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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/30081-0.txt b/30081-0.txt index 83b5308..71a9fe0 100644 --- a/30081-0.txt +++ b/30081-0.txt @@ -1,6038 +1,6038 @@ -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30081 ***
-
- THE ARENA.
-
-
-
- EDITED BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL. D.
-
-
-
- VOL. XVIII
-
-
-
- JULY TO DECEMBER, 1897
-
-
-
- PUBLISHED BY
- THE ARENA COMPANY
- BOSTON, MASS.
- 1897
-
-
- COPYRIGHTED, 1897
- BY
- THE ARENA COMPANY.
-
-
- SKINNER, BARTLETT & CO., 7 Federal Court, Boston.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
- PAGE
-
- The Citadel of the Money Power:
- I. Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future HENRY CLEWS 1
- II. The True Inwardness of Wall Street JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 9
- The Reform Club's Feast of Unreason Hon. CHARLES A. TOWNE 24
- Does Credit Act on Prices? A. J. UTLEY 37
- Points in the American and French Constitutions Compared,
- NIELS GRÖN 49
- Honest Money; or, A True Standard of Value: A Symposium.
- I. WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 57
- II. M. W. HOWARD 58
- III. WHARTON BARKER 59
- IV. ARTHUR I. FONDA 60
- V. Gen. A. J. WARNER 62
- The New Civil Code of Japan TOKICHI MASAO, M. L., D. C. L. 64
- John Ruskin: A Type of Twentieth-Century Manhood B. O. FLOWER 70
- The Single Tax in Operation Hon. HUGH H. LUSK 79
- Natural Selection, Social Selection, and Heredity,
- Prof. JOHN R. COMMONS 90
- Psychic or Supermundane Forces CORA L. V. RICHMOND 98
- The American Institute of Civics HENRY RANDALL WAITE, Ph. D. 108
- An Industrial Fable HAMILTON S. WICKS 116
- Plaza of the Poets:
- Reply to "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After," BARTON LOMAX PITTMAN 122
- John Brown COATES KINNEY 125
- Demos W. H. VENABLE, LL. D. 126
- The Editor's Evening: Leaf from My Samoan Notebook (A. D.
- 2297); _Vita Longa_; Kaboto (a Sonnet) 128
- A Stroke for the People: A Farmer's Letter to THE ARENA 134
- Evolution: What It Is and What It Is Not Dr. DAVID STARR JORDAN 145
- Has Wealth a Limitation? ROBERT N. REEVES 160
- The Battle of the Money Metals:
- I. Bimetallism Simplified GEORGE H. LEPPER 168
- II. Bimetallism Extinguished JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 180
- The Segregation and Permanent Isolation of Criminals,
- NORMAN ROBINSON 192
- How to Increase National Wealth by the Employment of Paralyzed
- Industry B. O. FLOWER 200
- Open Letter to Eastern Capitalists CHARLES C. MILLARD 211
- The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIII. Prof. FRANK PARSONS 218
- The Provisional Government of the Cubans THOMAS W. STEEP 226
- A Noted American Preacher DUNCAN MACDERMID 232
- The Civic Outlook HENRY RANDALL WAITE, Ph. D. 245
- "The Tempest" the Sequel to "Hamlet" EMILY DICKEY BEERY 254
- The Creative Man STINSON JARVIS 262
- Plaza of the Poets:
- The New Woman MILES MENANDER DAWSON 275
- Under the Stars COATES KINNEY 275
- The Cry of the Valley CHARLES MELVIN WILKINSON 276
- A Radical ROBERT F. GIBSON 277
- The Editor's Evening: Our Totem; _Vive La France! Le Siècle_
- (a Sonnet) 278
- The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part I,
- HERMAN E. TAUBENECK 289
- The Future of the Democratic Party: A Reply DAVID OVERMYER 302
- The Multiple Standard for Money ELTWEED POMEROY 318
- Anticipating the Unearned Increment I. W. HART 339
- Studies in Ultimate Society:
- I. A New Interpretation of Life LAURENCE GRONLUND 351
- II. Individualism _vs._ Altruism K. T. TAKAHASHI 362
- General Weyler's Campaign CRITTENDEN MARRIOTT 374
- The Author of "The Messiah" B. O. FLOWER 386
- Open Letter to President Andrews THE EDITOR 399
- Plaza of the Poets:
- The Onmarch FREEMAN E. MILLER 403
- The Toil of Empire JOHN VANCE CHENEY 404
- The Day Love Came THEODOSIA PICKERING 405
- The Question JULIA NEELY-FINCH 405
- Triolet CURTIS HIDDEN PAGE 406
- The Cry of the Poor JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 407
- The Editor's Evening: A Knotty Problem; A Case of Prevision;
- Concerning Eternity; A. L. (a Sonnet) 419
- The New Ostracism Hon. CHARLES A. TOWNE 433
- The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part II,
- HERMAN E. TAUBENECK 452
- The Rights of the Public over Quasi-Public Services,
- Hon. WALTER CLARK 470
- Prosperity: the Sham and the Reality JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 486
- Jefferson and His Political Philosophy MARY PLATT PARMELEE 505
- The Latest Social Vision B. O. FLOWER 517
- The Dead Hand in the Church Rev. CLARENCE LATHBURY 535
- Hypnotism in its Scientific and Forensic Aspects,
- MARION L. DAWSON, B. L. 544
- Suicide: Is It Worth While? CHARLES B. NEWCOMB 557
- Plaza of the Poets:
- Old Glory IRONQUILL 562
- _Vita Sum_ JUNIUS L. HEMPSTEAD 563
- Gold CLINTON SCOLLARD 564
- Richard Realfe REUBIE CARPENTER 565
- The Dreamer HELENA M. RICHARDSON 565
- The Editor's Evening: The Greatest Lyric; "Thrift, Thrift, Horatio;"
- The Pessimist; The Physician's Last Call (a Sonnet). 566
- Freedom and Its Opportunities: Part I Hon. JOHN R. ROGERS 577
- "The Case Against Bimetallism" Judge GEORGE H. SMITH 590
- The Initiative and the Referendum ELIHU F. BARKER 613
- The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIV Prof. FRANK PARSONS 628
- The Laborer's View of the Labor Question:
- I. How the Laborer Feels HERBERT M. RAMP 644
- II. Up or Down? W. EDWARDS 654
- III. The Farm Hand: An Unknown Quantity WILLIAM EMORY KEARNS 661
- Practical Measures for Promoting Manhood and Preventing Crime,
- B. O. FLOWER 673
- The Demand for Sensational Journals JOHN HENDERSON GARNSEY 681
- Is History a Science? JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 687
- Plaza of the Poets:
- Our Brother Simon ANNIE L. MUZZEY 707
- Thou Knowest Not HELENA M. RICHARDSON 708
- Optim: A Reply GEORGE H. WESTLEY 709
- The Murdered Trees BENJAMIN S. PARKER 709
- The Hidden Flute MINNA IRVING 710
- Retroensetta CURTIS HIDDEN PAGE 710
- The Editor's Evening: Tantalus and His Opportunities; The Man
- in Bronze; Franklin (a Sonnet) 711
- Idylls and Ideals of Christmas:
- I. What I Want for Christmas ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 721
- II. Christmas, the Human Holiday Rev. MINOT J. SAVAGE, D.D. 722
- III. Santa Claus: A Poem JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY 726
- IV. The Aryan at Christmas JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 727
- A Séance With Eusapia Paladino: Psychic Forces CAMILLE FLAMMARION 730
- The Influence of Hebrew Thought in the Development of the Social
- Democratic Idea in New England CHARLES S. ALLEN 748
- Priest and People E. T. HARGROVE 772
- Immigration, Hard Times, and the Veto JOHN CHETWOOD, Jr. 788
- The Founder of German Opera B. O. FLOWER 802
- The Truly Artistic Woman STINSON JARVIS 813
- Poor "Fairly Rich" People HENRY E. FOSTER 820
- Shall the United States be Europeanized? JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 827
- Hawaiian Annexation from a Japanese Point of View,
- KEIJIRO NAKAMURA 834
- A Political Deal: A Story ELIZA FRANCES ANDREWS 840
- Plaza of the Poets:
- Glad Tidings MARION MILLS MILLER 849
- The Yule Log CLINTON SCOLLARD 852
- How to Get an Article in a Magazine THE EDITOR 853
- The Editor's Evening: Sir Thomas Kho on Education; Journey
- and Sleep (a Sonnet) 855
-
-
-BOOK REVIEWS.
-
- The Emperor 137
- President Jordan's Saga of the Seal 284
- Some Prehistoric History 426
- A Bard of the Ohio 572
- Critic, Bard, and Moralist 717
- Guthrie's "Modern Poet Prophets" 860
-
-
-ILLUSTRATIONS.
-
- Opposite Page
- HON. CHARLES A. TOWNE 1
- DR. DAVID STARR JORDAN 145
- MULTIPLE-STANDARD TREASURY NOTE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY 289
- DR. E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS 433
- GOVERNOR JOHN R. ROGERS 577
- CAMILLE FLAMMARION 721
- PSYCHIC SÉANCE WITH EUSAPIA PALADINO 737
-
-
-
-
-THE ARENA.
-
-Vol. XVIII. JULY, 1897. No. 92.
-
-
-
-
-THE CITADEL OF THE MONEY POWER.
-
-I. WALL STREET, PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.
-
-BY HENRY CLEWS.
-
-
-I.
-
-The twenty-seven respectable citizens of New York who, in 1792, met
-under a buttonwood tree in front of the premises now known as Number
-60 Wall Street, and formed an association for the purchase and sale of
-public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a proviso of
-mutual help and preference, committed themselves to an enterprise of
-whose moment and influence in the future they could have formed no
-adequate conception. At that date Wall Street was a banking district,
-small indeed when compared with its present condition, but important
-in its relations to the commerce of the nation. This transaction of
-the twenty-seven--among whom we find the honored names of Barclay,
-Bleecker, Winthrop, Lawrence, which in themselves and their
-descendants were, and are, creditably identified with the growth of
-the community--added the prestige and power of the stock exchange to
-those of the banks, and fixed for an indefinitely long period the
-destinies of the financial centre of the Union.
-
-During the earlier part of this century the banking interests of Wall
-Street quite overshadowed those of the stock market. The growth of
-railway securities was not fairly under way until the opening of the
-fifth decade. Elderly men can recall the date when the New York
-Central existed only as a series of connecting links between Buffalo
-and Albany, under half-a-dozen different names of incorporation; and
-passenger cars were slowly and laboriously hoisted by chain power over
-the "divide" between the latter city and Schenectady. Since there were
-but few railways in the entire country, there were few opportunities
-for speculative dealings in their shares. These shares, too, were as a
-rule locally held, and were more frequently transferred by executors
-under court orders than by brokers on the stock exchange.
-
-Prior to 1840 and 1845, however, the members of the stock exchange
-were not idle. Public stocks were largely dealt in. The United States
-government frequently issued bonds, and the prices of these bonds
-fluctuated sufficiently to afford tempting chances of profits. State
-bonds also were sold in Wall Street in larger amounts than to-day.
-About the year 1850 the sales of Missouri sixes and Ohio sixes
-frequently amounted to millions of dollars daily. During that
-uncertain epoch of finance when the United States Bank was both a
-financial and a political power, the shares of that institution were a
-favorite subject of speculative dealing. The shares of Delaware &
-Hudson, and of the original Erie Railway, the latter laboriously
-constructed over a rough, barren, and thinly settled portion of the
-State, partly by State funds, had also become actively exchangeable in
-the market.
-
-During this period a relatively enormous quantity of banking capital
-had located itself in and near Wall Street. The Bank of New York
-existed before 1800, and later, although not long after, the Street
-witnessed the erection of buildings of a now obsolete, and yet at that
-time an attractive, style of architecture, devoted to the uses of the
-Manhattan Banking Company, the Bank of America, the Merchants, the
-Union, the Bank of Commerce, and others. Were it not that land in the
-banking district is so valuable, and that the need of upstair offices
-is so great, one might be tempted to regret the demolition of the
-graceful money temples occupied by three of these corporations on the
-north side of Wall Street. In each of them the entablature rested upon
-two fluted stone pillars with Doric capitals, in addition to the
-supports of the side walls. Between the steps and the doors of the
-temple extended a marble-paved court which often served as a
-convenient place of 'change for borrowers and lenders. Entering the
-doors you found yourself in a large, airy, dome-lighted room, the
-sides of which were occupied by the clerks of the institution, guarded
-by high barricades from the intrusive eyes and feet of the general
-public. At the rear were the offices of the president and cashier.
-Throughout the entire building there reigned a solemn and
-semi-religious silence. One may witness something like this to-day in
-the Wall-Street end of the U. S. Treasury Building, and only there.
-
-Up to the epoch of the rise of railway building and railway-share
-speculation, the main aliment of Wall-Street banks was the profit
-derived from the discount of commercial paper and from loans upon
-government and State securities. But when railway shares and bonds,
-based upon lines of road which were constructed through the rich
-regions of the Union lying between the Atlantic and the Mississippi
-river, came upon the market in large amounts, affording ample security
-for investment and loans, the great banks of Wall Street were quick to
-appreciate the advantages of loans made upon such undoubted values,
-which were at all times convertible into cash on the stock exchange.
-In times of pressure, commercial paper is an inferior asset for a
-bank, all of whose obligations are payable on demand. At such times
-notes become practically unsalable, and are not always paid at
-maturity. A failure of one firm brings down others, and renewals are
-urgently required from banks just when they are least able to grant
-them. Salable securities are on such occasions an ark of safety, and,
-dating from the early fifties, this class of securities has always
-been the basis of a large amount of the loans of the banks of Wall
-Street and their near neighbors of the same class in lower Nassau
-Street and also Broadway.
-
-With the immense outgrowth of business consequent upon the discovery
-of gold in California in 1849, and the construction of the great
-railways of the Middle West, such as the Michigan Southern, the
-Northern Indiana (now the Lake Shore), the Michigan Central, the
-Galena & Chicago, the Rock Island, and others of like importance and
-real value, the banks and banking houses of Wall Street, and the stock
-exchange, grew into most important factors in developing the
-prosperity of the country. Enterprises were originated by able men
-acting under corporate powers, and when these were brought before the
-committees of the stock exchange and duly approved and listed, capital
-instantly flowed forth from its reservoirs in answer to the
-securities thus offered. And it may safely be said that but for the
-combined machinery of the New York banks and the stock exchange the
-actual developments of twenty years would have dragged laboriously
-through an entire century.
-
-Amid so much progress and activity, speculation was not idle. Those
-were the days of many of our greatest railway operators, daring, able,
-enthusiastic men, who had the rare gift of imparting confidence to
-their followers and the public, and realized the fable of King Midas,
-whose touch transmuted all things into gold. Their careers were those
-of conquest and accumulation, like that of Napoleon; and, like him,
-they underwent, with few exceptions, their retreats from Russia and
-their Waterloos. Of such were Jacob Little, Daniel Drew, Anthony
-Morse, and others, to whom now the motto of Junius applies: _Stat
-nominis umbra_. Merely the shadows of their names reach over to us
-from the horizons where their suns set so long ago.
-
-There was an epoch too in the Wall Street of the past when gigantic
-and deeply considered combinations were set in motion, entitled
-"corners." As to corners, a word of explanation may not be amiss.
-There are always two factions in the stock market: the bulls, who want
-stocks to rise in price in order that they may sell out; and the
-bears, who want stocks to fall in price so that they can buy in.
-Contrary to the superficial belief of the public, the bulls are
-sellers and the bears are buyers. But in order to sell a commodity you
-must buy or borrow it; and in order to buy at a future date you must
-sell at a previous date; and thus the bull buys for the purpose of
-selling at a profit, and the bear sells something which he doesn't own
-for the purpose of buying it at a lower price. The bull therefore
-hopes to push prices up so that he can sell his purchase at a profit,
-and the bear hopes to drag prices down so that he can buy what he has
-sold, also at a profit.
-
-Meanwhile, the bear has delivered the shares sold by him, and in order
-to deliver them, has borrowed them, and given security in money at its
-market price. Here he has placed himself in danger, because the owner
-of the shares may at any time tender him this money and demand the
-shares, which the bear may not be able to provide himself with, except
-at the price which the owners choose to set upon them.
-
-Thus a person might be under contract to deliver the shares of some
-corporation which might be absolutely worthless, and yet these shares
-_might_ be so held that the holders could exact one thousand dollars a
-share. Given a railway with a share capital of ten millions, one
-person or knot of persons might own every certificate of its stock,
-and have it all loaned out to bears who had sold, borrowed, and
-delivered it. It is obvious that this person or club of persons could
-compel purchases of the shares which he or they alone possess, at
-whatever price he or they think proper to demand; and since such
-things can be done by skilful combinations under able generalship,
-they have been done, and were a favorite scheme during the eventful
-years between the sixties and the eighties. The corners in Harlem,
-Hudson, Erie and Northwest, in which Vanderbilt, Drew, and Gould
-achieved such success for themselves and their associates, have passed
-into history as a conspicuous portion of the great events of Wall
-Street. Their interest is chiefly historical, because of late years no
-comprehensive corners have been organized. Share capitals are so large
-that it is difficult for one man to control any one of them, and a
-divided corner is apt to fail. But in their day and generation they
-have offered brilliant illustrations of genius and strategic skill in
-financial warfare.
-
-The system of selling short, however, which gave birth to the idea of
-creating corners, and which came into vogue in the fifties, has never
-ceased to be a leading factor on the stock exchange. It was the result
-of certain inflations of values which necessarily follow the
-construction of great enterprises. However high a valuation may be set
-upon any given commodity, there are always persons who expect a higher
-price. Early historical examples of this fact are the South-Sea shares
-and John Law's Mississippi shares, over which England and France
-respectively went crazy in the last century. The loftier the figures
-to which these shares mounted, the greater was the eagerness of the
-public to buy them. But at that period the art and mystery of selling
-short had not been brought into practice, and when the bubbles
-collapsed there were universal losers and no direct winners.
-
-During the latter half of this century there have been periods in the
-history of Wall Street when the prices of railway and industrial
-shares have been forced enormously above the standard of actual
-values, and innumerable persons have parted with good money in
-exchange for mere phantoms of imaginary values. At such times the
-short sales of discernment, directing the X rays of clear-sighted
-criticism into the swollen and opaque mass of financial carrion that
-is exposed for sale in the market, are of the utmost benefit to the
-public. The bear is then a benefactor to the community, and when he
-pulls down and tears to pieces the rotten carcass of some gigantic
-humbug, strewing the highway with its remains, we cannot praise his
-work too highly.
-
-
-II.
-
-The present condition of Wall Street is one of lassitude and
-expectancy. The great banks have an abundance, perhaps a
-superabundance, of money, their own and their depositors, which they
-are only too glad to lend on solid and readily salable collateral at
-low rates of interest, approximating the prevalent rates in London and
-Paris, where similar accumulations of idle capital exist. A large part
-of this money is deposited with them by local banks in all parts of
-the country, which recognize New York City as the financial centre of
-the Union, and are content with interest of from one to two per cent
-upon the funds which they are unwilling or unable to use safely at
-home. The stock exchange is also in a condition of quietude. The
-public are neither buying nor selling stocks in any large amount.
-
-This state of things is the resultant of well-known facts. Numerous
-over-capitalized and badly managed railways have gone into bankruptcy,
-and either are in the hands of receivers or have emerged from such
-guardianship, and are painfully toiling along on the road to
-prosperity on the twin crutches of assessments upon stockholders and
-the withholding of dividends from the same long-suffering and patient
-class.
-
-The transactions at the stock exchange at present average about two
-hundred thousand shares a day, exclusive of bonds, government, State,
-and railway; and a certain class of observers who like to subject
-circumstances to a minute analysis inform the public that the daily
-profits of the members of the exchange are about sufficient to pay
-the expense of office rent and clerk hire. This conclusion takes it
-for granted that these profits should be equally divided among the
-membership. This is not a reasonable supposition. Many of the members
-are such only in name, and rarely go on the floor. Others live during
-most of the time on their accumulations, and come into the market to
-buy or sell only when prices are abnormally low or high. The
-comparatively small busy portion manage somehow to keep fairly active,
-and are cheerfully looking forward to better times, through a vista
-from which the cloud of a change of the monetary standard has already
-passed away, and into which the genius of enterprise beckons them to
-enter.
-
-
-III.
-
-While in many respects the future is a sealed book, yet there is such
-a thing in the economy of nature as an absolutely accurate prevision
-of events, such as eclipses of the sun and moon, and conjunctions of
-the planets, and a relatively correct prevision of events depending
-upon the growth of enlightened communities. Since the incorporation of
-the Bank of New York, at the corner of Wall and Williams Streets, the
-banking capital of New York has increased more than sixtyfold, of
-which more than one-half is held and used in and around Wall Street,
-and the aggregation of deposited and loanable capital has grown from a
-few millions to over half a billion. If this has been the result
-during one century, what will take place in the same direction during
-the next century? The ratio of increase will not be kept up. A
-thousand dollars may be doubled in a day, but no such ratio as a
-hundred per cent a day can be predicated of a million. And yet it is
-certain that, under proper management, the million will go on
-increasing; and in the same manner will our half-billion increase by
-its own earning power, and by contributions from all parts of the
-Union. The development of the United States in the direction of
-population, agriculture, manufactures, and mines is so enormous and so
-steady that this nation will at some not distant period become the
-most opulent of all the nations of the planet, unless unforeseen and
-improbable political events happen by which our great commonwealth
-shall be disrupted or its financial stability overturned. Under a
-normal condition of things the capital of the citizens of the Union
-will continually increase, and the banks of the city of New York will
-be the depositary of larger and larger reserves of whatever capital is
-temporarily idle in the places where it is created. In due time the
-financial centre of the world will be shifted from London to our
-imperial city.
-
-Such a destiny has been foretold for St. Petersburg, in view of the
-construction of the Siberian Railway and its branches, which in time
-will open up to industry an immense tract of productive soil in the
-most fertile parts of Asia, abounding in wheat and corn land, and full
-of superior water power. But in this superb rivalry between the United
-States and the colossus of Europe and Asia, the former nation has an
-immense start as to time, and a still greater advantage in the
-character of its population. And in addition to these we have the
-undoubted and constantly increasing supremacy of the English language.
-Just as during the Middle Ages Latin was the vernacular of the learned
-classes, and as to-day French is the language of diplomacy in Europe,
-so is English the common tongue in all the commercial localities of
-the globe. With English a man can commit himself to foreign travel
-anywhere, while outside of Russia there are few towns on the various
-continents in which Russian is not an unknown speech. These
-controlling conditions cannot be readily or easily changed, especially
-since no paramount reasons exist why they should be changed.
-
-It is then a reasonable forecast of the future, that in due time the
-weighty import of the names of Lombard[1] and Threadneedle Streets
-will be transferred to the name of Wall Street, and the facts implied
-by such a transfer are of a dignity and power which it is impossible
-to estimate. The road leading to this great destiny can only be
-blocked by injurious legislation, and the good sense of our citizens
-may be confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a
-barricade against national prosperity.
-
- [1] It will be recollected that Macaulay has pictured a New
- Zealander of some future day as sitting upon a broken arch
- of London Bridge, contemplating the ruins of St. Paul's
- cathedral; and readers of the classics may recall the
- forecast of Seneca in the time of Nero, as to the discovery
- of a Western continent by which Rome should be dwarfed: "In
- later ages the time shall come when the ocean shall loosen
- the chains which bind us, a mighty continent shall be
- disclosed, and a deity shall unveil a new world beyond
- Britannia."
-
-
-
-II. THE TRUE INWARDNESS OF WALL STREET.
-
-BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH.
-
-
-The organized powers of society are always anxious to conciliate
-public favor. They know that they exist by sufferance--by sufferance
-of a mightier than themselves. In proportion as they know themselves
-to be aggressors and spoliators their anxiety increases. Every abusive
-power in the world is thus driven to adopt schemes and devices--some
-dangerous and some merely ludicrous--to keep a footing at that silent
-bar of opinion before which all wrong must, sooner or later, quail and
-slink away.
-
-The great concern called Wall Street is such an organized power in
-society. It exists as a fact in our American system, and would fain
-conciliate the favor of the public. Wall Street has become one of the
-most conspicuous features in our national life. Knowing that it is
-challenged by public opinion--knowing indeed that it is already under
-the ban and condemnation of the American people--it now seeks, after
-the manner of its kind, to save itself alive. It would go further than
-mere salvation; it would make mankind believe that it is a reputable
-part of the universal swim. Aye more; it seeks to ingratiate itself,
-sometimes by force and sometimes by gentle craft and stratagem, into
-the good graces of that civilization which it has so mortally
-offended.
-
-To this end Wall Street strives to justify itself in periodical and
-general literature. No other power in human society to so great a
-degree and in so subtle a manner exploits its own virtues. Taking
-advantage of the well-known carelessness of American readers, and
-knowing full well how easily they are duped--how easily they are
-cozened out of their senses and led into false beliefs with mere
-plausibilities and sophisms--this imperial and far-reaching Wall
-Street, this elephantine fox of the world, takes possession of
-American journalism--owns it, controls it. It seizes and subsidizes
-the metropolitan press. It purchases newspapers and magazines by the
-score. It establishes bureaus; it buys every purchasable pen, from the
-pen of the gray philosopher to the pen of the snake editor. It
-overawes every timid brain, from the brain of the senator to the
-brain of the tramp. What it cannot purchase it terrorizes; and the
-small residue which it cannot terrorize it seeks to cajole: all this
-to the end that its dominion may be universal and everlasting.
-
-In this work of gaining possession of public opinion and perverting
-that opinion to its own uses Wall Street employs all methods and uses
-all expedients. Wall Street deliberately marks its game; and we have
-to confess that the game generally falls at the first fire. We have
-heard, however, of a single case of a brave man, now dead, who, when
-offered ten thousand dollars for his voice against his conviction and
-his opinion against his soul, in the matter of electing President of
-the United States the man who was the candidate of Wall Street, told
-the subtle committee to make an immediate and expeditious visit to the
-bottom of the old theology.
-
-This train of thought rises vividly to mind when I consider the
-article of Mr. Henry Clews on "Wall Street, Past, Present, and
-Future." This article came unsought and unexpected to the editorial
-desk of THE ARENA. I confess that I doubted its genuineness. For why
-should Mr. Clews address the public through the columns of THE ARENA?
-What has THE ARENA done to merit such distinction? Satisfying myself
-that the contribution was genuine, that it was not--and is not--a
-hallucination, I at once divined that it must be a sort of challenge
-to this magazine. I do the author of "Wall Street, Past, Present, and
-Future," the honor to believe that he does not suppose THE ARENA to be
-sufficiently verdant to publish his adroit and well-covered apology
-for the great institution which he represents,--without knowing the
-sense and significance of it. If indeed the distinguished gentleman
-imagined that we could do such a thing here, then in good sooth he
-must be undeceived. Or if he supposed that a paper of the kind
-submitted would be _rejected_ at this office because of our well-known
-antagonism to the fact which Mr. Clews defends, let him in that
-instance also be undeceived.
-
-At the office of THE ARENA we take all challenges. Nor should our
-friends suppose or fear that the welcome admission of Mr. Clews's
-article to the pages of THE ARENA implies timidity or some possible
-weakness in the presence of that gigantic institution known by the
-name of Wall Street. The fact is, that the nightmare which that power
-has been able to spread, bat-like, over the souls of men for a quarter
-of a century has about been dissipated; it is already the beginning of
-the end. It is the dawn; the day is not very far in the future when
-the American people, roused at last to the exertion of their majesty,
-will shake themselves from the dread of this incubus and spring up
-like a giant refreshed from slumber.
-
-Mr. Clews's article on "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future," is a
-most gentle and dove-like performance. It is not a paper intended to
-produce alarm, but to allay it. It is one of the finest examples of a
-literary opiate that I have ever seen. The bottom theme of the paper
-is that Wall Street is a natural growth, and is therefore inevitable.
-Wall Street has come by a gentle evolution. Good men and true have
-conspired with nature to bring it forth. Under natural and necessary
-conditions Wall Street has appeared in our American system, and under
-these conditions it flourishes. Whatever great fact in society has
-thus appeared has been born of necessity and out of the nature of
-things. If Wall Street have been born out of necessity and the nature
-of things, then it has come of righteousness, and is the child of
-truth. If of righteousness and truth, then Wall Street is good as well
-as glorious. That which is good and glorious ought to be admired and
-honored. Whatever is admired and honored, whatever is good and
-glorious, should have influence and power in society and state. Such a
-golden product of evolution is Wall Street; therefore the sceptre
-which Wall Street stretches forth over the prostrate Western world
-should be obeyed and upheld by the voice and hand of the American
-people.
-
-Not only so, but the sceptre should be extended. The empire of Wall
-Street should become universal. It should be enlarged and confirmed
-until all outlying kingdoms and all islands of the sea shall pass
-under the beneficent sway of this monarchy of the world! Then with Mr.
-Clews we may well consider his "reasonable forecast of the future."
-With him we shall be able to see "that in due time the weighty import
-of the names of Lombard and Threadneedle Streets will be transferred
-to the name of Wall Street." With Mr. Clews we shall be able to see
-that "the facts implied by such a transfer are of a dignity and power
-which it is impossible to estimate." Then, finally, with Mr. Clews we
-shall agree that "the road leading to this great destiny _can only be
-blocked by legislation_." Mr. Clews says "injurious" legislation.
-Certainly; that is true--most true. The consummation hoped for by Mr.
-Clews can verily be blocked by legislation! But when it comes to the
-definition of "injurious" how fearfully do we part company! The writer
-of "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future" flatters himself, in fine,
-with the belief that "the good sense of our citizens may be
-confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a barricade
-against national prosperity." Oh, it is "national prosperity" then
-that we have in view! That is good. If there be anything under heaven
-which Wall Street adores and dotes on more than any other thing in the
-world it is national prosperity! When it comes to national prosperity
-Wall Street is always full-handed. With the mere mention of national
-prosperity Wall Street raises a shout of sympathetic enthusiasm which
-reverberates from Passamaquoddy to San Diego, and from the Florida
-everglades to the snow-capped shoulders of Shasta!
-
-Let me, however, explain to Mr. Clews one thing, and that is that the
-blessed condition of universal society in which Wall Street, having
-absorbed Lombard and Threadneedle, shall be supreme over the nations
-will occur only when our free American institutions shall be crushed
-into fragments and when civil liberty shall lie bleeding among the
-ruins. It will occur _then_, and not before. It will occur when the
-residue of the old American spirit has been stamped out, and when a
-miserable, slavish subserviency shall have been substituted for the
-revolutionary freedom which our fathers won and made sacred with their
-blood on every patriot battlefield from Lexington to Appomattox.
-
-Temperately and patiently I will follow Mr. Clews's paper through. The
-writer of the article is a gentlemanly and able representative of that
-colossal power which he has helped to build up and fortify. From being
-a child of that power he has now become, in a most theosophical
-manner, one of the fathers of it! As such he has made himself the
-apologist of a gigantic and rampant beast on whose horns of hazard
-the values produced by the labor of seventy millions of Americans are
-tossed about as if the wreckage were so much waste excelsior thrown on
-the horns of a bull! Mr. Clews tells us that in 1792 twenty-seven
-gentlemen met under a buttonwood tree and formed the association known
-as Wall Street. The purpose of the association was "the purchase and
-sale of public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a
-proviso of mutual help and preference." The result was the addition of
-"the prestige and power of the stock exchange to the prestige and
-power of the banks." That indeed is a combination worthy to be
-considered! A consolidation of interests was effected between the
-exchange and the banks to purchase and sell stocks "with a proviso of
-mutual help."
-
-The organization thus created has existed for one hundred and five
-years. It has made a history. It has become ever greater and more
-firmly fixed in and _on_ American society. It has made itself to be
-the foundation of all things financial and political in the United
-States. The story of the process by which this prodigious result has
-been reached is narrated by Mr. Clews in the manner of one who gives
-an account of the formation of a temperance society or a Sunday
-school! In the whole article there does not appear a symptom of a
-suspicion that the thing of which he gives the history is the most
-dangerous and abusive fact that ever threatened the integrity of a
-nation. The argument is that if twenty-seven gentlemen thus met and
-created Wall Street, then the result, being a natural product, is good
-and wholesome. But the inquiry at once arises whether it is valid
-logic to suppose that what men do is right, simply because they do it.
-The affirmative of such a proposition would make Aristotle stagger. It
-amounts to this, that whatever is is right; therefore, let it alone.
-
-By this argument of Mr. Clews all the tyrannies of the past, all the
-horrors that have afflicted the human race, all the sufferings which
-men have endured from sword and pestilence, from servitude, from the
-butchery of war and the cruelty of the Inquisition, have been right
-merely because they have been natural. Under this rule every monster
-that has tormented society from the first day until now can find full
-justification for itself on the simple ground that it exists! Under
-such an argument a howitzer is as good as a plough, a sword is as good
-as a sickle, a pillory is as good as a baby-wagon. By such reasoning a
-shark is as useful as a horse. By this logic a boa-constrictor is as
-good as a reindeer, a tiger is as useful and salutary in his office as
-an ox or a St. Bernard, and a cancer is as beautiful as a blush. That
-is, everything is good, not because it is useful and just, but because
-it is.
-
-Or again, Mr. Clews's argument is this: that the men who created Wall
-Street were gentlemen; therefore their work was salutary. Just as
-though respectable people could not engage in a nefarious business.
-Just as though gentlemen could not, and would not, make a conspiracy
-to enslave the human race. The "gentleman" is a very uncertain factor
-in civilization; his devotion to right and truth requires always to be
-tested with a chemical and to be taken with the usual combination of
-chlorine and sodium.
-
-Mr. Clews explains that the stocks underlying our old railroad
-properties in the United States were aforetime "held locally," and
-that they were transferred "more frequently by executors than by
-brokers on the stock exchange"--as though that were an evil. Then
-"there were but few opportunities for dealing in shares"--as though
-_that_ were an evil! It thus became necessary for Wall Street to get
-the old stocks belonging to the people out of the people's hands and
-into the hands of the Street--as though _that_ were a good. Our public
-improvements were in the first place made by the people, but the
-people were not fit to own them. Our railways were constructed with
-capital subscribed by the people, generally by those through whose
-country the given improvement was extended. The people themselves then
-owned their own, and controlled it. Until Wall Street reached out and
-clutched such properties--first putting down the prices of the shares
-to nothing and then pulling the given stocks to par--the people were
-able to protect themselves; but never afterwards.
-
-The same was true of all other securities, whether public or private.
-Nearly all bonded debts were at first local; but the holding of
-securities _locally_ has always been a thing abhorrent to Wall Street.
-The idea of the Street is that all stocks and all securities belong,
-not to the public, but to itself. Of course the _money capital_ of the
-country belongs to the Street. And if, with the consent of public
-authority, the _stocks_ of the country also can be held by the Street,
-then a humble peasantry, paying perennial rents and compound interest,
-can be created and kept under forever throughout the domains of the
-great Republic. It may ultimately require arsenals to do it, but these
-we can supply.
-
-The next stage in the game was the creation by Wall Street of
-fictitious enterprises for the distinct purpose of getting possession
-of the stocks on which such enterprises were based, and of speculating
-in the shares of such properties. When the _existing_ stocks of
-railways were not sufficient--when the bonds of States and of the
-general government were insufficient in quantity to fill the maw of
-the benevolent being called Wall Street--then an _artificial_ supply
-must be created; that is, some scheme of debts must be invented by
-which the people might be made to pay tribute to the good Wall Street,
-and pay it still more abundantly.
-
-Thus were invented new banks and new banking systems. Thus came the
-bull and the bear and the bucket-shop. Thus were projected a thousand
-railways and canals. Many of these were laid into impossible
-regions--all "for the benefit of the people!" Other enterprises which
-were not sufficiently stocked began to be stocked more heavily--this
-also for the benefit of the people. The plan of watering was invented;
-the method of "promoting" enterprises was perfected,--until, as early
-as the time of the Civil War, Wall Street had acquired the greatest
-skill in _making_ debts, or, in the language of James Fisk, Jr., in
-"rescuing the property of other people from themselves."
-
-These beautiful processes are glossed over by Mr. Clews with a
-pleasant account of how, with the growth of business and the discovery
-of gold and the oncoming of the age of construction, great enterprises
-were "promoted" by Wall Street, and how "capital instantly flowed
-forth from its reservoirs in answer to the securities" that flowed
-thereto. The author of "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future,"
-affirms "that but for the combined machinery of the New York banks and
-the stock exchange the actual developments of twenty years would have
-dragged laboriously through an entire century." Permit us to say that
-it would have been better that such "actual developments" should have
-dragged through _two_ centuries than that the United States of America
-should have been stocked and mortgaged and bonded and enslaved, under
-the tyrannous lash of debt, by such a master as Wall Street.
-
-Mr. Clews next comes to the subject of corners. On this topic we doubt
-not that he speaks as one having authority. He tells us quite
-complacently that there was "an epoch in the Wall Street of the past
-when the gigantic and deeply considered combinations were set in
-motion entitled 'corners.'" Then he goes on to explain what corners
-are. He does so without the slightest expression of criticism or
-aversion. He tells us of the bulls and the bears by whose agency a
-corner is conducted as though they were the friendly competitors in
-some great philanthropy! Instead of describing corners as so many
-carefully contrived schemes to rob the people of the proceeds of their
-labor by putting the prices of their commodities and securities down
-until such commodities and securities are taken from their hands, and
-then putting the prices _up_ in order that the robbers may reap the
-harvest, he speaks of corners as offering "brilliant illustrations of
-genius and strategic skill in financial warfare!"
-
-The fact is that the men who are reared in Wall Street, who from their
-youth are familiarized with its processes, and who are well set in the
-plastic age to consider human life as an auspicious opportunity for
-getting possession of something that does not belong to them, are
-fatally blunted in their sensibilities; the ethical quality in them is
-battered out--or at least battered; they come to regard the human race
-as an enormous ranch of sheep to be shorn at the pleasure of the
-shearers; they even grow to consider each other as so much mutton to
-be butchered and roasted by whoever is able to do it.
-
-I notice with surprise that Mr. Clews in his sketch of Wall Street
-dwells not at all upon the benevolent agency of that power during the
-Civil War. This is an oversight which I beg leave to supply. There has
-never perhaps been an instance in human history in which a great power
-has so ardently devoted itself "to the preservation of free
-institutions" as did Wall Street in that epoch of mortal agony. Then
-it was that Wall Street engaged in the patriotic work, first of
-destroying the national credit, then of buying it up at half price,
-then of converting it into a bonded debt to be perpetuated for a full
-generation, and finally of compelling the people to pay it in a dollar
-worth four times as much as the dollar with which it was purchased. It
-was a beautiful scheme of devotion and self-sacrifice the like of
-which history has never before recorded. It was a speculation which
-involved the life of the American Republic. The Union was on trial.
-All nerves were strained, and all hearts were torn. The nation was
-bleeding at every pore. Every freight-train that came from the front
-brought back its loaded boxes of dead. Fathers and mothers gathered at
-the station, and each received his own. The rough coffin containing
-the body of the patriot boy who had given his life for the flag was
-taken by the silent father and mother to its resting-place under the
-apple trees. All true men had tearful faces, and a stern resolve in
-the heart. And while _this_ was the condition of the nation and the
-people, the high-toned Wall Street was speculating on the life of the
-Republic. It bought and sold blood. It was a bull on disaster and a
-bear on victory. It established bureaus through which to falsify
-intelligence and to bring the nation to the verge of ruin. It had no
-compunction. It regarded the gore of battlefields as the rich rain and
-mould out of which its own harvest was to grow. The more blood the
-merrier. The more tears the richer the yield. The more war the more
-debt. The more depression of the national credit the more cheaply we
-shall be able to gather it up! The more grape-vine despatches the more
-distraction and the better opportunity for us. The more death the more
-millions. The more horror and devastation the heavier will be our
-coffers. The more the people groan the more we will shout. The more
-they die the more we will live. The more the flag is torn the more our
-damask curtains will flutter. The more liberty perishes and withers
-from the earth the more we shall plant ourselves and flourish and rule
-and reign over a nation that we have destroyed and a people whom we
-have enslaved. If Mr. Clews wishes any further outline of the history
-of Wall Street during our Civil War we shall be glad to contribute
-such a sketch as a reminiscence of a great fact which appears to be
-dim in his memory.
-
-There is another almost fatal omission in Mr. Clews's article. He says
-but little about the principal work in which Wall Street, historically
-considered, has been engaged during the last thirty years. I do not
-like the way in which this great section of the "Past" of Wall Street
-is glossed over. During the period referred to, that institution has
-had one bottom purpose and one reason of action from which it has
-never deviated. This purpose, this reason of action, has been the
-perpetuation of the national debt and the increase of its value by
-bulling the unit of money in which the debt is payable. Wall Street
-knows that the bonded debt of the United States is the basis, or
-central fact, in the whole system of bonds and stocks. Wall Street
-knows that the dollar is the central fact in the bond. It knows that
-if the bond can be made everlasting and the dollar can be increased in
-value until a single unit of it shall be equivalent to an acre of
-farming land, then the Street can own the United States in fee simple,
-and can presently annex the rest of the world.
-
-I acknowledge a certain admiration when I consider this stupendous
-scheme. It is more than Napoleonic; it is continental, interplanetary,
-sidereal! I cannot recall another conspiracy in the history of mankind
-quite equal in colossal and criminal splendor to the profound and
-universal plot of Wall Street to make perpetual the national debt, to
-keep that debt the bottom fact in the banking system of the United
-States, and to bull the unit of money and account until it shall be
-worth four times as much, or perhaps ten times as much, as it was when
-the bulk of the debt was contracted.
-
-The history of this scheme in its true inwardness is the history of
-Wall Street for the past thirty years. The details of the history
-relate to such small circumstances as the transfer of the government
-of the great Republic from the hands and control of the people to the
-hands and control of the Street. Of course no such scheme as that
-referred to could be carried into successful operation _unless_ the
-national government could be delivered over to the keeping of the
-Street and be locked up, as it were, in the same vault where the
-national debt is deposited.
-
-This feat, however, was easily accomplished. Wall Street reached out
-its hand and plucked down the American eagle from his perch. Wall
-Street got possession of the government. The _coup_ was accomplished
-while the nation was asleep--else it never could have been
-accomplished. Wall Street climbed the Tarpeian rock in the night, and
-no goose cackled to give the alarm. Columbia had gone to bed. The
-keeper of her treasure-house had already given the key to the enemy.
-The keeper of the treasury was a _part_ of the enemy. He gave up both
-citadel and city. In the morning the walls were placarded with lying
-posters which said that the delivery of the government into the hands
-of the Hessians had been rendered necessary in order "to preserve the
-national honor!" It was done in order to keep faith with those
-benevolent patriots who had bought the debt of the nation at less than
-fifty cents to the dollar, and who, not satisfied with bringing it to
-par, were now engaged in the honorable work of making it worth two
-hundred cents to the dollar. The fact that the industries of the
-people would be crushed and the people themselves be reduced to
-poverty by the transfer of the national sovereignty from the capitol
-to the stock exchange was nothing in comparison with the "preservation
-of national honor."
-
-The scheme was carried out. The methods by which it was carried out
-constitute the subject-matter of the true history of Wall Street
-during the past generation. Wall Street, from being a financial
-organization, became a political power. It took full possession of the
-executive and legislative departments of the government. It controlled
-them both. It promptly established and defended its ownership. It
-instituted one scheme after another. For the purpose of fortifying its
-usurpation, it learned to choose its men and to prepare its measures
-in advance. In 1884 it created an administration for its own purposes,
-and manned it to the same end. It forced its way into the House of
-Representatives and stood with a bludgeon behind the Speaker's chair.
-It entered every committee-room and dictated every successful bill.
-The people's bills all went one way. If by any chance one of the
-people's bills got before the House the subsidized press, owned by
-Wall Street, raised against it a chorus of groans and catcalls; _that_
-was "an expression of public opinion"!
-
-From that day forth the popular voice was strangled into silence. The
-next administration (that of 1888) was prepared in the same manner.
-Wall Street has no politics except the politics of the bond; it has no
-platform except the platform of cent per cent. It suffices that when a
-president is to be elected he shall be one of us. He shall not be a
-man of the people; else in that case he would be a demagogue, a
-windbag, a _vox et præterea nil_. _Our_ man shall not even know the
-despised people. He shall not smell of the filthy ground, but must be
-"sound" on questions of finance. If he be not "sound," we will make
-him so. We will teach him his paces. If the people conclude to change
-their government, we will see to it that the incoming powers are just
-like the outgoing. As for the "principles" on which the candidate
-shall be chosen, we will attend to that. We will make his principles
-for him. We understand principles perfectly. We will fix the platform;
-we know the carpenters. If the candidate and his friends have already
-fixed a platform before the date of the convention, and if it have
-been published everywhere as the decision of the candidate and his
-following, we will take that platform from the wires and will
-carefully revise it, to the end that the "national honor" shall be
-preserved. We will write it over again into new meanings. We will
-interpret it so that no harm shall be done to the "national credit."
-We will make our candidate into a puppet. When we put our foot on the
-treadle his jaw shall drop and he shall utter many mocking words about
-the "national honor" and the "prospects of our glorious
-country"--signifying nothing.
-
-All this we will do for the public good. We will say that we are
-striving for national prosperity. We will proclaim our candidate as
-the advance agent of prosperity--until after the election. Then we
-will say that prosperity will come with the inauguration. Then we will
-say that it will shine out promptly when Congress adjourns and ceases
-to menace the national credit. Then we will say that prosperity will
-reveal itself when the hot season is over. By this time the hoodwinked
-people can be coddled to sleep, or else set to dancing with rumors of
-foreign wars. To this end we will have our newspapers carefully
-promote our principles and studiously avoid all reference to those
-subjects in which the people feel the deepest concern. Finally, we
-will omit all these matters from our history of "Wall Street, Past;"
-we will proceed to speak of our "Wall Street, Present," and will
-explain that it is in a state of "lassitude and expectancy." Indeed
-"lassitude and expectancy" is good.
-
-But there is still another yawning chasm in the history of "Wall
-Street, _Past_," and that is Mr. Clews's failure to discuss the
-transfer of the Treasury of the United States to the custody of the
-Street, and the consequent reduction of the Secretary of the Treasury
-to the rank of a clerk. This very thing has been most successfully
-accomplished. I believe that the Secretary still has an office at
-Washington, but that should be closed in the interest of economy and
-reform. To do so, we doubt not, would be a strong factor in the
-restoration of confidence. Perhaps the Washington office might be left
-in charge of a janitor, for it is understood that some official
-correspondence is still directed to the old address! The presence of
-the Secretary in New York, however, has become so essential to the
-proper discharge of his duties that the removal of his residence
-thither can only be deferred by an absurd deference to public opinion!
-
-The results of the transfer of this vital function of the national
-government have, in the meantime, been so salutary as fully to
-vindicate the change. This was shown in 1893-94 when the Street, with
-a strong repugnance to investing money in useful enterprises, and
-having a prodigious accumulation of funds on hand, concluded that a
-sale of Government bonds was necessary for the "national honor." To
-this end the managers began to pull the treasury. In that institution
-a large sum of gold was stored, wholly without warrant of law. The
-people needed the gold beyond measure--that is, they needed the
-_money_; and gold is one form of money. The industries of the people
-had been prostrated by an international conspiracy, and the nation was
-quivering on the verge of apprehended ruin.
-
-In this crisis the patriotic Street devised the bucket-chain, the
-crank of which was in the hand of the Street, while the "chain" ran
-through the Treasury of the United States. Every bucket came out
-filled with gold. Lazard Frères emptied out the gold and shipped it
-abroad to their confederates. This created the necessity for buying it
-back with bonds. The people were stunned with the audacity of the
-thing--just as the unfortunate owners of a house in flames are stunned
-to see gentlemen of the profession rush in and empty the safe. Wall
-Street danced and shouted while the work was done. The bonds were
-"popular," and the Street got them--got them for one price and sold
-them for another.
-
-By this beautiful process the great American nation was literally held
-up and _robbed_ of more than nineteen million dollars! No highwayman
-ever more successfully clutched the wizen of his victim than did the
-Street with its supple fingers around the white larynx of Columbia.
-The wheezing of the strangulated Republic could be heard from the St.
-Lawrence to the Rio Grande. The nation was thus "saved," and the
-robbers took the money and went sailing away on summer cruises to
-Norway and Venice and the Cyclades. The "national credit" was
-preserved; Wall Street "rescued" us from dishonor! That part of the
-proceeds not consumed in yacht races, pyrotechnics, and balls was
-passed to the credit of the reform fund, needed for the restoration of
-prosperity in the fall of 1896! Certainly a history of "Wall Street,
-Past," ought to contain some reference to these crimes.
-
-Mr. Clews, turning to "Wall Street, Present," tells the nation that
-now "the great banks have a superabundance of gold to lend on solid
-and readily salable collateral at low rates of interest, approximating
-the prevalent rates in London and Paris, where similar accumulations
-of idle capital exist." This is a true statement of the facts. Mr.
-Clews has here spoken by the books. What he says signifies that Wall
-Street is now ready to go ahead and issue new mortgages on the
-American people. It is now ready to offer inducements to our fourteen
-millions of voters to sell themselves into another twenty-year cycle
-of bondage. If they will only be gentle and not interrupt us; if they
-will give us a true death-grip on themselves, on all they possess, and
-all they ever hope to possess, we will lend back to them a part of the
-very money which we have sucked up from their wheat fields and
-pastures, from their barns and potato patches, from their humble
-stores and markets, from their mills and their mines, and we will thus
-_expedite_ them on the way to serfdom. Meanwhile we will continue to
-bankrupt their railways, to snatch their local stocks, to convert all
-shares in all enterprises into bonds, and to put the bonds into our
-safes to the end--that confidence may be restored and prosperity come
-back like the flowers that bloom in the spring.
-
-For the time being we, the Street, are able to toss "two hundred
-thousand shares a day" on the horns of our bull, and to put the same
-amount of securities under the custody of our bear. "This conclusion
-takes it for granted that the profits should be equally divided among
-the membership." Such are Mr. Clews's very words. By the bond of my
-faith! there is nothing else so beautiful and magnificent as this
-among the arts invented by mankind! As for the people, one of your own
-kings, Messieurs of the Street, has very properly indicated your wish
-and purpose with regard to _them_.
-
-Mr. Clews tells us that the "Future" of Wall Street is a sealed book;
-and yet we may allow that "there is such a thing as an accurate
-prevision of events." Of this kind are eclipses, occultations, and
-tides of the sea. If the capital of Wall Street has, since the
-institution was founded, increased more than sixtyfold, as Mr. Clews
-declares, then we may expect it, according to his philosophy, to
-increase full sixty times sixty, until the world shall be swallowed
-up. Then, when Threadneedle and Lombard Streets shall have lost their
-sceptre; then, when Seneca's forecast of the time to come shall have
-been fulfilled; then, when Macaulay's New Zealander shall have made
-his sketch, not only of St. Paul's, but also of the bank of England;
-then, when _all_ the wealth, and _all_ the power, and _all_ the
-functions of civil society in the United States shall have been
-transferred to Wall Street; then, when nothing shall remain to the
-American people except their squalid huts and the sorrowful
-reminiscences of a great republic; then, when Wall Street in very
-truth shall have possessed itself of the earth and consumed
-mankind,--I suppose that the benevolent owners of the world will found
-a few libraries, build a few marble mausoleums for themselves, and
-sally forth to establish a stock exchange in Mars! That done,
-interplanetary wars may be engendered, bonds on the solar system may
-be issued and bought at half price, a gold standard of values may be
-fixed on the basis of the pound sterling good from the sun out to
-Neptune, and the inhabitants of the worlds, either by arms or by
-journalism, may become the helots of consolidated wealth enthroned as
-the governing power of the universe.
-
-
-
-
-THE REFORM CLUB'S FEAST OF UNREASON.
-
-BY HON. CHARLES A. TOWNE,
-
-_Chairman Provisional National Committee Silver Republican Party._
-
-
-On Saturday evening, April 24, 1897, at the Waldorf Hotel, New York,
-there was held a political banquet intended as a most impressive
-function, but which has passed into history as a very ridiculous one.
-Big with self-complacence and puffed with pride, as it appeared in the
-brilliant lights and gorgeous appointments of the palatial
-supper-hall, within twenty-four hours the lacerating indignation of
-Mr. Watterson and the trenchant raillery of Mr. Bryan had let the
-tumid pretentiousness all out of it, and it had collapsed into a
-flaccid and "innocuous desuetude." The "star-eyed goddess" turned her
-back upon it, the "wild-orbed anarch" snapped his fingers at it, and
-even everyday Mrs. Grundy laughed it to scorn. Projected with the most
-alluring and satisfying expectations, the feast has dwindled to the
-memory of a sad mistake in the mind of every man that assisted at it.
-Planned as a sort of coronation ceremony, its completed performance
-unaccountably wore the complexion of belated obsequies irreverently
-disturbed by the guffaws of the multitude.
-
-But the aspect of this banquet as a piece of ill-conceived political
-strategy that never was formidable, or as a rite in the ceremonial of
-a hero-worship that is as inexplicable as inopportune, does not now so
-much concern me as does its office as a dispenser of misinformation
-and unsound philosophy, which are always dangerous. Many who condemn
-the folly of it as a move in practical politics nevertheless loudly
-commend the economic doctrines it contributed to spread. But inasmuch
-as, in my opinion, the science it taught is as bad as the politics it
-practised, I propose to call attention to a few of the arrogant
-assumptions and mischievous theories that found emphatic and repeated
-expression at this feast.
-
-Did the purpose of this article permit, it would be interesting to
-make Mr. Cleveland's speech the text of some examination into the
-ex-President's peculiarities of style. It was Clevelandesque to the
-core. All his protuberant characteristics are there: the leviathanic
-egotism, the profound and tenebrous ponderosity, the labored intricacy
-of the commonplace, the pedagogic moralizing, the oracular
-inconsequence. How absurdly obvious it all is now, and how
-inexplicable that the glamour of high place should ever have clothed
-such matter as his with the seeming of philosophy and statesmanship!
-'Tis the very frippery and trumpery of the stage after the lights are
-out and the audience has departed.
-
-In his opening Mr. Cleveland says: "On every side we are confronted
-with popular depression and complaint." This language stirs an echo of
-the long ago. In his special message to the extra session of the
-Fifty-third Congress in August, 1893, he thus announced a similar
-condition: "Suddenly financial distrust and fear have sprung up on
-every side." But he accounts differently for these two identical
-phenomena. The situation to-day he largely attributes to "the work of
-agitators and demagogues." In 1893 he declared: "I believe these
-things are principally chargeable to Congressional legislation
-touching the purchase and coinage of silver by the general
-government."
-
-The ex-President's explanations are both wrong, and nobody ought to
-know it so well as himself. His relations with the great gold bankers
-were exceedingly intimate in 1892 and 1893, and have been so ever
-since. It is notorious that the panic of 1893 was a bankers' panic
-deliberately brought about by these men to frighten public sentiment
-into supplementing their demand for the repeal of the purchasing
-clause of the Sherman law of 1890. The agitation against that law was
-a whooped-up and manufactured agitation. No legitimate interest had
-suffered from its operation. On the contrary, the access of standard
-silver dollars coined under the laws of 1878 and 1890 had been of
-incalculable advantage to the country. In his annual message of
-December 2, 1890, President Harrison had thus referred to this fact:
-"The general tendency of the markets was upward from influences wholly
-apart from the recent tariff legislation. The enlargement of our
-currency by the silver bill undoubtedly gave an upward tendency to
-trade and had a marked effect on prices." And again: "It is gratifying
-to know that the increased circulation secured by the act has
-exerted, and will continue to exert a most beneficial influence upon
-business and upon general values."
-
-Such an influence that circulation did indeed continue to exert. The
-comparative prosperity of the two following years, which, in contrast
-with the conditions of the subsequent period, causes 1892 to wear to
-wistful eyes so beautiful a hue in these unhappy days, would have been
-an absolute impossibility but for the silver legislation.
-
-Nor was the credit of the government menaced. It was a malicious
-afterthought that represented the silver dollar as a charge upon the
-credit of the nation. That dollar was a standard dollar. It was never
-"redeemed" in anything but the money-work it did. There was no law for
-its redemption, and there was as yet no attempt, such as Mr. Carlisle
-in 1896 declared himself ready to make, to commit the crime of an
-administrative degradation of the circulating silver dollars into
-promises for the payment of gold. The Treasury Notes, issued in
-payment for silver bullion under the law of 1890, were redeemable in
-either gold or silver at the discretion of the Secretary of the
-Treasury; and inasmuch as there was silver behind every one of them,
-they could become a menace to the credit of the government only in
-case of the betrayal of his duty by that official.
-
-But the contractionists looked with alarm upon the improving
-conditions of the country. Something must be done to discredit silver,
-or by and by there might arise such a demand for the full restoration
-of its mint privileges and money powers as could not be balked, as
-every similar demand had been balked since 1873; and in that event the
-slow villany of many years would have been fruitless and the
-contractionists' occupation would be gone. Then was formed the deep
-design to compel the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman
-law. The gigantic forces that had been behind Mr. Cleveland in the
-memorable campaign of 1892 had not lost their cunning or their power.
-They knew their implements, and they had had much experience. Their
-strategy was customary and it was effective. To-day Mr. Cleveland
-complains because the Republican party, having won the contest of last
-November on the money question, should have hurried into the current
-extra session on the tariff question. Let him recall his own course
-when, having carried the country in 1892 on the tariff question, he
-summoned the extra session of 1893 to consider the money question.
-Such a reflection might possibly assist him in fathoming the present
-motives of the men who won in 1892 to achieve the gold standard and in
-1896 to preserve it.
-
-For the election of Mr. Cleveland was a carefully executed move in an
-elaborate and merciless programme. The president of a national bank in
-North Dakota, a man of character and thorough reliability, has
-recently made public a conversation between himself and a prominent
-New York bank president, held not long after that election, in which
-the latter, whose institution was a member of the Associated National
-Banks, declared in substance as follows: "We have just elected Grover
-Cleveland President of the United States upon the express
-understanding with us that the policy of the administration shall be
-to uphold and advance the gold standard"; and he foretold, with
-startlingly faithful prevision, the repeal of the Sherman purchase
-law, the successive bond-issues, and the general and ruinous fall of
-prices, which seem to have evidenced the strict performance of the
-agreement by the party of the second part.
-
-How persistently the power of the executive was used, and how
-carefully the offices were dispensed, to influence Senators and
-members of Congress against the Sherman law, were matters of ordinary
-comment at the time. Meanwhile the banks were putting in motion their
-peculiar and enormous persuasions. For months no man could go into any
-bank in any State of the Union for any purpose without having thrust
-under his nose, with a more or less pointed request for his signature,
-a petition demanding the repeal of the obnoxious statute. Then, in the
-latter days of April, 1893, on the stock exchange, there began that
-concerted onslaught upon stocks and values, vaunted as an
-"object-lesson" to the people, as a result of which within eight
-months six hundred of the relatively smaller banking institutions of
-the country went down, dragging with them fifteen thousand industrial
-and business enterprises, involving a total loss of seven hundred and
-fifty millions of dollars.
-
-The object-lesson served its purpose. With the business world
-shattered into fragments, enterprise stifled, and credit dead, a
-terror seized upon the people. The opportunity for which the big
-bankers had been coolly waiting had come. Cunningly and in many places
-at once they started the cry that the Sherman law had caused all this
-havoc, and that the only hope for a return of prosperity lay in the
-immediate repeal of the feature providing for the purchase of new
-silver bullion. The clamor was eagerly repeated, and fear eagerly
-believed it. At precisely the right moment the President himself made
-official proclamation that the rumor was true, and summoned Congress
-in extra session to obey the mandate of the bankers. Under this spell
-Congress acted and the law was repealed. Thus was the country made
-dependent upon gold alone for its new supplies of full-power money,
-and thus, aided by similar action elsewhere, was inaugurated an era of
-accelerated fall of prices more pronounced than the world has known
-since the middle ages, and a precipitate decline of values more
-ruinous than any other chronicled in history.
-
-"Agitators and demagogues" indeed! Is it not monstrous that any
-intelligent man should believe the present frightful condition of the
-country to be due to the work of agitators and demagogues? Mr.
-Cleveland of course knows better; but many people have actually been
-convinced that some millions of our citizens would rather agitate than
-work; that thousands of them have deliberately and by preference
-forsworn business and become demagogues by trade. The thoughtful man
-knows that agitation is first a result and afterward a cause. It is a
-cruel as well as an ignorant thing for Mr. Cleveland and his disciples
-to cast into the faces of the suffering producers and workers of the
-United States, as a reproach, the fact of their discontent and
-complaining. Of course our people are in distress. Of course they are
-crying out against it. Of course they will endeavor to learn what
-occasions it. And of course when they have ascertained what the matter
-is they will agitate for relief. Substantially all men prefer to be
-busy about the ordinary and interdependent offices of social life.
-This is especially true of the great middle classes in the United
-States. Under just and rational laws they will be so. The absence of
-such a temper is ground for suspicion against the laws. Existing
-conditions confess their weakness and injustice when they revile
-admitted discontent. I would rather the cause I believe in sprang from
-suffering than that suffering should follow my cause.
-
-The full magnitude of this achievement for the gold standard in the
-repeal of the law of 1890, will not be grasped unless we bear in mind
-that it occurred at a time when the indications were unusually
-favorable that an international bimetallic agreement, which the world
-had been trying to accomplish for nearly twenty years, might soon be
-secured on an acceptable basis. It has long been suspected that the
-strongest discouragement of this hope, and probably the determining
-factor in its failure, was the attitude of President Cleveland as
-quietly caused to be understood abroad. Very recently this
-well-grounded suspicion has been turned into certainty by the
-distinguished English bimetallist, Mr. Moreton Frewen, who, in a
-letter to the Washington _Post_, says:
-
- But Mr. Cleveland made it known, through the subterranean
- channels of diplomacy, that, far from giving any support to
- silver, he was preparing to urge on Congress the repeal of the
- silver-purchase clauses of the Sherman act. Mr. Cleveland's
- intention became known in official circles in Calcutta. That this
- was the case I learned at the time and at first hand. The
- government of India believed that the cessation of all silver
- purchases in America would still further reduce the exchange
- value of the rupee, and therefore, in advance of the pending
- anti-silver legislation anticipated from Washington, the Indian
- mints were closed.
-
-Mr. Cleveland may well be deified in the gold-standard cult, for
-clearly he has been the arch-enemy of bimetallism.
-
-One of the characteristics of the discussion now going on between the
-advocates of gold monometallism and those of bimetallism is the
-disingenuousness of the former. They will rarely consent to a clear
-definition of the issue, but seek to evade it both by preëmpting the
-use of moral labels and catchphrases which satisfy their partisans
-without inquiry, and by stigmatizing their opponents with such vile
-imputations and base epithets as seem to place them beyond the pale of
-moral and intellectual tolerance. "Sound" and "honest" they write
-above their creed. They pose as consecrated guardians of public honor
-and private property. We are depicted as dishonest and imbecile,
-repudiators of national and individual obligations, communists or
-anarchists bearing the torch and axe. This specialty is Mr.
-Cleveland's long suit. Little wonder that his school should place him
-at its head. His preëminence in the field where self-admiration is a
-supreme virtue and ribald abuse passes for irrefutable argument will
-scarcely be denied by anybody who shall have read the following
-characteristic specimens from this Waldorf essay, carefully written
-down and calmly delivered: "We are gathered here to-night as patriotic
-citizens anxious to do something toward ... protecting the fair fame
-of our nation against shame and scandal." It is not recorded that
-anybody smiled at this. Indeed, the astonishing thing about this
-business is that these people seem able to impose successfully on one
-another. But Mr. Cleveland is even better at the other kind, as for
-example: "Agitators and demagogues," "ruthless agitators," "sordid
-greed," "inflamed with tales of an ancient crime against their
-rights," "unfortunate and unreasonable," "restless and turbulent,"
-"reckless creed," "boisterous and passionate campaign," "allied forces
-of calamity," "encouraged by malign conditions," and so on _ad
-nauseam_.
-
-This is the attitude of nearly all the defenders of the gold standard
-who have the hardihood to say anything at all. Undoubtedly in many
-cases it is assumed because of ignorance on the merits of the case, so
-that nothing remains but to "abuse the other fellow." But occasionally
-this course is adopted by men who are well informed, and who know that
-the gold standard is incapable of meeting bimetallism in an honest
-contest of argument with any hope of success. The strategy of these,
-therefore, is to avoid fair discussion by so prejudicing the public
-mind against their opponents as to forestall a hearing.
-
-The result has been surprisingly successful. In many localities, and
-in fact in nearly all localities in the East, the most intolerant
-spirit has been manifested by the most prominent persons in the
-community, who had never taken the pains to examine the subject on
-which they so violently and fanatically expressed themselves. To
-people of any acquaintance with the literature, the history, and the
-science of money, it has seemed most marvellous that business men of
-large affairs, of much general information, and of excellent natural
-abilities, should be content to remain absolutely ignorant of
-fundamental monetary principles and the overwhelmingly attested
-lessons of past experience. It is infinitely pitiful to see men of
-affairs led away in so-called "business men's sound-money
-associations" and other similar movements, when a knowledge of the
-conditions on which their welfare depends would send them in an
-exactly opposite direction.
-
-Why? Because business men are men who do business, or at any rate who
-want to do business; and all legitimate business consists in the
-performance of some appropriate function in connection with the
-production or the exchange of commodities. It is apparent to even the
-dullest apprehension that whatever prevents or discourages production
-is destructive of business, and that a money system which provides a
-measuring unit that constantly demands, as an equivalent, an
-increasing quantity of everything produced, is the greatest burden on
-production that could possibly be devised. But it is precisely this
-kind of a unit that the gold standard furnishes. No one economic fact
-is so conclusively established and so generally conceded as that of
-the progressive fall of average prices throughout the gold-standard
-world during the last twenty-four years. This fall amounts to almost
-fifty per cent, and indeed, in respect to the great staple products of
-the country, exceeds fifty per cent; so that, to state the same fact
-in its converse, the purchasing power of gold has increased since 1873
-one hundred per cent.
-
-The significance of this awful fact is deftly obscured behind the
-deceptive and specious plea for "a dollar of the greatest purchasing
-power." This is one of those artful expressions that are used by the
-advocates of the gold standard as a kind of thought-deterrent. It
-seems so obvious, at the first suggestion, that the best dollar is the
-dollar that will buy the most, that it is hard for a man to get even a
-hearing who asserts that, on the contrary, such a dollar is the very
-worst dollar conceivable. But a moment's reflection will satisfy any
-sane mind that such is the case. The demonstration is so simple that
-one feels like apologizing for making it. Yet it is in respect to
-principles just as plain as this one that people are constantly
-allowing themselves to be taken in by the supporters of the single
-standard.
-
-The demonstration is this: whatever is bought by a dollar, itself buys
-the dollar. For example, when a dollar exchanges for a bushel of
-wheat, the dollar buys the wheat, and the wheat buys the dollar. To
-say, therefore, that a dollar that buys two bushels of wheat, being a
-dollar of greater purchasing power, is better than the dollar that
-buys one bushel, is to say that the dollar which it requires two
-bushels of wheat to buy is a better dollar than that which can be
-bought with one bushel. Consequently, to increase the excellence of
-your dollar all you need to do is to increase the scarcity of the
-stuff out of which dollars are made, so that each one shall constantly
-stand for more and more wheat, or, using wheat merely as
-representative of commodities in general, so that it shall constantly
-require more and more of all other things on earth to get a dollar. It
-is wholly credible that the man with dollars should profess this
-philosophy, but it is absolutely inexplicable how it should receive
-the support of men interested in getting dollars with things, who
-comprise about seven-eighths of society.
-
-Now as it continually takes more products to get a given quantity of
-gold, is it not clear that the producer who becomes liable for taxes
-and gets into debt must constantly bear an increasing burden of
-taxation, and that his debt, payable in more commodities than it
-represented when he incurred it, needs only to run long enough to grow
-beyond the hope of his ability to pay it? Such a policy cannot but be
-fraught with certain ruin to producers. It is causing in the United
-States a condition frightful to contemplate. The mass of debts is
-piling up at a ratio that absolutely threatens, if a halt in the
-automatic process is not soon called, a universal insolvency. Indeed a
-general liquidation is already impossible. He is no alarmist who
-counsels a timely and rational remedy as not only demanded by justice,
-but as anticipatory of violent readjustment. Under such disquieting
-conditions is it not as criminal as it is unscientific for men to go
-about prating of the system that has occasioned these things as
-"honest money," and "sound money," and denouncing its opponents as
-repudiators and anarchists?
-
-In the presence of epochal and fundamental disturbance, when men,
-patient beyond example and willing to argue the correctness of their
-claims, are crying out against the injustice of a money system that
-day and night and year upon year, with unerring and pitiless
-precision, takes from the producing many and hands over to the idle
-few that which it ruins those to lose and but pampers these to gain,
-our ex-President offends decency and insults millions of his
-fellow-citizens with this reference to their contention: "Honest
-accumulation is called a crime." Where does he find anybody calling
-honest accumulation a crime? Men indeed stigmatize the maintenance of
-this odious money system as a crime, but only because of the things
-they claim it to be guilty of. Why does he not join issue on these? He
-knows that nowhere in all this world is there, or has there ever been,
-a more honest body of citizenship than the millions of Americans who
-to-day are toiling on the farms and in the workshops of the country
-and who demand from the laws they obey nothing but equity and justice.
-It was easier, and more pleasant to those who heard him, to wrong
-these men with a sneer than to answer them with an argument. He might
-possibly have done well to relinquish this task to one who sat near
-him, his ex-Secretary of the Treasury, who had himself, in 1878,
-discovered something that _he_ thought a crime and had thus denounced
-it: "According to my views of the subject the conspiracy which seems
-to have been formed here and in Europe to destroy, by legislation and
-otherwise, from three-sevenths to one-half the metallic money of the
-world, is the most gigantic crime of this or any other age."
-
-The speech of Mr. Carlisle was notable for stating his position more
-extremely than he had previously done since his apostasy. He boldly
-takes the stand logically demanded by consistency in the man who
-opposes silver coinage and denies the arguments based on the
-appreciation of gold. He comes out squarely for the gold standard and
-places bimetallism of any and all sorts under a common ban. But alas!
-what a sorry appearance he makes. Nowhere in our political history do
-I find quite so pathetic a figure as that presented by this once
-strong and virile champion of the people's rights in his contrasted
-role of defender of their oppressors. Where now is that compact and
-cogent argument, that sincere and moving eloquence, which made his
-forensic style so singularly effective; which marked him the
-parliamentary darling of his party, a predestined president of the
-republic? Shrunken to the dreary platitudes of the gold-standard
-catechism, babbling of "sound currency" and "intrinsic value."
-
-This talk of intrinsic value was not confined to Mr. Carlisle. Mr.
-Patterson, of Tennessee, and Senator Caffery, of Louisiana, were
-likewise guilty of it. It is, indeed, the characteristic folly of
-their school. Having destroyed the money demand for silver while
-adding almost incalculably to that for gold, they have caused an
-increasing disparity in the values of the two metals; and now, when it
-is sought to restore the parity by restoring the equivalence of use
-and demand on which alone it depends, they pretend to have discovered
-some inherent perfection in gold and an original sin in silver which
-forbid all attempts to reconcile them. In the face of monetary
-principles whose nature has been understood for more than two thousand
-years, and of historic and economic facts which every college freshman
-knows, Mr. Carlisle has the appalling audacity to use the following
-language: "Natural causes have separated the two metals, and while it
-is possible that natural causes may hereafter change their present
-relations to each other, it is certain that these relations cannot be
-changed by artificial means."
-
-It is difficult to speak with becoming moderation of such stuff as
-this; and it is really pathetic to see the dominant opinion of whole
-sections of the country taking its cue from men who assume superior
-airs and rebuke the presumption of thinking on the part of some
-millions of Americans, while they peddle such insufferable nonsense as
-this just quoted from Mr. Carlisle. "Natural causes" indeed, when we
-can turn to the statute books of half the world and put our fingers on
-the "artificial means" whereby the hoarders of gold have legislated
-demand into one metal and legislated it out of the other. Let once a
-wrong be achieved by artificial means, and instantly those who profit
-by it represent it as the inevitable decree of evolutional forces.
-"Natural causes," we are asked to believe, have made gold dear and
-silver cheap during a period when the cost of producing gold has been
-cheapened more than any other mechanical process; when both metals
-have continued on substantially their old relative planes of use in
-every respect save as money; when their relative production has been
-from three to twenty times less disproportionate than at any other
-similar period in the past four hundred years; and when in actual
-weight the stocks of coin and bullion available for coinage have risen
-from a proportion of thirty-two of silver to one of gold up to that of
-sixteen of silver to one of gold coincidently with a fall of the
-so-called market ratio from fifteen and one-half to one, when the
-mints were open to both, down to thirty-three to one when only the one
-can be freely coined. It is simply an incredible and impossible
-proposition.
-
-Intrinsic value is as unthinkable as intrinsic distance. Both distance
-and value are relations. Neither can exist or be stated except by
-comparison. The value of a thing is what it is worth; and it is worth
-what it will bring. Value in exchange is the only value that political
-economy knows anything about; and what a given thing will exchange for
-depends on the ratio of the supply of it to the demand for it. A piece
-of money is worth what it will buy. Other things remaining the same,
-it will buy more when the stuff out of which it is made is plentiful,
-and less when that is scarce. The proposition of the bimetallists
-rests on only time-honored doctrines of political economy as justified
-by the experience of mankind. We desire to restore the parity of gold
-and silver by perfectly "natural causes" set in operation by
-"artificial means." We propose to invoke the law to equalize their
-opportunity and to make them interchangeably and indifferently
-responsive to the same money demand.
-
-Space has not permitted reference to all the errors committed at this
-wonderful banquet, nor a complete discussion of even those cited. I
-have endeavored only to point out the most glaring ones in the hope
-that some persons inclined to accept, somewhat carelessly, the
-assumedly authoritative statements of these eminent men, may be led to
-study this great subject whose proper understanding and wise
-management are of such vast importance not only in American politics
-but in the progress of the race. For the cause of bimetallism must
-commend itself to the intellect and the conscience of the country or
-it cannot win. Those who have spent some time in an earnest and
-thoughtful investigation of the matter and are convinced that the
-success of silver coinage is the first step in a series of rational,
-safe, and necessary reforms, are ready to be judged as much by the
-reasonableness of their doctrine as by the sincerity of their motives.
-They intend from now on to force the fight. The enemy will be sought
-out and assailed wherever found. No pretentious claims of
-infallibility will be accorded immunity from criticism. No authority
-will be permitted to shelter folly. It is time to expose the
-preposterous assurance of the gold-standard pundits. Nonsense will be
-called nonsense whoever utters it, and, what is more, it will be
-proved to be nonsense.
-
-
-
-
-DOES CREDIT ACT ON THE GENERAL LEVEL OF PRICES?
-
-BY A. J. UTLEY.
-
-
-It is conceded by all standard writers on political economy that the
-value of money--that is, its purchasing power--is fixed and regulated
-by the amount of money available for use.
-
-John Stuart Mill says:
-
- If the whole money in circulation was doubled prices would be
- doubled. If it was only increased one-fourth, prices would rise
- one-fourth. There would be one-fourth more money, all of which
- would be used to purchase goods of some description. When there
- had been time for the increased supply of money to reach all
- markets, or (according to conventional metaphor) to permeate all
- the channels of circulation, all prices would have risen
- one-fourth. But the general rise of price is independent of this
- diffusing process. Even if some prices were raised more, and
- others less, the average rise would be one-fourth. This is a
- necessary consequence of the fact that a fourth more money would
- have to be given for only the same quantity of goods. General
- price, therefore, in any such case would be one-fourth higher.
- The very same effect would be produced on prices if we suppose
- the goods diminished, instead of the money increased: and the
- contrary effect if the goods were increased, or the money
- diminished. If there were less money in the hands of the
- community, and the same amount of goods to be sold, less money
- altogether would be given for them, and they would be sold at
- lower prices; lower, too, in the precise ratio in which the money
- was diminished. _So that the value of money, other things being
- the same, varies inversely as its quantity; every increase in
- quantity lowering the value, and every diminution raising it, in
- a ratio exactly equivalent._
-
-This is known as the quantitative theory of money, and is recognized
-by Ricardo, Jevons, Macleod, John Locke, James Mill, John Stuart Mill,
-Senator John P. Jones, David Hume, William Huskisson, Sir James
-Graham, Prof. Torrens, Prof. Sidgwick, J. R. McCulloch, Mr. Gallatin,
-Prof. Fawcett, Prof. Perry, N. A. Nicholson, Earl Grey, Prof. Shield
-Nicholson, Lord Overstone, and, in fact, by all writers on political
-economy of any prominence since Adam Smith. Formerly it was supposed
-that the value of money depended upon the cost of production; that the
-reason why a dollar in gold or silver was worth 100 cents was because
-it took 100 cents' worth of labor to produce metal enough to make a
-dollar. This theory, however, has been abandoned by the best writers
-and speakers; in fact, by all economists of any standing, and it is
-now conceded that the cost of producing the metal has no influence on
-its money value, only as it may tend to increase or reduce the amount
-of money, and that it is the quantity of money, the number of units,
-available for use that determines and regulates its value; that is, if
-the quantity is increased its value will fall, and if the quantity is
-diminished its value will rise, and that it will fall or rise in value
-in a ratio exactly equivalent to the increase or diminution of the
-volume of money; and that if sufficiently reduced in volume, a dollar,
-whether stamped on gold, silver, or paper, would buy a plantation or
-pay a man for the labor of a lifetime. There can be no doubt as to the
-correctness of the quantitative theory of money.
-
-John Stuart Mill says:
-
- That an increase in the quantity of money raises prices, and a
- diminution lowers them, is the most elementary proposition in the
- theory of currency, and without it we have no key to any of the
- others.
-
-Prices, however, are not fixed by the total amount of money in
-existence; only that part of the money that is available for use can
-act on prices.
-
-Mr. Mill says:
-
- Whatever may be the quantity of money in the country, only that
- part of it will affect prices which goes into the market of
- commodities and is there actually exchanged for goods of some
- description. Whatever increases this portion of the money in the
- country tends to raise prices. Money kept in reserve by
- individuals to meet contingencies which do not occur, does not
- act on prices. Money in the coffers of banks, or retained as a
- reserve, does not act on prices until drawn out to be expended
- for commodities.
-
-It is also conceded that in fixing prices not only all the money
-actually available for use must be taken into consideration, but the
-rapidity of circulation must also be regarded; and due allowance must
-be made for the number of times commodities change hands before
-consumption.
-
-The same dollar may, by passing from hand to hand, make a number of
-purchases, and the same goods may be sold repeatedly before
-consumption. It is, probably, correct to say, that the money available
-for use multiplied by the rapidity of circulation, or, as Mr. Mill
-expresses it, by its efficiency, equals the total money to be
-considered; and the commodities sold multiplied by the average number
-of sales equals the total commodities to be taken into consideration
-in fixing the general level of prices.
-
-Are there any other elements that act on the general level of prices?
-Of course an abundant yield, or a short crop, or an over-production,
-so called, or under-consumption, of any particular commodity may
-depress or raise the price of that particular crop or commodity; but
-are there any elements other than those above enumerated that act on
-the general level of prices? I think there are none.
-
-If, then, prices are controlled by the volume of money available for
-use; and if the general level of prices will rise as the volume of
-money is increased, and fall as the volume of money is diminished, and
-rise or fall in an exact ratio corresponding with the expansion or
-contraction of the volume of money, it becomes important to ascertain
-what money is, and also whether there is anything which can be used as
-a substitute for money in such a manner as to affect the general level
-of prices.
-
-Senator John P. Jones, than whom there is no one better informed,
-says:
-
- The money of a country is that thing, whatever it may be, which
- is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in
- payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law or by
- universal consent. Its value does not arise from the intrinsic
- qualities which the material of which it is made may possess, but
- depends entirely on extrinsic qualities which law or common
- consent may confer.
-
-Aristotle says:
-
- Money has value only by law and not by nature; so that a change
- of convention between those who use it is sufficient to deprive
- it of its value and power to satisfy our wants.
-
-Adam Smith says:
-
- A guinea may be considered a bill for a certain quantity of goods
- on all the tradesmen in the neighborhood.
-
-Henry Thornton says:
-
- Money of every kind is an order for goods. It is so considered by
- the laborer when he receives it, and it is almost instantly
- converted into money's worth. It is merely the instrument by
- which the purchasable stock of the country is distributed with
- convenience and advantage among the several members of the
- community.
-
-John Stuart Mill says:
-
- The pounds or shillings which a man receives are a sort of ticket
- or order which he may present for payment at any shop he pleases,
- and which entitles him to receive a certain value of any
- commodity that he may choose.
-
-Appleton's Cyclopædia defines money in the following words:
-
- Anything which freely circulates from hand to hand, in any
- country, as a common, acceptable medium of exchange, is, in such
- country, money, even though it ceases to be such, or to possess
- any value, when passing into another country. In a word, an
- article is determined to be money by reason of the performance by
- it of certain functions, without regard to its form or substance.
-
-Francis A. Walker says:
-
- Money is that which freely passes from hand to hand through the
- community in final discharge of debt and in full payment for
- commodities, being accepted equally without reference to the
- character or credit of the person who offers it, and without the
- intention of the person who receives it, to consume it, or enjoy
- it, or apply it to any other use than in turn to tender it to
- others in discharge of debts or in payment for commodities.
-
-It has been contended by certain economists that bank checks and bills
-of exchange are money, or, at least, that they discharge the money
-function and act on prices the same as money; but this definition
-excludes checks and bills of exchange. A bill of exchange or bank
-check is not accepted without reference to the character or credit of
-the person who offers it. But Francis A. Walker leaves us in no doubt
-on this question. On page 123 of his work on "Political Economy" he
-says:
-
- Money is a medium of exchange. Whatever performs this function,
- does this work, is money, no matter what it is made of, and no
- matter how it came to be a medium at first, or why it continues
- to be such. So long as, in any community, there is an article
- which all producers take freely and as a matter of course in
- exchange for whatever they have to sell, instead of looking
- about, at the time, for the particular things they, themselves,
- wish to consume, that article is money, be it white, yellow, or
- black, hard or soft, animal, vegetable, or mineral. There is no
- other test of money than this. That which does the money work is
- the money thing. It may do this well; it may do this ill. It may
- be good money; it may be bad money; but it is money all the same.
- We said _all_ producers, since it is not enough that a thing is
- extensively used in exchange, to constitute it money. _Bank
- checks are used in numerous and important transactions, yet are
- not money._ It is essential to money that its acceptability
- should be so nearly universal that practically every person in
- the community who has any product or service to dispose of will
- freely, gladly, and of preference, take this thing money, instead
- of the particular products or service which he may individually
- require from others, being well assured that with money he will
- unfailingly obtain whatever he shall desire, in form and amount,
- and at times to suit his wants.
-
-It appears from the accepted definitions that bank checks and bills of
-exchange are not money. They may to some extent, as other forms of
-credit may to some extent, add to or increase the rapidity of
-circulation; but, certainly, credit is not money nor does it possess
-the essential elements of money. I think it is an essential element of
-money that when used it closes the transaction between the parties to
-the transaction. In other words, money, when paid in the purchase of a
-commodity, closes the transaction, and neither party to the
-transaction has any further claim or demand against the other.
-Anything which does this (barter, of course, excluded) is money, and
-anything which fails to do this is not money. If a credit is given or
-a check received the transaction is not closed until the debt is paid
-or the check cashed. I do not find that any economist has made this
-distinction, in so many words, between money and credit, but I am
-satisfied that it exists.
-
-Does all the money available for use act on prices? It is contended by
-a certain class of economists that only money of ultimate and final
-redemption--in other words, gold and silver, in countries where gold
-and silver are the standard money, and gold only, in countries where
-gold is the standard money--can act directly on prices, and that other
-forms of money can only act on prices in an indirect manner, and to
-the extent only that they may increase the rapidity of the circulation
-of redemption or standard money; that paper money, whether convertible
-or inconvertible, covered or uncovered, and token money, can have no
-direct influence on the general level of prices.
-
-Is this contention true? We have already seen that money is a medium
-of exchange, a counter for reckoning, an order for goods, and that its
-value does not depend upon the intrinsic qualities which the material
-out of which it is made may possess, but depends entirely upon
-extrinsic qualities which law or common consent may confer, and that
-anything (barter, of course, excluded) that closes transactions
-between the parties to the transactions, is money; and also that the
-value of money, that is, its purchasing power, is fixed and regulated
-by the amount of money available for use. Why, then, should any part
-of the money that possesses and discharges all the functions of money
-be excluded? What peculiar property has money stamped on gold and
-silver that it only can act on prices?
-
-John Stuart Mill says:
-
- After experience had shown that pieces of paper, of no intrinsic
- value, by merely bearing upon them the written profession of
- being equivalent to a certain number of francs, dollars, or
- pounds, could be made to circulate as such, and to produce all
- the benefit to the users which could have been produced by the
- coins which they purported to represent, governments began to
- think that it would be a happy device if they could appropriate
- to themselves this benefit, free from the condition to which
- individuals issuing such paper substitutes for money were
- subject, of giving, when required, for the sign, the thing
- signified. They determined to try whether they could not
- emancipate themselves from this unpleasant obligation, and make a
- piece of paper issued by them pass for a pound, by merely calling
- it a pound and consenting to receive it in payment for taxes. And
- such is the influence of almost all established governments, that
- they have generally succeeded in attaining this object: _I
- believe I may say they have always succeeded for a time, and the
- power has only been lost to them after they had compromised it by
- the most flagrant abuse._--"Political Economy," Book 3, Chap. 13.
-
-Mill further says that such inconvertible paper money will act on
-prices. And if inconvertible paper money will act on prices, why will
-not convertible paper money, that is, paper money convertible into
-coin on demand, also act on prices? Token money, especially if a legal
-tender, and whether a legal tender or not, if accepted without
-objection in the payment of debt, or if received in full payment for
-commodities, discharges the money function, and is to all intents and
-purposes money. It is not absolutely necessary that to make a thing
-money it should be a legal tender in the payment of debt. Anything
-which is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in
-payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law (that is, its
-legal tender property) or by common consent, is money. From 1861 to
-1873 we had no gold or silver money in the United States, or virtually
-none. The official reports of the Secretary of the Treasury show that
-the gold and silver coin, including the gold and silver bullion in the
-United States Treasury during that period, amounted to but
-$25,000,000, and even that was not in circulation, except to a very
-limited extent on the Pacific Coast. Yet during that period prices
-reached the highest level ever attained in this country. Certainly,
-the level of prices during that period was not fixed by the gold and
-silver money available for use. In view of the foregoing facts I think
-it must be apparent that any money which is received in full payment
-for commodities, whether so received on account of its legal tender
-property or by universal consent, and whether it is gold, silver,
-paper, or token money, acts on prices, and tends to fix the general
-level of prices.
-
-It is claimed by a great many writers on political economy that credit
-has the same influence in fixing the general level of prices that
-money has, and that an expansion or contraction of credit would
-inflate or contract prices in the same manner and to the same extent
-as would result from a contraction or expansion of money; that if
-credit is extended, if more commodities are sold on credit than
-formerly, such extension of credit will tend to raise prices in the
-same manner and to the same extent as would so much additional money;
-and that if credits are contracted, if less credits are given than
-formerly, such contraction of credits will tend to depress prices in
-the same manner and to the same extent as a withdrawal of a like
-amount of money from the channels of trade would depress them. At the
-head of this school of political economists stands John Stuart Mill.
-He says:
-
- I apprehend that bank notes, bills, or cheques, as such, do not
- act on prices at all. What does act on prices is credit, in
- whatever shape given, and whether it gives rise to any
- transferable instruments capable of passing into circulation or
- not. (See Book 3, Chapter 12.)
-
-Is this contention true? If so, then it is not true that the general
-level of prices is determined by the amount of money available for
-use; but is determined, rather, by the amount of credits available for
-use. The debts of the world (and the credits, of course, are precisely
-equal to the debts, as there could be no debt without a corresponding
-credit) amount, in round numbers, to $200,000,000,000, and the money
-in the world amounts in round numbers to $10,000,000,000. That is,
-there are twenty dollars of credit to one dollar of money; and if
-credit exercises the same influence in fixing the general level of
-prices that money exercises, then it is absurd to say that the volume
-of money available for use fixes the general level of prices, and at
-the same time to contend that credit, dollar for dollar, is an equal
-factor in fixing prices. If credit affects the general level of
-prices in the same manner and to the same extent that money does, then
-credit exerts an influence on prices twenty times greater than that
-exerted by money, and we should say: The general level of prices is
-fixed by credit, modified, it may be, to some extent by the amount of
-money in circulation.
-
-The difficulty seems to be in distinguishing between money and credit.
-If we keep in mind the fact that anything which closes the transaction
-between the parties to the transaction (barter excluded) is money, and
-anything which leaves something still to be done is credit, we shall
-have no difficulty in making the distinction.
-
-Can credit affect the general level of prices? One of the most
-familiar and common illustrations given by those who contend that
-credit will raise the general level of prices, is that of a man
-entering the market to buy cotton.
-
-They say: "Suppose a person with $5,000 in money enters the cotton
-market, and with his money purchases $5,000 worth of cotton. His
-demand for cotton and his purchase of $5,000 worth will tend to
-advance or stimulate the price of cotton." "Now," they say, "suppose
-he has a credit of $5,000 and with this credit he purchases an
-additional $5,000 worth of cotton. The second purchase, made on
-credit," they contend, "will tend to still further advance the price
-of cotton in the same manner and to the same extent that the cash
-purchase did." Is this true?
-
-Let us suppose that he purchased the second bunch of cotton on ninety
-days' time. At the end of the ninety days he must pay for this cotton.
-If he draws the $5,000 with which he pays this debt from money
-invested in the cotton trade, the withdrawal of that sum from money
-invested in that industry will tend to depress the price of cotton to
-the extent that it was stimulated by the credit. If he withdraws it
-from the grain trade or from some other industry, the withdrawal of
-that sum of money will tend to depress prices in the industry from
-which it is withdrawn to the same extent as the cotton industry was
-stimulated by the credit. Whether the money to pay the debt is taken
-from the cotton industry or from some other industry, the general
-level of prices has not been raised. The purchase in the first
-instance may have temporarily stimulated the price of cotton, but if
-the payment of the debt is made from money drawn from that industry,
-it will depress the price of cotton to where it was before the credit
-purchase was made; and if the payment is made from money drawn from
-some other industry, it will depress prices in that industry to the
-same extent that the price of cotton was stimulated. In either event
-the general level of prices remains the same. It is like robbing Peter
-to pay Paul. It may make Paul richer, but how about Peter? There is no
-more wealth in existence than before the robbery was committed.
-
-Again, it is claimed that credit stimulates prices by causing
-commodities which are sold on credit to be sold for higher prices than
-commodities of the same value are sold for when sold for cash. It is
-true that sales on credit are, as a rule, at a higher price than sales
-for cash in hand. Why is this so? For two reasons:
-
-1st. Business done on credit is always attended with considerable
-risk. Even when the utmost caution is exercised, bad debts will be
-made, and a greater margin on sales is necessary.
-
-2nd. When time is given a certain amount must be added to the price of
-the goods to compensate the seller for the use of his capital between
-the date of sale and the maturity of the account.
-
-The additional price, thus received, is of no advantage to the
-producer or to the seller of the commodity. The addition to the price
-is consumed by losses from bad debts and in interest on capital. In
-fact, the additional prices charged, when properly analyzed, are not
-for the goods, but for the risk on the credit and for interest on
-capital. The net selling price of the commodity is not increased.
-Experience has proven that men who sell for the lesser price for cash
-in hand are more apt to succeed than those who charge the higher rate
-on the credit system.
-
-Credit is always burdened with interest. If interest is not directly
-charged, the goods are sold at an advance on the cash price equal to
-the interest, which amounts to the same thing. Interest acts on
-commerce like friction on machinery. As friction absorbs a portion of
-the motive power, so interest absorbs a part of the value of all
-commodities sold on credit. Interest, the necessary accompaniment of
-credit, produces no wealth; but, on the contrary, absorbs wealth and
-tends to concentrate it in the hands of the few; and, necessarily, in
-the same ratio it takes from the masses the power to purchase the
-things they desire and would otherwise consume. Its ultimate result
-must be to lower prices. Credit burdened with interest, as it always
-is, may temporarily increase the demand for a certain commodity and
-consequently temporarily raise its price; but it must do this at the
-expense of other commodities. Like a stimulant administered to a human
-being, it may produce spasmodic results of extraordinary power; but
-when the stimulant has spent its force it leaves the individual weaker
-and in a worse condition than he was before the stimulant was
-administered.
-
-Henry Thornton, an English economist, attempts to prove that a bill of
-exchange is money, and that, being money, it acts on prices. He says:
-
- Let us imagine a farmer in the country to discharge a debt of £10
- to his neighboring grocer by giving him a bill for that sum,
- drawn on his corn-factor in London, for grain sold in the
- metropolis; and the grocer to transmit the bill, he having
- previously indorsed it, to a neighboring sugar-baker in discharge
- of a like debt; and the sugar-baker to send it, when again
- indorsed, to a West India merchant in an outport; and the West
- India merchant to deliver it to his country banker, who also
- indorses it and sends it into further circulation. The bill in
- this case will have effected five payments, exactly as if it were
- a £10 note payable to the bearer on demand. A multitude of bills
- pass this way between traders in the country, in the manner which
- has been described; _and they evidently form in the strictest
- sense a part of the circulating medium of the kingdom_.
-
-Mill in his "Political Economy" quotes this illustration with
-approval. Is the conclusion arrived at correct?
-
-Suppose that instead of a bill of exchange for £10, a horse worth £10
-had been made use of, and the farmer had delivered the horse to the
-grocer in satisfaction of his debt, and the grocer had turned it over
-to the sugar-baker, and the sugar-baker to the West India merchant,
-etc. The horse would have paid the five debts in precisely the same
-manner that the bill of exchange did, but would such a use of the
-horse _have made the horse, in the strictest sense of the term, a part
-of the circulating medium of the kingdom_? I think not! A bill of
-exchange is not money, but an order for money, and would be valueless
-unless honored by payment on presentation. From the time the bill was
-drawn until finally paid an amount of money equal to the demand of
-the bill must be held out of circulation for its payment. It adds
-nothing to the circulation, and in no sense does it constitute a part
-of the circulating medium. It may, possibly, increase the rapidity of
-circulation, but it is difficult to see how it could do even this. The
-£10 held out of circulation for the payment of the bill would have
-paid the debts in the same manner that the bill of exchange did, and I
-fail to see why they would not have made the circuit as quickly. If a
-horse had been made use of in the settlement of the debts mentioned by
-Mr. Thornton, it would have been barter, pure and simple, and not a
-money transaction.
-
-That the contraction of the volume of credit will not tend to depress
-prices in the same manner and to the same extent that a contraction of
-the volume of money would will be apparent from the following
-illustration.
-
-The most conservative estimates place the national, municipal,
-corporate, and individual debts in the United States at
-$30,000,000,000. The Secretary of the Treasury estimates the amount of
-money in circulation at $1,600,000,000. There is not, in fact,
-one-third of the amount available for use; but for the purpose of this
-illustration we will take the Secretary's estimate as correct. Now let
-us suppose that the volume of credit should be reduced to
-$28,400,000,000, either by the payment of $1,600,000,000 of the debt
-or by bankruptcy proceedings or in some other manner. If that amount
-of the credits were extinguished by payment, business would be
-stimulated. That sum of money, or at least a considerable portion of
-it, would pass into the hands of the creditor class, where it would
-seek investment, and the tendency would be, not to contract, but to
-expand prices. If that amount of the credits were extinguished by
-bankruptcy proceedings in which no money passed in either direction,
-such an extinguishment could not depress or expand prices; it could
-have no influence upon them.
-
-Now suppose that $1,600,000,000 of the money, every dollar now claimed
-to be in circulation in the United States, should be withdrawn from
-the channels of trade, it would not be difficult to see that prices
-would fall; would, in fact, be completely annihilated. There would be
-no money with which to make purchases or to pay debts, civilization
-would go backwards, and universal bankruptcy and ruin would ensue.
-Suppose that only one-half or one-third of the money available for use
-should be withdrawn from circulation; even then business would be
-paralyzed, the money remaining would be hoarded or would be collected
-in the great money centres, prices would fall, and business men all
-over the country would be forced into bankruptcy. I think that it must
-be perfectly apparent that a contraction of credit does not act on the
-general level of prices in the same manner and to the same extent that
-a contraction of the volume of money does; that, in fact, it does not
-act on the general level of prices at all.
-
-I, therefore, conclude that money, and money only, acts on the general
-level of prices, and that credit does not and cannot act on prices
-except only as it may increase the rapidity of the circulation of
-money; and even then it is the greater efficiency of the money, and
-not the credit, that stimulates prices. Credit may temporarily
-stimulate the price of the product of some particular industry, but to
-do this it must attract money from some other industry, and the
-stimulation will be at the expense of a corresponding depression in
-prices in the industry from which the money is attracted.
-
-LOS ANGELES, COL.
-
-
-
-
-POINTS IN THE AMERICAN AND FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS COMPARED.
-
-BY NIELS GRÖN.
-
-
-There are several reasons why, particularly in the light of what is
-going on in the two countries, a comparison between certain points of
-the constitutions of the French and United States republics should be
-of more than passing interest. Successive ministerial crises in France
-threaten the stability of the republic; here, while political
-conventions representing millions of people meet and produce radical
-platforms, nobody is apprehensive of revolution or trouble. The
-constitution is a bulwark against sudden change; its wisdom is
-believed to be guarded by impregnable security against caprice or
-panic.
-
-One in the Eastern hemisphere, the other in the New World, the two
-countries are the only great republics; both are watched by monarchies
-with invidious eyes, and, as before suggested, both have passed
-through, or are passing through, interesting not to say exciting
-experiences. American admirers of the republican form of government
-believe that the cause of human liberty would be seriously injured
-were the French Republic to cease to exist; they go further, and say
-that the death-knell of civil freedom would be sounded the moment the
-American republic became a failure. Something like a crisis is seen in
-the United States to-day, brought about by a whole series of
-concomitant causes, such as business depression, bank failures,
-industrial disputes terminating in strikes and lockouts, Coxey armies,
-panicky people, and unsettled views regarding commerce and finance,
-this last cause predominating.
-
-Though France has her difficulties about raising sufficient money to
-carry on the administration, and an income tax is just as unpopular
-there as it would be here, nevertheless the chief cause of her trouble
-is to be traced, not to financial, but to constitutional sources. The
-country is very rich, and its ministers probably will always find some
-means of raising enough money to pay the cost of administration.
-Quite true, it is a sore point for a proud country which yearns for
-revenge upon Germany and longs for large colonial possessions, that
-its population does not increase, while the populations of its enemy,
-Germany, and of its well-wisher, the United States, go up by leaps and
-bounds. True, there are economic writers who regard the dearth and
-even the decrease of population in France as an advantage to the
-country. But these need not be considered in this inquiry, for it is
-quite obvious that any country which really aspires to be numbered
-with the great powers, and effectually wishes to own important
-colonial possessions, must have a stalwart and increasing people. And
-it is a real source of weakness that there should yet be in France so
-many Royalists constantly on the alert and hoping always for a change
-in the existing form of government.
-
-Happily, on the contrary, no matter how widely the Western American
-may differ from his friend in the East, or how keenly the
-ex-Confederate may feel over the "lost cause," the warm-blooded son of
-Kentucky will fight as bravely under the flag of the republic as will
-his frozen-featured brother from Minnesota, and the dreamy individual
-who gazes poetically upon the placid waters of Puget Sound will shout
-as loudly for one country, and one allegiance to its glorious emblem,
-as will the gilded youth whose republicanism is artistically refreshed
-by a constant vision of the Statue of Liberty triumphantly standing in
-New York harbor.
-
-Royalism, conservatism, concentrationism, moderate republicanism,
-opportunism, radicalism, ultra-radicalism, socialism, and heaven knows
-how many other "isms" besides, exist in France to-day, and make it
-hard for any ministry to carry on the government. Numerous
-disintegrating influences are ever present, and political convictions
-are seldom sufficiently decided for any ministry to form a stable
-majority.
-
-Though France has had the experience of two previous experiments in
-republican forms of government (the one set up in 1792, and the second
-established in 1848), they were such mere makeshifts and so very
-short-lived that they could not have taught the country very much of
-the real genius of republican institutions. The centralization and
-tyranny of centuries brought revolt and hatred of the past, but did
-not prepare the people for self-government; while here the principles
-of civil liberty, transplanted from the mother country and flourishing
-in congenial conditions under colonial administration, found apt and
-natural expression in the Declaration of Independence and the
-Constitution. The event of republican institutions twice tried in
-France failed to show that even the leaders understood the principles
-of liberty as they were understood by the fathers of the American
-system of government, and enthusiastically adopted by the people, as
-the crystallization, so to speak, in definite terms, of what they had
-long enjoyed. Short-sighted acts of tyranny, exercised by George III
-and his ministers, were regarded, and justly so, as mere accidents of
-the time and as innovations to be resisted and overcome. The outcome
-was the vindication of the principles of government founded by the
-countrymen of King Alfred the Great, their expansion, and the
-invaluable expression of those principles in the Declaration and the
-Constitution.
-
-Some of the bravest and best under the French monarchy helped to
-establish the reign of popular liberty in the United States, and there
-can be no question but that the French Revolution was accomplished in
-part as a result of what had been seen and done on this side of the
-Atlantic on behalf of the civil rights of the people; but the founders
-of the first republic in France had no complete foundation on which to
-build a fabric firm and lasting. It was not easy for a venerable
-European nation, intrenched within its own regal institutions, in
-shaking off the past to begin a future of popular sovereignty. Much
-was gained by sweeping away the worst abuses of the past, but reaction
-came, succeeded, after a long lapse of time, by a second attempt to
-establish a republic, again to fail, until the collapse of the power
-of the adventurer whose election to the presidency was the beginning
-of the end of the republic of 1848, led to the third experiment, the
-permanent success of which we all hope for.
-
-If--much virtue in an "if"--the leaders of the first French Republic
-had been thoroughly masters of and thoroughly imbued with the
-principles of American liberty, it is possible they might have so
-instructed and led a bright and capable people as to lay a sure
-foundation for the future. But even this modified statement is open to
-question. While it may be regretted that the American Constitution was
-not copied in the establishment of the successive French republics, it
-is by no means certain that this matchless paper would have been so
-far appreciated in its recognition of the great principles underlying
-it, as to insure success. Some of the South American republics have
-the American Constitution, more or less, but are not shining examples
-of republican success. No one can question that monarchies like the
-United Kingdom and Germany enjoy a larger diffusion of civil liberty
-than they.
-
-Taking the French system, however, as it exists to-day, there can be
-no question that it would be vastly improved by copying the American
-model. It seems to have been founded with a view to the possibility of
-restoring the monarchy, and, this being so, the men who created it had
-no object in studying the American Constitution with a view to
-preventing those ministerial crises which threaten the destruction of
-the third republic. It will not do to attribute these crises to the
-unstable character of the fiery Frenchman, nor can the difficulty be
-disposed of by saying that a French minister will create a crisis for
-the sake of a pleasing _bon mot_ or a sprightly paradox. A crisis
-supposes something outside of, or above, or beyond the ordinary, but
-French ministerial crises have become so common that they are the
-laughingstock of the nations, and may be said to be almost the normal
-condition of the legislative assemblies of France. So long as such
-critical situations can be thus easily brought about there cannot be
-that continuity of policy which is essential for carrying out great
-projects. The problem to be solved is a constitutional one,--a
-statement, I think, easily proved true.
-
-Article Six of the constitution of 1875 reveals the real cause of
-ministerial crises in France: "The ministers are in a body responsible
-to the Chambers for the general policy of the government, and
-individually for their personal acts." This article obviously leaves
-the respective powers of both houses very undefined. Which chamber is
-the superior? To which of them are the ministers in fact responsible?
-The ministers may have a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, and may
-be in a minority in the Senate. Then there is a crisis. The Senate
-blocks the way and will not allow the government to go on, for it
-claims that it is the superior body. This absence of the proper
-demarcation of the powers of the Senate, of the Chamber of Deputies,
-and of the ministers necessarily leads to conflict; conflict is but a
-step from instability, and instability is a crisis which threatens
-revolution.
-
-The remedy for these oft-recurring ministerial crises in France is to
-be found in the American Constitution. The French Constitution should
-be revised and changed at the part quoted and all parts relating to
-it, so as to provide against ministerial crises; and the instrument
-presenting a sure guide in the performance of this necessary work is
-the American Constitution. It has been in operation over a hundred
-years and has been found to be an admirable working document,
-affording ministerial stability to its cabinets for over a century.
-Such a document is surely worthy of the closest study by the public
-men of the sister republic. It was inevitable that in so long a time
-some amendments should have become necessary; but for a long period it
-has undergone no change, save such as noted, and formulating the
-results of the civil war. Now and then are heard murmurings which
-claim the necessity of a sixteenth amendment, to the effect that the
-name of God should be put in the Constitution. The obvious answer to
-this is, that in the official life of the United States there is a
-more real acknowledgment of the Divine Being than there is in the
-official life of any other country, and it is better to have the name
-of God impressed upon the hearts of the people than upon even the best
-official document ever drawn up.
-
-It would not be correct to say that no attempts have been made to
-bring about a ministerial crisis in the United States by encroachment
-upon the rights of the Executive. Only once, however, when Andrew
-Johnson was President, has the action of the Executive been seriously
-hampered. Professor Bryce's remark may be applied to all other
-attempts. He writes: "Congress has constantly tried to encroach, both
-on the Executive and on the States,--sometimes like a wild bull driven
-into a corral, dashing itself against the imprisoning walls of the
-Constitution." There is the secret. The "imprisoning walls" of the
-American Constitution keep contending powers in their proper places.
-The Constitution is so well drawn up that a deadlock is an
-impossibility, the equilibrium of concomitant powers is easily
-maintained, and the sovereign will of the people has a fair
-opportunity of finding a natural exponent.
-
-In the United States the Senate and the House of Representatives are
-coördinate bodies; in the French Republic each claims superiority over
-the other. In the United States bills are never introduced by the
-Cabinet, all bills must originate either in the Senate or in the House
-of Representatives; such is not the case in the French Republic. In
-the United States the chief duty of the President is to see that the
-laws are faithfully executed; the Cabinet administers; its members are
-rather the aids or secretaries of the chief magistrate of the nation
-than otherwise. They are his advisers and helpers. During the four
-years for which the President of the United States is elected, the
-limitations of his authority are so remote and theoretical that, for
-practical purposes, it may be stated that he always serves out his
-full term of office. On the contrary, Presidential resignations are
-not unknown in the French Republic. France elects her President for
-seven years, yet Thiers, MacMahon, Grévy, Carnot, Casimir-Périer, and
-Faure make a list longer than that of the names of the men who have
-lived in the White House during the past quarter of a century. In the
-United States, the Cabinet lasts as long as the President's term of
-office; in the French Republic, the Cabinet sometimes goes to pieces
-in four months. Briefly, it is quite clear that in the United States
-there can be no ministerial crises, since the President's chief duty
-under the Constitution is to see that the laws are faithfully
-executed, and the members of his Cabinet do not introduce bills, even
-for finance or supplies, but act as his aids. As previously intimated,
-the difficulty with the French legislative bodies is that royalistic
-precedents and rules run side by side with republican principles, and
-the result is a mongrel institution divided, too often, against
-itself. When matters shall be so arranged that the French President
-will have to fill out his full term of office, and French ministers
-will not be permitted to originate legislation, and cabinets shall be
-selected to serve as long as the Presidential term, then the French
-Republic will enjoy the same ministerial stability as that of the
-United States.
-
-It were hard to say that the French method of electing a president is
-any better or any worse than that of the United States. The President
-of the French Republic is elected by the majority of the votes of both
-Chambers. This plan does not seem to remove him further from the
-people than does the system of electing a president by electors, as in
-the United States. As human ingenuity has not yet succeeded in
-creating the ideal republic, wherein, according to Ouida, there would
-be no president, some system of election must be followed. The
-question is not a burning one. There is notable, however, a growing
-tendency in France in favor of electing the president directly by the
-votes of the people. The seven-years' period for which the French
-president is elected is considered by many to be an excellent
-provision; but it loses half its excellence by reason of the fact that
-the president has the power to initiate laws, this and other things
-concurring to make his resignation a possibility, and not a remote
-one.
-
-That the office of vice-president does not exist in France seems to be
-of no great consequence. In the history of the American Republic there
-have been five vice-presidents who have been called upon to step into
-the Presidential chair by the deaths of presidents. According to the
-French Constitution, in case of a Presidential vacancy, whether from
-death or any other cause, the two Chambers proceed immediately to the
-election of a president. In the interval the ministers are invested
-with executive power.
-
-What I have written regarding the growing tendency to think it would
-be better to elect the president directly by the votes of the people,
-applies with a little more force to the election of senators. In
-France the municipalities elect the senators, as do State legislatures
-in this country. It is held by some who have discussed the question
-that it is much more in conformity with the genius of republican
-institutions that the people express their will directly by ballot
-rather than through the votes of municipal councils, as in France, or
-of legislatures, as in the United States. I cannot see that the
-difference of terms, that of French senators being nine years, and of
-American six, is of practical consequence. While both republics are
-at one as to the necessity of a second chamber, providing thus a check
-to hasty and unconsidered legislation, many thinkers in both countries
-agree that some change is necessary to make it possible for others
-than millionaires to be elected senators.
-
-If I were a Frenchman and had the power, I should get every newspaper
-throughout the land, and every public man and influential citizen, to
-enter upon a crusade for the purpose of impressing upon the minds of
-the whole people the following extract from the Constitution of the
-United States:
-
- Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of
- religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
-
-In France, there are constantly continuous and unseemly clashes
-between church and state. No matter what complications may exist as
-results of the past, surely it would be better for all concerned to
-leave the churches to be sustained by the voluntary contributions of
-the people. In the United States churches seem to live and thrive
-under this system of noninterference by the state in religious
-matters, and voluntary support. The more than eighty thousand
-clergymen are provided for. In the French Republic one reads
-everywhere, on the walls of churches and of schools, the words
-"_Liberté, fraternité, égalité_," while there seems to be a serious
-disagreement between Clericals, on the one side, and Radicals, on the
-other, as to the meaning of these words. To effectually put an end to
-this strife, the adoption of the clause I have quoted would be
-sufficient.
-
-In writing thus freely of the French Republic I am free, I trust, from
-the spirit of the carping critic delighting in comparisons to the
-advantage of his own country. I appreciate the splendid literature,
-the brilliant art, the advanced civilization of the France of to-day.
-I recognize with gratitude the debt which the United States owes the
-gallant Gallic people for sympathy and material aid in her struggle
-for independence. It is now only necessary to be in France on the
-Fourth of July to realize the reality and depth of the friendship
-which exists between the sister republics. But I do think that until
-France shall copy more closely the Constitution of the United States,
-the stability of the third republic cannot be regarded as assured.
-
-
-
-
-HONEST MONEY; OR, A TRUE STANDARD OF VALUE:
-
-A SYMPOSIUM.
-
-
-I. BY WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.
