Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER H THE GROWTH OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURES Section 1. Rapidity of Growth. — Public expenditures have grown very rapidly, especially since 1850. They are still growing fast in all progressive countries. The growth is a striking accompaniment of the intensification of popular government. The more democratic a government becomes, the more do the people incline to spend upon government activities. This growth shows up very large when stated in absolute figures. But, of course, it should also be considered relatively. That is, it should be stated in proportion to population and to wealth. The increase in public expenditures is more rapid than the increase in population. It is probably more rapid, also, than the increase in wealth and in private incomes, although this statement is difficult to prove statistically and possibly is true only where governments are most active or, to use a common phrase, most progressive. The statistics of public expenditure are now being published by most governments in great detail, and on account of their multiplicity cannot be introduced here. They are very difficult to interpret. One reason for this is that no altogether satisfactory measure of the private income and private wealth of the people of different nations has yet been devised. Welfare, measured in the joy of living, as distinct from wealth, measured in money, is so often the aim of public expenditures, that it seems illogical to set up comparisons based solely on private money incomes and public money expenditures. The effect of good roads may be measured, in part, by the increased value of the farms served; but what is the money value of thetraining obtained in good schools, or of the peace of mind which an old age pension system affords ? Wars which break out with ever greater...