en whose words exercise the most influence
in moulding the opinions and guiding the action of others, grows from
day to day. If that literature consisted mainly of bitter and empty
controversy, of the expression of mere opinions, the spinning of
plausible theories or clever presentation of interesting speculations,
it would not be necessary to trouble much about it; but so large a part
contains the statement of important facts or the results of serious
study and of the actual experience of those who are experts in the
special subjects of which they treat, that it is impossible to pass
lightly over what they write or say. There is about a large portion of
this literature an air of reality, an earnest desire to get to the
heart of a matter, to contribute to true knowledge of the various
subjects to which the writers have devoted their attention and to find a
practical solution of the problems involved. Sensationalism or mere
writing for effect is the exception, not the general characteristic of
what is thus being constantly published on various aspects of national
reconstruction.

It is inevitable, therefore, that in any attempt to treat the subject as
a whole some important suggestions will appear to have been overlooked
or neglected, and that valuable sources of information and useful
proposals will have escaped notice, while in other cases there will
appear to be repetition, even without acknowledgment of what has already
been said, and said better by others.

The justification for the attempt made in the following pages is that
there are many people who have not the time or inclination to follow up
special questions fully, but may be glad of a summary, and that a mere
sketch-plan of the whole ground to be covered, filled in here and there
in more detail, may have its use as a kind of bird's-eye view by which
the relations of a number of subjects to each other and the general
character of each may be seen.

For convenience of treatment and as an aid to memory the various
problems to be discussed are arranged under three heads; following the
old Victorian watchwords of the party which claimed to be
progressive--Peace, Retrenchment, Reform.

The policy once indicated by these terms may in many cases have been
discarded, and no doubt they were often used in a sense very different
from that in which they must serve in our classification. "Peace" and
"Retrenchment" have been used to cover a policy which by reducing the