two kinds of power, turned on an abstract or legalistic question of
State sovereignty. That abstract question was decided, once for all,
by the arbitrament of arms in our great Civil War. But the decision,
while it strengthened the foundations of the Federal Union, left
unimpaired the individuality, the vitality, the self-dependence of the
States in all the ordinary affairs of life. It continued to be true,
after the war as before, that each State had its own local pride,
developed its own special institutions, regulated the conduct of life
within its boundaries according to its own views of what was conducive
to the order, the well-being, the contentment, the progress, of its
own people. It has been the belief of practically all intelligent
observers of our national life that this individuality and
self-dependence of the States has been a cardinal element in the
promotion of our national welfare and in the preservation of our
national character. In a country of such vast extent and natural
variety, a country developing with unparalleled rapidity and
confronted with constantly changing conditions, who can say how great
would have been the loss to local initiative and civic spirit, how
grave the impairment of national concord and good will, if all the
serious concerns of the American people had been settled for them by a
central government at Washington ? In that admirable little book,
"Politics for Young Americans," Charles Nordhoff fifty years ago
expounded in simple language the principles underlying our system of
government. Coming to the subject of "Decentralization," he said:

Experience has shown that this device [decentralization] is of
extreme importance, for two reasons: First, it is a powerful and
the best means of training a people to efficient political action
and the art of self-government; and, second, it presents constant
and important barriers to the encroachment of rulers upon the