex- 
ploitation. My  attention  was  particularly  directed  to  this  con- 
fusion of  ideas  when  I  was  in  the  Philippine  Islands  in  1904. 
I  then  found  that  everybody  who  approached  the  Government 
with  proposals  for  starting  various  industries — offering  to 
introduce  capital  into  the  Islands  and  to  afford  employment 
to  the  people  at  fair  rates  of  remuneration — was  told  that  the 
American  Government  did  not  propose  to  have  people  come 
along  and  exploit  the  Philippine  Islands. 

We  may,  I  think,  lay  down  the  principle  that  the  great 
test  of  any  system  of  colonial  administration  is  the  degree  to 
which  it  serves  the  end  of  a  peaceful  development  of  the  re- 
sources of  the  territory  with  which  it  is  concerned;  and  that 
that  system  is  best  which  insures  fair  treatment  for  the  native, 
economy  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs,  and  the  general  bet- 
terment of  the  social  conditions  of  the  people. 

This  brings  the  discussion  to  a  point  where  it  is  possible 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  217 

to  present  some  suggestions  in  regard  to  the  scientific  study  of 
colonial  administration,  and  it  is  necessary  before  going  further 
to  determine  whether  the  purpose  of  such  study  is  to  be  es- 
sentially-one of  historical  research  or  whether  its  chief  aim  is 
to  be  the  practical  solution  of  such  problems  as  arise  when 
persons  of  one  race  are  administering,  with  a  definite  object, 
the  affairs  of  another  race. 

In  order  to  emphasize  the  radical  difference  between  these 
two  objects  and  the  wide  divergence  of  the  roads  which  must 
be  traveled  in  their  pursuit  it  is  only  necessary  to  observe  that 
if  the  purpose  is  historical  the  element  of  comparison  will  be 
introduced  into  the  inquiry  on  the  basis  of  a  broad  range  of 
time  in  a  narrow  field,  whereas  if  the  investigation  is  directed 
toward  the  practical  end  to  which  I  have  referred  the  compari- 
son of  phenomena  will  be  made  as  far  as  possible  within  a 
narrow  range  of  time  and  in  a  broad  field. 

Upon  the  selection  of  one  or  another  of  these  guiding  mo- 
tives must  depend  the  form  which  the  investigation  is  to  as- 
sume. 

In  so  far  as  there  has  been  any  serious  study  of  colonial 
administration  amongst  English-speaking  people  it  has  until 
recently  assumed  almost  entirely  the  historic  form.  There  are 
plenty  of  books  dealing  historically  with  the  administration 
of  one  or  another  of  the  British  dependencies — from  many 
hundreds  of  such  works  I  may  mention  Chesney's  "  Indian 
Polity  "  and  Rodway's  "  History  of  British  Guiana  "  as  typi- 
cal of  the  kind  of  books  I  have  in  mind. 

But  works  on  colonial  administration  as  such,  that  is  to  say 
works  dealing  with  colonial  administration  as  a  science  and  not 
as  one  aspect  of  local  colonial  history,  are  extremely  rare. 
Excluding  some  half-dozen  books  by  living  writers  I  doubt  if 
there  are  in  the  English  language  a  dozen  volumes  on  the 
science  of  colonial  administration.  It  would  indicate  unusual 
research  if  one  should  add  to  the  names  of  Smith,  Brougham, 
Merivale.  \Vakefield,  and  Lewis.  Even  the  works  of  those 
writers  are,  with  few  exceptions,  to  be  classed  rather  as  con- 
tributions to  our  knowledge  of  colonial  policy  and  colonial 
constitutions  than  of  colonial  administration. 


2l8  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

Without  wishing  in  any  way  to  belittle  the  importance  of 
the  local  historical  treatment  of  colonial  administration  I  can- 
not help  feeling  that  more  than  enough  has  been  done  along 
that  line  to  supply  any  demand  which  has  yet  arisen  or  is  likely 
to  arise,  and  that  there  is  urgent  need  for  a  scientific  study 
of  colonial  administration  as  a  practical  matter  in  which  the 
leading  nations  of  the  world  have  a  very  serious  interest. 

If  it  is  accepted  that  the  object  of  the  inquiry  is  to  discover 
the  best  means  of  dealing  with  the  problems  which  face  those 
nations  which  have  undertaken  the  administration  of  terri- 
tories in  a  state  of  political  and  administrative  dependence  it 
is  not  difficult  to  define  the  scope  of  the  investigation ;  and  the 
question  of  methods  of  study  presents  no  peculiar  compli- 
cations. 

The  limits  set  to  this  paper  compel  me  to  confine  my  at- 
tention to  one  aspect  of  this  study ;  and  I  will  therefore  select 
what  seems  to  me  to  be  by  far  the  most  important  consider- 
ation to  be  held  in  view  by  students,  namely  that  no  amount 
of  intensive  research  in  one  dependency  can  lend  any  weight 
to  an  opinion  on  the  science  of  colonial  administration.  It  is 
by  comparative  work  alone  that  any  useful  view  of  the  sub- 
ject can  be  obtained,  for  it  is  clear  that  the  utility  of  any  study 
of  colonial  administration  must  depend  ultimately  upon  the 
comparison  of  methods  and  results  in  colonies  in  which  the 
general  conditions,  social,  climatic,  and  economic,  are  suffi- 
ciently similar  to  admit  of  measurement  by  a  single  standard 
or  set  of  standards. 

When  this  principle  is  adopted,  a  survey  of  the  whole 
colonial  field  will  at  once  suggest  to  the  student  that  the 
colonies  fall  into  natural  groups  which  lend  themselves  readily 
to  the  comparative  method  of  study.  Thus  there  is  a  West 
Indian  group,  which  may  properly  include  the  colonies  on  the 
mainland  of  South  America;  an  East  Indian  group,  which 
embraces  the  Indo-Malayan  and  Indo-Chinese  colonies;  a 
West  African  group,  an  East  African  group,  and  so  on. 
The  Indian  Peninsula  forms  a  group  by  itself  and  furnishes 
within  itself  material  for  a  fascinating  investigation. 

I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  the  general  conditions  in  any 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  2IQ 

of  these  groups  are  identical  in  each  member  of  the  group  but 
simply  that  in  certain  fundamentals  there  is  a  vastly  greater 
difference  between  the  members  of  one  group  and  another  than 
between  members  of  the  same  group. 

Thus  India  is  cut  off  from  all  other  groups  by  its  vast 
area,  its  enormous  population,  the  variability  of  its  climate, 
and  by  its  peculiar  social  institutions,  whereas  Burma  and  the 
Philippine  Islands  fall  into  one  group  because  apart  from  dif- 
ference of  religion  there  are  no  great  points  of  divergence 
which  invalidate  comparisons  between  the  two  territories. 

There  is  a  further  point  of  great  importance  which  places 
India  in  a  category  by  itself.  In  any  of  the  other  groups 
which  I  have  enumerated  the  interest  of  the  student  will  be 
fixed  upon  the  observation  of  widely  different  methods  of 
administration  applied  to  territories  which  in  a  general  way 
have  much  in  common.  For  instance  in  the  East  Indian 
group  there  is  a  fairly  close  similarity  between  the  Philippine 
Islands,  Java,  the  Malay  Peninsula,  French  Indo-China  and 
Burma.  Yet  in  these  countries  we  find  a  great  variety  of  ad- 
ministrative systems — the  Crown  Colony  system,  Chartered 
Company  Government,  Independent  Government,  the  Resi- 
dential system,  the  Indian  Provincial  system,  and  the  less 
easily  defined  methods  of  the  French,  the  Dutch,  and  the 
Americans. 

In  India  the  character  of  the  problem  is  exactly  reversed, 
for  here  we  find  under  one  central  administration  territories 
as  widely  separated  by  every  consideration  of  race  and  cli- 
mate as  the  Punjab  and  the  Madras  Presidency,  presenting 
differences  as  great  as  those  existing  between  Russia  and 
Portugal. 

It  is  seen  at  once  that  what  enables  us  to  deal  with  India 
as  a  group  is  the  general  similarity  of  the  administrative 
methods  operating  in  a  varied  field,  and  that  the  group  co- 
hesion in  what  I  have  called  the  East  Indian  group  depends 
upon  the  similarity  of  the  general  conditions  under  which 
a  great  variety  of  administrative  systems  operate. 

The  point  which  I  wish  to  make  is  that  for  the  purposes 
of  a  scientific  study  of  colonial  administration  it  is  neces- 


22O  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

sary  to  so  divide  the  material  that  there  is  either  a  compari- 
son of  the  results  of  different  methods  applied  to  broadly  iden- 
tical problems,  or  a  comparison  of  the  results  of  broadly  iden- 
tical methods  in  widely  different  circumstances. 

It  is  the  general  failure  to  preserve  one  common  element- 
either  the  method  or  the  condition  to  be  met — that  has  made  a 
vast  amount  of  recent  writing  on  colonial  administration  little 
better  than  waste  paper. 

Perhaps  the  best  example  which  can  be  cited  of  this  absence 
of  nexus  is  the  common  attempt  to  define  the  political  future 
of  the  Philippines  in  the  terms  of  Japanese  achievement. 

There  is  one  point  which  I  think  I  should  deal  with  before 
I  bring  this  paper  to  a  close  and  that  is  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion, which  is  constantly  being  urged  upon  the  public,  why,  if 
trade  is  the  chief  object  of  colonization,  cannot  the  native  be 
left  to  rule  his  own  country  after  his  own  fashion  and  the  for- 
eigner content  himself  with  the  commerce? 

In  elucidation  of  this  point  I  may  quote  a  few  paragraphs 
from  a  paper  which  I  read  last  year  before  the  Royal  Colonial 
Institute  in  London. 

"  If  we  go  far  enough  back  in  the  history  of  the  world  we 
may,  no  doubt,  reach  a  time  when  it  might  of  truth  be  said 
of  every  State  that  it  had  a  right  to  its  own  bad  government. 
But  in  order  to  find  a  period  in  which  this  proposition  would 
hold  it  is  necessary  to  go  at  least  as  far  back  as  the  time 
when  the  whole  of  human  society  was  in  its  tribal  stage,  when 
each  community  was  self-supporting,  and  was  independent, 
alike  in  the  matter  of  supplies  and  markets,  of  all  other  com- 
munities— in  a  word,  to  a  time  when  navigation  and  inter- 
national trade  had  not  created  a  wider  relation  than  that  of 
individuals  within  an  isolated  clan. 

"  From  the  moment  when  international  commerce  had  its 
beginnings  the  question  of  the  character  of  governments  ceased 
to  be  a  purely  internal  concern  of  each  State,  for  there  then 
arose  a  general  obligation,  based  upon  obvious  considerations 
of  expediency,  that  no  country  should  maintain  a  govern- 
ment so  greatly  inferior  to  the  best  type  known  at  the  period 
as  to  threaten  the  existence  of  the  international  trade. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  221 

"  There  are  very  few  conditions  to  which  commerce  cannot 
adjust  itself.  It  may  be  disturbed  by  the  operation  of  tariffs; 
it  may  be  seriously  affected  by  the  insidious  working  of  boun- 
ties on  production;  it  feels  the  effects  of  great  strikes;  it  is 
most  sensitive  to  the  influence  of  climate;  but  to  those  ele- 
ments and  to  others  of  a  similar  character  commerce  adjusts 
itself  by  means  of  fluctuating  prices,  by  the  flow  of  capital 
from  one  country  to  another,  and  from  one  industry  to  an- 
other, and  by  a  hundred  other  inner  workings  of  its  system. 

"  It  is,  however,  of  the  utmost  importance  to  realize  that 
there  are  two  conditions  to  the  absence  of  which  commerce 
cannot  adjust  itself — two  conditions  which  are  absolutely  es- 
sential to  the  existence  of  any  great  commerce  at  the  present 
day;  one  is  reasonable  protection  of  life  and  property,  and  the 
other  is  the  presence  in  every  important  trade  area  of  com- 
petent and  impartial  courts  for  the  adjustment  of  commercial 
disputes  and  for  the  enforcement  of  contracts. 

