remains unchanged. Its earning capacities, surroundings, facilities, and opportunities are neither increased nor diminished. The normal rates at which business and profits are at the maximum continue as before. Wherever there is dishonest and extravagant management, the investor suffers; but the public escapes, except indirectly. If unreasonable popular prejudice were gratified to the extent that, by unfriendly legislation, these great corporations could be crushed, it would be found that scores of small owners would be ruined as often as one "millionaire." A large majority of the stock and bonds of these corporations is widely scattered among thousands of small holders, including even many widows and orphans. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been lost by investors, the benefit of which is now being realized by the public. The commercial importance of these farreaching systems is even excelled by their moral and political value in unifying all our diverse sections and interests. The highest order of executive talent is required for their successful management. The chimerical plan that the control of these vast interests should be assumed by the general government, and so become the sport of politicians, to be fought over every four years, is unworthy of serious consideration. Cheap and rapid transportation has created new commercial centres, and millions of worthless acres have not only been transformed into productive farms, but have practically been moved a thousand miles nearer to market. The "long-haul" business is entirely a thing of recent times. The food products of the great trans-Mississippi region are found in the European markets, through the practical annihilation of distance by the power of modern transportation. Art, science, and literature have all felt the quickening influence of this movement. Nothing since the invention of the printing press has so accelerated thought and investigation. With the aid of steam and electricity a nation becomes a neighborhood, and the pulsations of news, politics, morals, and religion are felt to the extremities. Mind attains increased preponderance over matter, the natural way of advancement is opened, and a new Renaissance is ushered in. By Natural Law, physical, mental, and moral attainment depend upon man's grasp and utilization of the forces with which nature's storehouse is overflowing. "Let a man have accurate perceptions. Let him, if he have hands, handle; if eyes, measure and discriminate; let him accept and hive every fact of chemistry, natural history, and economics; the more he has, the less is he willing to spare any one. Time is always bringing the occasions that disclose their value. Some wisdom comes out of every natural and innocent action. The application of means to ends insures victory and the songs of victory, not less in a farm or a shop than in the tactics of party or of war. One might find argument for optimism in the abundant flow of this saccharine element of pleasure in every suburb and extremity of the good world. Let a man keep the law and his way will be strewn with satisfactions." EMERSON. any law "Stretch'd on the rack of a too easy chair, POPE. XXIII. INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. While Natural Law is WE are living in a peculiar era. unchangeable, its multiform applications are ever shifting. Old customs, conditions, and methods of thought are being superseded. The necessity for a readjustment is nowhere more marked than in the department of education. Former methods of training for active life require revision, almost revolution, in order that they may satisfy modern requirements. Through changed conditions and the antagonism of trade unions, the apprentice system, once so universal, is almost utterly extinct, and the rising generation is brought face to face with serious problems. The conventional intellectual education of American youth is clearly inadequate to meet present social and economic demands. The regular professions, including the law, medicine, and theology and even journalism and teaching are already overcrowded and constantly becoming more so. American young men are too numerous to find occupation in the purely intellectual professions, and wider opportunities must be afforded. The prevalent idea, especially among the well-to-do classes, that their sons must employ their talents within this select and limited range, must be modified, else overcrowding, inefficiency, and idleness will be prevalent and disastrous. Turning to other and more available pursuits, we find that their exercise and emoluments are rapidly slipping away from native-born youth and being grasped by those of foreign birth and training. A plain statement of the facts |