ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the larger aspects of a constructive relation between the national and democratic principles in the field of foreign politics. A popular but ill-founded American political illusion concerns the success of their state governments. The local authorities retain under the American Federal organization many of the primary functions of government. The educational system of the country is not only chaotic, but it is very imperfectly adapted to the needs of an industrial and agricultural democracy. Civil service reform was the very first movement of the kind to make any headway in American politics. The American civil service will never be really reformed by the sort of civil service laws which have hitherto been passed. If the state governments are to reach their maximum usefulness in the American political system, they must not only be self-denying in respect to the central government, but generous in respect to their creatures — the municipal corporations.
