the Constitution. Their
spheres are limited, so that they can only legislate on certain subjects
and within certain lines; while finally the country has grown so fast,
the conditions of society have changed with such rapidity, that it has
been inherently difficult for lawmaking bodies to keep pace with the
increasing complexity of the social and industrial fabric.

If the limitations of space did not forbid, it would be interesting to
show how this fact, more than any other (and not any willingness to
leave loopholes for dishonesty) makes possible such offences as those
which, committed by certain financial institutions in New York, were the
immediate precipitating cause of the recent panic. Growth has been so
rapid that, with the best will in the world to erect safeguards against
malfeasance, weak spots in the barricades are, as it were, only
discovered after they have been taken advantage of. With the
preoccupation of the legislators stable doors are only found to be open
by the fact that the horses are already in the street.

But, after all has been said in extenuation, there remain many things in
American State laws for which one may find explanation but not much
excuse.

Reference has already been made to the entirely immoral attitude of many
of the State legislatures towards corporations, especially towards
railway companies; and in some of the Western States prejudice against
accumulated wealth is so strong that it is practically impossible for a
rich man or corporation to get a verdict against a poor man. It would
be easy to cite cases from one's personal experience wherein jurors have
frankly explained their rendering of a verdict in obvious contradiction
of the weight of evidence, by the mere statement that the losing party
"could stand it" while the other could not. Of a piece with this is a
class of legislation which has been abundant in Western States, where
the legislators as well as most of the residents of the States have been
poor, giving extraordinary advantages to debtors and making the
collection of debts practically impossible. In some cases such
legislation has defeated itself by compelling capitalists to refuse to
invest, and wholesale traders to refuse to give credit, inside the
State.

Yet another source of corruption in legislation is to be found in the
mere numerousness of the States themselves. It may obviously inure to
the advantage of the revenues of a particular State to be especially