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Title: American Ideals and Other Essays Social and Political
Author: Theodore Roosevelt
Contributor: Gen. Francis Vinton Greene
Release date: September 6, 2023 [eBook #71581]
Language: English
Original publication: New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1897
Credits: Emmanuel Ackerman and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN IDEALS AND OTHER ESSAYS SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ***
AMERICAN IDEALS
[Illustration] AND OTHER ESSAYS [Illustration]
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL
BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Author of “The Winning of the West,” “The Wilderness
Hunter,” “Hunting Trips of a Ranchman,” etc.
WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY
GEN. FRANCIS VINTON GREENE
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
1904
COPYRIGHT 1897
BY
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
TO
HENRY CABOT LODGE
_October 1897_
[Illustration]
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Few names are more widely known at the present moment than that
of Theodore Roosevelt, so that in one sense any introduction is
superfluous. But in this sense he is known chiefly as the “Rough Rider”
of the Santiago campaign; whereas those who read these books will see
that his experience as a volunteer officer in the war with Spain is
only one incident in a life which has been singularly varied in thought
and accomplishment and useful in many fields.
Roosevelt was born in New York City, October 27, 1858. On his father’s
side he is descended from a Dutch emigrant of the seventeenth century
and the intermediate generations have been prudent, hard-working,
successful merchants, prominent at all times in the commercial and
social life of New York. His father’s mother was from Pennsylvania,
of Irish stock. His own mother was from Georgia, a daughter of James
Dunwoodie Bullock, whose family was of Scotch and Huguenot origin, and
had been prominent in public life in the South.
During his childhood, Roosevelt was in such bad health that it was
doubtful if he would ever grow to manhood, and his robust strength
and extraordinary capacity for physical endurance were not acquired
until after his outdoor life in the West. He was educated at private
schools in New York City, whence he went to Harvard University in
1876, graduating in the usual course in 1880. His tastes were for
literary work, but the very year after leaving college he was elected
to the Legislature as a representative of one of the City Assembly
districts; and in the same fashion that has since characterized him,
he plunged at once into the thick of the fight as an ardent reformer,
particularly with reference to legislation affecting New York City.
His youth and lack of experience were more than counterbalanced by his
earnestness and aggressive energy, so that he speedily became a power
which had to be recognized. He was the leader of his party while it
was in the minority, and when it was in the majority he was Chairman
of the Committee on Cities. He served three terms in the Legislature,
and during that time introduced and carried through more important city
legislation than was ever brought about by any one assemblyman. It was
all directed by one central purpose, namely, to put an end to boards
and commissions with their opportunities for “trades” and “deals,” to
restrict the powers of the Board of Aldermen, who were notoriously
corrupt, and to concentrate responsibility in the Mayor and single
heads of departments, who could be held accountable; in other words,
to effect the transformation from what was suitable for town-meeting
government in New England or New Holland one or two centuries ago to
what was required for the complicated cosmopolitan metropolis of the
nineteenth century.
While in the Legislature he still found time for literary work, and
in 1882 wrote _The Naval War of 1812_, which told the story of our
glorious successes on the sea; it was written at a period when our
merchant marine was in decadence, our navy at its lowest ebb, and
public interest in the subject almost wholly lost. It was not without
its effect on the rebuilding of the navy which began two years
later, which fortunately for us had already reached such a splendid
development before 1898, and which is still in progress.
In 1884, severe domestic affliction and ill-health caused Roosevelt
to abandon his work in New York and go to Wyoming. He invested a
considerable part of what he inherited from his father in a cattle
ranch, and intended and expected to remain in the West for many years.
The wild, outdoor life fascinated him, and it brought him health and
strength; in spite of defective eyesight, he became a good shot, and
was particularly fond of hunting big game--where the other fellow had
an even chance; and the peculiar characteristics of the cowboy, since
called cow-puncher, appealed alike to his sense of humor and his love
of fair play. After he returned to live in the East, his fondness for
hunting took him to the plains or mountains for his vacation every
year; and his hunting experiences are charmingly described in two
volumes, _Hunting Trips of a Ranchman_ (1885) and _The Wilderness
Hunter_ (1893). Senator Wolcott, in his speech notifying Roosevelt of
his nomination for the Vice-Presidency, playfully referred to these
hunting stories with the remark that “now that you are our candidate
they will all be believed”; but anyone who enjoys or admires manly
sport--such as requires courage, endurance, hardship, and a contest
with animals which are superior to man in strength or speed--will take
the stories on faith, regardless of political belief.
Cattle raising did not prove financially successful, though Roosevelt
kept his ranch until 1896. He returned to New York in 1886, married
again, and once more plunged into political life. A mayor of New
York was to be elected that year. Abram S. Hewitt had received the
nomination from Tammany Hall and other Democrats; Henry George was
the candidate of the Socialists; the Republican party decided to put
forward a candidate, and selected Roosevelt. There was but little
chance of his election, but he made a most energetic canvass, speaking
in three or four places every night during the latter part of the
campaign. Hewitt was elected, George being second, and Roosevelt third,
with a vote of about 60,000 out of a total of 220,000.
The next three years were devoted almost wholly to literary and
historical work. The upbuilding of the great West is one of the great
world movements, in some respects the most important fact of the
century now closing. Roosevelt began writing the story of it in 1886,
under the title of _The Winning of the West_; the first two volumes
appearing in 1889, the third in 1894, and the fourth in 1896. Each
volume describes a distinct period and is complete in itself. The last
carried the story through the Louisiana Purchase. The history has been
interrupted by the Spanish War and the engrossing duties of the office
of Governor of New York; but it is hoped that the leisure hours of a
Vice-President and the facilities of the libraries in Washington will
afford the time and opportunity for its completion. Readers of the four
volumes already published will understand the reasons why Roosevelt
has such an extraordinary hold upon the sentiment and sympathy of the
Western people. They will see that, although born and bred in the great
city of the East, he realizes that the bone and sinew of this country,
its strength and the sources of its wealth, are in the wide valley
between the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains. Its origin and growth
have been studied by him in every detail; he has participated enough
in its life thoroughly to understand it, and he is in close touch and
accord with its aspirations for the future.
In 1889, Roosevelt was appointed by President Harrison a member of the
Civil Service Commission at Washington and soon became its president,
retaining that office until the spring of 1895. A thorough believer
in the principle of merit instead of favor in selecting and promoting
appointees for the thousands of minor offices in the public service,
he entered with his usual combativeness upon the task of enforcing the
law for carrying this principle into effect. For six years, under his
guidance, this was a fighting commission, not hesitating to grapple
with any Cabinet officer or members of Congress, irrespective of their
party affiliations, who tried to nullify or repeal the law. The result
was the extension of the Civil Service rules to more than 50,000
government employés who were not protected by them in 1889.
In 1894 there was a union of all parties in New York City who were
opposed to Tammany Hall, and W. L. Strong was elected Mayor. He invited
Roosevelt to join his administration as head of one of the departments;
first, as head of the Street-Cleaning Department, which he declined
for lack of special knowledge; and second, as head of the Police
Department, which he accepted. Some of his friends in Washington urged
him not to accept the place on the ground that it was beneath his
dignity; others urged him with even more vehemence to accept it, partly
because of the good work he could do for New York in putting this
department on an honest basis, and partly because of the opportunity
it would afford him of getting on the firing-line in the contest for
good government in cities. He held this office for two years, and
though subjected to much criticism from certain quarters for enforcing
the liquor-license law, yet it can be said, in a word, that during
his administration he placed the department on a thoroughly efficient
basis, broke up the organized system of blackmail which had hitherto
prevailed in the department, and gained the affectionate admiration of
the members of the force to an extent which has never been equalled by
any Police Commissioner before or since.
During the three years from 1894 to 1897 he wrote the greater part of
the essays on political subjects which are printed in the volumes of
_American Ideals_. In these will be found his whole theory of politics,
based on honesty, courage, never-ending hard work, and fair play; and
coupled with these a certain measure of expediency which, without
sacrificing principle, strives to get things done, and to accept the
second best if what he considers the first best is not attainable;
realizing that in a government of universal suffrage many minds must be
consulted and a majority of them brought to the same conclusion before
anything can be accomplished.
When President McKinley took office in 1897, he offered Roosevelt
the position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and it was promptly
accepted. He had been only a few months in office before he reached
certain conclusions, to wit: that a war with Spain was inevitable, that
it was desirable, and that he should take an active part in it. He
did everything that lay in his power during the nine months preceding
April, 1898, to see that the Navy was prepared for the struggle, and
how well he succeeded the officers of Dewey’s and Sampson’s fleets and
the Bureau Chiefs in the Navy Department are always abundantly able and
willing to testify to. As war drew near he began to make his plans
for his own part in it. He at first endeavored to obtain a commission
in one of the National Guard regiments in New York which he felt sure
would volunteer for the war, but this for various reasons being not
practicable, he determined to raise a regiment of volunteer cavalry in
the West. His friends in Washington did everything to dissuade him from
this project: his wife was ill, his little children were dependent on
him, and it was urged that he could render far more valuable service in
the Navy Department than in the field. But his purpose was inflexible.
On account of his lack of experience in technical military details,
he asked his friend, Dr. Leonard Wood, an army surgeon who had had
much experience in Indian fighting in Arizona, to take the position
of Colonel, he taking that of Lieutenant-Colonel. He persuaded the
President to authorize the raising of the 1st U. S. Volunteer Cavalry
on this basis. In about thirty days from the issuing of this authority
the regiment was recruited, uniformed, drilled, armed, equipped, and
transported to Tampa, Florida, ready for duty. The story of the Rough
Riders is a household word from Maine to Arizona and from Oregon to
Florida. As told by Roosevelt himself, it has been read by millions of
readers. It is the most picturesque story in our military annals. In
the first skirmish, after landing on Cuban soil, Wood was promoted to
the rank of Brigadier-General, and Roosevelt was left in command of the
regiment. It owed its origin to him, and he was associated with it
from start to finish.
In September, 1898, the Republican State Convention met to nominate
a candidate for Governor of New York. Roosevelt was then with his
regiment at Montauk Point, about to be mustered out of service. He was
nominated, and at once entered upon a vigorous campaign. The party was
then suffering from criticism on account of its alleged mismanagement
of the canals, and in the opinion of the best judges any other
candidate would have been defeated. Roosevelt was elected by about
20,000 majority.
His election was doubtless due to his services in the war with Spain,
but these contributed little or nothing to his qualifications for the
office. These were found in his experience in the State Legislature,
in the Civil Service Commission, the Police Department, and the Navy
Department, an experience which had given him an intimate knowledge of
the practical working of municipal, state, and national governments;
and above all, to his fearless honesty and tireless energy in devotion
to sound principles of administration. During his two years of office
as Governor, he has set a standard which the people of New York will
not soon allow to be lowered. He has put through a first-class Civil
Service law, he has framed and carried through legislation in regard
to the difficult question of taxation, based on a new principle which
is perfectly equitable, is particularly suited to modern conditions,
and when modified in details to such extent as experience shall
demonstrate to be necessary will be accepted by all; he has honestly
and economically administered the canals, and has caused the canal
question to be carefully studied so as to bring out all the essential
facts upon which its solution must be based; he has resolutely refused
to appoint any unfit man to office, although usually ready to accept
a suitable man when recommended by the Republican organization, which
includes the greater part of the voters in the party; he has appointed
commissions to study the educational system, the tenement-house
question, and a revision of the Charter of the great city of New York.
His appointees, from top to bottom, have been of the very highest type;
from the foundation of the State there have been no higher.
Many of his measures are in a half-finished condition. The Republicans
of New York would, beyond question, have renominated and re-elected
him to carry them to completion. But at this stage the Republicans of
the United States with singular unanimity have called him away from
New York, against his personal wishes and judgment, to take part in
national affairs and to aid President McKinley in carrying out those
policies which during the last four years have brought such prosperity
at home and such greatness abroad. He has yielded his judgment to
theirs, and cheerfully accepted the call.
He has six children--Alice Lee, Theodore, Kermit, Ethel Carow,
Archibald Bullock, and Quentin. His home is at Sagamore Hill, Oyster
Bay, Long Island.
In these pages the people of this land can read the thoughts that have
been spun out by his brain during the last eighteen years, and can see
what manner of man he is. They believe him to be honest, fearless,
straightforward, a tireless worker, experienced in the administration
of city, state, and national affairs, a careful student and writer of
his country’s history, an American in every fibre, a man who holds his
life at his country’s service whenever a war is on during his lifetime.
In reading these books their belief in him will be justified and
confirmed.
FRANCIS V. GREENE.
NEW YORK, July 16, 1900.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
PREFACE
It is not difficult to be virtuous in a cloistered and negative way.
Neither is it difficult to succeed, after a fashion, in active life,
if one is content to disregard the considerations which bind honorable
and upright men. But it is by no means easy to combine honesty and
efficiency; and yet it is absolutely necessary, in order to do any work
really worth doing. It is not hard, while sitting in one’s study, to
devise admirable plans for the betterment of politics and of social
conditions; but in practice it too often proves very hard to make any
such plan work at all, no matter how imperfectly. Yet the effort must
continually be made, under penalty of constant retrogression in our
political life.
No one quality or one virtue is enough to insure success; vigor,
honesty, common sense,--all are needed. The practical man is merely
rendered more noxious by his practical ability if he employs it
wrongly, whether from ignorance or from lack of morality; while the
doctrinaire, the man of theories, whether written or spoken, is useless
if he cannot also act.
These essays are written on behalf of the many men who do take an
actual part in trying practically to bring about the conditions for
which we somewhat vaguely hope; on behalf of the under-officers in that
army which, with much stumbling, halting, and slipping, many mistakes
and shortcomings, and many painful failures, does, nevertheless,
through weary strife, accomplish something toward raising the standard
of public life.
We feel that the doer is better than the critic and that the man who
strives stands far above the man who stands aloof, whether he thus
stands aloof because of pessimism or because of sheer weakness. To
borrow a simile from the football field, we believe that men must play
fair, but that there must be no shirking, and that success can only
come to the player who “hits the line hard.”
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
SAGAMORE HILL,
_October, 1897_.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I.--AMERICAN IDEALS 1
II.--TRUE AMERICANISM 15
III.--THE MANLY VIRTUES AND PRACTICAL POLITICS 35
IV.--THE COLLEGE GRADUATE AND PUBLIC LIFE 47
V.--PHASES OF STATE LEGISLATION 63
VI.--MACHINE POLITICS IN NEW YORK CITY 102
VII.--SIX YEARS OF CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 134
VIII.--ADMINISTERING THE NEW YORK POLICE FORCE 160
IX.--THE VICE-PRESIDENCY AND THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896 189
X.--HOW NOT TO HELP OUR POORER BROTHER 214
XI.--THE MONROE DOCTRINE 228
XII.--WASHINGTON’S FORGOTTEN MAXIM 247
XIII.--NATIONAL LIFE AND CHARACTER 271
XIV.--SOCIAL EVOLUTION 303
XV.--THE LAW OF CIVILIZATION AND DECAY 329
XVI.--[1]REFORM THROUGH SOCIAL WORK 355
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Reprinted through the courtesy of the S. S. McClure Co.
AMERICAN IDEALS
[Illustration]
I
AMERICAN IDEALS[2]
In his noteworthy book on _National Life and Character_, Mr. Pearson
says: “The countrymen of Chatham and Wellington, of Washington and
Lincoln, in short the citizens of every historic state, are richer by
great deeds that have formed the national character, by winged words
that have passed into current speech, by the examples of lives and
labors consecrated to the service of the commonwealth.” In other words,
every great nation owes to the men whose lives have formed part of its
greatness not merely the material effect of what they did, not merely
the laws they placed upon the statute books or the victories they won
over armed foes, but also the immense but indefinable moral influence
produced by their deeds and words themselves upon the national
character. It would be difficult to exaggerate the material effects
of the careers of Washington and of Lincoln upon the United States.
Without Washington we should probably never have won our independence
of the British crown, and we should almost certainly have failed to
become a great nation, remaining instead a cluster of jangling little
communities, drifting toward the type of government prevalent in
Spanish America. Without Lincoln we might perhaps have failed to keep
the political unity we had won; and even if, as is possible, we had
kept it, both the struggle by which it was kept and the results of this
struggle would have been so different that the effect upon our national
history could not have failed to be profound. Yet the nation’s debt
to these men is not confined to what it owes them for its material
well-being, incalculable though this debt is. Beyond the fact that we
are an independent and united people, with half a continent as our
heritage, lies the fact that every American is richer by the heritage
of the noble deeds and noble words of Washington and of Lincoln. Each
of us who reads the Gettysburg speech or the second inaugural address
of the greatest American of the nineteenth century, or who studies
the long campaigns and lofty statesmanship of that other American who
was even greater, cannot but feel within him that lift toward things
higher and nobler which can never be bestowed by the enjoyment of mere
material prosperity.
It is not only the country which these men helped to make and helped
to save that is ours by inheritance; we inherit also all that is best
and highest in their characters and in their lives. We inherit from
Lincoln and from the might of Lincoln’s generation not merely the
freedom of those who once were slaves; for we inherit also the fact of
the freeing of them, we inherit the glory and the honor and the wonder
of the deed that was done, no less than the actual results of the deed
when done. The bells that rang at the passage of the Emancipation
Proclamation still ring in Whittier’s ode; and as men think over the
real nature of the triumph then scored for humankind their hearts shall
ever throb as they cannot over the greatest industrial success or over
any victory won at a less cost than ours.
The captains and the armies who, after long years of dreary campaigning
and bloody, stubborn fighting, brought to a close the Civil War have
likewise left us even more than a reunited realm. The material effect
of what they did is shown in the fact that the same flag flies from
the Great Lakes to the Rio Grande, and all the people of the United
States are richer because they are one people and not many, because
they belong to one great nation and not to a contemptible knot of
struggling nationalities. But besides this, besides the material
results of the Civil War, we are all, North and South, incalculably
richer for its memories. We are the richer for each grim campaign, for
each hard-fought battle. We are the richer for valor displayed alike by
those who fought so valiantly for the right and by those who, no less
valiantly, fought for what they deemed the right. We have in us nobler
capacities for what is great and good because of the infinite woe and
suffering, and because of the splendid ultimate triumph.
In the same way that we are the better for the deeds of our mighty men
who have served the nation well, so we are the worse for the deeds and
the words of those who have striven to bring evil on the land. Most
fortunately we have been free from the peril of the most dangerous
of all examples. We have not had to fight the influence exerted over
the minds of eager and ambitious men by the career of the military
adventurer who heads some successful revolutionary or separatist
movement. No man works such incalculable woe to a free country as
he who teaches young men that one of the paths to glory, renown,
and temporal success lies along the line of armed resistance to the
Government, of its attempted overthrow.
Yet if we are free from the peril of this example, there are other
perils from which we are not free. All through our career we have had
to war against a tendency to regard, in the individual and the nation
alike, as most important, things that are of comparatively little
importance. We rightfully value success, but sometimes we overvalue
it, for we tend to forget that success may be obtained by means which
should make it abhorred and despised by every honorable man. One
section of the community deifies as “smartness” the kind of trickery
which enables a man without conscience to succeed in the financial
or political world. Another section of the community deifies violent
homicidal lawlessness. If ever our people as a whole adopt these
views, then we shall have proved that we are unworthy of the heritage
our forefathers left us; and our country will go down in ruin.
The people that do harm in the end are not the wrong-doers whom all
execrate; they are the men who do not do quite as much wrong, but who
are applauded instead of being execrated. The career of Benedict Arnold
has done us no harm as a nation because of the universal horror it
inspired. The men who have done us harm are those who have advocated
disunion, but have done it so that they have been enabled to keep their
political position; who have advocated repudiation of debts, or other
financial dishonesty, but have kept their standing in the community;
who preach the doctrines of anarchy, but refrain from action that will
bring them within the pale of the law; for these men lead thousands
astray by the fact that they go unpunished or even rewarded for their
misdeeds.
It is unhappily true that we inherit the evil as well as the good
done by those who have gone before us, and in the one case as in the
other the influence extends far beyond the mere material effects. The
foes of order harm quite as much by example as by what they actually
accomplish. So it is with the equally dangerous criminals of the
wealthy classes. The conscienceless stock speculator who acquires
wealth by swindling his fellows, by debauching judges and corrupting
legislatures, and who ends his days with the reputation of being among
the richest men in America, exerts over the minds of the rising
generation an influence worse than that of the average murderer or
bandit, because his career is even more dazzling in its success, and
even more dangerous in its effects upon the community. Any one who
reads the essays of Charles Francis Adams and Henry Adams, entitled
“A Chapter of Erie,” and “The Gold Conspiracy in New York,” will read
about the doings of men whose influence for evil upon the community is
more potent than that of any band of anarchists or train robbers.
There are other members of our mercantile community who, being
perfectly honest themselves, nevertheless do almost as much damage as
the dishonest. The professional labor agitator, with all his reckless
incendiarism of speech, can do no more harm than the narrow, hard,
selfish merchant or manufacturer who deliberately sets himself to
keep the laborers he employs in a condition of dependence which will
render them helpless to combine against him; and every such merchant or
manufacturer who rises to sufficient eminence leaves the record of his
name and deeds as a legacy of evil to all who come after him.
But of course the worst foes of America are the foes to that orderly
liberty without which our Republic must speedily perish. The reckless
labor agitator who arouses the mob to riot and bloodshed is in the last
analysis the most dangerous of the workingman’s enemies. This man is
a real peril; and so is his sympathizer, the legislator, who to catch
votes denounces the judiciary and the military because they put down
mobs. We Americans have, on the whole, a right to be optimists; but it
is mere folly to blind ourselves to the fact that there are some black
clouds on the horizon of our future.
During the summer of 1894, every American capable of thinking must at
times have pondered very gravely over certain features of the national
character which were brought into unpleasant prominence by the course
of events. The demagogue, in all his forms, is as characteristic an
evil of a free society as the courtier is of a despotism; and the
attitude of many of our public men at the time of the great strike
in July, 1894, was such as to call down on their heads the hearty
condemnation of every American who wishes well to his country. It
would be difficult to overestimate the damage done by the example and
action of a man like Governor Altgeld of Illinois. Whether he is honest
or not in his beliefs is not of the slightest consequence. He is as
emphatically the foe of decent government as Tweed himself, and is
capable of doing far more damage than Tweed. The Governor, who began
his career by pardoning anarchists, and whose most noteworthy feat
since was his bitter and undignified, but fortunately futile, campaign
against the election of the upright judge who sentenced the anarchists,
is the foe of every true American and is the foe particularly of every
honest workingman. With such a man it was to be expected that he
should in time of civic commotion act as the foe of the law-abiding
and the friend of the lawless classes, and endeavor, in company with
the lowest and most abandoned office-seeking politicians, to prevent
proper measures being taken to prevent riot and to punish the rioters.
Had it not been for the admirable action of the Federal Government,
Chicago would have seen a repetition of what occurred during the Paris
Commune, while Illinois would have been torn by a fierce social war;
and for all the horrible waste of life that this would have entailed
Governor Altgeld would have been primarily responsible. It was a
most fortunate thing that the action at Washington was so quick and
so emphatic. Senator Davis of Minnesota set the key of patriotism at
the time when men were still puzzled and hesitated. The President and
Attorney-General Olney acted with equal wisdom and courage, and the
danger was averted. The completeness of the victory of the Federal
authorities, representing the cause of law and order, has been perhaps
one reason why it was so soon forgotten; and now not a few shortsighted
people need to be reminded that when we were on the brink of an almost
terrific explosion the governor of Illinois did his best to work to
this country a measure of harm as great as any ever planned by Benedict
Arnold, and that we were saved by the resolute action of the Federal
judiciary and of the regular army. Moreover, Governor Altgeld, though
pre-eminent, did not stand alone on his unenviable prominence. Governor
Waite of Colorado stood with him. Most of the Populist governors of
the Western States, and the Republican governor of California and the
Democratic governor of North Dakota, shared the shame with him; and
it makes no difference whether in catering to riotous mobs they paid
heed to their own timidity and weakness, or to that spirit of blatant
demagogism which, more than any other, jeopardizes the existence of
free institutions. On the other hand, the action of the then Governor
of Ohio, Mr. McKinley, entitled him to the gratitude of all good
citizens.
Every true American, every man who thinks, and who if the occasion
comes is ready to act, may do well to ponder upon the evil wrought by
the lawlessness of the disorderly classes when once they are able to
elect their own chiefs to power. If the Government generally got into
the hands of men such as Altgeld, the Republic would go to pieces in
a year; and it would be right that it should go to pieces, for the
election of such men shows that the people electing them are unfit to
be entrusted with self-government.
There are, however, plenty of wrong-doers besides those who commit
the overt act. Too much cannot be said against the men of wealth who
sacrifice everything to getting wealth. There is not in the world a
more ignoble character than the mere money-getting American, insensible
to every duty, regardless of every principle, bent only on amassing
a fortune, and putting his fortune only to the basest uses--whether
these uses be to speculate in stocks and wreck railroads himself, or
to allow his son to lead a life of foolish and expensive idleness
and gross debauchery, or to purchase some scoundrel of high social
position, foreign or native, for his daughter. Such a man is only
the more dangerous if he occasionally does some deed like founding a
college or endowing a church, which makes those good people who are
also foolish forget his real iniquity. These men are equally careless
of the workingmen, whom they oppress, and of the state, whose existence
they imperil. There are not very many of them, but there is a very
great number of men who approach more or less closely to the type,
and, just in so far as they do so approach, they are curses to the
country. The man who is content to let politics go from bad to worse,
jesting at the corruption of politicians, the man who is content to
see the maladministration of justice without an immediate and resolute
effort to reform it, is shirking his duty and is preparing the way for
infinite woe in the future. Hard, brutal indifference to the right,
and an equally brutal shortsightedness as to the inevitable results of
corruption and injustice, are baleful beyond measure; and yet they are
characteristic of a great many Americans who think themselves perfectly
respectable, and who are considered thriving, prosperous men by their
easy-going fellow-citizens.
Another class, merging into this, and only less dangerous, is that of
the men whose ideals are purely material. These are the men who are
willing to go for good government when they think it will pay, but
who measure everything by the shop-till, the people who are unable to
appreciate any quality that is not a mercantile commodity, who do not
understand that a poet may do far more for a country than the owner
of a nail factory, who do not realize that no amount of commercial
prosperity can supply the lack of the heroic virtues, or can in itself
solve the terrible social problems which all the civilized world is now
facing. The mere materialist is, above all things, short-sighted. In a
recent article Mr. Edward Atkinson casually mentioned that the regular
army could now render the country no “effective or useful service.”
Two months before this sapient remark was printed the regular army
had saved Chicago from the fate of Paris in 1870 and had prevented
a terrible social war in the West. At the end of this article Mr.
Atkinson indulged in a curious rhapsody against the navy, denouncing
its existence and being especially wrought up, not because war-vessels
take life, but because they “destroy commerce.” To men of a certain
kind, trade and property are far more sacred than life or honor, of
far more consequence than the great thoughts and lofty emotions,
which alone make a nation mighty. They believe, with a faith almost
touching in its utter feebleness, that “the Angel of Peace, draped
in a garment of untaxed calico,” has given her final message to men
when she has implored them to devote all their energies to producing
oleomargarine at a quarter of a cent less a firkin, or to importing
woollens for a fraction less than they can be made at home. These
solemn prattlers strive after an ideal in which they shall happily
unite the imagination of a green-grocer with the heart of a Bengalee
baboo. They are utterly incapable of feeling one thrill of generous
emotion, or the slightest throb of that pulse which gives to the world
statesmen, patriots, warriors, and poets, and which makes a nation
other than a cumberer of the world’s surface. In the concluding page of
his article Mr. Atkinson, complacently advancing his panacea, his quack
cure-all, says that “all evil powers of the world will go down before”
a policy of “reciprocity of trade without obstruction”! Fatuity can go
no farther.
No Populist who wishes a currency based on corn and cotton stands in
more urgent need of applied common sense than does the man who believes
that the adoption of any policy; no matter what, in reference to our
foreign commerce, will cut that tangled knot of social well-being
and misery at which the fingers of the London free-trader clutch as
helplessly as those of the Berlin protectionist. Such a man represents
individually an almost imponderable element in the work and thought
of the community; but in the aggregate he stands for a real danger,
because he stands for a feeling evident of late years among many
respectable people. The people who pride themselves upon having a
purely commercial ideal are apparently unaware that such an ideal
is as essentially mean and sordid as any in the world, and that no
bandit community of the Middle Ages can have led a more unlovely life
than would be the life of men to whom trade and manufactures were
everything, and to whom such words as national honor and glory,
as courage and daring, and loyalty and unselfishness, had become
meaningless. The merely material, the merely commercial ideal, the
ideal of the men “whose fatherland is the till,” is in its very essence
debasing and lowering. It is as true now as ever it was that no man
and no nation shall live by bread alone. Thrift and industry are
indispensable virtues; but they are not all-sufficient. We must base
our appeals for civic and national betterment on nobler grounds than
those of mere business expediency.
We have examples enough and to spare that tend to evil; nevertheless,
for our good fortune, the men who have most impressed themselves upon
the thought of the nation have left behind them careers the influence
of which must tell for good. The unscrupulous speculator who rises to
enormous wealth by swindling his neighbor; the capitalist who oppresses
the workingman; the agitator who wrongs the workingman yet more deeply
by trying to teach him to rely not upon himself, but partly upon the
charity of individuals or of the state and partly upon mob violence;
the man in public life who is a demagogue or corrupt, and the newspaper
writer who fails to attack him because of his corruption, or who
slanderously assails him when he is honest; the political leader who,
cursed by some obliquity of moral or of mental vision, seeks to produce
sectional or social strife--all these, though important in their day,
have hitherto failed to leave any lasting impress upon the life of
the nation. The men who have profoundly influenced the growth of our
national character have been in most cases precisely those men whose
influence was for the best and was strongly felt as antagonistic to the
worst tendency of the age. The great writers, who have written in prose
or verse, have done much for us. The great orators whose burning words
on behalf of liberty, of union, of honest government, have rung through
our legislative halls, have done even more. Most of all has been done
by the men who have spoken to us through deeds and not words, or whose
words have gathered their especial charm and significance because they
came from men who did speak in deeds. A nation’s greatness lies in its
possibility of achievement in the present, and nothing helps it more
than the consciousness of achievement in the past.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[2] _The Forum_, February, 1895.
[Illustration]
II
TRUE AMERICANISM[3]
Patriotism was once defined as “the last refuge of a scoundrel”;
and somebody has recently remarked that when Dr. Johnson gave this
definition he was ignorant of the infinite possibilities contained
in the word “reform.” Of course both gibes were quite justifiable,
in so far as they were aimed at people who use noble names to cloak
base purposes. Equally of course the man shows little wisdom and a
low sense of duty who fails to see that love of country is one of the
elemental virtues, even though scoundrels play upon it for their own
selfish ends; and, inasmuch as abuses continually grow up in civic life
as in all other kinds of life, the statesman is indeed a weakling who
hesitates to reform these abuses because the word “reform” is often on
the lips of men who are silly or dishonest.
What is true of patriotism and reform is true also of Americanism.
There are plenty of scoundrels always ready to try to belittle
reform movements or to bolster up existing iniquities in the name of
Americanism; but this does not alter the fact that the man who can do
most in this country is and must be the man whose Americanism is most
sincere and intense. Outrageous though it is to use a noble idea as
the cloak for evil, it is still worse to assail the noble idea itself
because it can thus be used. The men who do iniquity in the name of
patriotism, of reform, of Americanism, are merely one small division of
the class that has always existed and will always exist,--the class of
hypocrites and demagogues, the class that is always prompt to steal the
watchwords of righteousness and use them in the interests of evil-doing.
The stoutest and truest Americans are the very men who have the least
sympathy with the people who invoke the spirit of Americanism to aid
what is vicious in our government or to throw obstacles in the way of
those who strive to reform it. It is contemptible to oppose a movement
for good because that movement has already succeeded somewhere else,
or to champion an existing abuse because our people have always been
wedded to it. To appeal to national prejudice against a given reform
movement is in every way unworthy and silly. It is as childish to
denounce free trade because England has adopted it as to advocate
it for the same reason. It is eminently proper, in dealing with the
tariff, to consider the effect of tariff legislation in time past upon
other nations as well as the effect upon our own; but in drawing
conclusions it is in the last degree foolish to try to excite prejudice
against one system because it is in vogue in some given country, or to
try to excite prejudice in its favor because the economists of that
country have found that it was suited to their own peculiar needs. In
attempting to solve our difficult problem of municipal government it is
mere folly to refuse to profit by whatever is good in the examples of
Manchester and Berlin because these cities are foreign, exactly as it
is mere folly blindly to copy their examples without reference to our
own totally different conditions. As for the absurdity of declaiming
against civil-service reform, for instance, as “Chinese,” because
written examinations have been used in China, it would be quite as
wise to declaim against gunpowder because it was first utilized by the
same people. In short, the man who, whether from mere dull fatuity or
from an active interest in misgovernment, tries to appeal to American
prejudice against things foreign, so as to induce Americans to oppose
any measure for good, should be looked on by his fellow-countrymen with
the heartiest contempt. So much for the men who appeal to the spirit
of Americanism to sustain us in wrong-doing. But we must never let our
contempt for these men blind us to the nobility of the idea which they
strive to degrade.
We Americans have many grave problems to solve, many threatening evils
to fight, and many deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have
the wisdom, the strength, the courage, and the virtue to do them. But
we must face facts as they are. We must neither surrender ourselves
to a foolish optimism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pessimism.
Our nation is that one among all the nations of the earth which holds
in its hands the fate of the coming years. We enjoy exceptional
advantages, and are menaced by exceptional dangers; and all signs
indicate that we shall either fail greatly or succeed greatly. I
firmly believe that we shall succeed; but we must not foolishly blink
the dangers by which we are threatened, for that is the way to fail.
On the contrary, we must soberly set to work to find out all we can
about the existence and extent of every evil, must acknowledge it to
be such, and must then attack it with unyielding resolution. There are
many such evils, and each must be fought after a separate fashion;
yet there is one quality which we must bring to the solution of every
problem,--that is, an intense and fervid Americanism. We shall never be
successful over the dangers that confront us; we shall never achieve
true greatness, nor reach the lofty ideal which the founders and
preservers of our mighty Federal Republic have set before us, unless we
are Americans in heart and soul, in spirit and purpose, keenly alive
to the responsibility implied in the very name of American, and proud
beyond measure of the glorious privilege of bearing it.
There are two or three sides to the question of Americanism, and two
or three senses in which the word “Americanism” can be used to express
the antithesis of what is unwholesome and undesirable. In the first
place we wish to be broadly American and national, as opposed to being
local or sectional. We do not wish, in politics, in literature, or in
art, to develop that unwholesome parochial spirit, that over-exaltation
of the little community at the expense of the great nation, which
produces what has been described as the patriotism of the village,
the patriotism of the belfry. Politically, the indulgence of this
spirit was the chief cause of the calamities which befell the ancient
republics of Greece, the mediæval republics of Italy, and the petty
States of Germany as it was in the last century. It is this spirit of
provincial patriotism, this inability to take a view of broad adhesion
to the whole nation that has been the chief among the causes that have
produced such anarchy in the South American States, and which have
resulted in presenting to us, not one great Spanish-American federal
nation stretching from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, but a squabbling
multitude of revolution-ridden States, not one of which stands even
in the second rank as a power. However, politically this question of
American nationality has been settled once for all. We are no longer
in danger of repeating in our history the shameful and contemptible
disasters that have befallen the Spanish possessions on this continent
since they threw off the yoke of Spain. Indeed there is, all through
our life, very much less of this parochial spirit than there was
formerly. Still there is an occasional outcropping here and there; and
it is just as well that we should keep steadily in mind the futility
of talking of a Northern literature or a Southern literature, an
Eastern or a Western school of art or science. Joel Chandler Harris is
emphatically a national writer; so is Mark Twain. They do not write
merely for Georgia or Missouri or California any more than for Illinois
or Connecticut; they write as Americans and for all people who can
read English. St. Gaudens lives in New York; but his work is just as
distinctive of Boston or Chicago. It is of very great consequence that
we should have a full and ripe literary development in the United
States, but it is not of the least consequence whether New York, or
Boston, or Chicago, or San Francisco becomes the literary or artistic
centre of the United States.
There is a second side to this question of a broad Americanism,
however. The patriotism of the village or the belfrey is bad, but the
lack of all patriotism is even worse. There are philosophers who assure
us, that in the future, patriotism will be regarded not as a virtue
at all, but merely as a mental stage in the journey toward a state of
feeling when our patriotism will include the whole human race and all
the world. This may be so; but the age of which these philosophers
speak is still several æons distant. In fact, philosophers of this
type are so very advanced that they are of no practical service to
the present generation. It may be, that in ages so remote that we
cannot now understand any of the feelings of those who will dwell in
them, patriotism will no longer be regarded as a virtue, exactly as
it may be that in those remote ages people will look down upon and
disregard monogamic marriage; but as things now are and have been for
two or three thousand years past, and are likely to be for two or
three thousand years to come, the words “home” and “country” mean a
great deal. Nor do they show any tendency to lose their significance.
At present, treason, like adultery, ranks as one of the worst of all
possible crimes.
One may fall very far short of treason and yet be an undesirable
citizen in the community. The man who becomes Europeanized, who loses
his power of doing good work on this side of the water, and who loses
his love for his native land, is not a traitor; but he is a silly and
undesirable citizen. He is as emphatically a noxious element in our
body politic as is the man who comes here from abroad and remains a
foreigner. Nothing will more quickly or more surely disqualify a man
from doing good work in the world than the acquirement of that flaccid
habit of mind which its possessors style cosmopolitanism.
It is not only necessary to Americanize the immigrants of foreign birth
who settle among us, but it is even more necessary for those among us
who are by birth and descent already Americans not to throw away our
birthright, and, with incredible and contemptible folly, wander back to
bow down before the alien gods whom our forefathers forsook. It is hard
to believe that there is any necessity to warn Americans that, when
they seek to model themselves on the lines of other civilizations,
they make themselves the butts of all right-thinking men; and yet
the necessity certainly exists to give this warning to many of our
citizens who pride themselves on their standing in the world of art
and letters, or, perchance, on what they would style their social
leadership in the community. It is always better to be an original
than an imitation, even when the imitation is of something better than
the original; but what shall we say of the fool who is content to be
an imitation of something worse? Even if the weaklings who seek to be
other than Americans were right in deeming other nations to be better
than their own, the fact yet remains that to be a first-class American
is fifty-fold better than to be a second-class imitation of a Frenchman
or Englishman. As a matter of fact, however, those of our countrymen
who do believe in American inferiority are always individuals who,
however cultivated, have some organic weakness in their moral or mental
make-up; and the great mass of our people, who are robustly patriotic,
and who have sound, healthy minds, are justified in regarding these
feeble renegades with a half-impatient and half-amused scorn.
We believe in waging relentless war on rank-growing evils of all
kinds, and it makes no difference to us if they happen to be of purely
native growth. We grasp at any good, no matter whence it comes. We do
not accept the evil attendant upon another system of government as
an adequate excuse for that attendant upon our own; the fact that
the courtier is a scamp does not render the demagogue any the less
a scoundrel. But it remains true that, in spite of all our faults
and shortcomings, no other land offers such glorious possibilities
to the man able to take advantage of them, as does ours; it remains
true that no one of our people can do any work really worth doing
unless he does it primarily as an American. It is because certain
classes of our people still retain their spirit of colonial dependence
on, and exaggerated deference to, European opinion, that they fail
to accomplish what they ought to. It is precisely along the lines
where we have worked most independently that we have accomplished
the greatest results; and it is in those professions where there
has been no servility to, but merely a wise profiting by, foreign
experience, that we have produced our greatest men. Our soldiers and
statesmen and orators; our explorers, our wilderness-winners, and
commonwealth-builders; the men who have made our laws and seen that
they were executed; and the other men whose energy and ingenuity have
created our marvellous material prosperity,--all these have been men
who have drawn wisdom from the experience of every age and nation, but
who have nevertheless thought, and worked, and conquered, and lived,
and died, purely as Americans; and on the whole they have done better
work than has been done in any other country during the short period of
our national life.
On the other hand, it is in those professions where our people have
striven hardest to mould themselves in conventional European forms
that they have succeeded least; and this holds true to the present day,
the failure being of course most conspicuous where the man takes up
his abode in Europe; where he becomes a second-rate European, because
he is over-civilized, over-sensitive, over-refined, and has lost the
hardihood and manly courage by which alone he can conquer in the keen
struggle of our national life. Be it remembered, too, that this same
being does not really become a European; he only ceases being an
American, and becomes nothing. He throws away a great prize for the
sake of a lesser one, and does not even get the lesser one. The painter
who goes to Paris, not merely to get two or three years’ thorough
training in his art, but with the deliberate purpose of taking up his
abode there, and with the intention of following in the ruts worn deep
by ten thousand earlier travellers, instead of striking off to rise
or fall on a new line, thereby forfeits all chance of doing the best
work. He must content himself with aiming at that kind of mediocrity
which consists in doing fairly well what has already been done better;
and he usually never even sees the grandeur and picturesqueness lying
open before the eyes of every man who can read the book of America’s
past and the book of America’s present. Thus it is with the undersized
man of letters, who flees his country because he, with his delicate,
effeminate sensitiveness, finds the conditions of life on this side
of the water crude and raw; in other words, because he finds that he
cannot play a man’s part among men, and so goes where he will be
sheltered from the winds that harden stouter souls. This _emigré_ may
write graceful and pretty verses, essays, novels; but he will never
do work to compare with that of his brother, who is strong enough to
stand on his own feet, and do his work as an American. Thus it is
with the scientist who spends his youth in a German university, and
can thenceforth work only in the fields already fifty times furrowed
by the German ploughs. Thus it is with that most foolish of parents
who sends his children to be educated abroad, not knowing--what every
clear-sighted man from Washington and Jay down has known--that the
American who is to make his way in America should be brought up among
his fellow Americans. It is among the people who like to consider
themselves, and, indeed, to a large extent are, the leaders of the
so-called social world, especially in some of the northeastern cities,
that this colonial habit of thought, this thoroughly provincial spirit
of admiration for things foreign, and inability to stand on one’s own
feet, becomes most evident and most despicable. We believe in every
kind of honest and lawful pleasure, so long as the getting it is not
made man’s chief business; and we believe heartily in the good that
can be done by men of leisure who work hard in their leisure, whether
at politics or philanthropy, literature or art. But a leisure class
whose leisure simply means idleness is a curse to the community, and
in so far as its members distinguish themselves chiefly by aping the
worst--not the best--traits of similar people across the water, they
become both comic and noxious elements of the body politic.
The third sense in which the word “Americanism” may be employed is
with reference to the Americanizing of the newcomers to our shores.
We must Americanize them in every way, in speech, in political ideas
and principles, and in their way of looking at the relations between
Church and State. We welcome the German or the Irishman who becomes
an American. We have no use for the German or Irishman who remains
such. We do not wish German-Americans and Irish-Americans who figure
as such in our social and political life; we want only Americans, and,
provided they are such, we do not care whether they are of native or of
Irish or of German ancestry. We have no room in any healthy American
community for a German-American vote or an Irish-American vote, and it
is contemptible demagogy to put planks into any party platform with the
purpose of catching such a vote. We have no room for any people who do
not act and vote simply as Americans, and as nothing else. Moreover, we
have as little use for people who carry religious prejudices into our
politics as for those who carry prejudices of caste or nationality. We
stand unalterably in favor of the public-school system in its entirety.
We believe that English, and no other language, is that in which all
the school exercises should be conducted. We are against any division
of the school fund, and against any appropriation of public money for
sectarian purposes. We are against any recognition whatever by the
State in any shape or form of State-aided parochial schools. But we
are equally opposed to any discrimination against or for a man because
of his creed. We demand that all citizens, Protestant and Catholic,
Jew and Gentile, shall have fair treatment in every way; that all
alike shall have their rights guaranteed them. The very reasons that
make us unqualified in our opposition to State-aided sectarian schools
make us equally bent that, in the management of our public schools,
the adherents of each creed shall be given exact and equal justice,
wholly without regard to their religious affiliations; that trustees,
superintendents, teachers, scholars, all alike, shall be treated
without any reference whatsoever to the creed they profess. We maintain
that it is an outrage, in voting for a man for any position, whether
State or national, to take into account his religious faith, provided
only he is a good American. When a secret society does what in some
places the American Protective Association seems to have done, and
tries to proscribe Catholics both politically and socially, the members
of such society show that they themselves are as utterly un-American,
as alien to our school of political thought, as the worst immigrants
who land on our shores. Their conduct is equally base and contemptible;
they are the worst foes of our public-school system, because they
strengthen the hands of its ultramontane enemies; they should receive
the hearty condemnation of all Americans who are truly patriotic.
The mighty tide of immigration to our shores has brought in its train
much of good and much of evil; and whether the good or the evil shall
predominate depends mainly on whether these newcomers do or do not
throw themselves heartily into our national life, cease to be European,
and become Americans like the rest of us. More than a third of the
people of the Northern States are of foreign birth or parentage. An
immense number of them have become completely Americanized, and these
stand on exactly the same plane as the descendants of any Puritan,
Cavalier, or Knickerbocker among us, and do their full and honorable
share of the nation’s work. But where immigrants, or the sons of
immigrants, do not heartily and in good faith throw in their lot
with us, but cling to the speech, the customs, the ways of life, and
the habits of thought of the Old World which they have left, they
thereby harm both themselves and us. If they remain alien elements,
unassimilated, and with interests separate from ours, they are mere
obstructions to the current of our national life, and, moreover, can
get no good from it themselves. In fact, though we ourselves also
suffer from their perversity, it is they who really suffer most. It
is an immense benefit to the European immigrant to change him into an
American citizen. To bear the name of American is to bear the most
honorable of titles; and whoever does not so believe has no business
to bear the name at all, and, if he comes from Europe, the sooner
he goes back there the better. Besides, the man who does not become
Americanized nevertheless fails to remain a European, and becomes
nothing at all. The immigrant cannot possibly remain what he was,
or continue to be a member of the Old-World society. If he tries to
retain his old language, in a few generations it becomes a barbarous
jargon; if he tries to retain his old customs and ways of life, in a
few generations he becomes an uncouth boor. He has cut himself off from
the Old-World, and cannot retain his connection with it; and if he
wishes ever to amount to anything he must throw himself heart and soul,
and without reservation, into the new life to which he has come. It is
urgently necessary to check and regulate our immigration, by much more
drastic laws than now exist; and this should be done both to keep out
laborers who tend to depress the labor market, and to keep out races
which do not assimilate readily with our own, and unworthy individuals
of all races--not only criminals, idiots, and paupers, but anarchists
of the Most and O’Donovan Rossa type.
From his own standpoint, it is beyond all question the wise thing for
the immigrant to become thoroughly Americanized. Moreover, from our
standpoint, we have a right to demand it. We freely extend the hand
of welcome and of good-fellowship to every man, no matter what his
creed or birthplace, who comes here honestly intent on becoming a good
United States citizen like the rest of us; but we have a right, and
it is our duty, to demand that he shall indeed become so, and shall
not confuse the issues with which we are struggling by introducing
among us Old-World quarrels and prejudices. There are certain ideas
which he must give up. For instance, he must learn that American life
is incompatible with the existence of any form of anarchy, or of any
secret society having murder for its aim, whether at home or abroad;
and he must learn that we exact full religious toleration and the
complete separation of Church and State. Moreover, he must not bring
in his Old-World religious race and national antipathies, but must
merge them into love for our common country, and must take pride in the
things which we can all take pride in. He must revere only our flag;
not only must it come first, but no other flag should even come second.
He must learn to celebrate Washington’s birthday rather than that of
the Queen or Kaiser, and the Fourth of July instead of St. Patrick’s
Day. Our political and social questions must be settled on their own
merits, and not complicated by quarrels between England and Ireland, or
France and Germany, with which we have nothing to do: it is an outrage
to fight an American political campaign with reference to questions
of European politics. Above all, the immigrant must learn to talk and
think and _be_ United States.
The immigrant of to-day can learn much from the experience of the
immigrants of the past, who came to America prior to the Revolutionary
War. We were then already, what we are now, a people of mixed blood.
Many of our most illustrious Revolutionary names were borne by men
of Huguenot blood--Jay, Sevier, Marion, Laurens. But the Huguenots
were, on the whole, the best immigrants we have ever received; sooner
than any other, and more completely, they became American in speech,
conviction, and thought. The Hollanders took longer than the Huguenots
to become completely assimilated; nevertheless they in the end became
so, immensely to their own advantage. One of the leading Revolutionary
generals, Schuyler, and one of the Presidents of the United States,
Van Buren, were of Dutch blood; but they rose to their positions,
the highest in the land, because they had become Americans and had
ceased being Hollanders. If they had remained members of an alien
body, cut off by their speech and customs and belief from the rest
of the American community, Schuyler would have lived his life as a
boorish, provincial squire, and Van Buren would have ended his days
a small tavern-keeper. So it is with the Germans of Pennsylvania.
Those of them who became Americanized have furnished to our history
a multitude of honorable names, from the days of the Mühlenbergs
onward; but those who did not become Americanized form to the present
day an unimportant body, of no significance in American existence.
So it is with the Irish, who gave to Revolutionary annals such names
as Carroll and Sullivan, and to the Civil War men like Sheridan--men
who were Americans and nothing else: while the Irish who remain such,
and busy themselves solely with alien politics, can have only an
unhealthy influence upon American life, and can never rise as do their
compatriots who become straightout Americans. Thus it has ever been
with all people who have come hither, of whatever stock or blood. The
same thing is true of the churches. A church which remains foreign, in
language or spirit, is doomed.
But I wish to be distinctly understood on one point. Americanism
is a question of spirit, conviction, and purpose, not of creed or
birthplace. The politician who bids for the Irish or German vote,
or the Irishman or German who votes as an Irishman or German, is
despicable, for all citizens of this commonwealth should vote solely
as Americans; but he is not a whit less despicable than the voter who
votes against a good American, merely because that American happens to
have been born in Ireland or Germany. Know-nothingism, in any form, is
as utterly un-American as foreignism. It is a base outrage to oppose
a man because of his religion or birthplace, and all good citizens
will hold any such effort in abhorrence. A Scandinavian, a German, or
an Irishman who has really become an American has the right to stand
on exactly the same footing as any native-born citizen in the land,
and is just as much entitled to the friendship and support, social
and political, of his neighbors. Among the men with whom I have been
thrown in close personal contact socially, and who have been among my
staunchest friends and allies politically, are not a few Americans who
happen to have been born on the other side of the water, in Germany,
Ireland, Scandinavia; and there could be no better men in the ranks of
our native-born citizens.
In closing, I cannot better express the ideal attitude that should be
taken by our fellow-citizens of foreign birth than by quoting the words
of a representative American, born in Germany, the Honorable Richard
Guenther, of Wisconsin. In a speech spoken at the time of the Samoan
trouble, he said:
“We know as well as any other class of American citizens where our
duties belong. We will work for our country in time of peace and
fight for it in time of war, if a time of war should ever come. When
I say our country, I mean, of course, our adopted country. I mean
the United States of America. After passing through the crucible
of naturalization, we are no longer Germans; we are Americans.
Our attachment to America cannot be measured by the length of our
residence here. We are Americans from the moment we touch the American
shore until we are laid in American graves. We will fight for America
whenever necessary. America, first, last, and all the time. America
against Germany, America against the world; America, right or wrong;
always America. We are Americans.”
All honor to the man who spoke such words as those; and I believe
they express the feelings of the great majority of those among our
fellow-American citizens who were born abroad. We Americans can only
do our allotted task well if we face it steadily and bravely, seeing
but not fearing the dangers. Above all we must stand shoulder to
shoulder, not asking as to the ancestry or creed of our comrades, but
only demanding that they be in very truth Americans, and that we all
work together, heart, hand, and head, for the honor and the greatness
of our common country.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[3] _The Forum_, April, 1894.
[Illustration]
III
THE MANLY VIRTUES AND PRACTICAL POLITICS[4]
Sometimes, in addressing men who sincerely desire the betterment of our
public affairs, but who have not taken active part in directing them,
I feel tempted to tell them that there are two gospels which should be
preached to every reformer. The first is the gospel of morality; the
second is the gospel of efficiency.
To decent, upright citizens it is hardly necessary to preach the
doctrine of morality as applied to the affairs of public life. It is
an even graver offence to sin against the commonwealth than to sin
against an individual. The man who debauches our public life, whether
by malversation of funds in office, by the actual bribery of voters
or of legislators, or by the corrupt use of the offices as spoils
wherewith to reward the unworthy and the vicious for their noxious
and interested activity in the baser walks of political life,--this
man is a greater foe to our well-being as a nation than is even the
defaulting cashier of a bank, or the betrayer of a private trust. No
amount of intelligence and no amount of energy will save a nation which
is not honest, and no government can ever be a permanent success if
administered in accordance with base ideals. The first requisite in
the citizen who wishes to share the work of our public life, whether
he wishes himself to hold office or merely to do his plain duty as an
American by taking part in the management of our political machinery,
is that he shall act disinterestedly and with a sincere purpose to
serve the whole commonwealth.
But disinterestedness and honesty and unselfish desire to do what
is right are not enough in themselves. A man must not only be
disinterested, but he must be efficient. If he goes into politics he
must go into practical politics, in order to make his influence felt.
Practical politics must not be construed to mean dirty politics. On
the contrary, in the long run the politics of fraud and treachery
and foulness are unpractical politics, and the most practical of all
politicians is the politician who is clean and decent and upright. But
a man who goes into the actual battles of the political world must
prepare himself much as he would for the struggle in any other branch
of our life. He must be prepared to meet men of far lower ideals than
his own, and to face things, not as he would wish them, but as they
are. He must not lose his own high ideal, and yet he must face the fact
that the majority of the men with whom he must work have lower ideals.
He must stand firmly for what he believes, and yet he must realize that
political action, to be effective, must be the joint action of many
men, and that he must sacrifice somewhat of his own opinions to those
of his associates if he ever hopes to see his desires take practical
shape.
