visions of such doubtful validity that there is at least the chance that it will be held unconstitutional by the courts; when legislators are honest this dependence upon the courts promotes carelessness and "slapdashery." Rather than give an act that careful consideration which its importance demands, the legislature takes chances that it will stand the scrutiny of the court; if it does, "slapdashery" is vindicated; if not, the work can be done over again. Again, the light esteem in which law is held is to a large extent the consequence of the terrific pace under which a poor, straggling, and sparsely populated country of enormous area has developed into one of the richest and largest in population. American civilization is the product of forced draft, of speeding the engine up to its highest capacity, of driving ahead with almost demoniacal energy, of filling an entire people with the almost insane idea that everything must be done to-day because tomorrow will be too late; and necessity was to some extent responsible for this restless and nervous energy. Great stretches of country must be opened up and the refinements of civilization and modern 1 1 "The rush, the fierce day-and-night strain, the tenement homes left desolate or worse: all this, as in other parts of America's race, is ‘all in the game.' The game that grows year by year more vast and intense and inspiring. The huge industrial game of the world, with America far in the lead. America working the swiftest, and straining each nerve to keep up with despotic machines of steel that she herself has created. And laughing at the damage." Everybody's Magazine, August, 1908. progress brought to the pioneer and the settler. When there were railways to be built, for instance, no one was too particular about the niceties of scrupulous financing; the main thing was to link the outpost with the centre for the benefit of both; and the advantages of railway communication instead of the slow-moving and uncertain wagon or boat were so apparent that a people possessed with the spirit of the gambler were willing to take great chances, to sanction things that prudence knew to be dangerous, and to delude themselves into believing that later the evil could be corrected. The buccaneer, the gentleman adventurer, the pirate, the slave-trader of the seventeenth century-and the one so easily merged in the other that the man who held the King's commission, when not engaged on the King's business, thought it no disgrace to be about his own ventures, which were not too narrowly to be inquired into-pretypified in America the captains of industry who broke the wilderness on a grand scale and taught their countrymen to think in millions. Like their seventeenth-century prototypes, they were men of glowing imagination, fearless, unscrupulous, full of audacity, their finer feelings corrupted by the lust of gold. The Elizabethan adventurers risked money and life to discover unknown continents and become the possessors of their wealth, and in a day when there was no code of international law, and no public opinion to restrain passion or avarice, they were none too scru pulous in the methods they employed; and the only law they knew was the law they made for themselves. who was a The American financial buccaneer splendid type of man in his way, although his ways are no longer to be commended; and who served a purpose, although that same end can now be reached by other and more ethical means-saw the great opportunities that were open to him and was as unrestrained by fear of consequences or morality as Morgan or Kidd; -the one, beginning life as a pirate, received knighthood at the hands of Charles II and the appointment of deputy governor of Jamaica; the other, a merchant of integrity and with a reputation for shrewdness, commissioned by William III to chase the pirates off the sea, turned pirate himself and swung on the gallows. Just as nations at one time either encouraged piracy or at least countenanced it, and certain ports welcomed the pirate because he was "good for trade," spent his money freely, and paid double prices for everything without a murmur, so the American entrepreneur found few obstacles thrown in his way. He was a benefactor, he made the desert bloom, cities rose under his magic touch, industry flourished; he came with many professions of good faith, he wanted only the fair reward that his enterprise and his money were entitled to. It was the old story of the camel and the shepherd. Coming as suppliant, he ended as master, and the commu nity on whom he laid his iron hand was unable to dislodge him. The chapters dealing with the industrial development of America win admiration and excite disgust. The courage, the skill, the enterprise; the visualization of the future, the indifference with which men gambled with great stakes for a huge prize make magnificent reading; and the sordidness, the cupidity, and the dishonesty cannot be read without a thrill of righteous indignation. Yet the tale is no more sordid than that of corresponding periods in the social development of other nations. These chapters are as brutal, as savage, and as disgraceful as the history of piracy, with which I have compared them, when piracy was winked at because, by the simple ceremony of hauling down the Jolly Roger and running up the national colors, the freebooter was transformed into the privateer, which restored the outlaw to respectability and greatly increased a nation's naval strength. In the golden age of American commercial piracy, as in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when desperate men roamed the seas and it was more profitable to rob than it was to labor, force and cunning took the place of law, and the pirates of the sea as well as the pirates of the land were able to escape their just deserts by dividing their plunder with judges and governors. The bringing to America of a readymade civilization instead of a civilization that developed by slow and painful growth, as has been the case with every other people; the concentration of the strength of a nation on the taming and subjugation of a continent, which left them neither time nor opportunity for cultural development; the American childish envy of the older and more refined civilizations of other nations; the belief that the surest way for America to win respect in the eyes of the world was to become materially powerful, which turned the energy of every man in the direction of making money and stimulated commercial dishonesty; the ease with which money could be made if one were not overburdened with conscience; the general contentment and prosperity of the people, although they were the victims of dishonesty; and the American attitude of laissez-faire, that nothing matters so long as bills are paid and there is a surplus, - these things were some of the causes, in addition to those that have already been mentioned, to bring law into contempt, to make Americans regard law as an inconvenience to be evaded if it could be done with safety, and to make the man who was "smart" enough to break the law without being punished to be held in admiration for his cleverness and audacity. The lawyer, who in the past had defended the innocent or endeavored to secure justice for the unfortunate, was succeeded by the shrewd but tricky attorney, whose principal duty was to advise his client how to juggle with the law or to secure his acquittal by resorting to technicalities. Law became a farce. It no longer in |