unworthy hands. And of such political virtue as we possess at least we may assert that it is not the anemic innocence which has never known the approach of temptation. It would appear from the foregoing that the various factors which must be taken into account in attempting to determine the extent of existing corruption are extremely conflicting and uncertain. As between country and country, city and city, comparisons are certain to be odious and likely to be misleading. Each has problems sufficiently pressing and extended to occupy its reform energies to better advantage. We in the United States may not be so wicked as our neighbours believe, but our work is cut out for us, and it is work that will require the greatest intelligence and the greatest virtue that the republic possesses. Hasty conclusions regarding the outcome, and particularly such as lean towards pessimism, should be avoided. Although as a general proposition it is unquestionably true that universal corruption would mean social disintegration, extreme caution should be employed before venturing such a prediction in a given case. Prophecies of this character have been made in almost countless numbers and in almost every age and country. In the overwhelming majority of cases they have been falsified by subsequent events. It is easy to underestimate the essential strength of the more fundamental social institutions and to forget the long course of evolution during which they have become delicately adapted to human needs. So far as the more progressive countries of the modern world are concerned,—England, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, no less than the United States,—there would seem to be ground for the conclusion that political and social corruption is decreasing in extent and virulence. At bottom government rests as much upon confidence as does a savings bank. Now in spite of the current and very pointed query:—“Where did he get it?”—the greatest harm done by corruption is not that it enables some men to acquire fortune and power rapidly at the expense of others. Resentment at the constant repetition of this spectacle is natural, and the influence which it exerts as a bad example is most deplorable. But far in excess of this is the evil which corruption inflicts by destroying the confidence of men in their social institutions. In the field of politics this evil is particularly great because of the wide extension of governmental functions in recent times and the great possibilities which might be realised by further extensions. To cite tangible examples, it is both exasperating and dangerous that much needed plans for the building of a school, hospital, asylum, sewerage system, or a State Capitol, or for the establishment of departments of inspection to supervise industrial plants, theatres, or tenement houses, should be halted by the fear that corrupt interests will take an initial toll out of the expenses of installation and thereafter seek to pervert these