against
an officer. All such questions are heard and settled without appeal by
a single judge, three judges being required only in graver cases. The
efficiency of industry requires the strictest discipline in the army of
labor, but the claim of the workman to just and considerate treatment
is backed by the whole power of the nation. The officer commands and
the private obeys, but no officer is so high that he would dare display
an overbearing manner toward a workman of the lowest class. As for
churlishness or rudeness by an official of any sort, in his relations
to the public, not one among minor offenses is more sure of a prompt
penalty than this. Not only justice but civility is enforced by our
judges in all sorts of intercourse. No value of service is accepted as
a set-off to boorish or offensive manners."

It occurred to me, as Dr. Leete was speaking, that in all his talk I
had heard much of the nation and nothing of the state governments. Had
the organization of the nation as an industrial unit done away with the
states? I asked.

"Necessarily," he replied. "The state governments would have interfered
with the control and discipline of the industrial army, which, of
course, required to be central and uniform. Even if the state
governments had not become inconvenient for other reasons, they were
rendered superfluous by the prodigious simplification in the task of
government since your day. Almost the sole function of the
administration now is that of directing the industries of the country.
Most of the purposes for which governments formerly existed no longer
remain to be subserved. We have no army or navy, and no military
organization. We have no departments of state or treasury, no excise or
revenue services, no taxes or tax collectors. The only function proper
of government, as known to you, which still remains, is the judiciary
and police system. I have already explained to you how simple is our
judicial system as compared with your huge and complex machine. Of
course the same absence of crime and temptation to it, which make the
duties of judges so light, reduces the number and duties of the police
to a minimum."

"But with no state legislatures, and Congress meeting only once in five
years, how do you get your legislation done?"

"We have no legislation," replied Dr. Leete, "that is, next to none. It
is rarely that Congress, even when it meets, considers any new laws of
consequence, and then it only has p