peoples, disloyalty would take the place of loyalty, disintegration would succeed integration. No doubt many causes besides those mentioned conspired to bring about the appearance of the large, potent, and complex units which now prevail in government. While this process was being accomplished various hostile conditions had to be attacked, of which corruption was only one, although one of the most threatening. As these unfavourable conditions were and are being overcome it is safe to conclude, in spite of all superficial appearances to the contrary, that the relative extent and harmfulness of corruption are decreasing in the more progressive modern countries. A similar line of argument supports the same conclusion with regard to business institutions, which also have been increasing both in size, complexity, and the importance of the functions which they perform. The household industry of a few generations ago has given way to corporations employing their tens of thousands of men, trusting them with property worth millions, and, particularly in transportation, with the safety of myriads of lives. Such developments would be impossible either in politics or in business without greater intelligence, a greater degree of fair dealing, and greater confidence and loyalty from man to man. Corruption which exalts the selfish interest above the general interest has doubtless hindered, but it has not stopped, this process. Never before have men co-operated on so large a scale and so honest a basis as here and now. If corruption had really penetrated to the vitals of our economic and governmental organisations this development could not have taken place. FINIS FOOTNOTES: [104] _Political Science Quarterly_, vol. xix (1904), p. 676. [105] G. Myers, “History of Tammany Hall,” p. 285. [106] Mr. Ernest Poole under the title of “New Readers of the News” in the _American Magazine_ for November 1907, (65:41), presents an extremely interesting study of the broadening power of the press along this line. [107] “The France of To-day,” pp. 223 _et seq._ [108] As, _e.g._, fraudulent promotion, adulteration, the building of unsanitary tenements, failure to provide proper safety devices in theatres and factories or on railroads and steamships. [109] _Cf._ Mr. Frederic C. Howe’s admirable article on “Graft in England,” _American Magazine_, vol. lxiii (1907), p. 398. [110] _Nation_, lxxxi (November 23, 1905), p. 422.