The prime thing that every man who takes an interest in politics
should remember is that he must act, and not merely criticise the
actions of others. It is not the man who sits by his fireside reading
his evening paper, and saying how bad our politics and politicians
are, who will ever do anything to save us; it is the man who goes
out into the rough hurly-burly of the caucus, the primary, and the
political meeting, and there faces his fellows on equal terms. The
real service is rendered, not by the critic who stands aloof from the
contest, but by the man who enters into it and bears his part as a man
should, undeterred by the blood and the sweat. It is a pleasant but a
dangerous thing to associate merely with cultivated, refined men of
high ideals and sincere purpose to do right, and to think that one has
done all one’s duty by discussing politics with such associates. It
is a good thing to meet men of this stamp; indeed it is a necessary
thing, for we thereby brighten our ideals, and keep in touch with the
people who are unselfish in their purposes; but if we associate with
such men exclusively we can accomplish nothing. The actual battle must
be fought out on other and less pleasant fields. The actual advance
must be made in the field of practical politics among the men who
represent or guide or control the mass of the voters, the men who are
sometimes rough and coarse, who sometimes have lower ideals than they
should, but who are capable, masterful, and efficient. It is only by
mingling on equal terms with such men, by showing them that one is
able to give and to receive heavy punishment without flinching, and
that one can master the details of political management as well as
they can, that it is possible for a man to establish a standing that
will be useful to him in fighting for a great reform. Every man who
wishes well to his country is in honor bound to take an active part
in political life. If he does his duty and takes that active part
he will be sure occasionally to commit mistakes and to be guilty of
shortcomings. For these mistakes and shortcomings he will receive the
unmeasured denunciation of the critics who commit neither because
they never do anything but criticise. Nevertheless he will have the
satisfaction of knowing that the salvation of the country ultimately
lies, not in the hands of his critics, but in the hands of those who,
however imperfectly, actually do the work of the nation. I would not
for one moment be understood as objecting to criticism or failing to
appreciate its importance. We need fearless criticism of our public men
and public parties; we need unsparing condemnation of all persons and
all principles that count for evil in our public life: but it behooves
every man to remember that the work of the critic, important though
it is, is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end,
progress is accomplished by the man who does the things, and not by the
man who talks about how they ought or ought not to be done.
Therefore the man who wishes to do good in his community must go into
active political life. If he is a Republican, let him join his local
Republican association; if a Democrat, the Democratic association; if
an Independent, then let him put himself in touch with those who think
as he does. In any event let him make himself an active force and make
his influence felt. Whether he works within or without party lines he
can surely find plenty of men who are desirous of good government,
and who, if they act together, become at once a power on the side
of righteousness. Of course, in a government like ours, a man can
accomplish anything only by acting in combination with others, and
equally, of course, a number of people can act together only by each
sacrificing certain of his beliefs or prejudices. That man is indeed
unfortunate who cannot in any given district find some people with
whom he can conscientiously act. He may find that he can do best by
acting within a party organization; he may find that he can do best by
acting, at least for certain purposes, or at certain times, outside of
party organizations, in an independent body of some kind; but with some
association he must act if he wishes to exert any real influence.
One thing to be always remembered is that neither independence on the
one hand nor party fealty on the other can ever be accepted as an
excuse for failure to do active work in politics. The party man who
offers his allegiance to party as an excuse for blindly following his
party, right or wrong, and who fails to try to make that party in any
way better, commits a crime against the country; and a crime quite as
serious is committed by the independent who makes his independence an
excuse for easy self-indulgence, and who thinks that when he says he
belongs to neither party he is excused from the duty of taking part in
the practical work of party organizations. The party man is bound to do
his full share in party management. He is bound to attend the caucuses
and the primaries, to see that only good men are put up, and to exert
his influence as strenuously against the foes of good government within
his party, as, through his party machinery, he does against those who
are without the party. In the same way the independent, if he cannot
take part in the regular organizations, is bound to do just as much
active constructive work (not merely the work of criticism) outside;
he is bound to try to get up an organization of his own and to try to
make that organization felt in some effective manner. Whatever course
the man who wishes to do his duty by his country takes in reference
to parties or to independence of parties, he is bound to try to put
himself in touch with men who think as he does, and to help make their
joint influence felt in behalf of the powers that go for decency and
good government. He must try to accomplish things; he must not vote in
the air unless it is really necessary. Occasionally a man must cast a
“conscience vote,” when there is no possibility of carrying to victory
his principles or his nominees; at times, indeed, this may be his
highest duty; but ordinarily this is not the case. As a general rule a
man ought to work and vote for something which there is at least a a
fair chance of putting into effect.
Yet another thing to be remembered by the man who wishes to make his
influence felt for good in our politics is that he must act purely as
an American. If he is not deeply imbued with the American spirit he
cannot succeed. Any organization which tries to work along the line of
caste or creed, which fails to treat all American citizens on their
merits as men, will fail, and will deserve to fail. Where our political
life is healthy, there is and can be no room for any movement organized
to help or to antagonize men because they do or do not profess a
certain religion, or because they were or were not born here or abroad.
We have a right to ask that those with whom we associate, and those for
whom we vote, shall be themselves good Americans in heart and spirit,
unhampered by adherence to foreign ideals, and acting without regard
to the national and religious prejudices of European countries; but if
they really are good Americans in spirit and thought and purpose, that
is all that we have any right to consider in regard to them. In the
same way there must be no discrimination for or against any man because
of his social standing. On the one side, there is nothing to be made
out of a political organization which draws an exclusive social line,
and on the other it must be remembered that it is just as un-American
to vote against a man because he is rich as to vote against him because
he is poor. The one man has just as much right as the other to claim
to be treated purely on his merits as a man. In short, to do good work
in politics, the men who organize must organize wholly without regard
to whether their associates were born here or abroad, whether they are
Protestants or Catholics, Jews or Gentiles, whether they are bankers
or butchers, professors or day-laborers. All that can rightly be asked
of one’s political associates is that they shall be honest men, good
Americans, and substantially in accord as regards their political ideas.
Another thing that must not be forgotten by the man desirous of doing
good political work is the need of the rougher, manlier virtues,
and above all the virtue of personal courage, physical as well
as moral. If we wish to do good work for our country we must be
unselfish, disinterested, sincerely desirous of the well-being of the
commonwealth, and capable of devoted adherence to a lofty ideal; but
in addition we must be vigorous in mind and body, able to hold our own
in rough conflict with our fellows, able to suffer punishment without
flinching, and, at need, to repay it in kind with full interest. A
peaceful and commercial civilization is always in danger of suffering
the loss of the virile fighting qualities without which no nation,
however cultured, however refined, however thrifty and prosperous, can
ever amount to anything. Every citizen should be taught, both in public
and in private life, that while he must avoid brawling and quarrelling,
it is his duty to stand up for his rights. He must realize that the
only man who is more contemptible than the blusterer and bully is the
coward. No man is worth much to the commonwealth if he is not capable
of feeling righteous wrath and just indignation, if he is not stirred
to hot anger by misdoing, and is not impelled to see justice meted
out to the wrong-doers. No man is worth much anywhere if he does not
possess both moral and physical courage. A politician who really serves
his country well, and deserves his country’s gratitude, must usually
possess some of the hardy virtues which we admire in the soldier who
serves his country well in the field.
An ardent young reformer is very apt to try to begin by reforming too
much. He needs always to keep in mind that he has got to serve as a
sergeant before he assumes the duties of commander-in-chief. It is
right for him from the beginning to take a great interest in National,
State, and Municipal affairs, and to try to make himself felt in them
if the occasion arises; but the best work must be done by the citizen
working in his own ward or district. Let him associate himself with
the men who think as he does, and who, like him, are sincerely devoted
to the public good. Then let them try to make themselves felt in the
choice of alderman, of council-man, of assemblyman. The politicians
will be prompt to recognize their power, and the people will recognize
it too, after a while. Let them organize and work, undaunted by any
temporary defeat. If they fail at first, and if they fail again, let
them merely make up their minds to redouble their efforts, and perhaps
alter their methods; but let them keep on working.
It is sheer unmanliness and cowardice to shrink from the contest
because at first there is failure, or because the work is difficult
or repulsive. No man who is worth his salt has any right to abandon
the effort to better our politics merely because he does not find it
pleasant, merely because it entails associations which to him happen
to be disagreeable. Let him keep right on, taking the buffets he gets
good-humoredly, and repaying them with heartiness when the chance
arises. Let him make up his mind that he will have to face the violent
opposition of the spoils politician, and also, too often, the unfair
and ungenerous criticism of those who ought to know better. Let him
be careful not to show himself so thin-skinned as to mind either; let
him fight his way forward, paying only so much regard to both as is
necessary to enable him to win in spite of them. He may not, and indeed
probably will not, accomplish nearly as much as he would like to, or as
he thinks he ought to: but he will certainly accomplish something; and
if he can feel that he has helped to elevate the type of representative
sent to the municipal, the State, or the national legislature from his
district, or to elevate the standard of duty among the public officials
in his own ward, he has a right to be profoundly satisfied with what he
has accomplished.
Finally, there is one other matter which the man who tries to wake his
fellows to higher political action would do well to ponder. It is a
good thing to appeal to citizens to work for good government because
it will better their estate materially, but it is a far better thing
to appeal to them to work for good government because it is right in
itself to do so. Doubtless, if we can have clean honest politics, we
shall be better off in material matters. A thoroughly pure, upright,
and capable administration of the affairs of New York city results
in a very appreciable increase of comfort to each citizen. We should
have better systems of transportation; we should have cleaner streets,
better sewers, and the like. But it is sometimes difficult to show
the individual citizen that he will be individually better off in his
business and in his home affairs for taking part in politics. I do not
think it is always worth while to show that this will always be the
case. The citizen should be appealed to primarily on the ground that
it is his plain duty, if he wishes to deserve the name of freeman, to
do his full share in the hard and difficult work of self-government.
He must do his share unless he is willing to prove himself unfit for
free institutions, fit only to live under a government where he will be
plundered and bullied because he deserves to be plundered and bullied
on account of his selfish timidity and short-sightedness. A clean
and decent government is sure in the end to benefit our citizens in
the material circumstances of their lives; but each citizen should be
appealed to, to take part in bettering our politics, not for the sake
of any possible improvement it may bring to his affairs, but on the
ground that it is his plain duty to do so, and that this is a duty
which it is cowardly and dishonorable in him to shirk.
To sum up, then, the men who wish to work for decent politics must work
practically, and yet must not swerve from their devotion to a high
ideal. They must actually do things, and not merely confine themselves
to criticising those who do them. They must work disinterestedly, and
appeal to the disinterested element in others, although they must also
do work which will result in the material betterment of the community.
They must act as Americans through and through, in spirit and hope and
purpose, and, while being disinterested, unselfish, and generous in
their dealings with others, they must also show that they possess the
essential manly virtues of energy, of resolution, and of indomitable
personal courage.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[4] _The Forum_, July, 1894.
[Illustration]
IV
THE COLLEGE GRADUATE AND PUBLIC LIFE[5]
There are always, in our national life, certain tendencies that give
us ground for alarm, and certain others that give us ground for hope.
Among the latter we must put the fact that there has undoubtedly been a
growing feeling among educated men that they are in honor bound to do
their full share of the work of American public life.
We have in this country an equality of rights. It is the plain duty of
every man to see that his rights are respected. That weak good-nature
which acquiesces in wrong-doing, whether from laziness, timidity,
or indifference, is a very unwholesome quality. It should be second
nature with every man to insist that he be given full justice. But
if there is an equality of rights, there is an inequality of duties.
It is proper to demand more from the man with exceptional advantages
than from the man without them. A heavy moral obligation rests upon
the man of means and upon the man of education to do their full duty
by their country. On no class does this obligation rest more heavily
than upon the men with a collegiate education, the men who are
graduates of our universities. Their education gives them no right
to feel the least superiority over any of their fellow-citizens; but
it certainly ought to make them feel that they should stand foremost
in the honorable effort to serve the whole public by doing their
duty as Americans in the body politic. This obligation very possibly
rests even more heavily upon the men of means; but of this it is not
necessary now to speak. The men of mere wealth never can have and never
should have the capacity for doing good work that is possessed by the
men of exceptional mental training; but that they may become both a
laughing-stock and a menace to the community is made unpleasantly
apparent by that portion of the New York business and social world
which is most in evidence in the newspapers.
To the great body of men who have had exceptional advantages in the
way of educational facilities we have a right, then, to look for good
service to the state. The service may be rendered in many different
ways. In a reasonable number of cases, the man may himself rise to high
political position. That men actually do so rise is shown by the number
of graduates of Harvard, Yale, and our other universities who are now
taking a prominent part in public life. These cases must necessarily,
however, form but a small part of the whole. The enormous majority of
our educated men have to make their own living, and are obliged to
take up careers in which they must work heart and soul to succeed.
Nevertheless, the man of business and the man of science, the doctor of
divinity and the doctor of law, the architect, the engineer, and the
writer, all alike owe a positive duty to the community, the neglect of
which they cannot excuse on any plea of their private affairs. They
are bound to follow understandingly the course of public events; they
are bound to try to estimate and form judgment upon public men; and
they are bound to act intelligently and effectively in support of the
principles which they deem to be right and for the best interests of
the country.
The most important thing for this class of educated men to realize is
that they do not really form a class at all. I have used the word in
default of another, but I have merely used it roughly to group together
people who have had unusual opportunities of a certain kind. A large
number of the people to whom these opportunities are offered fail to
take advantage of them, and a very much larger number of those to whom
they have not been offered succeed none the less in making them for
themselves. An educated man must not go into politics as such; he must
go in simply as an American; and when he is once in, he will speedily
realize that he must work very hard indeed, or he will be upset by
some other American, with no education at all, but with much natural
capacity. His education ought to make him feel particularly ashamed of
himself if he acts meanly or dishonorably, or in any way falls short
of the ideal of good citizenship, and it ought to make him feel that
he must show that he has profited by it; but it should certainly give
him no feeling of superiority until by actual work he has shown that
superiority. In other words, the educated man must realize that he is
living in a democracy and under democratic conditions, and that he is
entitled to no more respect and consideration than he can win by actual
performance.
This must be steadily kept in mind not only by educated men themselves,
but particularly by the men who give the tone to our great educational
institutions. These educational institutions, if they are to do their
best work, must strain every effort to keep their life in touch with
the life of the nation at the present day. This is necessary for
the country, but it is very much more necessary for the educated
men themselves. It is a misfortune for any land if its people of
cultivation take little part in shaping its destiny; but the misfortune
is far greater for the people of cultivation. The country has a right
to demand the honest and efficient service of every man in it, but
especially of every man who has had the advantage of rigid mental
and moral training; the country is so much the poorer when any class
of honest men fail to do their duty by it; but the loss to the class
itself is immeasurable. If our educated men as a whole become incapable
of playing their full part in our life, if they cease doing their
share of the rough, hard work which must be done, and grow to take
a position of mere dilettanteism in our public affairs, they will
speedily sink in relation to their fellows who really do the work of
governing, until they stand toward them as a cultivated, ineffective
man with a taste for bric-a-brac stands toward a great artist. When
once a body of citizens becomes thoroughly out of touch and out of
temper with the national life, its usefulness is gone, and its power of
leaving its mark on the times is gone also.
The first great lesson which the college graduate should learn is the
lesson of work rather than of criticism. Criticism is necessary and
useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of
action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere
critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who
actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on
and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the
stress and the danger.
There is, however, a need for proper critical work. Wrongs should be
strenuously and fearlessly denounced; evil principles and evil men
should be condemned. The politician who cheats or swindles, or the
newspaper man who lies in any form, should be made to feel that he is
an object of scorn for all honest men. We need fearless criticism; but
we need that it should also be intelligent. At present, the man who is
most apt to regard himself as an intelligent critic of our political
affairs is often the man who knows nothing whatever about them.
Criticism which is ignorant or prejudiced is a source of great harm to
the nation; and where ignorant or prejudiced critics are themselves
educated men, their attitude does real harm also to the class to which
they belong.
The tone of a portion of the press of the country toward public men,
and especially toward political opponents, is degrading, all forms of
coarse and noisy slander being apparently considered legitimate weapons
to employ against men of the opposite party or faction. Unfortunately,
not a few of the journals that pride themselves upon being independent
in politics, and the organs of cultivated men, betray the same
characteristics in a less coarse but quite as noxious form. All these
journals do great harm by accustoming good citizens to see their public
men, good and bad, assailed indiscriminately as scoundrels. The effect
is twofold: the citizen learning, on the one hand, to disbelieve
any statement he sees in any newspaper, so that the attacks on evil
lose their edge; and on the other, gradually acquiring a deep-rooted
belief that all public men are more or less bad. In consequence, his
political instinct becomes hopelessly blurred, and he grows unable to
tell the good representative from the bad. The worst offence that can
be committed against the Republic is the offence of the public man who
betrays his trust; but second only to it comes the offence of the man
who tries to persuade others that an honest and efficient public man
is dishonest or unworthy. This is a wrong that can be committed in a
great many different ways. Downright foul abuse may be, after all, less
dangerous than incessant misstatements, sneers, and those half-truths
that are the meanest lies.
For educated men of weak fibre, there lies a real danger in that
species of literary work which appeals to their cultivated senses
because of its scholarly and pleasant tone, but which enjoins as the
proper attitude to assume in public life one of mere criticism and
negation; which teaches the adoption toward public men and public
affairs of that sneering tone which so surely denotes a mean and
small mind. If a man does not have belief and enthusiasm, the chances
are small indeed that he will ever do a man’s work in the world;
and the paper or the college which, by its general course, tends to
eradicate this power of belief and enthusiasm, this desire for work,
has rendered to the young men under its influence the worst service it
could possibly render. Good can often be done by criticising sharply
and severely the wrong; but excessive indulgence in criticism is never
anything but bad, and no amount of criticism can in any way take the
place of active and zealous warfare for the right.
Again, there is a certain tendency in college life, a tendency
encouraged by some of the very papers referred to, to make educated
men shrink from contact with the rough people who do the world’s work,
and associate only with one another and with those who think as they
do. This is a most dangerous tendency. It is very agreeable to deceive
one’s self into the belief that one is performing the whole duty of
man by sitting at home in ease, doing nothing wrong, and confining
one’s participation in politics to conversations and meetings with men
who have had the same training and look at things in the same way. It
is always a temptation to do this, because those who do nothing else
often speak as if in some way they deserved credit for their attitude,
and as if they stood above their brethren who plough the rough fields.
Moreover, many people whose political work is done more or less
after this fashion are very noble and very sincere in their aims and
aspirations, and are striving for what is best and most decent in
public life.
Nevertheless, this is a snare round which it behooves every young man
to walk carefully. Let him beware of associating only with the people
of his own caste and of his own little ways of political thought. Let
him learn that he must deal with the mass of men; that he must go out
and stand shoulder to shoulder with his friends of every rank, and
face to face with his foes of every rank, and must bear himself well
in the hurly-burly. He must not be frightened by the many unpleasant
features of the contest, and he must not expect to have it all his
own way, or to accomplish too much. He will meet with checks and will
make many mistakes; but if he perseveres, he will achieve a measure of
success and will do a measure of good such as is never possible to the
refined, cultivated, intellectual men who shrink aside from the actual
fray.
Yet again, college men must learn to be as practical in politics as
they would be in business or in law. It is surely unnecessary to say
that by “practical” I do not mean anything that savors in the least
of dishonesty. On the contrary, a college man is peculiarly bound to
keep a high ideal and to be true to it; but he must work in practical
ways to try to realize this ideal, and must not refuse to do anything
because he cannot get everything. One especially necessary thing is to
know the facts by actual experience, and not to take refuge in mere
theorizing. There are always a number of excellent and well-meaning
men whom we grow to regard with amused impatience because they waste
all their energies on some visionary scheme which, even if it were not
visionary, would be useless. When they come to deal with political
questions, these men are apt to err from sheer lack of familiarity with
the workings of our government. No man ever really learned from books
how to manage a governmental system. Books are admirable adjuncts, and
the statesman who has carefully studied them is far more apt to do good
work than if he had not; but if he has never done anything but study
books he will not be a statesman at all. Thus, every young politician
should of course read the _Federalist_. It is the greatest book of
the kind that has ever been written. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay would
have been poorly equipped for writing it if they had not possessed an
extensive acquaintance with literature, and in particular if they had
not been careful students of political literature; but the great cause
of the value of their writings lay in the fact that they knew by actual
work and association what practical politics meant. They had helped to
shape the political thought of the country, and to do its legislative
and executive work, and so they were in a condition to speak
understandingly about it. For similar reasons, Mr. Bryce’s _American
Commonwealth_ has a value possessed by no other book of the kind,
largely because Mr. Bryce is himself an active member of Parliament,
a man of good standing and some leadership in his own party, and a
practical politician. In the same way, a life of Washington by Cabot
Lodge, a sketch of Lincoln by Carl Schurz, a biography of Pitt by Lord
Rosebery, have an added value because of the writers’ own work in
politics.
It is always a pity to see men fritter away their energies on any
pointless scheme; and unfortunately, a good many of our educated people
when they come to deal with politics, do just such frittering. Take,
for instance, the queer freak of arguing in favor of establishing
what its advocates are pleased to call “responsible government” in
our institutions, or in other words of grafting certain features
of the English parliamentary system upon our own Presidential and
Congressional system. This agitation was too largely deficient in
body to enable it to last, and it has now, I think, died away; but
at one time quite a number of our men who spoke of themselves as
students of political history were engaged in treating this scheme
as something serious. Few men who had ever taken an active part in
politics, or who had studied politics in the way that a doctor is
expected to study surgery and medicine, so much as gave it a thought;
but very intelligent men did, just because they were misdirecting their
energies, and were wholly ignorant that they ought to know practically
about a problem before they attempted its solution. The English, or
so-called “responsible,” theory of parliamentary government is one
entirely incompatible with our own governmental institutions. It could
not be put into operation here save by absolutely sweeping away the
United States Constitution. Incidentally, I may say it would be to
the last degree undesirable, if it were practicable. But this is not
the point upon which I wish to dwell; the point is that it was wholly
impracticable to put it into operation, and that an agitation favoring
this kind of government was from its nature unintelligent. The people
who wrote about it wasted their time, whereas they could have spent
it to great advantage had they seriously studied our institutions and
sought to devise practicable and desirable methods of increasing and
centring genuine responsibility--for all thinking men agree that there
is an undoubted need for a change in this direction.
But of course much of the best work that has been done in the field of
political study has been done by men who were not active politicians,
though they were careful and painstaking students of the phenomena
of politics. The back numbers of our leading magazines afford proof
of this. Certain of the governmental essays by such writers as Mr.
Lawrence Lowell and Professor A. B. Hart, and especially such books as
that on the _Speakers’ Powers and Duties_, by Miss Follet, have been
genuine and valuable contributions to our political thought. These
essays have been studied carefully not only by scholars, but by men
engaged in practical politics, because they were written with good
judgment and keen insight after careful investigation of the facts, and
so deserved respectful attention.
It is a misfortune for any people when the paths of the practical
and the theoretical politicians diverge so widely that they have no
common standing-ground. When the Greek thinkers began to devote their
attention to purely visionary politics of the kind found in Plato’s
Republic, while the Greek practical politicians simply exploited the
quarrelsome little commonwealths in their own interests, then the
end of Greek liberty was at hand. No government that cannot command
the respectful support of the best thinkers is in an entirely sound
condition; but it is well to keep in mind the remark of Frederick
the Great, that if he wished to punish a province, he would allow it
to be governed by the philosophers. It is a great misfortune for the
country when the practical politician and the doctrinaire have no
point in common, but the misfortune is, if anything, greatest for the
doctrinaire. The ideal to be set before the student of politics and
the practical politician alike is the ideal of the _Federalist_. Each
man should realize that he cannot do his best, either in the study
of politics or in applied politics unless he has a working knowledge
of both branches. A limited number of people can do good work by the
careful study of governmental institutions, but they can do it only
if they have themselves a practical knowledge of the workings of
these institutions. A very large number of people, on the other hand,
may do excellent work in politics without much theoretic knowledge
of the subject; but without this knowledge they cannot rise to the
highest rank, while in any rank their capacity to do good work will be
immensely increased if they have such knowledge.
There are certain other qualities, about which it is hardly necessary
to speak. If an educated man is not heartily American in instinct
and feeling and taste and sympathy, he will amount to nothing in our
public life. Patriotism, love of country, and pride in the flag which
symbolizes country may be feelings which the race will at some period
outgrow, but at present they are very real and strong, and the man who
lacks them is a useless creature, a mere incumbrance to the land.
A man of sound political instincts can no more subscribe to the
doctrine of absolute independence of party on the one hand than to
that of unquestioning party allegiance on the other. No man can
accomplish much unless he works in an organization with others, and
this organization, no matter how temporary, is a party for the time
being. But that man is a dangerous citizen who so far mistakes means
for ends as to become servile in his devotion to his party, and afraid
to leave it when the party goes wrong. To deify either independence or
party allegiance merely as such is a little absurd. It depends entirely
upon the motive, the purpose, the result. For the last two years, the
Senator who, beyond all his colleagues in the United States Senate, has
shown himself independent of party ties is the very man to whom the
leading champions of independence in politics most strenuously object.
The truth is, simply, that there are times when it may be the duty of a
man to break with his party, and there are other times when it may be
his duty to stand by his party, even though, on some points, he thinks
that party wrong; he must be prepared to leave it when necessary,
and he must not sacrifice his influence by leaving it unless it is
necessary. If we had no party allegiance, our politics would become
mere windy anarchy, and, under present conditions, our government could
hardly continue at all. If we had no independence, we should always be
running the risk of the most degraded kind of despotism,--the despotism
of the party boss and the party machine.
It is just the same way about compromises. Occasionally one hears some
well-meaning person say of another, apparently in praise, that he is
“never willing to compromise.” It is a mere truism to say that, in
politics, there has to be one continual compromise. Of course now and
then questions arise upon which a compromise is inadmissible. There
could be no compromise with secession, and there was none. There should
be no avoidable compromise about any great moral question. But only a
very few great reforms or great measures of any kind can be carried
through without concession. No student of American history needs to be
reminded that the Constitution itself is a bundle of compromises, and
was adopted only because of this fact, and that the same thing is true
of the Emancipation Proclamation.
In conclusion, then, the man with a university education is in honor
bound to take an active part in our political life, and to do his
full duty as a citizen by helping his fellow-citizens to the extent
of his power in the exercise of the rights of self-government. He is
bound to rank action far above criticism, and to understand that the
man deserving of credit is the man who actually does the things, even
though imperfectly, and not the man who confines himself to talking
about how they ought to be done. He is bound to have a high ideal and
to strive to realize it, and yet he must make up his mind that he will
never be able to get the highest good, and that he must devote himself
with all his energy to getting the best that he can. Finally, his
work must be disinterested and honest, and it must be given without
regard to his own success or failure, and without regard to the effect
it has upon his own fortunes; and while he must show the virtues of
uprightness and tolerance and gentleness, he must also show the sterner
virtues of courage, resolution, and hardihood, and the desire to war
with merciless effectiveness against the existence of wrong.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[5] _Atlantic Monthly_, August, 1894.
[Illustration]
V
PHASES OF STATE LEGISLATION[6]
THE ALBANY LEGISLATURE.
Few persons realize the magnitude of the interests affected by
State legislation in New York. It is no mere figure of speech to
call New York the Empire State; and many of the laws most directly
and immediately affecting the interests of its citizens are passed
at Albany, and not at Washington. In fact, there is at Albany a
little home rule parliament which presides over the destinies of a
commonwealth more populous than any one of two thirds of the kingdoms
of Europe, and one which, in point of wealth, material prosperity,
variety of interests, extent of territory, and capacity for expansion,
can fairly be said to rank next to the powers of the first class. This
little parliament, composed of one hundred and twenty-eight members in
the Assembly and thirty-two in the Senate, is, in the fullest sense of
the term, a _representative_ body; there is hardly one of the many and
widely diversified interests of the State that has not a mouthpiece at
Albany, and hardly a single class of its citizens--not even excepting,
I regret to say, the criminal class--which lacks its representative
among the legislators. In the three Legislatures of which I have been
a member, I have sat with bankers and bricklayers, with merchants
and mechanics, with lawyers, farmers, day-laborers, saloonkeepers,
clergymen, and prize-fighters. Among my colleagues there were many very
good men; there was a still more numerous class of men who were neither
very good nor very bad, but went one way or the other, according to the
strength of the various conflicting influences acting around, behind,
and upon them; and, finally, there were many very bad men. Still, the
New York Legislature, taken as a whole, is by no means as bad a body
as we would be led to believe if our judgment was based purely on
what we read in the great metropolitan papers; for the custom of the
latter is to portray things as either very much better or very much
worse than they are. Where a number of men, many of them poor, some of
them unscrupulous, and others elected by constituents too ignorant to
hold them to a proper accountability for their actions, are put into
a position of great temporary power, where they are called to take
action upon questions affecting the welfare of large corporations and
wealthy private individuals, the chances for corruption are always
great; and that there is much viciousness and political dishonesty,
much moral cowardice, and a good deal of actual bribe-taking in
Albany, no one who has had any practical experience of legislation can
doubt; but, at the same time, I think that the good members generally
outnumber the bad, and that there is not often doubt as to the result
when a naked question of right or wrong can be placed clearly and in
its true light before the Legislature. The trouble is that on many
questions the Legislature never does have the right and wrong clearly
shown it. Either some bold, clever parliamentary tactician snaps the
measure through before the members are aware of its nature, or else
the obnoxious features are so combined with good ones as to procure
the support of a certain proportion of that large class of men whose
intentions are excellent, but whose intellects are foggy. Or else the
necessary party organization, which we call the “machine,” uses its
great power for some definite evil aim.
THE CHARACTER OF THE REPRESENTATIONS.
The representatives from different sections of the State differ widely
in character. Those from the country districts are generally very good
men. They are usually well-to-do farmers, small lawyers, or prosperous
store-keepers, and are shrewd, quiet, and honest. They are often
narrow-minded and slow to receive an idea; but, on the other hand, when
they get a good one, they cling to it with the utmost tenacity. They
form very much the most valuable class of legislators. For the most
part they are native Americans, and those who are not are men who
have become completely Americanized in all their ways and habits of
thought. One of the most useful members of the last Legislature was a
German from a western county, and the extent of his Americanization can
be judged from the fact that he was actually an ardent prohibitionist:
certainly no one who knows Teutonic human nature will require further
proof. Again, I sat for an entire session beside a very intelligent
member from northern New York before I discovered that he was an
Irishman: all his views of legislation, even upon such subjects as free
schools and the impropriety of making appropriations from the treasury
for the support of sectarian institutions, were precisely similar to
those of his Protestant-American neighbors, though he was himself a
Catholic. Now a German or an Irishman from one of the great cities
would probably have retained many of his national peculiarities.
It is from these same great cities that the worst legislators come.
It is true that there are always among them a few cultivated and
scholarly men who are well educated, and who stand on a higher and
broader intellectual and moral plane than the country members, but the
bulk are very low indeed. They are usually foreigners, of little or no
education, with exceedingly misty ideas as to morality, and possessed
of an ignorance so profound that it could only be called comic, were
it not for the fact that it has at times such serious effects upon our
laws. It is their ignorance, quite as much as actual viciousness,
which makes it so difficult to procure the passage of good laws or
prevent the passage of bad ones; and it is the most irritating of the
many elements with which we have to contend in the fight for good
government.
DARK SIDE OF THE LEGISLATIVE PICTURE.
Mention has been made above of the bribe-taking which undoubtedly at
times occurs in the New York Legislature. This is what is commonly
called “a delicate subject” with which to deal, and, therefore,
according to our usual methods of handling delicate subjects, it is
either never discussed at all, or else discussed with the grossest
exaggeration; but most certainly there is nothing about which it is
more important to know the truth.
In each of the last three legislatures there were a number of us who
were interested in getting through certain measures which we deemed
to be for the public good, but which were certain to be strongly
opposed, some for political and some for pecuniary reasons. Now, to
get through any such measure requires genuine hard work, a certain
amount of parliamentary skill, a good deal of tact and courage, and
above all, a thorough knowledge of the men with whom one has to deal,
and of the motives which actuate them. In other words, before taking
any active steps, we had to “size up” our fellow-legislators, to
find out their past history and present character and associates, to
find out whether they were their own masters or were acting under
the directions of somebody else, whether they were bright or stupid,
etc., etc. As a result, and after very careful study, conducted
purely with the object of learning the truth, so that we might work
more effectually, we came to the conclusion that about a third of the
members were open to corrupt influences in some form or other; in
certain sessions the proportion was greater, and in some less. Now it
would, of course, be impossible for me or for anyone else to prove in
a court of law that these men were guilty, except perhaps in two or
three cases; yet we felt absolutely confident that there was hardly
a case in which our judgment as to the honesty of any given member
was not correct. The two or three exceptional cases alluded to, where
legal proof of guilt might have been forthcoming, were instances in
which honest men were approached by their colleagues at times when
the need for votes was very great; but, even then, it would have been
almost impossible to punish the offenders before a court, for it would
have merely resulted in his denying what his accuser stated. Moreover,
the members who had been approached would have been very reluctant
to come forward, for each of them felt ashamed that his character
should not have been well enough known to prevent anyone’s daring to
speak to him on such a subject. And another reason why the few honest
men who are approached (for the lobbyist rarely makes a mistake in
his estimate of the men who will be apt to take bribes) do not feel
like taking action in the matter is that a doubtful lawsuit will
certainly follow, which will drag on so long that the public will come
to regard all of the participants with equal distrust, while in the
end the decision is quite as likely to be against as to be for them.
Take the Bradly-Sessions case, for example. This was an incident that
occurred at the time of the faction-fight in the Republican ranks
over the return of Mr. Conkling to the United States Senate after his
resignation from that body. Bradly, an Assemblyman, accused Sessions,
a State Senator, of attempting to bribe him. The affair dragged on for
an indefinite time; no one was able actually to determine whether it
was a case of blackmail on the one hand, or of bribery on the other;
the vast majority of people recollected the names of both parties, but
totally forgot which it was that was supposed to have bribed the other,
and regarded both with equal disfavor; and the upshot has been that the
case is now merely remembered as illustrating one of the most unsavory
phases of the once-famous Halfbreed-Stalwart fight.
DIFFICULTIES OF PREVENTING AND PUNISHING CORRUPTION.
From the causes indicated, it is almost impossible to actually convict
a legislator of bribe-taking; but at the same time, the character of a
legislator, if bad, soon becomes a matter of common notoriety, and no
dishonest legislator can long keep his reputation good with honest men.
If the constituents wish to know the character of their member, they
can easily find it out, and no member will be dishonest if he thinks
his constituents are looking at him; he presumes upon their ignorance
or indifference. I do not see how bribe-taking among legislators can
be stopped until the public conscience becomes awake to the matter.
Then it will stop fast enough; for just as soon as politicians realize
that the people are in earnest in wanting a thing done, they make haste
to do it. The trouble is always in rousing the people sufficiently
to make them take an _effective_ interest,--that is, in making them
sufficiently in earnest to be willing to give a little of their time to
the accomplishment of the object they have in view.
Much the largest percentage of corrupt legislators come from the
great cities; indeed, the majority of the assemblymen from the great
cities are “very poor specimens” indeed, while, on the contrary, the
congressmen who go from them are generally pretty good men. This fact
is only one of the many which go to establish the curious political
law that in a great city the larger the constituency which elects a
public servant, the more apt that servant is to be a good one; exactly
as the Mayor is almost certain to be infinitely superior in character
to the average alderman, or the average city judge to the average
civil justice. This is because the public servants of comparatively
small importance are protected by their own insignificance from the
consequences of their bad actions. Life is carried on at such a high
pressure in the great cities, men’s time is so fully occupied by their
manifold and harassing interests and duties, and their knowledge of
their neighbors is necessarily so limited, that they are only able
to fix in their minds the characters and records of a few prominent
men; the others they lump together without distinguishing between
individuals. They know whether the aldermen, as a body, are to be
admired or despised; but they probably do not even know the name,
far less the worth, of the particular aldermen who represents their
district; so it happens that their votes for aldermen or assemblymen
are generally given with very little intelligence indeed, while, on the
contrary, they are fully competent to pass and execute judgment upon
as prominent an official as a mayor or even a congressman. Hence it
follows that the latter have to give a good deal of attention to the
wishes and prejudices of the public at large, while a city assemblyman,
though he always talks a great deal about the people, rarely, except in
certain extraordinary cases, has to pay much heed to their wants. His
political future depends far more upon the skill and success with which
he cultivates the good-will of certain “bosses,” or of certain cliques
of politicians, or even of certain bodies and knots of men (such as
compose a trade-union, or a collection of merchants in some special
business, or the managers of a railroad) whose interests, being vitally
affected by Albany legislation, oblige them closely to watch, and to
try to punish or reward, the Albany legislators. These politicians
or sets of interested individuals generally care very little for a
man’s honesty so long as he can be depended upon to do as they wish on
certain occasions; and hence it often happens that a dishonest man who
has sense enough not to excite attention by any flagrant outrage may
continue for a number of years to represent an honest constituency.
THE CONSTITUENTS LARGELY TO BLAME.
Moreover, a member from a large city can often count upon the educated
and intelligent men of his district showing the most gross ignorance
and stupidity in political affairs. The much-lauded intelligent
voter--the man of cultured mind, liberal education, and excellent
intentions--at times performs exceedingly queer antics.
The great public meetings to advance certain political movements
irrespective of party, which have been held so frequently during the
past few years, have undoubtedly done a vast amount of good; but the
very men who attend these public meetings and inveigh against the
folly and wickedness of the politicians will sometimes on election
day do things which have quite as evil effects as any of the acts of
the men whom they very properly condemn. A recent instance of this is
worth giving. In 1882 there was in the Assembly a young member from
New York, who did as hard and effective work for the city of New York
as has ever been done by anyone. It was a peculiarly disagreeable year
to be in the Legislature. The composition of that body was unusually
bad. The more disreputable politicians relied upon it to pass some
of their schemes and to protect certain of their members from the
consequences of their own misdeeds. Demagogic measures were continually
brought forward, nominally in the interests of the laboring classes,
for which an honest and intelligent man could not vote, and yet which
were jealously watched by, and received the hearty support of, not
mere demagogues and agitators, but also a large number of perfectly
honest though misguided workingmen. And, finally, certain wealthy
corporations attempted, by the most unscrupulous means, to rush through
a number of laws in their own interest. The young member of whom we are
speaking incurred by his course on these various measures the bitter
hostility alike of the politicians, the demagogues, and the members of
that most dangerous of all classes, the wealthy criminal class. He had
also earned the gratitude of all honest citizens, and he got it--as
far as words went. The better class of newspapers spoke well of him;
cultured and intelligent men generally--the well-to-do, prosperous
people who belong to the different social and literary clubs, and their
followers--were loud in his praise. I call to mind one man who lived
in his district who expressed great indignation that the politicians
should dare to oppose his re-election; when told that it was to be
hoped he would help to insure the legislator’s return to Albany by
himself staying at the polls all day, he answered that he was very
sorry, but he unfortunately had an engagement to go quail-shooting on
election day! Most respectable people, however, would undoubtedly
have voted for and re-elected the young member had it not been for the
unexpected political movements that took place in the fall. A citizens’
ticket, largely non-partisan in character, was run for certain local
offices, receiving its support from among those who claimed to be,
and who undoubtedly were, the best men of both parties. The ticket
contained the names of candidates only for municipal offices, and had
nothing whatever to do with the election of men to the Legislature; yet
it proved absolutely impossible to drill this simple fact through the
heads of a great many worthy people, who, when election day came round,
declined to vote anything but the citizens’ ticket, and persisted in
thinking that if no legislative candidate was on the ticket, it was
because, for some reason or other, the citizens’ committee did not
consider any legislative candidate worth voting for. All over the city
the better class of candidates for legislative offices lost from this
cause votes which they had a right to expect, and in the particular
district under consideration the loss was so great as to cause the
defeat of the sitting member, or rather to elect him by so narrow a
vote as to enable an unscrupulously partisan legislative majority to
keep him out of his seat.
It is this kind of ignorance of the simplest political matters among
really good citizens, combined with their timidity, which is so apt
to characterize a wealthy _bourgeoisie_, and with their short-sighted
selfishness in being unwilling to take the smallest portion of time
away from their business or pleasure to devote to public affairs,
which renders it so easy for corrupt men from the city to keep their
places in the Legislature. In the country the case is different.
Here the constituencies, who are usually composed of honest though
narrow-minded and bigoted individuals, generally keep a pretty sharp
lookout on their members, and, as already said, the latter are apt to
be fairly honest men. Even when they are not honest, they take good
care to act perfectly well as regards all district matters, for most
of the measures about which corrupt influences are at work relate to
city affairs. The constituents of a country member know well how to
judge him for those of his acts which immediately affect themselves;
but as regards others they often have no means of forming an opinion,
except through the newspapers,--more especially through the great
metropolitan newspapers,--and they have gradually come to look upon
all statements made by the latter with reference to the honesty or
dishonesty of public men with extreme distrust. This is because our
newspapers, including those who professedly stand as representatives
of the highest culture of the community, have been in the habit of
making such constant and reckless assaults upon the characters of even
very good public men, as to greatly detract from their influence when
they attack one who is really bad. They paint everyone with whom they
disagree black. As a consequence the average man, who knows they are
partly wrong, thinks they may also be partly right; he concludes that
no man is absolutely white, and at the same time that no one is as
black as he is painted; and takes refuge in the belief that all alike
are gray. It then becomes impossible to rouse him to make an effort
either for a good man or against a scoundrel. Nothing helps dishonest
politicians as much as this feeling; and among the chief instruments in
its production we must number certain of our newspapers who are loudest
in asserting that they stand on the highest moral plane. As for the
other newspapers, those of frankly “sensational” character, such as
the two which at present claim to have the largest circulation in New
York, there is small need to characterize them; they form a very great
promotive to public corruption and private vice, and are on the whole
the most potent of all the forces for evil which are at work in the
city.
PERILS OF LEGISLATIVE LIFE.
However, there can be no question that a great many men do deteriorate
very much morally when they go to Albany. The last accusation most of
us would think of bringing against that dear, dull, old Dutch city is
that of being a fast place; and yet there are plenty of members coming
from out-of-the-way villages or quiet country towns on whom Albany has
as bad an effect as Paris sometimes has on wealthy young Americans from
the great sea-board cities. Many men go to the Legislature with the set
purpose of making money; but many others, who afterwards become bad,
go there intending to do good work. These latter may be well-meaning,
weak young fellows of some shallow brightness, who expect to make names
for themselves; perhaps they are young lawyers, or real-estate brokers,
or small shop-keepers; they achieve but little success; they gradually
become conscious that their business is broken up, and that they have
not enough ability to warrant any expectation of their continuing in
public life; some great temptation comes in their way (a corporation
which expects to be relieved of perhaps a million dollars of taxes by
the passage of a bill can afford to pay high for voters); they fall,
and that is the end of them. Indeed, legislative life has temptations
enough to make it unadvisable for any weak man, whether young or old,
to enter it.
ALLIES OF VICIOUS LEGISLATORS.
The array of vicious legislators is swelled by a number of men who
really at bottom are not bad. Foremost among these are those most
hopeless of beings who are handicapped by having some measure which
they consider it absolutely necessary for the sake of their own future
to “get through.” One of these men will have a bill, for instance,
appropriating a sum of money from the State Treasury to clear out a
river, dam the outlet of a lake, or drain a marsh; it may be, although
not usually so, proper enough in itself, but it is drawn up primarily
in the interest of a certain set of his constituents who have given
him clearly to understand that his continuance in their good graces
depends upon his success in passing the bill. He feels that he must
get it through at all hazards; the bad men find this out, and tell him
he must count on their opposition unless he consents also to help their
measures; he resists at first, but sooner or later yields; and from
that moment his fate is sealed,--so far as his ability to do any work
of general good is concerned.
A still larger number of men are good enough in themselves, but are
“owned” by third parties. Usually the latter are politicians who have
absolute control of the district machine, or who are, at least, of
very great importance in the political affairs of their district. A
curious fact is that they are not invariably, though usually, of the
same party as the member; for in some places, especially in the lower
portions of the great cities, politics become purely a business, and
in the squabbles for offices of emolument it becomes important for a
local leader to have supporters among all the factions. When one of
these supporters is sent to a legislative body, he is allowed to act
with the rest of his party on what his chief regards as the unimportant
questions of party or public interest, but he has to come in to heel at
once when any matter arises touching the said chief’s power, pocket, or
influence.
Other members will be controlled by some wealthy private citizen who is
not in politics, but who has business interests likely to be affected
by legislation, and who is therefore, willing to subscribe heavily to
the campaign expenses of an individual or of an association so as to
insure the presence in Albany of someone who will give him information
and assistance.
On one occasion there came before a committee of which I happened to
be a member, a perfectly proper bill in the interest of a certain
corporation; the majority of the committee, six in number, were
thoroughly bad men, who opposed the measure with the hope of being paid
to cease their opposition. When I consented to take charge of the bill,
I had stipulated that not a penny should be paid to insure its passage.
It therefore became necessary to see what pressure could be brought
to bear on the recalcitrant members; and, accordingly, we had to find
out who were the authors and sponsors of their political being. Three
proved to be under the control of local statesmen of the same party
as themselves, and of equally bad moral character; one was ruled by a
politician of unsavory reputation from a different city; the fifth, a
Democrat, was owned by a Republican Federal official; and the sixth by
the president of a horse-car company. A couple of letters from these
two magnates forced the last members mentioned to change front on the
bill with surprising alacrity.
Nowadays, however, the greatest danger is that the member will be a
servile tool of the “boss” or “machine” of his own party, in which case
he can very rarely indeed be a good public servant.
There are two classes of cases in which corrupt members get money. One
is when a wealthy corporation buys through some measure which will be
of great benefit to itself, although, perhaps an injury to the public
at large; the other is when a member introduces a bill hostile to
some moneyed interest, with the expectation of being paid to let the
matter drop. The latter, technically called a “strike,” is much the
most common; for, in spite of the outcry against them in legislative
matters, corporations are more often sinned against than sinning. It
is difficult, for reasons already given, in either case to convict the
offending member, though we have very good laws against bribery. The
reform has got to come from the people at large. It will be hard to
make any very great improvement in the character of the legislators
until respectable people become more fully awake to their duties, and
until the newspapers become more truthful and less reckless in their
statements.
It is not a pleasant task to have to draw one side of legislative life
in such dark colors; but as the side exists, and as the dark lines
never can be rubbed out until we have manfully acknowledged that they
are there and need rubbing out, it seems the falsest of false delicacy
to refrain from dwelling upon them. But it would be most unjust to
accept this partial truth as being the whole truth. We blame the
Legislature for many evils, the ultimate cause for whose existence is
to be found in our own shortcomings.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PICTURE.
There is a much brighter side to the picture, and this is the larger
side, too. It would be impossible to get together a body of more
earnest, upright, and disinterested men than the band of legislators,
largely young men, who during the past three years have averted so
much evil and accomplished so much good at Albany. They were able, at
least partially, to put into actual practice the theories that had long
been taught by the intellectual leaders of the country. And the life
of a legislator who is earnest in his efforts faithfully to perform
his duty as a public servant, is harassing and laborious to the last
degree. He is kept at work from eight to fourteen hours a day; he is
obliged to incur the bitterest hostility of a body of men as powerful
as they are unscrupulous, who are always on the watch to find out, or
to make out, anything in his private or his public life which can be
used against him; and he has on his side either a but partially roused
public opinion, or else a public opinion roused, it is true, but only
blindly conscious of the evil from which it suffers, and alike ignorant
and unwilling to avail itself of the proper remedy.
This body of legislators, who, at any rate, worked honestly for what
they thought right, were, as a whole, quite unselfish, and were not
treated particularly well by their constituents. Most of them soon got
to realize the fact that if they wished to enjoy their brief space of
political life (and most though not all of them did enjoy it) they
would have to make it a rule never to consider, in deciding how to vote
upon any question, how their vote would affect their own political
prospects. No man can do good service in the Legislature as long as he
is worrying over the effect of his actions upon his own future. After
having learned this, most of them got on very happily indeed. As a
rule, and where no matter of vital principle is involved, a member is
bound to represent the views of those who have elected him; but there
are times when the voice of the people is anything but the voice of
God, and then a conscientious man is equally bound to disregard it.
In the long run, and on the average, the public will usually do
justice to its representatives; but it is a very rough, uneven, and
long-delayed justice. That is, judging from what I have myself seen of
the way in which members were treated by their constituents, I should
say that the chances of an honest man being retained in public life
were about ten per cent. better than if he were dishonest, other things
being equal. This is not a showing very creditable to us as a people;
and the explanation is to be found in the shortcomings peculiar to the
different classes of our honest and respectable voters,--shortcomings
which may be briefly outlined.
SHORTCOMINGS OF THE PEOPLE WHO SHOULD TAKE PART IN POLITICAL WORK.
The people of means in all great cities have in times past shamefully
neglected their political duties, and have been contemptuously
disregarded by the professional politicians in consequence. A number
of them will get together in a large hall, will vociferously demand
“reform,” as if it were some concrete substance which could be handed
out to them in slices, and will then disband with a feeling of the
most serene self-satisfaction, and the belief that they have done their
entire duty as citizens and members of the community. It is an actual
fact that four out of five of our wealthy and educated men, of those
who occupy what is called good social position, are really ignorant of
the nature of a caucus or a primary meeting, and never attend either.
Now, under our form of government, no man can accomplish anything by
himself; he must work in combination with others; and the men of whom
we are speaking will never carry their proper weight in the political
affairs of the country until they have formed themselves into some
organization, or else, which would be better, have joined some of
the organizations already existing. But there seems often to be a
certain lack of the robuster virtues in our educated men, which makes
them shrink from the struggle and the inevitable contact with rough
politicians (who must often be rudely handled before they can be forced
to behave); while their lack of familiarity with their surroundings
causes them to lack discrimination between the politicians who are
decent, and those who are not; for in their eyes the two classes both
equally unfamiliar, are indistinguishable. Another reason why this
class is not of more consequence in politics, is that it is often
really out of sympathy--or, at least, its more conspicuous members
are--with the feelings and interests of the great mass of the American
people; and it is a discreditable fact that it is in this class that
what has been most aptly termed the “colonial” spirit still survives.
Until this survival of the spirit of colonial dependence is dead,
those in whom it exists will serve chiefly as laughing-stocks to the
shrewd, humorous, and prejudiced people who form nine tenths of our
body-politic, and whose chief characteristics are their intensely
American habits of thought, and their surly intolerance of anything
like subservience to outside and foreign influences.
From different causes, the laboring classes, even when thoroughly
honest at heart, often fail to appreciate honesty in their
representatives. They are frequently not well informed in regard
to the character of the latter, and they are apt to be led aside
by the loud professions of the so-called labor reformers, who are
always promising to procure by legislation the advantages which can
only come to working men, or to any other men, by their individual
or united energy, intelligence, and forethought. Very much has been
accomplished by legislation for laboring men, by procuring mechanics’
lien laws, factory laws, etc.; and hence it often comes that they
think legislation can accomplish all things for them; and it is only
natural, for instance, that a certain proportion of their number
should adhere to the demagogue who votes for a law to double the rate
of wages, rather than to the honest man who opposes it. When people
are struggling for the necessaries of existence, and vaguely feel, no
matter how wrongly, that they are also struggling against an unjustly
ordered system of life, it is hard to convince them of the truth that
an ounce of performance on their own part is worth a ton of legislative
promises to change in some mysterious manner that life-system.
In the country districts justice to a member is somewhat more apt to
be done. When, as is so often the case, it is not done, the cause is
usually to be sought for in the numerous petty jealousies and local
rivalries which are certain to exist in any small community whose
interests are narrow and most of whose members are acquainted with each
other; and besides this, our country vote is essentially a Bourbon or
Tory vote, being very slow to receive new ideas, very tenacious of old
ones, and hence inclined to look with suspicion upon any one who tries
to shape his course according to some standard differing from that
which is already in existence.
The actual work of procuring the passage of a bill through the
Legislature is in itself far from slight. The hostility of the actively
bad has to be discounted in advance, and the indifference of the
passive majority, who are neither very good nor very bad, has to be
overcome. This can usually be accomplished only by stirring up their
constituencies; and so, besides the constant watchfulness over the
course of the measure through both houses and the continual debating
and parliamentary fencing which is necessary, it is also indispensable
to get the people of districts not directly affected by the bill alive
to its importance, so as to induce their representatives to vote for
it. Thus, when the bill to establish a State Park at Niagara was
on its passage, it was found that the great majority of the country
members were opposed to it, fearing that it might conceal some
land-jobbing scheme, and also fearing that their constituents, whose
vice is not extravagance, would not countenance so great an expenditure
of public money. It was of no use arguing with the members, and instead
the country newspapers were flooded with letters, pamphlets were
circulated, visits and personal appeals were made, until a sufficient
number of these members changed front to enable us to get the lacking
votes.
LIFE IN THE LEGISLATURE.
As already said, some of us who usually acted together took a great
deal of genuine enjoyment out of our experience at Albany. We liked
the excitement and perpetual conflict, the necessity for putting forth
all our powers to reach our ends, and the feeling that we were really
being of some use in the world; and if we were often both saddened and
angered by the viciousness and ignorance of some of our colleagues,
yet, in return, the latter many times unwittingly furnished us a good
deal of amusement by their preposterous actions and speeches. Some
of these are worth repeating, though they can never, in repetition,
seem what they were when they occurred. The names and circumstances,
of course, have been so changed as to prevent the possibility of the
real heroes of them being recognized. It must be understood that
they stand for the exceptional and not the ordinary workings of the
average legislative intellect. I have heard more sound sense than
foolishness talked in Albany, but to record the former would only bore
the reader. And we must bear in mind that while the ignorance of some
of our representatives warrants our saying that they should not be in
the Legislature, it does not at all warrant our condemning the system
of government which permits them to be sent there. There is no system
so good that it has not some disadvantages. The only way to teach our
foreign-born fellow-citizens how to govern themselves, is to give each
the full rights possessed by other American citizens; and it is not
to be wondered at if they at first show themselves unskilful in the
exercise of these rights. It has been my experience moreover in the
Legislature that when Hans or Paddy does turn out really well, there
are very few native Americans indeed who do better. A very large number
of the ablest and most disinterested and public-spirited citizens in
New York are by birth Germans; and their names are towers of strength
in the community. When I had to name a committee which was to do the
most difficult, dangerous, and important work that came before the
Legislature at all during my presence in it, I chose three of my four
colleagues from among those of my fellow-legislators who were Irish
either by birth or descent. One of the warmest and most disinterested
friends I have ever had or hope to have in New York politics, is by
birth an Irishman, and is also as genuine and good an American citizen
as is to be found within the United States.
