were never contemplated either by the law or by our constitutions. The law, for instance, abolished imprisonment for debt, unless the debt was contracted fraudulently, and becomes what is known as a tort. Our judges, particularly those of the United States courts, override this plain mandate of the law with impunity. By the operation of this scheme of imprisonment for "contempt of court" the United States judges are in the habit of sending men to jail for debt. The scheme is worked in this manner. The judgment debtor — and in these days of blackmailing lawsuits, subornation of perjury, and "objections" to evidence, it frequently happens that the judgment debtor does not really owe the amount is seized in supplementary proceedings and forced into involuntary bankruptcy. The judge will order him to turn his property over to the judgment creditor, who may be or may not be a bona fide creditor. If the judgment debtor fails or refuses to turn over the property in question, or if the judge for any reason whatever is opposed to the man, or thinks he is concealing property, or wants to lock him up in jail on general principles, he will declare the man in "contempt of court" and send him to jail instanter, without trial, and for as long a period as he wishes.

Is not this a dangerous power? We have simply transferred the power to tyrannize over others from the feudal lords and petty despots to the United States judges.

VIII. UNWARRANTED USURPATION OF POWER BY THE COURTS

American courts habitually declare laws "unconstitutional" on the flimsiest of pretexts, and set them aside as invalid. This dangerous power has been abused in a manner and to a degree which may well challenge the most serious attention. A law which perhaps has received the widest general discussion, anterior to its passage, and has been carefully dissected by the legislature and the governor, or possibly by Congress and the President, is wiped out of existence by a court with a stroke of the pen. Indeed, this power is not alone exercised by the courts of last resort, but frequently a justice of the peace assumes the same high prerogative. It is evident that no court of inferior jurisdiction should be permitted to pass upon the constitutionality of any statute. But the abuse does not end here. The supreme courts, or courts of final jurisdiction, are in the habit of making most amazing rulings in this respect, apparently after only a superficial investigation of the question involved. If these courts only set aside laws which were oppressive or wrong or inequitable, or which were in fact in violation of the Constitution, the power thus exercised, if used with moderation and wisdom, would be wholesome; but unfortunately, with cynical disregard for the welfare of the community, they destroy many beneficial laws on pretexts which are often so preposterous that they suggest interested motives in the background. Moreover, the

courts are continually usurping the functions of the legislature by making laws themselves, and it must be said that some of the worst laws in the United States are judge-made. American writers are fond of asserting that the law is "the perfection of human reason," notwithstanding the contradictions which are being daily handed down by ignorant and illogical minds on the bench. Much of the heterogeneous mass of "judicial decisions" has never been expressed in the form of statute or otherwise by any legislative authority, but is confessedly the product of the judge or judges in the case. Moreover, our Constitution is being changed in a startling manner by judicial interpretation, without consent or protest on the part of the American people. The plain language of the American Constitution has been distorted out of all semblance of its original signification, and far-fetched meanings imported into its phrases. Many guaranties of the Constitution have been wholly disregarded by the courts, and the document itself as construed by the Supreme Court is wholly unlike in plan or purpose the Constitution bequeathed us by the forefathers.

The perverse inefficiency of the American judiciary constitutes the real menace to our national growth and development. It raises the vital question as to whether we are capable of governing colonies and dependencies and maintaining a semblance of law and order among them. Indeed, a still more important question is thrust upon us concerning our own national existence: Is not the inefficiency and debauchery of the American judiciary, in fostering perjury and in encouraging speculative lawsuits, mainly responsible for the widespread laxity of the public conscience? The fact that justice cannot be obtained in our courts, is not that in large measure responsible for the dishonesty so glaring in our political, social, and business life?

CHAPTER IX

IS THE UNITED STATES EQUAL TO THE TASK OF GOVERNING AND CIVILIZING LATIN AMERICA?

IN

N a discussion of the evanescent character of all things LatinAmerican it were well to devote some thought to the relatively temporary nature of our own works.

On the material side many of our great improvements will surely stand for generations. Such a work as the Chicago Drainage Canal will doubtless endure as long as the great Chinese Wall, which has already seen twenty-five centuries come and go. But how few such works there are! The pyramids date back surely more than four thousand years, and perhaps double that time. Is it reasonably probable that there is a building in the United States which will endure a similar period? Splendid as are our engineering accomplishments, how few are our really substantial works!

But why talk of even hundreds of years when any one familiar with construction work can see at a moment's glance that nearly everything in the way of architecture in the United States is doomed to destruction even before the end of a century. If one cross and recross the United States a hundred times in every direction, and keep his eyes open, he will inevitably become burdened with the thought that the larger portion of our material progress is ephemeral. By far the large majority of our buildings are of flimsy pine lumber, or some other perishable material, which will become dilapidated in twenty-five years, and rotten in fifty; while the needless losses from fires are counted by the millions yearly.

