Forty years ago, an intelligent Englishman in a private letter described his impressions of the then state of American politics. “When educated men get to talking politics,” he wrote, “they have a sort of bitter despair in their minds which is not pleasant to listen to. I dare say the solution is one which was told me the other day. There is nothing in politics now.” “In a happy country like this, politics don't affect great questions or the happiness of the nation.” “Politics is all dullness relieved by rascality.”

For the greater part of the sixty years since the Civil War, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice's description of American politics has held substantially true, though of course more true at some times than others. The twelve-year period through which we have just passed was one of the intervals of which it was distinctly rather more than less true. Since then there has been a change. It is no longer true that politics do not affect great questions or the happiness of the nation.

In dealing with the evolution of political thought, most historians and social scientists, until recently at least, have tended to view political behavior and the changing patterns of power in society as rational implementations of dynamic ideas. They have accordingly concerned themselves more with the development of abstract philosophical systems than with the social-psychological contexts conditioning this development. To other observers, more Marxian than Hegelian in their outlook, all political ideas are but reflections of the economic interests and class ideologies of the various strata of society. This school therefore probes for the secrets of political and social change, not in the surface phenomena of ideas, but in the progress of technology and in the shifting economic relations of groups and classes within the social hierarchy. Still others, few in number as yet, have adopted Freud as their guide.

The Supreme Court of the United States has been as impartial an umpire in national-state disputes as one of the members of two contending teams could be expected to be. This is not to impugn the wisdom or the fairness of the Supreme Court, but it is to say that the Supreme Court has been partial to the national government during the past one hundred and forty-four years of our experience with a federal system in the United States. The states, as members of the federal system, have had to play against the umpire as well as against the national government itself. The combination has long been too much for them.

Since this annual survey was inaugurated in 1927, it has been observed that activity in the amendment of constitutions is greater in even years than in odd years. Only eight states (California, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin) changed their fundamental law in 1927. In 1928, the number rose to eighteen (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia).

In the December, 1933, issue of the REVIEW (pp. 942–955) appeared a tabular view of the changes in major units of the national government between March 4 and November 1, 1933. The list below brings the enumeration to March 15,1934. As in the previous list, mention is made only of units specifically authorized by law or established by the President by executive order under general authority vested in him. There are also boards, corporations, and committees subordinate or advisory to the units listed.

Political meetings constitute one of the means employed by the Negro political leaders in Chicago to develop and maintain party morale. The Republican rallies in the second and third wards are unique affairs, not to be duplicated in other parts of the city. The political meetings have taken over some of the patterns of religious revivals or camp meetings. A party gathering which is not packed and which does not stir up an emotional response is looked upon as very unusual. The audience is attentive, enthusiastic, patient, good natured, and content to sit for many hours on uncomfortable seats. When a speaker says something which strikes a popular chord, the listeners shout, clap, or wave programs, hats, or hands in the air.

International organization is generally regarded as an aggregate of machinery and processes whereby states cooperate with each other for the attainment of common objectives. Granting the validity of this conception, it may be shown that the fields in which states coöperate are of vital importance to individual persons. The international treatment of economic questions looks toward the improvement of the economic status of the individual. The cooperative efforts of states in regard to so-called political questions, such as disarmament, arbitration, and alliances, either promote amicable relations conducive to profitable transactions between the nationals of different countries or lead to hostile activities that injure economic activity and place the individual under the necessity of bearing arms.

The former German colonies occupied by the Dominions in 1914 were entrusted to them, as mandatories under the League of Nations, at the Peace Conference of 1919. Of these territories, administered as C mandates since December, 1920, three are located in the South Seas. Western Samoa, now a mandate1 of New Zealand, is the larger part of a small group of islands; New Guinea, a mandate of Australia, consists of the northwestern portion of the large island of New Guinea and numerous smaller islands; while Nauru, a British Empire mandate administered by Australia, is a tiny phosphate island. The fourth Dominion mandate, South-West Africa, is a large and somewhat arid territory adjoining the Union of South Africa, which acts as mandatory.