A good many of the Yankees in the house would blunder time and again;
but their blunders were generally merely stupid and not at all amusing,
while, on the contrary, the errors of those who were of Milesian
extraction always possessed a most refreshing originality.
INCIDENTS OF LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE.
In 1882 the Democrats in the house had a clear majority, but were for
a long time unable to effect an organization, owing to a faction-fight
in their own ranks between the Tammany and anti-Tammany members,
each side claiming the lion’s share of the spoils. After a good
deal of bickering, the anti-Tammany men drew up a paper containing
a series of propositions, and submitted it to their opponents, with
the prefatory remark, in writing, that it was an _ultimatum_. The
Tammany members were at once summoned to an indignation meeting, their
feelings closely resembling those of the famous fish-wife who was
called a parallelopipedon. None of them had any very accurate idea
as to what the word _ultimatum_ meant; but that it was intensively
offensive, not to say abusive, in its nature, they did not question
for a moment. It was felt that some equivalent and equally strong term
by which to call Tammany’s proposed counter-address must be found
immediately; but, as the Latin vocabulary of the members was limited,
it was some time before a suitable term was forthcoming. Finally, by
a happy inspiration, some gentlemen of classical education remembered
the phrase _ipse dixit_; it was at once felt to be the very phrase
required by the peculiar exigencies of the case, and next day the reply
appeared, setting forth with well-satisfied gravity that, in response
to the County Democracy’s “_ultimatum_,” Tammany herewith produced her
“_ipse dixit_.”
Public servants of higher grade than aldermen or assemblymen sometimes
give words a wider meaning than would be found in the dictionary.
In many parts of the United States, owing to a curious series of
historical associations (which, by the way, it would be interesting
to trace), anything foreign and un-English is called “Dutch,” and it
was in this sense that a member of a recent Congress used the term
when, in speaking in favor of a tariff on works of art, he told of the
reluctance with which he saw the productions of native artists exposed
to competition “with Dutch daubs from Italy”; a sentence pleasing
alike from its alliteration and from its bold disregard of geographic
trivialties.
Often an orator of this sort will have his attention attracted by
some high-sounding word, which he has not before seen, and which he
treasures up to use in his next rhetorical flight, without regard to
the exact meaning. There was a laboring man’s advocate in the last
Legislature, one of whose efforts attracted a good deal of attention
from his magnificent heedlessness of technical accuracy in the use of
similes. He was speaking against the convict contract-labor system,
and wound up an already sufficiently remarkable oration with the
still more startling ending that the system “was a vital cobra which
was swamping the lives of the laboring men.” Now, he had evidently
carefully put together the sentence beforehand, and the process of
mental synthesis by which he built it up must have been curious.
“Vital” was, of course, used merely as an adjective of intensity; he
was a little uncertain in his ideas as to what a “cobra” was, but took
it for granted that it was some terrible manifestation of nature,
possibly hostile to man, like a volcano, or a cyclone, or Niagara,
for instance; then “swamping” was chosen as describing an operation
very likely to be performed by Niagara, or a cyclone, or a cobra; and
behold, the sentence was complete.
Sometimes a common phrase will be given a new meaning. Thus, the mass
of legislation is strictly local in its character. Over a thousand
bills come up for consideration in the course of a session, but a very
few of which affect the interests of the State at large. The latter
and the more important private bills are, or ought to be, carefully
studied by each member; but it is a physical impossibility for any
one man to examine the countless local bills of small importance. For
these we have to trust to the member for the district affected, and
when one comes up the response to any inquiry about it is usually, “Oh,
it’s a local bill, affecting so-and-so’s district; he is responsible
for it.” By degrees, some of the members get to use “local” in the
sense of unimportant, and a few of the assemblymen of doubtful honesty
gradually come to regard it as meaning a bill of no pecuniary interest
to themselves. There was a smug little rascal in one of the last
legislatures, who might have come out of one of Lever’s novels. He
was undoubtedly a bad case, but had a genuine sense of humor, and his
“bulls” made him the delight of the house. One day I came in late,
just as a bill was being voted on, and meeting my friend, hailed him,
“Hello, Pat, what’s up? what’s this they’re voting on?” to which Pat
replied, with contemptuous indifference to the subject, but with a sly
twinkle in his eye, “Oh, some unimportant measure, sorr; some local
bill or other--_a constitutional amendment_!”
The old Dublin Parliament never listened to a better specimen of a bull
than was contained in the speech of a very genial and pleasant friend
of mine, a really finished orator, who, in the excitement attendant
upon receiving Governor Cleveland’s message vetoing the five-cent-fare
bill, uttered the following sentence: “Mr. Speaker, I recognize the
hand that crops out in that veto; _I have heard it before_!”
One member rather astonished us one day by his use of the word
“shibboleth.” He had evidently concluded that this was merely a more
elegant synonym of the good old word shillalah, and in reproving a
colleague for opposing a bill to increase the salaries of public
laborers, he said, very impressively, “The throuble wid the young man
is, that he uses the wurrd economy as a shibboleth, wherewith to strike
the working man.” Afterwards he changed the metaphor, and spoke of a
number of us as using the word “reform” as a shibboleth, behind which
to cloak our evil intentions.
A mixture of classical and constitutional misinformation was displayed
a few sessions past in the State Assembly when I was a member of the
Legislature. It was on the occasion of that annual nuisance, the debate
upon the Catholic Protectory item of the Supply Bill. Every year
some one who is desirous of bidding for the Catholic vote introduces
this bill, which appropriates a sum of varying dimensions for the
support of the Catholic Protectory, an excellent institution, but one
which has no right whatever to come to the State for support; each
year the insertion of the item is opposed by a small number of men,
including the more liberal Catholics themselves, on proper grounds,
and by a larger number from simple bigotry--a fact which was shown
two years ago, when many of the most bitter opponents of this measure
cheerfully supported a similar and equally objectionable one in aid of
a Protestant institution. On the occasion referred to there were two
assemblymen, both Celtic gentlemen, who were rivals for the leadership
of the minority; one of them a stout, red-faced man, who may go by the
name of the “Colonel,” owing to his having seen service in the army;
while the other was a dapper, voluble fellow, who had at one time been
a civil justice and was called the “Judge.” Somebody was opposing the
insertion of the item on the ground (perfectly just, by the way)
that it was unconstitutional, and he dwelt upon this objection at
some length. The Judge, who knew nothing of the constitution, except
that it was continually being quoted against all of his favorite
projects, fidgeted about for some time, and at last jumped up to know
if he might ask the gentleman a question. The latter said, “Yes,”
and the Judge went on, “I’d like to know if the gintleman has ever
personally seen the Catholic Protectoree?” “No, I haven’t,” said his
astonished opponent. “Then, phwat do you mane by talking about its
being unconstitootional? It’s no more unconstitootional than you are!”
Then, turning to the house, with slow and withering sarcasm, he added,
“The throuble wid the gintleman is that he okkipies what lawyers would
call a kind of a quasi-position upon this bill,” and sat down amid the
applause of his followers.
His rival, the Colonel, felt he had gained altogether too much glory
from the encounter, and after the nonplussed countryman had taken
his seat, he stalked solemnly over to the desk of the elated Judge,
looked at him majestically for a moment, and said, “You’ll excuse
my mentioning, sorr, that the gintleman who has just sat down knows
more law in a wake than you do in a month; and more than that, Mike
Shaunnessy, phwat do you mane by quotin’ Latin on the flure of this
House, _when you don’t know the alpha and omayga of the language_!” and
back he walked, leaving the Judge in humiliated submission behind him.
The Judge was always falling foul of the Constitution. Once, when
defending one of his bills which made a small but wholly indefensible
appropriation of State money for a private purpose, he asserted “that
the Constitution didn’t touch little things like that”; and on another
occasion he remarked to me that he “never allowed the Constitution to
come between friends.”
The Colonel was at that time chairman of a committee, before
which there sometimes came questions affecting the interests or
supposed interests of labor. The committee was hopelessly bad in
its composition, most of the members being either very corrupt or
exceedingly inefficient. The Colonel generally kept order with a good
deal of dignity; indeed, when, as not infrequently happened, he had
looked upon the rye that was flavored with lemon-peel, his sense of
personal dignity grew till it became fairly majestic, and he ruled the
committee with a rod of iron. At one time a bill had been introduced
(one of the several score of preposterous measures that annually make
their appearance purely for purposes of buncombe), by whose terms all
laborers in the public works of great cities were to receive three
dollars a day--double the market price of labor. To this bill, by
the way, an amendment was afterwards offered in the house by some
gentleman with a sense of humor, which was to make it read that all
the inhabitants of great cities were to receive three dollars a day,
and the privilege of laboring on the public works if they chose; the
original author of the bill questioning doubtfully if the amendment
“didn’t make the measure too sweeping.” The measure was, of course,
of no consequence whatever to the genuine laboring men, but was of
interest to the professional labor agitators; and a body of the latter
requested leave to appear before the committee. This was granted, but
on the appointed day the chairman turned up in a condition of such
portentous dignity as to make it evident that he had been on a spree
of protracted duration. Down he sat at the head of the table, and
glared at the committeemen, while the latter, whose faces would not
have looked amiss in a rogues’ gallery, cowered before him. The first
speaker was a typical professional laboring man; a sleek, oily little
fellow, with a black mustache, who had never done a stroke of work
in his life. He felt confident that the Colonel would favor him,--a
confidence soon to be rudely shaken,--and began with a deprecatory
smile:
“Humble though I am----”
Rap, rap, went the chairman’s gavel, and the following dialogue
occurred:
_Chairman_ (with dignity). “What’s that you said you were, sir?”
_Professional Workingman_ (decidedly taken aback). “I--I said I was
humble, sir?”
_Chairman_ (reproachfully). “Are you an American citizen, sir?”
_P. W._ “Yes, sir.”
_Chairman_ (with emphasis). “Then you’re the equal of any man in this
State! Then you’re the equal of any man on this committee! _Don’t let
me hear you call yourself humble again! Go on sir!_”
After this warning the advocate managed to keep clear of the rocks
until, having worked himself up to quite a pitch of excitement, he
incautiously exclaimed, “But the poor man has no friends!” which
brought the Colonel down on him at once. Rap, rap, went his gavel,
and he scowled grimly at the offender while he asked with deadly
deliberation:
“What did you say that time, sir?”
_P. W._ (hopelessly). “I said the poor man had no friends, sir.”
_Chairman_ (with sudden fire). “Then you lied, sir! I am the poor man’s
friend! so are my colleagues, sir!” (Here the rogues’ gallery tried to
look benevolent.) “Speak the truth, sir!” (with sudden change from the
manner admonitory to the manner mandatory). “Now, you sit down quick,
or get out of this somehow!”
This put an end to the sleek gentleman, and his place was taken by a
fellow-professional of another type--a great, burly man, who would talk
to you on private matters in a perfectly natural tone of voice, but
who, the minute he began to speak of the Wrongs (with a capital W) of
Labor (with a capital L), bellowed as if he had been a bull of Bashan.
The Colonel, by this time pretty far gone, eyed him malevolently,
swaying to and fro in his chair. However, the first effect of the
fellow’s oratory was soothing rather than otherwise, and produced the
unexpected result of sending the chairman fast asleep sitting bolt
upright. But in a minute or two, as the man warmed up to his work, he
gave a peculiarly resonant howl which waked the Colonel up. The latter
came to himself with a jerk, looked fixedly at the audience, caught
sight of the speaker, remembered having seen him before, forgot that he
had been asleep, and concluded that it must have been on some previous
day. Hammer, hammer, went the gavel, and--
“I’ve seen you before, sir!”
“You have not,” said the man.
“Don’t tell me I lie, sir!” responded the Colonel, with sudden
ferocity. “You’ve addressed this committee on a previous day!”
“I’ve never--” began the man; but the Colonel broke in again:
“Sit down, sir! The dignity of the chair must be preserved! No man
shall speak to this committee twice. The committee stands adjourned.”
And with that he stalked majestically out of the room, leaving the
committee and the delegation to gaze sheepishly into each other’s faces.
OUTSIDERS.
After all, outsiders furnish quite as much fun as the legislators
themselves. The number of men who persist in writing one letters of
praise, abuse, and advice on every conceivable subject is appalling;
and the writers are of every grade, from the lunatic and the criminal
up. The most difficult to deal with are the men with hobbies. There is
the Protestant fool, who thinks that our liberties are menaced by the
machinations of the Church of Rome; and his companion idiot, who wants
legislation against all secret societies, especially the Masons. Then
there are the believers in “isms,” of whom the women-suffragists stand
in the first rank. Now I have always been a believer in woman’s rights,
but I must confess I have never seen such a hopelessly impracticable
set of persons as the woman-suffragists who came up to Albany to get
legislation. They simply would not draw up their measures in proper
form; when I pointed out to one of them that their proposed bill
was drawn up in direct defiance of certain of the sections of the
Constitution of the State he blandly replied that he did not care at
all for that, because the measure had been drawn up so as to be in
accord with the Constitution of Heaven. There was no answer to this
beyond the very obvious one that Albany was in no way akin to Heaven.
The ultra-temperance people--not the moderate and sensible ones--are
quite as impervious to common sense.
A member’s correspondence is sometimes amusing. A member receives
shoals of letters of advice, congratulation, entreaty, and abuse, half
of them anonymous. Most of these are stupid; but some are at least out
of the common.
I had some constant correspondents. One lady in the western part
of the State wrote me a weekly disquisition on woman’s rights. A
Buffalo clergyman spent two years on a one-sided correspondence about
prohibition. A gentleman of Syracuse wrote me such a stream of essays
and requests about the charter of that city that I feared he would
drive me into a lunatic asylum; but he anticipated matters by going
into one himself. A New Yorker at regular intervals sent up a request
that I would “reintroduce” the Dongan charter, which had lapsed two
centuries before. A gentleman interested in a proposed law to protect
primaries took to telegraphing daily questions as to its progress--a
habit of which I broke him by sending in response telegrams of several
hundred words each, which I was careful not to prepay.
There are certain legislative actions which must be taken in a purely
Pickwickian sense. Notable among these are the resolutions of sympathy
for the alleged oppressed patriots and peoples of Europe. These are
generally directed against England, as there exists in the lower
strata of political life an Anglophobia quite as objectionable as the
Anglomania of the higher social circles.
As a rule, these resolutions are to be classed as simply
_bouffe_ affairs; they are commonly introduced by some ambitious
legislator--often, I regret to say, a native American--who has a
large foreign vote in his district. During my term of service in
the Legislature, resolutions were introduced demanding the recall
of Minister Lowell, assailing the Czar for his conduct towards the
Russian Jews, sympathizing with the Land League and the Dutch Boers,
etc., etc.; the passage of each of which we strenuously and usually
successfully opposed, on the ground that while we would warmly
welcome any foreigner who came here, and in good faith assumed the
duties of American citizenship, we had a right to demand in return
that he should not bring any of his race or national antipathies into
American political life. Resolutions of this character are sometimes
undoubtedly proper; but in nine cases out of ten they are wholly
unjustifiable. An instance of this sort of thing which took place not
at Albany may be cited. Recently the Board of Aldermen of one of our
great cities received a stinging rebuke, which it is to be feared the
aldermanic intellect was too dense fully to appreciate. The aldermen
passed a resolution “condemning” the Czar of Russia for his conduct
towards his fellow-citizens of Hebrew faith, and “demanding” that he
should forthwith treat them better; this was forwarded to the Russian
Minister, with a request that it be sent to the Czar. It came back
forty-eight hours afterwards, with a note on the back by one of the
under-secretaries of the legation, to the effect that as he was not
aware that Russia had any diplomatic relations with this particular
Board of Aldermen, and as, indeed, Russia was not officially cognizant
of their existence, and, moreover, was wholly indifferent to their
opinions on any conceivable subject, he herewith returned them their
kind communication.[7]
In concluding I would say, that while there is so much evil at Albany,
and so much reason for our exerting ourselves to bring about a better
state of things, yet there is no cause for being disheartened or for
thinking that it is hopeless to expect improvement. On the contrary,
the standard of legislative morals is certainly higher than it was
fifteen years ago or twenty-five years ago. In the future it may
either improve or retrograde, by fits and starts, for it will keep
pace exactly with the awakening of the popular mind to the necessity
of having honest and intelligent representatives in the State
Legislature.[8]
I have had opportunity of knowing something about the workings of but a
few of our other State legislatures: from what I have seen and heard,
I should say that we stand about on a par with those of Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and Illinois, above that of Louisiana, and below those of
Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Wyoming, as well as below
the national legislature at Washington. But the moral status of a
legislative body, especially in the West, often varies widely from year
to year.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] The _Century_, January, 1885.
[7] A few years later a member of the Italian Legation “scored” heavily
on one of our least pleasant national peculiarities. An Italian had
just been lynched in Colorado, and an Italian paper in New York
bitterly denounced the Italian Minister for his supposed apathy in
the matter. The member of the Legation in question answered that the
accusations were most unjust, for the Minister had worked zealously
until he found that the deceased “had taken out his naturalization
papers, and was entitled to all the privileges of American citizenship.”
[8] At present, twelve years later, I should say that there was rather
less personal corruption in the Legislature; but also less independence
and greater subservience to the machine, which is even less responsive
to honest and enlightened public opinion.
[Illustration]
VI
MACHINE POLITICS IN NEW YORK CITY[9]
In New York city, as in most of our other great municipalities, the
direction of political affairs has been for many years mainly in the
hands of a class of men who make politics their regular business
and means of livelihood. These men are able to keep their grip only
by means of the singularly perfect way in which they have succeeded
in organizing their respective parties and factions; and it is in
consequence of the clock-work regularity and efficiency with which
these several organizations play their parts, alike for good and for
evil, that they have been nicknamed by outsiders “machines,” while the
men who take part in and control, or, as they would themselves say,
“run” them, now form a well-recognized and fairly well-defined class
in the community, and are familiarly known as machine politicians. It
may be of interest to sketch in outline some of the characteristics of
these men and of their machines, the methods by which and the objects
for which they work, and the reasons for their success in the political
field.
The terms machine and machine politician are now undoubtedly used
ordinarily in a reproachful sense; but it does not at all follow that
this sense is always the right one. On the contrary, the machine is
often a very powerful instrument for good; and a machine politician
really desirous of doing honest work on behalf of the community,
is fifty times as useful an ally as is the average philanthropic
outsider. Indeed, it is of course true, that any political organization
(and absolutely no good work can be done in politics without an
organization) is a machine; and any man who perfects and uses this
organization is himself, to a certain extent, a machine politician.
In the rough, however, the feeling against machine politics and
politicians is tolerably well justified by the facts, although this
statement really reflects most severely upon the educated and honest
people who largely hold themselves aloof from public life, and show a
curious incapacity for fulfilling their public duties.
The organizations that are commonly and distinctively known as machines
are those belonging to the two great recognized parties, or to their
factional subdivisions; and the reason why the word machine has come to
be used, to a certain extent, as a term of opprobrium is to be found
in the fact that these organizations are now run by the leaders very
largely as business concerns to benefit themselves and their followers,
with little regard to the community at large. This is natural enough.
The men having control and doing all the work have gradually come to
have the same feeling about politics that other men have about the
business of a merchant or manufacturer; it was too much to expect that
if left entirely to themselves they would continue disinterestedly to
work for the benefit of others. Many a machine politician who is to-day
a most unwholesome influence in our politics is in private life quite
as respectable as anyone else; only he has forgotten that his business
affects the state at large, and, regarding it as merely his own private
concern, he has carried into it the same selfish spirit that actuates
in business matters the majority of the average mercantile community.
A merchant or manufacturer works his business, as a rule, purely for
his own benefit, without any regard whatever for the community at
large. The merchant uses all his influence for a low tariff, and the
manufacturer is even more strenuously in favor of protection, not at
all from any theory of abstract right, but because of self-interest.
Each views such a political question as the tariff, not from the
standpoint of how it will affect the nation as a whole, but merely
from that of how it will affect him personally. If a community were in
favor of protection, but nevertheless permitted all the governmental
machinery to fall into the hands of importing merchants, it would
be small cause for wonder if the latter shaped the laws to suit
themselves, and the chief blame, after all, would rest with the supine
and lethargic majority which failed to have enough energy to take
charge of their own affairs. Our machine politicians, in actual life
act in just this same way; their actions are very often dictated by
selfish motives, with but little regard for the people at large though,
like the merchants, they often hold a very high standard of honor on
certain points; they therefore need continually to be watched and
opposed by those who wish to see good government. But, after all, it is
hardly to be wondered at that they abuse power which is allowed to fall
into their hands owing to the ignorance or timid indifference of those
who by rights should themselves keep it.
In a society properly constituted for true democratic government--in
a society such as that seen in many of our country towns, for
example--machine rule is impossible. But in New York, as well as
in most of our other great cities, the conditions favor the growth
of ring or boss rule. The chief causes thus operating against good
government are the moral and mental attitudes towards politics assumed
by different sections of the voters. A large number of these are
simply densely ignorant, and, of course, such are apt to fall under
the influence of cunning leaders, and even if they do right, it is
by hazard merely. The criminal class in a great city is always of
some size, while what may be called the potentially criminal class is
still larger. Then there is a great class of laboring men, mostly
of foreign birth or parentage, who at present both expect too much
from legislation and yet at the same time realize too little how
powerfully though indirectly they are affected by a bad or corrupt
government. In many wards the overwhelming majority of the voters do
not realize that heavy taxes fall ultimately upon them, and actually
view with perfect complacency burdens laid by their representatives
upon the tax-payers, and, if anything, approve of a hostile attitude
towards the latter--having a vague feeling of animosity towards them
as possessing more than their proper proportion of the world’s good
things, and sharing with most other human beings the capacity to bear
with philosophic equanimity ills merely affecting one’s neighbors. When
powerfully roused on some financial, but still more on some sentimental
question, this same laboring class will throw its enormous and usually
decisive weight into the scale which it believes inclines to the right;
but its members are often curiously and cynically indifferent to
charges of corruption against favorite heroes or demagogues, so long
as these charges do not imply betrayal of their own real or fancied
interests. Thus an alderman or assemblyman representing certain wards
may make as much money as he pleases out of corporations without
seriously jeopardizing his standing with his constituents; but if he
once, whether from honest or dishonest motives, stands by a corporation
when the interests of the latter are supposed to conflict with those
of “the people,” it is all up with him. These voters are, moreover,
very emotional; they value in a public man what we are accustomed
to consider virtues only to be taken into account when estimating
private character. Thus, if a man is open-handed and warm-hearted,
they consider it as a fair offset to his being a little bit shaky
when it comes to applying the eighth commandment to affairs of state.
I have more than once heard the statement, “He is very liberal to
the poor,” advanced as a perfectly satisfactory answer to the charge
that a certain public man was corrupt. Moreover, working men, whose
lives are passed in one unceasing round of narrow and monotonous
toil, are not unnaturally inclined to pay heed to the demagogues and
professional labor advocates who promise if elected to try to pass
laws to better their condition; they are hardly prepared to understand
or approve the American doctrine of government, which is that the
state cannot ordinarily attempt to better the condition of a man or a
set of men, but can merely see that no wrong is done him or them by
anyone else, and that all alike have a fair chance in the struggle
for life--a struggle wherein, it may as well at once be freely though
sadly acknowledged, very many are bound to fail, no matter how ideally
perfect any given system of government may be.
Of course it must be remembered that all these general statements are
subject to an immense number of individual exceptions; there are tens
of thousands of men who work with their hands for their daily bread
and yet put into actual practice that sublime virtue of disinterested
adherence to the right, even when it seems likely merely to benefit
others, and those others better off than they themselves are; for they
vote for honesty and cleanliness, in spite of great temptation to
do the opposite, and in spite of their not seeing how any immediate
benefit will result to themselves.
REASONS FOR THE NEGLECT OF PUBLIC DUTIES BY RESPECTABLE MEN IN EASY
CIRCUMSTANCES.
This class is composed of the great bulk of the men who range from
well-to-do up to very rich; and of these the former generally and the
latter almost universally neglect their political duties, for the most
part rather pluming themselves upon their good conduct if they so
much as vote on election day. This largely comes from the tremendous
wear and tension of life in our great cities. Moreover, the men of
small means with us are usually men of domestic habits; and this very
devotion to home, which is one of their chief virtues, leads them to
neglect their public duties. They work hard, as clerks, mechanics,
small tradesmen, etc., all day long, and when they get home in the
evening they dislike to go out. If they do go to a ward meeting, they
find themselves isolated, and strangers both to the men whom they meet
and to the matter on which they have to act; for in the city a man is
quite as sure to know next to nothing about his neighbors as in the
country he is to be intimately acquainted with them. In the country
the people of a neighborhood, when they assemble in one of their
local conventions, are already well acquainted, and therefore able to
act together with effect; whereas in the city, even if the ordinary
citizens do come out, they are totally unacquainted with one another,
and are as helplessly unable to oppose the disciplined ranks of the
professional politicians as is the case with a mob of freshmen in
one of our colleges when in danger of being hazed by the sophomores.
Moreover, the pressure of competition in city life is so keen that men
often have as much as they can do to attend to their own affairs, and
really hardly have the leisure to look after those of the public. The
general tendency everywhere is toward the specialization of functions,
and this holds good as well in politics as elsewhere.
The reputable private citizens of small means thus often neglect to
attend to their public duties because to do so would perhaps interfere
with their private business. This is bad enough, but the case is
worse with the really wealthy, who still more generally neglect
these same duties, partly because not to do so would interfere with
their pleasure, and partly from a combination of other motives, all
of them natural but none of them creditable. A successful merchant,
well dressed, pompous, self-important, unused to any life outside of
the counting-room, and accustomed because of his very success to be
treated with deferential regard, as one who stands above the common run
of humanity, naturally finds it very unpleasant to go to a caucus or
primary where he has to stand on an equal footing with his groom and
day-laborers, and indeed may discover that the latter, thanks to their
faculty for combination, are rated higher in the scale of political
importance than he is himself. In all the large cities of the North the
wealthier, or, as they would prefer to style themselves, the “upper”
classes, tend distinctly towards the bourgeois type; and an individual
in the bourgeois stage of development, while honest, industrious, and
virtuous, is also not unapt to be a miracle of timid and short-sighted
selfishness. The commercial classes are only too likely to regard
everything merely from the standpoint of “Does it pay?” and many a
merchant does not take any part in politics because he is short-sighted
enough to think that it will pay him better to attend purely to making
money, and too selfish to be willing to undergo any trouble for the
sake of abstract duty; while the younger men of this type are too much
engrossed in their various social pleasures to be willing to give
their time to anything else. It is also unfortunately true, especially
throughout New England and the Middle States, that the general tendency
among people of culture and high education has been to neglect and even
to look down upon the rougher and manlier virtues, so that an advanced
state of intellectual development is too often associated with a
certain effeminacy of character. Our more intellectual men often shrink
from the raw coarseness and the eager struggle of political life as if
they were women. Now, however refined and virtuous a man may be, he is
yet entirely out of place in the American body-politic unless he is
himself of sufficiently coarse fibre and virile character to be more
angered than hurt by an insult or injury; the timid good form a most
useless as well as a most despicable portion of the community. Again,
when a man is heard objecting to taking part in politics because it is
“low,” he may be set down as either a fool or a coward: it would be
quite as sensible for a militiaman to advance the same statement as an
excuse for refusing to assist in quelling a riot. Many cultured men
neglect their political duties simply because they are too delicate to
have the element of “strike back” in their natures, and because they
have an unmanly fear of being forced to stand up for their own rights
when threatened with abuse or insult. Such are the conditions which
give the machine men their chance; and they have been able to make the
most possible out of this chance,--first, because of the perfection to
which they have brought their machinery, and, second, because of the
social character of their political organizations.
ORGANIZATION AND WORK OF THE MACHINES.
The machinery of any one of our political bodies is always rather
complicated; and its politicians invariably endeavor to keep it so,
because, their time being wholly given to it, they are able to become
perfectly familiar with all its workings, while the average outsider
becomes more and more helpless in proportion as the organization is
less and less simple. Besides some others of minor importance, there
are at present in New York three great political organizations, _viz._,
those of the regular Republicans, of the County Democracy,[10] and of
Tammany Hall, that of the last being perhaps the most perfect, viewed
from a machine standpoint. Although with wide differences in detail,
all these bodies are organized upon much the same general plan; and
one description may be taken in the rough, as applying to all. There
is a large central committee, composed of numerous delegates from the
different assembly districts, which decides upon the various questions
affecting the party as a whole in the county and city; and then there
are the various organizations in the assembly districts themselves,
which are the real sources of strength, and with which alone it is
necessary to deal. There are different rules for the admission to the
various district primaries and caucuses of the voters belonging to the
respective parties; but in almost every case the real work is done and
the real power held by a small knot of men, who in turn pay a greater
or less degree of fealty to a single boss.
The mere work to be done on election day and in preparing for it
forms no slight task. There is an association in each assembly or
election district, with its president, secretary, treasurer, executive
committee, etc.; these call the primaries and caucuses, arrange the
lists of the delegates to the various nominating conventions, raise
funds for campaign purposes, and hold themselves in communication
with their central party organizations. At the primaries in each
assembly district a full set of delegates is chosen to nominate
assemblymen and aldermen, while others are chosen to go to the
State, county, and congressional conventions. Before election day
many thousands of complete sets of the party ticket are printed,
folded, and put together, or, as it is called, “bunched.” A single
bundle of these ballots is then sent to every voter in the district,
while thousands are reserved for distribution at the polls. In every
election precinct--there are probably twenty or thirty in each
assembly district--a captain and from two to a dozen subordinates
are appointed.[11] These have charge of the actual giving out of the
ballots at the polls. On election day they are at their places long
before the hour set for voting; each party has a wooden booth, looking
a good deal like a sentry-box, covered over with flaming posters
containing the names of their nominees, and the “workers” cluster
around these as centres. Every voter as he approaches is certain to be
offered a set of tickets; usually these sets are “straight,” that is,
contain all the nominees of one party, but frequently crooked work will
be done, and some one candidate will get his own ballots bunched with
the rest of those of the opposite party. Each captain of a district
is generally paid a certain sum of money, greater or less according to
his ability as a politician or according to his power of serving the
boss or machine. Nominally this money goes in paying the subordinates
and in what are vaguely termed “campaign expenses,” but as a matter of
fact it is in many instances simply pocketed by the recipient; indeed,
very little of the large sums of money annually spent by candidates to
bribe voters actually reaches the voters supposed to be bribed. The
money thus furnished is procured either by subscriptions from rich
outsiders, or by assessments upon the candidates themselves; formerly
much was also obtained from office-holders, but this is now prohibited
by law. A great deal of money is also spent in advertising, placarding
posters, paying for public meetings, and organizing and uniforming
members to take part in some huge torchlight procession--this last
particular form of spectacular enjoyment being one peculiarly dear to
the average American political mind. Candidates for very lucrative
positions are often assessed really huge sums, in order to pay for
the extravagant methods by which our canvasses are conducted. Before
a legislative committee of which I was a member, the Register of New
York County blandly testified under oath that he had forgotten whether
his expenses during his canvass had been over or under fifty thousand
dollars. It must be remembered that even now--and until recently
the evil was very much greater--the rewards paid to certain public
officials are out of all proportion to the services rendered; and in
such cases the active managing politicians feel that they have a right
to exact the heaviest possible toll from the candidate, to help pay
the army of hungry heelers who do their bidding. Thus, before the same
committee the County Clerk testified that his income was very nearly
eighty thousand a year, but with refreshing frankness admitted that his
own position was practically merely that of a figure-head, and that all
the work was done by his deputy, on a small fixed salary. As the County
Clerk’s term is three years, he should nominally have received nearly
a quarter of a million dollars; but as a matter of fact two thirds of
the money probably went to the political organizations with which he
was connected. The enormous emoluments of such officers are, of course,
most effective in debauching politics. They bear no relation whatever
to the trifling quantity of work done, and the chosen candidate readily
recognizes what is the exact truth,--namely, that the benefit of his
service is expected to enure to his party allies, and not to the
citizens at large. Thus, one of the county officers who came before
the above-mentioned committee, testified with a naïve openness which
was appalling, in answer to what was believed to be a purely formal
question as to whether he performed his public duties faithfully,
that he did so perform them whenever they did not conflict with his
political duties!--meaning thereby, as he explained, attending to his
local organizations, seeing politicians, fixing primaries, bailing
out those of his friends (apparently by no means few in number) who
got hauled up before a justice of the peace, etc., etc. This man’s
statements were valuable because, being a truthful person and of such
dense ignorance that he was at first wholly unaware his testimony was
in any way remarkable, he really tried to tell things as they were;
and it had evidently never occurred to him that he was not expected by
everyone to do just as he had been doing,--that is, to draw a large
salary for himself, to turn over a still larger fund to his party
allies, and conscientiously to endeavor, as far as he could, by the
free use of his time and influence, to satisfy the innumerable demands
made upon him by the various small-fry politicians.[12]
“HEELERS.”
The “heelers,” or “workers,” who stand at the polls, and are paid
in the way above described, form a large part of the rank and file
composing each organization. There are, of course, scores of them in
each assembly district association, and, together with the almost
equally numerous class of federal, State, or local paid office-holders
(except in so far as these last have been cut out by the operations
of the civil-service reform laws), they form the bulk of the men by
whom the machine is run, the bosses of great and small degree chiefly
merely oversee the work and supervise the deeds of their henchmen.
The organization of a party in our city is really much like that of
an army. There is one great central boss, assisted by some trusted
and able lieutenants; these communicate with the different district
bosses, whom they alternately bully and assist. The district boss in
turn has a number of half-subordinates, half-allies, under him; these
latter choose the captains of the election districts, etc., and come
into contact with the common heelers. The more stupid and ignorant
the common heelers are, and the more implicitly they obey orders, the
greater becomes the effectiveness of the machine. An ideal machine has
for its officers men of marked force, cunning and unscrupulous, and
for its common soldiers men who may be either corrupt or moderately
honest, but who must be of low intelligence. This is the reason why
such a large proportion of the members of every political machine
are recruited from the lower grades of the foreign population. These
henchmen obey unhesitatingly the orders of their chiefs, both at the
primary or caucus and on election day, receiving regular rewards for
so doing, either in employment procured for them or else in money
outright. Of course it is by no means true that these men are all
actuated merely by mercenary motives. The great majority entertain also
a real feeling of allegiance towards the party to which they belong,
or towards the political chief whose fortunes they follow; and many
work entirely without pay and purely for what they believe to be right.
Indeed, an experienced politician always greatly prefers to have under
him men whose hearts are in their work and upon whose unbribed devotion
he can rely; but unfortunately he finds in most cases that their
exertions have to be seconded by others which are prompted by motives
far more mixed.
All of these men, whether paid or not, make a business of political
life and are thoroughly at home among the obscure intrigues that go to
make up so much of it; and consequently they have quite as much the
advantage when pitted against amateurs as regular soldiers have when
matched against militiamen. But their numbers, though absolutely large,
are, relatively to the entire community, so small that some other cause
must be taken into consideration in order to account for the commanding
position occupied by the machine and the machine politicians in public
life. This other determining cause is to be found in the fact that all
these machine associations have a social as well as a political side,
and that a large part of the political life of every leader or boss is
also identical with his social life.
THE SOCIAL SIDE OF MACHINE POLITICS.
The political associations of the various districts are not organized
merely at the approach of election day; on the contrary, they exist
throughout the year, and for the greater part of the time are to a
great extent merely social clubs. To a large number of the men who
belong to them they are the chief social rallying-point. These men
congregate in the association building in the evening to smoke,
drink beer, and play cards, precisely as the wealthier men gather in
the clubs whose purpose is avowedly social and not political--such
as the Union, University, and Knickerbocker. Politics thus becomes a
pleasure and relaxation as well as a serious pursuit. The different
members of the same club or association become closely allied with one
another, and able to act together on occasions with unison and _esprit
de corps_; and they will stand by one of their own number for reasons
precisely homologous to those which make a member of one of the upper
clubs support a fellow-member if the latter happens to run for office.
“He is a gentleman, and shall have my vote,” says the swell club man.
“He’s one of the boys, and I’m for him,” replies the heeler from the
district party association. In each case the feeling is social rather
than political, but where the club man influences one vote the heeler
controls ten. A rich merchant and a small tradesman alike find it
merely a bore to attend the meetings of the local political club; it
is to them an irksome duty which is shirked whenever possible. But
to the small politicians and to the various workers and hangers-on,
these meetings have a distinct social attraction, and the attendance
is a matter of preference. They are in congenial society and in the
place where by choice they spend their evenings, and where they bring
their friends and associates; and naturally all the men so brought
together gradually blend their social and political ties, and work
with an effectiveness impossible to the outside citizens whose social
instincts interfere, instead of coinciding with their political duties.
If an ordinary citizen wishes to have a game of cards or a talk with
some of his companions, he must keep away from the local headquarters
of his party; whereas, under similar circumstances, the professional
politician must go there. The man who is fond of his home naturally
prefers to stay there in the evenings, rather than go out among the
noisy club frequenters, whose pleasure it is to see each other at
least weekly, and who spend their evenings discussing neither sport,
business, nor scandal, as do other sections of the community, but the
equally monotonous subject of ward politics.
The strength of our political organizations arises from their
development as social bodies; many of the hardest workers in their
ranks are neither office-holders nor yet paid henchmen, but merely
members who have gradually learned to identify their fortunes with
the party whose hall they have come to regard as the head-quarters in
which to spend the most agreeable of their leisure moments. Under the
American system it is impossible for a man to accomplish anything by
himself; he must associate himself with others, and they must throw
their weight together. This is just what the social functions of the
political clubs enable their members to do. The great and rich society
clubs are composed of men who are not apt to take much interest in
politics anyhow, and never act as a body. The great effect produced by
a social organization for political purposes is shown by the career
of the Union League Club; and equally striking proof can be seen by
every man who attends a ward meeting. There is thus, however much to
be regretted it may be, a constant tendency towards the concentration
of political power in the hands of those men who by taste and
education are fitted to enjoy the social side of the various political
organizations.
THE LIQUOR-SELLER IN POLITICS.
It is this that gives the liquor-sellers their enormous influence in
politics. Preparatory to the general election of 1884, there were held
in the various districts of New York ten hundred and seven primaries
and political conventions of all parties, and of these no less than
six hundred and thirty-three took place in liquor-saloons,--a showing
that leaves small ground for wonder at the low average grade of the
nominees. The reason for such a condition of things is perfectly
evident: it is because the liquor-saloons are places of social resort
for the same men who turn the local political organizations into social
clubs. Bar-tenders form perhaps the nearest approach to a leisure class
that we have at present on this side of the water. Naturally they are
on semi-intimate terms with all who frequent their houses. There is no
place where more gossip is talked than in bar-rooms, and much of this
gossip is about politics,--that is, the politics of the ward, not of
the nation. The tariff and the silver question may be alluded to and
civil-service reform may be incidentally damned, but the real interest
comes in discussing the doings of the men with whom they are personally
acquainted: why Billy so-and-so, the alderman, has quarrelled with his
former chief supporter; whether “old man X” has really managed to fix
the delegates to a given convention; the reason why one faction bolted
at the last primary; and if it is true that a great down-town boss
who has an intimate friend of opposite political faith running in an
up-town district has forced the managers of his own party to put up a
man of straw against him. The bar-keeper is a man of much local power,
and is, of course, hail-fellow-well-met with his visitors, as he and
they can be of mutual assistance to one another. Even if of different
politics, their feelings towards each other are influenced purely by
personal considerations; and, indeed, this is true of most of the
smaller bosses as regards their dealings among themselves, for, as one
of them once remarked to me with enigmatic truthfulness, “there are
no politics in politics” of the lower sort--which, being interpreted,
means that a professional politician is much less apt to be swayed by
the fact of a man’s being a Democrat or a Republican than he is by his
being a personal friend or foe. The liquor-saloons thus become the
social head-quarters of the little knots or cliques of men who take
most interest in local political affairs; and by an easy transition
they become the political head-quarters when the time for preparing
for the elections arrives; and, of course, the good-will of the owners
of the places is thereby propitiated,--an important point with men
striving to control every vote possible.
The local political clubs also become to a certain extent mutual
benefit associations. The men in them become pretty intimate with one
another; and in the event of one becoming ill, or from any other cause
thrown out of employment, his fellow-members will very often combine to
assist him through his troubles, and quite large sums are frequently
raised for such a purpose. Of course, this forms an additional bond
among the members, who become closely knit together by ties of
companionship, self-interest, and mutual interdependence. Very many
members of these associations come into them without any thought of
advancing their own fortunes; they work very hard for their party, or
rather for the local body bearing the party name, but they do it quite
disinterestedly, and from a feeling akin to that which we often see
make other men devote their time and money to advancing the interests
of a yacht club or racing stable, although no immediate benefit can
result therefrom to themselves. One such man I now call to mind who
is by no means well off, and is neither an office-seeker nor an
office-holder, but who regularly every year spends about fifty dollars
at election time for the success of the party, or rather the wing of
the party, to which he belongs. He has a personal pride in seeing his
pet candidates rolling up large majorities. Men of this stamp also
naturally feel most enthusiasm for, or animosity against, the minor
candidates with whom they are themselves acquainted. The names at
the head of the ticket do not, to their minds, stand out with much
individuality; and while such names usually command the normal party
support, yet very often there is an infinitely keener rivalry among the
smaller politicians over candidates for local offices. I remember, in
1880, a very ardent Democratic ward club, many of the members of which
in the heat of a contest for an assemblyman cooly swapped off quite a
number of votes for President in consideration of votes given to their
candidate for the State Legislature; and in 1885, in my own district, a
local Republican club that had a member running for alderman, performed
a precisely similar feat in relation to their party’s candidate for
governor. A Tammany State Senator openly announced in a public speech
that it was of vastly more importance to Tammany to have one of her own
men Mayor of New York than it was to have a Democratic President of the
United States. Very many of the leaders of the rival organizations,
who lack the boldness to make such a frankly cynical avowal of what
their party feeling really amounts to, yet in practice, both as regards
mayor and as regards all other local offices which are politically or
pecuniarily of importance, act exactly on the theory enunciated by the
Tammany statesman; and, as a consequence, in every great election not
only is it necessary to have the mass of the voters waked up to the
importance of the principles that are at stake, but, unfortunately, it
is also necessary to see that the powerful local leaders are convinced
that it will be to their own interest to be faithful to the party
ticket. Often there will be intense rivalry between two associations
or two minor bosses; and one may take up and the other oppose the
cause of a candidate with an earnestness and hearty good-will arising
by no means from any feeling for the man himself, but from the desire
to score a triumph over the opposition. It not unfrequently happens
that a perfectly good man, who would not knowingly suffer the least
impropriety in the conduct of his canvass, is supported in some one
district by a little knot of politicians of shady character, who have
nothing in common with him at all, but who wish to beat a rival body
that is opposing him, and who do not for a moment hesitate to use
every device, from bribery down, to accomplish their ends. A curious
incident of this sort came to my knowledge while happening to inquire
how a certain man became a Republican. It occurred a good many years
ago, and thanks to our election laws it could not now be repeated in
all its details; but affairs similar in kind occur at every election. I
may preface it by stating that the man referred to, whom we will call
X, ended by pushing himself up in the world, thanks to his own industry
and integrity, and is now a well-to-do private citizen and as good a
fellow as anyone would wish to see. But at the time spoken of he was
a young laborer, of Irish birth, working for his livelihood on the
docks and associating with his Irish and American fellows. The district
where he lived was overwhelmingly Democratic, and the contests were
generally merely factional. One small politician, a saloonkeeper named
Larry, who had a great deal of influence, used to enlist on election
day, by pay and other compensation, the services of the gang of young
fellows to which X belonged. On one occasion he failed to reward them
for their work, and in other ways treated them so shabbily as to make
them very angry, more especially X, who was their leader. There was
no way to pay Larry off until the next election; but they determined
to break his influence utterly then, and as the best method for doing
this they decided to “vote as far away from him” as possible, or,
in other words, to strain every nerve to secure the election of all
the candidates most opposed to those whom Larry favored. After due
consultation, it was thought that this could be most surely done by
supporting the Republican ticket. Most of the other bodies of young
laborers, or, indeed, of young roughs, made common cause with X and his
friends. Everything was kept very quiet until election day, neither
Larry nor the few Republicans having an inkling of what was going on.
It was a rough district, and usually the Republican booths were broken
up and their ballot-distributers driven off early in the day; but on
this occasion, to the speechless astonishment of everybody, things
went just the other way. The Republican ballots were distributed most
actively, the opposing workers were bribed, persuaded, or frightened
away, all means fair and foul were tried, and finally there was almost
a riot,--the outcome being that the Republicans actually obtained a
majority in a district where they had never before polled ten per cent.
of the total vote. Such a phenomenon attracted the attention of the big
Republican leaders, who after some inquiry found it was due to X. To
show their gratitude and to secure so useful an ally permanently (for
this was before the days of civil-service reform), they procured him
a lucrative place in the New York Post-office; and he, in turn, being
a man of natural parts, at once seized the opportunity, set to work
to correct the defects of his early education, and is now what I have
described him to be.
BOSS METHODS.
A politician who becomes an influential local leader or boss is, of
course, always one with a genuine talent for intrigue and organization.
He owes much of his power to the rewards he is able to dispense. Not
only does he procure for his supporters positions in the service of the
State or city,--as in the custom-house, sheriff’s office, etc.,--but
he is also able to procure positions for many on horse railroads, the
elevated roads, quarry works, etc. Great corporations are peculiarly
subject to the attacks of demagogues, and they find it much to their
interest to be on good terms with the leader in each district who
controls the vote of the Assemblyman and Alderman; and therefore
the former is pretty sure that a letter of recommendation from him
on behalf of any applicant for work will receive most favorable
consideration. The leader is also continually helping his henchmen out
of difficulties, pecuniary and otherwise; he lends them a dollar or two
now and then, helps out, when possible, such of their kinsmen as get
into the clutches of the law, gets a hold over such of them as have
done wrong and are afraid of being exposed, and learns to mix judicious
bullying with the rendering of service.
But, in addition to all this, the boss owes very much of his commanding
influence to his social relations with various bodies of his
constituents; and it is his work as well as his pleasure to keep up
these relations. No _débutante_ during her first winter in society has
a more exacting round of social duties to perform than has a prominent
ward politician. In every ward there are numerous organizations,
primarily social in character, but capable of being turned to good
account politically. The Amalgamated Hack-drivers’ Union, the Hibernian
Republican Club, the West Side Young Democrats, the Jefferson C. Mullin
Picnic Association,--there are twenty such bodies as these in every
district, and with, at any rate, the master spirits in each and all it
is necessary for the boss to keep on terms of intimate and, indeed,
rather boisterous friendship. When the Jefferson C. Mullin society goes
on a picnic, the average citizen scrupulously avoids its neighborhood;
but the boss goes, perhaps with his wife, and, moreover, enjoys himself
heartily, and is hail-fellow-well-met with the rest of the picnickers,
who, by the way, may be by no means bad fellows; and when election
day comes round, the latter, in return, no matter to what party
they may nominally belong, enthusiastically support their friend and
guest, on social, not political, grounds. The boss knows every man
in his district who can control any number of votes: an influential
saloon-keeper, the owner of a large livery stable, the leader among
a set of horse-car drivers, a foreman in a machine-shop who has a
taste for politics,--with all alike he keeps up constant and friendly
relations. Of course this fact does not of itself make the boss a bad
man; there are several such I could point out who are ten times over
better fellows than are the mild-mannered scholars of timorous virtue
who criticise them. But on the whole the qualities tending to make a
man a successful local political leader under our present conditions
are not apt to be qualities that make him serve the public honestly or
disinterestedly; and in the lower wards, where there is a large vicious
population, the condition of politics is often fairly appalling,
and the boss of the dominant party is generally a man of grossly
immoral public and private character, as anyone can satisfy himself
by examining the testimony taken by the last two or three legislative
committees that have investigated the affairs of New York city. In some
of these wards many of the social organizations with which the leaders
are obliged to keep on good terms are composed of criminals, or of the
relatives and associates of criminals. The testimony mentioned above
showed some strange things. I will take at random a few instances that
occur to me at the moment. There was one case of an assemblyman who
served several terms in the Legislature, while his private business was
to carry on corrupt negotiations between the Excise Commissioners and
owners of low haunts who wished licenses. The president of a powerful
semi-political association was by profession a burglar; the man who
received the goods he stole was an alderman. Another alderman was
elected while his hair was still short from a term in State Prison.
A school trustee had been convicted of embezzlement, and was the
associate of criminals. A prominent official in the Police Department
was interested in disreputable houses and gambling saloons, and was
backed politically by their proprietors.
BEATING THE MACHINE.
In the better wards the difficulty comes in drilling a little sense
and energy into decent people: they either do not care to combine
or else refuse to learn how. In one district we did at one time and
for a considerable period get control of affairs and elect a set of
almost ideal delegates and candidates to the various nominating and
legislative bodies, and in the end took an absolutely commanding
although temporary position in State and even in national politics.
This was done by the efforts of some twenty or thirty young fellows who
devoted a large part of their time to thoroughly organizing and getting
out the respectable vote. The moving spirits were all active, energetic
men, with common sense, whose motives were perfectly disinterested.
Some went in from principle; others, doubtless, from good-fellowship
or sheer love of the excitement always attendant upon a political
struggle. Our success was due to our absolute freedom from caste
spirit. Among our chief workers were a Columbia College professor, a
crack oarsman from the same institution, an Irish quarryman, a master
carpenter, a rich young merchant, the owner of a small cigar store, the
editor of a little German newspaper, and a couple of employees from
the post-office and custom-house, who worked directly against their
own seeming interests. One of our important committees was composed
of a prominent member of a Jewish synagogue, of the son of a noted
Presbyterian clergyman, and of a young Catholic lawyer. We won some
quite remarkable triumphs, for the first time in New York politics
carrying primaries against the machine, and as the result of our most
successful struggle completely revolutionizing the State Convention
held to send delegates to the National Republican Convention of 1884,
and returning to that body, for the first and only time it was ever
done, a solid delegation of Independent Republicans. This was done,
however, by sheer hard work on the part of a score or so of men; the
mass of our good citizens, even after the victories which they had
assisted in winning, understood nothing about how they were won. Many
of them actually objected to organizing, apparently having a confused
idea that we could always win by what one of their number called a
“spontaneous uprising,” to which a quiet young fellow in our camp
grimly responded that he had done a good deal of political work in his
day, but that he never in his life had worked so hard and so long as he
did to get up the “spontaneous” movement in which we were then engaged.
CONCLUSIONS.
In conclusion, it may be accepted as a fact, however unpleasant, that
if steady work and much attention to detail are required, ordinary
citizens, to whom participation in politics is merely a disagreeable
duty, will always be beaten by the organized army of politicians to
whom it is both duty, business, and pleasure, and who are knit together
and to outsiders by their social relations. On the other hand, average
citizens do take a spasmodic interest in public affairs; and we should
therefore so shape our governmental system that the action required by
the voters should be as simple and direct as possible, and should not
need to be taken any more often than is necessary. Governmental power
should be concentrated in the hands of a very few men, who would be so
conspicuous that no citizen could help knowing all about them; and the
elections should not come too frequently. Not one decent voter in ten
will take the trouble annually to inform himself as to the character
of the host of petty candidates to be balloted for, but he will be
sure to know all about the mayor, comptroller, etc. It is not to his
credit that we can only rely, and that without much certainty, upon his
taking a spasmodic interest in the government that affects his own
well-being; but such is the case, and accordingly we ought, as far as
possible, to have a system requiring on his part intermittent and not
sustained action.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[9] The _Century_, November, 1886.
[10] Since succeeded every year or two by some other anti-Tammany
Democratic organization or organizations.
[11] All this has been changed, vastly for the better, by the ballot
reform laws, under which the State distributes the printed ballots; and
elections are now much more honest than formerly.
[12] As a consequence of our investigation the committee, of which
I was chairman, succeeded in securing the enactment of laws which
abolished these enormous salaries.
[Illustration]
VII
SIX YEARS OF CIVIL SERVICE REFORM[13]
No question of internal administration is so important to the United
States as the question of Civil Service reform, because the spoils
system, which can only be supplanted through the agencies which have
found expression in the act creating the Civil Service Commission,
has been for seventy years the most potent of all the forces tending
to bring about the degradation of our politics. No republic can
permanently endure when its politics are corrupt and base; and the
spoils system, the application in political life of the degrading
doctrine that to the victor belong the spoils, produces corruption and
degradation. The man who is in politics for the offices might just as
well be in politics for the money he can get for his vote, so far as
the general good is concerned. When the then Vice-President of the
United States, Mr. Hendricks, said that he “wished to take the boys
in out of the cold to warm their toes,” thereby meaning that he wished
to distribute offices among the more active heelers, to the rapturous
enthusiasm of the latter, he uttered a sentiment which was morally
on the same plane with a wish to give “the boys” five dollars apiece
all around for their votes, and fifty dollars apiece when they showed
themselves sufficiently active in bullying, bribing, and cajoling other
voters. Such a sentiment should bar any man from public life, and will
bar him whenever the people grow to realize that the worst enemies of
the Republic are the demagogue and the corruptionist. The spoils-monger
and spoils-seeker invariably breed the bribe-taker and bribe-giver,
the embezzler of public funds and the corrupter of voters. Civil
Service reform is not merely a movement to better the public service.
It achieves this end too; but its main purpose is to raise the tone of
public life, and it is in this direction that its effects have been of
incalculable good to the whole community.
For six years, from May, 1889, to May, 1895, I was a member of the
National Civil Service Commission, and it seems to me to be of
interest to show exactly what has been done to advance the law and
what to hinder its advancement during these six years, and who have
been the more prominent among its friends and foes. I wish to tell
“the adventures of Philip on his way through the world,” and show who
robbed him, who helped him, and who passed him by. It would take too
long to give the names of all our friends, and it is not worth while
to more than allude to most of our foes and to most of those who were
indifferent to us; but a few of the names should be preserved and some
record made of the fights that have been fought and won and of the way
in which, by fits and starts, and with more than one set-back, the
general advance has been made.