-
-We hear much about a "stable currency" and an "honest dollar." It is a
-significant fact that those who advocate a single gold standard have
-for the most part avoided a discussion of the effect of an
-appreciating standard. They take it for granted that a gold standard
-is not only an honest standard, but the only stable standard. I
-denounce that child of ignorance and avarice, the gold dollar under a
-universal gold standard, as the most dishonest dollar which we could
-employ.
-
-I stand upon the authority of every intelligent writer upon political
-economy when I assert that there is not and never has been an honest
-dollar. An honest dollar is a dollar absolutely stable in relation to
-all other things. Laughlin, in his work on "Bimetallism," says:
-
- Monometallists do not--as it is often said--believe that gold
- remains absolutely stable in value. They hold that there is no
- such thing as a "standard of value" for future payments in either
- gold or silver which remains absolutely invariable.
-
-He even suggests a multiple standard for long-time contracts. I quote
-his words:
-
- As regards national debts, it is distinctly averred that neither
- gold nor silver forms a just measure of deferred payments, and
- that if justice in long contracts is sought for, we should not
- seek it by the doubtful and untried expedient of international
- bimetallism, but by the clear and certain method of a multiple
- standard, a unit based upon the selling prices of a number of
- articles of general consumption. A long time contract would
- thereby be paid at its maturity by the same purchasing power as
- was given in the beginning.
-
-Jevons, one of the most generally accepted of the writers in favor of
-a gold standard, admits the instability of a single standard, and in
-language very similar to that above quoted suggests the multiple
-standard as the most equitable, if practicable. Chevalier, who wrote
-a book in 1858 to show the injustice of allowing a debtor to pay his
-debts in a cheap gold dollar, recognized the same fact, and said:
-
- If the value of the metal declined, the creditor would suffer a
- loss upon the quantity he had received; if, on the contrary, it
- rose, the debtor would have to pay more than he calculated upon.
-
-I am on sound and scientific ground, therefore, when I say that a
-dollar approaches honesty as its purchasing power approaches
-stability. If I borrow a thousand dollars to-day and next year pay the
-debt with a thousand dollars which will secure exactly as much of all
-things desirable as the one thousand which I borrowed, I have paid in
-honest dollars. If the money has increased or decreased in purchasing
-power, I have satisfied my debt with dishonest dollars. While the
-government can say that a given weight of gold or silver shall
-constitute a dollar, and invest that dollar with legal-tender
-qualities, it cannot fix the purchasing power of the dollar. That must
-depend upon the law of supply and demand, and it may be well to
-suggest that this government never tried to fix the exchangeable value
-of a dollar until it began to limit the number of dollars coined.
-
-
-II. BY M. W. HOWARD.
-
-The term, "a standard of value," so often used, is erroneous and
-misleading. There can be no fixed standard of value, and the student
-who wishes to delve into our financial problems should clear his mind
-of such a fallacy at the very threshold of his investigations.
-
-Money is a commodity; it is regulated by the same laws of supply and
-demand which regulate the price of corn, cotton, wheat, land, labor,
-etc. If the wheat crop is short, wheat will be dear; if abundant, it
-will be cheap. So with money. If the money supply is not sufficient to
-meet the demands of business and commerce,--if the money crop is
-short, in other words,--the money will be dear; it will command too
-high a price, its purchasing power will be too great.
-
-On the other hand, if the money supply is abundant, sufficient to meet
-all demands upon it,--in other words, if there is a bountiful money
-crop,--it will be cheaper; it will not have such a large purchasing
-power; it will be worth less when measured by our labor, our lands,
-and the products of our labor.
-
-I oppose the single gold standard because it makes the money crop
-short, gives us a small circulating medium, and hence enhances the
-value or price of money.
-
-We have a certain demand for breadstuff, which is constantly
-increasing as our population multiplies; suppose that we cease
-producing corn, and find no substitute for it, would not the price of
-wheat be greatly enhanced, providing there is no increased wheat
-production? So with the money supply. There is a certain demand for
-money, ever increasing as population grows. How shall we meet it? By
-producing more money, or by destroying one-half of that which we now
-have, by eliminating one-half of the base of future supplies of money?
-
-The latter is now the policy of this government, and as a consequence
-the price of gold has been greatly enhanced, and its purchasing power
-has increased each year, and will continue to do so.
-
-The advocates of the gold standard call this "honest money." Their
-idea of honest money is money that ever increases in purchasing power
-because of its ever-increasing scarcity.
-
-My definition of honest money is: "A sufficiently large circulating
-medium, whether of gold, silver, or paper, to bring down the price of
-money so that we shall obtain fair prices for all labor and products."
-Then as population increases and as the demand for money becomes
-greater, let the government meet that demand from time to time by
-enhancing the money supply.
-
-
-III. BY WHARTON BARKER.
-
-The true test of an honest dollar is its purchasing power, and that
-dollar, and only that dollar, is honest that does exact justice
-between creditor and debtor. The gold monometallists harp on the
-injustice of a depreciating dollar, but they ignore the injuries
-inflicted by an appreciating dollar. They tell us that a depreciating
-dollar defrauds the creditor, but just as a depreciating dollar
-defrauds the creditor, an appreciating dollar defrauds the debtor, and
-it is not one whit worse to defraud the creditor by obliging him to
-accept a depreciated dollar from his debtor than to defraud the debtor
-by obliging him to pay in a dollar made artificially scarce and dear.
-
-An appreciating dollar works injustice to the debtor just as a
-depreciating dollar works injustice to the creditor, but an
-appreciating dollar is many fold more injurious to trade and industry,
-for while the depreciating dollar taxes the creditor for the benefit
-of the debtor, the appreciating dollar takes from the debtor, from
-producers in general and the industrious classes, and gives to the
-creditor classes, the drones of society, a larger and larger share of
-the products of labor, which of necessity discourages industry. Under
-a depreciating standard the recompense of the producer becomes greater
-and greater, the creditor classes receive a smaller and smaller
-portion of the products of labor, the profits of industry increase,
-and consequently production is encouraged and trade and industry are
-stimulated. But under an appreciating standard the recompense of labor
-becomes smaller and smaller, and the share of the products of labor
-absorbed by the creditor larger, which tends to discourage industry
-and stifle enterprise.
-
-
-IV. BY ARTHUR I. FONDA.
-
-The value of any commodity is measured by what it will exchange for.
-It is in fact its purchasing power, or power in exchange. This in
-substance is the concrete definition of value given by all economists,
-and they all unite in stating that value is determined by the supply
-of a commodity relative to the demand for it; all other factors
-affecting value being secondary and acting through their effect on
-either supply or demand.
-
-Since both the supply of and the demand for every freely produced
-commodity is variable, and since a true standard of value, like a true
-standard of weight or length, must be invariable as regards that which
-it measures, it necessarily follows that no single freely produced
-commodity can be a true standard of value. But while it is true that
-every single commodity must vary in value, it is also true that all
-commodities taken together cannot do so. This principle is also
-accepted as correct by all economists.
-
-It is evident then that a true standard of value can only be found in
-a composite unit containing a definite quantity of every commodity, or
-practically speaking, a definite quantity of each of a large number of
-the most important commodities. This is what is known as the "multiple
-standard," or the "commodity standard," and has long been in use by
-economists in the form of tables of index numbers to show fluctuations
-in general prices, or what is the same thing, changes in money values.
-
-The only function of money is to facilitate the exchange of goods. In
-doing this it acts directly as a circulating medium, and the demand
-for it for this purpose, relative to the supply, determines its value;
-for money, whether of coin or paper or both combined in one
-circulation to meet one need, is subject to the same law of supply and
-demand which governs all commodities, and which indeed is as universal
-in the economic world as the law of gravitation is in the physical
-world.
-
-Incidentally the value of money fills the important function of
-serving as a measure of the values of goods transferred without the
-direct use of money, both immediate and deferred. This, however, has
-no effect on the demand for money or on its value.
-
-The people are accustomed to regard money as of constant value, and an
-honest money must necessarily conform to this belief. If money varies
-in value, the people are deluded, and many are wronged if they are
-unaware of the fluctuation. If they become aware of it,--as they
-generally do by a bitter experience,--they are confronted with an
-uncertainty that is most detrimental to any business or enterprise.
-Imagine what our business would be with our measures of weight,
-length, and capacity all variable! Yet such a condition would be less
-disastrous than a fluctuating money value when it became fully known
-that it was so.
-
-The _demand_ for money varies from many causes, chief among which are
-changes in the quantity of goods exchanged, the extent to which other
-credit instruments take the place of money in such exchanges, and the
-activity of money, or the extent to which it is hoarded, all of which
-are entirely beyond control. The _supply_ of money, however, can be
-controlled, and to maintain money at a constant value the supply must
-be constantly adjusted to the ever-varying demand, so that its
-general purchasing power may remain the same. The test of a constant
-money must be a constant general level of prices; and this must be
-judged by the prices in the open market of those principal commodities
-which would be selected to constitute the standard of value, the
-quantity of each being proportioned to its importance in trade.
-
-The only function of gold and silver in a monetary system is to _limit
-the volume of the money_, either by their scarcity when freely coined,
-or by the laws limiting their coinage. And as this limitation of the
-supply bears no definite relation to the demand for money, the value
-of the money necessarily fluctuates. Our industrial system is
-constantly growing more sensitive to even slight changes in money
-value, owing to the greater diversification of industries and the
-greater division of labor, and the need for preventing such changes is
-constantly growing more imperative.
-
-When the people arrive at a clearer perception of these facts and
-principles they will understand that the chance production of gold and
-silver is too clumsy a contrivance to properly control so delicate a
-matter as the value of money under modern industrial conditions, and I
-believe they will substitute for the present system a circulating
-medium of paper money, properly guaranteed, and susceptible of prompt
-and certain increase or decrease of volume to meet every possible
-variation in demand, and rigidly controlled to conform in value to a
-true standard of value, a standard composed not alone of gold or
-silver or both combined, but of all the leading commodities.
-
-In short, they will separate the standard of value from the medium of
-exchange, demonetizing both gold and silver as to the latter function,
-but using both and many other things in conjunction therewith for the
-former function.
-
-
-V. BY A. J. WARNER.
-
-From whatever side the question is approached, in the last analysis
-the value of money of any kind is found to depend upon its quantity,
-and not upon color, or ductility, or malleability, or any other
-particular quality of the thing upon which the money function is
-impressed. There can be therefore, in fact, no other standard of
-value, or money standard, except the quantity of whatever is used as
-money. When gold and silver are used, the value of each unit of money
-depends upon the number of such units, and these in turn depend upon
-the quantity of the metal from which the money is made. Any cause,
-therefore, which restricts, limits, or contracts the quantity of any
-kind of money, increases the value of each unit. On the contrary,
-causes that operate to increase the supply of money have the opposite
-effect.
-
-Hence, only that currency can properly be called "sound" currency
-which is made to maintain stable relations to things to be bought and
-sold. In other words, general prices are determined by the proportion
-between money on the one side, and things offered against money on the
-other side. Such money only is "honest" money.
-
-The whole question, therefore, of money standard is a question of
-money supply; for, as the price of single things, money being
-constant, depends upon supply on the one hand, as against demand for
-it on the other, so, in general, prices depend on money supply on the
-one hand, and things to be bought and sold on the other. This I
-believe to be the fundamental law of money.
-
-
-
-
-THE NEW CIVIL CODE OF JAPAN.
-
-BY TOKICHI MASAO, M. L., D. C. L.
-
-
-Ever since the establishment of the present imperial government in
-1868, the one unceasing aim of Japan's foreign policy has been the
-abolition of the extra-territoriality régime, under which certain
-quasi-judicial functions are exercised on the Japanese soil by the
-ambassadors and consuls of the Occidental nations. This anxiety on
-Japan's part to rid herself of this shameful régime imposed upon her
-against her will, will not appear surprising when the fact is learnt
-that one Occidental nation went so far as to call her consul at
-Yokohama, "Her Britannic Majesty's the Most Honourable Court for
-Japan"--a name almost enough to imply that Japan was a British
-province. Extra-territoriality rests upon the assumption that the laws
-and procedure of the non-Christian nations are so unlike to and
-different from those of the Christian nations that without the
-protection of this system the safety and well-being of the subjects of
-the latter sojourning in the territory of the former would be placed
-in constant jeopardy. Accordingly in the early seventies Japan came to
-the conclusion that the only possible way of emancipating herself from
-the disgraceful yoke of extra-territoriality was to adopt one of the
-systems of law obtaining in the Christian world and compile a code of
-law based upon that system, and applicable alike to the Japanese and
-to the foreigners residing in Japan.
-
-There were three such systems--the Anglo-American, the French, and the
-Germanic Roman--each offering itself for adoption. Mr. Yeto
-Shimpei,[2] who became the Minister of Justice in 1872, seems to have
-had a personal preference for the French system. He called to his
-assistance some of the most eminent jurists of France and entered upon
-the work of drafting a code. At the same time he established in Tokio
-a law school known as the "Department of Justice Annex Law School," in
-which French law was taught by those same jurists whom he had called
-from France. About this time there was also established in the
-University of Tokio a law school in which instruction was given
-chiefly in English law. It was while teaching in this university law
-school that Mr. Henry T. Terry (a New York lawyer and an alumnus of
-Yale College) wrote his memorable book on English law, designed
-especially for the use of Japanese law students. From henceforth
-"Terry's Leading Principles of Anglo-American Law" became as familiar
-to them as are "Blackstone's Commentaries" to the law students of this
-country.
-
- [2] Those who have followed the course of events in Japan
- since the beginning of the new era will remember that upon
- the return of Prince Iwakura, in 1873, from his
- around-the-world embassy, Mr. Yeto had to withdraw from the
- cabinet, owing to a difference of opinion between him and
- the Prince with regard to the Corean problem then pending.
- Returning to his native province, Saga, he tried to raise
- troops against the government (to carry out, of course, his
- own convictions in regard to the Corean problem), resulting
- in the famous "Saga rebellion" of 1873. Defeated by the
- government troops, he betook himself to the interior of the
- country in disguise, was arrested, found guilty of treason,
- and executed according to law. It is a familiar saying in
- Japan that Mr. Yeto died a criminal at the hand of his own
- Penal Code.
-
-Thus, side by side there existed in Tokio two law schools in which two
-distinct systems of law were taught--the English and the French. The
-primary object of the Department of Justice in establishing the French
-law school being to make it a training school of judicial officers,
-the students of that school were, upon graduation, to render, for a
-limited number of years, an obligatory service to the government in
-the various capacities of judges, magistrates, and prosecuting
-attorneys. On the other hand, the University of Tokio being a strictly
-independent institution in which learning is pursued for the sake of
-learning, the graduates of the university or English law school were
-at entire liberty in their choice of professions. Naturally enough the
-majority of these did not wish to enter the same service which the
-graduates of the other school were obliged to enter as a matter of
-fulfilment of contract. Thus it happened that the bench was recruited
-from the French law school, while the bar was recruited from the
-English law school. This state of affairs lasted for about twenty
-years, during which time there was also established a German law
-school in the University of Tokio. Those who know something about the
-rivalry that existed in ancient times between the Sabinians and the
-Proculians, or even about the rivalry which exists to-day between the
-Yale method and the Harvard method, between the Waylandians and the
-Langdellians, can readily imagine what intellectual competition was
-carried on between these three Japanese law schools representing three
-distinct systems of law.
-
-After twenty years of assiduous labor the Code Commission submitted a
-draft of a Civil Code to the two Houses of Parliament in 1890,
-accompanied by the recommendation from the Bureau of Legislation that
-the draft might receive the parliamentary sanction in such a manner
-that it might be possible for it to be put in effect by the year 1893.
-As might have been expected from the personnel of the Commission,
-consisting, in its conception, of Mr. Yeto Shimpei and the eminent
-French jurist Prof. Boissonade, etc., the draft was a genuine French
-code, being almost a literal translation of the Code Napoleon in all
-its parts excepting the part dealing with the Law of Persons. The
-question may well be asked why it took the Commission twenty long
-years to produce this imitation draft code when we know that the draft
-of the Code Napoleon itself was completed within the short period of
-four months. The answer seems to be that the Commission spent almost
-this entire time in their efforts to reconcile the principles of the
-French Law of Persons with the Japanese laws and customs bearing on
-that subject.
-
-As has been the case with many other draft codes this draft Civil Code
-of Japan was destined to go into oblivion. As soon as it was submitted
-to the Parliament there ensued a most desperate fight against its
-adoption. As figuring most prominently among the champions of the
-opposition I may mention the names of Mr. Kazuo Hatoyama, the present
-Speaker of the House of Commons of the Imperial Japanese Parliament,
-and His Excellency Mr. Toru Hoshi, the present Japanese minister at
-Washington.[3] Inspired by these and other eminent jurists of the
-English school the entire bar was set against the adoption of the
-draft code. This was not a case of a bar accustomed to one set of
-rules and formulas opposing the adoption of a new code for fear that
-they might be compelled to learn a new set of rules and formulas. On
-the contrary, the bar was composed of men who had studied law as a
-science, and science for the sake of science. The spirit of their
-opposition was very plainly shown by the objections they raised
-against the code. They said:--"The draft Code was a blind imitation of
-a foreign Code which itself was far from being free from defects. It
-abounded in definitions, illustrations, and examples, and presented an
-appearance more becoming to a text-book of law than the Civil Code of
-a great nation. It went into too minute details and left too little
-room for voluntary development of jurisprudence. It incorporated, like
-the French Code, the law of evidence into the body of the Civil Code,
-which was totally at variance with the modern theory of evidence,
-being a failure on the part of the Commissioners to distinguish
-adjective from substantive law. It made too many innovations upon the
-Law of Persons hitherto obtaining in Japan. It changed the Family Law
-of the Japanese from the foundation, which was a gross disregard of
-the historical principle of jurisprudence," etc., etc., etc. Such were
-some of the grounds upon which they opposed the adoption of the draft
-code, reminding one of the fight in Europe between the historical
-school and the analytical school, between the jurists of France and
-those of Germany; of the fight in Germany between the Code party and
-the anti-Code party, between Savigny and Thibaut. Who can say, then,
-that the Japanese are childish imitators of anything that looks well?
-The fact is that this sort of conflict between the more conservative
-and the more radical, the more scrupulous and the more unscrupulous,
-the more positive and the more speculative, is going on all the time.
-
- [3] I make mention of these two gentlemen as representative
- of two classes of a fairly large number of Japanese lawyers,
- viz., those who have been educated in the United States, and
- those who have received their education in England. Mr.
- Hatoyama is a D. C. L. of Yale. For nearly ten years
- (1880-1889) he was a professor of law in the University of
- Tokio Law School, and during most of this time he was also
- Dean of the school. Mr. Hoshi is a barrister-at-law of one
- of the English Inns of Court. For many years he was regarded
- as the leader of the Japanese bar. Like many distinguished
- members of the English bar, he is more of a lawyer than of a
- jurist.
-
-At last in 1892 the Parliament passed an act deferring the taking
-effect of the code till 1897 and ordering in the meantime a careful
-revisal of the draft. A new Commission was appointed which consisted
-of three most eminent professors of law in Japan, each representing
-one of the three systems of law recognized there.[4] These
-Commissioners, aided by a number of efficient assistants, looked into
-the codes and laws of some fifteen leading American and European
-states. As representing the French system they consulted the codes of
-Louisiana, Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. As
-representing the German system they consulted the codes and laws of
-Austria, Montenegro, Prussia, Saxony, Switzerland, and the draft Civil
-Code of the German Empire. As representing the English system they
-consulted the leading American and English reports and treatises, the
-draft Civil Code of New York, and the codes of California and British
-India.[5]
-
- [4] I refer to Professors Hodzumi, Tomii, and Ume. Prof.
- Hodzumi is a barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple, and is
- one of the ablest representatives of English law in Japan.
- Prof. Tomii is a _Docteur en Droit_ of the Facility of
- Lyons, and is by far the ablest expounder of the French
- codes in Japan. Prof. Ume, though a bearer of the same
- degree from the same Faculty as Prof. Tomii, has attended
- several German universities, and is more of the German
- school than of the French. The Commission itself consisted
- of several other distinguished personages, with the Prime
- Minister at the head. But these three professors composed
- what was called the "Compilation Committee," so that
- practically they were the Commission.
-
- [5] Prof. Ume, a member of the Commission, is responsible
- for these statements so far as they relate to the codes and
- laws consulted. The classifications, however, are my own.
-
-After four years of the most constant application the Commission
-submitted in 1896 a revisal of a part of the original draft. Had the
-Commission had the entire code revised they could not have shown
-greater wisdom. For the parts incomplete were those dealing with the
-Family Law and Successions, and the Commission remembered that these
-were the parts that occasioned the most vital objections to the old
-code. The Parliament referred the revised draft code to a Committee of
-their own, of which Mr. Hatoyama, the present Speaker, was made the
-chairman. After making a careful examination and some important
-modifications, Mr. Hatoyama reported favorably to its adoption. The
-Parliament acted according to his advice, and the draft became the
-law.
-
-In its general arrangement the new code follows what the German
-jurists call the Pandekten system. It is divided into five general
-parts. Part I is called "S[=o]soku," or General Laws, and deals with
-persons, natural and artificial, as the subjects of rights; with
-things as the objects of rights; and with juristic acts as setting
-rights in motion. One cannot help being astonished at and gratified
-with the remarkable extent to which Prof. Holland's views as expressed
-in his book on jurisprudence seem to be adopted in this part of the
-code.[6] Part II is called "Bukken," or _Jus in Rem_, corresponding
-to the Sachenrecht of the German code, and dealing with Possession,
-Ownership, etc., etc. Part III is called "Jinken," or _Jus in
-Personam_, corresponding to the Forderungsrecht of the German code,
-and dealing with General Law of Obligations, with Obligations arising
-_ex contractu_, _quasi ex contractu_, and _ex delicto_. The General
-Law of Obligations is taken largely from the Forderungsrecht of the
-Swiss code. The law of Contracts and Torts is taken entirely from the
-English law. Parts IV and V, dealing with the Family Law and the Law
-of Successions respectively, have not as yet been published, for
-reasons already indicated.
-
- [6] This may be a mere conjecture on my own part. It is
- possible that the Commissioners never consulted his book,
- though to assert such a thing of them would be an insult to
- their scholarship. Be it as it may, it is a fact beyond
- question that their arrangement of these topics presents a
- remarkable coincidence to that of Prof. Holland's, and this
- is a matter upon which every thoughtful Japanese may well
- pride himself.
-
-Such is the new Civil Code of Japan, adopted by the Imperial
-Parliament in its session of 1896. Truly, the year 1896 has been an
-eventful year for Japan. The war with China had brought glory to her
-arms. Formosa and numerous other islands had been added to her
-possessions. The insurgents of Formosa had been pacified. The treaties
-with the leading nations of the world had been revised, providing for
-the abolishment of the disgraceful extra-territoriality régime in
-Japan, to take effect, however, upon the taking effect of the new
-Civil Code. The last and greatest event of all, the new Code was
-adopted. With equal propriety, then, the Emperor Mutsuhito might have
-joined Justinian, in proclaiming:--"Imperatoriam Majestatem non solum
-armis decoratam, sed etiam legibus opportet esse armatam, ut utrumque
-tempus et bellorum et pacis recte possit gubernari!"
-
-
-
-
-JOHN RUSKIN:
-
-A TYPE OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY MANHOOD.
-
-BY B. O. FLOWER.
-
-
-The name John Ruskin is justly entitled to a foremost place among
-those of the builders of twentieth-century civilization. In him we
-find a rare combination of genius, culture, and refinement, blended
-with a tender concern for all earth's unfortunates. He is at once
-artist, philosopher, and philanthropist; but he is more than these;
-there is much of the austere religious reformer, giving a serious
-gravity to all the utterances of the glad-souled artist, a mingling of
-the spirit of a Savonarola with the imagination of a Turner.
-
-John Ruskin, more than any other man of our time in like station of
-life, stands for the civilization which we believe is destined to
-glorify the coming century, for in his life all thought of ease, fame,
-and preferment,--all consideration of self,--is overmastered by his
-love for others. Endowed by nature with the imagination of a poet, the
-eyes of an artist, the brain of a philosopher, the soul of a prophet,
-and the heart of a man, he has conscientiously employed all his gifts
-as a sacred trust given to him that he might bless and enlighten his
-day, and ennoble his civilization for all time.
-
-He was born amid affluence, and received the best educational
-advantages the age afforded. After graduating from Oxford in 1842, he
-studied painting under Copley Fielding and J. D. Harding. Subsequently
-he spent some time in Italy, finishing his art education in the land
-of earth's greatest painters.
-
-While in college he composed many poems, but on leaving the university
-he turned his attention to art and prose composition. His "Modern
-Painters" was justly hailed as one of the noblest works of the
-century, and instantly placed its author in the ranks of the foremost
-art critics of the world.
-
-Few if any of his admirers will agree with all his critical views. He
-not infrequently falls into those errors which we naturally expect to
-find in a man of intense feeling, of strong conviction, and of vivid
-imagination. If a positive idea takes possession of his mind, it is
-liable to give a strong bias to his thought, and in a degree
-interferes with that nice sense of proportion so essential to a great
-critic. On more than one occasion Mr. Ruskin has frankly admitted that
-his views and opinions were erroneous owing to being based on a
-partial appearance or influenced by pernicious ideas. A notable
-illustration of his thought being biassed by preconceived ideas is
-found in the religious opinions put forward in the early edition of
-parts I and II of "Modern Painters." And in a preface written in 1871
-for a revised edition of his works, the philosopher calls attention to
-his early views, declaring that he was "wholly mistaken" and
-continuing: "I had been educated in the narrow doctrine of a narrow
-sect, and had read history obliquely, as a sectarian necessarily
-must."
-
-Such are the blemishes which occasionally creep into the works of this
-master mind. They are, however, merely spots on the sun, which do not
-appear frequently enough to seriously dim the splendor of a critical
-work which in my judgment surpasses in real value that of any English
-scholar of the century. "Modern Painters," "The Stones of Venice,"
-"The Seven Lamps," and his other works dealing with art are far more
-than criticisms; they touch the sleeping soul, they fire the spirit
-and awaken the conscience. They make the reader feel a new love for
-nature and art alike, and with this pure and inspiring love comes the
-desire for more knowledge. They appeal to the spiritual aspirations
-even more than to the artistic impulses or the intellectual
-apprehension. The moral exaltation which pervades his writings springs
-from his profoundly philosophical and religious nature. In all his
-work, as in his noble life, he has ever been moved by an intense
-desire to uplift and dignify humanity and to impress upon the public
-mind the subtle but positive effect for good exerted by true art. "I
-have had," he tells us in "The Two Paths," "but one steady aim in all
-I have ever tried to teach, namely, to declare that whatever was great
-in human art was the expression of man's delight in God's work."
-
-With Ruskin, life is august; its possibilities for good and evil are
-never forgotten.
-
- "Remember," he urges, "that every day of your life is ordaining
- irrevocably for good or evil the custom and practice of your
- soul; ordaining either sacred customs of dear and lovely
- recurrence, or trenching deeper and deeper the furrows for seed
- of sorrow. Now, therefore, see that no day passes in which you do
- not make yourself a somewhat better creature.... You will find
- that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to
- help other people, will in the quickest and delicatest ways
- improve yourself."
-
-The pleasure which springs from loyalty to duty is strenuously
-insisted upon by Ruskin, and he, more than any other illustrious man
-in our time, has reached such heights of unselfishness as to enable
-him to fully appreciate the unalloyed pleasure which flows from a life
-of sacrifice. If he is austere, he is also very humane. The fountains
-of pleasure that he would have us drink deeply from would leave no
-bitter aftertaste. He delights in no pseudo-pleasure; faithfulness to
-the highest ideal, untiring effort at complete self-mastery, a settled
-determination to work for the good of all and to be ever on guard lest
-by some inadvertence we injure some other living creature,--such are
-some of the lessons upon which our philosopher insists as essential to
-man's happiness.
-
- "If," he urges, in writing for the young, "there is any one point
- which, in six thousand years of thinking about right and wrong,
- wise and good men have agreed upon, or successively by experience
- discovered, it is that God dislikes idle and cruel people more
- than any others; that His first order is, 'Work while you have
- light;' and his second, 'Be merciful while you have mercy.' 'Work
- while you have light,' especially while you have the light of
- morning. There are few things more wonderful to me than that old
- people never tell young ones how precious their youth is....
- Remember, then, that I, at least, have warned _you_, that the
- happiness of your life, and its power, and its part and rank in
- earth or in heaven, depend on the way you pass your days now.
- They are not to be sad days; far from that, the first duty of
- young people is to be delighted and delightful; but they are to
- be in the deepest sense solemn days. There is no solemnity so
- deep, to a rightly thinking creature, as that of dawn.... You
- must be to the best of your strength usefully employed during the
- greater part of the day, so that you may be able at the end of it
- to say, as proudly as any peasant, that you have not eaten the
- bread of idleness. Then, secondly, I said, you are not to be
- cruel. Perhaps you think there is no chance of your being so; and
- indeed I hope it is not likely that you should be deliberately
- unkind to any creature; but _unless you are deliberately kind to
- every creature, you will often be cruel to many_."
-
-Ruskin is often disquieting to conventionalists; he is too candid to
-be popular with those who make long prayers and descant on charity
-while they ignore justice. He puts questions to them which they do not
-want to consider themselves, or to have others consider. By insisting
-on the substitution of justice for charity, and by taking the
-teachings of Jesus seriously, he offends the sleek money-changers who
-occupy choice pews in the modern palaces of ease dedicated to the
-lowly Nazarene. Such expressions as the following from the magnificent
-lecture on "Work" prove far less satisfying to this class than the
-popular sermons they are accustomed to hear:
-
- "It is the law of heaven," says Ruskin, "that you shall not be
- able to judge what is wise or easy, unless you are first resolved
- to judge what is just, and to do it. That is the one thing
- constantly reiterated by our master--the order of all others that
- is given oftenest: 'Do justice and judgment.' That's your Bible
- order; that's the 'service of God.' The one divine work--the one
- ordered sacrifice--is to do justice; and it is the last we are
- ever inclined to do. Anything rather than that! As much charity
- as you choose, but no justice. 'Nay,' you will say, 'charity is
- greater than justice.' Yes, it is greater; _it is the summit of
- justice_; it is the temple of which justice is the foundation.
- _But you can't have the top without the bottom_; you cannot build
- upon charity. You must build upon justice, for this main reason,
- that you have not, at first, charity to build with. It is the
- last reward of good work. It is all very fine to think you can
- build upon charity to begin with; but you will find all you have
- got to begin with begins at home, and is essentially love of
- yourself.
-
- "You well-to-do people, for instance, who are here to-night will
- go to 'Divine Service' next Sunday, all nice and tidy, and your
- little children will have their tight little Sunday boots on, and
- lovely little Sunday feathers in their hats; and you'll think,
- complacently and piously, how lovely they look! So they do; and
- you love them heartily, and you like sticking feathers in their
- hats. That's all right; that _is_ charity; but it is charity
- beginning at home. Then you will come to the poor little
- crossing-sweeper got up also--in its Sunday dress--the dirtiest
- rags it has that it may beg the better: we shall give it a penny,
- and think how good we are. That's charity going abroad. But what
- does justice say, walking and watching near us? Christian justice
- has been strangely mute, and seemingly blind; and, if not blind,
- decrepit this many a day: she keeps her accounts still,
- however--quite steadily--doing them at nights, carefully, with
- her bandage off, and through acutest spectacles (the only modern
- scientific invention she cares about). You must put your ear down
- ever so close to her lips to hear her speak; and then you will
- start at what she first whispers, for it will certainly be, 'Why
- shouldn't that little crossing-sweeper have a feather on its
- head, as well as your own child?' Then you may ask justice, in an
- amazed manner, How she can possibly be so foolish as to think
- children could sweep crossings with feathers on their heads? Then
- you stoop again, and justice says--still in her dull, stupid
- way--'Then, why don't you, every other Sunday, leave your child
- to sweep the crossing, and take the little sweeper to church in a
- hat and feather?' Mercy on us (you think), what will she say
- next? And you answer, of course, that you don't, because
- everybody ought to remain content in the position in which
- Providence has placed them.
-
- "Ah, my friends, that's the gist of the whole question. _Did_
- Providence put them in that position, or did _you_? You knock a
- man into a ditch, and then you tell him to remain content in the
- 'position in which Providence has placed him.' That's modern
- Christianity. You say, 'We did not knock him into the ditch.' How
- do you know what you have done or are doing? That's just what we
- have all got to know, and what we shall never know until the
- question with us every morning, is, not how to do the gainful
- thing, but how to do the just thing."
-
-These thoughts suggest to us Ruskin, the social economist, for we must
-not lose sight of the fact that this greatest of all art critics, this
-strong, sane ethical philosopher who has emphasized so forcibly the
-possibilities, duties, and responsibilities of the individual in all
-his complex relations, is also one of the most enlightened and
-broad-visioned economists of our wonderful age. By treatises, essays,
-and letters he has striven for a brighter day for the breadwinners. He
-has sought to elevate the ideals and tastes of all toilers, while he
-has labored unremittingly to secure for them that meed of justice
-which is their right, but which has so long been denied them.
-
-So far back as 1868, when few people of position dared advocate so
-sane a proposition as the governmental ownership of "natural
-monopolies," John Ruskin published these bold and thoughtful words in
-the London _Daily Telegraph_:
-
- The ingenious British public seemed to be discovering to its
- cost, that the beautiful law of supply and demand does not apply
- in a pleasant manner to railroad transit. But if they are
- prepared to submit patiently to the "natural" laws of political
- economy, what right have they to complain? The railroad belongs
- to the shareholders; and has not everybody a right to ask the
- highest he can get for his wares? The public have a perfect right
- to walk, or to make other opposition railroads for themselves, if
- they please, but not to abuse the shareholders for asking as much
- as they think they can get. Will you allow me to put the _real_
- rights of the matter before them in a few words?
-
- Neither the roads nor the railroads of any nation should belong
- to any private persons. All means of public transit should be
- provided at public expense, by public determination, where such
- means are needed, and the public should be its own shareholder.
- Neither road, nor railroad, nor canal should ever pay dividends
- to anybody. They should pay their working expenses, and no more.
- All dividends are simply a tax on the traveller and the goods,
- levied by the persons to whom the road or canal belongs, for the
- right of passing over his property, and this right should at once
- be purchased by the nation, and the original cost of the
- roadway--be it of gravel, iron, or adamant--at once defrayed by
- the nation, and then the whole work of the carriage of persons or
- goods done for ascertained prices, by salaried officers, as the
- carriage of letters is done now.
-
-Happily these suggestions of the distinguished Englishman have been
-followed, in part at least, by several enlightened nations, but to the
-disgrace of our republic, and to the great cost of the producing and
-consuming masses, we are lagging behind in these respects, becoming a
-camp-follower instead of a leader in the march of progress, because of
-the influence exerted by a small class, who have grown so powerful
-through special privileges given to them by the nation that they now
-assume to thwart beneficent legislation in order that they may
-continue to grow richer through this vicious form of governmental
-paternalism, which places the multitude in the power of a few.
-
-Ruskin's views on money are as disturbing to the usurers and those who
-through special privileges in money have amassed fortunes of unearned
-wealth as his sound position on railroads is distasteful to the
-monopolists who impoverish the producer and consumer by exorbitant
-rates on transportation.
-
-The great Englishman is also too clear-sighted to accept the
-fallacious doctrines of the money-changers in regard to the medium of
-exchange. He is too honest to hold his peace in the presence of a
-great wrong, hence his definition of money is far more nearly correct
-than the false and essentially injurious definitions so industriously
-promulgated by special pleaders for an interested class. "The final
-and best definition of money," says Ruskin, "is that it is a
-documentary promise ratified and guaranteed by the nation to give or
-find a certain quantity of labor on demand."
-
-In 1873 our author carried on a spirited discussion with some
-conventional economists regarding the money of the rich. One writer
-undertook to defend the lavish and reckless expenditures of the
-wealthy by calling to his aid the well-worn plea that money thus paid
-out finds its way into the pockets of poor families, and that thus
-through the bounty of the rich the starving are blest. Ruskin, in the
-course of his reply, observed that, were he a poor man instead of a
-moderately rich one, he would be sure that the paper referred to would
-suggest the question:
-
- These _means of living_, which this generous and useful gentleman
- is so fortunately disposed to bestow on me--where does he get
- them himself?... These are the facts. The laborious poor produce
- "the means of life" by their labor. Rich persons possess
- themselves by various expedients of a right to dispense these
- means of life, and, keeping as much means as they want for
- themselves, and rather more, dispense the rest usually only in
- return for _more labor from the poor_, expended in producing
- various delights for the rich dispenser. The idea is now
- gradually entering poor men's minds, that they may as well keep
- in their own hands the right of distributing "the means of life"
- they produce; and employ themselves, so far as they need extra
- occupation, for their own entertainment or benefit, rather than
- that of other people.
-
-The conventional economist replied to the question relating to how the
-rich man got his wealth by stating that it was obtained by the
-possessor or his ancestors through a "mutually beneficent partnership"
-between the rich and the poor by which the poor had their share of the
-joint returns advanced to them. Mr. Ruskin in his reply stated the
-question again, and then proceeded to answer it by a telling personal
-illustration. He says:
-
- "Where does the rich man get his means of living?" I don't myself
- see how a more straightforward question could be put! so
- straightforward, indeed, that I particularly dislike making a
- martyr of myself in answering it, as I must this blessed day--a
- martyr, at least, in the way of witness; for if we rich people
- don't begin to speak honestly with our tongues, we shall, some
- day soon, lose them and our heads together, having for sometime
- back, most of us, made false use of the one and none of the
- other. Well, for the point in question, then, as to means of
- living: the most exemplary manner of answer is simply to state
- how I got my own, or rather how my father got them for me. He and
- his partners entered into what your correspondent mellifluously
- styles "a mutually beneficent partnership" with certain laborers
- in Spain. These laborers produced from the earth annually a
- certain number of bottles of wine. These productions were sold by
- my father and his partners, who kept nine-tenths, or thereabouts,
- of the price themselves, and gave one-tenth, or thereabouts, to
- the laborers. In which state of mutual beneficence my father and
- his partners naturally became rich, and the laborers as naturally
- remained poor. Then my good father gave all his money to me.
-
-Space forbids a more extended notice of Mr. Ruskin's broad and
-thoughtful views on economic problems, but before closing this paper,
-I wish to notice how the life of this great philanthropist has touched
-and brightened other lives. Many men think noble thoughts and at times
-are stirred by the loftiest aspirations, but in actual everyday life
-they sadly fail to live up to their teachings; but he who can and does
-master himself, he who gives his life for justice and thinks of the
-welfare of others before he considers himself, has reached a far
-higher summit than have the most gifted intellects who, while
-apprehending the beauty of goodness, fail to express that beauty in
-their daily lives. John Ruskin's life has been at once earnest, pure,
-and unselfish.
-
-Of the unexampled manner in which he gave up his beautiful wife to his
-friend--how he quietly secured a divorce that she might become the
-wife of the man she loved--electing to pass the rest of his life alone
-rather than destroy her happiness,--these facts are well known, and
-Mr. Ruskin has been severely criticised for not holding his wife in
-unwilling bondage. But he was so constituted that it was impossible
-for him to endure the thought of being directly or indirectly the
-cause of another's misery.
-
-Another striking illustration of his unselfishness is seen in the
-manner in which he has disposed of his fortune, which at the time of
-his father's death amounted to a million dollars. With this money he
-set about doing good. Poor young men and women who were struggling to
-obtain an education were helped, homes for working men and women were
-established, and model apartment-houses were erected. He also promoted
-a work for reclaiming waste land outside of London. This land was used
-for the aid of unfortunate men who wished to rise again from the state
-into which they had fallen through cruel social conditions and their
-own weaknesses. It is said that this work suggested to General Booth
-his colonization farms. Ruskin has also ever been liberal in aiding
-poor artists, and has done much to encourage the artistic taste among
-the young. On one occasion he purchased ten fine water-color paintings
-by Holman Hunt for $3,750, to be hung in public schools of London.
-
-By 1877 he had disposed of three-fourths of his inheritance, besides
-all the income from his books. But the calls of the poor and the plans
-which he wished to put into operation looking toward education and
-ennobling the toilers, and giving to their gloomy lives something more
-of sunshine and joy, were such that he determined to dispose of all
-the remainder of his wealth except a sum sufficient to yield him
-fifteen hundred dollars a year on which to live.
-
-Of all English writers of our century no one has left a more valuable
-literary legacy than has John Ruskin, but the splendid and voluminous
-works of his brain are even less priceless than the example of his
-wonderful life. That he is in the shadow in his old age is by no means
-strange; a nature so sensitive, so finely strung, so keenly alive to
-the sufferings of others on every hand, has necessarily felt what the
-well-kept and self-engrossed animals around him knew nothing of.
-Indeed, just here we find the chief reason why the finest natures
-suffer so keenly in this age of heartless greed, self-absorption, and
-gold madness, of wanton extravagance and biting poverty, of widespread
-misery and growing discontent. Sensitive natures who are spiritually
-alive to the misery around them must suffer while they sow the
-seed-thoughts of a new day--suffer uncomplainingly until the
-waiting-time of this great transition period has passed.
-
-In John Ruskin we find great breadth of thought and a wide range of
-intellectual vision, going hand in hand with a profound philosophical
-grasp of life's deepest problems; and, what is more, these excellences
-are rendered luminous by the influence of an enlightened soul. His
-life has been characterized by nobility of purpose, purity of thought,
-a passion for nature and art, and an enthusiasm for humanity.
-
-
-
-
-THE SINGLE TAX IN OPERATION.
-
-BY HON. HUGH H. LUSK,
-
-_Ex-Member of the New Zealand Legislature._
-
-
-Few if any of the various economic theories that have been advanced,
-claiming attention in virtue of their practical benefit to the
-existing conditions of human affairs, have gained so immediate or so
-widespread an acceptance amongst intelligent persons as that which is
-familiarly known as "the single-tax" theory propounded by Mr. Henry
-George. In all parts of the English-speaking world, at least, the
-theory has obtained many and enthusiastic disciples, who have
-believed, and probably still believe, that they find in Mr. George's
-doctrine a panacea for many of the most apparent of the evils which
-oppress society not less under our advanced civilization than they did
-at any former period of the world's history. It may be said, indeed,
-that we hear less of Mr. George and the single tax now than we did a
-few years ago, and from this some will argue that the idea has died or
-is dying out of men's minds; this, however, is almost certainly a
-mistake.
-
-In the history of any great system of alleged reform there may be
-traced at least three distinct stages which are marked by different
-degrees of prominence in the public regard. The first of these may be
-called the period of promulgation, the second that of fermentation,
-and the third that of experiment. If the evils proposed to be reformed
-are manifest and widely recognized the first of these stages is almost
-certain to excite wide attention and much controversy on both sides.
-The earliest stage, that of mere discussion, however, soon wears
-itself out, and the theorists who argued in favor of, as well as those
-who argued against, the new system, having exhausted their ingenuity
-in argument, turn for the most part to something newer, and let the
-matter drop.
-
-Then follows the period of incubation. Removed from the din of
-controversy a certain number of people are always found who are keenly
-sensible of the evils which the new system was supposed to cure, and
-who continue to meditate upon the possibility of its possessing the
-power to do so. These persons, it may be, make but little noise in the
-arena either of literature or politics, but they are not the less
-active, nor perhaps in the end the less really influential, on that
-account. Their influence is of the sort that depends upon a solid
-conviction, right or wrong, that the theory which they support is the
-true one; and as long as the evils, which the system they adhere to
-professes to cure, continue to exist, so long their influence may be
-expected to increase.
-
-It is the third or experimental stage which is the critical one, and
-generally speaking it is well when that stage can be reached without
-any needless delay. By experiment alone can the value of such theories
-be tested to the satisfaction of the practical mind of humanity, and
-it is only as the result of a trial that men will either consent to
-admit the value of a proposed reform or to abandon a specious theory
-to which they have once given their adherence.
-
-The single-tax theory of political economics advanced by Henry George,
-having passed through the first of these three stages with something
-more than the usual publicity and controversy, has already been in its
-second stage for a good many years. The cessation of active
-discussion, which appears to some people to argue that it has passed
-into oblivion, or is at any rate well on the way toward such a
-consummation, is only evidence that it is in its second, or
-fermentation, period. Nobody can pretend for an instant that any one
-of the evils pointed out by Henry George as the things that called
-loudly for reform, have actually been reformed since the date of the
-publication of his original essay on "Progress and Poverty." No
-reasonable man can doubt that many, if not all of these evils, ought
-in some way to be dealt with, and if possible amended. While such is
-the case it is impossible wholly to get rid of the theory which
-trenchantly pointed out those evils and professed at least to offer an
-effective remedy.
-
-Under these conditions few things could be more desirable than that
-the matter should be advanced to the third of its natural stages by
-being submitted to the critical test of experience. Nothing short of
-this will ever satisfy the mass of mankind of the feasibility of the
-system proposed, or of its adequacy to meet the evils complained of;
-nothing less will set free the minds of many thousands of intelligent
-persons to inquire into other methods of reform than the fair trial of
-the single-tax system, and its failure to cure the evils which its
-author expected it to cure. The difficulty, which indeed is by no
-means a slight one, is to find a favorable arena in which the
-experiment can be tried, and a community prepared to make the
-experiment.
-
-It must be remembered that, if the evils aimed at by the proposed
-remedy of the single tax are great and far-reaching, its complete
-application could hardly, in most communities, amount to less than a
-practical revolution. Striking as it does at the whole received theory
-of land tenure, as sanctioned throughout the civilized world by the
-practice of many centuries, it arrays against itself the prejudices of
-the most influential classes in every long-established community, and
-its introduction is necessarily surrounded by difficulties and at
-least apparent injustices which must indefinitely delay any attempt to
-bring it to the test of experiment there. The only reasonable hope,
-indeed, of reducing the theory of the single tax to the plane of
-experience is to find a country not yet fully committed to any other
-system, and occupied by a self-governing people sufficiently
-intelligent to perceive the evils of other existing systems of land
-tenure, and sufficiently enterprising to be willing to experiment in
-this direction.
-
-It may perhaps prove of no little benefit to other communities that
-one self-governing country has been found which has been both able and
-willing to make trial of the principle which has been so strongly
-contended for by the author of "Progress and Poverty," and by those
-who have seen in his proposals a way of escape from many of the most
-serious difficulties that beset civilized communities at the present
-day. There is probably no other country which is to-day in so good a
-position to enter upon experimental legislation in this and other
-directions as the British colony of New Zealand. An island community
-separated by more than a thousand miles from its nearest neighbors,
-possessed of practically unlimited powers of self-government, and
-inhabited by a prosperous and intelligent population, substantially
-of unmixed British race, there is little either in their external
-relations or internal circumstances to prevent the colonists of New
-Zealand making many experiments in economic legislation. And during
-the last quarter of a century this fact has been fully realized by the
-people and their leaders. They have established a system of education
-which is at once more popular, free, and comprehensive than even the
-most complete systems in force in this country; they have placed local
-option in the control of the liquor traffic upon a broad and entirely
-popular basis, which has rendered New Zealand the most sober and
-law-abiding of communities, without introducing the doubtful principle
-of prohibition; they have thrown open the franchise unreservedly to
-all persons of full age and competent education, without regard to
-sex; and they have successfully introduced life insurance and
-trusteeship of estates by the government, as well as many others of
-the proposals which are generally comprehended under the term "State
-Socialism."
-
-It is by no means surprising that a community which has made so many
-experiments in legislation should have turned its attention to the
-question which may perhaps be looked upon as most specially inviting
-attention from social reformers in a new country. The circumstances of
-New Zealand in relation to the land were from the first exceptional.
-In every other country occupied by savage tribes in modern times which
-has been taken possession of for purposes of settlement by people of
-European race, the ownership of the soil has been assumed, as a matter
-of course, to vest not in the aboriginal natives, but in the intruding
-settlers. Spain, England, France, Holland, Germany, and the United
-States have one after the other adopted this convenient theory of
-international morality, and entered with a cool assumption of right
-upon the inheritance of their comparatively helpless predecessors. In
-New Zealand the conditions of the country and its inhabitants rendered
-this popular system wholly inapplicable. The area of the country was
-limited, to an extent which rendered it impossible to adopt the
-fiction which has lain at the root of nearly all the forcible
-confiscation of the territory of native tribes, namely, that they
-could make no profitable use of so great an area. The islands of New
-Zealand contain only a little more land than Great Britain itself,
-and sixty years ago, when England first thought of annexing them to
-her empire, the native inhabitants numbered little if anything short
-of a hundred thousand souls. They were besides a settled people who
-cultivated the soil, and moreover they were warlike, and formidable to
-any invader. In consequence of these things a wholly new departure was
-made in the case of New Zealand. The country was not occupied on any
-plea of discovery or of conquest, as had been done in so many parts of
-the world before, but the sovereignty of the islands was obtained by
-treaty with the chiefs of the native tribes, upon the distinct
-guarantee that the full rights of the aboriginal inhabitants to their
-lands should be recognized and protected by England against all
-comers.
-
-From the first, therefore, the lands of New Zealand have been
-purchased by the government before they could be disposed of to the
-settlers. The community had no vast tracts of land to dispose of which
-had cost nothing but the expense of survey, but as a matter of fact
-had to look on every acre as an investment which must be sold for a
-certain definite price unless the transaction was to result in an
-absolute loss of money to the people at large. It may well have
-happened that the result of so unusual a condition of affairs was to
-lead the community to regard the public lands in a somewhat different
-light from other people. At any rate it led to all lands being sold
-for a price which prevented their being lightly esteemed or as a rule
-held as freeholds in large areas. So much was this the case that from
-the first nearly all pastoral lands were held under leases from the
-government at fixed annual rentals. Fully forty years ago the
-southern, and larger, of the islands was nearly all purchased from the
-comparatively small native population by the government, and in that
-island a very large proportion of the land has always been let on
-lease for grazing. In the northern island nearly one-half of the land
-even now belongs to the original native owners, and much of this area
-is leased from them by Europeans for farming or grazing purposes.
-
-In this way it has happened that in New Zealand, more than in any
-other country occupied by people of European race, the inhabitants
-have grown accustomed to the idea of holding land on lease, with the
-people at large, as represented by the government, for landlord. Under
-these conditions it is easy to understand how the doctrine of the
-single tax found a peculiarly congenial home in the minds of New
-Zealand public men. It is true that large areas of the lands of the
-country had been disposed of in freehold to settlers. It is true that
-the freehold tenure of the native inhabitants had in a certain sense
-been guaranteed to them by treaty, at least in so far that it should
-never be taken from them without compensation. It is true that the
-mass of the people were very fully possessed by the apparently almost
-universal preference for the idea of a freehold over every other
-tenure of lands so far as they were personally concerned. But, on the
-other hand, they had grown accustomed to the practice of holding areas
-of land on lease both from the government and from the native owners,
-whose tenure was not individual, but tribal, and they had learned the
-lesson that there was no intolerable hardship in the system.
-
-The attempt to introduce a system which should give effect to the
-principle underlying the economic theory of Henry George in New
-Zealand was not hastily made, nor was it attempted on a scale that
-could be fairly open to the charge of being revolutionary in its
-incidence. The first step taken by the legislature was in the
-direction of so dealing with the public estate of the country as to
-encourage settlers to lease rather than to purchase the freehold. With
-this in view a system of leases in perpetuity was established, and
-areas of the best and most accessible of the land still unsold were
-set apart to be dealt with under the new plan. Any person, not already
-the holder of land in freehold, which, together with the land applied
-for under perpetual lease, would make an area of more than six hundred
-and forty acres, or one square mile, could apply for a lease of not
-more than three hundred and forty acres on perpetual lease. Five
-dollars per acre was fixed as the price of the land, such being the
-average price of first-class freehold land unimproved in the country,
-and the applicant was entitled to a lease for 999 years of the land
-applied for, subject to the conditions that he resided upon the land
-during the first ten years of the tenancy; that he improved it to the
-extent of thirty per cent of its upset value within six years; and
-that he paid as annual rental interest at the rate of five per cent on
-the price or value of the land.
-
-Each lease contained clauses rendering the land subject to revaluation
-at the end of each period of twenty-one years, on which the rental
-would be calculated. If the new valuation, which it was provided
-should rigidly exclude all improvements on the land, was assented to
-by the tenant, the matter was settled for another twenty-one years;
-but if he objected to the new valuation as excessive, it was provided
-that he could demand that it should be offered by public auction
-(subject to payment of the value of his improvements), and that the
-amount bid for it either by himself or by anybody else at the sale
-should be esteemed the value on which the rental was to be calculated
-during the twenty-one years next following the sale. In case the
-present holder of the lease was the highest bidder, this was the only
-result of the sale; but in case he was outbid he was bound to transfer
-the lease to the best bidder, on receiving from the government the
-amount at which his improvements had been valued. This payment might
-be made in government bonds, bearing interest at four per cent, at the
-option of the government, and the new holder of the lease was charged
-as rent the interest on the value of the land as bid by himself and
-also interest at five per cent upon the former leaseholder's
-improvements. By this means it was proposed to retain for the
-community at large the increased value of the lands of the country
-which was not due to the improvements made from time to time by the
-leaseholder. The inducement held out to the public to accept such
-leases in preference to a freehold was the saving of capital involved
-in not paying for the land when taken up, but only interest on the
-amount. This, it was hoped, would suffice to render it popular with a
-considerable class of actual working settlers as distinguished from
-speculative buyers.
-
-It is only fair to say that in spite of every effort that could be
-made by the government, the system did not commend itself to the
-judgment or the prejudices of the persons interested to any very great
-extent. What they wanted--what it may be taken for granted is wanted
-by nearly everybody in dealing with land--was a fixed tenure. It was
-not enough to know that they had a lease for 999 years; they wanted to
-know what they were to pay for it, not only during the first
-twenty-one years, but at any time during the 999. Eventually this had
-to be conceded, and as the land law of New Zealand now stands the
-holder of a perpetual lease gets it for a rental of four per cent upon
-the original price fixed by government on the land, subject still,
-however, to the conditions as to residence and improvements on the
-land during the first ten years.
-
-Having abandoned this promising and theoretically perfect plan for
-securing to the state all state-produced increase in the value of the
-public lands, the New Zealand parliament was still anxious to secure
-for the country the other advantages held out by the author of the
-single-tax doctrine. These advantages may be briefly summed up in the
-words, the discouragement of large holdings and the prevention of
-speculation in future land values. To obtain these results without
-laying the community open to the charge of practical confiscation,
-which has been, and probably will always be, the strongest argument
-against the practical application of the doctrine of the single tax,
-as propounded by its author, was felt to be no easy matter. Even in
-New Zealand there were already some large freehold estates, and these
-naturally included some of the most desirable and valuable of the
-land. It was eventually decided to impose a land tax, the incidence of
-which would tend at least to discourage speculation, while it supplied
-revenue for the public expenditure.
-
-A uniform tax of one penny in the pound sterling, equivalent to one
-two-hundred-and-fortieth part of the capital value of all land in the
-country held in freehold by Europeans, was imposed, the value of
-improvements being in all cases deducted from such valuation. Each
-owner of land is, however, allowed an exemption of land to the value
-of two thousand five hundred dollars, on which no tax is payable, as
-well as of all mortgage money secured on the freehold. Thus all
-freehold lands held by any individual are liable to be taxed above the
-value of $2,500, so far as he is really interested in them; while all
-money lent on mortgage of land is subject to a tax of five per cent on
-the annual interest reserved by the terms of the mortgage. New Zealand
-is mainly a country of small holdings, and the result of this system
-has been that, out of about 90,000 holders of land in freehold, only
-about 13,000 actually pay the tax on land. In other words, the
-settlers of the colony who own land which, apart from improvements and
-mortgage debts, is worth more than $2,500, are found to be only about
-one-seventh of the whole number.
-
-To provide for the discouragement of land speculation on a large scale
-a further provision is made by the enactment of a further tax upon all
-lands held by individuals or corporations of a value exceeding $25,000
-clear of incumbrance. This is called the graduated land tax, and
-provides for a farther taxation on all such lands, beginning at
-one-eighth in addition to the original tax, and rising by advances of
-an additional eighth for each sum of $25,000 at which the land is
-valued, until a maximum rate of three times the original tax is
-reached in the case of large estates. To provide for the risk of
-vexatious opposition to valuations on the part of owners, there is a
-farther provision that the government may at its option elect to
-purchase, at an advance of ten per cent over the valuation objected
-to, any unimproved land held in freehold. It is also a part of the
-system that the government may compulsorily purchase at a valuation
-any lands not in actual use in case any association of persons shall
-apply to have this done, undertaking satisfactorily to take the land
-upon its purchase under the conditions of perpetual lease, which of
-course includes subdivision into small areas, with residence and
-improvement.
-
-By these means the people of New Zealand confidently expect to secure
-the subdivision of the lands of the country into small areas; to
-discourage to the utmost the holding of land by capitalists in
-expectation of greatly increased values at the expense of the less
-wealthy classes; to render practically impossible the establishment on
-any extensive scale of private landlordism in respect of agricultural
-lands; and gradually to substitute, as far as possible, the payment to
-the state of a yearly interest on value, for the purchase of the
-freehold in the land of the country.
-
-So far as the experience of the last eight years, during which the
-system has been in force, may be taken as a reliable guide, the
-experiment shows many signs of success. It has certainly checked the
-tendency to speculate in lands with a view to a rise in price, which
-threatened to become a great, as it certainly was a growing, evil. It
-has been found that it will not pay to do this in the face of
-taxation, and particularly of the graduated tax; and owners of large
-areas of land have developed a strong inclination to subdivide and
-sell lands which they formerly were disposed to hoard and increase.
-The power given to the government to purchase lands where the owners
-have objected to the valuation for taxation purposes has not been
-widely exercised, but several very important and considerable
-compulsory purchases of estates have been made in cases where
-associations of persons wishing to take the land on perpetual lease
-have applied to the government for that purpose. The chief benefit of
-such examples, indeed, seems to have been in compelling owners either
-to use the land themselves or to offer it for sale to persons anxious
-to use it; but from the New Zealand point of view this would appear to
-be almost if not quite equally desirable. Finally, the land tax has
-largely enabled the country to do without other taxes, which would
-necessarily have fallen more heavily upon the class of workers with
-small incomes, instead of being levied on the classes best able to
-bear them.
-
-It yet remains to be seen whether evils may not lurk, as yet
-unnoticed, in the system, which may impair if not destroy its
-usefulness. One consequence which was predicted by its opponents,
-however, has not been found to follow upon the introduction of the
-system. It was said that capital would be withdrawn from the country,
-and that poverty and stagnation would result. No such result has
-followed up to this time. New Zealand, with its less than a million
-inhabitants, is to-day looked on as one of the soundest dependencies
-of the British empire; it continues to draw to it from the mother
-country as much capital as it can profitably use; its exports steadily
-increase; and its people, if not rich, are well-to-do and comfortable.
-
-It may be said, indeed, that New Zealand has not accepted Henry
-George's doctrines as they were propounded by their author, and this
-is literally true. It is, however, also true that they have accepted
-the essential spirit of those doctrines, and, applying that spirit to
-the circumstances of their own country, are giving probably the most
-useful practical illustration of all that is best in them for the
-world's acceptance. No doctrine in economics yet propounded for the
-acceptance of humanity has ever been found to be applicable in
-exactly the same form or to exactly the same extent under all
-circumstances, and this, it may be safely said, will prove
-emphatically true of the doctrine of the single tax. The single tax,
-like all other economic plans, is not an end, but only a means. The
-end must be the amelioration of the condition of the masses of the
-people, and the consequent prosperity and happiness of the great
-majority. In New Zealand the people and their leaders believe this to
-be secured by taxing wealth rather than comparative poverty; by giving
-every encouragement to those who will devote themselves to the
-cultivation of the land; and by throwing every obstacle in the path of
-those who would fain establish and promote the pernicious system of
-private landlordism, which everywhere tends to create and perpetuate
-class distinctions, with their long train of attendant evils.
-
-In these respects New Zealand presents an object-lesson which can
-hardly fail to be of value to other countries, even if their
-conditions differ widely from her own. Her successes may be noted with
-advantage, her mistakes may be criticised with profit, in every free
-country and by all those who see that existing conditions are far from
-perfect in any part of the world, and that the safety as well as the
-advancement of society may depend largely upon the introduction of
-wise and, it may be, far-reaching reforms.
-
-
-
-
-NATURAL SELECTION, SOCIAL SELECTION, AND HEREDITY.
-
-BY PROFESSOR JOHN R. COMMONS,
-
-_Of Syracuse University, N. Y._
-
-
-The term "natural selection" is a misnomer, as Darwin himself
-perceived. It means merely survival. "Selection" proper involves
-intention, and belongs to human reason. Selection by man we call
-artificial. Natural selection is the outcome of certain physical
-facts: 1. Environment: the complex of forces, such as soil, climate,
-food, and competitors. 2. Heredity: the tendency in offspring to
-follow the type of the parent. 3. Variation: the tendency to diverge
-from that type. 4. Over-population: the tendency to multiply offspring
-beyond the food supply. 5. Struggle for life: the effort to exclude
-others or to consume others. 6. Consciousness of kind: the tendency to
-spare and coöperate with offspring and others of like type. 7.
-Survival of the fittest: the victory of those best fitted to their
-environment by heredity, variation, numbers, and consciousness of
-kind.
-
-These biological facts underlie human society, but a new factor enters
-with novel results. This is self-consciousness. Society is based not
-merely on consciousness of kind, as worked out by Professor Giddings,
-but peculiarly on individual self-consciousness.
-
-Self-consciousness is a product of evolution, at first biological as
-explained by natural selection, and second, sociological. The
-biological character is the prolongation of infancy, i. e. the
-prolonged plastic and unfolding state of the brain. This makes
-possible a new kind of development unknown to the animal, namely,
-education. Education is preëminently a social activity. I say
-education instead of environment. In natural selection there is a
-physical environment which presses upon individuals, and only those
-survive who are fitted to sustain this pressure. In social selection
-society enters between the individual and the physical environment,
-and, while slowly subordinating the latter, transforms its pressure
-upon the individual, and he alone survives who is fitted to bear the
-social pressure. This pressure reaches the individual through the
-educational media of language and social institutions, especially the
-family, the state, and property. Institutions rest upon ideas and
-beliefs, and these are epitomized in language. Language in turn, by
-giving names to things and relations, and by thus transmitting to each
-individual the accumulated race experience, gradually brings him to
-the consciousness of himself. This is education.
-
-But self-consciousness is at first only vague, capricious, and
-unprincipled. It grows by becoming definite, self-controlled, and
-conscientious; that is, more regardful both of its own higher self and
-of others. It thus develops into moral character, which we call
-personality. Personality is the final outcome of social selection.
-When once liberated it becomes a new selective principle to which all
-others are subordinated. What, then, are the social conditions which
-promote or retard the survival of personality?
-
-It is a debated question where we shall place the dividing line
-between pre-social and social man. In view of what precedes we should
-look for that line at the point where self-consciousness begins to
-throw about itself a social covering. This covering is private
-property. The former view that primitive property was common property
-is now nearly abandoned. The supposed village communities of free
-proprietors were really villages of slaves and serfs. The semblance of
-common property in primitive times belongs to the pre-social or
-gregarious stage, and differs but little from the common use of a
-given area by a colony of beavers.
-
-Private property involves two facts: 1. Perception of enduring value
-in external objects; 2. Exclusive control and enjoyment of those
-objects. Its psychological basis is therefore self-consciousness,
-which is the knowledge not of an abstracted and isolated self, but of
-self as related to external nature and human beings.
-
-The first private property was animals and tools. Artificial selection
-begins with the domestication of animals. Soon it lays hold on man
-himself by means of social institutions, all of which originate as
-private property. The primitive social family was not a state of
-promiscuity nor even the voluntary pairing of animals and birds, but
-it was private property in women, beginning as wife-capture and
-becoming wife-purchase and polygamy. Natural selection, too, is
-transcended when cannibalism ceases. The self-conscious victor
-enslaves his enemy and reduces him to property. Next, government
-arises as private despotism, and with it the land becomes the property
-of the chief. Thus the family, the state, protracted industry, and the
-control of social opportunities begin with that artificial selection
-denoted by private property.
-
-Property in its early forms means the domination of the powerful over
-the weak. Social institutions develop out of this primitive tyranny,
-where the caprice of owners crushes the personality of the masses,
-towards a state of equal rights and opportunities for all. The
-industrial classes emerge from slavery and serfdom into a wage system,
-which in turn is modified in the direction of fair wages, short hours,
-and security of employment--fundamental conditions for personal
-development.
-
-The family has arisen from the private property of a despot to the
-mutual coöperation of lovers, and the woman becomes a person instead
-of a chattel. The legal successor of polygamy--the slavery of
-women--is not monogamy, but prostitution, which is the wage system of
-the sexes, grounded on the subordinate position of women and their
-meagre opportunities for self-support.
-
-Government is passing into democracy, and property in land and capital
-is being hedged about by the police and taxing powers, or diffused and
-socialized in the interest of the personal equality of all.
-
-Social evolution is therefore the evolution of freedom and
-opportunity, on the one hand, and personality, on the other. Without
-freedom and security there can be no free will and moral character.
-Without exalted personality there can be no enduring freedom. The
-educational environment, therefore, which develops personality must
-itself develop with freedom. The ruling ideas of justice, integrity,
-morality, must move in advance, else the personality of individuals
-will not survive the temptations of freedom. To what extent,
-therefore, can education modify the individual? The answer is to be
-sought in the problems of heredity and degeneration.
-
-The human degenerate is essentially different from the animal
-degenerate. The latter is solely a physical product, and by losing
-certain organs is better fitted for survival, as parasites and snakes.
-
-Human degenerates, however, do not form a new type, but are on the
-decline to extinction. They are those who lack personality; that is,
-they are not moulded into harmony with a social environment which
-unfolds self-consciousness. They are strictly biological only when
-they are congenital and therefore not educable. They are social
-degenerates when they are the product of a degraded education. Both
-factors are radical. A born idiot can never be other than an idiot. On
-the other hand, the deprivation during childhood and youth of language
-and education, as shown by Caspar Hauser, or the wolf-boy of Agra, or
-the experiment of Emperor Akbar, leaves the normal natural endowments
-as idiotic as though they never existed. The two factors vary
-independently through all degrees. Education ranges from the slums to
-the pure firesides. The congenital equipment varies from the idiot to
-the genius.
-
-The relative weight of these two factors is a matter of statistics.
-Absolutely speaking, heredity is everything; relatively, its social
-significance depends upon the actual proportion of abnormal to normal
-births.
-
-The highest estimate I am able to make of the total number of
-degenerates, both born and induced, is five and one-half per cent of
-the population, as follows:
-
-ESTIMATED TOTAL OF DEFECTIVES PER MILLION POPULATION.
-
- Census estimate (1890).
-
- Insane 1,697
- Feeble-minded 1,526
- Deaf and Dumb 659
- Blind 805
- Prisoners 1,315
- Juvenile delinquents 237
- Almshouse paupers 1,166
- -----
- 7,405
- Outdoor Criminals (five times the number of inmates) 7,760
- Tramps (McCook, 1895, New Haven Conference of Charities
- and Correction, 85,768) 1,308
- Drunkards (Crothers, 1893, Chicago Conference, 1,200,000,
- equal to about 10 per cent of voting population) 19,000
- Prostitutes (weighted average of Levasseur's estimate for
- rural (600) and urban (11,200 to 17,200) France, in
- "La Population Française," vol. ii, p. 434) 5,000
- Outdoor Paupers (weighted average of report at Nashville
- Conference, 1894, 46 per cent in Penna. to 2.2 per cent
- in N. Y.) 15,000
- ------
- 55,473
-
-This estimate would make the maximum number of all degenerates 5.54
-per cent of the population. From these must be deducted those who are
-not congenital. We can estimate the congenitals by three methods: by
-statistics of _atavism_, or _consanguinity_, and by _experiment_.
-
-In the statistics of atavism we add together the physical
-abnormalities of the individual, assuming that a criminal type is
-found when these abnormalities reach the number of three or more. The
-statistical method always suffers the limitation that it indicates not
-identity, but probability. Yet it has an important value, provided it
-discovers ratios of probability which concur. This is not the case in
-the method by atavism. Sixty to seventy per cent of criminals do not
-belong to the assumed criminal type; and sixteen per cent of normal
-males are classed as criminals, whereas the actual number is less than
-three per cent of the males of criminal age. (See Lombroso, "The
-Female Offender," pp. 104, 105.)
-
-While atavism itself is unquestioned, this method seizes upon rigid
-physical characters to measure educable qualities. And where the
-latter are themselves abnormal the causes may lie with education and
-not heredity.
-
-The method by consanguinity seeks not the abnormalities of the patient
-himself, but the signs of disease and degeneracy in his blood
-relatives. It therefore greatly increases the apparent weight of
-heredity, for it collects symptoms from several individuals instead of
-one. The medical authorities ascribe fifty to eighty per cent of
-inebriety to heredity. This method fails as does the other, for, as
-seen in the Jukes or the drunkard, the child gets both its heredity
-and its education from the same degraded parents, and the method
-provides no measure for separating the two.
-
-In sociology the method of experiment has but limited employment. The
-modern sociologist cannot mate the parents nor vivisect the soul,
-after the methods of the biologist. He can only move the child from
-one education to another, and his experiment is incidental to the
-larger purpose of saving the child. His results, too, can appear only
-as a ratio of probability; but this ratio measures the mental and
-moral qualities themselves directly and not by inference. Elmira
-Reformatory and others cure eighty per cent of their charges. Model
-placing-out institutions and free kindergartens save nearly all. And
-these are taken from the most vicious and criminal parentage in the
-land. Our five and one-half per cent of degenerates must therefore be
-greatly reduced in order to find the residuum of congenitals. I have
-made the following deductions:
-
-ESTIMATED DEFECTIVES NOT CONGENITAL, PER MILLION POPULATION.
-
- Criminals (80 per cent of total) 7,369
- Prostitutes (80 per cent of total) 4,000
- Outdoor Paupers (80 per cent of total) 16,000
- Tramps (80 per cent of total) 1,046
- Drunkards (50 per cent of total) 9,500
- ------
- 37,915
- Which deducted from 55,473
- leaves congenital defectives 17,558
-
-equal to 1.75 per cent of the population. Overlappings would diminish
-this ratio; greater infant mortality and the omitted youthful
-defectives would increase it.
-
-If less than two per cent of the births are below the normal Aryan
-brain level, on the other hand possibly two per cent are above the
-average, and should be classed as the geniuses who could achieve
-eminence regardless of surroundings. The remaining ninety per cent or
-more are born with ordinary equipment; they are hereditarily neither
-good nor bad, criminal nor virtuous, brilliant nor stupid. With these
-masses of the people the first fifteen years of infancy and youth are
-decisive.
-
-We may now classify the selective forces of society. Social selection
-is partly natural and partly artificial. It originates artificially in
-the self-consciousness of dominant individuals. Struggle and conflict
-ensue, out of which private property survives in its various forms as
-an intended control over others. This control is then transmitted as
-the various social institutions to succeeding generations and becomes
-for them natural and unintended. These social institutions then
-constitute a coercive environment, not over wholly unwilling subjects,
-but over those whose wills are shaped by education and social pressure
-to coöperate with the very institutions that suppress them.
-
-Gradually, as subordinate classes become self-conscious, innovations
-are made which aim to check the unbridled despotism of private
-property; new conflicts thereupon take place and certain innovations
-survive, which, at first artificial, become natural for the next
-generations.
-
-As society becomes more definite, reflective, and humane, as it
-acquires fixed laws and government, it increases the range of
-artificial selection; it supplants custom by statute, and remodels its
-inherited institutions.
-
-It is now animated by a new motive, the development of moral character
-in all the people. With reference to this new motive social selection
-is either direct or indirect. Direct selection is highly artificial,
-but it is only negative. It consists in segregating the degenerates to
-prevent propagation. Society cannot, of course, directly interfere
-with the marriage choice of normal persons, for that would be to choke
-the purest expression of personality. But it can isolate the two per
-cent who will never rise to moral responsibility. This would doubtless
-increase the wards of the state, but it is needed both for the reason
-already given and, more especially, to clarify the public mind on the
-causes of delinquency and dependency. As long as these evils can be
-charged to heredity the public is blinded to the share that springs
-from social injustice.
-
-The increase and classification of the custodial population here
-contemplated is a problem for administrative charity. Possibly the
-colony system would make that population mutually self-supporting and
-also remove the current sentimentalism against long isolation of the
-incurables.
-
-With the ground cleared of the true degenerates, the operations of
-indirect social selection can be seen. This also is artificial, but in
-a less mechanical way. It consists in so adjusting the political,
-industrial, and social environment as to affect personality, either to
-suppress or develop it. The two instruments are legal rights and
-education. For example, the tenement-house congestion, with its
-significant educational environment, is the product of laws of
-property and taxation which favor owners and speculators instead of
-tenants, and of private property in rapid transit which puts a tax on
-exit to the suburbs. It cannot be said of this and other selective
-factors, such as the profit-making saloon, long hours of work, low
-pay, irregular employment, that they permit natural selection to
-operate. They suppress personality, which preëminently is the natural
-fact in the human being. Social selection is therefore tending to
-become less and less arbitrary, but is making room for a higher
-natural selection--a natural selection where not brute force and
-cunning are the fittest to survive, but where, with freedom, security,
-and equal opportunity, the human personality will work out its own
-survival. Man alone of all the animals can rise to the angels, but he
-alone can fall below the brutes. This is the glory and the penalty of
-personality. It becomes a unique selective agency whose standard is
-raised with the advance of civilization. The Australian cannibal,
-without opium, tobacco, alcohol, or syphilis, may survive with a low
-morality. The American exposed to these destroyers must be a better
-man or perish. Personality, thus becoming a keen selective principle,
-is based not necessarily on overpopulation and competition, but on
-that self-destruction which comes from vice, disease, and drunkenness.
-Its degraded offspring will perish or feed the ranks of the hereditary
-degenerates to be properly segregated and ended.
-
-But with education and opportunity the higher forms of human character
-will naturally increase and survive. With the independence and
-education of women sexual selection becomes a refined and powerful
-agent of progress. With the right to work guaranteed, the tramp and
-indiscriminate charity have no excuse, and the honest workman becomes
-secure in the training and survival of his family.
-
-We hear much of scientific charity. There is also a scientific
-justice. The aim of the former is to educate true character and
-self-reliance. The aim of the latter is to open the opportunities for
-the free expression of character. Education and justice are the
-methods of social selection. By their coöperation is shaped the moral
-environment where alone can survive that natural yet supernatural
-product, human personality.
-
-
-
-
-PSYCHIC OR SUPERMUNDANE EXPERIENCES.
-
-BY CORA L. V. RICHMOND.
-
-
-From between ten and eleven years of age I have been endowed with
-gifts and favored with experiences that, I am well assured, are very
-exceptional, and that, until quite recently, have not been admitted to
-the realm of psychical investigation, philosophical discussion, or
-even human credence. Lately, however, there have been found a
-sufficient number of well authenticated facts in similar lines of
-experience to warrant the investigation and classification of them (if
-possible) under a modern name, "Psychic Research," and under a well
-established and not so recent one, Spiritualism.
-
-I am not intending to discuss these subjects, _per se_, nor to
-endeavor to classify or explain the experiences I am about to relate.
-They are _experiences_, as real as any of those in my human or mundane
-existence; indeed, if I were called upon to decide that one is real
-and the other illusion, I should say without hesitation that these,
-and similar ones throughout my lifetime, are the real, and the
-ordinary mundane experiences unreal.
-
-At the age above referred to I was, without any seeking, and without
-any surrounding circumstances to "suggest" such a state, taken
-possession of (entranced) by intelligences, distinct personalities in
-thought, word, and action, who spoke through my organism, unfolded and
-educated my mind, in fact became my mental and spiritual instructors.
-The public discourses and teachings given under these conditions are
-well known to many of the readers of THE ARENA, as these labors are
-the work of a lifetime.
-
-It is not of this public work that I am constrained to write; but I
-may as well say here that I have had no other teachers, no other
-instructors, and have pursued no course of study or reading of human
-books; those whom I call my guides and guardians have been my
-teachers. During the time that these outside intelligences are
-controlling and speaking through my organism I am wholly unconscious
-of what is passing in human life and wholly unaware of that which is
-being uttered through my lips. I am also unaware of the lapse of time.
-
-It may be best for me to here declare that I am not, in the usual
-sense, peculiar, nor was I different in my childhood from other
-children, save as each differs from the other. I was very diffident,
-and--not using the word in the psychical sense--sensitive. I was not
-given to morbid states or to the "dreaming of dreams." Perhaps I was
-imaginative; most children are; and I loved fairy tales, but not
-unduly. This is simply to show that there was no abnormal condition of
-mind or body to produce the supernormal results that I have referred
-to.
-
-I ought also to say that I never made the slightest preparation for
-the discourses and poems given through my lips, many of which, as the
-reader may know, were listened to by able and thoughtful minds, and
-from them received the highest praise. I tell this, not boastingly,
-but with humble gratitude that I have been made the instrument of
-giving the message of immortality to the world.
-
-My own experiences during this period of entrancement, or while in the
-supernormal state, may be of peculiar interest to the reader, since
-they seem to be almost unique. While passing into this state I
-experience no physical sensations that are describable; a sense of
-being set free, of passing into a larger realm,--not of being
-transported or going anywhere,--is all that I can ever recall as
-sensation. Before I have time or opportunity to think how I feel, I am
-in the other state. Then I see, but I now know it is perception more
-than sight; I sometimes experience that which we call hearing in the
-human state, but I am fully aware; perception supersedes the senses.
-
-Those whom I meet are individualities; many are friends known to me in
-the form before they passed from the mortal state; many are those who
-were unknown to me personally, only known by name and fame; and many I
-have never known until they revealed themselves to me in this "inner,"
-"higher," other realm. When returning to outward consciousness, I
-often see, or remember as sight, such visions of surpassing loveliness
-that no language, no gift of art, even with genius-portraiture, could
-describe or picture them. These scenes and visions are associated with
-individuals who exist in that state, and, apparently, are objective;
-yet I am fully aware that they illustrate or depict the states and
-tastes of the individuals with whom they are seen, and are not organic
-physical forms, but psychic projections of the individual spirits.
-These forms and scenes readily pass and change according to the state
-of the one seeing them, or according to the state of the individual
-with whom they are associated. The "sphere" of a spirit, or of
-spirits, is the state or condition, not the environment.
-
-In early life, before my mind had thought on the "objective" and
-"subjective" meanings of thoughts and things, I thought these scenes
-were "objective" in the human, mundane sense. I am now perfectly aware
-that every sensuous faculty--seeing, hearing, etc.--is superseded by
-this "perception" to which I have before referred; in fact, that the
-bodily senses as well as the mental faculties--brain expression--are
-but the different avenues of perceiving and conveying the intelligence
-of the individual spirit while associated with material form, this
-perception, or awareness, being the one supreme state of the spirit.
-
-Still I have been shown series after series of beautiful
-scenes,--gardens, landscapes, visions of art, transcendent pictures of
-tint, form, and tone that no language can portray; and I am sure these
-abide for all who wish for or have need of them, and are the
-illustrations of the spiritual states of those with whom one comes in
-spiritual contact--_rapport_. Yet the greater the degree of
-perception, the less important become these illustrations of states;
-we not only see "face to face," but perceive soul to soul. I became
-ashamed, almost, of the state of mind requiring these illustrations or
-any similar presentations. I found knowledge, however, in all the
-methods employed by my teachers, for they knew my needs.
-
-Conversation in that state is not by means of speech or even language;
-sometimes before the thought is formulated the answer comes. Such is
-the rare sympathy existing between teacher and pupil in this state
-that the guide knows before the question is formed. Still, there must
-be the conscious desire for knowledge, or no knowledge can be
-received; reminding one of the "Seek, and ye shall find" of the
-ancient Truth-Teller.
-
-When in that state I readily pass to a knowledge of what intimate
-friends in earth-life are doing and thinking. I even enter into such
-_rapport_ as to be aware of their material surroundings, their states
-of mind, and their bodily health, obtaining all this from their minds,
-not from physical consciousness or sensation. Many times they have
-been also conscious of my presence, and we have afterward verified
-these experiences by outward correspondence, mostly to satisfy our
-friends. One or two instances will suffice to illustrate this class of
-experiences.
-
-When I was yet a child, twelve years of age, my father accompanied me
-on one of my pilgrimages of spiritual work to western New York, our
-former home. During that visit or tour a circle for investigation and
-experiment was formed in Dunkirk, N. Y. After we returned to our then
-home in Wisconsin, I was one evening entranced,--as was usual,--and
-while in that state was distinctly conscious of being in Dunkirk, of
-seeing every member of the circle, with all of whom I was acquainted
-except one lady. She proved to be the seer of the evening. She saw me
-and described me so accurately that everyone in the circle recognized
-me, and, of course, thought I was dead. This so disturbed her mental
-or psychic state that I could not impress upon her mind that my body
-was entranced and that this was but one of my usual spiritual
-pilgrimages. On returning to my mundane state I narrated what I had
-experienced, and asked my father to write at once to the circle in
-Dunkirk and relieve their minds. He did so, but, as naturally would
-occur, they had also written, the letters crossing each other on the
-way, and their letter confirmed what I had told in every particular.
-
-Later in life I had a lady friend whom I repeatedly visited and
-comforted, for she was in great sorrow. One time I made her see my
-body, or its apparition, so plainly that she saw the dress in which it
-was clothed--precisely what I had wished, as it was the color she most
-liked to see me wear. Another friend in California became so
-susceptible to my presence that she wrote long letters from
-me--automatically--which I, in this state, dictated to her, thus
-rendering correspondence between us almost superfluous except for
-verification to our outward senses. My own mother was aware of my
-presence almost daily; and it was a curious fact that my telltale
-spirit would go to her and reveal the very things I wished to keep
-from her,--any little surprises or presents, or the time of my
-arrival home on a visit. However late the hour, I always found her
-ready with a warm supper to receive me. When arriving after the
-journey home she would say: "You came to me last night in spirit and
-told me you were coming in body." All important things connected with
-my welfare she knew in a similar way.
-
-Two friends, Mr. and Mrs. B----, were extensive travellers. At one
-time they were absent three years, taking a tour of the Orient. We did
-not keep up a regular correspondence, as mutually our time was too
-much taken up with our respective duties or pleasures, but I could
-always locate them while I was in this "inner" state. At one time I
-saw them surrounded by what seemed more like a scene in the spirit
-state than in earth-life. They were on an island, surrounded by
-water-lilies; the skies were full of golden light, and they were amid
-pavilions, grottos, and altars of quaint and unique design. I could
-not place them, but on returning to my mundane state I related to my
-family what I had seen, and I wrote down the date. In about three or
-four weeks I had a letter from them dated at Tokio, giving a
-description of this very island I had seen; they were there on that
-very day when I saw them, and the island was as I had seen it. It
-proved to be one of the sacred islands in Japan.
-
-This consciousness of visiting earth friends is, however, only the
-smallest part of these inner experiences; and usually occurs when I am
-passing into or out of the deeper or more spiritual states. Although I
-could fill volumes with these interesting experiences,--verified by
-being shared with others in human life,--I feel it due to the reader
-that I narrate my more inner experiences; at least in sufficient
-degree that they may be recorded, and that there may be some
-perception, however inadequately expressed, of what is possible in
-this surpassing realm.
-
-I cannot pass from this subject of my visits to human friends,
-however, without here recording one other phase of this many-threaded
-line of experiences. While in this realm of spirit I often meet and
-converse freely, or commune, with friends that are yet in human forms,
-but who appear as spirits and seem to possess all the activities of
-the spiritual state. They meet and mingle freely with those who have
-"died" to human life, yet I am perfectly sure they recall nothing of
-this when in their human state. Why I should remember or take with me
-these experiences that the others whom I saw within this realm could
-not recall, I could not divine until it was explained by my guide.
-
-The explanation is this: "In sleep mortals pass into this realm for
-spiritual rest and change, as it is the normal realm of the spirit;
-but they do not pass through the spiritual awakening of the faculties
-as those do who are endowed with 'spiritual gifts,' therefore the
-experiences cannot be recalled _as experiences_; still, they sometimes
-have vague reminiscences or glimpses of 'unremembered dreams' that aid
-them throughout the whole day, often for days; and thus the outward
-life is sustained and fed from this realm. By and by the race will
-have spiritual growth to know and remember the experiences of the
-spirit as they now do of the human life." I have frequently met those
-in that state who were strangers to me here, and who were still in
-human life; and in after years I have met them face to face in outward
-form, often wondering if they thought they had seen me before, as I
-was certain I had seen them. When the whole of this other side of
-human experience is made known, how many things now veiled will stand
-revealed! By far the greater number of volumes could be filled with
-those transcendent experiences referred to earlier in these pages,
-with friends in spirit states, with teachers and guides in their own
-realm.
-
-My mother, always intuitive, sympathetic, religious, and caring much
-for the sick and ailing while in earth life, I was accustomed to see
-in a sphere or state of her own near the "Healing Sphere" of one
-of my teachers. She was surrounded with her own favorite
-flowers--old-fashioned hollyhocks, sweet-williams, and fragrant
-healing herbs. My guide explained that in _her thought_, or spiritual,
-state she requires these things to aid her in healing or ministering
-to those on earth. Whenever I visited her state it seemed to be in the
-midst of scenery such as she loved on earth, and under a
-morning-glory-covered lattice, where she sat in a low chair like one I
-had seen her use in earth life. Though not limited to that state, she
-always revealed herself thus to me; and I would return to my earth
-state with a sense of homesickness, and with the odor of thyme and
-rosemary clinging to my _psychic olfactories_.
-
-My father was interested in all the reforms of the day; he was a truly
-practical Christian, though not a professing one. He was looking for
-that ideal social state which we all hope is sometime coming, of
-"peace on earth and love to all." His spirit state was revealed to me
-as among those arisen workers and reformers, whose work for humanity
-he loved and shared on earth, and learning of the wise ones,--a vast
-and wonderful sphere of individualities, who are still laboring for
-the good of humanity. I wished to know of my father, who passed out
-from the mortal form when I was thirteen years of age, and who was
-often my spirit teacher in my early life, why, after my mother had
-passed on, he was not always with her as in earth life. He replied,
-with a rare smile: "We are together; our work is different, but when
-we need each other we cannot be apart."
-
-Singly or in groups, or as my needs seemed to require, I was aware of
-every relative and friend who had passed from mortal life, whom our
-mutual wish or need attracted toward me. I am sure there may be those
-related by ties of consanguinity whom I have not seen, and many
-related only by spiritual sympathy and kinship whom I have met and
-loved in that state.
-
-My babe, now a beautiful young woman in the spirit state, is my almost
-constant companion in those visitations and experiences. I have "seen
-her grow," to use our mortal speech; have noted her spiritual
-unfoldment, and have many times been her pupil,--so wise are these
-"little ones" in the love of the angels, so sweet and simple is she in
-her teaching.
-
-How few know the real meaning of "nearness" as applied to those they
-love! One thinks of the friend whose bodily presence is removed by
-mountains, rivers, and oceans as being far away; yet London, China,
-and India are as near in thought as the chair beside one, and doubly
-near the one whose body may be sojourning there. This very nearness of
-sympathy debars any separation. If people would turn to the real
-indications,--sympathy, intuition,--whenever desired the friend is
-near. Doubly true is this of those who have passed the barrier of
-death and are revealed to the heart of love. They have not died, they
-have not gone; they are so near as not to be seen or felt by the
-grosser sense that governs the physical state of recognition; so very
-near that even the thoughts of the friend still immured in the
-earthly form are shared by them, the very innermost longings responded
-to. Yet people unaccustomed to seek them in the inner instead of outer
-realm of existence, cannot find them, and say, "They are gone." With
-space and time annihilated, what shall prevent the loved from being
-ever near?
-
-Teachers and guides bear a nearer relationship than those in human
-states, and teach by the magic law of adaptation and love. I cannot
-name, in earthly language, the tie that binds me to those who have led
-me through these many realms, who have taught by vision, illustration,
-and thought, until the awakened _perception_ knew, the _a priori_
-knowledge came.
-
-I have often been conscious of visiting at desire a realm of music
-that led through the world of tone, through the spheres of matchless
-harmony in which the great masters of music abide,--Beethoven,
-Mendelssohn, Mozart, and to the divine realm of Wagner.
-
-The realm of art, leading through color and form to the images of
-perfect life, until form and tint and tone are merged in the supreme
-soul of beauty, and sculptured image or architectural grandeur is lost
-in the eternal, all-forming, all-changing changelessness of the Soul
-of Art.
-
-The realm of nature (the material universe), seen from the inverse
-side, appears to be the effect of causes that are in that realm of
-consciousness; laws that are the operation of the Supreme Will, the
-Logos. There science is reconstructed and made plain, and made secure
-by the knowledge of these fundamental principles.
-
-The realm of philosophy, traced to its primal sources, reveals the
-truths concerning universal knowledge, often perceived by the great
-teachers, but dimly stated by minds enshrouded by the environments of
-earth.
-
-The realm of religion,--the ineffable meaning of the All-Love and
-Wisdom; the nearness, the perfectness, the absoluteness of the Divine;
-the kinship of souls, the fraternity of spirits,--never in all this
-realm was there a thought, or teaching of thought, separate from a
-conscious individual entity.
-
-I find that there is no Time or Space in this inner realm; the entity
-is not governed by the limitations of the person, so the terms and
-usages of earthly existence must fall into desuetude. One is not
-hampered by an ox-team while flying across the plains in a palace
-coach impelled by steam, and one does not need winter garments and
-furs in the tropics. The state of spirit needs no earthly day and
-night; all these are but incident to the physical earth and physical
-existence. The spirit is free from these limitations--time, space, and
-sensuous environment.
-
-It will be interesting for the reader to know that my physical health
-does not suffer from these experiences, nor from the active duties
-incident to my spiritual work in human life.
-
-I enter this spirit realm as naturally and easily as one enters the
-realm of sleep; yet it is not sleep. The body and brain are actively
-employed by another intelligence, loaned as an instrument might be,
-while the individual consciousness, the _ego_ of the human being, is
-set free to visit these illimitable realms or states of the "inner,"
-the vaster, life.
-
-When the mundane consciousness returns, it is instantaneous; but the
-mental and physical sensations vary according to whether the
-experiences have been "near or far" from the human state, with
-reference not to distance, but to resemblance or similarity in
-quality. When the experiences have been furthest removed from those
-usual in human consciousness, many minutes, and sometimes hours, are
-required to adjust myself to the conditions. This inner state is far
-more intense, but not unlike that experienced when one has been wholly
-wrapped and folded from the outer world in perusing a favorite
-author--living with and experiencing the scenes depicted; or when one
-has listened for hours to the all-absorbing strains of music in the
-grand operatic creations of Wagner. On returning to the mundane state
-my food has often tasted like chips or straw; the fabric of my dress
-would feel coarse to the touch, as though woven of cords or ropes; and
-every sound seemed harsh or far too loud. Gradually these
-supersensitive conditions would depart, leaving the usual state of
-mind and body.
-
-I have said it is easy to pass into that state; not so easy is the
-returning to the human environment; yet one _must_ return. Like the
-child bidden to the task, reluctant to leave the garden of flowers and
-the freedom of the outer world, yet, constrained by love and duty, one
-consents to return. I suspect that these sensations I experience, of
-return to the human state, are something like those of resuscitation
-after one has been nearly drowned. The drowning is easy, because one
-is going into life; the restoration is painful, because one returns,
-if not to death, to mere existence. The work, the duty, the loved who
-are embodied here must win one to the form which has been loaned; but
-the spirit seems reluctant sometimes to leave that freedom and
-knowledge for the narrow walls of clay, the prison-house of sense. The
-only true way is to bring that realm with one into daily life. One
-learns after a time to do this: to clothe the earthly scenes with the
-inner brightness, and the human tasks with the spiritual aura of love
-and wisdom.
-
-I cannot judge whether the scenes of earth seem lovelier to me than to
-most mortals; whether there is more ravishing sweetness in the
-springtime, more glory in summer, more richness and beauty in the
-autumn, more rest and whiteness in the winter, more transcendent
-splendor in the sunset sky and glory in the starlit heavens. But it is
-certain that in being admitted to this inner realm the writer has not
-lost any blessing of earth,--of love, of home, of friends, of
-practical knowledge and interest in the daily duties and work of life;
-nor, I believe, can one be barred from any needed experience, however
-bitter. These teachings, visions, and experiences of soul-life have
-given to earth an exquisite beauty; to life's work a meaning and
-impetus; to trials a lesson and interpretation; to the change called
-death a glory and radiance; to spirit states a nearness, and to soul a
-reality. Nor do these experiences rob one of one's individuality; the
-petty _personality_ to which mortals cling is, happily, forgotten or
-cast aside, but the _individuality_ cannot be lost, merged in another,
-or governed, except for its good. When the _personal_ is cast aside,
-one is grateful for the impersonality of the _individual_.
-
-Trailing clouds of glory accompany me across and into the barriers of
-time and sense, and when the sharp contrast is over--which the guide
-ever prevents from being too sudden--I realize the great sweetness of
-the gardens of paradise by the fragrance that is filling the earthly
-dwelling, and I know that being aware of the visitations of angels,
-and of somewhat of the light which is theirs, does not hinder, but
-helps human endeavor and accomplishment.
-
-
-
-
-THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CIVICS.
-
-BY HENRY RANDALL WAITE, PH. D.
-
-
-The standard represented by popular institutions will seldom be
-higher, and as time goes on may become lower, than that set for
-themselves by the majority of the people who established and are
-intrusted with the duty of maintaining them. They may represent noble
-aims and point to high ideals, but the extent of their duration and
-salutary influence must always be dependent upon a sufficient
-manifestation of the spirit which called them into being.
-
-Institutions and laws, however perfect in other respects, cannot,
-therefore, safely omit from their functions provisions for the
-fostering and developing of the spirit which gave them birth. This
-spirit, it is to be remembered, may, and too often does, without
-extinguishment, actually become a thing so much apart from the
-machinery which it has established, as to have little appreciable
-influence in controlling its operation.
-
-The institutions and laws of the United States, in their inception,
-represented the spirit of a people who were actuated by the highest
-concepts of human duty, and who sought to establish a political system
-which should realize the highest ideals. The possibilities of the
-system have been demonstrated by the experience of more than a hundred
-years. Functionally considered this experience has made painfully
-evident the failures which have attended the system in its operation.
-It is evident to every intelligent student of American history that
-these failures have been chiefly due to the fact that the spirit which
-gave life to the American Republic has too often and too far been
-supplanted in the control of its affairs by a spirit utterly hostile
-to that which it was intended to be, and which, if the partial or
-complete failure of the system is to be averted, must, everywhere and
-always, be dominant. It is undoubtedly true that citizens whose
-character and ability fit them for the service necessary for the
-proper control of political affairs, constitute a sufficient number in
-the voting population to assure the ascendency of right ideas if
-their efforts can be united for the purpose. The fact that intelligent
-and controlling convictions of duty are absent, and that they do not
-thus unite, however explained, clearly accounts for the subversion of
-the spirit which founded our institutions, and the ascendency of a
-spirit of chicanery, greed, and corruption.
-
-It is also evident that the political evils which challenge our
-attention are primarily due, not to faults in our institutions
-themselves, but to failures in the assertion of the spirit of true
-Americanism by which they are intended to be controlled. How to secure
-ascendency for this spirit and thus to restore, in every part of the
-republic, the sovereignty of highest manhood, is the most pressing
-problem which can engage the attention of patriotic and intelligent
-American citizens.
-
-For more than fifteen years this question has been a matter of
-profound interest to the writer. The fact that ordinary uprisings
-against political evils fail to accomplish permanent results, seemed
-to him to afford convincing evidence that attention must be given to
-the roots and not confined to the branches; and that this foundation
-work must represent patient, persistent, and unselfish efforts for the
-promotion everywhere of the basic virtues of true patriotism,
-intelligence, integrity, and fidelity in citizenship relations.
-Believing that this work could be best accomplished through a
-permanent national institution which should invite and command the
-coöperation of good citizens everywhere, regardless of party, creed,
-sex, or class, he sought the advice and coöperation of a few
-distinguished men in the preparation of plans for such an institution.
-The assistance sought was willingly extended by such citizens as
-Morrison R. Waite, William Strong, and S. F. Miller, then respectively
-Chief Justice and Justices of the United States Supreme Court; by
-Theodore Woolsey, Noah Porter, F. A. P. Barnard, Mark Hopkins, Julius
-H. Seeley, and Theodore W. Dwight, among educators; and by such other
-eminent Americans as U. S. Grant, William Fitzhugh Lee, Robert C.
-Winthrop, Hugh McCulloch, John J. Knox, Orlando B. Potter, A. H.
-Colquitt, George Bancroft, Hannibal Hamlin, John Jay, Right Reverend
-William I. Kip, David Swing, and Phillips Brooks.
-
-The result of conferences and correspondence with these and other
-citizens of like character led to the founding, in 1885, of the
-American Institute of Civics, which was subsequently chartered under
-the laws of Congress, and was dedicated to the service of promoting
-the qualities in citizenship which Washington sought to promote by his
-latest labors and final bequests, and which he, in common with
-Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison, believed to be necessary "to the
-security of a free constitution," and to the welfare of the government
-and people of the United States. Its distinctive purposes are
-succinctly set forth in its charter as follows:
-
- 1. To promote on the part of youths and adults generally, without
- reference to the inculcation of special theories or partisan
- views, a patient and conscientious study of the most essential
- facts relating to affairs of government and citizenship, to the
- end that every citizen may be qualified to act the part of an
- intelligent and upright juror in all affairs submitted to the
- decision of the ballot.
-
- 2. To promote, in the same spirit, such special attention to the
- study of Civics[7] in higher institutions of learning, and
- otherwise, as shall have a tendency to secure wise, impartial,
- and patriotic action on the part of those who shall occupy
- positions of trust and responsibility, as executive or
- legislative officers, and as leaders of public opinion.
-
- [7] Defined in the Standard Dictionary as follows: "The
- science that treats of citizenship and of the relations
- between citizens and the government: a new word directly
- derived from the adjective _civic_, introduced by Henry
- Randall Waite."
-
-Organized under such auspices and with such purposes it represents the
-only practical and sustained effort which has been made by the people
-of the United States for the realization of the aims above outlined;
-and with persistency of purpose and increasing usefulness it has for
-more than twelve years prosecuted its mission for the safeguarding of
-American institutions.
-
-Political conditions past and present clearly justify the views of
-Washington and his contemporaries, and the opinions of the Institute's
-founders, as to the need of a central source of salutary influences in
-the form of a national institution wholly devoted to a propaganda of
-the principles and ideas comprehensively described in Washington's
-words as "the fundamental maxims of true liberty."
-
-The sole object of this national, non-partisan, non-sectarian,
-popular, and permanent institution, is to voice these maxims, to
-inspire the spirit and give force to the principles which should have
-supreme control in affairs of government, citizenship, and social
-order.
-
-What the national military establishments at West Point and Annapolis
-are intended to accomplish in the way of preparing a few citizens for
-useful service in times of war, it is the purpose of this popular
-civil institution, with patriotic insistency and through all available
-efficiencies, to aid in accomplishing through provisions for properly
-preparing all citizens for the highest service of their country at all
-times.
-
-In the accomplishment of its objects, it directs its endeavors not so
-much to the creation of new agencies as to the giving of inspiration
-and energy to those already existing; and in pursuing this wise policy
-it has been a most useful factor in establishing the solidarity and
-increasing the power of the influences which represent civic virtue
-and true patriotism.
-
-Its efficiencies include, beside its National Board of Trustees,
-composed of thirty-three members, and its advisory faculty, composed
-of twelve members, the following departments:
-
-1. Department for the extension of information and activities
-promotive of good citizenship, through which provisions are made for
-home studies, and for lectures, discussions, studies, etc., in
-connection with schools, lyceums, civic associations, labor
-organizations, and institute clubs; this work being carried on with
-the coöperation and under the supervision of councillors in the
-communities where they reside, and with the aid of a corps of
-lecturers now numbering more than two hundred.
-
-2. Department of Educational Institutions conducted in coöperation
-with State and local officers of public instruction, teachers in
-elementary and high schools, and members of faculties in nearly two
-hundred and fifty higher institutions of learning.
-
-3. Publication Department, through which the equivalent of nearly
-twenty million pages of octavo matter has been issued under its
-auspices.
-
-4. Department of Legislation, in connection with which councillors and
-citizens generally have efficiently aided in securing needed reforms
-in the administration of public affairs, the protection and elevation
-of the suffrage, and the conservation of the highest interests of
-citizens and the state in other respects.
-
-5. Department of Applied Ethics, in connection with which efforts are
-made to properly and efficiently enlist the great body of citizens,
-including youths as well as adults, who profess to be governed by the
-highest concepts of duty, in practical labors for the establishment of
-wise, just, and salutary civic and social conditions.
-
-It is obvious that an institution of this character cannot depend for
-its maintenance upon citizens of merely negative virtue, nor can it
-expect the sympathy of scheming politicians to whose plans and power
-it is in direct opposition. Its dependence must be solely upon the
-willing services and financial support of those members of the body
-politic who are animated by the spirit of Washington, and who believe
-that in matters affecting the highest interests of our free
-institutions, such as civic virtue and civic fidelity, formation is
-better than re-formation, and that to constantly maintain salutary
-political conditions is infinitely preferable to frequent and
-disappointing struggles with corruptible elements, which through
-neglect of civic duty have been permitted to secure controlling power;
-in other words, that it is better to safely guard our inheritance of
-freedom than to battle for its rescue from unworthy hands.
-
-The Institute admits to membership in its National Body of Councillors
-all citizens who are commended to its Board of Trustees, by those
-already members, or by other citizens of known high character, as
-worthy of such membership by reason of their ability to contribute in
-some degree to the accomplishment of its purposes. It does not solicit
-the membership of citizens whose political affiliations are such as to
-rank them among those who are contributing to the evils which it seeks
-to correct. Its councillors are asked to share in an undertaking which
-tests the character of their citizenship by offering no rewards for
-their coöperation. It has employed no paid officers and no paid agents
-for the solicitation of funds. The united activities of its members
-have enabled it, and it is believed will continue to enable it, to
-present in itself an eloquent object-lesson in patriotism and a potent
-appeal to the spirit in citizenship--the true Americanism--which it
-seeks to foster. Its contributing councillors are asked for annual
-remittances of sums of from $2.00 upward, in accordance with their
-financial ability and the degree of their interest in its work. Those
-contributing $3.00 or more annually are entitled to receive all of its
-own publications, and also THE ARENA, whose aims are largely identical
-with its own, and through which its official announcements will
-hereafter be published.
-
-It will be seen that the degree of responsibility resting upon its
-councillors financially and otherwise is a matter for their own
-determination, and one which will be decided in accordance with the
-disposition of each to recognize the truth, that the patriotic and
-unselfish labors of those who have gone before us, and of which we
-enjoy the priceless benefits, have laid upon us a sacred obligation
-which we can discharge only by the performance of similar labors.
-
-The foregoing statements, however encouraging, are chiefly significant
-as indicative of what may be, rather than of what has been,
-accomplished. Gratifying as the results of the Institute's work have
-been, they represent but a tithe of what it might have accomplished
-with a larger degree of moral and pecuniary support. The extent of its
-field and the magnitude of the labors necessary in order to make it
-widely and effectively useful, when compared with the resources at its
-command, have constantly presented difficulties which would have
-discouraged its officers but for their abiding confidence in the
-ultimate willingness of the American people to give to it the measure
-of support warranted by the importance of the objects to which it is
-devoted. It has been not inaptly compared to a noble piece of
-enginery, whose highest possibilities in the way of efficiency and
-usefulness cannot be realized because the fuel furnished is
-insufficient for the supply of motive power. Its highest possibilities
-are, in truth, little more than dreams, the fulfilment of which may
-not be realized in the lives of those who are now giving it such
-unselfish service as they find possible in the midst of other pressing
-occupations.
-
-The time must soon come when it will be necessary to make arrangements
-for the permanent establishment of its central efficiencies, with
-adequate provision for its maintenance, at some suitable point yet to
-be selected. The suggestion has been made by some of the most
-distinguished of its councillors, that the descendants of American
-patriots cannot more worthily honor the memory of their sires, or
-more effectively promote the safety and perpetuity of the institutions
-for which they battled, than by making it their mission to maintain
-the American Institute of Civics. The fact that it was conceived,
-established, and has been conducted in the spirit of truest
-patriotism, and the results which it has already accomplished through
-services rendered wholly in the spirit of the words upon its corporate
-seal, "Ducit Amor Patriæ," would seem to prove its title to the
-confidence and support of all who are proud of the fact that their
-forbears have been among the founders and defenders of our American
-institutions. It may not be a vain hope that this thought will, in
-some manner and at some time, take definite shape, perhaps in the form
-of a national memorial building at the capital, devoted to the
-collection and preservation of material illustrative of the nation's
-history and progress, and to memorials of its illustrious dead. As has
-been said elsewhere,
-
- Such a building, dedicated by enfranchised manhood to the cause
- of human freedom, may include a Hall of History and Civics, for
- the collection of appropriate relics, manuscripts, and books of
- colonial, continental, revolutionary, and subsequent periods; an
- Army and Navy Hall, devoted to exhibits illustrative of military
- and naval affairs, including battle-flags, arms, accoutrements,
- and similar material; a Memorial Hall, where the memory of
- illustrious Americans, statesmen, soldiers, philanthropists, and
- other great leaders, may be honored, and their memory perpetuated
- in statuary, paintings, mural tablets, and other appropriate
- ways, and which shall be to the people of America what
- Westminster Abbey is to the people of England--a place where the
- great exemplars of virtue, wisdom, and patriotism, the noblest
- citizens of the passing years, though dead, shall yet speak and
- have salutary influence, through successive generations; and a
- Hall of Instruction, which shall be the centre of the nation-wide
- activities of this noble American institution, and also of a
- school of civics to which American youth may come from every part
- of the land to avail themselves of exceptional opportunities for
- studies and investigations which shall qualify them for highest
- usefulness in the public service and in all the walks of
- citizenship.
-
-However this may be, the Institute, by its many years of patient,
-persistent, and, in view of the circumstances, remarkably successful
-activities, has established a claim upon the confidence and support of
-good citizens which must in due time receive suitable recognition.
-Further than this, these activities may be regarded as a necessary and
-fitting preparation for labors which shall be more fruitful in
-results, and in the hope of which those who have hitherto directed its
-affairs have found inspiration and encouragement.
-
-It has been truly said that,
-
- If any honor attaches to the citizenship in which intelligent,
- loyal, and unselfish devotion to the highest interests of country
- are made paramount, the names of those who have united in efforts
- for the establishment of this Institute of Patriotism constitute
- a roll of honor. Its ability to fully realize its objects is
- dependent upon the number and the efforts of those whose names
- are upon this roll.
-
- Here is an opportunity for, and an appeal to, citizens of wealth.
- Money cannot be more worthily or wisely bestowed than in feeding
- the streams in whose life-giving power is the strength of the
- republic. Honorable names may find their noblest memorials by the
- gifts and endowments which shall forever connect them with this
- National School of Patriotism.
-
-
-
-
-AN INDUSTRIAL FABLE.
-
-BY HAMILTON S. WICKS.
-
-
-The King of a certain country, whose power was absolute and whose will
-was despotic, issued an edict that all the laborers of his dominion
-who were engaged in honorable toil should exchange places with those
-persons who did no work or were engaged in dishonorable or merely
-speculative avocations, so that the laboring man should fare
-sumptuously and the non-laborer poorly. Those who worked up in the
-sunlight on the tall buildings should sit down in the evening to
-bountiful banquets and should sleep in fine linen on luxurious
-couches; while those who crawled below in the bleak valleys between
-the beetling cliffs of architecture should go to frugal meals and
-sleep amid the rough surroundings of the abodes of the poor. The
-monarch reasoned that those who did the world's work were more
-deserving of the good things of the world than were the idle or the
-vicious, however wealthy. He imagined that the world was turned upside
-down socially and economically, and he proposed to turn it back again
-by his royal fiat.
-
-Backed by his sword, "which is the badge of temporal power wherein
-doth sit the dread and fear of kings," he apprehended no failure in
-his plans, which had been worked out in their minutest detail. His
-army was the largest of any nation, and was to a man devoted to its
-King. His genius had won many victories and extended the borders of
-glory. Through his impartial system of promotion men from the ranks
-had risen to be commanders. The soldiery were well fed, well housed,
-and well paid. A word, a nod, from their King would set in motion this
-mighty machine to crush out all opposition. Supplementing the military
-arm of his government the King had organized the most elaborate system
-of _espionage_, so that all secrets were open to him, and no
-whisperings in the street or the club but were conveyed distinctly to
-his royal ear by the microphone of his spy system. The press was
-gagged or inspired; the legislature was composed of fawning
-sycophants; his judiciary was merely a reflection of the royal will;
-and Holy Church itself displayed its purple robe and golden bowl but
-to ornament his processions or to hallow his feasts.
-
-Thus matters stood on the evening of the day this great social
-revolution was inaugurated. It fell out that a group of honest
-laborers were descending the elevator that carried the brick and
-mortar to the twentieth story of a certain downtown sky-scraper. While
-all of them knew of the edict of their King, none had taken it
-seriously or imagined for a moment that it would be carried into
-effect literally. On their arrival at the ground floor, a policeman
-stationed there stopped them and, motioning to an elegant equipage
-standing across the way, informed them that it was the King's command
-that they should enter it and be driven to one of the avenue clubs
-which had been assigned for their accommodation. Into it they were
-thrust, dinner-pails and all. They had scarcely time to recover their
-equanimity, as they were rapidly whirled through one thoroughfare
-after another, till the avenue in question was reached and they were
-deposited in front of a stately brownstone mansion. Their coming had
-been expected, and the great doors swung open as they alighted, whilst
-a uniformed lackey motioned them to enter. Their astonishment was
-redoubled at the splendor of the interior furnishings. Each was
-assigned a room, where they were bathed and groomed and dressed in
-garments suitable for their surroundings. Dinner was served by the
-time they were ready, and into the glittering _salle à manger_ they
-were duly ushered. A fashionable _table d'hôte_ was a new sensation to
-every man of them, and they certainly astonished the _table d'hôte_.
-It (the _table d'hôte_) never realized before what it was to be fully
-appreciated. An evening of cigars, wine, and billiards followed; and
-then they stretched their tough and sinewy workmen's legs between the
-whitest of silken sheets, spread over the springiest of hair
-mattresses, on the brightest of brass bedsteads. There we leave them
-to such dreams as their surroundings invited, to turn our attention to
-four bachelor brokers on the stock exchange, whose apartments at the
-club our bachelor workingmen were inhabiting.
-
-With as little thought of the reality of the great King's edict as the
-workingmen themselves, they were sauntering forth from the exchange
-at the hour of 3 P. M., when they were pounced upon by a quarter score
-of stalwart policemen and landed inside a rough luggage conveyance.
-Baxter Street was a Garden of Eden compared to the slums to which they
-were driven, and they were finally sheltered in a dirty tenement that
-arose in a series of rickety stories to a dizzy height. Their
-fastidious taste would not permit them to indulge in sleep amid such
-commonplace surroundings, where the only furniture of their room
-consisted of two dirty beds and a filthy sink. So they sat up all
-night smoking the cigars they happened to have in their clothes when
-captured, and muttering deep curses against their eccentric ruler.