"  Now  these  two  conditions,  without  which  modern  com- 
merce cannot  exist,  are  precisely  the  conditions  which  native 
rule  in  the  tropics  never  afforded ;  and  it  is  ultimately  to  this 
cause  that  we  must  trace  the  substitution  of  European  for 
native  methods  of  administration  throughout  the  heat  belt." 

The  great  variety  of  administrative  methods  which  have 
been  adopted  by  the  European  powers  and  by  the  United 
States  in  their  various  dependencies  and  the  varying  degree 
of  success  and  failure  which  has  attended  their  application  is 
the  material  to  which  the  student  must  turn  if  he  wishes  to 
embark  upon  a  scientific  study  of  colonial  administration. 

DISCUSSION. 

POULTNEY  BIGELOW,  taking  up  the  theme  of  Alleyne  Ire- 
land rather  than  the  paper  for  which  he  had  been  booked, 
dwelt  upon  the  importance  of  preparing  the  ground  for  scien- 
tific treatment  of  colonial  questions. 

On  many  vital  points,  said  the  speaker,  public  opinion  in 
the  United  States  is  opposed  to  measures  advocated  by  such 
practical  students  of  colonial  life  as  Mr  Ireland. 


222  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

It  is  only  necessary  to  mention  our  attitude  towards  mis- 
sionaries, colored  races,  contract  labor,  free  trade,  to  discover 
for  ourselves  that  many  matters  most  elementary  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  colonist  become  very  complex  when 
dealt  with  by  a  statesman  in  Washington. 

Hence  the  great  importance  to  this  country  of  an  impartial 
tribunal  on  colonial  affairs  before  whom  might  come  ques- 
tions of  fact  regarding  colonial  matters. 

For  instance,  our  Philippine  possessions  are  reported  by  our 
salaried  officials  as  presenting  a  picture  of  progress  and  content. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  student  like  Mr.  Ireland,  who  has 
other  standards  than  those  of  Michigan  or  Ohio,  finds  them 
deplorable.  Only  an  authority  such  as  these  allied  societies 
could  erect  would  be  in  a  position  to  decide  such  a  question 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  public. 

Again  at  Panama  we  are  spending  many  millions,  and  are 
creating  a  condition  of  things  suggesting  the  worst  phase  of 
French  mismanagement  rather  than  a  work  of  which  this 
nation  could  be  proud. 

My  own  experience  at  the  Isthmus  covered  but  two  visits- 
one  of  six  weeks,  the  other  of  two  days. 

It  is  possible  that  what  I  saw  and  heard  was  fallacious.  It 
may  have  done  injustice  to  many  gentlemen  drawing  salaries 
in  connection  with  a  magnificent  job.  My  opportunities  for 
judging  were  of  course  limited,  and  I  wish  to  submit  my 
statements  to  the  sharpest  revision  at  the  hands  of  my  fellow- 
seekers  after  truth. 

The  Administration  at  Washington  has  pronounced,  through 
many  costly  reports,  that  the  work  there  is  admirable  and 
that  all  who  differ  from  this  opinion  are  unpatriotic  and  mali- 
cious. 

Personally  I  walk  through  a  swamp  which  Mr.  Roosevelt 
sees  in  time  of  flood  and  declares  to  be  a  magnificent  reservoir. 
Who  am  I  that  I  should  have  an  opinion  other  than  my 
President's? 

Therefore  the  more  important  that  such  matters  be  settled 
by  a  committee  of  our  scientific  societies  who  shall  represent 
no  other  interest  than  love  of  truth. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  223 

Such  a  tribunal  would  immediately  command  national  re- 
spect, and  rank  only  second  to  that  of  the  Hague  in  determin- 
ing matters  of  the  first  importance. 

Personally  I  am  an  "  Imperialist  " — if  that  means  that  it 
is  our  duty  to  bring  happiness  and  prosperity  to  several  over- 
heated sections  of  the  earth  that  have  become  ours  since  the 
war  of  1898.  I  believe  that  the  task  is  within  our  power 
provided  that  we  approach  it,  not  as  politicians,  but  practical 
students  of  the  truth. 


THE  QUESTION  OF  TERMINOLOGY. 

BY  ALPHEUS   H.   SNOW. 

Mr.  President,  Members  of  the  Association  and  Section,  Ladies 
and  Gentlemen: 

You  'have  'heard  ably  discussed  certain  questions  which  arise 
out  of  the  relationship  between  the  American  Union  and  the 
annexed  Insular  regions,  viewed  in  its  sociological  and  economic 
aspect.  I  now  ask  your  attention  to  a  question  of  immediate 
interest  and  importance  growing  out  of  this  relationship 
viewed  in  its  political,  that  is  to  say,  its  legal  aspect.  This 
question,  which  the  Committee  on  Arrangements  has  called 
"  The  Question  of  Terminology,"  is :  What  are  the  correct 
terms  to  use  in  describing  the  political  and  legal  relationship 
between  the  American  Union  and  its  distant  annexed  regions, 
assuming  that  this  relationship  is  to  be  permanent  and  is  to  be 
on  terms  which  are  just  to  all  parties? 

More  specifically,  the  question  which  I  shall  discuss  will  be, 
whether  we,  as  Americans,  ought,  according  to  American 
principles,  to  use,  in  our  political  and  legal  language,  the 
terms  "  colony,"  "  dependence,"  and  "  empire,"  or  whether 
we  ought,  according  to  those  principles,  to  substitute  for  the 
term  "  colony,"  the  term  "  free  state,"  for  "  dependence," 
"  just  connection,"  and  for  "  empire  ",  "  union." 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  I  shall  accept  the  decisions  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  as  final  in  regard  to  all 
the  matters  adjudicated  in  them.  But  the  Supreme  Court  has 
jurisdiction  only  for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  rights  of 
individuals.  The  political  relations  between  the  Union  and 
the  Insular  regions,  it  determines  only  so  far  as  may  be  neces- 
sary to  ascertain  individual  rights.  Its  present  doctrine — that 
the  American  Union  has  power  over  the  Insular  regions  sub- 
ject to  "  fundamental  principles  formulated  in  the  Constitu- 
tion," or  subject  to  "  the  applicable  provisions  of  the  Constitu- 
tion," protects  the  civil  rights  of  individuals,  but  under  it  the 

(224) 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  225 

power  of  the  Union  for  political  purposes  remains  absolute. 
The  proposition  which  I  shall  offer  for  your  judgment,  will, 
I  believe,  not  only  not  be  in  conflict  with  the  proposition  laid 
down  by  the  Supreme  Court,  but  will  give  a  reason  why  they 
are  right.  It  will,  too,  I  believe,  give  a  reasonable  basis  for 
our  holding-  that  the  power  of  the  American  Union  over  the 
Insular  regions,  while  ample  for  the  maintenance  of  a  just 
and  proper  permanent  relationship  with  them  under  our  con- 
trol, is  not  absolute  even  as  respects  their  political  rights. 

I  have  said  that  I  shall  discuss  this  question  upon  American 
principles.  I  shall  not  base  myself  on  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  though  I  shall  try  to  show  the  relation  of  that 
document  to  the  question,  as  I  understand  it.  I  shall  assume 
it  to  be  settled  by  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court, — as  it 
seems  clearly  to  be — that  with  the  exception  of  the  "  Terri- 
tory "  clause  of  that  instrument,  it  is,  and  of  right  ought  to 
be,  the  Constitution  of  the  thirteen  original  States  of  he 
American  Union  and  of  the  other  States  which  they  have  ad- 
mitted into  their  Union,  and  of  no  other  States  or  communi- 
ties;  and  that  therefore  it  does  not  extend  of  its  own  force  out- 
side the  American  Union  in  any  constitutional  or  legal  sense, 
but  only  in  a  metaphorical  sense — this  being  as  I  understand 
it,  the  meaning-  of  the  Court  when  they  hold,  as  they  do,  that, 
though  the  "Territory  clause"  is  of  present  and  universal 
significance  as  respects  all  the  regions  annexed  to  the  Union. 
yet,  with  this  exception,  only  "  the  applicable  provisions  of 
the  Constitution  "  or  "  the  fundamental  principles  formulated 
in  the  Constitution  "  are  in  force  in  the  annexed  regions. 
"  Extensions,"  so-called,  of  the  Constitution  by  Act  of  Con- 
gress, are  of  course  mere  Acts  of  Congress,  and  whether  such 
metaphorical  "  extensions  "  are  permanent  will  depend  upon 
the  terms  and  conditions  of  the  ion." 

But  though  I  shall  not  base  myself  on  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  I  shall  nevertheless  base  myself  on  a  great 
American  document,  which  preceded  the  Constitution  as  a 
statement  of  American  principles,  and  which  is  so  far  from 
being  inconsistent  with  it  t'  Democratic  party,  in  its 

platform  of  1900,  called  it  "  the  Spirit  of  the  Constitution  " — 


226  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

I  refer  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  It  is  the  Ameri- 
can principles  set  forth  in  that  document  which  I  shall  try  to 
discover.  If  I  shall  be  adjudged  to  have  rightly  interpreted 
that  instrument,  it  will  follow  that  we  ought  to  substitute,  in 
our  political  and  legal  language,  for  the  term  "  colony,"  the 
term  "  free  state,"  for  "  dependence,"  "  just  connection,"  and 
for  "  empire,"  "  union."  In  making  such  substitution,  how- 
ever, it  will  be  necessary  to  give  to  the  terms  "  free  state  " 
and  "  union,"  a  scientific  meaning  which  will  differ  from  that 
which  they  now  have  in  the  popular  mind,  'but  which  will,  I 
believe,  be  the  same  as  was  given  to  these  terms  by  the  Re- 
volutionary statesmen. 

I  shall  not  allow  myself  to  be  embarrassed  by  the  fact  that 
in  my  first  published  writing  I  used  the  terms  "  colony,"  "  de- 
pendence "  and  "empire;"  for  at  the  same  time  that  I  used 
these  terms,  I  based  myself  on  principles  which  were  those  of 
free  statehood,  just  connection  and  union,  to  which  I  adhere 
to  this  day. 

Taking  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  therefore,  as  the 
exposition  of  the  fundamental  principles  on  -which  all  Ameri- 
can political  theory  is  based,  and  to  which  all  American  policy 
must  conform,  let  me  state  briefly  the  general  meaning  and 
purpose  of  this  instrument,  as  I  understand  it. 

As  a  result  of  the  discussion  for  twelve  years  preceding  the 
Declaration,  the  doctrine  of  the  extension  of  the  British  Con- 
stitution to  the  American  Colonies,  which  from  their  situation, 
could  never  be  represented  on  equal  terms  in  Parliament,  was 
found  to  be  useless  for  the  protection  of  American  rights, 
political  or  civil ;  and  the  doctrine  that  their  rights  were  depen- 
dent on  the  Colonial  Charters  was  found  to  be  inadequate,  for 
these  Charters,  while  protecting  the  civil  rights  of  the  Ameri- 
cans to  some  extent,  proceeded  on.  the  theory  that  they  held  all 
their  political  rights  at  the  will  or  whim  of  Great  Britain.  The 
Americans  felt  and  knew  that  they  were  entitled  to  political, 
as  well  as  civil  rights,  and  they  all  firmly  believed  that  each 
so-called  "  colony  "  was  a  free  state  and  subject  to  no  ex- 
ternal control  beyond  what  was  necessary  to  preserve  their 
relationship  with  Great  Britain  on  just  terms  to  all  the  parties. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  227 

The  only  question  -which  the  Americans  discussed,  as  soon  as 
they  comprehended  the  whole  situation,  was,  Why  was  each 
so-called  "  colony  "  a  free  state  and  why  had  it  always  been 
such?  The  Declaration  of  Independence,  as  I  understand  it, 
gave  to  the  world  their  solution  of  this  problem.  Their  an- 
swer, as  I  understand  it,  was,  that  the  American  Colonies  -were 
and  always  had  been  free  states,  because  their  relations  with 
the  State  of  Great  Britain  were  not  under  the  British  Constitu- 
tion and  were  not  wholly  under  the  Colonial  Charters,  but 
were  under  a  supreme  and  universal  common  law,  which  gov- 
erns the  relations  between  men,  communities,  bodies  corpor- 
ate, states  and  nations,  and  which  they  called  in  the  Declara- 
tion "  the  Law  of  Nature  and  of  Nature's  God,"  according  to 
which  every  community  on  the  earth's  surface,  within  reason- 
able limits  for  the  formation  and  execution  of  a  just  public 
sentiment,  is  entitled  to  be  a  free  state, — that  is,  to  be  free  from 
external  control,  in  executing  its  just  public  sentiment,  except 
so  far  as  may  be  necessary  to  enable  it  to  conform  to  the  terms 
of  its  just  connections  with  other  free  states.  This  doctrine 
of  free  statehood  as  a  universal  right  is,  as  I  understand  it,  the 
central  idea  of  the  Declaration. 