Of the Commission itself little need be said. When I took office
the only Commissioner was Mr. Charles Lyman, of Connecticut, who
resigned when I did. Honorable Hugh S. Thompson, ex-Governor of
South Carolina, was made Commissioner at the same time that I was,
and after serving for three years resigned. He was succeeded by Mr.
George D. Johnston, of Louisiana, who was removed by the President
in November, 1893, being replaced by Mr. John R. Procter, the former
State Geologist of Kentucky, who is still serving. The Commission
has never varied a hand’s-breadth from its course throughout this
time; and Messrs. Thompson, Procter, Lyman, and myself were always a
unit in all important questions of policy and principle. Our aim was
always to procure the extension of the classified service as rapidly
as possible, and to see that the law was administered thoroughly and
fairly. The Commission does not have the power that it should, and in
many instances there have been violations or evasions of the law in
particular bureaus or departments which the Commission was not able to
prevent. In every case, however, we made a resolute fight, and gave
the widest publicity to the wrong-doing. Often, even where we have been
unable to win the actual fight in which we were engaged, the fact of
our having made it, and the further fact that we were ready to repeat
it on provocation, has put a complete stop to the repetition of the
offence. As a consequence, while there have been plenty of violations
and evasions of the law, yet their proportion was really very small,
taking into account the extent of the service. In the aggregate it is
doubtful if one per cent. of all the employees have been dismissed for
political reasons. In other words, where under the spoils system a
hundred men would have been turned out, under the Civil Service Law, as
administered under our supervision, ninety-nine men were kept in.
In the administration of the law very much depends upon the Commission.
Good heads of departments and bureaus will administer it well anyhow;
but not only the bad men, but also the large class of men who are weak
rather than bad, are sure to administer the law poorly unless kept well
up to the mark. The public should exercise a most careful scrutiny
over the appointment and over the acts of Civil Service Commissioners,
for there is no office the effectiveness of which depends so much upon
the way in which the man himself chooses to construe his duties. A
Commissioner can keep within the letter of the law and do his routine
work and yet accomplish absolutely nothing in the way of securing
the observance of the law. The Commission, to do useful work, must
be fearless and vigilant. It must actively interfere whenever wrong
is done, and must take all the steps that can be taken to secure the
punishment of the wrong-doer and to protect the employee threatened
with molestation.
This course was consistently followed by the Commission throughout
my connection with it. I was myself a Republican from the North.
Messrs. Thompson and Procter were from the South, and were both
Democrats who had served in the Confederate armies; and it would be
impossible for anyone to desire as associates two public men with
higher ideals of duty, or more resolute in their adherence to those
ideals. It is unnecessary to say that in all our dealings there was no
single instance wherein the politics of any person or the political
significance of any action was so much as taken into account in any
case that arose. The force of the Commission itself was all chosen
through the competitive examinations, and included men of every party
and from every section of the country; and I do not believe that in any
public or private office of the size it would be possible to find a
more honest, efficient, and coherent body of workers.
From the beginning of the present system each President of the
United States has been its friend, but no President has been a
radical Civil Service reformer. Presidents Arthur, Harrison, and
Cleveland have all desired to see the service extended, and to see
the law well administered. No one of them has felt willing or able
to do all that the reformers asked, or to pay much heed to their
wishes save as regards that portion of the service to which the law
actually applied. Each has been a sincere party man, who has felt
strongly on such questions as those of the tariff, of finance, and
of our foreign policy, and each has been obliged to conform more
or less closely to the wishes of his party associates and fellow
party leaders; and, of course, these party leaders, and the party
politicians generally, wished the offices to be distributed as they
had been ever since Andrew Jackson became President. In consequence
the offices outside the protection of the law have still been treated,
under every administration, as patronage, to be disposed of in the
interest of the dominant party. An occasional exception was made here
and there. The postmaster at New York, a Republican, was retained by
President Cleveland in his first administration, and the postmaster
of Charleston, a Democrat, was retained by President Harrison; but,
with altogether insignificant exceptions, the great bulk of the
non-classified places have been changed for political reasons by
each administration, the office-holders politically opposed to the
administration being supplanted or succeeded by political adherents of
the administration.
Where the change has been complete it does not matter much whether it
was made rapidly or slowly. Thus, the fourth-class postmasterships were
looted more rapidly under the administration of President Harrison
than under that of President Cleveland, and the consular service more
rapidly under President Cleveland than under President Harrison; but
the final result was the same in both cases. Indeed, I think that the
brutality which accompanied the greater speed was in some ways of
service to the country, for it directed attention to the iniquity and
folly of the system, and emphasized, in the minds of decent citizens,
the fact that appointments and removals for political reasons in places
where the duties are wholly non-political cannot be defended by any man
who looks at public affairs from the proper standpoint.
The advance has been made purely on two lines, that is, by better
enforcement of the law, and by inclusion under the law, or under
some system similar in its operations, of a portion of the service
previously administered in accordance with the spoils theory. Under
President Arthur the first classification was made, which included
14,000 places. Under President Cleveland, during his first term, the
limits of the classified service were extended by the inclusion of
7000 additional places. During President Harrison’s term the limit was
extended by the inclusion of about eight thousand places; and hitherto
during President Cleveland’s second term, by the inclusion of some six
thousand places; in addition to which the natural growth of the service
has been such that the total number of offices now classified is over
forty thousand. Moreover, the Secretary of the Navy under President
Harrison, introduced into the navy yards a system of registration
of laborers, which secures the end desired by the Commission; and
Secretary Herbert has continued this system. It only rests, however,
upon the will of the Secretary of the Navy; and as we cannot expect
always to have secretaries as clear-sighted as Messrs. Tracy and
Herbert, it is most desirable that this branch of the service should be
put directly under the control of the Commission.
The Cabinet officers, though often not Civil Service reformers to
start with, usually become such before their terms of office expire.
This was true, without exception, of all the Cabinet officers with
whom I was personally brought into contact while on the Commission.
Moreover, from their position and their sense of responsibility they
are certain to refrain from violating the law themselves and to try to
secure at least a formal compliance with its demands on the part of
their subordinates. In most cases it is necessary, however, to goad
them continually to see that they do not allow their subordinates to
evade the law; and it is very difficult to get either the President or
the head of a department to punish these subordinates when they have
evaded it. There is not much open violation of the law, because such
violation can be reached through the courts; but in the small offices
and small bureaus there is often a chance for an unscrupulous head of
the office or bureau to persecute his subordinates who are politically
opposed to him into resigning, or to trump up charges against them on
which they can be dismissed. If this is done in a sufficient number of
cases, men of the opposite political party think that it is useless to
enter the examinations; and by staying out they leave the way clear
for the offender to get precisely the men he wishes for the eligible
registers. Cases like this continually occur, and the Commission
has to be vigilant in detecting and exposing them, and in demanding
their punishment by the head of the office. The offender always, of
course, insists that he has been misunderstood, and in most cases he
can prepare quite a specious defence. As he is of the same political
faith as the head of the department, and as he is certain to be backed
by influential politicians, the head of the department is usually
loath to act against him, and, if possible, will let him off with, at
most, a warning not to repeat the offence. In some departments this
kind of evasion has never been tolerated; and where the Commission
has the force under its eye, as in the departments at Washington,
the chance of injustice is minimized. Nevertheless, there have been
considerable abuses of this kind, notably in the custom-houses and
post-offices, throughout the time I have been at Washington. So far as
the Post-Office Department was concerned the abuses were more flagrant
under President Harrison’s Postmaster-General, Mr. Wanamaker; but
in the Treasury Department they were more flagrant under President
Cleveland’s Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Carlisle.
Congress has control of the appropriations for the Commission, and
as it cannot do its work without an ample appropriation the action
of Congress is vital to its welfare. Many, even of the friends of
the system in the country at large, are astonishingly ignorant of who
the men are who have battled most effectively for the law and for
good government in either the Senate or the Lower House. It is not
only necessary that a man shall be good and possess the desire to do
decent things, but it is also necessary that he shall be courageous,
practical, and efficient, if his work is to amount to anything. There
is a good deal of rough-and-tumble fighting in Congress, as there is
in all our political life, and a man is entirely out of place in it
if he does not possess the virile qualities, and if he fails to show
himself ready and able to hit back when assailed. Moreover, he must
be alert, vigorous, and intelligent if he is going to make his work
count. The friends of the Civil Service Law, like the friends of all
other laws, would be in a bad way if they had to rely solely upon the
backing of the timid good. During the last six years there have been,
as there always are, a number of men in the House who believe in the
Civil Service Law, and who vote for it if they understand the question
and are present when it comes up, but who practically count for very
little one way or the other, because they are timid or flighty, or are
lacking in capacity for leadership or ability to see a point and to put
it strongly before their associates.
There is need of further legislation to perfect and extend the law
and the system; but Congress has never been willing seriously to
consider a proposition looking to this extension. Bills to provide for
the appointment of fourth-class postmasters have been introduced by
Senator Lodge and others, but have never come to anything. Indeed, but
once has a measure of this kind been reported from committee and fought
for in either House. This was in the last session of the 53d Congress,
when Senators Morgan and Lodge introduced bills to reform the consular
service. They were referred to Senator Morgan’s Committee on Foreign
Affairs, and were favorably reported. Senator Lodge made a vigorous
fight for them in the Senate, but he received little support, and was
defeated, Senator Gorman leading the opposition.
On the other hand, efforts to repeal the law, or to destroy it by
new legislation, have uniformly been failures, and have rarely gone
beyond committee. Occasionally, in an appropriation bill or some other
measure, an amendment will be slipped through, adding forty or fifty
employees to the classified service, or providing that the law shall
not apply to them; but nothing important has ever been done in this
way. But once has there been a resolute attack made on the law by
legislation. This was in the 53d Congress, when Mr. Bynum, of Indiana,
introduced in the House, and Mr. Vilas, of Wisconsin, pushed in the
Senate, a bill to reinstate the Democratic railway mail clerks, turned
out before the classification of the railway mail service in the early
days of Mr. Harrison’s administration.
The classification of the railway mail service was ordered by President
Cleveland less than two months before the expiration of his first
term of office as President. It was impossible for the Commission to
prepare and hold the necessary examinations and establish eligible
registers prior to May 1, 1889. President Harrison had been inaugurated
on March 4th, and Postmaster-General Wanamaker permitted the spoilsmen
to take advantage of the necessary delay and turn out half of the
employees who were Democrats, and replace them by Republicans.
This was an outrageous act, deserving the severe condemnation it
received; but it was perfectly legal. During the four years of Mr.
Cleveland’s first term a clean sweep was made of the railway mail
service; the employees who were almost all Republicans, were turned
out, and Democrats were put in their places. The result was utterly to
demoralize the efficiency of the service. It had begun to recover from
this when the change of administration took place in 1889. The time
was too short to allow of a clean sweep, but the Republicans did all
they could in two months, and turned out half of the Democrats. The
law then went into effect, and since that time there have been no more
removals for partisan purposes in that service. It has now recovered
from the demoralization into which it was thrown by the two political
revolutions, and has reached a higher standard of efficiency than ever
before. What was done by the Republicans in this service was repeated,
on a less scale, by the Democrats four years later in reference to
the classification of the small free-delivery post-offices. This
classification was ordered by President Harrison two months before his
term of office expired; but in many of the offices it was impossible
to hold examinations and prepare eligible registers until after the
inauguration of President Cleveland, and in a number of cases the
incoming postmasters, who were appointed prior to the time when the
law went into effect, took advantage of the delay to make clean sweeps
of their offices. In one of these offices, where the men were changed
in a body, the new appointees hired the men whom they replaced, at $35
a month apiece, to teach them their duties; in itself a sufficient
comment on the folly of the spoils system.
Mr. Bynum’s bill provided for the reinstatement of the Democrats who
were turned out by the Republicans just before the classification of
the railway mail service. Of course such a bill was a mere partisan
measure. There was no more reason for reinstating the Democrats thus
turned out than for reinstating the Republicans who had been previously
turned out that these same Democrats might get in, or for reinstating
the Republicans in the free-delivery offices who had been turned out
just before these offices were classified. If the bill had been enacted
into law it would have been a most serious blow to the whole system,
for it would have put a premium upon legislation of the kind; and after
every change of parties we should have seen the passing of laws to
reinstate masses of Republicans or Democrats, as the case might be.
This would have meant a return to the old system under a new form of
procedure. Nevertheless, Mr. Bynum’s bill received the solid support
of his party. Not a Democratic vote was cast against it in the House,
none even of the Massachusetts Democrats being recorded against it.
In the Senate it was pushed by Mr. Vilas. By a piece of rather sharp
parliamentary procedure he nearly got it through by unanimous consent.
That it failed was owing entirely to the vigilance of Senator Lodge.
Senator Vilas asked for the passage of the bill, on the ground that it
was one of small importance, upon which his committee were agreed. When
it was read the words “classified civil service” caught Senator Lodge’s
ear, and he insisted upon an explanation. On finding out what the bill
was he at once objected to its consideration. Under this objection it
could not then be considered. If it could have been brought to a vote
it would undoubtedly have passed; but it was late in the session, the
calendars were crowded with bills, and it was impossible to get it up
in its regular order. Another effort was made, and was again frustrated
by Senator Lodge, and the bill then died a natural death.
In the final session of the 53d Congress a little incident occurred
which deserves to be related in full, not for its own importance, but
because it affords an excellent example of the numerous cases which
test the real efficiency of the friends of the reform in Congress.
It emphasizes the need of having, to watch over the interests of the
law, a man who is willing to fight, who knows the time to fight,
and who knows how to fight. The secretary of the Commission was, in
the original law of 1883, allowed a salary of $1600 a year. As the
Commission’s force and work have grown, the salary in successive
appropriation bills for the last ten years has been provided for at
the rate of $2000 a year. Many of the clerks under the secretary now
receive $1800, so that it would be of course an absurdity to reduce
him in salary below his subordinates. Scores of other officials of the
Government, including, for instance, the President’s private secretary,
the First Assistant Postmaster-General, the First Assistant Secretary
of State, etc., have had their salaries increased in successive
appropriation bills over the sum originally provided, in precisely
the same way that the salary of the secretary of the Commission was
increased. The 53d Congress was Democratic, as was the President, Mr.
Cleveland, and the secretary of the Commission was himself a Democrat,
who had been appointed to the position by Mr. Cleveland during his
first term as President. The rules of the House provide that there
shall be no increase of salary beyond that provided in existing law in
any appropriation bill. When the appropriation for the Civil Service
Commission came up in the House, Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky,
made the point of order that to give $2000 to the secretary of the
Commission was to increase his salary by $400 over that provided in the
original law of 1883, and was therefore out of order. He also produced
a list of twenty or thirty other officers, including the President’s
private secretary, the First Assistant Postmaster-General, etc., whose
salaries were similarly increased. He withdrew his point of order as
regards these persons, but adhered to it as regards the secretary
of the Commission. The chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Mr.
O’Neill, of Massachusetts, sustained the point of order; and not one
person made any objection or made any fight, and the bill was put
through the House with the secretary’s salary reduced.
Now, the point of order was probably ill taken anyhow. The existing
law was and had been for ten years that the salary was $2000. But, in
any event, had there been a single Congressman alert to the situation
and willing to make a fight he could have stopped the whole movement
by at once making a similar point of order against the President’s
private secretary, against the First Assistant Postmaster-General,
the Assistant Secretary of State, and all the others involved. The
House would of course have refused to cut down the salaries of all
of these officials, and a resolute man, willing to insist that they
should all go or none, could have saved the salary of the secretary
of the Civil Service Commission. There were plenty of men who would
have done this if it had been pointed out to them; but no one did so,
and Mr. Breckinridge’s point of order was sustained, and the salary
of the secretary reduced by $400. When it got over to the Senate,
however, the Civil Service reformers had allies who needed but little
coaching. In the first place, the sub-committee of the Committee on
Appropriations, composed of Messrs. Teller, Cockrell, and Allison,
to which the Civil Service Commission section of the Appropriation
bill was referred, restored the salary to $2000; but Senator Gorman
succeeded in carrying, by a bare majority, the Appropriations Committee
against it, and it was reported to the full Senate still at $1600. The
minute it got into the full Senate, however, Senator Lodge had a fair
chance at it, and it was known that he would receive ample support.
All that he had to do was to show clearly the absolute folly of the
provision thus put in by Mr. Breckinridge, and kept in by Mr. Gorman,
and to make it evident that he intended to fight it resolutely. The
opposition collapsed at once; the salary was put back at $2000, and the
bill became a law in that form.
Whether bad legislation shall be choked and good legislation forwarded
depends largely upon the composition of the committees on Civil
Service reform of the Senate and the Lower House. The make-up of these
committees is consequently of great importance. They are charged with
the duty of investigating complaints against the Commission, and it is
of course very important that if ever the Commission becomes corrupt
or inefficient its shortcomings should be unsparingly exposed in
Congress. On the other hand, it is equally important that the falsity
of untruthful charges advanced against it should be made public. In the
51st, 52d, and 53d Congresses a good deal of work was done by the Civil
Service Committee of the House, and none at all by the corresponding
committee of the Senate. The three chairmen of the House committee were
Mr. Lehlbach, Mr. Andrew, and Mr. De Forest. All three were able and
conscientious men and stanch supporters of the law. The chairman in
the 52d Congress, Mr. John F. Andrew, was throughout his whole term of
service one of the ablest, most fearless, and most effective champions
of the cause of the reform in the House. Among the other members of
the committee, in different Congresses, who stood up valiantly for
the reform, were Mr. Hopkins, of Illinois, Mr. Butterworth, of Ohio,
Mr. Boatner, of Louisiana, and Mr. Dargan and Mr. Brawley, of South
Carolina. Occasionally there have been on the committee members who
were hostile to the reform, such as Mr. Alderson, of West Virginia;
but these have not been men carrying weight in the House. The men of
intelligence and ability who once familiarize themselves with the
workings of the system, as they are bound to do if they are on the
committee, are sure to become its supporters. In both the 51st and
the 52d Congresses charges were made against the Commission, and
investigations were held into its actions and into the workings of the
law by the House committee. In each case, in its report the committee
not only heartily applauded the conduct of the Commission, but no less
heartily approved the workings of the law, and submitted bills to
increase the power of the Commission and to render the law still more
wide-reaching and drastic. These bills, unfortunately, were never acted
on in the House.
The main fight in each session comes on the Appropriation bill. There
is not the slightest danger that the law will be repealed, and there
is not much danger that any President will suffer it to be so laxly
administered as to deprive it of all value; though there is always
need to keep a vigilant lookout for fear of such lax administration.
The danger-point is in the appropriations. The first Civil Service
Commission, established in the days of President Grant, was starved
out by Congress refusing to appropriate for it. A hostile Congress
could repeat the same course now; and, as a matter of fact, in every
Congress resolute efforts are made by the champions of foul government
and dishonest politics to cut off the Commission’s supplies. The bolder
men, who come from districts where little is known of the law, and
where there is no adequate expression of intelligent and honest opinion
on the subject, attack it openly. They are always joined by a number
who make the attack covertly under some point of order, or because of a
nominal desire for economy. These are quite as dangerous as the others,
and deserve exposure. Every man interested in decent government should
keep an eye on his Congressman and see how he votes on the question of
appropriations for the Commission.
The opposition to the reform is generally well led by skilled
parliamentarians, and they fight with the vindictiveness natural to
men who see a chance of striking at the institution which has baffled
their ferocious greed. As a rule, the rank and file are composed of
politicians who could not rise in public life because of their attitude
on any public question, and who derive most of their power from the
skill with which they manipulate the patronage of their districts.
These men have a gift at office-mongering, just as other men have a
peculiar knack in picking pockets; and they are joined by all the
honest dull men, who vote wrong out of pure ignorance, and by a very
few sincere and intelligent, but wholly misguided people. Many of the
spoils leaders are both efficient and fearless, and able to strike
hard blows. In consequence, the leaders on the side of decency must
themselves be men of ability and force, or the cause will suffer. For
our good fortune, we have never yet lacked such leaders.
The Appropriation committees, both in the House and Senate, almost
invariably show a friendly disposition toward the law. They are
composed of men of prominence, who have a sense of the responsibilities
of their positions and an earnest desire to do well for the country and
to make an honorable record for their party in matters of legislation.
They are usually above resorting to the arts of low cunning or of sheer
demagogy to which the foes of the reform system are inevitably driven,
and in consequence they can be relied upon to give, if not what is
needed, at least enough to prevent any retrogression. It is in the open
House and in Committee of the Whole that the fight is waged. The most
dangerous fight occurs in Committee of the Whole, for there the members
do not vote by aye and no, and in consequence a mean politician who
wishes ill to the law, but is afraid of his constituents, votes against
it in committee, but does not dare to do so when the ayes and noes
are called in the House. One result of this has been that more than
once the whole appropriation has been stricken out in Committee of the
Whole, and then voted back again by substantial majorities by the same
men sitting in open House.
In the debate on the appropriation the whole question of the workings
of the law is usually discussed, and those members who are opposed to
it attack not only the law itself, but the Commission which administers
it. The occasion is, therefore, invariably seized as an opportunity
for a pitched battle between the friends and foes of the system, the
former trying to secure such an increase of appropriation as will
permit the Commission to extend its work, and the latter striving to
abolish the law outright by refusing all appropriations. In the 51st
and 52d Congresses, Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts, led the fight for the
reform in the Lower House. He was supported by such party leaders as
Messrs. Reed, of Maine, and McKinley, of Ohio, among the Republicans,
and Messrs. Wilson, of West Virginia, and Sayers, of Texas, among
the Democrats. Among the other champions of the law on the floor of
the House were Messrs. Hopkins and Butterworth, Mr. Greenhalge, of
Massachusetts, Mr. Henderson, of Iowa, Messrs. Payne, Tracey, and
Coombs, of New York. I wish I had the space to chronicle the names
of all, and to give a complete list of those who voted for the law.
Among the chief opponents of it were Messrs. Spinola, of New York,
Enloe, of Tennessee, Stockdale, of Mississippi, Grosvenor, of Ohio,
and Bowers, of California. The task of the defenders of the law was,
in one way easy, for they had no arguments to meet, the speeches of
their adversaries being invariably divisible into mere declamation
and direct misstatement of facts. In the Senate, Senators Hoar, of
Massachusetts, Allison, of Iowa, Hawley, of Connecticut, Wolcott, of
Colorado, Perkins, of California, Cockrell, of Missouri, and Butler, of
South Carolina, always supported the Commission against unjust attack.
Senator Gorman was naturally the chief leader of the assaults upon the
Commission. Senators Harris, Plumb, Stewart, and Ingalls were among his
allies.
In each session the net result of the fight was an increase in the
appropriation for the Commission. The most important increase was
that obtained in the first session of the 53d Congress. On this
occasion Mr. Lodge was no longer in the House, having been elected
to the Senate. The work of the Commission had grown so that it was
impossible to perform it without a great increase of force; and it
would have been impossible to have put into effect the extensions of
the classified service had this increase not been allowed. In the House
the Committee on Appropriations, of which Mr. Sayers was chairman,
allowed the increase, but it was stricken out in the House itself after
an acrimonious debate, in which the cause of the law was sustained
by Messrs. Henderson and Hopkins, Mr. McCall, of Massachusetts, Mr.
Coombs, Mr. Crain, of Texas, Mr. Storer, of Ohio, and many others,
while the spoils-mongers were led by Messrs. Stockdale and Williams,
of Mississippi, Pendelton, of West Virginia, Fithian, of Illinois, and
others less important.
When the bill went over to the Senate, however, Mr. Lodge, well
supported by Messrs. Allison, Cockrell, Wolcott, and Teller, had the
provision for the increase of appropriation for the Commission restored
and increased, thereby adding by one half to the efficiency of the
Commission’s work. Had it not been for this the Commission would have
been quite unable to have undertaken the extensions recently ordered by
President Cleveland.
It is noteworthy that the men who have done most effective work for the
law in Washington in the departments, and more especially in the House
and Senate, are men of spotless character, who show by their whole
course in public life that they are not only able and resolute, but
also devoted to a high ideal. Much of what they have done has received
little comment in public, because much of the work in committee, and
some of the work in the House, such as making or combating points of
order, and pointing out the danger or merit of certain bills, is not
of a kind readily understood or appreciated by an outsider; yet no men
have deserved better of the country, for there is in American public
life no one other cause so fruitful of harm to the body-politic as the
spoils system, and the legislators and administrative officers who have
done the best work toward its destruction merit a peculiar meed of
praise from all well-wishers of the Republic.
I have spoken above of the good that would come from a thorough and
intelligent knowledge as to who were the friends and who were the foes
of the law in Washington. Departmental officers, the heads of bureaus,
and, above all, the Commissioners themselves, should be carefully
watched by all friends of the reform. They should be supported when
they do well, and condemned when they do ill; and attention should
be called not only to what they do, but to what they fail to do. To
an even greater extent, of course, this applies to the President. As
regards the Senators and Congressmen also there is urgent need of
careful supervision by the friends of the law. We need criticism by
those who are unable to do their part in action; but the criticism, to
be useful, must be both honest and intelligent, and the critics must
remember that the system has its stanch friends and bitter foes among
both party men and men of no party--among Republicans, Democrats,
and Independents. Each Congressman should be made to feel that it is
his duty to support the law, and that he will be held to account if
he fails to support it. Especially is it necessary to concentrate
effort in working for each step of reform. In legislative matters,
for instance, there is need of increase of appropriations for the
Commission, and there is a chance of putting through the bill to reform
the Consular service. This has received substantial backing in the
Senate, and has the support of the majority of the Foreign Affairs
Committee. Instead of wasting efforts by a diffuse support of eight
or ten bills, it would be well to bend every energy to securing the
passage of the Consular bill; and to do this it is necessary to arouse
not only the Civil Service Reform Associations, but the Boards of Trade
throughout the country, and to make the Congressmen and Senators feel
individually the pressure from those of their constituents who are
resolved no longer to tolerate the peculiarly gross manifestation of
the spoils system which now obtains in the consular service, with its
attendant discredit to the national honor abroad.
People sometimes grow a little down-hearted about the reform. When
they feel in this mood it would be well for them to reflect on what
has actually been gained in the past six years. By the inclusion of
the railway mail service, the smaller free-delivery offices, the
Indian School service, the Internal Revenue service, and other less
important branches, the extent of the public service which is under
the protection of the law has been more than doubled, and there are
now nearly fifty thousand employees of the Federal Government who have
been withdrawn from the degrading influences that rule under the spoils
system. This of itself is a great success and a great advance, though,
of course, it ought only to spur us on to renewed effort. In the fall
of 1894 the people of the State of New York, by a popular vote, put
into their constitution a provision providing for a merit system in the
affairs of the State and its municipalities; and the following spring
the great city of Chicago voted, by an overwhelming majority, in favor
of applying in its municipal affairs the advanced and radical Civil
Service Reform Law, which had already passed the Illinois Legislature.
Undoubtedly, after every success there comes a moment of reaction. The
friends of the reform grow temporarily lukewarm, or, because it fails
to secure everything they hoped, they neglect to lay proper stress
upon all that it does secure. Yet, in spite of all rebuffs, in spite
of all disappointments and opposition, the growth of the principle of
Civil Service reform has been continually more rapid, and every year
has taken us measurably nearer that ideal of pure and decent government
which is dear to the heart of every honest American citizen.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[13] _Scribner’s Magazine_, August, 1895.
[Illustration]
VIII
ADMINISTERING THE NEW YORK POLICE FORCE[14]
In New York, in the fall of 1894, Tammany Hall was overthrown by
a coalition composed partly of the regular republicans, partly of
anti-Tammany democrats, and partly of independents. Under the latter
head must be included a great many men who in national politics
habitually act with one or the other of the two great parties,
but who feel that in municipal politics good citizens should act
independently. The tidal wave, which was running high against the
democratic party, was undoubtedly very influential in bringing about
the anti-Tammany victory; but the chief factor in producing the
result was the wide-spread anger and disgust felt by decent citizens
at the corruption which, under the sway of Tammany, had honey-combed
every department of the city government, but especially the police
force. A few well-meaning people have at times tried to show that
this corruption was not really so very great. In reality it would be
difficult to overestimate the utter rottenness of many branches of
the city administration. There were a few honorable and high-minded
Tammany officials, and there were a few bureaus which were administered
with more or less efficiency, although dishonestly. But the corruption
had become so wide-spread as seriously to impair the work of
administration, and to bring us back within measurable distance of the
days of Tweed.
The chief centre of corruption was the Police Department. No man not
intimately acquainted with both the lower and humbler sides of New York
life--for there is a wide distinction between the two--can realize
how far this corruption extended. Except in rare instances, where
prominent politicians made demands which could not be refused, both
promotions and appointments towards the close of Tammany rule were made
almost solely for money, and the prices were discussed with cynical
frankness. There was a well-recognized tariff of charges, ranging from
two or three hundred dollars for appointment as a patrolman, to twelve
or fifteen thousand dollars for promotion to the position of captain.
The money was reimbursed to those who paid it by an elaborate system
of blackmail. This was chiefly carried on at the expense of gamblers,
liquor sellers, and keepers of disorderly houses; but every form of
vice and crime contributed more or less, and a great many respectable
people who were ignorant or timid were blackmailed under pretence of
forbidding or allowing them to violate obscure ordinances and the like.
From top to bottom the New York police force was utterly demoralized
by the gangrene of such a system, where venality and blackmail went
hand in hand with the basest forms of low ward politics, and where the
policeman, the ward politician, the liquor seller, and the criminal
alternately preyed on one another and helped one another to prey on the
general public.
In May, 1895, I was made president of the newly appointed police board,
whose duty it was to cut out the chief source of civic corruption in
New York by cleansing the police department. The police board consisted
of four members. All four of the new men were appointed by Mayor
Strong, the reform Mayor, who had taken office in January.
With me, was associated, as treasurer of the Board, Mr. Avery D.
Andrews. He was a democrat and I a republican, and there were questions
of national politics on which we disagreed widely; but such questions
could not enter into the administration of the New York police, if that
administration was to be both honest and efficient; and as a matter
of fact, during my two years’ service, Mr. Andrews and I worked in
absolute harmony on every important question of policy which arose. The
prevention of blackmail and corruption, the repression of crime and
violence, safeguarding of life and property, securing honest elections,
and rewarding efficient and punishing inefficient police service, are
not, and cannot properly be made, questions of party difference. In
other words, such a body as the police force of New York can be wisely
and properly administered only upon a non-partisan basis, and both Mr.
Andrews and myself were quite incapable of managing it on any other.
There were many men who helped us in our work; and among them all,
the man who helped us most, by advice and counsel, by stalwart, loyal
friendship, and by ardent championship of all that was good against all
that was evil, was Jacob A. Riis, the author of _How the Other Half
Lives_.
Certain of the difficulties we had to face were merely those which
confronted the entire reform administration in its management of
the municipality. Many worthy people expected that this reform
administration would work an absolute revolution, not merely in the
government, but in the minds of the citizens as a whole; and felt
vaguely that they had been cheated because there was not an immediate
cleansing of every bad influence in civic or social life. Moreover, the
different bodies forming the victorious coalition felt the pressure of
conflicting interests and hopes. The mass of effective strength was
given by the republican organization, and not only all the enrolled
party workers, but a great number of well-meaning republicans who had
no personal interest at stake, expected the administration to be used
to further the fortunes of their own party. Another great body of the
administration’s supporters took a diametrically opposite view, and
believed that the administration should be administered without the
least reference whatever to party. In theory they were quite right,
and I cordially sympathized with them; but as a matter of fact the
victory could not have been won by the votes of this class of people
alone, and it was out of the question to put these theories into
complete effect. Like all other men who actually try to do things
instead of confining themselves to saying how they should be done, the
members of the new city government were obliged to face the facts and
to do the best they could in the effort to get some kind of good result
out of the conflicting forces. They had to disregard party so far as
was possible; and yet they could not afford to disregard all party
connections so utterly as to bring the whole administration to grief.
In addition to these two large groups of supporters of the
administration, there were other groups, also possessing influence
who expected to receive recognition distinctly as democrats, but as
anti-Tammany democrats; and such members of any victorious coalition
are always sure to overestimate their own services, and to feel
ill-treated.
It is of course an easy thing to show on paper that the municipal
administration should have been administered without the slightest
reference to national party lines, and if the bulk of the people saw
things with entire clearness the truth would seem so obvious as to need
no demonstration. But as a matter of fact the bulk of the people who
voted the new administration into power neither saw this nor realized
it, and in politics, as in life generally, conditions must be faced
as they are, and not as they ought to be. The regular democratic
organization, not only in the city but in the State, was completely
under the dominion of Tammany Hall and its allies, and they fought
us at every step with wholly unscrupulous hatred. In the State and
the city alike the democratic campaign was waged against the reform
administration in New York. The Tammany officials who were still
left in power in the city, headed by the comptroller, Mr. Fitch, did
everything in their power to prevent the efficient administration of
the government. The democratic members of the Legislature acted as
their faithful allies in all such efforts. Whatever was accomplished by
the reform administration--and a very great deal was accomplished--was
due to the action of the republican majority in the constitutional
convention, and especially to the republican Governor, Mr. Morton, and
the republican majority in the Legislature, who enacted laws giving
to the newly chosen Mayor, Mr. Strong, the great powers necessary for
properly administering his office. Without these laws the Mayor would
have been very nearly powerless. He certainly could not have done a
tenth part of what actually was done.
Now, of course, the republican politicians who gave Mayor Strong all
these powers, in the teeth of violent democratic opposition to every
law for the betterment of civic conditions in New York, ought not,
under ideal conditions, to have expected the slightest reward. They
should have been contented with showing the public that their only
purpose was to serve the public, and that the republican party wished
no better reward than the consciousness of having done its duty by
the State and the city. But as a whole they had not reached such a
standard. There were some who had reached it; there were others who,
though perfectly honest, and wishing to see good government prosper,
yet felt that somehow it ought to be combined with party advantage of a
tangible sort; and finally, there were yet others who were not honest
at all and cared nothing for the victory unless it resulted in some
way to their own personal advantage. In short, the problem presented
was of the kind which usually is presented when dealing with men as a
mass. The Mayor and his administration had to keep in touch with the
republican party or they could have accomplished nothing; and on the
other hand there was much that the republican machine asked which they
could not do, because a surrender on certain vital points meant the
abandonment of the effort to obtain good administration.
The undesirability of breaking with the republican organization was
shown by what happened in the administration of the police department.
This being the great centre of power was the especial object of the
republican machine leaders. Toward the close of Tammany rule, of the
four Police Commissioners, two had been machine republicans, whose
actions were in no wise to be distinguished from those of their Tammany
colleagues; and immediately after the new board was appointed to office
the machine got through the Legislature the so-called bi-partisan or
Lexow law, under which the department is at present administered; and
a more foolish or vicious law was never enacted by any legislative
body. It modelled the government of the police force somewhat on the
lines of the Polish parliament, and it was avowedly designed to make it
difficult to get effective action. It provided for a four-headed board,
so that it was difficult to get a majority anyhow; but, lest we should
get such a majority, it gave each member power to veto the actions of
his colleagues in certain very important matters; and, lest we should
do too much when we were unanimous, it provided that the chief, our
nominal subordinate, should have entirely independent action in the
most important matters, and should be practically irremovable, except
for proved corruption; so that he was responsible to nobody. The Mayor
was similarly hindered from removing any Police Commissioner, so that
when one of our colleagues began obstructing the work of the board,
and thwarting its effort to reform the force, the Mayor in vain strove
to turn him out. In short, there was a complete divorce of power and
responsibility, and it was exceedingly difficult either to do anything,
or to place anywhere, the responsibility for not doing it.
If, by any reasonable concessions, if, indeed, by the performance
of any act not incompatible with our oaths of office, we could have
stood on good terms with the machine, we would certainly have made
the effort, even at the cost of sacrificing many of our ideals; and
in almost any other department we could probably have avoided a
break, but in the police force such a compromise was not possible.
What was demanded of us usually took some such form as the refusal
to enforce certain laws, or the protection of certain law-breakers,
or the promotion of the least fit men to positions of high power and
grave responsibility; and on such points it was not possible to yield.
We were obliged to treat all questions that arose purely on their
merits, without reference to the desires of the politicians. We went
into this course with our eyes open, for we knew the trouble it would
cause us personally, and, what was far more important, the way in which
our efforts for reform would consequently be hampered. However, there
was no alternative, and we had to abide by the result. We had counted
the cost before we adopted our course, and we followed it resolutely
to the end. We could not accomplish all that we should have liked to
accomplish for we were shackled by preposterous legislation, and by
the opposition and intrigues of the basest machine politicians, which
cost us the support, sometimes of one, and sometimes of both, of our
colleagues. Nevertheless, the net result of our two years of work was
that we did more to increase the efficiency and honesty of the police
department than had ever previously been done in its history.
But a decent people will have to show by emphatic action that they are
in the majority if they wish this result to be permanent; for under
such a law as the “bi-partisan” law it is almost impossible to keep
the department honest and efficient for any length of time; and the
machine politicians, by their opposition outside the board, and by the
aid of any tool or ally whom they can get on the board, can always
hamper and cripple the honest members of the board, no matter how
resolute and able the latter may be, if they do not have an aroused and
determined public opinion behind them.
Besides suffering, in aggravated form, from the difficulties which
beset the course of the entire administration, the police board had
to encounter--and honest and efficient police boards must always
encounter--certain special and peculiar difficulties. It is not a
pleasant thing to deal with criminals and purveyors of vice. It is very
rough work, and it cannot always be done in a nice manner. The man
with the night stick, the man in the blue coat with the helmet, can
keep order and repress open violence on the streets; but most kinds
of crime and vice are ordinarily carried on furtively and by stealth,
perhaps at night, perhaps behind closed doors. It is possible to reach
them only by the employment of the man in plain clothes, the detective.
Now the function of the detective is primarily that of the spy, and
it is always easy to arouse feeling against a spy. It is absolutely
necessary to employ him. Ninety per cent. of the most dangerous
criminals and purveyors of vice cannot be reached in any other way.
But the average citizen who does not think deeply fails to realize
the necessity for any such employment. In a vague way he desires vice
and crime put down; but, also in a vague way, he objects to the only
possible means by which they can be put down. It is easy to mislead
him into denouncing what is necessarily done in order to carry out the
very policy for which he is clamoring. The Tammany officials of New
York, headed by the Comptroller, made a systematic effort to excite
public hostility against the police for their warfare on vice. The
law-breaking liquor seller, the keeper of disorderly houses, and the
gambler, had been influential allies of Tammany, and head contributors
to its campaign chest. Naturally Tammany fought for them; and the
effective way in which to carry on such a fight was to portray with
gross exaggeration and misstatement the methods necessarily employed
by every police force which honestly endeavors to do its work. The
methods are unpleasant, just as the methods employed in any surgical
operation are unpleasant; and the Tammany champions were able to
arouse more or less feeling against the police board for precisely the
same reason that a century ago it was easy to arouse what were called
“doctors’ mobs” against surgeons who cut up dead bodies. In neither
case is the operation attractive, and it is one which readily lends
itself to denunciation; but in both cases it is necessary if there
is a real intention to get at the disease. Tammany of course found
its best allies in the sensational newspapers. Of all the forces that
tend for evil in a great city like New York, probably none are so
potent as the sensational papers. Until one has had experience with
them it is difficult to realize the reckless indifference to truth
or decency displayed by papers such as the two that have the largest
circulation in New York City. Scandal forms the breath of the nostrils
of such papers, and they are quite as ready to create as to describe
it. To sustain law and order is humdrum, and does not readily lend
itself to flaunting woodcuts; but if the editor will stoop, and make
his subordinates stoop, to raking the gutters of human depravity, to
upholding the wrong-doer, and furiously assailing what is upright and
honest, he can make money, just as other types of pander make it. The
man who is to do honorable work in any form of civic politics must make
up his mind (and if he is a man of properly robust character he will
make it up without difficulty) to treat the assaults of papers like
these with absolute indifference, and to go his way unheeded. Indeed
he will have to make up his mind to be criticised, sometimes justly,
and more often unjustly, even by decent people; and he must not be so
thin-skinned as to mind such criticism overmuch.
In administering the police force we found, as might be expected,
that there was no need of genius, nor indeed of any very unusual
qualities. What was needed was exercise of the plain, ordinary virtues,
of a rather commonplace type, which all good citizens should be
expected to possess. Common sense, common honesty, courage, energy,
resolution, readiness to learn, and a desire to be as pleasant with
everybody as was compatible with a strict performance of duty--these
were the qualities most called for. We soon found that, in spite of
the wide-spread corruption which had obtained in the New York police
department, the bulk of the men were heartily desirous of being honest.
There were some who were incurably dishonest, just as there were some
who had remained decent in spite of terrific temptation and pressure;
but the great mass came in between. Although not possessing the stamina
to war against corruption when the odds seemed well-nigh hopeless, they
were nevertheless heartily glad to be decent and to welcome the change
to a system under which they were rewarded for doing well, and punished
for doing ill.
Our methods for restoring order and discipline were simple, and indeed
so were our methods for securing efficiency. We made frequent personal
inspections, especially at night, turning up anywhere, at any time. We
thus speedily got an idea of whom among our upper subordinates we could
trust and whom we could not. We then proceeded to punish those guilty
of shortcomings, and to reward those who did well, refusing to pay any
heed whatever in either case to anything except the man’s own character
and record. A very few of these promotions and dismissals sufficed to
show our subordinates that at last they were dealing with superiors
who meant what they said, and that the days of political “pull” were
over while we had the power. The effect was immediate. The decent men
took heart, and those who were not decent feared longer to offend. The
morale of the entire force improved steadily.
A similar course was followed in reference to the relations between the
police and citizens generally. There had formerly been much complaint
of the brutal treatment by police of innocent citizens. This was
stopped peremptorily by the simple expedient of dismissing from the
force the first two or three men who were found guilty of brutality.
On the other hand we made the force understand that in the event of
any emergency requiring them to use their weapons against either a mob
or an individual criminal, the police board backed them up without
reservation. Our sympathy was for the friends, and not the foes, of
order. If a mob threatened violence we were glad to have the mob hurt.
If a criminal showed fight we expected the officer to use any weapon
that was necessary to overcome him on the instant; and even, if it
became necessary, to take life. All that the board required was to
be convinced that the necessity really existed. We did not possess a
particle of that maudlin sympathy for the criminal, disorderly, and
lawless classes which is such a particularly unhealthy sign of social
development; and we were bound that the improvement in the fighting
efficiency of the police should go hand in hand with the improvement in
their moral tone.
To break up the system of blackmail and corruption was less easy. It
was not at all difficult to protect decent people in their rights, and
this was accomplished at once. But the criminal who is blackmailed has
a direct interest in paying the blackmailer, and it is not easy to get
information about it. Nevertheless, we put a complete stop to most of
the blackmail by the simple process of rigorously enforcing the laws,
not only against crime, but against vice.
It was the enforcement of the liquor law which caused most excitement.
In New York we suffer from the altogether too common tendency to
make any law which a certain section of the community wants, and
then to allow that law to be more or less of a dead-letter if any
other section of the community objects to it. The multiplication
of laws by the Legislature, and their partial enforcement by the
executive authorities, go hand in hand, and offer one of the many
serious problems with which we are confronted in striving to better
civic conditions. New York State felt that liquor should not be
sold on Sunday. The larger part of New York City wished to drink
liquor on Sunday. Any man who studies the social condition of the
poor knows that liquor works more ruin than any other one cause. He
knows also, however, that it is simply impracticable to extirpate the
habit entirely, and that to attempt too much often merely results in
accomplishing too little; and he knows, moreover, that for a man alone
to drink whiskey in a bar-room is one thing, and for men with their
families to drink light wines or beer in respectable restaurants is
quite a different thing. The average citizen, who doesn’t think at all,
and the average politician of the baser sort, who only thinks about his
own personal advantage, find it easiest to disregard these facts, and
to pass a liquor law which will please the temperance people, and then
trust to the police department to enforce it with such laxity as to
please the intemperate.
The results of this pleasing system were evident in New York when
our board came into power. The Sunday liquor law was by no means a
dead letter in New York City. On the contrary no less than eight
thousand arrests for its violation had been made under the Tammany
regime the year before we came in. It was very much alive; but it was
only executed against those who either had no political pull, or who
refused to pay money. The liquor business does not stand on the same
footing with other occupations. It always tends to produce criminality
in the population at large, and law-breaking among the saloonkeepers
themselves. It is absolutely necessary to supervise it rigidly, and
impose restrictions upon the traffic. In large cities the traffic
cannot be stopped; but the evils can at least be minimized.
In New York the saloonkeepers have always stood high among professional
politicians. Nearly two thirds of the political leaders of Tammany
Hall have, at one time or another, been in the liquor business. The
saloon is the natural club and meeting place for the ward heelers and
leaders, and the bar-room politician is one of the most common and best
recognized factors, in local political government. The saloonkeepers
are always hand in glove with the professional politicians, and occupy
toward them a position such as is not held by any other class of men.
The influence they wield in local politics has always been very great,
and until our board took office no man ever dared seriously to threaten
them for their flagrant violations of the law. The powerful and
influential saloonkeeper was glad to see his neighbors closed, for it
gave him business. On the other hand, a corrupt police captain, or the
corrupt politician who controlled him, could always extort money from
a saloonkeeper by threatening to close him and let his neighbor remain
open. Gradually the greed of corrupt police officials and of corrupt
politicians, grew by what it fed on, until they began to blackmail all
but the very most influential liquor sellers; and as liquor sellers
were very numerous, and the profits of the liquor business great, the
amount collected was enormous.
The reputable saloonkeepers themselves found this condition of
blackmail and political favoritism almost intolerable. The law which
we found on the statute books had been put on by a Tammany Legislature
three years before we took office. A couple of months after we took
office, Mr. J. P. Smith, the editor of the liquor-dealers’ organ, _The
Wine and Spirit Gazette_, gave out the following interview, which is of
such an extraordinary character that I insert it almost in full:
“Governor Flower, as well as the Legislature of 1892, was elected
upon distinct pledges that relief would be given by the Democratic
party to the liquor dealers, especially of the cities of the State.
In accordance with this promise a Sunday-opening clause was inserted
in the excise bill of 1892. Governor Flower then said that he could
not approve the Sunday-opening clause; whereupon the Liquor Dealers’
Association, which had charge of the bill, struck the Sunday-opening
clause out. After Governor Hill had been elected for the second term
I had several interviews with him on that very subject. He told me,
‘You know I am the friend of the liquor dealers and will go to almost
any length to help them and give them relief; but do not ask me to
recommend to the Legislature the passage of the law opening the
saloons on Sunday. I cannot do it, for it will ruin the Democratic
party in the State.’ He gave the same interview to various members of
the State Liquor Dealers’ Association, who waited upon him for the
purpose of getting relief from the blackmail of the police, stating
that the lack of having the Sunday question properly regulated was at
the bottom of the trouble. Blackmail had been brought to such a state
of perfection, and had become so oppressive to the liquor dealers
themselves, that they communicated first with Governor Hill and then
with Mr. Croker. The _Wine and Spirit Gazette_ had taken up the subject
because of gross discrimination made by the police in the enforcement
of the Sunday-closing law. The paper again and again called upon the
police commissioners to either uniformly enforce the law or uniformly
disregard it. A committee of the Central Association of Liquor
Dealers of this city then took up the matter and called upon Police
Commissioner Martin.[15] _An agreement was then made between the
leaders of Tammany Hall and the liquor dealers, according to which the
monthly blackmail paid to the police should be discontinued in return
for political support._[16] In other words, the retail dealers should
bind themselves to solidly support the Tammany ticket in consideration
of the discontinuance of the monthly blackmail by the police. This
agreement was carried out. Now what was the consequence? If the liquor
dealer, after the monthly blackmail ceased, showed any signs of
independence, the Tammany Hall district leader would give the tip to
the police captain, and that man would be pulled and arrested on the
following Sunday.”
Continuing, Mr. Smith inveighed against the law, but said:
“The (present) police commissioners are honestly endeavoring to have
the law impartially carried out. They are no respectors of persons. And
our information from all classes of liquor-dealers is that the rich and
the poor, the influential and the uninfluential, are required equally
to obey the law.”
There is really some difficulty in commenting upon the statements of
this interview, statements which were never denied.
The law was not in the least a dead-letter; it was enforced, but it
was corruptly and partially enforced. It was a prominent factor in
the Tammany scheme of government. It afforded a most effective means
for blackmailing a large portion of the liquor sellers and for the
wholesale corruption of the police department. The high Tammany
officials and police captains and patrolmen blackmailed and bullied
the small liquor sellers without a pull, and turned them into abject
slaves of Tammany Hall. On the other hand, the wealthy and politically
influential liquor sellers controlled the police, and made or marred
captains, sergeants, and patrolmen at their pleasure. In some of the
precincts most of the saloons were closed; in others almost all were
open. The rich and powerful liquor seller violated the law at will,
unless he had fallen under the ban of the police or the ward boss, when
he was not allowed to violate it at all.
Under these circumstances the new police board had one of two courses
to follow. We could either instruct the police to allow all the
saloonkeepers to become law-breakers, or else we could instruct them
to allow none to be law-breakers. We followed the latter course,
because we had some regard for our oaths of office. For two or three
months we had a regular fight, and on Sundays had to employ half the
force to enforce the liquor law; for the Tammany legislators had
drawn the law so as to make it easy of enforcement for purposes of
blackmail, but not easy of enforcement generally, certain provisions
being deliberately inserted with the intention to make it difficult of
universal execution. However, when once the liquor sellers and their
allies understood that we had not the slightest intention of being
bullied, threatened or cajoled out of following the course which we had
laid down, resistance practically ceased. During the year after we
took office the number of arrests for violation of the Sunday liquor
law sank to about one half of what they had been during the last year
of the Tammany rule; and yet the saloons were practically closed,
whereas under Tammany most of them had been open. We adopted no new
methods, save in so far as honesty could be called a new method. We
did not enforce the law with unusual severity; we merely enforced it
against the man with a pull, just as much as against the man without a
pull. We refused to discriminate in favor of influential law-breakers.
The professional politicians of low type, the liquor sellers, the
editors of some German newspapers, and the sensational press generally,
attacked us with a ferocity which really verged on insanity.
We went our way without regarding this opposition, and gave a very
wholesome lesson to the effect that a law should not be put on the
statute books if it was not meant to be enforced, and that even an
excise law could be honestly enforced in New York if the public
officials so desired. The rich brewers and liquor sellers, who had
made money hand over fist by violating the excise law with the
corrupt connivance of the police, raved with anger, and every corrupt
politician and newspaper in the city gave them clamorous assistance;
but the poor man, and notably the poor man’s wife and children,
benefited very greatly by what we did. The hospital surgeons found that
their Monday labors were lessened by nearly one half, owing to the
startling diminution in cases of injury due to drunken brawls; the work
of the magistrates who sat in the city courts on Monday for the trial
of the offenders of the preceding twenty-four hours was correspondingly
decreased; while many a tenement-house family spent Sunday in the
country because for the first time the head of the family could not use
up his money in getting drunk. The one all-important element in good
citizenship in our country is obedience to law, and nothing is more
needed than the resolute enforcement of law. This we gave.
There was no species of mendacity to which our opponents did not resort
in the effort to break us down in our purpose. For weeks they eagerly
repeated the tale that the saloons were as wide open as ever; but
they finally abandoned this when the counsel for the Liquor Dealers’
Association admitted in open court, at the time when we secured the
conviction of thirty of his clients and thereby brought the fight to
an end, that over nine tenths of the liquor dealers had been rendered
bankrupt because we had stopped that illegal trade which gave them
the best portion of their revenue. They then took the line that by
devoting our attention to enforcing the liquor law we permitted crime
to increase. This, of course, offered a very congenial field for
newspapers like the _World_, which exploited it to the utmost; all the
more readily since the mere reiteration of the falsehood tended to
encourage criminals, and so to make it not a falsehood. For a time the
cry was not without influence, even with decent people, especially
if they belonged to the class of the timid rich; but it simply wasn’t
true, and so this bubble went down stream with the others. For six or
eight months the cry grew, first louder, then lower; and then it died
away. A commentary upon its accuracy was furnished toward the end of
our administration; for in February 1897, the Judge who addressed the
grand jury of the month was able to congratulate them upon the fact
that there was at that time less crime in New York relatively to the
population than ever before; and this held true for our two years’
service.
In re-organizing the force the Board had to make, and did make, more
promotions, more appointments, and more dismissals than had ever before
been made in the same length of time. We were so hampered by the law
that we were not able to dismiss many of the men whom we should have
dismissed, but we did turn out 200 men--more than four times as many as
had ever been turned out in the same length of time before; all of them
being dismissed after formal trial, and after having been given full
opportunity to be heard in their own defence. We appointed about 1700
men all told--again more than four times as many as ever before; for we
were allowed a large increase of the police force by law. We made 130
promotions; more than had been made in the six preceding years.
All this work was done in strictest accord with what we have grown
to speak of as the principles of civil service reform. In making
dismissals we paid heed merely to the man’s efficiency and past
record, refusing to consider outside pressure; under the old regime
no policeman with sufficient influence behind him was ever dismissed,
no matter what his offence. In making promotions we took into account
not only the man’s general record, his faithfulness, industry and
vigilance, but also his personal prowess as shown in any special feat
of daring, whether in the arresting of criminals or in the saving of
life--for the police service is military in character, and we wished to
encourage the military virtues. In making appointments we found that it
was practicable to employ a system of rigid competitive examinations,
which, as finally perfected, combined a very severe physical
examination with a mental examination such as could be passed by any
man who had attended one of our public schools. Of course there was
also a rigid investigation of character. Theorists have often sneered
at civil service reform as “impracticable;” and I am very far from
asserting that written competitive examinations are always applicable,
or that they may not sometimes be merely stop-gaps, used only because
they are better than the methods of appointing through political
endorsement; but most certainly the system worked admirably in the
Police Department. We got the best lot of recruits for patrolmen that
had ever been obtained in the history of the force, and we did just as
well in our examinations for matrons and police surgeons. The uplifting
of the force was very noticeable, both physically and mentally. The
best men we got were those who had served for three years or so in
the Army or Navy. Next to these came the railroad men. One noticeable
feature of the work was that we greatly raised the proportion of
native-born, until, of the last hundred appointed, ninety-four per
cent. were Americans by birth. Not once in a hundred times did we know
the politics of the appointee, and we paid as little heed to this as to
their religion.