-
-The following morning the awakening of the laborers resembled that of
-Christopher Sly in "The Taming of the Shrew." They were bewildered
-with astonishment at the appointments of their surroundings and the
-service of their attendants. A champagne headache was a natural
-accompaniment to the previous night's drinking and gorging; so that
-fashionable "coffee and rolls," though served in the most delicate of
-faïence, seemed but meagre fare upon which to commence the arduous
-labors of the day. At precisely 5:30 A. M. the same carriage they had
-occupied the previous evening, with its crested panels, its liveried
-coachman, and its spanking span of bays, was at the door to convey
-them back to work.
-
-The same routine was substantially carried into effect each day, a
-natural consequence of which was that they became weary of their
-enforced luxury, and their hearts yearned for the humble living of
-their tenement, with its rough and hearty jollity, and its freedom
-from constraint and the supervision of lackeys, however well dressed
-or polite. In the case of the fastidious brokers kept under
-surveillance, tired nature at last, reluctant, yielded. There came a
-day, or rather a night, when even they were able to sleep--an uneasy,
-troubled sleep, it is true--amid the mean surroundings of the
-tenement.
-
-The determined will of the monarch so ordered affairs that the
-conditions under his edict were kept in force for many days. He
-proposed to give a thorough test to his quixotic ideas. The portion of
-the workmen was hard manual labor by day in the upper regions of air
-and light, and by night the relaxation of enervating luxury; and the
-portion of the brokers was deep dejection, deep curses, and haggard
-sleeplessness.
-
-The culmination of this condition of unrest occurred at a great ball
-which another royal edict had blazoned forth to be given as a tribute
-to the laboring masses, and at which the non-producers would be
-compelled to assist, not indeed as menials, but as experienced
-advisers. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars at least would be
-expended on the pomp and glory of the occasion. The sage counsellors
-of state, men deeply versed in the lore of the past, were called
-together to devise costumes for the crude working people and to frame
-rules of etiquette for their behavior. The most elaborate descriptions
-appeared in the daily press of what was proposed. For weeks the vast
-preparations went steadily forward. Everything of luxury and ornament
-that the commerce of the empire sucked up from the farthest confines
-of the earth was made to minister to the great event.
-
-At last the auspicious day arrived. One of the grandest palaces of the
-King himself was the scene of the festivity. The costumes worn
-represented many of the great names of history, from Julius Cæsar to
-Napoleon Bonaparte, and from Cleopatra to Marie Antoinette. The height
-of the great occasion was reached somewhat after midnight when the
-_quadrille d'honneur_ was announced. The great King sat upon a raised
-dais, or throne, the better to view the gorgeous pageant. A mighty
-fanfare of trumpets, which seemed to whirl the feelings for a moment
-into the forces beyond mortality, invited to the initial movements of
-the quadrille. It was as though an army with banners was about to
-launch its squadrons upon the foe in some majestic Friedland or
-Gettysburg. As the sound died away, there was a pause. The great King
-looked up in amazement, and stamping that foot whose heel had rested
-upon the necks of mighty potentates, now his willing vassals, he arose
-with frown black as midnight.
-
-Suffer me, O reader, to recall the elements of this unparalleled
-occasion: On the one hand, almost omnipotent power, backed by
-transcendent though wayward genius, a will that hitherto had never
-been balked, an unsullied prestige, a front of Jove to threaten and
-command, upon which great thought registered every varying
-expression, one of the least of which would have endowed an ordinary
-prince with lasting renown. On the other hand, "fantastic compliment
-strutting up and down tricked in outlandish feather." A motion from
-the hand of majesty, now fully erect, sent another mighty wave of
-martial music flying on invisible wings, in thousand forms, throughout
-every corridor. As this second summons for the masterpiece to be set
-in motion died away in turn, two bands of men detached themselves from
-the distant throng massed in the farthest background, and came slowly
-forward with bowed heads and deferential tread. At the same instant a
-hundred brilliant officers of the household stepped out of the
-corridors behind the King with drawn swords, and other hundreds
-crowded behind them prepared to do their master's instant service.
-
-The Great Strategist comprehended the situation with a single sweeping
-glance of his eagle eye, and drawing himself up full height motioned
-his servitors with his left hand back into their concealment, while
-with his extended right hand he encouraged with benignant gesture the
-approach of the representatives of the people, who had shrunk back in
-dismay when the King's guard sprang forth so abruptly. It was now seen
-that the approaching bands were composed in equal parts of the gaudily
-caparisoned workmen and their plainly dressed advisers. Each party
-bore in its midst an enormous roll, whose weight impeded anything like
-rapid progress. On arriving at the front of the throne, they deposited
-their burdens and then prostrated themselves before the King. When
-bidden to arise and state their purpose, a stalwart son of toil
-stepped forward in front of his comrades. He was attired in a $10,000
-costume, representing Henry of Navarre. This costume sat upon his
-rugged limbs as though they had been melted into it. The King gazed
-complacently upon his manufactured nobleman and bade him proceed.
-
-"August and Sovereign King!" thus began the blacksmith, for such he
-was when not intoxicated or attending a costume ball--"August and
-Sovereign King, I have been pushed forward by my fellows who have
-joined in this petition, with a vast multitude of their co-workers,
-similarly gorged with hateful luxury. They ask me to state plainly to
-your Majesty that they now know from actual experience how hollow and
-worthless are all the glories of the merely rich, whose time is
-devoted to vain shows and in devising new delicacies for the palate.
-They beseech your Majesty that you, in accordance with your gracious
-pleasure, should restore them to their simple and humble paths of
-life, wherein they will dwell in reasonable contentment hereafter."
-
-The workman ceased, and the spokesman for wealth and idleness stepped
-forward and pleaded his case very eloquently. He showed, in the
-petition which many thousands of his class had signed, that through
-their recent experience they all had been made to feel the weight of
-life as it rests upon those under them. He averred that he and his
-fellows were heartily sick of their lives thus ordered, and that they
-petitioned the King to send them beyond his confines, or place them in
-his army, or, better still, allow them to seek honorable employment in
-vocations more in accord with their taste and inclination.
-
-The King, esteeming that he had sufficiently disciplined the wealthy
-and had measurably cast out the "daimon of unrest" from the mind of
-labor, while at the same time he had given a notable illustration to
-all his people of the folly of outrunning too far the sentiments of
-your age, and the arrant rot of placing edicts upon the statute books
-that at once become a dead letter unless backed by despotic force, and
-feeling the security of his position, stood before his petitioners,
-lightly leaning on his left foot, with his right hand in the breast of
-his coat, and thus addressed them:
-
- "My people, the results flowing from my edict are not otherwise
- than I fully believed would result; I am satisfied at the real
- good that has been accomplished. Many there are who would like to
- see human nature changed by an equally absurd upheaval of the
- social fabric, which would instantly place the limbs of labor
- between cambric sheets and line their stomachs with sweetmeats.
- The truly wise base their expectations for the race upon no such
- sudden revolution, but rather see salvation for their fellows in
- a gradual and natural betterment of conditions, a growth upwards
- that can be maintained through all the spasms of reform, a
- lifting of the whole fabric of society by the great forces of
- education, faith, and persistency, which are and have ever been
- the architects of the race."
-
-
-
-
-PLAZA OF THE POETS.
-
-REPLY TO "LOCKSLEY HALL SIXTY YEARS AFTER."
-
-BY BARTON LOMAX PITTMAN.
-
-
- Nay, my grandsire, though you leave me latest lord of Locksley Hall,
- Speak of Amy's heavenly graces and the frailty of her fall,
- Point me to the shield of Locksley, hanging in this mansion lone,
- I must turn from such sad splendor ere my heart be changed to stone.
-
- While you prate of pride ancestral and the dead dreams of your youth,
- I, despite my birth and lineage, am a battler for the truth.
- To the work-worn, half-starved peasants of this realm my heart goes
- out--
- Those who, plundered and forgotten, find this life a ruthless rout.
-
- In the rustling robes of Amy bloomed the roses that had fled
- From the cheeks of pauper maidens forced into the brothel-bed;
- In her saintly smiles and glances flashed the sunlight that was shut
- By the iron-hand injustice from the cotter's humble hut.
-
- Nay, 'tis wrong that we should range with science glorying in the
- time,
- While we force our brother mortals into squalor, need, and crime;
- Wicked we should pose as Christians singing songs to God on high,
- Heedless of his tortured creatures who in pauper prisons lie.
-
- Christless is the crime of turning creed-stopped ears to teardrops
- shed
- By the women whom oppression robs of virtue for their bread.
- Satan's blush would mantle crimson could he see the stunted child
- Slaving in our marts and markets, helpless, hopeless, and reviled--
-
- See its pallid face uplifted from the whirling factory wheels,
- Tear-stained with the grief and anguish of a baby brain that reels,
- Tortured in life's budding springtime, toiling on with stifled cries,
- Seeing, through its tears refracted, rippling cascades, azure skies;
- Skies and birds and flowery meadows made for children wealthy-born,
- While God's outcasts, with their parents, robbed and drudging, live
- forlorn,
- Men in whom the fires of hope have sunk into a sordid spark,
- Mothers rearing helpless infants for the brothel's dawnless dark.
-
- While this world seems far too crowded to provide us work for all,
- Acres spread their untilled bosoms, while the nations rise and fall.
- Nature's storehouse, made for all men, is monopolized by some,
- Robbing labor of its produce, making almshouse, jail, and slum.
-
- Side by side with art and progress creeps the haggard spectre,
- Want--
- Creeps the frightful phantom, Hunger, with its bloodless body gaunt.
- Wider, wider spreads the chasm 'twixt the wealthy and the poor,
- Social discontent declaring that such wrongs cannot endure.
-
- And this yawning of the chasm is the curse of every race,
- As it saps and kills its manhood ere it reach the zenith-place;
- Spartan valor, Grecian learning, Roman honor had their day,
- But land plunder rose among them, dooming death by slow decay.
-
- Shall we wait for evolution, let it right these monstrous wrongs,
- While the helpless, young, and tender writhe and groan 'neath social
- thongs?
- Nay, 'tis better all should perish in a battle for the right,
- Than let philosophic cowards keep us in this stygian night.
-
- Locksley Hall has now a master who would claim the earth for all,
- Who would make the titled idler cease to rob his tenant-thrall;
- Wreck the Church and State if need be (better such in time will
- rise),
- But who from this glorious purpose nevermore will turn his eyes--
-
- Never, till the arms of nature clasp in joy her outcast child,
- Long since driven from the meadow and the dell and woodland wild,
- Till to each belongs the produce of his hand and heart and brain,
- And glad heralds of millennium thrill along our path of pain.
-
- Though the world has piled its fagots round the great and good and
- brave;
- Thrust its Socrates the hemlock, scourged its Jesus to the grave;
- Though its sneer has chilled the tender, and its frown has cursed
- the good,
- While its Nero sways the sceptre and its Emmett dies in blood;
-
- Yet in Truth there is a power that through ceaseless cycles slow
- Will inscribe the doom of Error in an ever-fadeless glow,
- That will trample on oppression, burst the chains and crush the
- throne,
- Rearing on the blood and ruin justice-reign from zone to zone.
-
- Idealistic dreamer, say you? In your youth you once felt so?
- Well, I only pray life's sunset, bowing down my head with snow,
- Shall not swerve me from my purpose, though the victor-laurels twine
- In my reach, and if forsaking my convictions they are mine.
-
- Do not so condemn the realists, rhymesters, authors, and their way,
- Just because they point about us to the errors of to-day;
- Spare them, though they gaze not upward from our self-wrought
- piteous plight,
- For, though blinded and despairing, they are struggling toward the
- light.
-
- Let the realist dip his falcon in the boiling blood of life,
- Tracing in heartrending horror all the hoary wrongs and strife,
- Till the world shall sick and sadden of its folly and its sin,
- Hearkening through the roar of traffic to the still small voice
- within--
-
- Voice which murmurs Christ's own message as we circle round the sun:
- That, though greed and creed divide us, still humanity is one--
- One in all its godlike longing, one in all its hopes and fears,
- With its calvaries, scaffolds, hemlocks, and its seas of unshed
- tears.
-
- Then this star of sorrow swinging through the vast immortal void
- Shall, regenerated, slumber while man's heart is overjoyed,
- Thrilled with yearnings altruistic, triumphing o'er clods of clay,
- As we march into the love-light of the grand Millennial day.
-
-
-
-
-JOHN BROWN.
-
-BY COATES KINNEY.
-
-
- The Great Republic bred her free-born sons
- To smother conscience in the coward's hush,
- And had to have a freedom-champion's
- Blood sprinkled in her face to make her blush.
-
- One Will became a passion to avenge
- Her shame--a fury consecrate and weird,
- As if the old religion of Stonehenge
- Amid our weakling worships reappeared.
-
- It was a drawn sword of Jehovah's wrath,
- Two-edged and flaming, waved back to a host
- Of mighty shadows gathering on its path,
- Soon to emerge as soldiers, when the ghost
-
- Of John Brown should the lines of battle form.
- When John Brown crossed the Nation's Rubicon,
- Him Freedom followed in the battle-storm,
- And John Brown's soul in song went marching on.
-
- Though John Brown's body lay beneath the sod,
- His soul released the winds and loosed the flood:
- The Nation wrought his will as hest of God,
- And her bloodguiltiness atoned with blood.
-
- The world may censure and the world regret:
- The present wrath becomes the future ruth;
- For stern old History does not forget
- The man who flings his life away for truth.
-
- In the far time to come, when it shall irk
- The schoolboy to recite our Presidents'
- Dull line of memorabilia, John Brown's work
- Shall thrill him through from all the elements.
-
-
-
-
-DEMOS.
-
-BY W. H. VENABLE, LL. D.
-
-
- America, my own!
- Thy spacious grandeurs rise
- Faming the proudest zone
- Pavilioned by the skies;
- Day's flying glory breaks
- Thy vales and mountains o'er,
- And gilds thy streams and lakes
- From ocean shore to shore.
-
- Praised be thy wood and wold,
- Thy corn and wine and flocks,
- The yellow blood of gold
- Drained from thy cañon rocks;
- Thy trains that shake the land,
- Thy ships that plough the main!
- Triumphant cities grand
- Roaring with noise of gain!
-
- Yet not the things of sense,
- By nature wrought, or art,
- Prove soul's preëminence,
- Or swell the patriot heart;
- Our country we revere
- For that from sea to sea
- Her vast-domed atmosphere
- Is life-breath of the free.
-
- Brown Labor, gazing up,
- Takes hope, and Hunger stands
- Holding her empty cup
- In pale, expectant hands.
- Brave young Ambition waits
- Thy just law's clarion call,
- That power unbar the gates
- Of privilege to all.
-
- Trade's fickle signets coined
- From Mammon's molten dust,
- With reverence conjoined,
- Proclaim "In God we trust."
- Nor doth the legend lie:
- The People, patient, bide,
- Trusting the Lord on high,
- To thunder on their side.
-
- Earth's races look to thee;
- The peoples of the world
- Thy risen splendors see,
- And thy wide flag unfurled;
- Kelt, Slav, and Hun behold
- That banner from afar,
- They bless each streaming fold,
- And cheer its every star.
-
- For liberty is sweet
- To every folk and age,--
- Armenia, Cuba, Crete,--
- Despite war's heathen rage,
- Or scheming diplomat
- Whose words of peace enslave.
- Columbia! Democrat
- Of Nations! speak and save!
-
- As mightful Moses led
- To Canaan's promised land;
- As Christ victorious bled,
- Obeying Love's command;
- So thou, Right's champion,
- God's chosen leader strong,
- Gird up thy loins! march on!
- Defend mankind from Wrong.
-
-
-
-
-THE EDITOR'S EVENING.
-
-Leaf From My Samoan Notebook. (A. D. 2297.)
-
-
-In that age (_siècle_ XIX, _ad finem_) great attention was given on
-the continent of Am-ri-ka to increased speed in locomotion. Men and
-women went darting about like the big yellow gnats that we see at
-sundown on the western coast of our island when the bay is hazy. The
-whole history of that century in both Am-ri-ka and Yoo-rup might well
-be written around the fact of _transit_, for transit was the spinal
-cord of the whole social, civil, and political order. Man-life then
-seemed to oscillate more rapidly than ever before, as if in sympathy
-with the vibration of the universal ether.
-
-The struggle for the increase of speed began in the early part of the
-century referred to--about 1822. Scarcely had the wars of Na-Bu-Leon
-subsided when the matter of getting over the earth's surface at a
-greater velocity was taken up as eagerly as if life consisted in going
-quickly to a certain point. Men, it would appear, had not yet learned
-that the principal aim of this existence is the _going_, and not the
-_getting there_. Then it was that the steam En-jo-in was invented. The
-Bah-lune had been frequently tried, but always with ludicrous or fatal
-results. A young man by the name of Dee Green once essayed this method
-in Am-ri-ka, with a most ridiculous catastrophe. A poem was written
-about the affair beginning thus--
-
- An aspiring genius was Dee Green.
-
-For more than half a century locomotion by steam prevailed in
-Am-ri-ka, though it did not satisfy the demand for swiftness. When
-this method no longer sufficed, several expedients were found to
-_avoid_ going anywhere. It was observed that the necessity of going
-depended upon the limitation of the human voice; that is, of hearing
-vocal utterances. The voices of human beings could not then be heard
-beyond a certain limit. To hear the voice of a man from Am-ri-ka to
-Ing-land was then thought to be impossible. The possessors of voices,
-therefore, had in that age to _get together_ before they could
-communicate. True, there were some men upon whom this necessity did
-not rest, for they could be heard at a great distance. It might be
-noted, however, that this kind, called _Homo politicus_, had so little
-sense that nobody cared to hear them, so that their success in
-vociferation amounted to nothing.
-
-All the people of Am-ri-ka who were civilized spoke in a low tone, and
-any who cared to communicate must seek each other's presence. This had
-been the reason for the old invention of E-pistol-ary correspondence.
-This method, however, was not satisfactory, since it required much
-time to say only a little, and since what was said in this manner was
-found so wide of the mark as to produce disastrous results. Society
-was, on this account, frequently rent with lawsuits, having no better
-foundation than a bundle of Let-yers.
-
-To avoid this trouble another invention, called the Far-talker (or
-Tel-ef-oan), was made; and by means of this conceit the people of
-Am-ri-ka could speak to one another many miles apart. The Far-talker
-was a remarkable sort of invention by which one merchant, by
-stretching a copper thread across the country to the ear of another
-merchant, could talk to him _through the wire_. The other merchant
-could reverse and talk back! Sometimes a young woman would tiptoe up
-to the box where the wire ended and say the most absurd things to her
-favorite fop down-town; this was often overheard. People had not yet
-learned the method of understanding each other's thoughts without the
-ridiculous contrivance of speech, written scratches, wires, and
-Fo-ny-grafs.
-
-It was at this time that men, in their effort to carry themselves from
-place to place, seem to have taken the first hints from nature. It was
-remembered that _between_ swimming and flying, and _between_ flying
-and walking, certain forms of locomotion, quite rapid withal, are used
-by our poor relatives on land and sea. Thus the flying-fish rises from
-the water and shoots, quite parabolically, for some distance through
-the air. The genus Cheiroptera also gives a hint of progress by means
-of wings that are not made of feathers. The flying lemur, nearly akin
-to _Homo bifurcans_, shows how one may rise and go by a sort of aërial
-progress along the ground.
-
-Out of these hints the men of Am-ri-ka, at the epoch of which we
-speak, sought inventions by means of which they might keep close to
-the ground for safety, but otherwise fly; for the age was very fast!
-Under these conditions some Unknown Man invented what was called the
-By-sigh-kel. It was a sort of flat-sided, rotary ground-skimmer, very
-thin and notorious. It came coincidently with another invention called
-the Trol-lee. The latter was an electrical wagon for general travel in
-cities and suburbs, while the By-sigh-kel was a personal carriage for
-one or possibly two. The passenger in this case had to start his
-machine and then jump on. The propulsion was effected by a pump-like
-action of the legs, very tiresome and elegant. The passenger generally
-leaned forward in a position strongly suggestive of the favorite
-attitude of his arboreal ancestors. It was the peculiarity of the
-Trol-lee that it made a sort of humming roar as it went that sounded
-like a hundred prisoners groaning in unison; but the By-sigh-kel made
-no noise in going except in collisions and wrecks. The latter were so
-frequent that a whole cycle of restorative arts had to be undertaken
-of which the principal was dentistry. At the close of the century
-there were few front teeth remaining--except artificials.
-
-Many accounts of the Age of the By-sigh-kel and Trol-lee have been
-preserved among the old records of Am-ri-ka, and traditions of it are
-found in the antiquarian papers of other countries. We have seen
-pictorial representations made by Fo-to-graf-ure of scenes from the
-age referred to. The streets of extinct cities are found pictured in
-this way. There was an instrument called the Cow-dack which was used
-in taking pictures in an instantaneous manner, so that the scene would
-look like life.
-
-A busy street, thus pictured, in that time, shows many Trol-lees
-rushing by, filled with merry people. Along the side-ways scores of
-passengers are seen, mounted on their 'Sigh-kels, going in divers
-directions at full speed. The passengers present many aspects; for
-riding the 'Sigh-kel was an art which had to be acquired; and by some
-this could not be done--at least not gracefully done. Many tried, but
-few were chosen. Two classes of people suffered much in this
-particular, namely, the very fat and the very bony. Those whom nature
-had favored in form and feature, and who had acquired the art of
-sitting upright, look well enough in these old pictures of a past age.
-But the clumsy and obese, the slender and angular people may well be
-laughed at even through the shadowy retrospect of four centuries.
-
-One of the 'Sigh-kel machines was made _double_; and an old cartoon
-which is now before me gives to this kind the name of Tan-doom. On
-this men and women frequently rode together, the woman going before,
-for that was the age in which the woman, becoming new, showed her
-newness by being forward.
-
-Nor may we leave these reminiscences of a bygone age without
-reflecting upon the absurdities of our ancestors, who had not yet
-imagined the ease and excellence of our own method of locomotion by
-skimming at will the surface of the earth. The facile beauty and
-natural art with which we now rise from the ground and propel
-ourselves by our own thought and wish to any distance--thus
-vindicating our superiority to all other creatures in our method of
-excursion--are facts so obvious and ever-present that we fail to
-reflect upon the impediments and hardships of the people of Am-ri-ka
-and indeed of the whole world in the nineteenth century....
-
-Thinking on these things I can but imagine that I have myself seen
-them in some previous epoch of my existence. The facts which I have
-recorded appear dimly, as if in memory of what I once beheld; but the
-vision of it is so obscure that I still doubt whether it be dream or
-reality. I have long imagined that we retain from one epoch of our
-existence to the next a vague recollection of our experiences in the
-remote ages of the past. I sometimes think that it is not impossible
-that I myself, in some forgotten avatar, used to sit alone at the
-window of my office, looking into the street of one of the old towns
-of Am-ri-ka where the Trol-lees were going one way and the
-By-sigh-kels the other way, crossing and darting hither and yon,
-according to the wills of the riders; but the vision is so dim that it
-looks like the fictions of sleep.
-
-
-Vita Longa.
-
-The question is not how long this bodily life may last, or how long
-the mind, so conditioned, can endure. It is not even how long the
-mind may continue to produce; for the mind, like a poor,
-half-exhausted field, urged with rain and fertilizers, may produce
-only potatoes, mullen, and cockle. The real question--the deep-down
-essence of it--is how long the mind, or soul, may retain the
-enthusiasm and passionate power of _creation_. That is the only true
-test of longevity; and when that ceases there is nothing left. The
-real duration of man-life is measured only by the persistency of
-creative power.
-
-Longfellow, standing in the old pulpit, on the fiftieth anniversary of
-his class at Bowdoin, and saying to those who would introduce him, "I
-wish the desk were large enough to conceal me all," makes a beautiful
-section of this theme by citing some of the most inspiring instances
-of the long life of the soul:
-
- Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles
- Wrote his grand OEdipus, and Simonides
- Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers,
- When each had numbered more than fourscore years;
- And Theophrastus at fourscore and ten
- Had but begun his "Characters of Men;"
- Chaucer at Woodstock with his nightingales,
- At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;
- Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,
- Completed Faust when eighty years were past:
- These are indeed exceptions; but they show
- How far the Gulf Stream of our youth may flow
- Into the arctic regions of our lives,
- Where little else than life itself survives.
-
-Measured by this test of creative power and its persistency, how
-variable is the duration of human life! Sometimes the creative power
-appears in early youth; but when that happens there is generally an
-early surcease. Sometimes the power comes late and remains long.
-Sometimes it flashes forth in the early morning and remains in the
-after twilight. Estimated by years this productive power (which goes
-by the name of genius) sometimes reaches only to a few score moons.
-Sometimes it reaches to a score of years. Sometimes, though rarely, it
-extends to three-score years or more.
-
-Thomas Chatterton went to a suicide's grave in Potter's Field when he
-was only seventeen years, nine months, and four days of age. I know of
-no other case of so great precocity; it is beyond belief. His mind had
-been productive for about three years. Byron's productive period
-covered sixteen years--no more. Pope began at twelve and ended at
-fifty-six.
-
-In our own age, Tennyson has done well. Making an early effort to
-begin, he, like Dryden, did not really reach the creative epoch until
-he was fully thirty. His creative period covers about fifty-nine
-years. It extends from "A Dream of Fair Women," in 1833, to "Crossing
-the Bar," in 1892.
-
-The best example, however, in the history of the human mind, is that
-of William Cullen Bryant; that is, Bryant has real creations that lie
-further apart in time than can be paralleled, so far as I know, in the
-case of any other of the sons of men. The date of "Thanatopsis" is not
-precisely known. It belongs, however, to the years 1812-13. Bryant was
-then eighteen--in his nineteenth year. Add to 1812 sixty-four years
-and we have 1876, the date of the publication of the "Flood of Years."
-The two poems in question lie apart in production by the space of
-fully three-score and four years. It is a marvel! And why not?
-
- To him who in the love of nature holds
- Communion with her visible forms,
-
-why should not life, productive life, enthusiastic fruitful life, be
-extended until its last acts of creation, shot through with the
-sunshine of experience and wisdom, shall flash in great bars of haze
-and glory over the landscape of the twilight days?
-
-
-Kaboto.
-
- Old John à Venice in his cockleshell
- Breasted the salt sea like an Englishman!
- He saw the bleak coast of the Tartar Khan
- To left-hand in the distance. "All is well!"
- He cried to Labrador. The roaring swell
- Bore him to shore, whereon his hands upran
- The Lion flag and flag republican
- Of the old Doges' wave-girt citadel.
-
- Dominion and Democracy are ours!
- From the first day unto the last we hold
- To Liberty and Empire! We shall be,
- Under the Star-flag, for eternal hours,
- Even as Cabot's two flags first foretold,
- Both free and strong from mountain crag to sea!
-
-
-
-
-A STROKE FOR THE PEOPLE.
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- "SYLVAN GROVE, KANSAS, May 22, 1897.
-
- "_To_ THE ARENA.
-
- "GENTLEMEN: I enclose my subscription for THE ARENA for the
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-
- "_First._ Those who have failed to meet even the interest on
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-
- "_Second._ Those who are still paying interest or keeping the
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- "I live in the beautiful little West Twin Creek valley about
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- have by legislation for the last thirty-five years remorselessly
- squeezed the _value_ out of our property.
-
- "When our debts were contracted the values of everything were
- double what they now are. I could then have sold my farm for
- three thousand dollars; now, although it has been much improved,
- it would go a-begging at one thousand dollars. Perhaps there is
- not as much distress in our country as there was three or four
- years ago. People have adjusted themselves somewhat to their
- straitened circumstances, and a few are becoming actually
- reconciled to their condition! I heard one man who had recently
- failed in business as a grain-dealer say, 'Well, Cleveland is
- right on this money question; we want a money good in Yurrup or
- any other part of the world.' As I looked at the battered hat of
- this personage, at the split toes of his shoes, the ragged elbows
- of his coat, and the rents in his demoralized nether garments, I
- could but ejaculate, 'May the Lord have mercy on your ignorant
- soul! what does it matter to _you_ what kind of money they use in
- Europe?'
-
- "We are now taking the advice of Governor Morrill, who says: 'If
- you cannot get seventy-five cents a day, work for fifty cents.'
- Our Republican speakers advise us to dress plainly, live the
- same, and work still harder. We are told to 'stop running around
- to Alliances and picnics.' We have taken this advice. _We had to
- take it!_ But we have now reached the bottom. We can curtail our
- dress no further without making our garb identical with our
- complexion. We cannot further reduce our rations and live. We
- cannot extend the hours of labor, for most of us have already
- adopted the blessed eight-hour system; that is, we work eight
- hours _before_ dinner and eight hours _after_ dinner.
-
- "However, Kansas is coming to the front again. Since the mortgage
- companies are willing to do business once more our Governor is no
- longer 'ashamed of the State.' Occasionally a Republican
- politician squirms and kicks as the pressure is turned on. The
- eloquent and volcanic Ingalls breaks out at intervals. In these
- eruptions he pours lava upon his party in fine style. But he does
- not break out often enough!
-
- "The most serious bar to the progress of reform is that the
- people are too poor to pay for reform papers and magazines; out
- of these they might get the truth. The publishers of such are
- unable to send their periodicals for less than cost. Not so the
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-
- "I have been pleased with THE ARENA, both old and new. I first
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- of the difficulties that now beset our beloved country.
-
- "Sincerely yours,
-
- "A. BIGGS."
-
-Moved by the foregoing communication and scores of others of the same
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-
-
-BOOK REVIEWS.
-
-[_In this Department of_ THE ARENA _no book will be reviewed which is
-not regarded as a real addition to literature._]
-
-
-The Emperor.[8]
-
- [8] "Life of Napoleon Bonaparte." By Willian Milligan
- Sloane, Ph. D., L. H. D.; Professor of History in Princeton
- University. Four volumes, imperial octavo; pp. 1120. New
- York: The Century Company. Boston: Balch Brothers, 1896.
-
-At the hour when, on the evening of the first day of this century,
-the first asteroid was discovered by Piazzi at Naples, an
-olive-complexioned man was sitting smileless in a box in the opera
-house in Paris. He sat back where nobody could see him. It was his way
-not to be seen--except on business.
-
-The man was thirty-one years, four months, and sixteen days of age. He
-had already done something. If he had not equalled the work of
-Alexander at the corresponding age, he had at least surpassed Cæsar;
-for Cæsar at thirty was still a comparatively unknown roué in Rome.
-
-The figure in the opera box was slender and trim. He who sat there was
-only five feet, four and a half inches high; but his head was fine,
-heavy, symmetrical. His features twitched when he was disturbed, but
-were beautiful when he smiled. To a profound observer he looked
-dangerous. He had the faculty of making his face signify nothing at
-all. He had been begotten an insular Italian, but was born a
-Frenchman. His wife, a Creole, more than six years older than he, was
-in the box with him. She sat at the front, and was seen by thousands.
-She _wished_ to be seen; and when the pit shouted in the direction of
-the box she smiled a little smile, with a puckered mouth--for her
-teeth were not good.
-
-The birthplace of this man had been oddly set on the map of the world,
-for the meridian of Discovery and the parallel of Conquest intersect
-at the birthplace of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. The birthlines of Cæsar and
-Columbus--drawn, the one due west from Rome, the other due south from
-Genoa--cross each other within a few miles of Ajaccio! It is a
-circumstance that might well incline one to astrology.
-
-About the birth of great men cycles of fiction grow. Friends and
-enemies alike invent significant circumstances. The traducers of
-Napoleon have said that he was illegitimate--that his father was the
-French marshal Marboeuf. They also say, on better grounds, that the
-marriage of Letitia Ramolino to Carlo di Buonaparte was not solemnized
-until 1767--that the first two children were therefore born out of
-wedlock. On the other hand, the idol-worshippers would fain have
-Napoleon born as a god or Titan. Premature pangs seize the mother at
-church. She hurries home, barely reaching her apartment when the
-heroic babe is delivered, without an accoucheur, on a piece of
-tapestry inwrought with an effigy of Achilles! This probably occurred.
-It was the 15th of August, 1769.
-
-Thus, as it were before the Corsican saw the light of day in this
-world, dispute began about him. It has been continued for a hundred
-and twenty-eight years. Whatever else he succeeded in doing--whatever
-else he failed to do--he at least did succeed in dividing the
-civilized world into two parties; he made himself the subject of a
-controversy which has not ceased to the present hour. The reason, no
-doubt, is that we do not as yet understand human history and the part
-which the individual plays in the progress of events. Nearly all men
-begin with a prejudice in judging all other men, and nearly all men
-end as they begin. So it has been in the case of Bonaparte. After a
-while we shall see things more clearly; after a while we shall be able
-to interpret _men_--but not yet.
-
-The writings relative to this man constitute a cycle. The books on him
-and his times make a library, the perusal and study of which might
-absorb a large section of an active life. The name of such productions
-is legion. Most of them will fortunately perish. The controversial
-aspect of the life of the Emperor must at last subside. Nine out of
-ten of the books about him will go down to the nether oblivion. Then
-the judicial aspect will arise--if it has not already arisen--and will
-occupy the attention of those who are still curious to study the
-career of him who shares with the son of Philip and the matchless
-Julius the triune honor of being the greatest warriors known to human
-history. If a fourth should be added to the group it would be
-Hannibal, and if a fifth, Charlemagne.
-
-Here at the date of a century from those days in which the star of
-Napoleon emerged from the mists and clouds and began to climb the sky
-the interest in his life revives. In America this revival is
-attributable in part to general and in part to special causes. The
-general causes are to be found in the fact that society _de la fin de
-siècle_ is in such a state of profound disturbance, and the existing
-order feels so insecure, that that order--as it always does--begins to
-cast about in the shadows to find, if it may, some Big Man with a
-Sword; him when found we will make our Imperator, and by sharing some
-of our estates with certain of his military subalterns we will make
-sure of the rest--and after us the deluge. The special cause--at least
-in America--is the tremendous and growing tradition of General Grant.
-Albeit, General Grant hated the Bonapartes, from the Great One to the
-Little One; yet his own luminous setting has left a glow in which the
-nation sees men as trees walking--and among these the greatest
-simulacrum is Napoleon Bonaparte.
-
-Of this man, who began as the son of a Corsican peasant-mother working
-in a mulberry orchard, and who, after fifty-one years, eight months,
-and twenty days, ended in a cyclone on the rock called St. Helena,
-having meanwhile for nearly a third of his life bestridden western
-Europe like a colossus,--a new biography claiming to be the ultimate
-summation of the Emperor's life and character has appeared. Professor
-William Milligan Sloane, of Princeton University, has entered the
-lists which may be said to have opened with Walter Scott and finished
-with the McClure Syndicate, passing meanwhile by way of such
-personages as De Staël, Las Cases, Victor Hugo, and Lanfrey, and such
-drudges as Bourrienne and Méneval, to lodge at last with the
-miscellaneous hacks who get three dollars a column for their
-boiler-plate philosophy in American newspapers! Heavens, what a
-scrimmage!
-
-It were difficult to say when the _final_ biography of a man has been
-produced. Hard, hard is it to decide when anything in this world is
-final. The never-ending progress of events shapes and readjusts not
-only the present materials of history, but also by reaction the
-materials of the past. Much that is supposed to be complete is seen to
-be unfinished; the done becomes undone, and the peroration of an epoch
-has to be rewritten for an exordium.
-
-This is as true of the individual lives of men as it is of great
-events. If the ages have to be reconstructed, so also must the men of
-the ages. If only a mummy now turn over in his porphyry sarcophagus, a
-papyrus is generally found under him; and the finder, with the papyrus
-in his hand, may go forth fully warranted to revise every event from
-the first cataclysm of the Devonian age to the last earthquake in
-Java, and every man from Moses to Cagliostro.
-
-On the whole I incline to the opinion that Professor Sloane has
-brought the Emperor Napoleon to a kind of final interpretation; I will
-not say to a full stop, but to something very much resembling a
-period. In the first place, I offer on the "Life of Napoleon
-Bonaparte," the eulogium that the work has, in a great degree,
-_naturalized_ the Corsican as he was never naturalized before--thus
-bringing him out of cloudland and mere impossible fog to the plain
-level of human action and purpose.
-
-This is much. In accomplishing thus much Professor Sloane has
-vindicated his claim to be regarded as a great biographer. It has been
-the bane of nearly all biographical writing that the subjects of it
-have been completely mythologized. Thus far in the history of mankind
-biography might be defined as the art of myth-making. I scarcely know
-what exceptions to cite to this universal vice except only and always
-Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson." As for American biographies thus
-far produced, there is scarcely a single example of a work which is
-not to be classified as a recorded myth. The trouble in all this
-business has been that the myth-makers, living in a certain
-atmosphere, have imagined that they are obliged to make their
-characters conform to the established antecedents of greatness. These
-established antecedents of greatness have for the most part been
-created out of superstitions, credulities, blank idealism, and mere
-dogmatic bosh. No living, active men have ever conformed, or could
-conform, to the standards which the logicians, the philosophers, and
-the priests have fixed up for them; and if any of them should conform
-to such a standard, their place under classification would be with
-automata, not with living men.
-
-Nevertheless, our biographers have been so weak and servile as to make
-their characters according to this pattern. One character is labelled
-Washington, another is labelled Franklin, another is labelled Adams,
-and still another, Lincoln.
-
-All this, I think, Professor Sloane has studiously avoided. As a
-literary doctor he has done much to destroy the mythical disease. He
-has written an elaborate work in which the man Napoleon moves and
-acts, neither as an angel nor as a devil, but as a man, moved upon and
-moving by the common human passions, though inflamed, in his case, to
-a white heat in the furnace of his ambition.
-
-All this was to have been expected in view of the plan of Professor
-Sloane as expressed in his preface:
-
- "Until within a very recent period," says he, "it seemed that no
- man could discuss him [Napoleon] or his time without manifesting
- such strong personal feeling as to vitiate his judgment and
- conclusions. This was partly due to the lack of perspective, but
- in the main to ignorance of the facts essential to a sober
- treatment of the theme. In this respect the last quarter of a
- century has seen a gradual but radical change, for a band of
- dispassionate scientific scholars have during that time been
- occupied in the preparation of material for his life without
- reference to the advocacy of one theory or another concerning his
- character. European archives, long carefully guarded, have been
- thrown open; the diplomatic correspondence of the most important
- periods has been published; family papers have been examined, and
- numbers of valuable memoirs have been printed. It has therefore
- been possible to check one account by another, to cancel
- misrepresentations, to eliminate passion--in short, to establish
- something like correct outline and accurate detail, at least in
- regard to what the man actually did. Those hidden secrets of any
- human mind which we call motives must ever remain to other minds
- largely a matter of opinion, but a very fair indication of them
- can be found when once the actual conduct of the actor has been
- determined."
-
-From this point of view Professor Sloane has proceeded with his
-tremendous work. His studies at home and abroad have been ample. We
-may remark, in passing, upon the physical vigor of the author as shown
-in his portrait. From such a face and figure we can but expect energy,
-persistency, accomplishment. I do not pretend to disclose the reasons
-of Professor Sloane for indulging in this prodigious Napoleonic dream
-and for delineating it in what is likely to be regarded as the best
-product of his intellectual career. We can only take what he has
-produced and give it such cursory notice as our space will permit.
-
-The first volume of the work extends from a survey of the conditions
-under which Napoleon was born and reared to the conclusion of his
-twenty-eighth year. The first events depicted are those historical
-movements in which the Bonapartes, within the narrow limits of their
-island, were involved in the seventh decade of the eighteenth century;
-and the last event recorded in this volume is the fall of Venice, at
-the end of May, 1797. I incline to regard this as the most
-interesting, though not the most important, of the four great volumes
-of Professor Sloane's work. In the nature of the case the ascendant of
-a man is the more inspiring part. In it he appears as an orb whose
-full majesty, not yet revealed, solicits the imagination and kindles
-by sympathy the ambitions that in some measure are common to us all.
-Here in volume I is portrayed the youth of the man Napoleon Bonaparte.
-In this he is revealed in the full charm of that electrical audacity
-which had as yet lost none of its sharpness and burning flash. Nor had
-Napoleon, as a _man_, as yet become sufficiently involved with the
-general maze of history, sufficiently immersed in the storm-cloud of
-that tempestuous epoch, to be lost from view. This volume shows the
-man emerging from boyhood into the full career of a military
-conqueror. It shows him in his magical transformation from the
-character of an adventurer into the character of a leader of armies
-and a dictator of events. It also shows Napoleon with the still fluid
-heart of boyhood passing through the lava floods of his first loves,
-in particular his love for Josephine, into the age of cynicism and
-calculation.
-
-This first volume brings sufficiently to memory the progress of the
-youthful Napoleon. Here we see him at his mother's knee; then in the
-time of his school days; then in Paris and Valence; then as a neophyte
-author, quite absurd in his dreams; then on garrison duty, and then
-swept away with the tides of the oncoming revolution. In the smoke of
-the South his slender figure is seen here and there until he emerges
-at Toulon. In his character of Jacobin he becomes a general in the
-army at a time of life when most men are happy to be lieutenants. Then
-for the first time he touches the revolutionary society of Paris. He
-meets Josephine; Barras delivers her to the coming man. They are
-wedded, and from that date the stage widens, the wars in Italy break
-out, and the young general begins to whirl his sword at Mantua,
-Arcole, and Rivoli--from which he was wont to date his military birth,
-saying on that occasion, "Make my life begin at Rivoli;" and finally
-at Montebello and Venice, where, in the late spring of 1797, he is
-joined by Josephine. There from the French capital they seemed to
-stand afar as the cynosure of all revolutionary eyes, expecting a
-greater light.
-
-In the second volume Professor Sloane begins with the rescue of the
-Directory. Hard after we have the great episode of the Treaty of Campo
-Formio, and then the expedition to Egypt. The story of that expedition
-is known through all the world; so also the return, and the overthrow
-of the Directory.
-
-From that day Bonaparte became the embodiment of the revolution. He
-became a statesman and a strategist. He found himself in the
-geographical and historical storm-centre of Europe. Then came the
-epoch of great wars. Marengo marks the close of the old century, and
-the treaty of Lunéville the beginning of the new. Napoleon undertakes
-the pacification of Europe, and reorganizes France. He steps
-cautiously towards the restoration of monarchy. There is a
-life-consulate, transforming itself quickly into an empire. The old
-royalism is extinguished, and the new military imperialism is
-glorified in its stead. The third coalition of Europe succeeds the
-second. Trafalgar strews the sea with the wrecks of France, and
-Austerlitz strews the land with the wrecks of Russia and Austria. The
-sea is virtually abandoned by the man of destiny, but over the land he
-rises as War-lord and Emperor.
-
-The second conflict breaks out with Prussia and ends with the ruin of
-that power at Jena and Auerstadt. The year 1806 sees the parvenu
-emperor, now thirty-seven years of age, the master of all the better
-parts of Europe. Here ends the second volume of his life, according to
-Professor Sloane's division, and the third begins with the devastation
-and humiliation of the Prussian kingdom.
-
-In this volume the author views Napoleon for the first time as the
-arbitrary diplomatist of the West. It is evident that from this time
-the emperor's vision widens to a more remote horizon than he had ever
-scanned before. The Berlin decree was issued. The battle of Eylau was
-fought, and then was achieved the victory of Friedland. Nor may we
-pass without noticing the acme which Napoleon, according to the
-judgment of many, now reached on that memorable field. Here it is that
-art has caught and transmitted him. For it is in the trodden
-wheat-field of Friedland that Meissonier's pencil has delineated
-Napoleon with his marshals around him, in one of the greatest pictures
-of the world.
-
-By this epoch ambition in the emperor had swallowed up all other
-passions. He goes on from conquering to conquest. The dream of a
-French Empire, coextensive with the borders of Europe, seizes the
-Napoleonic imagination. The emperor's armies strike left and right.
-They are seen first on one horizon, then on another. The Corsican on
-his white horse is now upon the Pyrenees, now on the Germanic
-frontier, and now in Poland. He faces Alexander of Russia, and laughs
-at him! His gray coat and three-cornered hat become the best known
-symbols of military genius in modern times.
-
-Kingdoms and principalities are transformed. Already the mythical
-Roman empire has passed away. Austria is threatened with extinction.
-The Corsican is seen first in one and then in another of the ancient
-capitals of Europe. Aspern follows Eckmühl, and Essling and Wagram
-follow Aspern. The treaty of Schönbrunn promises peace to the nations,
-but the hope is broken to the lips. In this crisis Josephine goes down
-in the shadows, and the daughter of Austria is led to the imperial
-chamber--this from the necessity of establishing a dynasty. The
-relations between France and Russia are strained to breaking. The
-fatal year 1812 comes, and there is a congress of kings. Alexander
-gives his ultimatum, and the invasion of Russia is begun. There is an
-indescribable struggle on the Moskwa, and then the flames of Moscow
-are seen across the deserts of Russian snow.
-
-The fourth and last volume begins with the return of the allied armies
-from Russia. Then follows the universal revolt of the nations.
-Insurrection breaks out on every horizon, and treachery, as might have
-been expected, is added to the combinations that are rapidly formed
-against the imperial Corsican. The borders of France are broken in.
-There is a narrowing rim of fire bursting into battle flame here and
-there; and then the catastrophe of the capture of Paris. There is an
-ambiguous abdication and an equivocal exile of a few months' duration
-to Elba. It was much like the establishment of a live lion on
-Governor's Island!
-
-The lion got away. Then came an instantaneous upheaval of old
-revolutionary France, which had now become imperial France. The
-Emperor was welcomed home as a returning god. The country was drained
-to the last drop of its resources, and everything was staked on the
-final strategy of the Hundred Days and the hazard of the
-ever-memorable battle.
-
- "There was a sound of revelry by night,"
-
-and then the imperial eagle was seen stretched upon the plain, pierced
-through with the shafts of banded nations. He was caged and
-transported to that far rock which in his school-essay at Autun he had
-described thus: "St. Helena is a _small_ island!" He found it so. For
-nearly six years his captivity continued until his stormy career ended
-in a May hurricane that might well have shaken the desolate
-foundations of his ocean-girt prison. Then the historical tide rolled
-on without him. France was transformed into the old image, but her
-soul was still imperial. At last the bones of her great dead were
-recovered, to be placed at rest in that red-black sarcophagus over
-which the world looks down and wonders.
-
-Such is the fiery but fruitful chaos through which the life-line of
-Napoleon is drawn with a master hand by Professor William Milligan
-Sloane. My judgment is that, on the whole, he has produced the
-greatest biographical work which has yet appeared in American
-literature. I think that in the main his accomplishment has been equal
-to his ambition. It is not an unworthy thing that an _American_
-professor, at the seat of an _American_ university, turning his
-energies to this great task, has succeeded in making a well-nigh final
-record of the life and work of that unequalled organizer, that sublime
-dissembler, that cruel reformer, that heartless philanthropist, who,
-for half a lifetime, converted old Europe into a mire of murder and
-desolation, for the ultimate good of man.
-
-Only one thing may be said in adverse criticism of Professor Sloane's
-book, and that is, that his style is too mathematical and too little
-imaginative for the subject which he has in hand. His rather cold
-precision, however, we concede to him; for it is, no doubt, the
-natural method of his expression. We do our part to acknowledge and
-welcome the remarkable work which he has produced, and to commend it
-to all readers as the best existing and best probable account of the
-personal and historical career of Napoleon Bonaparte.
-
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-[Transcriber's Notes: Every effort has been made to replicate this
-text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant
-spellings and other inconsistencies.
-
-The transcriber made these changes to the text to correct obvious
-errors:
-
- 1. p. 6 over-capatalized --> over-capitalized
- 2. p. 18 successfull --> successful
- 3. p. 23 benovelent --> benevolent
- 4. p. 60 ecocomists --> economists
- 5. p. 68 A macron diacritical mark, a straight line above
- a letter, is found on the first letter o, in the
- word Sosoku. This letter is indicated here by the
- coding [=x] for a macron above any letter x.
- Thus, for example, the word Sosoku appears as
- S[=o]soku in the text.
- 6. p. 76 staightforward --> straightforward
- 7. p. 94 abnormalties --> abnormalities
- 8. p. 124 desparing --> despairing
- 9. p. 144 stategy --> strategy
-
-End of Transcriber's Notes]
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arena, by Various
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30081 ***
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30081 *** + + THE ARENA. + + + + EDITED BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL. D. + + + + VOL. XVIII + + + + JULY TO DECEMBER, 1897 + + + + PUBLISHED BY + THE ARENA COMPANY + BOSTON, MASS. + 1897 + + + COPYRIGHTED, 1897 + BY + THE ARENA COMPANY. + + + SKINNER, BARTLETT & CO., 7 Federal Court, Boston. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + + The Citadel of the Money Power: + I. Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future HENRY CLEWS 1 + II. The True Inwardness of Wall Street JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 9 + The Reform Club's Feast of Unreason Hon. CHARLES A. TOWNE 24 + Does Credit Act on Prices? A. J. UTLEY 37 + Points in the American and French Constitutions Compared, + NIELS GRÖN 49 + Honest Money; or, A True Standard of Value: A Symposium. + I. WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 57 + II. M. W. HOWARD 58 + III. WHARTON BARKER 59 + IV. ARTHUR I. FONDA 60 + V. Gen. A. J. WARNER 62 + The New Civil Code of Japan TOKICHI MASAO, M. L., D. C. L. 64 + John Ruskin: A Type of Twentieth-Century Manhood B. O. FLOWER 70 + The Single Tax in Operation Hon. HUGH H. LUSK 79 + Natural Selection, Social Selection, and Heredity, + Prof. JOHN R. COMMONS 90 + Psychic or Supermundane Forces CORA L. V. RICHMOND 98 + The American Institute of Civics HENRY RANDALL WAITE, Ph. D. 108 + An Industrial Fable HAMILTON S. WICKS 116 + Plaza of the Poets: + Reply to "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After," BARTON LOMAX PITTMAN 122 + John Brown COATES KINNEY 125 + Demos W. H. VENABLE, LL. D. 126 + The Editor's Evening: Leaf from My Samoan Notebook (A. D. + 2297); _Vita Longa_; Kaboto (a Sonnet) 128 + A Stroke for the People: A Farmer's Letter to THE ARENA 134 + Evolution: What It Is and What It Is Not Dr. DAVID STARR JORDAN 145 + Has Wealth a Limitation? ROBERT N. REEVES 160 + The Battle of the Money Metals: + I. Bimetallism Simplified GEORGE H. LEPPER 168 + II. Bimetallism Extinguished JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 180 + The Segregation and Permanent Isolation of Criminals, + NORMAN ROBINSON 192 + How to Increase National Wealth by the Employment of Paralyzed + Industry B. O. FLOWER 200 + Open Letter to Eastern Capitalists CHARLES C. MILLARD 211 + The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIII. Prof. FRANK PARSONS 218 + The Provisional Government of the Cubans THOMAS W. STEEP 226 + A Noted American Preacher DUNCAN MACDERMID 232 + The Civic Outlook HENRY RANDALL WAITE, Ph. D. 245 + "The Tempest" the Sequel to "Hamlet" EMILY DICKEY BEERY 254 + The Creative Man STINSON JARVIS 262 + Plaza of the Poets: + The New Woman MILES MENANDER DAWSON 275 + Under the Stars COATES KINNEY 275 + The Cry of the Valley CHARLES MELVIN WILKINSON 276 + A Radical ROBERT F. GIBSON 277 + The Editor's Evening: Our Totem; _Vive La France! Le Siècle_ + (a Sonnet) 278 + The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part I, + HERMAN E. TAUBENECK 289 + The Future of the Democratic Party: A Reply DAVID OVERMYER 302 + The Multiple Standard for Money ELTWEED POMEROY 318 + Anticipating the Unearned Increment I. W. HART 339 + Studies in Ultimate Society: + I. A New Interpretation of Life LAURENCE GRONLUND 351 + II. Individualism _vs._ Altruism K. T. TAKAHASHI 362 + General Weyler's Campaign CRITTENDEN MARRIOTT 374 + The Author of "The Messiah" B. O. FLOWER 386 + Open Letter to President Andrews THE EDITOR 399 + Plaza of the Poets: + The Onmarch FREEMAN E. MILLER 403 + The Toil of Empire JOHN VANCE CHENEY 404 + The Day Love Came THEODOSIA PICKERING 405 + The Question JULIA NEELY-FINCH 405 + Triolet CURTIS HIDDEN PAGE 406 + The Cry of the Poor JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 407 + The Editor's Evening: A Knotty Problem; A Case of Prevision; + Concerning Eternity; A. L. (a Sonnet) 419 + The New Ostracism Hon. CHARLES A. TOWNE 433 + The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part II, + HERMAN E. TAUBENECK 452 + The Rights of the Public over Quasi-Public Services, + Hon. WALTER CLARK 470 + Prosperity: the Sham and the Reality JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 486 + Jefferson and His Political Philosophy MARY PLATT PARMELEE 505 + The Latest Social Vision B. O. FLOWER 517 + The Dead Hand in the Church Rev. CLARENCE LATHBURY 535 + Hypnotism in its Scientific and Forensic Aspects, + MARION L. DAWSON, B. L. 544 + Suicide: Is It Worth While? CHARLES B. NEWCOMB 557 + Plaza of the Poets: + Old Glory IRONQUILL 562 + _Vita Sum_ JUNIUS L. HEMPSTEAD 563 + Gold CLINTON SCOLLARD 564 + Richard Realfe REUBIE CARPENTER 565 + The Dreamer HELENA M. RICHARDSON 565 + The Editor's Evening: The Greatest Lyric; "Thrift, Thrift, Horatio;" + The Pessimist; The Physician's Last Call (a Sonnet). 566 + Freedom and Its Opportunities: Part I Hon. JOHN R. ROGERS 577 + "The Case Against Bimetallism" Judge GEORGE H. SMITH 590 + The Initiative and the Referendum ELIHU F. BARKER 613 + The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIV Prof. FRANK PARSONS 628 + The Laborer's View of the Labor Question: + I. How the Laborer Feels HERBERT M. RAMP 644 + II. Up or Down? W. EDWARDS 654 + III. The Farm Hand: An Unknown Quantity WILLIAM EMORY KEARNS 661 + Practical Measures for Promoting Manhood and Preventing Crime, + B. O. FLOWER 673 + The Demand for Sensational Journals JOHN HENDERSON GARNSEY 681 + Is History a Science? JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 687 + Plaza of the Poets: + Our Brother Simon ANNIE L. MUZZEY 707 + Thou Knowest Not HELENA M. RICHARDSON 708 + Optim: A Reply GEORGE H. WESTLEY 709 + The Murdered Trees BENJAMIN S. PARKER 709 + The Hidden Flute MINNA IRVING 710 + Retroensetta CURTIS HIDDEN PAGE 710 + The Editor's Evening: Tantalus and His Opportunities; The Man + in Bronze; Franklin (a Sonnet) 711 + Idylls and Ideals of Christmas: + I. What I Want for Christmas ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 721 + II. Christmas, the Human Holiday Rev. MINOT J. SAVAGE, D.D. 722 + III. Santa Claus: A Poem JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY 726 + IV. The Aryan at Christmas JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 727 + A Séance With Eusapia Paladino: Psychic Forces CAMILLE FLAMMARION 730 + The Influence of Hebrew Thought in the Development of the Social + Democratic Idea in New England CHARLES S. ALLEN 748 + Priest and People E. T. HARGROVE 772 + Immigration, Hard Times, and the Veto JOHN CHETWOOD, Jr. 788 + The Founder of German Opera B. O. FLOWER 802 + The Truly Artistic Woman STINSON JARVIS 813 + Poor "Fairly Rich" People HENRY E. FOSTER 820 + Shall the United States be Europeanized? JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 827 + Hawaiian Annexation from a Japanese Point of View, + KEIJIRO NAKAMURA 834 + A Political Deal: A Story ELIZA FRANCES ANDREWS 840 + Plaza of the Poets: + Glad Tidings MARION MILLS MILLER 849 + The Yule Log CLINTON SCOLLARD 852 + How to Get an Article in a Magazine THE EDITOR 853 + The Editor's Evening: Sir Thomas Kho on Education; Journey + and Sleep (a Sonnet) 855 + + +BOOK REVIEWS. + + The Emperor 137 + President Jordan's Saga of the Seal 284 + Some Prehistoric History 426 + A Bard of the Ohio 572 + Critic, Bard, and Moralist 717 + Guthrie's "Modern Poet Prophets" 860 + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + Opposite Page + HON. CHARLES A. TOWNE 1 + DR. DAVID STARR JORDAN 145 + MULTIPLE-STANDARD TREASURY NOTE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY 289 + DR. E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS 433 + GOVERNOR JOHN R. ROGERS 577 + CAMILLE FLAMMARION 721 + PSYCHIC SÉANCE WITH EUSAPIA PALADINO 737 + + + + +THE ARENA. + +Vol. XVIII. JULY, 1897. No. 92. + + + + +THE CITADEL OF THE MONEY POWER. + +I. WALL STREET, PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. + +BY HENRY CLEWS. + + +I. + +The twenty-seven respectable citizens of New York who, in 1792, met +under a buttonwood tree in front of the premises now known as Number +60 Wall Street, and formed an association for the purchase and sale of +public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a proviso of +mutual help and preference, committed themselves to an enterprise of +whose moment and influence in the future they could have formed no +adequate conception. At that date Wall Street was a banking district, +small indeed when compared with its present condition, but important +in its relations to the commerce of the nation. This transaction of +the twenty-seven--among whom we find the honored names of Barclay, +Bleecker, Winthrop, Lawrence, which in themselves and their +descendants were, and are, creditably identified with the growth of +the community--added the prestige and power of the stock exchange to +those of the banks, and fixed for an indefinitely long period the +destinies of the financial centre of the Union. + +During the earlier part of this century the banking interests of Wall +Street quite overshadowed those of the stock market. The growth of +railway securities was not fairly under way until the opening of the +fifth decade. Elderly men can recall the date when the New York +Central existed only as a series of connecting links between Buffalo +and Albany, under half-a-dozen different names of incorporation; and +passenger cars were slowly and laboriously hoisted by chain power over +the "divide" between the latter city and Schenectady. Since there were +but few railways in the entire country, there were few opportunities +for speculative dealings in their shares. These shares, too, were as a +rule locally held, and were more frequently transferred by executors +under court orders than by brokers on the stock exchange. + +Prior to 1840 and 1845, however, the members of the stock exchange +were not idle. Public stocks were largely dealt in. The United States +government frequently issued bonds, and the prices of these bonds +fluctuated sufficiently to afford tempting chances of profits. State +bonds also were sold in Wall Street in larger amounts than to-day. +About the year 1850 the sales of Missouri sixes and Ohio sixes +frequently amounted to millions of dollars daily. During that +uncertain epoch of finance when the United States Bank was both a +financial and a political power, the shares of that institution were a +favorite subject of speculative dealing. The shares of Delaware & +Hudson, and of the original Erie Railway, the latter laboriously +constructed over a rough, barren, and thinly settled portion of the +State, partly by State funds, had also become actively exchangeable in +the market. + +During this period a relatively enormous quantity of banking capital +had located itself in and near Wall Street. The Bank of New York +existed before 1800, and later, although not long after, the Street +witnessed the erection of buildings of a now obsolete, and yet at that +time an attractive, style of architecture, devoted to the uses of the +Manhattan Banking Company, the Bank of America, the Merchants, the +Union, the Bank of Commerce, and others. Were it not that land in the +banking district is so valuable, and that the need of upstair offices +is so great, one might be tempted to regret the demolition of the +graceful money temples occupied by three of these corporations on the +north side of Wall Street. In each of them the entablature rested upon +two fluted stone pillars with Doric capitals, in addition to the +supports of the side walls. Between the steps and the doors of the +temple extended a marble-paved court which often served as a +convenient place of 'change for borrowers and lenders. Entering the +doors you found yourself in a large, airy, dome-lighted room, the +sides of which were occupied by the clerks of the institution, guarded +by high barricades from the intrusive eyes and feet of the general +public. At the rear were the offices of the president and cashier. +Throughout the entire building there reigned a solemn and +semi-religious silence. One may witness something like this to-day in +the Wall-Street end of the U. S. Treasury Building, and only there. + +Up to the epoch of the rise of railway building and railway-share +speculation, the main aliment of Wall-Street banks was the profit +derived from the discount of commercial paper and from loans upon +government and State securities. But when railway shares and bonds, +based upon lines of road which were constructed through the rich +regions of the Union lying between the Atlantic and the Mississippi +river, came upon the market in large amounts, affording ample security +for investment and loans, the great banks of Wall Street were quick to +appreciate the advantages of loans made upon such undoubted values, +which were at all times convertible into cash on the stock exchange. +In times of pressure, commercial paper is an inferior asset for a +bank, all of whose obligations are payable on demand. At such times +notes become practically unsalable, and are not always paid at +maturity. A failure of one firm brings down others, and renewals are +urgently required from banks just when they are least able to grant +them. Salable securities are on such occasions an ark of safety, and, +dating from the early fifties, this class of securities has always +been the basis of a large amount of the loans of the banks of Wall +Street and their near neighbors of the same class in lower Nassau +Street and also Broadway. + +With the immense outgrowth of business consequent upon the discovery +of gold in California in 1849, and the construction of the great +railways of the Middle West, such as the Michigan Southern, the +Northern Indiana (now the Lake Shore), the Michigan Central, the +Galena & Chicago, the Rock Island, and others of like importance and +real value, the banks and banking houses of Wall Street, and the stock +exchange, grew into most important factors in developing the +prosperity of the country. Enterprises were originated by able men +acting under corporate powers, and when these were brought before the +committees of the stock exchange and duly approved and listed, capital +instantly flowed forth from its reservoirs in answer to the +securities thus offered. And it may safely be said that but for the +combined machinery of the New York banks and the stock exchange the +actual developments of twenty years would have dragged laboriously +through an entire century. + +Amid so much progress and activity, speculation was not idle. Those +were the days of many of our greatest railway operators, daring, able, +enthusiastic men, who had the rare gift of imparting confidence to +their followers and the public, and realized the fable of King Midas, +whose touch transmuted all things into gold. Their careers were those +of conquest and accumulation, like that of Napoleon; and, like him, +they underwent, with few exceptions, their retreats from Russia and +their Waterloos. Of such were Jacob Little, Daniel Drew, Anthony +Morse, and others, to whom now the motto of Junius applies: _Stat +nominis umbra_. Merely the shadows of their names reach over to us +from the horizons where their suns set so long ago. + +There was an epoch too in the Wall Street of the past when gigantic +and deeply considered combinations were set in motion, entitled +"corners." As to corners, a word of explanation may not be amiss. +There are always two factions in the stock market: the bulls, who want +stocks to rise in price in order that they may sell out; and the +bears, who want stocks to fall in price so that they can buy in. +Contrary to the superficial belief of the public, the bulls are +sellers and the bears are buyers. But in order to sell a commodity you +must buy or borrow it; and in order to buy at a future date you must +sell at a previous date; and thus the bull buys for the purpose of +selling at a profit, and the bear sells something which he doesn't own +for the purpose of buying it at a lower price. The bull therefore +hopes to push prices up so that he can sell his purchase at a profit, +and the bear hopes to drag prices down so that he can buy what he has +sold, also at a profit. + +Meanwhile, the bear has delivered the shares sold by him, and in order +to deliver them, has borrowed them, and given security in money at its +market price. Here he has placed himself in danger, because the owner +of the shares may at any time tender him this money and demand the +shares, which the bear may not be able to provide himself with, except +at the price which the owners choose to set upon them. + +Thus a person might be under contract to deliver the shares of some +corporation which might be absolutely worthless, and yet these shares +_might_ be so held that the holders could exact one thousand dollars a +share. Given a railway with a share capital of ten millions, one +person or knot of persons might own every certificate of its stock, +and have it all loaned out to bears who had sold, borrowed, and +delivered it. It is obvious that this person or club of persons could +compel purchases of the shares which he or they alone possess, at +whatever price he or they think proper to demand; and since such +things can be done by skilful combinations under able generalship, +they have been done, and were a favorite scheme during the eventful +years between the sixties and the eighties. The corners in Harlem, +Hudson, Erie and Northwest, in which Vanderbilt, Drew, and Gould +achieved such success for themselves and their associates, have passed +into history as a conspicuous portion of the great events of Wall +Street. Their interest is chiefly historical, because of late years no +comprehensive corners have been organized. Share capitals are so large +that it is difficult for one man to control any one of them, and a +divided corner is apt to fail. But in their day and generation they +have offered brilliant illustrations of genius and strategic skill in +financial warfare. + +The system of selling short, however, which gave birth to the idea of +creating corners, and which came into vogue in the fifties, has never +ceased to be a leading factor on the stock exchange. It was the result +of certain inflations of values which necessarily follow the +construction of great enterprises. However high a valuation may be set +upon any given commodity, there are always persons who expect a higher +price. Early historical examples of this fact are the South-Sea shares +and John Law's Mississippi shares, over which England and France +respectively went crazy in the last century. The loftier the figures +to which these shares mounted, the greater was the eagerness of the +public to buy them. But at that period the art and mystery of selling +short had not been brought into practice, and when the bubbles +collapsed there were universal losers and no direct winners. + +During the latter half of this century there have been periods in the +history of Wall Street when the prices of railway and industrial +shares have been forced enormously above the standard of actual +values, and innumerable persons have parted with good money in +exchange for mere phantoms of imaginary values. At such times the +short sales of discernment, directing the X rays of clear-sighted +criticism into the swollen and opaque mass of financial carrion that +is exposed for sale in the market, are of the utmost benefit to the +public. The bear is then a benefactor to the community, and when he +pulls down and tears to pieces the rotten carcass of some gigantic +humbug, strewing the highway with its remains, we cannot praise his +work too highly. + + +II. + +The present condition of Wall Street is one of lassitude and +expectancy. The great banks have an abundance, perhaps a +superabundance, of money, their own and their depositors, which they +are only too glad to lend on solid and readily salable collateral at +low rates of interest, approximating the prevalent rates in London and +Paris, where similar accumulations of idle capital exist. A large part +of this money is deposited with them by local banks in all parts of +the country, which recognize New York City as the financial centre of +the Union, and are content with interest of from one to two per cent +upon the funds which they are unwilling or unable to use safely at +home. The stock exchange is also in a condition of quietude. The +public are neither buying nor selling stocks in any large amount. + +This state of things is the resultant of well-known facts. Numerous +over-capitalized and badly managed railways have gone into bankruptcy, +and either are in the hands of receivers or have emerged from such +guardianship, and are painfully toiling along on the road to +prosperity on the twin crutches of assessments upon stockholders and +the withholding of dividends from the same long-suffering and patient +class. + +The transactions at the stock exchange at present average about two +hundred thousand shares a day, exclusive of bonds, government, State, +and railway; and a certain class of observers who like to subject +circumstances to a minute analysis inform the public that the daily +profits of the members of the exchange are about sufficient to pay +the expense of office rent and clerk hire. This conclusion takes it +for granted that these profits should be equally divided among the +membership. This is not a reasonable supposition. Many of the members +are such only in name, and rarely go on the floor. Others live during +most of the time on their accumulations, and come into the market to +buy or sell only when prices are abnormally low or high. The +comparatively small busy portion manage somehow to keep fairly active, +and are cheerfully looking forward to better times, through a vista +from which the cloud of a change of the monetary standard has already +passed away, and into which the genius of enterprise beckons them to +enter. + + +III. + +While in many respects the future is a sealed book, yet there is such +a thing in the economy of nature as an absolutely accurate prevision +of events, such as eclipses of the sun and moon, and conjunctions of +the planets, and a relatively correct prevision of events depending +upon the growth of enlightened communities. Since the incorporation of +the Bank of New York, at the corner of Wall and Williams Streets, the +banking capital of New York has increased more than sixtyfold, of +which more than one-half is held and used in and around Wall Street, +and the aggregation of deposited and loanable capital has grown from a +few millions to over half a billion. If this has been the result +during one century, what will take place in the same direction during +the next century? The ratio of increase will not be kept up. A +thousand dollars may be doubled in a day, but no such ratio as a +hundred per cent a day can be predicated of a million. And yet it is +certain that, under proper management, the million will go on +increasing; and in the same manner will our half-billion increase by +its own earning power, and by contributions from all parts of the +Union. The development of the United States in the direction of +population, agriculture, manufactures, and mines is so enormous and so +steady that this nation will at some not distant period become the +most opulent of all the nations of the planet, unless unforeseen and +improbable political events happen by which our great commonwealth +shall be disrupted or its financial stability overturned. Under a +normal condition of things the capital of the citizens of the Union +will continually increase, and the banks of the city of New York will +be the depositary of larger and larger reserves of whatever capital is +temporarily idle in the places where it is created. In due time the +financial centre of the world will be shifted from London to our +imperial city. + +Such a destiny has been foretold for St. Petersburg, in view of the +construction of the Siberian Railway and its branches, which in time +will open up to industry an immense tract of productive soil in the +most fertile parts of Asia, abounding in wheat and corn land, and full +of superior water power. But in this superb rivalry between the United +States and the colossus of Europe and Asia, the former nation has an +immense start as to time, and a still greater advantage in the +character of its population. And in addition to these we have the +undoubted and constantly increasing supremacy of the English language. +Just as during the Middle Ages Latin was the vernacular of the learned +classes, and as to-day French is the language of diplomacy in Europe, +so is English the common tongue in all the commercial localities of +the globe. With English a man can commit himself to foreign travel +anywhere, while outside of Russia there are few towns on the various +continents in which Russian is not an unknown speech. These +controlling conditions cannot be readily or easily changed, especially +since no paramount reasons exist why they should be changed. + +It is then a reasonable forecast of the future, that in due time the +weighty import of the names of Lombard[1] and Threadneedle Streets +will be transferred to the name of Wall Street, and the facts implied +by such a transfer are of a dignity and power which it is impossible +to estimate. The road leading to this great destiny can only be +blocked by injurious legislation, and the good sense of our citizens +may be confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a +barricade against national prosperity. + + [1] It will be recollected that Macaulay has pictured a New + Zealander of some future day as sitting upon a broken arch + of London Bridge, contemplating the ruins of St. Paul's + cathedral; and readers of the classics may recall the + forecast of Seneca in the time of Nero, as to the discovery + of a Western continent by which Rome should be dwarfed: "In + later ages the time shall come when the ocean shall loosen + the chains which bind us, a mighty continent shall be + disclosed, and a deity shall unveil a new world beyond + Britannia." + + + +II. THE TRUE INWARDNESS OF WALL STREET. + +BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH. + + +The organized powers of society are always anxious to conciliate +public favor. They know that they exist by sufferance--by sufferance +of a mightier than themselves. In proportion as they know themselves +to be aggressors and spoliators their anxiety increases. Every abusive +power in the world is thus driven to adopt schemes and devices--some +dangerous and some merely ludicrous--to keep a footing at that silent +bar of opinion before which all wrong must, sooner or later, quail and +slink away. + +The great concern called Wall Street is such an organized power in +society. It exists as a fact in our American system, and would fain +conciliate the favor of the public. Wall Street has become one of the +most conspicuous features in our national life. Knowing that it is +challenged by public opinion--knowing indeed that it is already under +the ban and condemnation of the American people--it now seeks, after +the manner of its kind, to save itself alive. It would go further than +mere salvation; it would make mankind believe that it is a reputable +part of the universal swim. Aye more; it seeks to ingratiate itself, +sometimes by force and sometimes by gentle craft and stratagem, into +the good graces of that civilization which it has so mortally +offended. + +To this end Wall Street strives to justify itself in periodical and +general literature. No other power in human society to so great a +degree and in so subtle a manner exploits its own virtues. Taking +advantage of the well-known carelessness of American readers, and +knowing full well how easily they are duped--how easily they are +cozened out of their senses and led into false beliefs with mere +plausibilities and sophisms--this imperial and far-reaching Wall +Street, this elephantine fox of the world, takes possession of +American journalism--owns it, controls it. It seizes and subsidizes +the metropolitan press. It purchases newspapers and magazines by the +score. It establishes bureaus; it buys every purchasable pen, from the +pen of the gray philosopher to the pen of the snake editor. It +overawes every timid brain, from the brain of the senator to the +brain of the tramp. What it cannot purchase it terrorizes; and the +small residue which it cannot terrorize it seeks to cajole: all this +to the end that its dominion may be universal and everlasting. + +In this work of gaining possession of public opinion and perverting +that opinion to its own uses Wall Street employs all methods and uses +all expedients. Wall Street deliberately marks its game; and we have +to confess that the game generally falls at the first fire. We have +heard, however, of a single case of a brave man, now dead, who, when +offered ten thousand dollars for his voice against his conviction and +his opinion against his soul, in the matter of electing President of +the United States the man who was the candidate of Wall Street, told +the subtle committee to make an immediate and expeditious visit to the +bottom of the old theology. + +This train of thought rises vividly to mind when I consider the +article of Mr. Henry Clews on "Wall Street, Past, Present, and +Future." This article came unsought and unexpected to the editorial +desk of THE ARENA. I confess that I doubted its genuineness. For why +should Mr. Clews address the public through the columns of THE ARENA? +What has THE ARENA done to merit such distinction? Satisfying myself +that the contribution was genuine, that it was not--and is not--a +hallucination, I at once divined that it must be a sort of challenge +to this magazine. I do the author of "Wall Street, Past, Present, and +Future," the honor to believe that he does not suppose THE ARENA to be +sufficiently verdant to publish his adroit and well-covered apology +for the great institution which he represents,--without knowing the +sense and significance of it. If indeed the distinguished gentleman +imagined that we could do such a thing here, then in good sooth he +must be undeceived. Or if he supposed that a paper of the kind +submitted would be _rejected_ at this office because of our well-known +antagonism to the fact which Mr. Clews defends, let him in that +instance also be undeceived. + +At the office of THE ARENA we take all challenges. Nor should our +friends suppose or fear that the welcome admission of Mr. Clews's +article to the pages of THE ARENA implies timidity or some possible +weakness in the presence of that gigantic institution known by the +name of Wall Street. The fact is, that the nightmare which that power +has been able to spread, bat-like, over the souls of men for a quarter +of a century has about been dissipated; it is already the beginning of +the end. It is the dawn; the day is not very far in the future when +the American people, roused at last to the exertion of their majesty, +will shake themselves from the dread of this incubus and spring up +like a giant refreshed from slumber. + +Mr. Clews's article on "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future," is a +most gentle and dove-like performance. It is not a paper intended to +produce alarm, but to allay it. It is one of the finest examples of a +literary opiate that I have ever seen. The bottom theme of the paper +is that Wall Street is a natural growth, and is therefore inevitable. +Wall Street has come by a gentle evolution. Good men and true have +conspired with nature to bring it forth. Under natural and necessary +conditions Wall Street has appeared in our American system, and under +these conditions it flourishes. Whatever great fact in society has +thus appeared has been born of necessity and out of the nature of +things. If Wall Street have been born out of necessity and the nature +of things, then it has come of righteousness, and is the child of +truth. If of righteousness and truth, then Wall Street is good as well +as glorious. That which is good and glorious ought to be admired and +honored. Whatever is admired and honored, whatever is good and +glorious, should have influence and power in society and state. Such a +golden product of evolution is Wall Street; therefore the sceptre +which Wall Street stretches forth over the prostrate Western world +should be obeyed and upheld by the voice and hand of the American +people. + +Not only so, but the sceptre should be extended. The empire of Wall +Street should become universal. It should be enlarged and confirmed +until all outlying kingdoms and all islands of the sea shall pass +under the beneficent sway of this monarchy of the world! Then with Mr. +Clews we may well consider his "reasonable forecast of the future." +With him we shall be able to see "that in due time the weighty import +of the names of Lombard and Threadneedle Streets will be transferred +to the name of Wall Street." With Mr. Clews we shall be able to see +that "the facts implied by such a transfer are of a dignity and power +which it is impossible to estimate." Then, finally, with Mr. Clews we +shall agree that "the road leading to this great destiny _can only be +blocked by legislation_." Mr. Clews says "injurious" legislation. +Certainly; that is true--most true. The consummation hoped for by Mr. +Clews can verily be blocked by legislation! But when it comes to the +definition of "injurious" how fearfully do we part company! The writer +of "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future" flatters himself, in fine, +with the belief that "the good sense of our citizens may be +confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a barricade +against national prosperity." Oh, it is "national prosperity" then +that we have in view! That is good. If there be anything under heaven +which Wall Street adores and dotes on more than any other thing in the +world it is national prosperity! When it comes to national prosperity +Wall Street is always full-handed. With the mere mention of national +prosperity Wall Street raises a shout of sympathetic enthusiasm which +reverberates from Passamaquoddy to San Diego, and from the Florida +everglades to the snow-capped shoulders of Shasta! + +Let me, however, explain to Mr. Clews one thing, and that is that the +blessed condition of universal society in which Wall Street, having +absorbed Lombard and Threadneedle, shall be supreme over the nations +will occur only when our free American institutions shall be crushed +into fragments and when civil liberty shall lie bleeding among the +ruins. It will occur _then_, and not before. It will occur when the +residue of the old American spirit has been stamped out, and when a +miserable, slavish subserviency shall have been substituted for the +revolutionary freedom which our fathers won and made sacred with their +blood on every patriot battlefield from Lexington to Appomattox. + +Temperately and patiently I will follow Mr. Clews's paper through. The +writer of the article is a gentlemanly and able representative of that +colossal power which he has helped to build up and fortify. From being +a child of that power he has now become, in a most theosophical +manner, one of the fathers of it! As such he has made himself the +apologist of a gigantic and rampant beast on whose horns of hazard +the values produced by the labor of seventy millions of Americans are +tossed about as if the wreckage were so much waste excelsior thrown on +the horns of a bull! Mr. Clews tells us that in 1792 twenty-seven +gentlemen met under a buttonwood tree and formed the association known +as Wall Street. The purpose of the association was "the purchase and +sale of public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a +proviso of mutual help and preference." The result was the addition of +"the prestige and power of the stock exchange to the prestige and +power of the banks." That indeed is a combination worthy to be +considered! A consolidation of interests was effected between the +exchange and the banks to purchase and sell stocks "with a proviso of +mutual help." + +The organization thus created has existed for one hundred and five +years. It has made a history. It has become ever greater and more +firmly fixed in and _on_ American society. It has made itself to be +the foundation of all things financial and political in the United +States. The story of the process by which this prodigious result has +been reached is narrated by Mr. Clews in the manner of one who gives +an account of the formation of a temperance society or a Sunday +school! In the whole article there does not appear a symptom of a +suspicion that the thing of which he gives the history is the most +dangerous and abusive fact that ever threatened the integrity of a +nation. The argument is that if twenty-seven gentlemen thus met and +created Wall Street, then the result, being a natural product, is good +and wholesome. But the inquiry at once arises whether it is valid +logic to suppose that what men do is right, simply because they do it. +The affirmative of such a proposition would make Aristotle stagger. It +amounts to this, that whatever is is right; therefore, let it alone. + +By this argument of Mr. Clews all the tyrannies of the past, all the +horrors that have afflicted the human race, all the sufferings which +men have endured from sword and pestilence, from servitude, from the +butchery of war and the cruelty of the Inquisition, have been right +merely because they have been natural. Under this rule every monster +that has tormented society from the first day until now can find full +justification for itself on the simple ground that it exists! Under +such an argument a howitzer is as good as a plough, a sword is as good +as a sickle, a pillory is as good as a baby-wagon. By such reasoning a +shark is as useful as a horse. By this logic a boa-constrictor is as +good as a reindeer, a tiger is as useful and salutary in his office as +an ox or a St. Bernard, and a cancer is as beautiful as a blush. That +is, everything is good, not because it is useful and just, but because +it is. + +Or again, Mr. Clews's argument is this: that the men who created Wall +Street were gentlemen; therefore their work was salutary. Just as +though respectable people could not engage in a nefarious business. +Just as though gentlemen could not, and would not, make a conspiracy +to enslave the human race. The "gentleman" is a very uncertain factor +in civilization; his devotion to right and truth requires always to be +tested with a chemical and to be taken with the usual combination of +chlorine and sodium. + +Mr. Clews explains that the stocks underlying our old railroad +properties in the United States were aforetime "held locally," and +that they were transferred "more frequently by executors than by +brokers on the stock exchange"--as though that were an evil. Then +"there were but few opportunities for dealing in shares"--as though +_that_ were an evil! It thus became necessary for Wall Street to get +the old stocks belonging to the people out of the people's hands and +into the hands of the Street--as though _that_ were a good. Our public +improvements were in the first place made by the people, but the +people were not fit to own them. Our railways were constructed with +capital subscribed by the people, generally by those through whose +country the given improvement was extended. The people themselves then +owned their own, and controlled it. Until Wall Street reached out and +clutched such properties--first putting down the prices of the shares +to nothing and then pulling the given stocks to par--the people were +able to protect themselves; but never afterwards. + +The same was true of all other securities, whether public or private. +Nearly all bonded debts were at first local; but the holding of +securities _locally_ has always been a thing abhorrent to Wall Street. +The idea of the Street is that all stocks and all securities belong, +not to the public, but to itself. Of course the _money capital_ of the +country belongs to the Street. And if, with the consent of public +authority, the _stocks_ of the country also can be held by the Street, +then a humble peasantry, paying perennial rents and compound interest, +can be created and kept under forever throughout the domains of the +great Republic. It may ultimately require arsenals to do it, but these +we can supply. + +The next stage in the game was the creation by Wall Street of +fictitious enterprises for the distinct purpose of getting possession +of the stocks on which such enterprises were based, and of speculating +in the shares of such properties. When the _existing_ stocks of +railways were not sufficient--when the bonds of States and of the +general government were insufficient in quantity to fill the maw of +the benevolent being called Wall Street--then an _artificial_ supply +must be created; that is, some scheme of debts must be invented by +which the people might be made to pay tribute to the good Wall Street, +and pay it still more abundantly. + +Thus were invented new banks and new banking systems. Thus came the +bull and the bear and the bucket-shop. Thus were projected a thousand +railways and canals. Many of these were laid into impossible +regions--all "for the benefit of the people!" Other enterprises which +were not sufficiently stocked began to be stocked more heavily--this +also for the benefit of the people. The plan of watering was invented; +the method of "promoting" enterprises was perfected,--until, as early +as the time of the Civil War, Wall Street had acquired the greatest +skill in _making_ debts, or, in the language of James Fisk, Jr., in +"rescuing the property of other people from themselves." + +These beautiful processes are glossed over by Mr. Clews with a +pleasant account of how, with the growth of business and the discovery +of gold and the oncoming of the age of construction, great enterprises +were "promoted" by Wall Street, and how "capital instantly flowed +forth from its reservoirs in answer to the securities" that flowed +thereto. The author of "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future," +affirms "that but for the combined machinery of the New York banks and +the stock exchange the actual developments of twenty years would have +dragged laboriously through an entire century." Permit us to say that +it would have been better that such "actual developments" should have +dragged through _two_ centuries than that the United States of America +should have been stocked and mortgaged and bonded and enslaved, under +the tyrannous lash of debt, by such a master as Wall Street. + +Mr. Clews next comes to the subject of corners. On this topic we doubt +not that he speaks as one having authority. He tells us quite +complacently that there was "an epoch in the Wall Street of the past +when the gigantic and deeply considered combinations were set in +motion entitled 'corners.'" Then he goes on to explain what corners +are. He does so without the slightest expression of criticism or +aversion. He tells us of the bulls and the bears by whose agency a +corner is conducted as though they were the friendly competitors in +some great philanthropy! Instead of describing corners as so many +carefully contrived schemes to rob the people of the proceeds of their +labor by putting the prices of their commodities and securities down +until such commodities and securities are taken from their hands, and +then putting the prices _up_ in order that the robbers may reap the +harvest, he speaks of corners as offering "brilliant illustrations of +genius and strategic skill in financial warfare!" + +The fact is that the men who are reared in Wall Street, who from their +youth are familiarized with its processes, and who are well set in the +plastic age to consider human life as an auspicious opportunity for +getting possession of something that does not belong to them, are +fatally blunted in their sensibilities; the ethical quality in them is +battered out--or at least battered; they come to regard the human race +as an enormous ranch of sheep to be shorn at the pleasure of the +shearers; they even grow to consider each other as so much mutton to +be butchered and roasted by whoever is able to do it. + +I notice with surprise that Mr. Clews in his sketch of Wall Street +dwells not at all upon the benevolent agency of that power during the +Civil War. This is an oversight which I beg leave to supply. There has +never perhaps been an instance in human history in which a great power +has so ardently devoted itself "to the preservation of free +institutions" as did Wall Street in that epoch of mortal agony. Then +it was that Wall Street engaged in the patriotic work, first of +destroying the national credit, then of buying it up at half price, +then of converting it into a bonded debt to be perpetuated for a full +generation, and finally of compelling the people to pay it in a dollar +worth four times as much as the dollar with which it was purchased. It +was a beautiful scheme of devotion and self-sacrifice the like of +which history has never before recorded. It was a speculation which +involved the life of the American Republic. The Union was on trial. +All nerves were strained, and all hearts were torn. The nation was +bleeding at every pore. Every freight-train that came from the front +brought back its loaded boxes of dead. Fathers and mothers gathered at +the station, and each received his own. The rough coffin containing +the body of the patriot boy who had given his life for the flag was +taken by the silent father and mother to its resting-place under the +apple trees. All true men had tearful faces, and a stern resolve in +the heart. And while _this_ was the condition of the nation and the +people, the high-toned Wall Street was speculating on the life of the +Republic. It bought and sold blood. It was a bull on disaster and a +bear on victory. It established bureaus through which to falsify +intelligence and to bring the nation to the verge of ruin. It had no +compunction. It regarded the gore of battlefields as the rich rain and +mould out of which its own harvest was to grow. The more blood the +merrier. The more tears the richer the yield. The more war the more +debt. The more depression of the national credit the more cheaply we +shall be able to gather it up! The more grape-vine despatches the more +distraction and the better opportunity for us. The more death the more +millions. The more horror and devastation the heavier will be our +coffers. The more the people groan the more we will shout. The more +they die the more we will live. The more the flag is torn the more our +damask curtains will flutter. The more liberty perishes and withers +from the earth the more we shall plant ourselves and flourish and rule +and reign over a nation that we have destroyed and a people whom we +have enslaved. If Mr. Clews wishes any further outline of the history +of Wall Street during our Civil War we shall be glad to contribute +such a sketch as a reminiscence of a great fact which appears to be +dim in his memory. + +There is another almost fatal omission in Mr. Clews's article. He says +but little about the principal work in which Wall Street, historically +considered, has been engaged during the last thirty years. I do not +like the way in which this great section of the "Past" of Wall Street +is glossed over. During the period referred to, that institution has +had one bottom purpose and one reason of action from which it has +never deviated. This purpose, this reason of action, has been the +perpetuation of the national debt and the increase of its value by +bulling the unit of money in which the debt is payable. Wall Street +knows that the bonded debt of the United States is the basis, or +central fact, in the whole system of bonds and stocks. Wall Street +knows that the dollar is the central fact in the bond. It knows that +if the bond can be made everlasting and the dollar can be increased in +value until a single unit of it shall be equivalent to an acre of +farming land, then the Street can own the United States in fee simple, +and can presently annex the rest of the world. + +I acknowledge a certain admiration when I consider this stupendous +scheme. It is more than Napoleonic; it is continental, interplanetary, +sidereal! I cannot recall another conspiracy in the history of mankind +quite equal in colossal and criminal splendor to the profound and +universal plot of Wall Street to make perpetual the national debt, to +keep that debt the bottom fact in the banking system of the United +States, and to bull the unit of money and account until it shall be +worth four times as much, or perhaps ten times as much, as it was when +the bulk of the debt was contracted. + +The history of this scheme in its true inwardness is the history of +Wall Street for the past thirty years. The details of the history +relate to such small circumstances as the transfer of the government +of the great Republic from the hands and control of the people to the +hands and control of the Street. Of course no such scheme as that +referred to could be carried into successful operation _unless_ the +national government could be delivered over to the keeping of the +Street and be locked up, as it were, in the same vault where the +national debt is deposited. + +This feat, however, was easily accomplished. Wall Street reached out +its hand and plucked down the American eagle from his perch. Wall +Street got possession of the government. The _coup_ was accomplished +while the nation was asleep--else it never could have been +accomplished. Wall Street climbed the Tarpeian rock in the night, and +no goose cackled to give the alarm. Columbia had gone to bed. The +keeper of her treasure-house had already given the key to the enemy. +The keeper of the treasury was a _part_ of the enemy. He gave up both +citadel and city. In the morning the walls were placarded with lying +posters which said that the delivery of the government into the hands +of the Hessians had been rendered necessary in order "to preserve the +national honor!" It was done in order to keep faith with those +benevolent patriots who had bought the debt of the nation at less than +fifty cents to the dollar, and who, not satisfied with bringing it to +par, were now engaged in the honorable work of making it worth two +hundred cents to the dollar. The fact that the industries of the +people would be crushed and the people themselves be reduced to +poverty by the transfer of the national sovereignty from the capitol +to the stock exchange was nothing in comparison with the "preservation +of national honor." + +The scheme was carried out. The methods by which it was carried out +constitute the subject-matter of the true history of Wall Street +during the past generation. Wall Street, from being a financial +organization, became a political power. It took full possession of the +executive and legislative departments of the government. It controlled +them both. It promptly established and defended its ownership. It +instituted one scheme after another. For the purpose of fortifying its +usurpation, it learned to choose its men and to prepare its measures +in advance. In 1884 it created an administration for its own purposes, +and manned it to the same end. It forced its way into the House of +Representatives and stood with a bludgeon behind the Speaker's chair. +It entered every committee-room and dictated every successful bill. +The people's bills all went one way. If by any chance one of the +people's bills got before the House the subsidized press, owned by +Wall Street, raised against it a chorus of groans and catcalls; _that_ +was "an expression of public opinion"! + +From that day forth the popular voice was strangled into silence. The +next administration (that of 1888) was prepared in the same manner. +Wall Street has no politics except the politics of the bond; it has no +platform except the platform of cent per cent. It suffices that when a +president is to be elected he shall be one of us. He shall not be a +man of the people; else in that case he would be a demagogue, a +windbag, a _vox et præterea nil_. _Our_ man shall not even know the +despised people. He shall not smell of the filthy ground, but must be +"sound" on questions of finance. If he be not "sound," we will make +him so. We will teach him his paces. If the people conclude to change +their government, we will see to it that the incoming powers are just +like the outgoing. As for the "principles" on which the candidate +shall be chosen, we will attend to that. We will make his principles +for him. We understand principles perfectly. We will fix the platform; +we know the carpenters. If the candidate and his friends have already +fixed a platform before the date of the convention, and if it have +been published everywhere as the decision of the candidate and his +following, we will take that platform from the wires and will +carefully revise it, to the end that the "national honor" shall be +preserved. We will write it over again into new meanings. We will +interpret it so that no harm shall be done to the "national credit." +We will make our candidate into a puppet. When we put our foot on the +treadle his jaw shall drop and he shall utter many mocking words about +the "national honor" and the "prospects of our glorious +country"--signifying nothing. + +All this we will do for the public good. We will say that we are +striving for national prosperity. We will proclaim our candidate as +the advance agent of prosperity--until after the election. Then we +will say that prosperity will come with the inauguration. Then we will +say that it will shine out promptly when Congress adjourns and ceases +to menace the national credit. Then we will say that prosperity will +reveal itself when the hot season is over. By this time the hoodwinked +people can be coddled to sleep, or else set to dancing with rumors of +foreign wars. To this end we will have our newspapers carefully +promote our principles and studiously avoid all reference to those +subjects in which the people feel the deepest concern. Finally, we +will omit all these matters from our history of "Wall Street, Past;" +we will proceed to speak of our "Wall Street, Present," and will +explain that it is in a state of "lassitude and expectancy." Indeed +"lassitude and expectancy" is good. + +But there is still another yawning chasm in the history of "Wall +Street, _Past_," and that is Mr. Clews's failure to discuss the +transfer of the Treasury of the United States to the custody of the +Street, and the consequent reduction of the Secretary of the Treasury +to the rank of a clerk. This very thing has been most successfully +accomplished. I believe that the Secretary still has an office at +Washington, but that should be closed in the interest of economy and +reform. To do so, we doubt not, would be a strong factor in the +restoration of confidence. Perhaps the Washington office might be left +in charge of a janitor, for it is understood that some official +correspondence is still directed to the old address! The presence of +the Secretary in New York, however, has become so essential to the +proper discharge of his duties that the removal of his residence +thither can only be deferred by an absurd deference to public opinion! + +The results of the transfer of this vital function of the national +government have, in the meantime, been so salutary as fully to +vindicate the change. This was shown in 1893-94 when the Street, with +a strong repugnance to investing money in useful enterprises, and +having a prodigious accumulation of funds on hand, concluded that a +sale of Government bonds was necessary for the "national honor." To +this end the managers began to pull the treasury. In that institution +a large sum of gold was stored, wholly without warrant of law. The +people needed the gold beyond measure--that is, they needed the +_money_; and gold is one form of money. The industries of the people +had been prostrated by an international conspiracy, and the nation was +quivering on the verge of apprehended ruin. + +In this crisis the patriotic Street devised the bucket-chain, the +crank of which was in the hand of the Street, while the "chain" ran +through the Treasury of the United States. Every bucket came out +filled with gold. Lazard Frères emptied out the gold and shipped it +abroad to their confederates. This created the necessity for buying it +back with bonds. The people were stunned with the audacity of the +thing--just as the unfortunate owners of a house in flames are stunned +to see gentlemen of the profession rush in and empty the safe. Wall +Street danced and shouted while the work was done. The bonds were +"popular," and the Street got them--got them for one price and sold +them for another. + +By this beautiful process the great American nation was literally held +up and _robbed_ of more than nineteen million dollars! No highwayman +ever more successfully clutched the wizen of his victim than did the +Street with its supple fingers around the white larynx of Columbia. +The wheezing of the strangulated Republic could be heard from the St. +Lawrence to the Rio Grande. The nation was thus "saved," and the +robbers took the money and went sailing away on summer cruises to +Norway and Venice and the Cyclades. The "national credit" was +preserved; Wall Street "rescued" us from dishonor! That part of the +proceeds not consumed in yacht races, pyrotechnics, and balls was +passed to the credit of the reform fund, needed for the restoration of +prosperity in the fall of 1896! Certainly a history of "Wall Street, +Past," ought to contain some reference to these crimes. + +Mr. Clews, turning to "Wall Street, Present," tells the nation that +now "the great banks have a superabundance of gold to lend on solid +and readily salable collateral at low rates of interest, approximating +the prevalent rates in London and Paris, where similar accumulations +of idle capital exist." This is a true statement of the facts. Mr. +Clews has here spoken by the books. What he says signifies that Wall +Street is now ready to go ahead and issue new mortgages on the +American people. It is now ready to offer inducements to our fourteen +millions of voters to sell themselves into another twenty-year cycle +of bondage. If they will only be gentle and not interrupt us; if they +will give us a true death-grip on themselves, on all they possess, and +all they ever hope to possess, we will lend back to them a part of the +very money which we have sucked up from their wheat fields and +pastures, from their barns and potato patches, from their humble +stores and markets, from their mills and their mines, and we will thus +_expedite_ them on the way to serfdom. Meanwhile we will continue to +bankrupt their railways, to snatch their local stocks, to convert all +shares in all enterprises into bonds, and to put the bonds into our +safes to the end--that confidence may be restored and prosperity come +back like the flowers that bloom in the spring. + +For the time being we, the Street, are able to toss "two hundred +thousand shares a day" on the horns of our bull, and to put the same +amount of securities under the custody of our bear. "This conclusion +takes it for granted that the profits should be equally divided among +the membership." Such are Mr. Clews's very words. By the bond of my +faith! there is nothing else so beautiful and magnificent as this +among the arts invented by mankind! As for the people, one of your own +kings, Messieurs of the Street, has very properly indicated your wish +and purpose with regard to _them_. + +Mr. Clews tells us that the "Future" of Wall Street is a sealed book; +and yet we may allow that "there is such a thing as an accurate +prevision of events." Of this kind are eclipses, occultations, and +tides of the sea. If the capital of Wall Street has, since the +institution was founded, increased more than sixtyfold, as Mr. Clews +declares, then we may expect it, according to his philosophy, to +increase full sixty times sixty, until the world shall be swallowed +up. Then, when Threadneedle and Lombard Streets shall have lost their +sceptre; then, when Seneca's forecast of the time to come shall have +been fulfilled; then, when Macaulay's New Zealander shall have made +his sketch, not only of St. Paul's, but also of the bank of England; +then, when _all_ the wealth, and _all_ the power, and _all_ the +functions of civil society in the United States shall have been +transferred to Wall Street; then, when nothing shall remain to the +American people except their squalid huts and the sorrowful +reminiscences of a great republic; then, when Wall Street in very +truth shall have possessed itself of the earth and consumed +mankind,--I suppose that the benevolent owners of the world will found +a few libraries, build a few marble mausoleums for themselves, and +sally forth to establish a stock exchange in Mars! That done, +interplanetary wars may be engendered, bonds on the solar system may +be issued and bought at half price, a gold standard of values may be +fixed on the basis of the pound sterling good from the sun out to +Neptune, and the inhabitants of the worlds, either by arms or by +journalism, may become the helots of consolidated wealth enthroned as +the governing power of the universe. + + + + +THE REFORM CLUB'S FEAST OF UNREASON. + +BY HON. CHARLES A. TOWNE, + +_Chairman Provisional National Committee Silver Republican Party._ + + +On Saturday evening, April 24, 1897, at the Waldorf Hotel, New York, +there was held a political banquet intended as a most impressive +function, but which has passed into history as a very ridiculous one. +Big with self-complacence and puffed with pride, as it appeared in the +brilliant lights and gorgeous appointments of the palatial +supper-hall, within twenty-four hours the lacerating indignation of +Mr. Watterson and the trenchant raillery of Mr. Bryan had let the +tumid pretentiousness all out of it, and it had collapsed into a +flaccid and "innocuous desuetude." The "star-eyed goddess" turned her +back upon it, the "wild-orbed anarch" snapped his fingers at it, and +even everyday Mrs. Grundy laughed it to scorn. Projected with the most +alluring and satisfying expectations, the feast has dwindled to the +memory of a sad mistake in the mind of every man that assisted at it. +Planned as a sort of coronation ceremony, its completed performance +unaccountably wore the complexion of belated obsequies irreverently +disturbed by the guffaws of the multitude. + +But the aspect of this banquet as a piece of ill-conceived political +strategy that never was formidable, or as a rite in the ceremonial of +a hero-worship that is as inexplicable as inopportune, does not now so +much concern me as does its office as a dispenser of misinformation +and unsound philosophy, which are always dangerous. Many who condemn +the folly of it as a move in practical politics nevertheless loudly +commend the economic doctrines it contributed to spread. But inasmuch +as, in my opinion, the science it taught is as bad as the politics it +practised, I propose to call attention to a few of the arrogant +assumptions and mischievous theories that found emphatic and repeated +expression at this feast. + +Did the purpose of this article permit, it would be interesting to +make Mr. Cleveland's speech the text of some examination into the +ex-President's peculiarities of style. It was Clevelandesque to the +core. All his protuberant characteristics are there: the leviathanic +egotism, the profound and tenebrous ponderosity, the labored intricacy +of the commonplace, the pedagogic moralizing, the oracular +inconsequence. How absurdly obvious it all is now, and how +inexplicable that the glamour of high place should ever have clothed +such matter as his with the seeming of philosophy and statesmanship! +'Tis the very frippery and trumpery of the stage after the lights are +out and the audience has departed. + +In his opening Mr. Cleveland says: "On every side we are confronted +with popular depression and complaint." This language stirs an echo of +the long ago. In his special message to the extra session of the +Fifty-third Congress in August, 1893, he thus announced a similar +condition: "Suddenly financial distrust and fear have sprung up on +every side." But he accounts differently for these two identical +phenomena. The situation to-day he largely attributes to "the work of +agitators and demagogues." In 1893 he declared: "I believe these +things are principally chargeable to Congressional legislation +touching the purchase and coinage of silver by the general +government." + +The ex-President's explanations are both wrong, and nobody ought to +know it so well as himself. His relations with the great gold bankers +were exceedingly intimate in 1892 and 1893, and have been so ever +since. It is notorious that the panic of 1893 was a bankers' panic +deliberately brought about by these men to frighten public sentiment +into supplementing their demand for the repeal of the purchasing +clause of the Sherman law of 1890. The agitation against that law was +a whooped-up and manufactured agitation. No legitimate interest had +suffered from its operation. On the contrary, the access of standard +silver dollars coined under the laws of 1878 and 1890 had been of +incalculable advantage to the country. In his annual message of +December 2, 1890, President Harrison had thus referred to this fact: +"The general tendency of the markets was upward from influences wholly +apart from the recent tariff legislation. The enlargement of our +currency by the silver bill undoubtedly gave an upward tendency to +trade and had a marked effect on prices." And again: "It is gratifying +to know that the increased circulation secured by the act has +exerted, and will continue to exert a most beneficial influence upon +business and upon general values." + +Such an influence that circulation did indeed continue to exert. The +comparative prosperity of the two following years, which, in contrast +with the conditions of the subsequent period, causes 1892 to wear to +wistful eyes so beautiful a hue in these unhappy days, would have been +an absolute impossibility but for the silver legislation. + +Nor was the credit of the government menaced. It was a malicious +afterthought that represented the silver dollar as a charge upon the +credit of the nation. That dollar was a standard dollar. It was never +"redeemed" in anything but the money-work it did. There was no law for +its redemption, and there was as yet no attempt, such as Mr. Carlisle +in 1896 declared himself ready to make, to commit the crime of an +administrative degradation of the circulating silver dollars into +promises for the payment of gold. The Treasury Notes, issued in +payment for silver bullion under the law of 1890, were redeemable in +either gold or silver at the discretion of the Secretary of the +Treasury; and inasmuch as there was silver behind every one of them, +they could become a menace to the credit of the government only in +case of the betrayal of his duty by that official. + +But the contractionists looked with alarm upon the improving +conditions of the country. Something must be done to discredit silver, +or by and by there might arise such a demand for the full restoration +of its mint privileges and money powers as could not be balked, as +every similar demand had been balked since 1873; and in that event the +slow villany of many years would have been fruitless and the +contractionists' occupation would be gone. Then was formed the deep +design to compel the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman +law. The gigantic forces that had been behind Mr. Cleveland in the +memorable campaign of 1892 had not lost their cunning or their power. +They knew their implements, and they had had much experience. Their +strategy was customary and it was effective. To-day Mr. Cleveland +complains because the Republican party, having won the contest of last +November on the money question, should have hurried into the current +extra session on the tariff question. Let him recall his own course +when, having carried the country in 1892 on the tariff question, he +summoned the extra session of 1893 to consider the money question. +Such a reflection might possibly assist him in fathoming the present +motives of the men who won in 1892 to achieve the gold standard and in +1896 to preserve it. + +For the election of Mr. Cleveland was a carefully executed move in an +elaborate and merciless programme. The president of a national bank in +North Dakota, a man of character and thorough reliability, has +recently made public a conversation between himself and a prominent +New York bank president, held not long after that election, in which +the latter, whose institution was a member of the Associated National +Banks, declared in substance as follows: "We have just elected Grover +Cleveland President of the United States upon the express +understanding with us that the policy of the administration shall be +to uphold and advance the gold standard"; and he foretold, with +startlingly faithful prevision, the repeal of the Sherman purchase +law, the successive bond-issues, and the general and ruinous fall of +prices, which seem to have evidenced the strict performance of the +agreement by the party of the second part. + +How persistently the power of the executive was used, and how +carefully the offices were dispensed, to influence Senators and +members of Congress against the Sherman law, were matters of ordinary +comment at the time. Meanwhile the banks were putting in motion their +peculiar and enormous persuasions. For months no man could go into any +bank in any State of the Union for any purpose without having thrust +under his nose, with a more or less pointed request for his signature, +a petition demanding the repeal of the obnoxious statute. Then, in the +latter days of April, 1893, on the stock exchange, there began that +concerted onslaught upon stocks and values, vaunted as an +"object-lesson" to the people, as a result of which within eight +months six hundred of the relatively smaller banking institutions of +the country went down, dragging with them fifteen thousand industrial +and business enterprises, involving a total loss of seven hundred and +fifty millions of dollars. + +The object-lesson served its purpose. With the business world +shattered into fragments, enterprise stifled, and credit dead, a +terror seized upon the people. The opportunity for which the big +bankers had been coolly waiting had come. Cunningly and in many places +at once they started the cry that the Sherman law had caused all this +havoc, and that the only hope for a return of prosperity lay in the +immediate repeal of the feature providing for the purchase of new +silver bullion. The clamor was eagerly repeated, and fear eagerly +believed it. At precisely the right moment the President himself made +official proclamation that the rumor was true, and summoned Congress +in extra session to obey the mandate of the bankers. Under this spell +Congress acted and the law was repealed. Thus was the country made +dependent upon gold alone for its new supplies of full-power money, +and thus, aided by similar action elsewhere, was inaugurated an era of +accelerated fall of prices more pronounced than the world has known +since the middle ages, and a precipitate decline of values more +ruinous than any other chronicled in history. + +"Agitators and demagogues" indeed! Is it not monstrous that any +intelligent man should believe the present frightful condition of the +country to be due to the work of agitators and demagogues? Mr. +Cleveland of course knows better; but many people have actually been +convinced that some millions of our citizens would rather agitate than +work; that thousands of them have deliberately and by preference +forsworn business and become demagogues by trade. The thoughtful man +knows that agitation is first a result and afterward a cause. It is a +cruel as well as an ignorant thing for Mr. Cleveland and his disciples +to cast into the faces of the suffering producers and workers of the +United States, as a reproach, the fact of their discontent and +complaining. Of course our people are in distress. Of course they are +crying out against it. Of course they will endeavor to learn what +occasions it. And of course when they have ascertained what the matter +is they will agitate for relief. Substantially all men prefer to be +busy about the ordinary and interdependent offices of social life. +This is especially true of the great middle classes in the United +States. Under just and rational laws they will be so. The absence of +such a temper is ground for suspicion against the laws. Existing +conditions confess their weakness and injustice when they revile +admitted discontent. I would rather the cause I believe in sprang from +suffering than that suffering should follow my cause. + +The full magnitude of this achievement for the gold standard in the +repeal of the law of 1890, will not be grasped unless we bear in mind +that it occurred at a time when the indications were unusually +favorable that an international bimetallic agreement, which the world +had been trying to accomplish for nearly twenty years, might soon be +secured on an acceptable basis. It has long been suspected that the +strongest discouragement of this hope, and probably the determining +factor in its failure, was the attitude of President Cleveland as +quietly caused to be understood abroad. Very recently this +well-grounded suspicion has been turned into certainty by the +distinguished English bimetallist, Mr. Moreton Frewen, who, in a +letter to the Washington _Post_, says: + + But Mr. Cleveland made it known, through the subterranean + channels of diplomacy, that, far from giving any support to + silver, he was preparing to urge on Congress the repeal of the + silver-purchase clauses of the Sherman act. Mr. Cleveland's + intention became known in official circles in Calcutta. That this + was the case I learned at the time and at first hand. The + government of India believed that the cessation of all silver + purchases in America would still further reduce the exchange + value of the rupee, and therefore, in advance of the pending + anti-silver legislation anticipated from Washington, the Indian + mints were closed. + +Mr. Cleveland may well be deified in the gold-standard cult, for +clearly he has been the arch-enemy of bimetallism. + +One of the characteristics of the discussion now going on between the +advocates of gold monometallism and those of bimetallism is the +disingenuousness of the former. They will rarely consent to a clear +definition of the issue, but seek to evade it both by preëmpting the +use of moral labels and catchphrases which satisfy their partisans +without inquiry, and by stigmatizing their opponents with such vile +imputations and base epithets as seem to place them beyond the pale of +moral and intellectual tolerance. "Sound" and "honest" they write +above their creed. They pose as consecrated guardians of public honor +and private property. We are depicted as dishonest and imbecile, +repudiators of national and individual obligations, communists or +anarchists bearing the torch and axe. This specialty is Mr. +Cleveland's long suit. Little wonder that his school should place him +at its head. His preëminence in the field where self-admiration is a +supreme virtue and ribald abuse passes for irrefutable argument will +scarcely be denied by anybody who shall have read the following +characteristic specimens from this Waldorf essay, carefully written +down and calmly delivered: "We are gathered here to-night as patriotic +citizens anxious to do something toward ... protecting the fair fame +of our nation against shame and scandal." It is not recorded that +anybody smiled at this. Indeed, the astonishing thing about this +business is that these people seem able to impose successfully on one +another. But Mr. Cleveland is even better at the other kind, as for +example: "Agitators and demagogues," "ruthless agitators," "sordid +greed," "inflamed with tales of an ancient crime against their +rights," "unfortunate and unreasonable," "restless and turbulent," +"reckless creed," "boisterous and passionate campaign," "allied forces +of calamity," "encouraged by malign conditions," and so on _ad +nauseam_. + +This is the attitude of nearly all the defenders of the gold standard +who have the hardihood to say anything at all. Undoubtedly in many +cases it is assumed because of ignorance on the merits of the case, so +that nothing remains but to "abuse the other fellow." But occasionally +this course is adopted by men who are well informed, and who know that +the gold standard is incapable of meeting bimetallism in an honest +contest of argument with any hope of success. The strategy of these, +therefore, is to avoid fair discussion by so prejudicing the public +mind against their opponents as to forestall a hearing. + +The result has been surprisingly successful. In many localities, and +in fact in nearly all localities in the East, the most intolerant +spirit has been manifested by the most prominent persons in the +community, who had never taken the pains to examine the subject on +which they so violently and fanatically expressed themselves. To +people of any acquaintance with the literature, the history, and the +science of money, it has seemed most marvellous that business men of +large affairs, of much general information, and of excellent natural +abilities, should be content to remain absolutely ignorant of +fundamental monetary principles and the overwhelmingly attested +lessons of past experience. It is infinitely pitiful to see men of +affairs led away in so-called "business men's sound-money +associations" and other similar movements, when a knowledge of the +conditions on which their welfare depends would send them in an +exactly opposite direction. + +Why? Because business men are men who do business, or at any rate who +want to do business; and all legitimate business consists in the +performance of some appropriate function in connection with the +production or the exchange of commodities. It is apparent to even the +dullest apprehension that whatever prevents or discourages production +is destructive of business, and that a money system which provides a +measuring unit that constantly demands, as an equivalent, an +increasing quantity of everything produced, is the greatest burden on +production that could possibly be devised. But it is precisely this +kind of a unit that the gold standard furnishes. No one economic fact +is so conclusively established and so generally conceded as that of +the progressive fall of average prices throughout the gold-standard +world during the last twenty-four years. This fall amounts to almost +fifty per cent, and indeed, in respect to the great staple products of +the country, exceeds fifty per cent; so that, to state the same fact +in its converse, the purchasing power of gold has increased since 1873 +one hundred per cent. + +The significance of this awful fact is deftly obscured behind the +deceptive and specious plea for "a dollar of the greatest purchasing +power." This is one of those artful expressions that are used by the +advocates of the gold standard as a kind of thought-deterrent. It +seems so obvious, at the first suggestion, that the best dollar is the +dollar that will buy the most, that it is hard for a man to get even a +hearing who asserts that, on the contrary, such a dollar is the very +worst dollar conceivable. But a moment's reflection will satisfy any +sane mind that such is the case. The demonstration is so simple that +one feels like apologizing for making it. Yet it is in respect to +principles just as plain as this one that people are constantly +allowing themselves to be taken in by the supporters of the single +standard. + +The demonstration is this: whatever is bought by a dollar, itself buys +the dollar. For example, when a dollar exchanges for a bushel of +wheat, the dollar buys the wheat, and the wheat buys the dollar. To +say, therefore, that a dollar that buys two bushels of wheat, being a +dollar of greater purchasing power, is better than the dollar that +buys one bushel, is to say that the dollar which it requires two +bushels of wheat to buy is a better dollar than that which can be +bought with one bushel. Consequently, to increase the excellence of +your dollar all you need to do is to increase the scarcity of the +stuff out of which dollars are made, so that each one shall constantly +stand for more and more wheat, or, using wheat merely as +representative of commodities in general, so that it shall constantly +require more and more of all other things on earth to get a dollar. It +is wholly credible that the man with dollars should profess this +philosophy, but it is absolutely inexplicable how it should receive +the support of men interested in getting dollars with things, who +comprise about seven-eighths of society. + +Now as it continually takes more products to get a given quantity of +gold, is it not clear that the producer who becomes liable for taxes +and gets into debt must constantly bear an increasing burden of +taxation, and that his debt, payable in more commodities than it +represented when he incurred it, needs only to run long enough to grow +beyond the hope of his ability to pay it? Such a policy cannot but be +fraught with certain ruin to producers. It is causing in the United +States a condition frightful to contemplate. The mass of debts is +piling up at a ratio that absolutely threatens, if a halt in the +automatic process is not soon called, a universal insolvency. Indeed a +general liquidation is already impossible. He is no alarmist who +counsels a timely and rational remedy as not only demanded by justice, +but as anticipatory of violent readjustment. Under such disquieting +conditions is it not as criminal as it is unscientific for men to go +about prating of the system that has occasioned these things as +"honest money," and "sound money," and denouncing its opponents as +repudiators and anarchists? + +In the presence of epochal and fundamental disturbance, when men, +patient beyond example and willing to argue the correctness of their +claims, are crying out against the injustice of a money system that +day and night and year upon year, with unerring and pitiless +precision, takes from the producing many and hands over to the idle +few that which it ruins those to lose and but pampers these to gain, +our ex-President offends decency and insults millions of his +fellow-citizens with this reference to their contention: "Honest +accumulation is called a crime." Where does he find anybody calling +honest accumulation a crime? Men indeed stigmatize the maintenance of +this odious money system as a crime, but only because of the things +they claim it to be guilty of. Why does he not join issue on these? He +knows that nowhere in all this world is there, or has there ever been, +a more honest body of citizenship than the millions of Americans who +to-day are toiling on the farms and in the workshops of the country +and who demand from the laws they obey nothing but equity and justice. +It was easier, and more pleasant to those who heard him, to wrong +these men with a sneer than to answer them with an argument. He might +possibly have done well to relinquish this task to one who sat near +him, his ex-Secretary of the Treasury, who had himself, in 1878, +discovered something that _he_ thought a crime and had thus denounced +it: "According to my views of the subject the conspiracy which seems +to have been formed here and in Europe to destroy, by legislation and +otherwise, from three-sevenths to one-half the metallic money of the +world, is the most gigantic crime of this or any other age." + +The speech of Mr. Carlisle was notable for stating his position more +extremely than he had previously done since his apostasy. He boldly +takes the stand logically demanded by consistency in the man who +opposes silver coinage and denies the arguments based on the +appreciation of gold. He comes out squarely for the gold standard and +places bimetallism of any and all sorts under a common ban. But alas! +what a sorry appearance he makes. Nowhere in our political history do +I find quite so pathetic a figure as that presented by this once +strong and virile champion of the people's rights in his contrasted +role of defender of their oppressors. Where now is that compact and +cogent argument, that sincere and moving eloquence, which made his +forensic style so singularly effective; which marked him the +parliamentary darling of his party, a predestined president of the +republic? Shrunken to the dreary platitudes of the gold-standard +catechism, babbling of "sound currency" and "intrinsic value." + +This talk of intrinsic value was not confined to Mr. Carlisle. Mr. +Patterson, of Tennessee, and Senator Caffery, of Louisiana, were +likewise guilty of it. It is, indeed, the characteristic folly of +their school. Having destroyed the money demand for silver while +adding almost incalculably to that for gold, they have caused an +increasing disparity in the values of the two metals; and now, when it +is sought to restore the parity by restoring the equivalence of use +and demand on which alone it depends, they pretend to have discovered +some inherent perfection in gold and an original sin in silver which +forbid all attempts to reconcile them. In the face of monetary +principles whose nature has been understood for more than two thousand +years, and of historic and economic facts which every college freshman +knows, Mr. Carlisle has the appalling audacity to use the following +language: "Natural causes have separated the two metals, and while it +is possible that natural causes may hereafter change their present +relations to each other, it is certain that these relations cannot be +changed by artificial means." + +It is difficult to speak with becoming moderation of such stuff as +this; and it is really pathetic to see the dominant opinion of whole +sections of the country taking its cue from men who assume superior +airs and rebuke the presumption of thinking on the part of some +millions of Americans, while they peddle such insufferable nonsense as +this just quoted from Mr. Carlisle. "Natural causes" indeed, when we +can turn to the statute books of half the world and put our fingers on +the "artificial means" whereby the hoarders of gold have legislated +demand into one metal and legislated it out of the other. Let once a +wrong be achieved by artificial means, and instantly those who profit +by it represent it as the inevitable decree of evolutional forces. +"Natural causes," we are asked to believe, have made gold dear and +silver cheap during a period when the cost of producing gold has been +cheapened more than any other mechanical process; when both metals +have continued on substantially their old relative planes of use in +every respect save as money; when their relative production has been +from three to twenty times less disproportionate than at any other +similar period in the past four hundred years; and when in actual +weight the stocks of coin and bullion available for coinage have risen +from a proportion of thirty-two of silver to one of gold up to that of +sixteen of silver to one of gold coincidently with a fall of the +so-called market ratio from fifteen and one-half to one, when the +mints were open to both, down to thirty-three to one when only the one +can be freely coined. It is simply an incredible and impossible +proposition. + +Intrinsic value is as unthinkable as intrinsic distance. Both distance +and value are relations. Neither can exist or be stated except by +comparison. The value of a thing is what it is worth; and it is worth +what it will bring. Value