The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-06-27
SOME NEW BOOKS.
OR .'Extrn-Constitutional" Cow
eminent.

Last year President ARTHUR TWIN
iNs HApLEY of Yale lectured at OK
ford on Property and Democracy
and at the University OF Virginia on
Political Methods Old and New The
two courses are now published by the
Yale University Press as UHderCUr-
rents IN American Politics. The au-
thor apologies for the retention OF
some explanations which are un-
necessary for American readers" BIT:
the very simplicity of the statement
(. .sese familiar facts serves to give
N.m proper pace in the broad view
required in an address to people or
another nationality and easily but err
roneously assumed to be supereroga-
tory in speaking to Americans. Pos
sibly the explanations were less neces-
sary to oxford than to Yale. What
President Hadley hoes d~istinctively
in his papers on property rights IL
to emphasize the somewhat neglected
fact Of the aristocratic constitution OF
Colonial society: then to trace the de-
velopment of our existing democracy
to the recent "frst serious movement
toward State socialism, achieving a
purely objective synthesis Of nationa.
movement whose only novelty Is
the valuable one of fixing a perspec-
tive for the landscape through which
We move too often without clear o
seriousness of the nature of the region
about to he traversed and the rela-
tive advantages Of the various possible
routes.
The authors analysis Of his expose
ttan rttn. fhtC way ~('n'nnipl nrCan-
ization was essentially aristocratic."
This is better understood Of the South
than of the North and Middle COL
onies, but the freeho'ders of New Eng
land, though poorer than the planters
Of, nay. Virginia. were equally 'ex-
elusive and perhaps even more ''po-
litically arrogant" While the Dutch
in New York. the Quakers in Penn
sylvania and the Catholics who fol-
lowed Lord Baltimore to Maryland
were less bigotcd and into.erant than
the Puritans of New England. these
Colonies were engaged in trade. and
leadership in commercial enterprise
carried with IL dominant influence in
the direction and control of affairs"
instead. therefore, of such "a relig-
ious ~aristocracy of small farmers"
as New England had. there was in
the Middle Colonies a commercial
aristocracy" of traders no less influ-
entail than that of the planters in
the South.
The achievement of independence
made no immediate change in this
social constitution. Universal suf-
frage was not adopted. the property
qualifications for oficeho.ders were
very high, and party leadership was.
up to. say, 1870, still aristocratic. In
1890 the Revolutionary generation
gave way to one whose democratic
character is embodied and p~ersonifed
in Andrew Jackson. The days Of
seaboard nationality were past: over
the A~lleghanies lay a new country
OF unlimited resources Inc still, in a
pioneer tdemocratic) stage, where
States were forming without a Coo
NAL past to determine their course. The
change was social. not Industrial:
The small protection given to the rights
OF man, as compared with that which has
been accorded to the rights Of property
IL a salient feature In the early history
OF every American State-and sometimes
In It's later history also. While England
was developing a large and on the whole
highly beneficent body of factory acts the
United States was doing nothing. 1t Is
only forty years since the first effective
law regarding hours of labor was passed
,by the state of Massachusetts, limiting
the hours OF women and children to abou,
ten a day. and even this was regarded
as a piece of somewhat dangerous hui
manitarianism. AS late as 1855 the at
tempt to keep children out OF factories
until they were IL years old was consld
cred by many people a radical measure
OF Interference with economic freedom.
The nineteenth century presents the
striking spectacle of an intensely
democratic people living under a con.
stitutional government OF property
rights devised by the a%ristocratic So
ciety Of the eighteenth century. viii
that strange but happy state OF affairs
continue through this present cen.
fury? Hamilton's policy Of giving
home at a nominal price to every bona
fde settler secured the rights OF
property against legislative encroach.
ment. The new settler found it eas,
to get land. but hard to get capital
He lived on the natural resources oil
h land; the accumulation Of prop.
erty was slow. Each addition to tn.
capital of the community represented
a disproportionally large addition e
its productiveness. and the natura
tendency was to grant privileges tt
those who had capital to invest and L
remove arbitrary restrictions. Enter
prise was carried on by small invest
ors in association. Laws were passed
under which any group Of individ
uals could associate their capital fol
industrial enterprise and obtain tn,
privileges OF limited liability from tn,
State" Then was born the fear o
too powerful corporations. The Dart
mouth College case, 1919. and tn,
Fourteenth Amendment. 1868, con
tributed fortuitousiy and not at al
by intention to the shaping of tn,
modern economic situation. The de
struction OF the dominant power o
the large landholdcrs of the Soutl
and the civil war experience with de
preciated currency are pointed to a
factors in the weakening of the sta
billy Of property rights. Even in tn
nineteenth century American labo
Vas, compared with English labor. re
%r.srkapiy mobile. migratory. In Eng
and age were more nearly stand
ardized, in this country they wer
more openly competitive:
This Indicates the Fundamental reaso
why competition was viewed with so muc'
favor In the United States. II put a pre-
MUM ON economic efficiency. II tende
to give the direction Of Industrial analr
to the men who could obtain the larges
product with the smallest labor, Tn