Assuming  this  to  be  the  central  idea,  let  us  see  how  this  idea 
is  readied;  and  for  that  purpose,  let  us  notice  the  exact  lan- 
guage of  the  Declaration.  The  first  paragraph  reads : 

"  When,  in  the  course  of  human  events,  it  becomes  necessary 
for  one  people  to  dissolve  the  political  bands  -which  have  con- 
nected them  with  another,  and  to  assume,  among  the  powers  of 
the  earth,  the  separate  and  equal  station  to  which  the  laws  of 
Na/ture  and  of  Nature's  God  entitle  them,  a  decent  respect  to 
the  opinions  of  mankind  requires  that  they  should  declare  the 
causes  which  impel  them  to  the  separation." 

The  "  causes  of  separation  "  are  prefaced  by  a  number  of 
propositions  determining  the  nature  of  the  "  political  bands  " 
by  which  one  people  may  be  "  connected  with  "  another. 
These  propositions  are  all  n  'uiinan  conduct,  and  are 

:ore  principles  of  law.  though  they  arc  called  "self-evi- 
dent tnr  part  of  the  Declaration  reads: 


228  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

"  We  hald  these  truths  to  'be  self -evident :  That  all  men  are 
created  equal ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  cer- 
tain unalienable  rights,  that-  among  these  are  life,  liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness;  that  to  secure  these  rights,  governments 
are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the 
consent  of  the  governed;  that  whenever  any  form  of  govern- 
ment becomes  destructive  of  these  ends,  it* is  the  right  of  the 
people  to  alter  or  to  ajbolish  it,  and  to  institute  new  government, 
laying  its  foundation  on  such  principles  and  organizing  its  powers 
in  such  form  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their 
safety  and  happiness." 

The  conception  of  the  universal  right  of  free  statehood  is 
reached,  in  the  Declaration,  through  a  series  of  three  proposi- 
tions, each  stated  to  be  self-evident,  and  yet  all  forming  a  se- 
quence. The  basal  proposition  is,  that  "  all  men  are  created 
equal."  Rufus  Ohoate  and  John  James  Ingalls  have  declared 
this  proposition  and  the  succeeding  one  that  "  all  men  are  en- 
dowed by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights,  that 
among  these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  to 
be  "  glittering  generalities."  Abraham  Lincoln,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  his  speech  at  Gettysburg,  at  the  most  solemn  and  stir- 
ring moment  in  the  country's  history,  declared  that  the  pro- 
position that  all  men  are  created  equal  was  the  foundation-idea 
of  the  nation,  to  which  it  was  dedicated  by  the  Fathers. 

The  doctrine  of  equality  arising  frotm  the  common  creation 
of  all  men  as  the  spiritual  offspring  of  a  common  Creator,  was 
the  doctrine  of  the  Reformation  in  its  broadest  form,  as  de- 
clared by  Penn.  Taking  into  consideration  the  religious  char- 
acter of  the  Americans,  as  well  as  the  learning  and  acumen 
of  that  most  remarkable  body  of  men  who  constituted  the 
Continental  Congress,  it  seems  not  only  not  improbable,  but 
probable,  and  indeed  necessary  to  conclude,  that  the  proposi- 
tion that  "  all  men  are  created  equal  "  was  intended  to  be  the 
epitome  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Reformation,  as  that  doctrine 
was  broadened  by  the  influence  of  Penn  and  his  followers.  As 
the  Governments  of  Europe  were  at  that  time  acting  on  the 
political  philosophy  of  feudalism  and  medievalism,  which  in 
its  last  analysis  was  based  on  the  proposition  that  all  men  are 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  22Q 

created  unequal,  or  that  some  are  created  equal  and  some  un- 
equal, the  Declaration,  if  it  be  true  that  it  based  the  American 
political  philosophy  upon  die  broadest  doctrine  of  the  Refor- 
mation, announced  an  American  System  as  opposed  to  the 
European  System. 

From  the  doctrine  of  equality  arising1  from  the  common 
creation  of  all  men  by  a  personal  Creator  to  whom  all  were 
equally  related,  it  is  declared  by  the  Declaration  to  follow  as  a 
"  self-evident  "  truth  that  there  are  certain  rights,  which  are 
attached  to  all  men  by  endowment  of  the  Creator  as  being  the 
correlative  of  the  unalienable  needs  of  all  men,  and  which  in- 
asmuch as  they  arise  from  the  universal  limitations  which  the 
Creator  has  imposed,  are  as  unalienable  as  the  needs  them- 
selves. These  unalienable  rights  are  declared  to  be  the  rights 
of  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 

The  doctrine  of  unalienable  rights,  necessarily  supposes  a 
universal  law,  for  the  conception  of  law  must  precede  the  con- 
ception of  right.  This  law,  as  conceived  of  by  the  Declaration 
is  a  common  and  universal  law.  In  the  first  part  of  the  pre- 
amble this  universal  common  law  is  spoken  of  as  "  the  law  of 
Nature  and  of  Nature's  God."  Inasmuch  as  the  rights  claimed 
are  those  which  depend  for  their  existence  upon  revelation  as 
well  as  reason,  it  is  evident  that  this  common  and  universal 
law  to  which  the  Declaration  appeals,  is  the  "  law  of  nature 
and  of  11  of  the  scholars  of  the  Reformation,  which 

was  conceived  of  as  based  on  revelation  and  reason,  and  as 
governing  every  relationship  of  men,  of  bodies  corporate,  of 
communities,  of  states  and  of  nations.  Out  of  this  concep- 
tion there  had  already  grown  that  great  division  of  the  law 
which  deals  with  the  temporary  relations  between  independent 
states,  which  we  now  call  International  I^iu . 

Having  thus  established  the  doctrine  of  imalienable  rights, 
based  on  a  universal  common  law  of  nature  and  of  nftl 
which  all  men,  all  bodies  corporate,  all  communities,  all  gov- 
ernments, all  states  and  all  nations  were  bound  to  enforce,  the 
Declaration  proceeds  to  a  consideration  of  the  forms,  methods 
and  instrumentalities  by  which  these  unalienable  rights  are  to 
IK-  secured. 


230  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

It  declares  that  the  primary  instrumentality  by  which  these 
rights  are  secured,  are  governments  "  deriving  their  just  pow- 
ers from  the  consent  of  the  governed."  Contrary  to  the  usual 
interpretation,  the  Declaration  does  not  state  that  government 
is  the  expression  of  the  will  of  the  majority.  Governments, 
it  is  declared,  are  instituted  to  "  secure "  the  "  tin-alienable 
rights  "  of  individuals.  The  will  of  the  majority,  of  course, 
is  quite  as  likely  to  destroy  as  to  secure  the  unalienable  rights 
of  individuals.  Moreover,  the  Declaration  says  merely  that 
"  governments  are  instituted  among  men  " — not  that  men  uni- 
versally institute  their  own  governments.  The  whole  state- 
ment that  the  governments  which  are  instituted  among  men 
to  secure  the  unalienable  rights  of  individuals,  universally 
"  derive  their  just  powers  from:  the  consent  of  the  governed," 
is  inconsistent  with  the  proposition  that  governments  are  the 
expression  of  the  mere  will  of  the  majority,  for  it  is  only  their 
"just  powers"  that  governments  "  derive"  from  "the  con- 
sent of  the  governed,"  and  the  will  of  the  majority  may  be 
just  or  unjust.  The  expression  "  deriving  their  just  powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed  "  seems  to  me  most  probably 
to  be  an  epitome  and  summary  of  the  two  'fundamental  pro- 
positions of  the  law  of  agency — "  Obligatio  mandati  conscnsu 
contrahentium  consistit,  a  free  translation  of  which  is  "  The 
powers  of  an  agent  are  derived  from  the  consent  of  the  con- 
tracting parties,"  and  Rei  turpis  nullum  mandatum  est,  a  free 
translation  of  which  is  "  No  agent  can  have  unjust  powers." 
On  this  interpretation  the  meaning  of  the  whole  sentence 
"  that  to  secure  these  rights,  governments  are  instituted  among 
men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned," is,  it  would  seem,  that  there  is  a  universal  right  of  all 
communities  to  have  a  government  of  a  kind  best  adapted  for 
the  securing-  of  the  unalienable  rights  of  individuals,  instituted 
either  by  their  own  selection  or  by  the  appointment  of  an  ex- 
ternal power,  and  that  all  governments,  however  instituted, 
are  universally  the  agents  of  the  governed  to  secure  these 
rights.  Government  is  thus  declared  not  to  be  the  expression 
of  the  will  of  the  majority,  but  the  application  of  the  just  pub- 
lic sentiment  justly  ascertained  through  forms  best  adapted 
for  this  purpose. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  23! 

The  free  statehood  which  is  claimed  in  the  concluding  part 
of  the  Declaration  to  be  the  right  of  the  Colonies  is  by  the 
Declaration  based  on  the  philosophical  declarations  of  the  pre- 
amble. The  particular  proposition  which  bears  upon  the  right 
of  free  statehood  is  evidently  the  one  which  declares  that,  "  to 
secure  these  [unalienable]  rights  [of  individuals],  govern- 
ments are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed."  The  intermediate  pro- 
positions, as  the  result  of  which  the  universal  right  of  free 
statehood  follows  from  this  proposition,  are,  it  would  seem, 
these:  If  government  is  the  doing  of  justice  according  to 
public  sentiment,  government  is  the  expression  and  applica- 
tion of  a  spiritually  and  intellectually  educated  public  senti- 
ment, since,  although  a  rudimentary  knowledge  of  what  is 
just  is  implanted  in  every  human  being,  a  full  knowledge  of 
what  is  just  comes  only  after  a  course  of  spiritual  and  intellec- 
tual education.  Hence  it  follows  that  the  forms  and  methods 
of  government  should  be  such  as  are  adapted  to  such  spiritual 
and  intellectual  education.  Education  takes  place  by  direct 
personal  contact,  and  can  be  best  accomplished  only  through 
the  establishment  of  permanent  groups  of  individuals  who  are 
all  under  the  same  conditions.  The  formation  and  expres- 
sion of  a  just  public  sentiment,  therefore,  requires  the  estab- 
lishment of  permanent  groups  of  persons,  more  or  less  free 
from  any  external  control  which  interferes  with  their  rightful 
action,  under  a  leadership  which  makes  for  their  spiritual  and 
intellectual  education  in  justice.  Such  permanent  groups 
within  territorial  limits  of  suitable  size  for  developing  and 
expressing  a  just  public  sentiment,  are  free  states.  I 
torial  divisions  of  persons  set  apart  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
venience in  determining  the  local  public  sentiment,  regardless 
of  its  justness  or  un justness,  are  not  states,  but  are  mere  vot- 
ing-districts. Just  public  sentiment,  for  its  expression  and 
application,  requires  the  existence  of  many  small  free  states, 
disconnected  to  the  extent  necessary  to  enable  each  to  be  free 
from  all  improper  external  control  in  educating  itself  in  the 
ways  of  justice;  mere  public  sentiment,  for  its  expression  and 
application,  requires  only  the  existence  of  a  few  great  states 


232  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

divided  into  voting-districts,  each  district  being  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  Central  Government,  which  is  to  it  an  external 
control.  Just  public  sentiment,  as  the  basis  of  government, 
is  a  -basis  which  makes  government  a  mighty  instrument  for 
spirituality  and  growth;  mere  public  sentiment,  regardless  of 
its  justness  or  un justness,  as  the  basis  of  government,  is  a 
basis  which  makes  government  a  mighty  instrument  for  bru- 
tality and  deterioration.  Human  equality,  unalienable  rights, 
government  according  to  just  public  sentiment,  and  free  state- 
hood, are  inevitably  and  forever  linked  together  as  reciprocal 
cause  and  effect. 

