usually exercised in favor of the professional
politician. If they do not constitute a positive weakness in the system
of local government, they are certainly far from constituting a source
of strength; and considering the extent to which our government is a
government of judges, they should exercise a far more beneficent
influence than they do.

Neither are the administrative and legislative responsibilities of the
states redeemed with any more success. The tax systems of the several
states are in a chaotic condition. Their basis consists of the old
property tax, which under its application to modern conditions has
become both unjust and unproductive, but which the state legislatures
seem to be wholly incapable of either abandoning or properly
transforming. In the matter of education the states have been, except in
the South, liberal; but they have not been as intelligent and
well-informed as they have been well-intentioned. The educational system
of the country is not only chaotic, but it is very imperfectly adapted
to the needs of an industrial and agricultural democracy. Finally, if
the legislatures of the several states have ever done anything to
increase respect for the wisdom and conservatism of American
representative government, it is certainly hard to discover indications
thereof. The financial and economic legislation of the states has
usually shown incompetence and frequently dishonesty. They have
sometimes been ready to repudiate their debts. In their relations to the
corporations they have occupied the positions alternately of
blackmailers and creatures. They have been as ready to confiscate
private property as they have to confer on it excessive privileges. If
the word "law" means something less majestic and authoritative to
Americans than it should, the mass of trivial, contradictory, unwise,
ephemeral, and corrupt legislation passed by the state legislatures is
largely responsible.

No doubt a certain part of this failure of the state governments is
irremediable as long as existing standards of public and private
morality prevail; but most assuredly a certain part is the direct result
of unwise organization. American state governments have been corrupt and
inefficient largely because they have been organized for the benefit of
corrupt and inefficient men; and as long as they continue to be
organized on such a basis, no permanent or substantial improvement can
be expected. Moreover, any reorganization