Another of our important tasks was seeing that the elections were
carried on honestly. Under the old Tammany rule the cheating was
gross and flagrant, and the police were often deliberately used to
facilitate fraudulent practices at the polls. This came about in part
from the very low character of the men put in as election officers.
By conducting a written examination of the latter, and supplementing
this by a careful inquiry into their character, in which we invited any
decent outsiders to assist, we very distinctly raised their calibre.
To show how necessary our examinations were, I may mention that before
each election held under us we were obliged to reject, for moral or
mental shortcomings, over a thousand of the men whom the regular party
organizations, exercising their legal rights, proposed as election
officers. We then merely had to make the police thoroughly understand
that their sole duty was to guarantee an honest election, and that they
would be punished with the utmost rigor if they interfered with honest
citizens on the one hand, or failed to prevent fraud and violence on
the other. The result was that the elections of 1895 and 1896 were by
far the most honest and orderly ever held in New York City.
There were a number of other ways in which we sought to reform the
police force, less important, and nevertheless very important. We
paid particular heed to putting a premium on specially meritorious
conduct, by awarding certificates of honorable mention, and medals,
where we were unable to promote. We introduced a system of pistol
practice by which, for the first time, the policemen were brought to
a reasonable standard of efficiency in handling their revolvers. The
Bertillion system for the identification of criminals was introduced.
A bicycle squad was organized with remarkable results, this squad
speedily becoming a kind of _corps d’elite_, whose individual members
distinguished themselves not only by their devotion to duty, but by
repeated exhibitions of remarkable daring and skill. One important
bit of reform was abolishing the tramp lodging-houses, which had
originally been started in the police stations, in a spirit of
unwise philanthropy. These tramp lodging-houses, not being properly
supervised, were mere nurseries for pauperism and crime, tramps and
loafers of every shade thronging to the city every winter to enjoy
their benefits. We abolished them, a municipal lodging-house being
substituted. Here all homeless wanderers were received, forced to
bathe, given night-clothes before going to bed, and made to work next
morning, and in addition they were so closely supervised that habitual
tramps and vagrants were speedily detected and apprehended.
There was a striking increase in the honesty of the force, and there
was a like increase in its efficiency. When we took office it is not
too much to say that the great majority of the citizens of New York
were firmly convinced that no police force could be both honest and
efficient. They felt it to be part of the necessary order of things
that a policeman should be corrupt, and they were convinced that the
most efficient way of warring against certain forms of crime--notably
crimes against person and property--was by enlisting the service of
other criminals, and of purveyors of vice generally, giving them
immunity in return for their aid. Before we took power the ordinary
purveyor of vice was allowed to ply his or her trade unmolested,
partly in consideration of paying blackmail to the police, partly in
consideration of giving information about any criminal who belonged
to the unprotected classes. We at once broke up this whole business
of blackmail and protection, and made war upon all criminals alike,
instead of getting the assistance of half in warring on the other
half. Nevertheless, so great was the improvement in the spirit of the
force, that, although deprived of their former vicious allies, they
actually did better work than ever before against those criminals who
threatened life and property. Relatively to the population, fewer
crimes of violence occurred during our administration of the Board than
in any previous two years of the city’s history in recent times; and
the total number of arrests of criminals increased, while the number of
cases in which no arrest followed the commission of crime decreased.
The detective bureau nearly doubled the number of arrests made
compared with the year before we took office; obtaining, moreover, 365
convictions of felons and 215 convictions for misdemeanors, as against
269 and 105 respectively for the previous year. At the same time every
attempt at riot or disorder was summarily checked, and all gangs of
violent criminals brought into immediate subjection; while on the other
hand the immense mass meetings and political parades were handled with
such care that not a single case of clubbing of any innocent citizen
was reported.
The result of our labors was of value to the city, for we gave the
citizens better protection than they had ever before received, and
at the same time cut out the corruption which was eating away civic
morality. We showed conclusively that it was possible to combine both
honesty and efficiency in handling the police. We were attacked with
the most bitter animosity by every sensational newspaper and every
politician of the baser sort, not because of our shortcomings, but
because of what we did that was good. We enforced the laws as they were
on the statute books, we broke up blackmail, we kept down the spirit of
disorder, and repressed rascality, and we administered the force with
an eye single to the welfare of the city. In doing this we encountered,
as we had expected, the venemous opposition of all men whose interest
it was that corruption should continue, or who were of such dull
morality that they were not willing to see honesty triumph at the cost
of strife.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[14] _Atlantic Monthly_, September, 1897.
[15] My predecessor in the Presidency of the Police Board.
[16] The italics are my own.
[Illustration]
IX
THE VICE-PRESIDENCY AND THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896[17]
The Vice-President is an officer unique in his character and functions,
or to speak more properly, in his want of functions while he remains
Vice-President, and in his possibility of at any moment ceasing to be a
functionless official and becoming the head of the whole nation. There
is no corresponding position in any constitutional government. Perhaps
the nearest analogue is the heir apparent in a monarchy. Neither the
French President nor the British Prime Minister has a substitute, ready
at any moment to take his place, but exercising scarcely any authority
until his place is taken. The history of such an office is interesting,
and the personality of the incumbent for the time being may at any
moment become of vast importance.
The founders of our government--the men who did far more than draw
up the Declaration of Independence, for they put forth the National
Constitution--in many respects builded very wisely of set purpose. In
some cases they built wiser than they knew. In yet other instances
they failed entirely to achieve objects for which they had endeavored
to provide by a most elaborate and ingenious governmental arrangement.
They distrusted what would now be called pure Democracy, and they
dreaded what we would now call party government.
Their distrust of Democracy induced them to construct the electoral
college for the choice of a President, the original idea being that
the people should elect their best and wisest men who in turn should,
untrammeled by outside pressure, elect a President. As a matter of fact
the functions of the electorate have now by time and custom become of
little more importance than those of so many letter-carriers. They
deliver the electoral votes of their states just as a letter-carrier
delivers his mail. But in the presidential contest this year it may be
we shall see a partial return to the ideals of the men of 1789; for
some of the electors on the Bryan-Sewall-Watson ticket may exercise a
choice between the vice-presidential candidates.
The distrust felt by the founders of the constitution for party
government took shape in the scheme to provide that the majority party
should have the foremost place, and the minority party the second
place, in the national executive. The man who received the greatest
number of electoral votes was made President, and the man who received
the second greatest number was made Vice-President, on a theory
somewhat akin to that by which certain reformers hope to revolutionize
our system of voting at the present day. In the early days under the
present constitution this system resulted in the choice of Adams
for President and of his anti-type Jefferson as Vice-President, the
combination being about as incongruous as if we should now see McKinley
President and either Bryan or Watson Vice-President. Even in theory
such an arrangement is very bad, because under it the Vice-President
might readily be, and as a matter of fact was, a man utterly opposed
to all the principles to which the President was devoted, so that
the arrangement provided in the event of the death of the President,
not for a succession, but for a revolution. The system was very
soon dropped, and each party nominated its own candidates for both
positions. But it was many years before all the members of the
electoral college of one party felt obliged to cast the same votes for
both President and Vice-President, and consequently there was a good
deal of scrambling and shifting in taking the vote. When, however,
the parties had crystallized into Democratic and Whig, a score of
years after the disappearance of the Federalists, the system of party
voting also crystallized. Each party then as a rule nominated one
man for President and one for Vice-President, these being voted for
throughout the nation. This system in turn speedily produced strange
results, some of which remain to this day. There are and must be in
every party factions. The victorious faction may crush out and destroy
the others, or it may try to propitiate at least its most formidable
rival. In consequence, the custom grew of offering the vice-presidency
as a consolation prize, to be given in many cases to the very men
who were most bitterly opposed to the nomination of the successful
candidate for President. Sometimes this consolation prize was awarded
for geographical reasons, sometimes to bring into the party men who on
points of principle might split away because of the principles of the
presidential candidate himself, and at other times it was awarded for
merely factional reasons to some faction which did not differ in the
least from the dominant faction in matters of principles, but had very
decided views on the question of offices.
The presidency being all important, and the vice-presidency of
comparatively little note, the entire strength of the contending
factions is spent in the conflict over the first, and very often a man
who is most anxious to take the first place will not take the second,
preferring some other political position. It has thus frequently
happened that the two candidates have been totally dissimilar in
character and even in party principle, though both running on the same
ticket. Very odd results have followed in more than one instance.
A striking illustration of the evils sometimes springing from this
system is afforded by what befell the Whigs after the election and
death of the elder Harrison. Translated into the terms of the politics
of continental Europe of to-day, Harrison’s adherents represented
a union between the right and the extreme left against the centre.
That is, the regular Whigs who formed the bulk of his supporters were
supplemented by a small body of extremists who in their political
principles were even more alien to the Whigs than were the bulk of the
regular Democrats, but who themselves hated these regular Democrats
with the peculiar ferocity so often felt by the extremist for the man
who goes far, but not quite far enough. In consequence, the President
represented Whig principles, the Vice-President represented a rather
extreme form of the very principles to which the Whigs were most
opposed. The result was that when Harrison died the presidency fell
into the hands of a man who had but a corporal’s guard of supporters in
the nation, and who proceeded to oppose all the measures of the immense
majority of those who elected him.
A somewhat similar instance was afforded in the case of Lincoln and
Johnson. Johnson was put on the ticket largely for geographical
reasons, and on the death of Lincoln he tried to reverse the policy
of the party which had put him in office. An instance of an entirely
different kind is afforded by Garfield and Arthur. The differences
between these two party leaders were mainly merely factional. Each
stood squarely on the platform of the party, and all the principles
advocated by one were advocated by the other; yet the death of Garfield
meant a complete overturn in the _personnel_ of the upper Republican
officials, because Arthur had been nominated expressly to placate the
group of party leaders who most objected to the nomination of Garfield.
Arthur made a very good President, but the bitterness caused by his
succession to power nearly tore the party in twain. It will be noted
that most of these evils arose from the fact that the Vice-President
under ordinary circumstances possesses so little real power. He
presides over the Senate and he has in Washington a position of marked
social importance, but his political weight as Vice-President is almost
_nil_. There is always a chance that he may become President. As this
is only a chance it seems quite impossible to persuade politicians
to give it proper weight. This certainly does not seem right. The
Vice-President should, so far as possible, represent the same views
and principles which have secured the nomination and election of the
President, and he should be a man standing well in the councils of the
party, trusted by his fellow party leaders, and able in the event of
any accident to his chief to take up the work of the latter just where
it was left. The Republican party has this year nominated such a man
in the person of Mr. Hobart. But nominations of this kind have by no
means always been the rule of recent years. No change of parties, for
instance, could well produce a greater revolution in policy than would
have been produced at almost any time during the last three years if
Mr. Cleveland had died and Mr. Stevenson had succeeded him.
One sure way to secure this desired result would undoubtedly be to
increase the power of the Vice-President. He should always be a man
who would be consulted by the President on every great party question.
It would be very well if he were given a seat in the Cabinet. It might
be well if, in addition to his vote in the Senate in the event of a
tie, he should be given a vote, on ordinary occasions, and perchance on
occasions a voice in the debates. A man of the character of Mr. Hobart
is sure to make his weight felt in an administration, but the power of
thus exercising influence should be made official rather than personal.
The present contest offers a striking illustration of the way in which
the Vice-President ought and ought not to be nominated, and to study
this it is necessary to study not only the way in which the different
candidates were nominated, but at least in outline the characters of
the candidates themselves.
For the first time in many years, indeed for the first time since
parties have fairly crystallized along their present lines, there are
three parties running, two of which support the same presidential
candidate but different candidates for the vice-presidency. Each one of
these parties has carried several states during the last three or four
years. Each party has a right to count upon a number of electoral votes
as its own. Closely though the Democratic and Populistic parties have
now approximated in their principles as enunciated in the platforms
of Chicago and St. Louis, they yet do differ on certain points, and
neither would have any chance of beating the Republicans without the
help of the other. The result has been a coalition, yet each party to
the coalition has retained enough of its jealous individuality to make
it refuse to accept the candidate of the other for the second position
on the ticket.
The Republican party stands on a normal and healthy party footing. It
has enunciated a definite set of principles entirely in accord with
its past actions. It has nominated on this platform a President and
Vice-President, both of whom are thorough-going believers in all the
party principles set forth in the platform upon which they stand. Mr.
McKinley believes in sound finance,--that is, in a currency based upon
gold and as good as gold. So does Mr. Hobart. Mr. McKinley believes in
a protective tariff. So does Mr. Hobart. Mr. McKinley believes in the
only method of preserving orderly liberty,--that is, in seeing that the
laws are enforced at whatever cost. So does Mr. Hobart. In short, Mr.
Hobart stands for precisely the same principles that are represented
by Mr. McKinley. He is a man of weight in the community, who has had
wide experience both in business and in politics. He is taking an
active part in the campaign, and he will be a power if elected to
the vice-presidency. All the elements which have rallied behind Mr.
McKinley are just as heartily behind Mr. Hobart. The two represent the
same forces, and they stand for a party with a coherent organization
and a definite purpose, to the carrying out of which they are equally
pledged.
It will be a matter of much importance to the nation that the next
Vice-President should stand for some settled policy. It is an
unhealthy thing to have the Vice-President and President represented
by principles so far apart that the succession of one to the place of
the other means a change as radical as any possible party overturn. The
straining and dislocation of our governmental institutions was very
great when Tyler succeeded Harrison and Johnson succeeded Lincoln.
In each case the majority of the party that had won the victory felt
that it had been treated with scandalous treachery, for Tyler grew
to be as repulsive to the Whigs as Polk himself, and the Republicans
could scarcely have hated Seymour more than they hated Johnson. The
Vice-President has a three-fold relation. First to the administration;
next as presiding officer in the Senate, where he should be a man of
dignity and force; and third in his social position, for socially he
ranks second to the President alone. Mr. Morton was in every way an
admirable Vice-President under General Harrison, and had he succeeded
to the presidential chair there would have been no break in the great
policies which were being pushed forward by the administration. But
during Mr. Cleveland’s two incumbencies Messrs. Hendricks and Stevenson
have represented, not merely hostile factions, but principles and
interests from which he was sundered by a gulf quite as great as that
which divided him from his normal party foes. Mr. Sewall would make a
colorless Vice-President, and were he at any time to succeed Mr. Bryan
in the White House would travel Mr. Bryan’s path only with extreme
reluctance and under duress. Mr. Watson would be a more startling, more
attractive, and more dangerous figure, for if he got the chance he
would lash the nation with a whip of scorpions, while Mr. Bryan would
be content with the torture of ordinary thongs.
Finally, Mr. Hobart would typify as strongly as Mr. McKinley himself
what was best in the Republican party and in the nation, and would
stand as one of the known champions of his party on the very questions
at issue in the present election. He is a man whose advice would be
sought by all who are prominent in the administration. In short, he
would be the kind of man whom the electors are certain to choose as
Vice-President if they exercise their choice rationally.
The men who left the Republican party because of the nomination
of McKinley would have left it just as quickly if Hobart had been
nominated. They do not believe in sound finance, and though many of
the bolters object to anarchy and favor protection, they feel that in
this crisis their personal desires must be repressed and that they are
conscientiously bound to support the depreciated dollar even at the
cost of incidentally supporting the principles of a low tariff and
the doctrine that a mob should be allowed to do what it likes with
immunity. There are many advocates of clipped or depreciated money
who are rather sorry to see the demand for such currency coupled with
a demand for more lawlessness and an abandonment by the government
of the police functions which are the essential attributes of
civilization; but they have overcome their reluctance, feeling that on
the whole it is more important that the money of the nation should be
unsound than that its laws should be obeyed. People who feel this way
are just as much opposed to Mr. Hobart as to Mr. McKinley. They object
to the platform upon which the two men stand, and they object as much
to the character of one man as to the character of the other. They are
repelled by McKinley’s allegiance to the cause of sound money, and find
nothing to propitiate them in Hobart’s uncompromisingly honest attitude
on the same question. There is no reason whatever why any voter who
would wish to vote against the one should favor the other, or _vice
versa_.
When we cross the political line all this is changed. On the leading
issue of the campaign the entire triangle of candidates are a unit.
Mr. Bryan, the nominee for the presidency, and Messrs. Sewall and
Watson, the nominees for the vice-presidency, are almost equally
devoted adherents of the light-weight dollar and of a currency which
shall not force a man to repay what he has borrowed, and shall punish
the wrong-headed laborer, who expects to be paid his wages in money
worth something, as heavily as the business man or farmer who is so
immoral as to wish to pay his debts. All three are believers in that
old-world school of finance which appears under such protean changes
of policy, always desiring the increase of the circulating medium, but
differing as to the means, which in one age takes the form of putting
base metal in with the good, or of clipping the good, and in another
assumes the guise of fiat money, or the free coinage of silver. On
this currency question they are substantially alike, agreeing (as one
of their adherents picturesquely put it, in arguing in favor of that
form of abundant currency which has as its highest exponent the money
of the late Confederacy) that “the money which was good enough for the
soldiers of Washington is good enough for us.” As a matter of fact the
soldiers of Washington were not at all grateful for the money which the
loud-mouthed predecessors of Mr. Bryan and his kind then thought “good
enough” for them. The money with which the veterans of Washington were
paid was worth two cents on the dollar, and as yet neither Mr. Bryan,
Mr. Sewall, nor Mr. Watson has advocated a two-cent copper dollar.
Still, they are striving toward this ideal, and in their advocacy of
the fifty cent dollar they are one.
But beyond this they begin to differ. Mr. Sewall distinctly sags behind
the leader of the spike team, Mr. Bryan, and still more distinctly
behind his rival, or running mate, or whatever one may choose to call
him, the Hon. Thomas Watson. There is far more regard for the essential
fitness of things in a ticket which contains Mr. Bryan and Mr. Watson
than one which contains Mr. Bryan and Mr. Sewall. Mr. Watson is a
man of Mr. Bryan’s type, only a little more so. But Mr. Sewall is
of a different type, and possesses many attributes which must make
association with him exceedingly painful, not merely to Mr. Watson,
but to Mr. Bryan himself. He is a well-to-do man. Indeed in many
communities he would be called a rich man. He is a banker, a railroad
man, a shipbuilder, and has been successful in business. Now if Mr.
Bryan and Mr. Watson really stand for any principle it is hostility
to this kind of success. Thrift, industry, and business energy are
qualities which are quite incompatible with true Populistic feeling.
Payment of debts, like the suppression of riots, is abhorrent to the
Populistic mind. Such conduct strikes the Populist as immoral. Mr.
Bryan made his appearance in Congress with two colleagues elected on
the same ticket, one of whom stated to the present writer that no
honest man ever earned $5000 a year; that whoever got that amount stole
it. Mr. Sewall has earned many times $5000 a year. He is a prosperous
capitalist. Populism never prospers save where men are unprosperous,
and your true Populist is especially intolerant of business success. If
a man is a successful business man he at once calls him a plutocrat.
He makes only one exception. A miner or speculator in mines may be many
times a millionaire and yet remain in good standing in the Populist
party. The Populist has ineradicably fixed in his mind the belief that
silver is a cheap metal, and that silver money is, while not fiat
money, still a long step toward it. Silver is connected in his mind
with scaling down debts, the partial repudiation of obligations,
and other measures aimed at those odious moneyed tyrants who lend
money to persons who insist upon borrowing, or who have put their
ill-gotten gains in saving banks and kindred wicked institutions for
the encouragement of the vice of thrift. These pleasurable associations
quite outweigh, with the Populist, the fact that the silver man himself
is rich. He is even for the moment blind to the further fact that these
pro-silver men, like Senator Stewart, Governor Altgeld, and their
compeers, strenuously insist that the obligations to themselves shall
be liquidated in gold; indeed this particular idiosyncrasy of the
silver leaders is not much frowned upon by the bulk of the Populists,
because it has at least the merit of savoring strongly of “doing”
one’s creditors. Not even the fact that rich silver mine owners may
have earned their money honestly can outweigh the other fact that they
champion a species of currency which will make most thrifty and honest
men poorer, in the minds of the truly logical Populist.
But Mr. Sewall has no fictitious advantage in the way of owing his
wealth to silver. He has made his money precisely as the most loathed
reprobate of Wall Street--or of New York, which the average Populist
regards as synonymous with Wall Street--has made his. The average
Populist does not draw fine distinctions. There are in New York, as
in other large cities, scoundrels of great wealth who have made their
money by means skilfully calculated to come just outside the line of
criminality. There are other men who have made their money exactly as
the successful miner or farmer makes his,--that is, by the exercise
of shrewdness, business daring, energy and thrift. But the Populist
draws no line of division between these two classes. They have made
money, and that is enough. One may have built railroads and the other
have wrecked them, but they are both railroad men in his eyes, and
that is all. One may have swindled his creditors, and the other built
up a bank which has been of incalculable benefit to all who have had
dealings with it, but to the Populist they are both gold bugs, and as
such noxious. Mr. Sewall is the type of man the contemplation of which
usually throws a Populist orator into spasms. But it happens that he
believes in free silver, just as other very respectable men believe
in spirit rapping, or the faith-cure, or Buddhism, or pilgrimages to
Lourdes, or the foot of a graveyard rabbit. There are very able men and
very lovely women who believe in each or all of these, and there are a
much larger number who believe in free silver. Had they lived in the
days of Sparta they would have believed in free iron, iron coin being
at that time the cheapest circulating medium, the adoption of which
would give the greatest expansion of the currency. But they have been
dragged on by the slow procession of the centuries, and now they only
believe in free silver. It is a belief which is compatible with all the
domestic virtues, and even occasionally with very good capacities as a
public servant. Mr. Sewall doubtless stands as one of these men. He can
hardly be happy, planted firmly as he is, on the Chicago platform. In
the minds of most thrifty, hard-working men, who are given to thinking
at all about public questions, the free-silver plank is very far from
being the most rotten of the many rotten planks put together with such
perverted skill by the Chicago architects. A platform which declares in
favor of free and unlimited rioting and which has the same strenuous
objection to the exercise of the police power by the general government
that is felt in the circles presided over by Herr Most, Eugene V. Debs,
and all the people whose pictures appear in the detective bureaus of
our great cities, cannot appeal to persons who have gone beyond the
unpolished-stone period of civilization.
The men who object to what they style “government by injunction”
are, as regards the essential principles of government, in hearty
sympathy with their remote skin-clad ancestors who lived in caves,
fought one another with stone-headed axes, and ate the mammoth and
woolly rhinoceros. They are interesting as representing a geological
survival, but they are dangerous whenever there is the least chance of
their making the principles of this ages-buried past living factors
in our present life. They are not in sympathy with men of good minds
and sound civic morality. It is not a nice thing to wish to pay one’s
debts in coins worth fifty cents on the dollar, but it is a much less
nice thing to wish to plunge one’s country into anarchy by providing
that the law shall only protect the lawless and frown scornfully on the
law-abiding. There is a good deal of mushy sentiment in the world, and
there are always a certain number of people whose minds are weak and
whose emotions are strong and who effervesce with sympathy toward any
man who does wrong, and with indignation against any man who chastises
the criminal for having done wrong. These emotionalists, moreover, are
always reinforced by that large body of men who themselves wish to
do wrong, and who are not sentimental at all, but, on the contrary,
very practical. It is rarely that these two classes control a great
political party, but at Chicago this became an accomplished fact.
Furthermore, the Chicago convention attacked the Supreme Court. Again
this represents a species of atavism,--that is, of recurrence to the
ways of thought of remote barbarian ancestors. Savages do not like
an independent and upright judiciary. They want the judge to decide
their way, and if he does not, they want to behead him. The Populists
experience much the same emotions when they realize that the judiciary
stands between them and plunder.
Now on all these points Mr. Sewall can hardly feel complete sympathy
with his temporary allies. He is very anxious that the Populists shall
vote for him for Vice-President, and of course he feels a kindly
emotion toward those who do intend to vote for him. He would doubtless
pardon much heresy of political belief in any member of the electoral
college who feels that Sewall is his friend, not Watson,--Codlin, not
Short. He has, of course, a vein of the erratic in his character,
or otherwise he would not be in such company at all, and would have
no quality that would recommend him to them. But on the whole his
sympathies must lie with the man who saves money rather than with the
man who proposes to take away the money when it has been saved, and
with the policeman who arrests a violent criminal rather than with the
criminal. Such sympathy puts him at a disadvantage in the Populist
camp. He is loud in his professions of belief in the remarkable series
of principles for which he is supposed to stand, but his protestations
ring rather hollow. The average supporter of Bryan doubtless intends
to support Sewall, for he thinks him an unimportant tail to the Bryan
kite. But, though unimportant, he regards him with a slight feeling of
irritation, as being at the best a rather ludicrous contrast to the
rest of the kite. He contributes no element of strength to the Bryan
ticket, for other men who work hard and wish to enjoy the fruits of
their toil simply regard him as a renegade, and the average Populist,
or Populistic Democrat, does not like him, and accepts him simply
because he fears not doing so may jeopardize Bryan’s chances. He is
in the uncomfortable position always held by the respectable theorist
who gets caught in a revolutionary movement and has to wedge nervously
up into the front rank with the gentlemen who are not troubled by any
of his scruples, and who really do think that it is all very fine and
glorious. In fact Mr. Sewall is much the least picturesque and the
least appropriate figure on the platform or platforms upon which Mr.
Bryan is standing.
Mr. Watson, whose enemies now call him a Georgia cracker, is in reality
a far more suitable companion for Mr. Bryan in such a contest. It
must be said, however, that if virtue always received its reward Mr.
Watson and not Mr. Bryan would stand at the head of the ticket. In
the language of mathematicians Mr. Watson merely represents Mr. Bryan
raised several powers. The same is true of the Populist as compared
to the Democratic platform. Mr. Bryan may affect to believe that free
silver does represent the ultimate goal, and that his friends do not
intend to go further in the direction of fiat money. Mr. Watson’s
friends, the middle-of-the-road Populists, are much more fearless and
much more logical. They are willing to accept silver as a temporary
makeshift, but they want a currency based on corn and cotton next, and
ultimately a currency based on the desires of the people who issue
it. The statesmanlike utterance of that great financier, Mr. Bryan’s
chief rival for the nomination and at present his foremost supporter,
Mr. Bland, to the effect that he would “wipe out the national debt as
with a sponge,” meets with their cordial approval as far as it goes,
but they object to the qualification before the word “debt.” In wiping
out debts they do not wish to halt merely at the national debt. The
Populists indorsed Bryan as the best they could get; but they hated
Sewall so that they took the extraordinary step of nominating the
Vice-President before the President so as to make sure of a really
acceptable man in the person of Watson.
With Mr. Bryan denunciation of the gold bug and the banker is largely
a mere form of intellectual entertainment; but with Mr. Watson it
represents an almost ferocious conviction. Someone has said that Mr.
Watson like Mr. Tillman, is an embodied retribution on the South
for having failed to educate the cracker, the poor white who gives
him his strength. It would ill beseem any dweller in cities of the
North, especially any dweller in the city of Tammany, to reproach
the South with having failed to educate anybody. But Mr. Watson is
certainly an awkward man for a community to develop. He is infinitely
more in earnest than is Mr. Bryan. Mr. Watson’s followers belong
to that school of southern Populists who honestly believe that the
respectable and commonplace people who own banks, railroads, dry-goods
stores, factories, and the like, are persons with many of the mental
and social attributes that unpleasantly distinguished Heliogabalus,
Nero, Caligula, and other worthies of later Rome. Not only do they
believe this, but they say it with appalling frankness. They are very
sincere as a rule, or at least the rank and file are. They are also
very suspicious. They distrust anything they cannot understand; and as
they understand but little this opens a very wide field for distrust.
They are apt to be emotionally religious. If not, they are then at
least atheists of an archaic type. Refinement and comfort they are
apt to consider quite as objectionable as immorality. That a man
should change his clothes in the evening, that he should dine at any
other hour than noon, impress these good people as being symptoms
of depravity instead of merely trivial. A taste for learning and
cultivated friends, and a tendency to bathe frequently, cause them the
deepest suspicion. A well-to-do man they regard with jealous distrust,
and if they cannot be well-to-do themselves, at least they hope to make
matters uncomfortable for those that are. They possess many strong,
rugged virtues, but they are quite impossible politically, because they
always confound the essentials and the non-essentials, and though they
often make war on vice, they rather prefer making war upon prosperity
and refinement.
Mr. Watson was in a sense born out of place when he was born in
Georgia, for in Georgia the regular Democracy, while it has accepted
the principles of the Populists, has made war on their _personnel_,
and in every way strives to press them down. Far better for Mr. Watson
would it have been could he have been born in the adjacent State of
South Carolina, where the Populists swallowed the Democrats with a
gulp. Senator Tillman, the great Populist or Democratic orator from
South Carolina, possesses an untrammelled tongue any middle-of-the-road
man would envy: and moreover Mr. Tillman’s brother has been frequently
elected to Congress upon the issue that he never wore either an
overcoat or an undershirt, an issue which any Populist statesman finds
readily comprehensible, and which he would recognize at first glance
as being strong before the people. It needs a certain amount of mental
subtlety to appreciate that it is for one’s interest to support a man
because he is honest and has broad views about coast defenses and the
navy, and other similar subjects; but it does not need any mind at all
to have one’s prejudices stirred in favor of a statesman whose claim to
the title rests upon his indifference to the requirements of civilized
dress.
Altogether Mr. Watson, with his sincerity, his frankness, his extreme
suspiciousness, his distrust of anything he cannot understand, and
the feeling he encourages against all the elegancies and decencies of
civilized life, is an interesting personage. He represents the real
thing, while Bryan after all is more or less a sham and a compromise.
Mr. Watson would, at a blow, destroy all banks and bankers, with a
cheerful, albeit vague, belief that thereby he was in some abstruse way
benefiting the people at large. And he would do this with the simple
sincerity and faith of an African savage who tries to benefit his tribe
by a sufficiency of human sacrifices. But Mr. Bryan would be beset by
ugly doubts when he came to put into effect all the mischievous beliefs
of his followers, and Mr. Sewall would doubtless be frankly miserable
if it ever became necessary for him to take a lead in such matters. Mr.
Watson really ought to be the first man on the ticket, with Mr. Bryan
second; for he is much the superior in boldness, in thorough-going
acceptance of his principles according to their logical conclusions,
and in sincerity of faith. It is impossible not to regret that the
Democrats and Populists should not have put forward in the first place
the man who genuinely represents their ideas.
However, it is even doubtful whether Mr. Watson will receive the
support to which he is entitled as a vice-presidential candidate. In
the South the Populists have been so crushed under the heel of the
Democrats, and have bitten that heel with such eager venom, that they
dislike entering into a coalition with them; but in the south the
Democrats will generally control the election machinery. In the far
West, and generally in those States where the Populist wing of the new
alliance is ascendant, the Populists have no especial hatred of the
Democrats. They know that their principles are substantially identical,
and they think it best to support the man who seems to represent the
majority faction among the various factions that stand behind Bryan.
As a consequence of this curious condition of affairs there are several
interesting possibilities open. The electoral college consists of the
men elected at the polls in the various States to record the decrees
of the majorities in those States, and it has grown to be an axiom
of politics that they must merely register the will of the men who
elected them. But it does seem possible that in the present election
some of the electors may return to the old principles of a century ago
and exercise at least a limited discretion in casting their votes. In
a State like Nebraska, for instance, it looks as though it would be
possible that the electoral ticket on the anti-Republican side would be
composed of four Bryan and Watson men and four Bryan and Sewall men.
Now in the event of Bryan having more votes than McKinley--that is,
in the event of the country showing strong Bedlamite tendencies next
November--it might be that a split between Sewall and Watson would give
a plurality to Hobart, and in such event it is hardly conceivable that
some of the electors would not exercise their discretion by changing
their votes. If they did not, we might then again see a return to the
early and profoundly interesting practice of our fathers and witness a
President chosen by one party and a Vice-President by the other.
I wish it to be distinctly understood, however, that these are merely
interesting speculations as to what might occur in a hopelessly
improbable contingency. I am a good American, with a profound belief
in my countrymen, and I have no idea that they will deliberately
lower themselves to a level beneath that of a South American
Republic, by voting for the farrago of sinister nonsense which the
Populistic-Democratic politicians at Chicago chose to set up as
embodying the principles of their party, and for the amiable and
windy demagogue who stands upon that platform. Many entirely honest
and intelligent men have been misled by the silver talk, and have
for the moment joined the ranks of the ignorant, the vicious and the
wrong-headed. These men of character and capacity are blinded by their
own misfortunes, or their own needs, or else they have never fairly
looked into the matter for themselves, being, like most men, whether in
“gold” or “silver” communities, content to follow the opinion of those
they are accustomed to trust. After full and fair inquiry these men, I
am sure, whether they live in Maine, in Tennessee, or in Oregon, will
come out on the side of honest money. The shiftless and vicious and
the honest but hopelessly ignorant and puzzle-headed voters cannot be
reached; but the average farmer, the average business man, the average
workman--in short, the average American--will always stand up for
honesty and decency when he can once satisfy himself as to the side on
which they are to be found.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[17] _Review of Reviews_, September, 1896.
[Illustration]
X
HOW NOT TO HELP OUR POORER BROTHER[18]
After the publication of my article in the September _Review of
Reviews_ on the vice-presidential candidates, I received the following
very manly, and very courteous, letter from the Honorable Thomas
Watson, then the candidate with Mr. Bryan on the Populist ticket for
Vice-President. I publish it with his permission:
HON. THEODORE ROOSEVELT:
It pains me to be misunderstood by those whose good opinion I respect,
and upon reading your trenchant article in the September number of the
_Review of Reviews_ the impulse was strong to write to you.
When you take your stand for honester government and for juster laws
in New York, as you have so courageously done, your motives must be
the same as mine--for you do not need the money your office gives
you. I can understand, instinctively, what you feel--what your motives
are. You merely obey a law of your nature which puts you into mortal
combat with what you think is wrong. You fight because your own sense
of self-respect and self-loyalty compels you to fight. Is not this so?
If in Georgia and throughout the South we have conditions as
intolerable as those that surround you in New York, can you not
realize why I make war upon them?
Tammany itself has grown great because mistaken leaders of the
southern Democracy catered to its Kellys and Crokers and feared to
defy them.
The first “roast” I ever got from the Democratic press of this State
followed a speech I had made denouncing Tammany, and denouncing the
craven leaders who obeyed Tammany.
It is astonishing how one honest man may honestly misjudge another.
My creed does _not_ lead me to dislike the men who run a bank, a
factory, a railroad or a foundry. I do _not_ hate a man for owning a
bond, and having a bank account, or having cash loaned at interest.
Upon the other hand, I think each should make all the profit in
business he fairly can; but I do believe that the banks should not
exercise the sovereign power of issuing money, and I do believe that
all special privileges granted, and all exemption from taxation,
work infinite harm. I _do_ believe that the wealth of the Republic
is practically free from federal taxation, and that the burdens of
government fall upon the shoulders of those least able to bear them.
If you could spend an evening with me among my books and amid my
family, I feel quite sure you would not again class me with those who
make war upon the “decencies and elegancies of civilized life.” And if
you could attend one of my great political meetings in Georgia, and
see the good men and good women who believe in Populism, you would not
continue to class them with those who vote for candidates upon the “no
undershirt” platform.
In other words, if you understood me and mine your judgment of us
would be different.
The “cracker” of the South is simply the man who did not buy slaves
to do his work. He did it all himself--like a man. Some of our
best generals in war, and magistrates in peace, have come from the
“cracker” class. As a matter of fact, however, my own people, from
my father back to Revolutionary times, were slave owners and land
owners. In the first meeting held in Georgia to express sympathy with
the Boston patriots my great-great-grandfather bore a prominent part,
and in the first State legislature ever convened in Georgia one of my
ancestors was the representative of his county.
My grandfather was wealthy, and so was my father. My boyhood was spent
in the idleness of a rich man’s son. It was not till I was in my teens
that misfortune overtook us, sent us homeless into the world, and
deprived me of the thorough collegiate training my father intended for
me.
At sixteen years of age I thus had to commence life moneyless, and the
weary years I spent among the poor, the kindness I received in their
homes, and the acquaintance I made with the hardship of their lives,
gave me that profound sympathy for them which I yet retain--though I
am no longer poor myself.
Pardon the liberty I take in intruding this letter upon you. I have
followed your work in New York with admiring sympathy, and have
frequently written of it in my paper. While hundreds of miles separate
us, and our tasks and methods have been widely different, I must still
believe that we have much in common, and that the ruling force which
actuates us both is to challenge wrong and to fight the battles of
good government.
Very respectfully yours,
(Signed) THOS. E. WATSON.
THOMPSON, GA., August, 30, 1896.
I intended to draw a very sharp line between Mr. Watson and many
of those associated with him in the same movement; and certain of
the sentences which he quotes as if they were meant to apply to him
were, on the contrary, meant to apply generally to the agitators who
proclaimed both him and Mr. Bryan as their champions, and especially to
many of the men who were running on the Populist tickets in different
States. To Mr. Watson’s own sincerity and courage I thought I had paid
full tribute, and if I failed in any way I wish to make good that
failure. I was in Washington when Mr. Watson was in Congress, and I
know how highly he was esteemed personally by his colleagues, even
by those differing very widely from him in matters of principle. The
staunchest friends of order and decent government fully and cordially
recognized Mr. Watson’s honesty and good faith--men, for instance, like
Senator Lodge of Massachusetts, and Representative Bellamy Storer of
Ohio. Moreover, I sympathize as little as Mr. Watson with denunciation
of the “cracker,” and I may mention that one of my forefathers was the
first Revolutionary Governor of Georgia at the time that Mr. Watson’s
ancestor sat in the first Revolutionary legislature of the State. Mr.
Watson himself embodies not a few of the very attributes the lack
of which we feel so keenly in many of our public men. He is brave,
he is earnest, he is honest, he is disinterested. For many of the
wrongs which he wishes to remedy, I, too, believe that a remedy can be
found, and for this purpose I would gladly strike hands with him. All
this makes it a matter of the keenest regret that he should advocate
certain remedies that we deem even worse than the wrongs complained
of, and should strive in darkling ways to correct other wrongs, or
rather inequalities and sufferings, which exist, not because of the
shortcomings of society, but because of the existence of human nature
itself.
There are plenty of ugly things about wealth and its possessors in
the present age, and I suppose there have been in all ages. There are
many rich people who so utterly lack patriotism, or show such sordid
and selfish traits of character, or lead such mean and vacuous lives,
that all right-minded men must look upon them with angry contempt;
but, on the whole, the thrifty are apt to be better citizens than the
thriftless; and the worst capitalist cannot harm laboring men as they
are harmed by demagogues. As the people of a State grow more and more
intelligent the State itself may be able to play a larger and larger
part in the life of the community, while at the same time individual
effort may be given freer and less restricted movement along certain
lines; but it is utterly unsafe to give the State more than the minimum
of power just so long as it contains masses of men who can be moved by
the pleas and denunciations of the average Socialist leader of to-day.
There may be better schemes of taxation than those at present employed;
it may be wise to devise inheritance taxes, and to impose regulations
on the kinds of business which can be carried on only under the
especial protection of the State; and where there is a real abuse by
wealth it needs to be, and in this country generally has been, promptly
done away with; but the first lesson to teach the poor man is that, as
a whole, the wealth in the community is distinctly beneficial to him;
that he is better off in the long run because other men are well off;
and that the surest way to destroy what measure of prosperity he may
have is to paralyze industry and the well-being of those men who have
achieved success.
I am not an empiricist; I would no more deny that sometimes human
affairs can be much bettered by legislation than I would affirm that
they can always be so bettered. I would no more make a fetish of
unrestricted individualism than I would admit the power of the State
offhand and radically to reconstruct society. It may become necessary
to interfere even more than we have done with the right of private
contract, and to shackle cunning as we have shackled force. All I
insist upon is that we must be sure of our ground before trying to get
any legislation at all, and that we must not expect too much from this
legislation, nor refuse to better ourselves a little because we cannot
accomplish everything at a jump. Above all, it is criminal to excite
anger and discontent without proposing a remedy, or only proposing
a false remedy. The worst foe of the poor man is the labor leader,
whether philanthropist or politician, who tries to teach him that he
is a victim of conspiracy and injustice, when in reality he is merely
working out his fate with blood and sweat as the immense majority of
men who are worthy of the name always have done and always will have to
do.
The difference between what can and what cannot be done by law is well
exemplified by our experience with the negro problem, an experience
of which Mr. Watson must have ample practical knowledge. The negroes
were formerly held in slavery. This was a wrong which legislation
could remedy, and which could not be remedied except by legislation.
Accordingly they were set free by law. This having been done, many of
their friends believed that in some way, by additional legislation,
we could at once put them on an intellectual, social, and business
equality with the whites. The effort has failed completely. In large
sections of the country the negroes are not treated as they should be
treated, and politically in particular the frauds upon them have been
so gross and shameful as to awaken not merely indignation but bitter
wrath; yet the best friends of the negro admit that his hope lies,
not in legislation, but in the constant working of those often unseen
forces of the national life which are greater than all legislation.
It is but rarely that great advances in general social well-being can
be made by the adoption of some far-reaching scheme, legislative or
otherwise; normally they come only by gradual growth, and by incessant
effort to do first one thing, then another, and then another. Quack
remedies of the universal cure-all type are generally as noxious to the
body politic as to the body corporal.
Often the head-in-the-air social reformers, because people of sane and
wholesome minds will not favor their wild schemes, themselves decline
to favor schemes for practical reform. For the last two years there has
been an honest effort in New York to give the city good government,
and to work intelligently for better social conditions, especially in
the poorest quarters. We have cleaned the streets; we have broken the
power of the ward boss and the saloon-keeper to work injustice; we have
destroyed the most hideous of the tenement houses in which poor people
are huddled like swine in a sty; we have made parks and play-grounds
for the children in the crowded quarters; in every possible way we
have striven to make life easier and healthier, and to give man and
woman a chance to do their best work; while at the same time we have
warred steadily against the pauper-producing, maudlin philanthropy of
the free soup-kitchen and tramp lodging-house kind. In all this we
have had practically no help from either the parlor socialists or the
scarcely more noxious beer-room socialists who are always howling about
the selfishness of the rich and their unwillingness to do anything for
those who are less well off.
There are certain labor unions, certain bodies of organized
labor--notably those admirable organizations which include the railway
conductors, the locomotive engineers and the firemen--which to my mind
embody almost the best hope that there is for healthy national growth
in the future; but bitter experience has taught men who work for reform
in New York that the average labor leader, the average demagogue who
shouts for a depreciated currency, or for the overthrow of the rich,
will not do anything to help those who honestly strive to make better
our civic conditions. There are immense numbers of workingmen to whom
we can appeal with perfect confidence; but too often we find that a
large proportion of the men who style themselves leaders of organized
labor are influenced only by sullen short-sighted hatred of what they
do not understand, and are deaf to all appeals, whether to their
national or to their civic patriotism.
What I most grudge in all this is the fact that sincere and zealous
men of high character and honest purpose, men like Mr. Watson, men and
women such as those he describes as attending his Populist meetings,
or such as are to be found in all strata of our society, from the
employer to the hardest-worked day laborer, go astray in their methods,
and are thereby prevented from doing the full work for good they ought
to. When a man goes on the wrong road himself he can do very little to
guide others aright, even though these others are also on the wrong
road. There are many wrongs to be righted; there are many measures
of relief to be pushed; and it is a pity that when we are fighting
what is bad and championing what is good, the men who ought to be our
most effective allies should deprive themselves of usefulness by the
wrong-headedness of their position. Rich men and poor men both do wrong
on occasions, and whenever a specific instance of this can be pointed
out all citizens alike should join in punishing the wrong-doer. Honesty
and right-mindedness should be the tests; not wealth or poverty.
In our municipal administration here in New York we have acted with
an equal hand toward wrong-doers of high and low degree. The Board of
Health condemns the tenement-house property of the rich landowner,
whether this landowner be priest or layman, banker or railroad
president, lawyer or manager of a real estate business; and it pays no
heed to the intercession of any politician, whether this politician be
Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile. At the same time the Police
Department promptly suppresses, not only the criminal, but the rioter.
In other words, we do strict justice. We feel we are defrauded of help
to which we are entitled when men who ought to assist in any work to
better the condition of the people decline to aid us because their
brains are turned by dreams only worthy of a European revolutionist.
Many workingmen look with distrust upon laws which really would
help them; laws for the intelligent restriction of immigration, for
instance. I have no sympathy with mere dislike of immigrants; there
are classes and even nationalities of them which stand at least on
an equality with the citizens of native birth, as the last election
showed. But in the interest of our workingmen we must in the end keep
out laborers who are ignorant, vicious, and with low standards of life
and comfort, just as we have shut out the Chinese.
Often labor leaders and the like denounce the present conditions of
society, and especially of our political life, for shortcomings which
they themselves have been instrumental in causing. In our cities the
misgovernment is due, not to the misdeeds of the rich, but to the low
standard of honesty and morality among citizens generally; and nothing
helps the corrupt politician more than substituting either wealth or
poverty for honesty as the standard by which to try a candidate. A
few months ago a socialistic reformer in New York was denouncing the
corruption caused by rich men because a certain judge was suspected of
giving information in advance as to a decision in a case involving the
interests of a great corporation. Now this judge had been elected some
years previously, mainly because he was supposed to be a representative
of the “poor man”; and the socialistic reformer himself, a year ago,
was opposing the election of Mr. Beaman as judge because he was one of
the firm of Evarts & Choate, who were friends of various millionaires
and were counsel for various corporations. But if Mr. Beaman had been
elected judge no human being, rich or poor, would have dared so much as
hint at his doing anything improper.
Something can be done by good laws; more can be done by honest
administration of the laws; but most of all can be done by frowning
resolutely upon the preachers of vague discontent; and by upholding
the true doctrine of self-reliance, self-help, and self-mastery. This
doctrine sets forth many things. Among them is the fact that though a
man can occasionally be helped when he stumbles, yet that it is useless
to try to carry him when he will not or cannot walk; and worse than
useless to try to bring down the work and reward of the thrifty and
intelligent to the level of the capacity of the weak, the shiftless,
and the idle. It further shows that the maudlin philanthropist and the
maudlin sentimentalist are almost as noxious as the demagogue, and that
it is even more necessary to temper mercy with justice than justice
with mercy.
The worst lesson that can be taught a man is to rely upon others and
to whine over his sufferings. If an American is to amount to anything
he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride
in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others;
he must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and
accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow-men a
responsibility which is not theirs.
Let me say in conclusion, that I do not write in the least from the
standpoint of those whose association is purely with what are called
the wealthy classes. The men with whom I have worked and associated
most closely during the last couple of years here in New York, with
whom I have shared what is at least an earnest desire to better social
and civic conditions (neither blinking what is evil nor being misled
by the apostles of a false remedy), and with whose opinions as to what
is right and practical my own in the main agree, are not capitalists,
save as all men who by toil earn, and with prudence save, money are
capitalists. They include reporters on the daily papers, editors of
magazines, as well as of newspapers, principals in the public schools,
young lawyers, young architects, young doctors, young men of business,
who are struggling to rise in their profession by dint of faithful
work, but who give some of their time to doing what they can for the
city, and a number of priests and clergymen; but as it happens the
list does not include any man of great wealth, or any of those men
whose names are in the public mind identified with great business
corporations. Most of them have at one time or another in their
lives faced poverty and know what it is; none of them are more than
well-to-do. They include Catholics and Protestants, Jews, and men who
would be regarded as heterodox by professors of most recognized creeds;
some of them were born on this side, others are of foreign birth; but
they are all Americans, heart and soul, who fight out for themselves
the battles of their own lives, meeting sometimes defeat and sometimes
victory. They neither forget that man does owe a duty to his fellows,
and should strive to do what he can to increase the well-being of the
community; nor yet do they forget that in the long run the only way to
help people is to make them help themselves. They are prepared to try
any properly guarded legislative remedy for ills which they believe
can be remedied; but they perceive clearly that it is both foolish and
wicked to teach the average man who is not well off that some wrong
or injustice has been done him, and that he should hope for redress
elsewhere than in his own industry, honesty, and intelligence.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[18] _Review of Reviews_, January, 1897.
[Illustration]
XI
THE MONROE DOCTRINE[19]
The Monroe Doctrine should not be considered from any purely academic
standpoint, but as a broad, general principle of living policy. It is
to be justified not by precedent merely, but by the needs of the nation
and the true interests of Western civilization. It, of course, adds
strength to our position at this moment to show that the action of the
national authorities is warranted by the actions of their predecessors
on like occasions in time past, and that the line of policy we are now
pursuing is that which has been pursued by all our statesmen of note
since the republic grew sufficiently powerful to make what it said
of weight in foreign affairs. But even if in time past we had been
as blind to the national honor and welfare as are the men who at the
present day champion the anti-American side of the Venezuelan question,
it would now be necessary for statesmen who were both far-sighted and
patriotic to enunciate the principles for which the Monroe Doctrine
stands. In other words, if the Monroe Doctrine did not already exist it
would be necessary forthwith to create it.
Let us first of all clear the question at issue by brushing away one
or two false objections. Lord Salisbury at first put in emphatic words
his refusal in any way to recognize the Monroe Doctrine as part of the
law of nations or as binding upon Great Britain. Most British statesmen
and publicists followed his lead; but recently a goodly number have
shown an inclination to acquiesce in the views of Lord Salisbury’s
colleague, Mr. Chamberlain, who announces, with bland indifference to
the expressed opinion of his nominal chief, that England does recognize
the existence of the Monroe Doctrine and never thought of ignoring it.
Lord Salisbury himself has recently shown symptoms of changing ground
and taking this position; while Mr. Balfour has gone still farther in
the right direction, and the Liberal leaders farther yet. It is not
very important to us how far Lord Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlain may
diverge in their views, although, of course, in the interests of the
English-speaking peoples and of peace between England and the United
States, we trust that Mr. Chamberlain’s position will be sustained
by Great Britain. But the attitude of our own people _is_ important,
and it would be amusing, were it not unpleasant, to see that many
Americans, whose Americanism is of the timid and flabby type, have
been inclined eagerly to agree with Lord Salisbury. A very able member
of the New York bar remarked the other day that he had not yet met the
lawyer who agreed with Secretary Olney as to the legal interpretation
of the Monroe Doctrine. This remark was chiefly interesting as showing
the lawyer’s own limitations. It would not have been made if he had
met the Justices of the Supreme Court, for instance; but even on the
unfounded supposition that his remark was well grounded, it would have
had little more significance than if he had said that he had not yet
met a dentist who agreed with Mr. Olney. The Monroe Doctrine is not a
question of law at all. It is a question of policy. It is a question
to be considered not only by statesmen, but by all good citizens.
Lawyers, as lawyers, have absolutely nothing whatever to say about it.
To argue that it cannot be recognized as a principle of international
law, is a mere waste of breath. Nobody cares whether it is or is not
so recognized, any more than any one cares whether the Declaration of
Independence and Washington’s farewell address are so recognized.
The Monroe Doctrine may be briefly defined as forbidding European
encroachment on American soil. It is not desirable to define it so
rigidly as to prevent our taking into account the varying degrees
of national interest in varying cases. The United States has not
the slightest wish to establish a universal protectorate over other
American States, or to become responsible for their misdeeds. If one
of them becomes involved in an ordinary quarrel with a European power,
such quarrel must be settled between them by any one of the usual
methods. But no European State is to be allowed to aggrandize itself
on American soil at the expense of any American State. Furthermore, no
transfer of an American colony from one European State to another is to
be permitted, if, in the judgment of the United States, such transfer
would be hostile to its own interests.
John Quincy Adams, who, during the presidency of Monroe, first clearly
enunciated the doctrine which bears his chief’s name, asserted it as
against both Spain and Russia. In the clearest and most emphatic terms
he stated that the United States could not acquiesce in the acquisition
of new territory within the limits of any independent American State,
whether in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, by any European
power. He took this position against Russia when Russia threatened
to take possession of what is now Oregon. He took this position as
against Spain when, backed by other powers of Continental Europe, she
threatened to reconquer certain of the Spanish-American States.
This is precisely and exactly the position the United States has now
taken in reference to England and Venezuela. It is idle to contend that
there is any serious difference in the application of the doctrine to
the two sets of questions. An American may, of course, announce his
opposition to the Monroe Doctrine, although by so doing he forfeits
all title to far-seeing and patriotic devotion to the interests of his
country. But he cannot argue that the Monroe Doctrine does not apply
to the present case, unless he argues that the Monroe Doctrine has no
existence whatsoever. In fact, such arguments are, on their face, so
absurd that they need no refutation, and can be relegated where they
belong--to the realm of the hair-splitting schoolmen. They have no
concern either for practical politicians or for historians with true
historic insight.
We have asserted the principles which underlie the Monroe Doctrine, not
only against Russia and Spain, but also against France, on at least two
different occasions. The last and most important was when the French
conquered Mexico and made it into an Empire. It is not necessary to
recall to any one the action of our Government in the matter as soon
as the Civil War came to an end. Suffice it to say that, under threat
of our interposition, the French promptly abandoned Maximilian, and
the latter’s Empire fell. Long before this, however, and a score of
years before the Doctrine was christened by the name Monroe even the
timid statesmen of the Jeffersonian era embodied its principle in
their protest against the acquisition of Louisiana, by France, from
Spain. Spain at that time held all of what is now the Great West.
France wished to acquire it. Our statesmen at once announced that they
would regard as hostile to America the transfer of the territory in
question from a weak to a strong European power. Under the American
pressure the matter was finally settled by the sale of the territory in
question to the United States. The principle which our statesmen then
announced was in kind precisely the same as that upon which we should
now act if Germany sought to acquire Cuba from Spain, or St. Thomas
from the Danes. In either of these events it is hardly conceivable that
the United States would hesitate to interfere, if necessary, by force
of arms; and in so doing the national authorities would undoubtedly
be supported by the immense majority of the American people, and,
indeed, by all save the men of abnormal timidity or abnormal political
short-sightedness.
Historically, therefore, the position of our representatives in the
Venezuelan question is completely justified. It cannot be attacked on
academic grounds. The propriety of their position is even more easily
defensible.
