[47] It is perhaps worth noting that the debatable subjects of to-day are not those of a generation or so ago. Geology and biology were then the dangerous chairs, the occupants of which frequently found themselves in conflict with straight-laced followers of various religious sects. Occasionally professors of philosophy and ethics became involved in similar controversies. At the present time conflicts of this character are much less frequent and are confined for the most part to theological seminaries and those smaller colleges which are still dominated by narrow denominational influences. Nearly all our leading universities have so far emancipated themselves from sectarian control that controversies with their professors on this basis are virtually impossible. In such institutions the chairs which present difficulties nowadays are those in economics, political science, and sociology, although, as we shall see, these difficulties are greatly exaggerated in popular estimation. It is hardly necessary to add that (with the exception in some small measure of sociology) the area of friction in these subjects is not at all in their contact with religious, but almost exclusively in their contact with business and political activities outside university walls. [48] “Leviathan,” pt. ii, ch. xxx. [49] _Cf._ his annual report for 1904-05, pp. 19-20, for a brief but very interesting reference to the “tainted money” charge. [50] “The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Third Annual Report,” 1908, pp. 82-91. [51] “Mass and Class,” pp. 14, 82, 83, 105, 243. [52] _Bookman_, p. 652, August, 1906. CORRUPTION IN BUSINESS AND POLITICS V CORRUPTION IN BUSINESS AND POLITICS No form of corruption can exist without reacting upon the life of the state. Pollution of the sources of public instruction defiles individuals and all the manifold non-sovereign social organisations, but it culminates in an infection of public opinion which directly contaminates the body politic. Even more immediately corrupt business practices lead to corrupt political practices. This is so conspicuously the case that separate discussion of the two subjects is virtually impossible. It is feasible, however, and should prove profitable, to distinguish the various subdivisions of economic and political corruption and to point out certain lines of the development which have bound the two so closely together in our modern life.