in exchange is the only value that political +economy knows anything about; and what a given thing will exchange for +depends on the ratio of the supply of it to the demand for it. A piece +of money is worth what it will buy. Other things remaining the same, +it will buy more when the stuff out of which it is made is plentiful, +and less when that is scarce. The proposition of the bimetallists +rests on only time-honored doctrines of political economy as justified +by the experience of mankind. We desire to restore the parity of gold +and silver by perfectly "natural causes" set in operation by +"artificial means." We propose to invoke the law to equalize their +opportunity and to make them interchangeably and indifferently +responsive to the same money demand. + +Space has not permitted reference to all the errors committed at this +wonderful banquet, nor a complete discussion of even those cited. I +have endeavored only to point out the most glaring ones in the hope +that some persons inclined to accept, somewhat carelessly, the +assumedly authoritative statements of these eminent men, may be led to +study this great subject whose proper understanding and wise +management are of such vast importance not only in American politics +but in the progress of the race. For the cause of bimetallism must +commend itself to the intellect and the conscience of the country or +it cannot win. Those who have spent some time in an earnest and +thoughtful investigation of the matter and are convinced that the +success of silver coinage is the first step in a series of rational, +safe, and necessary reforms, are ready to be judged as much by the +reasonableness of their doctrine as by the sincerity of their motives. +They intend from now on to force the fight. The enemy will be sought +out and assailed wherever found. No pretentious claims of +infallibility will be accorded immunity from criticism. No authority +will be permitted to shelter folly. It is time to expose the +preposterous assurance of the gold-standard pundits. Nonsense will be +called nonsense whoever utters it, and, what is more, it will be +proved to be nonsense. + + + + +DOES CREDIT ACT ON THE GENERAL LEVEL OF PRICES? + +BY A. J. UTLEY. + + +It is conceded by all standard writers on political economy that the +value of money--that is, its purchasing power--is fixed and regulated +by the amount of money available for use. + +John Stuart Mill says: + + If the whole money in circulation was doubled prices would be + doubled. If it was only increased one-fourth, prices would rise + one-fourth. There would be one-fourth more money, all of which + would be used to purchase goods of some description. When there + had been time for the increased supply of money to reach all + markets, or (according to conventional metaphor) to permeate all + the channels of circulation, all prices would have risen + one-fourth. But the general rise of price is independent of this + diffusing process. Even if some prices were raised more, and + others less, the average rise would be one-fourth. This is a + necessary consequence of the fact that a fourth more money would + have to be given for only the same quantity of goods. General + price, therefore, in any such case would be one-fourth higher. + The very same effect would be produced on prices if we suppose + the goods diminished, instead of the money increased: and the + contrary effect if the goods were increased, or the money + diminished. If there were less money in the hands of the + community, and the same amount of goods to be sold, less money + altogether would be given for them, and they would be sold at + lower prices; lower, too, in the precise ratio in which the money + was diminished. _So that the value of money, other things being + the same, varies inversely as its quantity; every increase in + quantity lowering the value, and every diminution raising it, in + a ratio exactly equivalent._ + +This is known as the quantitative theory of money, and is recognized +by Ricardo, Jevons, Macleod, John Locke, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, +Senator John P. Jones, David Hume, William Huskisson, Sir James +Graham, Prof. Torrens, Prof. Sidgwick, J. R. McCulloch, Mr. Gallatin, +Prof. Fawcett, Prof. Perry, N. A. Nicholson, Earl Grey, Prof. Shield +Nicholson, Lord Overstone, and, in fact, by all writers on political +economy of any prominence since Adam Smith. Formerly it was supposed +that the value of money depended upon the cost of production; that the +reason why a dollar in gold or silver was worth 100 cents was because +it took 100 cents' worth of labor to produce metal enough to make a +dollar. This theory, however, has been abandoned by the best writers +and speakers; in fact, by all economists of any standing, and it is +now conceded that the cost of producing the metal has no influence on +its money value, only as it may tend to increase or reduce the amount +of money, and that it is the quantity of money, the number of units, +available for use that determines and regulates its value; that is, if +the quantity is increased its value will fall, and if the quantity is +diminished its value will rise, and that it will fall or rise in value +in a ratio exactly equivalent to the increase or diminution of the +volume of money; and that if sufficiently reduced in volume, a dollar, +whether stamped on gold, silver, or paper, would buy a plantation or +pay a man for the labor of a lifetime. There can be no doubt as to the +correctness of the quantitative theory of money. + +John Stuart Mill says: + + That an increase in the quantity of money raises prices, and a + diminution lowers them, is the most elementary proposition in the + theory of currency, and without it we have no key to any of the + others. + +Prices, however, are not fixed by the total amount of money in +existence; only that part of the money that is available for use can +act on prices. + +Mr. Mill says: + + Whatever may be the quantity of money in the country, only that + part of it will affect prices which goes into the market of + commodities and is there actually exchanged for goods of some + description. Whatever increases this portion of the money in the + country tends to raise prices. Money kept in reserve by + individuals to meet contingencies which do not occur, does not + act on prices. Money in the coffers of banks, or retained as a + reserve, does not act on prices until drawn out to be expended + for commodities. + +It is also conceded that in fixing prices not only all the money +actually available for use must be taken into consideration, but the +rapidity of circulation must also be regarded; and due allowance must +be made for the number of times commodities change hands before +consumption. + +The same dollar may, by passing from hand to hand, make a number of +purchases, and the same goods may be sold repeatedly before +consumption. It is, probably, correct to say, that the money available +for use multiplied by the rapidity of circulation, or, as Mr. Mill +expresses it, by its efficiency, equals the total money to be +considered; and the commodities sold multiplied by the average number +of sales equals the total commodities to be taken into consideration +in fixing the general level of prices. + +Are there any other elements that act on the general level of prices? +Of course an abundant yield, or a short crop, or an over-production, +so called, or under-consumption, of any particular commodity may +depress or raise the price of that particular crop or commodity; but +are there any elements other than those above enumerated that act on +the general level of prices? I think there are none. + +If, then, prices are controlled by the volume of money available for +use; and if the general level of prices will rise as the volume of +money is increased, and fall as the volume of money is diminished, and +rise or fall in an exact ratio corresponding with the expansion or +contraction of the volume of money, it becomes important to ascertain +what money is, and also whether there is anything which can be used as +a substitute for money in such a manner as to affect the general level +of prices. + +Senator John P. Jones, than whom there is no one better informed, +says: + + The money of a country is that thing, whatever it may be, which + is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in + payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law or by + universal consent. Its value does not arise from the intrinsic + qualities which the material of which it is made may possess, but + depends entirely on extrinsic qualities which law or common + consent may confer. + +Aristotle says: + + Money has value only by law and not by nature; so that a change + of convention between those who use it is sufficient to deprive + it of its value and power to satisfy our wants. + +Adam Smith says: + + A guinea may be considered a bill for a certain quantity of goods + on all the tradesmen in the neighborhood. + +Henry Thornton says: + + Money of every kind is an order for goods. It is so considered by + the laborer when he receives it, and it is almost instantly + converted into money's worth. It is merely the instrument by + which the purchasable stock of the country is distributed with + convenience and advantage among the several members of the + community. + +John Stuart Mill says: + + The pounds or shillings which a man receives are a sort of ticket + or order which he may present for payment at any shop he pleases, + and which entitles him to receive a certain value of any + commodity that he may choose. + +Appleton's Cyclopædia defines money in the following words: + + Anything which freely circulates from hand to hand, in any + country, as a common, acceptable medium of exchange, is, in such + country, money, even though it ceases to be such, or to possess + any value, when passing into another country. In a word, an + article is determined to be money by reason of the performance by + it of certain functions, without regard to its form or substance. + +Francis A. Walker says: + + Money is that which freely passes from hand to hand through the + community in final discharge of debt and in full payment for + commodities, being accepted equally without reference to the + character or credit of the person who offers it, and without the + intention of the person who receives it, to consume it, or enjoy + it, or apply it to any other use than in turn to tender it to + others in discharge of debts or in payment for commodities. + +It has been contended by certain economists that bank checks and bills +of exchange are money, or, at least, that they discharge the money +function and act on prices the same as money; but this definition +excludes checks and bills of exchange. A bill of exchange or bank +check is not accepted without reference to the character or credit of +the person who offers it. But Francis A. Walker leaves us in no doubt +on this question. On page 123 of his work on "Political Economy" he +says: + + Money is a medium of exchange. Whatever performs this function, + does this work, is money, no matter what it is made of, and no + matter how it came to be a medium at first, or why it continues + to be such. So long as, in any community, there is an article + which all producers take freely and as a matter of course in + exchange for whatever they have to sell, instead of looking + about, at the time, for the particular things they, themselves, + wish to consume, that article is money, be it white, yellow, or + black, hard or soft, animal, vegetable, or mineral. There is no + other test of money than this. That which does the money work is + the money thing. It may do this well; it may do this ill. It may + be good money; it may be bad money; but it is money all the same. + We said _all_ producers, since it is not enough that a thing is + extensively used in exchange, to constitute it money. _Bank + checks are used in numerous and important transactions, yet are + not money._ It is essential to money that its acceptability + should be so nearly universal that practically every person in + the community who has any product or service to dispose of will + freely, gladly, and of preference, take this thing money, instead + of the particular products or service which he may individually + require from others, being well assured that with money he will + unfailingly obtain whatever he shall desire, in form and amount, + and at times to suit his wants. + +It appears from the accepted definitions that bank checks and bills of +exchange are not money. They may to some extent, as other forms of +credit may to some extent, add to or increase the rapidity of +circulation; but, certainly, credit is not money nor does it possess +the essential elements of money. I think it is an essential element of +money that when used it closes the transaction between the parties to +the transaction. In other words, money, when paid in the purchase of a +commodity, closes the transaction, and neither party to the +transaction has any further claim or demand against the other. +Anything which does this (barter, of course, excluded) is money, and +anything which fails to do this is not money. If a credit is given or +a check received the transaction is not closed until the debt is paid +or the check cashed. I do not find that any economist has made this +distinction, in so many words, between money and credit, but I am +satisfied that it exists. + +Does all the money available for use act on prices? It is contended by +a certain class of economists that only money of ultimate and final +redemption--in other words, gold and silver, in countries where gold +and silver are the standard money, and gold only, in countries where +gold is the standard money--can act directly on prices, and that other +forms of money can only act on prices in an indirect manner, and to +the extent only that they may increase the rapidity of the circulation +of redemption or standard money; that paper money, whether convertible +or inconvertible, covered or uncovered, and token money, can have no +direct influence on the general level of prices. + +Is this contention true? We have already seen that money is a medium +of exchange, a counter for reckoning, an order for goods, and that its +value does not depend upon the intrinsic qualities which the material +out of which it is made may possess, but depends entirely upon +extrinsic qualities which law or common consent may confer, and that +anything (barter, of course, excluded) that closes transactions +between the parties to the transactions, is money; and also that the +value of money, that is, its purchasing power, is fixed and regulated +by the amount of money available for use. Why, then, should any part +of the money that possesses and discharges all the functions of money +be excluded? What peculiar property has money stamped on gold and +silver that it only can act on prices? + +John Stuart Mill says: + + After experience had shown that pieces of paper, of no intrinsic + value, by merely bearing upon them the written profession of + being equivalent to a certain number of francs, dollars, or + pounds, could be made to circulate as such, and to produce all + the benefit to the users which could have been produced by the + coins which they purported to represent, governments began to + think that it would be a happy device if they could appropriate + to themselves this benefit, free from the condition to which + individuals issuing such paper substitutes for money were + subject, of giving, when required, for the sign, the thing + signified. They determined to try whether they could not + emancipate themselves from this unpleasant obligation, and make a + piece of paper issued by them pass for a pound, by merely calling + it a pound and consenting to receive it in payment for taxes. And + such is the influence of almost all established governments, that + they have generally succeeded in attaining this object: _I + believe I may say they have always succeeded for a time, and the + power has only been lost to them after they had compromised it by + the most flagrant abuse._--"Political Economy," Book 3, Chap. 13. + +Mill further says that such inconvertible paper money will act on +prices. And if inconvertible paper money will act on prices, why will +not convertible paper money, that is, paper money convertible into +coin on demand, also act on prices? Token money, especially if a legal +tender, and whether a legal tender or not, if accepted without +objection in the payment of debt, or if received in full payment for +commodities, discharges the money function, and is to all intents and +purposes money. It is not absolutely necessary that to make a thing +money it should be a legal tender in the payment of debt. Anything +which is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in +payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law (that is, its +legal tender property) or by common consent, is money. From 1861 to +1873 we had no gold or silver money in the United States, or virtually +none. The official reports of the Secretary of the Treasury show that +the gold and silver coin, including the gold and silver bullion in the +United States Treasury during that period, amounted to but +$25,000,000, and even that was not in circulation, except to a very +limited extent on the Pacific Coast. Yet during that period prices +reached the highest level ever attained in this country. Certainly, +the level of prices during that period was not fixed by the gold and +silver money available for use. In view of the foregoing facts I think +it must be apparent that any money which is received in full payment +for commodities, whether so received on account of its legal tender +property or by universal consent, and whether it is gold, silver, +paper, or token money, acts on prices, and tends to fix the general +level of prices. + +It is claimed by a great many writers on political economy that credit +has the same influence in fixing the general level of prices that +money has, and that an expansion or contraction of credit would +inflate or contract prices in the same manner and to the same extent +as would result from a contraction or expansion of money; that if +credit is extended, if more commodities are sold on credit than +formerly, such extension of credit will tend to raise prices in the +same manner and to the same extent as would so much additional money; +and that if credits are contracted, if less credits are given than +formerly, such contraction of credits will tend to depress prices in +the same manner and to the same extent as a withdrawal of a like +amount of money from the channels of trade would depress them. At the +head of this school of political economists stands John Stuart Mill. +He says: + + I apprehend that bank notes, bills, or cheques, as such, do not + act on prices at all. What does act on prices is credit, in + whatever shape given, and whether it gives rise to any + transferable instruments capable of passing into circulation or + not. (See Book 3, Chapter 12.) + +Is this contention true? If so, then it is not true that the general +level of prices is determined by the amount of money available for +use; but is determined, rather, by the amount of credits available for +use. The debts of the world (and the credits, of course, are precisely +equal to the debts, as there could be no debt without a corresponding +credit) amount, in round numbers, to $200,000,000,000, and the money +in the world amounts in round numbers to $10,000,000,000. That is, +there are twenty dollars of credit to one dollar of money; and if +credit exercises the same influence in fixing the general level of +prices that money exercises, then it is absurd to say that the volume +of money available for use fixes the general level of prices, and at +the same time to contend that credit, dollar for dollar, is an equal +factor in fixing prices. If credit affects the general level of +prices in the same manner and to the same extent that money does, then +credit exerts an influence on prices twenty times greater than that +exerted by money, and we should say: The general level of prices is +fixed by credit, modified, it may be, to some extent by the amount of +money in circulation. + +The difficulty seems to be in distinguishing between money and credit. +If we keep in mind the fact that anything which closes the transaction +between the parties to the transaction (barter excluded) is money, and +anything which leaves something still to be done is credit, we shall +have no difficulty in making the distinction. + +Can credit affect the general level of prices? One of the most +familiar and common illustrations given by those who contend that +credit will raise the general level of prices, is that of a man +entering the market to buy cotton. + +They say: "Suppose a person with $5,000 in money enters the cotton +market, and with his money purchases $5,000 worth of cotton. His +demand for cotton and his purchase of $5,000 worth will tend to +advance or stimulate the price of cotton." "Now," they say, "suppose +he has a credit of $5,000 and with this credit he purchases an +additional $5,000 worth of cotton. The second purchase, made on +credit," they contend, "will tend to still further advance the price +of cotton in the same manner and to the same extent that the cash +purchase did." Is this true? + +Let us suppose that he purchased the second bunch of cotton on ninety +days' time. At the end of the ninety days he must pay for this cotton. +If he draws the $5,000 with which he pays this debt from money +invested in the cotton trade, the withdrawal of that sum from money +invested in that industry will tend to depress the price of cotton to +the extent that it was stimulated by the credit. If he withdraws it +from the grain trade or from some other industry, the withdrawal of +that sum of money will tend to depress prices in the industry from +which it is withdrawn to the same extent as the cotton industry was +stimulated by the credit. Whether the money to pay the debt is taken +from the cotton industry or from some other industry, the general +level of prices has not been raised. The purchase in the first +instance may have temporarily stimulated the price of cotton, but if +the payment of the debt is made from money drawn from that industry, +it will depress the price of cotton to where it was before the credit +purchase was made; and if the payment is made from money drawn from +some other industry, it will depress prices in that industry to the +same extent that the price of cotton was stimulated. In either event +the general level of prices remains the same. It is like robbing Peter +to pay Paul. It may make Paul richer, but how about Peter? There is no +more wealth in existence than before the robbery was committed. + +Again, it is claimed that credit stimulates prices by causing +commodities which are sold on credit to be sold for higher prices than +commodities of the same value are sold for when sold for cash. It is +true that sales on credit are, as a rule, at a higher price than sales +for cash in hand. Why is this so? For two reasons: + +1st. Business done on credit is always attended with considerable +risk. Even when the utmost caution is exercised, bad debts will be +made, and a greater margin on sales is necessary. + +2nd. When time is given a certain amount must be added to the price of +the goods to compensate the seller for the use of his capital between +the date of sale and the maturity of the account. + +The additional price, thus received, is of no advantage to the +producer or to the seller of the commodity. The addition to the price +is consumed by losses from bad debts and in interest on capital. In +fact, the additional prices charged, when properly analyzed, are not +for the goods, but for the risk on the credit and for interest on +capital. The net selling price of the commodity is not increased. +Experience has proven that men who sell for the lesser price for cash +in hand are more apt to succeed than those who charge the higher rate +on the credit system. + +Credit is always burdened with interest. If interest is not directly +charged, the goods are sold at an advance on the cash price equal to +the interest, which amounts to the same thing. Interest acts on +commerce like friction on machinery. As friction absorbs a portion of +the motive power, so interest absorbs a part of the value of all +commodities sold on credit. Interest, the necessary accompaniment of +credit, produces no wealth; but, on the contrary, absorbs wealth and +tends to concentrate it in the hands of the few; and, necessarily, in +the same ratio it takes from the masses the power to purchase the +things they desire and would otherwise consume. Its ultimate result +must be to lower prices. Credit burdened with interest, as it always +is, may temporarily increase the demand for a certain commodity and +consequently temporarily raise its price; but it must do this at the +expense of other commodities. Like a stimulant administered to a human +being, it may produce spasmodic results of extraordinary power; but +when the stimulant has spent its force it leaves the individual weaker +and in a worse condition than he was before the stimulant was +administered. + +Henry Thornton, an English economist, attempts to prove that a bill of +exchange is money, and that, being money, it acts on prices. He says: + + Let us imagine a farmer in the country to discharge a debt of £10 + to his neighboring grocer by giving him a bill for that sum, + drawn on his corn-factor in London, for grain sold in the + metropolis; and the grocer to transmit the bill, he having + previously indorsed it, to a neighboring sugar-baker in discharge + of a like debt; and the sugar-baker to send it, when again + indorsed, to a West India merchant in an outport; and the West + India merchant to deliver it to his country banker, who also + indorses it and sends it into further circulation. The bill in + this case will have effected five payments, exactly as if it were + a £10 note payable to the bearer on demand. A multitude of bills + pass this way between traders in the country, in the manner which + has been described; _and they evidently form in the strictest + sense a part of the circulating medium of the kingdom_. + +Mill in his "Political Economy" quotes this illustration with +approval. Is the conclusion arrived at correct? + +Suppose that instead of a bill of exchange for £10, a horse worth £10 +had been made use of, and the farmer had delivered the horse to the +grocer in satisfaction of his debt, and the grocer had turned it over +to the sugar-baker, and the sugar-baker to the West India merchant, +etc. The horse would have paid the five debts in precisely the same +manner that the bill of exchange did, but would such a use of the +horse _have made the horse, in the strictest sense of the term, a part +of the circulating medium of the kingdom_? I think not! A bill of +exchange is not money, but an order for money, and would be valueless +unless honored by payment on presentation. From the time the bill was +drawn until finally paid an amount of money equal to the demand of +the bill must be held out of circulation for its payment. It adds +nothing to the circulation, and in no sense does it constitute a part +of the circulating medium. It may, possibly, increase the rapidity of +circulation, but it is difficult to see how it could do even this. The +£10 held out of circulation for the payment of the bill would have +paid the debts in the same manner that the bill of exchange did, and I +fail to see why they would not have made the circuit as quickly. If a +horse had been made use of in the settlement of the debts mentioned by +Mr. Thornton, it would have been barter, pure and simple, and not a +money transaction. + +That the contraction of the volume of credit will not tend to depress +prices in the same manner and to the same extent that a contraction of +the volume of money would will be apparent from the following +illustration. + +The most conservative estimates place the national, municipal, +corporate, and individual debts in the United States at +$30,000,000,000. The Secretary of the Treasury estimates the amount of +money in circulation at $1,600,000,000. There is not, in fact, +one-third of the amount available for use; but for the purpose of this +illustration we will take the Secretary's estimate as correct. Now let +us suppose that the volume of credit should be reduced to +$28,400,000,000, either by the payment of $1,600,000,000 of the debt +or by bankruptcy proceedings or in some other manner. If that amount +of the credits were extinguished by payment, business would be +stimulated. That sum of money, or at least a considerable portion of +it, would pass into the hands of the creditor class, where it would +seek investment, and the tendency would be, not to contract, but to +expand prices. If that amount of the credits were extinguished by +bankruptcy proceedings in which no money passed in either direction, +such an extinguishment could not depress or expand prices; it could +have no influence upon them. + +Now suppose that $1,600,000,000 of the money, every dollar now claimed +to be in circulation in the United States, should be withdrawn from +the channels of trade, it would not be difficult to see that prices +would fall; would, in fact, be completely annihilated. There would be +no money with which to make purchases or to pay debts, civilization +would go backwards, and universal bankruptcy and ruin would ensue. +Suppose that only one-half or one-third of the money available for use +should be withdrawn from circulation; even then business would be +paralyzed, the money remaining would be hoarded or would be collected +in the great money centres, prices would fall, and business men all +over the country would be forced into bankruptcy. I think that it must +be perfectly apparent that a contraction of credit does not act on the +general level of prices in the same manner and to the same extent that +a contraction of the volume of money does; that, in fact, it does not +act on the general level of prices at all. + +I, therefore, conclude that money, and money only, acts on the general +level of prices, and that credit does not and cannot act on prices +except only as it may increase the rapidity of the circulation of +money; and even then it is the greater efficiency of the money, and +not the credit, that stimulates prices. Credit may temporarily +stimulate the price of the product of some particular industry, but to +do this it must attract money from some other industry, and the +stimulation will be at the expense of a corresponding depression in +prices in the industry from which the money is attracted. + +LOS ANGELES, COL. + + + + +POINTS IN THE AMERICAN AND FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS COMPARED. + +BY NIELS GRÖN. + + +There are several reasons why, particularly in the light of what is +going on in the two countries, a comparison between certain points of +the constitutions of the French and United States republics should be +of more than passing interest. Successive ministerial crises in France +threaten the stability of the republic; here, while political +conventions representing millions of people meet and produce radical +platforms, nobody is apprehensive of revolution or trouble. The +constitution is a bulwark against sudden change; its wisdom is +believed to be guarded by impregnable security against caprice or +panic. + +One in the Eastern hemisphere, the other in the New World, the two +countries are the only great republics; both are watched by monarchies +with invidious eyes, and, as before suggested, both have passed +through, or are passing through, interesting not to say exciting +experiences. American admirers of the republican form of government +believe that the cause of human liberty would be seriously injured +were the French Republic to cease to exist; they go further, and say +that the death-knell of civil freedom would be sounded the moment the +American republic became a failure. Something like a crisis is seen in +the United States to-day, brought about by a whole series of +concomitant causes, such as business depression, bank failures, +industrial disputes terminating in strikes and lockouts, Coxey armies, +panicky people, and unsettled views regarding commerce and finance, +this last cause predominating. + +Though France has her difficulties about raising sufficient money to +carry on the administration, and an income tax is just as unpopular +there as it would be here, nevertheless the chief cause of her trouble +is to be traced, not to financial, but to constitutional sources. The +country is very rich, and its ministers probably will always find some +means of raising enough money to pay the cost of administration. +Quite true, it is a sore point for a proud country which yearns for +revenge upon Germany and longs for large colonial possessions, that +its population does not increase, while the populations of its enemy, +Germany, and of its well-wisher, the United States, go up by leaps and +bounds. True, there are economic writers who regard the dearth and +even the decrease of population in France as an advantage to the +country. But these need not be considered in this inquiry, for it is +quite obvious that any country which really aspires to be numbered +with the great powers, and effectually wishes to own important +colonial possessions, must have a stalwart and increasing people. And +it is a real source of weakness that there should yet be in France so +many Royalists constantly on the alert and hoping always for a change +in the existing form of government. + +Happily, on the contrary, no matter how widely the Western American +may differ from his friend in the East, or how keenly the +ex-Confederate may feel over the "lost cause," the warm-blooded son of +Kentucky will fight as bravely under the flag of the republic as will +his frozen-featured brother from Minnesota, and the dreamy individual +who gazes poetically upon the placid waters of Puget Sound will shout +as loudly for one country, and one allegiance to its glorious emblem, +as will the gilded youth whose republicanism is artistically refreshed +by a constant vision of the Statue of Liberty triumphantly standing in +New York harbor. + +Royalism, conservatism, concentrationism, moderate republicanism, +opportunism, radicalism, ultra-radicalism, socialism, and heaven knows +how many other "isms" besides, exist in France to-day, and make it +hard for any ministry to carry on the government. Numerous +disintegrating influences are ever present, and political convictions +are seldom sufficiently decided for any ministry to form a stable +majority. + +Though France has had the experience of two previous experiments in +republican forms of government (the one set up in 1792, and the second +established in 1848), they were such mere makeshifts and so very +short-lived that they could not have taught the country very much of +the real genius of republican institutions. The centralization and +tyranny of centuries brought revolt and hatred of the past, but did +not prepare the people for self-government; while here the principles +of civil liberty, transplanted from the mother country and flourishing +in congenial conditions under colonial administration, found apt and +natural expression in the Declaration of Independence and the +Constitution. The event of republican institutions twice tried in +France failed to show that even the leaders understood the principles +of liberty as they were understood by the fathers of the American +system of government, and enthusiastically adopted by the people, as +the crystallization, so to speak, in definite terms, of what they had +long enjoyed. Short-sighted acts of tyranny, exercised by George III +and his ministers, were regarded, and justly so, as mere accidents of +the time and as innovations to be resisted and overcome. The outcome +was the vindication of the principles of government founded by the +countrymen of King Alfred the Great, their expansion, and the +invaluable expression of those principles in the Declaration and the +Constitution. + +Some of the bravest and best under the French monarchy helped to +establish the reign of popular liberty in the United States, and there +can be no question but that the French Revolution was accomplished in +part as a result of what had been seen and done on this side of the +Atlantic on behalf of the civil rights of the people; but the founders +of the first republic in France had no complete foundation on which to +build a fabric firm and lasting. It was not easy for a venerable +European nation, intrenched within its own regal institutions, in +shaking off the past to begin a future of popular sovereignty. Much +was gained by sweeping away the worst abuses of the past, but reaction +came, succeeded, after a long lapse of time, by a second attempt to +establish a republic, again to fail, until the collapse of the power +of the adventurer whose election to the presidency was the beginning +of the end of the republic of 1848, led to the third experiment, the +permanent success of which we all hope for. + +If--much virtue in an "if"--the leaders of the first French Republic +had been thoroughly masters of and thoroughly imbued with the +principles of American liberty, it is possible they might have so +instructed and led a bright and capable people as to lay a sure +foundation for the future. But even this modified statement is open to +question. While it may be regretted that the American Constitution was +not copied in the establishment of the successive French republics, it +is by no means certain that this matchless paper would have been so +far appreciated in its recognition of the great principles underlying +it, as to insure success. Some of the South American republics have +the American Constitution, more or less, but are not shining examples +of republican success. No one can question that monarchies like the +United Kingdom and Germany enjoy a larger diffusion of civil liberty +than they. + +Taking the French system, however, as it exists to-day, there can be +no question that it would be vastly improved by copying the American +model. It seems to have been founded with a view to the possibility of +restoring the monarchy, and, this being so, the men who created it had +no object in studying the American Constitution with a view to +preventing those ministerial crises which threaten the destruction of +the third republic. It will not do to attribute these crises to the +unstable character of the fiery Frenchman, nor can the difficulty be +disposed of by saying that a French minister will create a crisis for +the sake of a pleasing _bon mot_ or a sprightly paradox. A crisis +supposes something outside of, or above, or beyond the ordinary, but +French ministerial crises have become so common that they are the +laughingstock of the nations, and may be said to be almost the normal +condition of the legislative assemblies of France. So long as such +critical situations can be thus easily brought about there cannot be +that continuity of policy which is essential for carrying out great +projects. The problem to be solved is a constitutional one,--a +statement, I think, easily proved true. + +Article Six of the constitution of 1875 reveals the real cause of +ministerial crises in France: "The ministers are in a body responsible +to the Chambers for the general policy of the government, and +individually for their personal acts." This article obviously leaves +the respective powers of both houses very undefined. Which chamber is +the superior? To which of them are the ministers in fact responsible? +The ministers may have a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, and may +be in a minority in the Senate. Then there is a crisis. The Senate +blocks the way and will not allow the government to go on, for it +claims that it is the superior body. This absence of the proper +demarcation of the powers of the Senate, of the Chamber of Deputies, +and of the ministers necessarily leads to conflict; conflict is but a +step from instability, and instability is a crisis which threatens +revolution. + +The remedy for these oft-recurring ministerial crises in France is to +be found in the American Constitution. The French Constitution should +be revised and changed at the part quoted and all parts relating to +it, so as to provide against ministerial crises; and the instrument +presenting a sure guide in the performance of this necessary work is +the American Constitution. It has been in operation over a hundred +years and has been found to be an admirable working document, +affording ministerial stability to its cabinets for over a century. +Such a document is surely worthy of the closest study by the public +men of the sister republic. It was inevitable that in so long a time +some amendments should have become necessary; but for a long period it +has undergone no change, save such as noted, and formulating the +results of the civil war. Now and then are heard murmurings which +claim the necessity of a sixteenth amendment, to the effect that the +name of God should be put in the Constitution. The obvious answer to +this is, that in the official life of the United States there is a +more real acknowledgment of the Divine Being than there is in the +official life of any other country, and it is better to have the name +of God impressed upon the hearts of the people than upon even the best +official document ever drawn up. + +It would not be correct to say that no attempts have been made to +bring about a ministerial crisis in the United States by encroachment +upon the rights of the Executive. Only once, however, when Andrew +Johnson was President, has the action of the Executive been seriously +hampered. Professor Bryce's remark may be applied to all other +attempts. He writes: "Congress has constantly tried to encroach, both +on the Executive and on the States,--sometimes like a wild bull driven +into a corral, dashing itself against the imprisoning walls of the +Constitution." There is the secret. The "imprisoning walls" of the +American Constitution keep contending powers in their proper places. +The Constitution is so well drawn up that a deadlock is an +impossibility, the equilibrium of concomitant powers is easily +maintained, and the sovereign will of the people has a fair +opportunity of finding a natural exponent. + +In the United States the Senate and the House of Representatives are +coördinate bodies; in the French Republic each claims superiority over +the other. In the United States bills are never introduced by the +Cabinet, all bills must originate either in the Senate or in the House +of Representatives; such is not the case in the French Republic. In +the United States the chief duty of the President is to see that the +laws are faithfully executed; the Cabinet administers; its members are +rather the aids or secretaries of the chief magistrate of the nation +than otherwise. They are his advisers and helpers. During the four +years for which the President of the United States is elected, the +limitations of his authority are so remote and theoretical that, for +practical purposes, it may be stated that he always serves out his +full term of office. On the contrary, Presidential resignations are +not unknown in the French Republic. France elects her President for +seven years, yet Thiers, MacMahon, Grévy, Carnot, Casimir-Périer, and +Faure make a list longer than that of the names of the men who have +lived in the White House during the past quarter of a century. In the +United States, the Cabinet lasts as long as the President's term of +office; in the French Republic, the Cabinet sometimes goes to pieces +in four months. Briefly, it is quite clear that in the United States +there can be no ministerial crises, since the President's chief duty +under the Constitution is to see that the laws are faithfully +executed, and the members of his Cabinet do not introduce bills, even +for finance or supplies, but act as his aids. As previously intimated, +the difficulty with the French legislative bodies is that royalistic +precedents and rules run side by side with republican principles, and +the result is a mongrel institution divided, too often, against +itself. When matters shall be so arranged that the French President +will have to fill out his full term of office, and French ministers +will not be permitted to originate legislation, and cabinets shall be +selected to serve as long as the Presidential term, then the French +Republic will enjoy the same ministerial stability as that of the +United States. + +It were hard to say that the French method of electing a president is +any better or any worse than that of the United States. The President +of the French Republic is elected by the majority of the votes of both +Chambers. This plan does not seem to remove him further from the +people than does the system of electing a president by electors, as in +the United States. As human ingenuity has not yet succeeded in +creating the ideal republic, wherein, according to Ouida, there would +be no president, some system of election must be followed. The +question is not a burning one. There is notable, however, a growing +tendency in France in favor of electing the president directly by the +votes of the people. The seven-years' period for which the French +president is elected is considered by many to be an excellent +provision; but it loses half its excellence by reason of the fact that +the president has the power to initiate laws, this and other things +concurring to make his resignation a possibility, and not a remote +one. + +That the office of vice-president does not exist in France seems to be +of no great consequence. In the history of the American Republic there +have been five vice-presidents who have been called upon to step into +the Presidential chair by the deaths of presidents. According to the +French Constitution, in case of a Presidential vacancy, whether from +death or any other cause, the two Chambers proceed immediately to the +election of a president. In the interval the ministers are invested +with executive power. + +What I have written regarding the growing tendency to think it would +be better to elect the president directly by the votes of the people, +applies with a little more force to the election of senators. In +France the municipalities elect the senators, as do State legislatures +in this country. It is held by some who have discussed the question +that it is much more in conformity with the genius of republican +institutions that the people express their will directly by ballot +rather than through the votes of municipal councils, as in France, or +of legislatures, as in the United States. I cannot see that the +difference of terms, that of French senators being nine years, and of +American six, is of practical consequence. While both republics are +at one as to the necessity of a second chamber, providing thus a check +to hasty and unconsidered legislation, many thinkers in both countries +agree that some change is necessary to make it possible for others +than millionaires to be elected senators. + +If I were a Frenchman and had the power, I should get every newspaper +throughout the land, and every public man and influential citizen, to +enter upon a crusade for the purpose of impressing upon the minds of +the whole people the following extract from the Constitution of the +United States: + + Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of + religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. + +In France, there are constantly continuous and unseemly clashes +between church and state. No matter what complications may exist as +results of the past, surely it would be better for all concerned to +leave the churches to be sustained by the voluntary contributions of +the people. In the United States churches seem to live and thrive +under this system of noninterference by the state in religious +matters, and voluntary support. The more than eighty thousand +clergymen are provided for. In the French Republic one reads +everywhere, on the walls of churches and of schools, the words +"_Liberté, fraternité, égalité_," while there seems to be a serious +disagreement between Clericals, on the one side, and Radicals, on the +other, as to the meaning of these words. To effectually put an end to +this strife, the adoption of the clause I have quoted would be +sufficient. + +In writing thus freely of the French Republic I am free, I trust, from +the spirit of the carping critic delighting in comparisons to the +advantage of his own country. I appreciate the splendid literature, +the brilliant art, the advanced civilization of the France of to-day. +I recognize with gratitude the debt which the United States owes the +gallant Gallic people for sympathy and material aid in her struggle +for independence. It is now only necessary to be in France on the +Fourth of July to realize the reality and depth of the friendship +which exists between the sister republics. But I do think that until +France shall copy more closely the Constitution of the United States, +the stability of the third republic cannot be regarded as assured. + + + + +HONEST MONEY; OR, A TRUE STANDARD OF VALUE: + +A SYMPOSIUM. + + +I. BY WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN. + +We hear much about a "stable currency" and an "honest dollar." It is a +significant fact that those who advocate a single gold standard have +for the most part avoided a discussion of the effect of an +appreciating standard. They take it for granted that a gold standard +is not only an honest standard, but the only stable standard. I +denounce that child of ignorance and avarice, the gold dollar under a +universal gold standard, as the most dishonest dollar which we could +employ. + +I stand upon the authority of every intelligent writer upon political +economy when I assert that there is not and never has been an honest +dollar. An honest dollar is a dollar absolutely stable in relation to +all other things. Laughlin, in his work on "Bimetallism," says: + + Monometallists do not--as it is often said--believe that gold + remains absolutely stable in value. They hold that there is no + such thing as a "standard of value" for future payments in either + gold or silver which remains absolutely invariable. + +He even suggests a multiple standard for long-time contracts. I quote +his words: + + As regards national debts, it is distinctly averred that neither + gold nor silver forms a just measure of deferred payments, and + that if justice in long contracts is sought for, we should not + seek it by the doubtful and untried expedient of international + bimetallism, but by the clear and certain method of a multiple + standard, a unit based upon the selling prices of a number of + articles of general consumption. A long time contract would + thereby be paid at its maturity by the same purchasing power as + was given in the beginning. + +Jevons, one of the most generally accepted of the writers in favor of +a gold standard, admits the instability of a single standard, and in +language very similar to that above quoted suggests the multiple +standard as the most equitable, if practicable. Chevalier, who wrote +a book in 1858 to show the injustice of allowing a debtor to pay his +debts in a cheap gold dollar, recognized the same fact, and said: + + If the value of the metal declined, the creditor would suffer a + loss upon the quantity he had received; if, on the contrary, it + rose, the debtor would have to pay more than he calculated upon. + +I am on sound and scientific ground, therefore, when I say that a +dollar approaches honesty as its purchasing power approaches +stability. If I borrow a thousand dollars to-day and next year pay the +debt with a thousand dollars which will secure exactly as much of all +things desirable as the one thousand which I borrowed, I have paid in +honest dollars. If the money has increased or decreased in purchasing +power, I have satisfied my debt with dishonest dollars. While the +government can say that a given weight of gold or silver shall +constitute a dollar, and invest that dollar with legal-tender +qualities, it cannot fix the purchasing power of the dollar. That must +depend upon the law of supply and demand, and it may be well to +suggest that this government never tried to fix the exchangeable value +of a dollar until it began to limit the number of dollars coined. + + +II. BY M. W. HOWARD. + +The term, "a standard of value," so often used, is erroneous and +misleading. There can be no fixed standard of value, and the student +who wishes to delve into our financial problems should clear his mind +of such a fallacy at the very threshold of his investigations. + +Money is a commodity; it is regulated by the same laws of supply and +demand which regulate the price of corn, cotton, wheat, land, labor, +etc. If the wheat crop is short, wheat will be dear; if abundant, it +will be cheap. So with money. If the money supply is not sufficient to +meet the demands of business and commerce,--if the money crop is +short, in other words,--the money will be dear; it will command too +high a price, its purchasing power will be too great. + +On the other hand, if the money supply is abundant, sufficient to meet +all demands upon it,--in other words, if there is a bountiful money +crop,--it will be cheaper; it will not have such a large purchasing +power; it will be worth less when measured by our labor, our lands, +and the products of our labor. + +I oppose the single gold standard because it makes the money crop +short, gives us a small circulating medium, and hence enhances the +value or price of money. + +We have a certain demand for breadstuff, which is constantly +increasing as our population multiplies; suppose that we cease +producing corn, and find no substitute for it, would not the price of +wheat be greatly enhanced, providing there is no increased wheat +production? So with the money supply. There is a certain demand for +money, ever increasing as population grows. How shall we meet it? By +producing more money, or by destroying one-half of that which we now +have, by eliminating one-half of the base of future supplies of money? + +The latter is now the policy of this government, and as a consequence +the price of gold has been greatly enhanced, and its purchasing power +has increased each year, and will continue to do so. + +The advocates of the gold standard call this "honest money." Their +idea of honest money is money that ever increases in purchasing power +because of its ever-increasing scarcity. + +My definition of honest money is: "A sufficiently large circulating +medium, whether of gold, silver, or paper, to bring down the price of +money so that we shall obtain fair prices for all labor and products." +Then as population increases and as the demand for money becomes +greater, let the government meet that demand from time to time by +enhancing the money supply. + + +III. BY WHARTON BARKER. + +The true test of an honest dollar is its purchasing power, and that +dollar, and only that dollar, is honest that does exact justice +between creditor and debtor. The gold monometallists harp on the +injustice of a depreciating dollar, but they ignore the injuries +inflicted by an appreciating dollar. They tell us that a depreciating +dollar defrauds the creditor, but just as a depreciating dollar +defrauds the creditor, an appreciating dollar defrauds the debtor, and +it is not one whit worse to defraud the creditor by obliging him to +accept a depreciated dollar from his debtor than to defraud the debtor +by obliging him to pay in a dollar made artificially scarce and dear. + +An appreciating dollar works injustice to the debtor just as a +depreciating dollar works injustice to the creditor, but an +appreciating dollar is many fold more injurious to trade and industry, +for while the depreciating dollar taxes the creditor for the benefit +of the debtor, the appreciating dollar takes from the debtor, from +producers in general and the industrious classes, and gives to the +creditor classes, the drones of society, a larger and larger share of +the products of labor, which of necessity discourages industry. Under +a depreciating standard the recompense of the producer becomes greater +and greater, the creditor classes receive a smaller and smaller +portion of the products of labor, the profits of industry increase, +and consequently production is encouraged and trade and industry are +stimulated. But under an appreciating standard the recompense of labor +becomes smaller and smaller, and the share of the products of labor +absorbed by the creditor larger, which tends to discourage industry +and stifle enterprise. + + +IV. BY ARTHUR I. FONDA. + +The value of any commodity is measured by what it will exchange for. +It is in fact its purchasing power, or power in exchange. This in +substance is the concrete definition of value given by all economists, +and they all unite in stating that value is determined by the supply +of a commodity relative to the demand for it; all other factors +affecting value being secondary and acting through their effect on +either supply or demand. + +Since both the supply of and the demand for every freely produced +commodity is variable, and since a true standard of value, like a true +standard of weight or length, must be invariable as regards that which +it measures, it necessarily follows that no single freely produced +commodity can be a true standard of value. But while it is true that +every single commodity must vary in value, it is also true that all +commodities taken together cannot do so. This principle is also +accepted as correct by all economists. + +It is evident then that a true standard of value can only be found in +a composite unit containing a definite quantity of every commodity, or +practically speaking, a definite quantity of each of a large number of +the most important commodities. This is what is known as the "multiple +standard," or the "commodity standard," and has long been in use by +economists in the form of tables of index numbers to show fluctuations +in general prices, or what is the same thing, changes in money values. + +The only function of money is to facilitate the exchange of goods. In +doing this it acts directly as a circulating medium, and the demand +for it for this purpose, relative to the supply, determines its value; +for money, whether of coin or paper or both combined in one +circulation to meet one need, is subject to the same law of supply and +demand which governs all commodities, and which indeed is as universal +in the economic world as the law of gravitation is in the physical +world. + +Incidentally the value of money fills the important function of +serving as a measure of the values of goods transferred without the +direct use of money, both immediate and deferred. This, however, has +no effect on the demand for money or on its value. + +The people are accustomed to regard money as of constant value, and an +honest money must necessarily conform to this belief. If money varies +in value, the people are deluded, and many are wronged if they are +unaware of the fluctuation. If they become aware of it,--as they +generally do by a bitter experience,--they are confronted with an +uncertainty that is most detrimental to any business or enterprise. +Imagine what our business would be with our measures of weight, +length, and capacity all variable! Yet such a condition would be less +disastrous than a fluctuating money value when it became fully known +that it was so. + +The _demand_ for money varies from many causes, chief among which are +changes in the quantity of goods exchanged, the extent to which other +credit instruments take the place of money in such exchanges, and the +activity of money, or the extent to which it is hoarded, all of which +are entirely beyond control. The _supply_ of money, however, can be +controlled, and to maintain money at a constant value the supply must +be constantly adjusted to the ever-varying demand, so that its +general purchasing power may remain the same. The test of a constant +money must be a constant general level of prices; and this must be +judged by the prices in the open market of those principal commodities +which would be selected to constitute the standard of value, the +quantity of each being proportioned to its importance in trade. + +The only function of gold and silver in a monetary system is to _limit +the volume of the money_, either by their scarcity when freely coined, +or by the laws limiting their coinage. And as this limitation of the +supply bears no definite relation to the demand for money, the value +of the money necessarily fluctuates. Our industrial system is +constantly growing more sensitive to even slight changes in money +value, owing to the greater diversification of industries and the +greater division of labor, and the need for preventing such changes is +constantly growing more imperative. + +When the people arrive at a clearer perception of these facts and +principles they will understand that the chance production of gold and +silver is too clumsy a contrivance to properly control so delicate a +matter as the value of money under modern industrial conditions, and I +believe they will substitute for the present system a circulating +medium of paper money, properly guaranteed, and susceptible of prompt +and certain increase or decrease of volume to meet every possible +variation in demand, and rigidly controlled to conform in value to a +true standard of value, a standard composed not alone of gold or +silver or both combined, but of all the leading commodities. + +In short, they will separate the standard of value from the medium of +exchange, demonetizing both gold and silver as to the latter function, +but using both and many other things in conjunction therewith for the +former function. + + +V. BY A. J. WARNER. + +From whatever side the question is approached, in the last analysis +the value of money of any kind is found to depend upon its quantity, +and not upon color, or ductility, or malleability, or any other +particular quality of the thing upon which the money function is +impressed. There can be therefore, in fact, no other standard of +value, or money standard, except the quantity of whatever is used as +money. When gold and silver are used, the value of each unit of money +depends upon the number of such units, and these in turn depend upon +the quantity of the metal from which the money is made. Any cause, +therefore, which restricts, limits, or contracts the quantity of any +kind of money, increases the value of each unit. On the contrary, +causes that operate to increase the supply of money have the opposite +effect. + +Hence, only that currency can properly be called "sound" currency +which is made to maintain stable relations to things to be bought and +sold. In other words, general prices are determined by the proportion +between money on the one side, and things offered against money on the +other side. Such money only is "honest" money. + +The whole question, therefore, of money standard is a question of +money supply; for, as the price of single things, money being +constant, depends upon supply on the one hand, as against demand for +it on the other, so, in general, prices depend on money supply on the +one hand, and things to be bought and sold on the other. This I +believe to be the fundamental law of money. + + + + +THE NEW CIVIL CODE OF JAPAN. + +BY TOKICHI MASAO, M. L., D. C. L. + + +Ever since the establishment of the present imperial government in +1868, the one unceasing aim of Japan's foreign policy has been the +abolition of the extra-territoriality régime, under which certain +quasi-judicial functions are exercised on the Japanese soil by the +ambassadors and consuls of the Occidental nations. This anxiety on +Japan's part to rid herself of this shameful régime imposed upon her +against her will, will not appear surprising when the fact is learnt +that one Occidental nation went so far as to call her consul at +Yokohama, "Her Britannic Majesty's the Most Honourable Court for +Japan"--a name almost enough to imply that Japan was a British +province. Extra-territoriality rests upon the assumption that the laws +and procedure of the non-Christian nations are so unlike to and +different from those of the Christian nations that without the +protection of this system the safety and well-being of the subjects of +the latter sojourning in the territory of the former would be placed +in constant jeopardy. Accordingly in the early seventies Japan came to +the conclusion that the only possible way of emancipating herself from +the disgraceful yoke of extra-territoriality was to adopt one of the +systems of law obtaining in the Christian world and compile a code of +law based upon that system, and applicable alike to the Japanese and +to the foreigners residing in Japan. + +There were three such systems--the Anglo-American, the French, and the +Germanic Roman--each offering itself for adoption. Mr. Yeto +Shimpei,[2] who became the Minister of Justice in 1872, seems to have +had a personal preference for the French system. He called to his +assistance some of the most eminent jurists of France and entered upon +the work of drafting a code. At the same time he established in Tokio +a law school known as the "Department of Justice Annex Law School," in +which French law was taught by those same jurists whom he had called +from France. About this time there was also established in the +University of Tokio a law school in which instruction was given +chiefly in English law. It was while teaching in this university law +school that Mr. Henry T. Terry (a New York lawyer and an alumnus of +Yale College) wrote his memorable book on English law, designed +especially for the use of Japanese law students. From henceforth +"Terry's Leading Principles of Anglo-American Law" became as familiar +to them as are "Blackstone's Commentaries" to the law students of this +country. + + [2] Those who have followed the course of events in Japan + since the beginning of the new era will remember that upon + the return of Prince Iwakura, in 1873, from his + around-the-world embassy, Mr. Yeto had to withdraw from the + cabinet, owing to a difference of opinion between him and + the Prince with regard to the Corean problem then pending. + Returning to his native province, Saga, he tried to raise + troops against the government (to carry out, of course, his + own convictions in regard to the Corean problem), resulting + in the famous "Saga rebellion" of 1873. Defeated by the + government troops, he betook himself to the interior of the + country in disguise, was arrested, found guilty of treason, + and executed according to law. It is a familiar saying in + Japan that Mr. Yeto died a criminal at the hand of his own + Penal Code. + +Thus, side by side there existed in Tokio two law schools in which two +distinct systems of law were taught--the English and the French. The +primary object of the Department of Justice in establishing the French +law school being to make it a training school of judicial officers, +the students of that school were, upon graduation, to render, for a +limited number of years, an obligatory service to the government in +the various capacities of judges, magistrates, and prosecuting +attorneys. On the other hand, the University of Tokio being a strictly +independent institution in which learning is pursued for the sake of +learning, the graduates of the university or English law school were +at entire liberty in their choice of professions. Naturally enough the +majority of these did not wish to enter the same service which the +graduates of the other school were obliged to enter as a matter of +fulfilment of contract. Thus it happened that the bench was recruited +from the French law school, while the bar was recruited from the +English law school. This state of affairs lasted for about twenty +years, during which time there was also established a German law +school in the University of Tokio. Those who know something about the +rivalry that existed in ancient times between the Sabinians and the +Proculians, or even about the rivalry which exists to-day between the +Yale method and the Harvard method, between the Waylandians and the +Langdellians, can readily imagine what intellectual competition was +carried on between these three Japanese law schools representing three +distinct systems of law. + +After twenty years of assiduous labor the Code Commission submitted a +draft of a Civil Code to the two Houses of Parliament in 1890, +accompanied by the recommendation from the Bureau of Legislation that +the draft might receive the parliamentary sanction in such a manner +that it might be possible for it to be put in effect by the year 1893. +As might have been expected from the personnel of the Commission, +consisting, in its conception, of Mr. Yeto Shimpei and the eminent +French jurist Prof. Boissonade, etc., the draft was a genuine French +code, being almost a literal translation of the Code Napoleon in all +its parts excepting the part dealing with the Law of Persons. The +question may well be asked why it took the Commission twenty long +years to produce this imitation draft code when we know that the draft +of the Code Napoleon itself was completed within the short period of +four months. The answer seems to be that the Commission spent almost +this entire time in their efforts to reconcile the principles of the +French Law of Persons with the Japanese laws and customs bearing on +that subject. + +As has been the case with many other draft codes this draft Civil Code +of Japan was destined to go into oblivion. As soon as it was submitted +to the Parliament there ensued a most desperate fight against its +adoption. As figuring most prominently among the champions of the +opposition I may mention the names of Mr. Kazuo Hatoyama, the present +Speaker of the House of Commons of the Imperial Japanese Parliament, +and His Excellency Mr. Toru Hoshi, the present Japanese minister at +Washington.[3] Inspired by these and other eminent jurists of the +English school the entire bar was set against the adoption of the +draft code. This was not a case of a bar accustomed to one set of +rules and formulas opposing the adoption of a new code for fear that +they might be compelled to learn a new set of rules and formulas. On +the contrary, the bar was composed of men who had studied law as a +science, and science for the sake of science. The spirit of their +opposition was very plainly shown by the objections they raised +against the code. They said:--"The draft Code was a blind imitation of +a foreign Code which itself was far from being free from defects. It +abounded in definitions, illustrations, and examples, and presented an +appearance more becoming to a text-book of law than the Civil Code of +a great nation. It went into too minute details and left too little +room for voluntary development of jurisprudence. It incorporated, like +the French Code, the law of evidence into the body of the Civil Code, +which was totally at variance with the modern theory of evidence, +being a failure on the part of the Commissioners to distinguish +adjective from substantive law. It made too many innovations upon the +Law of Persons hitherto obtaining in Japan. It changed the Family Law +of the Japanese from the foundation, which was a gross disregard of +the historical principle of jurisprudence," etc., etc., etc. Such were +some of the grounds upon which they opposed the adoption of the draft +code, reminding one of the fight in Europe between the historical +school and the analytical school, between the jurists of France and +those of Germany; of the fight in Germany between the Code party and +the anti-Code party, between Savigny and Thibaut. Who can say, then, +that the Japanese are childish imitators of anything that looks well? +The fact is that this sort of conflict between the more conservative +and the more radical, the more scrupulous and the more unscrupulous, +the more positive and the more speculative, is going on all the time. + + [3] I make mention of these two gentlemen as representative + of two classes of a fairly large number of Japanese lawyers, + viz., those who have been educated in the United States, and + those who have received their education in England. Mr. + Hatoyama is a D. C. L. of Yale. For nearly ten years + (1880-1889) he was a professor of law in the University of + Tokio Law School, and during most of this time he was also + Dean of the school. Mr. Hoshi is a barrister-at-law of one + of the English Inns of Court. For many years he was regarded + as the leader of the Japanese bar. Like many distinguished + members of the English bar, he is more of a lawyer than of a + jurist. + +At last in 1892 the Parliament passed an act deferring the taking +effect of the code till 1897 and ordering in the meantime a careful +revisal of the draft. A new Commission was appointed which consisted +of three most eminent professors of law in Japan, each representing +one of the three systems of law recognized there.[4] These +Commissioners, aided by a number of efficient assistants, looked into +the codes and laws of some fifteen leading American and European +states. As representing the French system they consulted the codes of +Louisiana, Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. As +representing the German system they consulted the codes and laws of +Austria, Montenegro, Prussia, Saxony, Switzerland, and the draft Civil +Code of the German Empire. As representing the English system they +consulted the leading American and English reports and treatises, the +draft Civil Code of New York, and the codes of California and British +India.[5] + + [4] I refer to Professors Hodzumi, Tomii, and Ume. Prof. + Hodzumi is a barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple, and is + one of the ablest representatives of English law in Japan. + Prof. Tomii is a _Docteur en Droit_ of the Facility of + Lyons, and is by far the ablest expounder of the French + codes in Japan. Prof. Ume, though a bearer of the same + degree from the same Faculty as Prof. Tomii, has attended + several German universities, and is more of the German + school than of the French. The Commission itself consisted + of several other distinguished personages, with the Prime + Minister at the head. But these three professors composed + what was called the "Compilation Committee," so that + practically they were the Commission. + + [5] Prof. Ume, a member of the Commission, is responsible + for these statements so far as they relate to the codes and + laws consulted. The classifications, however, are my own. + +After four years of the most constant application the Commission +submitted in 1896 a revisal of a part of the original draft. Had the +Commission had the entire code revised they could not have shown +greater wisdom. For the parts incomplete were those dealing with the +Family Law and Successions, and the Commission remembered that these +were the parts that occasioned the most vital objections to the old +code. The Parliament referred the revised draft code to a Committee of +their own, of which Mr. Hatoyama, the present Speaker, was made the +chairman. After making a careful examination and some important +modifications, Mr. Hatoyama reported favorably to its adoption. The +Parliament acted according to his advice, and the draft became the +law. + +In its general arrangement the new code follows what the German +jurists call the Pandekten system. It is divided into five general +parts. Part I is called "S[=o]soku," or General Laws, and deals with +persons, natural and artificial, as the subjects of rights; with +things as the objects of rights; and with juristic acts as setting +rights in motion. One cannot help being astonished at and gratified +with the remarkable extent to which Prof. Holland's views as expressed +in his book on jurisprudence seem to be adopted in this part of the +code.[6] Part II is called "Bukken," or _Jus in Rem_, corresponding +to the Sachenrecht of the German code, and dealing with Possession, +Ownership, etc., etc. Part III is called "Jinken," or _Jus in +Personam_, corresponding to the Forderungsrecht of the German code, +and dealing with General Law of Obligations, with Obligations arising +_ex contractu_, _quasi ex contractu_, and _ex delicto_. The General +Law of Obligations is taken largely from the Forderungsrecht of the +Swiss code. The law of Contracts and Torts is taken entirely from the +English law. Parts IV and V, dealing with the Family Law and the Law +of Successions respectively, have not as yet been published, for +reasons already indicated. + + [6] This may be a mere conjecture on my own part. It is + possible that the Commissioners never consulted his book, + though to assert such a thing of them would be an insult to + their scholarship. Be it as it may, it is a fact beyond + question that their arrangement of these topics presents a + remarkable coincidence to that of Prof. Holland's, and this + is a matter upon which every thoughtful Japanese may well + pride himself. + +Such is the new Civil Code of Japan, adopted by the Imperial +Parliament in its session of 1896. Truly, the year 1896 has been an +eventful year for Japan. The war with China had brought glory to her +arms. Formosa and numerous other islands had been added to her +possessions. The insurgents of Formosa had been pacified. The treaties +with the leading nations of the world had been revised, providing for +the abolishment of the disgraceful extra-territoriality régime in +Japan, to take effect, however, upon the taking effect of the new +Civil Code. The last and greatest event of all, the new Code was +adopted. With equal propriety, then, the Emperor Mutsuhito might have +joined Justinian, in proclaiming:--"Imperatoriam Majestatem non solum +armis decoratam, sed etiam legibus opportet esse armatam, ut utrumque +tempus et bellorum et pacis recte possit gubernari!" + + + + +JOHN RUSKIN: + +A TYPE OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY MANHOOD. + +BY B. O. FLOWER. + + +The name John Ruskin is justly entitled to a foremost place among +those of the builders of twentieth-century civilization. In him we +find a rare combination of genius, culture, and refinement, blended +with a tender concern for all earth's unfortunates. He is at once +artist, philosopher, and philanthropist; but he is more than these; +there is much of the austere religious reformer, giving a serious +gravity to all the utterances of the glad-souled artist, a mingling of +the spirit of a Savonarola with the imagination of a Turner. + +John Ruskin, more than any other man of our time in like station of +life, stands for the civilization which we believe is destined to +glorify the coming century, for in his life all thought of ease, fame, +and preferment,--all consideration of self,--is overmastered by his +love for others. Endowed by nature with the imagination of a poet, the +eyes of an artist, the brain of a philosopher, the soul of a prophet, +and the heart of a man, he has conscientiously employed all his gifts +as a sacred trust given to him that he might bless and enlighten his +day, and ennoble his civilization for all time. + +He was born amid affluence, and received the best educational +advantages the age afforded. After graduating from Oxford in 1842, he +studied painting under Copley Fielding and J. D. Harding. Subsequently +he spent some time in Italy, finishing his art education in the land +of earth's greatest painters. + +While in college he composed many poems, but on leaving the university +he turned his attention to art and prose composition. His "Modern +Painters" was justly hailed as one of the noblest works of the +century, and instantly placed its author in the ranks of the foremost +art critics of the world. + +Few if any of his admirers will agree with all his critical views. He +not infrequently falls into those errors which we naturally expect to +find in a man of intense feeling, of strong conviction, and of vivid +imagination. If a positive idea takes possession of his mind, it is +liable to give a strong bias to his thought, and in a degree +interferes with that nice sense of proportion so essential to a great +critic. On more than one occasion Mr. Ruskin has frankly admitted that +his views and opinions were erroneous owing to being based on a +partial appearance or influenced by pernicious ideas. A notable +illustration of his thought being biassed by preconceived ideas is +found in the religious opinions put forward in the early edition of +parts I and II of "Modern Painters." And in a preface written in 1871 +for a revised edition of his works, the philosopher calls attention to +his early views, declaring that he was "wholly mistaken" and +continuing: "I had been educated in the narrow doctrine of a narrow +sect, and had read history obliquely, as a sectarian necessarily +must." + +Such are the blemishes which occasionally creep into the works of this +master mind. They are, however, merely spots on the sun, which do not +appear frequently enough to seriously dim the splendor of a critical +work which in my judgment surpasses in real value that of any English +scholar of the century. "Modern Painters," "The Stones of Venice," +"The Seven Lamps," and his other works dealing with art are far more +than criticisms; they touch the sleeping soul, they fire the spirit +and awaken the conscience. They make the reader feel a new love for +nature and art alike, and with this pure and inspiring love comes the +desire for more knowledge. They appeal to the spiritual aspirations +even more than to the artistic impulses or the intellectual +apprehension. The moral exaltation which pervades his writings springs +from his profoundly philosophical and religious nature. In all his +work, as in his noble life, he has ever been moved by an intense +desire to uplift and dignify humanity and to impress upon the public +mind the subtle but positive effect for good exerted by true art. "I +have had," he tells us in "The Two Paths," "but one steady aim in all +I have ever tried to teach, namely, to declare that whatever was great +in human art was the expression of man's delight in God's work." + +With Ruskin, life is august; its possibilities for good and evil are +never forgotten. + + "Remember," he urges, "that every day of your life is ordaining + irrevocably for good or evil the custom and practice of your + soul; ordaining either sacred customs of dear and lovely + recurrence, or trenching deeper and deeper the furrows for seed + of sorrow. Now, therefore, see that no day passes in which you do + not make yourself a somewhat better creature.... You will find + that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to + help other people, will in the quickest and delicatest ways + improve yourself." + +The pleasure which springs from loyalty to duty is strenuously +insisted upon by Ruskin, and he, more than any other illustrious man +in our time, has reached such heights of unselfishness as to enable +him to fully appreciate the unalloyed pleasure which flows from a life +of sacrifice. If he is austere, he is also very humane. The fountains +of pleasure that he would have us drink deeply from would leave no +bitter aftertaste. He delights in no pseudo-pleasure; faithfulness to +the highest ideal, untiring effort at complete self-mastery, a settled +determination to work for the good of all and to be ever on guard lest +by some inadvertence we injure some other living creature,--such are +some of the lessons upon which our philosopher insists as essential to +man's happiness. + + "If," he urges, in writing for the young, "there is any one point + which, in six thousand years of thinking about right and wrong, + wise and good men have agreed upon, or successively by experience + discovered, it is that God dislikes idle and cruel people more + than any others; that His first order is, 'Work while you have + light;' and his second, 'Be merciful while you have mercy.' 'Work + while you have light,' especially while you have the light of + morning. There are few things more wonderful to me than that old + people never tell young ones how precious their youth is.... + Remember, then, that I, at least, have warned _you_, that the + happiness of your life, and its power, and its part and rank in + earth or in heaven, depend on the way you pass your days now. + They are not to be sad days; far from that, the first duty of + young people is to be delighted and delightful; but they are to + be in the deepest sense solemn days. There is no solemnity so + deep, to a rightly thinking creature, as that of dawn.... You + must be to the best of your strength usefully employed during the + greater part of the day, so that you may be able at the end of it + to say, as proudly as any peasant, that you have not eaten the + bread of idleness. Then, secondly, I said, you are not to be + cruel. Perhaps you think there is no chance of your being so; and + indeed I hope it is not likely that you should be deliberately + unkind to any creature; but _unless you are deliberately kind to + every creature, you will often be cruel to many_." + +Ruskin is often disquieting to conventionalists; he is too candid to +be popular with those who make long prayers and descant on charity +while they ignore justice. He puts questions to them which they do not +want to consider themselves, or to have others consider. By insisting +on the substitution of justice for charity, and by taking the +teachings of Jesus seriously, he offends the sleek money-changers who +occupy choice pews in the modern palaces of ease dedicated to the +lowly Nazarene. Such expressions as the following from the magnificent +lecture on "Work" prove far less satisfying to this class than the +popular sermons they are accustomed to hear: + + "It is the law of heaven," says Ruskin, "that you shall not be + able to judge what is wise or easy, unless you are first resolved + to judge what is just, and to do it. That is the one thing + constantly reiterated by our master--the order of all others that + is given oftenest: 'Do justice and judgment.' That's your Bible + order; that's the 'service of God.' The one divine work--the one + ordered sacrifice--is to do justice; and it is the last we are + ever inclined to do. Anything rather than that! As much charity + as you choose, but no justice. 'Nay,' you will say, 'charity is + greater than justice.' Yes, it is greater; _it is the summit of + justice_; it is the temple of which justice is the foundation. + _But you can't have the top without the bottom_; you cannot build + upon charity. You must build upon justice, for this main reason, + that you have not, at first, charity to build with. It is the + last reward of good work. It is all very fine to think you can + build upon charity to begin with; but you will find all you have + got to begin with begins at home, and is essentially love of + yourself. + + "You well-to-do people, for instance, who are here to-night will + go to 'Divine Service' next Sunday, all nice and tidy, and your + little children will have their tight little Sunday boots on, and + lovely little Sunday feathers in their hats; and you'll think, + complacently and piously, how lovely they look! So they do; and + you love them heartily, and you like sticking feathers in their + hats. That's all right; that _is_ charity; but it is charity + beginning at home. Then you will come to the poor little + crossing-sweeper got up also--in its Sunday dress--the dirtiest + rags it has that it may beg the better: we shall give it a penny, + and think how good we are. That's charity going abroad. But what + does justice say, walking and watching near us? Christian justice + has been strangely mute, and seemingly blind; and, if not blind, + decrepit this many a day: she keeps her accounts still, + however--quite steadily--doing them at nights, carefully, with + her bandage off, and through acutest spectacles (the only modern + scientific invention she cares about). You must put your ear down + ever so close to her lips to hear her speak; and then you will + start at what she first whispers, for it will certainly be, 'Why + shouldn't that little crossing-sweeper have a feather on its + head, as well as your own child?' Then you may ask justice, in an + amazed manner, How she can possibly be so foolish as to think + children could sweep crossings with feathers on their heads? Then + you stoop again, and justice says--still in her dull, stupid + way--'Then, why don't you, every other Sunday, leave your child + to sweep the crossing, and take the little sweeper to church in a + hat and feather?' Mercy on us (you think), what will she say + next? And you answer, of course, that you don't, because + everybody ought to remain content in the position in which + Providence has placed them. + + "Ah, my friends, that's the gist of the whole question. _Did_ + Providence put them in that position, or did _you_? You knock a + man into a ditch, and then you tell him to remain content in the + 'position in which Providence has placed him.' That's modern + Christianity. You say, 'We did not knock him into the ditch.' How + do you know what you have done or are doing? That's just what we + have all got to know, and what we shall never know until the + question with us every morning, is, not how to do the gainful + thing, but how to do the just thing." + +These thoughts suggest to us Ruskin, the social economist, for we must +not lose sight of the fact that this greatest of all art critics, this +strong, sane ethical philosopher who has emphasized so forcibly the +possibilities, duties, and responsibilities of the individual in all +his complex relations, is also one of the most enlightened and +broad-visioned economists of our wonderful age. By treatises, essays, +and letters he has striven for a brighter day for the breadwinners. He +has sought to elevate the ideals and tastes of all toilers, while he +has labored unremittingly to secure for them that meed of justice +which is their right, but which has so long been denied them. + +So far back as 1868, when few people of position dared advocate so +sane a proposition as the governmental ownership of "natural +monopolies," John Ruskin published these bold and thoughtful words in +the London _Daily Telegraph_: + + The ingenious British public seemed to be discovering to its + cost, that the beautiful law of supply and demand does not apply + in a pleasant manner to railroad transit. But if they are + prepared to submit patiently to the "natural" laws of political + economy, what right have they to complain? The railroad belongs + to the shareholders; and has not everybody a right to ask the + highest he can get for his wares? The public have a perfect right + to walk, or to make other opposition railroads for themselves, if + they please, but not to abuse the shareholders for asking as much + as they think they can get. Will you allow me to put the _real_ + rights of the matter before them in a few words? + + Neither the roads nor the railroads of any nation should belong + to any private persons. All means of public transit should be + provided at public expense, by public determination, where such + means are needed, and the public should be its own shareholder. + Neither road, nor railroad, nor canal should ever pay dividends + to anybody. They should pay their working expenses, and no more. + All dividends are simply a tax on the traveller and the goods, + levied by the persons to whom the road or canal belongs, for the + right of passing over his property, and this right should at once + be purchased by the nation, and the original cost of the + roadway--be it of gravel, iron, or adamant--at once defrayed by + the nation, and then the whole work of the carriage of persons or + goods done for ascertained prices, by salaried officers, as the + carriage of letters is done now. + +Happily these suggestions of the distinguished Englishman have been +followed, in part at least, by several enlightened nations, but to the +disgrace of our republic, and to the great cost of the producing and +consuming masses, we are lagging behind in these respects, becoming a +camp-follower instead of a leader in the march of progress, because of +the influence exerted by a small class, who have grown so powerful +through special privileges given to them by the nation that they now +assume to thwart beneficent legislation in order that they may +continue to grow richer through this vicious form of governmental +paternalism, which places the multitude in the power of a few. + +Ruskin's views on money are as disturbing to the usurers and those who +through special privileges in money have amassed fortunes of unearned +wealth as his sound position on railroads is distasteful to the +monopolists who impoverish the producer and consumer by exorbitant +rates on transportation. + +The great Englishman is also too clear-sighted to accept the +fallacious doctrines of the money-changers in regard to the medium of +exchange. He is too honest to hold his peace in the presence of a +great wrong, hence his definition of money is far more nearly correct +than the false and essentially injurious definitions so industriously +promulgated by special pleaders for an interested class. "The final +and best definition of money," says Ruskin, "is that it is a +documentary promise ratified and guaranteed by the nation to give or +find a certain quantity of labor on demand." + +In 1873 our author carried on a spirited discussion with some +conventional economists regarding the money of the rich. One writer +undertook to defend the lavish and reckless expenditures of the +wealthy by calling to his aid the well-worn plea that money thus paid +out finds its way into the pockets of poor families, and that thus +through the bounty of the rich the starving are blest. Ruskin, in the +course of his reply, observed that, were he a poor man instead of a +moderately rich one, he would be sure that the paper referred to would +suggest the question: + + These _means of living_, which this generous and useful gentleman + is so fortunately disposed to bestow on me--where does he get + them himself?... These are the facts. The laborious poor produce + "the means of life" by their labor. Rich persons possess + themselves by various expedients of a right to dispense these + means of life, and, keeping as much means as they want for + themselves, and rather more, dispense the rest usually only in + return for _more labor from the poor_, expended in producing + various delights for the rich dispenser. The idea is now + gradually entering poor men's minds, that they may as well keep + in their own hands the right of distributing "the means of life" + they produce; and employ themselves, so far as they need extra + occupation, for their own entertainment or benefit, rather than + that of other people. + +The conventional economist replied to the question relating to how the +rich man got his wealth by stating that it was obtained by the +possessor or his ancestors through a "mutually beneficent partnership" +between the rich and the poor by which the poor had their share of the +joint returns advanced to them. Mr. Ruskin in his reply stated the +question again, and then proceeded to answer it by a telling personal +illustration. He says: + + "Where does the rich man get his means of living?" I don't myself + see how a more straightforward question could be put! so + straightforward, indeed, that I particularly dislike making a + martyr of myself in answering it, as I must this blessed day--a + martyr, at least, in the way of witness; for if we rich people + don't begin to speak honestly with our tongues, we shall, some + day soon, lose them and our heads together, having for sometime + back, most of us, made false use of the one and none of the + other. Well, for the point in question, then, as to means of + living: the most exemplary manner of answer is simply to state + how I got my own, or rather how my father got them for me. He and + his partners entered into what your correspondent mellifluously + styles "a mutually beneficent partnership" with certain laborers + in Spain. These laborers produced from the earth annually a + certain number of bottles of wine. These productions were sold by + my father and his partners, who kept nine-tenths, or thereabouts, + of the price themselves, and gave one-tenth, or thereabouts, to + the laborers. In which state of mutual beneficence my father and + his partners naturally became rich, and the laborers as naturally + remained poor. Then my good father gave all his money to me. + +Space forbids a more extended notice of Mr. Ruskin's broad and +thoughtful views on economic problems, but before closing this paper, +I wish to notice how the life of this great philanthropist has touched +and brightened other lives. Many men think noble thoughts and at times +are stirred by the loftiest aspirations, but in actual everyday life +they sadly fail to live up to their teachings; but he who can and does +master himself, he who gives his life for justice and thinks of the +welfare of others before he considers himself, has reached a far +higher summit than have the most gifted intellects who, while +apprehending the beauty of goodness, fail to express that beauty in +their daily lives. John Ruskin's life has been at once earnest, pure, +and unselfish. + +Of the unexampled manner in which he gave up his beautiful wife to his +friend--how he quietly secured a divorce that she might become the +wife of the man she loved--electing to pass the rest of his life alone +rather than destroy her happiness,--these facts are well known, and +Mr. Ruskin has been severely criticised for not holding his wife in +unwilling bondage. But he was so constituted that it was impossible +for him to endure the thought of being directly or indirectly the +cause of another's misery. + +Another striking illustration of his unselfishness is seen in the +manner in which he has disposed of his fortune, which at the time of +his father's death amounted to a million dollars. With this money he +set about doing good. Poor young men and women who were struggling to +obtain an education were helped, homes for working men and women were +established, and model apartment-houses were erected. He also promoted +a work for reclaiming waste land outside of London. This land was used +for the aid of unfortunate men who wished to rise again from the state +into which they had fallen through cruel social conditions and their +own weaknesses. It is said that this work suggested to General Booth +his colonization farms. Ruskin has also ever been liberal in aiding +poor artists, and has done much to encourage the artistic taste among +the young. On one occasion he purchased ten fine water-color paintings +by Holman Hunt for $3,750, to be hung in public schools of London. + +By 1877 he had disposed of three-fourths of his inheritance, besides +all the income from his books. But the calls of the poor and the plans +which he wished to put into operation looking toward education and +ennobling the toilers, and giving to their gloomy lives something more +of sunshine and joy, were such that he determined to dispose of all +the remainder of his wealth except a sum sufficient to yield him +fifteen hundred dollars a year on which to live. + +Of all English writers of our century no one has left a more valuable +literary legacy than has John Ruskin, but the splendid and voluminous +works of his brain are even less priceless than the example of his +wonderful life. That he is in the shadow in his old age is by no means +strange; a nature so sensitive, so finely strung, so keenly alive to +the sufferings of others on every hand, has necessarily felt what the +well-kept and self-engrossed animals around him knew nothing of. +Indeed, just here we find the chief reason why the finest natures +suffer so keenly in this age of heartless greed, self-absorption, and +gold madness, of wanton extravagance and biting poverty, of widespread +misery and growing discontent. Sensitive natures who are spiritually +alive to the misery around them must suffer while they sow the +seed-thoughts of a new day--suffer uncomplainingly until the +waiting-time of this great transition period has passed. + +In John Ruskin we find great breadth of thought and a wide range of +intellectual vision, going hand in hand with a profound philosophical +grasp of life's deepest problems; and, what is more, these excellences +are rendered luminous by the influence of an enlightened soul. His +life has been characterized by nobility of purpose, purity of thought, +a passion for nature and art, and an enthusiasm for humanity. + + + + +THE SINGLE TAX IN OPERATION. + +BY HON. HUGH H. LUSK, + +_Ex-Member of the New Zealand Legislature._ + + +Few if any of the various economic theories that have been advanced, +claiming attention in virtue of their practical benefit to the +existing conditions of human affairs, have gained so immediate or so +widespread an acceptance amongst intelligent persons as that which is +familiarly known as "the single-tax" theory propounded by Mr. Henry +George. In all parts of the English-speaking world, at least, the +theory has obtained many and enthusiastic disciples, who have +believed, and probably still believe, that they find in Mr. George's +doctrine a panacea for many of the most apparent of the evils which +oppress society not less under our advanced civilization than they did +at any former period of the world's history. It may be said, indeed, +that we hear less of Mr. George and the single tax now than we did a +few years ago, and from this some will argue that the idea has died or +is dying out of men's minds; this, however, is almost certainly a +mistake. + +In the history of any great system of alleged reform there may be +traced at least three distinct stages which are marked by different +degrees of prominence in the public regard. The first of these may be +called the period of promulgation, the second that of fermentation, +and the third that of experiment. If the evils proposed to be reformed +are manifest and widely recognized the first of these stages is almost +certain to excite wide attention and much controversy on both sides. +The earliest stage, that of mere discussion, however, soon wears +itself out, and the theorists who argued in favor of, as well as those +who argued against, the new system, having exhausted their ingenuity +in argument, turn for the most part to something newer, and let the +matter drop. + +Then follows the period of incubation. Removed from the din of +controversy a certain number of people are always found who are keenly +sensible of the evils which the new system was supposed to cure, and +who continue to meditate upon the possibility of its possessing the +power to do so. These persons, it may be, make but little noise in the +arena either of literature or politics, but they are not the less +active, nor perhaps in the end the less really influential, on that +account. Their influence is of the sort that depends upon a solid +conviction, right or wrong, that the theory which they support is the +true one; and as long as the evils, which the system they adhere to +professes to cure, continue to exist, so long their influence may be +expected to increase. + +It is the third or experimental stage which is the critical one, and +generally speaking it is well when that stage can be reached without +any needless delay. By experiment alone can the value of such theories +be tested to the satisfaction of the practical mind of humanity, and +it is only as the result of a trial that men will either consent to +admit the value of a proposed reform or to abandon a specious theory +to which they have once given their adherence. + +The single-tax theory of political economics advanced by Henry George, +having passed through the first of these three stages with something +more than the usual publicity and controversy, has already been in its +second stage for a good many years. The cessation of active +discussion, which appears to some people to argue that it has passed +into oblivion, or is at any rate well on the way toward such a +consummation, is only evidence that it is in its second, or +fermentation, period. Nobody can pretend for an instant that any one +of the evils pointed out by Henry George as the things that called +loudly for reform, have actually been reformed since the date of the +publication of his original essay on "Progress and Poverty." No +reasonable man can doubt that many, if not all of these evils, ought +in some way to be dealt with, and if possible amended. While such is +the case it is impossible wholly to get rid of the theory which +trenchantly pointed out those evils and professed at least to offer an +effective remedy. + +Under these conditions few things could be more desirable than that +the matter should be advanced to the third of its natural stages by +being submitted to the critical test of experience. Nothing short of +this will ever satisfy the mass of mankind of the feasibility of the +system proposed, or of its adequacy to meet the evils complained of; +nothing less will set free the minds of many thousands of intelligent +persons to inquire into other methods of reform than the fair trial of +the single-tax system, and its failure to cure the evils which its +author expected it to cure. The difficulty, which indeed is by no +means a slight one, is to find a favorable arena in which the +experiment can be tried, and a community prepared to make the +experiment. + +It must be remembered that, if the evils aimed at by the proposed +remedy of the single tax are great and far-reaching, its complete +application could hardly, in most communities, amount to less than a +practical revolution. Striking as it does at the whole received theory +of land tenure, as sanctioned throughout the civilized world by the +practice of many centuries, it arrays against itself the prejudices of +the most influential classes in every long-established community, and +its introduction is necessarily surrounded by difficulties and at +least apparent injustices which must indefinitely delay any attempt to +bring it to the test of experiment there. The only reasonable hope, +indeed, of reducing the theory of the single tax to the plane of +experience is to find a country not yet fully committed to any other +system, and occupied by a self-governing people sufficiently +intelligent to perceive the evils of other existing systems of land +tenure, and sufficiently enterprising to be willing to experiment in +this direction. + +It may perhaps prove of no little benefit to other communities that +one self-governing country has been found which has been both able and +willing to make trial of the principle which has been so strongly +contended for by the author of "Progress and Poverty," and by those +who have seen in his proposals a way of escape from many of the most +serious difficulties that beset civilized communities at the present +day. There is probably no other country which is to-day in so good a +position to enter upon experimental legislation in this and other +directions as the British colony of New Zealand. An island community +separated by more than a thousand miles from its nearest neighbors, +possessed of practically unlimited powers of self-government, and +inhabited by a prosperous and intelligent population, substantially +of unmixed British race, there is little either in their external +relations or internal circumstances to prevent the colonists of New +Zealand making many experiments in economic legislation. And during +the last quarter of a century this fact has been fully realized by the +people and their leaders. They have established a system of education +which is at once more popular, free, and comprehensive than even the +most complete systems in force in this country; they have placed local +option in the control of the liquor traffic upon a broad and entirely +popular basis, which has rendered New Zealand the most sober and +law-abiding of communities, without introducing the doubtful principle +of prohibition; they have thrown open the franchise unreservedly to +all persons of full age and competent education, without regard to +sex; and they have successfully introduced life insurance and +trusteeship of estates by the government, as well as many others of +the proposals which are generally comprehended under the term "State +Socialism." + +It is by no means surprising that a community which has made so many +experiments in legislation should have turned its attention to the +question which may perhaps be looked upon as most specially inviting +attention from social reformers in a new country. The circumstances of +New Zealand in relation to the land were from the first exceptional. +In every other country occupied by savage tribes in modern times which +has been taken possession of for purposes of settlement by people of +European race, the ownership of the soil has been assumed, as a matter +of course, to vest not in the aboriginal natives, but in the intruding +settlers. Spain, England, France, Holland, Germany, and the United +States have one after the other adopted this convenient theory of +international morality, and entered with a cool assumption of right +upon the inheritance of their comparatively helpless predecessors. In +New Zealand the conditions of the country and its inhabitants rendered +this popular system wholly inapplicable. The area of the country was +limited, to an extent which rendered it impossible to adopt the +fiction which has lain at the root of nearly all the forcible +confiscation of the territory of native tribes, namely, that they +could make no profitable use of so great an area. The islands of New +Zealand contain only a little more land than Great Britain itself, +and sixty years ago, when England first thought of annexing them to +her empire, the native inhabitants numbered little if anything short +of a hundred thousand souls. They were besides a settled people who +cultivated the soil, and moreover they were warlike, and formidable to +any invader. In consequence of these things a wholly new departure was +made in the case of New Zealand. The country was not occupied on any +plea of discovery or of conquest, as had been done in so many parts of +the world before, but the sovereignty of the islands was obtained by +treaty with the chiefs of the native tribes, upon the distinct +guarantee that the full rights of the aboriginal inhabitants to their +lands should be recognized and protected by England against all +comers. + +From the first, therefore, the lands of New Zealand have been +purchased by the government before they could be disposed of to the +settlers. The community had no vast tracts of land to dispose of which +had cost nothing but the expense of survey, but as a matter of fact +had to look on every acre as an investment which must be sold for a +certain definite price unless the transaction was to result in an +absolute loss of money to the people at large. It may well have +happened that the result of so unusual a condition of affairs was to +lead the community to regard the public lands in a somewhat different +light from other people. At any rate it led to all lands being sold +for a price which prevented their being lightly esteemed or as a rule +held as freeholds in large areas. So much was this the case that from +the first nearly all pastoral lands were held under leases from the +government at fixed annual rentals. Fully forty years ago the +southern, and larger, of the islands was nearly all purchased from the +comparatively small native population by the government, and in that +island a very large proportion of the land has always been let on +lease for grazing. In the northern island nearly one-half of the land +even now belongs to the original native owners, and much of this area +is leased from them by Europeans for farming or grazing purposes. + +In this way it has happened that in New Zealand, more than in any +other country occupied by people of European race, the inhabitants +have grown accustomed to the idea of holding land on lease, with the +people at large, as represented by the government, for landlord. Under +these conditions it is easy to understand how the doctrine of the +single tax found a peculiarly congenial home in the minds of New +Zealand public men. It is true that large areas of the lands of the +country had been disposed of in freehold to settlers. It is true that +the freehold tenure of the native inhabitants had in a certain sense +been guaranteed to them by treaty, at least in so far that it should +never be taken from them without compensation. It is true that the +mass of the people were very fully possessed by the apparently almost +universal preference for the idea of a freehold over every other +tenure of lands so far as they were personally concerned. But, on the +other hand, they had grown accustomed to the practice of holding areas +of land on lease both from the government and from the native owners, +whose tenure was not individual, but tribal, and they had learned the +lesson that there was no intolerable hardship in the system. + +The attempt to introduce a system which should give effect to the +principle underlying the economic theory of Henry George in New +Zealand was not hastily made, nor was it attempted on a scale that +could be fairly open to the charge of being revolutionary in its +incidence. The first step taken by the legislature was in the +direction of so dealing with the public estate of the country as to +encourage settlers to lease rather than to purchase the freehold. With +this in view a system of leases in perpetuity was established, and +areas of the best and most accessible of the land still unsold were +set apart to be dealt with under the new plan. Any person, not already +the holder of land in freehold, which, together with the land applied +for under perpetual lease, would make an area of more than six hundred +and forty acres, or one square mile, could apply for a lease of not +more than three hundred and forty acres on perpetual lease. Five +dollars per acre was fixed as the price of the land, such being the +average price of first-class freehold land unimproved in the country, +and the applicant was entitled to a lease for 999 years of the land +applied for, subject to the conditions that he resided upon the land +during the first ten years of the tenancy; that he improved it to the +extent of thirty per cent of its upset value within six years; and +that he paid as annual rental interest at the rate of five per cent on +the price or value of the land. + +Each lease contained clauses rendering the land subject to revaluation +at the end of each period of twenty-one years, on which the rental +would be calculated. If the new valuation, which it was provided +should rigidly exclude all improvements on the land, was assented to +by the tenant, the matter was settled for another twenty-one years; +but if he objected to the new valuation as excessive, it was provided +that he could demand that it should be offered by public auction +(subject to payment of the value of his improvements), and that the +amount bid for it either by himself or by anybody else at the sale +should be esteemed the value on which the rental was to be calculated +during the twenty-one years next following the sale. In case the +present holder of the lease was the highest bidder, this was the only +result of the sale; but in case he was outbid he was bound to transfer +the lease to the best bidder, on receiving from the government the +amount at which his improvements had been valued. This payment might +be made in government bonds, bearing interest at four per cent, at the +option of the government, and the new holder of the lease was charged +as rent the interest on the value of the land as bid by himself and +also interest at five per cent upon the former leaseholder's +improvements. By this means it was proposed to retain for the +community at large the increased value of the lands of the country +which was not due to the improvements made from time to time by the +leaseholder. The inducement held out to the public to accept such +leases in preference to a freehold was the saving of capital involved +in not paying for the land when taken up, but only interest on the +amount. This, it was hoped, would suffice to render it popular with a +considerable class of actual working settlers as distinguished from +speculative buyers. + +It is only fair to say that in spite of every effort that could be +made by the government, the system did not commend itself to the +judgment or the prejudices of the persons interested to any very great +extent. What they wanted--what it may be taken for granted is wanted +by nearly everybody in dealing with land--was a fixed tenure. It was +not enough to know that they had a lease for 999 years; they wanted to +know what they were to pay for it, not only during the first +twenty-one years, but at any time during the 999. Eventually this had +to be conceded, and as the land law of New Zealand now stands the +holder of a perpetual lease gets it for a rental of four per cent upon +the original price fixed by government on the land, subject still, +however, to the conditions as to residence and improvements on the +land during the first ten years. + +Having abandoned this promising and theoretically perfect plan for +securing to the state all state-produced increase in the value of the +public lands, the New Zealand parliament was still anxious to secure +for the country the other advantages held out by the author of the +single-tax doctrine. These advantages may be briefly summed up in the +words, the discouragement of large holdings and the prevention of +speculation in future land values. To obtain these results without +laying the community open to the charge of practical confiscation, +which has been, and probably will always be, the strongest argument +against the practical application of the doctrine of the single tax, +as propounded by its author, was felt to be no easy matter. Even in +New Zealand there were already some large freehold estates, and these +naturally included some of the most desirable and valuable of the +land. It was eventually decided to impose a land tax, the incidence of +which would tend at least to discourage speculation, while it supplied +revenue for the public expenditure. + +A uniform tax of one penny in the pound sterling, equivalent to one +two-hundred-and-fortieth part of the capital value of all land in the +country held in freehold by Europeans, was imposed, the value of +improvements being in all cases deducted from such valuation. Each +owner of land is, however, allowed an exemption of land to the value +of two thousand five hundred dollars, on which no tax is payable, as +well as of all mortgage money secured on the freehold. Thus all +freehold lands held by any individual are liable to be taxed above the +value of $2,500, so far as he is really interested in them; while all +money lent on mortgage of land is subject to a tax of five per cent on +the annual interest reserved by the terms of the mortgage. New Zealand +is mainly a country of small holdings, and the result of this system +has been that, out of about 90,000 holders of land in freehold, only +about 13,000 actually pay the tax on land. In other words, the +settlers of the colony who own land which, apart from improvements and +mortgage debts, is worth more than $2,500, are found to be only about +one-seventh of the whole number. + +To provide for the discouragement of land speculation on a large scale +a further provision is made by the enactment of a further tax upon all +lands held by individuals or corporations of a value exceeding $25,000 +clear of incumbrance. This is called the graduated land tax, and +provides for a farther taxation on all such lands, beginning at +one-eighth in addition to the original tax, and rising by advances of +an additional eighth for each sum of $25,000 at which the land is +valued, until a maximum rate of three times the original tax is +reached in the case of large estates. To provide for the risk of +vexatious opposition to valuations on the part of owners, there is a +farther provision that the government may at its option elect to +purchase, at an advance of ten per cent over the valuation objected +to, any unimproved land held in freehold. It is also a part of the +system that the government may compulsorily purchase at a valuation +any lands not in actual use in case any association of persons shall +apply to have this done, undertaking satisfactorily to take the land +upon its purchase under the conditions of perpetual lease, which of +course includes subdivision into small areas, with residence and +improvement. + +By these means the people of New Zealand confidently expect to secure +the subdivision of the lands of the country into small areas; to +discourage to the utmost the holding of land by capitalists in +expectation of greatly increased values at the expense of the less +wealthy classes; to render practically impossible the establishment on +any extensive scale of private landlordism in respect of agricultural +lands; and gradually to substitute, as far as possible, the payment to +the state of a yearly interest on value, for the purchase of the +freehold in the land of the country. + +So far as the experience of the last eight years, during which the +system has been in force, may be taken as a reliable guide, the +experiment shows many signs of success. It has certainly checked the +tendency to speculate in lands with a view to a rise in price, which +threatened to become a great, as it certainly was a growing, evil. It +has been found that it will not pay to do this in the face of +taxation, and particularly of the graduated tax; and owners of large +areas of land have developed a strong inclination to subdivide and +sell lands which they formerly were disposed to hoard and increase. +The power given to the government to purchase lands where the owners +have objected to the valuation for taxation purposes has not been +widely exercised, but several very important and considerable +compulsory purchases of estates have been made in cases where +associations of persons wishing to take the land on perpetual lease +have applied to the government for that purpose. The chief benefit of +such examples, indeed, seems to have been in compelling owners either +to use the land themselves or to offer it for sale to persons anxious +to use it; but from the New Zealand point of view this would appear to +be almost if not quite equally desirable. Finally, the land tax has +largely enabled the country to do without other taxes, which would +necessarily have fallen more heavily upon the class of workers with +small incomes, instead of being levied on the classes best able to +bear them. + +It yet remains to be seen whether evils may not lurk, as yet +unnoticed, in the system, which may impair if not destroy its +usefulness. One consequence which was predicted by its opponents, +however, has not been found to follow upon the introduction of the +system. It was said that capital would be withdrawn from the country, +and that poverty and stagnation would result. No such result has +followed up to this time. New Zealand, with its less than a million +inhabitants, is to-day looked on as one of the soundest dependencies +of the British empire; it continues to draw to it from the mother +country as much capital as it can profitably use; its exports steadily +increase; and its people, if not rich, are well-to-do and comfortable. + +It may be said, indeed, that New Zealand has not accepted Henry +George's doctrines as they were propounded by their author, and this +is literally true. It is, however, also true that they have accepted +the essential spirit of those doctrines, and, applying that spirit to +the circumstances of their own country, are giving probably the most +useful practical illustration of all that is best in them for the +world's acceptance. No doctrine in economics yet propounded for the +acceptance of humanity has ever been found to be applicable in +exactly the same form or to exactly the same extent under all +circumstances, and this, it may be safely said, will prove +emphatically true of the doctrine of the single tax. The single tax, +like all other economic plans, is not an end, but only a means. The +end must be the amelioration of the condition of the masses of the +people, and the consequent prosperity and happiness of the great +majority. In New Zealand the people and their leaders believe this to +be secured by taxing wealth rather than comparative poverty; by giving +every encouragement to those who will devote themselves to the +cultivation of the land; and by throwing every obstacle in the path of +those who would fain establish and promote the pernicious system of +private landlordism, which everywhere tends to create and perpetuate +class distinctions, with their long train of attendant evils. + +In these respects New Zealand presents an object-lesson which can +hardly fail to be of value to other countries, even if their +conditions differ widely from her own. Her successes may be noted with +advantage, her mistakes may be criticised with profit, in every free +country and by all those who see that existing conditions are far from +perfect in any part of the world, and that the safety as well as the +advancement of society may depend largely upon the introduction of +wise and, it may be, far-reaching reforms. + + + + +NATURAL SELECTION, SOCIAL SELECTION, AND HEREDITY. + +BY PROFESSOR JOHN R. COMMONS, + +_Of Syracuse University, N. Y._ + + +The term "natural selection" is a misnomer, as Darwin himself +perceived. It means merely survival. "Selection" proper involves +intention, and belongs to human reason. Selection by man we call +artificial. Natural selection is the outcome of certain physical +facts: 1. Environment: the complex of forces, such as soil, climate, +food, and competitors. 2. Heredity: the tendency in offspring to +follow the type of the parent. 3. Variation: the tendency to diverge +from that type. 4. Over-population: the tendency to multiply offspring +beyond the food supply. 5. Struggle for life: the effort to exclude +others or to consume others. 6. Consciousness of kind: the tendency to +spare and coöperate with offspring and others of like type. 7. +Survival of the fittest: the victory of those best fitted to their +environment by heredity, variation, numbers, and consciousness of +kind. + +These biological facts underlie human society, but a new factor enters +with novel results. This is self-consciousness. Society is based not +merely on consciousness of kind, as worked out by Professor Giddings, +but peculiarly on individual self-consciousness. + +Self-consciousness is a product of evolution, at first biological as +explained by natural selection, and second, sociological. The +biological character is the prolongation of infancy, i. e. the +prolonged plastic and unfolding state of the brain. This makes +possible a new kind of development unknown to the animal, namely, +education. Education is preëminently a social activity. I say +education instead of environment. In natural selection there is a +physical environment which presses upon individuals, and only those +survive who are fitted to sustain this pressure. In social selection +society enters between the individual and the physical environment, +and, while slowly subordinating the latter, transforms its pressure +upon the individual, and he alone survives who is fitted to bear the +social pressure. This pressure reaches the individual through the +educational media of language and social institutions, especially the +family, the state, and property. Institutions rest upon ideas and +beliefs, and these are epitomized in language. Language in turn, by +giving names to things and relations, and by thus transmitting to each +individual the accumulated race experience, gradually brings him to +the consciousness of himself. This is education. + +But self-consciousness is at first only vague, capricious, and +unprincipled. It grows by becoming definite, self-controlled, and +conscientious; that is, more regardful both of its own higher self and +of others. It thus develops into moral character, which we call +personality. Personality is the final outcome of social selection. +When once liberated it becomes a new selective principle to which all +others are subordinated. What, then, are the social conditions which +promote or retard the survival of personality? + +It is a debated question where we shall place the dividing line +between pre-social and social man. In view of what precedes we should +look for that line at the point where self-consciousness begins to +throw about itself a social covering. This covering is private +property. The former view that primitive property was common property +is now nearly abandoned. The supposed village communities of free +proprietors were really villages of slaves and serfs. The semblance of +common property in primitive times belongs to the pre-social or +gregarious stage, and differs but little from the common use of a +given area by a colony of beavers. + +Private property involves two facts: 1. Perception of enduring value +in external objects; 2. Exclusive control and enjoyment of those +objects. Its psychological basis is therefore self-consciousness, +which is the knowledge not of an abstracted and isolated self, but of +self as related to external nature and human beings. + +The first private property was animals and tools. Artificial selection +begins with the domestication of animals. Soon it lays hold on man +himself by means of social institutions, all of which originate as +private property. The primitive social family was not a state of +promiscuity nor even the voluntary pairing of animals and birds, but +it was private property in women, beginning as wife-capture and +becoming wife-purchase and polygamy. Natural selection, too, is +transcended when cannibalism ceases. The self-conscious victor +enslaves his enemy and reduces him to property. Next, government +arises as private despotism, and with it the land becomes the property +of the chief. Thus the family, the state, protracted industry, and the +control of social opportunities begin with that artificial selection +denoted by private property. + +Property in its early forms means the domination of the powerful over +the weak. Social institutions develop out of this primitive tyranny, +where the caprice of owners crushes the personality of the masses, +towards a state of equal rights and opportunities for all. The +industrial classes emerge from slavery and serfdom into a wage system, +which in turn is modified in the direction of fair wages, short hours, +and security of employment--fundamental conditions for personal +development. + +The family has arisen from the private property of a despot to the +mutual coöperation of lovers, and the woman becomes a person instead +of a chattel. The legal successor of polygamy--the slavery of +women--is not monogamy, but prostitution, which is the wage system of +the sexes, grounded on the subordinate position of women and their +meagre opportunities for self-support. + +Government is passing into democracy, and property in land and capital +is being hedged about by the police and taxing powers, or diffused and +socialized in the interest of the personal equality of all. + +Social evolution is therefore the evolution of freedom and +opportunity, on the one hand, and personality, on the other. Without +freedom and security there can be no free will and moral character. +Without exalted personality there can be no enduring freedom. The +educational environment, therefore, which develops personality must +itself develop with freedom. The ruling ideas of justice, integrity, +morality, must move in advance, else the personality of individuals +will not survive the temptations of freedom. To what extent, +therefore, can education modify the individual? The answer is to be +sought in the problems of heredity and degeneration. + +The human degenerate is essentially different from the animal +degenerate. The latter is solely a physical product, and by losing +certain organs is better fitted for survival, as parasites and snakes. + +Human degenerates, however, do not form a new type, but are on the +decline to extinction. They are those who lack personality; that is, +they are not moulded into harmony with a social environment which +unfolds self-consciousness. They are strictly biological only when +they are congenital and therefore not educable. They are social +degenerates when they are the product of a degraded education. Both +factors are radical. A born idiot can never be other than an idiot. On +the other hand, the deprivation during childhood and youth of language +and education, as shown by Caspar Hauser, or the wolf-boy of Agra, or +the experiment of Emperor Akbar, leaves the normal natural endowments +as idiotic as though they never existed. The two factors vary +independently through all degrees. Education ranges from the slums to +the pure firesides. The congenital equipment varies from the idiot to +the genius. + +The relative weight of these two factors is a matter of statistics. +Absolutely speaking, heredity is everything; relatively, its social +significance depends upon the actual proportion of abnormal to normal +births. + +The highest estimate I am able to make of the total number of +degenerates, both born and induced, is five and one-half per cent of +the population, as follows: + +ESTIMATED TOTAL OF DEFECTIVES PER MILLION POPULATION. + + Census estimate (1890). + + Insane 1,697 + Feeble-minded 1,526 + Deaf and Dumb 659 + Blind 805 + Prisoners 1,315 + Juvenile delinquents 237 + Almshouse paupers 1,166 + ----- + 7,405 + Outdoor Criminals (five times the number of inmates) 7,760 + Tramps (McCook, 1895, New Haven Conference of Charities + and Correction, 85,768) 1,308 + Drunkards (Crothers, 1893, Chicago Conference, 1,200,000, + equal to about 10 per cent of voting population) 19,000 + Prostitutes (weighted average of Levasseur's estimate for + rural (600) and urban (11,200 to 17,200) France, in + "La Population Française," vol. ii, p. 434) 5,000 + Outdoor Paupers (weighted average of report at Nashville + Conference, 1894, 46 per cent in Penna. to 2.2 per cent + in N. Y.) 15,000 + ------ + 55,473 + +This estimate would make the maximum number of all degenerates 5.54 +per cent of the population. From these must be deducted those who are +not congenital. We can estimate the congenitals by three methods: by +statistics of _atavism_, or _consanguinity_, and by _experiment_. + +In the statistics of atavism we add together the physical +abnormalities of the individual, assuming that a criminal type is +found when these abnormalities reach the number of three or more. The +statistical method always suffers the limitation that it indicates not +identity, but probability. Yet it has an important value, provided it +discovers ratios of probability which concur. This is not the case in +the method by atavism. Sixty to seventy per cent of criminals do not +belong to the assumed criminal type; and sixteen per cent of normal +males are classed as criminals, whereas the actual number is less than +three per cent of the males of criminal age. (See Lombroso, "The +Female Offender," pp. 104, 105.) + +While atavism itself is unquestioned, this method seizes upon rigid +physical characters to measure educable qualities. And where the +latter are themselves abnormal the causes may lie with education and +not heredity. + +The method by consanguinity seeks not the abnormalities of the patient +himself, but the signs of disease and degeneracy in his blood +relatives. It therefore greatly increases the apparent weight of +heredity, for it collects symptoms from several individuals instead of +one. The medical authorities ascribe fifty to eighty per cent of +inebriety to heredity. This method fails as does the other, for, as +seen in the Jukes or the drunkard, the child gets both its heredity +and its education from the same degraded parents, and the method +provides no measure for separating the two. + +In sociology the method of experiment has but limited employment. The +modern sociologist cannot mate the parents nor vivisect the soul, +after the methods of the biologist. He can only move the child from +one education to another, and his experiment is incidental to the +larger purpose of saving the child. His results, too, can appear only +as a ratio of probability; but this ratio measures the mental and +moral qualities themselves directly and not by inference. Elmira +Reformatory and others cure eighty per cent of their charges. Model +placing-out institutions and free kindergartens save nearly all. And +these are taken from the most vicious and criminal parentage in the +land. Our five and one-half per cent of degenerates must therefore be +greatly reduced in order to find the residuum of congenitals. I have +made the following deductions: + +ESTIMATED DEFECTIVES NOT CONGENITAL, PER MILLION POPULATION. + + Criminals (80 per cent of total) 7,369 + Prostitutes (80 per cent of total) 4,000 + Outdoor Paupers (80 per cent of total) 16,000 + Tramps (80 per cent of total) 1,046 + Drunkards (50 per cent of total) 9,500 + ------ + 37,915 + Which deducted from 55,473 + leaves congenital defectives 17,558 + +equal to 1.75 per cent of the population. Overlappings would diminish +this ratio; greater infant mortality and the omitted youthful +defectives would increase it. + +If less than two per cent of the births are below the normal Aryan +brain level, on the other hand possibly two per cent are above the +average, and should be classed as the geniuses who could achieve +eminence regardless of surroundings. The remaining ninety per cent or +more are born with ordinary equipment; they are hereditarily neither +good nor bad, criminal nor virtuous, brilliant nor stupid. With these +masses of the people the first fifteen years of infancy and youth are +decisive. + +We may now classify the selective forces of society. Social selection +is partly natural and partly artificial. It originates artificially in +the self-consciousness of dominant individuals. Struggle and conflict +ensue, out of which private property survives in its various forms as +an intended control over others. This control is then transmitted as +the various social institutions to succeeding generations and becomes +for them natural and unintended. These social institutions then +constitute a coercive environment, not over wholly unwilling subjects, +but over those whose wills are shaped by education and social pressure +to coöperate with the very institutions that suppress them. + +Gradually, as subordinate classes become self-conscious, innovations +are made which aim to check the unbridled despotism of private +property; new conflicts thereupon take place and certain innovations +survive, which, at first artificial, become natural for the next +generations. + +As society becomes more definite, reflective, and humane, as it +acquires fixed laws and government, it increases the range of +artificial selection; it supplants custom by statute, and remodels its +inherited institutions. + +It is now animated by a new motive, the development of moral character +in all the people. With reference to this new motive social selection +is either direct or indirect. Direct selection is highly artificial, +but it is only negative. It consists in segregating the degenerates to +prevent propagation. Society cannot, of course, directly interfere +with the marriage choice of normal persons, for that would be to choke +the purest expression of personality. But it can isolate the two per +cent who will never rise to moral responsibility. This would doubtless +increase the wards of the state, but it is needed both for the reason +already given and, more especially, to clarify the public mind on the +causes of delinquency and dependency. As long as these evils can be +charged to heredity the public is blinded to the share that springs +from social injustice. + +The increase and classification of the custodial population here +contemplated is a problem for administrative charity. Possibly the +colony system would make that population mutually self-supporting and +also remove the current sentimentalism against long isolation of the +incurables. + +With the ground cleared of the true degenerates, the operations of +indirect social selection can be seen. This also is artificial, but in +a less mechanical way. It consists in so adjusting the political, +industrial, and social environment as to affect personality, either to +suppress or develop it. The two instruments are legal rights and +education. For example, the tenement-house congestion, with its +significant educational environment, is the product of laws of +property and taxation which favor owners and speculators instead of +tenants, and of private property in rapid transit which puts a tax on +exit to the suburbs. It cannot be said of this and other selective +factors, such as the profit-making saloon, long hours of work, low +pay, irregular employment, that they permit natural selection to +operate. They suppress personality, which preëminently is the natural +fact in the human being. Social selection is therefore tending to +become less and less arbitrary, but is making room for a higher +natural selection--a natural selection where not brute force and +cunning are the fittest to survive, but where, with freedom, security, +and equal opportunity, the human personality will work out its own +survival. Man alone of all the animals can rise to the angels, but he +alone can fall below the brutes. This is the glory and the penalty of +personality. It becomes a unique selective agency whose standard is +raised with the advance of civilization. The Australian cannibal, +without opium, tobacco, alcohol, or syphilis, may survive with a low +morality. The American exposed to these destroyers must be a better +man or perish. Personality, thus becoming a keen selective principle, +is based not necessarily on overpopulation and competition, but on +that self-destruction which comes from vice, disease, and drunkenness. +Its degraded offspring will perish or feed the ranks of the hereditary +degenerates to be properly segregated and ended. + +But with education and opportunity the higher forms of human character +will naturally increase and survive. With the independence and +education of women sexual selection becomes a refined and powerful +agent of progress. With the right to work guaranteed, the tramp and +indiscriminate charity have no excuse, and the honest workman becomes +secure in the training and survival of his family. + +We hear much of scientific charity. There is also a scientific +justice. The aim of the former is to educate true character and +self-reliance. The aim of the latter is to open the opportunities for +the free expression of character. Education and justice are the +methods of social selection. By their coöperation is shaped the moral +environment where alone can survive that natural yet supernatural +product, human personality. + + + + +PSYCHIC OR SUPERMUNDANE EXPERIENCES. + +BY CORA L. V. RICHMOND. + + +From between ten and eleven years of age I have been endowed with +gifts and favored with experiences that, I am well assured, are very +exceptional, and that, until quite recently, have not been admitted to +the realm of psychical investigation, philosophical discussion, or +even human credence. Lately, however, there have been found a +sufficient number of well authenticated facts in similar lines of +experience to warrant the investigation and classification of them (if +possible) under a modern name, "Psychic Research," and under a well +established and not so recent one, Spiritualism. + +I am not intending to discuss these subjects, _per se_, nor to +endeavor to classify or explain the experiences I am about to relate. +They are _experiences_, as real as any of those in my human or mundane +existence; indeed, if I were called upon to decide that one is real +and the other illusion, I should say without hesitation that these, +and similar ones throughout my lifetime, are the real, and the +ordinary mundane experiences unreal. + +At the age above referred to I was, without any seeking, and without +any surrounding circumstances to "suggest" such a state, taken +possession of (entranced) by intelligences, distinct personalities in +thought, word, and action, who spoke through my organism, unfolded and +educated my mind, in fact became my mental and spiritual instructors. +The public discourses and teachings given under these conditions are +well known to many of the readers of THE ARENA, as these labors are +the work of a lifetime. + +It is not of this public work that I am constrained to write; but I +may as well say here that I have had no other teachers, no other +instructors, and have pursued no course of study or reading of human +books; those whom I call my guides and guardians have been my +teachers. During the time that these outside intelligences are +controlling and speaking through my organism I am wholly unconscious +of what is passing in human life and wholly unaware of that which is +being uttered through my lips. I am also unaware of the lapse of time. + +It may be best for me to here declare that I am not, in the usual +sense, peculiar, nor was I different in my childhood from other +children, save as each differs from the other. I was very diffident, +and--not using the word in the psychical sense--sensitive. I was not +given to morbid states or to the "dreaming of dreams." Perhaps I was +imaginative; most children are; and I loved fairy tales, but not +unduly. This is simply to show that there was no abnormal condition of +mind or body to produce the supernormal results that I have referred +to. + +I ought also to say that I never made the slightest preparation for +the discourses and poems given through my lips, many of which, as the +reader may know, were listened to by able and thoughtful minds, and +from them received the highest praise. I tell this, not boastingly, +but with humble gratitude that I have been made the instrument of +giving the message of immortality to the world. + +My own experiences during this period of entrancement, or while in the +supernormal state, may be of peculiar interest to the reader, since +they seem to be almost unique. While passing into this state I +experience no physical sensations that are describable; a sense of +being set free, of passing into a larger realm,--not of being +transported or going anywhere,--is all that I can ever recall as +sensation. Before I have time or opportunity to think how I feel, I am +in the other state. Then I see, but I now know it is perception more +than sight; I sometimes experience that which we call hearing in the +human state, but I am fully aware; perception supersedes the senses. + +Those whom I meet are individualities; many are friends known to me in +the form before they passed from the mortal state; many are those who +were unknown to me personally, only known by name and fame; and many I +have never known until they revealed themselves to me in this "inner," +"higher," other realm. When returning to outward consciousness, I +often see, or remember as sight, such visions of surpassing loveliness +that no language, no gift of art, even with genius-portraiture, could +describe or picture them. These scenes and visions are associated with +individuals who exist in that state, and, apparently, are objective; +yet I am fully aware that they illustrate or depict the states and +tastes of the individuals with whom they are seen, and are not organic +physical forms, but psychic projections of the individual spirits. +These forms and scenes readily pass and change according to the state +of the one seeing them, or according to the state of the individual +with whom they are associated. The "sphere" of a spirit, or of +spirits, is the state or condition, not the environment. + +In early life, before my mind had thought on the "objective" and +"subjective" meanings of thoughts and things, I thought these scenes +were "objective" in the human, mundane sense. I am now perfectly aware +that every sensuous faculty--seeing, hearing, etc.