Primarily, our action is based on national self-interest. In other
words, it is patriotic. A certain limited number of persons are fond
of decrying patriotism as a selfish virtue, and strive with all their
feeble might to inculcate in its place a kind of milk-and-water
cosmopolitanism. These good people are never men of robust character or
of imposing personality, and the plea itself is not worth considering.
Some reformers may urge that in the ages’ distant future patriotism,
like the habit of monogamous marriage, will become a needless and
obsolete virtue; but just at present the man who loves other countries
as much as he does his own is quite as noxious a member of society as
the man who loves other women as much as he loves his wife. Love of
country is an elemental virtue, like love of home, or like honesty or
courage. No country will accomplish very much for the world at large
unless it elevates itself. The useful member of a community is the man
who first and foremost attends to his own rights and his own duties,
and who therefore becomes better fitted to do his share in the common
duties of all. The useful member of the brotherhood of nations is that
nation which is most thoroughly saturated with the national idea, and
which realizes most fully its rights as a nation and its duties to its
own citizens. This is in no way incompatible with a scrupulous regard
for the rights of other nations, or a desire to remedy the wrongs of
suffering peoples.
The United States ought not to permit any great military powers,
which have no foothold on this continent, to establish such foothold;
nor should they permit any aggrandizement of those who already have
possessions on the continent. We do not wish to bring ourselves to a
position where we shall have to emulate the European system of enormous
armies. Every true patriot, every man of statesman-like habit, should
look forward to the day when not a single European power will hold
a foot of American soil. At present it is not necessary to take the
position that no European power shall hold American territory; but it
certainly will become necessary, if the timid and selfish “peace at any
price” men have their way, and if the United States fails to check at
the outset European aggrandizement on this continent.
Primarily, therefore, it is to the interest of the citizens of the
United States to prevent the further colonial growth of European powers
in the Western Hemisphere. But this is also to the interest of all the
people of the Western Hemisphere. At best, the inhabitants of a colony
are in a cramped and unnatural state. At the worst, the establishment
of a colony prevents any healthy popular growth. Some time in the dim
future it may be that all the English-speaking peoples will be able
to unite in some kind of confederacy. However desirable this would
be, it is, under existing conditions, only a dream. At present the
only hope for a colony that wishes to attain full moral and mental
growth, is to become an independent State, or part of an independent
State. No English colony now stands on a footing of genuine equality
with the parent State. As long as the Canadian remains a colonist,
he remains in a position which is distinctly inferior to that of his
cousins, both in England and in the United States. The Englishman at
bottom looks down on the Canadian, as he does on any one who admits
his inferiority, and quite properly, too. The American, on the other
hand, with equal propriety, regards the Canadian with the good-natured
condescension always felt by the freeman for the man who is not free.
A funny instance of the English attitude toward Canada was shown
after Lord Dunraven’s inglorious _fiasco_ last September, when the
Canadian yachtsman, Rose, challenged for the America cup. The English
journals repudiated him on the express ground that a Canadian was not
an Englishman and not entitled to the privileges of an Englishman.
In their comments, many of them showed a dislike for Americans which
almost rose to hatred. The feeling they displayed for the Canadians was
not one of dislike. It was one of contempt.
Under the best of circumstances, therefore, a colony is in a false
position. But if the colony is in a region where the colonizing race
has to do its work by means of other inferior races the condition is
much worse. From the standpoint of the race little or nothing has been
gained by the English conquest and colonization of Jamaica. Jamaica has
merely been turned into a negro island, with a future, seemingly, much
like that of San Domingo. British Guiana, however well administered, is
nothing but a colony where a few hundred or few thousand white men hold
the superior positions, while the bulk of the population is composed
of Indians, Negroes, and Asiatics. Looked at through the vista of the
centuries, such a colony contains less promise of true growth than
does a State like Venezuela or Ecuador. The history of most of the
South American republics has been both mean and bloody; but there is
at least a chance that they may develop, after infinite tribulations
and suffering, into a civilization quite as high and stable as that of
such a European power as Portugal. But there is no such chance for
any tropical American colony owned by a Northern European race. It is
distinctly in the interest of civilization that the present States in
the two Americas should develop along their own lines, and however
desirable it is that many of them should receive European immigration,
it is highly undesirable that any of them should be under European
control.
So much for the general principles, and the justification, historically
and morally, of the Monroe Doctrine. Now take the specific case at
issue. Great Britain has a boundary dispute with Venezuela. She claims
as her own a territory which Venezuela asserts to be hers, a territory
which in point of size very nearly equals the Kingdom of Italy. Our
government, of course, cannot, if it wishes to remain true to the
traditions of the Monroe Doctrine submit to the acquisition by England
of such an enormous tract of territory, and it must therefore find out
whether the English claims are or are not well founded. It would, of
course, be preposterous to lay down the rule that no European power
should seize American territory which was not its own, and yet to
permit the power itself to decide the question of the ownership of
such territory. Great Britain refused to settle the question either by
amicable agreement with Venezuela or by arbitration. All that remained
for the United States, was to do what it actually did; that is, to try
to find out the facts for itself, by its own commission. If the facts
show England to be in the right, well and good. If they show England
to be in the wrong, we most certainly ought not to permit her to
profit, at Venezuela’s expense, by her own wrong-doing.
We are doing exactly what England would very properly do in a like
case. Recently, when the German Emperor started to interfere in the
Transvaal, England promptly declared her own “Monroe Doctrine” for
South Africa. We do not propose to see English filibusters try at
the expense of Venezuela the same policy which recently came to such
an ignominious end in the Transvaal, in a piece of weak, would-be
buccaneering, which, it is perhaps not unfair to say was fittingly
commemorated in the verse of the new poet-laureate.
It would be difficult to overestimate the good done in this country
by the vigorous course already taken by the national executive and
legislature in this matter. The lesson taught Lord Salisbury is one
which will not soon be forgotten by English statesmen. His position
is false, and is recognized as false by the best English statesmen
and publicists. If he does not consent to arrange the matter with
Venezuela, it will have to be arranged in some way by arbitration.
In either case, the United States gains its point. The only possible
danger of war comes from the action of the selfish and timid men
on this side of the water, who clamorously strive to misrepresent
American, and to mislead English, public opinion. If they succeed in
persuading Lord Salisbury that the American people will back down if
he presses them, they will do the greatest damage possible to both
countries, for they will render war, at some time in the future,
almost inevitable.
Such a war we would deplore; but it must be distinctly understood that
we would deplore it very much more for England’s sake than for our
own; for whatever might be the initial fortunes of the struggle, or
the temporary damage and loss to the United States, the mere fact that
Canada would inevitably be rent from England in the end would make the
outcome an English disaster.
We do not in any way seek to become the sponsor of the South American
States. England has the same right to protect her own subjects, or even
in exceptional cases to interfere to stop outrages in South America,
that we have to interfere in Armenia--and it is to be regretted that
our representatives do not see their way clear to interfere for
Armenia. But England should not acquire territory at the expense of
Venezuela any more than we should acquire it at the expense of Turkey.
The mention of Armenia brings up a peculiarly hypocritical plea which
has been advanced against us in this controversy. It has been solemnly
alleged that our action in Venezuela has hampered England in the East
and has prevented her interfering on behalf of Armenia. We do not
wish to indulge in recriminations, but when such a plea is advanced,
the truth, however unpleasant, must be told. The great crime of this
century against civilization has been the upholding of the Turk by
certain Christian powers. To England’s attitude in the Crimean War,
and after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, the present Armenian horror is
primarily due. Moreover, for six months before the Venezuelan question
arose England had looked on motionless while the Turks perpetrated on
their wretched subjects wrongs that would blast the memory of Attila.
We do not wish to be misunderstood. We have no feeling against England.
On the contrary, we regard her as being well in advance of the great
powers of Continental Europe, and we have more sympathy with her. In
general, her success tells for the success of civilization, and we wish
her well. But where her interests enlist her against the progress of
civilization and in favor of the oppression of other nationalities who
are struggling upward, our sympathies are immediately forfeited.
It is a matter of serious concern to every college man, and, indeed,
to every man who believes in the good effects of a liberal education,
to see the false views which seem to obtain among so many of the
leaders of educated thought, not only upon the Monroe Doctrine,
but upon every question which involves the existence of a feeling
of robust Americanism. Every educated man who puts himself out of
touch with the current of American thought, and who on conspicuous
occasions assumes an attitude hostile to the interest of America, is
doing what he can to weaken the influence of educated men in American
life. The crude, ill-conditioned jealousy of education, which is so
often and so lamentably shown by large bodies of our people, is
immensely stimulated by the action of those prominent educated men in
whom education seems to have destroyed the strong, virile virtues and
especially the spirit of Americanism.
No nation can achieve real greatness if its people are not both
essentially moral and essentially manly; both sets of qualities
are necessary. It is an admirable thing to possess refinement and
cultivation, but the price is too dear if they must be paid for at
the cost of the rugged fighting qualities which make a man able to do
a man’s work in the world, and which make his heart beat with that
kind of love of country which is shown not only in readiness to try
to make her civic life better, but also to stand up manfully for her
when her honor and influence are at stake in a dispute with a foreign
power. A heavy responsibility rests on the educated man. It is a double
discredit to him to go wrong, whether his shortcomings take the form of
shirking his every-day civic duties, or of abandonment of the nation’s
rights in a foreign quarrel. He must no more be misled by the sneers of
those who always write “patriotism” between inverted commas than by the
coarser, but equally dangerous, ridicule of the politicians who jeer
at “reform.” It is as unmanly to be taunted by one set of critics into
cowardice as it is to be taunted by the other set into dishonesty.
There are many upright and honorable men who take the wrong side,
that is, the anti-American side, of the Monroe Doctrine because they
are too short-sighted or too unimaginative to realize the hurt to
the nation that would be caused by the adoption of their views. There
are other men who take the wrong view simply because they have not
thought much of the matter, or are in unfortunate surroundings, by
which they have been influenced to their own moral hurt. There are yet
other men in whom the mainspring of the opposition to that branch of
American policy known as the Monroe Doctrine is sheer timidity. This is
sometimes the ordinary timidity of wealth. Sometimes, however, it is
peculiarly developed among educated men whose education has tended to
make them over-cultivated and over-sensitive to foreign opinion. They
are generally men who undervalue the great fighting qualities, without
which no nation can ever rise to the first rank.
The timidity of wealth is proverbial, and it was well illustrated by
the attitude taken by too many people of means at the time of the
Venezuela trouble. Many of them, including bankers, merchants, and
railway magnates, criticised the action of the President and the
Senate, on the ground that it had caused business disturbance. Such
a position is essentially ignoble. When a question of national honor
or of national right or wrong, is at stake, no question of financial
interest should be considered for a moment. Those wealthy men who wish
the abandonment of the Monroe Doctrine because its assertion may damage
their business, bring discredit to themselves, and, so far as they are
able, discredit to the nation of which they are a part.
It is an evil thing for any man of education to forget that education
should intensify patriotism, and that patriotism must not only be shown
by striving to do good to the country from within, but by readiness to
uphold its interests and honor, at any cost, when menaced from without.
Educated men owe to the community the serious performance of this duty.
We need not concern ourselves with the _emigré_ educated man, the
American who deliberately takes up his permanent abode abroad, whether
in London or Paris; he is usually a man of weak character, unfitted to
do good work either abroad or at home, who does what he can for his
country by relieving it of his presence. But the case is otherwise
with the American who stays at home, and tries to teach the youth of
his country to disbelieve in the country’s rights, as against other
countries, and to regard it as the sign of an enlightened spirit to
decry the assertion of those rights by force of arms. This man may be
inefficient for good; but he is capable at times of doing harm, because
he tends to make other people inefficient likewise. In our municipal
politics there has long been evident a tendency to gather in one group
the people who have no scruples, but who are very efficient, and in
another group the amiable people who are not efficient at all. This
is but one manifestation of the general and very unwholesome tendency
among certain educated people to lose the power of doing efficient
work as they acquire refinement. Of course in the long run a really
good education will give not only refinement, but also an increase of
power, and of capacity for efficient work. But the man who forgets that
a real education must include the cultivation of the fighting virtues
is sure to manifest this tendency to inefficiency. It is exhibited on
a national scale by the educated men who take the anti-American side
of international questions. There are exceptions to the rule; but as a
rule the healthy man, resolute to do the rough work of the world, and
capable of feeling his veins tingle with pride over the great deeds
of the men of his own nation, will naturally take the American side
of such a question as the Monroe Doctrine. Similarly, the anæmic man
of refinement and cultivation, whose intellect has been educated at
the expense of his character, and who shrinks from all these struggles
through which alone the world moves on to greatness, is inclined to
consider any expression of the Monroe Doctrine as truculent and ill
advised.
Of course, many strong men who are good citizens on ordinary occasions
take the latter view simply because they have been misled. The colonial
habit of thought dies hard. It is to be wished that those who are
cursed with it would, in endeavoring to emulate the ways of the old
world, endeavor to emulate one characteristic which has been shared
by every old-world nation, and which is possessed to a marked degree
by England. Every decent Englishman is devoted to his country, first,
last, and all the time. An Englishman may or may not dislike America,
but he is invariably for England and against America when any question
arises between them; and I heartily respect him for so being. Let our
own people of the partially colonial type copy this peculiarity and it
will be much to their credit.
The finest speech that for many years has been delivered by a college
man to other college men was that made last spring by Judge Holmes,
himself a gallant soldier of the Civil War, in that hall which Harvard
has erected to commemorate those of her sons who perished when the
North strove with the South. It should be graven on the heart of every
college man, for it has in it that lift of the soul toward things
heroic that makes the eyes burn and the veins thrill. It must be read
in its entirety, for no quotation could do justice to its fine scorn
of the mere money-maker, its lofty fealty to a noble ideal, and, above
all, its splendid love of country and splendid praise of the valor of
those who strive on stricken fields that the honor of their nation may
be upheld.
It is strange, indeed, that in a country where words like those of
Judge Holmes can be spoken, there should exist men who actually oppose
the building of a navy by the United States, nay, even more, actually
oppose so much as the strengthening of the coast defences, on the
ground that they prefer to have this country too feeble to resent
any insult, in order that it may owe its safety to the contemptuous
forbearance which it is hoped this feebleness will inspire in foreign
powers. No Tammany alderman, no venal legislator, no demagogue or
corrupt politician, ever strove more effectively than these men are
striving to degrade the nation and to make one ashamed of the name of
America. When we remember that among them there are college graduates,
it is a relief to remember that the leaders on the side of manliness
and of love of country are also college graduates. Every believer
in scholarship and in a liberal education, every believer in the
robust qualities of heart, mind, and body without which cultivation
and refinement are of no avail, must rejoice to think that, in the
present crisis, college men have been prominent among the leaders whose
far-sighted statesmanship and resolute love of country have made those
of us who are really Americans proud of the nation. Secretary Olney is
a graduate of Brown; Senator Lodge, who took the lead in the Senate on
this matter, is a graduate of Harvard; and no less than three members
of the Boundary Commission are graduates of Yale.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[19] The Bachelor of Arts, March, 1896.
[Illustration]
XII
WASHINGTON’S FORGOTTEN MAXIM[20]
A century has passed since Washington wrote “To be prepared for war is
the most effectual means to promote peace.” We pay to this maxim the
lip loyalty we so often pay to Washington’s words; but it has never
sunk deep into our hearts. Indeed of late years many persons have
refused it even the poor tribute of lip loyalty, and prate about the
iniquity of war as if somehow that was a justification for refusing to
take the steps which can alone in the long run prevent war or avert the
dreadful disasters it brings in its train. The truth of the maxim is
so obvious to every man of really far-sighted patriotism that its mere
statement seems trite and useless; and it is not over-creditable to
either our intelligence or our love of country that there should be,
as there is, need to dwell upon and amplify such a truism.
In this country there is not the slightest danger of an
over-development of warlike spirit, and there never has been any
such danger. In all our history there has never been a time when
preparedness for war was any menace to peace. On the contrary, again
and again we have owed peace to the fact that we were prepared for war;
and in the only contest which we have had with a European power since
the Revolution, the war of 1812, the struggle and all its attendant
disasters, were due solely to the fact that we were not prepared to
face, and were not ready instantly to resent, an attack upon our honor
and interest; while the glorious triumphs at sea which redeemed that
war were due to the few preparations which we had actually made. We are
a great peaceful nation; a nation of merchants and manufacturers, of
farmers and mechanics; a nation of workingmen, who labor incessantly
with head or hand. It is idle to talk of such a nation ever being led
into a course of wanton aggression or conflict with military powers by
the possession of a sufficient navy.
The danger is of precisely the opposite character. If we forget that
in the last resort we can only secure peace by being ready and willing
to fight for it, we may some day have bitter cause to realize that a
rich nation which is slothful, timid, or unwieldy is an easy prey for
any people which still retains those most valuable of all qualities,
the soldierly virtues. We but keep to the traditions of Washington,
to the traditions of all the great Americans who struggled for the
real greatness of America, when we strive to build up those fighting
qualities for the lack of which in a nation, as in an individual, no
refinement, no culture, no wealth, no material prosperity, can atone.
Preparation for war is the surest guaranty for peace. Arbitration is
an excellent thing, but ultimately those who wish to see this country
at peace with foreign nations will be wise if they place reliance upon
a first-class fleet of first-class battle-ships rather than on any
arbitration treaty which the wit of man can devise. Nelson said that
the British fleet was the best negotiator in Europe, and there was much
truth in the saying. Moreover, while we are sincere and earnest in our
advocacy of peace, we must not forget that an ignoble peace is worse
than any war. We should engrave in our legislative halls those splendid
lines of Lowell:
“Come, Peace! not like a mourner bowed
For honor lost and dear ones wasted,
But proud, to meet a people proud,
With eyes that tell of triumph tasted!”
Peace is a goddess only when she comes with sword girt on thigh. The
ship of state can be steered safely only when it is always possible to
bring her against any foe with “her leashed thunders gathering for the
leap.” A really great people, proud and high-spirited, would face all
the disasters of war rather than purchase that base prosperity which
is bought at the price of national honor. All the great masterful races
have been fighting races, and the minute that a race loses the hard
fighting virtues, then, no matter what else it may retain, no matter
how skilled in commerce and finance, in science or art, it has lost its
proud right to stand as the equal of the best. Cowardice in a race,
as in an individual, is the unpardonable sin, and a wilful failure to
prepare for danger may in its effects be as bad as cowardice. The timid
man who cannot fight, and the selfish, short-sighted, or foolish man
who will not take the steps that will enable him to fight, stand on
almost the same plane.
It is not only true that a peace may be so ignoble and degrading as
to be worse than any war; it is also true that it may be fraught with
more bloodshed than most wars. Of this there has been melancholy
proof during the last two years. Thanks largely to the very unhealthy
influence of the men whose business it is to speculate in the money
market, and who approach every subject from the financial standpoint,
purely; and thanks quite as much to the cold-blooded brutality and
calculating timidity of many European rulers and statesmen, the
peace of Europe has been preserved, while the Turk has been allowed
to butcher the Armenians with hideous and unmentionable barbarity,
and has actually been helped to keep Crete in slavery. War has been
averted at the cost of more bloodshed and infinitely more suffering and
degradation to wretched women and children than have occurred in any
European struggle since the days of Waterloo. No war of recent years,
no matter how wanton, has been so productive of horrible misery as the
peace which the powers have maintained during the continuance of the
Armenian butcheries. The men who would preach this peace, and indeed
the men who have preached universal peace in terms that have prepared
the way for such a peace as this, have inflicted a wrong on humanity
greater than could be inflicted by the most reckless and war-loving
despot. Better a thousand times err on the side of over-readiness
to fight, than to err on the side of tame submission to injury, or
cold-blooded indifference to the misery of the oppressed.
Popular sentiment is just when it selects as popular heroes the men who
have led in the struggle against malice domestic or foreign levy. No
triumph of peace is quite so great as the supreme triumphs of war. The
courage of the soldier, the courage of the statesman who has to meet
storms which can be quelled only by soldierly qualities--this stands
higher than any quality called out merely in time of peace. It is by no
means necessary that we should have war to develop soldierly attributes
and soldierly qualities; but if the peace we enjoy is of such a kind
that it causes their loss, then it is far too dearly purchased, no
matter what may be its attendant benefits. It may be that some time in
the dim future of the race the need for war will vanish; but that time
is yet ages distant. As yet no nation can hold its place in the world,
or can do any work really worth doing, unless it stands ready to guard
its rights with an armed hand. That orderly liberty which is both the
foundation and the capstone of our civilization can be gained and kept
only by men who are willing to fight for an ideal; who hold high the
love of honor, love of faith, love of flag, and love of country. It is
true that no nation can be really great unless it is great in peace; in
industry, integrity, honesty. Skilled intelligence in civic affairs and
industrial enterprises alike; the special ability of the artist, the
man of letters, the man of science, and the man of business; the rigid
determination to wrong no man, and to stand for righteousness--all
these are necessary in a great nation. But it is also necessary that
the nation should have physical no less than moral courage; the
capacity to do and dare and die at need, and that grim and steadfast
resolution which alone will carry a great people through a great peril.
The occasion may come at any instant when
“’Tis man’s perdition to be safe
When for the truth he ought to die.”
All great nations have shown these qualities. The Dutch held but a
little corner of Europe. Their industry, thrift, and enterprise in the
pursuits of peace and their cultivation of the arts helped to render
them great; but these qualities would have been barren had they not
been backed by those sterner qualities which rendered them able to
wrest their freedom from the cruel strength of Spain, and to guard it
against the banded might of England and of France. The merchants and
the artists of Holland did much for her; but even more was done by the
famished burghers who fought to the death on the walls of Harlem and
Leyden, and the great admirals who led their fleets to victory on the
broad and narrow seas.
England’s history is rich in splendid names and splendid deeds. Her
literature is even greater than that of Greece. In commerce she
has stood in the modern world as more than ever Carthage was when
civilization clustered in a fringe around the Mediterranean. But she
has risen far higher than ever Greece or Carthage rose, because she
possesses also the great, masterful qualities which were possessed
by the Romans who overthrew them both. England has been fertile in
soldiers and administrators; in men who triumphed by sea and by land;
in adventurers and explorers who won for her the world’s waste spaces;
and it is because of this that the English-speaking race now shares
with the Slav the fate of the coming years.
We of the United States have passed most of our few years of national
life in peace. We honor the architects of our wonderful material
prosperity; we appreciate the necessity of thrift, energy, and business
enterprise, and we know that even these are of no avail without the
civic and social virtues. But we feel, after all, that the men who
have dared greatly in war, or the work which is akin to war, are
those who deserve best of the country. The men of Bunker Hill and
Trenton, Saratoga and Yorktown, the men of New Orleans and Mobile
Bay, Gettysburg and Appomattox are those to whom we owe most. None
of our heroes of peace, save a few great constructive statesmen, can
rank with our heroes of war. The Americans who stand highest on the
list of the world’s worthies are Washington, who fought to found the
country which he afterward governed, and Lincoln, who saved it through
the blood of the best and bravest in the land; Washington, the soldier
and statesman, the man of cool head, dauntless heart, and iron will,
the greatest of good men and the best of great men; and Lincoln, sad,
patient, kindly Lincoln, who for four years toiled and suffered for the
people, and when his work was done laid down his life that the flag
which had been rent in sunder might once more be made whole and without
a seam.
It is on men such as these, and not on the advocates of peace at any
price, or upon those so short-sighted that they refuse to take into
account the possibility of war, that we must rely in every crisis which
deeply touches the true greatness and true honor of the Republic. The
United States has never once in the course of its history suffered harm
because of preparation for war, or because of entering into war. But
we have suffered incalculable harm, again and again, from a foolish
failure to prepare for war or from reluctance to fight when to fight
was proper. The men who to-day protest against a navy, and protest
also against every movement to carry out the traditional policy of the
country in foreign affairs, and to uphold the honor of the flag, are
themselves but following in the course of those who protested against
the acquisition of the great West, and who failed to make proper
preparations for the war of 1812, or refused to support it after it had
been made. They are own brothers to the men whose short-sightedness and
supine indifference prevented any reorganization of the _personnel_ of
the Navy during the middle of the century, so that we entered upon the
Civil War with captains seventy years old. They are close kin to the
men who, when the Southern States seceded, wished to let the Union be
disrupted in peace rather than restored through the grim agony of armed
conflict.
I do not believe that any considerable number of our citizens
are stamped with this timid lack of patriotism. There are some
_doctrinaires_ whose eyes are so firmly fixed on the golden vision of
universal peace that they cannot see the grim facts of real life until
they stumble over them, to their own hurt, and, what is much worse, to
the possible undoing of their fellows. There are some educated men in
whom education merely serves to soften the fibre and to eliminate the
higher, sterner qualities which tell for national greatness; and these
men prate about love for mankind, or for another country, as being in
some hidden way a substitute for love of their own country. What is
of more weight, there are not a few men of means who have made the
till their fatherland, and who are always ready to balance a temporary
interruption of money-making, or a temporary financial and commercial
disaster, against the self-sacrifice necessary in upholding the honor
of the nation and the glory of the flag.
But after all these people, though often noisy, form but a small
minority of the whole. They would be swept like chaff before the gust
of popular fury which would surely come if ever the nation really saw
and felt a danger or an insult. The real trouble is that in such a
case this gust of popular fury would come too late. Unreadiness for
war is merely rendered more disastrous by readiness to bluster; to
talk defiance and advocate a vigorous policy in words, while refusing
to back up these words by deeds, is cause for humiliation. It has
always been true, and in this age it is more than ever true, that it
is too late to prepare for war when the time for peace has passed. The
short-sightedness of many people, the good-humored indifference to
facts of others, the sheer ignorance of a vast number, and the selfish
reluctance to insure against future danger by present sacrifice among
yet others--these are the chief obstacles to building up a proper navy
and carrying out a proper foreign policy.
The men who opposed the war of 1812, and preferred to have the nation
humiliated by unresented insult from a foreign power rather than see
her suffer the losses of an honorable conflict, occupied a position
little short of contemptible; but it was not much worse than that of
the men who brought on the war and yet deliberately refused to make the
preparations necessary to carry it to a successful conclusion. The
visionary schemes for defending the country by gunboats, instead of by
a fleet of seagoing battle-ships; the refusal to increase the Navy to a
proper size; the determination to place reliance upon militia instead
of upon regularly trained troops; and the disasters which followed
upon each and every one of these determinations should be studied in
every school-book in the land so as to enforce in the minds of all our
citizens the truth of Washington’s adage, that in time of peace it is
necessary to prepare for war.
All this applied in 1812; but it applies with tenfold greater force
now. Then, as now, it was the Navy upon which the country had to depend
in the event of war with a foreign power; and then, as now, one of the
chief tasks of a wise and far-seeing statesmanship should have been the
upbuilding of a formidable fighting navy. In 1812 untold evils followed
from the failure to provide such a fighting navy; for the splendid
feats of our few cruisers merely showed what could have been done if we
had had a great fleet of battle-ships. But ships, guns, and men were
much more easily provided in time of emergency at the beginning of
this century than at the end. It takes months to build guns and ships
now, where it then took days, or at the most, weeks; and it takes far
longer now to train men to the management of the vast and complicated
engines with which war is waged. Therefore preparation is much more
difficult, and requires a much longer time; and yet wars are so much
quicker, they last so comparatively short a period, and can be begun
so instantaneously that there is very much less time than formerly in
which to make preparations.
No battle-ship can be built inside of two years under no matter what
stress of circumstances, for we have not in this country the plant to
enable us to work faster. Cruisers would take almost as long. Even
torpedo boats, the smallest of all, could not be put in first-class
form under ninety days. Guns available for use against a hostile
invader would require two or three months; and in the case of the
larger guns, the only ones really available for the actual shock of
battle, could not be made under eight months. Rifles and military
munitions of every kind would require a corresponding length of time
for preparation; in most cases we should have to build, not merely the
weapons we need, but the plant with which to make them in any large
quantity. Even if the enemy did not interfere with our efforts, which
they undoubtedly would, it would, therefore, take from three to six
months after the outbreak of a war, for which we were unprepared,
before we could in the slightest degree remedy our unreadiness. During
this six months it would be impossible to overestimate the damage that
could be done by a resolute and powerful antagonist. Even at the end of
that time we would only be beginning to prepare to parry his attack,
for it would be two years before we could attempt to return it. Since
the change in military conditions in modern times there has never been
an instance in which a war between any two nations has lasted more than
about two years. In most recent wars the operations of the first ninety
days have decided the result of the conflict. All that followed has
been a mere vain effort to strive against the stars in their courses by
doing at the twelfth hour what it was useless to do after the eleventh.
We must therefore make up our minds once for all to the fact that it
is too late to make ready for war when the fight has once begun. The
preparation must come before that. In the case of the Civil War none of
these conditions applied. In 1861 we had a good fleet, and the Southern
Confederacy had not a ship. We were able to blockade the Southern ports
at once, and we could improvise engines of war more than sufficient
to put against those of an enemy who also had to improvise them, and
who labored under even more serious disadvantages. The _Monitor_ was
got ready in the nick of time to meet the _Merrimac_, because the
Confederates had to plan and build the latter while we were planning
and building the former; but if ever we have to go to war with a modern
military power we shall find its Merrimacs already built, and it will
then be altogether too late to try to build Monitors to meet them.
If this point needs any emphasis surely the history of the war of
1812 applies to it. For twelve years before that war broke out even
the blindest could see that we were almost certain to be drawn
into hostilities with one or the other of the pair of combatants
whose battle royal ended at Waterloo. Yet we made not the slightest
preparation for war. The authorities at Washington contented themselves
with trying to build a flotilla of gunboats which could defend
our own harbors without making it necessary to take the offensive
ourselves. We already possessed a dozen first-class cruisers, but
not a battle-ship of any kind. With almost incredible folly the very
Congress that declared war voted down the bill to increase the Navy
by twenty battle-ships; though it was probably too late then, anyhow,
for even under the simpler conditions of that day such a fleet could
not have been built and put into first-class order in less than a
couple of years. Bitterly did the nation pay for its want of foresight
and forethought. Our cruisers won a number of striking victories,
heartening and giving hope to the nation in the face of disaster; but
they were powerless to do material harm to the gigantic naval strength
of Great Britain. Efforts were made to increase our little Navy, but in
the face of a hostile enemy already possessing command of the seas this
was impossible. Two or three small cruisers were built; but practically
almost all the fighting on the ocean was done by the handful of
frigates and sloops which we possessed when the war broke out. Not a
battle-ship was able to put to sea until after peace was restored.
Meanwhile our coast was blockaded from one end to the other and was
harried at will by the hostile squadrons. Our capital city was burned,
and the ceaseless pressure of the blockade produced such suffering
and irritation as nearly to bring about a civil war among ourselves.
If in the first decade of the present century the American people and
their rulers had possessed the wisdom to provide an efficient fleet of
powerful battle-ships there would probably have been no war of 1812;
and even if war had come, the immense loss to, and destruction of,
trade and commerce by the blockade would have been prevented. Merely
from the monetary standpoint the saving would have been incalculable;
and yet this would have been the smallest part of the gain.
It can therefore be taken for granted that there must be adequate
preparation for conflict, if conflict is not to mean disaster.
Furthermore, this preparation must take the shape of an efficient
fighting navy. We have no foe able to conquer or overrun our territory.
Our small army should always be kept in first-class condition, and
every attention should be paid to the National Guard; but neither on
the North nor the South have we neighbors capable of menacing us with
invasion or long resisting a serious effort on our part to invade them.
The enemies we may have to face will come from over sea; they may come
from Europe, or they may come from Asia. Events move fast in the West;
but this generation has been forced to see that they move even faster
in the oldest East. Our interests are as great in the Pacific as in the
Atlantic, in the Hawaiian Islands as in the West Indies. Merely for the
protection of our own shores we need a great navy; and what is more,
we need it to protect our interests in the islands from which it is
possible to command our shores and to protect our commerce on the high
seas.
In building this navy, we must remember two things: First, that our
ships and guns should be the very best of their kind; and second,
that no matter how good they are, they will be useless unless the
man in the conning tower and the man behind the guns are also the
best of their kind. It is mere folly to send men to perish because
they have arms with which they cannot win. With poor ships, were an
Admiral Nelson and Farragut rolled in one, he might be beaten by any
first-class fleet; and he surely would be beaten if his opponents were
in any degree his equals in skill and courage; but without this skill
and courage no perfection of material can avail, and with them very
grave shortcomings in equipment may be overcome. The men who command
our ships must have as perfect weapons ready to their hands as can be
found in the civilized world, and they must be trained to the highest
point in using them. They must have skill in handling the ships, skill
in tactics, skill in strategy, for ignorant courage can not avail; but
without courage neither will skill avail. They must have in them the
dogged ability to bear punishment, the power and desire to inflict it,
the daring, the resolution, the willingness to take risks and incur
responsibility which have been possessed by the great captains of all
ages, and without which no man can ever hope to stand in the front rank
of fighting men.
Tame submission to foreign aggression of any kind is a mean and
unworthy thing; but it is even meaner and more unworthy to bluster
first, and then either submit or else refuse to make those preparations
which can alone obviate the necessity for submission. I believe with
all my heart in the Monroe Doctrine, and, I believe also that the great
mass of the American people are loyal to it; but it is worse than idle
to announce our adherence to this doctrine and yet to decline to take
measures to show that ours is not mere lip loyalty. We had far better
submit to interference by foreign powers with the affairs of this
continent than to announce that we will not tolerate such interference,
and yet refuse to make ready the means by which alone we can prevent
it. In public as in private life, a bold front tends to insure peace
and not strife. If we possess a formidable navy, small is the chance
indeed that we shall ever be dragged into a war to uphold the Monroe
Doctrine. If we do not possess such a navy, war may be forced on us at
any time.
It is certain, then, that we need a first-class navy. It is equally
certain that this should not be merely a navy for defense. Our chief
harbors should, of course, be fortified and put in condition to
resist the attack of an enemy’s fleet; and one of our prime needs is
an ample force of torpedo boats to use primarily for coast defense.
But in war the mere defensive never pays, and can never result in
anything but disaster. It is not enough to parry a blow. The surest
way to prevent its repetition is to return it. No master of the prize
ring ever fought his way to supremacy by mere dexterity in avoiding
punishment. He had to win by inflicting punishment. If the enemy is
given the choice of time and place to attack, sooner or later he will
do irreparable damage, and if he is at any point beaten back, why,
after all, it is merely a repulse, and there are no means of following
it up and making it a rout. We cannot rely upon coast protection
alone. Forts and heavy land guns and torpedo boats are indispensable,
and the last, on occasion, may be used for offensive purposes also.
But in the present state of naval and military knowledge we must rely
mainly, as all great nations always have relied, on the battle-ship,
the fighting ship of the line. Gunboats and light cruisers serve an
excellent purpose, and we could not do without them. In time of peace
they are the police of the seas; in time of war they would do some
harrying of commerce, and a great deal of scouting and skirmishing; but
our main reliance must be on the great armored battle-ships with their
heavy guns and shot-proof vitals. In the last resort we most trust to
the ships whose business it is to fight and not to run, and who can
themselves go to sea and strike at the enemy when they choose, instead
of waiting peacefully to receive his blow when and where he deems it
best to deliver it. If in the event of war our fleet of battle-ships
can destroy the hostile fleet, then our coasts are safe from the menace
of serious attack; even a fight that ruined our fleet would probably so
shatter the hostile fleet as to do away with all chance of invasion;
but if we have no fleet wherewith to meet the enemy on the high seas,
or to anticipate his stroke by our own, then every city within reach of
the tides must spend men and money in preparation for an attack that
may not come, but which would cause crushing and irredeemable disaster
if it did come.
Still more is it necessary to have a fleet of great battle-ships if
we intend to live up to the Monroe Doctrine, and to insist upon its
observance in the two Americas and the islands on either side of them.
If a foreign power, whether in Europe or Asia, should determine to
assert its position in those lands wherein we feel that our influence
should be supreme, there is but one way in which we can effectively
interfere. Diplomacy is utterly useless where there is no force behind
it; the diplomat is the servant, not the master, of the soldier. The
prosperity of peace, commercial and material prosperity, gives no
weight whatever when the clash of arms comes. Even great naked strength
is useless if there is no immediate means through which that strength
can manifest itself. If we mean to protect the people of the lands who
look to us for protection from tyranny and aggression; if we mean to
uphold our interests in the teeth of the formidable Old World powers,
we can only do it by being ready at any time, if the provocation, is
sufficient, to meet them on the seas, where the battle for supremacy
must be fought. Unless we are prepared so to meet them, let us abandon
all talk of devotion to the Monroe Doctrine or to the honor of the
American name.
This nation cannot stand still if it is to retain its self-respect, and
to keep undimmed the honorable traditions inherited from the men who
with the sword founded it and by the sword preserved it. We ask that
the work of upbuilding the Navy, and of putting the United States where
it should be put among maritime powers, go forward without a break.
We ask this not in the interest of war, but in the interest of peace.
No nation should ever wage war wantonly, but no nation should ever
avoid it at the cost of the loss of national honor. A nation should
never fight unless forced to; but it should always be ready to fight.
The mere fact that it is ready will generally spare it the necessity
of fighting. If this country now had a fleet of twenty battle-ships
their existence would make it all the more likely that we should not
have war. It is very important that we should, as a race, keep the
virile fighting qualities and should be ready to use them at need;
but it is not at all important to use them unless there is need. One
of the surest ways to attain these qualities is to keep our Navy in
first-class trim. There never is, and never has been, on our part a
desire to use a weapon because of its being well-tempered. There is not
the least danger that the possession of a good navy will render this
country overbearing toward its neighbors. The direct contrary is the
truth.
An unmanly desire to avoid a quarrel is often the surest way to
precipitate one; and utter unreadiness to fight is even surer. If at
the time of our trouble with Chili, six years ago, we had not already
possessed the nucleus of the new navy we should almost certainly have
been forced into fighting, and even as it was trouble was only averted
because of the resolute stand then taken by the President and by the
officers of the Navy who were on the spot. If at that time the Chilians
had been able to get ready the battle-ship which was building for them,
a war would almost certainly have followed, for we had no battle-ship
to put against it.
If in the future we have war, it will almost certainly come because of
some action, or lack of action, on our part in the way of refusing to
accept responsibilities at the proper time, or failing to prepare for
war when war does not threaten. An ignoble peace is even worse than
an unsuccessful war; but an unsuccessful war would leave behind it a
legacy of bitter memories which would hurt our national development for
a generation to come. It is true that no nation could actually conquer
us, owing to our isolated position; but we would be seriously harmed,
even materially, by disasters that stopped far short of conquest; and
in these matters, which are far more important than things material,
we could readily be damaged beyond repair. No material loss can begin
to compensate for the loss of national self-respect. The damage to our
commercial interests by the destruction of one of our coast cities
would be as nothing compared to the humiliation which would be felt by
every American worthy of the name if we had to submit to such an injury
without amply avenging it. It has been finely said that “a gentleman
is one who is willing to lay down his life for little things”; that is
for those things which seem little to the man who cares only whether
shares rise or fall in value, and to the timid _doctrinaire_ who
preaches timid peace from his cloistered study.
Much of that which is best and highest in national character is made
up of glorious memories and traditions. The fight well fought, the
life honorably lived, the death bravely met--those count for more
in building a high and fine type of temper in a nation than any
possible success in the stock market, than any possible prosperity in
commerce or manufactures. A rich banker may be a valuable and useful
citizen, but not a thousand rich bankers can leave to the country
such a heritage as Farragut left, when, lashed in the rigging of
the _Hartford_, he forged past the forts and over the unseen death
below, to try his wooden stem against the ironclad hull of the great
Confederate ram. The people of some given section of our country may
be better off because a shrewd and wealthy man has built up therein a
great manufacturing business, or has extended a line of railroad past
its doors; but the whole nation is better, the whole nation is braver,
because Cushing pushed his little torpedo-boat through the darkness to
sink beside the sinking _Albemarle_.
Every feat of heroism makes us forever indebted to the man who
performed it. All daring and courage, all iron endurance of misfortune,
all devotion to the ideal of honor and the glory of the flag, make for
a finer and nobler type of manhood. It is not only those who do and
dare and endure that are benefited; but also the countless thousands
who are not themselves called upon to face the peril, to show the
strength, or to win the reward. All of us lift our heads higher because
those of our countrymen whose trade it is to meet danger have met it
well and bravely. All of us are poorer for every base or ignoble deed
done by an American, for every instance of selfishness or weakness or
folly on the part of the people as a whole. We are all worse off when
any of us fails at any point in his duty toward the State in time of
peace, or his duty toward the State in time of war. If ever we had to
meet defeat at the hands of a foreign foe, or had to submit tamely to
wrong or insult, every man among us worthy of the name of American
would feel dishonored and debased. On the other hand, the memory of
every triumph won by Americans, by just so much helps to make each
American nobler and better. Every man among us is more fit to meet the
duties and responsibilities of citizenship because of the perils over
which, in the past, the nation has triumphed; because of the blood
and sweat and tears, the labor and the anguish, through which, in the
days that have gone, our forefathers moved on to triumph. There are
higher things in this life than the soft and easy enjoyment of material
comfort. It is through strife, or the readiness for strife, that a
nation must win greatness. We ask for a great navy, partly because
we think that the possession of such a navy is the surest guaranty
of peace, and partly because we feel that no national life is worth
having if the nation is not willing, when the need shall arise, to
stake everything on the supreme arbitrament of war, and to pour out its
blood, its treasure, and its tears like water, rather than submit to
the loss of honor and renown.
In closing, let me repeat that we ask for a great navy, we ask for an
armament fit for the nation’s needs, not primarily to fight, but to
avert fighting. Preparedness deters the foe, and maintains right by the
show of ready might without the use of violence. Peace, like freedom,
is not a gift that tarries long in the hands of cowards, or of those
too feeble or too short-sighted to deserve it; and we ask to be given
the means to insure that honorable peace which alone is worth having.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[20] Address as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, before the Naval War
College, June, 1897.
[Illustration]
XIII
NATIONAL LIFE AND CHARACTER[21]
In _National Life and Character; a Forecast_, Mr. Charles H. Pearson,
late fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and sometime Minister of
Education in Victoria, has produced one of the most notable books of
the end of the century. Mr. Pearson is not always quite so careful as
he might be about his facts; many of the conclusions he draws from them
seem somewhat strained; and with much of his forecast most of us would
radically disagree. Nevertheless, no one can read this book without
feeling his thinking powers greatly stimulated; without being forced to
ponder problems of which he was previously wholly ignorant, or which he
but half understood; and without realizing that he is dealing with the
work of a man of lofty thought and of deep and philosophic insight into
the world-forces of the present.
Mr. Pearson belongs to the melancholy or pessimist school, which has
become so prominent in England during the last two or three decades,
and which has been represented there for half a century. In fact, the
note of despondency seems to be the dominant note among Englishmen
of high cultivation at the present time. It is as marked among their
statesmen and publicists as among their men of letters, Mr. Balfour
being particularly happy in his capacity to express in good English,
and with much genuine elevation of thought, a profound disbelief in
nineteenth century progress, and an equally profound distrust of the
future toward which we are all travelling.
For much of this pessimism and for many of the prophecies which it
evokes, there is no excuse whatsoever. There may possibly be good
foundation for the pessimism as to the future shown by men like Mr.
Pearson; but hitherto the writers of the stamp of the late “Cassandra”
Greg who have been pessimistic about the present, have merely betrayed
their own weakness or their own incapacity to judge contemporary
persons and events. The weakling, the man who cannot struggle with
his fellow-men and with the conditions that surround him, is very apt
to think these men and these conditions bad; and if he has the gift
of writing, he puts these thoughts down at some length on paper. Very
strong men, moreover, if of morose and dyspeptic temper, are apt to
rail at the present, and to praise the past simply because they do not
live in it. To any man who will consider the subject from a scientific
point of view, with a desire to get at the truth, it is needless to
insist on the fact that at no period of the world’s history has there
been so much happiness generally diffused among mankind as now.
At no period of the world’s history has life been so full of interest
and of possibilities of excitement and enjoyment as for us who live
in the latter half of the nineteenth century. This is not only true
as far as the working classes are concerned, but it is especially
true as regards the men of means, and above all of those men of means
who also possess brains and ambition. Never before in the world’s
history have there been such opportunities thrown open to men, in
the way of building new commonwealths, exploring new countries,
conquering kingdoms, and trying to adapt the governmental policy of
old nations to new and strange conditions. The half-century which is
now closing, has held out to the people who have dwelt therein, some
of the great prizes of history. Abraham Lincoln and Prince Bismarck
have taken their places among the world’s worthies. Mighty masters
of war have arisen in America, in Germany, in Russia; Lee and Grant,
Jackson and Farragut, Moltke, Skobeleff, and the Red Prince. The work
of the chiefs of mechanical and electrical invention has never been
equalled before, save perhaps by what was done in the first half of
this same century. Never before have there been so many opportunities
for commonwealth builders; new States have been pitched on the banks
of the Saskatchewan, the Columbia, the Missouri, and the Colorado, on
the seacoast of Australia, and in the interior of Central Africa.
Vast regions have been won by the sword. Burmah and Turkestan, Egypt
and Matabeleland, have rewarded the prowess of English and Russian
conquerors, exactly as, when the glory of Rome was at its height,
remote Mediterranean provinces furnished triumphs to the great military
leaders of the Eternal City. English administrators govern subject
empires larger than those conquered by Alexander. In letters no name
has been produced that will stand with the first half-dozen of all
literature, but there have been very many borne by men whose effect
upon the literatures of their own countries has been profound, and
whose works will last as long as the works of any men written in the
same tongues. In science even more has been done; Darwin has fairly
revolutionized thought; and many others stand but a step below him.
All this means only that the opportunities have been exceptionally
great for the men of exceptionally great powers; but they have also
been great for the men of ordinary powers. The workingman is, on
the whole, better fed, better clothed, better housed, and provided
with greater opportunities for pleasure and for mental and spiritual
improvement than ever before. The man with ability enough to become a
lawmaker has the fearful joy of grappling with problems as important
as any the administrators and legislators of the past had to face.
The ordinary man of adventurous tastes and a desire to get all out
of life that can be gotten, is beyond measure better off than were
his forefathers of one, two, or three centuries back. He can travel
round the world; he can dwell in any country he wishes; he can explore
strange regions; he can spend years by himself in the wilderness,
hunting great game; he can take part in a campaign here and there.
Withersoever his tastes lead him, he finds that he has far greater
capacity conferred upon him by the conditions of nineteenth-century
civilization to do something of note than ever a man of his kind had
before. If he is observant, he notes all around him the play of vaster
forces than have ever before been exerted, working, half blindly, half
under control, to bring about immeasurable results. He sees going
on before his eyes a great transfer of population and civilization,
which is making America north of the Rio Grande, and Australia,
English-speaking continents; which has filled Central and South America
with States of uncertain possibilities; which is creating for the first
time a huge Aryan nation across the entire north of Asia, and which
is working changes in Africa infinitely surpassing in importance all
those that have ever taken place there since the days when the Bantu
peoples first built their beehive huts on the banks of the Congo and
the Zambezi. Our century has teemed with life and interest.
Yet this is the very century at which Carlyle railed: and it is strange
to think that he could speak of the men at that very moment engaged
in doing such deeds, as belonging to a worn-out age. His vision was
clear to see the importance and the true bearing of England’s civil
war of the seventeenth century, and yet he remained mole-blind to
the vaster and more important civil war waged before his very eyes
in nineteenth-century America. The heroism of Naseby and Worcester
and Minden hid from him the heroism of Balaklava and Inkerman, of
Lucknow and Delhi. He could appreciate at their worth the campaigns
of the Seven Year’s War, and yet could hardly understand those waged
between the armies of the Potomac and of Northern Virginia. He was
fairly inspired by the fury and agony and terror of the struggle
at Kunnersdorf; and yet could not appreciate the immensely greater
importance of the death-wrestle that reeled round Gettysburg. His eyes
were so dazzled by the great dramas of the past that he could not see
the even greater drama of the present. It is but the bare truth to say
that never have the rewards been greater, never has there been more
chance for doing work of great and lasting value, than this last half
of the nineteenth century has offered alike to statesman and soldier,
to explorer and commonwealth-builder, to the captain of industry, to
the man of letters, and to the man of science. Never has life been more
interesting to each to take part in. Never has there been a greater
output of good work done both by the few and by the many.
Nevertheless, signs do not fail that we are on the eve of great
changes, and that in the next century we shall see the conditions of
our lives, national and individual, modified after a sweeping and
radical fashion. Many of the forces that make for national greatness
and for individual happiness in the nineteenth century will be
absent entirely, or will act with greatly diminished strength, in the
twentieth. Many of the forces that now make for evil will by that time
have gained greatly in volume and power. It is foolish to look at the
future with blind and careless optimism; quite as foolish as to gaze
at it only through the dun-colored mists that surround the preachers
of pessimism. It is always best to look facts squarely in the face,
without blinking them, and to remember that, as has been well said, in
the long run even the most uncomfortable truth is a safer companion
than the pleasantest falsehood.
Whether the future holds good or evil for us does not, it is true,
alter our duty in the present. We must stand up valiantly in the fight
for righteousness and wisdom as we see them, and must let the event
turn out as it may. Nevertheless, even though there is little use in
pondering over the future, most men of intelligence do ponder over it
at times, and if we think of it at all, it is well to think clearly.
Mr. Pearson writes a forecast of what he believes probably will, or at
least very possibly may, happen in the development of national life
and character during the era upon which we are now entering. He is a
man who has had exceptional advantages for his work; he has studied
deeply and travelled widely; he has been a diligent reader of books and
a keen observer of men. To a careful training in one of the oldest of
the world’s universities he has added long experience as an executive
officer in one of the world’s youngest commonwealths. He writes with
power and charm. His book is interesting in manner, and is still more
interesting in matter, for he has thought deeply and faithfully over
subjects of immense importance to the future of all the human race. He
possesses a mind of marked originality. Moreover, he always faithfully
tries to see facts as they actually are. He is, it seems to me, unduly
pessimistic; but he is not pessimistic of set purpose, nor does he
adopt pessimism as a cult. He tries hard, and often successfully, to
make himself see and to make himself state forces that are working for
good. We may or may not differ from him, but it behooves us, if we do,
to state our positions guardedly; for we are dealing with a man who has
displayed much research in getting at his facts and much honesty in
arriving at his rather melancholy conclusions.
The introduction to Mr. Pearson’s book is as readable as the chapters
that follow, and may best be considered in connection with the first
of these chapters, which is entitled “The Unchangeable Limits of the
Higher Races.” I am almost tempted to call this the most interesting
of the six chapters of the book, and yet one can hardly do so when
absorbed in reading any one of the other five. Mr. Pearson sees what
ought to be evident to every one, but apparently is not, that what
he calls the “higher races,” that is, the races that for the last
twenty-five hundred years (but, it must be remembered, only during the
last twenty-five hundred years) have led the world, can prosper only
under conditions of soil and climate analogous to those obtaining in
their old European homes. Speaking roughly, this means that they can
prosper only in the temperate zones, north and south.
Four hundred years ago the temperate zones, were very thinly peopled
indeed, while the tropical and sub-tropical regions were already
densely populated. The great feature in the world’s history for the
last four centuries has been the peopling of these vast, scantily
inhabited regions by men of the European stocks; notably by men
speaking English, but also by men speaking Russian and Spanish. During
the same centuries these European peoples have for the first time
acquired an enormous ascendency over all other races. Once before,
during the days of the Greco-Macedonian and Roman supremacy, European
peoples possessed a somewhat similar supremacy; but it was not nearly
as great, for at that period America and Australia were unknown, Africa
south of the Sahara was absolutely unaffected by either Roman or Greek,
and all but an insignificant portion of Asia was not only without the
pale of European influence, but held within itself immense powers of
menace to Europe, and contained old and peculiar civilizations, still
flourishing in their prime. All this has now been changed. Great
English-speaking nations have sprung up in America north of the Rio
Grande, and are springing up in Australia. The Russians, by a movement
which has not yet fired the popular imagination, but which all thinking
men recognize as of incalculable importance, are building a vast
State in northern Asia, stretching from the Yellow Sea to the Ural
Mountains. Tropical America is parcelled out among States partly of
European blood, and mainly European in thought, speech and religion;
while tropical Asia and Africa have been divided among European powers,
and are held in more or less complete subjection by their military
and civil agents. It is no wonder that men who are content to look
at things superficially, and who think that the tendencies that have
triumphed during the last two centuries are as immutable in their
workings as great natural laws, should speak as if it were a mere
question of time when the civilized peoples should overrun and occupy
the entire world, exactly as they now do Europe and North America.
Mr. Pearson points out with great clearness the groundlessness of
this belief. He deserves especial praise for discriminating between
the importance of ethnic, and of merely political, conquests. The
conquest by one country of another populous country always attracts
great attention at the time, and has wide momentary effects; but it
is of insignificant importance when compared with the kind of armed
settlement which causes new nations of an old stock to spring up in new
countries. The campaigns carried on by the lieutenants of Justinian
against Goth and Vandal, Bulgarian and Persian, seemed in the eyes
of civilized Europe at that time of incalculably greater moment than
the squalid warfare being waged in England between the descendants of
Low Dutch sea-thieves and the aboriginal British. Yet, in reality,
it was of hardly any consequence in history whether Belisarius did or
did not succeed in overthrowing the Ostrogoth merely to make room for
the Lombard, or whether the Vandal did or did not succumb to the Roman
instead of succumbing to the Saracen a couple of centuries later; while
it was of the most vital consequence to the whole future of the world
that the English should supplant the Welsh as masters of Britain.
Again, in our own day, the histories written of Great Britain during
the last century teem with her dealings with India, while Australia
plays a very insignificant part indeed; yet, from the standpoint of
the ages, the peopling of the great island-continent with men of the
English stock is a thousand fold more important than the holding
Hindoostan for a few centuries.
Mr. Pearson understands and brings out clearly that in the long
run a conquest must fail when it means merely the erection of an
insignificant governing caste. He shows clearly that the men of our
stock do not prosper in tropical countries. In the New World they leave
a thin strain of their blood among and impose their laws, language,
and forms of government on the aboriginal races, which then develop on
new and dimly drawn lines. In the Old World they fail to do even this.
