advancement; but anyone who believes that the occasional plots and disturbances that get to the surface here point to any real danger to the foundations of Government has but a superficial knowledge.”
This view may not be generally agreed to in the light of developments in connection with the Japanese war. I know that there are observers of Russian conditions, whose opinion is well worthy of attention, who believe that Russia is on the point of a great political upheaval. The weakness of the Czar, the corruption of the bureaucracy, the inefficiency of government which has at some points been disclosed by the events in the far East, lead them to believe that a political awakening is near, that possibly the great territory to the east of Little Russia, which has been filled by adventurous exiles and progressive emigrants, will break off from the old autocracy and form an independent government. All that might happen without greatly affecting political conditions in Russia itself. The day will undoubtedly come when a constitution will be granted, but even that in itself will not greatly change conditions. Whoever has travelled in Russia away from the cities, observed the inertia of that vast population of peasants, noted the influence of the Church, and how it has been used as a branch of the civil service in the control of the population, will understand how slow must come any political changes which will really radically affect the national life.
My own observation, which has covered a good deal of Russia, bears out most fully the expert opinion expressed above. There may be some slow evolution toward more popular political ideals, but the strength and solidity of the Russian Government is beyond our day to question.
Such a survey of Europe, then, as a journeyman business man might take, can but lead, it seems to me, to the conclusion that on the whole European political conditions to-day point to solidity and security. There will be change, but the change will be development along right economic lines. There is no reason to suppose that the development of political events is to make Europe less strong and able as an industrial competitor. From an economic point of view the political outlook there can be regarded with optimism. The development of politics and the evolution of government give promise of working toward greater economic efficiency, toward a more capable industrialism and an expanding commerce.
France and the Clerical Problem
In the United States the business of Government is the government of business. Questions which come before Congress are nearly always related to business affairs. Once the running of the machinery of Government has been provided for, and the great appropriation bills passed, the further subjects of congressional legislation are with rare exceptions directly concerned with commercial or industrial matters. Congress is a board of directors of a vast business corporation; its problems are business problems; its main work, outside of the conduct of the Government departments, is the fostering of business interests, on the one hand, and, on the other, the control of business organizations.
There is not a member of either house of Congress who cannot with justice lay some claim to familiarity with business matters. The chief interests of all these members of Congress are business interests. The great legislative mainspring is the well-being of the nation’s commercial and industrial life.
In European politics, legislative conditions and questions are widely different from those in our own political life. The American is at once struck by the peculiar fact that business men have small place in the parliaments there. Business questions are overshadowed by questions relating to class prerogative, racial domination and antagonism, church authority, bureau patronage, hereditary power. Legislative programmes frequently turn upon points of sentiment—sentiment of race, of religion, of class, of political theory, or dynastic hope. Broadly speaking, there is no party on the Continent standing solely for a commercial idea. There is no party programme that solidly unites its followers for or against some commercial measure. The platform of parties, the issues on which elections turn, the proposals brought forward for legislative consideration, have comparatively little concern with industry and commerce.
The business man’s first surprise is over the number of controversies in the political life of Europe having no bearing at all on business. He finds there many importantVol. XXXVII.—3