--is superseded by +this "perception" to which I have before referred; in fact, that the +bodily senses as well as the mental faculties--brain expression--are +but the different avenues of perceiving and conveying the intelligence +of the individual spirit while associated with material form, this +perception, or awareness, being the one supreme state of the spirit. + +Still I have been shown series after series of beautiful +scenes,--gardens, landscapes, visions of art, transcendent pictures of +tint, form, and tone that no language can portray; and I am sure these +abide for all who wish for or have need of them, and are the +illustrations of the spiritual states of those with whom one comes in +spiritual contact--_rapport_. Yet the greater the degree of +perception, the less important become these illustrations of states; +we not only see "face to face," but perceive soul to soul. I became +ashamed, almost, of the state of mind requiring these illustrations or +any similar presentations. I found knowledge, however, in all the +methods employed by my teachers, for they knew my needs. + +Conversation in that state is not by means of speech or even language; +sometimes before the thought is formulated the answer comes. Such is +the rare sympathy existing between teacher and pupil in this state +that the guide knows before the question is formed. Still, there must +be the conscious desire for knowledge, or no knowledge can be +received; reminding one of the "Seek, and ye shall find" of the +ancient Truth-Teller. + +When in that state I readily pass to a knowledge of what intimate +friends in earth-life are doing and thinking. I even enter into such +_rapport_ as to be aware of their material surroundings, their states +of mind, and their bodily health, obtaining all this from their minds, +not from physical consciousness or sensation. Many times they have +been also conscious of my presence, and we have afterward verified +these experiences by outward correspondence, mostly to satisfy our +friends. One or two instances will suffice to illustrate this class of +experiences. + +When I was yet a child, twelve years of age, my father accompanied me +on one of my pilgrimages of spiritual work to western New York, our +former home. During that visit or tour a circle for investigation and +experiment was formed in Dunkirk, N. Y. After we returned to our then +home in Wisconsin, I was one evening entranced,--as was usual,--and +while in that state was distinctly conscious of being in Dunkirk, of +seeing every member of the circle, with all of whom I was acquainted +except one lady. She proved to be the seer of the evening. She saw me +and described me so accurately that everyone in the circle recognized +me, and, of course, thought I was dead. This so disturbed her mental +or psychic state that I could not impress upon her mind that my body +was entranced and that this was but one of my usual spiritual +pilgrimages. On returning to my mundane state I narrated what I had +experienced, and asked my father to write at once to the circle in +Dunkirk and relieve their minds. He did so, but, as naturally would +occur, they had also written, the letters crossing each other on the +way, and their letter confirmed what I had told in every particular. + +Later in life I had a lady friend whom I repeatedly visited and +comforted, for she was in great sorrow. One time I made her see my +body, or its apparition, so plainly that she saw the dress in which it +was clothed--precisely what I had wished, as it was the color she most +liked to see me wear. Another friend in California became so +susceptible to my presence that she wrote long letters from +me--automatically--which I, in this state, dictated to her, thus +rendering correspondence between us almost superfluous except for +verification to our outward senses. My own mother was aware of my +presence almost daily; and it was a curious fact that my telltale +spirit would go to her and reveal the very things I wished to keep +from her,--any little surprises or presents, or the time of my +arrival home on a visit. However late the hour, I always found her +ready with a warm supper to receive me. When arriving after the +journey home she would say: "You came to me last night in spirit and +told me you were coming in body." All important things connected with +my welfare she knew in a similar way. + +Two friends, Mr. and Mrs. B----, were extensive travellers. At one +time they were absent three years, taking a tour of the Orient. We did +not keep up a regular correspondence, as mutually our time was too +much taken up with our respective duties or pleasures, but I could +always locate them while I was in this "inner" state. At one time I +saw them surrounded by what seemed more like a scene in the spirit +state than in earth-life. They were on an island, surrounded by +water-lilies; the skies were full of golden light, and they were amid +pavilions, grottos, and altars of quaint and unique design. I could +not place them, but on returning to my mundane state I related to my +family what I had seen, and I wrote down the date. In about three or +four weeks I had a letter from them dated at Tokio, giving a +description of this very island I had seen; they were there on that +very day when I saw them, and the island was as I had seen it. It +proved to be one of the sacred islands in Japan. + +This consciousness of visiting earth friends is, however, only the +smallest part of these inner experiences; and usually occurs when I am +passing into or out of the deeper or more spiritual states. Although I +could fill volumes with these interesting experiences,--verified by +being shared with others in human life,--I feel it due to the reader +that I narrate my more inner experiences; at least in sufficient +degree that they may be recorded, and that there may be some +perception, however inadequately expressed, of what is possible in +this surpassing realm. + +I cannot pass from this subject of my visits to human friends, +however, without here recording one other phase of this many-threaded +line of experiences. While in this realm of spirit I often meet and +converse freely, or commune, with friends that are yet in human forms, +but who appear as spirits and seem to possess all the activities of +the spiritual state. They meet and mingle freely with those who have +"died" to human life, yet I am perfectly sure they recall nothing of +this when in their human state. Why I should remember or take with me +these experiences that the others whom I saw within this realm could +not recall, I could not divine until it was explained by my guide. + +The explanation is this: "In sleep mortals pass into this realm for +spiritual rest and change, as it is the normal realm of the spirit; +but they do not pass through the spiritual awakening of the faculties +as those do who are endowed with 'spiritual gifts,' therefore the +experiences cannot be recalled _as experiences_; still, they sometimes +have vague reminiscences or glimpses of 'unremembered dreams' that aid +them throughout the whole day, often for days; and thus the outward +life is sustained and fed from this realm. By and by the race will +have spiritual growth to know and remember the experiences of the +spirit as they now do of the human life." I have frequently met those +in that state who were strangers to me here, and who were still in +human life; and in after years I have met them face to face in outward +form, often wondering if they thought they had seen me before, as I +was certain I had seen them. When the whole of this other side of +human experience is made known, how many things now veiled will stand +revealed! By far the greater number of volumes could be filled with +those transcendent experiences referred to earlier in these pages, +with friends in spirit states, with teachers and guides in their own +realm. + +My mother, always intuitive, sympathetic, religious, and caring much +for the sick and ailing while in earth life, I was accustomed to see +in a sphere or state of her own near the "Healing Sphere" of one +of my teachers. She was surrounded with her own favorite +flowers--old-fashioned hollyhocks, sweet-williams, and fragrant +healing herbs. My guide explained that in _her thought_, or spiritual, +state she requires these things to aid her in healing or ministering +to those on earth. Whenever I visited her state it seemed to be in the +midst of scenery such as she loved on earth, and under a +morning-glory-covered lattice, where she sat in a low chair like one I +had seen her use in earth life. Though not limited to that state, she +always revealed herself thus to me; and I would return to my earth +state with a sense of homesickness, and with the odor of thyme and +rosemary clinging to my _psychic olfactories_. + +My father was interested in all the reforms of the day; he was a truly +practical Christian, though not a professing one. He was looking for +that ideal social state which we all hope is sometime coming, of +"peace on earth and love to all." His spirit state was revealed to me +as among those arisen workers and reformers, whose work for humanity +he loved and shared on earth, and learning of the wise ones,--a vast +and wonderful sphere of individualities, who are still laboring for +the good of humanity. I wished to know of my father, who passed out +from the mortal form when I was thirteen years of age, and who was +often my spirit teacher in my early life, why, after my mother had +passed on, he was not always with her as in earth life. He replied, +with a rare smile: "We are together; our work is different, but when +we need each other we cannot be apart." + +Singly or in groups, or as my needs seemed to require, I was aware of +every relative and friend who had passed from mortal life, whom our +mutual wish or need attracted toward me. I am sure there may be those +related by ties of consanguinity whom I have not seen, and many +related only by spiritual sympathy and kinship whom I have met and +loved in that state. + +My babe, now a beautiful young woman in the spirit state, is my almost +constant companion in those visitations and experiences. I have "seen +her grow," to use our mortal speech; have noted her spiritual +unfoldment, and have many times been her pupil,--so wise are these +"little ones" in the love of the angels, so sweet and simple is she in +her teaching. + +How few know the real meaning of "nearness" as applied to those they +love! One thinks of the friend whose bodily presence is removed by +mountains, rivers, and oceans as being far away; yet London, China, +and India are as near in thought as the chair beside one, and doubly +near the one whose body may be sojourning there. This very nearness of +sympathy debars any separation. If people would turn to the real +indications,--sympathy, intuition,--whenever desired the friend is +near. Doubly true is this of those who have passed the barrier of +death and are revealed to the heart of love. They have not died, they +have not gone; they are so near as not to be seen or felt by the +grosser sense that governs the physical state of recognition; so very +near that even the thoughts of the friend still immured in the +earthly form are shared by them, the very innermost longings responded +to. Yet people unaccustomed to seek them in the inner instead of outer +realm of existence, cannot find them, and say, "They are gone." With +space and time annihilated, what shall prevent the loved from being +ever near? + +Teachers and guides bear a nearer relationship than those in human +states, and teach by the magic law of adaptation and love. I cannot +name, in earthly language, the tie that binds me to those who have led +me through these many realms, who have taught by vision, illustration, +and thought, until the awakened _perception_ knew, the _a priori_ +knowledge came. + +I have often been conscious of visiting at desire a realm of music +that led through the world of tone, through the spheres of matchless +harmony in which the great masters of music abide,--Beethoven, +Mendelssohn, Mozart, and to the divine realm of Wagner. + +The realm of art, leading through color and form to the images of +perfect life, until form and tint and tone are merged in the supreme +soul of beauty, and sculptured image or architectural grandeur is lost +in the eternal, all-forming, all-changing changelessness of the Soul +of Art. + +The realm of nature (the material universe), seen from the inverse +side, appears to be the effect of causes that are in that realm of +consciousness; laws that are the operation of the Supreme Will, the +Logos. There science is reconstructed and made plain, and made secure +by the knowledge of these fundamental principles. + +The realm of philosophy, traced to its primal sources, reveals the +truths concerning universal knowledge, often perceived by the great +teachers, but dimly stated by minds enshrouded by the environments of +earth. + +The realm of religion,--the ineffable meaning of the All-Love and +Wisdom; the nearness, the perfectness, the absoluteness of the Divine; +the kinship of souls, the fraternity of spirits,--never in all this +realm was there a thought, or teaching of thought, separate from a +conscious individual entity. + +I find that there is no Time or Space in this inner realm; the entity +is not governed by the limitations of the person, so the terms and +usages of earthly existence must fall into desuetude. One is not +hampered by an ox-team while flying across the plains in a palace +coach impelled by steam, and one does not need winter garments and +furs in the tropics. The state of spirit needs no earthly day and +night; all these are but incident to the physical earth and physical +existence. The spirit is free from these limitations--time, space, and +sensuous environment. + +It will be interesting for the reader to know that my physical health +does not suffer from these experiences, nor from the active duties +incident to my spiritual work in human life. + +I enter this spirit realm as naturally and easily as one enters the +realm of sleep; yet it is not sleep. The body and brain are actively +employed by another intelligence, loaned as an instrument might be, +while the individual consciousness, the _ego_ of the human being, is +set free to visit these illimitable realms or states of the "inner," +the vaster, life. + +When the mundane consciousness returns, it is instantaneous; but the +mental and physical sensations vary according to whether the +experiences have been "near or far" from the human state, with +reference not to distance, but to resemblance or similarity in +quality. When the experiences have been furthest removed from those +usual in human consciousness, many minutes, and sometimes hours, are +required to adjust myself to the conditions. This inner state is far +more intense, but not unlike that experienced when one has been wholly +wrapped and folded from the outer world in perusing a favorite +author--living with and experiencing the scenes depicted; or when one +has listened for hours to the all-absorbing strains of music in the +grand operatic creations of Wagner. On returning to the mundane state +my food has often tasted like chips or straw; the fabric of my dress +would feel coarse to the touch, as though woven of cords or ropes; and +every sound seemed harsh or far too loud. Gradually these +supersensitive conditions would depart, leaving the usual state of +mind and body. + +I have said it is easy to pass into that state; not so easy is the +returning to the human environment; yet one _must_ return. Like the +child bidden to the task, reluctant to leave the garden of flowers and +the freedom of the outer world, yet, constrained by love and duty, one +consents to return. I suspect that these sensations I experience, of +return to the human state, are something like those of resuscitation +after one has been nearly drowned. The drowning is easy, because one +is going into life; the restoration is painful, because one returns, +if not to death, to mere existence. The work, the duty, the loved who +are embodied here must win one to the form which has been loaned; but +the spirit seems reluctant sometimes to leave that freedom and +knowledge for the narrow walls of clay, the prison-house of sense. The +only true way is to bring that realm with one into daily life. One +learns after a time to do this: to clothe the earthly scenes with the +inner brightness, and the human tasks with the spiritual aura of love +and wisdom. + +I cannot judge whether the scenes of earth seem lovelier to me than to +most mortals; whether there is more ravishing sweetness in the +springtime, more glory in summer, more richness and beauty in the +autumn, more rest and whiteness in the winter, more transcendent +splendor in the sunset sky and glory in the starlit heavens. But it is +certain that in being admitted to this inner realm the writer has not +lost any blessing of earth,--of love, of home, of friends, of +practical knowledge and interest in the daily duties and work of life; +nor, I believe, can one be barred from any needed experience, however +bitter. These teachings, visions, and experiences of soul-life have +given to earth an exquisite beauty; to life's work a meaning and +impetus; to trials a lesson and interpretation; to the change called +death a glory and radiance; to spirit states a nearness, and to soul a +reality. Nor do these experiences rob one of one's individuality; the +petty _personality_ to which mortals cling is, happily, forgotten or +cast aside, but the _individuality_ cannot be lost, merged in another, +or governed, except for its good. When the _personal_ is cast aside, +one is grateful for the impersonality of the _individual_. + +Trailing clouds of glory accompany me across and into the barriers of +time and sense, and when the sharp contrast is over--which the guide +ever prevents from being too sudden--I realize the great sweetness of +the gardens of paradise by the fragrance that is filling the earthly +dwelling, and I know that being aware of the visitations of angels, +and of somewhat of the light which is theirs, does not hinder, but +helps human endeavor and accomplishment. + + + + +THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CIVICS. + +BY HENRY RANDALL WAITE, PH. D. + + +The standard represented by popular institutions will seldom be +higher, and as time goes on may become lower, than that set for +themselves by the majority of the people who established and are +intrusted with the duty of maintaining them. They may represent noble +aims and point to high ideals, but the extent of their duration and +salutary influence must always be dependent upon a sufficient +manifestation of the spirit which called them into being. + +Institutions and laws, however perfect in other respects, cannot, +therefore, safely omit from their functions provisions for the +fostering and developing of the spirit which gave them birth. This +spirit, it is to be remembered, may, and too often does, without +extinguishment, actually become a thing so much apart from the +machinery which it has established, as to have little appreciable +influence in controlling its operation. + +The institutions and laws of the United States, in their inception, +represented the spirit of a people who were actuated by the highest +concepts of human duty, and who sought to establish a political system +which should realize the highest ideals. The possibilities of the +system have been demonstrated by the experience of more than a hundred +years. Functionally considered this experience has made painfully +evident the failures which have attended the system in its operation. +It is evident to every intelligent student of American history that +these failures have been chiefly due to the fact that the spirit which +gave life to the American Republic has too often and too far been +supplanted in the control of its affairs by a spirit utterly hostile +to that which it was intended to be, and which, if the partial or +complete failure of the system is to be averted, must, everywhere and +always, be dominant. It is undoubtedly true that citizens whose +character and ability fit them for the service necessary for the +proper control of political affairs, constitute a sufficient number in +the voting population to assure the ascendency of right ideas if +their efforts can be united for the purpose. The fact that intelligent +and controlling convictions of duty are absent, and that they do not +thus unite, however explained, clearly accounts for the subversion of +the spirit which founded our institutions, and the ascendency of a +spirit of chicanery, greed, and corruption. + +It is also evident that the political evils which challenge our +attention are primarily due, not to faults in our institutions +themselves, but to failures in the assertion of the spirit of true +Americanism by which they are intended to be controlled. How to secure +ascendency for this spirit and thus to restore, in every part of the +republic, the sovereignty of highest manhood, is the most pressing +problem which can engage the attention of patriotic and intelligent +American citizens. + +For more than fifteen years this question has been a matter of +profound interest to the writer. The fact that ordinary uprisings +against political evils fail to accomplish permanent results, seemed +to him to afford convincing evidence that attention must be given to +the roots and not confined to the branches; and that this foundation +work must represent patient, persistent, and unselfish efforts for the +promotion everywhere of the basic virtues of true patriotism, +intelligence, integrity, and fidelity in citizenship relations. +Believing that this work could be best accomplished through a +permanent national institution which should invite and command the +coöperation of good citizens everywhere, regardless of party, creed, +sex, or class, he sought the advice and coöperation of a few +distinguished men in the preparation of plans for such an institution. +The assistance sought was willingly extended by such citizens as +Morrison R. Waite, William Strong, and S. F. Miller, then respectively +Chief Justice and Justices of the United States Supreme Court; by +Theodore Woolsey, Noah Porter, F. A. P. Barnard, Mark Hopkins, Julius +H. Seeley, and Theodore W. Dwight, among educators; and by such other +eminent Americans as U. S. Grant, William Fitzhugh Lee, Robert C. +Winthrop, Hugh McCulloch, John J. Knox, Orlando B. Potter, A. H. +Colquitt, George Bancroft, Hannibal Hamlin, John Jay, Right Reverend +William I. Kip, David Swing, and Phillips Brooks. + +The result of conferences and correspondence with these and other +citizens of like character led to the founding, in 1885, of the +American Institute of Civics, which was subsequently chartered under +the laws of Congress, and was dedicated to the service of promoting +the qualities in citizenship which Washington sought to promote by his +latest labors and final bequests, and which he, in common with +Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison, believed to be necessary "to the +security of a free constitution," and to the welfare of the government +and people of the United States. Its distinctive purposes are +succinctly set forth in its charter as follows: + + 1. To promote on the part of youths and adults generally, without + reference to the inculcation of special theories or partisan + views, a patient and conscientious study of the most essential + facts relating to affairs of government and citizenship, to the + end that every citizen may be qualified to act the part of an + intelligent and upright juror in all affairs submitted to the + decision of the ballot. + + 2. To promote, in the same spirit, such special attention to the + study of Civics[7] in higher institutions of learning, and + otherwise, as shall have a tendency to secure wise, impartial, + and patriotic action on the part of those who shall occupy + positions of trust and responsibility, as executive or + legislative officers, and as leaders of public opinion. + + [7] Defined in the Standard Dictionary as follows: "The + science that treats of citizenship and of the relations + between citizens and the government: a new word directly + derived from the adjective _civic_, introduced by Henry + Randall Waite." + +Organized under such auspices and with such purposes it represents the +only practical and sustained effort which has been made by the people +of the United States for the realization of the aims above outlined; +and with persistency of purpose and increasing usefulness it has for +more than twelve years prosecuted its mission for the safeguarding of +American institutions. + +Political conditions past and present clearly justify the views of +Washington and his contemporaries, and the opinions of the Institute's +founders, as to the need of a central source of salutary influences in +the form of a national institution wholly devoted to a propaganda of +the principles and ideas comprehensively described in Washington's +words as "the fundamental maxims of true liberty." + +The sole object of this national, non-partisan, non-sectarian, +popular, and permanent institution, is to voice these maxims, to +inspire the spirit and give force to the principles which should have +supreme control in affairs of government, citizenship, and social +order. + +What the national military establishments at West Point and Annapolis +are intended to accomplish in the way of preparing a few citizens for +useful service in times of war, it is the purpose of this popular +civil institution, with patriotic insistency and through all available +efficiencies, to aid in accomplishing through provisions for properly +preparing all citizens for the highest service of their country at all +times. + +In the accomplishment of its objects, it directs its endeavors not so +much to the creation of new agencies as to the giving of inspiration +and energy to those already existing; and in pursuing this wise policy +it has been a most useful factor in establishing the solidarity and +increasing the power of the influences which represent civic virtue +and true patriotism. + +Its efficiencies include, beside its National Board of Trustees, +composed of thirty-three members, and its advisory faculty, composed +of twelve members, the following departments: + +1. Department for the extension of information and activities +promotive of good citizenship, through which provisions are made for +home studies, and for lectures, discussions, studies, etc., in +connection with schools, lyceums, civic associations, labor +organizations, and institute clubs; this work being carried on with +the coöperation and under the supervision of councillors in the +communities where they reside, and with the aid of a corps of +lecturers now numbering more than two hundred. + +2. Department of Educational Institutions conducted in coöperation +with State and local officers of public instruction, teachers in +elementary and high schools, and members of faculties in nearly two +hundred and fifty higher institutions of learning. + +3. Publication Department, through which the equivalent of nearly +twenty million pages of octavo matter has been issued under its +auspices. + +4. Department of Legislation, in connection with which councillors and +citizens generally have efficiently aided in securing needed reforms +in the administration of public affairs, the protection and elevation +of the suffrage, and the conservation of the highest interests of +citizens and the state in other respects. + +5. Department of Applied Ethics, in connection with which efforts are +made to properly and efficiently enlist the great body of citizens, +including youths as well as adults, who profess to be governed by the +highest concepts of duty, in practical labors for the establishment of +wise, just, and salutary civic and social conditions. + +It is obvious that an institution of this character cannot depend for +its maintenance upon citizens of merely negative virtue, nor can it +expect the sympathy of scheming politicians to whose plans and power +it is in direct opposition. Its dependence must be solely upon the +willing services and financial support of those members of the body +politic who are animated by the spirit of Washington, and who believe +that in matters affecting the highest interests of our free +institutions, such as civic virtue and civic fidelity, formation is +better than re-formation, and that to constantly maintain salutary +political conditions is infinitely preferable to frequent and +disappointing struggles with corruptible elements, which through +neglect of civic duty have been permitted to secure controlling power; +in other words, that it is better to safely guard our inheritance of +freedom than to battle for its rescue from unworthy hands. + +The Institute admits to membership in its National Body of Councillors +all citizens who are commended to its Board of Trustees, by those +already members, or by other citizens of known high character, as +worthy of such membership by reason of their ability to contribute in +some degree to the accomplishment of its purposes. It does not solicit +the membership of citizens whose political affiliations are such as to +rank them among those who are contributing to the evils which it seeks +to correct. Its councillors are asked to share in an undertaking which +tests the character of their citizenship by offering no rewards for +their coöperation. It has employed no paid officers and no paid agents +for the solicitation of funds. The united activities of its members +have enabled it, and it is believed will continue to enable it, to +present in itself an eloquent object-lesson in patriotism and a potent +appeal to the spirit in citizenship--the true Americanism--which it +seeks to foster. Its contributing councillors are asked for annual +remittances of sums of from $2.00 upward, in accordance with their +financial ability and the degree of their interest in its work. Those +contributing $3.00 or more annually are entitled to receive all of its +own publications, and also THE ARENA, whose aims are largely identical +with its own, and through which its official announcements will +hereafter be published. + +It will be seen that the degree of responsibility resting upon its +councillors financially and otherwise is a matter for their own +determination, and one which will be decided in accordance with the +disposition of each to recognize the truth, that the patriotic and +unselfish labors of those who have gone before us, and of which we +enjoy the priceless benefits, have laid upon us a sacred obligation +which we can discharge only by the performance of similar labors. + +The foregoing statements, however encouraging, are chiefly significant +as indicative of what may be, rather than of what has been, +accomplished. Gratifying as the results of the Institute's work have +been, they represent but a tithe of what it might have accomplished +with a larger degree of moral and pecuniary support. The extent of its +field and the magnitude of the labors necessary in order to make it +widely and effectively useful, when compared with the resources at its +command, have constantly presented difficulties which would have +discouraged its officers but for their abiding confidence in the +ultimate willingness of the American people to give to it the measure +of support warranted by the importance of the objects to which it is +devoted. It has been not inaptly compared to a noble piece of +enginery, whose highest possibilities in the way of efficiency and +usefulness cannot be realized because the fuel furnished is +insufficient for the supply of motive power. Its highest possibilities +are, in truth, little more than dreams, the fulfilment of which may +not be realized in the lives of those who are now giving it such +unselfish service as they find possible in the midst of other pressing +occupations. + +The time must soon come when it will be necessary to make arrangements +for the permanent establishment of its central efficiencies, with +adequate provision for its maintenance, at some suitable point yet to +be selected. The suggestion has been made by some of the most +distinguished of its councillors, that the descendants of American +patriots cannot more worthily honor the memory of their sires, or +more effectively promote the safety and perpetuity of the institutions +for which they battled, than by making it their mission to maintain +the American Institute of Civics. The fact that it was conceived, +established, and has been conducted in the spirit of truest +patriotism, and the results which it has already accomplished through +services rendered wholly in the spirit of the words upon its corporate +seal, "Ducit Amor Patriæ," would seem to prove its title to the +confidence and support of all who are proud of the fact that their +forbears have been among the founders and defenders of our American +institutions. It may not be a vain hope that this thought will, in +some manner and at some time, take definite shape, perhaps in the form +of a national memorial building at the capital, devoted to the +collection and preservation of material illustrative of the nation's +history and progress, and to memorials of its illustrious dead. As has +been said elsewhere, + + Such a building, dedicated by enfranchised manhood to the cause + of human freedom, may include a Hall of History and Civics, for + the collection of appropriate relics, manuscripts, and books of + colonial, continental, revolutionary, and subsequent periods; an + Army and Navy Hall, devoted to exhibits illustrative of military + and naval affairs, including battle-flags, arms, accoutrements, + and similar material; a Memorial Hall, where the memory of + illustrious Americans, statesmen, soldiers, philanthropists, and + other great leaders, may be honored, and their memory perpetuated + in statuary, paintings, mural tablets, and other appropriate + ways, and which shall be to the people of America what + Westminster Abbey is to the people of England--a place where the + great exemplars of virtue, wisdom, and patriotism, the noblest + citizens of the passing years, though dead, shall yet speak and + have salutary influence, through successive generations; and a + Hall of Instruction, which shall be the centre of the nation-wide + activities of this noble American institution, and also of a + school of civics to which American youth may come from every part + of the land to avail themselves of exceptional opportunities for + studies and investigations which shall qualify them for highest + usefulness in the public service and in all the walks of + citizenship. + +However this may be, the Institute, by its many years of patient, +persistent, and, in view of the circumstances, remarkably successful +activities, has established a claim upon the confidence and support of +good citizens which must in due time receive suitable recognition. +Further than this, these activities may be regarded as a necessary and +fitting preparation for labors which shall be more fruitful in +results, and in the hope of which those who have hitherto directed its +affairs have found inspiration and encouragement. + +It has been truly said that, + + If any honor attaches to the citizenship in which intelligent, + loyal, and unselfish devotion to the highest interests of country + are made paramount, the names of those who have united in efforts + for the establishment of this Institute of Patriotism constitute + a roll of honor. Its ability to fully realize its objects is + dependent upon the number and the efforts of those whose names + are upon this roll. + + Here is an opportunity for, and an appeal to, citizens of wealth. + Money cannot be more worthily or wisely bestowed than in feeding + the streams in whose life-giving power is the strength of the + republic. Honorable names may find their noblest memorials by the + gifts and endowments which shall forever connect them with this + National School of Patriotism. + + + + +AN INDUSTRIAL FABLE. + +BY HAMILTON S. WICKS. + + +The King of a certain country, whose power was absolute and whose will +was despotic, issued an edict that all the laborers of his dominion +who were engaged in honorable toil should exchange places with those +persons who did no work or were engaged in dishonorable or merely +speculative avocations, so that the laboring man should fare +sumptuously and the non-laborer poorly. Those who worked up in the +sunlight on the tall buildings should sit down in the evening to +bountiful banquets and should sleep in fine linen on luxurious +couches; while those who crawled below in the bleak valleys between +the beetling cliffs of architecture should go to frugal meals and +sleep amid the rough surroundings of the abodes of the poor. The +monarch reasoned that those who did the world's work were more +deserving of the good things of the world than were the idle or the +vicious, however wealthy. He imagined that the world was turned upside +down socially and economically, and he proposed to turn it back again +by his royal fiat. + +Backed by his sword, "which is the badge of temporal power wherein +doth sit the dread and fear of kings," he apprehended no failure in +his plans, which had been worked out in their minutest detail. His +army was the largest of any nation, and was to a man devoted to its +King. His genius had won many victories and extended the borders of +glory. Through his impartial system of promotion men from the ranks +had risen to be commanders. The soldiery were well fed, well housed, +and well paid. A word, a nod, from their King would set in motion this +mighty machine to crush out all opposition. Supplementing the military +arm of his government the King had organized the most elaborate system +of _espionage_, so that all secrets were open to him, and no +whisperings in the street or the club but were conveyed distinctly to +his royal ear by the microphone of his spy system. The press was +gagged or inspired; the legislature was composed of fawning +sycophants; his judiciary was merely a reflection of the royal will; +and Holy Church itself displayed its purple robe and golden bowl but +to ornament his processions or to hallow his feasts. + +Thus matters stood on the evening of the day this great social +revolution was inaugurated. It fell out that a group of honest +laborers were descending the elevator that carried the brick and +mortar to the twentieth story of a certain downtown sky-scraper. While +all of them knew of the edict of their King, none had taken it +seriously or imagined for a moment that it would be carried into +effect literally. On their arrival at the ground floor, a policeman +stationed there stopped them and, motioning to an elegant equipage +standing across the way, informed them that it was the King's command +that they should enter it and be driven to one of the avenue clubs +which had been assigned for their accommodation. Into it they were +thrust, dinner-pails and all. They had scarcely time to recover their +equanimity, as they were rapidly whirled through one thoroughfare +after another, till the avenue in question was reached and they were +deposited in front of a stately brownstone mansion. Their coming had +been expected, and the great doors swung open as they alighted, whilst +a uniformed lackey motioned them to enter. Their astonishment was +redoubled at the splendor of the interior furnishings. Each was +assigned a room, where they were bathed and groomed and dressed in +garments suitable for their surroundings. Dinner was served by the +time they were ready, and into the glittering _salle à manger_ they +were duly ushered. A fashionable _table d'hôte_ was a new sensation to +every man of them, and they certainly astonished the _table d'hôte_. +It (the _table d'hôte_) never realized before what it was to be fully +appreciated. An evening of cigars, wine, and billiards followed; and +then they stretched their tough and sinewy workmen's legs between the +whitest of silken sheets, spread over the springiest of hair +mattresses, on the brightest of brass bedsteads. There we leave them +to such dreams as their surroundings invited, to turn our attention to +four bachelor brokers on the stock exchange, whose apartments at the +club our bachelor workingmen were inhabiting. + +With as little thought of the reality of the great King's edict as the +workingmen themselves, they were sauntering forth from the exchange +at the hour of 3 P. M., when they were pounced upon by a quarter score +of stalwart policemen and landed inside a rough luggage conveyance. +Baxter Street was a Garden of Eden compared to the slums to which they +were driven, and they were finally sheltered in a dirty tenement that +arose in a series of rickety stories to a dizzy height. Their +fastidious taste would not permit them to indulge in sleep amid such +commonplace surroundings, where the only furniture of their room +consisted of two dirty beds and a filthy sink. So they sat up all +night smoking the cigars they happened to have in their clothes when +captured, and muttering deep curses against their eccentric ruler. + +The following morning the awakening of the laborers resembled that of +Christopher Sly in "The Taming of the Shrew." They were bewildered +with astonishment at the appointments of their surroundings and the +service of their attendants. A champagne headache was a natural +accompaniment to the previous night's drinking and gorging; so that +fashionable "coffee and rolls," though served in the most delicate of +faïence, seemed but meagre fare upon which to commence the arduous +labors of the day. At precisely 5:30 A. M. the same carriage they had +occupied the previous evening, with its crested panels, its liveried +coachman, and its spanking span of bays, was at the door to convey +them back to work. + +The same routine was substantially carried into effect each day, a +natural consequence of which was that they became weary of their +enforced luxury, and their hearts yearned for the humble living of +their tenement, with its rough and hearty jollity, and its freedom +from constraint and the supervision of lackeys, however well dressed +or polite. In the case of the fastidious brokers kept under +surveillance, tired nature at last, reluctant, yielded. There came a +day, or rather a night, when even they were able to sleep--an uneasy, +troubled sleep, it is true--amid the mean surroundings of the +tenement. + +The determined will of the monarch so ordered affairs that the +conditions under his edict were kept in force for many days. He +proposed to give a thorough test to his quixotic ideas. The portion of +the workmen was hard manual labor by day in the upper regions of air +and light, and by night the relaxation of enervating luxury; and the +portion of the brokers was deep dejection, deep curses, and haggard +sleeplessness. + +The culmination of this condition of unrest occurred at a great ball +which another royal edict had blazoned forth to be given as a tribute +to the laboring masses, and at which the non-producers would be +compelled to assist, not indeed as menials, but as experienced +advisers. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars at least would be +expended on the pomp and glory of the occasion. The sage counsellors +of state, men deeply versed in the lore of the past, were called +together to devise costumes for the crude working people and to frame +rules of etiquette for their behavior. The most elaborate descriptions +appeared in the daily press of what was proposed. For weeks the vast +preparations went steadily forward. Everything of luxury and ornament +that the commerce of the empire sucked up from the farthest confines +of the earth was made to minister to the great event. + +At last the auspicious day arrived. One of the grandest palaces of the +King himself was the scene of the festivity. The costumes worn +represented many of the great names of history, from Julius Cæsar to +Napoleon Bonaparte, and from Cleopatra to Marie Antoinette. The height +of the great occasion was reached somewhat after midnight when the +_quadrille d'honneur_ was announced. The great King sat upon a raised +dais, or throne, the better to view the gorgeous pageant. A mighty +fanfare of trumpets, which seemed to whirl the feelings for a moment +into the forces beyond mortality, invited to the initial movements of +the quadrille. It was as though an army with banners was about to +launch its squadrons upon the foe in some majestic Friedland or +Gettysburg. As the sound died away, there was a pause. The great King +looked up in amazement, and stamping that foot whose heel had rested +upon the necks of mighty potentates, now his willing vassals, he arose +with frown black as midnight. + +Suffer me, O reader, to recall the elements of this unparalleled +occasion: On the one hand, almost omnipotent power, backed by +transcendent though wayward genius, a will that hitherto had never +been balked, an unsullied prestige, a front of Jove to threaten and +command, upon which great thought registered every varying +expression, one of the least of which would have endowed an ordinary +prince with lasting renown. On the other hand, "fantastic compliment +strutting up and down tricked in outlandish feather." A motion from +the hand of majesty, now fully erect, sent another mighty wave of +martial music flying on invisible wings, in thousand forms, throughout +every corridor. As this second summons for the masterpiece to be set +in motion died away in turn, two bands of men detached themselves from +the distant throng massed in the farthest background, and came slowly +forward with bowed heads and deferential tread. At the same instant a +hundred brilliant officers of the household stepped out of the +corridors behind the King with drawn swords, and other hundreds +crowded behind them prepared to do their master's instant service. + +The Great Strategist comprehended the situation with a single sweeping +glance of his eagle eye, and drawing himself up full height motioned +his servitors with his left hand back into their concealment, while +with his extended right hand he encouraged with benignant gesture the +approach of the representatives of the people, who had shrunk back in +dismay when the King's guard sprang forth so abruptly. It was now seen +that the approaching bands were composed in equal parts of the gaudily +caparisoned workmen and their plainly dressed advisers. Each party +bore in its midst an enormous roll, whose weight impeded anything like +rapid progress. On arriving at the front of the throne, they deposited +their burdens and then prostrated themselves before the King. When +bidden to arise and state their purpose, a stalwart son of toil +stepped forward in front of his comrades. He was attired in a $10,000 +costume, representing Henry of Navarre. This costume sat upon his +rugged limbs as though they had been melted into it. The King gazed +complacently upon his manufactured nobleman and bade him proceed. + +"August and Sovereign King!" thus began the blacksmith, for such he +was when not intoxicated or attending a costume ball--"August and +Sovereign King, I have been pushed forward by my fellows who have +joined in this petition, with a vast multitude of their co-workers, +similarly gorged with hateful luxury. They ask me to state plainly to +your Majesty that they now know from actual experience how hollow and +worthless are all the glories of the merely rich, whose time is +devoted to vain shows and in devising new delicacies for the palate. +They beseech your Majesty that you, in accordance with your gracious +pleasure, should restore them to their simple and humble paths of +life, wherein they will dwell in reasonable contentment hereafter." + +The workman ceased, and the spokesman for wealth and idleness stepped +forward and pleaded his case very eloquently. He showed, in the +petition which many thousands of his class had signed, that through +their recent experience they all had been made to feel the weight of +life as it rests upon those under them. He averred that he and his +fellows were heartily sick of their lives thus ordered, and that they +petitioned the King to send them beyond his confines, or place them in +his army, or, better still, allow them to seek honorable employment in +vocations more in accord with their taste and inclination. + +The King, esteeming that he had sufficiently disciplined the wealthy +and had measurably cast out the "daimon of unrest" from the mind of +labor, while at the same time he had given a notable illustration to +all his people of the folly of outrunning too far the sentiments of +your age, and the arrant rot of placing edicts upon the statute books +that at once become a dead letter unless backed by despotic force, and +feeling the security of his position, stood before his petitioners, +lightly leaning on his left foot, with his right hand in the breast of +his coat, and thus addressed them: + + "My people, the results flowing from my edict are not otherwise + than I fully believed would result; I am satisfied at the real + good that has been accomplished. Many there are who would like to + see human nature changed by an equally absurd upheaval of the + social fabric, which would instantly place the limbs of labor + between cambric sheets and line their stomachs with sweetmeats. + The truly wise base their expectations for the race upon no such + sudden revolution, but rather see salvation for their fellows in + a gradual and natural betterment of conditions, a growth upwards + that can be maintained through all the spasms of reform, a + lifting of the whole fabric of society by the great forces of + education, faith, and persistency, which are and have ever been + the architects of the race." + + + + +PLAZA OF THE POETS. + +REPLY TO "LOCKSLEY HALL SIXTY YEARS AFTER." + +BY BARTON LOMAX PITTMAN. + + + Nay, my grandsire, though you leave me latest lord of Locksley Hall, + Speak of Amy's heavenly graces and the frailty of her fall, + Point me to the shield of Locksley, hanging in this mansion lone, + I must turn from such sad splendor ere my heart be changed to stone. + + While you prate of pride ancestral and the dead dreams of your youth, + I, despite my birth and lineage, am a battler for the truth. + To the work-worn, half-starved peasants of this realm my heart goes + out-- + Those who, plundered and forgotten, find this life a ruthless rout. + + In the rustling robes of Amy bloomed the roses that had fled + From the cheeks of pauper maidens forced into the brothel-bed; + In her saintly smiles and glances flashed the sunlight that was shut + By the iron-hand injustice from the cotter's humble hut. + + Nay, 'tis wrong that we should range with science glorying in the + time, + While we force our brother mortals into squalor, need, and crime; + Wicked we should pose as Christians singing songs to God on high, + Heedless of his tortured creatures who in pauper prisons lie. + + Christless is the crime of turning creed-stopped ears to teardrops + shed + By the women whom oppression robs of virtue for their bread. + Satan's blush would mantle crimson could he see the stunted child + Slaving in our marts and markets, helpless, hopeless, and reviled-- + + See its pallid face uplifted from the whirling factory wheels, + Tear-stained with the grief and anguish of a baby brain that reels, + Tortured in life's budding springtime, toiling on with stifled cries, + Seeing, through its tears refracted, rippling cascades, azure skies; + Skies and birds and flowery meadows made for children wealthy-born, + While God's outcasts, with their parents, robbed and drudging, live + forlorn, + Men in whom the fires of hope have sunk into a sordid spark, + Mothers rearing helpless infants for the brothel's dawnless dark. + + While this world seems far too crowded to provide us work for all, + Acres spread their untilled bosoms, while the nations rise and fall. + Nature's storehouse, made for all men, is monopolized by some, + Robbing labor of its produce, making almshouse, jail, and slum. + + Side by side with art and progress creeps the haggard spectre, + Want-- + Creeps the frightful phantom, Hunger, with its bloodless body gaunt. + Wider, wider spreads the chasm 'twixt the wealthy and the poor, + Social discontent declaring that such wrongs cannot endure. + + And this yawning of the chasm is the curse of every race, + As it saps and kills its manhood ere it reach the zenith-place; + Spartan valor, Grecian learning, Roman honor had their day, + But land plunder rose among them, dooming death by slow decay. + + Shall we wait for evolution, let it right these monstrous wrongs, + While the helpless, young, and tender writhe and groan 'neath social + thongs? + Nay, 'tis better all should perish in a battle for the right, + Than let philosophic cowards keep us in this stygian night. + + Locksley Hall has now a master who would claim the earth for all, + Who would make the titled idler cease to rob his tenant-thrall; + Wreck the Church and State if need be (better such in time will + rise), + But who from this glorious purpose nevermore will turn his eyes-- + + Never, till the arms of nature clasp in joy her outcast child, + Long since driven from the meadow and the dell and woodland wild, + Till to each belongs the produce of his hand and heart and brain, + And glad heralds of millennium thrill along our path of pain. + + Though the world has piled its fagots round the great and good and + brave; + Thrust its Socrates the hemlock, scourged its Jesus to the grave; + Though its sneer has chilled the tender, and its frown has cursed + the good, + While its Nero sways the sceptre and its Emmett dies in blood; + + Yet in Truth there is a power that through ceaseless cycles slow + Will inscribe the doom of Error in an ever-fadeless glow, + That will trample on oppression, burst the chains and crush the + throne, + Rearing on the blood and ruin justice-reign from zone to zone. + + Idealistic dreamer, say you? In your youth you once felt so? + Well, I only pray life's sunset, bowing down my head with snow, + Shall not swerve me from my purpose, though the victor-laurels twine + In my reach, and if forsaking my convictions they are mine. + + Do not so condemn the realists, rhymesters, authors, and their way, + Just because they point about us to the errors of to-day; + Spare them, though they gaze not upward from our self-wrought + piteous plight, + For, though blinded and despairing, they are struggling toward the + light. + + Let the realist dip his falcon in the boiling blood of life, + Tracing in heartrending horror all the hoary wrongs and strife, + Till the world shall sick and sadden of its folly and its sin, + Hearkening through the roar of traffic to the still small voice + within-- + + Voice which murmurs Christ's own message as we circle round the sun: + That, though greed and creed divide us, still humanity is one-- + One in all its godlike longing, one in all its hopes and fears, + With its calvaries, scaffolds, hemlocks, and its seas of unshed + tears. + + Then this star of sorrow swinging through the vast immortal void + Shall, regenerated, slumber while man's heart is overjoyed, + Thrilled with yearnings altruistic, triumphing o'er clods of clay, + As we march into the love-light of the grand Millennial day. + + + + +JOHN BROWN. + +BY COATES KINNEY. + + + The Great Republic bred her free-born sons + To smother conscience in the coward's hush, + And had to have a freedom-champion's + Blood sprinkled in her face to make her blush. + + One Will became a passion to avenge + Her shame--a fury consecrate and weird, + As if the old religion of Stonehenge + Amid our weakling worships reappeared. + + It was a drawn sword of Jehovah's wrath, + Two-edged and flaming, waved back to a host + Of mighty shadows gathering on its path, + Soon to emerge as soldiers, when the ghost + + Of John Brown should the lines of battle form. + When John Brown crossed the Nation's Rubicon, + Him Freedom followed in the battle-storm, + And John Brown's soul in song went marching on. + + Though John Brown's body lay beneath the sod, + His soul released the winds and loosed the flood: + The Nation wrought his will as hest of God, + And her bloodguiltiness atoned with blood. + + The world may censure and the world regret: + The present wrath becomes the future ruth; + For stern old History does not forget + The man who flings his life away for truth. + + In the far time to come, when it shall irk + The schoolboy to recite our Presidents' + Dull line of memorabilia, John Brown's work + Shall thrill him through from all the elements. + + + + +DEMOS. + +BY W. H. VENABLE, LL. D. + + + America, my own! + Thy spacious grandeurs rise + Faming the proudest zone + Pavilioned by the skies; + Day's flying glory breaks + Thy vales and mountains o'er, + And gilds thy streams and lakes + From ocean shore to shore. + + Praised be thy wood and wold, + Thy corn and wine and flocks, + The yellow blood of gold + Drained from thy cañon rocks; + Thy trains that shake the land, + Thy ships that plough the main! + Triumphant cities grand + Roaring with noise of gain! + + Yet not the things of sense, + By nature wrought, or art, + Prove soul's preëminence, + Or swell the patriot heart; + Our country we revere + For that from sea to sea + Her vast-domed atmosphere + Is life-breath of the free. + + Brown Labor, gazing up, + Takes hope, and Hunger stands + Holding her empty cup + In pale, expectant hands. + Brave young Ambition waits + Thy just law's clarion call, + That power unbar the gates + Of privilege to all. + + Trade's fickle signets coined + From Mammon's molten dust, + With reverence conjoined, + Proclaim "In God we trust." + Nor doth the legend lie: + The People, patient, bide, + Trusting the Lord on high, + To thunder on their side. + + Earth's races look to thee; + The peoples of the world + Thy risen splendors see, + And thy wide flag unfurled; + Kelt, Slav, and Hun behold + That banner from afar, + They bless each streaming fold, + And cheer its every star. + + For liberty is sweet + To every folk and age,-- + Armenia, Cuba, Crete,-- + Despite war's heathen rage, + Or scheming diplomat + Whose words of peace enslave. + Columbia! Democrat + Of Nations! speak and save! + + As mightful Moses led + To Canaan's promised land; + As Christ victorious bled, + Obeying Love's command; + So thou, Right's champion, + God's chosen leader strong, + Gird up thy loins! march on! + Defend mankind from Wrong. + + + + +THE EDITOR'S EVENING. + +Leaf From My Samoan Notebook. (A. D. 2297.) + + +In that age (_siècle_ XIX, _ad finem_) great attention was given on +the continent of Am-ri-ka to increased speed in locomotion. Men and +women went darting about like the big yellow gnats that we see at +sundown on the western coast of our island when the bay is hazy. The +whole history of that century in both Am-ri-ka and Yoo-rup might well +be written around the fact of _transit_, for transit was the spinal +cord of the whole social, civil, and political order. Man-life then +seemed to oscillate more rapidly than ever before, as if in sympathy +with the vibration of the universal ether. + +The struggle for the increase of speed began in the early part of the +century referred to--about 1822. Scarcely had the wars of Na-Bu-Leon +subsided when the matter of getting over the earth's surface at a +greater velocity was taken up as eagerly as if life consisted in going +quickly to a certain point. Men, it would appear, had not yet learned +that the principal aim of this existence is the _going_, and not the +_getting there_. Then it was that the steam En-jo-in was invented. The +Bah-lune had been frequently tried, but always with ludicrous or fatal +results. A young man by the name of Dee Green once essayed this method +in Am-ri-ka, with a most ridiculous catastrophe. A poem was written +about the affair beginning thus-- + + An aspiring genius was Dee Green. + +For more than half a century locomotion by steam prevailed in +Am-ri-ka, though it did not satisfy the demand for swiftness. When +this method no longer sufficed, several expedients were found to +_avoid_ going anywhere. It was observed that the necessity of going +depended upon the limitation of the human voice; that is, of hearing +vocal utterances. The voices of human beings could not then be heard +beyond a certain limit. To hear the voice of a man from Am-ri-ka to +Ing-land was then thought to be impossible. The possessors of voices, +therefore, had in that age to _get together_ before they could +communicate. True, there were some men upon whom this necessity did +not rest, for they could be heard at a great distance. It might be +noted, however, that this kind, called _Homo politicus_, had so little +sense that nobody cared to hear them, so that their success in +vociferation amounted to nothing. + +All the people of Am-ri-ka who were civilized spoke in a low tone, and +any who cared to communicate must seek each other's presence. This had +been the reason for the old invention of E-pistol-ary correspondence. +This method, however, was not satisfactory, since it required much +time to say only a little, and since what was said in this manner was +found so wide of the mark as to produce disastrous results. Society +was, on this account, frequently rent with lawsuits, having no better +foundation than a bundle of Let-yers. + +To avoid this trouble another invention, called the Far-talker (or +Tel-ef-oan), was made; and by means of this conceit the people of +Am-ri-ka could speak to one another many miles apart. The Far-talker +was a remarkable sort of invention by which one merchant, by +stretching a copper thread across the country to the ear of another +merchant, could talk to him _through the wire_. The other merchant +could reverse and talk back! Sometimes a young woman would tiptoe up +to the box where the wire ended and say the most absurd things to her +favorite fop down-town; this was often overheard. People had not yet +learned the method of understanding each other's thoughts without the +ridiculous contrivance of speech, written scratches, wires, and +Fo-ny-grafs. + +It was at this time that men, in their effort to carry themselves from +place to place, seem to have taken the first hints from nature. It was +remembered that _between_ swimming and flying, and _between_ flying +and walking, certain forms of locomotion, quite rapid withal, are used +by our poor relatives on land and sea. Thus the flying-fish rises from +the water and shoots, quite parabolically, for some distance through +the air. The genus Cheiroptera also gives a hint of progress by means +of wings that are not made of feathers. The flying lemur, nearly akin +to _Homo bifurcans_, shows how one may rise and go by a sort of aërial +progress along the ground. + +Out of these hints the men of Am-ri-ka, at the epoch of which we +speak, sought inventions by means of which they might keep close to +the ground for safety, but otherwise fly; for the age was very fast! +Under these conditions some Unknown Man invented what was called the +By-sigh-kel. It was a sort of flat-sided, rotary ground-skimmer, very +thin and notorious. It came coincidently with another invention called +the Trol-lee. The latter was an electrical wagon for general travel in +cities and suburbs, while the By-sigh-kel was a personal carriage for +one or possibly two. The passenger in this case had to start his +machine and then jump on. The propulsion was effected by a pump-like +action of the legs, very tiresome and elegant. The passenger generally +leaned forward in a position strongly suggestive of the favorite +attitude of his arboreal ancestors. It was the peculiarity of the +Trol-lee that it made a sort of humming roar as it went that sounded +like a hundred prisoners groaning in unison; but the By-sigh-kel made +no noise in going except in collisions and wrecks. The latter were so +frequent that a whole cycle of restorative arts had to be undertaken +of which the principal was dentistry. At the close of the century +there were few front teeth remaining--except artificials. + +Many accounts of the Age of the By-sigh-kel and Trol-lee have been +preserved among the old records of Am-ri-ka, and traditions of it are +found in the antiquarian papers of other countries. We have seen +pictorial representations made by Fo-to-graf-ure of scenes from the +age referred to. The streets of extinct cities are found pictured in +this way. There was an instrument called the Cow-dack which was used +in taking pictures in an instantaneous manner, so that the scene would +look like life. + +A busy street, thus pictured, in that time, shows many Trol-lees +rushing by, filled with merry people. Along the side-ways scores of +passengers are seen, mounted on their 'Sigh-kels, going in divers +directions at full speed. The passengers present many aspects; for +riding the 'Sigh-kel was an art which had to be acquired; and by some +this could not be done--at least not gracefully done. Many tried, but +few were chosen. Two classes of people suffered much in this +particular, namely, the very fat and the very bony. Those whom nature +had favored in form and feature, and who had acquired the art of +sitting upright, look well enough in these old pictures of a past age. +But the clumsy and obese, the slender and angular people may well be +laughed at even through the shadowy retrospect of four centuries. + +One of the 'Sigh-kel machines was made _double_; and an old cartoon +which is now before me gives to this kind the name of Tan-doom. On +this men and women frequently rode together, the woman going before, +for that was the age in which the woman, becoming new, showed her +newness by being forward. + +Nor may we leave these reminiscences of a bygone age without +reflecting upon the absurdities of our ancestors, who had not yet +imagined the ease and excellence of our own method of locomotion by +skimming at will the surface of the earth. The facile beauty and +natural art with which we now rise from the ground and propel +ourselves by our own thought and wish to any distance--thus +vindicating our superiority to all other creatures in our method of +excursion--are facts so obvious and ever-present that we fail to +reflect upon the impediments and hardships of the people of Am-ri-ka +and indeed of the whole world in the nineteenth century.... + +Thinking on these things I can but imagine that I have myself seen +them in some previous epoch of my existence. The facts which I have +recorded appear dimly, as if in memory of what I once beheld; but the +vision of it is so obscure that I still doubt whether it be dream or +reality. I have long imagined that we retain from one epoch of our +existence to the next a vague recollection of our experiences in the +remote ages of the past. I sometimes think that it is not impossible +that I myself, in some forgotten avatar, used to sit alone at the +window of my office, looking into the street of one of the old towns +of Am-ri-ka where the Trol-lees were going one way and the +By-sigh-kels the other way, crossing and darting hither and yon, +according to the wills of the riders; but the vision is so dim that it +looks like the fictions of sleep. + + +Vita Longa. + +The question is not how long this bodily life may last, or how long +the mind, so conditioned, can endure. It is not even how long the +mind may continue to produce; for the mind, like a poor, +half-exhausted field, urged with rain and fertilizers, may produce +only potatoes, mullen, and cockle. The real question--the deep-down +essence of it--is how long the mind, or soul, may retain the +enthusiasm and passionate power of _creation_. That is the only true +test of longevity; and when that ceases there is nothing left. The +real duration of man-life is measured only by the persistency of +creative power. + +Longfellow, standing in the old pulpit, on the fiftieth anniversary of +his class at Bowdoin, and saying to those who would introduce him, "I +wish the desk were large enough to conceal me all," makes a beautiful +section of this theme by citing some of the most inspiring instances +of the long life of the soul: + + Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles + Wrote his grand OEdipus, and Simonides + Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers, + When each had numbered more than fourscore years; + And Theophrastus at fourscore and ten + Had but begun his "Characters of Men;" + Chaucer at Woodstock with his nightingales, + At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales; + Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last, + Completed Faust when eighty years were past: + These are indeed exceptions; but they show + How far the Gulf Stream of our youth may flow + Into the arctic regions of our lives, + Where little else than life itself survives. + +Measured by this test of creative power and its persistency, how +variable is the duration of human life! Sometimes the creative power +appears in early youth; but when that happens there is generally an +early surcease. Sometimes the power comes late and remains long. +Sometimes it flashes forth in the early morning and remains in the +after twilight. Estimated by years this productive power (which goes +by the name of genius) sometimes reaches only to a few score moons. +Sometimes it reaches to a score of years. Sometimes, though rarely, it +extends to three-score years or more. + +Thomas Chatterton went to a suicide's grave in Potter's Field when he +was only seventeen years, nine months, and four days of age. I know of +no other case of so great precocity; it is beyond belief. His mind had +been productive for about three years. Byron's productive period +covered sixteen years--no more. Pope began at twelve and ended at +fifty-six. + +In our own age, Tennyson has done well. Making an early effort to +begin, he, like Dryden, did not really reach the creative epoch until +he was fully thirty. His creative period covers about fifty-nine +years. It extends from "A Dream of Fair Women," in 1833, to "Crossing +the Bar," in 1892. + +The best example, however, in the history of the human mind, is that +of William Cullen Bryant; that is, Bryant has real creations that lie +further apart in time than can be paralleled, so far as I know, in the +case of any other of the sons of men. The date of "Thanatopsis" is not +precisely known. It belongs, however, to the years 1812-13. Bryant was +then eighteen--in his nineteenth year. Add to 1812 sixty-four years +and we have 1876, the date of the publication of the "Flood of Years." +The two poems in question lie apart in production by the space of +fully three-score and four years. It is a marvel! And why not? + + To him who in the love of nature holds + Communion with her visible forms, + +why should not life, productive life, enthusiastic fruitful life, be +extended until its last acts of creation, shot through with the +sunshine of experience and wisdom, shall flash in great bars of haze +and glory over the landscape of the twilight days? + + +Kaboto. + + Old John à Venice in his cockleshell + Breasted the salt sea like an Englishman! + He saw the bleak coast of the Tartar Khan + To left-hand in the distance. "All is well!" + He cried to Labrador. The roaring swell + Bore him to shore, whereon his hands upran + The Lion flag and flag republican + Of the old Doges' wave-girt citadel. + + Dominion and Democracy are ours! + From the first day unto the last we hold + To Liberty and Empire! We shall be, + Under the Star-flag, for eternal hours, + Even as Cabot's two flags first foretold, + Both free and strong from mountain crag to sea! + + + + +A STROKE FOR THE PEOPLE. + + +Here is a message for all: FROM AND AFTER THE ISSUANCE OF THE NUMBER +FOR JULY THE REGULAR SUBSCRIPTION PRICE OF THE ARENA, THE MAGAZINE OF +THE PEOPLE, WILL BE REDUCED TO $2.50 A YEAR. The reasons for this +reduction are not far to seek. The stringency of the times, the +hardships of the people,--their lack of money, the decline in the +prices of their products, the relentless grip of the mortgages on +their homes,--and the absence of any symptom of present relief from a +Government under the domination and dictation of the money power, have +induced the managers of THE ARENA to bear their part of the common +burden and distress, and to express in a practical way their +sympathies with the masses by reducing the price of the magazine to +the lowest possible figure consistent with its maintenance at the +present standard of efficiency and excellence. + +One of the immediate causes and suggestions of this course will be +found in the following private letter written to THE ARENA by a plain +Kansas farmer. We have obtained his permission to use his letter as an +appeal to the public: + + "SYLVAN GROVE, KANSAS, May 22, 1897. + + "_To_ THE ARENA. + + "GENTLEMEN: I enclose my subscription for THE ARENA for the + current year. The only reason for my tardiness in doing this is + pinching, grinding poverty. If we farmers do not assist the OLD + ARENA, so loyal to our interests, we shall deserve the fate many + of us have already accepted; that is, the doom of serfdom under + the club of plutocracy. + + "We, at _our_ home, are straining every nerve and denying + ourselves of almost the comforts of life for the purpose of + meeting our mortgage that falls due on the first of July. Our + farmers here in the West are divided into four classes: + + "_First._ Those who have failed to meet even the interest on + loans, who have been closed out, and are now renters, often, of + the very farms which they once fondly hoped to make their own. + + "_Second._ Those who are still paying interest or keeping the + companies at bay in the courts until one more crop may ripen, but + without any well-founded hope of saving their homes. + + "_Third._ Those who are skimping, pinching, almost starving to + pay their mortgages. I belong to this class. I still struggle + with the incubus. + + "_Fourth._ A very few who wisely have never encumbered their + homes. I have given the classes in the order of their numerical + importance. + + "I live in the beautiful little West Twin Creek valley about + seven miles in length. There are but two pieces of unencumbered + property in the valley; one belonging to a poor widow, and the + other to a bank president. Thirty-five per cent of the farms have + already passed into the hands of mortgagees; many of the + remainder have changed hands, shifted under renewals and various + expedients to avoid the ruination of closing out. This is more + than an average well-to-do community, selected from this or any + other central county of Kansas. We are realizing to the full that + 'Beneficent Effect of Falling Prices' which was so ably set forth + (from his standpoint) by Dean Gordon in THE ARENA for March. If + all people were out of debt, falling prices might not work so + great injustice. But when a vast majority of the people are in + debt, and heavily in debt, and when a man talks of the blessings + that fall from falling prices, the conviction is forced upon us + that the killer of fools in his annual round has missed one + conspicuous example. The trouble is, our dollar of debt, instead + of decreasing, has more than doubled in its power as compared + with labor and the products of labor. Meanwhile our Solons talk + glibly of 'vested rights,' 'corporate rights,' etc., strenuously + objecting to squeezing the water out of their stocks, while they + have by legislation for the last thirty-five years remorselessly + squeezed the _value_ out of our property. + + "When our debts were contracted the values of everything were + double what they now are. I could then have sold my farm for + three thousand dollars; now, although it has been much improved, + it would go a-begging at one thousand dollars. Perhaps there is + not as much distress in our country as there was three or four + years ago. People have adjusted themselves somewhat to their + straitened circumstances, and a few are becoming actually + reconciled to their condition! I heard one man who had recently + failed in business as a grain-dealer say, 'Well, Cleveland is + right on this money question; we want a money good in Yurrup or + any other part of the world.' As I looked at the battered hat of + this personage, at the split toes of his shoes, the ragged elbows + of his coat, and the rents in his demoralized nether garments, I + could but ejaculate, 'May the Lord have mercy on your ignorant + soul! what does it matter to _you_ what kind of money they use in + Europe?' + + "We are now taking the advice of Governor Morrill, who says: 'If + you cannot get seventy-five cents a day, work for fifty cents.' + Our Republican speakers advise us to dress plainly, live the + same, and work still harder. We are told to 'stop running around + to Alliances and picnics.' We have taken this advice. _We had to + take it!_ But we have now reached the bottom. We can curtail our + dress no further without making our garb identical with our + complexion. We cannot further reduce our rations and live. We + cannot extend the hours of labor, for most of us have already + adopted the blessed eight-hour system; that is, we work eight + hours _before_ dinner and eight hours _after_ dinner. + + "However, Kansas is coming to the front again. Since the mortgage + companies are willing to do business once more our Governor is no + longer 'ashamed of the State.' Occasionally a Republican + politician squirms and kicks as the pressure is turned on. The + eloquent and volcanic Ingalls breaks out at intervals. In these + eruptions he pours lava upon his party in fine style. But he does + not break out often enough! + + "The most serious bar to the progress of reform is that the + people are too poor to pay for reform papers and magazines; out + of these they might get the truth. The publishers of such are + unable to send their periodicals for less than cost. Not so the + party in power. Thousands of people get complimentary copies of + the gold-bug papers, and other thousands get them for a nominal + sum. Somebody pays for them. Who? + + "I have been pleased with THE ARENA, both old and new. I first + subscribed to it in order to get 'The Bond and the Dollar,' which + I consider the most succinct exposition of the American money + question ever written. No publication that I am acquainted with + equals THE ARENA as an educator. I wish you godspeed in your + efforts for the betterment of our people and of humanity in + general. I hope (almost against hope) for the peaceful solution + of the difficulties that now beset our beloved country. + + "Sincerely yours, + + "A. BIGGS." + +Moved by the foregoing communication and scores of others of the same +purport, and knowing the truth of what the honest producers (who are +the very blood and sinew and soul of this Republic) say of their +trials and of the wrongs to which they have been mercilessly subjected +for years, THE ARENA has decided to share the common lot. With the +people we shall stand or fall. Let all who _can_ rally, therefore, +rally to the support of THE ARENA, and the management will try to show +the nation what a great and free American magazine devoted to American +interests and American democracy really is, and will be, in the battle +for human rights. + +Address all subscriptions and all other business communications to + + JOHN D. MCINTYRE, + Manager of THE ARENA, + Copley Square, Boston. + + + + +BOOK REVIEWS. + +[_In this Department of_ THE ARENA _no book will be reviewed which is +not regarded as a real addition to literature._] + + +The Emperor.[8] + + [8] "Life of Napoleon Bonaparte." By Willian Milligan + Sloane, Ph. D., L. H. D.; Professor of History in Princeton + University. Four volumes, imperial octavo; pp. 1120. New + York: The Century Company. Boston: Balch Brothers, 1896. + +At the hour when, on the evening of the first day of this century, +the first asteroid was discovered by Piazzi at Naples, an +olive-complexioned man was sitting smileless in a box in the opera +house in Paris. He sat back where nobody could see him. It was his way +not to be seen--except on business. + +The man was thirty-one years, four months, and sixteen days of age. He +had already done something. If he had not equalled the work of +Alexander at the corresponding age, he had at least surpassed Cæsar; +for Cæsar at thirty was still a comparatively unknown roué in Rome. + +The figure in the opera box was slender and trim. He who sat there was +only five feet, four and a half inches high; but his head was fine, +heavy, symmetrical. His features twitched when he was disturbed, but +were beautiful when he smiled. To a profound observer he looked +dangerous. He had the faculty of making his face signify nothing at +all. He had been begotten an insular Italian, but was born a +Frenchman. His wife, a Creole, more than six years older than he, was +in the box with him. She sat at the front, and was seen by thousands. +She _wished_ to be seen; and when the pit shouted in the direction of +the box she smiled a little smile, with a puckered mouth--for her +teeth were not good. + +The birthplace of this man had been oddly set on the map of the world, +for the meridian of Discovery and the parallel of Conquest intersect +at the birthplace of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. The birthlines of Cæsar and +Columbus--drawn, the one due west from Rome, the other due south from +Genoa--cross each other within a few miles of Ajaccio! It is a +circumstance that might well incline one to astrology. + +About the birth of great men cycles of fiction grow. Friends and +enemies alike invent significant circumstances. The traducers of +Napoleon have said that he was illegitimate--that his father was the +French marshal Marboeuf. They also say, on better grounds, that the +marriage of Letitia Ramolino to Carlo di Buonaparte was not solemnized +until 1767--that the first two children were therefore born out of +wedlock. On the other hand, the idol-worshippers would fain have +Napoleon born as a god or Titan. Premature pangs seize the mother at +church. She hurries home, barely reaching her apartment when the +heroic babe is delivered, without an accoucheur, on a piece of +tapestry inwrought with an effigy of Achilles! This probably occurred. +It was the 15th of August, 1769. + +Thus, as it were before the Corsican saw the light of day in this +world, dispute began about him. It has been continued for a hundred +and twenty-eight years. Whatever else he succeeded in doing--whatever +else he failed to do--he at least did succeed in dividing the +civilized world into two parties; he made himself the subject of a +controversy which has not ceased to the present hour. The reason, no +doubt, is that we do not as yet understand human history and the part +which the individual plays in the progress of events. Nearly all men +begin with a prejudice in judging all other men, and nearly all men +end as they begin. So it has been in the case of Bonaparte. After a +while we shall see things more clearly; after a while we shall be able +to interpret _men_--but not yet. + +The writings relative to this man constitute a cycle. The books on him +and his times make a library, the perusal and study of which might +absorb a large section of an active life. The name of such productions +is legion. Most of them will fortunately perish. The controversial +aspect of the life of the Emperor must at last subside. Nine out of +ten of the books about him will go down to the nether oblivion. Then +the judicial aspect will arise--if it has not already arisen--and will +occupy the attention of those who are still curious to study the +career of him who shares with the son of Philip and the matchless +Julius the triune honor of being the greatest warriors known to human +history. If a fourth should be added to the group it would be +Hannibal, and if a fifth, Charlemagne. + +Here at the date of a century from those days in which the star of +Napoleon emerged from the mists and clouds and began to climb the sky +the interest in his life revives. In America this revival is +attributable in part to general and in part to special causes. The +general causes are to be found in the fact that society _de la fin de +siècle_ is in such a state of profound disturbance, and the existing +order feels so insecure, that that order--as it always does--begins to +cast about in the shadows to find, if it may, some Big Man with a +Sword; him when found we will make our Imperator, and by sharing some +of our estates with certain of his military subalterns we will make +sure of the rest--and after us the deluge. The special cause--at least +in America--is the tremendous and growing tradition of General Grant. +Albeit, General Grant hated the Bonapartes, from the Great One to the +Little One; yet his own luminous setting has left a glow in which the +nation sees men as trees walking--and among these the greatest +simulacrum is Napoleon Bonaparte. + +Of this man, who began as the son of a Corsican peasant-mother working +in a mulberry orchard, and who, after fifty-one years, eight months, +and twenty days, ended in a cyclone on the rock called St. Helena, +having meanwhile for nearly a third of his life bestridden western +Europe like a colossus,--a new biography claiming to be the ultimate +summation of the Emperor's life and character has appeared. Professor +William Milligan Sloane, of Princeton University, has entered the +lists which may be said to have opened with Walter Scott and finished +with the McClure Syndicate, passing meanwhile by way of such +personages as De Staël, Las Cases, Victor Hugo, and Lanfrey, and such +drudges as Bourrienne and Méneval, to lodge at last with the +miscellaneous hacks who get three dollars a column for their +boiler-plate philosophy in American newspapers! Heavens, what a +scrimmage! + +It were difficult to say when the _final_ biography of a man has been +produced. Hard, hard is it to decide when anything in this world is +final. The never-ending progress of events shapes and readjusts not +only the present materials of history, but also by reaction the +materials of the past. Much that is supposed to be complete is seen to +be unfinished; the done becomes undone, and the peroration of an epoch +has to be rewritten for an exordium. + +This is as true of the individual lives of men as it is of great +events. If the ages have to be reconstructed, so also must the men of +the ages. If only a mummy now turn over in his porphyry sarcophagus, a +papyrus is generally found under him; and the finder, with the papyrus +in his hand, may go forth fully warranted to revise every event from +the first cataclysm of the Devonian age to the last earthquake in +Java, and every man from Moses to Cagliostro. + +On the whole I incline to the opinion that Professor Sloane has +brought the Emperor Napoleon to a kind of final interpretation; I will +not say to a full stop, but to something very much resembling a +period. In the first place, I offer on the "Life of Napoleon +Bonaparte," the eulogium that the work has, in a great degree, +_naturalized_ the Corsican as he was never naturalized before--thus +bringing him out of cloudland and mere impossible fog to the plain +level of human action and purpose. + +This is much. In accomplishing thus much Professor Sloane has +vindicated his claim to be regarded as a great biographer. It has been +the bane of nearly all biographical writing that the subjects of it +have been completely mythologized. Thus far in the history of mankind +biography might be defined as the art of myth-making. I scarcely know +what exceptions to cite to this universal vice except only and always +Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson." As for American biographies thus +far produced, there is scarcely a single example of a work which is +not to be classified as a recorded myth. The trouble in all this +business has been that the myth-makers, living in a certain +atmosphere, have imagined that they are obliged to make their +characters conform to the established antecedents of greatness. These +established antecedents of greatness have for the most part been +created out of superstitions, credulities, blank idealism, and mere +dogmatic bosh. No living, active men have ever conformed, or could +conform, to the standards which the logicians, the philosophers, and +the priests have fixed up for them; and if any of them should conform +to such a standard, their place under classification would be with +automata, not with living men. + +Nevertheless, our biographers have been so weak and servile as to make +their characters according to this pattern. One character is labelled +Washington, another is labelled Franklin, another is labelled Adams, +and still another, Lincoln. + +All this, I think, Professor Sloane has studiously avoided. As a +literary doctor he has done much to destroy the mythical disease. He +has written an elaborate work in which the man Napoleon moves and +acts, neither as an angel nor as a devil, but as a man, moved upon and +moving by the common human passions, though inflamed, in his case, to +a white heat in the furnace of his ambition. + +All this was to have been expected in view of the plan of Professor +Sloane as expressed in his preface: + + "Until within a very recent period," says he, "it seemed that no + man could discuss him [Napoleon] or his time without manifesting + such strong personal feeling as to vitiate his judgment and + conclusions. This was partly due to the lack of perspective, but + in the main to ignorance of the facts essential to a sober + treatment of the theme. In this respect the last quarter of a + century has seen a gradual but radical change, for a band of + dispassionate scientific scholars have during that time been + occupied in the preparation of material for his life without + reference to the advocacy of one theory or another concerning his + character. European archives, long carefully guarded, have been + thrown open; the diplomatic correspondence of the most important + periods has been published; family papers have been examined, and + numbers of valuable memoirs have been printed. It has therefore + been possible to check one account by another, to cancel + misrepresentations, to eliminate passion--in short, to establish + something like correct outline and accurate detail, at least in + regard to what the man actually did. Those hidden secrets of any + human mind which we call motives must ever remain to other minds + largely a matter of opinion, but a very fair indication of them + can be found when once the actual conduct of the actor has been + determined." + +From this point of view Professor Sloane has proceeded with his +tremendous work. His studies at home and abroad have been ample. We +may remark, in passing, upon the physical vigor of the author as shown +in his portrait. From such a face and figure we can but expect energy, +persistency, accomplishment. I do not pretend to disclose the reasons +of Professor Sloane for indulging in this prodigious Napoleonic dream +and for delineating it in what is likely to be regarded as the best +product of his intellectual career. We can only take what he has +produced and give it such cursory notice as our space will permit. + +The first volume of the work extends from a survey of the conditions +under which Napoleon was born and reared to the conclusion of his +twenty-eighth year. The first events depicted are those historical +movements in which the Bonapartes, within the narrow limits of their +island, were involved in the seventh decade of the eighteenth century; +and the last event recorded in this volume is the fall of Venice, at +the end of May, 1797. I incline to regard this as the most +interesting, though not the most important, of the four great volumes +of Professor Sloane's work. In the nature of the case the ascendant of +a man is the more inspiring part. In it he appears as an orb whose +full majesty, not yet revealed, solicits the imagination and kindles +by sympathy the ambitions that in some measure are common to us all. +Here in volume I is portrayed the youth of the man Napoleon Bonaparte. +In this he is revealed in the full charm of that electrical audacity +which had as yet lost none of its sharpness and burning flash. Nor had +Napoleon, as a _man_, as yet become sufficiently involved with the +general maze of history, sufficiently immersed in the storm-cloud of +that tempestuous epoch, to be lost from view. This volume shows the +man emerging from boyhood into the full career of a military +conqueror. It shows him in his magical transformation from the +character of an adventurer into the character of a leader of armies +and a dictator of events. It also shows Napoleon with the still fluid +heart of boyhood passing through the lava floods of his first loves, +in particular his love for Josephine, into the age of cynicism and +calculation. + +This first volume brings sufficiently to memory the progress of the +youthful Napoleon. Here we see him at his mother's knee; then in the +time of his school days; then in Paris and Valence; then as a neophyte +author, quite absurd in his dreams; then on garrison duty, and then +swept away with the tides of the oncoming revolution. In the smoke of +the South his slender figure is seen here and there until he emerges +at Toulon. In his character of Jacobin he becomes a general in the +army at a time of life when most men are happy to be lieutenants. Then +for the first time he touches the revolutionary society of Paris. He +meets Josephine; Barras delivers her to the coming man. They are +wedded, and from that date the stage widens, the wars in Italy break +out, and the young general begins to whirl his sword at Mantua, +Arcole, and Rivoli--from which he was wont to date his military birth, +saying on that occasion, "Make my life begin at Rivoli;" and finally +at Montebello and Venice, where, in the late spring of 1797, he is +joined by Josephine. There from the French capital they seemed to +stand afar as the cynosure of all revolutionary eyes, expecting a +greater light. + +In the second volume Professor Sloane begins with the rescue of the +Directory. Hard after we have the great episode of the Treaty of Campo +Formio, and then the expedition to Egypt. The story of that expedition +is known through all the world; so also the return, and the overthrow +of the Directory. + +From that day Bonaparte became the embodiment of the revolution. He +became a statesman and a strategist. He found himself in the +geographical and historical storm-centre of Europe. Then came the +epoch of great wars. Marengo marks the close of the old century, and +the treaty of Lunéville the beginning of the new. Napoleon undertakes +the pacification of Europe, and reorganizes France. He steps +cautiously towards the restoration of monarchy. There is a +life-consulate, transforming itself quickly into an empire. The old +royalism is extinguished, and the new military imperialism is +glorified in its stead. The third coalition of Europe succeeds the +second. Trafalgar strews the sea with the wrecks of France, and +Austerlitz strews the land with the wrecks of Russia and Austria. The +sea is virtually abandoned by the man of destiny, but over the land he +rises as War-lord and Emperor. + +The second conflict breaks out with Prussia and ends with the ruin of +that power at Jena and Auerstadt. The year 1806 sees the parvenu +emperor, now thirty-seven years of age, the master of all the better +parts of Europe. Here ends the second volume of his life, according to +Professor Sloane's division, and the third begins with the devastation +and humiliation of the Prussian kingdom. + +In this volume the author views Napoleon for the first time as the +arbitrary diplomatist of the West. It is evident that from this time +the emperor's vision widens to a more remote horizon than he had ever +scanned before. The Berlin decree was issued. The battle of Eylau was +fought, and then was achieved the victory of Friedland. Nor may we +pass without noticing the acme which Napoleon, according to the +judgment of many, now reached on that memorable field. Here it is that +art has caught and transmitted him. For it is in the trodden +wheat-field of Friedland that Meissonier's pencil has delineated +Napoleon with his marshals around him, in one of the greatest pictures +of the world. + +By this epoch ambition in the emperor had swallowed up all other +passions. He goes on from conquering to conquest. The dream of a +French Empire, coextensive with the borders of Europe, seizes the +Napoleonic imagination. The emperor's armies strike left and right. +They are seen first on one horizon, then on another. The Corsican on +his white horse is now upon the Pyrenees, now on the Germanic +frontier, and now in Poland. He faces Alexander of Russia, and laughs +at him! His gray coat and three-cornered hat become the best known +symbols of military genius in modern times. + +Kingdoms and principalities are transformed. Already the mythical +Roman empire has passed away. Austria is threatened with extinction. +The Corsican is seen first in one and then in another of the ancient +capitals of Europe. Aspern follows Eckmühl, and Essling and Wagram +follow Aspern. The treaty of Schönbrunn promises peace to the nations, +but the hope is broken to the lips. In this crisis Josephine goes down +in the shadows, and the daughter of Austria is led to the imperial +chamber--this from the necessity of establishing a dynasty. The +relations between France and Russia are strained to breaking. The +fatal year 1812 comes, and there is a congress of kings. Alexander +gives his ultimatum, and the invasion of Russia is begun. There is an +indescribable struggle on the Moskwa, and then the flames of Moscow +are seen across the deserts of Russian snow. + +The fourth and last volume begins with the return of the allied armies +from Russia. Then follows the universal revolt of the nations. +Insurrection breaks out on every horizon, and treachery, as might have +been expected, is added to the combinations that are rapidly formed +against the imperial Corsican. The borders of France are broken in. +There is a narrowing rim of fire bursting into battle flame here and +there; and then the catastrophe of the capture of Paris. There is an +ambiguous abdication and an equivocal exile of a few months' duration +to Elba. It was much like the establishment of a live lion on +Governor's Island! + +The lion got away. Then came an instantaneous upheaval of old +revolutionary France, which had now become imperial France. The +Emperor was welcomed home as a returning god. The country was drained +to the last drop of its resources, and everything was staked on the +final strategy of the Hundred Days and the hazard of the +ever-memorable battle. + + "There was a sound of revelry by night," + +and then the imperial eagle was seen stretched upon the plain, pierced +through with the shafts of banded nations. He was caged and +transported to that far rock which in his school-essay at Autun he had +described thus: "St. Helena is a _small_ island!" He found it so. For +nearly six years his captivity continued until his stormy career ended +in a May hurricane that might well have shaken the desolate +foundations of his ocean-girt prison. Then the historical tide rolled +on without him. France was transformed into the old image, but her +soul was still imperial. At last the bones of her great dead were +recovered, to be placed at rest in that red-black sarcophagus over +which the world looks down and wonders. + +Such is the fiery but fruitful chaos through which the life-line of +Napoleon is drawn with a master hand by Professor William Milligan +Sloane. My judgment is that, on the whole, he has produced the +greatest biographical work which has yet appeared in American +literature. I think that in the main his accomplishment has been equal +to his ambition. It is not an unworthy thing that an _American_ +professor, at the seat of an _American_ university, turning his +energies to this great task, has succeeded in making a well-nigh final +record of the life and work of that unequalled organizer, that sublime +dissembler, that cruel reformer, that heartless philanthropist, who, +for half a lifetime, converted old Europe into a mire of murder and +desolation, for the ultimate good of man. + +Only one thing may be said in adverse criticism of Professor Sloane's +book, and that is, that his style is too mathematical and too little +imaginative for the subject which he has in hand. His rather cold +precision, however, we concede to him; for it is, no doubt, the +natural method of his expression. We do our part to acknowledge and +welcome the remarkable work which he has produced, and to commend it +to all readers as the best existing and best probable account of the +personal and historical career of Napoleon Bonaparte. + + + * * * * * + + +[Transcriber's Notes: Every effort has been made to replicate this +text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant +spellings and other inconsistencies. + +The transcriber made these changes to the text to correct obvious +errors: + + 1. p. 6 over-capatalized --> over-capitalized + 2. p. 18 successfull --> successful + 3. p. 23 benovelent --> benevolent + 4. p. 60 ecocomists --> economists + 5. p. 68 A macron diacritical mark, a straight line above + a letter, is found on the first letter o, in the + word Sosoku. This letter is indicated here by the + coding [=x] for a macron above any letter x. + Thus, for example, the word Sosoku appears as + S[=o]soku in the text. + 6. p. 76 staightforward --> straightforward + 7. p. 94 abnormalties --> abnormalities + 8. p. 124 desparing --> despairing + 9. p. 144 stategy --> strategy + +End of Transcriber's Notes] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arena, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30081 *** diff --git a/30081-h/30081-h.htm b/30081-h/30081-h.htm index 601726c..8676ca7 100644 --- a/30081-h/30081-h.htm +++ b/30081-h/30081-h.htm @@ -1,6244 +1,6244 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
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-<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30081 ***</div>
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-<hr class="full" />
-
-<h1>THE ARENA.</h1>
-
-
-<h4>EDITED BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL. D.</h4>
-
-<p><br /></p>
-
-<h3>VOL. XVIII</h3>
-
-
-<p><br /></p>
-
-<h4 class="smcap">July to December, 1897</h4>
-
-<p><br /></p>
-
-<h5><span class="smcap">published by</span><br />
-THE ARENA COMPANY<br />
-<span class="smcap">Boston, Mass.</span><br />
-1897</h5>
-
-<p><br /></p>
-
-<h5 class="smcap">Copyrighted, 1897<br />
-by<br />
-THE ARENA COMPANY.</h5>
-
-<p><br /></p>
-
-<h5><span class="smcap">Skinner, Bartlett & Co.</span>, 7 Federal Court, Boston.</h5>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">iii</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
-
-
-
-
-<div class="center">
-<table summary="Contents">
-<tr><td class="right sc" colspan="3">Page</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_1">The Citadel of the Money Power:</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent"><a href="#article_1">I. Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future</a></td><td class="right sc">Henry Clews</td><td class="right">1</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent"><a href="#article_2">II. The True Inwardness of Wall Street</a></td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">9</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_3">The Reform Club’s Feast of Unreason</a></td><td class="right sc">Hon. Charles A. Towne</td><td class="right">24</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_4">Does Credit Act on Prices?</a></td><td class="right sc">A. J. Utley</td><td class="right">37</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_5">Points in the American and French Constitutions Compared</a></td><td class="right sc">Niels Grön</td><td class="right">49</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_6">Honest Money; or, A True Standard of Value: A Symposium.</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#article_6">I. William Jennings Bryan</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">57</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#HOWARD">II. M. W. Howard</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">58</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#BARKER">III. Wharton Barker</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">59</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#FONDA">IV. Arthur I. Fonda</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">60</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#WARNER">V. Gen. A. J. Warner</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">62</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_7">The New Civil Code of Japan</a></td><td class="right sc">Tokichi Masao, M. L., D. C. L.</td><td class="right">64</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_8">John Ruskin: A Type of Twentieth-Century Manhood</a></td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">70</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_9">The Single Tax in Operation</a></td><td class="right sc">Hon. Hugh H. Lusk</td><td class="right">79</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_10">Natural Selection, Social Selection, and Heredity</a></td><td class="right sc">Prof. John R. Commons</td><td class="right">90</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_11">Psychic or Supermundane Forces</a></td><td class="right sc">Cora L. V. Richmond</td><td class="right">98</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_12">The American Institute of Civics</a></td><td class="right sc">Henry Randall Waite, Ph. D.</td><td class="right">108</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_13">An Industrial Fable</a></td><td class="right sc">Hamilton S. Wicks</td><td class="right">116</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_14">Plaza of the Poets:</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left indent"><a href="#article_14">Reply to “Locksley Hall Sixty Years After”</a></td><td class="right sc">Barton Lomax Pittman</td><td class="right">122</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left indent"><a href="#article_15">John Brown</a></td><td class="right sc">Coates Kinney</td><td class="right">125</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left indent"><a href="#article_16">Demos</a></td><td class="right sc">W. H. Venable, LL. D.</td><td class="right">126</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left" colspan="2"><a href="#article_17">The Editor’s Evening: Leaf from My Samoan Notebook (A. D. 2297); <i>Vita Longa</i>; Kaboto (a Sonnet)</a></td><td class="right">128</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_18">A Stroke for the People: A Farmer’s Letter to The Arena</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">134</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Evolution: What It Is and What It Is Not</td><td class="right sc">Dr. David Starr Jordan</td><td class="right">145</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Has Wealth a Limitation?</td><td class="right sc">Robert N. Reeves</td><td class="right">160</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Battle of the Money Metals:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">I. Bimetallism Simplified</td><td class="right sc">George H. Lepper</td><td class="right">168</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">II. Bimetallism Extinguished</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">180</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Segregation and Permanent Isolation of Criminals</td><td class="right sc">Norman Robinson</td><td class="right">192</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">How to Increase National Wealth by the Employment of Paralyzed Industry</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">200</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Open Letter to Eastern Capitalists</td><td class="right sc">Charles C. Millard</td><td class="right">211</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIII.</td><td class="right sc">Prof. Frank Parsons</td><td class="right">218</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Provisional Government of the Cubans</td><td class="right sc">Thomas W. Steep</td><td class="right">226</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">A Noted American Preacher</td><td class="right sc">Duncan MacDermid</td><td class="right">232</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Civic Outlook</td><td class="right sc">Henry Randall Waite, Ph. D.</td><td class="right">245</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">“The Tempest” the Sequel to “Hamlet”</td><td class="right sc">Emily Dickey Beery</td><td class="right">254</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Creative Man</td><td class="right sc">Stinson Jarvis</td><td class="right">262<span class="pagenum"><a name="pageiv" id="pageiv">iv</a></span></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The New Woman</td><td class="right sc">Miles Menander Dawson</td><td class="right">275</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Under the Stars</td><td class="right sc">Coates Kinney</td><td class="right">275</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Cry of the Valley</td><td class="right sc">Charles Melvin Wilkinson</td><td class="right">276</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">A Radical</td><td class="right sc">Robert F. Gibson</td><td class="right">277</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: Our Totem; <i>Vive La France! Le Siècle</i> (a Sonnet)</td><td class="right">278</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part I</td><td class="right sc">Herman E. Taubeneck</td><td class="right">289</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Future of the Democratic Party: A Reply</td><td class="right sc">David Overmyer</td><td class="right">302</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Multiple Standard for Money</td><td class="right sc">Eltweed Pomeroy</td><td class="right">318</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Anticipating the Unearned Increment</td><td class="right sc">I. W. Hart</td><td class="right">339</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Studies in Ultimate Society:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">I. A New Interpretation of Life</td><td class="right sc">Laurence Gronlund</td><td class="right">351</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">II. Individualism <i>vs.</i> Altruism</td><td class="right sc">K. T. Takahashi</td><td class="right">362</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">General Weyler’s Campaign</td><td class="right sc">Crittenden Marriott</td><td class="right">374</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Author of “The Messiah”</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">386</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Open Letter to President Andrews</td><td class="right sc">The Editor</td><td class="right">399</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Onmarch</td><td class="right sc">Freeman E. Miller</td><td class="right">403</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Toil of Empire</td><td class="right sc">John Vance Cheney</td><td class="right">404</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Day Love Came</td><td class="right sc">Theodosia Pickering</td><td class="right">405</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Question</td><td class="right sc">Julia Neely-Finch</td><td class="right">405</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Triolet</td><td class="right sc">Curtis Hidden Page</td><td class="right">406</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Cry of the Poor</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">407</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: A Knotty Problem; A Case of Prevision; Concerning Eternity; A. L. (a Sonnet)</td><td class="right">419</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The New Ostracism</td><td class="right sc">Hon. Charles A. Towne</td><td class="right">433</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part II</td><td class="right sc">Herman E. Taubeneck</td><td class="right">452</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Rights of the Public over Quasi-Public Services</td><td class="right sc">Hon. Walter Clark</td><td class="right">470</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Prosperity: the Sham and the Reality</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">486</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Jefferson and His Political Philosophy</td><td class="right sc">Mary Platt Parmelee</td><td class="right">505</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Latest Social Vision</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">517</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Dead Hand in the Church</td><td class="right sc">Rev. Clarence Lathbury</td><td class="right">535</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Hypnotism in its Scientific and Forensic Aspects</td><td class="right sc">Marion L. Dawson, B. L.</td><td class="right">544</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Suicide: Is It Worth While?</td><td class="right sc">Charles B. Newcomb</td><td class="right">557</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Old Glory</td><td class="right">Ironquill</td><td class="right sc">562</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent"><i>Vita Sum</i></td><td class="right sc">Junius L. Hempstead</td><td class="right">563</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Gold</td><td class="right sc">Clinton Scollard</td><td class="right">564</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Richard Realfe</td><td class="right sc">Reubie Carpenter</td><td class="right">565</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Dreamer</td><td class="right sc">Helena M. Richardson</td><td class="right">565</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: The Greatest Lyric; “Thrift, Thrift, Horatio;” The Pessimist; The Physician’s Last Call (a Sonnet).</td><td class="right">566</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Freedom and Its Opportunities: Part I</td><td class="right sc">Hon. John R. Rogers</td><td class="right">577</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">“The Case Against Bimetallism”</td><td class="right sc">Judge George H. Smith</td><td class="right">590</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Initiative and the Referendum</td><td class="right sc">Elihu F. Barker</td><td class="right">613</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIV</td><td class="right sc">Prof. Frank Parsons</td><td class="right">628<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagev" id="pagev">v</a></span></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Laborer’s View of the Labor Question:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">I. How the Laborer Feels</td><td class="right sc">Herbert M. Ramp</td><td class="right">644</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">II. Up or Down?</td><td class="right sc">W. Edwards</td><td class="right">654</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">III. The Farm Hand: An Unknown Quantity</td><td class="right sc">William Emory Kearns</td><td class="right">661</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Practical Measures for Promoting Manhood and Preventing Crime</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">673</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Demand for Sensational Journals</td><td class="right sc">John Henderson Garnsey</td><td class="right">681</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Is History a Science?</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">687</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Our Brother Simon</td><td class="right sc">Annie L. Muzzey</td><td class="right">707</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Thou Knowest Not</td><td class="right sc">Helena M. Richardson</td><td class="right">708</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Optim: A Reply</td><td class="right sc">George H. Westley</td><td class="right">709</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Murdered Trees</td><td class="right sc">Benjamin S. Parker</td><td class="right">709</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Hidden Flute</td><td class="right sc">Minna Irving</td><td class="right">710</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Retroensetta</td><td class="right sc">Curtis Hidden Page</td><td class="right">710</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: Tantalus and His Opportunities; The Man in Bronze; Franklin (a Sonnet)</td><td class="right">711</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Idylls and Ideals of Christmas:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">I. What I Want for Christmas</td><td class="right sc">Robert G. Ingersoll</td><td class="right">721</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">II. Christmas, the Human Holiday</td><td class="right sc">Rev. Minot J. Savage, D.D.</td><td class="right">722</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">III. Santa Claus: A Poem</td><td class="right sc">James Whitcomb Riley</td><td class="right">726</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">IV. The Aryan at Christmas</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">727</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">A Séance With Eusapia Paladino: Psychic Forces</td><td class="right sc">Camille Flammarion</td><td class="right">730</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Influence of Hebrew Thought in the Development of the Social Democratic Idea in New England</td><td class="right sc">Charles S. Allen</td><td class="right">748</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Priest and People</td><td class="right sc">E. T. Hargrove</td><td class="right">772</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Immigration, Hard Times, and the Veto</td><td class="right sc">John Chetwood, Jr.</td><td class="right">788</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Founder of German Opera</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">802</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Truly Artistic Woman</td><td class="right sc">Stinson Jarvis</td><td class="right">813</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Poor “Fairly Rich” People</td><td class="right sc">Henry E. Foster</td><td class="right">820</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Shall the United States be Europeanized?</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">827</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Hawaiian Annexation from a Japanese Point of View</td><td class="right sc">Keijiro Nakamura</td><td class="right">834</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">A Political Deal: A Story</td><td class="right sc">Eliza Frances Andrews</td><td class="right">840</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Glad Tidings</td><td class="right sc">Marion Mills Miller</td><td class="right">849</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Yule Log</td><td class="right sc">Clinton Scollard</td><td class="right">852</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">How to Get an Article in a Magazine</td><td class="right sc">The Editor</td><td class="right">853</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: Sir Thomas Kho on Education; Journey and Sleep (a Sonnet)</td><td class="right">855</td></tr>
-</table></div>
-
-<p> </p>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<h3 class="article_section">BOOK REVIEWS.</h3>
-
-<div class="center">
-<table width="70%" summary="Book Reviews">
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_19">The Emperor</a></td><td class="right"> 137</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">President Jordan’s Saga of the Seal</td><td class="right">284</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Some Prehistoric History</td><td class="right">426</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">A Bard of the Ohio</td><td class="right">572</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Critic, Bard, and Moralist</td><td class="right">717</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Guthrie’s “Modern Poet Prophets”</td><td class="right">860</td></tr>
-</table></div>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pagevi" id="pagevi">vi</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3 class="article_section">ILLUSTRATIONS.</h3>
-
-<div class="center">
-<table summary="Illustrations">
-<tr><td class="left sc"> </td><td class="right">Opposite Page</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Hon. Charles A. Towne</td><td class="right">1</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Dr. David Starr Jordan</td><td class="right">145</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Multiple-Standard Treasury Note of Massachusetts Bay</td><td class="right">289</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews</td><td class="right">433</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Governor John R. Rogers</td><td class="right">577</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Camille Flammarion</td><td class="right">721</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Psychic Séance With Eusapia Paladino</td><td class="right">737</td></tr>
-</table></div>
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="THE_ARENA" id="THE_ARENA"></a>THE ARENA.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<div class="center">
-<table width="70%" summary="Vol. XVIII">
-<tr><td align="center">Vol. XVIII.</td><td align="center">JULY, 1897.</td><td align="center">No. 92.</td></tr>
-</table></div>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page1" id="page1">1</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_1" id="article_1"></a>
-THE CITADEL OF THE MONEY POWER.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><big>I. WALL STREET, PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.</big><br />
-BY HENRY CLEWS.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<h3 class="article_section">I.</h3>
-
-<p><span class="sc">The</span> twenty-seven respectable citizens of New York who, in 1792, met
-under a buttonwood tree in front of the premises now known as Number
-60 Wall Street, and formed an association for the purchase and sale of
-public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a proviso of
-mutual help and preference, committed themselves to an enterprise of
-whose moment and influence in the future they could have formed no
-adequate conception. At that date Wall Street was a banking district,
-small indeed when compared with its present condition, but important
-in its relations to the commerce of the nation. This transaction of
-the twenty-seven—among whom we find the honored names of Barclay,
-Bleecker, Winthrop, Lawrence, which in themselves and their
-descendants were, and are, creditably identified with the growth of
-the community—added the prestige and power of the stock exchange to
-those of the banks, and fixed for an indefinitely long period the
-destinies of the financial centre of the Union.</p>
-
-<p>During the earlier part of this century the banking interests of Wall
-Street quite overshadowed those of the stock market. The growth of
-railway securities was not fairly under way until the opening of the
-fifth decade. Elderly men can recall the date when the New York
-Central existed only as a series of connecting links between Buffalo
-and Albany, under half-a-dozen different names of incorporation; and
-passenger cars were slowly and laboriously hoisted by chain power over
-the “divide” between the latter city and Schenectady. Since there were
-but few railways in the entire country, there were few opportunities<span class="pagenum"><a name="page2" id="page2">2</a></span>
-for speculative dealings in their shares. These shares, too, were as a
-rule locally held, and were more frequently transferred by executors
-under court orders than by brokers on the stock exchange.</p>
-
-<p>Prior to 1840 and 1845, however, the members of the stock exchange
-were not idle. Public stocks were largely dealt in. The United States
-government frequently issued bonds, and the prices of these bonds
-fluctuated sufficiently to afford tempting chances of profits. State
-bonds also were sold in Wall Street in larger amounts than to-day.
-About the year 1850 the sales of Missouri sixes and Ohio sixes
-frequently amounted to millions of dollars daily. During that
-uncertain epoch of finance when the United States Bank was both a
-financial and a political power, the shares of that institution were a
-favorite subject of speculative dealing. The shares of Delaware &
-Hudson, and of the original Erie Railway, the latter laboriously
-constructed over a rough, barren, and thinly settled portion of the
-State, partly by State funds, had also become actively exchangeable in
-the market.</p>
-
-<p>During this period a relatively enormous quantity of banking capital
-had located itself in and near Wall Street. The Bank of New York
-existed before 1800, and later, although not long after, the Street
-witnessed the erection of buildings of a now obsolete, and yet at that
-time an attractive, style of architecture, devoted to the uses of the
-Manhattan Banking Company, the Bank of America, the Merchants, the
-Union, the Bank of Commerce, and others. Were it not that land in the
-banking district is so valuable, and that the need of upstair offices
-is so great, one might be tempted to regret the demolition of the
-graceful money temples occupied by three of these corporations on the
-north side of Wall Street. In each of them the entablature rested upon
-two fluted stone pillars with Doric capitals, in addition to the
-supports of the side walls. Between the steps and the doors of the
-temple extended a marble-paved court which often served as a
-convenient place of ‘change for borrowers and lenders. Entering the
-doors you found yourself in a large, airy, dome-lighted room, the
-sides of which were occupied by the clerks of the institution, guarded
-by high barricades from the intrusive eyes and feet of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page3" id="page3">3</a></span> general
-public. At the rear were the offices of the president and cashier.
-Throughout the entire building there reigned a solemn and
-semi-religious silence. One may witness something like this to-day in
-the Wall-Street end of the U. S. Treasury Building, and only there.</p>
-
-<p>Up to the epoch of the rise of railway building and railway-share
-speculation, the main aliment of Wall-Street banks was the profit
-derived from the discount of commercial paper and from loans upon
-government and State securities. But when railway shares and bonds,
-based upon lines of road which were constructed through the rich
-regions of the Union lying between the Atlantic and the Mississippi
-river, came upon the market in large amounts, affording ample security
-for investment and loans, the great banks of Wall Street were quick to
-appreciate the advantages of loans made upon such undoubted values,
-which were at all times convertible into cash on the stock exchange.
-In times of pressure, commercial paper is an inferior asset for a
-bank, all of whose obligations are payable on demand. At such times
-notes become practically unsalable, and are not always paid at
-maturity. A failure of one firm brings down others, and renewals are
-urgently required from banks just when they are least able to grant
-them. Salable securities are on such occasions an ark of safety, and,
-dating from the early fifties, this class of securities has always
-been the basis of a large amount of the loans of the banks of Wall
-Street and their near neighbors of the same class in lower Nassau
-Street and also Broadway.</p>
-
-<p>With the immense outgrowth of business consequent upon the discovery
-of gold in California in 1849, and the construction of the great
-railways of the Middle West, such as the Michigan Southern, the
-Northern Indiana (now the Lake Shore), the Michigan Central, the
-Galena & Chicago, the Rock Island, and others of like importance and
-real value, the banks and banking houses of Wall Street, and the stock
-exchange, grew into most important factors in developing the
-prosperity of the country. Enterprises were originated by able men
-acting under corporate powers, and when these were brought before the
-committees of the stock exchange and duly approved and listed, capital
-instantly flowed forth from its reservoirs in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page4" id="page4">4</a></span> answer to the
-securities thus offered. And it may safely be said that but for the
-combined machinery of the New York banks and the stock exchange the
-actual developments of twenty years would have dragged laboriously
-through an entire century.</p>
-
-<p>Amid so much progress and activity, speculation was not idle. Those
-were the days of many of our greatest railway operators, daring, able,
-enthusiastic men, who had the rare gift of imparting confidence to
-their followers and the public, and realized the fable of King Midas,
-whose touch transmuted all things into gold. Their careers were those
-of conquest and accumulation, like that of Napoleon; and, like him,
-they underwent, with few exceptions, their retreats from Russia and
-their Waterloos. Of such were Jacob Little, Daniel Drew, Anthony
-Morse, and others, to whom now the motto of Junius applies: <i>Stat
-nominis umbra</i>. Merely the shadows of their names reach over to us
-from the horizons where their suns set so long ago.</p>
-
-<p>There was an epoch too in the Wall Street of the past when gigantic
-and deeply considered combinations were set in motion, entitled
-“corners.” As to corners, a word of explanation may not be amiss.
-There are always two factions in the stock market: the bulls, who want
-stocks to rise in price in order that they may sell out; and the
-bears, who want stocks to fall in price so that they can buy in.
-Contrary to the superficial belief of the public, the bulls are
-sellers and the bears are buyers. But in order to sell a commodity you
-must buy or borrow it; and in order to buy at a future date you must
-sell at a previous date; and thus the bull buys for the purpose of
-selling at a profit, and the bear sells something which he doesn’t own
-for the purpose of buying it at a lower price. The bull therefore
-hopes to push prices up so that he can sell his purchase at a profit,
-and the bear hopes to drag prices down so that he can buy what he has
-sold, also at a profit.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile, the bear has delivered the shares sold by him, and in order
-to deliver them, has borrowed them, and given security in money at its
-market price. Here he has placed himself in danger, because the owner
-of the shares may at any time tender him this money and demand the
-shares, which the bear may not be able to provide himself with, except
-at the price which the owners choose to set upon them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page5" id="page5">5</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Thus a person might be under contract to deliver the shares of some
-corporation which might be absolutely worthless, and yet these shares
-<i>might</i> be so held that the holders could exact one thousand dollars a
-share. Given a railway with a share capital of ten millions, one
-person or knot of persons might own every certificate of its stock,
-and have it all loaned out to bears who had sold, borrowed, and
-delivered it. It is obvious that this person or club of persons could
-compel purchases of the shares which he or they alone possess, at
-whatever price he or they think proper to demand; and since such
-things can be done by skilful combinations under able generalship,
-they have been done, and were a favorite scheme during the eventful
-years between the sixties and the eighties. The corners in Harlem,
-Hudson, Erie and Northwest, in which Vanderbilt, Drew, and Gould
-achieved such success for themselves and their associates, have passed
-into history as a conspicuous portion of the great events of Wall
-Street. Their interest is chiefly historical, because of late years no
-comprehensive corners have been organized. Share capitals are so large
-that it is difficult for one man to control any one of them, and a
-divided corner is apt to fail. But in their day and generation they
-have offered brilliant illustrations of genius and strategic skill in
-financial warfare.</p>
-
-<p>The system of selling short, however, which gave birth to the idea of
-creating corners, and which came into vogue in the fifties, has never
-ceased to be a leading factor on the stock exchange. It was the result
-of certain inflations of values which necessarily follow the
-construction of great enterprises. However high a valuation may be set
-upon any given commodity, there are always persons who expect a higher
-price. Early historical examples of this fact are the South-Sea shares
-and John Law’s Mississippi shares, over which England and France
-respectively went crazy in the last century. The loftier the figures
-to which these shares mounted, the greater was the eagerness of the
-public to buy them. But at that period the art and mystery of selling
-short had not been brought into practice, and when the bubbles
-collapsed there were universal losers and no direct winners.</p>
-
-<p>During the latter half of this century there have been periods<span class="pagenum"><a name="page6" id="page6">6</a></span> in the
-history of Wall Street when the prices of railway and industrial
-shares have been forced enormously above the standard of actual
-values, and innumerable persons have parted with good money in
-exchange for mere phantoms of imaginary values. At such times the
-short sales of discernment, directing the X rays of clear-sighted
-criticism into the swollen and opaque mass of financial carrion that
-is exposed for sale in the market, are of the utmost benefit to the
-public. The bear is then a benefactor to the community, and when he
-pulls down and tears to pieces the rotten carcass of some gigantic
-humbug, strewing the highway with its remains, we cannot praise his
-work too highly.</p>
-
-
-<h3 class="article_section">II.</h3>
-
-<p>The present condition of Wall Street is one of lassitude and
-expectancy. The great banks have an abundance, perhaps a
-superabundance, of money, their own and their depositors, which they
-are only too glad to lend on solid and readily salable collateral at
-low rates of interest, approximating the prevalent rates in London and
-Paris, where similar accumulations of idle capital exist. A large part
-of this money is deposited with them by local banks in all parts of
-the country, which recognize New York City as the financial centre of
-the Union, and are content with interest of from one to two per cent
-upon the funds which they are unwilling or unable to use safely at
-home. The stock exchange is also in a condition of quietude. The
-public are neither buying nor selling stocks in any large amount.</p>
-
-<p>This state of things is the resultant of well-known facts. Numerous
-over-capitalized and badly managed railways have gone into bankruptcy,
-and either are in the hands of receivers or have emerged from such
-guardianship, and are painfully toiling along on the road to
-prosperity on the twin crutches of assessments upon stockholders and
-the withholding of dividends from the same long-suffering and patient
-class.</p>
-
-<p>The transactions at the stock exchange at present average about two
-hundred thousand shares a day, exclusive of bonds, government, State,
-and railway; and a certain class of observers who like to subject
-circumstances to a minute analysis inform the public that the daily
-profits of the members of the exchange<span class="pagenum"><a name="page7" id="page7">7</a></span> are about sufficient to pay
-the expense of office rent and clerk hire. This conclusion takes it
-for granted that these profits should be equally divided among the
-membership. This is not a reasonable supposition. Many of the members
-are such only in name, and rarely go on the floor. Others live during
-most of the time on their accumulations, and come into the market to
-buy or sell only when prices are abnormally low or high. The
-comparatively small busy portion manage somehow to keep fairly active,
-and are cheerfully looking forward to better times, through a vista
-from which the cloud of a change of the monetary standard has already
-passed away, and into which the genius of enterprise beckons them to
-enter.</p>
-
-
-<h3 class="article_section">III.</h3>
-
-<p>While in many respects the future is a sealed book, yet there is such
-a thing in the economy of nature as an absolutely accurate prevision
-of events, such as eclipses of the sun and moon, and conjunctions of
-the planets, and a relatively correct prevision of events depending
-upon the growth of enlightened communities. Since the incorporation of
-the Bank of New York, at the corner of Wall and Williams Streets, the
-banking capital of New York has increased more than sixtyfold, of
-which more than one-half is held and used in and around Wall Street,
-and the aggregation of deposited and loanable capital has grown from a
-few millions to over half a billion. If this has been the result
-during one century, what will take place in the same direction during
-the next century? The ratio of increase will not be kept up. A
-thousand dollars may be doubled in a day, but no such ratio as a
-hundred per cent a day can be predicated of a million. And yet it is
-certain that, under proper management, the million will go on
-increasing; and in the same manner will our half-billion increase by
-its own earning power, and by contributions from all parts of the
-Union. The development of the United States in the direction of
-population, agriculture, manufactures, and mines is so enormous and so
-steady that this nation will at some not distant period become the
-most opulent of all the nations of the planet, unless unforeseen and
-improbable political events happen by which our great commonwealth
-shall be disrupted or its financial stability overturned. Under a
-normal<span class="pagenum"><a name="page8" id="page8">8</a></span> condition of things the capital of the citizens of the Union
-will continually increase, and the banks of the city of New York will
-be the depositary of larger and larger reserves of whatever capital is
-temporarily idle in the places where it is created. In due time the
-financial centre of the world will be shifted from London to our
-imperial city.</p>
-
-<p>Such a destiny has been foretold for St. Petersburg, in view of the
-construction of the Siberian Railway and its branches, which in time
-will open up to industry an immense tract of productive soil in the
-most fertile parts of Asia, abounding in wheat and corn land, and full
-of superior water power. But in this superb rivalry between the United
-States and the colossus of Europe and Asia, the former nation has an
-immense start as to time, and a still greater advantage in the
-character of its population. And in addition to these we have the
-undoubted and constantly increasing supremacy of the English language.
