In addition to these functional advantages of self-government, it possesses an immense asset in the sense of proprietorship that leads the citizens of a self-governing community to stand by the community organization because they feel that they have built it and that it is their own. A self-governing community therefore carries within itself the means of its own perpetuation in the enthusiasm and devotion of its population to an institution in which they feel a sense of workmanship and of the pride of possession. A world parliament, organized on the basis of self-governing industrial groups, would be unique in two respects. First, in that it was of world extent, and second in that it was built upon the industrial affiliations of its citizenship. If such an organization were handled in a way to hold the allegiance of its constituent members, its decisions on matters of world importance would carry an immense authority. 2. _The Field of World Administration_ There, in fact, would be the test of world government efficacy--in its ability to leave the handling of local problems to local groups, and to concentrate its energies on the administration of those problems which have assumed a distinctively world scope. Such capacity to understand the difference between the business of local groups and the business of the world organization would be the touchstone of world statesmanship, the criterion by which the master political minds of the age could be tested. The short-sighted, narrow-visioned leader of world affairs would seek to gain and to hold power for himself and for his immediate local interests. The presence of many such men in positions of power would soon split the world government into a series of factions, each one seeking to destroy the others and to take away their authority. Such a competitive stage would represent little advance over the present nationalism. A world government has no virtue in itself, and may as easily degenerate into a scramble for office as may any other phase of group relationship. Its success would only be possible where its power was strictly limited to the control of those matters that had reached a plane of world importance. Even then success would be impossible unless those responsible for making essential decisions saw the world problems as wholes rather than as localized and separable problems. Grave issues hang on the method in which the world problems are approached and handled. Success is not assured by any means. Still, the dangers and disadvantages of a plan do not condemn it unless they outweigh the apparent advantages.