[56] Limitation of the scope of this study to the internal forms of corruption makes it impossible to discuss this very interesting topic. It may be noted, however, that in international cases certain peculiarities occur regarding the personal element of corruption. When the military secrets of one government are purchased by another, the faithless official of the former who makes the sale is, of course, corrupt in the highest degree. What shall be said of the nation making the purchase? Personal interest on its side is merged in the collective interest of a commonwealth numbering millions of inhabitants it may be. The case is not entirely unlike those in which group interest rather than self interest impels to corrupt action (see p. 65), except that in the latter the groups are subordinate and not sovereign. If, however, the state which buys the secrets of another government runs counter to international law or morality in so doing, it may be held to be pursuing a relatively narrow interest regardless of the broader interest of humanity as a whole. From this point of view the state which uses money for such ends is guilty of corruption although, of course, it is a highly socialised form of corruption. [57] “Law and Opinion in England,” p. 216. [58] _Cf._ H. C. Adams, “Public Debts,” pt. iii, ch. iv, for a very able discussion of the influence of the commercial spirit on public officials. [59] _Cf._ sec. vii, “Die Organisation als Klassenerhöhungsmaschine,” in Robert Michel’s very thorough and illuminating study of the organisation of the German social-democracy. _Archiv. f. Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik_, Bd. xxiii, Heft 2 (September, 1906). [60] For an overwhelmingly convincing presentation of materials on this point _cf._ the “Digest of Report by the Bureau of Municipal Research on the Administration of the Water Revenues, Manhattan,”—_Efficient Citizenship Leaflet_, no. 145. Corruption of this sneaking sort resembles tax dodging in that it is so largely indulged in by otherwise respectable people. _Cf._ p. 192. [61] “Enough Money to Uplift the World,” p. 6, by William H. Allen, Director, Bureau of Municipal Research, reprinted as a pamphlet by the Bureau from the _World’s Work_ of May, 1909. [62] _Cf._ p. 5, _supra_, for a discussion of the consequences of the corrupt protection of vice and crime. [63] _Cf_ p. 61, _supra_. [64] _Cf._ especially No. 3 of the Taxation Series published by the Board, entitled, “Cincinnati an Independent Assessment District,” by Allen Ripley Foote.