Why do not people build houses that will stand? Simply because the element of permanency has not yet become our predominating national characteristic. We are building for to-day, as though we were merely sojourning here, and it were not expected that our descendants will permanently occupy the land.

Suppose that the farmer and his sons should come to value solidity more than present appearance; suppose that instead of the cheap but easily constructed frame buildings they should resolutely set out to build family mansions, not only for themselves but as a heritage for future generations, would not the whole country be completely changed in a few years? Such a farmer and his sons could, unaided,

working at odd intervals, with but little extra expense, build in the course of fifteen or twenty years substantial permanent mansions of brick or stone. With succeeding generations contributing their mite to the permanent improvements of the world, our wealth and greatness would become inconceivable and our civilization a glory. But no such spirit prevails, at least, not generally. Our work is nearly all slipshod. Our country roads are a disgrace, for which there is neither excuse nor apology, and our citizens and officials, instead of occupying themselves with practical affairs of this nature, waste their time in unprofitable harangues about political theories and demagoguery.

On the intellectual side, particularly in the domain of science and invention, much has been accomplished of lasting value. In truth we may believe that civilization has taken a greater stride forward during the past century than in all the preceding ages. In just what manner these discoveries and inventions will be preserved for the generations of the future is not so clear.

How do we know but that civilizations fully as high as our own, and as advanced scientifically and materially, have not arisen and passed into the night of oblivion tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years ago? There is at least no evidence to the contrary. Have we a book, an instrument, a picture, a statue, a machine, that we can safely affirm will be intact ten thousand years from now?

The British Museum, the Congressional Library, the vast chain of libraries founded by Mr. Carnegie, is there a single thing in one of them that will last one hundred centuries?

Plato, four hundred years before Christ, complained that the pictures and statues in the temples were no better than those made "ten thousand years" before; will any one arise in ten thousand years from now to make a similar comparison with our work? Have we any work that will be in existence then, so that any comparison at all can be made?

Shakespeare's writings are immortal, but the paper on which they are printed will rot. May it not be that other immortal works have disappeared in a similar manner in the past? It is known that Che Hwang-te, the Chinese despot two thousand years ago, destroyed vast quantities of the historical and literary works of that ancient monarchy, and no doubt Father Time has done equal violence to invaluable productions of other peoples.

Much work has been done in all the civilized nations, especially in science and invention, which should be preserved against destroying agents and handed down to future generations. The United States has issued some hundreds of thousands of patents; England, Germany, France, and other countries, many more. Inestimable as are the benefits conferred upon civilization by these inventions, the descriptions and records of them are printed on material almost as perishable as the leaves of the forest. Think of the incalculable amount

of research expended in chemistry, medicine, mineralogy, and particularly in astronomy, and then reflect how fragile are the records of these marvellous accumulations of intellectual energy. Thousands of the keenest observers have watched the heavens for hundreds of years with a minuteness and accuracy inconceivable to ordinary men ; their observations are scattered through thousands of pamphlets, reports, manuscripts, and books; they embrace hundreds of thousands of photographs, measurements, spectra, mathematical calculations; they comprise the accumulated wisdom and researches of the ablest intellects to which the human family has ever given birth, constituting altogether a mass of knowledge, unique and unparalleled, which, if preserved, will be of untold value to men in ten thousand years or in a hundred thousand years from now, and yet all these priceless records are contained on paper, which moths eat, fire destroys, and the elements rot.

The spirit of this age is too ephemeral. We are like butterflies; we live in the present and are willing to discount the future for a momentary benefit. Solid character implies stability, permanency, enduring strength. Not as the reeds of the valley, but as the mountains of granite, should our work stand; and when we plan, we should design for all time.

A man's character is displayed by his workmanship. Temporary, makeshift work, whether mental or material, implies a shallow, frivolous character. A great engineer will design his building to stand till Doomsday. A great statesman will be even more solicitous in laying the foundations of national greatness.

I. CORRUPTION IN AMERICAN POLITICS

Have we taken all the elements into consideration for the solution of the vast problem under discussion? When we ventured the suggestion that an American is as good as an Englishman, and competent to govern the same alien area and population that he can govern, did we state all the truth? Mature reflection forces us to the conclusion that there is one fact, the most vital of all facts, yet to be considered.

That fact is involved in the paramount question as to whether we are competent to govern ourselves - whether this thing called Democracy is not a relative failure, and in grave danger of becoming an absolute failure, even among ourselves. Let no man who loves the United States, who believes in real human liberty, who hates injustice, wrong, oppression, but who loves truth, righteousness, justice, and prosperity, dismiss this question as trivial or unworthy of his best thought.

a

Babylon, Greece, Rome, present a long history of one word, word which stands for the same thing under a thousand thousand different forms, — a word which stands for disorder, bloodshed, igno