Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/334

318 it can also be said that they are shorter and, in a certain sense, more humane; the latter, not only in the fact that the victims of battle receive better care, but also that the peaceful population of the country visited by war are, by means of the improved facilities for communication, spared the burden of maintaining the invading army. The greater part of the cruelty and barbarity of former wars arose from the fact that the troops had to be supported by the land in which they were encamped, and the necessity of their taking care of themselves excluded all consideration for the people. War is still a direful scourge; but the arrangements for provisioning and foraging and the system of requisitions which railroads have made possible place the military administration in a condition to spare the country from exhaustive drafts, and to prevent excesses by the soldiers. The influence of modern means of intercourse may also be seen in the peaceful relations of states to one another, and in the inner political life of individual states. We shall make no mistake if we assign to railroads and telegraphs an important part in the present tendency to form large states and to give greater consistency to national organizations. Similarity and community of economical interests are not consistent with separation by arbitrary divisions. Material interests require the widest possible conformity of legislation and administration and a strong civil power able to give them external and internal protection, neither of which can be afforded in the small state. Railroads and telegraphs are a political force of the first order to promote in nascent states the accomplishment of their union, in established states the strengthening of the executive and the growth of the political influence of the government. In all civilized states the telegraph and the railroads together enable the government to be advised of all important events on the instant of their happening, and immediately to take whatever measures may be necessary. It is a further consequence that the central power becomes more concentrated, and the individual prerogative and responsibility of the local officers limited; while in smaller states the administrative organization may be simplified by dispensing with intermediate agents.

The effect of railroads and telegraphs upon the civic structure is also manifested in the more lively participation of the people in political life. This happens both in consequence of the increased ease of personal intercourse and through the quickening and increased extent of the exchanges of thought that are furthered by the press and by correspondence. The freer intercourse of candidates with the people whose votes they are seeking, and of deputies with their constituents, has done much to make the people acquainted with public questions in their varying aspects, and interested in them. Much more is done by the periodical press, which now scatters its issues in numbers and with a speed and cheapness that would have been incredible a half-century ago. Other factors are indeed contributing to this condition, but they