more, there is the inventiveness which,
stimulated by the need for economizing labour, has been so wisely
fostered. Among us in England, there are many foolish people who, while
thinking that a man who toils with his hands has an equitable claim to
the product, and if he has special skill may rightly have the advantage
of it, also hold that if a man toils with his brain, perhaps for years,
and, uniting genius with perseverance, evolves some valuable invention,
the public may rightly claim the benefit. The Americans have been more
far-seeing. The enormous museum of patents which I saw at Washington is
significant of the attention paid to inventors' claims; and the nation
profits immensely from having in this direction (though not in all
others) recognized property in mental products. Beyond question, in
respect of mechanical appliances the Americans are ahead of all nations.
If along with your material progress there went equal progress of a
higher kind, there would remain nothing to be wished.

That is an ambiguous qualification. What do you mean by it?

You will understand me when I tell you what I was thinking the other
day. After pondering over what I have seen of your vast manufacturing
and trading establishments, the rush of traffic in your street-cars and
elevated railways, your gigantic hotels and Fifth Avenue palaces, I was
suddenly reminded of the Italian Republics of the Middle Ages; and
recalled the fact that while there was growing up in them great
commercial activity, a development of the arts which made them the envy
of Europe, and a building of princely mansions which continue to be the
admiration of travellers, their people were gradually losing their
freedom.

Do you mean this as a suggestion that we are doing the like?

It seems to me that you are. You retain the forms of freedom; but, so
far as I can gather, there has been a considerable loss of the
substance. It is true that those who rule you do not do it by means of
retainers armed with swords; but they do it through regiments of men
armed with voting papers, who obey the word of command as loyally as did
the dependants of the old feudal nobles, and who thus enable their
leaders to override the general will, and make the community submit to
their exactions as effectually as their prototypes of old. It is
doubtless true that each of your citizens votes for the candidate he
chooses for this or that office, from President downwards; but his hand
i