The  ultimate  meaning  of  the  expression  "  that  to  secure 
these  rights  governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving 
their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  'governed,"  seems 
therefore  to  be  that  by  the  common  law  of  nature  and  of  na- 
tions there  is  a  universal  right  of  free  statehood  which  pertains 
to  all  communities  on  the  face  of  the  earth  within  territorial 
limits  of  suitable  size  for  the  development  and  operation  of  a 
just  public  sentiment. 

So  complete  and  universal  are  the  principles  of  government 
by  just  public  sentiment  and  of  free  statehood  that,  according 
to  the  Declaration,  even  when  all  the  people  of  a  free  state  are 
meeting  together  to  alter  or  abolish  a  form  of  government 
which  has  become  destructive  of  the  ends  of  its  institution,  as 
it  is  declared  they  may  rightfully  do,  their  right  to  form  a  new 
government  is  not  absolute  so  that  they  can  rightfully  do  what- 
ever the  majority  wills,  but  is  limited  by  this  universal  com- 
mon law,  so  that  they  can  rightfully  institute  only  a  new  form 
of  government  whose  foundation  principles  and  mode  of  or- 
ganization are  such  "  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  ef- 
fect their  safety  and  happiness  " — that  is,  to  secure  the  un- 
alienable rights  of  individuals  to  .life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness. 

The  declaration  of  the  universal  right  of  free  statehood  is 
accompanied,  in  the  Declaration,  by  the  claim  that  the  Colonies, 
as  free  states,  had  always  been  in  political  "  connection  "  with 
the  State  of  Great  Britain.  The  concluding  part  of  the  Declar- 
ation reads : 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  233 

"  We,  therefore,  ....  declare  that  these  United  Colonies  are, 
and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and  independent  states,  ....  and 
that  all  political  connection  between  them  and  the  State  of  Great 
Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  totally  dissolved." 

In  this  it  was  necessarily  implied  that  the  Colonies  had  al- 
ways been  free  states  or  free  and  independent  states,  and  that, 
by  the  Declaration,  at  most  their  right  of  independent  state- 
hood came  into  existence;  that  they  had  theretofore  at  all 
times  been  in  political  connection,  either  as  free  states  under 
the  law  of  nature  and  of  nations,  or  as  free  and  independent 
states  by  implied  treaty,  with  the  free  and  independent  State 
of  Great  Britain;  that  the  dissolution  of  the  connection  had 
not  come  about  by  an  act  of  secession  on  their  part,  but  was 
due  to  the  violation,  by  the  State  of  Great  Britain,  either  of 
the  law  of  nature  and  of  nations,  or  of  the  implied  treaty  on 
which  the  political  connection  was  based. 

The  term  "  connection  "  was  an  apt  term  to  express  a  rela- 
tionship of  equality  and  dignity.  "  Connection  "  implies  two 
things,  considered  as  units  distinct  from  one  another,  which 
are  bound  together  by  a  connecting'  medium.  Just  connection 
implies  free  statehood  in  all  the  communities  connected. 
Union  is  a  form  of  connection  in  which  the  connected  free 
states  are  consolidated  into  a  unity  for  the  common  purposes, 
though  separate  for  local  purposes.  Merger  is  the  fusion  of 
two  or  more  free  states  into  a  single  unitary  state.  Con- 
nection between  free  states  may  be  through  a  legislative  me- 
dium, or  through  a  justiciary  medium,  or  through  an  execu- 
tive medium.  The  connecting  medium  may  be  a  person,  a 
body  corporate,  or  a  state.  States  connected  through  a  legis- 
lative •medium,  whether  a  person,  a  body  corporate  or  a  state, 
and  whether  wholly  external  to  the  states  connected  or  to  some 
extent  internal  to  them,  whose  legislative  powers  are  un- 
limited <>r  which  determines  the  limits  of  its  own  legislative 
powers,  are  "  dependent  "  upon  or  "  subject  "  to  the  will  of 
the  legislative  medium.  Such  states  are  "  dependencies/' 
41  dominions,"  "subject-states,"  or  more  accurately  "slave- 
states," — or  more  accurately  still,  not  states  at  all,  but  mere 


234  PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE 

aggregations  of  slave-individuals.  States  connected  through 
a  legislative  medium,  whether  a  person,  a  body  corporate  or 
a  state,  and  whether  wholly  external  to  the  states  connected 
or  in  part  internal  to  them,  whose  legislative  powers  are 
granted  by  the  states  and  which  has  only  such  legislative  pow- 
ers as  are  granted,  are  in  a  condition  of  limited  dependence, 
dominion,  and  subjection;  but  their  relationship  is  by  their 
voluntary  act  and  they  may,  and  by  the  terms  of  the  grant  al- 
ways do  to  some  extent  control  the  legislative  will  to  which 
they  are  subject  and  on  which  they  are  dependent.  Where 
states  are  connected  or  united  through  a  justiciary  medium, 
whether  that  justiciary  medium  is  a  person,  a  -body  corpo- 
rate, or  a  state,  all  the  states  are  free  states,  their  relationships 
being  governed  by  law.  Where  states  are  connected  through 
an  executive  medium,  'Whether  that  executive  medium  is  a  per- 
son, a  body  corporate,  or  a  state,  all  the  states  are  free  and 
independent  states,  and  each  acts  according  to  its  will.  All 
connections  in  which  the  legislative  medium, — whether  a  per- 
son, a  body  corporate  or  a  state,  and  whether  wholly  external 
to  the  states  connected,  or  to  some  extent  internal  to  the  states 
connected, — has  unlimited  legislative  powers  or  determines 
the  limits  of  its  own  legislative  powers,  are  fictitious  connec- 
tions, the  relationship  being  really  one  which  implies  "  em- 
pire "  or  "  dominion  "  on  one  side,  and  "  subjection  "  or  "  de- 
pendence "  on  the  other.  Such  connections  are  properly  called 
"  empires  "  or  "  dominions."  So  also  all  connections  in  which 
the  only  connecting  medium  is  a  common  executive,  whether 
a  person,  a  'body  corporate  or  a  state,  are  fictitious  connections, 
the  relationship  being  one  of  "  permanent  alliance  "  or  "  con- 
federation "  between  independent  states.  Such  connections 
are  properly  called  "  alliances  "  or  "  confederations."  The 
only  true  connections  are  those  in  which  there  is  a  legislative 
medium,  whether  a  person,  a  body  corporate  or  a  state,  whose 
legislative  powers  are  limited,  by  agreement  of  the  connected 
states,  to  the  common  purposes,  and  those  in  which  there  is  a 
justiciary  medium,  whether  a  person,  a  body  corporate,  or  a 
state,  which  recognizes  its  powers  as  limited  to  the  common 
purposes  by  the  law  of  nature  and  of  nations,  and  which  as- 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE    ASSOCIATION.  235 

certains  and  applies  this  law,  incidentally  adjudicating,  accord- 
ing to  this  law,  the  limits  of  its  own  jurisdiction.  Just  con- 
nections tend  to  become  unions,  it  being  found  in  practice  ne- 
cessary, for  the  preservation  of  the  connection  in  due  order, 
that  the  power  of  limited  legislation  for  the  common  purposes 
and  the  power  of  adjudicating  and  applying  the  law  for  the 
common  purposes  should  extend  not  only  to  the  states,  but  to 
all  individuals  throughout  the  states. 

Thus  "  dependence,"  as  a  fictitious  and  vicious  form  of  con- 
nection, is,  it  would  appear,  forever  opposed  to  "  connection  " 
of  a  just  and  proper  kind.  If  it  were  attempted  to  sum  up  the 
issue  of  the  American  Revolution  in  an  epigram,  would  not 
that  epigram  <be:  "  '  Colony/  or  *  Free  State?'  '  Dependence/ 
or  *  Just  Connection  ?'  '  Empire,'  or  '  Union  '  ?" 

According  to  the  opinion  of  the  Revolutionary  statesmen,  as 
it  would  seem,  a  universal  right  of  free  statehood  does  not  im- 
ply a  universal  right  of  self-government.  Statehood  and  self- 
government  are  two  different  and  distinct  conceptions.  The 
Americans  claimed  the  right  of  free  statehood  as  a  part  of  the 
universal  rights  of  man,  but  they  claimed  the  right  of  self- 
government  because  they  were  Englishmen  trained  by  genera- 
tions of  experience  in  the  art  of  self-governmnt  and  so  capable 
of  exercising  the  art.  A  state  is  not  less  or  more  a  free  state 
because  it  has  self-government.  It  is  a  free  state  when  its 
just  public  sentiment  is  to  any  extent  ascertained  and  executed 
by  its  government, — however  that  government  may  be  in- 
stituted,— free  from  the  control  of  any  external  power.  It 
does  not  prevent  a  region  from  being  a  free  state  that  its  gov- 
ernment is  wholly  or  partly  appointed  by  an  external  power, 
if  that  government  is  free  from  external  control  in  ascertain- 
ing and  executing  the  just  local  sentiment  to  any  extent.  Nor 
does  it  interfere  with  the  right  of  free  statehood  when  an  ex- 
ternal power  stands  by  merely  to  see  dial  the  local  govern- 
ment ascertains  and  executes  the  just  local  sentiment  to  a 
proper  extent.  The  external  power  in  that  case  is  upholding 
the  free  statehood  of  the  region.  It  stands  as  surety  for  the 
continuance  of  free  statehood. 

The  right  of  self-government,  according  to  this  view,  is  a 


236  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

conditional  universal  right  of  free  states.  When  a  commun- 
ity, inhabiting  a  region  of  such  territorial  extent  that  it  is  not 
too  large  to  make  it  possible  for  a  just  public  sentiment  con- 
cerning its  affairs  to  be  developed  and  executed,  and  not  so 
small  as  to  make  it  inconvenient  that  it  should  be  in  any  re- 
spect free  from  external  control,  is  of  such  moral  and  intel- 
lectual capacity  that  it  can  form  and  execute  a  just  public  sen- 
timent concerning  its.  internal  affairs  and  its  relations  with 
other  communities,  states  and  nations,  it  has  not  only  the  right 
of  free  statehood, — that  is,  of  political  personality, — which  is 
of  universal  right,  but  also  the  right  of  self-government.  The 
right  of  such  a  free  state  to  self-government  is  complete  if 
there  be  no  just  political  connection  or  union  between  it  and 
other  free  states,  or  partial,  if  such  a  just  connection  or  union 
exists,  being  limited,  in  this  latter  case,  to  the  extent  neces- 
sary for  the  preservation,  in  due  order,  of  the  connection 
or  union. 

Independence  was  regarded  apparently  also,  by  the  Declara- 
tion, when  it  declared  the  Colonies  to  be  "  free  and  indepen- 
dent states,"  to  be  a  right  superadded  to  the  right  of  free  state- 
hood in  some  cases,  and  therefore  to  be  a  conditional  universal 
right  of  free  states — 'that  is,  a  right  universally  existing  where 
the  conditions  necessary  to  independence  —  great  physical 
strength,  and  great  moral  and  intellectual  ability — exist. 

The  Colonies  regarded  themselves  as  free  states  in  such  a 
just  and  rightful  connection  with  the  free  and  independent 
State  of  Great  Britain  as  to  form  with  it  a  union.  From  this 
it  followed,  inasmuch  as  this  connection  and  union  was  con- 
ceived of  as  existing  under  a  universal  common  law,  that  the 
State  of  Great  Britain,  through  its  Government,  was  the  jus- 
ticiary medium  which  connected  the  free  states  of  that  which 
they  conceived  of  as  the  British- American  Union,  and  as  such 
applied  the  principles  of  this  universal  common  law  for  pre- 
serving and  maintaining  in  due  order  the  connection  and 
union.  There,  therefore,  resulted  the  conception  of  Great 
Britain  as  what  may  perhaps  be  called  "  the  Justiciar  State  " 
of  this  British-American  Union.  If  we  were  to  use  the  exact 
language  of  the  Revolution,  it  would  probably  be  more  proper 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  237 

to  speak  of  Great  Britain  as  "the  Superintending  State"  of 
the  British-American  Union,  as  the  power  of  Great  Britain 
over  the  Colonies  was  generally  spoken  of  by  the  Americans 
as  "  the  superintending  power."  Lord  Chatham  used  this  ex- 
pression in  his  famous  bill  introduced  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
The  expression  "  Justiciar  State,"  however,  seems  to  be  more 
scientifically  correct.  A  Justiciar  was  an  official  who  exer- 
cised the  power  of  government  in  a  judicial  manner.  His 
power  was  neither  strictly  legislative,  nor  strictly  executive, 
nor  strictly  judicial,  but  was  complex,  being  compounded  of 
all  three  powers,  so  that  his  executive  action,  taken  after  judi- 
cially ascertaining  the  facts  in  each  case  and  applying  to  them 
just  principles  of  law,  resulted  in  action  having  the  force  of 
legislation. 

