1. The progress of industry is compelling greater social contact and more use of the agencies of government. The numerous exemplifications of this general statement that have been met in the course of this study have a common cause. In simple conditions of industry, where most of the productive energies were given to securing the necessities of life, the struggle of men was with nature. Social relations then were simple and crude, such as those of chattel slavery. Now, most men get their livelihood from their bargains with other men. The relations of men with nature now are fewer, and less close; the relations of men with men are more numerous and complex. Efficient coöperation is a factor in production. Right social relations are more essential to industry than a fertile soil.
The practical limits of legislative reform
The social institutions of any community are its answer, expressed in human consciousness and in formal laws, to this difficult problem of living together. Laws and ways for regulating industry may be good or bad. The good laws are those in harmony with human nature, giving the best motives for work and the greatest happiness both in the effort and in its reward. The merit of laws, therefore, is relative to human nature; those good for one kind of citizens may be bad for another. Men cannot be legislated into honesty without limit. The best that is possible is to enact laws that encourage the best in men as they are. A dishonest community neither has, nor is capable of choosing, men honest enough to supervise the others. Society cannot, by any amount of tugging and pulling on legislative boot-straps, lift itself above its own moral plane. But though the change in formal law cannot far precede, it may lag behind and retard, social progress. Law tardily adjusted to social needs tempts and corrupts men. A time has never been when a higher wisdom could not have corrected some ancient grievance, have leveled some unmerited inequality, and, by making laws as good as men were capable of administering at the moment, have freed their energies for further advances. It is only a spirit of moderate expectation that will not be cast down by the results of legal "reforms." Hence it cannot be hoped that abuses will not appear in the attempts to regulate private industry. Fallible men make mistakes and commit injustice, sometimes greater than that which they are seeking to prevent.
Local selfishness in industrial legislation
2. Legislative interference with industry presents temptations to community selfishness to misuse social legislation. Community greed is not more lovely than individual greed. Many a citizen holds up a high standard for the public official and bewails the corruptions of politics when the legislator votes for his own interest instead of for his constituents' interests. Such a citizen rarely reflects that the responsibility for many legislative abuses comes back to the community and to the individual voter. Can the water rise higher than its source? Is it a high conception of a representative's duty that he should out-talk, outwit, and out-vote his fellow-representatives, to get "a graft" for the men who elect him? In many communities, the one public question of importance is tariff legislation in favor of the local industries. This selfish issue bribes the electorate, and blinds it and its legislator to every question of the general welfare. A great industrial commonwealth steeps its public life in corruption when its voters sell their political birthright for a duty on iron. Many congressmen are so burdened with the task of securing some public expenditure in their district to help their constituents that they have little thought and less interest to give to larger public questions. If a local improvement will furnish labor and increase the value of surrounding property, though it is most uneconomic for the general community, the representative is expected to labor hard to secure it. Many citizens see little harm in "log-rolling" by the legislator,—that is, in his voting for a law without merit in order to get another law that his constituents want. The guilt of this worst form of bribery comes back to the community that forces its representatives to such a course, sinking public morality to a lower level.
Political corruption in industrial legislation
3. The power of the legislature to affect private fortunes presents strong temptations to public representatives. That the legislator is so often true to a high standard of public duty, goes to illustrate the familiar truth that the individual moral code is better than that of communities. That some individuals betray their trust is less surprising. The Credit-Mobilier scandal, in connection with legislation in aid of the Union Pacific Railroad, implicated many congressmen. A few years ago, in one of the greatest states, it was discovered that an innocent-looking bill, relating to the rights of property-owners on streams, practically involved the gift, to a ring of men, of a quarter of a billion dollars' worth of coal-lands, lying under the navigable streams, and belonging to the state. Such temptations for wealth-getting are too great for men selected solely for their ability to obtain offices and pensions for political supporters, and to secure class-legislation for reputable citizens. The power of the legislative bodies to grant franchises and to permit the use of public property to corporations, constantly gives opportunity for dishonesty and occasion for scandal in the larger cities. The histories of the granting of franchises in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, St. Louis, and many other municipalities, are full of black pages. Public duties are too heavy for the public integrity. Industrial power has grown faster than the civic conscience, and somehow the balance must be made even.
Heavy duties of the courts
4. The power of the courts and of executive officers in the interpreting and executing of laws governing business has become greater. With closer contact of men there is greater friction in social relations, and litigation increases. Fortunes turn on the result of a civil suit. While juries often are corrupt, yet it is remarkable how well the courts have kept their integrity in the midst of great temptations. Professional pride and the noble traditions of the English judiciary strengthen the individual's character on the bench, not infrequently transforming a dishonest lawyer into a just judge; but popular elections, selfish interests, and the social forces of wealth and ambition make the task at times too heavy.
Integrity needed in public officials