to the most sanguine. But by a series of object lessons,
seen and studied by all men, the great corporations had taught the
people an entirely new set of ideas on this subject. They had seen for
many years syndicates handling revenues greater than those of states,
and directing the labors of hundreds of thousands of men with an
efficiency and economy unattainable in smaller operations. It had come
to be recognized as an axiom that the larger the business the simpler
the principles that can be applied to it; that, as the machine is
truer than the hand, so the system, which in a great concern does the
work of the master's eye in a small business, turns out more accurate
results. Thus it came about that, thanks to the corporations
themselves, when it was proposed that the nation should assume their
functions, the suggestion implied nothing which seemed impracticable
even to the timid. To be sure it was a step beyond any yet taken, a
broader generalization, but the very fact that the nation would be the
sole corporation in the field would, it was seen, relieve the
undertaking of many difficulties with which the partial monopolies had
contended."

CHAPTER VI.

Dr. Leete ceased speaking, and I remained silent, endeavoring to form
some general conception of the changes in the arrangements of society
implied in the tremendous revolution which he had described.

Finally I said, "The idea of such an extension of the functions of
government is, to say the least, rather overwhelming."

"Extension!" he repeated, "where is the extension?"

"In my day," I replied, "it was considered that the proper functions
of government, strictly speaking, were limited to keeping the peace
and defending the people against the public enemy, that is, to the
military and police powers."

"And, in heaven's name, who are the public enemies?" exclaimed Dr.
Leete. "Are they France, England, Germany, or hunger, cold, and
nakedness? In your day governments were accustomed, on the slightest
international misunderstanding, to seize upon the bodies of citizens
and deliver them over by hundreds of thousands to death and
mutilation, wasting their treasures the while like water; and all this
oftenest for no imaginable profit to the victims. We have no wars
now, and our governments no war powers, but in order to protect every
citizen against hunger, cold, and nakedness, and provide for all his
physical and mental needs, the function is assumed of dir