ties do
not enter into inter-state commerce at all--except in those unusual
cases (as in New York) where certain parts of the economic municipal
body are situated in another state. They should be subject,
consequently, to municipal jurisdiction and only that. The city alone
has anything really important to gain or to lose from their proper or
improper treatment; and its legal responsibility should be as complete
as its economic localization is real.

There is no need of discussing in any detail the way in which a
municipal government which does enjoy the advantage of home rule and an
efficient organization can contribute to the work of national economic
and social reconstruction. Public opinion is tending to accept much more
advanced ideas in this field of municipal reform than it is in any other
part of the political battle-field. Experiments are already being tried,
looking in the direction of an increasingly responsible municipal
organization, and an increasing assumption by the city of economic and
social functions. Numerous books are being written on various aspects of
the movement, which is showing the utmost vitality and is constantly
making progress in the right direction. In all probability, the American
city will become in the near future the most fruitful field for
economically and socially constructive experimentation; and the effect
of the example set therein will have a beneficially reactive effect upon
both state and Federal politics. The benefits which the city governments
can slowly accomplish within their own jurisdiction are considerable.
They do not, indeed, constitute the exclusive "Hope of Democracy,"
because the ultimate democratic hope depends on the fulfillment of
national responsibilities; and they cannot deal effectively with certain
of the fundamental social questions. But by taking advantage of its
economic opportunities, the American city can gradually diminish the
economic stress within its own jurisdiction. It has unique chance of
appropriating for the local community those sources of economic value
which are created by the community, and it has an equally unique
opportunity of spending the money so obtained for the amelioration of
the sanitary, if not of the fundamental economic and social, condition
of the poorer people.

There is, finally, one fundamental national problem with which the state
governments, no matter to what extent they may be liberated and
invigorated, are wholly inco