foes of
the great private monopolies were now forced to recognize how
invaluable and indispensable had been their office in educating the
people up to the point of assuming control of their own business. Fifty
years before, the consolidation of the industries of the country under
national control would have seemed a very daring experiment 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 6

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 an