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franker vegetation. Such has unquestionably been the case. What is the remedy?
I am no pessimist. I more than believe—I know—I know it from personal experience and daily observation; there is just as much ability and public spirit, there is more education and self-sacrificing devotion—altruism, they call it—at the service of the, community to-day than ever heretofore. The trouble is with the political machinery, which, outgrown and cumbersome, now tends to suppress instead of calling forth the qualities I have referred to. The reason is plain. As the community has grown in wealth, and become more complex and exacting, the public expenditure has, in volume, immensely increased, and is still increasing. Thousands once are millions now. Of course—how could it be otherwise?—where the carrion is, there will the vultures be gathered. It is the familiar, ancient tale of wrong; a simple, clumsy machinery—once adequate to its purpose, has been gradually metamorphosed into the perfect and powerful political machine, with a “boss” at the lever. It holds us in its grasp.
It is useless to deplore; it is not worth while to scold. The situation is plain; the remedy, though not difficult to devise, is, I fear, remote. The carving up of a region, nation, state or county—into geographical divisions containing each, approximately, the same population is, from its simplicity, an attractive way for the average legislator to dispose of a political problem; while, on the other hand, it is unquestionably a puzzling task to devise a really practical plan for breaking down the prescriptive barriers in the way of any intelligent crystallization of votes irrespective of vicinage; but, just so