The  Revolutionary  statesmen  have  left  a  very  considerable 
literature  showing  their  views  concerning  the  nature  of  the 
right  of  a  state  to  be  the  Justiciar  State  of  a  Union  of  States, 
and  concerning  the  powers  which  a  Justiciar  State  may  right- 
fully exercise. 

Arguing  on  the  same  basis  as  that  adopted  by  them  regard- 
ing the  right  of  self-government  and  independence,  it  appears 
that  they  considered  the  right  of  a  state  to  act  as  Justiciar  for 
other  states  to  be  a  right  superadded  to  the  right  of  self-gov- 
ernment and  independence  in  some  cases — that  is,  that  justi- 
ciarship  is  a  conditional  universal  right  of  self-governing  and 
independent  states,  the  conditions  necessary  to  its  existence 
being  great  physical  strength,  a  judicial  character  and  a  capa- 
city for  leadership. 

The  power  exercised  by  a  Justiciar  State  in  a  Justiciary 
Union,  they  recognized  as  being  neither  strictly  legislative, 
nor  strictly  executive,  nor  strictly  judicial,  but  a  power  com- 
pounded of  all  these  three  powers.  They  considered  that  it 
was  to  be  exercised  for  the  common  purposes  after  investiga- 
tion by  judicial  methods;  that  the  just  public  sentiment  of  the 
free  states  connected  and  united  with  the  j  State  was  to 

be  considered  by  it  in  the  determination  of  die  common  af- 
fairs; and  that  the  action  of  the  Justiciar  State  was  to  result, 
after  proper  hearing  of  the  free  states  and  all  parties  con- 


238  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

cerned,  in  dispositions  and  regulations  made  according  to  just 
principles  of  law,  which  were  to  have  the  force  of  supreme  law 
in  each  of  the  connected  and  united  free  states  respectively. 
This  kind  of  power,  which  the  Fathers  called  "  the  superin- 
tending power  "  or  "  the  disposing  power  "  under  the  law  of 
nature  and  of  nations,  and  which  may  be  called,  using  an  ex- 
pression now  coming  into  use,  "  the  power  of  final  decision," 
or  more  briefly  "  the  justiciary  power,"  being  neither  legisla- 
tive, executive  nor  judicial,  but  more  nearly  executive  than 
legislative,  the  more  conservative  among  them  considered 
might  be  exercised,  consistently  with  the  principles  of  the  law 
of  nature  and  of  nations,  either  by  the  Legislative  Assembly 
of  the  Justiciar  State  or  by  its  Chief  Executive,  advised  by 
properly  constituted  Administrative  Tribunals  or  Councils; 
the  action  of  the  Legislative  Assembly  superseding  that  of  the 
Chief  Executive  in  so  far  as  they  might  be  inconsistent  with 
each  other.  This  right  of  both  the  Legislative  Assembly  and 
of  the  Chief  Executive,  properly  advised,  to  exercise  the  pow- 
ers of  the  Justiciar  State — the  former  having  supreme,  and  the 
latter  superior  justiciary  power, — under  the  law  of  nature  and 
of  nations,  is,  I  believe,  also  recognized  by  our  Constitution, 
as  I  have  elsewhere  attempted  to  show. 

Of  course  there  must  -be  conditions  of  transition  where  the 
relations  between  free  states  which  would  normally  be  in 
union,  or  'between  detached  portions  of  what  would  normally 
be  a  unitary  state,  temporarily  assume  a  form  which  is  partly 
one  of  union  or  merger,  and  partly  of  dependency.  The  justi- 
fication of  all  such  forms  of  relationship  must,  it  would  seem, 
be  found  in  the  fundamental  right  which  every  independent 
state,  whether  a  Justiciar  state  or  not,  has  to  the  preservation 
of  its  existence  and  its  leadership  or  judgeship — that  is,  in  the 
right  of  self-preservation,  which,  when  necessary  to  be  in- 
voked, overrules  all  other  rights.  On  this  theory  must,  it 
would  seem,  be  explained  the  relations  between  the  American 
Union  and  its  Territories,  between  Germany  and  Alsace-Lor- 
raine, and  between  England  and  Ireland.  On  this  theory  of 
self-preservation,  also,  must,  it  would  seem,  be  explained  the 
permanent  relationship  of  dependency  which  exists  between 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  239 

the  District  of  Columbia  and  the  American  Union — such  de- 
pendency being-  necessary  to  the  preservation  of  the  life  of 
the  Union. 

Out  of  -the  conception  of  a  universal  common  law  of  nature 
and  of  nations  which  governs  all  human  acts  and  relationships, 
— and  therefore  all  the  acts  and  relationships  of  states  and 
nations  as  well  as  of  men,  bodies  corporate  and  communities, 
—there  has  arisen  and  at  the  present  time  exists,  a  science  of 
the  universal  and  common  law  of  the  state,  called  the  Science 
of  the  Law  of  the  State,  which  concerns  itself  with  the  in- 
ternal relations  of  a  state  to  its  people,  its  bodies  corporate  and 
its  communities,  and  a  science  of  the  universal  and  common 
law  of  independent  states,  called  the  Science  of  International 
Law,  which  concerns  itself  with  the  occasional  and  temperoray 
relations  of  independent  states.  The  great  field  of  law  which 
concerns  the  permanent  relations  of  free  states  is  not  yet  cov- 
ered by  a  recognized  science.  Must  there  not  therefore 
emerge  from  this  conception  of  a  universal  and  common  law 
of  nature  and  of  nations,  a  third  science  of  law,  covering  this 
field,  which  will  take  as  its  basal  proposition  the  doctrine  that 
free  statehood  is  the  normal  and  rightful  condition  of  all  com- 
munities on  the  earth's  surface  within  suitable  limits  for  the 
formation  of  a  just  public  sentiment,  and  -which  will  concern 
itself  with  the  permanent  relations  between  free  states?  As 
such  permanent  relations  must  always  be  by  just  connection, 
either  in  its  simple  form  or  in  the  form  of  union,  may  not  such 
a  science  of  law,  standing  between  the  science  of  the  Law  of 
the  State  and  the  science  of  International  Law,  be  called  the 
science  of  the  Law  of  Connections  and  Unions  of  Free  States  ? 

Taking  the  whole  Declaration  together,  and  reading  it  in 
the  light  of  the  political  literature  which  was  put  forth  on 
both  sides  of  the  water  between  the  year  1764  and  1776,  it 
seems  to  be  necessary  to  conclude  that  the  views  of  the  most 
conservative  of  the  American  statesmen  of  the  period  concern- 
ing the  connection  between  Great  Britain  and  the  Colonies 
were  these: 

They  considered,  as  I  interpret  their  language,  that  the  con- 
nection between  the  free  and  independent  State  of  Great  Britain. 


240  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

and  the  American  Colonies,  as  free  states,  had  existed  and  of 
right  ought  to  have  existed,  according  to  the  principles  of  the 
law  of  nature  and  of  nations — that  law  being  based  on  prin- 
ciples opposed  to  the  principles  applied  by  the  governments  of 
Europe,  and  being  thus  what  may  be  called  a  law  of  nature 
and  of  nations  according  to  the  American  System.  Had  they 
used  a  more  definite  and  scientific  phraseology,  it  seems  that 
their  view  would  best  be  expressed  by  saying  that  they  con- 
sidered that  the  relationship  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
Colonies  had  always  existed  according  to  the  principles  of  the 
Law  of  Connections  and  Unions  of  Free  States.  They  ac- 
cordingly admitted,  as  I  understand  them,  that  Great  Britain, 
as  a  free  and  independent  state,  had  power,  as  Justiciar,  over 
the  American  Free  States,  for  the  common  purposes  of  the 
whole.  Union,  to  finally  decide,  by  dispositions,  ordinances  and 
regulations  having  the  force  of  supreme  law,  made  through 
its  Government  after  a  judicial  hearing  in  each  case  for  the 
investigation  of  facts  and  the  application  to  them  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Law  of  Connections  and  Unions  of  Free  States, 
upon  all  questions  of  common  interest  arising  out  of  'the  con- 
nection and  union ;  and  that  each  of  the  American  Free  States 
had  power,  through  its  Legislature,  to  legislate  according  to 
the  just  public  sentiment  in  each,  and  the  right  to  'have  its 
local  laws  executed  by  its  Executive  and  interpreted  and  ap- 
plied by  its  Courts,  free  from  all  control  by  the  State  of  Great 
Britain,  except  what  was  necessary  to  protect  and  preserve  the 
Union. 

In  this  view,  the  actions  of  the  Americans  show  the  evolu- 
tion of  a  continuous  theory  and  policy,  and  the  application  of 
a  single  American  system  of  principles, — a  system  which  was 
based  upon  free  statehood,  just  connection  and  union.  The 
British- American  Union  of  1763  was  a  Union  of  States  under 
the  State  of  Great  Britain  as  Justickr,  that  State  having 
power  to  dispose  of  and  make  all  rules  and  regulations  respect- 
ing the  connected  and  united  free  states,  needful  to  protect 
and  preserve  the  connection  and  union,  according  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Law  of  Connections  and  Unions.  The  disso- 
lution of  this  Union,  caused  by  the  violation  by  the  State  of 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  24! 

Great  Britain  of  its  duties  as  Justiciar  State,  gave  a  great  im- 
petus to  the  extreme  states'-rights  party,  and  the  next  con- 
nection formed, — that  of  1778  under  he  Articles  of  Confed- 
eration,— was  not  a  Union,  the  Common  Government  (the 
Congress)  being  merely  a  Chief  Executive.  Such  a  connec- 
tion proving  to  be  so  slight  as  to  be  little  more  than  a  fiction, 
they  formed,  under  the  Constitution  of  1787,  the  only  other 
kind  of  a  union  which  appears  to  be  practicable,  namely,  a 
union  under  a  common  government  which  was  a  Chief  Legis- 
lature for  all  the  connected  and  United  States  by  their  express 
grant,  and  whose  powers  were  expressly  limited,  by  limita- 
tion in  the  grant,  to  the  common  purposes  of  the  whole  con- 
nection and  union  of  free  states. 

If  the  Constitution,  in  defining  what  are  the  common  pur- 
poses of  the  Union  and  what  the  local  purposes  of  the  States 
of  the  Union,  is  declaratory  of  the  principles  of  the  Law  of 
Connections  and  Unions  of  Free  States,  as  it  seems  not  unrea- 
sonable to  hold,  the  Limited  Legislative  Union  formed  under 
the  Constitution  may  perhaps  be  considered,  in  view  of  the 
supremacy  of  the  Judiciary,  as  Guardians  of  the  Constitution, 
over  the  Limited  Legislature,  as  a  species  of  Justiciary  Union. 

