by an indifference as to the condition of the schools for the Negroes, let us say, or the enforcement of compulsory education laws. Chinese gambling joints are often raided while the open gambling in the political clubs of the city is ignored. As von Ihering pointed out years ago there is a direct relationship between the general economic and social conditions and the crimes most severely punished. 66 Every state punishes those crimes most severely which threaten its own peculiar condition of existence, while it allows a moderation to prevail in regard to other crimes which, not unfrequently, presents a very striking contrast to its severity as against the former. A theocracy brands blasphemy and idolatry as crimes deserving of death, while it looks on a boundary violation as a mere misdemeanor. (Mosaic Law.) The agricultural state, on the other hand, visits the latter with the severest punishment, while it lets the blasphemer go with the lightest punishment. (Old Roman Law.) The commercial state punishes most severely the uttering of false coin; the military state, insubordination and breach of official duty; the absolute state, high treason; the republic, the striving after regal power; and they all manifest a severity in these points which contrasts greatly with the manner in which they punish other crimes. In short, the reaction of the feeling of legal right, both of states and individuals, is most violent when they feel themselves threatened in the conditions of existence peculiar to them.' 99 10 (Old Roman Law.) A second test of society is the protection it affords to the lives and bodies of its members. In older times this was largely a question of defense against external enemies. 10 VON IHERING, R. Struggle for Law, pp. 45–46. In the great nations of today it is more usually a question of protection against inner enemies. In the United States there are yearly some million and a half deaths of which experts say at least one-third are unnecessary with present knowledge. From the social standpoint the death-rate is perhaps the least of the evils involved. For every death there are many cases of sickness and preceding most deaths is a period of illness. The resulting burden on the wage-earner and the community is terrific. Preventable sickness and death involve the upset of family life, the dropping out of school of many children, the neglect of others because the surviving members have to go to work, all of which results in the formation of shiftless and anti-social habits whose final cost cannot be estimated. A third test is in the training of the children that they may be prepared to maintain the society when they are grown. If proper facilities are not provided, if the training is not compulsory and not thorough, no one can expect steady social advance or even the maintenance of present standards. Children of primitive societies easily saw the reasons for the standards adopted since most of them turned on methods of obtaining a livelihood. In civilized communities the sense of relationship is lost and the child must accept the verdict of adults that the things taught will be found of ultimate value. Where this is not true or where it is not accepted the educational program is defective to say the least. A fourth test lies in the elimination of the unfit. The meager surplus of primitive man often left him no alternative but the destruction of those no longer able to do their share, whether as a result of sickness, accident, or design. Civilized man, who has come after ages of struggle to the acceptance of a belief in the sacredness of human life, may well hesitate to jeopardize that ideal by the ruthless sacrifice of weaklings. Furthermore, such a program would turn against society many of the friends and relatives of those to be sacrificed. Above all else it is no longer necessary, for now our surplus is great enough so that their lives can be spared without undue sacrifice on the part of the rest. Moreover we may perhaps learn from our efforts to care for the afflicted and to cure them, how to avoid certain of the troubles by a change of habits and to deal with the normal to greater advantage; and may develop our altruistic instincts as well. This does not mean that we should tolerate the unfit in the ranks of parents, nor in the ranks of labor, thus reducing our standard and the speed of the group, nor in the ordinary social groups where their presence would give offense. Rather it implies that we devise for each type some suitable retreat where they may be well cared for at moderate cost. The great truth we must learn is that they must be eliminated from ordinary pursuits of everyday life or they will threaten our very existence. The fifth and perhaps the crucial test concerns the power of readjusting institutions and programs to meet changing conditions of life. On all sides one can see the survival of old standards, old methods, old ideals, which seem to have little to do with present conditions of life. For illustration, our public school system runs merrily on, every train on the road being labeled "This way to the College," though as a matter of fact nearly 97 per cent of the trains are empty when the high school station is passed. We teach the children the glories of the ancestors who fought for freedom from Great Britain and tell them also of the duty we owe to the poor It is right at this point that belief and knowledge, emotion and intellect, have always had their fiercest fights. One need not be surprised at this. Here is the parting of the ways. The defenders of the old order make their last stand, sincere in their belief that the suggested change spells disaster; convinced, and not always without reason, that the protagonists of the new order do not know what the results thereof will be. The poet may have the faith and inspiration to sing: "The old order changeth, yielding place to new, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." But the average man is skeptical and hesitates about leaving this world even when convinced that heaven is ready for him just across the river. The truth is then that in every society there is almost certain to come a period of crystallization of institutions when they cease to meet the real, vital needs of the people. This result may come from many causes. Inherited wealth may remove the necessity of securing constant support from year to year from those whom they serve. Under such conditions the managers become more and more indifferent to popular desires and are likely to be more interested in maintaining traditional programs than in meeting new issues. Again the management may fall into limited groups and descend generation after generation as a closed corporation. Regardless of the intentions of the managers, there is little likelihood that they will know or understand changed conditions and hence will not provide for them. Again, men may be kept in con trol long after the active constructive period of their lives has passed, and only when the test comes are their shortcomings revealed. The wholesale replacement of generals in the French army after the outbreak of the present war is a case in point. Most to be feared of all dangers is perhaps the change of attitude on the part of the people who come to revere an institution to such an extent that it is regarded as an end in itself. Blind devotion inevitably bodes disaster which may come in two ways. There may be such power manifested by the institution that all efforts to remodel it or to escape its penalties may be vain. Its power remains but its source of strength is destroyed. Sooner or later an explosion from within results or an outside invader reveals the essential rottenness of the situation. A vast nation of enormous inherent power must bow to the wishes of a handful of Japanese or lease territory to Germany or to England because her institutions were devised to cope with the world of ages gone. Until the outside pressure comes the essential weakness may not be apparent, and a deadly caste system may arise as in India, where for ages things go on as they did in older days. Decay may be checked or concealed but so are progress and development. That which was good has become the enemy of the better. The truth is that man is likely to forget that he lives in a world of change. No matter how satisfied he is with present conditions or with present forms of institutions he must prepare for the inevitable. Assume if you please that a given people has reached an ideal state and that justice and satisfaction are achieved. Does not the history of the world show that sooner or later an outside people, ambitious and energetic, willing to fight and sacrifice, are likely to enter this fool's paradise and |