HISTORY is full of instances in which invading
armies have moved so swiftly that the record
shows them to have been in full military occupa-
tion of the penetrated country in an exceedingly
short space after crossing the border. It is now
to be noted that the industrial occupation of
New England was hardly begun by aliens from the
Eastern hemisphere before it was accomplished.

Heretofore historians have given much attention
to military operations conducted on a grand scale
as marking political eras. It is not improbable
that in doing this they have slighted the political
significance of great industrial movements which
have affected large aggregations of people. How-
ever this may be there is no reason why political
revolution or evolution should not result from in-
dustrial as well as military causes, and it is un-
doubtedly true that no military incursion could
have more profoundly affected the political future
of the Puritan Commonwealths than the advent of
European labor.

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