-Just as during the Middle Ages Latin was the vernacular of the learned
-classes, and as to-day French is the language of diplomacy in Europe,
-so is English the common tongue in all the commercial localities of
-the globe. With English a man can commit himself to foreign travel
-anywhere, while outside of Russia there are few towns on the various
-continents in which Russian is not an unknown speech. These
-controlling conditions cannot be readily or easily changed, especially
-since no paramount reasons exist why they should be changed.</p>
-
-<p>It is then a reasonable forecast of the future, that in due time the
-weighty import of the names of Lombard<a name="fn_marker_1" id="fn_marker_1"></a><a href="#fn_1" class="fn_marker">[1]</a> and Threadneedle Streets
-will be transferred to the name of Wall Street, and the facts implied
-by such a transfer are of a dignity and power which it is impossible
-to estimate. The road leading to this great destiny can only be
-blocked by injurious legislation, and the good sense of our citizens
-may be confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a
-barricade against national prosperity.</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page9" id="page9">9</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_2" id="article_2"></a>
-II. THE TRUE INWARDNESS OF WALL STREET.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p>The organized powers of society are always anxious to conciliate
-public favor. They know that they exist by sufferance—by sufferance
-of a mightier than themselves. In proportion as they know themselves
-to be aggressors and spoliators their anxiety increases. Every abusive
-power in the world is thus driven to adopt schemes and devices—some
-dangerous and some merely ludicrous—to keep a footing at that silent
-bar of opinion before which all wrong must, sooner or later, quail and
-slink away.</p>
-
-<p>The great concern called Wall Street is such an organized power in
-society. It exists as a fact in our American system, and would fain
-conciliate the favor of the public. Wall Street has become one of the
-most conspicuous features in our national life. Knowing that it is
-challenged by public opinion—knowing indeed that it is already under
-the ban and condemnation of the American people—it now seeks, after
-the manner of its kind, to save itself alive. It would go further than
-mere salvation; it would make mankind believe that it is a reputable
-part of the universal swim. Aye more; it seeks to ingratiate itself,
-sometimes by force and sometimes by gentle craft and stratagem, into
-the good graces of that civilization which it has so mortally
-offended.</p>
-
-<p>To this end Wall Street strives to justify itself in periodical and
-general literature. No other power in human society to so great a
-degree and in so subtle a manner exploits its own virtues. Taking
-advantage of the well-known carelessness of American readers, and
-knowing full well how easily they are duped—how easily they are
-cozened out of their senses and led into false beliefs with mere
-plausibilities and sophisms—this imperial and far-reaching Wall
-Street, this elephantine fox of the world, takes possession of
-American journalism—owns it, controls it. It seizes and subsidizes
-the metropolitan press. It purchases newspapers and magazines by the
-score. It establishes bureaus; it buys every purchasable pen, from the
-pen of the gray philosopher to the pen of the snake editor. It
-overawes every timid brain, from the brain of the senator to the
-brain<span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" id="page10">10</a></span> of the tramp. What it cannot purchase it terrorizes; and the
-small residue which it cannot terrorize it seeks to cajole: all this
-to the end that its dominion may be universal and everlasting.</p>
-
-<p>In this work of gaining possession of public opinion and perverting
-that opinion to its own uses Wall Street employs all methods and uses
-all expedients. Wall Street deliberately marks its game; and we have
-to confess that the game generally falls at the first fire. We have
-heard, however, of a single case of a brave man, now dead, who, when
-offered ten thousand dollars for his voice against his conviction and
-his opinion against his soul, in the matter of electing President of
-the United States the man who was the candidate of Wall Street, told
-the subtle committee to make an immediate and expeditious visit to the
-bottom of the old theology.</p>
-
-<p>This train of thought rises vividly to mind when I consider the
-article of Mr. Henry Clews on “Wall Street, Past, Present, and
-Future.” This article came unsought and unexpected to the editorial
-desk of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>. I confess that I doubted its genuineness. For why
-should Mr. Clews address the public through the columns of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>?
-What has <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> done to merit such distinction? Satisfying myself
-that the contribution was genuine, that it was not—and is not—a
-hallucination, I at once divined that it must be a sort of challenge
-to this magazine. I do the author of “Wall Street, Past, Present, and
-Future,” the honor to believe that he does not suppose <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> to be
-sufficiently verdant to publish his adroit and well-covered apology
-for the great institution which he represents,—without knowing the
-sense and significance of it. If indeed the distinguished gentleman
-imagined that we could do such a thing here, then in good sooth he
-must be undeceived. Or if he supposed that a paper of the kind
-submitted would be <i>rejected</i> at this office because of our well-known
-antagonism to the fact which Mr. Clews defends, let him in that
-instance also be undeceived.</p>
-
-<p>At the office of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> we take all challenges. Nor should our
-friends suppose or fear that the welcome admission of Mr. Clews’s
-article to the pages of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> implies timidity or some possible
-weakness in the presence of that<span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id="page11">11</a></span> gigantic institution known by the
-name of Wall Street. The fact is, that the nightmare which that power
-has been able to spread, bat-like, over the souls of men for a quarter
-of a century has about been dissipated; it is already the beginning of
-the end. It is the dawn; the day is not very far in the future when
-the American people, roused at last to the exertion of their majesty,
-will shake themselves from the dread of this incubus and spring up
-like a giant refreshed from slumber.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Clews’s article on “Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future,” is a
-most gentle and dove-like performance. It is not a paper intended to
-produce alarm, but to allay it. It is one of the finest examples of a
-literary opiate that I have ever seen. The bottom theme of the paper
-is that Wall Street is a natural growth, and is therefore inevitable.
-Wall Street has come by a gentle evolution. Good men and true have
-conspired with nature to bring it forth. Under natural and necessary
-conditions Wall Street has appeared in our American system, and under
-these conditions it flourishes. Whatever great fact in society has
-thus appeared has been born of necessity and out of the nature of
-things. If Wall Street have been born out of necessity and the nature
-of things, then it has come of righteousness, and is the child of
-truth. If of righteousness and truth, then Wall Street is good as well
-as glorious. That which is good and glorious ought to be admired and
-honored. Whatever is admired and honored, whatever is good and
-glorious, should have influence and power in society and state. Such a
-golden product of evolution is Wall Street; therefore the sceptre
-which Wall Street stretches forth over the prostrate Western world
-should be obeyed and upheld by the voice and hand of the American
-people.</p>
-
-<p>Not only so, but the sceptre should be extended. The empire of Wall
-Street should become universal. It should be enlarged and confirmed
-until all outlying kingdoms and all islands of the sea shall pass
-under the beneficent sway of this monarchy of the world! Then with Mr.
-Clews we may well consider his “reasonable forecast of the future.”
-With him we shall be able to see “that in due time the weighty import
-of the names of Lombard and Threadneedle Streets will be transferred
-to the name of Wall Street.” With Mr. Clews we shall be able to see
-that<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id="page12">12</a></span> “the facts implied by such a transfer are of a dignity and power
-which it is impossible to estimate.” Then, finally, with Mr. Clews we
-shall agree that “the road leading to this great destiny <i>can only be
-blocked by legislation</i>.” Mr. Clews says “injurious” legislation.
-Certainly; that is true—most true. The consummation hoped for by Mr.
-Clews can verily be blocked by legislation! But when it comes to the
-definition of “injurious” how fearfully do we part company! The writer
-of “Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future” flatters himself, in fine,
-with the belief that “the good sense of our citizens may be
-confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a barricade
-against national prosperity.” Oh, it is “national prosperity” then
-that we have in view! That is good. If there be anything under heaven
-which Wall Street adores and dotes on more than any other thing in the
-world it is national prosperity! When it comes to national prosperity
-Wall Street is always full-handed. With the mere mention of national
-prosperity Wall Street raises a shout of sympathetic enthusiasm which
-reverberates from Passamaquoddy to San Diego, and from the Florida
-everglades to the snow-capped shoulders of Shasta!</p>
-
-<p>Let me, however, explain to Mr. Clews one thing, and that is that the
-blessed condition of universal society in which Wall Street, having
-absorbed Lombard and Threadneedle, shall be supreme over the nations
-will occur only when our free American institutions shall be crushed
-into fragments and when civil liberty shall lie bleeding among the
-ruins. It will occur <i>then</i>, and not before. It will occur when the
-residue of the old American spirit has been stamped out, and when a
-miserable, slavish subserviency shall have been substituted for the
-revolutionary freedom which our fathers won and made sacred with their
-blood on every patriot battlefield from Lexington to Appomattox.</p>
-
-<p>Temperately and patiently I will follow Mr. Clews’s paper through. The
-writer of the article is a gentlemanly and able representative of that
-colossal power which he has helped to build up and fortify. From being
-a child of that power he has now become, in a most theosophical
-manner, one of the fathers of it! As such he has made himself the
-apologist of a gigantic<span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" id="page13">13</a></span> and rampant beast on whose horns of hazard
-the values produced by the labor of seventy millions of Americans are
-tossed about as if the wreckage were so much waste excelsior thrown on
-the horns of a bull! Mr. Clews tells us that in 1792 twenty-seven
-gentlemen met under a buttonwood tree and formed the association known
-as Wall Street. The purpose of the association was “the purchase and
-sale of public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a
-proviso of mutual help and preference.” The result was the addition of
-“the prestige and power of the stock exchange to the prestige and
-power of the banks.” That indeed is a combination worthy to be
-considered! A consolidation of interests was effected between the
-exchange and the banks to purchase and sell stocks “with a proviso of
-mutual help.”</p>
-
-<p>The organization thus created has existed for one hundred and five
-years. It has made a history. It has become ever greater and more
-firmly fixed in and <i>on</i> American society. It has made itself to be
-the foundation of all things financial and political in the United
-States. The story of the process by which this prodigious result has
-been reached is narrated by Mr. Clews in the manner of one who gives
-an account of the formation of a temperance society or a Sunday
-school! In the whole article there does not appear a symptom of a
-suspicion that the thing of which he gives the history is the most
-dangerous and abusive fact that ever threatened the integrity of a
-nation. The argument is that if twenty-seven gentlemen thus met and
-created Wall Street, then the result, being a natural product, is good
-and wholesome. But the inquiry at once arises whether it is valid
-logic to suppose that what men do is right, simply because they do it.
-The affirmative of such a proposition would make Aristotle stagger. It
-amounts to this, that whatever is is right; therefore, let it alone.</p>
-
-<p>By this argument of Mr. Clews all the tyrannies of the past, all the
-horrors that have afflicted the human race, all the sufferings which
-men have endured from sword and pestilence, from servitude, from the
-butchery of war and the cruelty of the Inquisition, have been right
-merely because they have been natural. Under this rule every monster
-that has tormented society from the first day until now can find full
-justification for itself on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id="page14">14</a></span> simple ground that it exists! Under
-such an argument a howitzer is as good as a plough, a sword is as good
-as a sickle, a pillory is as good as a baby-wagon. By such reasoning a
-shark is as useful as a horse. By this logic a boa-constrictor is as
-good as a reindeer, a tiger is as useful and salutary in his office as
-an ox or a St. Bernard, and a cancer is as beautiful as a blush. That
-is, everything is good, not because it is useful and just, but because
-it is.</p>
-
-<p>Or again, Mr. Clews’s argument is this: that the men who created Wall
-Street were gentlemen; therefore their work was salutary. Just as
-though respectable people could not engage in a nefarious business.
-Just as though gentlemen could not, and would not, make a conspiracy
-to enslave the human race. The “gentleman” is a very uncertain factor
-in civilization; his devotion to right and truth requires always to be
-tested with a chemical and to be taken with the usual combination of
-chlorine and sodium.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Clews explains that the stocks underlying our old railroad
-properties in the United States were aforetime “held locally,” and
-that they were transferred “more frequently by executors than by
-brokers on the stock exchange”—as though that were an evil. Then
-“there were but few opportunities for dealing in shares”—as though
-<i>that</i> were an evil! It thus became necessary for Wall Street to get
-the old stocks belonging to the people out of the people’s hands and
-into the hands of the Street—as though <i>that</i> were a good. Our public
-improvements were in the first place made by the people, but the
-people were not fit to own them. Our railways were constructed with
-capital subscribed by the people, generally by those through whose
-country the given improvement was extended. The people themselves then
-owned their own, and controlled it. Until Wall Street reached out and
-clutched such properties—first putting down the prices of the shares
-to nothing and then pulling the given stocks to par—the people were
-able to protect themselves; but never afterwards.</p>
-
-<p>The same was true of all other securities, whether public or private.
-Nearly all bonded debts were at first local; but the holding of
-securities <i>locally</i> has always been a thing abhorrent to Wall Street.
-The idea of the Street is that all stocks and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" id="page15">15</a></span> all securities belong,
-not to the public, but to itself. Of course the <i>money capital</i> of the
-country belongs to the Street. And if, with the consent of public
-authority, the <i>stocks</i> of the country also can be held by the Street,
-then a humble peasantry, paying perennial rents and compound interest,
-can be created and kept under forever throughout the domains of the
-great Republic. It may ultimately require arsenals to do it, but these
-we can supply.</p>
-
-<p>The next stage in the game was the creation by Wall Street of
-fictitious enterprises for the distinct purpose of getting possession
-of the stocks on which such enterprises were based, and of speculating
-in the shares of such properties. When the <i>existing</i> stocks of
-railways were not sufficient—when the bonds of States and of the
-general government were insufficient in quantity to fill the maw of
-the benevolent being called Wall Street—then an <i>artificial</i> supply
-must be created; that is, some scheme of debts must be invented by
-which the people might be made to pay tribute to the good Wall Street,
-and pay it still more abundantly.</p>
-
-<p>Thus were invented new banks and new banking systems. Thus came the
-bull and the bear and the bucket-shop. Thus were projected a thousand
-railways and canals. Many of these were laid into impossible
-regions—all “for the benefit of the people!” Other enterprises which
-were not sufficiently stocked began to be stocked more heavily—this
-also for the benefit of the people. The plan of watering was invented;
-the method of “promoting” enterprises was perfected,—until, as early
-as the time of the Civil War, Wall Street had acquired the greatest
-skill in <i>making</i> debts, or, in the language of James Fisk, Jr., in
-“rescuing the property of other people from themselves.”</p>
-
-<p>These beautiful processes are glossed over by Mr. Clews with a
-pleasant account of how, with the growth of business and the discovery
-of gold and the oncoming of the age of construction, great enterprises
-were “promoted” by Wall Street, and how “capital instantly flowed
-forth from its reservoirs in answer to the securities” that flowed
-thereto. The author of “Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future,”
-affirms “that but for the combined machinery of the New York banks and
-the stock exchange the actual developments of twenty years would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" id="page16">16</a></span>
-dragged laboriously through an entire century.” Permit us to say that
-it would have been better that such “actual developments” should have
-dragged through <i>two</i> centuries than that the United States of America
-should have been stocked and mortgaged and bonded and enslaved, under
-the tyrannous lash of debt, by such a master as Wall Street.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Clews next comes to the subject of corners. On this topic we doubt
-not that he speaks as one having authority. He tells us quite
-complacently that there was “an epoch in the Wall Street of the past
-when the gigantic and deeply considered combinations were set in
-motion entitled ‘corners.’” Then he goes on to explain what corners
-are. He does so without the slightest expression of criticism or
-aversion. He tells us of the bulls and the bears by whose agency a
-corner is conducted as though they were the friendly competitors in
-some great philanthropy! Instead of describing corners as so many
-carefully contrived schemes to rob the people of the proceeds of their
-labor by putting the prices of their commodities and securities down
-until such commodities and securities are taken from their hands, and
-then putting the prices <i>up</i> in order that the robbers may reap the
-harvest, he speaks of corners as offering “brilliant illustrations of
-genius and strategic skill in financial warfare!”</p>
-
-<p>The fact is that the men who are reared in Wall Street, who from their
-youth are familiarized with its processes, and who are well set in the
-plastic age to consider human life as an auspicious opportunity for
-getting possession of something that does not belong to them, are
-fatally blunted in their sensibilities; the ethical quality in them is
-battered out—or at least battered; they come to regard the human race
-as an enormous ranch of sheep to be shorn at the pleasure of the
-shearers; they even grow to consider each other as so much mutton to
-be butchered and roasted by whoever is able to do it.</p>
-
-<p>I notice with surprise that Mr. Clews in his sketch of Wall Street
-dwells not at all upon the benevolent agency of that power during the
-Civil War. This is an oversight which I beg leave to supply. There has
-never perhaps been an instance in human history in which a great power
-has so ardently devoted itself “to the preservation of free
-institutions” as did Wall Street in that epoch of mortal agony. Then
-it was that Wall<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17">17</a></span> Street engaged in the patriotic work, first of
-destroying the national credit, then of buying it up at half price,
-then of converting it into a bonded debt to be perpetuated for a full
-generation, and finally of compelling the people to pay it in a dollar
-worth four times as much as the dollar with which it was purchased. It
-was a beautiful scheme of devotion and self-sacrifice the like of
-which history has never before recorded. It was a speculation which
-involved the life of the American Republic. The Union was on trial.
-All nerves were strained, and all hearts were torn. The nation was
-bleeding at every pore. Every freight-train that came from the front
-brought back its loaded boxes of dead. Fathers and mothers gathered at
-the station, and each received his own. The rough coffin containing
-the body of the patriot boy who had given his life for the flag was
-taken by the silent father and mother to its resting-place under the
-apple trees. All true men had tearful faces, and a stern resolve in
-the heart. And while <i>this</i> was the condition of the nation and the
-people, the high-toned Wall Street was speculating on the life of the
-Republic. It bought and sold blood. It was a bull on disaster and a
-bear on victory. It established bureaus through which to falsify
-intelligence and to bring the nation to the verge of ruin. It had no
-compunction. It regarded the gore of battlefields as the rich rain and
-mould out of which its own harvest was to grow. The more blood the
-merrier. The more tears the richer the yield. The more war the more
-debt. The more depression of the national credit the more cheaply we
-shall be able to gather it up! The more grape-vine despatches the more
-distraction and the better opportunity for us. The more death the more
-millions. The more horror and devastation the heavier will be our
-coffers. The more the people groan the more we will shout. The more
-they die the more we will live. The more the flag is torn the more our
-damask curtains will flutter. The more liberty perishes and withers
-from the earth the more we shall plant ourselves and flourish and rule
-and reign over a nation that we have destroyed and a people whom we
-have enslaved. If Mr. Clews wishes any further outline of the history
-of Wall Street during our Civil War we shall be glad to contribute
-such a sketch as a reminiscence of a great fact which appears to be
-dim in his memory.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id="page18">18</a></span></p>
-
-<p>There is another almost fatal omission in Mr. Clews’s article. He says
-but little about the principal work in which Wall Street, historically
-considered, has been engaged during the last thirty years. I do not
-like the way in which this great section of the “Past” of Wall Street
-is glossed over. During the period referred to, that institution has
-had one bottom purpose and one reason of action from which it has
-never deviated. This purpose, this reason of action, has been the
-perpetuation of the national debt and the increase of its value by
-bulling the unit of money in which the debt is payable. Wall Street
-knows that the bonded debt of the United States is the basis, or
-central fact, in the whole system of bonds and stocks. Wall Street
-knows that the dollar is the central fact in the bond. It knows that
-if the bond can be made everlasting and the dollar can be increased in
-value until a single unit of it shall be equivalent to an acre of
-farming land, then the Street can own the United States in fee simple,
-and can presently annex the rest of the world.</p>
-
-<p>I acknowledge a certain admiration when I consider this stupendous
-scheme. It is more than Napoleonic; it is continental, interplanetary,
-sidereal! I cannot recall another conspiracy in the history of mankind
-quite equal in colossal and criminal splendor to the profound and
-universal plot of Wall Street to make perpetual the national debt, to
-keep that debt the bottom fact in the banking system of the United
-States, and to bull the unit of money and account until it shall be
-worth four times as much, or perhaps ten times as much, as it was when
-the bulk of the debt was contracted.</p>
-
-<p>The history of this scheme in its true inwardness is the history of
-Wall Street for the past thirty years. The details of the history
-relate to such small circumstances as the transfer of the government
-of the great Republic from the hands and control of the people to the
-hands and control of the Street. Of course no such scheme as that
-referred to could be carried into successful operation <i>unless</i> the
-national government could be delivered over to the keeping of the
-Street and be locked up, as it were, in the same vault where the
-national debt is deposited.</p>
-
-<p>This feat, however, was easily accomplished. Wall Street reached out
-its hand and plucked down the American eagle<span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19">19</a></span> from his perch. Wall
-Street got possession of the government. The <i>coup</i> was accomplished
-while the nation was asleep—else it never could have been
-accomplished. Wall Street climbed the Tarpeian rock in the night, and
-no goose cackled to give the alarm. Columbia had gone to bed. The
-keeper of her treasure-house had already given the key to the enemy.
-The keeper of the treasury was a <i>part</i> of the enemy. He gave up both
-citadel and city. In the morning the walls were placarded with lying
-posters which said that the delivery of the government into the hands
-of the Hessians had been rendered necessary in order “to preserve the
-national honor!” It was done in order to keep faith with those
-benevolent patriots who had bought the debt of the nation at less than
-fifty cents to the dollar, and who, not satisfied with bringing it to
-par, were now engaged in the honorable work of making it worth two
-hundred cents to the dollar. The fact that the industries of the
-people would be crushed and the people themselves be reduced to
-poverty by the transfer of the national sovereignty from the capitol
-to the stock exchange was nothing in comparison with the “preservation
-of national honor.”</p>
-
-<p>The scheme was carried out. The methods by which it was carried out
-constitute the subject-matter of the true history of Wall Street
-during the past generation. Wall Street, from being a financial
-organization, became a political power. It took full possession of the
-executive and legislative departments of the government. It controlled
-them both. It promptly established and defended its ownership. It
-instituted one scheme after another. For the purpose of fortifying its
-usurpation, it learned to choose its men and to prepare its measures
-in advance. In 1884 it created an administration for its own purposes,
-and manned it to the same end. It forced its way into the House of
-Representatives and stood with a bludgeon behind the Speaker’s chair.
-It entered every committee-room and dictated every successful bill.
-The people’s bills all went one way. If by any chance one of the
-people’s bills got before the House the subsidized press, owned by
-Wall Street, raised against it a chorus of groans and catcalls; <i>that</i>
-was “an expression of public opinion”!</p>
-
-<p>From that day forth the popular voice was strangled into silence. The
-next administration (that of 1888) was prepared<span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20">20</a></span> in the same manner.
-Wall Street has no politics except the politics of the bond; it has no
-platform except the platform of cent per cent. It suffices that when a
-president is to be elected he shall be one of us. He shall not be a
-man of the people; else in that case he would be a demagogue, a
-windbag, a <i>vox et præterea nil</i>. <i>Our</i> man shall not even know the
-despised people. He shall not smell of the filthy ground, but must be
-“sound” on questions of finance. If he be not “sound,” we will make
-him so. We will teach him his paces. If the people conclude to change
-their government, we will see to it that the incoming powers are just
-like the outgoing. As for the “principles” on which the candidate
-shall be chosen, we will attend to that. We will make his principles
-for him. We understand principles perfectly. We will fix the platform;
-we know the carpenters. If the candidate and his friends have already
-fixed a platform before the date of the convention, and if it have
-been published everywhere as the decision of the candidate and his
-following, we will take that platform from the wires and will
-carefully revise it, to the end that the “national honor” shall be
-preserved. We will write it over again into new meanings. We will
-interpret it so that no harm shall be done to the “national credit.”
-We will make our candidate into a puppet. When we put our foot on the
-treadle his jaw shall drop and he shall utter many mocking words about
-the “national honor” and the “prospects of our glorious
-country”—signifying nothing.</p>
-
-<p>All this we will do for the public good. We will say that we are
-striving for national prosperity. We will proclaim our candidate as
-the advance agent of prosperity—until after the election. Then we
-will say that prosperity will come with the inauguration. Then we will
-say that it will shine out promptly when Congress adjourns and ceases
-to menace the national credit. Then we will say that prosperity will
-reveal itself when the hot season is over. By this time the hoodwinked
-people can be coddled to sleep, or else set to dancing with rumors of
-foreign wars. To this end we will have our newspapers carefully
-promote our principles and studiously avoid all reference to those
-subjects in which the people feel the deepest concern. Finally, we
-will omit all these matters from our history of “Wall Street, Past;”
-we will proceed to speak of our “Wall Street, Present,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" id="page21">21</a></span> and will
-explain that it is in a state of “lassitude and expectancy.” Indeed
-“lassitude and expectancy” is good.</p>
-
-<p>But there is still another yawning chasm in the history of “Wall
-Street, <i>Past</i>,” and that is Mr. Clews’s failure to discuss the
-transfer of the Treasury of the United States to the custody of the
-Street, and the consequent reduction of the Secretary of the Treasury
-to the rank of a clerk. This very thing has been most successfully
-accomplished. I believe that the Secretary still has an office at
-Washington, but that should be closed in the interest of economy and
-reform. To do so, we doubt not, would be a strong factor in the
-restoration of confidence. Perhaps the Washington office might be left
-in charge of a janitor, for it is understood that some official
-correspondence is still directed to the old address! The presence of
-the Secretary in New York, however, has become so essential to the
-proper discharge of his duties that the removal of his residence
-thither can only be deferred by an absurd deference to public opinion!</p>
-
-<p>The results of the transfer of this vital function of the national
-government have, in the meantime, been so salutary as fully to
-vindicate the change. This was shown in 1893-94 when the Street, with
-a strong repugnance to investing money in useful enterprises, and
-having a prodigious accumulation of funds on hand, concluded that a
-sale of Government bonds was necessary for the “national honor.” To
-this end the managers began to pull the treasury. In that institution
-a large sum of gold was stored, wholly without warrant of law. The
-people needed the gold beyond measure—that is, they needed the
-<i>money</i>; and gold is one form of money. The industries of the people
-had been prostrated by an international conspiracy, and the nation was
-quivering on the verge of apprehended ruin.</p>
-
-<p>In this crisis the patriotic Street devised the bucket-chain, the
-crank of which was in the hand of the Street, while the “chain” ran
-through the Treasury of the United States. Every bucket came out
-filled with gold. Lazard Frères emptied out the gold and shipped it
-abroad to their confederates. This created the necessity for buying it
-back with bonds. The people were stunned with the audacity of the
-thing—just as the unfortunate owners of a house in flames are stunned
-to see gentlemen of the profession rush in and empty the safe. Wall
-Street danced and shouted while the work was done. The bonds<span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" id="page22">22</a></span> were
-“popular,” and the Street got them—got them for one price and sold
-them for another.</p>
-
-<p>By this beautiful process the great American nation was literally held
-up and <i>robbed</i> of more than nineteen million dollars! No highwayman
-ever more successfully clutched the wizen of his victim than did the
-Street with its supple fingers around the white larynx of Columbia.
-The wheezing of the strangulated Republic could be heard from the St.
-Lawrence to the Rio Grande. The nation was thus “saved,” and the
-robbers took the money and went sailing away on summer cruises to
-Norway and Venice and the Cyclades. The “national credit” was
-preserved; Wall Street “rescued” us from dishonor! That part of the
-proceeds not consumed in yacht races, pyrotechnics, and balls was
-passed to the credit of the reform fund, needed for the restoration of
-prosperity in the fall of 1896! Certainly a history of “Wall Street,
-Past,” ought to contain some reference to these crimes.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Clews, turning to “Wall Street, Present,” tells the nation that
-now “the great banks have a superabundance of gold to lend on solid
-and readily salable collateral at low rates of interest, approximating
-the prevalent rates in London and Paris, where similar accumulations
-of idle capital exist.” This is a true statement of the facts. Mr.
-Clews has here spoken by the books. What he says signifies that Wall
-Street is now ready to go ahead and issue new mortgages on the
-American people. It is now ready to offer inducements to our fourteen
-millions of voters to sell themselves into another twenty-year cycle
-of bondage. If they will only be gentle and not interrupt us; if they
-will give us a true death-grip on themselves, on all they possess, and
-all they ever hope to possess, we will lend back to them a part of the
-very money which we have sucked up from their wheat fields and
-pastures, from their barns and potato patches, from their humble
-stores and markets, from their mills and their mines, and we will thus
-<i>expedite</i> them on the way to serfdom. Meanwhile we will continue to
-bankrupt their railways, to snatch their local stocks, to convert all
-shares in all enterprises into bonds, and to put the bonds into our
-safes to the end—that confidence may be restored and prosperity come
-back like the flowers that bloom in the spring.</p>
-
-<p>For the time being we, the Street, are able to toss “two hundred<span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id="page23">23</a></span>
-thousand shares a day” on the horns of our bull, and to put the same
-amount of securities under the custody of our bear. “This conclusion
-takes it for granted that the profits should be equally divided among
-the membership.” Such are Mr. Clews’s very words. By the bond of my
-faith! there is nothing else so beautiful and magnificent as this
-among the arts invented by mankind! As for the people, one of your own
-kings, Messieurs of the Street, has very properly indicated your wish
-and purpose with regard to <i>them</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Clews tells us that the “Future” of Wall Street is a sealed book;
-and yet we may allow that “there is such a thing as an accurate
-prevision of events.” Of this kind are eclipses, occultations, and
-tides of the sea. If the capital of Wall Street has, since the
-institution was founded, increased more than sixtyfold, as Mr. Clews
-declares, then we may expect it, according to his philosophy, to
-increase full sixty times sixty, until the world shall be swallowed
-up. Then, when Threadneedle and Lombard Streets shall have lost their
-sceptre; then, when Seneca’s forecast of the time to come shall have
-been fulfilled; then, when Macaulay’s New Zealander shall have made
-his sketch, not only of St. Paul’s, but also of the bank of England;
-then, when <i>all</i> the wealth, and <i>all</i> the power, and <i>all</i> the
-functions of civil society in the United States shall have been
-transferred to Wall Street; then, when nothing shall remain to the
-American people except their squalid huts and the sorrowful
-reminiscences of a great republic; then, when Wall Street in very
-truth shall have possessed itself of the earth and consumed
-mankind,—I suppose that the benevolent owners of the world will found
-a few libraries, build a few marble mausoleums for themselves, and
-sally forth to establish a stock exchange in Mars! That done,
-interplanetary wars may be engendered, bonds on the solar system may
-be issued and bought at half price, a gold standard of values may be
-fixed on the basis of the pound sterling good from the sun out to
-Neptune, and the inhabitants of the worlds, either by arms or by
-journalism, may become the helots of consolidated wealth enthroned as
-the governing power of the universe.</p>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" id="page24">24</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_3" id="article_3"></a>
-THE REFORM CLUB’S FEAST OF UNREASON.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY HON. CHARLES A. TOWNE,<br />
-<i>Chairman Provisional National Committee Silver Republican Party.</i></p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">On</span> Saturday evening, April 24, 1897, at the Waldorf Hotel, New York,
-there was held a political banquet intended as a most impressive
-function, but which has passed into history as a very ridiculous one.
-Big with self-complacence and puffed with pride, as it appeared in the
-brilliant lights and gorgeous appointments of the palatial
-supper-hall, within twenty-four hours the lacerating indignation of
-Mr. Watterson and the trenchant raillery of Mr. Bryan had let the
-tumid pretentiousness all out of it, and it had collapsed into a
-flaccid and “innocuous desuetude.” The “star-eyed goddess” turned her
-back upon it, the “wild-orbed anarch” snapped his fingers at it, and
-even everyday Mrs. Grundy laughed it to scorn. Projected with the most
-alluring and satisfying expectations, the feast has dwindled to the
-memory of a sad mistake in the mind of every man that assisted at it.
-Planned as a sort of coronation ceremony, its completed performance
-unaccountably wore the complexion of belated obsequies irreverently
-disturbed by the guffaws of the multitude.</p>
-
-<p>But the aspect of this banquet as a piece of ill-conceived political
-strategy that never was formidable, or as a rite in the ceremonial of
-a hero-worship that is as inexplicable as inopportune, does not now so
-much concern me as does its office as a dispenser of misinformation
-and unsound philosophy, which are always dangerous. Many who condemn
-the folly of it as a move in practical politics nevertheless loudly
-commend the economic doctrines it contributed to spread. But inasmuch
-as, in my opinion, the science it taught is as bad as the politics it
-practised, I propose to call attention to a few of the arrogant
-assumptions and mischievous theories that found emphatic and repeated
-expression at this feast.</p>
-
-<p>Did the purpose of this article permit, it would be interesting to
-make Mr. Cleveland’s speech the text of some examination<span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" id="page25">25</a></span> into the
-ex-President’s peculiarities of style. It was Clevelandesque to the
-core. All his protuberant characteristics are there: the leviathanic
-egotism, the profound and tenebrous ponderosity, the labored intricacy
-of the commonplace, the pedagogic moralizing, the oracular
-inconsequence. How absurdly obvious it all is now, and how
-inexplicable that the glamour of high place should ever have clothed
-such matter as his with the seeming of philosophy and statesmanship!
-‘Tis the very frippery and trumpery of the stage after the lights are
-out and the audience has departed.</p>
-
-<p>In his opening Mr. Cleveland says: “On every side we are confronted
-with popular depression and complaint.” This language stirs an echo of
-the long ago. In his special message to the extra session of the
-Fifty-third Congress in August, 1893, he thus announced a similar
-condition: “Suddenly financial distrust and fear have sprung up on
-every side.” But he accounts differently for these two identical
-phenomena. The situation to-day he largely attributes to “the work of
-agitators and demagogues.” In 1893 he declared: “I believe these
-things are principally chargeable to Congressional legislation
-touching the purchase and coinage of silver by the general
-government.”</p>
-
-<p>The ex-President’s explanations are both wrong, and nobody ought to
-know it so well as himself. His relations with the great gold bankers
-were exceedingly intimate in 1892 and 1893, and have been so ever
-since. It is notorious that the panic of 1893 was a bankers’ panic
-deliberately brought about by these men to frighten public sentiment
-into supplementing their demand for the repeal of the purchasing
-clause of the Sherman law of 1890. The agitation against that law was
-a whooped-up and manufactured agitation. No legitimate interest had
-suffered from its operation. On the contrary, the access of standard
-silver dollars coined under the laws of 1878 and 1890 had been of
-incalculable advantage to the country. In his annual message of
-December 2, 1890, President Harrison had thus referred to this fact:
-“The general tendency of the markets was upward from influences wholly
-apart from the recent tariff legislation. The enlargement of our
-currency by the silver bill undoubtedly gave an upward tendency to
-trade and had a marked effect on prices.” And again: “It is gratifying
-to know that the increased circulation secured by<span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id="page26">26</a></span> the act has
-exerted, and will continue to exert a most beneficial influence upon
-business and upon general values.”</p>
-
-<p>Such an influence that circulation did indeed continue to exert. The
-comparative prosperity of the two following years, which, in contrast
-with the conditions of the subsequent period, causes 1892 to wear to
-wistful eyes so beautiful a hue in these unhappy days, would have been
-an absolute impossibility but for the silver legislation.</p>
-
-<p>Nor was the credit of the government menaced. It was a malicious
-afterthought that represented the silver dollar as a charge upon the
-credit of the nation. That dollar was a standard dollar. It was never
-“redeemed” in anything but the money-work it did. There was no law for
-its redemption, and there was as yet no attempt, such as Mr. Carlisle
-in 1896 declared himself ready to make, to commit the crime of an
-administrative degradation of the circulating silver dollars into
-promises for the payment of gold. The Treasury Notes, issued in
-payment for silver bullion under the law of 1890, were redeemable in
-either gold or silver at the discretion of the Secretary of the
-Treasury; and inasmuch as there was silver behind every one of them,
-they could become a menace to the credit of the government only in
-case of the betrayal of his duty by that official.</p>
-
-<p>But the contractionists looked with alarm upon the improving
-conditions of the country. Something must be done to discredit silver,
-or by and by there might arise such a demand for the full restoration
-of its mint privileges and money powers as could not be balked, as
-every similar demand had been balked since 1873; and in that event the
-slow villany of many years would have been fruitless and the
-contractionists’ occupation would be gone. Then was formed the deep
-design to compel the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman
-law. The gigantic forces that had been behind Mr. Cleveland in the
-memorable campaign of 1892 had not lost their cunning or their power.
-They knew their implements, and they had had much experience. Their
-strategy was customary and it was effective. To-day Mr. Cleveland
-complains because the Republican party, having won the contest of last
-November on the money question, should have hurried into the current
-extra session on the tariff<span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" id="page27">27</a></span> question. Let him recall his own course
-when, having carried the country in 1892 on the tariff question, he
-summoned the extra session of 1893 to consider the money question.
-Such a reflection might possibly assist him in fathoming the present
-motives of the men who won in 1892 to achieve the gold standard and in
-1896 to preserve it.</p>
-
-<p>For the election of Mr. Cleveland was a carefully executed move in an
-elaborate and merciless programme. The president of a national bank in
-North Dakota, a man of character and thorough reliability, has
-recently made public a conversation between himself and a prominent
-New York bank president, held not long after that election, in which
-the latter, whose institution was a member of the Associated National
-Banks, declared in substance as follows: “We have just elected Grover
-Cleveland President of the United States upon the express
-understanding with us that the policy of the administration shall be
-to uphold and advance the gold standard”; and he foretold, with
-startlingly faithful prevision, the repeal of the Sherman purchase
-law, the successive bond-issues, and the general and ruinous fall of
-prices, which seem to have evidenced the strict performance of the
-agreement by the party of the second part.</p>
-
-<p>How persistently the power of the executive was used, and how
-carefully the offices were dispensed, to influence Senators and
-members of Congress against the Sherman law, were matters of ordinary
-comment at the time. Meanwhile the banks were putting in motion their
-peculiar and enormous persuasions. For months no man could go into any
-bank in any State of the Union for any purpose without having thrust
-under his nose, with a more or less pointed request for his signature,
-a petition demanding the repeal of the obnoxious statute. Then, in the
-latter days of April, 1893, on the stock exchange, there began that
-concerted onslaught upon stocks and values, vaunted as an
-“object-lesson” to the people, as a result of which within eight
-months six hundred of the relatively smaller banking institutions of
-the country went down, dragging with them fifteen thousand industrial
-and business enterprises, involving a total loss of seven hundred and
-fifty millions of dollars.</p>
-
-<p>The object-lesson served its purpose. With the business<span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" id="page28">28</a></span> world
-shattered into fragments, enterprise stifled, and credit dead, a
-terror seized upon the people. The opportunity for which the big
-bankers had been coolly waiting had come. Cunningly and in many places
-at once they started the cry that the Sherman law had caused all this
-havoc, and that the only hope for a return of prosperity lay in the
-immediate repeal of the feature providing for the purchase of new
-silver bullion. The clamor was eagerly repeated, and fear eagerly
-believed it. At precisely the right moment the President himself made
-official proclamation that the rumor was true, and summoned Congress
-in extra session to obey the mandate of the bankers. Under this spell
-Congress acted and the law was repealed. Thus was the country made
-dependent upon gold alone for its new supplies of full-power money,
-and thus, aided by similar action elsewhere, was inaugurated an era of
-accelerated fall of prices more pronounced than the world has known
-since the middle ages, and a precipitate decline of values more
-ruinous than any other chronicled in history.</p>
-
-<p>“Agitators and demagogues” indeed! Is it not monstrous that any
-intelligent man should believe the present frightful condition of the
-country to be due to the work of agitators and demagogues? Mr.
-Cleveland of course knows better; but many people have actually been
-convinced that some millions of our citizens would rather agitate than
-work; that thousands of them have deliberately and by preference
-forsworn business and become demagogues by trade. The thoughtful man
-knows that agitation is first a result and afterward a cause. It is a
-cruel as well as an ignorant thing for Mr. Cleveland and his disciples
-to cast into the faces of the suffering producers and workers of the
-United States, as a reproach, the fact of their discontent and
-complaining. Of course our people are in distress. Of course they are
-crying out against it. Of course they will endeavor to learn what
-occasions it. And of course when they have ascertained what the matter
-is they will agitate for relief. Substantially all men prefer to be
-busy about the ordinary and interdependent offices of social life.
-This is especially true of the great middle classes in the United
-States. Under just and rational laws they will be so. The absence of
-such a temper is ground for suspicion against the laws. Existing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29">29</a></span>
-conditions confess their weakness and injustice when they revile
-admitted discontent. I would rather the cause I believe in sprang from
-suffering than that suffering should follow my cause.</p>
-
-<p>The full magnitude of this achievement for the gold standard in the
-repeal of the law of 1890, will not be grasped unless we bear in mind
-that it occurred at a time when the indications were unusually
-favorable that an international bimetallic agreement, which the world
-had been trying to accomplish for nearly twenty years, might soon be
-secured on an acceptable basis. It has long been suspected that the
-strongest discouragement of this hope, and probably the determining
-factor in its failure, was the attitude of President Cleveland as
-quietly caused to be understood abroad. Very recently this
-well-grounded suspicion has been turned into certainty by the
-distinguished English bimetallist, Mr. Moreton Frewen, who, in a
-letter to the Washington <i>Post</i>, says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>But Mr. Cleveland made it known, through the subterranean
-channels of diplomacy, that, far from giving any support to
-silver, he was preparing to urge on Congress the repeal of the
-silver-purchase clauses of the Sherman act. Mr. Cleveland’s
-intention became known in official circles in Calcutta. That this
-was the case I learned at the time and at first hand. The
-government of India believed that the cessation of all silver
-purchases in America would still further reduce the exchange
-value of the rupee, and therefore, in advance of the pending
-anti-silver legislation anticipated from Washington, the Indian
-mints were closed.</p></div>
-
-<p>Mr. Cleveland may well be deified in the gold-standard cult, for
-clearly he has been the arch-enemy of bimetallism.</p>
-
-<p>One of the characteristics of the discussion now going on between the
-advocates of gold monometallism and those of bimetallism is the
-disingenuousness of the former. They will rarely consent to a clear
-definition of the issue, but seek to evade it both by preëmpting the
-use of moral labels and catchphrases which satisfy their partisans
-without inquiry, and by stigmatizing their opponents with such vile
-imputations and base epithets as seem to place them beyond the pale of
-moral and intellectual tolerance. “Sound” and “honest” they write
-above their creed. They pose as consecrated guardians of public honor
-and private property. We are depicted as dishonest and imbecile,
-repudiators of national and individual obligations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page30" id="page30">30</a></span> communists or
-anarchists bearing the torch and axe. This specialty is Mr.
-Cleveland’s long suit. Little wonder that his school should place him
-at its head. His preëminence in the field where self-admiration is a
-supreme virtue and ribald abuse passes for irrefutable argument will
-scarcely be denied by anybody who shall have read the following
-characteristic specimens from this Waldorf essay, carefully written
-down and calmly delivered: “We are gathered here to-night as patriotic
-citizens anxious to do something toward … protecting the fair fame
-of our nation against shame and scandal.” It is not recorded that
-anybody smiled at this. Indeed, the astonishing thing about this
-business is that these people seem able to impose successfully on one
-another. But Mr. Cleveland is even better at the other kind, as for
-example: “Agitators and demagogues,” “ruthless agitators,” “sordid
-greed,” “inflamed with tales of an ancient crime against their
-rights,” “unfortunate and unreasonable,” “restless and turbulent,”
-“reckless creed,” “boisterous and passionate campaign,” “allied forces
-of calamity,” “encouraged by malign conditions,” and so on <i>ad
-nauseam</i>.</p>
-
-<p>This is the attitude of nearly all the defenders of the gold standard
-who have the hardihood to say anything at all. Undoubtedly in many
-cases it is assumed because of ignorance on the merits of the case, so
-that nothing remains but to “abuse the other fellow.” But occasionally
-this course is adopted by men who are well informed, and who know that
-the gold standard is incapable of meeting bimetallism in an honest
-contest of argument with any hope of success. The strategy of these,
-therefore, is to avoid fair discussion by so prejudicing the public
-mind against their opponents as to forestall a hearing.</p>
-
-<p>The result has been surprisingly successful. In many localities, and
-in fact in nearly all localities in the East, the most intolerant
-spirit has been manifested by the most prominent persons in the
-community, who had never taken the pains to examine the subject on
-which they so violently and fanatically expressed themselves. To
-people of any acquaintance with the literature, the history, and the
-science of money, it has seemed most marvellous that business men of
-large affairs, of much general information, and of excellent natural
-abilities, should be content to remain absolutely ignorant of
-fundamental<span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31">31</a></span> monetary principles and the overwhelmingly attested
-lessons of past experience. It is infinitely pitiful to see men of
-affairs led away in so-called “business men’s sound-money
-associations” and other similar movements, when a knowledge of the
-conditions on which their welfare depends would send them in an
-exactly opposite direction.</p>
-
-<p>Why? Because business men are men who do business, or at any rate who
-want to do business; and all legitimate business consists in the
-performance of some appropriate function in connection with the
-production or the exchange of commodities. It is apparent to even the
-dullest apprehension that whatever prevents or discourages production
-is destructive of business, and that a money system which provides a
-measuring unit that constantly demands, as an equivalent, an
-increasing quantity of everything produced, is the greatest burden on
-production that could possibly be devised. But it is precisely this
-kind of a unit that the gold standard furnishes. No one economic fact
-is so conclusively established and so generally conceded as that of
-the progressive fall of average prices throughout the gold-standard
-world during the last twenty-four years. This fall amounts to almost
-fifty per cent, and indeed, in respect to the great staple products of
-the country, exceeds fifty per cent; so that, to state the same fact
-in its converse, the purchasing power of gold has increased since 1873
-one hundred per cent.</p>
-
-<p>The significance of this awful fact is deftly obscured behind the
-deceptive and specious plea for “a dollar of the greatest purchasing
-power.” This is one of those artful expressions that are used by the
-advocates of the gold standard as a kind of thought-deterrent. It
-seems so obvious, at the first suggestion, that the best dollar is the
-dollar that will buy the most, that it is hard for a man to get even a
-hearing who asserts that, on the contrary, such a dollar is the very
-worst dollar conceivable. But a moment’s reflection will satisfy any
-sane mind that such is the case. The demonstration is so simple that
-one feels like apologizing for making it. Yet it is in respect to
-principles just as plain as this one that people are constantly
-allowing themselves to be taken in by the supporters of the single
-standard.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page32" id="page32">32</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The demonstration is this: whatever is bought by a dollar, itself buys
-the dollar. For example, when a dollar exchanges for a bushel of
-wheat, the dollar buys the wheat, and the wheat buys the dollar. To
-say, therefore, that a dollar that buys two bushels of wheat, being a
-dollar of greater purchasing power, is better than the dollar that
-buys one bushel, is to say that the dollar which it requires two
-bushels of wheat to buy is a better dollar than that which can be
-bought with one bushel. Consequently, to increase the excellence of
-your dollar all you need to do is to increase the scarcity of the
-stuff out of which dollars are made, so that each one shall constantly
-stand for more and more wheat, or, using wheat merely as
-representative of commodities in general, so that it shall constantly
-require more and more of all other things on earth to get a dollar. It
-is wholly credible that the man with dollars should profess this
-philosophy, but it is absolutely inexplicable how it should receive
-the support of men interested in getting dollars with things, who
-comprise about seven-eighths of society.</p>
-
-<p>Now as it continually takes more products to get a given quantity of
-gold, is it not clear that the producer who becomes liable for taxes
-and gets into debt must constantly bear an increasing burden of
-taxation, and that his debt, payable in more commodities than it
-represented when he incurred it, needs only to run long enough to grow
-beyond the hope of his ability to pay it? Such a policy cannot but be
-fraught with certain ruin to producers. It is causing in the United
-States a condition frightful to contemplate. The mass of debts is
-piling up at a ratio that absolutely threatens, if a halt in the
-automatic process is not soon called, a universal insolvency. Indeed a
-general liquidation is already impossible. He is no alarmist who
-counsels a timely and rational remedy as not only demanded by justice,
-but as anticipatory of violent readjustment. Under such disquieting
-conditions is it not as criminal as it is unscientific for men to go
-about prating of the system that has occasioned these things as
-“honest money,” and “sound money,” and denouncing its opponents as
-repudiators and anarchists?</p>
-
-<p>In the presence of epochal and fundamental disturbance, when men,
-patient beyond example and willing to argue the correctness of their
-claims, are crying out against the injustice of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id="page33">33</a></span> money system that
-day and night and year upon year, with unerring and pitiless
-precision, takes from the producing many and hands over to the idle
-few that which it ruins those to lose and but pampers these to gain,
-our ex-President offends decency and insults millions of his
-fellow-citizens with this reference to their contention: “Honest
-accumulation is called a crime.” Where does he find anybody calling
-honest accumulation a crime? Men indeed stigmatize the maintenance of
-this odious money system as a crime, but only because of the things
-they claim it to be guilty of. Why does he not join issue on these? He
-knows that nowhere in all this world is there, or has there ever been,
-a more honest body of citizenship than the millions of Americans who
-to-day are toiling on the farms and in the workshops of the country
-and who demand from the laws they obey nothing but equity and justice.
-It was easier, and more pleasant to those who heard him, to wrong
-these men with a sneer than to answer them with an argument. He might
-possibly have done well to relinquish this task to one who sat near
-him, his ex-Secretary of the Treasury, who had himself, in 1878,
-discovered something that <i>he</i> thought a crime and had thus denounced
-it: “According to my views of the subject the conspiracy which seems
-to have been formed here and in Europe to destroy, by legislation and
-otherwise, from three-sevenths to one-half the metallic money of the
-world, is the most gigantic crime of this or any other age.”</p>
-
-<p>The speech of Mr. Carlisle was notable for stating his position more
-extremely than he had previously done since his apostasy. He boldly
-takes the stand logically demanded by consistency in the man who
-opposes silver coinage and denies the arguments based on the
-appreciation of gold. He comes out squarely for the gold standard and
-places bimetallism of any and all sorts under a common ban. But alas!
-what a sorry appearance he makes. Nowhere in our political history do
-I find quite so pathetic a figure as that presented by this once
-strong and virile champion of the people’s rights in his contrasted
-role of defender of their oppressors. Where now is that compact and
-cogent argument, that sincere and moving eloquence, which made his
-forensic style so singularly effective; which marked him the
-parliamentary darling of his party, a predestined president of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" id="page34">34</a></span>
-republic? Shrunken to the dreary platitudes of the gold-standard
-catechism, babbling of “sound currency” and “intrinsic value.”</p>
-
-<p>This talk of intrinsic value was not confined to Mr. Carlisle. Mr.
-Patterson, of Tennessee, and Senator Caffery, of Louisiana, were
-likewise guilty of it. It is, indeed, the characteristic folly of
-their school. Having destroyed the money demand for silver while
-adding almost incalculably to that for gold, they have caused an
-increasing disparity in the values of the two metals; and now, when it
-is sought to restore the parity by restoring the equivalence of use
-and demand on which alone it depends, they pretend to have discovered
-some inherent perfection in gold and an original sin in silver which
-forbid all attempts to reconcile them. In the face of monetary
-principles whose nature has been understood for more than two thousand
-years, and of historic and economic facts which every college freshman
-knows, Mr. Carlisle has the appalling audacity to use the following
-language: “Natural causes have separated the two metals, and while it
-is possible that natural causes may hereafter change their present
-relations to each other, it is certain that these relations cannot be
-changed by artificial means.”</p>
-
-<p>It is difficult to speak with becoming moderation of such stuff as
-this; and it is really pathetic to see the dominant opinion of whole
-sections of the country taking its cue from men who assume superior
-airs and rebuke the presumption of thinking on the part of some
-millions of Americans, while they peddle such insufferable nonsense as
-this just quoted from Mr. Carlisle. “Natural causes” indeed, when we
-can turn to the statute books of half the world and put our fingers on
-the “artificial means” whereby the hoarders of gold have legislated
-demand into one metal and legislated it out of the other. Let once a
-wrong be achieved by artificial means, and instantly those who profit
-by it represent it as the inevitable decree of evolutional forces.
-“Natural causes,” we are asked to believe, have made gold dear and
-silver cheap during a period when the cost of producing gold has been
-cheapened more than any other mechanical process; when both metals
-have continued on substantially their old relative planes of use in
-every respect save as money; when their relative production has been
-from three<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35">35</a></span> to twenty times less disproportionate than at any other
-similar period in the past four hundred years; and when in actual
-weight the stocks of coin and bullion available for coinage have risen
-from a proportion of thirty-two of silver to one of gold up to that of
-sixteen of silver to one of gold coincidently with a fall of the
-so-called market ratio from fifteen and one-half to one, when the
-mints were open to both, down to thirty-three to one when only the one
-can be freely coined. It is simply an incredible and impossible
-proposition.</p>
-
-<p>Intrinsic value is as unthinkable as intrinsic distance. Both distance
-and value are relations. Neither can exist or be stated except by
-comparison. The value of a thing is what it is worth; and it is worth
-what it will bring. Value in exchange is the only value that political
-economy knows anything about; and what a given thing will exchange for
-depends on the ratio of the supply of it to the demand for it. A piece
-of money is worth what it will buy. Other things remaining the same,
-it will buy more when the stuff out of which it is made is plentiful,
-and less when that is scarce. The proposition of the bimetallists
-rests on only time-honored doctrines of political economy as justified
-by the experience of mankind. We desire to restore the parity of gold
-and silver by perfectly “natural causes” set in operation by
-“artificial means.” We propose to invoke the law to equalize their
-opportunity and to make them interchangeably and indifferently
-responsive to the same money demand.</p>
-
-<p>Space has not permitted reference to all the errors committed at this
-wonderful banquet, nor a complete discussion of even those cited. I
-have endeavored only to point out the most glaring ones in the hope
-that some persons inclined to accept, somewhat carelessly, the
-assumedly authoritative statements of these eminent men, may be led to
-study this great subject whose proper understanding and wise
-management are of such vast importance not only in American politics
-but in the progress of the race. For the cause of bimetallism must
-commend itself to the intellect and the conscience of the country or
-it cannot win. Those who have spent some time in an earnest and
-thoughtful investigation of the matter and are convinced that the
-success of silver coinage is the first step in a series of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36">36</a></span> rational,
-safe, and necessary reforms, are ready to be judged as much by the
-reasonableness of their doctrine as by the sincerity of their motives.
-They intend from now on to force the fight. The enemy will be sought
-out and assailed wherever found. No pretentious claims of
-infallibility will be accorded immunity from criticism. No authority
-will be permitted to shelter folly. It is time to expose the
-preposterous assurance of the gold-standard pundits. Nonsense will be
-called nonsense whoever utters it, and, what is more, it will be
-proved to be nonsense.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37">37</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_4" id="article_4"></a>
-DOES CREDIT ACT ON THE GENERAL LEVEL OF PRICES?</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY A. J. UTLEY.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">It</span> is conceded by all standard writers on political economy that the
-value of money—that is, its purchasing power—is fixed and regulated
-by the amount of money available for use.</p>
-
-<p>John Stuart Mill says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>If the whole money in circulation was doubled prices would be
-doubled. If it was only increased one-fourth, prices would rise
-one-fourth. There would be one-fourth more money, all of which
-would be used to purchase goods of some description. When there
-had been time for the increased supply of money to reach all
-markets, or (according to conventional metaphor) to permeate all
-the channels of circulation, all prices would have risen
-one-fourth. But the general rise of price is independent of this
-diffusing process. Even if some prices were raised more, and
-others less, the average rise would be one-fourth. This is a
-necessary consequence of the fact that a fourth more money would
-have to be given for only the same quantity of goods. General
-price, therefore, in any such case would be one-fourth higher.
-The very same effect would be produced on prices if we suppose
-the goods diminished, instead of the money increased: and the
-contrary effect if the goods were increased, or the money
-diminished. If there were less money in the hands of the
-community, and the same amount of goods to be sold, less money
-altogether would be given for them, and they would be sold at
-lower prices; lower, too, in the precise ratio in which the money
-was diminished. <i>So that the value of money, other things being
-the same, varies inversely as its quantity; every increase in
-quantity lowering the value, and every diminution raising it, in
-a ratio exactly equivalent.</i></p></div>
-
-<p>This is known as the quantitative theory of money, and is recognized
-by Ricardo, Jevons, Macleod, John Locke, James Mill, John Stuart Mill,
-Senator John P. Jones, David Hume, William Huskisson, Sir James
-Graham, Prof. Torrens, Prof. Sidgwick, J. R. McCulloch, Mr. Gallatin,
-Prof. Fawcett, Prof. Perry, N. A. Nicholson, Earl Grey, Prof. Shield
-Nicholson, Lord Overstone, and, in fact, by all writers on political
-economy of any prominence since Adam Smith. Formerly it was supposed
-that the value of money depended upon the cost of production; that the
-reason why a dollar in gold or silver was worth 100 cents was because
-it took 100 cents’ worth of labor<span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38">38</a></span> to produce metal enough to make a
-dollar. This theory, however, has been abandoned by the best writers
-and speakers; in fact, by all economists of any standing, and it is
-now conceded that the cost of producing the metal has no influence on
-its money value, only as it may tend to increase or reduce the amount
-of money, and that it is the quantity of money, the number of units,
-available for use that determines and regulates its value; that is, if
-the quantity is increased its value will fall, and if the quantity is
-diminished its value will rise, and that it will fall or rise in value
-in a ratio exactly equivalent to the increase or diminution of the
-volume of money; and that if sufficiently reduced in volume, a dollar,
-whether stamped on gold, silver, or paper, would buy a plantation or
-pay a man for the labor of a lifetime. There can be no doubt as to the
-correctness of the quantitative theory of money.</p>
-
-<p>John Stuart Mill says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>That an increase in the quantity of money raises prices, and a
-diminution lowers them, is the most elementary proposition in the
-theory of currency, and without it we have no key to any of the
-others.</p></div>
-
-<p>Prices, however, are not fixed by the total amount of money in
-existence; only that part of the money that is available for use can
-act on prices.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Mill says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Whatever may be the quantity of money in the country, only that
-part of it will affect prices which goes into the market of
-commodities and is there actually exchanged for goods of some
-description. Whatever increases this portion of the money in the
-country tends to raise prices. Money kept in reserve by
-individuals to meet contingencies which do not occur, does not
-act on prices. Money in the coffers of banks, or retained as a
-reserve, does not act on prices until drawn out to be expended
-for commodities.</p></div>
-
-<p>It is also conceded that in fixing prices not only all the money
-actually available for use must be taken into consideration, but the
-rapidity of circulation must also be regarded; and due allowance must
-be made for the number of times commodities change hands before
-consumption.</p>
-
-<p>The same dollar may, by passing from hand to hand, make a number of
-purchases, and the same goods may be sold repeatedly before
-consumption. It is, probably, correct to say, that the money available
-for use multiplied by the rapidity of circulation, or, as Mr. Mill
-expresses it, by its efficiency, equals the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id="page39">39</a></span> total money to be
-considered; and the commodities sold multiplied by the average number
-of sales equals the total commodities to be taken into consideration
-in fixing the general level of prices.</p>
-
-<p>Are there any other elements that act on the general level of prices?
-Of course an abundant yield, or a short crop, or an over-production,
-so called, or under-consumption, of any particular commodity may
-depress or raise the price of that particular crop or commodity; but
-are there any elements other than those above enumerated that act on
-the general level of prices? I think there are none.</p>
-
-<p>If, then, prices are controlled by the volume of money available for
-use; and if the general level of prices will rise as the volume of
-money is increased, and fall as the volume of money is diminished, and
-rise or fall in an exact ratio corresponding with the expansion or
-contraction of the volume of money, it becomes important to ascertain
-what money is, and also whether there is anything which can be used as
-a substitute for money in such a manner as to affect the general level
-of prices.</p>
-
-<p>Senator John P. Jones, than whom there is no one better informed,
-says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>The money of a country is that thing, whatever it may be, which
-is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in
-payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law or by
-universal consent. Its value does not arise from the intrinsic
-qualities which the material of which it is made may possess, but
-depends entirely on extrinsic qualities which law or common
-consent may confer.</p></div>
-
-<p>Aristotle says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Money has value only by law and not by nature; so that a change
-of convention between those who use it is sufficient to deprive
-it of its value and power to satisfy our wants.</p></div>
-
-<p>Adam Smith says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>A guinea may be considered a bill for a certain quantity of goods
-on all the tradesmen in the neighborhood.</p></div>
-
-<p>Henry Thornton says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Money of every kind is an order for goods. It is so considered by
-the laborer when he receives it, and it is almost instantly
-converted into money’s worth. It is merely the instrument by
-which the purchasable stock of the country is distributed with
-convenience and advantage among the several members of the
-community.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40">40</a></span></p>
-
-<p>John Stuart Mill says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>The pounds or shillings which a man receives are a sort of ticket
-or order which he may present for payment at any shop he pleases,
-and which entitles him to receive a certain value of any
-commodity that he may choose.</p></div>
-
-<p>Appleton’s Cyclopædia defines money in the following words:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Anything which freely circulates from hand to hand, in any
-country, as a common, acceptable medium of exchange, is, in such
-country, money, even though it ceases to be such, or to possess
-any value, when passing into another country. In a word, an
-article is determined to be money by reason of the performance by
-it of certain functions, without regard to its form or substance.</p></div>
-
-<p>Francis A. Walker says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Money is that which freely passes from hand to hand through the
-community in final discharge of debt and in full payment for
-commodities, being accepted equally without reference to the
-character or credit of the person who offers it, and without the
-intention of the person who receives it, to consume it, or enjoy
-it, or apply it to any other use than in turn to tender it to
-others in discharge of debts or in payment for commodities.</p></div>
-
-<p>It has been contended by certain economists that bank checks and bills
-of exchange are money, or, at least, that they discharge the money
-function and act on prices the same as money; but this definition
-excludes checks and bills of exchange. A bill of exchange or bank
-check is not accepted without reference to the character or credit of
-the person who offers it. But Francis A. Walker leaves us in no doubt
-on this question. On page 123 of his work on “Political Economy” he
-says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Money is a medium of exchange. Whatever performs this function,
-does this work, is money, no matter what it is made of, and no
-matter how it came to be a medium at first, or why it continues
-to be such. So long as, in any community, there is an article
-which all producers take freely and as a matter of course in
-exchange for whatever they have to sell, instead of looking
-about, at the time, for the particular things they, themselves,
-wish to consume, that article is money, be it white, yellow, or
-black, hard or soft, animal, vegetable, or mineral. There is no
-other test of money than this. That which does the money work is
-the money thing. It may do this well; it may do this ill. It may
-be good money; it may be bad money; but it is money all the same.
-We said <i>all</i> producers, since it is not enough that a thing is
-extensively used in exchange, to constitute it money. <i>Bank
-checks are used in numerous and important transactions, yet are
-not money.</i> It is essential to money that its acceptability
-should be so nearly universal that practically every person in
-the community who has any product or service to dispose of will
-freely, gladly, and of preference, take this thing money, instead
-of the particular products or service which he may individually
-require from others, being well assured that with money he will
-unfailingly<span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id="page41">41</a></span> obtain whatever he shall desire, in form and amount,
-and at times to suit his wants.</p></div>
-
-<p>It appears from the accepted definitions that bank checks and bills of
-exchange are not money. They may to some extent, as other forms of
-credit may to some extent, add to or increase the rapidity of
-circulation; but, certainly, credit is not money nor does it possess
-the essential elements of money. I think it is an essential element of
-money that when used it closes the transaction between the parties to
-the transaction. In other words, money, when paid in the purchase of a
-commodity, closes the transaction, and neither party to the
-transaction has any further claim or demand against the other.
-Anything which does this (barter, of course, excluded) is money, and
-anything which fails to do this is not money. If a credit is given or
-a check received the transaction is not closed until the debt is paid
-or the check cashed. I do not find that any economist has made this
-distinction, in so many words, between money and credit, but I am
-satisfied that it exists.</p>
-
-<p>Does all the money available for use act on prices? It is contended by
-a certain class of economists that only money of ultimate and final
-redemption—in other words, gold and silver, in countries where gold
-and silver are the standard money, and gold only, in countries where
-gold is the standard money—can act directly on prices, and that other
-forms of money can only act on prices in an indirect manner, and to
-the extent only that they may increase the rapidity of the circulation
-of redemption or standard money; that paper money, whether convertible
-or inconvertible, covered or uncovered, and token money, can have no
-direct influence on the general level of prices.</p>
-
-<p>Is this contention true? We have already seen that money is a medium
-of exchange, a counter for reckoning, an order for goods, and that its
-value does not depend upon the intrinsic qualities which the material
-out of which it is made may possess, but depends entirely upon
-extrinsic qualities which law or common consent may confer, and that
-anything (barter, of course, excluded) that closes transactions
-between the parties to the transactions, is money; and also that the
-value of money, that is, its purchasing power, is fixed and regulated
-by the amount of money available for use. Why, then, should any<span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" id="page42">42</a></span> part
-of the money that possesses and discharges all the functions of money
-be excluded? What peculiar property has money stamped on gold and
-silver that it only can act on prices?</p>
-
-<p>John Stuart Mill says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>After experience had shown that pieces of paper, of no intrinsic
-value, by merely bearing upon them the written profession of
-being equivalent to a certain number of francs, dollars, or
-pounds, could be made to circulate as such, and to produce all
-the benefit to the users which could have been produced by the
-coins which they purported to represent, governments began to
-think that it would be a happy device if they could appropriate
-to themselves this benefit, free from the condition to which
-individuals issuing such paper substitutes for money were
-subject, of giving, when required, for the sign, the thing
-signified. They determined to try whether they could not
-emancipate themselves from this unpleasant obligation, and make a
-piece of paper issued by them pass for a pound, by merely calling
-it a pound and consenting to receive it in payment for taxes. And
-such is the influence of almost all established governments, that
-they have generally succeeded in attaining this object: <i>I
-believe I may say they have always succeeded for a time, and the
-power has only been lost to them after they had compromised it by
-the most flagrant abuse.</i>—“Political Economy,” Book 3, Chap. 13.</p></div>
-
-<p>Mill further says that such inconvertible paper money will act on
-prices. And if inconvertible paper money will act on prices, why will
-not convertible paper money, that is, paper money convertible into
-coin on demand, also act on prices? Token money, especially if a legal
-tender, and whether a legal tender or not, if accepted without
-objection in the payment of debt, or if received in full payment for
-commodities, discharges the money function, and is to all intents and
-purposes money. It is not absolutely necessary that to make a thing
-money it should be a legal tender in the payment of debt. Anything
-which is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in
-payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law (that is, its
-legal tender property) or by common consent, is money. From 1861 to
-1873 we had no gold or silver money in the United States, or virtually
-none. The official reports of the Secretary of the Treasury show that
-the gold and silver coin, including the gold and silver bullion in the
-United States Treasury during that period, amounted to but
-$25,000,000, and even that was not in circulation, except to a very
-limited extent on the Pacific Coast. Yet during that period prices
-reached the highest level ever attained in this country. Certainly,
-the level of prices during that period was not fixed by the gold and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id="page43">43</a></span>
-silver money available for use. In view of the foregoing facts I think
-it must be apparent that any money which is received in full payment
-for commodities, whether so received on account of its legal tender
-property or by universal consent, and whether it is gold, silver,
-paper, or token money, acts on prices, and tends to fix the general
-level of prices.</p>
-
-<p>It is claimed by a great many writers on political economy that credit
-has the same influence in fixing the general level of prices that
-money has, and that an expansion or contraction of credit would
-inflate or contract prices in the same manner and to the same extent
-as would result from a contraction or expansion of money; that if
-credit is extended, if more commodities are sold on credit than
-formerly, such extension of credit will tend to raise prices in the
-same manner and to the same extent as would so much additional money;
-and that if credits are contracted, if less credits are given than
-formerly, such contraction of credits will tend to depress prices in
-the same manner and to the same extent as a withdrawal of a like
-amount of money from the channels of trade would depress them. At the
-head of this school of political economists stands John Stuart Mill.
-He says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>I apprehend that bank notes, bills, or cheques, as such, do not
-act on prices at all. What does act on prices is credit, in
-whatever shape given, and whether it gives rise to any
-transferable instruments capable of passing into circulation or
-not. (See Book 3, Chapter 12.)</p></div>
-
-<p>Is this contention true? If so, then it is not true that the general
-level of prices is determined by the amount of money available for
-use; but is determined, rather, by the amount of credits available for
-use. The debts of the world (and the credits, of course, are precisely
-equal to the debts, as there could be no debt without a corresponding
-credit) amount, in round numbers, to $200,000,000,000, and the money
-in the world amounts in round numbers to $10,000,000,000. That is,
-there are twenty dollars of credit to one dollar of money; and if
-credit exercises the same influence in fixing the general level of
-prices that money exercises, then it is absurd to say that the volume
-of money available for use fixes the general level of prices, and at
-the same time to contend that credit, dollar for dollar, is an equal
-factor in fixing prices. If credit<span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" id="page44">44</a></span> affects the general level of
-prices in the same manner and to the same extent that money does, then
-credit exerts an influence on prices twenty times greater than that
-exerted by money, and we should say: The general level of prices is
-fixed by credit, modified, it may be, to some extent by the amount of
-money in circulation.</p>
-
-<p>The difficulty seems to be in distinguishing between money and credit.
-If we keep in mind the fact that anything which closes the transaction
-between the parties to the transaction (barter excluded) is money, and
-anything which leaves something still to be done is credit, we shall
-have no difficulty in making the distinction.</p>
-
-<p>Can credit affect the general level of prices? One of the most
-familiar and common illustrations given by those who contend that
-credit will raise the general level of prices, is that of a man
-entering the market to buy cotton.</p>
-
-<p>They say: “Suppose a person with $5,000 in money enters the cotton
-market, and with his money purchases $5,000 worth of cotton. His
-demand for cotton and his purchase of $5,000 worth will tend to
-advance or stimulate the price of cotton.” “Now,” they say, “suppose
-he has a credit of $5,000 and with this credit he purchases an
-additional $5,000 worth of cotton. The second purchase, made on
-credit,” they contend, “will tend to still further advance the price
-of cotton in the same manner and to the same extent that the cash
-purchase did.” Is this true?</p>
-
-<p>Let us suppose that he purchased the second bunch of cotton on ninety
-days’ time. At the end of the ninety days he must pay for this cotton.
-If he draws the $5,000 with which he pays this debt from money
-invested in the cotton trade, the withdrawal of that sum from money
-invested in that industry will tend to depress the price of cotton to
-the extent that it was stimulated by the credit. If he withdraws it
-from the grain trade or from some other industry, the withdrawal of
-that sum of money will tend to depress prices in the industry from
-which it is withdrawn to the same extent as the cotton industry was
-stimulated by the credit. Whether the money to pay the debt is taken
-from the cotton industry or from some other industry, the general
-level of prices has not been raised. The purchase<span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" id="page45">45</a></span> in the first
-instance may have temporarily stimulated the price of cotton, but if
-the payment of the debt is made from money drawn from that industry,
-it will depress the price of cotton to where it was before the credit
-purchase was made; and if the payment is made from money drawn from
-some other industry, it will depress prices in that industry to the
-same extent that the price of cotton was stimulated. In either event
-the general level of prices remains the same. It is like robbing Peter
-to pay Paul. It may make Paul richer, but how about Peter? There is no
-more wealth in existence than before the robbery was committed.</p>
-
-<p>Again, it is claimed that credit stimulates prices by causing
-commodities which are sold on credit to be sold for higher prices than
-commodities of the same value are sold for when sold for cash. It is
-true that sales on credit are, as a rule, at a higher price than sales
-for cash in hand. Why is this so? For two reasons:</p>
-
-<p>1st. Business done on credit is always attended with considerable
-risk. Even when the utmost caution is exercised, bad debts will be
-made, and a greater margin on sales is necessary.</p>
-
-<p>2nd. When time is given a certain amount must be added to the price of
-the goods to compensate the seller for the use of his capital between
-the date of sale and the maturity of the account.</p>
-
-<p>The additional price, thus received, is of no advantage to the
-producer or to the seller of the commodity. The addition to the price
-is consumed by losses from bad debts and in interest on capital. In
-fact, the additional prices charged, when properly analyzed, are not
-for the goods, but for the risk on the credit and for interest on
-capital. The net selling price of the commodity is not increased.
-Experience has proven that men who sell for the lesser price for cash
-in hand are more apt to succeed than those who charge the higher rate
-on the credit system.</p>
-
-<p>Credit is always burdened with interest. If interest is not directly
-charged, the goods are sold at an advance on the cash price equal to
-the interest, which amounts to the same thing. Interest acts on
-commerce like friction on machinery. As friction absorbs a portion of
-the motive power, so interest absorbs a part of the value of all
-commodities sold on credit. Interest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46">46</a></span> the necessary accompaniment of
-credit, produces no wealth; but, on the contrary, absorbs wealth and
-tends to concentrate it in the hands of the few; and, necessarily, in
-the same ratio it takes from the masses the power to purchase the
-things they desire and would otherwise consume. Its ultimate result
-must be to lower prices. Credit burdened with interest, as it always
-is, may temporarily increase the demand for a certain commodity and
-consequently temporarily raise its price; but it must do this at the
-expense of other commodities. Like a stimulant administered to a human
-being, it may produce spasmodic results of extraordinary power; but
-when the stimulant has spent its force it leaves the individual weaker
-and in a worse condition than he was before the stimulant was
-administered.</p>
-
-<p>Henry Thornton, an English economist, attempts to prove that a bill of
-exchange is money, and that, being money, it acts on prices. He says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Let us imagine a farmer in the country to discharge a debt of £10
-to his neighboring grocer by giving him a bill for that sum,
-drawn on his corn-factor in London, for grain sold in the
-metropolis; and the grocer to transmit the bill, he having
-previously indorsed it, to a neighboring sugar-baker in discharge
-of a like debt; and the sugar-baker to send it, when again
-indorsed, to a West India merchant in an outport; and the West
-India merchant to deliver it to his country banker, who also
-indorses it and sends it into further circulation. The bill in
-this case will have effected five payments, exactly as if it were
-a £10 note payable to the bearer on demand. A multitude of bills
-pass this way between traders in the country, in the manner which
-has been described; <i>and they evidently form in the strictest
-sense a part of the circulating medium of the kingdom</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Mill in his “Political Economy” quotes this illustration with
-approval. Is the conclusion arrived at correct?</p>
-
-<p>Suppose that instead of a bill of exchange for £10, a horse worth £10
-had been made use of, and the farmer had delivered the horse to the
-grocer in satisfaction of his debt, and the grocer had turned it over
-to the sugar-baker, and the sugar-baker to the West India merchant,
-etc. The horse would have paid the five debts in precisely the same
-manner that the bill of exchange did, but would such a use of the
-horse <i>have made the horse, in the strictest sense of the term, a part
-of the circulating medium of the kingdom</i>? I think not! A bill of
-exchange is not money, but an order for money, and would be valueless
-unless honored by payment on presentation. From the time the bill was
-drawn<span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47">47</a></span> until finally paid an amount of money equal to the demand of
-the bill must be held out of circulation for its payment. It adds
-nothing to the circulation, and in no sense does it constitute a part
-of the circulating medium. It may, possibly, increase the rapidity of
-circulation, but it is difficult to see how it could do even this. The
-£10 held out of circulation for the payment of the bill would have
-paid the debts in the same manner that the bill of exchange did, and I
-fail to see why they would not have made the circuit as quickly. If a
-horse had been made use of in the settlement of the debts mentioned by
-Mr. Thornton, it would have been barter, pure and simple, and not a
-money transaction.</p>
-
-<p>That the contraction of the volume of credit will not tend to depress
-prices in the same manner and to the same extent that a contraction of
-the volume of money would will be apparent from the following
-illustration.</p>
-
-<p>The most conservative estimates place the national, municipal,
-corporate, and individual debts in the United States at
-$30,000,000,000. The Secretary of the Treasury estimates the amount of
-money in circulation at $1,600,000,000. There is not, in fact,
-one-third of the amount available for use; but for the purpose of this
-illustration we will take the Secretary’s estimate as correct. Now let
-us suppose that the volume of credit should be reduced to
-$28,400,000,000, either by the payment of $1,600,000,000 of the debt
-or by bankruptcy proceedings or in some other manner. If that amount
-of the credits were extinguished by payment, business would be
-stimulated. That sum of money, or at least a considerable portion of
-it, would pass into the hands of the creditor class, where it would
-seek investment, and the tendency would be, not to contract, but to
-expand prices. If that amount of the credits were extinguished by
-bankruptcy proceedings in which no money passed in either direction,
-such an extinguishment could not depress or expand prices; it could
-have no influence upon them.</p>
-
-<p>Now suppose that $1,600,000,000 of the money, every dollar now claimed
-to be in circulation in the United States, should be withdrawn from
-the channels of trade, it would not be difficult to see that prices
-would fall; would, in fact, be completely annihilated. There would be
-no money with which<span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id="page48">48</a></span> to make purchases or to pay debts, civilization
-would go backwards, and universal bankruptcy and ruin would ensue.
-Suppose that only one-half or one-third of the money available for use
-should be withdrawn from circulation; even then business would be
-paralyzed, the money remaining would be hoarded or would be collected
-in the great money centres, prices would fall, and business men all
-over the country would be forced into bankruptcy. I think that it must
-be perfectly apparent that a contraction of credit does not act on the
-general level of prices in the same manner and to the same extent that
-a contraction of the volume of money does; that, in fact, it does not
-act on the general level of prices at all.</p>
-
-<p>I, therefore, conclude that money, and money only, acts on the general
-level of prices, and that credit does not and cannot act on prices
-except only as it may increase the rapidity of the circulation of
-money; and even then it is the greater efficiency of the money, and
-not the credit, that stimulates prices. Credit may temporarily
-stimulate the price of the product of some particular industry, but to
-do this it must attract money from some other industry, and the
-stimulation will be at the expense of a corresponding depression in
-prices in the industry from which the money is attracted.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Los Angeles, Col.</span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49">49</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_5" id="article_5"></a>
-POINTS IN THE AMERICAN AND FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS COMPARED.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY NIELS GRÖN.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">There</span> are several reasons why, particularly in the light of what is
-going on in the two countries, a comparison between certain points of
-the constitutions of the French and United States republics should be
-of more than passing interest. Successive ministerial crises in France
-threaten the stability of the republic; here, while political
-conventions representing millions of people meet and produce radical
-platforms, nobody is apprehensive of revolution or trouble. The
-constitution is a bulwark against sudden change; its wisdom is
-believed to be guarded by impregnable security against caprice or
-panic.</p>
-
-<p>One in the Eastern hemisphere, the other in the New World, the two
-countries are the only great republics; both are watched by monarchies
-with invidious eyes, and, as before suggested, both have passed
-through, or are passing through, interesting not to say exciting
-experiences. American admirers of the republican form of government
-believe that the cause of human liberty would be seriously injured
-were the French Republic to cease to exist; they go further, and say
-that the death-knell of civil freedom would be sounded the moment the
-American republic became a failure. Something like a crisis is seen in
-the United States to-day, brought about by a whole series of
-concomitant causes, such as business depression, bank failures,
-industrial disputes terminating in strikes and lockouts, Coxey armies,
-panicky people, and unsettled views regarding commerce and finance,
-this last cause predominating.</p>
-
-<p>Though France has her difficulties about raising sufficient money to
-carry on the administration, and an income tax is just as unpopular
-there as it would be here, nevertheless the chief cause of her trouble
-is to be traced, not to financial, but to constitutional sources. The
-country is very rich, and its ministers probably will always find some
-means of raising enough<span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id="page50">50</a></span> money to pay the cost of administration.
-Quite true, it is a sore point for a proud country which yearns for
-revenge upon Germany and longs for large colonial possessions, that
-its population does not increase, while the populations of its enemy,
-Germany, and of its well-wisher, the United States, go up by leaps and
-bounds. True, there are economic writers who regard the dearth and
-even the decrease of population in France as an advantage to the
-country. But these need not be considered in this inquiry, for it is
-quite obvious that any country which really aspires to be numbered
-with the great powers, and effectually wishes to own important
-colonial possessions, must have a stalwart and increasing people. And
-it is a real source of weakness that there should yet be in France so
-many Royalists constantly on the alert and hoping always for a change
-in the existing form of government.</p>
-
-<p>Happily, on the contrary, no matter how widely the Western American
-may differ from his friend in the East, or how keenly the
-ex-Confederate may feel over the “lost cause,” the warm-blooded son of
-Kentucky will fight as bravely under the flag of the republic as will
-his frozen-featured brother from Minnesota, and the dreamy individual
-who gazes poetically upon the placid waters of Puget Sound will shout
-as loudly for one country, and one allegiance to its glorious emblem,
-as will the gilded youth whose republicanism is artistically refreshed
-by a constant vision of the Statue of Liberty triumphantly standing in
-New York harbor.</p>
-
-<p>Royalism, conservatism, concentrationism, moderate republicanism,
-opportunism, radicalism, ultra-radicalism, socialism, and heaven knows
-how many other “isms” besides, exist in France to-day, and make it
-hard for any ministry to carry on the government. Numerous
-disintegrating influences are ever present, and political convictions
-are seldom sufficiently decided for any ministry to form a stable
-majority.</p>
-
-<p>Though France has had the experience of two previous experiments in
-republican forms of government (the one set up in 1792, and the second
-established in 1848), they were such mere makeshifts and so very
-short-lived that they could not have taught the country very much of
-the real genius of republican institutions. The centralization and
-tyranny of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page51" id="page51">51</a></span> centuries brought revolt and hatred of the past, but did
-not prepare the people for self-government; while here the principles
-of civil liberty, transplanted from the mother country and flourishing
-in congenial conditions under colonial administration, found apt and
-natural expression in the Declaration of Independence and the
-Constitution. The event of republican institutions twice tried in
-France failed to show that even the leaders understood the principles
-of liberty as they were understood by the fathers of the American
-system of government, and enthusiastically adopted by the people, as
-the crystallization, so to speak, in definite terms, of what they had
-long enjoyed. Short-sighted acts of tyranny, exercised by George III
-and his ministers, were regarded, and justly so, as mere accidents of
-the time and as innovations to be resisted and overcome. The outcome
-was the vindication of the principles of government founded by the
-countrymen of King Alfred the Great, their expansion, and the
-invaluable expression of those principles in the Declaration and the
-Constitution.</p>
-
-<p>Some of the bravest and best under the French monarchy helped to
-establish the reign of popular liberty in the United States, and there
-can be no question but that the French Revolution was accomplished in
-part as a result of what had been seen and done on this side of the
-Atlantic on behalf of the civil rights of the people; but the founders
-of the first republic in France had no complete foundation on which to
-build a fabric firm and lasting. It was not easy for a venerable
-European nation, intrenched within its own regal institutions, in
-shaking off the past to begin a future of popular sovereignty. Much
-was gained by sweeping away the worst abuses of the past, but reaction
-came, succeeded, after a long lapse of time, by a second attempt to
-establish a republic, again to fail, until the collapse of the power
-of the adventurer whose election to the presidency was the beginning
-of the end of the republic of 1848, led to the third experiment, the
-permanent success of which we all hope for.</p>
-
-<p>If—much virtue in an “if”—the leaders of the first French Republic
-had been thoroughly masters of and thoroughly imbued with the
-principles of American liberty, it is possible they might have so
-instructed and led a bright and capable<span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" id="page52">52</a></span> people as to lay a sure
-foundation for the future. But even this modified statement is open to
-question. While it may be regretted that the American Constitution was
-not copied in the establishment of the successive French republics, it
-is by no means certain that this matchless paper would have been so
-far appreciated in its recognition of the great principles underlying
-it, as to insure success. Some of the South American republics have
-the American Constitution, more or less, but are not shining examples
-of republican success. No one can question that monarchies like the
-United Kingdom and Germany enjoy a larger diffusion of civil liberty
-than they.</p>
-
-<p>Taking the French system, however, as it exists to-day, there can be
-no question that it would be vastly improved by copying the American
-model. It seems to have been founded with a view to the possibility of
-restoring the monarchy, and, this being so, the men who created it had
-no object in studying the American Constitution with a view to
-preventing those ministerial crises which threaten the destruction of
-the third republic. It will not do to attribute these crises to the
-unstable character of the fiery Frenchman, nor can the difficulty be
-disposed of by saying that a French minister will create a crisis for
-the sake of a pleasing <i>bon mot</i> or a sprightly paradox. A crisis
-supposes something outside of, or above, or beyond the ordinary, but
-French ministerial crises have become so common that they are the
-laughingstock of the nations, and may be said to be almost the normal
-condition of the legislative assemblies of France. So long as such
-critical situations can be thus easily brought about there cannot be
-that continuity of policy which is essential for carrying out great
-projects. The problem to be solved is a constitutional one,—a
-statement, I think, easily proved true.</p>
-
-<p>Article Six of the constitution of 1875 reveals the real cause of
-ministerial crises in France: “The ministers are in a body responsible
-to the Chambers for the general policy of the government, and
-individually for their personal acts.” This article obviously leaves
-the respective powers of both houses very undefined. Which chamber is
-the superior? To which of them are the ministers in fact responsible?
-The ministers may have a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, and may
-be in a minority<span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" id="page53">53</a></span> in the Senate. Then there is a crisis. The Senate
-blocks the way and will not allow the government to go on, for it
-claims that it is the superior body. This absence of the proper
-demarcation of the powers of the Senate, of the Chamber of Deputies,
-and of the ministers necessarily leads to conflict; conflict is but a
-step from instability, and instability is a crisis which threatens
-revolution.</p>
-
-<p>The remedy for these oft-recurring ministerial crises in France is to
-be found in the American Constitution. The French Constitution should
-be revised and changed at the part quoted and all parts relating to
-it, so as to provide against ministerial crises; and the instrument
-presenting a sure guide in the performance of this necessary work is
-the American Constitution. It has been in operation over a hundred
-years and has been found to be an admirable working document,
-affording ministerial stability to its cabinets for over a century.
-Such a document is surely worthy of the closest study by the public
-men of the sister republic. It was inevitable that in so long a time
-some amendments should have become necessary; but for a long period it
-has undergone no change, save such as noted, and formulating the
-results of the civil war. Now and then are heard murmurings which
-claim the necessity of a sixteenth amendment, to the effect that the
-name of God should be put in the Constitution. The obvious answer to
-this is, that in the official life of the United States there is a
-more real acknowledgment of the Divine Being than there is in the
-official life of any other country, and it is better to have the name
-of God impressed upon the hearts of the people than upon even the best
-official document ever drawn up.</p>
-
-<p>It would not be correct to say that no attempts have been made to
-bring about a ministerial crisis in the United States by encroachment
-upon the rights of the Executive. Only once, however, when Andrew
-Johnson was President, has the action of the Executive been seriously
-hampered. Professor Bryce’s remark may be applied to all other
-attempts. He writes: “Congress has constantly tried to encroach, both
-on the Executive and on the States,—sometimes like a wild bull driven
-into a corral, dashing itself against the imprisoning walls of the
-Constitution.” There is the secret. The “imprisoning walls” of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id="page54">54</a></span> the
-American Constitution keep contending powers in their proper places.
-The Constitution is so well drawn up that a deadlock is an
-impossibility, the equilibrium of concomitant powers is easily
-maintained, and the sovereign will of the people has a fair
-opportunity of finding a natural exponent.</p>
-
-<p>In the United States the Senate and the House of Representatives are
-coördinate bodies; in the French Republic each claims superiority over
-the other. In the United States bills are never introduced by the
-Cabinet, all bills must originate either in the Senate or in the House
-of Representatives; such is not the case in the French Republic. In
-the United States the chief duty of the President is to see that the
-laws are faithfully executed; the Cabinet administers; its members are
-rather the aids or secretaries of the chief magistrate of the nation
-than otherwise. They are his advisers and helpers. During the four
-years for which the President of the United States is elected, the
-limitations of his authority are so remote and theoretical that, for
-practical purposes, it may be stated that he always serves out his
-full term of office. On the contrary, Presidential resignations are
-not unknown in the French Republic. France elects her President for
-seven years, yet Thiers, MacMahon, Grévy, Carnot, Casimir-Périer, and
-Faure make a list longer than that of the names of the men who have
-lived in the White House during the past quarter of a century. In the
-United States, the Cabinet lasts as long as the President’s term of
-office; in the French Republic, the Cabinet sometimes goes to pieces
-in four months. Briefly, it is quite clear that in the United States
-there can be no ministerial crises, since the President’s chief duty
-under the Constitution is to see that the laws are faithfully
-executed, and the members of his Cabinet do not introduce bills, even
-for finance or supplies, but act as his aids. As previously intimated,
-the difficulty with the French legislative bodies is that royalistic
-precedents and rules run side by side with republican principles, and
-the result is a mongrel institution divided, too often, against
-itself. When matters shall be so arranged that the French President
-will have to fill out his full term of office, and French ministers
-will not be permitted to originate legislation, and cabinets shall be
-selected to serve as long as the Presidential term, then the French
-Republic will<span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" id="page55">55</a></span> enjoy the same ministerial stability as that of the
-United States.</p>
-
-<p>It were hard to say that the French method of electing a president is
-any better or any worse than that of the United States. The President
-of the French Republic is elected by the majority of the votes of both
-Chambers. This plan does not seem to remove him further from the
-people than does the system of electing a president by electors, as in
-the United States. As human ingenuity has not yet succeeded in
-creating the ideal republic, wherein, according to Ouida, there would
-be no president, some system of election must be followed. The
-question is not a burning one. There is notable, however, a growing
-tendency in France in favor of electing the president directly by the
-votes of the people. The seven-years’ period for which the French
-president is elected is considered by many to be an excellent
-provision; but it loses half its excellence by reason of the fact that
-the president has the power to initiate laws, this and other things
-concurring to make his resignation a possibility, and not a remote
-one.</p>
-
-<p>That the office of vice-president does not exist in France seems to be
-of no great consequence. In the history of the American Republic there
-have been five vice-presidents who have been called upon to step into
-the Presidential chair by the deaths of presidents. According to the
-French Constitution, in case of a Presidential vacancy, whether from
-death or any other cause, the two Chambers proceed immediately to the
-election of a president. In the interval the ministers are invested
-with executive power.</p>
-
-<p>What I have written regarding the growing tendency to think it would
-be better to elect the president directly by the votes of the people,
-applies with a little more force to the election of senators. In
-France the municipalities elect the senators, as do State legislatures
-in this country. It is held by some who have discussed the question
-that it is much more in conformity with the genius of republican
-institutions that the people express their will directly by ballot
-rather than through the votes of municipal councils, as in France, or
-of legislatures, as in the United States. I cannot see that the
-difference of terms, that of French senators being nine years, and of
-American<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" id="page56">56</a></span> six, is of practical consequence. While both republics are
-at one as to the necessity of a second chamber, providing thus a check
-to hasty and unconsidered legislation, many thinkers in both countries
-agree that some change is necessary to make it possible for others
-than millionaires to be elected senators.</p>
-
-<p>If I were a Frenchman and had the power, I should get every newspaper
-throughout the land, and every public man and influential citizen, to
-enter upon a crusade for the purpose of impressing upon the minds of
-the whole people the following extract from the Constitution of the
-United States:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of
-religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.</p></div>
-
-<p>In France, there are constantly continuous and unseemly clashes
-between church and state. No matter what complications may exist as
-results of the past, surely it would be better for all concerned to
-leave the churches to be sustained by the voluntary contributions of
-the people. In the United States churches seem to live and thrive
-under this system of noninterference by the state in religious
-matters, and voluntary support. The more than eighty thousand
-clergymen are provided for. In the French Republic one reads
-everywhere, on the walls of churches and of schools, the words
-“<i>Liberté, fraternité, égalité</i>,” while there seems to be a serious
-disagreement between Clericals, on the one side, and Radicals, on the
-other, as to the meaning of these words. To effectually put an end to
-this strife, the adoption of the clause I have quoted would be
-sufficient.</p>
-
-<p>In writing thus freely of the French Republic I am free, I trust, from
-the spirit of the carping critic delighting in comparisons to the
-advantage of his own country. I appreciate the splendid literature,
-the brilliant art, the advanced civilization of the France of to-day.
-I recognize with gratitude the debt which the United States owes the
-gallant Gallic people for sympathy and material aid in her struggle
-for independence. It is now only necessary to be in France on the
-Fourth of July to realize the reality and depth of the friendship
-which exists between the sister republics. But I do think that until
-France shall copy more closely the Constitution of the United States,
-the stability of the third republic cannot be regarded as assured.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" id="page57">57</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_6" id="article_6"></a>
-HONEST MONEY; OR, A TRUE STANDARD OF VALUE:<br /><small>A SYMPOSIUM.</small></h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><b>I.</b> BY WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p><span class="sc">We</span> hear much about a “stable currency” and an “honest dollar.” It is a
-significant fact that those who advocate a single gold standard have
-for the most part avoided a discussion of the effect of an
-appreciating standard. They take it for granted that a gold standard
-is not only an honest standard, but the only stable standard. I
-denounce that child of ignorance and avarice, the gold dollar under a
-universal gold standard, as the most dishonest dollar which we could
-employ.</p>
-
-<p>I stand upon the authority of every intelligent writer upon political
-economy when I assert that there is not and never has been an honest
-dollar. An honest dollar is a dollar absolutely stable in relation to
-all other things. Laughlin, in his work on “Bimetallism,” says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Monometallists do not—as it is often said—believe that gold
-remains absolutely stable in value. They hold that there is no
-such thing as a “standard of value” for future payments in either
-gold or silver which remains absolutely invariable.</p></div>
-
-<p>He even suggests a multiple standard for long-time contracts. I quote
-his words:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>As regards national debts, it is distinctly averred that neither
-gold nor silver forms a just measure of deferred payments, and
-that if justice in long contracts is sought for, we should not
-seek it by the doubtful and untried expedient of international
-bimetallism, but by the clear and certain method of a multiple
-standard, a unit based upon the selling prices of a number of
-articles of general consumption. A long time contract would
-thereby be paid at its maturity by the same purchasing power as
-was given in the beginning.</p></div>
-
-<p>Jevons, one of the most generally accepted of the writers in favor of
-a gold standard, admits the instability of a single standard, and in
-language very similar to that above quoted suggests the multiple
-standard as the most equitable, if practicable.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" id="page58">58</a></span> Chevalier, who wrote
-a book in 1858 to show the injustice of allowing a debtor to pay his
-debts in a cheap gold dollar, recognized the same fact, and said:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>If the value of the metal declined, the creditor would suffer a
-loss upon the quantity he had received; if, on the contrary, it
-rose, the debtor would have to pay more than he calculated upon.</p></div>
-
-<p>I am on sound and scientific ground, therefore, when I say that a
-dollar approaches honesty as its purchasing power approaches
-stability. If I borrow a thousand dollars to-day and next year pay the
-debt with a thousand dollars which will secure exactly as much of all
-things desirable as the one thousand which I borrowed, I have paid in
-honest dollars. If the money has increased or decreased in purchasing
-power, I have satisfied my debt with dishonest dollars. While the
-government can say that a given weight of gold or silver shall
-constitute a dollar, and invest that dollar with legal-tender
-qualities, it cannot fix the purchasing power of the dollar. That must
-depend upon the law of supply and demand, and it may be well to
-suggest that this government never tried to fix the exchangeable value
-of a dollar until it began to limit the number of dollars coined.</p>
-
-<a name="HOWARD" id="HOWARD"></a>
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><b>II.</b> BY M. W. HOWARD.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p>The term, “a standard of value,” so often used, is erroneous and
-misleading. There can be no fixed standard of value, and the student
-who wishes to delve into our financial problems should clear his mind
-of such a fallacy at the very threshold of his investigations.</p>
-
-<p>Money is a commodity; it is regulated by the same laws of supply and
-demand which regulate the price of corn, cotton, wheat, land, labor,
-etc. If the wheat crop is short, wheat will be dear; if abundant, it
-will be cheap. So with money. If the money supply is not sufficient to
-meet the demands of business and commerce,—if the money crop is
-short, in other words,—the money will be dear; it will command too
-high a price, its purchasing power will be too great.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand, if the money supply is abundant, sufficient to meet
-all demands upon it,—in other words, if there is a bountiful money
-crop,—it will be cheaper; it will not have<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" id="page59">59</a></span> such a large purchasing
-power; it will be worth less when measured by our labor, our lands,
-and the products of our labor.</p>
-
-<p>I oppose the single gold standard because it makes the money crop
-short, gives us a small circulating medium, and hence enhances the
-value or price of money.</p>
-
-<p>We have a certain demand for breadstuff, which is constantly
-increasing as our population multiplies; suppose that we cease
-producing corn, and find no substitute for it, would not the price of
-wheat be greatly enhanced, providing there is no increased wheat
-production? So with the money supply. There is a certain demand for
-money, ever increasing as population grows. How shall we meet it? By
-producing more money, or by destroying one-half of that which we now
-have, by eliminating one-half of the base of future supplies of money?</p>
-
-<p>The latter is now the policy of this government, and as a consequence
-the price of gold has been greatly enhanced, and its purchasing power
-has increased each year, and will continue to do so.</p>
-
-<p>The advocates of the gold standard call this “honest money.” Their
-idea of honest money is money that ever increases in purchasing power
-because of its ever-increasing scarcity.</p>
-
-<p>My definition of honest money is: “A sufficiently large circulating
-medium, whether of gold, silver, or paper, to bring down the price of
-money so that we shall obtain fair prices for all labor and products.”
-Then as population increases and as the demand for money becomes
-greater, let the government meet that demand from time to time by
-enhancing the money supply.</p>
-
-<a name="BARKER" id="BARKER"></a>
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><b>III.</b> BY WHARTON BARKER.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p>The true test of an honest dollar is its purchasing power, and that
-dollar, and only that dollar, is honest that does exact justice
-between creditor and debtor. The gold monometallists harp on the
-injustice of a depreciating dollar, but they ignore the injuries
-inflicted by an appreciating dollar. They tell us that a depreciating
-dollar defrauds the creditor, but just as a depreciating dollar
-defrauds the creditor, an appreciating dollar defrauds the debtor, and
-it is not one whit worse to defraud the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id="page60">60</a></span> creditor by obliging him to
-accept a depreciated dollar from his debtor than to defraud the debtor
-by obliging him to pay in a dollar made artificially scarce and dear.</p>
-
-<p>An appreciating dollar works injustice to the debtor just as a
-depreciating dollar works injustice to the creditor, but an
-appreciating dollar is many fold more injurious to trade and industry,
-for while the depreciating dollar taxes the creditor for the benefit
-of the debtor, the appreciating dollar takes from the debtor, from
-producers in general and the industrious classes, and gives to the
-creditor classes, the drones of society, a larger and larger share of
-the products of labor, which of necessity discourages industry. Under
-a depreciating standard the recompense of the producer becomes greater
-and greater, the creditor classes receive a smaller and smaller
-portion of the products of labor, the profits of industry increase,
-and consequently production is encouraged and trade and industry are
-stimulated. But under an appreciating standard the recompense of labor
-becomes smaller and smaller, and the share of the products of labor
-absorbed by the creditor larger, which tends to discourage industry
-and stifle enterprise.</p>
-
-<a name="FONDA" id="FONDA"></a>
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><b>IV.</b> BY ARTHUR I. FONDA.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p>The value of any commodity is measured by what it will exchange for.
-It is in fact its purchasing power, or power in exchange. This in
-substance is the concrete definition of value given by all economists,
-and they all unite in stating that value is determined by the supply
-of a commodity relative to the demand for it; all other factors
-affecting value being secondary and acting through their effect on
-either supply or demand.</p>
-
-<p>Since both the supply of and the demand for every freely produced
-commodity is variable, and since a true standard of value, like a true
-standard of weight or length, must be invariable as regards that which
-it measures, it necessarily follows that no single freely produced
-commodity can be a true standard of value. But while it is true that
-every single commodity must vary in value, it is also true that all
-commodities taken together cannot do so. This principle is also
-accepted as correct by all economists.</p>
-
-<p>It is evident then that a true standard of value can only<span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" id="page61">61</a></span> be found in
-a composite unit containing a definite quantity of every commodity, or
-practically speaking, a definite quantity of each of a large number of
-the most important commodities. This is what is known as the “multiple
-standard,” or the “commodity standard,” and has long been in use by
-economists in the form of tables of index numbers to show fluctuations
-in general prices, or what is the same thing, changes in money values.</p>
-
-<p>The only function of money is to facilitate the exchange of goods. In
-doing this it acts directly as a circulating medium, and the demand
-for it for this purpose, relative to the supply, determines its value;
-for money, whether of coin or paper or both combined in one
-circulation to meet one need, is subject to the same law of supply and
-demand which governs all commodities, and which indeed is as universal
-in the economic world as the law of gravitation is in the physical
-world.</p>
-
-<p>Incidentally the value of money fills the important function of
-serving as a measure of the values of goods transferred without the
-direct use of money, both immediate and deferred. This, however, has
-no effect on the demand for money or on its value.</p>
-
-<p>The people are accustomed to regard money as of constant value, and an
-honest money must necessarily conform to this belief. If money varies
-in value, the people are deluded, and many are wronged if they are
-unaware of the fluctuation. If they become aware of it,—as they
-generally do by a bitter experience,—they are confronted with an
-uncertainty that is most detrimental to any business or enterprise.
-Imagine what our business would be with our measures of weight,
-length, and capacity all variable! Yet such a condition would be less
-disastrous than a fluctuating money value when it became fully known
-that it was so.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>demand</i> for money varies from many causes, chief among which are
-changes in the quantity of goods exchanged, the extent to which other
-credit instruments take the place of money in such exchanges, and the
-activity of money, or the extent to which it is hoarded, all of which
-are entirely beyond control. The <i>supply</i> of money, however, can be
-controlled, and to maintain money at a constant value the supply must
-be constantly adjusted to the ever-varying demand, so that its
-general<span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" id="page62">62</a></span> purchasing power may remain the same. The test of a constant
-money must be a constant general level of prices; and this must be
-judged by the prices in the open market of those principal commodities
-which would be selected to constitute the standard of value, the
-quantity of each being proportioned to its importance in trade.</p>
-
-<p>The only function of gold and silver in a monetary system is to <i>limit
-the volume of the money</i>, either by their scarcity when freely coined,
-or by the laws limiting their coinage. And as this limitation of the
-supply bears no definite relation to the demand for money, the value
-of the money necessarily fluctuates. Our industrial system is
-constantly growing more sensitive to even slight changes in money
-value, owing to the greater diversification of industries and the
-greater division of labor, and the need for preventing such changes is
-constantly growing more imperative.</p>
-
-<p>When the people arrive at a clearer perception of these facts and
-principles they will understand that the chance production of gold and
-silver is too clumsy a contrivance to properly control so delicate a
-matter as the value of money under modern industrial conditions, and I
-believe they will substitute for the present system a circulating
-medium of paper money, properly guaranteed, and susceptible of prompt
-and certain increase or decrease of volume to meet every possible
-variation in demand, and rigidly controlled to conform in value to a
-true standard of value, a standard composed not alone of gold or
-silver or both combined, but of all the leading commodities.</p>
-
-<p>In short, they will separate the standard of value from the medium of
-exchange, demonetizing both gold and silver as to the latter function,
-but using both and many other things in conjunction therewith for the
-former function.</p>
-
-<a name="WARNER" id="WARNER"></a>
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><b>V.</b> BY A. J. WARNER.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p>From whatever side the question is approached, in the last analysis
-the value of money of any kind is found to depend upon its quantity,
-and not upon color, or ductility, or malleability, or any other
-particular quality of the thing upon which the money function is
-impressed. There can be therefore, in fact,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" id="page63">63</a></span> no other standard of
-value, or money standard, except the quantity of whatever is used as
-money. When gold and silver are used, the value of each unit of money
-depends upon the number of such units, and these in turn depend upon
-the quantity of the metal from which the money is made. Any cause,
-therefore, which restricts, limits, or contracts the quantity of any
-kind of money, increases the value of each unit. On the contrary,
-causes that operate to increase the supply of money have the opposite
-effect.</p>
-
-<p>Hence, only that currency can properly be called “sound” currency
-which is made to maintain stable relations to things to be bought and
-sold. In other words, general prices are determined by the proportion
-between money on the one side, and things offered against money on the
-other side. Such money only is “honest” money.</p>
-
-<p>The whole question, therefore, of money standard is a question of
-money supply; for, as the price of single things, money being
-constant, depends upon supply on the one hand, as against demand for
-it on the other, so, in general, prices depend on money supply on the
-one hand, and things to be bought and sold on the other. This I
-believe to be the fundamental law of money.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page64" id="page64">64</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_7" id="article_7"></a>
-THE NEW CIVIL CODE OF JAPAN.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY TOKICHI MASAO, M. L., D. C. L.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p><span class="sc">Ever</span> since the establishment of the present imperial government in
-1868, the one unceasing aim of Japan’s foreign policy has been the
-abolition of the extra-territoriality régime, under which certain
-quasi-judicial functions are exercised on the Japanese soil by the
-ambassadors and consuls of the Occidental nations. This anxiety on
-Japan’s part to rid herself of this shameful régime imposed upon her
-against her will, will not appear surprising when the fact is learnt
-that one Occidental nation went so far as to call her consul at
-Yokohama, “Her Britannic Majesty’s the Most Honourable Court for
-Japan”—a name almost enough to imply that Japan was a British
-province. Extra-territoriality rests upon the assumption that the laws
-and procedure of the non-Christian nations are so unlike to and
-different from those of the Christian nations that without the
-protection of this system the safety and well-being of the subjects of
-the latter sojourning in the territory of the former would be placed
-in constant jeopardy. Accordingly in the early seventies Japan came to
-the conclusion that the only possible way of emancipating herself from
-the disgraceful yoke of extra-territoriality was to adopt one of the
-systems of law obtaining in the Christian world and compile a code of
-law based upon that system, and applicable alike to the Japanese and
-to the foreigners residing in Japan.</p>
-
-<p>There were three such systems—the Anglo-American, the French, and the
-Germanic Roman—each offering itself for adoption. Mr. Yeto
-Shimpei,<a name="fn_marker_2" id="fn_marker_2"></a><a href="#fn_2" class="fn_marker">[2]</a> who became the Minister of Justice in 1872, seems to have
-had a personal preference for<span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id="page65">65</a></span> the French system. He called to his
-assistance some of the most eminent jurists of France and entered upon
-the work of drafting a code. At the same time he established in Tokio
-a law school known as the “Department of Justice Annex Law School,” in
-which French law was taught by those same jurists whom he had called
-from France. About this time there was also established in the
-University of Tokio a law school in which instruction was given
-chiefly in English law. It was while teaching in this university law
-school that Mr. Henry T. Terry (a New York lawyer and an alumnus of
-Yale College) wrote his memorable book on English law, designed
-especially for the use of Japanese law students. From henceforth
-“Terry’s Leading Principles of Anglo-American Law” became as familiar
-to them as are “Blackstone’s Commentaries” to the law students of this
-country.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, side by side there existed in Tokio two law schools in which two
-distinct systems of law were taught—the English and the French. The
-primary object of the Department of Justice in establishing the French
-law school being to make it a training school of judicial officers,
-the students of that school were, upon graduation, to render, for a
-limited number of years, an obligatory service to the government in
-the various capacities of judges, magistrates, and prosecuting
-attorneys. On the other hand, the University of Tokio being a strictly
-independent institution in which learning is pursued for the sake of
-learning, the graduates of the university or English law school were
-at entire liberty in their choice of professions. Naturally enough the
-majority of these did not wish to enter the same service which the
-graduates of the other school were obliged to enter as a matter of
-fulfilment of contract. Thus it happened that the bench was recruited
-from the French law school, while the bar was recruited from the
-English law school. This state of affairs lasted for about twenty
-years, during which time there was also established a German law
-school in the University of Tokio. Those who know something about the
-rivalry that existed in ancient times between the Sabinians and the
-Proculians, or even about the rivalry which exists to-day between the
-Yale method and the Harvard method, between the Waylandians and the
-Langdellians,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" id="page66">66</a></span> can readily imagine what intellectual competition was
-carried on between these three Japanese law schools representing three
-distinct systems of law.</p>
-
-<p>After twenty years of assiduous labor the Code Commission submitted a
-draft of a Civil Code to the two Houses of Parliament in 1890,
-accompanied by the recommendation from the Bureau of Legislation that
-the draft might receive the parliamentary sanction in such a manner
-that it might be possible for it to be put in effect by the year 1893.
-As might have been expected from the personnel of the Commission,
-consisting, in its conception, of Mr. Yeto Shimpei and the eminent
-French jurist Prof. Boissonade, etc., the draft was a genuine French
-code, being almost a literal translation of the Code Napoleon in all
-its parts excepting the part dealing with the Law of Persons. The
-question may well be asked why it took the Commission twenty long
-years to produce this imitation draft code when we know that the draft
-of the Code Napoleon itself was completed within the short period of
-four months. The answer seems to be that the Commission spent almost
-this entire time in their efforts to reconcile the principles of the
-French Law of Persons with the Japanese laws and customs bearing on
-that subject.</p>
-
-<p>As has been the case with many other draft codes this draft Civil Code
-of Japan was destined to go into oblivion. As soon as it was submitted
-to the Parliament there ensued a most desperate fight against its
-adoption. As figuring most prominently among the champions of the
-opposition I may mention the names of Mr. Kazuo Hatoyama, the present
-Speaker of the House of Commons of the Imperial Japanese Parliament,
-and His Excellency Mr. Toru Hoshi, the present Japanese minister at
-Washington.<a name="fn_marker_3" id="fn_marker_3"></a><a href="#fn_3" class="fn_marker">[3]</a> Inspired by these and other eminent jurists of the
-English school the entire bar was set against the adoption of the
-draft code. This was not a case of a bar accustomed to one set of
-rules and formulas opposing the adoption<span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67">67</a></span> of a new code for fear that
-they might be compelled to learn a new set of rules and formulas. On
-the contrary, the bar was composed of men who had studied law as a
-science, and science for the sake of science. The spirit of their
-opposition was very plainly shown by the objections they raised
-against the code. They said:—“The draft Code was a blind imitation of
-a foreign Code which itself was far from being free from defects. It
-abounded in definitions, illustrations, and examples, and presented an
-appearance more becoming to a text-book of law than the Civil Code of
-a great nation. It went into too minute details and left too little
-room for voluntary development of jurisprudence. It incorporated, like
-the French Code, the law of evidence into the body of the Civil Code,
-which was totally at variance with the modern theory of evidence,
-being a failure on the part of the Commissioners to distinguish
-adjective from substantive law. It made too many innovations upon the
-Law of Persons hitherto obtaining in Japan. It changed the Family Law
-of the Japanese from the foundation, which was a gross disregard of
-the historical principle of jurisprudence,” etc., etc., etc. Such were
-some of the grounds upon which they opposed the adoption of the draft
-code, reminding one of the fight in Europe between the historical
-school and the analytical school, between the jurists of France and
-those of Germany; of the fight in Germany between the Code party and
-the anti-Code party, between Savigny and Thibaut. Who can say, then,
-that the Japanese are childish imitators of anything that looks well?