In Asia they may leave a few tens of thousands or possibly hundreds of
thousands of Eurasians to form an additional caste in a caste-ridden
community. In tropical Africa they may leave here and there a mulatto
tribe like the Griquas. But it certainly has not yet been proved that
the European can live and propagate permanently in the hot regions of
India and Africa, and Mr. Pearson is right in anticipating for the
whites who have conquered these tropical and sub-tropical regions
of the Old World, the same fate which befell the Greek kingdoms in
Bactria and the Chersonese. The Greek rulers of Bactria were ultimately
absorbed and vanished, as probably the English rulers of India will
some day in the future--for the good of mankind, we sincerely hope and
believe the very remote future--themselves be absorbed and vanish.
In Africa south of the Zambezi (and possibly here and there on high
plateaus north of it,) there may remain white States, although even
these States will surely contain a large colored population, always
threatening to swamp the whites; but in tropical Africa generally,
it does not seem possible that any white State can ever be built up.
Doubtless for many centuries European adventurers and Arab raiders
will rule over huge territories in the country south of the Soudan
and north of the Tropic of Capricorn, and the whole structure, not
only social, but physical, of the negro and the negroid peoples will
be profoundly changed by their influence and by the influence of the
half-caste descendants of these European and Asiatic soldiers of
fortune and industry. But it is hardly possible to conceive that the
peoples of Africa, however ultimately changed, will be anything but
negroid in type of body and mind. It is probable that the change will
be in the direction of turning them into tribes like those of the
Soudan, with a similar religion and morality. It is almost impossible
that they will not in the end succeed in throwing off the yoke of the
European outsiders, though this end may be, and we hope will be, many
centuries distant. In America, most of the West Indies are becoming
negro islands. The Spaniard, however, because of the ease with which he
drops to a lower ethnic level, exerts a much more permanent influence
than the Englishman upon tropic aboriginal races; and the tropical
lands which the Spaniards and Portuguese once held, now contain, and
always will contain, races which, though different from the Aryan of
the temperate zone, yet bridge the gulf between him and the black, red,
and yellow peoples who have dwelt from time immemorial on both sides of
the equator.
Taking all this into consideration, therefore, it is most likely that a
portion of Mr. Pearson’s forecast, as regards the people of the tropic
zones, will be justified by events. It is impossible for the dominant
races of the temperate zones ever bodily to displace the peoples of
the tropics. It is highly probable that these people will cast off the
yoke of their European conquerors sooner or later, and will become
independent nations once more; though it is also possible that the
modern conditions of easy travel may permit the permanent rule in the
tropics of a vigorous northern race, renewed by a complete change every
generation.
Mr. Pearson’s further proposition is that these black, red, and yellow
nations, when thus freed, will threaten the dominance of the higher
peoples, possibly by military, certainly by industrial, rivalry, and
that the mere knowledge of the equality of these stocks will cow and
dispirit the higher races.
This part of his argument is open to very serious objections. In the
first place, Mr. Pearson entirely fails to take into account the
difference in character among the nationalities produced in the tropics
as the result of European conquest. In Asia, doubtless, the old races
now submerged by European predominance will reappear, profoundly
changed in themselves and in their relations to one another, but as
un-European as ever, and not appreciably affected by any intermixture
of European blood. In Africa, the native States will probably range
somewhere between the Portuguese half-caste and quarter-caste
communities now existing on certain of the tropic coasts, and pastoral
or agricultural communities, with a Mohammedan religious cult and
Asiatic type of government, produced by the infusion of a conquering
semitic or hamitic caste on a conquered negro people. There may be a
dominant caste of European blood in some of these States, but that
is all. In tropical America, the change has already taken place.
The States that there exist will not materially alter their form.
It is possible that here and there populations of Chinese, pure or
half-caste, or even of coolies, may spring up; but taken as a whole,
these States will be in the future what they are now, that is, they
will be by blood partly white, but chiefly Indian or negro, with
their language, law, religion, literature, and governmental system
approaching those of Europe and North America.
Suppose that what Mr. Pearson foresees comes to pass, and that the
black and yellow races of the world attain the same independence
already achieved by the mongrel reddish race. Mr. Pearson thinks
that this will expose us to two dangers. The first is that of actual
physical distress caused by the competition of the teeming myriads
of the tropics, or perhaps by their invasion of the Temperate zones.
Mr. Pearson himself does not feel any very great anxiety about this
invasion assuming a military type, and I think that even the fear he
does express is unwarranted by the facts. He is immensely impressed by
the teeming population of China. He thinks that the Chinese will some
day constitute the dominant portion of the population, both politically
and numerically, in the East Indies, New Guinea, and Farther India. In
this he is probably quite right; but such a change would merely mean
the destruction or submersion of Malay, Dyak, and Papuan and would be
of hardly any real consequence to the white man. He further thinks
that the Chinese may jeopardize Russia in Asia. Here I am inclined to
think he is wrong. As far as it is possible to judge in the absence of
statistics, the Chinaman at present is not increasing relatively as
fast as the Slav and the Anglo-Saxon. Half a century or so more will
put both of them within measurable distance of equality with him, even
in point of numbers. The movement of population in China is toward the
south, not the north; the menace is real for the English and French
protectorates in the south; in the north the difficulty hitherto has
been to keep Russian settlers from crossing the Chinese frontier. When
the great Trans-Siberian railroad is built, and when a few millions
more of Russian settlers stretch from the Volga to the valley of the
Amoor, the danger of a military advance by the Chinese against Asiatic
Russia will be entirely over, even granting that it now exists. The
Chinaman never has been, and probably never will be, such a fighter as
Turk or Tartar, and he would have to possess an absolutely overwhelming
superiority of numbers to give him a chance in a war of aggression
against a powerful military race. As yet, he has made no advance
whatever towards developing an army capable of offensive work against
European foes. In China there are no roads; the military profession
is looked down on; Chinese troops would be formidable only under a
European leader, and a European leader would be employed only from dire
necessity; that is to repel, not to undertake an invasion. Moreover,
China is merely an aggregate of provinces with a central knot at Pekin;
and Pekin could be taken at any time by a small trained army. China
will not menace Siberia until after undergoing some stupendous and
undreamed-of internal revolution. It is scarcely within the bounds of
possibility to conceive of the Chinaman expelling the European settler
from lands in which that settler represents the bulk of a fairly thick
population, not merely a small intrusive caste. It is, of course,
always possible that in the far-distant future (though there is no
sign of it now) China may travel on the path of Japan, may change her
policy, may develop fleets and armies; but if she does do this, there
is no reason why this fact should stunt and dwarf the people of the
higher races. In Elizabeth’s day the Turkish fleets and armies stood
towards those of European powers in a far higher position than those of
China, or of the tropics generally, can ever hope to stand in relation
to the peoples of the Temperate zones; and yet this did not hinder
the Elizabethan Age from being one of great note both in the field of
thought and in the field of action.
The anticipation of what might happen if India became solidified seems
even more ill-founded. Here Mr. Pearson’s position is that the very
continuance of European rule, doing away with war and famine, produces
an increase of population and a solidity of the country, which will
enable the people to overthrow that European rule. He assumes that the
solidified and populous country will continue to remain such after the
overthrow of the Europeans, and will be capable of deeds of aggression;
but, of course, such an assumption is contrary to all probabilities.
Once the European rule was removed, famine and internecine war would
again become chronic, and India would sink back to her former place.
Moreover, the long continuance of British rule undoubtedly weakens the
warlike fibre of the natives, and makes the usurer rather than the
soldier the dominant type.
The danger to which Mr. Pearson alludes, that even the negro peoples
may in time become vast military powers, constituting a menace to
Europe, really seems to belong to a period so remote that every
condition will have changed to a degree rendering it impossible for us
to make any estimate in reference thereto. By that time the descendant
of the negro may be as intellectual as the Athenian. Even prophecy must
not look too many thousand years ahead. It is perfectly possible that
European settlements in Africa will be swamped some time by the rising
of natives who outnumber them a hundred or a thousand to one, but it is
not possible that the negroes will form a military menace to the people
of the north, at least for a space of time longer than that which now
separates us from the men of the River Drift. The negroid peoples,
the so-called “hamatic,” and bastard semitic, races of eastern middle
Africa are formidable fighters; but their strength is not fit for any
such herculean tasks.
There is much more reason to fear the industrial competition of these
races; but even this will be less formidable as the power of the State
increases and especially as the democratic idea obtains more and more
currency. The Russians are not democratic at all, but the State is very
powerful with them; and therefore they keep the Chinese out of their
Siberian provinces, which are being rapidly filled up with a population
mainly Slav, the remainder of which is being Slavicized. From the
United States and Australia the Chinaman is kept out because the
democracy, with much clearness of vision, has seen that his presence is
ruinous to the white race.
Nineteenth century democracy needs no more complete vindication for its
existence than the fact that it has kept for the white race the best
portions of the new worlds’ surface, temperate America and Australia.
Had these regions been under aristocratic governments, Chinese
immigration would have been encouraged precisely as the slave trade is
encouraged of necessity by any slave-holding oligarchy, and the result
would in a few generations have been even more fatal to the white race;
but the democracy, with the clear instinct of race selfishness, saw the
race foe, and kept out the dangerous alien. The presence of the negro
in our Southern States is a legacy from the time when we were ruled
by a trans-oceanic aristocracy. The whole civilization of the future
owes a debt of gratitude greater than can be expressed in words to that
democratic policy which has kept the temperate zones of the new and the
newest worlds a heritage for the white people.
As for the industrial competition, the Chinaman and the Hindoo may
drive certain kinds of white traders from the tropics; but more than
this they cannot do. They can never change the status of the white
laborer in his own home, for the latter can always protect himself, and
as soon as he is seriously menaced, always will protect himself, by
protective tariffs and stringent immigration laws.
Mr. Pearson fears that when once the tropic races are independent, the
white peoples will be humiliated and will lose heart: but this does not
seem inevitable, and indeed seems very improbable. If the Englishman
should lose his control over South Africa and India, it might indeed be
a serious blow to the Englishman of Britain; though it may be well to
remember that the generation of Englishmen which grew up immediately
after England had lost America, accomplished feats in arms, letters,
and science such as, on the whole, no other English generation ever
accomplished. Even granting that Britain were to suffer as Mr. Pearson
thinks she would, the enormous majority of the English-speaking
peoples, those whose homes are in America and Australia, would be
absolutely unaffected; and Continental Europe would be little more
affected than it was when the Portuguese and Dutch successively saw
their African and Indian empires diminish. France has not been affected
by the expulsion of the French from Hayti; nor have the freed negroes
of Hayti been capable of the smallest aggressive movement. No American
or Australian cares in the least that the tan-colored peoples of Brazil
and Ecuador now live under governments of their own instead of being
ruled by viceroys from Portugal and Spain; and it is difficult to see
why they should be materially affected by a similar change happening in
regard to the people along the Ganges or the upper Nile. Even if China
does become a military power on the European model, this fact will
hardly affect the American and Australian at the end of the twentieth
century more than Japan’s effort to get admitted to the circle of
civilized nations has affected us at the end of the nineteenth.
Finally, it must be borne in mind that if any one of the tropical races
ever does reach a pitch of industrial and military prosperity which
makes it a menace to European and American countries, it will almost
necessarily mean that this nation has itself become civilized in the
process; and we shall then simply be dealing with another civilized
nation of non-aryan blood, precisely as we now deal with Magyar, Fin,
and Basque, without any thought of their being ethnically distinct from
Croat, Rouman, or Wend.
In Mr. Pearson’s second chapter he deals with the stationary order
of society, and strives to show that while we are all tending toward
it, some nations, notably France, have practically come to it. He
adds that when this stationary state is reached, it will produce
general discouragement, and will probably affect the intellectual
energy of the people concerned. He further points out that our races
now tend to change from faith in private enterprises to faith in
State organizations, and that this is likely to diminish the vigorous
originality of any race. He even holds that we already see the
beginning of a decadence, in the decline of speculative thought, and
still more in the way of mechanical inventions. It is perfectly true
that the _laissez-faire_ doctrine of the old school of political
economists is receiving, less and less favor; but after all, if we
look at events historically, we see that every race, as it has grown
to civilized greatness, has used the power of the State more and more.
A great State cannot rely on mere unrestricted individualism, any more
than it can afford to crush out all individualism. Within limits, the
mercilessness of private commercial warfare must be curbed as we have
curbed the individual’s right of private war proper. It was not until
the power of the State had become great in England, and until the
lawless individualism of feudal times had vanished, that the English
people began that career of greatness which has put them on a level
with the Greeks in point of intellectual achievement, and with the
Romans in point of that material success which is measured by extension
through settlement, by conquest, by triumphant warcraft and statecraft.
As for Mr. Pearson’s belief that we now see a decline in speculative
thought and in mechanical invention, all that can be said is that the
facts do not bear him out.
There is one side to this stationary state theory which Mr. Pearson
scarcely seems to touch. He points out with emphasis the fact, which
most people are prone to deny, that the higher orders of every society
tend to die out; that there is a tendency, on the whole, for both lower
classes and lower civilizations to increase faster than the higher.
Taken in the rough, his position on this point is undoubtedly correct.
Progressive societies, and the most progressive portions of society,
fail to increase as fast as the others, and often positively decrease.
The great commanders, great statesmen, great poets, great men of
science of any period taken together do not average as many children
who reach years of maturity as a similar number of mechanics, workmen,
and farmers, taken at random. Nevertheless, society progresses,
the improvement being due mainly to the transmission of acquired
characters, a process which in every civilized State operates so
strongly as to counterbalance the operation of that baleful law of
natural selection which tells against the survival of some of the most
desirable classes. Mr. Balfour, by the way, whose forecast for the race
is in some respects not unlike Mr. Pearson’s, seems inclined to adopt
the view that acquired characteristics cannot be inherited; a position
which, even though supported by a few eminent names, is hardly worthy
serious refutation.
The point I wish to dwell upon here, however, is that it is precisely
in those castes which have reached the stationary state, or which
are positively diminishing in numbers, that the highest culture
and best training, the keenest enjoyment of life, and the greatest
power of doing good to the community, are to be found at present.
Unquestionably, no community that is actually diminishing in numbers
is in a healthy condition: and as the world is now, with huge waste
places still to fill up, and with much of the competition between the
races reducing itself to the warfare of the cradle, no race has any
chance to win a great place unless it consists of good breeders as well
as of good fighters. But it may well be that these conditions will
change in the future, when the other changes to which Mr. Pearson looks
forward with such melancholy, are themselves brought about. A nation
sufficiently populous to be able to hold its own against aggression
from without, a nation which, while developing the virtues of
refinement, culture, and learning, has yet not lost those of courage,
bold initiative, and military hardihood, might well play a great part
in the world, even though it had come to that stationary state already
reached by the dominant castes of thinkers and doers in most of the
dominant races.
In Mr. Pearson’s third chapter he dwells on some of the dangers of
political development, and in especial upon the increase of the town
at the expense of the country, and upon the growth of great standing
armies. Excessive urban development undoubtedly does constitute a real
and great danger. All that can be said about it is that it is quite
impossible to prophesy how long this growth will continue. Moreover,
some of the evils, as far as they really exist, will cure themselves.
If towns-people do, generation by generation, tend to become stunted
and weak, then they will die out, and the problem they cause will
not be permanent; while on the other hand, if the cities can be made
healthy, both physically and morally, the objections to them must
largely disappear. As for standing armies, Mr. Pearson here seems to
have too much thought of Europe only. In America and Australia there
is no danger of the upgrowing of great standing armies: and, as he well
shows, the fact that every citizen must undergo military training, is
by no means altogether a curse to the nations of Continental Europe.
There is one point, by the way, although a small point, where it
may be worth while to correct Mr. Pearson’s statement of a fact.
In dwelling on what is undoubtedly the truth, that raw militia are
utterly incompetent to make head against trained regular forces,
he finds it necessary to explain away the defeat at New Orleans.
In doing this, he repeats the story as it has been told by British
historians from Sir Archibald Alison to Goldwin Smith. I hasten to
say that the misstatement is entirely natural on Mr. Pearson’s part;
he was simply copying, without sufficiently careful investigation,
the legend adopted by one side to take the sting out of defeat. The
way he puts it is that six thousand British under Pakenham, without
artillery, were hurled against strong works defended by twice their
numbers, and were beaten, as they would have been beaten had the works
been defended by almost any troops in the world. In the first place,
Pakenham did not have six thousand men; he had almost ten thousand. In
the second place, the Americans, instead of being twice as numerous as
the British, were but little more than half as numerous. In the third
place, so far from being without artillery, the British were much
superior to the Americans in this respect. Finally, they assailed a
position very much less strong than that held by Soult when Wellington
beat him at Toulouse with the same troops which were defeated by
Jackson at New Orleans. The simple truth is that Jackson was a very
good general, and that he had under him troops whom he had trained in
successive campaigns against Indians and Spaniards, and that on the
three occasions when he brought Pakenham to battle--that is, the night
attack, the great artillery duel, and the open assault--the English
soldiers, though they fought with the utmost gallantry, were fairly and
decisively beaten.
This one badly-chosen premise does not, however, upset Mr. Pearson’s
conclusions. Plenty of instances can be taken from our war of 1812 to
show how unable militia are to face trained regulars; and an equally
striking example was that afforded at Castlebar, in Ireland, in 1798,
when a few hundred French regulars attacked with the bayonet and drove
in headlong flight from a very strong position, defended by a powerful
artillery, five times their number of English, Scotch, and Irish
militia.
In Mr. Pearson’s fourth chapter he deals, from a very noble standpoint,
with some advantages of national feeling. With this chapter and with
his praise of patriotism, and particularly of that patriotism which
attaches itself to the whole country, and not to any section of it, we
can only express our hearty agreement.
In his fifth chapter, on “The Decline of the Family” he sets forth,
or seems to set forth, certain propositions with which I must as
heartily disagree. He seems to lament the change which is making the
irresponsible despot as much of an anomaly in the family as in the
State. He seems to think that this will weaken the family. It may do
so, in some instances, exactly as the abolition of a despotism may
produce anarchy; but the movement is essentially as good in one case as
in the other. To all who have known really happy family lives, that is
to all who have known or have witnessed the greatest happiness which
there can be on this earth, it is hardly necessary to say that the
highest ideal of the family is attainable only where the father and
mother stand to each other as lovers and friends, with equal rights.
In these homes the children are bound to father and mother by ties of
love, respect, and obedience, which are simply strengthened by the fact
that they are treated as reasonable beings with rights of their own,
and that the rule of the household is changed to suit the changing
years, as childhood passes into manhood and womanhood. In such a home
the family is not weakened; it is strengthened. This is no unattainable
ideal. Every one knows hundreds of homes where it is more or less
perfectly realized, and it is an ideal incomparably higher than the
ideal of the beneficent autocrat which it has so largely supplanted.
The final chapter of Mr. Pearson’s book is entitled “The Decay of
Character.” He believes that our world is becoming a world with less
adventure and energy, less brightness and hope. He believes that
all the great books have been written, all the great discoveries
made, all the great deeds done. He thinks that the adoption of State
socialism in some form will crush out individual merit and the higher
kinds of individual happiness. Of course, as to this, all that can
be said is that men differ as to what will be the effect of the
forces whose working he portrays, and that most of us who live in the
American democracy do not agree with him. It is to the last degree
improbable that State socialism will ever be adopted in its extreme
form, save in a few places. It exists, of course, to a certain extent
wherever a police force and a fire department exist; and the sphere
of the State’s action may be vastly increased without in any way
diminishing the happiness of either the many or the few. It is even
conceivable that a combination of legislative enactments and natural
forces may greatly reduce the inequalities of wealth without in any
way diminishing the real power of enjoyment or power for good work of
what are now the favored classes. In our own country the best work
has always been produced by men who lived in castes or social circles
where the standard of essential comfort was high; that is, where men
were well clothed, well fed, well housed, and had plenty of books and
the opportunity of using them; but where there was small room for
extravagant luxury. We think that Mr. Pearson’s fundamental error
here is his belief that the raising of the mass necessarily means
the lowering of the standard of life for the fortunate few. Those of
us who now live in communities where the native American element is
largest and where there is least inequality of conditions, know well
that there is no reason whatever in the nature of things why, in the
future, communities should not spring up where there shall be no great
extremes of poverty and wealth, and where, nevertheless, the power of
civilization and the chances for happiness and for doing good work
shall be greater than ever before.
As to what Mr. Pearson says about the work of the world which is best
worth doing being now done, the facts do not bear him out. He thinks
that the great poems have all been written, that the days of the drama
and the epic are past. Yet one of the greatest plays that has ever been
produced, always excepting the plays of Shakespeare, was produced in
this century; and if the world had to wait nearly two thousand years
after the vanishing of the Athenian dramatists before Shakespeare
appeared, and two hundred years more before Goethe wrote his one great
play, we can well afford to suspend judgment for a few hundred years
at least, before asserting that no country and no language will again
produce another great drama. So it is with the epic. We are too near
Milton, who came three thousand years after Homer, to assert that the
centuries to come will never more see an epic. One race may grow feeble
and decrepit and be unable to do any more work; but another may take
its place. After a time the Greek and Latin writers found that they
had no more to say; and a critic belonging to either nationality might
have shaken his head and said that all the great themes had been used
up and all the great ideas expressed; nevertheless, Dante, Cervantes,
Molière, Schiller, Chaucer, and Scott, then all lay in the future.
Again, Mr. Pearson speaks of statecraft at the present day as offering
fewer prizes, and prizes of less worth than formerly, and as giving no
chance for the development of men like Augustus Cæsar, Richelieu, or
Chatham. It is difficult to perceive how these men can be considered
to belong to a different class from Bismarck, who is yet alive; nor do
we see why any English-speaking people should regard a statesman like
Chatham, or far greater that Chatham, as an impossibility nowadays or
in the future. We Americans at least will with difficulty be persuaded
that there has ever been a time when a nobler prize of achievement,
suffering, and success was offered to any statesman than was offered
both to Washington and to Lincoln. So, when Mr. Pearson speaks of the
warfare of civilized countries offering less chance to the individual
than the warfare of savage and barbarous times, and of its being far
less possible now than in old days for a man to make his personal
influence felt in warfare, we can only express our disagreement. No
world-conqueror can arise save in or next to highly civilized States.
There never has been a barbarian Alexander or Cæsar, Hannibal or
Napoleon. Sitting Bull and Rain-in-the-Face compare but ill with Von
Moltke; and no Norse king of all the heroic viking age even so much as
began to exercise the influence upon the warfare of his generation
that Frederick the Great exercised on his.
It is not true that character of necessity decays with the growth of
civilization. It may, of course, be true in some cases. Civilization
may tend to develop upon the lines of Byzantine, Hindoo, and Inca; and
there are sections of Europe and sections of the United States where we
now tend to pay heed exclusively to the peaceful virtues and to develop
only a race of merchants, lawyers, and professors, who will lack the
virile qualities that have made our race great and splendid. This
development may come, but it need not come necessarily, and, on the
whole, the probabilities are against its coming at all.
Mr. Pearson is essentially a man of strength and courage. Looking into
the future, the future seems to him gray and unattractive; but he
does not preach any unmanly gospel of despair. He thinks that in time
to come, though life will be freer than in the past from dangers and
vicissitudes, yet it will contain fewer of the strong pleasures and
of the opportunities for doing great deeds that are so dear to mighty
souls. Nevertheless, he advises us all to front it bravely whether
our hope be great or little; and he ends his book with these fine
sentences: “Even so, there will still remain to us ourselves. Simply to
do our work in life, and to abide the issue, if we stand erect before
the eternal calm as cheerfully as our fathers faced the eternal unrest,
may be nobler training for our souls than the faith in progress.”
We do not agree with him that there will be only this eternal calm to
face; we do not agree with him that the future holds for us a time when
we shall ask nothing from the day but to live, nor from the future but
that we may not deteriorate. We do not agree with him that there is a
day approaching when the lower races will predominate in the world and
the higher races will have lost their noblest elements. But after all,
it matters little what view we take of the future if, in our practice,
we but do as he preaches, and face resolutely whatever fate may have in
store. We, ourselves, are not certain that progress is assured; we only
assert that it may be assured if we but live wise, brave, and upright
lives. We do not know whether the future has in store for us calm or
unrest. We cannot know beyond peradventure whether we can prevent the
higher races from losing their nobler traits and from being overwhelmed
by the lower races. On the whole, we think that the greatest victories
are yet to be won, the greatest deeds yet to be done, and that there
are yet in store for our peoples and for the causes that we uphold
grander triumphs than have ever yet been scored. But be this as it may,
we gladly agree that the one plain duty of every man is to face the
future as he faces the present, regardless of what it may have in store
for him, and, turning toward the light as he sees the light, to play
his part manfully, as a man among men.
FOOTNOTES:
[21] _The Sewanee Review_, August, 1894.
[Illustration]
XIV
“SOCIAL EVOLUTION”[22]
Mr. Kidd’s _Social Evolution_ is a suggestive, but a very crude
book; for the writer is burdened by a certain mixture of dogmatism
and superficiality, which makes him content to accept half truths
and insist that they are whole truths. Nevertheless, though the book
appeals chiefly to minds of the kind which are uncharitably described
as “half-baked,” Mr. Kidd does suggest certain lines of thought which
are worth following--though rarely to his conclusions.
He deserves credit for appreciating what he calls “the outlook.” He
sketches graphically, and with power, the problems which now loom up
for settlement before all of us who dwell in Western lands; and he
portrays the varying attitudes of interest, alarm, and hope with which
the thinkers and workers of the day regard these problems. He points
out that the problems which now face us are by no means parallel to
those that were solved by our forefathers one, two, or three centuries
ago. The great political revolutions seem to be about complete and the
time of the great social revolutions has arrived. We are all peering
eagerly into the future to try to forecast the action of the great dumb
forces set in operation by the stupendous industrial revolution which
has taken place during the present century. We do not know what to make
of the vast displacements of population, the expansion of the towns,
the unrest and discontent of the masses, and the uneasiness of those
who are devoted to the present order of things.
Mr. Kidd sees these problems, but he gropes blindly when he tries to
forecast their solution. He sees that the progress of mankind in past
ages can only have been made under and in accordance with certain
biological laws, and that these laws continue to work in human society
at the present day. He realizes the all-importance of the laws which
govern the reproduction of mankind from generation to generation,
precisely as they govern the reproduction of the lower animals, and
which, therefore, largely govern his progress. But he makes a cardinal
mistake in treating of this kind of progress. He states with the
utmost positiveness that, left to himself, man has not the slightest
innate tendency to make any onward progress whatever, and that if the
conditions of life allowed each man to follow his own inclinations
the average of one generation would always tend to sink below the
average of the preceding. This is one of the sweeping generalizations
of which Mr. Kidd is fond, and which mar so much of his work. He
evidently finds great difficulty in stating a general law with the
proper reservations and with the proper moderation of phrase; and so
he enunciates as truths statements which contain a truth, but which
also contain a falsehood. What he here says is undoubtedly true of the
world, taken as a whole. It is in all probability entirely false of the
highest sections of society. At any rate, there are numerous instances
where the law he states does not work; and of course a single instance
oversets a sweeping declaration of such a kind.
There can be but little quarrel with what Mr. Kidd says as to the
record of the world being a record of ceaseless progress on the one
hand, and ceaseless stress and competition on the other; although even
here his statement is too broad, and his terms are used carelessly.
When he speaks of progress being ceaseless, he evidently means by
progress simply change, so that as he uses the word it must be
understood to mean progress backward as well as forward. As a matter
of fact, in many forms of life and for long ages there is absolutely
no progress whatever and no change, the forms remaining practically
stationary.
Mr. Kidd further points out that the first necessity for every
successful form engaged in this struggle is the capacity for
reproduction beyond the limits for which the conditions of life
comfortably provide, so that competition and selection must not only
always accompany progress, but must prevail in every form of life
which is not actually retrograding. As already said, he accepts without
reservation the proposition that if all the individuals of every
generation in any species were allowed to propagate their kind equally,
the average of each generation would tend to fall below the preceding.
From this position he draws as a corollary, that the wider the limits
of selection, the keener the rivalry and the more rigid the selection,
just so much greater will be the progress; while for any progress at
all there must be some rivalry in selection, so that every progressive
form must lead a life of continual strain and stress as it travels
its upward path. This again is true in a measure, but is not true as
broadly as Mr. Kidd has stated it. The rivalry of natural selection
is but one of the features in progress. Other things being equal, the
species where this rivalry is keenest will make most progress; but then
“other things” never are equal. In actual life those species make most
progress which are farthest removed from the point where the limits
of selection are very wide, the selection itself very rigid, and the
rivalry very keen. Of course the selection is most rigid where the
fecundity of the animal is greatest; but it is precisely the forms
which have most fecundity that have made least progress. Some time in
the remote past the guinea pig and the dog had a common ancestor. The
fecundity of the guinea pig is much greater than that of the dog. Of a
given number of guinea pigs born, a much smaller proportion are able
to survive in the keen rivalry, so that the limits of selection are
wider, and the selection itself more rigid; nevertheless the progress
made by the progenitors of the dog since eocene days has been much
more marked and rapid than the progress made by the progenitors of the
guinea pig in the same time.
Moreover, in speaking of the rise that has come through the stress of
competition in our modern societies, and of the keenness of this stress
in the societies that have gone fastest, Mr. Kidd overlooks certain
very curious features in human society. In the first place he speaks
as though the stress under which nations make progress was primarily
the stress produced by multiplication beyond the limits of subsistence.
This, of course, would mean that in progressive societies the number of
births and the number of deaths would both be at a maximum, for it is
where the births and deaths are largest that the struggle for life is
keenest. If, as Mr. Kidd’s hypothesis assumes, progress was most marked
where the struggle for life was keenest, the European peoples standing
highest in the scale would be the South Italians, the Polish Jews, and
the people who live in the congested districts of Ireland. As a matter
of fact, however, these are precisely the peoples who have made least
progress when compared with the dominant strains among, for instance,
the English or Germans. So far is Mr. Kidd’s proposition from being
true that, when studied in the light of the facts, it is difficult to
refrain from calling it the reverse of the truth. The race existing
under conditions which make the competition for bare existence keenest,
never progresses as fast as the race which exists under less stringent
conditions. There must undoubtedly be a certain amount of competition,
a certain amount of stress and strain, but it is equally undoubted that
if this competition becomes too severe the race goes down and not up;
and it is further true that the race existing under the severest stress
as regards this competition often fails to go ahead as fast even in
population as does the race where the competition is less severe. No
matter how large the number of births may be, a race cannot increase if
the number of deaths also grows at an accelerating rate.
To increase greatly a race must be prolific, and there is no curse
so great as the curse of barrenness, whether for a nation or an
individual. When a people gets to the position even now occupied by the
mass of the French and by sections of the New Englanders, where the
death rate surpasses the birth rate, then that race is not only fated
to extinction but it deserves extinction. When the capacity and desire
for fatherhood and motherhood is lost the race goes down, and should go
down; and we need to have the plainest kind of plain speaking addressed
to those individuals who fear to bring children into the world. But
while this is all true, it remains equally true that immoderate
increase in no way furthers the development of a race, and does not
always help its increase even in numbers. The English-speaking peoples
during the past two centuries and a half have increased faster than any
others, yet there have been many other peoples whose birth rate during
the same period has stood higher.
Yet, again, Mr. Kidd, in speaking of the stress of the conditions
of progress in our modern societies fails to see that most of the
stress to which he refers does not have anything to do with increased
difficulty in obtaining a living, or with the propagation of the
race. The great prizes are battled for among the men who wage no war
whatever for mere subsistence, while the fight for mere subsistence is
keenest among precisely the classes which contribute very little indeed
to the progress of the race. The generals and admirals, the poets,
philosophers, historians and musicians, the statesmen and judges, the
law-makers and law-givers, the men of arts and of letters, the great
captains of war and of industry--all these come from the classes where
the struggle for the bare means of subsistence is least severe, and
where the rate of increase is relatively smaller than in the classes
below. In civilized societies the rivalry of natural selection works
against progress. Progress is made in spite of it, for progress results
not from the crowding out of the lower classes by the upper, but on the
contrary from the steady rise of the lower classes to the level of the
upper, as the latter tend to vanish, or at most barely hold their own.
In progressive societies it is often the least fit who survive; but, on
the other hand, they and their children often tend to grow more fit.
The mere statement of these facts is sufficient to show not only how
incorrect are many of Mr. Kidd’s premises and conclusions, but also how
unwarranted are some of the fears which he expresses for the future.
It is plain that the societies and sections of societies where the
individual’s happiness is on the whole highest, and where progress
is most real and valuable, are precisely these where the grinding
competition and the struggle for mere existence is least severe.
Undoubtedly in every progressive society there must be a certain
sacrifice of individuals, so that there must be a certain proportion of
failures in every generation; but the actual facts of life prove beyond
shadow of doubt that the extent of this sacrifice has nothing to do
with the rapidity or worth of the progress. The nations that make most
progress may do so at the expense of ten or fifteen individuals out of
a hundred, whereas the nations that make least progress, or even go
backwards, may sacrifice almost every man out of the hundred.
This last statement is in itself partly an answer to the position taken
by Mr. Kidd, that there is for the individual no “rational sanction”
for the conditions of progress. In a progressive community, where the
conditions provide for the happiness of four-fifths or nine-tenths
of the people, there is undoubtedly a rational sanction for progress
both for the community at large and for the great bulk of its members;
and if these members are on the whole vigorous and intelligent, the
attitude of the smaller fraction who have failed will be a matter
of little consequence. In such a community the conflict between the
interests of the individual and the organism of which he is a part,
upon which Mr. Kidd lays so much emphasis, is at a minimum. The stress
is severest, the misery and suffering greatest, among precisely
the communities which have made least progress--among the Bushmen,
Australian black fellows, and root-digger Indians, for instance.
Moreover, Mr. Kidd does not define what he means by “rational
sanction.” Indeed one of his great troubles throughout is his failure
to make proper definitions, and the extreme looseness with which he
often uses the definitions he does make. Apparently by “rational” he
means merely selfish, and proceeds upon the assumption that “reason”
must always dictate to every man to do that which will give him the
greatest amount of individual gratification at the moment, no matter
what the cost may be to others or to the community at large. This
is not so. Side by side with the selfish development in life there
has been almost from the beginning a certain amount of unselfish
development too; and in the evolution of humanity the unselfish side
has, on the whole, tended steadily to increase at the expense of the
selfish, notably in the progressive communities about whose future
development Mr. Kidd is so ill at ease. A more supreme instance of
unselfishness than is afforded by motherhood cannot be imagined;
and when Mr. Kidd implies, as he does very clearly, that there is
no rational sanction for the unselfishnsess of motherhood, for the
unselfishness of duty, or loyalty, he merely misuses the word rational.
When a creature has reached a certain stage of development it will
cause the female more pain to see her offspring starve than to work
for it, and she then has a very rational reason for so working. When
humanity has reached a certain stage it will cause the individual more
pain, a greater sense of degradation and shame and misery, to steal,
to murder, or to lie, than to work hard and suffer discomfort. When
man has reached this stage he has a very rational sanction for being
truthful and honest. It might also parenthetically be stated that when
he has reached this stage he has a tendency to relieve the sufferings
of others, and he has for this course the excellent rational sanction
that it makes him more uncomfortable to see misery unrelieved than it
does to deny himself a little in order to relieve it.
However, we can cordially agree with Mr. Kidd’s proposition that many
of the social plans advanced by would-be reformers in the interest of
oppressed individuals are entirely destructive of all growth and of
all progress in society. Certain cults, not only Christian, but also
Buddhistic and Brahminic, tend to develop an altruism which is as
“supra-natural” as Mr. Kidd seemingly desires religion to be; for it
really is without foundation in reason, and therefore to be condemned.
Mr. Kidd repeats again and again that the scientific development of
the nineteenth century confronts us with the fact that the interests
of the social organism and of the individual are, and must remain,
antagonistic, and the latter predominant, and that there can never be
found any sanction in individual reason for individual good conduct in
societies where the conditions of progress prevail. From what has been
said above it is evident that this statement is entirely without basis,
and therefore that the whole scheme of mystic and highly irrational
philosophy which he founds upon it at once falls to the ground. There
is no such necessary antagonism as that which he alleges. On the
contrary, in the most truly progressive societies, even now, for the
great mass of the individuals composing them the interests of the
social organism and of the individual are largely identical instead of
antagonistic; and even where this is not true, there is a sanction of
individual reason, if we use the word _reason_ properly, for conduct on
the part of the individual which is subordinate to the welfare of the
general society.
We can measure the truth of his statements by applying them, not to
great societies in the abstract, but to small social organisms in the
concrete. Take for instance the life of a regiment or the organization
of a police department or fire department. The first duty of a
regiment is to fight, and fighting means the death and disabling of
a large proportion of the men in the regiment. The case against the
identity of interests between the individual and the organism, as put
by Mr. Kidd, would be far stronger in a regiment than in any ordinary
civilized society of the day. Yet as a matter of fact we know that in
the great multitude of regiments there is much more subordination of
the individual to the organism than is the case in any civilized state
taken as a whole. Moreover, this subordination is greatest in precisely
those regiments where the average individual is best off, because it
is greatest in those regiments where the individual feels that high,
stern pride in his own endurance and suffering, and in the great name
of the organism of which he forms a part, that in itself yields one of
the loftiest of all human pleasures. If Mr. Kidd means anything when
he says that there is no rational sanction for progress he must also
mean that there is no rational sanction for a soldier not flinching
from the enemy when he can do so unobserved, for a sentinel not leaving
his post, for an officer not deserting to the enemy. Yet when he says
this he utters what is a mere jugglery on words. In the process of
evolution men and societies have often reached such a stage that the
best type of soldier or citizen feels infinitely more shame and misery
from neglect of duty, from cowardice or dishonesty, from selfish
abandonment of the interests of the organism of which he is part, than
can be offset by the gratification of any of his desires. This, be it
also observed, often takes place, entirely independent of any religious
considerations. The habit of useful self-sacrifice may be developed by
civilization in a great society as well as by military training in a
regiment. The habit of useless self-sacrifice may also, unfortunately,
be developed; and those who practice it are but one degree less
noxious than the individuals who sacrifice good people to bad.
The religious element in our development is that on which Mr. Kidd most
strongly dwells, entitling it “the central feature of human history.” A
very startling feature of his treatment is that in religious matters he
seemingly sets no value on the difference between truth and falsehood,
for he groups all religions together. In a would-be teacher of ethics
such an attitude warrants severe rebuke; for it is essentially
dishonest and immoral. Throughout his book he treats all religious
beliefs from the same standpoint, as if they were all substantially
similar and substantially of the same value; whereas it is, of course,
a mere truism to say that most of them are mutually destructive. Not
only has he no idea of differentiating the true from the false, but he
seems not to understand that the truth of a particular belief is of any
moment. Thus he says, in speaking of the future survival of religious
beliefs in general, that the most notable result of the scientific
revolution begun by Darwin must be “to establish them on a foundation
as broad, deep, and lasting as any the theologians ever dreamed of.” If
this sentence means anything it means that all these religious beliefs
will be established on the same foundation. It hardly seems necessary
to point out that this cannot be the fact. If the God of the Christians
be in very truth the one God, and if the belief in Him be established,
as Christians believe it will, then the foundation for the religious
belief in Mumbo Jumbo can be neither broad, deep, nor lasting. In the
same way the beliefs in Mohammed and Buddha are mutually exclusive,
and the various forms of ancestor worship and fetichism cannot all be
established on a permanent basis, as they would be according to Mr.
Kidd’s theory.
Again, when Mr. Kidd rebukes science for its failure to approach
religion in a scientific spirit he shows that he fails to grasp the
full bearing of the subject which he is considering. This failure
comes in part from the very large, not to say loose, way in which he
uses the words “science” and “religion.” There are many sciences and
many religions, and there are many different kinds of men who profess
the one or advocate the other. Where the intolerant professors of a
given religious belief endeavor by any form of persecution to prevent
scientific men of any kind from seeking to find out and establish
the truth, then it is quite idle to blame these scientific men for
attacking with heat and acerbity the religious belief which prompts
such persecution. The exigencies of a life and death struggle unfit
a man for the coldness of a mere scientific inquiry. Even the most
enthusiastic naturalist, if attacked by a man-eating shark, would
be much more interested in evading or repelling the attack than in
determining the precise specific relations of the shark. A less
important but amusing feature of his argument is that he speaks as if
he himself had made an entirely new discovery when he learned of the
important part played in man’s history by his religious beliefs. But
Mr. Kidd surely cannot mean this. He must be aware that all the great
historians have given their full importance to such religious movements
as the birth and growth of Christianity, the Reformation, the growth of
Islamism, and the like. Mr. Kidd is quite right in insisting upon the
importance of the part played by religious beliefs, but he has fallen
into a vast error if he fails to understand that the great majority of
the historical and sociological writers have given proper weight to
this importance.
Mr. Kidd’s greatest failing is his tendency to use words in false
senses. He uses “reason” in the false sense “selfish.” He then, in a
spirit of mental tautology, assumes that reason must be necessarily
purely selfish and brutal. He assumes that the man who risks his life
to save a friend, the woman who watches over a sick child, and the
soldier who dies at his post, are unreasonable, and that the more their
reason is developed the less likely they will be to act in these ways.
The mere statement of the assertion in such a form is sufficient to
show its nonsense to any one who will take the pains to think whether
the people who ordinarily perform such feats of self-sacrifice and
self-denial are people of brutish minds or of fair intelligence.
If none of the ethical qualities are developed at the same time with
a man’s reason, then he may become a peculiarly noxious kind of wild
beast; but this is not in the least a necessity of the development of
his reason. It would be just as wise to say that it was a necessity
of the development of his bodily strength. Undoubtedly the man with
reason who is selfish and unscrupulous will, because of his added
power, behave even worse than the man without reason who is selfish
and unscrupulous; but the same is true of the man of vast bodily
strength. He has power to do greater harm to himself and to others;
but, because of this, to speak of bodily strength or of reason as in
itself “profoundly anti-social and anti-evolutionary” is foolishness.
Mr. Kidd, as so often, is misled by a confusion of names for which he
is himself responsible. The growth of rationalism, unaccompanied by any
growth in ethics or morality, works badly. The society in which such a
growth takes place will die out, and ought to die out. But this does
not imply that other communities quite as intelligent may not also be
deeply moral and be able to take firm root in the world.
Mr. Kidd’s definitions of “supra-natural” and “ultra-rational”
sanctions, the definitions upon which he insists so strongly and at
such length, would apply quite as well to every crazy superstition
of the most brutal savage as to the teachings of the New Testament.
The trouble with his argument is that, when he insists upon the
importance of this ultra-rational sanction, defining it as loosely as
he does, he insists upon too much. He apparently denies that men can
come to a certain state at which it will be rational for them to do
right even to their own hurt. It is perfectly possible to build up
a civilization which, by its surroundings and by its inheritances,
working through long ages, shall make the bulk of the men and women
develop such characteristics of unselfishness, as well as of wisdom,
that it will be the rational thing for them as individuals to act in
accordance with the highest dictates of honor and courage and morality.
If the intellectual development of such a civilized community goes on
at an equal pace with the ethical, it will persistently war against
the individuals in whom the spirit of selfishness, which apparently
Mr. Kidd considers the only rational spirit, shows itself strongly.
It will weed out these individuals and forbid them propagating, and
therefore will steadily tend to produce a society in which the rational
sanction for progress shall be identical in the individual and the
State. This ideal has never yet been reached, but long steps have been
taken towards reaching it; and in most progressive civilizations it
is reached to the extent that the sanction for progress is the same
not only for the State but for each one of the bulk of the individuals
composing it. When this ceases to be the case progress itself will
generally cease and the community ultimately disappear.
Mr. Kidd, having treated of religion in a preliminary way, and with
much mystic vagueness, then attempts to describe the functions of
religious belief in the evolution of society. He has already given
definitions of religion quoted from different authors, and he now
proceeds to give his own definition. But first he again insists
upon his favorite theory, that there can be no rational basis for
individual good conduct in society, using the word rational, according
to his usual habit, as a synonym of selfish; and then asserts that
there can be no such thing as a rational religion. Apparently all
that Mr. Kidd demands on this point is that it shall be what he calls
ultra-rational, a word which he prefers to irrational. In other words
he casts aside as irrelevant all discussion as to a creed’s truth.
Mr. Kidd then defines religion as being “a form of belief providing
an ultra-rational sanction for that large class of conduct in the
individual where his interests and the interests of the social organism
are antagonistic, and by which the former are rendered subordinate
to the latter in the general interest of the evolution which the
race is undergoing,” and says that we have here the principle at the
base of all religions. Of course this is simply not true. All those
religions which busy themselves exclusively with the future life, and
which even Mr. Kidd could hardly deny to be religious, do not have
this principle at their base at all. They have nothing to do with the
general interests of the evolution which the race is undergoing on this
earth. They have to do only with the soul of the individual in the
future life. They are not concerned with this world, they are concerned
with the world to come. All religions, and all forms of religions, in
which the principle of asceticism receives any marked development are
positively antagonistic to the development of the social organism.
They are against its interests. They do not tend in the least to
subordinate the interests of the individual to the interests of the
organism “in the general interest of the evolution which the race is
undergoing.” A religion like that of the Shakers means the almost
immediate extinction of the organism in which it develops. Such a
religion distinctly subordinates the interests of the organism to the
interests of the individual. The same is equally true of many of the
more ascetic developments of Christianity and Islam. There is strong
probability that there was a Celtic population in Iceland before the
arrival of the Norsemen, but these Celts belonged to the Culdee sect
of Christians. They were anchorites, and professed a creed which
completely subordinated the development of the race on this earth to
the well-being of the individual in the next. In consequence they died
out and left no successors. There are creeds, such as most of the
present day creeds of Christianity, both Protestant and Catholic, which
do very noble work for the race because they teach its individuals to
subordinate their own interests to the interests of mankind; but it is
idle to say this of every form of religious belief.
It is equally idle to pretend that this principle, which Mr. Kidd says
lies at the base of all religions, does not also lie at the base of
many forms of ethical belief which could hardly be called religious.
His definition of religion could just as appropriately be used to
define some forms of altruism or humanitarianism, while it does not
define religion at all, if we use the word religion in the way in
which it generally is used. If Mr. Kidd should write a book about
horses, and should define a horse as a striped equine animal found wild
in South Africa, his definition would apply to certain members of the
horse family, but would not apply to that animal which we ordinarily
mean when we talk of a horse; and, moreover, it would still be
sufficiently loose to include two or three entirely distinct species.
This is precisely the trouble with Mr. Kidd’s definition of religion.
It does not define religion at all as the word is ordinarily used, and
while it does apply to certain religious beliefs, it also applies quite
as well to certain non-religious beliefs. We must, therefore, recollect
that throughout Mr. Kidd’s argument on behalf of the part that religion
plays he does not mean what is generally understood by religion, but
the special form or forms which he here defines.
Undoubtedly, in the race for life, that group of beings will tend
ultimately to survive in which the general feeling of the members,
whether due to humanitarianism, to altruism, or to some form of
religious belief proper, is such that the average individual has an
unselfish--what Mr. Kidd would call an ultra-rational--tendency to
work for the ultimate benefit of the community as a whole. Mr. Kidd’s
argument is so loose that it may be construed as meaning that, in
the evolution of society, irrational superstitions grow up from time
to time, affect large bodies of the human race in their course of
development, and then die away; and that this succession of evanescent
religious beliefs will continue for a very long time to come, perhaps
as long as the human race exists. He may further mean that, except
for this belief in a long succession of lies, humanity could not go
forward. His words, I repeat, are sufficiently involved to make it
possible that he means this, but, if so, his book can hardly be taken
as a satisfactory defence of religion.
If there is justification for any given religion, and justification for
the acceptance of supernatural authority as regards this religion, then
there can be no justification for the acceptance of all religions, good
and bad alike. There can, at the outside, be a justification for but
one or two. Mr. Kidd’s grouping of all religions together is offensive
to every earnest believer. Moreover, in his anxiety to insist only on
the irrational side of religion, he naturally tends to exalt precisely
those forms of superstition which are most repugnant to reasoning
beings with moral instincts, and which are most heartily condemned by
believers in the loftiest religions. He apparently condemns Lecky for
what Lecky says of that species of unpleasant and noxious anchorite
best typified by St. Simeon Stylites and the other pillar hermits. He
corrects Lecky for his estimate of this ideal of the fourth century,
and says that instead of being condemned it should be praised, as
affording striking evidence and example of the vigor of the immature
social forces at work. This is not true. The type of anchorite of
which Mr. Lecky speaks with such just condemnation flourished most
rankly in Christian Africa and Asia Minor, the very countries where
Christianity was so speedily overthrown by Islam. It was not an example
of the vigor of the immature social forces at work; on the contrary,
it was a proof that those social forces were rotten and had lost their
vigor. Where an anchorite of the type Lecky describes, and Mr. Kidd
impliedly commends, was accepted as the true type of the church, and
set the tone for religious thought, the church was corrupt, and was
unable to make any effective defence against the scarcely baser form of
superstition which received its development in Islamism. As a matter
of fact, asceticism of this kind had very little in common with the
really vigorous and growing part of European Christianity, even at that
time. Such asceticism is far more closely related to the practices of
some loathsome Mohammedan dervish than to any creed which has properly
developed from the pure and lofty teachings of the Four Gospels. St.
Simeon Stylites is more nearly kin to a Hindoo fakir than to Phillips
Brooks or Archbishop Ireland.
Mr. Kidd deserves praise for insisting as he does upon the great
importance of the development of humanitarian feelings and of the
ethical element in humanity during the past few centuries, when
compared with the mere material development. He is, of course, entirely
right in laying the utmost stress upon the enormous part taken by
Christianity in the growth of Western civilization. He would do well
to remember, however, that there are other elements than that of merely
ceremonial Christianity at work, and that such ceremonial Christianity
in other races produces quite different results, as he will see at
a glance, if he will recall that Abyssinia and Hayti are Christian
countries.
In short, whatever Mr. Kidd says in reference to religion must be
understood as being strictly limited by his own improper terminology.
If we should accept the words religion and religious belief in their
ordinary meaning, and should then accept as true what he states, we
should apparently have to conclude that progress depended largely upon
the fervor of the religious spirit, without regard to whether the
religion itself was false or true. If such were the fact, progress
would be most rapid in a country like Morocco, where the religious
spirit is very strong indeed, far stronger than in any enlightened
Christian country, but where, in reality, the religious development
has largely crushed out the ethical and moral development, so that
the country has gone steadily backward. A little philosophic study
would convince Mr. Kidd that while the ethical and moral development
of a nation may, in the case of certain religions, be based on those
religions and develop with them and on the lines laid down by them,
yet that in other countries where they develop at all they have to
develop right in the teeth of the dominant religious beliefs, while in
yet others they may develop entirely independent of them. If he doubts
this let him examine the condition of the Soudan under the Mahdi,
where what he calls the ultra-rational and supra-natural sanctions were
accepted without question, and governed the lives of the people to the
exclusion alike of reason and morality. He will hardly assert that the
Soudan is more progressive than say Scotland or Minnesota, where there
is less of the spirit which he calls religious and which old-fashioned
folk would call superstitious.
Mr. Kidd’s position in reference to the central feature of his argument
is radically false; but he handles some of his other themes very
well. He shows clearly in his excellent chapter on modern socialism
that a state of retrogression must ensue if all incentives to strife
and competition are withdrawn. He does not show quite as clearly as
he should that over-competition and too severe stress make the race
deteriorate instead of improving; but he does show that there must be
some competition, that there must be some strife. He makes it clear
also that the true function of the State, as it interferes in social
life, should be to make the chances of competition more even, not to
abolish them. We wish the best men; and though we pity the man that
falls or lags behind in the race, we do not on that account crown him
with the victor’s wreath. We insist that the race shall be run on
fairer terms than before because we remove all handicaps. We thus tend
to make it more than ever a test of the real merits of the victor, and
this means that the victor must strive heart and soul for success. Mr.
Kidd’s attitude in describing socialism is excellent. He sympathizes
with the wrongs which the socialistic reformer seeks to redress, but
he insists that these wrongs must not be redressed, as the socialists
would have them, at the cost of the welfare of mankind.
Mr. Kidd also sees that the movement for political equality has nearly
come to an end, for its purpose has been nearly achieved. To it must
now succeed a movement to bring all people into the rivalry of life on
equal conditions of social opportunity. This is a very important point,
and he deserves the utmost credit for bringing it out. It is the great
central feature in the development of our time, and Mr. Kidd has seen
it so clearly and presented it so forcibly that we cannot but regret
that he should be so befogged in other portions of his argument.
Mr. Kidd has our cordial sympathy when he lays stress on the fact that
our evolution cannot be called primarily intellectual. Of course there
must be an intellectual evolution, too, and Mr. Kidd perhaps fails in
not making this sufficiently plain. A perfectly stupid race can never
rise to a very high plane; the negro, for instance, has been kept down
as much by lack of intellectual development as by anything else; but
the prime factor in the preservation of a race is its power to attain a
high degree of social efficiency. Love of order, ability to fight well
and breed well, capacity to subordinate the interests of the individual
to the interests of the community, these and similar rather humdrum
qualities go to make up the sum of social efficiency. The race that
has them is sure to overturn the race whose members have brilliant
intellects, but who are cold and selfish and timid, who do not breed
well or fight well, and who are not capable of disinterested love of
the community. In other words, character is far more important than
intellect to the race as to the individual. We need intellect, and
there is no reason why we should not have it together with character;
but if we must choose between the two we choose character without a
moment’s hesitation.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[22] _North American Review_, July, 1895.
[Illustration]
XV
THE LAW OF CIVILIZATION AND DECAY[23]
Few more melancholy books have been written than Mr. Brooks Adams’s
_Law of Civilization and Decay_. It is a marvel of compressed
statement. In a volume of less than four hundred pages Mr. Adams
singles out some of the vital factors in the growth and evolution of
civilized life during the last two thousand years; and so brilliant
is his discussion of these factors as to give, though but a glimpse,
yet one of the most vivid glimpses ever given, of some of the most
important features in the world-life of Christendom. Of some of the
features only; for a fundamentally defective point in Mr. Adams’s
brilliant book is his failure to present certain phases of the life
of the nations,--phases which are just as important as those which he
discusses with such vigorous ability. Furthermore, he disregards not a
few facts which would throw light on others, the weight of which he
fully recognizes. Both these shortcomings are very natural in a writer
who possesses an entirely original point of view, who is the first
man to see clearly certain things that to his predecessors have been
nebulous, and who writes with a fervent intensity of conviction, even
in his bitterest cynicism, such as we are apt to associate rather with
the prophet and reformer than with a historian to whom prophet and
reformer alike appeal no more than do their antitypes. It is a rare
thing for a historian to make a distinct contribution to the philosophy
of history; and this Mr. Adams has done. Naturally enough, he, like
other men who break new ground, tends here and there to draw a devious
furrow.
