THE PHYSICAL CONDITIONS OF WELFARE 879 
management of their business; in either case the community 
will suffer, and the working classes will have to bear their 
share in the general disaster. But on the other hand, there 
is good reason to hope that they will attain to such a measure 
of political wisdom, and such a sense of political responsi- 
bility, as to endeavour to avoid these dangers, and so may 
refrain from pushing the interest of their class beyond the 
point where it ceases to be consonant with the well-being of 
the community as a whole. The accentuation of this element 
of care for labour, which is a characteristic feature of modern 
English life, is reproduced in the daughter communities and her 
which have grown up during the last half-century. Labour colonies 
is the predominant factor in the political life of Australia and 
New Zealand ; the conditions of labour occupy much of the 
consideration of the legislature, and the welfare of labour 
takes a very prominent place in the conception of the welfare 
of the community. 
In other modern States this is not the case to nearly the while the 
same extent. Among continental peoples, the necessity of ln 
maintaining large military organisations is still regarded as {ur 
paramount. Power rather than Welfare is the main object concerned 
of economic policy; France, Germany, and Russia are neces- National 
sarily pursuing a course that is more closely parallel to that Power. 
of England in the seventeenth century, than to that of 
England to-day. In Germany in particular the efforts of the 
government to retain the mastery, and yet to exercise it 
benevolently, bear a curious analogy to the work of the 
Council under James I. and Charles I. "In America, with the 
extraordinary possibilities of settling on the land which it 
offers, the necessity of taking active steps to promote, or to 
protect, the interests of labour have never been recognised. 
There may be a change in this respect, now that the field for 
extension is so clearly defined’, but up to the present time 
the government has been inclined to give facilities for the 
accumulation and profitable employment of capital, as the 
best expedient for promoting the development of industrial 
employment and the good of the community. Soar as the rie of 
American economic system is concerned, it appears to be capital. 
F. J. Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, 199.