-The fact is that this sort of conflict between the more conservative
-and the more radical, the more scrupulous and the more unscrupulous,
-the more positive and the more speculative, is going on all the time.</p>
-
-<p>At last in 1892 the Parliament passed an act deferring the taking
-effect of the code till 1897 and ordering in the meantime a careful
-revisal of the draft. A new Commission was appointed which consisted
-of three most eminent professors of law in Japan, each representing
-one of the three systems of law recognized there.<a name="fn_marker_4" id="fn_marker_4"></a><a href="#fn_4" class="fn_marker">[4]</a> These
-Commissioners, aided by a number of efficient assistants, looked into
-the codes and laws of some fifteen<span class="pagenum"><a name="page68" id="page68">68</a></span> leading American and European
-states. As representing the French system they consulted the codes of
-Louisiana, Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. As
-representing the German system they consulted the codes and laws of
-Austria, Montenegro, Prussia, Saxony, Switzerland, and the draft Civil
-Code of the German Empire. As representing the English system they
-consulted the leading American and English reports and treatises, the
-draft Civil Code of New York, and the codes of California and British
-India.<a name="fn_marker_5" id="fn_marker_5"></a><a href="#fn_5" class="fn_marker">[5]</a></p>
-
-<p>After four years of the most constant application the Commission
-submitted in 1896 a revisal of a part of the original draft. Had the
-Commission had the entire code revised they could not have shown
-greater wisdom. For the parts incomplete were those dealing with the
-Family Law and Successions, and the Commission remembered that these
-were the parts that occasioned the most vital objections to the old
-code. The Parliament referred the revised draft code to a Committee of
-their own, of which Mr. Hatoyama, the present Speaker, was made the
-chairman. After making a careful examination and some important
-modifications, Mr. Hatoyama reported favorably to its adoption. The
-Parliament acted according to his advice, and the draft became the
-law.</p>
-
-<p>In its general arrangement the new code follows what the German
-jurists call the Pandekten system. It is divided into five general
-parts. Part I is called “Sōsoku,” or General Laws, and deals with
-persons, natural and artificial, as the subjects of rights; with
-things as the objects of rights; and with juristic acts as setting
-rights in motion. One cannot help being astonished at and gratified
-with the remarkable extent to which Prof. Holland’s views as expressed
-in his book on jurisprudence seem to be adopted in this part of the
-code.<a name="fn_marker_6" id="fn_marker_6"></a><a href="#fn_6" class="fn_marker">[6]</a> Part II is called<span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" id="page69">69</a></span> “Bukken,” or <i>Jus in Rem</i>, corresponding
-to the Sachenrecht of the German code, and dealing with Possession,
-Ownership, etc., etc. Part III is called “Jinken,” or <i>Jus in
-Personam</i>, corresponding to the Forderungsrecht of the German code,
-and dealing with General Law of Obligations, with Obligations arising
-<i>ex contractu</i>, <i>quasi ex contractu</i>, and <i>ex delicto</i>. The General
-Law of Obligations is taken largely from the Forderungsrecht of the
-Swiss code. The law of Contracts and Torts is taken entirely from the
-English law. Parts IV and V, dealing with the Family Law and the Law
-of Successions respectively, have not as yet been published, for
-reasons already indicated.</p>
-
-<p>Such is the new Civil Code of Japan, adopted by the Imperial
-Parliament in its session of 1896. Truly, the year 1896 has been an
-eventful year for Japan. The war with China had brought glory to her
-arms. Formosa and numerous other islands had been added to her
-possessions. The insurgents of Formosa had been pacified. The treaties
-with the leading nations of the world had been revised, providing for
-the abolishment of the disgraceful extra-territoriality régime in
-Japan, to take effect, however, upon the taking effect of the new
-Civil Code. The last and greatest event of all, the new Code was
-adopted. With equal propriety, then, the Emperor Mutsuhito might have
-joined Justinian, in proclaiming:—“Imperatoriam Majestatem non solum
-armis decoratam, sed etiam legibus opportet esse armatam, ut utrumque
-tempus et bellorum et pacis recte possit gubernari!”</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" id="page70">70</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_8" id="article_8"></a>
-JOHN RUSKIN:<br /><small><span class="smcap">A Type of Twentieth-Century Manhood</span>.</small></h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY B. O. FLOWER.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">The</span> name John Ruskin is justly entitled to a foremost place among
-those of the builders of twentieth-century civilization. In him we
-find a rare combination of genius, culture, and refinement, blended
-with a tender concern for all earth’s unfortunates. He is at once
-artist, philosopher, and philanthropist; but he is more than these;
-there is much of the austere religious reformer, giving a serious
-gravity to all the utterances of the glad-souled artist, a mingling of
-the spirit of a Savonarola with the imagination of a Turner.</p>
-
-<p>John Ruskin, more than any other man of our time in like station of
-life, stands for the civilization which we believe is destined to
-glorify the coming century, for in his life all thought of ease, fame,
-and preferment,—all consideration of self,—is overmastered by his
-love for others. Endowed by nature with the imagination of a poet, the
-eyes of an artist, the brain of a philosopher, the soul of a prophet,
-and the heart of a man, he has conscientiously employed all his gifts
-as a sacred trust given to him that he might bless and enlighten his
-day, and ennoble his civilization for all time.</p>
-
-<p>He was born amid affluence, and received the best educational
-advantages the age afforded. After graduating from Oxford in 1842, he
-studied painting under Copley Fielding and J. D. Harding. Subsequently
-he spent some time in Italy, finishing his art education in the land
-of earth’s greatest painters.</p>
-
-<p>While in college he composed many poems, but on leaving the university
-he turned his attention to art and prose composition. His “Modern
-Painters” was justly hailed as one of the noblest works of the
-century, and instantly placed its author in the ranks of the foremost
-art critics of the world.</p>
-
-<p>Few if any of his admirers will agree with all his critical views. He
-not infrequently falls into those errors which we naturally expect to
-find in a man of intense feeling, of strong<span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id="page71">71</a></span> conviction, and of vivid
-imagination. If a positive idea takes possession of his mind, it is
-liable to give a strong bias to his thought, and in a degree
-interferes with that nice sense of proportion so essential to a great
-critic. On more than one occasion Mr. Ruskin has frankly admitted that
-his views and opinions were erroneous owing to being based on a
-partial appearance or influenced by pernicious ideas. A notable
-illustration of his thought being biassed by preconceived ideas is
-found in the religious opinions put forward in the early edition of
-parts I and II of “Modern Painters.” And in a preface written in 1871
-for a revised edition of his works, the philosopher calls attention to
-his early views, declaring that he was “wholly mistaken” and
-continuing: “I had been educated in the narrow doctrine of a narrow
-sect, and had read history obliquely, as a sectarian necessarily
-must.”</p>
-
-<p>Such are the blemishes which occasionally creep into the works of this
-master mind. They are, however, merely spots on the sun, which do not
-appear frequently enough to seriously dim the splendor of a critical
-work which in my judgment surpasses in real value that of any English
-scholar of the century. “Modern Painters,” “The Stones of Venice,”
-“The Seven Lamps,” and his other works dealing with art are far more
-than criticisms; they touch the sleeping soul, they fire the spirit
-and awaken the conscience. They make the reader feel a new love for
-nature and art alike, and with this pure and inspiring love comes the
-desire for more knowledge. They appeal to the spiritual aspirations
-even more than to the artistic impulses or the intellectual
-apprehension. The moral exaltation which pervades his writings springs
-from his profoundly philosophical and religious nature. In all his
-work, as in his noble life, he has ever been moved by an intense
-desire to uplift and dignify humanity and to impress upon the public
-mind the subtle but positive effect for good exerted by true art. “I
-have had,” he tells us in “The Two Paths,” “but one steady aim in all
-I have ever tried to teach, namely, to declare that whatever was great
-in human art was the expression of man’s delight in God’s work.”</p>
-
-<p>With Ruskin, life is august; its possibilities for good and evil are
-never forgotten.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id="page72">72</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>“Remember,” he urges, “that every day of your life is ordaining
-irrevocably for good or evil the custom and practice of your
-soul; ordaining either sacred customs of dear and lovely
-recurrence, or trenching deeper and deeper the furrows for seed
-of sorrow. Now, therefore, see that no day passes in which you do
-not make yourself a somewhat better creature…. You will find
-that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to
-help other people, will in the quickest and delicatest ways
-improve yourself.”</p></div>
-
-<p>The pleasure which springs from loyalty to duty is strenuously
-insisted upon by Ruskin, and he, more than any other illustrious man
-in our time, has reached such heights of unselfishness as to enable
-him to fully appreciate the unalloyed pleasure which flows from a life
-of sacrifice. If he is austere, he is also very humane. The fountains
-of pleasure that he would have us drink deeply from would leave no
-bitter aftertaste. He delights in no pseudo-pleasure; faithfulness to
-the highest ideal, untiring effort at complete self-mastery, a settled
-determination to work for the good of all and to be ever on guard lest
-by some inadvertence we injure some other living creature,—such are
-some of the lessons upon which our philosopher insists as essential to
-man’s happiness.</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>“If,” he urges, in writing for the young, “there is any one point
-which, in six thousand years of thinking about right and wrong,
-wise and good men have agreed upon, or successively by experience
-discovered, it is that God dislikes idle and cruel people more
-than any others; that His first order is, ‘Work while you have
-light;’ and his second, ‘Be merciful while you have mercy.’ ‘Work
-while you have light,’ especially while you have the light of
-morning. There are few things more wonderful to me than that old
-people never tell young ones how precious their youth is….
-Remember, then, that I, at least, have warned <i>you</i>, that the
-happiness of your life, and its power, and its part and rank in
-earth or in heaven, depend on the way you pass your days now.
-They are not to be sad days; far from that, the first duty of
-young people is to be delighted and delightful; but they are to
-be in the deepest sense solemn days. There is no solemnity so
-deep, to a rightly thinking creature, as that of dawn…. You
-must be to the best of your strength usefully employed during the
-greater part of the day, so that you may be able at the end of it
-to say, as proudly as any peasant, that you have not eaten the
-bread of idleness. Then, secondly, I said, you are not to be
-cruel. Perhaps you think there is no chance of your being so; and
-indeed I hope it is not likely that you should be deliberately
-unkind to any creature; but <i>unless you are deliberately kind to
-every creature, you will often be cruel to many</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<p>Ruskin is often disquieting to conventionalists; he is too candid to
-be popular with those who make long prayers and descant on charity
-while they ignore justice. He puts questions to them which they do not
-want to consider themselves,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" id="page73">73</a></span> or to have others consider. By insisting
-on the substitution of justice for charity, and by taking the
-teachings of Jesus seriously, he offends the sleek money-changers who
-occupy choice pews in the modern palaces of ease dedicated to the
-lowly Nazarene. Such expressions as the following from the magnificent
-lecture on “Work” prove far less satisfying to this class than the
-popular sermons they are accustomed to hear:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>“It is the law of heaven,” says Ruskin, “that you shall not be
-able to judge what is wise or easy, unless you are first resolved
-to judge what is just, and to do it. That is the one thing
-constantly reiterated by our master—the order of all others that
-is given oftenest: ‘Do justice and judgment.’ That’s your Bible
-order; that’s the ‘service of God.’ The one divine work—the one
-ordered sacrifice—is to do justice; and it is the last we are
-ever inclined to do. Anything rather than that! As much charity
-as you choose, but no justice. ‘Nay,’ you will say, ‘charity is
-greater than justice.’ Yes, it is greater; <i>it is the summit of
-justice</i>; it is the temple of which justice is the foundation.
-<i>But you can’t have the top without the bottom</i>; you cannot build
-upon charity. You must build upon justice, for this main reason,
-that you have not, at first, charity to build with. It is the
-last reward of good work. It is all very fine to think you can
-build upon charity to begin with; but you will find all you have
-got to begin with begins at home, and is essentially love of
-yourself.</p>
-
-<p>“You well-to-do people, for instance, who are here to-night will
-go to ‘Divine Service’ next Sunday, all nice and tidy, and your
-little children will have their tight little Sunday boots on, and
-lovely little Sunday feathers in their hats; and you’ll think,
-complacently and piously, how lovely they look! So they do; and
-you love them heartily, and you like sticking feathers in their
-hats. That’s all right; that <i>is</i> charity; but it is charity
-beginning at home. Then you will come to the poor little
-crossing-sweeper got up also—in its Sunday dress—the dirtiest
-rags it has that it may beg the better: we shall give it a penny,
-and think how good we are. That’s charity going abroad. But what
-does justice say, walking and watching near us? Christian justice
-has been strangely mute, and seemingly blind; and, if not blind,
-decrepit this many a day: she keeps her accounts still,
-however—quite steadily—doing them at nights, carefully, with
-her bandage off, and through acutest spectacles (the only modern
-scientific invention she cares about). You must put your ear down
-ever so close to her lips to hear her speak; and then you will
-start at what she first whispers, for it will certainly be, ‘Why
-shouldn’t that little crossing-sweeper have a feather on its
-head, as well as your own child?’ Then you may ask justice, in an
-amazed manner, How she can possibly be so foolish as to think
-children could sweep crossings with feathers on their heads? Then
-you stoop again, and justice says—still in her dull, stupid
-way—‘Then, why don’t you, every other Sunday, leave your child
-to sweep the crossing, and take the little sweeper to church in a
-hat and feather?’ Mercy on us (you think), what will she say
-next? And you answer, of course, that you don’t, because
-everybody ought to remain content in the position in which
-Providence has placed them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" id="page74">74</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Ah, my friends, that’s the gist of the whole question. <i>Did</i>
-Providence put them in that position, or did <i>you</i>? You knock a
-man into a ditch, and then you tell him to remain content in the
-‘position in which Providence has placed him.’ That’s modern
-Christianity. You say, ‘We did not knock him into the ditch.’ How
-do you know what you have done or are doing? That’s just what we
-have all got to know, and what we shall never know until the
-question with us every morning, is, not how to do the gainful
-thing, but how to do the just thing.”</p></div>
-
-<p>These thoughts suggest to us Ruskin, the social economist, for we must
-not lose sight of the fact that this greatest of all art critics, this
-strong, sane ethical philosopher who has emphasized so forcibly the
-possibilities, duties, and responsibilities of the individual in all
-his complex relations, is also one of the most enlightened and
-broad-visioned economists of our wonderful age. By treatises, essays,
-and letters he has striven for a brighter day for the breadwinners. He
-has sought to elevate the ideals and tastes of all toilers, while he
-has labored unremittingly to secure for them that meed of justice
-which is their right, but which has so long been denied them.</p>
-
-<p>So far back as 1868, when few people of position dared advocate so
-sane a proposition as the governmental ownership of “natural
-monopolies,” John Ruskin published these bold and thoughtful words in
-the London <i>Daily Telegraph</i>:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>The ingenious British public seemed to be discovering to its
-cost, that the beautiful law of supply and demand does not apply
-in a pleasant manner to railroad transit. But if they are
-prepared to submit patiently to the “natural” laws of political
-economy, what right have they to complain? The railroad belongs
-to the shareholders; and has not everybody a right to ask the
-highest he can get for his wares? The public have a perfect right
-to walk, or to make other opposition railroads for themselves, if
-they please, but not to abuse the shareholders for asking as much
-as they think they can get. Will you allow me to put the <i>real</i>
-rights of the matter before them in a few words?</p>
-
-<p>Neither the roads nor the railroads of any nation should belong
-to any private persons. All means of public transit should be
-provided at public expense, by public determination, where such
-means are needed, and the public should be its own shareholder.
-Neither road, nor railroad, nor canal should ever pay dividends
-to anybody. They should pay their working expenses, and no more.
-All dividends are simply a tax on the traveller and the goods,
-levied by the persons to whom the road or canal belongs, for the
-right of passing over his property, and this right should at once
-be purchased by the nation, and the original cost of the
-roadway—be it of gravel, iron, or adamant—at once defrayed by
-the nation, and then the whole work of the carriage of persons or
-goods done for ascertained prices, by salaried officers, as the
-carriage of letters is done now.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75">75</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Happily these suggestions of the distinguished Englishman have been
-followed, in part at least, by several enlightened nations, but to the
-disgrace of our republic, and to the great cost of the producing and
-consuming masses, we are lagging behind in these respects, becoming a
-camp-follower instead of a leader in the march of progress, because of
-the influence exerted by a small class, who have grown so powerful
-through special privileges given to them by the nation that they now
-assume to thwart beneficent legislation in order that they may
-continue to grow richer through this vicious form of governmental
-paternalism, which places the multitude in the power of a few.</p>
-
-<p>Ruskin’s views on money are as disturbing to the usurers and those who
-through special privileges in money have amassed fortunes of unearned
-wealth as his sound position on railroads is distasteful to the
-monopolists who impoverish the producer and consumer by exorbitant
-rates on transportation.</p>
-
-<p>The great Englishman is also too clear-sighted to accept the
-fallacious doctrines of the money-changers in regard to the medium of
-exchange. He is too honest to hold his peace in the presence of a
-great wrong, hence his definition of money is far more nearly correct
-than the false and essentially injurious definitions so industriously
-promulgated by special pleaders for an interested class. “The final
-and best definition of money,” says Ruskin, “is that it is a
-documentary promise ratified and guaranteed by the nation to give or
-find a certain quantity of labor on demand.”</p>
-
-<p>In 1873 our author carried on a spirited discussion with some
-conventional economists regarding the money of the rich. One writer
-undertook to defend the lavish and reckless expenditures of the
-wealthy by calling to his aid the well-worn plea that money thus paid
-out finds its way into the pockets of poor families, and that thus
-through the bounty of the rich the starving are blest. Ruskin, in the
-course of his reply, observed that, were he a poor man instead of a
-moderately rich one, he would be sure that the paper referred to would
-suggest the question:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>These <i>means of living</i>, which this generous and useful gentleman
-is so fortunately disposed to bestow on me—where does he get
-them himself?… These are the facts. The laborious poor produce
-“the means of life” by their labor. Rich persons possess
-themselves by various expedients of a right to dispense these
-means of life, and, keeping as much means as they<span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76">76</a></span> want for
-themselves, and rather more, dispense the rest usually only in
-return for <i>more labor from the poor</i>, expended in producing
-various delights for the rich dispenser. The idea is now
-gradually entering poor men’s minds, that they may as well keep
-in their own hands the right of distributing “the means of life”
-they produce; and employ themselves, so far as they need extra
-occupation, for their own entertainment or benefit, rather than
-that of other people.</p></div>
-
-<p>The conventional economist replied to the question relating to how the
-rich man got his wealth by stating that it was obtained by the
-possessor or his ancestors through a “mutually beneficent partnership”
-between the rich and the poor by which the poor had their share of the
-joint returns advanced to them. Mr. Ruskin in his reply stated the
-question again, and then proceeded to answer it by a telling personal
-illustration. He says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>“Where does the rich man get his means of living?” I don’t myself
-see how a more straightforward question could be put! so
-straightforward, indeed, that I particularly dislike making a
-martyr of myself in answering it, as I must this blessed day—a
-martyr, at least, in the way of witness; for if we rich people
-don’t begin to speak honestly with our tongues, we shall, some
-day soon, lose them and our heads together, having for sometime
-back, most of us, made false use of the one and none of the
-other. Well, for the point in question, then, as to means of
-living: the most exemplary manner of answer is simply to state
-how I got my own, or rather how my father got them for me. He and
-his partners entered into what your correspondent mellifluously
-styles “a mutually beneficent partnership” with certain laborers
-in Spain. These laborers produced from the earth annually a
-certain number of bottles of wine. These productions were sold by
-my father and his partners, who kept nine-tenths, or thereabouts,
-of the price themselves, and gave one-tenth, or thereabouts, to
-the laborers. In which state of mutual beneficence my father and
-his partners naturally became rich, and the laborers as naturally
-remained poor. Then my good father gave all his money to me.</p></div>
-
-<p>Space forbids a more extended notice of Mr. Ruskin’s broad and
-thoughtful views on economic problems, but before closing this paper,
-I wish to notice how the life of this great philanthropist has touched
-and brightened other lives. Many men think noble thoughts and at times
-are stirred by the loftiest aspirations, but in actual everyday life
-they sadly fail to live up to their teachings; but he who can and does
-master himself, he who gives his life for justice and thinks of the
-welfare of others before he considers himself, has reached a far
-higher summit than have the most gifted intellects who, while
-apprehending the beauty of goodness, fail to express that beauty in
-their daily<span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77">77</a></span> lives. John Ruskin’s life has been at once earnest, pure,
-and unselfish.</p>
-
-<p>Of the unexampled manner in which he gave up his beautiful wife to his
-friend—how he quietly secured a divorce that she might become the
-wife of the man she loved—electing to pass the rest of his life alone
-rather than destroy her happiness,—these facts are well known, and
-Mr. Ruskin has been severely criticised for not holding his wife in
-unwilling bondage. But he was so constituted that it was impossible
-for him to endure the thought of being directly or indirectly the
-cause of another’s misery.</p>
-
-<p>Another striking illustration of his unselfishness is seen in the
-manner in which he has disposed of his fortune, which at the time of
-his father’s death amounted to a million dollars. With this money he
-set about doing good. Poor young men and women who were struggling to
-obtain an education were helped, homes for working men and women were
-established, and model apartment-houses were erected. He also promoted
-a work for reclaiming waste land outside of London. This land was used
-for the aid of unfortunate men who wished to rise again from the state
-into which they had fallen through cruel social conditions and their
-own weaknesses. It is said that this work suggested to General Booth
-his colonization farms. Ruskin has also ever been liberal in aiding
-poor artists, and has done much to encourage the artistic taste among
-the young. On one occasion he purchased ten fine water-color paintings
-by Holman Hunt for $3,750, to be hung in public schools of London.</p>
-
-<p>By 1877 he had disposed of three-fourths of his inheritance, besides
-all the income from his books. But the calls of the poor and the plans
-which he wished to put into operation looking toward education and
-ennobling the toilers, and giving to their gloomy lives something more
-of sunshine and joy, were such that he determined to dispose of all
-the remainder of his wealth except a sum sufficient to yield him
-fifteen hundred dollars a year on which to live.</p>
-
-<p>Of all English writers of our century no one has left a more valuable
-literary legacy than has John Ruskin, but the splendid and voluminous
-works of his brain are even less priceless than<span class="pagenum"><a name="page78" id="page78">78</a></span> the example of his
-wonderful life. That he is in the shadow in his old age is by no means
-strange; a nature so sensitive, so finely strung, so keenly alive to
-the sufferings of others on every hand, has necessarily felt what the
-well-kept and self-engrossed animals around him knew nothing of.
-Indeed, just here we find the chief reason why the finest natures
-suffer so keenly in this age of heartless greed, self-absorption, and
-gold madness, of wanton extravagance and biting poverty, of widespread
-misery and growing discontent. Sensitive natures who are spiritually
-alive to the misery around them must suffer while they sow the
-seed-thoughts of a new day—suffer uncomplainingly until the
-waiting-time of this great transition period has passed.</p>
-
-<p>In John Ruskin we find great breadth of thought and a wide range of
-intellectual vision, going hand in hand with a profound philosophical
-grasp of life’s deepest problems; and, what is more, these excellences
-are rendered luminous by the influence of an enlightened soul. His
-life has been characterized by nobility of purpose, purity of thought,
-a passion for nature and art, and an enthusiasm for humanity.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id="page79">79</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_9" id="article_9"></a>
-THE SINGLE TAX IN OPERATION.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY HON. HUGH H. LUSK,<br />
-<i>Ex-Member of the New Zealand Legislature.</i></p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">Few</span> if any of the various economic theories that have been advanced,
-claiming attention in virtue of their practical benefit to the
-existing conditions of human affairs, have gained so immediate or so
-widespread an acceptance amongst intelligent persons as that which is
-familiarly known as “the single-tax” theory propounded by Mr. Henry
-George. In all parts of the English-speaking world, at least, the
-theory has obtained many and enthusiastic disciples, who have
-believed, and probably still believe, that they find in Mr. George’s
-doctrine a panacea for many of the most apparent of the evils which
-oppress society not less under our advanced civilization than they did
-at any former period of the world’s history. It may be said, indeed,
-that we hear less of Mr. George and the single tax now than we did a
-few years ago, and from this some will argue that the idea has died or
-is dying out of men’s minds; this, however, is almost certainly a
-mistake.</p>
-
-<p>In the history of any great system of alleged reform there may be
-traced at least three distinct stages which are marked by different
-degrees of prominence in the public regard. The first of these may be
-called the period of promulgation, the second that of fermentation,
-and the third that of experiment. If the evils proposed to be reformed
-are manifest and widely recognized the first of these stages is almost
-certain to excite wide attention and much controversy on both sides.
-The earliest stage, that of mere discussion, however, soon wears
-itself out, and the theorists who argued in favor of, as well as those
-who argued against, the new system, having exhausted their ingenuity
-in argument, turn for the most part to something newer, and let the
-matter drop.</p>
-
-<p>Then follows the period of incubation. Removed from the din of
-controversy a certain number of people are always found who are keenly
-sensible of the evils which the new system was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id="page80">80</a></span> supposed to cure, and
-who continue to meditate upon the possibility of its possessing the
-power to do so. These persons, it may be, make but little noise in the
-arena either of literature or politics, but they are not the less
-active, nor perhaps in the end the less really influential, on that
-account. Their influence is of the sort that depends upon a solid
-conviction, right or wrong, that the theory which they support is the
-true one; and as long as the evils, which the system they adhere to
-professes to cure, continue to exist, so long their influence may be
-expected to increase.</p>
-
-<p>It is the third or experimental stage which is the critical one, and
-generally speaking it is well when that stage can be reached without
-any needless delay. By experiment alone can the value of such theories
-be tested to the satisfaction of the practical mind of humanity, and
-it is only as the result of a trial that men will either consent to
-admit the value of a proposed reform or to abandon a specious theory
-to which they have once given their adherence.</p>
-
-<p>The single-tax theory of political economics advanced by Henry George,
-having passed through the first of these three stages with something
-more than the usual publicity and controversy, has already been in its
-second stage for a good many years. The cessation of active
-discussion, which appears to some people to argue that it has passed
-into oblivion, or is at any rate well on the way toward such a
-consummation, is only evidence that it is in its second, or
-fermentation, period. Nobody can pretend for an instant that any one
-of the evils pointed out by Henry George as the things that called
-loudly for reform, have actually been reformed since the date of the
-publication of his original essay on “Progress and Poverty.” No
-reasonable man can doubt that many, if not all of these evils, ought
-in some way to be dealt with, and if possible amended. While such is
-the case it is impossible wholly to get rid of the theory which
-trenchantly pointed out those evils and professed at least to offer an
-effective remedy.</p>
-
-<p>Under these conditions few things could be more desirable than that
-the matter should be advanced to the third of its natural stages by
-being submitted to the critical test of experience. Nothing short of
-this will ever satisfy the mass of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" id="page81">81</a></span> mankind of the feasibility of the
-system proposed, or of its adequacy to meet the evils complained of;
-nothing less will set free the minds of many thousands of intelligent
-persons to inquire into other methods of reform than the fair trial of
-the single-tax system, and its failure to cure the evils which its
-author expected it to cure. The difficulty, which indeed is by no
-means a slight one, is to find a favorable arena in which the
-experiment can be tried, and a community prepared to make the
-experiment.</p>
-
-<p>It must be remembered that, if the evils aimed at by the proposed
-remedy of the single tax are great and far-reaching, its complete
-application could hardly, in most communities, amount to less than a
-practical revolution. Striking as it does at the whole received theory
-of land tenure, as sanctioned throughout the civilized world by the
-practice of many centuries, it arrays against itself the prejudices of
-the most influential classes in every long-established community, and
-its introduction is necessarily surrounded by difficulties and at
-least apparent injustices which must indefinitely delay any attempt to
-bring it to the test of experiment there. The only reasonable hope,
-indeed, of reducing the theory of the single tax to the plane of
-experience is to find a country not yet fully committed to any other
-system, and occupied by a self-governing people sufficiently
-intelligent to perceive the evils of other existing systems of land
-tenure, and sufficiently enterprising to be willing to experiment in
-this direction.</p>
-
-<p>It may perhaps prove of no little benefit to other communities that
-one self-governing country has been found which has been both able and
-willing to make trial of the principle which has been so strongly
-contended for by the author of “Progress and Poverty,” and by those
-who have seen in his proposals a way of escape from many of the most
-serious difficulties that beset civilized communities at the present
-day. There is probably no other country which is to-day in so good a
-position to enter upon experimental legislation in this and other
-directions as the British colony of New Zealand. An island community
-separated by more than a thousand miles from its nearest neighbors,
-possessed of practically unlimited powers of self-government, and
-inhabited by a prosperous and intelligent population,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page82" id="page82">82</a></span> substantially
-of unmixed British race, there is little either in their external
-relations or internal circumstances to prevent the colonists of New
-Zealand making many experiments in economic legislation. And during
-the last quarter of a century this fact has been fully realized by the
-people and their leaders. They have established a system of education
-which is at once more popular, free, and comprehensive than even the
-most complete systems in force in this country; they have placed local
-option in the control of the liquor traffic upon a broad and entirely
-popular basis, which has rendered New Zealand the most sober and
-law-abiding of communities, without introducing the doubtful principle
-of prohibition; they have thrown open the franchise unreservedly to
-all persons of full age and competent education, without regard to
-sex; and they have successfully introduced life insurance and
-trusteeship of estates by the government, as well as many others of
-the proposals which are generally comprehended under the term “State
-Socialism.”</p>
-
-<p>It is by no means surprising that a community which has made so many
-experiments in legislation should have turned its attention to the
-question which may perhaps be looked upon as most specially inviting
-attention from social reformers in a new country. The circumstances of
-New Zealand in relation to the land were from the first exceptional.
-In every other country occupied by savage tribes in modern times which
-has been taken possession of for purposes of settlement by people of
-European race, the ownership of the soil has been assumed, as a matter
-of course, to vest not in the aboriginal natives, but in the intruding
-settlers. Spain, England, France, Holland, Germany, and the United
-States have one after the other adopted this convenient theory of
-international morality, and entered with a cool assumption of right
-upon the inheritance of their comparatively helpless predecessors. In
-New Zealand the conditions of the country and its inhabitants rendered
-this popular system wholly inapplicable. The area of the country was
-limited, to an extent which rendered it impossible to adopt the
-fiction which has lain at the root of nearly all the forcible
-confiscation of the territory of native tribes, namely, that they
-could make no profitable use of so great an area. The islands of New
-Zealand contain only a little more land than Great Britain itself,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page83" id="page83">83</a></span>
-and sixty years ago, when England first thought of annexing them to
-her empire, the native inhabitants numbered little if anything short
-of a hundred thousand souls. They were besides a settled people who
-cultivated the soil, and moreover they were warlike, and formidable to
-any invader. In consequence of these things a wholly new departure was
-made in the case of New Zealand. The country was not occupied on any
-plea of discovery or of conquest, as had been done in so many parts of
-the world before, but the sovereignty of the islands was obtained by
-treaty with the chiefs of the native tribes, upon the distinct
-guarantee that the full rights of the aboriginal inhabitants to their
-lands should be recognized and protected by England against all
-comers.</p>
-
-<p>From the first, therefore, the lands of New Zealand have been
-purchased by the government before they could be disposed of to the
-settlers. The community had no vast tracts of land to dispose of which
-had cost nothing but the expense of survey, but as a matter of fact
-had to look on every acre as an investment which must be sold for a
-certain definite price unless the transaction was to result in an
-absolute loss of money to the people at large. It may well have
-happened that the result of so unusual a condition of affairs was to
-lead the community to regard the public lands in a somewhat different
-light from other people. At any rate it led to all lands being sold
-for a price which prevented their being lightly esteemed or as a rule
-held as freeholds in large areas. So much was this the case that from
-the first nearly all pastoral lands were held under leases from the
-government at fixed annual rentals. Fully forty years ago the
-southern, and larger, of the islands was nearly all purchased from the
-comparatively small native population by the government, and in that
-island a very large proportion of the land has always been let on
-lease for grazing. In the northern island nearly one-half of the land
-even now belongs to the original native owners, and much of this area
-is leased from them by Europeans for farming or grazing purposes.</p>
-
-<p>In this way it has happened that in New Zealand, more than in any
-other country occupied by people of European race, the inhabitants
-have grown accustomed to the idea of holding land on lease, with the
-people at large, as represented by the government, for landlord. Under
-these conditions it is easy to understand<span class="pagenum"><a name="page84" id="page84">84</a></span> how the doctrine of the
-single tax found a peculiarly congenial home in the minds of New
-Zealand public men. It is true that large areas of the lands of the
-country had been disposed of in freehold to settlers. It is true that
-the freehold tenure of the native inhabitants had in a certain sense
-been guaranteed to them by treaty, at least in so far that it should
-never be taken from them without compensation. It is true that the
-mass of the people were very fully possessed by the apparently almost
-universal preference for the idea of a freehold over every other
-tenure of lands so far as they were personally concerned. But, on the
-other hand, they had grown accustomed to the practice of holding areas
-of land on lease both from the government and from the native owners,
-whose tenure was not individual, but tribal, and they had learned the
-lesson that there was no intolerable hardship in the system.</p>
-
-<p>The attempt to introduce a system which should give effect to the
-principle underlying the economic theory of Henry George in New
-Zealand was not hastily made, nor was it attempted on a scale that
-could be fairly open to the charge of being revolutionary in its
-incidence. The first step taken by the legislature was in the
-direction of so dealing with the public estate of the country as to
-encourage settlers to lease rather than to purchase the freehold. With
-this in view a system of leases in perpetuity was established, and
-areas of the best and most accessible of the land still unsold were
-set apart to be dealt with under the new plan. Any person, not already
-the holder of land in freehold, which, together with the land applied
-for under perpetual lease, would make an area of more than six hundred
-and forty acres, or one square mile, could apply for a lease of not
-more than three hundred and forty acres on perpetual lease. Five
-dollars per acre was fixed as the price of the land, such being the
-average price of first-class freehold land unimproved in the country,
-and the applicant was entitled to a lease for 999 years of the land
-applied for, subject to the conditions that he resided upon the land
-during the first ten years of the tenancy; that he improved it to the
-extent of thirty per cent of its upset value within six years; and
-that he paid as annual rental interest at the rate of five per cent on
-the price or value of the land.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page85" id="page85">85</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Each lease contained clauses rendering the land subject to revaluation
-at the end of each period of twenty-one years, on which the rental
-would be calculated. If the new valuation, which it was provided
-should rigidly exclude all improvements on the land, was assented to
-by the tenant, the matter was settled for another twenty-one years;
-but if he objected to the new valuation as excessive, it was provided
-that he could demand that it should be offered by public auction
-(subject to payment of the value of his improvements), and that the
-amount bid for it either by himself or by anybody else at the sale
-should be esteemed the value on which the rental was to be calculated
-during the twenty-one years next following the sale. In case the
-present holder of the lease was the highest bidder, this was the only
-result of the sale; but in case he was outbid he was bound to transfer
-the lease to the best bidder, on receiving from the government the
-amount at which his improvements had been valued. This payment might
-be made in government bonds, bearing interest at four per cent, at the
-option of the government, and the new holder of the lease was charged
-as rent the interest on the value of the land as bid by himself and
-also interest at five per cent upon the former leaseholder’s
-improvements. By this means it was proposed to retain for the
-community at large the increased value of the lands of the country
-which was not due to the improvements made from time to time by the
-leaseholder. The inducement held out to the public to accept such
-leases in preference to a freehold was the saving of capital involved
-in not paying for the land when taken up, but only interest on the
-amount. This, it was hoped, would suffice to render it popular with a
-considerable class of actual working settlers as distinguished from
-speculative buyers.</p>
-
-<p>It is only fair to say that in spite of every effort that could be
-made by the government, the system did not commend itself to the
-judgment or the prejudices of the persons interested to any very great
-extent. What they wanted—what it may be taken for granted is wanted
-by nearly everybody in dealing with land—was a fixed tenure. It was
-not enough to know that they had a lease for 999 years; they wanted to
-know what they were to pay for it, not only during the first
-twenty-one years, but at any time during the 999. Eventually this had
-to be conceded, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" id="page86">86</a></span> as the land law of New Zealand now stands the
-holder of a perpetual lease gets it for a rental of four per cent upon
-the original price fixed by government on the land, subject still,
-however, to the conditions as to residence and improvements on the
-land during the first ten years.</p>
-
-<p>Having abandoned this promising and theoretically perfect plan for
-securing to the state all state-produced increase in the value of the
-public lands, the New Zealand parliament was still anxious to secure
-for the country the other advantages held out by the author of the
-single-tax doctrine. These advantages may be briefly summed up in the
-words, the discouragement of large holdings and the prevention of
-speculation in future land values. To obtain these results without
-laying the community open to the charge of practical confiscation,
-which has been, and probably will always be, the strongest argument
-against the practical application of the doctrine of the single tax,
-as propounded by its author, was felt to be no easy matter. Even in
-New Zealand there were already some large freehold estates, and these
-naturally included some of the most desirable and valuable of the
-land. It was eventually decided to impose a land tax, the incidence of
-which would tend at least to discourage speculation, while it supplied
-revenue for the public expenditure.</p>
-
-<p>A uniform tax of one penny in the pound sterling, equivalent to one
-two-hundred-and-fortieth part of the capital value of all land in the
-country held in freehold by Europeans, was imposed, the value of
-improvements being in all cases deducted from such valuation. Each
-owner of land is, however, allowed an exemption of land to the value
-of two thousand five hundred dollars, on which no tax is payable, as
-well as of all mortgage money secured on the freehold. Thus all
-freehold lands held by any individual are liable to be taxed above the
-value of $2,500, so far as he is really interested in them; while all
-money lent on mortgage of land is subject to a tax of five per cent on
-the annual interest reserved by the terms of the mortgage. New Zealand
-is mainly a country of small holdings, and the result of this system
-has been that, out of about 90,000 holders of land in freehold, only
-about 13,000 actually pay the tax on land. In other words, the
-settlers of the colony who own land which, apart from improvements and
-mortgage debts, is worth more<span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" id="page87">87</a></span> than $2,500, are found to be only about
-one-seventh of the whole number.</p>
-
-<p>To provide for the discouragement of land speculation on a large scale
-a further provision is made by the enactment of a further tax upon all
-lands held by individuals or corporations of a value exceeding $25,000
-clear of incumbrance. This is called the graduated land tax, and
-provides for a farther taxation on all such lands, beginning at
-one-eighth in addition to the original tax, and rising by advances of
-an additional eighth for each sum of $25,000 at which the land is
-valued, until a maximum rate of three times the original tax is
-reached in the case of large estates. To provide for the risk of
-vexatious opposition to valuations on the part of owners, there is a
-farther provision that the government may at its option elect to
-purchase, at an advance of ten per cent over the valuation objected
-to, any unimproved land held in freehold. It is also a part of the
-system that the government may compulsorily purchase at a valuation
-any lands not in actual use in case any association of persons shall
-apply to have this done, undertaking satisfactorily to take the land
-upon its purchase under the conditions of perpetual lease, which of
-course includes subdivision into small areas, with residence and
-improvement.</p>
-
-<p>By these means the people of New Zealand confidently expect to secure
-the subdivision of the lands of the country into small areas; to
-discourage to the utmost the holding of land by capitalists in
-expectation of greatly increased values at the expense of the less
-wealthy classes; to render practically impossible the establishment on
-any extensive scale of private landlordism in respect of agricultural
-lands; and gradually to substitute, as far as possible, the payment to
-the state of a yearly interest on value, for the purchase of the
-freehold in the land of the country.</p>
-
-<p>So far as the experience of the last eight years, during which the
-system has been in force, may be taken as a reliable guide, the
-experiment shows many signs of success. It has certainly checked the
-tendency to speculate in lands with a view to a rise in price, which
-threatened to become a great, as it certainly was a growing, evil. It
-has been found that it will not pay to do this in the face of
-taxation, and particularly of the graduated<span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" id="page88">88</a></span> tax; and owners of large
-areas of land have developed a strong inclination to subdivide and
-sell lands which they formerly were disposed to hoard and increase.
-The power given to the government to purchase lands where the owners
-have objected to the valuation for taxation purposes has not been
-widely exercised, but several very important and considerable
-compulsory purchases of estates have been made in cases where
-associations of persons wishing to take the land on perpetual lease
-have applied to the government for that purpose. The chief benefit of
-such examples, indeed, seems to have been in compelling owners either
-to use the land themselves or to offer it for sale to persons anxious
-to use it; but from the New Zealand point of view this would appear to
-be almost if not quite equally desirable. Finally, the land tax has
-largely enabled the country to do without other taxes, which would
-necessarily have fallen more heavily upon the class of workers with
-small incomes, instead of being levied on the classes best able to
-bear them.</p>
-
-<p>It yet remains to be seen whether evils may not lurk, as yet
-unnoticed, in the system, which may impair if not destroy its
-usefulness. One consequence which was predicted by its opponents,
-however, has not been found to follow upon the introduction of the
-system. It was said that capital would be withdrawn from the country,
-and that poverty and stagnation would result. No such result has
-followed up to this time. New Zealand, with its less than a million
-inhabitants, is to-day looked on as one of the soundest dependencies
-of the British empire; it continues to draw to it from the mother
-country as much capital as it can profitably use; its exports steadily
-increase; and its people, if not rich, are well-to-do and comfortable.</p>
-
-<p>It may be said, indeed, that New Zealand has not accepted Henry
-George’s doctrines as they were propounded by their author, and this
-is literally true. It is, however, also true that they have accepted
-the essential spirit of those doctrines, and, applying that spirit to
-the circumstances of their own country, are giving probably the most
-useful practical illustration of all that is best in them for the
-world’s acceptance. No doctrine in economics yet propounded for the
-acceptance of humanity<span class="pagenum"><a name="page89" id="page89">89</a></span> has ever been found to be applicable in
-exactly the same form or to exactly the same extent under all
-circumstances, and this, it may be safely said, will prove
-emphatically true of the doctrine of the single tax. The single tax,
-like all other economic plans, is not an end, but only a means. The
-end must be the amelioration of the condition of the masses of the
-people, and the consequent prosperity and happiness of the great
-majority. In New Zealand the people and their leaders believe this to
-be secured by taxing wealth rather than comparative poverty; by giving
-every encouragement to those who will devote themselves to the
-cultivation of the land; and by throwing every obstacle in the path of
-those who would fain establish and promote the pernicious system of
-private landlordism, which everywhere tends to create and perpetuate
-class distinctions, with their long train of attendant evils.</p>
-
-<p>In these respects New Zealand presents an object-lesson which can
-hardly fail to be of value to other countries, even if their
-conditions differ widely from her own. Her successes may be noted with
-advantage, her mistakes may be criticised with profit, in every free
-country and by all those who see that existing conditions are far from
-perfect in any part of the world, and that the safety as well as the
-advancement of society may depend largely upon the introduction of
-wise and, it may be, far-reaching reforms.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page90" id="page90">90</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_10" id="article_10"></a>
-NATURAL SELECTION, SOCIAL SELECTION, AND HEREDITY.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY PROFESSOR JOHN R. COMMONS,<br />
-<i>Of Syracuse University, N. Y.</i></p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">The</span> term “natural selection” is a misnomer, as Darwin himself
-perceived. It means merely survival. “Selection” proper involves
-intention, and belongs to human reason. Selection by man we call
-artificial. Natural selection is the outcome of certain physical
-facts: 1. Environment: the complex of forces, such as soil, climate,
-food, and competitors. 2. Heredity: the tendency in offspring to
-follow the type of the parent. 3. Variation: the tendency to diverge
-from that type. 4. Over-population: the tendency to multiply offspring
-beyond the food supply. 5. Struggle for life: the effort to exclude
-others or to consume others. 6. Consciousness of kind: the tendency to
-spare and coöperate with offspring and others of like type. 7.
-Survival of the fittest: the victory of those best fitted to their
-environment by heredity, variation, numbers, and consciousness of
-kind.</p>
-
-<p>These biological facts underlie human society, but a new factor enters
-with novel results. This is self-consciousness. Society is based not
-merely on consciousness of kind, as worked out by Professor Giddings,
-but peculiarly on individual self-consciousness.</p>
-
-<p>Self-consciousness is a product of evolution, at first biological as
-explained by natural selection, and second, sociological. The
-biological character is the prolongation of infancy, i. e. the
-prolonged plastic and unfolding state of the brain. This makes
-possible a new kind of development unknown to the animal, namely,
-education. Education is preëminently a social activity. I say
-education instead of environment. In natural selection there is a
-physical environment which presses upon individuals, and only those
-survive who are fitted to sustain this pressure. In social selection
-society enters between the individual and the physical environment,
-and, while slowly subordinating the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page91" id="page91">91</a></span> latter, transforms its pressure
-upon the individual, and he alone survives who is fitted to bear the
-social pressure. This pressure reaches the individual through the
-educational media of language and social institutions, especially the
-family, the state, and property. Institutions rest upon ideas and
-beliefs, and these are epitomized in language. Language in turn, by
-giving names to things and relations, and by thus transmitting to each
-individual the accumulated race experience, gradually brings him to
-the consciousness of himself. This is education.</p>
-
-<p>But self-consciousness is at first only vague, capricious, and
-unprincipled. It grows by becoming definite, self-controlled, and
-conscientious; that is, more regardful both of its own higher self and
-of others. It thus develops into moral character, which we call
-personality. Personality is the final outcome of social selection.
-When once liberated it becomes a new selective principle to which all
-others are subordinated. What, then, are the social conditions which
-promote or retard the survival of personality?</p>
-
-<p>It is a debated question where we shall place the dividing line
-between pre-social and social man. In view of what precedes we should
-look for that line at the point where self-consciousness begins to
-throw about itself a social covering. This covering is private
-property. The former view that primitive property was common property
-is now nearly abandoned. The supposed village communities of free
-proprietors were really villages of slaves and serfs. The semblance of
-common property in primitive times belongs to the pre-social or
-gregarious stage, and differs but little from the common use of a
-given area by a colony of beavers.</p>
-
-<p>Private property involves two facts: 1. Perception of enduring value
-in external objects; 2. Exclusive control and enjoyment of those
-objects. Its psychological basis is therefore self-consciousness,
-which is the knowledge not of an abstracted and isolated self, but of
-self as related to external nature and human beings.</p>
-
-<p>The first private property was animals and tools. Artificial selection
-begins with the domestication of animals. Soon it lays hold on man
-himself by means of social institutions, all of which originate as
-private property. The primitive social family<span class="pagenum"><a name="page92" id="page92">92</a></span> was not a state of
-promiscuity nor even the voluntary pairing of animals and birds, but
-it was private property in women, beginning as wife-capture and
-becoming wife-purchase and polygamy. Natural selection, too, is
-transcended when cannibalism ceases. The self-conscious victor
-enslaves his enemy and reduces him to property. Next, government
-arises as private despotism, and with it the land becomes the property
-of the chief. Thus the family, the state, protracted industry, and the
-control of social opportunities begin with that artificial selection
-denoted by private property.</p>
-
-<p>Property in its early forms means the domination of the powerful over
-the weak. Social institutions develop out of this primitive tyranny,
-where the caprice of owners crushes the personality of the masses,
-towards a state of equal rights and opportunities for all. The
-industrial classes emerge from slavery and serfdom into a wage system,
-which in turn is modified in the direction of fair wages, short hours,
-and security of employment—fundamental conditions for personal
-development.</p>
-
-<p>The family has arisen from the private property of a despot to the
-mutual coöperation of lovers, and the woman becomes a person instead
-of a chattel. The legal successor of polygamy—the slavery of
-women—is not monogamy, but prostitution, which is the wage system of
-the sexes, grounded on the subordinate position of women and their
-meagre opportunities for self-support.</p>
-
-<p>Government is passing into democracy, and property in land and capital
-is being hedged about by the police and taxing powers, or diffused and
-socialized in the interest of the personal equality of all.</p>
-
-<p>Social evolution is therefore the evolution of freedom and
-opportunity, on the one hand, and personality, on the other. Without
-freedom and security there can be no free will and moral character.
-Without exalted personality there can be no enduring freedom. The
-educational environment, therefore, which develops personality must
-itself develop with freedom. The ruling ideas of justice, integrity,
-morality, must move in advance, else the personality of individuals
-will not survive the temptations of freedom. To what extent,
-therefore, can education modify the individual? The answer is to be
-sought in the problems of heredity and degeneration.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" id="page93">93</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The human degenerate is essentially different from the animal
-degenerate. The latter is solely a physical product, and by losing
-certain organs is better fitted for survival, as parasites and snakes.</p>
-
-<p>Human degenerates, however, do not form a new type, but are on the
-decline to extinction. They are those who lack personality; that is,
-they are not moulded into harmony with a social environment which
-unfolds self-consciousness. They are strictly biological only when
-they are congenital and therefore not educable. They are social
-degenerates when they are the product of a degraded education. Both
-factors are radical. A born idiot can never be other than an idiot. On
-the other hand, the deprivation during childhood and youth of language
-and education, as shown by Caspar Hauser, or the wolf-boy of Agra, or
-the experiment of Emperor Akbar, leaves the normal natural endowments
-as idiotic as though they never existed. The two factors vary
-independently through all degrees. Education ranges from the slums to
-the pure firesides. The congenital equipment varies from the idiot to
-the genius.</p>
-
-<p>The relative weight of these two factors is a matter of statistics.
-Absolutely speaking, heredity is everything; relatively, its social
-significance depends upon the actual proportion of abnormal to normal
-births.</p>
-
-<p>The highest estimate I am able to make of the total number of
-degenerates, both born and induced, is five and one-half per cent of
-the population, as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Estimated Total of Defectives Per Million Population.</span></p>
-
-
-<div class="center">
-<table summary="Estimated Total of Defectives">
-<tr><td class="left">Census estimate (1890).</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Insane</td><td class="right">1,697</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Feeble-minded</td><td class="right">1,526</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Deaf and Dumb</td><td class="right">659</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Blind</td><td class="right">805</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Prisoners</td><td class="right">1,315</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Juvenile delinquents</td><td class="right">237</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Almshouse paupers</td><td class="right">1,166</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"> </td><td class="right">————</td><td class="right">7,405</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Outdoor Criminals (five times the number of inmates)</td><td> </td><td class="right">7,760</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Tramps (McCook, 1895, New Haven Conference of Charities and Correction, 85,768)</td><td> </td><td class="right">1,308</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Drunkards (Crothers, 1893, Chicago Conference, 1,200,000, equal to about 10 per cent of voting population)</td><td> </td><td class="right">19,000</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Prostitutes (weighted average of Levasseur’s estimate for rural (600) and urban (11,200 to 17,200) France, in “La Population Française,” vol. ii, p. 434)</td><td> </td><td class="right">5,000</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Outdoor Paupers (weighted average of report at Nashville Conference, 1894, 46 per cent in Penna. to 2.2 per cent in N. Y.)</td><td> </td><td class="right">15,000</td></tr>
-<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td class="right">—————</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"> </td><td> </td><td class="right">55,473</td></tr>
-</table></div>
-
-<p>This estimate would make the maximum number of all degenerates 5.54
-per cent of the population. From these must be deducted those who are
-not congenital. We can estimate the congenitals by three methods: by
-statistics of <i>atavism</i>, or <i>consanguinity</i>, and by <i>experiment</i>.</p>
-
-<p>In the statistics of atavism we add together the physical
-abnormalities of the individual, assuming that a criminal type is
-found when these abnormalities reach the number of three or more. The
-statistical method always suffers the limitation that it indicates not
-identity, but probability. Yet it has an important value, provided it
-discovers ratios of probability which concur. This is not the case in
-the method by atavism. Sixty to seventy per cent of criminals do not
-belong to the assumed criminal type; and sixteen per cent of normal
-males are classed as criminals, whereas the actual number is less than
-three per cent of the males of criminal age. (See Lombroso, “The
-Female Offender,” pp. 104, 105.)</p>
-
-<p>While atavism itself is unquestioned, this method seizes upon rigid
-physical characters to measure educable qualities. And where the
-latter are themselves abnormal the causes may lie with education and
-not heredity.</p>
-
-<p>The method by consanguinity seeks not the abnormalities of the patient
-himself, but the signs of disease and degeneracy in his blood
-relatives. It therefore greatly increases the apparent weight of
-heredity, for it collects symptoms from several individuals instead of
-one. The medical authorities ascribe fifty to eighty per cent of
-inebriety to heredity. This method fails as does the other, for, as
-seen in the Jukes or the drunkard, the child gets both its heredity
-and its education from the same degraded parents, and the method
-provides no measure for separating the two.</p>
-
-<p>In sociology the method of experiment has but limited employment. The
-modern sociologist cannot mate the parents nor vivisect the soul,
-after the methods of the biologist.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" id="page95">95</a></span> He can only move the child from
-one education to another, and his experiment is incidental to the
-larger purpose of saving the child. His results, too, can appear only
-as a ratio of probability; but this ratio measures the mental and
-moral qualities themselves directly and not by inference. Elmira
-Reformatory and others cure eighty per cent of their charges. Model
-placing-out institutions and free kindergartens save nearly all. And
-these are taken from the most vicious and criminal parentage in the
-land. Our five and one-half per cent of degenerates must therefore be
-greatly reduced in order to find the residuum of congenitals. I have
-made the following deductions:</p>
-
-<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Estimated Defectives Not Congenital, Per Million Population.</span></p>
-
-
-<div class="center">
-<table summary="Estimated Defectives Not Congenital">
-<tr><td class="left">Criminals (80 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">7,369</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Prostitutes (80 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">4,000</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Outdoor Paupers (80 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">16,000</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Tramps (80 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">1,046</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Drunkards (50 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">9,500</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"> </td><td class="right">———</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"> </td><td class="right">37,915</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Which deducted from</td><td class="right">55,473</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">leaves congenital defectives</td><td class="right">17,558</td></tr>
-</table></div>
-
-
-<p>equal to 1.75 per cent of the population. Overlappings would diminish
-this ratio; greater infant mortality and the omitted youthful
-defectives would increase it.</p>
-
-<p>If less than two per cent of the births are below the normal Aryan
-brain level, on the other hand possibly two per cent are above the
-average, and should be classed as the geniuses who could achieve
-eminence regardless of surroundings. The remaining ninety per cent or
-more are born with ordinary equipment; they are hereditarily neither
-good nor bad, criminal nor virtuous, brilliant nor stupid. With these
-masses of the people the first fifteen years of infancy and youth are
-decisive.</p>
-
-<p>We may now classify the selective forces of society. Social selection
-is partly natural and partly artificial. It originates artificially in
-the self-consciousness of dominant individuals. Struggle and conflict
-ensue, out of which private property survives in its various forms as
-an intended control over others. This control is then transmitted as
-the various social institutions to succeeding generations and becomes
-for them natural<span class="pagenum"><a name="page96" id="page96">96</a></span> and unintended. These social institutions then
-constitute a coercive environment, not over wholly unwilling subjects,
-but over those whose wills are shaped by education and social pressure
-to coöperate with the very institutions that suppress them.</p>
-
-<p>Gradually, as subordinate classes become self-conscious, innovations
-are made which aim to check the unbridled despotism of private
-property; new conflicts thereupon take place and certain innovations
-survive, which, at first artificial, become natural for the next
-generations.</p>
-
-<p>As society becomes more definite, reflective, and humane, as it
-acquires fixed laws and government, it increases the range of
-artificial selection; it supplants custom by statute, and remodels its
-inherited institutions.</p>
-
-<p>It is now animated by a new motive, the development of moral character
-in all the people. With reference to this new motive social selection
-is either direct or indirect. Direct selection is highly artificial,
-but it is only negative. It consists in segregating the degenerates to
-prevent propagation. Society cannot, of course, directly interfere
-with the marriage choice of normal persons, for that would be to choke
-the purest expression of personality. But it can isolate the two per
-cent who will never rise to moral responsibility. This would doubtless
-increase the wards of the state, but it is needed both for the reason
-already given and, more especially, to clarify the public mind on the
-causes of delinquency and dependency. As long as these evils can be
-charged to heredity the public is blinded to the share that springs
-from social injustice.</p>
-
-<p>The increase and classification of the custodial population here
-contemplated is a problem for administrative charity. Possibly the
-colony system would make that population mutually self-supporting and
-also remove the current sentimentalism against long isolation of the
-incurables.</p>
-
-<p>With the ground cleared of the true degenerates, the operations of
-indirect social selection can be seen. This also is artificial, but in
-a less mechanical way. It consists in so adjusting the political,
-industrial, and social environment as to affect personality, either to
-suppress or develop it. The two instruments are legal rights and
-education. For example, the tenement-house congestion, with its
-significant educational environment,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97">97</a></span> is the product of laws of
-property and taxation which favor owners and speculators instead of
-tenants, and of private property in rapid transit which puts a tax on
-exit to the suburbs. It cannot be said of this and other selective
-factors, such as the profit-making saloon, long hours of work, low
-pay, irregular employment, that they permit natural selection to
-operate. They suppress personality, which preëminently is the natural
-fact in the human being. Social selection is therefore tending to
-become less and less arbitrary, but is making room for a higher
-natural selection—a natural selection where not brute force and
-cunning are the fittest to survive, but where, with freedom, security,
-and equal opportunity, the human personality will work out its own
-survival. Man alone of all the animals can rise to the angels, but he
-alone can fall below the brutes. This is the glory and the penalty of
-personality. It becomes a unique selective agency whose standard is
-raised with the advance of civilization. The Australian cannibal,
-without opium, tobacco, alcohol, or syphilis, may survive with a low
-morality. The American exposed to these destroyers must be a better
-man or perish. Personality, thus becoming a keen selective principle,
-is based not necessarily on overpopulation and competition, but on
-that self-destruction which comes from vice, disease, and drunkenness.
-Its degraded offspring will perish or feed the ranks of the hereditary
-degenerates to be properly segregated and ended.</p>
-
-<p>But with education and opportunity the higher forms of human character
-will naturally increase and survive. With the independence and
-education of women sexual selection becomes a refined and powerful
-agent of progress. With the right to work guaranteed, the tramp and
-indiscriminate charity have no excuse, and the honest workman becomes
-secure in the training and survival of his family.</p>
-
-<p>We hear much of scientific charity. There is also a scientific
-justice. The aim of the former is to educate true character and
-self-reliance. The aim of the latter is to open the opportunities for
-the free expression of character. Education and justice are the
-methods of social selection. By their coöperation is shaped the moral
-environment where alone can survive that natural yet supernatural
-product, human personality.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page98" id="page98">98</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_11" id="article_11"></a>
-PSYCHIC OR SUPERMUNDANE EXPERIENCES.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY CORA L. V. RICHMOND.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">From</span> between ten and eleven years of age I have been endowed with
-gifts and favored with experiences that, I am well assured, are very
-exceptional, and that, until quite recently, have not been admitted to
-the realm of psychical investigation, philosophical discussion, or
-even human credence. Lately, however, there have been found a
-sufficient number of well authenticated facts in similar lines of
-experience to warrant the investigation and classification of them (if
-possible) under a modern name, “Psychic Research,” and under a well
-established and not so recent one, Spiritualism.</p>
-
-<p>I am not intending to discuss these subjects, <i>per se</i>, nor to
-endeavor to classify or explain the experiences I am about to relate.
-They are <i>experiences</i>, as real as any of those in my human or mundane
-existence; indeed, if I were called upon to decide that one is real
-and the other illusion, I should say without hesitation that these,
-and similar ones throughout my lifetime, are the real, and the
-ordinary mundane experiences unreal.</p>
-
-<p>At the age above referred to I was, without any seeking, and without
-any surrounding circumstances to “suggest” such a state, taken
-possession of (entranced) by intelligences, distinct personalities in
-thought, word, and action, who spoke through my organism, unfolded and
-educated my mind, in fact became my mental and spiritual instructors.
-The public discourses and teachings given under these conditions are
-well known to many of the readers of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>, as these labors are
-the work of a lifetime.</p>
-
-<p>It is not of this public work that I am constrained to write; but I
-may as well say here that I have had no other teachers, no other
-instructors, and have pursued no course of study or reading of human
-books; those whom I call my guides and guardians have been my
-teachers. During the time that these outside intelligences are
-controlling and speaking through my organism I am wholly unconscious
-of what is passing in human<span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" id="page99">99</a></span> life and wholly unaware of that which is
-being uttered through my lips. I am also unaware of the lapse of time.</p>
-
-<p>It may be best for me to here declare that I am not, in the usual
-sense, peculiar, nor was I different in my childhood from other
-children, save as each differs from the other. I was very diffident,
-and—not using the word in the psychical sense—sensitive. I was not
-given to morbid states or to the “dreaming of dreams.” Perhaps I was
-imaginative; most children are; and I loved fairy tales, but not
-unduly. This is simply to show that there was no abnormal condition of
-mind or body to produce the supernormal results that I have referred
-to.</p>
-
-<p>I ought also to say that I never made the slightest preparation for
-the discourses and poems given through my lips, many of which, as the
-reader may know, were listened to by able and thoughtful minds, and
-from them received the highest praise. I tell this, not boastingly,
-but with humble gratitude that I have been made the instrument of
-giving the message of immortality to the world.</p>
-
-<p>My own experiences during this period of entrancement, or while in the
-supernormal state, may be of peculiar interest to the reader, since
-they seem to be almost unique. While passing into this state I
-experience no physical sensations that are describable; a sense of
-being set free, of passing into a larger realm,—not of being
-transported or going anywhere,—is all that I can ever recall as
-sensation. Before I have time or opportunity to think how I feel, I am
-in the other state. Then I see, but I now know it is perception more
-than sight; I sometimes experience that which we call hearing in the
-human state, but I am fully aware; perception supersedes the senses.</p>
-
-<p>Those whom I meet are individualities; many are friends known to me in
-the form before they passed from the mortal state; many are those who
-were unknown to me personally, only known by name and fame; and many I
-have never known until they revealed themselves to me in this “inner,”
-“higher,” other realm. When returning to outward consciousness, I
-often see, or remember as sight, such visions of surpassing loveliness
-that no language, no gift of art, even with genius-portraiture, could
-describe or picture them. These scenes and visions are associated with
-individuals who exist in that state, and, apparently,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100">100</a></span> are objective;
-yet I am fully aware that they illustrate or depict the states and
-tastes of the individuals with whom they are seen, and are not organic
-physical forms, but psychic projections of the individual spirits.
-These forms and scenes readily pass and change according to the state
-of the one seeing them, or according to the state of the individual
-with whom they are associated. The “sphere” of a spirit, or of
-spirits, is the state or condition, not the environment.</p>
-
-<p>In early life, before my mind had thought on the “objective” and
-“subjective” meanings of thoughts and things, I thought these scenes
-were “objective” in the human, mundane sense. I am now perfectly aware
-that every sensuous faculty—seeing, hearing, etc.—is superseded by
-this “perception” to which I have before referred; in fact, that the
-bodily senses as well as the mental faculties—brain expression—are
-but the different avenues of perceiving and conveying the intelligence
-of the individual spirit while associated with material form, this
-perception, or awareness, being the one supreme state of the spirit.</p>
-
-<p>Still I have been shown series after series of beautiful
-scenes,—gardens, landscapes, visions of art, transcendent pictures of
-tint, form, and tone that no language can portray; and I am sure these
-abide for all who wish for or have need of them, and are the
-illustrations of the spiritual states of those with whom one comes in
-spiritual contact—<i>rapport</i>. Yet the greater the degree of
-perception, the less important become these illustrations of states;
-we not only see “face to face,” but perceive soul to soul. I became
-ashamed, almost, of the state of mind requiring these illustrations or
-any similar presentations. I found knowledge, however, in all the
-methods employed by my teachers, for they knew my needs.</p>
-
-<p>Conversation in that state is not by means of speech or even language;
-sometimes before the thought is formulated the answer comes. Such is
-the rare sympathy existing between teacher and pupil in this state
-that the guide knows before the question is formed. Still, there must
-be the conscious desire for knowledge, or no knowledge can be
-received; reminding one of the “Seek, and ye shall find” of the
-ancient Truth-Teller.</p>
-
-<p>When in that state I readily pass to a knowledge of what intimate
-friends in earth-life are doing and thinking. I even<span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101">101</a></span> enter into such
-<i>rapport</i> as to be aware of their material surroundings, their states
-of mind, and their bodily health, obtaining all this from their minds,
-not from physical consciousness or sensation. Many times they have
-been also conscious of my presence, and we have afterward verified
-these experiences by outward correspondence, mostly to satisfy our
-friends. One or two instances will suffice to illustrate this class of
-experiences.</p>
-
-<p>When I was yet a child, twelve years of age, my father accompanied me
-on one of my pilgrimages of spiritual work to western New York, our
-former home. During that visit or tour a circle for investigation and
-experiment was formed in Dunkirk, N. Y. After we returned to our then
-home in Wisconsin, I was one evening entranced,—as was usual,—and
-while in that state was distinctly conscious of being in Dunkirk, of
-seeing every member of the circle, with all of whom I was acquainted
-except one lady. She proved to be the seer of the evening. She saw me
-and described me so accurately that everyone in the circle recognized
-me, and, of course, thought I was dead. This so disturbed her mental
-or psychic state that I could not impress upon her mind that my body
-was entranced and that this was but one of my usual spiritual
-pilgrimages. On returning to my mundane state I narrated what I had
-experienced, and asked my father to write at once to the circle in
-Dunkirk and relieve their minds. He did so, but, as naturally would
-occur, they had also written, the letters crossing each other on the
-way, and their letter confirmed what I had told in every particular.</p>
-
-<p>Later in life I had a lady friend whom I repeatedly visited and
-comforted, for she was in great sorrow. One time I made her see my
-body, or its apparition, so plainly that she saw the dress in which it
-was clothed—precisely what I had wished, as it was the color she most
-liked to see me wear. Another friend in California became so
-susceptible to my presence that she wrote long letters from
-me—automatically—which I, in this state, dictated to her, thus
-rendering correspondence between us almost superfluous except for
-verification to our outward senses. My own mother was aware of my
-presence almost daily; and it was a curious fact that my telltale
-spirit would go to her and reveal the very things I wished to keep
-from her,—any little surprises or presents, or the time of my<span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id="page102">102</a></span>
-arrival home on a visit. However late the hour, I always found her
-ready with a warm supper to receive me. When arriving after the
-journey home she would say: “You came to me last night in spirit and
-told me you were coming in body.” All important things connected with
-my welfare she knew in a similar way.</p>
-
-<p>Two friends, Mr. and Mrs. B——, were extensive travellers. At one
-time they were absent three years, taking a tour of the Orient. We did
-not keep up a regular correspondence, as mutually our time was too
-much taken up with our respective duties or pleasures, but I could
-always locate them while I was in this “inner” state. At one time I
-saw them surrounded by what seemed more like a scene in the spirit
-state than in earth-life. They were on an island, surrounded by
-water-lilies; the skies were full of golden light, and they were amid
-pavilions, grottos, and altars of quaint and unique design. I could
-not place them, but on returning to my mundane state I related to my
-family what I had seen, and I wrote down the date. In about three or
-four weeks I had a letter from them dated at Tokio, giving a
-description of this very island I had seen; they were there on that
-very day when I saw them, and the island was as I had seen it. It
-proved to be one of the sacred islands in Japan.</p>
-
-<p>This consciousness of visiting earth friends is, however, only the
-smallest part of these inner experiences; and usually occurs when I am
-passing into or out of the deeper or more spiritual states. Although I
-could fill volumes with these interesting experiences,—verified by
-being shared with others in human life,—I feel it due to the reader
-that I narrate my more inner experiences; at least in sufficient
-degree that they may be recorded, and that there may be some
-perception, however inadequately expressed, of what is possible in
-this surpassing realm.</p>
-
-<p>I cannot pass from this subject of my visits to human friends,
-however, without here recording one other phase of this many-threaded
-line of experiences. While in this realm of spirit I often meet and
-converse freely, or commune, with friends that are yet in human forms,
-but who appear as spirits and seem to possess all the activities of
-the spiritual state. They meet and mingle freely with those who have
-“died” to human life, yet I<span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id="page103">103</a></span> am perfectly sure they recall nothing of
-this when in their human state. Why I should remember or take with me
-these experiences that the others whom I saw within this realm could
-not recall, I could not divine until it was explained by my guide.</p>
-
-<p>The explanation is this: “In sleep mortals pass into this realm for
-spiritual rest and change, as it is the normal realm of the spirit;
-but they do not pass through the spiritual awakening of the faculties
-as those do who are endowed with ‘spiritual gifts,’ therefore the
-experiences cannot be recalled <i>as experiences</i>; still, they sometimes
-have vague reminiscences or glimpses of ‘unremembered dreams’ that aid
-them throughout the whole day, often for days; and thus the outward
-life is sustained and fed from this realm. By and by the race will
-have spiritual growth to know and remember the experiences of the
-spirit as they now do of the human life.” I have frequently met those
-in that state who were strangers to me here, and who were still in
-human life; and in after years I have met them face to face in outward
-form, often wondering if they thought they had seen me before, as I
-was certain I had seen them. When the whole of this other side of
-human experience is made known, how many things now veiled will stand
-revealed! By far the greater number of volumes could be filled with
-those transcendent experiences referred to earlier in these pages,
-with friends in spirit states, with teachers and guides in their own
-realm.</p>
-
-<p>My mother, always intuitive, sympathetic, religious, and caring much
-for the sick and ailing while in earth life, I was accustomed to see
-in a sphere or state of her own near the “Healing Sphere” of one of my
-teachers. She was surrounded with her own favorite
-flowers—old-fashioned hollyhocks, sweet-williams, and fragrant
-healing herbs. My guide explained that in <i>her thought</i>, or spiritual,
-state she requires these things to aid her in healing or ministering
-to those on earth. Whenever I visited her state it seemed to be in the
-midst of scenery such as she loved on earth, and under a
-morning-glory-covered lattice, where she sat in a low chair like one I
-had seen her use in earth life. Though not limited to that state, she
-always revealed herself thus to me; and I would return to my earth
-state with a sense of homesickness, and with the odor of thyme and
-rosemary clinging to my <i>psychic olfactories</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page104" id="page104">104</a></span></p>
-
-<p>My father was interested in all the reforms of the day; he was a truly
-practical Christian, though not a professing one. He was looking for
-that ideal social state which we all hope is sometime coming, of
-“peace on earth and love to all.” His spirit state was revealed to me
-as among those arisen workers and reformers, whose work for humanity
-he loved and shared on earth, and learning of the wise ones,—a vast
-and wonderful sphere of individualities, who are still laboring for
-the good of humanity. I wished to know of my father, who passed out
-from the mortal form when I was thirteen years of age, and who was
-often my spirit teacher in my early life, why, after my mother had
-passed on, he was not always with her as in earth life. He replied,
-with a rare smile: “We are together; our work is different, but when
-we need each other we cannot be apart.”</p>
-
-<p>Singly or in groups, or as my needs seemed to require, I was aware of
-every relative and friend who had passed from mortal life, whom our
-mutual wish or need attracted toward me. I am sure there may be those
-related by ties of consanguinity whom I have not seen, and many
-related only by spiritual sympathy and kinship whom I have met and
-loved in that state.</p>
-
-<p>My babe, now a beautiful young woman in the spirit state, is my almost
-constant companion in those visitations and experiences. I have “seen
-her grow,” to use our mortal speech; have noted her spiritual
-unfoldment, and have many times been her pupil,—so wise are these
-“little ones” in the love of the angels, so sweet and simple is she in
-her teaching.</p>
-
-<p>How few know the real meaning of “nearness” as applied to those they
-love! One thinks of the friend whose bodily presence is removed by
-mountains, rivers, and oceans as being far away; yet London, China,
-and India are as near in thought as the chair beside one, and doubly
-near the one whose body may be sojourning there. This very nearness of
-sympathy debars any separation. If people would turn to the real
-indications,—sympathy, intuition,—whenever desired the friend is
-near. Doubly true is this of those who have passed the barrier of
-death and are revealed to the heart of love. They have not died, they
-have not gone; they are so near as not to be seen or felt by the
-grosser sense that governs the physical state of recognition; so very
-near that even the thoughts of the friend still<span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105">105</a></span> immured in the
-earthly form are shared by them, the very innermost longings responded
-to. Yet people unaccustomed to seek them in the inner instead of outer
-realm of existence, cannot find them, and say, “They are gone.” With
-space and time annihilated, what shall prevent the loved from being
-ever near?</p>
-
-<p>Teachers and guides bear a nearer relationship than those in human
-states, and teach by the magic law of adaptation and love. I cannot
-name, in earthly language, the tie that binds me to those who have led
-me through these many realms, who have taught by vision, illustration,
-and thought, until the awakened <i>perception</i> knew, the <i>a priori</i>
-knowledge came.</p>
-
-<p>I have often been conscious of visiting at desire a realm of music
-that led through the world of tone, through the spheres of matchless
-harmony in which the great masters of music abide,—Beethoven,
-Mendelssohn, Mozart, and to the divine realm of Wagner.</p>
-
-<p>The realm of art, leading through color and form to the images of
-perfect life, until form and tint and tone are merged in the supreme
-soul of beauty, and sculptured image or architectural grandeur is lost
-in the eternal, all-forming, all-changing changelessness of the Soul
-of Art.</p>
-
-<p>The realm of nature (the material universe), seen from the inverse
-side, appears to be the effect of causes that are in that realm of
-consciousness; laws that are the operation of the Supreme Will, the
-Logos. There science is reconstructed and made plain, and made secure
-by the knowledge of these fundamental principles.</p>
-
-<p>The realm of philosophy, traced to its primal sources, reveals the
-truths concerning universal knowledge, often perceived by the great
-teachers, but dimly stated by minds enshrouded by the environments of
-earth.</p>
-
-<p>The realm of religion,—the ineffable meaning of the All-Love and
-Wisdom; the nearness, the perfectness, the absoluteness of the Divine;
-the kinship of souls, the fraternity of spirits,—never in all this
-realm was there a thought, or teaching of thought, separate from a
-conscious individual entity.</p>
-
-<p>I find that there is no Time or Space in this inner realm; the entity
-is not governed by the limitations of the person, so the terms and
-usages of earthly existence must fall into desuetude.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" id="page106">106</a></span> One is not
-hampered by an ox-team while flying across the plains in a palace
-coach impelled by steam, and one does not need winter garments and
-furs in the tropics. The state of spirit needs no earthly day and
-night; all these are but incident to the physical earth and physical
-existence. The spirit is free from these limitations—time, space, and
-sensuous environment.</p>
-
-<p>It will be interesting for the reader to know that my physical health
-does not suffer from these experiences, nor from the active duties
-incident to my spiritual work in human life.</p>
-
-<p>I enter this spirit realm as naturally and easily as one enters the
-realm of sleep; yet it is not sleep. The body and brain are actively
-employed by another intelligence, loaned as an instrument might be,
-while the individual consciousness, the <i>ego</i> of the human being, is
-set free to visit these illimitable realms or states of the “inner,”
-the vaster, life.</p>
-
-<p>When the mundane consciousness returns, it is instantaneous; but the
-mental and physical sensations vary according to whether the
-experiences have been “near or far” from the human state, with
-reference not to distance, but to resemblance or similarity in
-quality. When the experiences have been furthest removed from those
-usual in human consciousness, many minutes, and sometimes hours, are
-required to adjust myself to the conditions. This inner state is far
-more intense, but not unlike that experienced when one has been wholly
-wrapped and folded from the outer world in perusing a favorite
-author—living with and experiencing the scenes depicted; or when one
-has listened for hours to the all-absorbing strains of music in the
-grand operatic creations of Wagner. On returning to the mundane state
-my food has often tasted like chips or straw; the fabric of my dress
-would feel coarse to the touch, as though woven of cords or ropes; and
-every sound seemed harsh or far too loud. Gradually these
-supersensitive conditions would depart, leaving the usual state of
-mind and body.</p>
-
-<p>I have said it is easy to pass into that state; not so easy is the
-returning to the human environment; yet one <i>must</i> return. Like the
-child bidden to the task, reluctant to leave the garden of flowers and
-the freedom of the outer world, yet, constrained by love and duty, one
-consents to return. I suspect that these sensations I experience, of
-return to the human state, are something<span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" id="page107">107</a></span> like those of resuscitation
-after one has been nearly drowned. The drowning is easy, because one
-is going into life; the restoration is painful, because one returns,
-if not to death, to mere existence. The work, the duty, the loved who
-are embodied here must win one to the form which has been loaned; but
-the spirit seems reluctant sometimes to leave that freedom and
-knowledge for the narrow walls of clay, the prison-house of sense. The
-only true way is to bring that realm with one into daily life. One
-learns after a time to do this: to clothe the earthly scenes with the
-inner brightness, and the human tasks with the spiritual aura of love
-and wisdom.</p>
-
-<p>I cannot judge whether the scenes of earth seem lovelier to me than to
-most mortals; whether there is more ravishing sweetness in the
-springtime, more glory in summer, more richness and beauty in the
-autumn, more rest and whiteness in the winter, more transcendent
-splendor in the sunset sky and glory in the starlit heavens. But it is
-certain that in being admitted to this inner realm the writer has not
-lost any blessing of earth,—of love, of home, of friends, of
-practical knowledge and interest in the daily duties and work of life;
-nor, I believe, can one be barred from any needed experience, however
-bitter. These teachings, visions, and experiences of soul-life have
-given to earth an exquisite beauty; to life’s work a meaning and
-impetus; to trials a lesson and interpretation; to the change called
-death a glory and radiance; to spirit states a nearness, and to soul a
-reality. Nor do these experiences rob one of one’s individuality; the
-petty <i>personality</i> to which mortals cling is, happily, forgotten or
-cast aside, but the <i>individuality</i> cannot be lost, merged in another,
-or governed, except for its good. When the <i>personal</i> is cast aside,
-one is grateful for the impersonality of the <i>individual</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Trailing clouds of glory accompany me across and into the barriers of
-time and sense, and when the sharp contrast is over—which the guide
-ever prevents from being too sudden—I realize the great sweetness of
-the gardens of paradise by the fragrance that is filling the earthly
-dwelling, and I know that being aware of the visitations of angels,
-and of somewhat of the light which is theirs, does not hinder, but
-helps human endeavor and accomplishment.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108">108</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_12" id="article_12"></a>
-THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CIVICS.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY HENRY RANDALL WAITE, PH. D.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p><span class="sc">The</span> standard represented by popular institutions will seldom be
-higher, and as time goes on may become lower, than that set for
-themselves by the majority of the people who established and are
-intrusted with the duty of maintaining them. They may represent noble
-aims and point to high ideals, but the extent of their duration and
-salutary influence must always be dependent upon a sufficient
-manifestation of the spirit which called them into being.</p>
-
-<p>Institutions and laws, however perfect in other respects, cannot,
-therefore, safely omit from their functions provisions for the
-fostering and developing of the spirit which gave them birth. This
-spirit, it is to be remembered, may, and too often does, without
-extinguishment, actually become a thing so much apart from the
-machinery which it has established, as to have little appreciable
-influence in controlling its operation.</p>
-
-<p>The institutions and laws of the United States, in their inception,
-represented the spirit of a people who were actuated by the highest
-concepts of human duty, and who sought to establish a political system
-which should realize the highest ideals. The possibilities of the
-system have been demonstrated by the experience of more than a hundred
-years. Functionally considered this experience has made painfully
-evident the failures which have attended the system in its operation.
-It is evident to every intelligent student of American history that
-these failures have been chiefly due to the fact that the spirit which
-gave life to the American Republic has too often and too far been
-supplanted in the control of its affairs by a spirit utterly hostile
-to that which it was intended to be, and which, if the partial or
-complete failure of the system is to be averted, must, everywhere and
-always, be dominant. It is undoubtedly true that citizens whose
-character and ability fit them for the service necessary for the
-proper control of political affairs, constitute a sufficient number in
-the voting population to assure the ascendency<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109">109</a></span> of right ideas if
-their efforts can be united for the purpose. The fact that intelligent
-and controlling convictions of duty are absent, and that they do not
-thus unite, however explained, clearly accounts for the subversion of
-the spirit which founded our institutions, and the ascendency of a
-spirit of chicanery, greed, and corruption.</p>
-
-<p>It is also evident that the political evils which challenge our
-attention are primarily due, not to faults in our institutions
-themselves, but to failures in the assertion of the spirit of true
-Americanism by which they are intended to be controlled. How to secure
-ascendency for this spirit and thus to restore, in every part of the
-republic, the sovereignty of highest manhood, is the most pressing
-problem which can engage the attention of patriotic and intelligent
-American citizens.</p>
-
-<p>For more than fifteen years this question has been a matter of
-profound interest to the writer. The fact that ordinary uprisings
-against political evils fail to accomplish permanent results, seemed
-to him to afford convincing evidence that attention must be given to
-the roots and not confined to the branches; and that this foundation
-work must represent patient, persistent, and unselfish efforts for the
-promotion everywhere of the basic virtues of true patriotism,
-intelligence, integrity, and fidelity in citizenship relations.
-Believing that this work could be best accomplished through a
-permanent national institution which should invite and command the
-coöperation of good citizens everywhere, regardless of party, creed,
-sex, or class, he sought the advice and coöperation of a few
-distinguished men in the preparation of plans for such an institution.
-The assistance sought was willingly extended by such citizens as
-Morrison R. Waite, William Strong, and S. F. Miller, then respectively
-Chief Justice and Justices of the United States Supreme Court; by
-Theodore Woolsey, Noah Porter, F. A. P. Barnard, Mark Hopkins, Julius
-H. Seeley, and Theodore W. Dwight, among educators; and by such other
-eminent Americans as U. S. Grant, William Fitzhugh Lee, Robert C.
-Winthrop, Hugh McCulloch, John J. Knox, Orlando B. Potter, A. H.
-Colquitt, George Bancroft, Hannibal Hamlin, John Jay, Right Reverend
-William I. Kip, David Swing, and Phillips Brooks.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110">110</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The result of conferences and correspondence with these and other
-citizens of like character led to the founding, in 1885, of the
-American Institute of Civics, which was subsequently chartered under
-the laws of Congress, and was dedicated to the service of promoting
-the qualities in citizenship which Washington sought to promote by his
-latest labors and final bequests, and which he, in common with
-Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison, believed to be necessary “to the
-security of a free constitution,” and to the welfare of the government
-and people of the United States. Its distinctive purposes are
-succinctly set forth in its charter as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>1. To promote on the part of youths and adults generally, without
-reference to the inculcation of special theories or partisan
-views, a patient and conscientious study of the most essential
-facts relating to affairs of government and citizenship, to the
-end that every citizen may be qualified to act the part of an
-intelligent and upright juror in all affairs submitted to the
-decision of the ballot.</p>
-
-<p>2. To promote, in the same spirit, such special attention to the
-study of Civics<a name="fn_marker_7" id="fn_marker_7"></a><a href="#fn_7" class="fn_marker">[7]</a> in higher institutions of learning, and
-otherwise, as shall have a tendency to secure wise, impartial,
-and patriotic action on the part of those who shall occupy
-positions of trust and responsibility, as executive or
-legislative officers, and as leaders of public opinion.</p></div>
-
-<p>Organized under such auspices and with such purposes it represents the
-only practical and sustained effort which has been made by the people
-of the United States for the realization of the aims above outlined;
-and with persistency of purpose and increasing usefulness it has for
-more than twelve years prosecuted its mission for the safeguarding of
-American institutions.</p>
-
-<p>Political conditions past and present clearly justify the views of
-Washington and his contemporaries, and the opinions of the Institute’s
-founders, as to the need of a central source of salutary influences in
-the form of a national institution wholly devoted to a propaganda of
-the principles and ideas comprehensively described in Washington’s
-words as “the fundamental maxims of true liberty.”</p>
-
-<p>The sole object of this national, non-partisan, non-sectarian,
-popular, and permanent institution, is to voice these maxims, to
-inspire the spirit and give force to the principles which should<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111">111</a></span> have
-supreme control in affairs of government, citizenship, and social
-order.</p>
-
-<p>What the national military establishments at West Point and Annapolis
-are intended to accomplish in the way of preparing a few citizens for
-useful service in times of war, it is the purpose of this popular
-civil institution, with patriotic insistency and through all available
-efficiencies, to aid in accomplishing through provisions for properly
-preparing all citizens for the highest service of their country at all
-times.</p>
-
-<p>In the accomplishment of its objects, it directs its endeavors not so
-much to the creation of new agencies as to the giving of inspiration
-and energy to those already existing; and in pursuing this wise policy
-it has been a most useful factor in establishing the solidarity and
-increasing the power of the influences which represent civic virtue
-and true patriotism.</p>
-
-<p>Its efficiencies include, beside its National Board of Trustees,
-composed of thirty-three members, and its advisory faculty, composed
-of twelve members, the following departments:</p>
-
-<p>1. Department for the extension of information and activities
-promotive of good citizenship, through which provisions are made for
-home studies, and for lectures, discussions, studies, etc., in
-connection with schools, lyceums, civic associations, labor
-organizations, and institute clubs; this work being carried on with
-the coöperation and under the supervision of councillors in the
-communities where they reside, and with the aid of a corps of
-lecturers now numbering more than two hundred.</p>
-
-<p>2. Department of Educational Institutions conducted in coöperation
-with State and local officers of public instruction, teachers in
-elementary and high schools, and members of faculties in nearly two
-hundred and fifty higher institutions of learning.</p>
-
-<p>3. Publication Department, through which the equivalent of nearly
-twenty million pages of octavo matter has been issued under its
-auspices.</p>
-
-<p>4. Department of Legislation, in connection with which councillors and
-citizens generally have efficiently aided in securing needed reforms
-in the administration of public affairs, the protection and elevation
-of the suffrage, and the conservation of the highest interests of
-citizens and the state in other respects.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112">112</a></span></p>
-
-<p>5. Department of Applied Ethics, in connection with which efforts are
-made to properly and efficiently enlist the great body of citizens,
-including youths as well as adults, who profess to be governed by the
-highest concepts of duty, in practical labors for the establishment of
-wise, just, and salutary civic and social conditions.</p>
-
-<p>It is obvious that an institution of this character cannot depend for
-its maintenance upon citizens of merely negative virtue, nor can it
-expect the sympathy of scheming politicians to whose plans and power
-it is in direct opposition. Its dependence must be solely upon the
-willing services and financial support of those members of the body
-politic who are animated by the spirit of Washington, and who believe
-that in matters affecting the highest interests of our free
-institutions, such as civic virtue and civic fidelity, formation is
-better than re-formation, and that to constantly maintain salutary
-political conditions is infinitely preferable to frequent and
-disappointing struggles with corruptible elements, which through
-neglect of civic duty have been permitted to secure controlling power;
-in other words, that it is better to safely guard our inheritance of
-freedom than to battle for its rescue from unworthy hands.</p>
-
-<p>The Institute admits to membership in its National Body of Councillors
-all citizens who are commended to its Board of Trustees, by those
-already members, or by other citizens of known high character, as
-worthy of such membership by reason of their ability to contribute in
-some degree to the accomplishment of its purposes. It does not solicit
-the membership of citizens whose political affiliations are such as to
-rank them among those who are contributing to the evils which it seeks
-to correct. Its councillors are asked to share in an undertaking which
-tests the character of their citizenship by offering no rewards for
-their coöperation. It has employed no paid officers and no paid agents
-for the solicitation of funds. The united activities of its members
-have enabled it, and it is believed will continue to enable it, to
-present in itself an eloquent object-lesson in patriotism and a potent
-appeal to the spirit in citizenship—the true Americanism—which it
-seeks to foster. Its contributing councillors are asked for annual
-remittances of sums of from $2.00 upward, in accordance with their
-financial ability<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" id="page113">113</a></span> and the degree of their interest in its work. Those
-contributing $3.00 or more annually are entitled to receive all of its
-own publications, and also <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>, whose aims are largely identical
-with its own, and through which its official announcements will
-hereafter be published.</p>
-
-<p>It will be seen that the degree of responsibility resting upon its
-councillors financially and otherwise is a matter for their own
-determination, and one which will be decided in accordance with the
-disposition of each to recognize the truth, that the patriotic and
-unselfish labors of those who have gone before us, and of which we
-enjoy the priceless benefits, have laid upon us a sacred obligation
-which we can discharge only by the performance of similar labors.</p>
-
-<p>The foregoing statements, however encouraging, are chiefly significant
-as indicative of what may be, rather than of what has been,
-accomplished. Gratifying as the results of the Institute’s work have
-been, they represent but a tithe of what it might have accomplished
-with a larger degree of moral and pecuniary support. The extent of its
-field and the magnitude of the labors necessary in order to make it
-widely and effectively useful, when compared with the resources at its
-command, have constantly presented difficulties which would have
-discouraged its officers but for their abiding confidence in the
-ultimate willingness of the American people to give to it the measure
-of support warranted by the importance of the objects to which it is
-devoted. It has been not inaptly compared to a noble piece of
-enginery, whose highest possibilities in the way of efficiency and
-usefulness cannot be realized because the fuel furnished is
-insufficient for the supply of motive power. Its highest possibilities
-are, in truth, little more than dreams, the fulfilment of which may
-not be realized in the lives of those who are now giving it such
-unselfish service as they find possible in the midst of other pressing
-occupations.</p>
-
-<p>The time must soon come when it will be necessary to make arrangements
-for the permanent establishment of its central efficiencies, with
-adequate provision for its maintenance, at some suitable point yet to
-be selected. The suggestion has been made by some of the most
-distinguished of its councillors, that the descendants of American
-patriots cannot more worthily<span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id="page114">114</a></span> honor the memory of their sires, or
-more effectively promote the safety and perpetuity of the institutions
-for which they battled, than by making it their mission to maintain
-the American Institute of Civics. The fact that it was conceived,
-established, and has been conducted in the spirit of truest
-patriotism, and the results which it has already accomplished through
-services rendered wholly in the spirit of the words upon its corporate
-seal, “Ducit Amor Patriæ,” would seem to prove its title to the
-confidence and support of all who are proud of the fact that their
-forbears have been among the founders and defenders of our American
-institutions. It may not be a vain hope that this thought will, in
-some manner and at some time, take definite shape, perhaps in the form
-of a national memorial building at the capital, devoted to the
-collection and preservation of material illustrative of the nation’s
-history and progress, and to memorials of its illustrious dead. As has
-been said elsewhere,</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Such a building, dedicated by enfranchised manhood to the cause
-of human freedom, may include a Hall of History and Civics, for
-the collection of appropriate relics, manuscripts, and books of
-colonial, continental, revolutionary, and subsequent periods; an
-Army and Navy Hall, devoted to exhibits illustrative of military
-and naval affairs, including battle-flags, arms, accoutrements,
-and similar material; a Memorial Hall, where the memory of
-illustrious Americans, statesmen, soldiers, philanthropists, and
-other great leaders, may be honored, and their memory perpetuated
-in statuary, paintings, mural tablets, and other appropriate
-ways, and which shall be to the people of America what
-Westminster Abbey is to the people of England—a place where the
-great exemplars of virtue, wisdom, and patriotism, the noblest
-citizens of the passing years, though dead, shall yet speak and
-have salutary influence, through successive generations; and a
-Hall of Instruction, which shall be the centre of the nation-wide
-activities of this noble American institution, and also of a
-school of civics to which American youth may come from every part
-of the land to avail themselves of exceptional opportunities for
-studies and investigations which shall qualify them for highest
-usefulness in the public service and in all the walks of
-citizenship.</p></div>
-
-<p>However this may be, the Institute, by its many years of patient,
-persistent, and, in view of the circumstances, remarkably successful
-activities, has established a claim upon the confidence and support of
-good citizens which must in due time receive suitable recognition.
-Further than this, these activities may be regarded as a necessary and
-fitting preparation for labors which shall be more fruitful in
-results, and in the hope of which those who have hitherto directed its
-affairs have found inspiration and encouragement.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115">115</a></span></p>
-
-<p>It has been truly said that,</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>If any honor attaches to the citizenship in which intelligent,
-loyal, and unselfish devotion to the highest interests of country
-are made paramount, the names of those who have united in efforts
-for the establishment of this Institute of Patriotism constitute
-a roll of honor. Its ability to fully realize its objects is
-dependent upon the number and the efforts of those whose names
-are upon this roll.</p>
-
-<p>Here is an opportunity for, and an appeal to, citizens of wealth.
-Money cannot be more worthily or wisely bestowed than in feeding
-the streams in whose life-giving power is the strength of the
-republic. Honorable names may find their noblest memorials by the
-gifts and endowments which shall forever connect them with this
-National School of Patriotism.</p></div>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116">116</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_13" id="article_13"></a>
-AN INDUSTRIAL FABLE.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY HAMILTON S. WICKS.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">The</span> King of a certain country, whose power was absolute and whose will
-was despotic, issued an edict that all the laborers of his dominion
-who were engaged in honorable toil should exchange places with those
-persons who did no work or were engaged in dishonorable or merely
-speculative avocations, so that the laboring man should fare
-sumptuously and the non-laborer poorly. Those who worked up in the
-sunlight on the tall buildings should sit down in the evening to
-bountiful banquets and should sleep in fine linen on luxurious
-couches; while those who crawled below in the bleak valleys between
-the beetling cliffs of architecture should go to frugal meals and
-sleep amid the rough surroundings of the abodes of the poor. The
-monarch reasoned that those who did the world’s work were more
-deserving of the good things of the world than were the idle or the
-vicious, however wealthy. He imagined that the world was turned upside
-down socially and economically, and he proposed to turn it back again
-by his royal fiat.</p>
-
-<p>Backed by his sword, “which is the badge of temporal power wherein
-doth sit the dread and fear of kings,” he apprehended no failure in
-his plans, which had been worked out in their minutest detail. His
-army was the largest of any nation, and was to a man devoted to its
-King. His genius had won many victories and extended the borders of
-glory. Through his impartial system of promotion men from the ranks
-had risen to be commanders. The soldiery were well fed, well housed,
-and well paid. A word, a nod, from their King would set in motion this
-mighty machine to crush out all opposition. Supplementing the military
-arm of his government the King had organized the most elaborate system
-of <i>espionage</i>, so that all secrets were open to him, and no
-whisperings in the street or the club but were conveyed distinctly to
-his royal ear by the microphone of his spy system. The press was
-gagged or inspired; the legislature was composed of fawning
-sycophants; his judiciary was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id="page117">117</a></span> merely a reflection of the royal will;
-and Holy Church itself displayed its purple robe and golden bowl but
-to ornament his processions or to hallow his feasts.</p>
-
-<p>Thus matters stood on the evening of the day this great social
-revolution was inaugurated. It fell out that a group of honest
-laborers were descending the elevator that carried the brick and
-mortar to the twentieth story of a certain downtown sky-scraper. While
-all of them knew of the edict of their King, none had taken it
-seriously or imagined for a moment that it would be carried into
-effect literally. On their arrival at the ground floor, a policeman
-stationed there stopped them and, motioning to an elegant equipage
-standing across the way, informed them that it was the King’s command
-that they should enter it and be driven to one of the avenue clubs
-which had been assigned for their accommodation. Into it they were
-thrust, dinner-pails and all. They had scarcely time to recover their
-equanimity, as they were rapidly whirled through one thoroughfare
-after another, till the avenue in question was reached and they were
-deposited in front of a stately brownstone mansion. Their coming had
-been expected, and the great doors swung open as they alighted, whilst
-a uniformed lackey motioned them to enter. Their astonishment was
-redoubled at the splendor of the interior furnishings. Each was
-assigned a room, where they were bathed and groomed and dressed in
-garments suitable for their surroundings. Dinner was served by the
-time they were ready, and into the glittering <i>salle à manger</i> they
-were duly ushered. A fashionable <i>table d’hôte</i> was a new sensation to
-every man of them, and they certainly astonished the <i>table d’hôte</i>.
-It (the <i>table d’hôte</i>) never realized before what it was to be fully
-appreciated. An evening of cigars, wine, and billiards followed; and
-then they stretched their tough and sinewy workmen’s legs between the
-whitest of silken sheets, spread over the springiest of hair
-mattresses, on the brightest of brass bedsteads. There we leave them
-to such dreams as their surroundings invited, to turn our attention to
-four bachelor brokers on the stock exchange, whose apartments at the
-club our bachelor workingmen were inhabiting.</p>
-
-<p>With as little thought of the reality of the great King’s edict as the
-workingmen themselves, they were sauntering forth from<span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id="page118">118</a></span> the exchange
-at the hour of 3 <span class="smcap">p. m.</span>, when they were pounced upon by a quarter score
-of stalwart policemen and landed inside a rough luggage conveyance.
-Baxter Street was a Garden of Eden compared to the slums to which they
-were driven, and they were finally sheltered in a dirty tenement that
-arose in a series of rickety stories to a dizzy height. Their
-fastidious taste would not permit them to indulge in sleep amid such
-commonplace surroundings, where the only furniture of their room
-consisted of two dirty beds and a filthy sink. So they sat up all
-night smoking the cigars they happened to have in their clothes when
-captured, and muttering deep curses against their eccentric ruler.</p>
-
-<p>The following morning the awakening of the laborers resembled that of
-Christopher Sly in “The Taming of the Shrew.” They were bewildered
-with astonishment at the appointments of their surroundings and the
-service of their attendants. A champagne headache was a natural
-accompaniment to the previous night’s drinking and gorging; so that
-fashionable “coffee and rolls,” though served in the most delicate of
-faïence, seemed but meagre fare upon which to commence the arduous
-labors of the day. At precisely 5:30 <span class="smcap">a. m.</span> the same carriage they had
-occupied the previous evening, with its crested panels, its liveried
-coachman, and its spanking span of bays, was at the door to convey
-them back to work.</p>
-
-<p>The same routine was substantially carried into effect each day, a
-natural consequence of which was that they became weary of their
-enforced luxury, and their hearts yearned for the humble living of
-their tenement, with its rough and hearty jollity, and its freedom
-from constraint and the supervision of lackeys, however well dressed
-or polite. In the case of the fastidious brokers kept under
-surveillance, tired nature at last, reluctant, yielded. There came a
-day, or rather a night, when even they were able to sleep—an uneasy,
-troubled sleep, it is true—amid the mean surroundings of the
-tenement.</p>
-
-<p>The determined will of the monarch so ordered affairs that the
-conditions under his edict were kept in force for many days. He
-proposed to give a thorough test to his quixotic ideas. The portion of
-the workmen was hard manual labor by day in the upper regions of air
-and light, and by night the relaxation of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" id="page119">119</a></span> enervating luxury; and the
-portion of the brokers was deep dejection, deep curses, and haggard
-sleeplessness.</p>
-
-<p>The culmination of this condition of unrest occurred at a great ball
-which another royal edict had blazoned forth to be given as a tribute
-to the laboring masses, and at which the non-producers would be
-compelled to assist, not indeed as menials, but as experienced
-advisers. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars at least would be
-expended on the pomp and glory of the occasion. The sage counsellors
-of state, men deeply versed in the lore of the past, were called
-together to devise costumes for the crude working people and to frame
-rules of etiquette for their behavior. The most elaborate descriptions
-appeared in the daily press of what was proposed. For weeks the vast
-preparations went steadily forward. Everything of luxury and ornament
-that the commerce of the empire sucked up from the farthest confines
-of the earth was made to minister to the great event.</p>
-
-<p>At last the auspicious day arrived. One of the grandest palaces of the
-King himself was the scene of the festivity. The costumes worn
-represented many of the great names of history, from Julius Cæsar to
-Napoleon Bonaparte, and from Cleopatra to Marie Antoinette. The height
-of the great occasion was reached somewhat after midnight when the
-<i>quadrille d’honneur</i> was announced. The great King sat upon a raised
-dais, or throne, the better to view the gorgeous pageant. A mighty
-fanfare of trumpets, which seemed to whirl the feelings for a moment
-into the forces beyond mortality, invited to the initial movements of
-the quadrille. It was as though an army with banners was about to
-launch its squadrons upon the foe in some majestic Friedland or
-Gettysburg. As the sound died away, there was a pause. The great King
-looked up in amazement, and stamping that foot whose heel had rested
-upon the necks of mighty potentates, now his willing vassals, he arose
-with frown black as midnight.</p>
-
-<p>Suffer me, O reader, to recall the elements of this unparalleled
-occasion: On the one hand, almost omnipotent power, backed by
-transcendent though wayward genius, a will that hitherto had never
-been balked, an unsullied prestige, a front of Jove to threaten and
-command, upon which great thought registered<span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" id="page120">120</a></span> every varying
-expression, one of the least of which would have endowed an ordinary
-prince with lasting renown. On the other hand, “fantastic compliment
-strutting up and down tricked in outlandish feather.” A motion from
-the hand of majesty, now fully erect, sent another mighty wave of
-martial music flying on invisible wings, in thousand forms, throughout
-every corridor. As this second summons for the masterpiece to be set
-in motion died away in turn, two bands of men detached themselves from
-the distant throng massed in the farthest background, and came slowly
-forward with bowed heads and deferential tread. At the same instant a
-hundred brilliant officers of the household stepped out of the
-corridors behind the King with drawn swords, and other hundreds
-crowded behind them prepared to do their master’s instant service.</p>
-
-<p>The Great Strategist comprehended the situation with a single sweeping
-glance of his eagle eye, and drawing himself up full height motioned
-his servitors with his left hand back into their concealment, while
-with his extended right hand he encouraged with benignant gesture the
-approach of the representatives of the people, who had shrunk back in
-dismay when the King’s guard sprang forth so abruptly. It was now seen
-that the approaching bands were composed in equal parts of the gaudily
-caparisoned workmen and their plainly dressed advisers. Each party
-bore in its midst an enormous roll, whose weight impeded anything like
-rapid progress. On arriving at the front of the throne, they deposited
-their burdens and then prostrated themselves before the King. When
-bidden to arise and state their purpose, a stalwart son of toil
-stepped forward in front of his comrades. He was attired in a $10,000
-costume, representing Henry of Navarre. This costume sat upon his
-rugged limbs as though they had been melted into it. The King gazed
-complacently upon his manufactured nobleman and bade him proceed.</p>
-
-<p>“August and Sovereign King!” thus began the blacksmith, for such he
-was when not intoxicated or attending a costume ball—“August and
-Sovereign King, I have been pushed forward by my fellows who have
-joined in this petition, with a vast multitude of their co-workers,
-similarly gorged with hateful luxury. They ask me to state plainly to
-your Majesty that they now know from actual experience how hollow and
-worthless<span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" id="page121">121</a></span> are all the glories of the merely rich, whose time is
-devoted to vain shows and in devising new delicacies for the palate.
-They beseech your Majesty that you, in accordance with your gracious
-pleasure, should restore them to their simple and humble paths of
-life, wherein they will dwell in reasonable contentment hereafter.”</p>
-
-<p>The workman ceased, and the spokesman for wealth and idleness stepped
-forward and pleaded his case very eloquently. He showed, in the
-petition which many thousands of his class had signed, that through
-their recent experience they all had been made to feel the weight of
-life as it rests upon those under them. He averred that he and his
-fellows were heartily sick of their lives thus ordered, and that they
-petitioned the King to send them beyond his confines, or place them in
-his army, or, better still, allow them to seek honorable employment in
-vocations more in accord with their taste and inclination.</p>
-
-<p>The King, esteeming that he had sufficiently disciplined the wealthy
-and had measurably cast out the “daimon of unrest” from the mind of
-labor, while at the same time he had given a notable illustration to
-all his people of the folly of outrunning too far the sentiments of
-your age, and the arrant rot of placing edicts upon the statute books
-that at once become a dead letter unless backed by despotic force, and
-feeling the security of his position, stood before his petitioners,
-lightly leaning on his left foot, with his right hand in the breast of
-his coat, and thus addressed them:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>“My people, the results flowing from my edict are not otherwise
-than I fully believed would result; I am satisfied at the real
-good that has been accomplished. Many there are who would like to
-see human nature changed by an equally absurd upheaval of the
-social fabric, which would instantly place the limbs of labor
-between cambric sheets and line their stomachs with sweetmeats.
-The truly wise base their expectations for the race upon no such
-sudden revolution, but rather see salvation for their fellows in
-a gradual and natural betterment of conditions, a growth upwards
-that can be maintained through all the spasms of reform, a
-lifting of the whole fabric of society by the great forces of
-education, faith, and persistency, which are and have ever been
-the architects of the race.”</p></div>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id="page122">122</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_14" id="article_14"></a>
-PLAZA OF THE POETS.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><big>REPLY TO “LOCKSLEY HALL SIXTY YEARS AFTER.”</big><br />
-BY BARTON LOMAX PITTMAN.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<div class="small">
-<div class="poem10"><div class="stanza">
-<p>Nay, my grandsire, though you leave me latest lord of Locksley Hall,</p>
-<p>Speak of Amy’s heavenly graces and the frailty of her fall,</p>
-<p>Point me to the shield of Locksley, hanging in this mansion lone,</p>
-<p>I must turn from such sad splendor ere my heart be changed to stone.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>While you prate of pride ancestral and the dead dreams of your youth,</p>
-<p>I, despite my birth and lineage, am a battler for the truth.</p>
-<p>To the work-worn, half-starved peasants of this realm my heart goes out—</p>
-<p>Those who, plundered and forgotten, find this life a ruthless rout.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>In the rustling robes of Amy bloomed the roses that had fled</p>
-<p>From the cheeks of pauper maidens forced into the brothel-bed;</p>
-<p>In her saintly smiles and glances flashed the sunlight that was shut</p>
-<p>By the iron-hand injustice from the cotter’s humble hut.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Nay, ‘tis wrong that we should range with science glorying in the time,</p>
-<p>While we force our brother mortals into squalor, need, and crime;</p>
-<p>Wicked we should pose as Christians singing songs to God on high,</p>
-<p>Heedless of his tortured creatures who in pauper prisons lie.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Christless is the crime of turning creed-stopped ears to teardrops shed</p>
-<p>By the women whom oppression robs of virtue for their bread.</p>
-<p>Satan’s blush would mantle crimson could he see the stunted child</p>
-<p>Slaving in our marts and markets, helpless, hopeless, and reviled—</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>See its pallid face uplifted from the whirling factory wheels,</p>
-<p>Tear-stained with the grief and anguish of a baby brain that reels,</p>
-<p>Tortured in life’s budding springtime, toiling on with stifled cries,</p>
-<p>Seeing, through its tears refracted, rippling cascades, azure skies;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" id="page123">123</a></span></p>
-<p>Skies and birds and flowery meadows made for children wealthy-born,</p>
-<p>While God’s outcasts, with their parents, robbed and drudging, live forlorn,</p>
-<p>Men in whom the fires of hope have sunk into a sordid spark,</p>
-<p>Mothers rearing helpless infants for the brothel’s dawnless dark.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>While this world seems far too crowded to provide us work for all,</p>
-<p>Acres spread their untilled bosoms, while the nations rise and fall.</p>
-<p>Nature’s storehouse, made for all men, is monopolized by some,</p>
-<p>Robbing labor of its produce, making almshouse, jail, and slum.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Side by side with art and progress creeps the haggard spectre, Want—</p>
-<p>Creeps the frightful phantom, Hunger, with its bloodless body gaunt.</p>
-<p>Wider, wider spreads the chasm ‘twixt the wealthy and the poor,</p>
-<p>Social discontent declaring that such wrongs cannot endure.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>And this yawning of the chasm is the curse of every race,</p>
-<p>As it saps and kills its manhood ere it reach the zenith-place;</p>
-<p>Spartan valor, Grecian learning, Roman honor had their day,</p>
-<p>But land plunder rose among them, dooming death by slow decay.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Shall we wait for evolution, let it right these monstrous wrongs,</p>
-<p>While the helpless, young, and tender writhe and groan ‘neath social thongs?</p>
-<p>Nay, ‘tis better all should perish in a battle for the right,</p>
-<p>Than let philosophic cowards keep us in this stygian night.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Locksley Hall has now a master who would claim the earth for all,</p>
-<p>Who would make the titled idler cease to rob his tenant-thrall;</p>
-<p>Wreck the Church and State if need be (better such in time will rise),</p>
-<p>But who from this glorious purpose nevermore will turn his eyes—</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Never, till the arms of nature clasp in joy her outcast child,</p>
-<p>Long since driven from the meadow and the dell and woodland wild,</p>
-<p>Till to each belongs the produce of his hand and heart and brain,</p>
-<p>And glad heralds of millennium thrill along our path of pain.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Though the world has piled its fagots round the great and good and brave;</p>
-<p>Thrust its Socrates the hemlock, scourged its Jesus to the grave;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id="page124">124</a></span></p>
-<p>Though its sneer has chilled the tender, and its frown has cursed the good,</p>
-<p>While its Nero sways the sceptre and its Emmett dies in blood;</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Yet in Truth there is a power that through ceaseless cycles slow</p>
-<p>Will inscribe the doom of Error in an ever-fadeless glow,</p>
-<p>That will trample on oppression, burst the chains and crush the throne,</p>
-<p>Rearing on the blood and ruin justice-reign from zone to zone.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Idealistic dreamer, say you? In your youth you once felt so?</p>
-<p>Well, I only pray life’s sunset, bowing down my head with snow,</p>
-<p>Shall not swerve me from my purpose, though the victor-laurels twine</p>
-<p>In my reach, and if forsaking my convictions they are mine.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Do not so condemn the realists, rhymesters, authors, and their way,</p>
-<p>Just because they point about us to the errors of to-day;</p>
-<p>Spare them, though they gaze not upward from our self-wrought piteous plight,</p>
-<p>For, though blinded and despairing, they are struggling toward the light.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Let the realist dip his falcon in the boiling blood of life,</p>
-<p>Tracing in heartrending horror all the hoary wrongs and strife,</p>
-<p>Till the world shall sick and sadden of its folly and its sin,</p>
-<p>Hearkening through the roar of traffic to the still small voice within—</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Voice which murmurs Christ’s own message as we circle round the sun:</p>
-<p>That, though greed and creed divide us, still humanity is one—</p>
-<p>One in all its godlike longing, one in all its hopes and fears,</p>
-<p>With its calvaries, scaffolds, hemlocks, and its seas of unshed tears.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Then this star of sorrow swinging through the vast immortal void</p>
-<p>Shall, regenerated, slumber while man’s heart is overjoyed,</p>
-<p>Thrilled with yearnings altruistic, triumphing o’er clods of clay,</p>
-<p>As we march into the love-light of the grand Millennial day.</p>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id="page125">125</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_15" id="article_15"></a>
-JOHN BROWN.</h2>
-
-<p class="author_byline">BY COATES KINNEY.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<p>The Great Republic bred her free-born sons</p>
-<p class="i2">To smother conscience in the coward’s hush,</p>
-<p>And had to have a freedom-champion’s</p>
-<p class="i2">Blood sprinkled in her face to make her blush.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>One Will became a passion to avenge</p>
-<p class="i2">Her shame—a fury consecrate and weird,</p>
-<p>As if the old religion of Stonehenge</p>
-<p class="i2">Amid our weakling worships reappeared.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>It was a drawn sword of Jehovah’s wrath,</p>
-<p class="i2">Two-edged and flaming, waved back to a host</p>
-<p>Of mighty shadows gathering on its path,</p>
-<p class="i2">Soon to emerge as soldiers, when the ghost</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Of John Brown should the lines of battle form.</p>
-<p class="i2">When John Brown crossed the Nation’s Rubicon,</p>
-<p>Him Freedom followed in the battle-storm,</p>
-<p class="i2">And John Brown’s soul in song went marching on.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Though John Brown’s body lay beneath the sod,</p>
-<p class="i2">His soul released the winds and loosed the flood:</p>
-<p>The Nation wrought his will as hest of God,</p>
-<p class="i2">And her bloodguiltiness atoned with blood.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>The world may censure and the world regret:</p>
-<p class="i2">The present wrath becomes the future ruth;</p>
-<p>For stern old History does not forget</p>
-<p class="i2">The man who flings his life away for truth.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>In the far time to come, when it shall irk</p>
-<p class="i2">The schoolboy to recite our Presidents’</p>
-<p>Dull line of memorabilia, John Brown’s work</p>
-<p class="i2">Shall thrill him through from all the elements.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id="page126">126</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_16" id="article_16"></a>
-DEMOS.</h2>
-
-<p class="author_byline">BY W. H. VENABLE, LL. D.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<p>America, my own!</p>
-<p class="i2">Thy spacious grandeurs rise</p>
-<p>Faming the proudest zone</p>
-<p class="i2">Pavilioned by the skies;</p>
-<p>Day’s flying glory breaks</p>
-<p class="i2">Thy vales and mountains o’er,</p>
-<p>And gilds thy streams and lakes</p>
-<p class="i2">From ocean shore to shore.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Praised be thy wood and wold,</p>
-<p class="i2">Thy corn and wine and flocks,</p>
-<p>The yellow blood of gold</p>
-<p class="i2">Drained from thy cañon rocks;</p>
-<p>Thy trains that shake the land,</p>
-<p class="i2">Thy ships that plough the main!</p>
-<p>Triumphant cities grand</p>
-<p class="i2">Roaring with noise of gain!</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Yet not the things of sense,</p>
-<p class="i2">By nature wrought, or art,</p>
-<p>Prove soul’s preëminence,</p>
-<p class="i2">Or swell the patriot heart;</p>
-<p>Our country we revere</p>
-<p class="i2">For that from sea to sea</p>
-<p>Her vast-domed atmosphere</p>
-<p class="i2">Is life-breath of the free.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Brown Labor, gazing up,</p>
-<p class="i2">Takes hope, and Hunger stands</p>
-<p>Holding her empty cup</p>
-<p class="i2">In pale, expectant hands.</p>
-<p>Brave young Ambition waits</p>
-<p class="i2">Thy just law’s clarion call,</p>
-<p>That power unbar the gates</p>
-<p class="i2">Of privilege to all.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id="page127">127</a></span></p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Trade’s fickle signets coined</p>
-<p class="i2">From Mammon’s molten dust,</p>
-<p>With reverence conjoined,</p>
-<p class="i2">Proclaim “In God we trust.”</p>
-<p>Nor doth the legend lie:</p>
-<p class="i2">The People, patient, bide,</p>
-<p>Trusting the Lord on high,</p>
-<p class="i2">To thunder on their side.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Earth’s races look to thee;</p>
-<p class="i2">The peoples of the world</p>
-<p>Thy risen splendors see,</p>
-<p class="i2">And thy wide flag unfurled;</p>
-<p>Kelt, Slav, and Hun behold</p>
-<p class="i2">That banner from afar,</p>
-<p>They bless each streaming fold,</p>
-<p class="i2">And cheer its every star.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>For liberty is sweet</p>
-<p class="i2">To every folk and age,—</p>
-<p>Armenia, Cuba, Crete,—</p>
-<p class="i2">Despite war’s heathen rage,</p>
-<p>Or scheming diplomat</p>
-<p class="i2">Whose words of peace enslave.</p>
-<p>Columbia! Democrat</p>
-<p class="i2">Of Nations! speak and save!</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>As mightful Moses led</p>
-<p class="i2">To Canaan’s promised land;</p>
-<p>As Christ victorious bled,</p>
-<p class="i2">Obeying Love’s command;</p>
-<p>So thou, Right’s champion,</p>
-<p class="i2">God’s chosen leader strong,</p>
-<p>Gird up thy loins! march on!</p>
-<p class="i2">Defend mankind from Wrong.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" id="page128">128</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_17" id="article_17"></a>
-THE EDITOR’S EVENING.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><b>Leaf From My Samoan Notebook.</b><br />
-(A. D. 2297.)</p>
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">In</span> that age (<i>siècle</i> XIX, <i>ad finem</i>) great attention was given on
-the continent of Am-ri-ka to increased speed in locomotion. Men and
-women went darting about like the big yellow gnats that we see at
-sundown on the western coast of our island when the bay is hazy. The
-whole history of that century in both Am-ri-ka and Yoo-rup might well
-be written around the fact of <i>transit</i>, for transit was the spinal
-cord of the whole social, civil, and political order. Man-life then
-seemed to oscillate more rapidly than ever before, as if in sympathy
-with the vibration of the universal ether.</p>
-
-<p>The struggle for the increase of speed began in the early part of the
-century referred to—about 1822. Scarcely had the wars of Na-Bu-Leon
-subsided when the matter of getting over the earth’s surface at a
-greater velocity was taken up as eagerly as if life consisted in going
-quickly to a certain point. Men, it would appear, had not yet learned
-that the principal aim of this existence is the <i>going</i>, and not the
-<i>getting there</i>. Then it was that the steam En-jo-in was invented. The
-Bah-lune had been frequently tried, but always with ludicrous or fatal
-results. A young man by the name of Dee Green once essayed this method
-in Am-ri-ka, with a most ridiculous catastrophe. A poem was written
-about the affair beginning thus—</p>
-
-<p class="center">
-An aspiring genius was Dee Green.</p>
-
-<p>For more than half a century locomotion by steam prevailed in
-Am-ri-ka, though it did not satisfy the demand for swiftness. When
-this method no longer sufficed, several expedients were found to
-<i>avoid</i> going anywhere. It was observed that the necessity of going
-depended upon the limitation of the human voice; that is, of hearing
-vocal utterances. The voices of human beings could not then be heard
-beyond a certain limit. To hear the voice of a man from Am-ri-ka to
-Ing-land was then thought to be impossible. The possessors of voices,
-therefore,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id="page129">129</a></span> had in that age to <i>get together</i> before they could
-communicate. True, there were some men upon whom this necessity did
-not rest, for they could be heard at a great distance. It might be
-noted, however, that this kind, called <i>Homo politicus</i>, had so little
-sense that nobody cared to hear them, so that their success in
-vociferation amounted to nothing.</p>
-
-<p>All the people of Am-ri-ka who were civilized spoke in a low tone, and
-any who cared to communicate must seek each other’s presence. This had
-been the reason for the old invention of E-pistol-ary correspondence.
