The influence of war upon institutions, especially upon the form of the government, is also familiar to all students of history. Miss Addams, in her stimulating work on "Newer Ideals of Peace," attributes some of the faults of our municipal government to the survival of military ideals. Yet every historian knows how many institutions which make for liberty have indirectly been brought about by war. The Crusades, for instance, by drawing off and impoverishing the nobility, did much to further the development of municipal self-government in the Middle Ages. The power of the British House of Commons, the mother of modern representative assemblies, was doubtless increased by the need of money created by war. It was war which changed France from an empire into a republic; it was war which abolished slavery in the United States; while many important economic institutions, such as the establishment of a uniform system of currency in Germany and of a uniform bank note system in the United States, have been clearly traceable to the effects of

war.

The important point to consider now is not the purely theoretical one whether the good things which we owe to war might have been brought about in the past through some other agency. If we concede that some good things have come out of war, the more practical question is, can we devise any method by which we may still secure these blessings in the future without the rough and elemental forces which war liberates? Let us imagine, for instance, that through a sudden development of ethical sense, or through some other agency of superlative power, Europe had decided to beat its swords into plowshares at the Treaty of Vienna, when the cost and destructiveness of war were perhaps more evident and more felt than at any time in European history since the Thirty Years' War. We, of course, assume that civil war would, under these conditions, be considered quite as much an anachronism as international war. What would have happened? France would probably have remained a reactionary monarchy. In the place of a strong German empire, with its wonderful economic development, its uniform currency and customs houses, its beneficent laws for the improvement of the condition of the people, its diminishing death-rate due to better

sanitation, we might still have a loose collection of petty states, each with its small court, its own customs houses and taxes, its own system of currency and banking, its own policy with regard to highways, sanitation and industry. In the United States, leaving out of account altogether the accessions of territory brought about by the Mexican War, we should either have a country with slavery prevailing south of Mason and Dixon's line, or we should have had a peaceful separation of the States, instead of our Civil War, and the Southern Confederation existing as a state based upon slave labor. To take but a single example, that of Germany,—is there any power short of war or the threat of war which might have been set in motion to overcome the petty particularism of the small states, and to make possible these economic institutions, without which the rapidly increasing population could hardly be adequately supported?

These are cases which international arbitration cannot touch. Prussia, e. g., could not have asked a tribunal to decide that the other German states should unite with it to form an empire, and make its king the emperor ex officio. Some stronger power is necessary to bring about the adjustment of legal institutions to expanding economic demands, and under a system of international law which recognizes the independence of sovereignties, any small state may easily, by mere conservatism, thwart the legitimate demands of more progressive states for improved means of communication, for better sanitary conditions, or for a better form of government. Municipal law has provided for such cases of obstinacy on the part of the individual by the institution of the law of eminent domain. If a land-owner insists on blocking a railroad by demanding an exorbitant price for the right of way, or refusing to sell, he can be expropriated. The same principle applies to some other public enterprises, and a bill has even been introduced into the Connecticut legislature giving this right to electric companies. Just how far and in what cases the individual property rights may be thus subordinated to the interests of the general public must depend upon conditions, which vary from time to time according to the progress of invention, but some such subordination there must be in every modern state.

No such principle, however, is recognized in international law. Nothing but the old-fashioned application of force has thus far seemed sufficient to overcome the natural inertia of small and conservative states, and force them to adapt themselves to modern conditions of progress. It seems clear, therefore, that if ever the doors of the Temple of Janus are to be permanently closed, we must prepare ourselves to provide a substitute for the advantages which war in its rude and elemental way has hitherto conferred upon the world by arousing the lethargy of the conservative states, and giving those that are progressive an opportunity for expansion.

There must be not only an international police force, such as has been advocated by some of the speakers at the Peace Congress, but there must also be a kind of an international law of eminent domain, by which individual states may be prevented in an emergency from standing in the way of the progress demanded by others. For this we need not merely a court of arbitration, but literally a "parliament of man," a "federation of the world."