Moreover,  if  in  what  has  been  said  we  are  correct,  the  re- 
lationship at  present  existing  between  the  American  Union 
and  the  Insular  regions,  is  that  of  de  facto  Justiciary  Union, 
and  the  American  Congress,  under  the  lead  of  President  Mc- 
Kinley  and  President  Roosevelt,  has  acted,  with  reference  to 
these  regions,  according  to  the  principles  of  the  Ame 
System.  The  American  Union,  through  President  McKinley. 
has  declared  itself  to  be  "  a  liberating,  not  a  conquering-  na- 
tion," and  has  recognized  the  people  of  Hawaii,  Porto  Rico 
and  the  Philippines  as  each  having  a  separate  and  local  citizen- 
ship, thus  recognizing  each  of  these  regions  as  a  de  facto  free 
state  connected  with  the  American  Union.  The  action  of  the 
American  Union  extends  to  the  regulation  of  the  action  of  in- 
dividuals in  these  free  States,  so  that  a  Greater  American 
Union  of  Free  States  exists  dc  facto.  To  bring  into  existence 
,i  ( ireater  American  Union  de  jure,  it  needs,  first,  the  public 
and  express  recognition  by  the  American  Union  of  itself  as 


242  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

the  Justiciar  State,  and  of  each  of  the  separate  Insular  re- 
gions within  proper  territorial  .limits,  as  a  Free  State  in  just 
connection  and  union  with  the  American  Union ;  and,  secondly, 
the  establishment  by  the  American  Union  of  the  necessary  Ad- 
visory Council  for  investigating  facts  and  for  advising  the 
President  before  he,  on  behalf  of  the  American  Union  as  Jus- 
ticiar State,  exercises  his  superior  justiciary  powers,  and  for 
advising  the  Congress  before  it,  in  the  same  behalf,  exercises 
its  supreme  justiciary  powers.  Councils  suitable  for  advising 
the  local  Governors,  when  they,  on  behalf  of  the  American 
Union  as  Justiciar  State,  exercise  their  inferior  justiciary  pow- 
ers, already  exist.  Of  such  a  Greater  American  Union,  the 
present  American  Union  would  be  the  Supreme  Justiciary 
Head,  with  power  to  finally  determine  the  questions  arising 
out  of  the  relationship,  not  by  edict  founded  on  will  and  force, 
but  by  decision  carefully  made  in  each  case  after  ascertaining 
the  facts  in  each  case  and  applying  to  them  the  principles  of 
the  Law  of  Connections  and  Unions  properly  applicable  to 
them. 

Is  not  this  theory  the  true  via  media?  The  theory  of  the 
automatic  extension  of  the  constitution  of  a  state  over  its  an- 
nexed insular,  transmarine  and  transterranean  regions  which 
from  their  local  or  other  circumstances  can  never  equally  par- 
ticipate in  the  institution  and  operation  of  its  government,  in 
some  cases  protects  individual  rights,  but  it  takes  no  account 
of  the  right  of  free  statehood,  which  is  the  prime  instrumen- 
tality for  securing  these  rights.  The  theory  of  a  power  over 
these  regions  not  regulated  by  a  supreme  law,  is  a  theory  of 
absolute  power  over  both  individuals  and  communities  in  tlhese 
regions, — a  theory  which  implies  an  absence  of  all  rights.  The 
theory  of  a  power  over  these  regions  based  on  the  principles 
of  the  Law  of  Connections  and  Unions,  granting  that  this  law 
is  itself  based  on  the  right  of  human  equality,  protects  the 
rights  of  ^persons,  of  communities,  of  states  and  of  nations. 
On  this  theory  the  "  Territory  Clause  "  of  the  Constitution 
recognizes  the  Law  of  Connections  and  Unions  as  determin- 
ing the  relationship  between  the  American  Union  and  the  In- 
sular regions — "  needful  "  rules  and  regulations  being  those 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  243 

which  are  adapted  to  accomplish  the  end  desired  and  which 
are  consistent  with  the  principles  of  the  Law  of  Connections 
and  Unions  as  declared  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
On  this  theory,  the  doctrine  of  the  Supreme  Court  that  the 
civil  rights  of  individuals  in  cases  growing  out  of  our  relations 
with  our  Insular  brethren  are  protected  by  "  the  fundamental 
principles  formulated  in  the  Constitution,"  or  by  "  the  appli- 
cable provisions  of  the  Constitution,"  is  translated  into  the 
doctrine  that  these  individual  and  civil  rights  are  protected  by 
the  principles  of  the  Law  of  Connections  and  Unions  of  Free 
States,  as  these  principles  are  formulated  in  the  Constitution 
and  as  they  are  disclosed  by  an  examination  of  the  applicable 
provisions  of  the  Constitution,  and  that  not  only  are  these 
civil  rights  protected  by  this  law,  but  also  the  political  rights 
of  all  the  parties  to  the  relationship.  On  this  theory,  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Supreme  Court  continues  to  be  exactly  the 
same  as  at  present.  The  necessary  Advisory  Councils  for  as- 
certaining the  just  political  relations  between  the  American 
Union  and  the  Insular  regions  and  for  determining  the  politi- 
cal rights  growing  out  of  that  relationship,  would  not  in  the 
least  interfere  with  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  exercise  of  its 
functions.  They  would  supplement  that  Court,  which  now 
protects  the  civil  rights  of  all  concerned  through  its  adjudica- 
tions in  civil  cases,  by  assisting  tihe  Congress  and  the  Presi- 
dent to  protect  and  preserve  the  political  rights  of  all  con- 
cerned through  dispositions  and  needful  rules  and  regulations 
in  political  cases. 

By  adopting  this  theory  of  the  Reformation  and  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  may  not  the  American  System  extend  in- 
definitely without  danger  to  America  herself?  There  would 
be  no  domination,  no  subjection.  The  same  Law  of  Connec- 
tions and  Unions  would  extend  over  and  govern  throughout 
the  whole  Greater  American  Union.  This  Greater  American 
Justiciary  Union  would  l>c  but  a  logical  application  of  the  prin- 
ciples underlying  the  American  Legislative,  Executive  and 
Judicial  Union  formed  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States, 

Jt  would  not  be  the  Constitution  which  would  follow  the 


244  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

flag  into  the  regions  whidi  America  has  annexed  to  herself, 
but  the  Law  of  Connections  and  Unions,  which  is  a  part  of 
the  Law  of  Nature  and  of  Nations  according  to  the  Ameri- 
can System. 

I  recur,  therefore,  to  my  first  proposition  and  submit  to 
your  judgment  whether  the  terms  "colony,"  "dependence," 
and  "  empire,"  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  terms  "  free  state," 
"  just  connection,"  and  "  union,"  on  the  other,  are  not  the 
symbols  of  two  great  and  fundamentally  opposed  systems  of 
politics — the  one  European,  and  the  other  American;  whether 
the  American  term's  and  the  American  System  are  not  capable 
of  being  applied  universally  and  beneficently,  in  the  way 
pointed  out  above,  throughout  all  places  outside  the  present 
Union  which  are  within  the  limits  of  its  justiciary  power ;  and 
whether,  if  they  are  capable  of  this  application,  it  is  not  our 
duty,  both  logically  and  ethically,  to  use  the  American  terms 
in  describing  the  relations  between  us  and  our  Insular  brethren, 
applying  at  the  same  time  the  principles  of  the  American  Sys- 
tem, and  thus  calling  into  existence  a  Greater  American  Union. 


COMMERCIAL  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  DEPENDEN- 
CIES AND  THE  GOVERNING  COUNTRY. 

BY   O.    P.    AUSTIN, 

CHIEF  OF  BUREAU  OP  STATISTICS,  DEPARTMENT  OP  COMMERCE  AND  LABOR. 

Commerce  is  in  most  cases  the  mainspring  of  the  relation- 
ship between  colonies  and  the  governing  country.  Say  what 
we  may  of  benevolent  assimilation  and  the  government  of 
colonies  for  the  good  of  the  governed,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  commerce  has  been  and  is  the  underlying  motive  in  the 
acquisition  and  continued  control  of  a  large  proportion  of  the 
world's  area  now  known  as  colonies,  dependencies,  or  pro- 
tectorates. In  a  few  cases,  like  our  own  Philippine  Islands, 
the  control  of  territory  has  been  assumed  as  a  necessary  result 
of  war  waged  for  purposes  other  than  territorial  acquisition ; 
but  the  expectation  of  commercial  advantages,  present  or  pro- 
spective, may  be  properly  assigned  as  a  leading  cause  for  the 
control  which  a  half-dozen  temperate-zone  nations  now  exer- 
cise over  25  million  square  miles  of  non-contiguous  territory 
occupied  by  500  million  people,  a  territory  lying  largely  with- 
in the  Tropics  and  a  people  largely  of  habits  different  from 
those  of  the  governing  country. 

This  last  mentioned  fact,  that  the  area  controlled  as  colonies, 
dependencies,  or  protectorates  has  in  most  cases  a  climate  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  the  governing  country  and  a  people  of  dif- 
ferent habits  of  life,  suggests  the  primary  cause  of  the  com- 
mercial, and  perhaps  the  political  relationship  which  now 
exists.  The  temperate  zone  has  found  itself  in  need  of  the 
products  of  the  Tropics,  and  at  the  same  time  the  vitality  re- 
sulting from  climatic  conditions  has  given  to  its  people  the 
vigor  with  which  to  originate  and  apply  forms  of  govern- 
ment and  methods  of  development  not  induced  by  the  climatic 
conditions  of  the  Tropics.  These  two  conditions  working  to- 
gether— the  instinctive  need  of  temperate  zone  man  for  tropical 
products,  and  the  ability  to  govern  and  develop, — have  resulted 


246  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

in  extending  his  control  over  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
tropical  world.  While  in  a  few  cases  this  control  has  ex- 
tended to  certain  sections  of  the  temperate  zone,  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  area  known  as  colonies,  dependencies,  or  pro- 
tectorates lies  in  the  tropical  world,  and  the  interchange  of 
articles  of  commerce  between  the  governing  country  in  the 
temperate  zone  and  the  governed  country  in  the  Tropics  is  a 
natural  one  and  a  natural  result  of  the  climatic  relation  of  the 
two  sections  and  peoples. 

Practically  all  of  the  tropical  area  of  the  world,  ex- 
cept that  of  continental  America,  is  governed  from  the 
temperate  zone,  thousands  of  miles  distant  from  the  sec- 
tion over  which  the  government  is  applied,  and  with  the 
single  exception  of  Canada,  New  Zealand,  and  a  narrow  fringe 
of  South  Australia,  no  temperate  zone  area  of  consequence  is 
governed  as  a  colony,  dependency,  or  protectorate.  These 
natural  conditions  and  the  interchange  which  comes  naturally 
between  the  two  climatic  sections  of  the  world — the  temper- 
ate zone  and  the  Tropics — makes  commerce  between  the 
colonies  located  in  the  Tropics  and  the  governing  countries 
located  in  the  temperate  zone  the  prime  element  of,  and  factor 
in  the  relationship  existing  between  them,  and  a  principal 
cause  which,  perhaps  unconsciously  in  many  cases,  led  to  the 
establishment  of  such  relationship.  Nations  seldom  take  up 
as  a  mere  act  of  philanthropy  the  government  and  develop- 
ment of  peoples  distant  from  them  and  belonging  to  peoples 
widely  different  from  their  own,  while  the  control  of  non- 
contiguous and  distant  territory  is  a  source  of  weakness,  at 
least  in  time  of  war.  As  a  result,  we  must  look  to  commerce 
and  commercial  possibilities  as  the  most  important  of  the  un- 
derlying motives  which  have  resulted  in  the  government  of 
two-fifths  of  the  world's  land  area  containing  500  million  peo- 
ple by  countries  located  in  other  parts  of  the  world  and  hav- 
ing in  most  cases  a  population  and  climatic  conditions  widely 
different  from  those  of  the  governing  country. 

For  the  transportation  and  development  of  commerce 
international  and  otherwise,  there  have  been  constructed 
in  the  world's  colonies  nearly  100,000  miles  of  railroad 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  247 

at  a  cost  of  several  billions  of  dollars,  much  of  which 
has  been  supplied  from  the  governing  country,  though 
in  most  cases  these  investments  and  their  final  return  are  guar- 
anteed by  the  local  governments  in  the  colonies;  and  this  con- 
tribution of  billions  of  dollars  to  transportation  and  conse- 
quent development  of  commerce  in  the  colonies  is  another  evi- 
dence of  the  importance  of  commerce  in  the  inter-relationship 
of  the  governed  and  governing  people. 