The book is replete with vivid writing, and with sentences and
paragraphs which stand out in the memory as marvels in the art of
presenting the vital features of a subject with a few master-strokes.
The story of the Crusades, the outline of the English conquest of
India, and the short tale of the rise of the house of Rothschild, are
masterpieces. Nowhere else is it possible to find in the same compass
any description of the Crusades so profound in its appreciation of the
motives behind them, so startling in the vigor with which the chief
actors, and the chief events, are portrayed. Indeed, one is almost
tempted to say that it is in the description of the Crusades that Mr.
Adams is at his best. He is dealing with a giant movement of humanity;
and he grasps not only the colossal outward manifestations, but also
the spirit itself, and, above all, the strange and sinister changes
which that spirit underwent. His mere description of the Baronies
set up by the Crusaders in the conquered Holy Land, with their loose
feudal government, brings them before the reader’s eyes as few volumes
specially devoted to the subject could. It is difficult to write of a
fortress and make a pen-picture which will always stay in the mind;
yet this is what Mr. Adams has done in dealing with the grim religious
castles, terrible in size and power, which were built by the Knights of
the Temple and the Hospital as bulwarks against Saracen might. He is
not only a scholar of much research, but a student of art, who is so
much more than a mere student as to be thrilled and possessed by what
he studies. He shows, with a beauty and vigor of style not unbecoming
his subject, how profoundly the art of Europe was affected by the
Crusades. It is not every one who can write with equal interest of
sacred architecture and military engineering, who can appreciate alike
the marvels of Gothic cathedrals and the frowning strength of feudal
fortresses, and who furthermore can trace their inter-relation.
The story of the taking of Constantinople by the Crusaders who followed
the lead of the blind Doge Dandolo is told with an almost brutal
ruthlessness quite befitting the deed itself. Nowhere else in the book
is Mr. Adams happier in his insistence upon the conflict between what
he calls the economic and the imaginative spirits. The incident sets
well with his favorite theory of the inevitable triumph of the economic
over the imaginative man, as societies grow centralized, and the no
less inevitable fossilization and ruin of the body politic which this
very triumph itself ultimately entails. The history of the English
conquest of India is only less vividly told. Incidentally, it may be
mentioned that one of Mr. Adams’s many merits is his contemptuous
refusal to be misled by modern criticism of Macaulay. He sees
Macaulay’s greatness as a historian, and his essential truthfulness on
many of the very points where he has been most sharply criticised.
Mr. Adams’s book, however, is far more than a mere succession of
brilliant episodes. He fully sees that the value of facts lies in
their relation to one another; and from the facts as he sees them he
deduces certain laws with more than a Thucydidean indifference as to
his own individual approval or disapproval of the development. The
life of nations, like any other form of life, is but one manifestation
of energy; and Mr. Adams’s decidedly gloomy philosophy of life may
be gathered from the fact that he places fear and greed as the two
forms of energy which stand conspicuously predominant; fear in the
earlier, and greed in the later, stages of evolution from barbarism
to civilization. Civilization itself he regards merely as the history
of the movement from a condition of physical distribution to one of
physical concentration. During the earlier stages of this movement
the imaginative man--the man who stands in fear of a priesthood--is,
in his opinion, the representative type, while with him, and almost
equally typical, stand the soldier and the artist. As consolidation
advances, the economic man--the man of industry, trade, and
capital--tends to supplant the emotional and artistic types of manhood,
and finally himself develops along two lines,--“the usurer in his most
formidable aspect, and the peasant whose nervous system is best adapted
to thrive on scanty nutriment.” These two very unattractive types are,
in his belief, the inevitable final products of all civilization, as
civilization has hitherto developed; and when they have once been
produced there follows either a stationary period, during which the
whole body politic gradually ossifies and atrophies, or else a period
of utter disintegration.
This is not a pleasant theory; it is in many respects an entirely false
theory; but nevertheless there is in it a very ugly element of truth.
One does not have to accept either all Mr. Adams’s theories or all his
facts in order to recognize more than one disagreeable resemblance
between the world as it is to-day, and the Roman world under the
Empire, or the Greek world under the successors of Alexander. Where he
errs is in his failure to appreciate the fundamental differences which
utterly destroy any real parallelism between the two sets of cases.
Indeed, his zeal in championing his theories leads him at times into
positions which are seen at a glance to be untenable.
Probably Mr. Adams’s account of the English Reformation, and of Henry
VIII. and his instruments, is far nearer the truth than Froude’s. But
his view of the evils upon which the reformers as a whole waged war,
and of the spirit which lay behind the real leaders and spurred them
on, is certainly less accurate than the view given by Froude in his
_Erasmus_ and _Council of Trent_. It can be partly corrected by the
study of a much less readable book--Mr. Henry C. Lea’s work on _The
Inquisition_. Yet Mr. Adams’s description of the English Reformation
is very powerful, and has in it a vein of bitter truth; though on the
whole it is perhaps not so well done as his account of the suppression
of the Templars in France. If he can be said to have any heroes, the
Templars must certainly be numbered among them.
He is at his best in describing the imaginative man, and especially
the imaginative man whose energy manifests itself in the profession of
arms. His description of the tremendous change which passed over Europe
during the centuries which saw, what is commonly called, the decay of
faith is especially noteworthy. In no other history are there to be
found two sentences which portray more vividly the reasons for the
triumph of the great Pope Hildebrand over the Emperor Henry, than these:
“To Henry’s soldiers the world was a vast space peopled by those
fantastic beings which are still seen on Gothic towers. These demons
obeyed the monk of Rome, and his army, melting from the Emperor under
a nameless horror, left him helpless.”
His account of the contrast between the relations of Philip Augustus
and of Philip the Fair with the Church is dramatic in its intensity.
To Mr. Adams, Philip the Fair, even more than Henry VIII., is the
incarnation of the economic spirit in its conflict with the Church;
and he makes him an even more repulsive, though perhaps an abler, man
than Henry. In this he is probably quite right. His account of the
hounding down of Boniface, and the cruel destruction of the Templars,
is as stirring as it is truthful; but he certainly pushes his theory
to an altogether impossible extreme when he states that the moneyed
class, the _bourgeoisie_, was already the dominant force in France.
The heroes of Froissart still lay in the future; and for centuries to
come the burgher was to be outweighed by king, priest, and noble. The
economic man, the man of trade and money, was, at that time, in no
sense dominant.
That there is grave reason for some of Mr. Adams’s melancholy
forebodings, no serious student of the times, no sociologist or
reformer, and no practical politician who is interested in more than
momentary success, will deny. A foolish optimist is only less noxious
than an utter pessimist; and the pre-requisite for any effort, whether
hopeful or hopeless, to better our conditions is an accurate knowledge
of what these conditions are. There is no use in blinding ourselves
to certain of the tendencies and results of our high-pressure
civilization. Some very ominous facts have become more and more
apparent during the present century, in which the social movement of
the white race has gone on with such unexampled and ever-accelerating
rapidity. The rich have undoubtedly grown richer; and, while the most
careful students are inclined to answer with an emphatic negative
the proposition that the poor have grown poorer, it is nevertheless
certain that there has been a large absolute, though not relative,
increase of poverty, and that the very poor tend to huddle in immense
masses in the cities. Even though these masses are, relatively to
the rest of the population, smaller than they formerly were, they
constitute a standing menace, not merely to our prosperity, but to our
existence. The improvement in the means of communication, moreover,
has so far immensely increased the tendency of the urban population to
grow at the expense of the rural; and philosophers have usually been
inclined to regard the ultimate safety of a nation as resting upon
its peasantry. The improvement in machinery, the very perfection of
scientific processes, cause great, even though temporary, suffering
to unskilled laborers. Moreover, there is a certain softness of fibre
in civilized nations which, if it were to prove progressive, might
mean the development of a cultured and refined people quite unable to
hold its own in those conflicts through which alone any great race
can ultimately march to victory. There is also a tendency to become
fixed, and to lose flexibility. Most ominous of all, there has become
evident, during the last two generations, a very pronounced tendency
among the most highly civilized races, and among the most highly
civilized portions of all races, to lose the power of multiplying, and
even to decrease; so much so as to make the fears of the disciples of
Malthus a century ago seem rather absurd to the dweller in France or
New England to-day.
Mr. Adams does not believe that any individual or group of individuals
can influence the destiny of a race for good or for evil. All of us
admit that it is very hard by individual effort thus to make any
alteration in destiny; but we do not think it impossible; and Mr. Adams
will have performed a great service if he succeeds in fixing the eyes
of the men who ought to know thoroughly the problems set us to solve,
upon the essential features of these problems. I do not think his
diagnosis of the disease is in all respects accurate. I believe there
is an immense amount of healthy tissue as to the existence of which he
is blind; but there is disease, and it is serious enough to warrant
very careful examination.
However, Mr. Adams is certainly in error in putting the immense
importance he does upon the question of the expansion or contraction of
the currency. There is no doubt whatever that a nation is profoundly
affected by the character of its currency; but there seems to be
equally little doubt that the currency is only one, and by no means the
most important, among a hundred causes which profoundly affect it.
The United States has been on a gold basis, and on a silver basis; it
has been on a paper basis, and on a basis of what might be called the
scraps and odds and ends of the currencies of a dozen other nations;
but it has kept on developing along the same lines no matter what its
currency has been. If a change of currency were so enacted as to amount
to dishonesty, that is, to the repudiation of debts, it would be a very
bad thing morally; or, if a change took place in a manner that would
temporarily reduce the purchasing power of the wage-earner, it would be
a very bad thing materially; but the current of the national life would
not be wholly diverted or arrested, it would merely be checked, even
by such a radical change. The forces that most profoundly shape the
course of a nation’s life lie far deeper than the mere use of gold or
of silver, the mere question of the appreciation or depreciation of one
metal when compared with the other, or when compared with commodities
generally.
Mr. Adams unconsciously shows this in his first and extremely
interesting chapter on the Romans. In one part of this chapter he
seems to ascribe the ruin of the Roman Empire to the contraction of
the currency, saying, “with contraction came that fall of prices which
first ruined, then enslaved, and finally exterminated the native rural
population of Italy.” This he attributes to the growth of the economic
or capitalistic spirit. As he puts it, “the stronger type exterminated
the weaker, the money-lender killed out the husbandman, the soldiers
vanished, and the farms on which they once flourished were left
desolate.”
But, curiously enough, Mr. Adams himself shows that all this really
occurred during the two centuries, or thereabouts, extending from the
end of the second Punic war through the reign of the first of the Roman
emperors; and this was a period of currency expansion, not of currency
contraction. Moreover, it was emphatically a period when the military
and not the economic type was supreme. The great Romans of the first
and second centuries before Christ were soldiers, not merchants or
usurers, and they could only be said to possess the economic instinct
incidentally, in so far as it is possessed by every man of the military
type who seizes the goods accumulated by the man of the economic type.
It was during these centuries, when the military type was supreme,
and when prices were rising, that the ruin, the enslavement and the
extermination of the old rural population of Italy began. It was during
these centuries that the husbandmen left the soil and became the mob of
Rome, clamoring for free bread and the games of the amphitheatre. It
was toward the close of this period that the Roman army became an army
no longer of Roman citizens, but of barbarians trained in the Roman
manner; it was toward the close of this period that celibacy became so
crying an evil as to invoke the vain action of the legislature, and
that the Roman race lost the power of self-perpetuation. What happened
in the succeeding centuries,--the period of the contraction of the
currency and the rise of prices,--was merely the completion of the ruin
which had already been practically accomplished.
These facts seem to show clearly that the question of the currency
had really little or nothing to do with the decay of the Roman fibre.
This decay began under one set of currency conditions, and continued
unchanged when these conditions became precisely reversed. An
infinitely more important cause, as Mr. Adams himself shows, was the
immense damage done to the Italian husbandman by the importation of
Asiatic and African slaves; which was in all probability the chief of
the causes that conspired to ruin him. He was forced into competition
with races of lower vitality; races tenacious of life, who possessed a
very low standard of living, and who furnished to the great slave-owner
his cheap labor. Mr. Adams shows that the husbandman was affected, not
only by the importation of vast droves of slaves to compete with him
in Italy, but by the competition with low-class labor in Egypt and
elsewhere. These very points, if developed with Mr. Adams’s skill,
would have enabled him to show in a very striking manner the radical
contrast between the present political and social life of civilized
states, and the political and social life of Rome during what he
calls the capitalistic or closing period. At present, the minute that
the democracy becomes convinced that the workman and the peasant are
suffering from competition with cheap labor, whether this cheap
labor take the form of alien immigration, or of the importation of
goods manufactured abroad by low-class working-men, or of commodities
produced by convicts, it at once puts a stop to the competition. We
keep out the Chinese, very wisely; we have put an end to the rivalry
of convict contract labor with free labor; we are able to protect
ourselves, whenever necessary, by heavy import duties, against the
effect of too cheap labor in any foreign country; and, finally, in the
civil war, we utterly destroyed the system of slavery, which really
was threatening the life of the free working-man in a way in which it
cannot possibly be threatened by any conceivable development of the
“capitalistic” spirit.
Mr. Adams possesses a very intimate knowledge of finance, and there
are many of his discussions on this subject into which only an expert
would be competent to enter. Nevertheless, on certain financial and
economic questions, touching matters open to discussion by the man
of merely ordinary knowledge, his terminology is decidedly vague.
This is especially true when he speaks of “the producer.” Now the
producer, as portrayed by the Populist stump orator or writer of
political and economic pamphlets, is a being with whom we became quite
intimate during the recent campaign; but we have found it difficult to
understand at all definitely who this “producer” actually is. According
to one school of Populistic thinkers the farmer is the producer; but
according to another and more radical school this is not so, unless
the farmer works with his hands and not his head, this school limiting
the application of the term “producer” to the working-man who does
the immediate manual work of production. On the other hand those who
speak with scientific precision must necessarily class as producers
all men whose work results directly or indirectly in production.
Under this definition, inventors and men who improve the methods of
transportation, like railway presidents, and men who enable other
producers to work, such as bankers who loan money wisely, are all
themselves to be classed as producers, and often indeed as producers of
the most effective kind.
The great mass of the population consists of producers; and in
consequence the majority of the sales by producers are sales to other
producers. It requires one set of producers to make a market for any
other set of producers; and in consequence the rise or fall of prices
is a good or a bad thing for different bodies of producers according
to the different circumstances of each case. Mr. Adams says that the
period from the middle of the twelfth to the middle of the thirteenth
centuries was an interval of “almost unparalleled prosperity,” which
he apparently ascribes to the expansion of the currency, with which,
he says, “went a rise in prices, all producers grew rich, and for
more than two generations the strain of competition was so relaxed
that the different classes of the population preyed upon each other
less savagely than they are wont to do in less happy times.” It is
not exactly clear how a rise in the prices both of what one producer
sells another, and of what he in return buys from that other, can
somehow make both of them rich, and relax the strain of competition.
Certainly in the present century, competition has been just as severe
in times of high prices; and some of the periods of greatest prosperity
have coincided with the periods of very low prices. There is reason
to believe that low prices are ultimately of great benefit to the
wage-earners. A rise in prices generally injures them. Moreover, in
the century of which Mr. Adams speaks, the real non-producers were the
great territorial feudal lords and the kings and clergymen; and these
were then supreme. It was the period of the ferocious Albigensian
crusades. It is true that it ushered in a rather worse period,--that
of the struggle between England and France, with its attendant peasant
wars and Jacqueries, and huge bands of marauding free-companies.
But the alteration for the worse was due to a fresh outbreak of
“imaginative” spirit; and the first period was full of recurring
plagues and famines, besides the ordinary unrest, murder, oppression,
pillage, and general corruption. Mr. Adams says that the different
classes of the population during that happy time “preyed upon each
other less savagely” than at other times. All that need be said in
answer is that there is not now a civilized community, under no matter
what stress of capitalistic competition, in which the different classes
prey upon one another with one-tenth the savagery they then showed;
or in which famine and disease, even leaving war out of account, come
anywhere near causing so much misery to poor people, and above all to
the wage-earners, or working-men, the under strata and base of the
producing classes.
From many of the statements in Mr. Adams’s very interesting concluding
chapter I should equally differ; and yet this chapter is one which is
not merely interesting but soul-stirring, and it contains much with
which most of us would heartily agree. Through the cold impartiality
with which he strives to work merely as a recorder of facts, there
break now and then flashes of pent-up wrath and vehement scorn
for all that is mean and petty in a purely materialistic, purely
capitalistic, civilization. With his scorn of what is ignoble and
base in our development, his impatient contempt of the deification of
the stock-market, the trading-counter, and the factory, all generous
souls must agree. When we see prominent men deprecating the assertion
of national honor because it “has a bad effect upon business,” or
because it “impairs the value of securities”; when we see men seriously
accepting Mr. Edward Atkinson’s pleasant theory that patriotism is of
no consequence when compared with the price of cotton sheeting or the
capacity to undersell our competitors in foreign markets, it is no
wonder that a man who has in him the stuff of ancestors who helped to
found our Government, and helped to bring it safely through the Civil
War should think blackly of the future. But Mr. Adams should remember
that there always have been men of this merely huckstering type, or of
other types not much higher. It is not a nice thing that Mr. Eliot,
the president of one of the greatest educational institutions of the
land, should reflect discredit upon the educated men of the country
by his attitude on the Venezuela affair, carrying his desertion of
American principles so far as to find himself left in the lurch by
the very English statesman whose cause he was championing; but Mr.
Adams by turning to the “History” of the administration of Madison,
by his brother, Henry Adams, would find that Mr. Eliot had plenty of
intellectual ancestors among the “blue lights” federalists of that day.
Timothy Pickering showed the same eager desire to stand by another
country to the hurt of his own country’s honor, and Timothy Pickering
was a United States Senator whose conduct was far more reprehensible
than that of any private individual could be. We have advanced, not
retrograded, since 1812.
This applies also to what Mr. Adams says of the fall of the soldier
and the rise of the usurer. He quite overstates his case in asserting
that in Europe the soldier has lost his importance since 1871, and that
the administration of society since then has fallen into the hands of
the “economic man,” thereby making a change “more radical than any
that happened at Rome or even at Byzantium.” In the first place, a
period of a quarter of a century is altogether too short to admit of
such a generalization. In the next place, the facts do not support
this particular generalization. The Germans are quite as military in
type as ever they were, and very much more so than they were at any
period during the two centuries preceding Bismarck and Moltke. Nor is
it true to say that “the ruler of the French people has passed for the
first time from the martial to the moneyed type.” Louis XV. and Louis
Philippe can hardly be held to belong to any recognized martial type;
and the reason of the comparative sinking of the military man in France
is due not in the least to the rise of his economic fellow-countryman,
but to the rise of the other military man in Germany. Mr. Adams
says that since the capitulation of Paris the soldier has tended
to sink more and more, until he merely receives his orders from
financiers (which term when used by Mr. Adams includes all business
and working-men) with his salary, without being allowed a voice, even
in the questions which involve peace and war. Now this is precisely
the position which the soldier has occupied for two centuries among
English-speaking races; and it is during these very centuries that the
English-speaking race has produced its greatest soldiers. Marlborough
and Wellington, Nelson and Farragut, Grant and Lee, exactly fill Mr.
Adams’s definition of the position into which soldiers have “sunk”; and
the United States has just elected as President, as it so frequently
has done before, a man who owes his place in politics in large part to
his having done gallant service as a soldier, and who is in no sense a
representative of the moneyed type.
Again, Mr. Adams gloomily remarks that “producers have become the
subjects of the possessors of hoarded wealth,” and that among
capitalists the money-lenders form an aristocracy, while debtors are
helpless and the servants of the creditors. All this is really quite
unworthy of Mr. Adams, or of anyone above the intellectual level of
Mr. Bryan, Mr. Henry George, or Mr. Bellamy. Any man who has had the
slightest practical knowledge of legislation, whether as Congressman
or as State legislator, knows that nowadays laws are passed much
more often with a view to benefiting the debtors than the creditors;
always excepting that very large portion of the creditor class which
includes the wage-earners. “Producers”--whoever they may be--are not
the subjects of “hoarded wealth,” nor of anyone nor anything else.
Capital is not absolute; and it is idle to compare the position of the
capitalist nowadays with his position when his workmen were slaves
and the law-makers were his creatures. The money-lender, by whom I
suppose Mr. Adams means the banker, is not an aristocrat as compared
to other capitalists,--at any rate in the United States. The merchant,
the manufacturer, the railroad man, stand just as the banker does;
and bankers vary among themselves just as any other business men do.
They do not form a “class” at all; anyone who wishes to can go into
the business; men fail and succeed in it just as in other businesses.
As for the debtors being powerless, if Mr. Adams knows any persons
who have lent money in Kansas or similar States they will speedily
enlighten him on this subject, and will give him an exact idea of
the extent to which the debtor is the servant of the creditor. In
those States the creditor--and especially the Eastern money-lender
or “gold-bug”--is the man who has lost all his money. Mr. Adams
can readily find this out by the simple endeavor to persuade some
“money-lender,” or other “Wall Street shark” to go into the business
of lending money on Far-Western farm property. The money-lender in the
most civilized portions of the United States always loses if the debtor
is loser, or if the debtor is dishonest. Of course there are “sharpers”
among bankers, as there are among producers. Moreover, the private,
as distinguished from the corporate, debtor borrows for comparatively
short periods, so that he is practically not at all affected by an
appreciating currency; the rise is much too small to count in the
case of the individual, though it may count in the long-term bonds
of a nation or corporation. The wage of the working-man rises, while
interest, which is the wage of the capitalist, sinks.
Mr. Adams’s study of the rise of the usurer in India and the ruin of
the martial races is very interesting; but it has not the slightest
bearing upon anything which is now happening in Western civilization.
The debtor, in America at least, is amply able to take care of his
own interests. Our experience shows conclusively that the creditors
only prosper when the debtors prosper, and the danger lies less in
the accumulation of debts, than in their repudiation. Among us the
communities which repudiate their debts, which inveigh loudest
against their creditors, and which offer the poorest field for the
operations of the honest banker (whom they likewise always call
“money-lender,”) are precisely those which are least prosperous and
least self-respecting. There are, of course, individuals here and
there who are unable to cope with the money-lender, and even sections
of the country where this is true; but this only means that a weak or
thriftless man can be robbed by a sharp money-lender just as he can be
robbed by the sharp producer from whom he buys or to whom he sells.
There is, in certain points, a very evident incompatibility of interest
between the farmer who wishes to sell his product at a high rate, and
the working-man who wishes to buy that product at a low rate; but the
success of the capitalist, and especially of the banker, is conditioned
upon the prosperity of both working-man and farmer.
When Mr. Adams speaks of the change in the relations of women and men
he touches on the vital weakness of our present civilization. If we
are, in truth, tending toward a point where the race will cease to be
able to perpetuate itself, our civilization is of course a failure.
No quality in a race atones for the failure to produce an abundance
of healthy children. The problem upon which Mr. Adams here touches
is the most serious of all problems, for it lies at the root of, and
indeed itself is, national life. But it is hard to accept seriously
Mr. Adams’s plea that “martial” men loved their wives more than
“economic” men do, and showed their love by buying them. Of course the
only reason why a woman was bought in early times was because she was
looked upon like any other chattel; she was “loved” more than she is
now only as a negro was “loved” more by the negro-trader in 1860 than
at present. The worship of women during the Middle Ages was, in its
practical effects, worship of a very queer kind. The “economic man” of
the present day is beyond comparison gentler and more tender and more
loving to women than the “emotional man” of the Middle Ages.
Mr. Adams closes with some really fine paragraphs, of which the general
purport is, that the advent of the capitalist and the economic man, and
especially the advent of the usurer, mark a condition of consolidation
which means the beginning of utter decay, so that our society, as a
result of this accelerated movement away from emotionalism and towards
capitalism, is now in a condition like that of the society of the later
Roman Empire. He forgets, however, that there are plenty of modern
states which have entirely escaped the general accelerated movement of
our time. Spain on the one hand, and Russia on the other, though alike
in nothing else, are alike in being entirely outside the current of
modern capitalistic development. Spain never suffered from capitalists.
She exterminated the economic man in the interest of the emotional
and martial man. As a result she has sunk to a condition just above
that of Morocco--another state, by the way, which still clings to the
martial and emotional type, and is entirely free from the vices of
capitalistic development, and from the presence of the usurer, save as
the usurer existed in the days of Isaac of York. Soldiers and artists
have sunk lower in Spain than elsewhere, although they have had no
competition from the economic man. Russia is in an entirely different
position. Russia is eminently emotional, and her capitalists are of the
most archaic type; but it is difficult to say exactly what Russia has
done for art, or in what respect her soldiers are superior to other
soldiers; and certainly the life of the lower classes in Russia is on
the average far less happy than the life of the workingman and farmer
in any English-speaking country. Evidently, as Spain and Russia show,
national decay, or non-development may have little to do with economic
progress.
Mr. Adams has shown well that the progress of civilization and
centralization has depended largely upon the growing mastery of the
attack over the defence; but when he says that the martial type
necessarily decays as civilization progresses, he goes beyond what
he can prove. The economic man in England, Holland, and the United
States has for several centuries proved a much better fighter than
the martial emotionalist of the Spanish countries. It is Spain which
is now decaying; not the nations with capitalists. The causes which
make Russia formidable are connected with the extent of her territory
and her population, for she has certainly failed so far to produce
fighting men at all superior to the fighting men of the economic
civilizations. In a pent-up territory she would rise less rapidly, and
fall more rapidly, than they would; and her freedom from centralization
and capitalization would not help her. Spain, which is wholly untouched
by modern economic growth, suffers far more than any English-speaking
country from maladies like those of Rome in its decadence; and Rome
did not decay from the same causes which affect modern America or
Europe; while Russia owes her immunity from a few of the evils that
affect the rest of us, to causes unconnected with her backwardness
in civilization, and moreover has worse evils of her own to contend
with. The English-speaking man has so far out-built, out-fought, and
out-administered the Russian; and he is as far as the poles away from
the Roman of the later Empire.
Moreover, instead of the mercenary or paid police growing in relative
strength, as Mr. Adams says, it has everywhere shrunk during the
last fifty years, when compared with the mass of armed farmers and
wage-earners who make up a modern army. The capitalist can no longer,
as in ages past, count upon the soldiers as being of his party; he
can only count upon them when they are convinced that in fighting
his battle they are fighting their own; although under modern
industrial conditions this is generally the case. Again, Mr. Adams is
in error in his facts, when he thinks that producers have prospered
in the silver-using, as compared with the gold-using, countries.
The wage-earner and small farmer of the United States, or even of
Europe, stand waist high above their brothers in Mexico and the other
communities that use only silver. The prosperity of the wage-earning
class is more important to the state than the prosperity of any other
class in the community, for it numbers within its ranks two-thirds of
the people of the community. The fact that modern society rests upon
the wage-earner, whereas ancient society rested upon the slave, is of
such transcendent importance as to forbid any exact comparison between
the two, save by way of contrast.
While there is in modern times a decrease in emotional religion, there
is an immense increase in practical morality. There is a decrease of
the martial type found among savages and the people of the Middle Ages,
except as it still survives in the slums of great cities; but there
remains a martial type infinitely more efficient than any that preceded
it. There are great branches of industry which call forth in those that
follow them more hardihood, manliness, and courage than any industry of
ancient times. The immense masses of men connected with the railroads
are continually called upon to exercise qualities of mind and body such
as in antiquity no trade and no handicraft demanded. There are, it is
true, influences at work to shake the vitality, courage, and manliness
of the race; but there are other influences which tell in exactly the
opposite direction; and, whatever may come in the future, hitherto
the last set of influences have been strongest. As yet, while men are
more gentle and more honest than before, it cannot be said that they
are less brave; and they are certainly more efficient as fighters.
If our population decreases; if we lose the virile, manly qualities,
and sink into a nation of mere hucksters, putting gain above national
honor, and subordinating everything to mere ease of life; then we shall
indeed reach a condition worse than that of the ancient civilizations
in the years of their decay. But at present no comparison could be less
apt than that of Byzantium, or Rome in its later years, with a great
modern state where the thronging millions who make up the bulk of the
population are wage-earners, who themselves decide their own destinies;
a state which is able in time of need to put into the field armies,
composed exclusively of its own citizens, more numerous than any which
the world has ever before seen, and with a record of fighting in the
immediate past with which there is nothing in the annals of antiquity
to compare.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[23] The _Forum_, January, 1897.
[Illustration]
XVI
REFORM THROUGH SOCIAL WORK--SOME FORCES THAT TELL FOR DECENCY IN NEW
YORK CITY[24]
Any one who has a serious appreciation of the immensely complex
problems of our present-day life, and of those kinds of benevolent
effort which for lack of a better term we group under the name of
philanthropy, must realize the infinite diversity there is in the field
of social work. Each man can, of course, do best if he takes up that
branch of work to which his tastes and his interests lead him, and the
field is of such large size that there is more than ample room for
every variety of workman. Of course there are certain attributes which
must be possessed in common by all who want to do well. The worker must
possess not only resolution, firmness of purpose, broad charity, and
great-hearted sympathy, but he must also possess common-sense sanity,
and a wholesome aversion alike to the merely sentimental and the
merely spectacular. The soup-kitchen style of philanthropy is worse
than useless, for in philanthropy as everywhere else in life almost
as much harm is done by soft-headedness as by hard-heartedness. The
highest type of philanthropy is that which springs from the feeling
of brotherhood, and which, therefore, rests on the self-respecting,
healthy basis of mutual obligation and common effort. The best way to
raise any one is to join with him in an effort whereby both you and
he are raised by each helping the other. This is what has been done
in those factories in Cleveland, Dayton, Pittsburg, and elsewhere, in
which the betterment of working life has been aimed at, and partially
achieved, through measures beneficial alike to employer and employed.
Any man who takes an active part in the varied, hurried, and
interesting life of New York must be struck, not only by the number
of the forces which tell for evil, but by the number of the forces
which tell for good. Of course most of these are not, in the narrow
sense of the term, philanthropic forces at all; but many of them are,
and among these there is the widest variety. In this paper it is only
possible to touch upon a very few of the ways in which philanthropic
work of worth is being done in New York City. It is necessary to speak
of individuals, because otherwise it would be impossible to emphasize
the widely different kinds of work which can thus be done. These
individuals are mentioned simply as typifying certain phases, certain
methods. There are countless others who could be mentioned; it merely
happens that these particular men have occupied to advantage certain
widely different parts of the great field of usefulness.
Much can be done in downright charitable work, and there are great
fragments of our social life in which the work must be in part or in
whole charitable. The charity workers do an amount of good which in
some cases is literally inestimable. Yet, on the whole, it becomes ever
increasingly evident that the largest opportunity for work along the
lines of social and civic betterment lie with the independent classes
of the community--the classes which have not yielded to the many kinds
of downward pressure always so strong in city life. Sometimes this work
may take the form of an organized effort to secure greater equality of
opportunity. Sometimes the best way to work is the oldest and simplest;
that is, by trying the effect of character upon character.
Political and social conditions are often closely interwoven, and
always tend to act and react upon one another. It is impossible to
have a high standard of political life in a community sunk in sodden
misery and ignorance; and where there is industrial well-being there
is at least a chance of its going hand in hand with the moral and
intellectual uplifting which will secure cleanliness and efficiency in
the public service. Politics have been entered by a good many different
doors, but in New York City Mr. F. Norton Goddard is probably the
only man who ever entered on the career of a district leader by the
door of philanthropy. Mr. Goddard, feeling he ought to do something
serious in life, chose a quarter on the East Side for his experiment,
and he entered upon it without the slightest thought of going into
politics, simply taking a room in a tenement house with the idea of
testing his own capacities and to find out if he was fit to do what
has grown to be known as “settlement work.” He speedily became very
much interested in the men with whom he was thrown in contact, and
also became convinced that he personally could do most by acting, not
in connection with others, but for his own hand. After a few weeks he
joined a small club which met at first in a single room. From this
one room sprang in the course of a couple of years the Civic Club at
243 East Thirty-fourth Street, than which there exists in all New
York no healthier centre of energetic social and political effort.
Very speedily Mr. Goddard found himself brought into hostile and
embarrassing contact with that huge and highly organized system of
corruption, tempered with what may be called malevolent charity, which
we know as Tammany. Every foe of decency, from the policy player to
the protected proprietor of a law-breaking saloon, had some connection
with Tammany, and every move in any direction resulted in contact
of some sort with a man or institution under Tammany’s control. Mr.
Goddard soon realized that organization must be met by organization;
and, being a thoroughly practical man, he started in to organize the
decent forces in such fashion as would enable him to check organized
indecency. He made up his mind that the Republican party organization
offered the best chance for the achievement of his object. As it then
was, however, the Republican organization of the district in question
served but little purpose save to deliver delegates in conventions,
and was under the control of men who, although some degrees above the
Tammany leaders, had no conception of running things on the plane which
Goddard deemed necessary. There were three courses open to him: He
could acquiesce helplessly; he could start an outside organization,
in which case the chances were a thousand to one that it would amount
to nothing; or he could make a determined effort to control for good
purposes the existing Republican organization. He chose the latter
alternative, and began a serious campaign to secure his object. There
was at the time a fight in the Republican organization between two
factions, both of which were headed by professional politicians. Both
factions at the outset looked upon Goddard’s methods with amused
contempt, expecting that he would go the gait which they had seen
so many other young men go, where they lacked either persistency or
hard common-sense. But Goddard was a practical man. He spent his days
and evenings in perfecting his own organization, using the Civic
Club as a centre. He already had immense influence in the district,
thanks to what he had done in the Civic Club, and at this, his first
effort, he was able to make an organization which, while it could
not have availed against the extraordinary drill and discipline of
Tammany, was able overwhelmingly to beat the far feebler machine of
the regular Republican politicians. At the primary he got more votes
than both his antagonists put together. No man outside of politics can
realize the paralyzed astonishment with which the result was viewed
by the politicians in every other Assembly district. Here at last
was a reformer whose aspirations took exceedingly efficient shape as
deeds; who knew what could and what could not be done; who was never
content with less than the possible best, but who never threw away that
possible best because it was not the ideal best; who did not try to
reform the universe, but merely his own district; and who understood
thoroughly that though speeches and essays are good, downright hard
work of the common-sense type is infinitely better.
It is more difficult to preserve the fruits of a victory than to
win the victory. Mr. Goddard did both. A year later, when the
old-school professional politicians attempted to oust him from his
party leadership in the district association, he beat them more
overwhelmingly than before; and when the Republican National Convention
came around he went still further afield, beat out his opponents in
the Congressional district, and sent two delegates to Philadelphia.
Nor was his success confined to the primary. In both the years of his
leadership he has enormously increased the Republican vote in his
district, doing better relatively than any other district leader in
the city. He does this by adopting the social methods of Tammany, only
using them along clean lines. The Tammany leader keeps his hold by
incessant watchfulness over every element, and almost every voter, in
his district. Neither his objects nor his methods are good; but he does
take a great deal of pains, and he is obliged to do much charitable
work; although it is not benevolence of a healthy kind. Mr. Goddard
was already, through the Civic Club, doing just this kind of work, on
a thoroughly healthy basis. Going into politics had immensely helped
with the club, for it had given a great common interest to all of the
men. Of course Goddard could have done nothing if he had not approached
his work in a genuine American spirit of entire respect for himself and
for those with whom and for whom he labored. Any condescension, any
patronizing spirit would have spoiled everything. But the spirit which
exacts respect and yields it, which is anxious always to help in a mood
of simple brotherhood, and which is glad to accept help in return--this
is the spirit which enables men of every degree of wealth and of widely
varying social conditions to work together in heartiest good-will, and
to the immense benefit of all. It is thus that Mr. Goddard has worked.
His house is in the district and he is in close touch with every one.
If a man is sick with pneumonia, some member of the Civic Club promptly
comes around to consult Goddard as to what hospital he shall be taken
to. If another man is down on his luck, it is Goddard who helps him
along through the hard times. If a boy has been wild and got into
trouble and gone to the penitentiary, it is Goddard who is appealed to
to see whether anything can be done for him. The demands upon his time
and patience are innumerable. The reward, it is to be supposed, must
come from the consciousness of doing well work which is emphatically
well worth doing. A very shrewd politician said the other day that if
there were twenty such men as Goddard in twenty such districts as his
New York City would be saved from Tammany, and that in the process
the Republican machine would be made heartily responsive to and
representative of the best sentiment of the Republicans of the several
districts.
The University Settlements do an enormous amount of work. As has been
well said, they demand on the part of those who work in them infinitely
more than the sacrifice of almsgiving, for they demand a helping hand
in that progress which for the comfort of all must be given to all;
they help people to help themselves, not only in work and self-support,
but in right thinking and right living. It would be hard to mention any
form of civic effort for righteousness which has not received efficient
aid from Mr. James B. Reynolds and his fellow-workers in the University
Settlements. They have stood for the forces of good in politics,
in social life, in warring against crime, in increasing the sum of
material pleasures. They work hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, with
those whom they seek to benefit, and they themselves share in the
benefit. They make their house the centre for all robust agencies for
social betterment. They have consistently endeavored to work with,
rather than merely for, the community; to co-operate in honorable
friendship with all who are struggling upward. Only those who know the
appalling conditions of life in the swarming tenements that surround
the University Settlement can appreciate what it has done. It has
almost inevitably gone into politics now and then, and whenever it has
done so has exercised a thoroughly healthy influence. It has offered
to the people of the neighborhood educational and social opportunities
ranging from a dancing academy and musical classes, to literary clubs,
a library, and a children’s bank--the clubs being administered on the
principle of self-management and self-government. It has diligently
undertaken to co-operate with all local organizations such as
trades-unions, benefit societies, social clubs, and the like, provided
only that their purposes were decent. The Settlement has always desired
to co-operate with independent forces rather than merely to lead or
direct the dependent forces of society. Its work in co-operation with
trades-unions has been of special value both in helping them where they
have done good work, and in endeavoring to check any tendency to evil
in any particular union. It has, for instance, consistently labored
to secure the settlement of strikes by consultation or arbitration,
before the bitterness has become so great as to prevent any chance
of a settlement. All this is aside from its work of sociological
investigation and its active co-operation with those public officials
who, like the late Colonel Waring, desired such aid.
Healthy political endeavor should, of course, be one form of social
work. This truth is not recognized as it should be. Perhaps, also,
there is some, though a far lesser, failure to recognize that a living
church organization should, more than any other, be a potent force in
social uplifting. Churches are needed for all sorts and conditions of
men under every kind of circumstances; but surely the largest field of
usefulness is open to that church in which the spirit of brotherhood
is a living and vital force, and not a cold formula; in which the rich
and poor gather together to aid one another in work for a common end.
Brother can best help brother, not by almsgiving, but by joining with
him in an intelligent and resolute effort for the uplifting of all. It
is towards this that St. George’s Church, under Dr. W. S. Rainsford,
has steadily worked. The membership of St. George’s Church is in a
great majority composed of working people--and young working people
at that. It is a free church with a membership of over four thousand,
most of the members having come in by way of the Sunday-school.
Large sums of money are raised, not from a few people, but from the
many. An honest effort has been made to study the conditions of life
in the neighborhood, and through the church to remedy those which
were abnormal. One of the troubles on the East Side is the lack of
opportunity for young people, boys and girls, to meet save where the
surroundings are unfavorable to virtue. In St. George’s Church this
need is, so far as can be, met by meetings--debating societies, clubs,
social entertainments, etc., in the large parish building. Years ago
the dances needed to be policed by chosen ladies and gentlemen and
clergymen. Now the whole standard of conduct has been so raised that
the young people conduct their own entertainments as they see fit.
There is a large athletic club and industrial school, a boys’ battalion
and men’s club; there are sewing classes, cooking classes, and a
gymnasium for working girls. Dr. Rainsford’s staff includes both men
and women, the former living at the top of the parish house, the latter
in the little deaconess-house opposite. Every effort is made to keep in
close touch with wage-workers, and this not merely for their benefit,
but quite as much for the benefit of those who are brought in touch
with them.
The church is, of all places, that in which men should meet on the
basis of their common humanity under conditions of sympathy and mutual
self-respect. All must work alike in the church in order to get the
full benefit from it; but it is not the less true that we have a
peculiar right to expect systematic effort from men and women of
education and leisure. Such people should justify by their work the
conditions of society which have rendered possible their leisure, their
education, and their wealth. Money can never take the place of service,
and though here and there it is absolutely necessary to have the paid
worker, yet normally he is not an adequate substitute for the volunteer.
Of course St. George’s Church has not solved all the social problems
in the immediate neighborhood which is the field of its special
effort. But it has earnestly tried to solve some at least, and it
has achieved a very substantial measure of success towards their
solution. Perhaps, after all, the best work done has been in connection
with the development of the social side of the church organization.
Reasonable opportunities for social intercourse are an immense moral
safeguard, and young people of good character and steady habits should
be encouraged to meet under conditions which are pleasant and which
also tell for decency. The work of a down-town church in New York
City presents difficulties that are unique, but it also presents
opportunities that are unique. In the case of St. George’s Church it
is only fair to say that the difficulties have been overcome, and the
opportunities taken advantage of, to the utmost.
Aside from the various kinds of work outlined above, where the main
element is the coming together of people for the purpose of helping
one another to rise higher, there is, of course, a very large field
for charitable work proper. For such work there must be thorough
organization of the kind supplied, for instance, by the State Charities
Aid Association. Here, again, the average outsider would be simply
astounded to learn of the amount actually accomplished every year by
the association.
A peculiar and exceedingly desirable form of work, originally purely
charitable, although not now as exclusively so, is that of the Legal
Aid Society, founded by Arthur von Briesen. It was founded to try to
remedy the colossal injustice which was so often encountered by the
poorest and most ignorant immigrants; it has been extended to shield
every class, native and foreign. There are always among the poor and
needy thousands of helpless individuals who are preyed upon by sharpers
of different degrees. If very poor, they may have no means whatever
of obtaining redress; and, especially if they are foreigners ignorant
of the language, they may also be absolutely ignorant as to what
steps should be taken in order to right the wrong that has been done
them. The injuries that are done may seem trivial; but they are not
trivial to the sufferers, and the aggregate amount of misery caused
is enormous. The Legal Aid Society has made it its business to take
up these cases and secure justice. Every conceivable variety of case
is attended to. The woman who has been deserted or maltreated by her
husband, the poor serving-maid who has been swindled out of her wages,
the ignorant immigrant who has fallen a victim to some sharper, the
man of no knowledge of our language or laws who has been arrested for
doing something which he supposed was entirely proper--all these and
countless others like them apply for relief, and have it granted in
tens of thousands of cases every year. It should be remembered that
the good done is not merely to the sufferers themselves, it is also a
good done to society, for it leaves in the mind of the newcomer to our
shores, not the rankling memory of wrong and injustice, but the feeling
that, after all, here in the New World, where he has come to seek his
fortune, there are disinterested men who endeavor to see that the right
prevails.
Some men can do their best work in an organization. Some, though they
occasionally work in an organization, can do best by themselves.
Recently a man well qualified to pass judgment alluded to Mr. Jacob A.
Riis as “the most useful citizen of New York.” Those fellow-citizens
of Mr. Riis who best know his work will be most apt to agree with this
statement. The countless evils which lurk in the dark corners of our
civic institutions, which stalk abroad in the slums, and have their
permanent abode in the crowded tenement houses, have met in Mr. Riis
the most formidable opponent ever encountered by them in New York City.
Many earnest men and earnest women have been stirred to the depths by
the want and misery and foul crime which are bred in the crowded blocks
of tenement rookeries. These men and women have planned and worked,
intelligently and resolutely, to overcome the evils. But to Mr. Riis
was given, in addition to earnestness and zeal, the great gift of
expression, the great gift of making others see what he saw and feel
what he felt. His book, _How the Other Half Lives_, did really go a
long way toward removing the ignorance in which one half of the world
of New York dwelt concerning the life of the other half. Moreover, Mr.
Riis possessed the further great advantage of having himself passed
through not a few of the experiences of which he had to tell. Landing
here, a young Danish lad, he had for years gone through the hard
struggle that so often attends even the bravest and best when they go
out without money to seek their fortunes in a strange and alien land.
The horror of the police lodging-houses struck deep in his soul, for
he himself had lodged in them. The brutality of some of the police he
had himself experienced. He had been mishandled, and had seen the stray
dog which was his only friend killed for trying in dumb friendship to
take his part. He had known what it was to sleep on door-steps and go
days in succession without food. All these things he remembered, and
his work as a reporter on the New York _Sun_ has enabled him in the
exercise of his profession to add to his knowledge. There are certain
qualities the reformer must have if he is to be a real reformer and
not merely a faddist; for of course every reformer is in continual
danger of slipping into the mass of well-meaning people who in their
advocacy of the impracticable do more harm than good. He must possess
high courage, disinterested desire to do good, and sane, wholesome
common-sense. These qualities he must have, and it is furthermore much
to his benefit if he also possesses a sound sense of humor. All four
traits are possessed by Jacob Riis. No rebuff, no seeming failure, has
ever caused him to lose faith. The memory of his own trials never
soured him. His keen sense of the sufferings of others never clouded
his judgment, never led him into hysterical or sentimental excess, the
pit into which not a few men are drawn by the very keenness of their
sympathies; and which some other men avoid, not because they are wise,
but because they are cold-hearted. He ever advocates mercy, but he
ever recognizes the need of justice. The mob leader, the bomb-thrower,
have no sympathy from him. No man has ever insisted more on the danger
which comes to the community from the lawbreaker. He sets himself to
kill the living evil, and small is his kinship with the dreamers who
seek the impossible, the men who _talk_ of reconstituting the entire
social order, but who do not _work_ to lighten the burden of mankind
by so much as a feather’s weight. Every man who strives, be it ever so
feebly, to do good according to the light that is in him, can count on
the aid of Jacob Riis if the chance comes. Whether the man is a public
official, like Colonel Waring, seeking to raise some one branch of the
city government; whether he is interested in a boys’ club up in the
country; or in a scheme for creating small parks in the city; or in an
effort to better the conditions of tenement-house life--no matter what
his work is, so long as his work is useful, he can count on the aid of
the man who perhaps more than any other knows the needs of the varied
people who make up the great bulk of New York’s population.
Half a dozen men have been mentioned, each only as a type of those who
in the seething life of the great city do, in their several ways and
according to their strength and varying capacities, strive to do their
duty to their neighbor. No hard-and-fast rule can be laid down as to
the way in which such work must be done; but most certainly every man,
whatever his position, should strive to do it in some way and to some
degree. If he strives earnestly he will benefit himself probably quite
as much as he benefits others, and he will inevitably learn a great
deal. At first it may be an effort to him to cast off certain rigid
conventions, but real work of any kind is a great educator, and soon
helps any man to single out the important from the unimportant. If such
a worker has the right stuff in him he soon grows to accept without
effort each man on his worth as a man, and to disregard his means, and
what is called his social position; to care little whether he is a
Catholic or Protestant, a Jew or a Gentile; to be utterly indifferent
whether he was born here or in Ireland, in Germany or in Scandinavia;
provided only that he has in him the spirit of sturdy common-sense and
the resolute purpose to strive after the light as it is given him to
see the light.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[24] Reprinted, by permission, from _McClure’s Magazine_. Copyright,
1901, S. S. McClure Co.
THE WORKS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
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the world.”--_N. Y. Tribune._
“One of the rare books which sportsmen will be glad to add to their
libraries.... Mr. Roosevelt may rank with Scrope, Lloyd, Harris, St.
John, and half a dozen others, whose books will always be among the
sporting classics.”--_London Saturday Review._
THE NAVAL WAR OF 1812; or, The History of the United States Navy
during the Last War with Great Britain.
8th edition. With diagrams. 8º, pp. xxxviii. + 531, $2.50
“Shows in so young an author the best promise for a good
historian--fearlessness of statement, caution, endeavor to be
impartial, and a brisk and interesting way of telling events.”--_N. Y.
Times._
“The reader of Mr. Roosevelt’s book unconsciously makes up his mind
that he is reading history and not romance, and yet no romance could
surpass it in interest.”--_Philadelphia Times._
AMERICAN IDEALS, and Other Essays, Social and Political.
With a Biographical and Critical Memoir by Gen. Francis
V. Greene. 12º, gilt top $1.50
Standard Library Edition, 8º 2.50
“These essays are energizing, sound, and wholesome. They deserve to be
widely read.”--_Chicago Tribune._
“These are papers of sterling merit, well worth perusing, and
deserving their rescue from the files of the periodicals in which
they first appeared, to form a more easily accessible volume. Mr.
Roosevelt’s reputation as a municipal reformer should secure them a
wide sale.”--_Detroit Free Press._
ADDRESSES AND PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGES. 1902-1904.
With Introduction by Henry Cabot Lodge. 12º, $1.50
Standard Library Edition. 8º 2.50
American Orations
FROM THE COLONIAL PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME
Selected as specimens of eloquence, and with special reference to their
value in throwing light upon the more important epochs and issues of
American history.
Edited, with introductions and notes, by the late ALEXANDER JOHNSTON,
Professor of Jurisprudence in the College of New Jersey.
Re-edited, with new material and historical notes, by JAMES A.
WOODBURN, Professor of American History and Politics in Indiana
University.
FOUR VOLUMES,
EACH COMPLETE IN ITSELF AND SOLD SEPARATELY
=Crown octavo, gilt tops, per volume= =$1.25=
=Set, four volumes, in a box= =5.00=
=Half calf, extra= =10.00=
SERIES I. =Colonialism=--=Constitutional Government=--=The Rise of
Democracy=--=The Rise of Nationality=.
SERIES II. =The Anti-Slavery Struggle.=
SERIES III. =The Anti-Slavery Struggle= (_Continued_)--=Secession=.
SERIES IV. =Civil War and Reconstruction=--=Free Trade and
Protection=--=Finance and Civil-Service Reform=.
“Regarded merely as studies in language, these orations contain some
of the most eloquent and persuasive speeches in the English tongue.
But more than this, the present collection has a permanent historical
value which can hardly be overestimated. The very spirit of the times
is preserved in these utterances; and, presented in this cogent form,
history in a peculiar sense repeats itself to the reader, who feels
the impulse of past events and the vitality of great principles behind
them.”--_School Journal._
WORKS ON THE CIVIL WAR
=THE STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR.= A Concise Account of the War in the
United States of America between 1861 and 1865. By JOHN CODMAN ROPES,
Late Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, The Military
Historical Society of Massachusetts, Fellow of the Royal Historical
Society. Author of “The Army Under Pope,” “The First Napoleon,”
“The Campaign of Waterloo,” etc. To be complete in four parts, with
comprehensive maps and battle plans. Each part will be complete in
itself and will be sold separately.
Part I. Narrative of Events to the Opening of the Campaign of
1862. With 5 maps. 8vo $1.50
Part II. The Campaigns of 1862. With 13 maps. 8vo. 2.50
“Among all the accounts of the Civil War, the narrative of Dr. Ropes
is unique in that it treats the subject impartially, and from the
standpoint of both North and South.... As a clear, comprehensive, and
complete survey of the first two years of the war his history will
certainly rank with the best.”--_New York Mail and Express._
THE AMERICAN WAR BALLADS AND LYRICS.
Edited by GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON. A selection of the more noteworthy of
the Ballads and Lyrics which were produced during the Colonial period,
the Indian Wars, the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and
the Civil War. The latter division includes the productions of poets
on both sides of Mason and Dixon’s line. Two vols., fully illustrated,
16mo.
“He has gone about it in a wisely comprehensive spirit, and in
his book will be found most of the actual songs that were popular
during the war, as well as the poems and ballads that best deserve
preservation because of their literary character.”--_Philadelphia
Times._
=ULYSSES S. GRANT, and the Period of National Preservation and
Reconstruction. 1822-1885.= By WILLIAM CONANT CHURCH, late
Lieut.-Colonel, U.S.A., author of “Life of John Ericsson.” No. 21 in
the “Heroes of the Nations Series.” Fully illustrated. Large 12mo,
cloth, $1.50; half leather, gilt top
$1.75
“It is a work of high value for its completeness, for its review of
the period of national preservation and reconstruction, and for its
admirable handling of the great mass of momentous events with which
the career of General Grant was associated.”--_Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle._
=ROBERT E. LEE, and the Southern Confederacy. 1807-1870.= By Prof.
HENRY ALEXANDER WHITE, of Washington and Lee University. No. 22 in the
“Heroes of the Nations Series.” Fully illustrated. Large 12mo, cloth,
$1.50; half leather, gilt top
$1.75
“... He tells the story of the General’s life in admirable style. He
is intensely earnest, and is interesting from first to last. He has
labored long and faithfully to gather all possible information and
makes judicious use of the materials accumulated. When the reader ends
the volume it is with the wish that it had been much longer.”--_New
York Mail and Express._
NEW YORK--G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS--LONDON
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation errors and omissions have been silently corrected.
Page 23: “we have produed” changed to “we have produced”
Page 26: “German or Irshman” changed to “German or Irishman”
Page 105: “of ther own” changed to “of their own”
Page 114: “as a politican” changed to “as a politician”
Page 128: “Picnic Assotion” changed to “Picnic Association”
Page 148: “Frst Assistant” changed to “First Assistant”
Page 199: “in the Repubican party” changed to “in the Republican party”
Page 204: “woolly rhinocerous” changed to “woolly rhinoceros”
Page 228: “the Venezulan” changed to “the Venezuelan”
Page 266: “a a fleet of” changed to “a fleet of”
Page 269: “instance of sefishness” changed to “instance of selfishness”
Page 280: “dur-the last” changed to “during the last”
Page 282: “untimately absorbed” changed to “ultimately absorbed”
Page 311: “the unselfihnsess” changed to “the unselfishnsess”
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