f Confederation showed
that national moral suasion was not effective. History seems to prove
that society needs a machinery of government able to legislate and
enforce its laws, and the tendency has been for a comparatively small
number of states to extend their authority over more and more of the
earth's surface. This has become possible through the maintenance of
efficient military forces and wise local administration, aided by
increasing ease of communication and transportation. Once it was a
question whether the United States could enforce its law as far away
as western Pennsylvania; now Great Britain bears unquestioned sway
over the antipodes. Many persons look forward to the time when the
people of all nations will unite in a universal state, with power to
enforce its will without resort to war.

330. =Why the State is Necessary.=--There are some persons, commonly
known as anarchists, who do not believe that government is necessary.
They would have human relations reduced to their lowest terms, and
then trust to human nature to behave itself properly. There are other
persons known as Socialists, who would have the people in their
collective capacity exercise a larger control than now over human
action. Neither of these classes represents the bulk of society.
Common sense and experience together seem to demand a government that
will exercise a reasonable control, and by reasonable is meant a
control that will preserve the best interests of all and make general
progress possible. The political function of the nation is both
coercive and directive. When we think of a state we naturally think of
the power that it possesses to make peace or war with foreign powers,
to keep order within the nation, to enforce its authority over any
individual or group that breaks the laws that it has made; but while
such power of control is essential and its exercise often spectacular,
it is paralleled by the directive power. There are many social
relations that need definition and much social conduct that needs
direction. A man and a woman live together and bring up a family of
children. Who is to determine their legal status, the terms of
marriage, the rights of parenthood, the claims of childhood, the
rights and obligations of the family as a part of the community? The
family accumulates property in lands, houses, and movable possessions.
Who will make the acquisition legal, insure property protection, and
provide legally for inheri