The  foreign,  or  international  commerce  of  the  great  area 
known  as  colonies,  dependencies,  or  protectorates  now  aggre- 
gates about  four  billion  dollars,  or  about  one-sixth  of  the  in- 
ternational commerce  of  the  entire  world.  About  45%  of  this 
four  billion  dollars'  worth  of  international  trade  of  the  colonies 
is  conducted  with  the  governing  country.  In  the  case  of  im- 
ports into  the  colonies,  about  46%  is  drawn  from  the  govern- 
ing country,  and  in  the  case  of  exports  from  the  colonies  about 
42%  is  sent  to  the  governing  country.  While  these  percent- 
ages hold  good  with  reference  to  the  grand  total  of  commerce 
as  a  whole,  or  of  imports  and  exports  separately  considered, 
the  share  of  trade  with  the  various  countries  varies  greatly 
when  individual  countries  and  individual  systems  of  trade  and 
tariff  relationship  are  considered.  It  is  to  an  examination  of 
the  conditions  contributing  to  this  control  or  lack  of  control 
of  the  commerce  of  the  colony  that  this  study  is  addressed. 
When  it  is  considered  that  the  colonies,  dependencies  and  pro- 
tectorates of  the  world  number  nearly  150  and  that  each  has 
its  own  peculiar  form  of  government  and  inter-relation,  com- 
mercial and  otherwise,  with  the  governing  country  and  with 
other  colonies  belonging  to  that  country,  it  is  obvious  that  a 
detailed  discussion  of  these  conditions  one  by  one  is  quite  out 
of  the  question  in  the  limits  of  a  paper  of  this  character,  and 
that  they  can  only  be  considered  by  great  groups  and  general 
principles  as  applied  to  groups  of  colonies  and  inter-relation- 
ship with  the  governing  country. 

Several  important  factors  enter  into  the  question  of  trade 
relationship  between  the  colony  and  the  governing  country. 
and  while  that  of  tariff  regulations  may  be  most  important 
in  determining  the  share  of  the  trade  which  accrues  to  the 


248  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

governing  country,  there  are  other  causes,  such  as  facilities 
for  transportation,  close  financial  relationship,  and  the  pres- 
ence in  the  colony  of  trade  representatives  from  the  governing 
country. 

The  world's  colonies,  or  dependencies  of  whatever  name, 
may  be  divided  into  five  principal  groups,  those  controlled, 
respectively,  by  Great  Britain,  France,  Netherlands,  Germany, 
and  the  United  States.  Portugal  and  Italy  have  also  certain 
colonial  areas,  but  not  yet  sufficiently  developed  to  require 
consideration  at  the  present  moment;  and  the  great  Kongo 
country  in  Africa,  although  in  fact  a  dependency  of  Belgium, 
is  not  so,  at  the  present  moment  in  name,  and  therefore  need 
not  be  considered  in  this  discussion.  In  the  case  of  the 
British  colonies  trade  relationship  with  the  mother  country  is 
chiefly  a  result  of  the  presence  in  the  colony  of  representatives 
of  the  industries  and  commerce  of  the  governing  country, 
coupled  with  plentiful  transportation  facilities  and  the  strongly 
marked  trade  instinct  which  pertains  to  the  English  people. 
In  the  case  of  the  French  colonies  the  control  of  trade  has  been 
largely  accomplished  through  the  application  in  both  the 
colony  and  the  mother  country  of  tariffs  levied  upon  the  pro- 
ducts of  other  nations,  but  permitting  free  interchange  of 
articles  of  commerce  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother 
country ;  and  this  system  characterizes  the  trade  relations  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  a  large  part  of  its  noncontiguous 
territory.  In  the  case  of  Netherlands,  the  share  of  the  trade 
of  the  colonies  enjoyed  by  the  mother  country  has  been  main- 
tained largely  through  rigid  control  of  methods  of  production, 
trade  and  transportation  in  the  colony  and  between  the  colony 
and  the  governing  country.  In  the  case  of  Germany  the  com- 
merce of  the  areas  controlled  as  colonies,  protectorates  or  de- 
pendencies is  as  yet  small  and  its  relation  to  the  governing 
country  is  determined  largely  through  the  transportation  faci- 
lities which  that  country  supplies  and  the  regulation  of  traffic 
consequent  upon  the  semi-military  methods  by  which  these 
undeveloped  areas  are  now  governed,  and  this  general  rule 
applies  also  to  the  trade  relationship  of  Portugal  and  Italy 
with  their  colonies  or  other  dependencies,  and  of  Belgium  in 
its  relation  to  the  Kongo  country. 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  249 

Considering  the  great  groups  of  colonies  or  dependencies 
controlled  by  the  various  countries,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
imports  of  the  British  colonies  amount  to  about  1,450  million 
dollars  annually,  and  that  about  40%  of  the  imports  is  from 
the  mother  country;  while  the  exports  amount  to  about  1,500 
million  dollars,  of  which  about  37%  is  sent  to  the  mother 
country.  In  the  case  of  France,  the  imports  of  the  colonies 
are  about  165  million  dollars  per  annum,  of  which  about  64% 
is  from  the  mother  country,  and  the  exports  amount  to  140 
millions,  of  which  57%  is  sent  to  the  governing  country.  In 
the  case  of  the  Netherlands  the  imports  of  the  colonies  are 
a  little  less  than  100  million  dollars  per  annum  and  about  75% 
is  drawn  from  the  governing  country,  while  of  the  exports, 
amounting  to  about  120  millions,  about  50%  is  sent  to  the 
governing  country.  In  the  case  of  the  United  States,  the 
combined  imports  of  the  various  noncontiguous  areas  which 
it  governs  are  about  75  million  dollars  per  annum,  and  the 
percentage  supplied  by  the  United  States  ranges  from  80% 
down  to  20%;  while  of  the  exports  of  these  various  areas, 
aggregating  about  100  million  dollars,  about  75%  is  sent  to 
the  United  States.  Of  the  total  imports  of  the  world's  colon- 
ies as  a  whole,  aggregating  nearly  2  billions  of  dollars,  about 
900  millions,  or  approximately  45%,  is  drawn  from  the  mother 
country;  and  of  the  exports,  which  also  aggregate  nearly  2 
billions,  about  800  millions,  or  approximately  40%,  is  sent 
to  the  governing  country. 

This  control  of  the  trade  of  the  colonies  is,  as  already  inti- 
mated, accomplished  largely  through  tariff  relationship  in  the 
countries  in  which  the  large  share  is  drawn  from  the  mother 
country.  How  much  this  fact  may  have  been  responsible 
for  the  recent  expressions  in  Great  Britain  in  favor  of  some- 
what similar  relations  with  the  British  colonies  or  with  the 
actual  legislation  in  her  English-speaking  colonies  in  favor  of 
trade  with  the  mother  country,  must  be  of  course  a  matter 
of  opinion.  It  is  at  least  a  fact  that  a  vigorous  and  apparently 
growing  sentiment  has  developed  in  Great  Britain  in  favor  of 
a  general  tariff  which  shall  make  higher  rates  against  foreign 
countries  than  against  the  colonies  and  dependencies,  and  that 


250  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

most  of  the  English  speaking  colonies  and  dependencies  have 
already  enacted  tariffs  which  give  decided  advantages  to  pro- 
ducts of  the  mother  country  seeking  to  enter  their  markets. 
In  the  case  of  Canada,  dutiable  merchandise  from  the  mother 
country  is  granted  a  reduction  of  one-third  in  the  established 
rates  of  duty  and  this  privilege  is  also  extended  to  those  of 
the  British  colonies  which  give  similar  tariff  advantages  to 
merchandise  coming  from  Canada.  In  the  case  of  New  Zea- 
land, the  same  result  is  obtained  through  a  law  which  levies 
upon  merchandise  from  foreign  countries  50%  more  than 
that  coming  from  Great  Britain  and  the  colonies.  In  the 
case  of  the  South  African  Custom  Union,  which  includes 
most  of  the  British  colonies  and  dependencies  in  South  Africa, 
the  tariff  on  British  merchandise  is  about  20%  lower  than  that 
on  merchandise  from  foreign  countries.  In  the  case  of  the 
new  Commonwealth  of  Australia,  it  is  expected  that  the  tariff 
laws  when  finally  adjusted  and  put  into  operation,  will  give 
to  merchandise  from  the  United  Kingdom  advantages  quite 
similar  to  those  already  in  operation  in  Canada  and  New 
Zealand.  In  the  other  British  colonies,  located  chiefly  in  the 
Tropics  and  occupied  by  a  population  different  in  character 
from  that  of  the  English  speaking  colonies,  there  are  few  if 
any  cases  in  which  the  tariff  offers  specific  advantages  to  mer- 
chandise from  the  mother  country. 

In  the  case  of  France,  the  tariff  of  the  governing  country  is 
extended  to  the  more  important  of  her  colonies  and  the  door 
opened  for  a  free  interchange  of  merchandise  between  the 
colony  and  the  mother  country,  except  that  merchandise  from 
the  colony  is  subject  in  the  mother  country  to  the  same  ex- 
cise or  internal  revenue  taxation  that  is  applied  to  that  pro- 
duced at  home.  This  tariff  relationship  applies  in  general 
terms  to  the  most  important  of  the  French  colonies,  includ- 
ing Algeria,  French  Indo-China,  and  certain  of  the  colonies 
on  the  west  coast  of  Africa. 

In  the  case  of  the  Netherlands,  there  is  no  discrimination 
in  the  colonies  in  favor  of  merchandise  from  the  mother 
country  or  in  the  mother  country  in  favor  of  merchandise  from 
the  colonies;  but  the  rigid  methods  by  which  the  colonies 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  25! 

have  been  developed,  especially  those  in  the  Orient, — methods 
which  have  excluded  foreigners  from  ownership  of  real  estate 
and  practically  excluded  them  from  large  enterprises  of  de- 
velopment or  commerce,  have  retained  the  control  of  the  trade 
chiefly  in  the  hands  of  representatives  of  the  governing  coun- 
try and  retained  for  the  Netherlands  about  75%  of  the  imports 
of  her  colonies,  while  their  exports  have  been  about  equally 
divided  between  the  mother  country  and  other  parts  of  the 
world. 

In  the  case  of  the  United  States,  the  existing  tariff  has  been 
extended  to  Porto  Rico  and  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  which  are 
now  customs  districts  of  the  United  States,  thus  permitting 
absolute  freedom  of  interchange  between  those  islands  and 
continental  United  States;  and  this  is  also  true  with  refer- 
ence to  Alaska,  which  has  been,  since  it  developed  a  com- 
merce, a  customs  district  of  the  United  States.  All  of  these 
customs  districts, — Alaska,  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  and  Porto 
Rico — enjoy  the  same  freedom  of  interchange  with  any  part 
of  the  United  States  that  does  merchandise  passing  between 
any  of  the  customs  districts  of  the  mainland.  In  the  case  of 
the  Philippine  Islands,  merchandise  therefrom  entering  the 
United  States  pays  at  present  75%  of  the  rates  of  duty  col- 
lected upon  merchandise  from  foreign  countries;  while  in  the 
Philippine  Islands,  merchandise  from  the  United  States  pays 
the  same  rates  of  duties  as  those  collected  on  merchandise 
from  foreign  countries.  A  bill  which  passed  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives in  the  first  session  of  the  last  Congress  and 
proposed  to  admit  free  of  duty  all  products  of  the  Philip- 
pine Islands  except  sugar,  rice  and  tobacco,  which  are 
required  to  pay  25%  of  the  existing  rates  charged  against 
foreign  countries,  and  also  provided  that  at  the  expira- 
tion of  the  loyear  period  following  the  treaty  with  Spain 
merchandise  from  the  United  States  should  be  admitted  free 
of  duty  into  the  Philippine  Islands,  but  it  failed  to  get  action 
in  the  Senate. 

As  a  result,  largely  at  least,  of  the  absence  of  tariff  duties 
on  merchandise  passing  between  the  United  States  and  Porto 
Rico,  Hawaii  and  Alaska,  a  very  large  percentage  of  the 


252  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE 

merchandise  entering  those  various  territories  is  from  the 
United  States,  and  a  very  large  proportion  of  their  products 
is  sent  to  the  United  States.  Of  the  merchandise  entering 
Porto  Rico,  about  84%  is  from  the  United  States,  and  of  that 
entering  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  about  80%,  while  about  83^2% 
of  the  shipments  from  Porto  Rico  and  99%  of  those  from 
Hawaii  are  sent  to  the  United  States.  In  the  case  of  the 
Philippine  Islands,  about  19%  of  their  imports  is  from  the 
United  States  and  about  48%  of  the  exports  is  to  the  United 
States. 

