STATE ACTIVITIES AND POLITICS. By WM. F. WILLOUGHBY, A.B., Department of Labor, It is the purpose of this paper to discuss a phase in the administration of State governments that has made its appearance mainly since the close of the recent war. The attempt will be made to indicate the extent to which the States are entering new fields of usefulness, and busying themselves with the welfare of their citizens, through the establishment of special boards and commissioners, as railroad commissioners, banking and insurance commissioners, boards of health, etc. Incidentally the question of the decay of State governments will be considered in the light of these facts. The maintenance of the view that recent years have witnessed a great decline in the governmental activity of the States has been due to a failure to distinguish between politics and government. Politics is not government. Nor are the two mutually dependent. The first may from various causes decline, while administration, which is government proper, may actually increase its powers. A growth of government is not inconsistent with a simultaneous decline in the interest taken in politics. Having this distinction well in view, in our study of the States, it will be seen that that decay which has taken place has been a decay not of government, but of politics. The States possess the same powers as formerly, and, as will be shown, exercise them in certain directions to an even greater extent than ever before. The subject falls into two divisions: first, a consideration of the causes for the decline in the interest taken in State politics; and second, a determination of the changes that have taken place in State administration, and the tendencies of State activities at the present time. There has undoubtedly been a great decrease in the interest taken in State politics. This is particularly so in the South. This, together with the increase of federal activities, has given rise to the feeling that a decay of local government has taken place, and in general this change in politics has been deemed unfortunate and to be regretted. The decline in the interest taken in State politics, though to be regretted, has not been wholly an evil. Excessive patriotism in the States, and the feeling that the interests of a single State outweigh those of the whole Union, are incompatible with perfect interstate harmony, and the fullest prosperity of all the States. The shrinkage of the principle of States rights and the growth of a national feeling cannot but be counted as a distinct gain in our political life. The forces that have been at work to cause a decline of interest in State politics as compared with federal politics have been several. Selfishness is the controlling power in politics. Expectation of material gain and pecuniary rewards, and not altruistic feeling, are the motives that control politics, and supply the incentives for its pursuit. The great growth in the federal civil-service roll is of itself accountable for the change. In 1789 there were but three departments and with a very few clerks attached to each. The number in the service of the States then far outnumbered federal officials. Since then department after department has been added to the federal executive, and the service increased by hundreds of thousands of employés. Since the administration of Jackson, the incentives for active engagement in federal politics have been greatly stimulated by the development of the spoils system, thus holding out rewards far greater than any that can be offered by the States. Thus has the attention of men been turned more and more towards federal politics, and State politics have suffered accordingly. A second cause that has operated to render State politics |