In the preceding pages little has been said concerning the proper attitude of the state with regard to questions of economics. This has not been because the importance of the influence of the state in the economic sphere and the duty of the state to take an active interest in the economic well-being of its citizens has not been recognized. It has rather been because in the plan of the present volume it has seemed wiser to simplify the discussion by taking the activity of the state for granted and focusing the attention upon the result of the play of individual interests. The writer, however, has no sympathy with the school of economic thought which would attempt to assign to the state simply the r61e of a policeman in economic affairs with the duty merely of preserving order among the contestants in the economic struggle. To preserve the figure of speech, the duty of the state is rather to formulate the rules of the contest and to improve them from time to time as rapidly as the best interests of the whole body of the contestants will admit. It is the duty of the state to preserve the competitive system but it should preserve it as a means and not as an end. In so far as the larger interests of society are injured by permitting the free play of competition, it is the duty of the state to interfere and to suspend the operation of the competitive system. Just where the line shall be drawn between free competition and state activity is too intricate a question to be settled here. A brief consideration of a few practical questions involving state activity will, however, indicate the nature of the problem which the state has to meet.