There is an inspiration in the very title of the Sage Foundation "to improve social and living conditions." A standard is set for future givers in the breadth and elasticity of the terms defining the purpose and methods of the trust. The ten millions of dollars given by Mrs. Russell Sage are entrusted to a board of trustees with apparently full power to use the income in any manner that may seem to them wise for the purpose indicated. The magnitude of the gift is impressive when we compare it with the sums devoted to other purposes. Exactly the same sum, for instance, was given by Mr. Carnegie to establish the Carnegie Institution of Washington, but this Institution embraces all knowledge as its province. The sum is larger than the entire property of our oldest universities a generation ago. Very wisely the statement issued by Mrs. Sage, enumerating the means to be used, begins with "research, publication, education," indicating the scientific and careful method which is to be pursued, though the statement also considers "the establishment and maintenance of charitable and beneficial activities, agencies and institutions, and the aid of any such activities, agencies and institutions already established."

This very breadth might lead many a well-meaning board of trustees into a policy which would dissipate the income of the fund in experiments, and so subdivide its uses as to make it ineffective. The character of the board of eight, however, which includes such men and women as Robert W. DeForest and Miss Helen Gould of New York, Daniel C. Gilman and John M. Glenn of Baltimore, is a sufficient guarantee that, for the present at least, the best thought that wisdom and experience can suggest will be applied to the administration of the trust. It is apparently the intention of the board to move slowly, and to get as much light as possible before doing anything. Indeed it would seem as if, before undertaking even an investigation, it would be well to ascertain what kind of investigation is likely to prove most fruitful. Fortunately, the field for investigation is broad enough to attract the most ambitious scholar. Though poverty, vice, and crime are familiar incidents of life, and have been for centuries, we still lack a really full, impartial, and comprehensive investigation into the causes of these evils. A valuable work would be done if such a statistical investigation, covering of necessity limited areas, but covering these carefully, and covering areas typical of different economic and social conditions, could be made. Indeed, some such investigation seems to be suggested as one of the very first things to be undertaken in the statement which has been published.

There is another important field of research which lies very near at hand, and which is still unworked. It would be very desirable to find out how much is expended every year in a given community for various charitable and philanthropic purposes, such as the care of the sick and of children, the help of the poor, provision for kindergartens, day nurseries, etc. While it is possible to ascertain how much is expended by the city, county, or State, for these purposes, there are few, if any, communities in which it is possible to state with accuracy how large an expenditure is made by the churches, philanthropic societies, and individuals. The casual almsgiving of one person to another are, of course, beyond the field of vision of the statistician, but it would be possible to ascertain pretty closely the amount of philanthropic expenditure made by organizations in a given city. If we could

once know more accurately the causes of ignorance, poverty, and vice, and find out what efforts are already being made to deal with them, we should have knowledge that would be of great value not only to the trustees of the Sage Foundation, but also to all potential givers.

One effect of this foundation, which has an immediate interest for our universities, should be mentioned. It can hardly fail to considerably increase the demand for trained economists. In this respect it is significant of the trend of events in our country. A generation ago there was a comparatively limited field for economic work, excepting in the teaching departments of our universities, and even in these there were comparatively few teachers below the rank of professor. Occasionally an economist like the late Francis A. Walker was put at the head of the Census Bureau, but even he was only borrowed from academic life, and returned to it as soon as the enumeration was completed. Now there is a steady demand for trained economists and sociologists entirely outside of the teaching profession. For some years the larger charity organization societies have chosen such men as their active secretaries; the social settlements have been glad to make use of them; the government is now demanding more and more such men for work in the Departments at Washington and for membership on various State commissions. The Carnegie Institution of Washington and the Sage Foundation have added to this demand, and will, we hope, in time be in a position to offer reasonable and secure salaries to those who devote themselves to their work. Here is a rapidly growing field of activity, which should attract the best men in the academic world, and which at the same time puts a new responsibility upon the universities to supply the talent and training which these new careers demand.

The labor problems which are now troubling the government of France have more than a local interest, and involve broader issues than those raised by an ordinary strike for higher wages or shorter hours. Their significance can hardly be appreciatedexcept in the light of the development of the law of associations in France.