The problem of government in every country--irrespectively of the form which the political institutions may take in any given country--is to avoid class legislation, and to make it impossible for any one class to exploit the others. Some of us--who are old-fashioned and at present in the minority--believe that the solution of that problem is to be found only in the upbuilding of the character and the intelligence of the individual citizen. Others believe that it is to be found largely, if not mainly, in extending the functions of the State and the City. To the writer, the experience of Great Britain under the experiment of the extension of the functions of the State and the City, seems to teach once more the essential soundness of the doctrine that the nation that seeks refuge from the ills that appear under the policy of _laissez-faire_, seeks refuge from such ills in the apparently easy, and therefore tempting, device of merely changing the form of its political institutions and political ideals, will but change the form of the ills from which it suffers. FOOTNOTES: [1] The reason for the opposition of the newspaper press to the telegraph companies is discussed in Chapter VIII. [2] The concession made to the newspaper press is described in Chapter VIII. [3] The efforts of the civil servants culminated in the debate and vote of July 5, 1905. Upon that occasion there voted for the demands of the civil servants eighteen Liberalists who, in 1905-6, became Members of the Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman Liberal Ministry. Two of them, Mr. Herbert Gladstone and Mr. Lloyd George, became Members of the Cabinet, or inner circle of the Ministry. CHAPTER II THE ARGUMENT FOR THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE TELEGRAPHS The indictment of the telegraph companies. The argument from foreign experience. The promise of reduced tariffs and increased facilities. The alleged financial success of foreign State telegraphs: Belgium, Switzerland and France. The argument from British company experience.