As  to  the  effect  of  these  systems  by  which  the  trade  of  the 
colonies  with  the  mother  country  is  sought  to  be  controlled 
by  tariff  laws. 

In  the  case  of  France,  the  share  of  the  imports  of  the  colon- 
ies drawn  from  the  mother  country  is  now,  as  already  indi- 
cated, about  64%  and  has  steadily  increased  under  the  ap- 
plication of  the  system  for  a  free  interchange  between  the 
mother  country  and  the  colonies,  having  averaged  in  the  period 
from  1887  to  1891  about  57%,  in  1896,  61%,  and  in  1904, 

64%. 

In  the  case  of  the  British  colonies,  which  have  given  to  mer- 
chandise from  the  mother  country  a  tariff  advantage  over 
that  from  foreign  countries,  it  is  not  yet  possible  to  fully  de- 
termine the  effect  as  to  the  share  which  the  mother  country 
supplies  of  the  imports  of  those  colonies.  In  the  case  of 
Canada  the  system  was  adopted  in  a  progressive  form  in 
1897  and  applied  in  the  full  degree  of  33%%  two  years  later; 
but  an  examination  of  the  trade  statistics  of  Canada  fails  to 
show  any  increase  in  the  percentage  which  Great  Britain  sup- 
plies of  the  imports  of  that  colony.  On  the  contrary,  the  per- 
centage of  the  imports  of  Canada  supplied  by  Great  Britain 
is  less  at  the  present  time  than  the  average  in  the  years  im- 
mediately preceding  the  application  of  the  reduced  tariff  rate 
on  merchandise  from  that  country.  In  the  case  of  New 
Zealand  and  the  Customs  Union  of  South  Africa,  the  new 
tariff  system  has  not  been  in  operation  a  sufficient  length  of 
time  to  determine,  or  even  indicate  definitely  its  effect  upon 
trade  with  the  mother  country.  It  seems  doubtful,  however, 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  253 

from  a  study  of  the  operations  of  the  system  in  Canada, 
whether  a  mere  reduction  of  33%%  in  the  rates  of  duty  on 
merchandise  from  the  mother  country  is  sufficient  to  materi- 
ally change  the  trend  of  trade  toward  the  mother  country  as 
against  the  nearer-by  markets  from  which  the  bulk  of  Canada's 
imports  are  drawn,  namely,  those  of  the  United  States. 

It  seems  quite  apparent  that  the  system  adopted  in  France 
and  the  United  States  of  an  extension  of  the  tariff  of  the 
governing  country  to  the  governed  territory  under  whatever 
name  has  been  followed  by  a  great  increase  in  the  commercial 
inter-relationship  between  the  mother  country  and  the  governed 
territory.  Not  only  has  there  been  a  great  increase  in  the 
share  of  this  trade  enjoyed  by  the  governing  country,  but  also 
a  marked  increase  in  the  total  commerce  of  the  governed  ter- 
ritories, due  largely  to  the  willingness  of  capital  from  the 
governing  country  to  develop  new  industries  in  the  governed 
territory  to  which  a  stable  government  and  reliable  markets 
are  thus  promised.  In  the  case  of  Porto  Rico  the  total  foreign 
commerce  has  doubled  in  value  since  annexation  to  the  United 
States,  and  in  the  case  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  the  com- 
mercial development  dates  from  the  adoption  of  the  reciprocity 
treaty  which  assured  freedom  of  interchange  with  the  United 
States,  but  shows  also  a  marked  increase  since  actual  an- 
nexation. 

Whether  the  system  adopted  by  France  and  the  United 
States,  of  extending  the  tariff  of  the  governing  country  to  the 
governed  territory  is  the  best  that  could  be  adopted  is  a  ques- 
tion to  be  determined  by  further  study  and  experiment.  The 
tariffs  in  question  were  constructed  with  a  view  to  conditions 
in  manufacturing  countries  located  in  the  temperate  zone,  and 
whether  they  are  completely  suited  to  all  conditions  of  a  non- 
manufacturing  people  located  in  tropical  countries  may  be  a 
question  worthy  of  future  consideration.  Possibly  further 
experience  may  suggest  the  advisability  of  constructing  individ- 
ual tariffs  especially  suited  to  conditions  in  each  of  these 
tropical  communities,  but  continuing  to  provide  in  all  cases 
for  absolute  freedom  of  interchange  between  them  and  the 
governing  country. 


AMERICAN  POLITICAL  SCIENCE  ASSOCIATION 
SECTION  ON  COMPARATIVE  LEGISLATION. 

REPORT. 

During  the  last  year,  largely  through  the  efforts  of  Dr. 
George  Winfield  Scott,  of  the  Law  Library  of  Congress  and 
the  Supreme  Court,  there  was  an  appropriation  made  by  Con- 
gress to  prepare  a  classification  scheme  for  a  detailed  subject 
index  of  the  general  public  law  found  in  the  statutes,  treaties 
and  proclamations  in  the  United  States  since  the  foundation 
of  the  Government.  This  matter  was  put  into  the  hands  of 
Dr.  Scott,  who,  with  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Middleton  G. 
Beaman  and  Mr.  Joseph  A.  Beck,  has  prepared  such  a  scheme, 
consisting  of  some  eight  hundred  quarto  pages.  It  consists 
of  a  tentative  list  of  headings  and  sub-headings  which  form 
"  the  framework  or  skeleton  on  which  will  be  subjoined  at 
the  appropriate  points  the  entries  or  brief  descriptions  of  the 
innumerable  subjects  of  law  in  the  40,000  pages  of  Statutes 
and  Treaties." 

Dr.  Scott  is  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Classifica- 
tion. This  classification  scheme  has  now  been  submitted  to 
many  experts  throughout  the  country  for  their  criticism. 
Congress  has  continued  this  appropriation  for  another  year, 
and  it  is  hoped  will  support  the  work  regularly  so  that  this 
work  can  be  successfully  carried  out.  If  this  is  done, 
this  classification  scheme  will  form  a  most  useful  basis  for  the 
classification  of  the  statutes  of  the  various  states  and  coun- 
tries, and  will  thus  be  a  step  taken  toward  indexing  compara- 
tive legislation  which  has  been  so  often  advocated. 

The  credit  for  carrying  this  work  on  should  be  given  to 
Dr.  Scott,  who  has  worked  independently  in  this  regard  rather 
than  as  a  member  of  a  committee. 

At  the  meeting  in  Providence  it  was  decided  to  reorganize 
the  committees  of  the  section.  Dr.  Scott  was  reappointed  as 
chairman  of  the  committee  on  Classification,  Dr.  Albert  Shaw 

(254) 


AMERICAN    POLITICAL   SCIENCE   ASSOCIATION.  255 

as  chairman  of  the  committee  on  Ways  and  Means,  and  Mr. 
Charles  McCarthy  was  made  chairman  of  the  committee  on 
Bibliography.  These  committees  are  already  undertaking 
active  work  in  their  respective  lines.  It  is  expected  that  the 
section  next  year  will  be  able  to  present  a  report  of  definite 
work  done,  and  perhaps  to  provide  for  a  part  of  the  program 
at  the  meeting  of  the  Association. 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Anderson,  L.  A.,  Discussion  of  Regulation  of  Life  Insurance  Com- 
panies     u  i 

Austin,  O.  P.,  Address,  Commercial  Relations  between  Dependencies 
and  the  Governing  Country 

Bigelow,  Poukney,  Discussion  of  the  Need  of  a  Scientific  Study  of 
Colonial  Problems j  j  i 

Chad  wick,  Admiral  F.  E.,  Address,  The  Newport  Charter 58 

Cleveland,  F.  A.,  Discussion  of  Regulation  of  Life  Insurance  Com- 
panies    143 

Colonial   Problems,  The  Need  of  a  Scientific  Study  of,  Address  by 
Alleyne  Ireland 210 

Commercial  Relations  ibetween  Dependencies  and  the  Governing  Coun- 
try. Address  by  O.  P.  Austin 

Comparative  Legislation,  Report  of  Section  on 254 

Constitution  of  the  Association 5 

Constitution  of  the  United  States  as  Modified  by  the  Civil  War,  Ad- 
dress by  Wm.  B.  Weeden 67 

Council,  Meetings  of  the .     H 

Dependencies,  Some  Effects  of,  upon  the  People  of  the  United  States, 
Address  -by  Henry  C.  Morris 194 

Dependencies,  Commercial  Relations  between,  and  the  Governing  Coun- 
try, Address  by  O.  P.  Austin 

Geneva  Convention,  The  Revision  of  the.  Address  by  Rear  Admiral 
C.  S.  Sperry 33 

Government  of  Insurance  Companies.  Address  by  Maurice  H.  Robin- 
son   .  80 

Helping  to  Govern  India.  Address  by  Charles  Johnston .   169 

W  Doctrine  of  the  State  of  Nature.  Address  by  Charles  Edward 
Merriam 1 5 ' 

Hoffman,  Frederick  L.,  Discussion  of  the  Regulation  of  Life  Insurance 

Companies 141 

ack,  Frank  E.,  Discussion  of  the  Regulation  of  Life   Insur.v 

Companies IJ9 

Helping  to  Govern.  Address  by  Charles  Johnston. . 
iraoce  Companies.  Government  of,  Address  by  Maurice  H.  Robin- 
son 

Ireland,  Affeyae,  Address.  The  Need  of  a  Scientific  Study  of  Colonial 
Problems...  210 

Johnson,  Wm.  (*..  Address,  Some  Observations  Concerning  the  Prin- 
ciples wWch  should  Govern  the   Regulation  of   I.-  .nice 
Companies..  9$ 
Discussion  of 


258  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Johnston,  Charles,  Address,  Helping  to  Govern  India 169 

Jones,  Chester  Lloyd,  Address,  The  Spanish  Administration  of  Philip- 
pine Commerce 180 

Life  Insurance  Companies,  Some  Observations  Concerning  the  Princi- 
ples -which  should  Govern  the  Regulation  of,  Address  iby  Wm.  C. 

Johnson 96 

Members  of  the  Association,  List  of 9 

Merriam,  Charles  -Ed-ward,  Address,  Hobbes'  Doctrine  of  'the  State 

of  Nature 151 

Morris,  Henry  C.,  Address,  Some  Effects  of  Outlying  Dependencies 

upon  the  People  of  the  United  States 194 

Xeed  of  a  Scientific  Study  of  Colonial  Problems,  Address  by  Alleyne 

Ireland 210 

Newport  Charter,  Addires-s  'by  Admiral  F.  E,  Chadwick 58 

Officers  of  the  Association 

for  1906 7 

for  1907 8 

Philippine   Commerce,  The   Spanish    Administration   of,   Address  by 

Chester  Lloyd  Jones 180 

Police  Administration,  Report  of  Committee  on  Proposed  Investiga- 
tion of 23 

Program  of  the  Third  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Association. 29 

Question  of  Terminology,  Address  (by  Alpheus  H.  Snow 224 

Revision  of  the  Geneva  Convention,  Address  toy  Rear  Admiral  C.  S. 

Sperry 33 

Radicalism  and  Reform,  Address  by  James  E.  Shea 158 

Robinson,  Maurice  H.,  Address,  Government  of  Insurance  Companies.    80 

Secretary's  Report 21 

Shea,  James  E.,  Address,  Radicalism  and  Reform 158 

Snow,  Alpheus  H.,  Address,  The  Question  of  Terminology 224 

Some  Observations  Concerning  the  Principles  which  should  Govern 
the  Regulation  of  Life  Insurance  Companies,  Address  by  Wm.  C. 

Johnson 96 

Spanish  Administration  of  Philippine  Commerce,  Address  by  Chester 

Lloyd  Jones 180 

Sperry,  Rear  Admiral   C.  S.,  Address,  The  Revision  of  the  Geneva 

Convention 33 

Taylor,  W.  G.  Langworthy,  Discussion  of  the  Regulation  of  Life  Insur- 
ance Companies 133 

Terminology,  The  Question  of,  Address  by  Alpheus  H.  Snow 224 

Treasurer's  Report 19 

Weeden,  Wm.  B.,  Address,  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  as 
Modified  by  the  Civil  War 67 


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