-This method, however, was not satisfactory, since it required much
-time to say only a little, and since what was said in this manner was
-found so wide of the mark as to produce disastrous results. Society
-was, on this account, frequently rent with lawsuits, having no better
-foundation than a bundle of Let-yers.</p>
-
-<p>To avoid this trouble another invention, called the Far-talker (or
-Tel-ef-oan), was made; and by means of this conceit the people of
-Am-ri-ka could speak to one another many miles apart. The Far-talker
-was a remarkable sort of invention by which one merchant, by
-stretching a copper thread across the country to the ear of another
-merchant, could talk to him <i>through the wire</i>. The other merchant
-could reverse and talk back! Sometimes a young woman would tiptoe up
-to the box where the wire ended and say the most absurd things to her
-favorite fop down-town; this was often overheard. People had not yet
-learned the method of understanding each other’s thoughts without the
-ridiculous contrivance of speech, written scratches, wires, and
-Fo-ny-grafs.</p>
-
-<p>It was at this time that men, in their effort to carry themselves from
-place to place, seem to have taken the first hints from nature. It was
-remembered that <i>between</i> swimming and flying, and <i>between</i> flying
-and walking, certain forms of locomotion, quite rapid withal, are used
-by our poor relatives on land and sea. Thus the flying-fish rises from
-the water and shoots, quite parabolically, for some distance through
-the air. The genus Cheiroptera also gives a hint of progress by means
-of wings that are not made of feathers. The flying lemur, nearly akin
-to <i>Homo bifurcans</i>, shows how one may rise and go by a sort of aërial
-progress along the ground.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page130" id="page130">130</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Out of these hints the men of Am-ri-ka, at the epoch of which we
-speak, sought inventions by means of which they might keep close to
-the ground for safety, but otherwise fly; for the age was very fast!
-Under these conditions some Unknown Man invented what was called the
-By-sigh-kel. It was a sort of flat-sided, rotary ground-skimmer, very
-thin and notorious. It came coincidently with another invention called
-the Trol-lee. The latter was an electrical wagon for general travel in
-cities and suburbs, while the By-sigh-kel was a personal carriage for
-one or possibly two. The passenger in this case had to start his
-machine and then jump on. The propulsion was effected by a pump-like
-action of the legs, very tiresome and elegant. The passenger generally
-leaned forward in a position strongly suggestive of the favorite
-attitude of his arboreal ancestors. It was the peculiarity of the
-Trol-lee that it made a sort of humming roar as it went that sounded
-like a hundred prisoners groaning in unison; but the By-sigh-kel made
-no noise in going except in collisions and wrecks. The latter were so
-frequent that a whole cycle of restorative arts had to be undertaken
-of which the principal was dentistry. At the close of the century
-there were few front teeth remaining—except artificials.</p>
-
-<p>Many accounts of the Age of the By-sigh-kel and Trol-lee have been
-preserved among the old records of Am-ri-ka, and traditions of it are
-found in the antiquarian papers of other countries. We have seen
-pictorial representations made by Fo-to-graf-ure of scenes from the
-age referred to. The streets of extinct cities are found pictured in
-this way. There was an instrument called the Cow-dack which was used
-in taking pictures in an instantaneous manner, so that the scene would
-look like life.</p>
-
-<p>A busy street, thus pictured, in that time, shows many Trol-lees
-rushing by, filled with merry people. Along the side-ways scores of
-passengers are seen, mounted on their ‘Sigh-kels, going in divers
-directions at full speed. The passengers present many aspects; for
-riding the ‘Sigh-kel was an art which had to be acquired; and by some
-this could not be done—at least not gracefully done. Many tried, but
-few were chosen. Two classes of people suffered much in this
-particular, namely, the very fat and the very bony. Those whom nature
-had favored in form<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id="page131">131</a></span> and feature, and who had acquired the art of
-sitting upright, look well enough in these old pictures of a past age.
-But the clumsy and obese, the slender and angular people may well be
-laughed at even through the shadowy retrospect of four centuries.</p>
-
-<p>One of the ‘Sigh-kel machines was made <i>double</i>; and an old cartoon
-which is now before me gives to this kind the name of Tan-doom. On
-this men and women frequently rode together, the woman going before,
-for that was the age in which the woman, becoming new, showed her
-newness by being forward.</p>
-
-<p>Nor may we leave these reminiscences of a bygone age without
-reflecting upon the absurdities of our ancestors, who had not yet
-imagined the ease and excellence of our own method of locomotion by
-skimming at will the surface of the earth. The facile beauty and
-natural art with which we now rise from the ground and propel
-ourselves by our own thought and wish to any distance—thus
-vindicating our superiority to all other creatures in our method of
-excursion—are facts so obvious and ever-present that we fail to
-reflect upon the impediments and hardships of the people of Am-ri-ka
-and indeed of the whole world in the nineteenth century….</p>
-
-<p>Thinking on these things I can but imagine that I have myself seen
-them in some previous epoch of my existence. The facts which I have
-recorded appear dimly, as if in memory of what I once beheld; but the
-vision of it is so obscure that I still doubt whether it be dream or
-reality. I have long imagined that we retain from one epoch of our
-existence to the next a vague recollection of our experiences in the
-remote ages of the past. I sometimes think that it is not impossible
-that I myself, in some forgotten avatar, used to sit alone at the
-window of my office, looking into the street of one of the old towns
-of Am-ri-ka where the Trol-lees were going one way and the
-By-sigh-kels the other way, crossing and darting hither and yon,
-according to the wills of the riders; but the vision is so dim that it
-looks like the fictions of sleep.</p>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p class="heading">Vita Longa.</p>
-
-<p>The question is not how long this bodily life may last, or how long
-the mind, so conditioned, can endure. It is not even<span class="pagenum"><a name="page132" id="page132">132</a></span> how long the
-mind may continue to produce; for the mind, like a poor,
-half-exhausted field, urged with rain and fertilizers, may produce
-only potatoes, mullen, and cockle. The real question—the deep-down
-essence of it—is how long the mind, or soul, may retain the
-enthusiasm and passionate power of <i>creation</i>. That is the only true
-test of longevity; and when that ceases there is nothing left. The
-real duration of man-life is measured only by the persistency of
-creative power.</p>
-
-<p>Longfellow, standing in the old pulpit, on the fiftieth anniversary of
-his class at Bowdoin, and saying to those who would introduce him, “I
-wish the desk were large enough to conceal me all,” makes a beautiful
-section of this theme by citing some of the most inspiring instances
-of the long life of the soul:</p>
-
-<div class="small">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<p>Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles</p>
-<p>Wrote his grand Œdipus, and Simonides</p>
-<p>Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers,</p>
-<p>When each had numbered more than fourscore years;</p>
-<p>And Theophrastus at fourscore and ten</p>
-<p>Had but begun his “Characters of Men;”</p>
-<p>Chaucer at Woodstock with his nightingales,</p>
-<p>At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;</p>
-<p>Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,</p>
-<p>Completed Faust when eighty years were past:</p>
-<p>These are indeed exceptions; but they show</p>
-<p>How far the Gulf Stream of our youth may flow</p>
-<p>Into the arctic regions of our lives,</p>
-<p>Where little else than life itself survives.</p>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Measured by this test of creative power and its persistency, how
-variable is the duration of human life! Sometimes the creative power
-appears in early youth; but when that happens there is generally an
-early surcease. Sometimes the power comes late and remains long.
-Sometimes it flashes forth in the early morning and remains in the
-after twilight. Estimated by years this productive power (which goes
-by the name of genius) sometimes reaches only to a few score moons.
-Sometimes it reaches to a score of years. Sometimes, though rarely, it
-extends to three-score years or more.</p>
-
-<p>Thomas Chatterton went to a suicide’s grave in Potter’s Field when he
-was only seventeen years, nine months, and four days of age. I know of
-no other case of so great precocity; it is beyond belief. His mind had
-been productive for about three years. Byron’s productive period
-covered sixteen<span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133">133</a></span> years—no more. Pope began at twelve and ended at
-fifty-six.</p>
-
-<p>In our own age, Tennyson has done well. Making an early effort to
-begin, he, like Dryden, did not really reach the creative epoch until
-he was fully thirty. His creative period covers about fifty-nine
-years. It extends from “A Dream of Fair Women,” in 1833, to “Crossing
-the Bar,” in 1892.</p>
-
-<p>The best example, however, in the history of the human mind, is that
-of William Cullen Bryant; that is, Bryant has real creations that lie
-further apart in time than can be paralleled, so far as I know, in the
-case of any other of the sons of men. The date of “Thanatopsis” is not
-precisely known. It belongs, however, to the years 1812-13. Bryant was
-then eighteen—in his nineteenth year. Add to 1812 sixty-four years
-and we have 1876, the date of the publication of the “Flood of Years.”
-The two poems in question lie apart in production by the space of
-fully three-score and four years. It is a marvel! And why not?</p>
-
-<div class="small">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<p>To him who in the love of nature holds</p>
-<p>Communion with her visible forms,</p>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>why should not life, productive life, enthusiastic fruitful life, be
-extended until its last acts of creation, shot through with the
-sunshine of experience and wisdom, shall flash in great bars of haze
-and glory over the landscape of the twilight days?</p>
-
-
-<p class="heading">Kaboto.</p>
-
-<div class="small">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<p>Old John à Venice in his cockleshell</p>
-<p class="i2">Breasted the salt sea like an Englishman!</p>
-<p class="i2">He saw the bleak coast of the Tartar Khan</p>
-<p>To left-hand in the distance. “All is well!”</p>
-<p>He cried to Labrador. The roaring swell</p>
-<p class="i2">Bore him to shore, whereon his hands upran</p>
-<p class="i2">The Lion flag and flag republican</p>
-<p>Of the old Doges’ wave-girt citadel.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Dominion and Democracy are ours!</p>
-<p class="i2">From the first day unto the last we hold</p>
-<p class="i4">To Liberty and Empire! We shall be,</p>
-<p>Under the Star-flag, for eternal hours,</p>
-<p class="i2">Even as Cabot’s two flags first foretold,</p>
-<p class="i4">Both free and strong from mountain crag to sea!</p>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page134" id="page134">134</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_18" id="article_18"></a>
-A STROKE FOR THE PEOPLE.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p><span class="sc">Here</span> is a message for all: <span class="smcap">From and after the issuance of the number
-for July the regular subscription price of The Arena, the Magazine Of
-the People, will be reduced to</span> $2.50 A YEAR. The reasons for this
-reduction are not far to seek. The stringency of the times, the
-hardships of the people,—their lack of money, the decline in the
-prices of their products, the relentless grip of the mortgages on
-their homes,—and the absence of any symptom of present relief from a
-Government under the domination and dictation of the money power, have
-induced the managers of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> to bear their part of the common
-burden and distress, and to express in a practical way their
-sympathies with the masses by reducing the price of the magazine to
-the lowest possible figure consistent with its maintenance at the
-present standard of efficiency and excellence.</p>
-
-<p>One of the immediate causes and suggestions of this course will be
-found in the following private letter written to <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> by a plain
-Kansas farmer. We have obtained his permission to use his letter as an
-appeal to the public:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p class="right">
-“<span class="smcap">Sylvan Grove, Kansas</span>, May 22, 1897.</p>
-<p>“<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>.</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>: I enclose my subscription for <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> for the
-current year. The only reason for my tardiness in doing this is
-pinching, grinding poverty. If we farmers do not assist the <span class="smcap">Old
-Arena</span>, so loyal to our interests, we shall deserve the fate many
-of us have already accepted; that is, the doom of serfdom under
-the club of plutocracy.</p>
-
-<p>“We, at <i>our</i> home, are straining every nerve and denying
-ourselves of almost the comforts of life for the purpose of
-meeting our mortgage that falls due on the first of July. Our
-farmers here in the West are divided into four classes:</p>
-
-<p>“<i>First.</i> Those who have failed to meet even the interest on
-loans, who have been closed out, and are now renters, often, of
-the very farms which they once fondly hoped to make their own.</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Second.</i> Those who are still paying interest or keeping the
-companies at bay in the courts until one more crop may ripen, but
-without any well-founded hope of saving their homes.</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Third.</i> Those who are skimping, pinching, almost starving to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" id="page135">135</a></span>
-pay their mortgages. I belong to this class. I still struggle
-with the incubus.</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Fourth.</i> A very few who wisely have never encumbered their
-homes. I have given the classes in the order of their numerical
-importance.</p>
-
-<p>“I live in the beautiful little West Twin Creek valley about
-seven miles in length. There are but two pieces of unencumbered
-property in the valley; one belonging to a poor widow, and the
-other to a bank president. Thirty-five per cent of the farms have
-already passed into the hands of mortgagees; many of the
-remainder have changed hands, shifted under renewals and various
-expedients to avoid the ruination of closing out. This is more
-than an average well-to-do community, selected from this or any
-other central county of Kansas. We are realizing to the full that
-‘Beneficent Effect of Falling Prices’ which was so ably set forth
-(from his standpoint) by Dean Gordon in <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> for March. If
-all people were out of debt, falling prices might not work so
-great injustice. But when a vast majority of the people are in
-debt, and heavily in debt, and when a man talks of the blessings
-that fall from falling prices, the conviction is forced upon us
-that the killer of fools in his annual round has missed one
-conspicuous example. The trouble is, our dollar of debt, instead
-of decreasing, has more than doubled in its power as compared
-with labor and the products of labor. Meanwhile our Solons talk
-glibly of ‘vested rights,’ ‘corporate rights,’ etc., strenuously
-objecting to squeezing the water out of their stocks, while they
-have by legislation for the last thirty-five years remorselessly
-squeezed the <i>value</i> out of our property.</p>
-
-<p>“When our debts were contracted the values of everything were
-double what they now are. I could then have sold my farm for
-three thousand dollars; now, although it has been much improved,
-it would go a-begging at one thousand dollars. Perhaps there is
-not as much distress in our country as there was three or four
-years ago. People have adjusted themselves somewhat to their
-straitened circumstances, and a few are becoming actually
-reconciled to their condition! I heard one man who had recently
-failed in business as a grain-dealer say, ‘Well, Cleveland is
-right on this money question; we want a money good in Yurrup or
-any other part of the world.’ As I looked at the battered hat of
-this personage, at the split toes of his shoes, the ragged elbows
-of his coat, and the rents in his demoralized nether garments, I
-could but ejaculate, ‘May the Lord have mercy on your ignorant
-soul! what does it matter to <i>you</i> what kind of money they use in
-Europe?’</p>
-
-<p>“We are now taking the advice of Governor Morrill, who says: ‘If
-you cannot get seventy-five cents a day, work for fifty cents.’
-Our Republican speakers advise us to dress plainly, live the
-same, and work still harder. We are told to ‘stop running around
-to Alliances and picnics.’ We have taken this advice. <i>We had to
-take it!</i> But we have now reached the bottom. We can curtail our
-dress no further without making our garb identical with our
-complexion. We cannot further reduce our rations and live. We
-cannot extend<span class="pagenum"><a name="page136" id="page136">136</a></span> the hours of labor, for most of us have already
-adopted the blessed eight-hour system; that is, we work eight
-hours <i>before</i> dinner and eight hours <i>after</i> dinner.</p>
-
-<p>“However, Kansas is coming to the front again. Since the mortgage
-companies are willing to do business once more our Governor is no
-longer ‘ashamed of the State.’ Occasionally a Republican
-politician squirms and kicks as the pressure is turned on. The
-eloquent and volcanic Ingalls breaks out at intervals. In these
-eruptions he pours lava upon his party in fine style. But he does
-not break out often enough!</p>
-
-<p>“The most serious bar to the progress of reform is that the
-people are too poor to pay for reform papers and magazines; out
-of these they might get the truth. The publishers of such are
-unable to send their periodicals for less than cost. Not so the
-party in power. Thousands of people get complimentary copies of
-the gold-bug papers, and other thousands get them for a nominal
-sum. Somebody pays for them. Who?</p>
-
-<p>“I have been pleased with <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>, both old and new. I first
-subscribed to it in order to get ‘The Bond and the Dollar,’ which
-I consider the most succinct exposition of the American money
-question ever written. No publication that I am acquainted with
-equals <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> as an educator. I wish you godspeed in your
-efforts for the betterment of our people and of humanity in
-general. I hope (almost against hope) for the peaceful solution
-of the difficulties that now beset our beloved country.</p>
-
-<p class="ltr-close">“Sincerely yours,</p>
-<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">A. Biggs</span>.”</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>Moved by the foregoing communication and scores of others of the same
-purport, and knowing the truth of what the honest producers (who are
-the very blood and sinew and soul of this Republic) say of their
-trials and of the wrongs to which they have been mercilessly subjected
-for years, <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> has decided to share the common lot. With the
-people we shall stand or fall. Let all who <i>can</i> rally, therefore,
-rally to the support of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>, and the management will try to show
-the nation what a great and free American magazine devoted to American
-interests and American democracy really is, and will be, in the battle
-for human rights.</p>
-
-<p>Address all subscriptions and all other business communications to</p>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;"><span class="smcap">John D. McIntyre</span>,</span><br />
-<span style="margin-left: 18em;">Manager of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>,</span><br />
-<span style="margin-left: 22em;">Copley Square, Boston.</span><br />
-</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137">137</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_19" id="article_19"></a>
-BOOK REVIEWS.</h2>
-
-<div class="small">
-<p>[<i>In this Department of</i> <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> <i>no book will be reviewed which is
-not regarded as a real addition to literature.</i>]</p></div>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p class="heading">The Emperor.<a name="fn_marker_8" id="fn_marker_8"></a><a href="#fn_8" class="fn_marker">[8]</a></p>
-
-<p>At the hour when, on the evening of the first day of this century, the
-first asteroid was discovered by Piazzi at Naples, an
-olive-complexioned man was sitting smileless in a box in the opera
-house in Paris. He sat back where nobody could see him. It was his way
-not to be seen—except on business.</p>
-
-<p>The man was thirty-one years, four months, and sixteen days of age. He
-had already done something. If he had not equalled the work of
-Alexander at the corresponding age, he had at least surpassed Cæsar;
-for Cæsar at thirty was still a comparatively unknown roué in Rome.</p>
-
-<p>The figure in the opera box was slender and trim. He who sat there was
-only five feet, four and a half inches high; but his head was fine,
-heavy, symmetrical. His features twitched when he was disturbed, but
-were beautiful when he smiled. To a profound observer he looked
-dangerous. He had the faculty of making his face signify nothing at
-all. He had been begotten an insular Italian, but was born a
-Frenchman. His wife, a Creole, more than six years older than he, was
-in the box with him. She sat at the front, and was seen by thousands.
-She <i>wished</i> to be seen; and when the pit shouted in the direction of
-the box she smiled a little smile, with a puckered mouth—for her
-teeth were not good.</p>
-
-<p>The birthplace of this man had been oddly set on the map of the world,
-for the meridian of Discovery and the parallel of Conquest intersect
-at the birthplace of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. The birthlines of Cæsar and
-Columbus—drawn, the one due west from Rome, the other due south from
-Genoa—cross each other within a few miles of Ajaccio! It is a
-circumstance that might well incline one to astrology.</p>
-
-<p>About the birth of great men cycles of fiction grow. Friends and
-enemies alike invent significant circumstances. The traducers of
-Napoleon have said that he was illegitimate—that his father was the
-French marshal Marbœuf. They also say, on better grounds,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" id="page138">138</a></span> that the
-marriage of Letitia Ramolino to Carlo di Buonaparte was not solemnized
-until 1767—that the first two children were therefore born out of
-wedlock. On the other hand, the idol-worshippers would fain have
-Napoleon born as a god or Titan. Premature pangs seize the mother at
-church. She hurries home, barely reaching her apartment when the
-heroic babe is delivered, without an accoucheur, on a piece of
-tapestry inwrought with an effigy of Achilles! This probably occurred.
-It was the 15th of August, 1769.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, as it were before the Corsican saw the light of day in this
-world, dispute began about him. It has been continued for a hundred
-and twenty-eight years. Whatever else he succeeded in doing—whatever
-else he failed to do—he at least did succeed in dividing the
-civilized world into two parties; he made himself the subject of a
-controversy which has not ceased to the present hour. The reason, no
-doubt, is that we do not as yet understand human history and the part
-which the individual plays in the progress of events. Nearly all men
-begin with a prejudice in judging all other men, and nearly all men
-end as they begin. So it has been in the case of Bonaparte. After a
-while we shall see things more clearly; after a while we shall be able
-to interpret <i>men</i>—but not yet.</p>
-
-<p>The writings relative to this man constitute a cycle. The books on him
-and his times make a library, the perusal and study of which might
-absorb a large section of an active life. The name of such productions
-is legion. Most of them will fortunately perish. The controversial
-aspect of the life of the Emperor must at last subside. Nine out of
-ten of the books about him will go down to the nether oblivion. Then
-the judicial aspect will arise—if it has not already arisen—and will
-occupy the attention of those who are still curious to study the
-career of him who shares with the son of Philip and the matchless
-Julius the triune honor of being the greatest warriors known to human
-history. If a fourth should be added to the group it would be
-Hannibal, and if a fifth, Charlemagne.</p>
-
-<p>Here at the date of a century from those days in which the star of
-Napoleon emerged from the mists and clouds and began to climb the sky
-the interest in his life revives. In America this revival is
-attributable in part to general and in part to special causes. The
-general causes are to be found in the fact that society <i>de la fin de
-siècle</i> is in such a state of profound disturbance, and the existing
-order feels so insecure, that that order—as it always does—begins to
-cast about in the shadows to find, if it may, some Big Man with a
-Sword; him when found we will make our Imperator, and by sharing some
-of our estates with certain of his military subalterns we<span class="pagenum"><a name="page139" id="page139">139</a></span> will make
-sure of the rest—and after us the deluge. The special cause—at least
-in America—is the tremendous and growing tradition of General Grant.
-Albeit, General Grant hated the Bonapartes, from the Great One to the
-Little One; yet his own luminous setting has left a glow in which the
-nation sees men as trees walking—and among these the greatest
-simulacrum is Napoleon Bonaparte.</p>
-
-<p>Of this man, who began as the son of a Corsican peasant-mother working
-in a mulberry orchard, and who, after fifty-one years, eight months,
-and twenty days, ended in a cyclone on the rock called St. Helena,
-having meanwhile for nearly a third of his life bestridden western
-Europe like a colossus,—a new biography claiming to be the ultimate
-summation of the Emperor’s life and character has appeared. Professor
-William Milligan Sloane, of Princeton University, has entered the
-lists which may be said to have opened with Walter Scott and finished
-with the McClure Syndicate, passing meanwhile by way of such
-personages as De Staël, Las Cases, Victor Hugo, and Lanfrey, and such
-drudges as Bourrienne and Méneval, to lodge at last with the
-miscellaneous hacks who get three dollars a column for their
-boiler-plate philosophy in American newspapers! Heavens, what a
-scrimmage!</p>
-
-<p>It were difficult to say when the <i>final</i> biography of a man has been
-produced. Hard, hard is it to decide when anything in this world is
-final. The never-ending progress of events shapes and readjusts not
-only the present materials of history, but also by reaction the
-materials of the past. Much that is supposed to be complete is seen to
-be unfinished; the done becomes undone, and the peroration of an epoch
-has to be rewritten for an exordium.</p>
-
-<p>This is as true of the individual lives of men as it is of great
-events. If the ages have to be reconstructed, so also must the men of
-the ages. If only a mummy now turn over in his porphyry sarcophagus, a
-papyrus is generally found under him; and the finder, with the papyrus
-in his hand, may go forth fully warranted to revise every event from
-the first cataclysm of the Devonian age to the last earthquake in
-Java, and every man from Moses to Cagliostro.</p>
-
-<p>On the whole I incline to the opinion that Professor Sloane has
-brought the Emperor Napoleon to a kind of final interpretation; I will
-not say to a full stop, but to something very much resembling a
-period. In the first place, I offer on the “Life of Napoleon
-Bonaparte,” the eulogium that the work has, in a great degree,
-<i>naturalized</i> the Corsican as he was never naturalized before—thus
-bringing him out of cloudland and mere impossible fog to the plain
-level of human action and purpose.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page140" id="page140">140</a></span></p>
-
-<p>This is much. In accomplishing thus much Professor Sloane has
-vindicated his claim to be regarded as a great biographer. It has been
-the bane of nearly all biographical writing that the subjects of it
-have been completely mythologized. Thus far in the history of mankind
-biography might be defined as the art of myth-making. I scarcely know
-what exceptions to cite to this universal vice except only and always
-Boswell’s “Life of Samuel Johnson.” As for American biographies thus
-far produced, there is scarcely a single example of a work which is
-not to be classified as a recorded myth. The trouble in all this
-business has been that the myth-makers, living in a certain
-atmosphere, have imagined that they are obliged to make their
-characters conform to the established antecedents of greatness. These
-established antecedents of greatness have for the most part been
-created out of superstitions, credulities, blank idealism, and mere
-dogmatic bosh. No living, active men have ever conformed, or could
-conform, to the standards which the logicians, the philosophers, and
-the priests have fixed up for them; and if any of them should conform
-to such a standard, their place under classification would be with
-automata, not with living men.</p>
-
-<p>Nevertheless, our biographers have been so weak and servile as to make
-their characters according to this pattern. One character is labelled
-Washington, another is labelled Franklin, another is labelled Adams,
-and still another, Lincoln.</p>
-
-<p>All this, I think, Professor Sloane has studiously avoided. As a
-literary doctor he has done much to destroy the mythical disease. He
-has written an elaborate work in which the man Napoleon moves and
-acts, neither as an angel nor as a devil, but as a man, moved upon and
-moving by the common human passions, though inflamed, in his case, to
-a white heat in the furnace of his ambition.</p>
-
-<p>All this was to have been expected in view of the plan of Professor
-Sloane as expressed in his preface:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>“Until within a very recent period,” says he, “it seemed that no
-man could discuss him [Napoleon] or his time without manifesting
-such strong personal feeling as to vitiate his judgment and
-conclusions. This was partly due to the lack of perspective, but
-in the main to ignorance of the facts essential to a sober
-treatment of the theme. In this respect the last quarter of a
-century has seen a gradual but radical change, for a band of
-dispassionate scientific scholars have during that time been
-occupied in the preparation of material for his life without
-reference to the advocacy of one theory or another concerning his
-character. European archives, long carefully guarded, have been
-thrown open; the diplomatic correspondence of the most important
-periods has been published; family papers have been examined, and
-numbers of valuable memoirs have been printed. It has therefore
-been possible to check one account by another, to cancel
-misrepresentations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" id="page141">141</a></span> to eliminate passion—in short, to establish
-something like correct outline and accurate detail, at least in
-regard to what the man actually did. Those hidden secrets of any
-human mind which we call motives must ever remain to other minds
-largely a matter of opinion, but a very fair indication of them
-can be found when once the actual conduct of the actor has been
-determined.”</p></div>
-
-<p>From this point of view Professor Sloane has proceeded with his
-tremendous work. His studies at home and abroad have been ample. We
-may remark, in passing, upon the physical vigor of the author as shown
-in his portrait. From such a face and figure we can but expect energy,
-persistency, accomplishment. I do not pretend to disclose the reasons
-of Professor Sloane for indulging in this prodigious Napoleonic dream
-and for delineating it in what is likely to be regarded as the best
-product of his intellectual career. We can only take what he has
-produced and give it such cursory notice as our space will permit.</p>
-
-<p>The first volume of the work extends from a survey of the conditions
-under which Napoleon was born and reared to the conclusion of his
-twenty-eighth year. The first events depicted are those historical
-movements in which the Bonapartes, within the narrow limits of their
-island, were involved in the seventh decade of the eighteenth century;
-and the last event recorded in this volume is the fall of Venice, at
-the end of May, 1797. I incline to regard this as the most
-interesting, though not the most important, of the four great volumes
-of Professor Sloane’s work. In the nature of the case the ascendant of
-a man is the more inspiring part. In it he appears as an orb whose
-full majesty, not yet revealed, solicits the imagination and kindles
-by sympathy the ambitions that in some measure are common to us all.
-Here in volume I is portrayed the youth of the man Napoleon Bonaparte.
-In this he is revealed in the full charm of that electrical audacity
-which had as yet lost none of its sharpness and burning flash. Nor had
-Napoleon, as a <i>man</i>, as yet become sufficiently involved with the
-general maze of history, sufficiently immersed in the storm-cloud of
-that tempestuous epoch, to be lost from view. This volume shows the
-man emerging from boyhood into the full career of a military
-conqueror. It shows him in his magical transformation from the
-character of an adventurer into the character of a leader of armies
-and a dictator of events. It also shows Napoleon with the still fluid
-heart of boyhood passing through the lava floods of his first loves,
-in particular his love for Josephine, into the age of cynicism and
-calculation.</p>
-
-<p>This first volume brings sufficiently to memory the progress of the
-youthful Napoleon. Here we see him at his mother’s knee;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id="page142">142</a></span> then in the
-time of his school days; then in Paris and Valence; then as a neophyte
-author, quite absurd in his dreams; then on garrison duty, and then
-swept away with the tides of the oncoming revolution. In the smoke of
-the South his slender figure is seen here and there until he emerges
-at Toulon. In his character of Jacobin he becomes a general in the
-army at a time of life when most men are happy to be lieutenants. Then
-for the first time he touches the revolutionary society of Paris. He
-meets Josephine; Barras delivers her to the coming man. They are
-wedded, and from that date the stage widens, the wars in Italy break
-out, and the young general begins to whirl his sword at Mantua,
-Arcole, and Rivoli—from which he was wont to date his military birth,
-saying on that occasion, “Make my life begin at Rivoli;” and finally
-at Montebello and Venice, where, in the late spring of 1797, he is
-joined by Josephine. There from the French capital they seemed to
-stand afar as the cynosure of all revolutionary eyes, expecting a
-greater light.</p>
-
-<p>In the second volume Professor Sloane begins with the rescue of the
-Directory. Hard after we have the great episode of the Treaty of Campo
-Formio, and then the expedition to Egypt. The story of that expedition
-is known through all the world; so also the return, and the overthrow
-of the Directory.</p>
-
-<p>From that day Bonaparte became the embodiment of the revolution. He
-became a statesman and a strategist. He found himself in the
-geographical and historical storm-centre of Europe. Then came the
-epoch of great wars. Marengo marks the close of the old century, and
-the treaty of Lunéville the beginning of the new. Napoleon undertakes
-the pacification of Europe, and reorganizes France. He steps
-cautiously towards the restoration of monarchy. There is a
-life-consulate, transforming itself quickly into an empire. The old
-royalism is extinguished, and the new military imperialism is
-glorified in its stead. The third coalition of Europe succeeds the
-second. Trafalgar strews the sea with the wrecks of France, and
-Austerlitz strews the land with the wrecks of Russia and Austria. The
-sea is virtually abandoned by the man of destiny, but over the land he
-rises as War-lord and Emperor.</p>
-
-<p>The second conflict breaks out with Prussia and ends with the ruin of
-that power at Jena and Auerstadt. The year 1806 sees the parvenu
-emperor, now thirty-seven years of age, the master of all the better
-parts of Europe. Here ends the second volume of his life, according to
-Professor Sloane’s division, and the third begins with the devastation
-and humiliation of the Prussian kingdom.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" id="page143">143</a></span></p>
-
-<p>In this volume the author views Napoleon for the first time as the
-arbitrary diplomatist of the West. It is evident that from this time
-the emperor’s vision widens to a more remote horizon than he had ever
-scanned before. The Berlin decree was issued. The battle of Eylau was
-fought, and then was achieved the victory of Friedland. Nor may we
-pass without noticing the acme which Napoleon, according to the
-judgment of many, now reached on that memorable field. Here it is that
-art has caught and transmitted him. For it is in the trodden
-wheat-field of Friedland that Meissonier’s pencil has delineated
-Napoleon with his marshals around him, in one of the greatest pictures
-of the world.</p>
-
-<p>By this epoch ambition in the emperor had swallowed up all other
-passions. He goes on from conquering to conquest. The dream of a
-French Empire, coextensive with the borders of Europe, seizes the
-Napoleonic imagination. The emperor’s armies strike left and right.
-They are seen first on one horizon, then on another. The Corsican on
-his white horse is now upon the Pyrenees, now on the Germanic
-frontier, and now in Poland. He faces Alexander of Russia, and laughs
-at him! His gray coat and three-cornered hat become the best known
-symbols of military genius in modern times.</p>
-
-<p>Kingdoms and principalities are transformed. Already the mythical
-Roman empire has passed away. Austria is threatened with extinction.
-The Corsican is seen first in one and then in another of the ancient
-capitals of Europe. Aspern follows Eckmühl, and Essling and Wagram
-follow Aspern. The treaty of Schönbrunn promises peace to the nations,
-but the hope is broken to the lips. In this crisis Josephine goes down
-in the shadows, and the daughter of Austria is led to the imperial
-chamber—this from the necessity of establishing a dynasty. The
-relations between France and Russia are strained to breaking. The
-fatal year 1812 comes, and there is a congress of kings. Alexander
-gives his ultimatum, and the invasion of Russia is begun. There is an
-indescribable struggle on the Moskwa, and then the flames of Moscow
-are seen across the deserts of Russian snow.</p>
-
-<p>The fourth and last volume begins with the return of the allied armies
-from Russia. Then follows the universal revolt of the nations.
-Insurrection breaks out on every horizon, and treachery, as might have
-been expected, is added to the combinations that are rapidly formed
-against the imperial Corsican. The borders of France are broken in.
-There is a narrowing rim of fire bursting into battle flame here and
-there; and then the catastrophe of the capture of Paris. There is an
-ambiguous abdication and an equivocal<span class="pagenum"><a name="page144" id="page144">144</a></span> exile of a few months’ duration
-to Elba. It was much like the establishment of a live lion on
-Governor’s Island!</p>
-
-<p>The lion got away. Then came an instantaneous upheaval of old
-revolutionary France, which had now become imperial France. The
-Emperor was welcomed home as a returning god. The country was drained
-to the last drop of its resources, and everything was staked on the
-final strategy of the Hundred Days and the hazard of the
-ever-memorable battle.</p>
-
-<div class="small">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<p>“There was a sound of revelry by night,”</p>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>and then the imperial eagle was seen stretched upon the plain, pierced
-through with the shafts of banded nations. He was caged and
-transported to that far rock which in his school-essay at Autun he had
-described thus: “St. Helena is a <i>small</i> island!” He found it so. For
-nearly six years his captivity continued until his stormy career ended
-in a May hurricane that might well have shaken the desolate
-foundations of his ocean-girt prison. Then the historical tide rolled
-on without him. France was transformed into the old image, but her
-soul was still imperial. At last the bones of her great dead were
-recovered, to be placed at rest in that red-black sarcophagus over
-which the world looks down and wonders.</p>
-
-<p>Such is the fiery but fruitful chaos through which the life-line of
-Napoleon is drawn with a master hand by Professor William Milligan
-Sloane. My judgment is that, on the whole, he has produced the
-greatest biographical work which has yet appeared in American
-literature. I think that in the main his accomplishment has been equal
-to his ambition. It is not an unworthy thing that an <i>American</i>
-professor, at the seat of an <i>American</i> university, turning his
-energies to this great task, has succeeded in making a well-nigh final
-record of the life and work of that unequalled organizer, that sublime
-dissembler, that cruel reformer, that heartless philanthropist, who,
-for half a lifetime, converted old Europe into a mire of murder and
-desolation, for the ultimate good of man.</p>
-
-<p>Only one thing may be said in adverse criticism of Professor Sloane’s
-book, and that is, that his style is too mathematical and too little
-imaginative for the subject which he has in hand. His rather cold
-precision, however, we concede to him; for it is, no doubt, the
-natural method of his expression. We do our part to acknowledge and
-welcome the remarkable work which he has produced, and to commend it
-to all readers as the best existing and best probable account of the
-personal and historical career of Napoleon Bonaparte.</p>
-
-
-<hr class="full" />
-
-<div class="footnotes">
-
-<h2 id="footnote_heading">Footnotes</h2>
-<ol>
-<li><p><a name="fn_1" id="fn_1"></a>
-It will be recollected that Macaulay has pictured a New
-Zealander of some future day as sitting upon a broken arch of London
-Bridge, contemplating the ruins of St. Paul’s cathedral; and readers
-of the classics may recall the forecast of Seneca in the time of Nero,
-as to the discovery of a Western continent by which Rome should be
-dwarfed: “In later ages the time shall come when the ocean shall
-loosen the chains which bind us, a mighty continent shall be
-disclosed, and a deity shall unveil a new world beyond Britannia.”
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_1">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_2" id="fn_2"></a>
-Those who have followed the course of events in Japan
-since the beginning of the new era will remember that upon the return
-of Prince Iwakura, in 1873, from his around-the-world embassy, Mr.
-Yeto had to withdraw from the cabinet, owing to a difference of
-opinion between him and the Prince with regard to the Corean problem
-then pending. Returning to his native province, Saga, he tried to
-raise troops against the government (to carry out, of course, his own
-convictions in regard to the Corean problem), resulting in the famous
-“Saga rebellion” of 1873. Defeated by the government troops, he betook
-himself to the interior of the country in disguise, was arrested,
-found guilty of treason, and executed according to law. It is a
-familiar saying in Japan that Mr. Yeto died a criminal at the hand of
-his own Penal Code.
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_2">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_3" id="fn_3"></a>
-I make mention of these two gentlemen as representative
-of two classes of a fairly large number of Japanese lawyers, viz.,
-those who have been educated in the United States, and those who have
-received their education in England. Mr. Hatoyama is a D. C. L. of
-Yale. For nearly ten years (1880-1889) he was a professor of law in
-the University of Tokio Law School, and during most of this time he
-was also Dean of the school. Mr. Hoshi is a barrister-at-law of one of
-the English Inns of Court. For many years he was regarded as the
-leader of the Japanese bar. Like many distinguished members of the
-English bar, he is more of a lawyer than of a jurist.
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_3">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_4" id="fn_4"></a>
-I refer to Professors Hodzumi, Tomii, and Ume. Prof.
-Hodzumi is a barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple, and is one of the
-ablest representatives of English law in Japan. Prof. Tomii is a
-<i>Docteur en Droit</i> of the Facility of Lyons, and is by far the ablest
-expounder of the French codes in Japan. Prof. Ume, though a bearer of
-the same degree from the same Faculty as Prof. Tomii, has attended
-several German universities, and is more of the German school than of
-the French. The Commission itself consisted of several other
-distinguished personages, with the Prime Minister at the head. But
-these three professors composed what was called the “Compilation
-Committee,” so that practically they were the Commission.
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_4">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_5" id="fn_5"></a>
-Prof. Ume, a member of the Commission, is responsible for
-these statements so far as they relate to the codes and laws
-consulted. The classifications, however, are my own.
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_5">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_6" id="fn_6"></a>
-This may be a mere conjecture on my own part. It is
-possible that the Commissioners never consulted his book, though to
-assert such a thing of them would be an insult to their scholarship.
-Be it as it may, it is a fact beyond question that their arrangement
-of these topics presents a remarkable coincidence to that of Prof.
-Holland’s, and this is a matter upon which every thoughtful Japanese
-may well pride himself.
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_6">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_7" id="fn_7"></a>
-Defined in the Standard Dictionary as follows: “The
-science that treats of citizenship and of the relations between
-citizens and the government: a new word directly derived from the
-adjective <i>civic</i>, introduced by Henry Randall Waite.”
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_7">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_8" id="fn_8"></a>
-“Life of Napoleon Bonaparte.” By Willian Milligan Sloane,
-Ph. D., L. H. D.; Professor of History in Princeton University. Four
-volumes, imperial octavo; pp. 1120. New York: The Century Company.
-Boston: Balch Brothers, 1896.
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_8">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-</ol>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="full" />
-
-<div class="transcribers_note">
-<p class="heading">Transcriber’s Notes:</p>
-
-<p>Every effort has been made to replicate this text
-as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings
-and other inconsistencies.</p>
-
-<p>The transcriber made these changes to the text to correct obvious
-errors:</p>
-
-<ol>
-<li>p. 6 over-capatalized —> over-capitalized</li>
-<li>p. 18 successfull —> successful</li>
-<li>p. 23 benovelent —> benevolent</li>
-<li>p. 60 ecocomists —> economists</li>
-<li>p. 76 staightforward —> straightforward</li>
-<li>p. 94 abnormalties —> abnormalities</li>
-<li>p. 124 desparing —> despairing</li>
-<li>p. 144 stategy —> strategy</li>
-</ol>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="full" />
-
-<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30081 ***</div>
-</body>
-</html>
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> + <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Arena Magazine, July, 1897, edited by John Clark Ridpath</title> + <style type="text/css"> + body {font-family:Georgia,serif;margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;margin:2em 0em;} + h2.close {margin: 0em 0em;} + pre {font-family:Courier,monospace;font-size: 0.8em;} + sup {font-size:0.7em;} + hr {width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + hr.short {width:25%;} + hr.close {margin: 0em 0em;} + ul {list-style-type:none;} + div.small {font-size:95%} + span.sidenote {position: absolute; right: 1%; left: 87%; font-size: .7em;text-align:left;text-indent:0em;} + span.sc {font-variant:small-caps;} + span.smcap {font-variant:small-caps;} + .smcap {font-variant:small-caps;} + .article_author{text-align:right;font-variant:small-caps;width:45%;} + .article_section{font-weight:normal;} + .article_title{margin-top:4em;} + .author_byline{text-align:center;font-size:90%;} + .subtitle{font-weight:normal;margin:0;} + .quotation {text-align:justify;text-indent:0em;margin-left:8%;margin-right:8%;font-size:90%;} + .fn_marker{font-size:0.75em;vertical-align:top;margin-left:2px;font-weight:normal;} + .footnotes{font-size:80%;} + .fn_return {position: absolute; right: 2%; left: 87%;text-align:right;font-size:80%;} + .fn_subhead {font-style:italic;} + .quotation table td{width:50%;padding-top:0.5em;vertical-align:top;} + span.pagenum {position:absolute;left:3%; right:87%;font-size:0.7em;font-style:normal;color:gray; background-color:inherit;} + .transcribers_note { + margin: 5%; + padding: 0.25em; + font-size: 0.8em; + background-color: #E6F0F0; + color: inherit; + } + .cen {text-align:center;} + .rgt {text-align:right;} + p.lft {text-align:left;} + p.clear {clear:both;} + p.center {text-align: center;} + p.heading {text-align:center;font-weight:bold;} + p.right {text-align:right; margin-right:5%;} + p.ltr-close {text-align:left; margin-left:55%;} + .center table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align:left;} + table {margin-top: 0em; caption-side:top; empty-cells:show; + border-spacing:0.0em 0.0em;font-size:90%;} + td {padding-bottom:0.0em;} + td.sc {font-variant:small-caps;} + td.indent {text-indent: 4em; text-align:left;} + td.left {text-align:left; text-indent:0em; padding-left:2em;} + td.right {text-align:right;} + .poem {margin-left:20%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem10 {margin-left:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem10 .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem10 p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i0 {margin-left: 0em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;} + .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.i10 {margin-left: 5em;} + .poem p.i12 {margin-left: 6em;} + .poem p.i14 {margin-left: 7em;} + a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none;background-color:inherit;} + a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none;background-color:inherit;} + a:hover {color:red;background-color:inherit;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30081 ***</div> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<h1>THE ARENA.</h1> + + +<h4>EDITED BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL. D.</h4> + +<p><br /></p> + +<h3>VOL. XVIII</h3> + + +<p><br /></p> + +<h4 class="smcap">July to December, 1897</h4> + +<p><br /></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">published by</span><br /> +THE ARENA COMPANY<br /> +<span class="smcap">Boston, Mass.</span><br /> +1897</h5> + +<p><br /></p> + +<h5 class="smcap">Copyrighted, 1897<br /> +by<br /> +THE ARENA COMPANY.</h5> + +<p><br /></p> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Skinner, Bartlett & Co.</span>, 7 Federal Court, Boston.</h5> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">iii</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + + + + +<div class="center"> +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr><td class="right sc" colspan="3">Page</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_1">The Citadel of the Money Power:</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent"><a href="#article_1">I. Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future</a></td><td class="right sc">Henry Clews</td><td class="right">1</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent"><a href="#article_2">II. The True Inwardness of Wall Street</a></td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">9</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_3">The Reform Club’s Feast of Unreason</a></td><td class="right sc">Hon. Charles A. Towne</td><td class="right">24</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_4">Does Credit Act on Prices?</a></td><td class="right sc">A. J. Utley</td><td class="right">37</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_5">Points in the American and French Constitutions Compared</a></td><td class="right sc">Niels Grön</td><td class="right">49</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_6">Honest Money; or, A True Standard of Value: A Symposium.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#article_6">I. William Jennings Bryan</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">57</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#HOWARD">II. M. W. Howard</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">58</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#BARKER">III. Wharton Barker</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">59</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#FONDA">IV. Arthur I. Fonda</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">60</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#WARNER">V. Gen. A. J. Warner</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">62</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_7">The New Civil Code of Japan</a></td><td class="right sc">Tokichi Masao, M. L., D. C. L.</td><td class="right">64</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_8">John Ruskin: A Type of Twentieth-Century Manhood</a></td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">70</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_9">The Single Tax in Operation</a></td><td class="right sc">Hon. Hugh H. Lusk</td><td class="right">79</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_10">Natural Selection, Social Selection, and Heredity</a></td><td class="right sc">Prof. John R. Commons</td><td class="right">90</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_11">Psychic or Supermundane Forces</a></td><td class="right sc">Cora L. V. Richmond</td><td class="right">98</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_12">The American Institute of Civics</a></td><td class="right sc">Henry Randall Waite, Ph. D.</td><td class="right">108</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_13">An Industrial Fable</a></td><td class="right sc">Hamilton S. Wicks</td><td class="right">116</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_14">Plaza of the Poets:</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="left indent"><a href="#article_14">Reply to “Locksley Hall Sixty Years After”</a></td><td class="right sc">Barton Lomax Pittman</td><td class="right">122</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left indent"><a href="#article_15">John Brown</a></td><td class="right sc">Coates Kinney</td><td class="right">125</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left indent"><a href="#article_16">Demos</a></td><td class="right sc">W. H. Venable, LL. D.</td><td class="right">126</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left" colspan="2"><a href="#article_17">The Editor’s Evening: Leaf from My Samoan Notebook (A. D. 2297); <i>Vita Longa</i>; Kaboto (a Sonnet)</a></td><td class="right">128</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_18">A Stroke for the People: A Farmer’s Letter to The Arena</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">134</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Evolution: What It Is and What It Is Not</td><td class="right sc">Dr. David Starr Jordan</td><td class="right">145</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Has Wealth a Limitation?</td><td class="right sc">Robert N. Reeves</td><td class="right">160</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Battle of the Money Metals:</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">I. Bimetallism Simplified</td><td class="right sc">George H. Lepper</td><td class="right">168</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">II. Bimetallism Extinguished</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">180</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Segregation and Permanent Isolation of Criminals</td><td class="right sc">Norman Robinson</td><td class="right">192</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">How to Increase National Wealth by the Employment of Paralyzed Industry</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">200</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Open Letter to Eastern Capitalists</td><td class="right sc">Charles C. Millard</td><td class="right">211</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIII.</td><td class="right sc">Prof. Frank Parsons</td><td class="right">218</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Provisional Government of the Cubans</td><td class="right sc">Thomas W. Steep</td><td class="right">226</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">A Noted American Preacher</td><td class="right sc">Duncan MacDermid</td><td class="right">232</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Civic Outlook</td><td class="right sc">Henry Randall Waite, Ph. D.</td><td class="right">245</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">“The Tempest” the Sequel to “Hamlet”</td><td class="right sc">Emily Dickey Beery</td><td class="right">254</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Creative Man</td><td class="right sc">Stinson Jarvis</td><td class="right">262<span class="pagenum"><a name="pageiv" id="pageiv">iv</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">The New Woman</td><td class="right sc">Miles Menander Dawson</td><td class="right">275</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Under the Stars</td><td class="right sc">Coates Kinney</td><td class="right">275</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">The Cry of the Valley</td><td class="right sc">Charles Melvin Wilkinson</td><td class="right">276</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">A Radical</td><td class="right sc">Robert F. Gibson</td><td class="right">277</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: Our Totem; <i>Vive La France! Le Siècle</i> (a Sonnet)</td><td class="right">278</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part I</td><td class="right sc">Herman E. Taubeneck</td><td class="right">289</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Future of the Democratic Party: A Reply</td><td class="right sc">David Overmyer</td><td class="right">302</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Multiple Standard for Money</td><td class="right sc">Eltweed Pomeroy</td><td class="right">318</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Anticipating the Unearned Increment</td><td class="right sc">I. W. Hart</td><td class="right">339</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Studies in Ultimate Society:</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">I. A New Interpretation of Life</td><td class="right sc">Laurence Gronlund</td><td class="right">351</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">II. Individualism <i>vs.</i> Altruism</td><td class="right sc">K. T. Takahashi</td><td class="right">362</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">General Weyler’s Campaign</td><td class="right sc">Crittenden Marriott</td><td class="right">374</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Author of “The Messiah”</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">386</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Open Letter to President Andrews</td><td class="right sc">The Editor</td><td class="right">399</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">The Onmarch</td><td class="right sc">Freeman E. Miller</td><td class="right">403</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">The Toil of Empire</td><td class="right sc">John Vance Cheney</td><td class="right">404</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">The Day Love Came</td><td class="right sc">Theodosia Pickering</td><td class="right">405</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">The Question</td><td class="right sc">Julia Neely-Finch</td><td class="right">405</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Triolet</td><td class="right sc">Curtis Hidden Page</td><td class="right">406</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Cry of the Poor</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">407</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: A Knotty Problem; A Case of Prevision; Concerning Eternity; A. L. (a Sonnet)</td><td class="right">419</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The New Ostracism</td><td class="right sc">Hon. Charles A. Towne</td><td class="right">433</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part II</td><td class="right sc">Herman E. Taubeneck</td><td class="right">452</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Rights of the Public over Quasi-Public Services</td><td class="right sc">Hon. Walter Clark</td><td class="right">470</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Prosperity: the Sham and the Reality</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">486</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Jefferson and His Political Philosophy</td><td class="right sc">Mary Platt Parmelee</td><td class="right">505</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Latest Social Vision</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">517</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Dead Hand in the Church</td><td class="right sc">Rev. Clarence Lathbury</td><td class="right">535</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Hypnotism in its Scientific and Forensic Aspects</td><td class="right sc">Marion L. Dawson, B. L.</td><td class="right">544</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Suicide: Is It Worth While?</td><td class="right sc">Charles B. Newcomb</td><td class="right">557</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Old Glory</td><td class="right">Ironquill</td><td class="right sc">562</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent"><i>Vita Sum</i></td><td class="right sc">Junius L. Hempstead</td><td class="right">563</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Gold</td><td class="right sc">Clinton Scollard</td><td class="right">564</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Richard Realfe</td><td class="right sc">Reubie Carpenter</td><td class="right">565</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">The Dreamer</td><td class="right sc">Helena M. Richardson</td><td class="right">565</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: The Greatest Lyric; “Thrift, Thrift, Horatio;” The Pessimist; The Physician’s Last Call (a Sonnet).</td><td class="right">566</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Freedom and Its Opportunities: Part I</td><td class="right sc">Hon. John R. Rogers</td><td class="right">577</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">“The Case Against Bimetallism”</td><td class="right sc">Judge George H. Smith</td><td class="right">590</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Initiative and the Referendum</td><td class="right sc">Elihu F. Barker</td><td class="right">613</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIV</td><td class="right sc">Prof. Frank Parsons</td><td class="right">628<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagev" id="pagev">v</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Laborer’s View of the Labor Question:</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">I. How the Laborer Feels</td><td class="right sc">Herbert M. Ramp</td><td class="right">644</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">II. Up or Down?</td><td class="right sc">W. Edwards</td><td class="right">654</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">III. The Farm Hand: An Unknown Quantity</td><td class="right sc">William Emory Kearns</td><td class="right">661</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Practical Measures for Promoting Manhood and Preventing Crime</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">673</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Demand for Sensational Journals</td><td class="right sc">John Henderson Garnsey</td><td class="right">681</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Is History a Science?</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">687</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Our Brother Simon</td><td class="right sc">Annie L. Muzzey</td><td class="right">707</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Thou Knowest Not</td><td class="right sc">Helena M. Richardson</td><td class="right">708</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Optim: A Reply</td><td class="right sc">George H. Westley</td><td class="right">709</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">The Murdered Trees</td><td class="right sc">Benjamin S. Parker</td><td class="right">709</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">The Hidden Flute</td><td class="right sc">Minna Irving</td><td class="right">710</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Retroensetta</td><td class="right sc">Curtis Hidden Page</td><td class="right">710</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: Tantalus and His Opportunities; The Man in Bronze; Franklin (a Sonnet)</td><td class="right">711</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Idylls and Ideals of Christmas:</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">I. What I Want for Christmas</td><td class="right sc">Robert G. Ingersoll</td><td class="right">721</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">II. Christmas, the Human Holiday</td><td class="right sc">Rev. Minot J. Savage, D.D.</td><td class="right">722</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">III. Santa Claus: A Poem</td><td class="right sc">James Whitcomb Riley</td><td class="right">726</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">IV. The Aryan at Christmas</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">727</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">A Séance With Eusapia Paladino: Psychic Forces</td><td class="right sc">Camille Flammarion</td><td class="right">730</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Influence of Hebrew Thought in the Development of the Social Democratic Idea in New England</td><td class="right sc">Charles S. Allen</td><td class="right">748</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Priest and People</td><td class="right sc">E. T. Hargrove</td><td class="right">772</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Immigration, Hard Times, and the Veto</td><td class="right sc">John Chetwood, Jr.</td><td class="right">788</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Founder of German Opera</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">802</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">The Truly Artistic Woman</td><td class="right sc">Stinson Jarvis</td><td class="right">813</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Poor “Fairly Rich” People</td><td class="right sc">Henry E. Foster</td><td class="right">820</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Shall the United States be Europeanized?</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">827</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Hawaiian Annexation from a Japanese Point of View</td><td class="right sc">Keijiro Nakamura</td><td class="right">834</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">A Political Deal: A Story</td><td class="right sc">Eliza Frances Andrews</td><td class="right">840</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Glad Tidings</td><td class="right sc">Marion Mills Miller</td><td class="right">849</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">The Yule Log</td><td class="right sc">Clinton Scollard</td><td class="right">852</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">How to Get an Article in a Magazine</td><td class="right sc">The Editor</td><td class="right">853</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: Sir Thomas Kho on Education; Journey and Sleep (a Sonnet)</td><td class="right">855</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p> </p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<h3 class="article_section">BOOK REVIEWS.</h3> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="70%" summary="Book Reviews"> +<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_19">The Emperor</a></td><td class="right"> 137</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">President Jordan’s Saga of the Seal</td><td class="right">284</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Some Prehistoric History</td><td class="right">426</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">A Bard of the Ohio</td><td class="right">572</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Critic, Bard, and Moralist</td><td class="right">717</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Guthrie’s “Modern Poet Prophets”</td><td class="right">860</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pagevi" id="pagevi">vi</a></span></p> + + +<h3 class="article_section">ILLUSTRATIONS.</h3> + +<div class="center"> +<table summary="Illustrations"> +<tr><td class="left sc"> </td><td class="right">Opposite Page</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left sc">Hon. Charles A. Towne</td><td class="right">1</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left sc">Dr. David Starr Jordan</td><td class="right">145</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left sc">Multiple-Standard Treasury Note of Massachusetts Bay</td><td class="right">289</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left sc">Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews</td><td class="right">433</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left sc">Governor John R. Rogers</td><td class="right">577</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left sc">Camille Flammarion</td><td class="right">721</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left sc">Psychic Séance With Eusapia Paladino</td><td class="right">737</td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<h2><a name="THE_ARENA" id="THE_ARENA"></a>THE ARENA.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="70%" summary="Vol. XVIII"> +<tr><td align="center">Vol. XVIII.</td><td align="center">JULY, 1897.</td><td align="center">No. 92.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page1" id="page1">1</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_1" id="article_1"></a> +THE CITADEL OF THE MONEY POWER.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline"><big>I. WALL STREET, PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.</big><br /> +BY HENRY CLEWS.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + + +<h3 class="article_section">I.</h3> + +<p><span class="sc">The</span> twenty-seven respectable citizens of New York who, in 1792, met +under a buttonwood tree in front of the premises now known as Number +60 Wall Street, and formed an association for the purchase and sale of +public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a proviso of +mutual help and preference, committed themselves to an enterprise of +whose moment and influence in the future they could have formed no +adequate conception. At that date Wall Street was a banking district, +small indeed when compared with its present condition, but important +in its relations to the commerce of the nation. This transaction of +the twenty-seven—among whom we find the honored names of Barclay, +Bleecker, Winthrop, Lawrence, which in themselves and their +descendants were, and are, creditably identified with the growth of +the community—added the prestige and power of the stock exchange to +those of the banks, and fixed for an indefinitely long period the +destinies of the financial centre of the Union.</p> + +<p>During the earlier part of this century the banking interests of Wall +Street quite overshadowed those of the stock market. The growth of +railway securities was not fairly under way until the opening of the +fifth decade. Elderly men can recall the date when the New York +Central existed only as a series of connecting links between Buffalo +and Albany, under half-a-dozen different names of incorporation; and +passenger cars were slowly and laboriously hoisted by chain power over +the “divide” between the latter city and Schenectady. Since there were +but few railways in the entire country, there were few opportunities<span class="pagenum"><a name="page2" id="page2">2</a></span> +for speculative dealings in their shares. These shares, too, were as a +rule locally held, and were more frequently transferred by executors +under court orders than by brokers on the stock exchange.</p> + +<p>Prior to 1840 and 1845, however, the members of the stock exchange +were not idle. Public stocks were largely dealt in. The United States +government frequently issued bonds, and the prices of these bonds +fluctuated sufficiently to afford tempting chances of profits. State +bonds also were sold in Wall Street in larger amounts than to-day. +About the year 1850 the sales of Missouri sixes and Ohio sixes +frequently amounted to millions of dollars daily. During that +uncertain epoch of finance when the United States Bank was both a +financial and a political power, the shares of that institution were a +favorite subject of speculative dealing. The shares of Delaware & +Hudson, and of the original Erie Railway, the latter laboriously +constructed over a rough, barren, and thinly settled portion of the +State, partly by State funds, had also become actively exchangeable in +the market.</p> + +<p>During this period a relatively enormous quantity of banking capital +had located itself in and near Wall Street. The Bank of New York +existed before 1800, and later, although not long after, the Street +witnessed the erection of buildings of a now obsolete, and yet at that +time an attractive, style of architecture, devoted to the uses of the +Manhattan Banking Company, the Bank of America, the Merchants, the +Union, the Bank of Commerce, and others. Were it not that land in the +banking district is so valuable, and that the need of upstair offices +is so great, one might be tempted to regret the demolition of the +graceful money temples occupied by three of these corporations on the +north side of Wall Street. In each of them the entablature rested upon +two fluted stone pillars with Doric capitals, in addition to the +supports of the side walls. Between the steps and the doors of the +temple extended a marble-paved court which often served as a +convenient place of ‘change for borrowers and lenders. Entering the +doors you found yourself in a large, airy, dome-lighted room, the +sides of which were occupied by the clerks of the institution, guarded +by high barricades from the intrusive eyes and feet of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page3" id="page3">3</a></span> general +public. At the rear were the offices of the president and cashier. +Throughout the entire building there reigned a solemn and +semi-religious silence. One may witness something like this to-day in +the Wall-Street end of the U. S. Treasury Building, and only there.</p> + +<p>Up to the epoch of the rise of railway building and railway-share +speculation, the main aliment of Wall-Street banks was the profit +derived from the discount of commercial paper and from loans upon +government and State securities. But when railway shares and bonds, +based upon lines of road which were constructed through the rich +regions of the Union lying between the Atlantic and the Mississippi +river, came upon the market in large amounts, affording ample security +for investment and loans, the great banks of Wall Street were quick to +appreciate the advantages of loans made upon such undoubted values, +which were at all times convertible into cash on the stock exchange. +In times of pressure, commercial paper is an inferior asset for a +bank, all of whose obligations are payable on demand. At such times +notes become practically unsalable, and are not always paid at +maturity. A failure of one firm brings down others, and renewals are +urgently required from banks just when they are least able to grant +them. Salable securities are on such occasions an ark of safety, and, +dating from the early fifties, this class of securities has always +been the basis of a large amount of the loans of the banks of Wall +Street and their near neighbors of the same class in lower Nassau +Street and also Broadway.</p> + +<p>With the immense outgrowth of business consequent upon the discovery +of gold in California in 1849, and the construction of the great +railways of the Middle West, such as the Michigan Southern, the +Northern Indiana (now the Lake Shore), the Michigan Central, the +Galena & Chicago, the Rock Island, and others of like importance and +real value, the banks and banking houses of Wall Street, and the stock +exchange, grew into most important factors in developing the +prosperity of the country. Enterprises were originated by able men +acting under corporate powers, and when these were brought before the +committees of the stock exchange and duly approved and listed, capital +instantly flowed forth from its reservoirs in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page4" id="page4">4</a></span> answer to the +securities thus offered. And it may safely be said that but for the +combined machinery of the New York banks and the stock exchange the +actual developments of twenty years would have dragged laboriously +through an entire century.</p> + +<p>Amid so much progress and activity, speculation was not idle. Those +were the days of many of our greatest railway operators, daring, able, +enthusiastic men, who had the rare gift of imparting confidence to +their followers and the public, and realized the fable of King Midas, +whose touch transmuted all things into gold. Their careers were those +of conquest and accumulation, like that of Napoleon; and, like him, +they underwent, with few exceptions, their retreats from Russia and +their Waterloos. Of such were Jacob Little, Daniel Drew, Anthony +Morse, and others, to whom now the motto of Junius applies: <i>Stat +nominis umbra</i>. Merely the shadows of their names reach over to us +from the horizons where their suns set so long ago.</p> + +<p>There was an epoch too in the Wall Street of the past when gigantic +and deeply considered combinations were set in motion, entitled +“corners.” As to corners, a word of explanation may not be amiss. +There are always two factions in the stock market: the bulls, who want +stocks to rise in price in order that they may sell out; and the +bears, who want stocks to fall in price so that they can buy in. +Contrary to the superficial belief of the public, the bulls are +sellers and the bears are buyers. But in order to sell a commodity you +must buy or borrow it; and in order to buy at a future date you must +sell at a previous date; and thus the bull buys for the purpose of +selling at a profit, and the bear sells something which he doesn’t own +for the purpose of buying it at a lower price. The bull therefore +hopes to push prices up so that he can sell his purchase at a profit, +and the bear hopes to drag prices down so that he can buy what he has +sold, also at a profit.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the bear has delivered the shares sold by him, and in order +to deliver them, has borrowed them, and given security in money at its +market price. Here he has placed himself in danger, because the owner +of the shares may at any time tender him this money and demand the +shares, which the bear may not be able to provide himself with, except +at the price which the owners choose to set upon them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page5" id="page5">5</a></span></p> + +<p>Thus a person might be under contract to deliver the shares of some +corporation which might be absolutely worthless, and yet these shares +<i>might</i> be so held that the holders could exact one thousand dollars a +share. Given a railway with a share capital of ten millions, one +person or knot of persons might own every certificate of its stock, +and have it all loaned out to bears who had sold, borrowed, and +delivered it. It is obvious that this person or club of persons could +compel purchases of the shares which he or they alone possess, at +whatever price he or they think proper to demand; and since such +things can be done by skilful combinations under able generalship, +they have been done, and were a favorite scheme during the eventful +years between the sixties and the eighties. The corners in Harlem, +Hudson, Erie and Northwest, in which Vanderbilt, Drew, and Gould +achieved such success for themselves and their associates, have passed +into history as a conspicuous portion of the great events of Wall +Street. Their interest is chiefly historical, because of late years no +comprehensive corners have been organized. Share capitals are so large +that it is difficult for one man to control any one of them, and a +divided corner is apt to fail. But in their day and generation they +have offered brilliant illustrations of genius and strategic skill in +financial warfare.</p> + +<p>The system of selling short, however, which gave birth to the idea of +creating corners, and which came into vogue in the fifties, has never +ceased to be a leading factor on the stock exchange. It was the result +of certain inflations of values which necessarily follow the +construction of great enterprises. However high a valuation may be set +upon any given commodity, there are always persons who expect a higher +price. Early historical examples of this fact are the South-Sea shares +and John Law’s Mississippi shares, over which England and France +respectively went crazy in the last century. The loftier the figures +to which these shares mounted, the greater was the eagerness of the +public to buy them. But at that period the art and mystery of selling +short had not been brought into practice, and when the bubbles +collapsed there were universal losers and no direct winners.</p> + +<p>During the latter half of this century there have been periods<span class="pagenum"><a name="page6" id="page6">6</a></span> in the +history of Wall Street when the prices of railway and industrial +shares have been forced enormously above the standard of actual +values, and innumerable persons have parted with good money in +exchange for mere phantoms of imaginary values. At such times the +short sales of discernment, directing the X rays of clear-sighted +criticism into the swollen and opaque mass of financial carrion that +is exposed for sale in the market, are of the utmost benefit to the +public. The bear is then a benefactor to the community, and when he +pulls down and tears to pieces the rotten carcass of some gigantic +humbug, strewing the highway with its remains, we cannot praise his +work too highly.</p> + + +<h3 class="article_section">II.</h3> + +<p>The present condition of Wall Street is one of lassitude and +expectancy. The great banks have an abundance, perhaps a +superabundance, of money, their own and their depositors, which they +are only too glad to lend on solid and readily salable collateral at +low rates of interest, approximating the prevalent rates in London and +Paris, where similar accumulations of idle capital exist. A large part +of this money is deposited with them by local banks in all parts of +the country, which recognize New York City as the financial centre of +the Union, and are content with interest of from one to two per cent +upon the funds which they are unwilling or unable to use safely at +home. The stock exchange is also in a condition of quietude. The +public are neither buying nor selling stocks in any large amount.</p> + +<p>This state of things is the resultant of well-known facts. Numerous +over-capitalized and badly managed railways have gone into bankruptcy, +and either are in the hands of receivers or have emerged from such +guardianship, and are painfully toiling along on the road to +prosperity on the twin crutches of assessments upon stockholders and +the withholding of dividends from the same long-suffering and patient +class.</p> + +<p>The transactions at the stock exchange at present average about two +hundred thousand shares a day, exclusive of bonds, government, State, +and railway; and a certain class of observers who like to subject +circumstances to a minute analysis inform the public that the daily +profits of the members of the exchange<span class="pagenum"><a name="page7" id="page7">7</a></span> are about sufficient to pay +the expense of office rent and clerk hire. This conclusion takes it +for granted that these profits should be equally divided among the +membership. This is not a reasonable supposition. Many of the members +are such only in name, and rarely go on the floor. Others live during +most of the time on their accumulations, and come into the market to +buy or sell only when prices are abnormally low or high. The +comparatively small busy portion manage somehow to keep fairly active, +and are cheerfully looking forward to better times, through a vista +from which the cloud of a change of the monetary standard has already +passed away, and into which the genius of enterprise beckons them to +enter.</p> + + +<h3 class="article_section">III.</h3> + +<p>While in many respects the future is a sealed book, yet there is such +a thing in the economy of nature as an absolutely accurate prevision +of events, such as eclipses of the sun and moon, and conjunctions of +the planets, and a relatively correct prevision of events depending +upon the growth of enlightened communities. Since the incorporation of +the Bank of New York, at the corner of Wall and Williams Streets, the +banking capital of New York has increased more than sixtyfold, of +which more than one-half is held and used in and around Wall Street, +and the aggregation of deposited and loanable capital has grown from a +few millions to over half a billion. If this has been the result +during one century, what will take place in the same direction during +the next century? The ratio of increase will not be kept up. A +thousand dollars may be doubled in a day, but no such ratio as a +hundred per cent a day can be predicated of a million. And yet it is +certain that, under proper management, the million will go on +increasing; and in the same manner will our half-billion increase by +its own earning power, and by contributions from all parts of the +Union. The development of the United States in the direction of +population, agriculture, manufactures, and mines is so enormous and so +steady that this nation will at some not distant period become the +most opulent of all the nations of the planet, unless unforeseen and +improbable political events happen by which our great commonwealth +shall be disrupted or its financial stability overturned. Under a +normal<span class="pagenum"><a name="page8" id="page8">8</a></span> condition of things the capital of the citizens of the Union +will continually increase, and the banks of the city of New York will +be the depositary of larger and larger reserves of whatever capital is +temporarily idle in the places where it is created. In due time the +financial centre of the world will be shifted from London to our +imperial city.</p> + +<p>Such a destiny has been foretold for St. Petersburg, in view of the +construction of the Siberian Railway and its branches, which in time +will open up to industry an immense tract of productive soil in the +most fertile parts of Asia, abounding in wheat and corn land, and full +of superior water power. But in this superb rivalry between the United +States and the colossus of Europe and Asia, the former nation has an +immense start as to time, and a still greater advantage in the +character of its population. And in addition to these we have the +undoubted and constantly increasing supremacy of the English language. +Just as during the Middle Ages Latin was the vernacular of the learned +classes, and as to-day French is the language of diplomacy in Europe, +so is English the common tongue in all the commercial localities of +the globe. With English a man can commit himself to foreign travel +anywhere, while outside of Russia there are few towns on the various +continents in which Russian is not an unknown speech. These +controlling conditions cannot be readily or easily changed, especially +since no paramount reasons exist why they should be changed.</p> + +<p>It is then a reasonable forecast of the future, that in due time the +weighty import of the names of Lombard<a name="fn_marker_1" id="fn_marker_1"></a><a href="#fn_1" class="fn_marker">[1]</a> and Threadneedle Streets +will be transferred to the name of Wall Street, and the facts implied +by such a transfer are of a dignity and power which it is impossible +to estimate. The road leading to this great destiny can only be +blocked by injurious legislation, and the good sense of our citizens +may be confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a +barricade against national prosperity.</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page9" id="page9">9</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_2" id="article_2"></a> +II. THE TRUE INWARDNESS OF WALL STREET.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline">BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>The organized powers of society are always anxious to conciliate +public favor. They know that they exist by sufferance—by sufferance +of a mightier than themselves. In proportion as they know themselves +to be aggressors and spoliators their anxiety increases. Every abusive +power in the world is thus driven to adopt schemes and devices—some +dangerous and some merely ludicrous—to keep a footing at that silent +bar of opinion before which all wrong must, sooner or later, quail and +slink away.</p> + +<p>The great concern called Wall Street is such an organized power in +society. It exists as a fact in our American system, and would fain +conciliate the favor of the public. Wall Street has become one of the +most conspicuous features in our national life. Knowing that it is +challenged by public opinion—knowing indeed that it is already under +the ban and condemnation of the American people—it now seeks, after +the manner of its kind, to save itself alive. It would go further than +mere salvation; it would make mankind believe that it is a reputable +part of the universal swim. Aye more; it seeks to ingratiate itself, +sometimes by force and sometimes by gentle craft and stratagem, into +the good graces of that civilization which it has so mortally +offended.</p> + +<p>To this end Wall Street strives to justify itself in periodical and +general literature. No other power in human society to so great a +degree and in so subtle a manner exploits its own virtues. Taking +advantage of the well-known carelessness of American readers, and +knowing full well how easily they are duped—how easily they are +cozened out of their senses and led into false beliefs with mere +plausibilities and sophisms—this imperial and far-reaching Wall +Street, this elephantine fox of the world, takes possession of +American journalism—owns it, controls it. It seizes and subsidizes +the metropolitan press. It purchases newspapers and magazines by the +score. It establishes bureaus; it buys every purchasable pen, from the +pen of the gray philosopher to the pen of the snake editor. It +overawes every timid brain, from the brain of the senator to the +brain<span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" id="page10">10</a></span> of the tramp. What it cannot purchase it terrorizes; and the +small residue which it cannot terrorize it seeks to cajole: all this +to the end that its dominion may be universal and everlasting.</p> + +<p>In this work of gaining possession of public opinion and perverting +that opinion to its own uses Wall Street employs all methods and uses +all expedients. Wall Street deliberately marks its game; and we have +to confess that the game generally falls at the first fire. We have +heard, however, of a single case of a brave man, now dead, who, when +offered ten thousand dollars for his voice against his conviction and +his opinion against his soul, in the matter of electing President of +the United States the man who was the candidate of Wall Street, told +the subtle committee to make an immediate and expeditious visit to the +bottom of the old theology.</p> + +<p>This train of thought rises vividly to mind when I consider the +article of Mr. Henry Clews on “Wall Street, Past, Present, and +Future.” This article came unsought and unexpected to the editorial +desk of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>. I confess that I doubted its genuineness. For why +should Mr. Clews address the public through the columns of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>? +What has <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> done to merit such distinction? Satisfying myself +that the contribution was genuine, that it was not—and is not—a +hallucination, I at once divined that it must be a sort of challenge +to this magazine. I do the author of “Wall Street, Past, Present, and +Future,” the honor to believe that he does not suppose <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> to be +sufficiently verdant to publish his adroit and well-covered apology +for the great institution which he represents,—without knowing the +sense and significance of it. If indeed the distinguished gentleman +imagined that we could do such a thing here, then in good sooth he +must be undeceived. Or if he supposed that a paper of the kind +submitted would be <i>rejected</i> at this office because of our well-known +antagonism to the fact which Mr. Clews defends, let him in that +instance also be undeceived.</p> + +<p>At the office of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> we take all challenges. Nor should our +friends suppose or fear that the welcome admission of Mr. Clews’s +article to the pages of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> implies timidity or some possible +weakness in the presence of that<span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id="page11">11</a></span> gigantic institution known by the +name of Wall Street. The fact is, that the nightmare which that power +has been able to spread, bat-like, over the souls of men for a quarter +of a century has about been dissipated; it is already the beginning of +the end. It is the dawn; the day is not very far in the future when +the American people, roused at last to the exertion of their majesty, +will shake themselves from the dread of this incubus and spring up +like a giant refreshed from slumber.</p> + +<p>Mr. Clews’s article on “Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future,” is a +most gentle and dove-like performance. It is not a paper intended to +produce alarm, but to allay it. It is one of the finest examples of a +literary opiate that I have ever seen. The bottom theme of the paper +is that Wall Street is a natural growth, and is therefore inevitable. +Wall Street has come by a gentle evolution. Good men and true have +conspired with nature to bring it forth. Under natural and necessary +conditions Wall Street has appeared in our American system, and under +these conditions it flourishes. Whatever great fact in society has +thus appeared has been born of necessity and out of the nature of +things. If Wall Street have been born out of necessity and the nature +of things, then it has come of righteousness, and is the child of +truth. If of righteousness and truth, then Wall Street is good as well +as glorious. That which is good and glorious ought to be admired and +honored. Whatever is admired and honored, whatever is good and +glorious, should have influence and power in society and state. Such a +golden product of evolution is Wall Street; therefore the sceptre +which Wall Street stretches forth over the prostrate Western world +should be obeyed and upheld by the voice and hand of the American +people.</p> + +<p>Not only so, but the sceptre should be extended. The empire of Wall +Street should become universal. It should be enlarged and confirmed +until all outlying kingdoms and all islands of the sea shall pass +under the beneficent sway of this monarchy of the world! Then with Mr. +Clews we may well consider his “reasonable forecast of the future.” +With him we shall be able to see “that in due time the weighty import +of the names of Lombard and Threadneedle Streets will be transferred +to the name of Wall Street.” With Mr. Clews we shall be able to see +that<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id="page12">12</a></span> “the facts implied by such a transfer are of a dignity and power +which it is impossible to estimate.” Then, finally, with Mr. Clews we +shall agree that “the road leading to this great destiny <i>can only be +blocked by legislation</i>.” Mr. Clews says “injurious” legislation. +Certainly; that is true—most true. The consummation hoped for by Mr. +Clews can verily be blocked by legislation! But when it comes to the +definition of “injurious” how fearfully do we part company! The writer +of “Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future” flatters himself, in fine, +with the belief that “the good sense of our citizens may be +confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a barricade +against national prosperity.” Oh, it is “national prosperity” then +that we have in view! That is good. If there be anything under heaven +which Wall Street adores and dotes on more than any other thing in the +world it is national prosperity! When it comes to national prosperity +Wall Street is always full-handed. With the mere mention of national +prosperity Wall Street raises a shout of sympathetic enthusiasm which +reverberates from Passamaquoddy to San Diego, and from the Florida +everglades to the snow-capped shoulders of Shasta!</p> + +<p>Let me, however, explain to Mr. Clews one thing, and that is that the +blessed condition of universal society in which Wall Street, having +absorbed Lombard and Threadneedle, shall be supreme over the nations +will occur only when our free American institutions shall be crushed +into fragments and when civil liberty shall lie bleeding among the +ruins. It will occur <i>then</i>, and not before. It will occur when the +residue of the old American spirit has been stamped out, and when a +miserable, slavish subserviency shall have been substituted for the +revolutionary freedom which our fathers won and made sacred with their +blood on every patriot battlefield from Lexington to Appomattox.</p> + +<p>Temperately and patiently I will follow Mr. Clews’s paper through. The +writer of the article is a gentlemanly and able representative of that +colossal power which he has helped to build up and fortify. From being +a child of that power he has now become, in a most theosophical +manner, one of the fathers of it! As such he has made himself the +apologist of a gigantic<span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" id="page13">13</a></span> and rampant beast on whose horns of hazard +the values produced by the labor of seventy millions of Americans are +tossed about as if the wreckage were so much waste excelsior thrown on +the horns of a bull! Mr. Clews tells us that in 1792 twenty-seven +gentlemen met under a buttonwood tree and formed the association known +as Wall Street. The purpose of the association was “the purchase and +sale of public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a +proviso of mutual help and preference.” The result was the addition of +“the prestige and power of the stock exchange to the prestige and +power of the banks.” That indeed is a combination worthy to be +considered! A consolidation of interests was effected between the +exchange and the banks to purchase and sell stocks “with a proviso of +mutual help.”</p> + +<p>The organization thus created has existed for one hundred and five +years. It has made a history. It has become ever greater and more +firmly fixed in and <i>on</i> American society. It has made itself to be +the foundation of all things financial and political in the United +States. The story of the process by which this prodigious result has +been reached is narrated by Mr. Clews in the manner of one who gives +an account of the formation of a temperance society or a Sunday +school! In the whole article there does not appear a symptom of a +suspicion that the thing of which he gives the history is the most +dangerous and abusive fact that ever threatened the integrity of a +nation. The argument is that if twenty-seven gentlemen thus met and +created Wall Street, then the result, being a natural product, is good +and wholesome. But the inquiry at once arises whether it is valid +logic to suppose that what men do is right, simply because they do it. +The affirmative of such a proposition would make Aristotle stagger. It +amounts to this, that whatever is is right; therefore, let it alone.</p> + +<p>By this argument of Mr. Clews all the tyrannies of the past, all the +horrors that have afflicted the human race, all the sufferings which +men have endured from sword and pestilence, from servitude, from the +butchery of war and the cruelty of the Inquisition, have been right +merely because they have been natural. Under this rule every monster +that has tormented society from the first day until now can find full +justification for itself on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id="page14">14</a></span> simple ground that it exists! Under +such an argument a howitzer is as good as a plough, a sword is as good +as a sickle, a pillory is as good as a baby-wagon. By such reasoning a +shark is as useful as a horse. By this logic a boa-constrictor is as +good as a reindeer, a tiger is as useful and salutary in his office as +an ox or a St. Bernard, and a cancer is as beautiful as a blush. That +is, everything is good, not because it is useful and just, but because +it is.</p> + +<p>Or again, Mr. Clews’s argument is this: that the men who created Wall +Street were gentlemen; therefore their work was salutary. Just as +though respectable people could not engage in a nefarious business. +Just as though gentlemen could not, and would not, make a conspiracy +to enslave the human race. The “gentleman” is a very uncertain factor +in civilization; his devotion to right and truth requires always to be +tested with a chemical and to be taken with the usual combination of +chlorine and sodium.</p> + +<p>Mr. Clews explains that the stocks underlying our old railroad +properties in the United States were aforetime “held locally,” and +that they were transferred “more frequently by executors than by +brokers on the stock exchange”—as though that were an evil. Then +“there were but few opportunities for dealing in shares”—as though +<i>that</i> were an evil! It thus became necessary for Wall Street to get +the old stocks belonging to the people out of the people’s hands and +into the hands of the Street—as though <i>that</i> were a good. Our public +improvements were in the first place made by the people, but the +people were not fit to own them. Our railways were constructed with +capital subscribed by the people, generally by those through whose +country the given improvement was extended. The people themselves then +owned their own, and controlled it. Until Wall Street reached out and +clutched such properties—first putting down the prices of the shares +to nothing and then pulling the given stocks to par—the people were +able to protect themselves; but never afterwards.</p> + +<p>The same was true of all other securities, whether public or private. +Nearly all bonded debts were at first local; but the holding of +securities <i>locally</i> has always been a thing abhorrent to Wall Street. +The idea of the Street is that all stocks and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" id="page15">15</a></span> all securities belong, +not to the public, but to itself. Of course the <i>money capital</i> of the +country belongs to the Street. And if, with the consent of public +authority, the <i>stocks</i> of the country also can be held by the Street, +then a humble peasantry, paying perennial rents and compound interest, +can be created and kept under forever throughout the domains of the +great Republic. It may ultimately require arsenals to do it, but these +we can supply.</p> + +<p>The next stage in the game was the creation by Wall Street of +fictitious enterprises for the distinct purpose of getting possession +of the stocks on which such enterprises were based, and of speculating +in the shares of such properties. When the <i>existing</i> stocks of +railways were not sufficient—when the bonds of States and of the +general government were insufficient in quantity to fill the maw of +the benevolent being called Wall Street—then an <i>artificial</i> supply +must be created; that is, some scheme of debts must be invented by +which the people might be made to pay tribute to the good Wall Street, +and pay it still more abundantly.</p> + +<p>Thus were invented new banks and new banking systems. Thus came the +bull and the bear and the bucket-shop. Thus were projected a thousand +railways and canals. Many of these were laid into impossible +regions—all “for the benefit of the people!” Other enterprises which +were not sufficiently stocked began to be stocked more heavily—this +also for the benefit of the people. The plan of watering was invented; +the method of “promoting” enterprises was perfected,—until, as early +as the time of the Civil War, Wall Street had acquired the greatest +skill in <i>making</i> debts, or, in the language of James Fisk, Jr., in +“rescuing the property of other people from themselves.”</p> + +<p>These beautiful processes are glossed over by Mr. Clews with a +pleasant account of how, with the growth of business and the discovery +of gold and the oncoming of the age of construction, great enterprises +were “promoted” by Wall Street, and how “capital instantly flowed +forth from its reservoirs in answer to the securities” that flowed +thereto. The author of “Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future,” +affirms “that but for the combined machinery of the New York banks and +the stock exchange the actual developments of twenty years would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" id="page16">16</a></span> +dragged laboriously through an entire century.” Permit us to say that +it would have been better that such “actual developments” should have +dragged through <i>two</i> centuries than that the United States of America +should have been stocked and mortgaged and bonded and enslaved, under +the tyrannous lash of debt, by such a master as Wall Street.</p> + +<p>Mr. Clews next comes to the subject of corners. On this topic we doubt +not that he speaks as one having authority. He tells us quite +complacently that there was “an epoch in the Wall Street of the past +when the gigantic and deeply considered combinations were set in +motion entitled ‘corners.’” Then he goes on to explain what corners +are. He does so without the slightest expression of criticism or +aversion. He tells us of the bulls and the bears by whose agency a +corner is conducted as though they were the friendly competitors in +some great philanthropy! Instead of describing corners as so many +carefully contrived schemes to rob the people of the proceeds of their +labor by putting the prices of their commodities and securities down +until such commodities and securities are taken from their hands, and +then putting the prices <i>up</i> in order that the robbers may reap the +harvest, he speaks of corners as offering “brilliant illustrations of +genius and strategic skill in financial warfare!”</p> + +<p>The fact is that the men who are reared in Wall Street, who from their +youth are familiarized with its processes, and who are well set in the +plastic age to consider human life as an auspicious opportunity for +getting possession of something that does not belong to them, are +fatally blunted in their sensibilities; the ethical quality in them is +battered out—or at least battered; they come to regard the human race +as an enormous ranch of sheep to be shorn at the pleasure of the +shearers; they even grow to consider each other as so much mutton to +be butchered and roasted by whoever is able to do it.</p> + +<p>I notice with surprise that Mr. Clews in his sketch of Wall Street +dwells not at all upon the benevolent agency of that power during the +Civil War. This is an oversight which I beg leave to supply. There has +never perhaps been an instance in human history in which a great power +has so ardently devoted itself “to the preservation of free +institutions” as did Wall Street in that epoch of mortal agony. Then +it was that Wall<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17">17</a></span> Street engaged in the patriotic work, first of +destroying the national credit, then of buying it up at half price, +then of converting it into a bonded debt to be perpetuated for a full +generation, and finally of compelling the people to pay it in a dollar +worth four times as much as the dollar with which it was purchased. It +was a beautiful scheme of devotion and self-sacrifice the like of +which history has never before recorded. It was a speculation which +involved the life of the American Republic. The Union was on trial. +All nerves were strained, and all hearts were torn. The nation was +bleeding at every pore. Every freight-train that came from the front +brought back its loaded boxes of dead. Fathers and mothers gathered at +the station, and each received his own. The rough coffin containing +the body of the patriot boy who had given his life for the flag was +taken by the silent father and mother to its resting-place under the +apple trees. All true men had tearful faces, and a stern resolve in +the heart. And while <i>this</i> was the condition of the nation and the +people, the high-toned Wall Street was speculating on the life of the +Republic. It bought and sold blood. It was a bull on disaster and a +bear on victory. It established bureaus through which to falsify +intelligence and to bring the nation to the verge of ruin. It had no +compunction. It regarded the gore of battlefields as the rich rain and +mould out of which its own harvest was to grow. The more blood the +merrier. The more tears the richer the yield. The more war the more +debt. The more depression of the national credit the more cheaply we +shall be able to gather it up! The more grape-vine despatches the more +distraction and the better opportunity for us. The more death the more +millions. The more horror and devastation the heavier will be our +coffers. The more the people groan the more we will shout. The more +they die the more we will live. The more the flag is torn the more our +damask curtains will flutter. The more liberty perishes and withers +from the earth the more we shall plant ourselves and flourish and rule +and reign over a nation that we have destroyed and a people whom we +have enslaved. If Mr. Clews wishes any further outline of the history +of Wall Street during our Civil War we shall be glad to contribute +such a sketch as a reminiscence of a great fact which appears to be +dim in his memory.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id="page18">18</a></span></p> + +<p>There is another almost fatal omission in Mr. Clews’s article. He says +but little about the principal work in which Wall Street, historically +considered, has been engaged during the last thirty years. I do not +like the way in which this great section of the “Past” of Wall Street +is glossed over. During the period referred to, that institution has +had one bottom purpose and one reason of action from which it has +never deviated. This purpose, this reason of action, has been the +perpetuation of the national debt and the increase of its value by +bulling the unit of money in which the debt is payable. Wall Street +knows that the bonded debt of the United States is the basis, or +central fact, in the whole system of bonds and stocks. Wall Street +knows that the dollar is the central fact in the bond. It knows that +if the bond can be made everlasting and the dollar can be increased in +value until a single unit of it shall be equivalent to an acre of +farming land, then the Street can own the United States in fee simple, +and can presently annex the rest of the world.</p> + +<p>I acknowledge a certain admiration when I consider this stupendous +scheme. It is more than Napoleonic; it is continental, interplanetary, +sidereal! I cannot recall another conspiracy in the history of mankind +quite equal in colossal and criminal splendor to the profound and +universal plot of Wall Street to make perpetual the national debt, to +keep that debt the bottom fact in the banking system of the United +States, and to bull the unit of money and account until it shall be +worth four times as much, or perhaps ten times as much, as it was when +the bulk of the debt was contracted.</p> + +<p>The history of this scheme in its true inwardness is the history of +Wall Street for the past thirty years. The details of the history +relate to such small circumstances as the transfer of the government +of the great Republic from the hands and control of the people to the +hands and control of the Street. Of course no such scheme as that +referred to could be carried into successful operation <i>unless</i> the +national government could be delivered over to the keeping of the +Street and be locked up, as it were, in the same vault where the +national debt is deposited.</p> + +<p>This feat, however, was easily accomplished. Wall Street reached out +its hand and plucked down the American eagle<span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19">19</a></span> from his perch. Wall +Street got possession of the government. The <i>coup</i> was accomplished +while the nation was asleep—else it never could have been +accomplished. Wall Street climbed the Tarpeian rock in the night, and +no goose cackled to give the alarm. Columbia had gone to bed. The +keeper of her treasure-house had already given the key to the enemy. +The keeper of the treasury was a <i>part</i> of the enemy. He gave up both +citadel and city. In the morning the walls were placarded with lying +posters which said that the delivery of the government into the hands +of the Hessians had been rendered necessary in order “to preserve the +national honor!” It was done in order to keep faith with those +benevolent patriots who had bought the debt of the nation at less than +fifty cents to the dollar, and who, not satisfied with bringing it to +par, were now engaged in the honorable work of making it worth two +hundred cents to the dollar. The fact that the industries of the +people would be crushed and the people themselves be reduced to +poverty by the transfer of the national sovereignty from the capitol +to the stock exchange was nothing in comparison with the “preservation +of national honor.”</p> + +<p>The scheme was carried out. The methods by which it was carried out +constitute the subject-matter of the true history of Wall Street +during the past generation. Wall Street, from being a financial +organization, became a political power. It took full possession of the +executive and legislative departments of the government. It controlled +them both. It promptly established and defended its ownership. It +instituted one scheme after another. For the purpose of fortifying its +usurpation, it learned to choose its men and to prepare its measures +in advance. In 1884 it created an administration for its own purposes, +and manned it to the same end. It forced its way into the House of +Representatives and stood with a bludgeon behind the Speaker’s chair. +It entered every committee-room and dictated every successful bill. +The people’s bills all went one way. If by any chance one of the +people’s bills got before the House the subsidized press, owned by +Wall Street, raised against it a chorus of groans and catcalls; <i>that</i> +was “an expression of public opinion”!</p> + +<p>From that day forth the popular voice was strangled into silence. The +next administration (that of 1888) was prepared<span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20">20</a></span> in the same manner. +Wall Street has no politics except the politics of the bond; it has no +platform except the platform of cent per cent. It suffices that when a +president is to be elected he shall be one of us. He shall not be a +man of the people; else in that case he would be a demagogue, a +windbag, a <i>vox et præterea nil</i>. <i>Our</i> man shall not even know the +despised people. He shall not smell of the filthy ground, but must be +“sound” on questions of finance. If he be not “sound,” we will make +him so. We will teach him his paces. If the people conclude to change +their government, we will see to it that the incoming powers are just +like the outgoing. As for the “principles” on which the candidate +shall be chosen, we will attend to that. We will make his principles +for him. We understand principles perfectly. We will fix the platform; +we know the carpenters. If the candidate and his friends have already +fixed a platform before the date of the convention, and if it have +been published everywhere as the decision of the candidate and his +following, we will take that platform from the wires and will +carefully revise it, to the end that the “national honor” shall be +preserved. We will write it over again into new meanings. We will +interpret it so that no harm shall be done to the “national credit.” +We will make our candidate into a puppet. When we put our foot on the +treadle his jaw shall drop and he shall utter many mocking words about +the “national honor” and the “prospects of our glorious +country”—signifying nothing.</p> + +<p>All this we will do for the public good. We will say that we are +striving for national prosperity. We will proclaim our candidate as +the advance agent of prosperity—until after the election. Then we +will say that prosperity will come with the inauguration. Then we will +say that it will shine out promptly when Congress adjourns and ceases +to menace the national credit. Then we will say that prosperity will +reveal itself when the hot season is over. By this time the hoodwinked +people can be coddled to sleep, or else set to dancing with rumors of +foreign wars. To this end we will have our newspapers carefully +promote our principles and studiously avoid all reference to those +subjects in which the people feel the deepest concern. Finally, we +will omit all these matters from our history of “Wall Street, Past;” +we will proceed to speak of our “Wall Street, Present,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" id="page21">21</a></span> and will +explain that it is in a state of “lassitude and expectancy.” Indeed +“lassitude and expectancy” is good.</p> + +<p>But there is still another yawning chasm in the history of “Wall +Street, <i>Past</i>,” and that is Mr. Clews’s failure to discuss the +transfer of the Treasury of the United States to the custody of the +Street, and the consequent reduction of the Secretary of the Treasury +to the rank of a clerk. This very thing has been most successfully +accomplished. I believe that the Secretary still has an office at +Washington, but that should be closed in the interest of economy and +reform. To do so, we doubt not, would be a strong factor in the +restoration of confidence. Perhaps the Washington office might be left +in charge of a janitor, for it is understood that some official +correspondence is still directed to the old address! The presence of +the Secretary in New York, however, has become so essential to the +proper discharge of his duties that the removal of his residence +thither can only be deferred by an absurd deference to public opinion!</p> + +<p>The results of the transfer of this vital function of the national +government have, in the meantime, been so salutary as fully to +vindicate the change. This was shown in 1893-94 when the Street, with +a strong repugnance to investing money in useful enterprises, and +having a prodigious accumulation of funds on hand, concluded that a +sale of Government bonds was necessary for the “national honor.” To +this end the managers began to pull the treasury. In that institution +a large sum of gold was stored, wholly without warrant of law. The +people needed the gold beyond measure—that is, they needed the +<i>money</i>; and gold is one form of money. The industries of the people +had been prostrated by an international conspiracy, and the nation was +quivering on the verge of apprehended ruin.</p> + +<p>In this crisis the patriotic Street devised the bucket-chain, the +crank of which was in the hand of the Street, while the “chain” ran +through the Treasury of the United States. Every bucket came out +filled with gold. Lazard Frères emptied out the gold and shipped it +abroad to their confederates. This created the necessity for buying it +back with bonds. The people were stunned with the audacity of the +thing—just as the unfortunate owners of a house in flames are stunned +to see gentlemen of the profession rush in and empty the safe. Wall +Street danced and shouted while the work was done. The bonds<span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" id="page22">22</a></span> were +“popular,” and the Street got them—got them for one price and sold +them for another.</p> + +<p>By this beautiful process the great American nation was literally held +up and <i>robbed</i> of more than nineteen million dollars! No highwayman +ever more successfully clutched the wizen of his victim than did the +Street with its supple fingers around the white larynx of Columbia. +The wheezing of the strangulated Republic could be heard from the St. +Lawrence to the Rio Grande. The nation was thus “saved,” and the +robbers took the money and went sailing away on summer cruises to +Norway and Venice and the Cyclades. The “national credit” was +preserved; Wall Street “rescued” us from dishonor! That part of the +proceeds not consumed in yacht races, pyrotechnics, and balls was +passed to the credit of the reform fund, needed for the restoration of +prosperity in the fall of 1896! Certainly a history of “Wall Street, +Past,” ought to contain some reference to these crimes.</p> + +<p>Mr. Clews, turning to “Wall Street, Present,” tells the nation that +now “the great banks have a superabundance of gold to lend on solid +and readily salable collateral at low rates of interest, approximating +the prevalent rates in London and Paris, where similar accumulations +of idle capital exist.” This is a true statement of the facts. Mr. +Clews has here spoken by the books. What he says signifies that Wall +Street is now ready to go ahead and issue new mortgages on the +American people. It is now ready to offer inducements to our fourteen +millions of voters to sell themselves into another twenty-year cycle +of bondage. If they will only be gentle and not interrupt us; if they +will give us a true death-grip on themselves, on all they possess, and +all they ever hope to possess, we will lend back to them a part of the +very money which we have sucked up from their wheat fields and +pastures, from their barns and potato patches, from their humble +stores and markets, from their mills and their mines, and we will thus +<i>expedite</i> them on the way to serfdom. Meanwhile we will continue to +bankrupt their railways, to snatch their local stocks, to convert all +shares in all enterprises into bonds, and to put the bonds into our +safes to the end—that confidence may be restored and prosperity come +back like the flowers that bloom in the spring.</p> + +<p>For the time being we, the Street, are able to toss “two hundred<span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id="page23">23</a></span> +thousand shares a day” on the horns of our bull, and to put the same +amount of securities under the custody of our bear. “This conclusion +takes it for granted that the profits should be equally divided among +the membership.” Such are Mr. Clews’s very words. By the bond of my +faith! there is nothing else so beautiful and magnificent as this +among the arts invented by mankind! As for the people, one of your own +kings, Messieurs of the Street, has very properly indicated your wish +and purpose with regard to <i>them</i>.</p> + +<p>Mr. Clews tells us that the “Future” of Wall Street is a sealed book; +and yet we may allow that “there is such a thing as an accurate +prevision of events.” Of this kind are eclipses, occultations, and +tides of the sea. If the capital of Wall Street has, since the +institution was founded, increased more than sixtyfold, as Mr. Clews +declares, then we may expect it, according to his philosophy, to +increase full sixty times sixty, until the world shall be swallowed +up. Then, when Threadneedle and Lombard Streets shall have lost their +sceptre; then, when Seneca’s forecast of the time to come shall have +been fulfilled; then, when Macaulay’s New Zealander shall have made +his sketch, not only of St. Paul’s, but also of the bank of England; +then, when <i>all</i> the wealth, and <i>all</i> the power, and <i>all</i> the +functions of civil society in the United States shall have been +transferred to Wall Street; then, when nothing shall remain to the +American people except their squalid huts and the sorrowful +reminiscences of a great republic; then, when Wall Street in very +truth shall have possessed itself of the earth and consumed +mankind,—I suppose that the benevolent owners of the world will found +a few libraries, build a few marble mausoleums for themselves, and +sally forth to establish a stock exchange in Mars! That done, +interplanetary wars may be engendered, bonds on the solar system may +be issued and bought at half price, a gold standard of values may be +fixed on the basis of the pound sterling good from the sun out to +Neptune, and the inhabitants of the worlds, either by arms or by +journalism, may become the helots of consolidated wealth enthroned as +the governing power of the universe.</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" id="page24">24</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_3" id="article_3"></a> +THE REFORM CLUB’S FEAST OF UNREASON.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline">BY HON. CHARLES A. TOWNE,<br /> +<i>Chairman Provisional National Committee Silver Republican Party.</i></p> +<hr class="short" /> + + +<p><span class="sc">On</span> Saturday evening, April 24, 1897, at the Waldorf Hotel, New York, +there was held a political banquet intended as a most impressive +function, but which has passed into history as a very ridiculous one. +Big with self-complacence and puffed with pride, as it appeared in the +brilliant lights and gorgeous appointments of the palatial +supper-hall, within twenty-four hours the lacerating indignation of +Mr. Watterson and the trenchant raillery of Mr. Bryan had let the +tumid pretentiousness all out of it, and it had collapsed into a +flaccid and “innocuous desuetude.” The “star-eyed goddess” turned her +back upon it, the “wild-orbed anarch” snapped his fingers at it, and +even everyday Mrs. Grundy laughed it to scorn. Projected with the most +alluring and satisfying expectations, the feast has dwindled to the +memory of a sad mistake in the mind of every man that assisted at it. +Planned as a sort of coronation ceremony, its completed performance +unaccountably wore the complexion of belated obsequies irreverently +disturbed by the guffaws of the multitude.</p> + +<p>But the aspect of this banquet as a piece of ill-conceived political +strategy that never was formidable, or as a rite in the ceremonial of +a hero-worship that is as inexplicable as inopportune, does not now so +much concern me as does its office as a dispenser of misinformation +and unsound philosophy, which are always dangerous. Many who condemn +the folly of it as a move in practical politics nevertheless loudly +commend the economic doctrines it contributed to spread. But inasmuch +as, in my opinion, the science it taught is as bad as the politics it +practised, I propose to call attention to a few of the arrogant +assumptions and mischievous theories that found emphatic and repeated +expression at this feast.</p> + +<p>Did the purpose of this article permit, it would be interesting to +make Mr. Cleveland’s speech the text of some examination<span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" id="page25">25</a></span> into the +ex-President’s peculiarities of style. It was Clevelandesque to the +core. All his protuberant characteristics are there: the leviathanic +egotism, the profound and tenebrous ponderosity, the labored intricacy +of the commonplace, the pedagogic moralizing, the oracular +inconsequence. How absurdly obvious it all is now, and how +inexplicable that the glamour of high place should ever have clothed +such matter as his with the seeming of philosophy and statesmanship! +‘Tis the very frippery and trumpery of the stage after the lights are +out and the audience has departed.</p> + +<p>In his opening Mr. Cleveland says: “On every side we are confronted +with popular depression and complaint.” This language stirs an echo of +the long ago. In his special message to the extra session of the +Fifty-third Congress in August, 1893, he thus announced a similar +condition: “Suddenly financial distrust and fear have sprung up on +every side.” But he accounts differently for these two identical +phenomena. The situation to-day he largely attributes to “the work of +agitators and demagogues.” In 1893 he declared: “I believe these +things are principally chargeable to Congressional legislation +touching the purchase and coinage of silver by the general +government.”</p> + +<p>The ex-President’s explanations are both wrong, and nobody ought to +know it so well as himself. His relations with the great gold bankers +were exceedingly intimate in 1892 and 1893, and have been so ever +since. It is notorious that the panic of 1893 was a bankers’ panic +deliberately brought about by these men to frighten public sentiment +into supplementing their demand for the repeal of the purchasing +clause of the Sherman law of 1890. The agitation against that law was +a whooped-up and manufactured agitation. No legitimate interest had +suffered from its operation. On the contrary, the access of standard +silver dollars coined under the laws of 1878 and 1890 had been of +incalculable advantage to the country. In his annual message of +December 2, 1890, President Harrison had thus referred to this fact: +“The general tendency of the markets was upward from influences wholly +apart from the recent tariff legislation. The enlargement of our +currency by the silver bill undoubtedly gave an upward tendency to +trade and had a marked effect on prices.” And again: “It is gratifying +to know that the increased circulation secured by<span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id="page26">26</a></span> the act has +exerted, and will continue to exert a most beneficial influence upon +business and upon general values.”</p> + +<p>Such an influence that circulation did indeed continue to exert. The +comparative prosperity of the two following years, which, in contrast +with the conditions of the subsequent period, causes 1892 to wear to +wistful eyes so beautiful a hue in these unhappy days, would have been +an absolute impossibility but for the silver legislation.</p> + +<p>Nor was the credit of the government menaced. It was a malicious +afterthought that represented the silver dollar as a charge upon the +credit of the nation. That dollar was a standard dollar. It was never +“redeemed” in anything but the money-work it did. There was no law for +its redemption, and there was as yet no attempt, such as Mr. Carlisle +in 1896 declared himself ready to make, to commit the crime of an +administrative degradation of the circulating silver dollars into +promises for the payment of gold. The Treasury Notes, issued in +payment for silver bullion under the law of 1890, were redeemable in +either gold or silver at the discretion of the Secretary of the +Treasury; and inasmuch as there was silver behind every one of them, +they could become a menace to the credit of the government only in +case of the betrayal of his duty by that official.</p> + +<p>But the contractionists looked with alarm upon the improving +conditions of the country. Something must be done to discredit silver, +or by and by there might arise such a demand for the full restoration +of its mint privileges and money powers as could not be balked, as +every similar demand had been balked since 1873; and in that event the +slow villany of many years would have been fruitless and the +contractionists’ occupation would be gone. Then was formed the deep +design to compel the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman +law. The gigantic forces that had been behind Mr. Cleveland in the +memorable campaign of 1892 had not lost their cunning or their power. +They knew their implements, and they had had much experience. Their +strategy was customary and it was effective. To-day Mr. Cleveland +complains because the Republican party, having won the contest of last +November on the money question, should have hurried into the current +extra session on the tariff<span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" id="page27">27</a></span> question. Let him recall his own course +when, having carried the country in 1892 on the tariff question, he +summoned the extra session of 1893 to consider the money question. +Such a reflection might possibly assist him in fathoming the present +motives of the men who won in 1892 to achieve the gold standard and in +1896 to preserve it.</p> + +<p>For the election of Mr. Cleveland was a carefully executed move in an +elaborate and merciless programme. The president of a national bank in +North Dakota, a man of character and thorough reliability, has +recently made public a conversation between himself and a prominent +New York bank president, held not long after that election, in which +the latter, whose institution was a member of the Associated National +Banks, declared in substance as follows: “We have just elected Grover +Cleveland President of the United States upon the express +understanding with us that the policy of the administration shall be +to uphold and advance the gold standard”; and he foretold, with +startlingly faithful prevision, the repeal of the Sherman purchase +law, the successive bond-issues, and the general and ruinous fall of +prices, which seem to have evidenced the strict performance of the +agreement by the party of the second part.</p> + +<p>How persistently the power of the executive was used, and how +carefully the offices were dispensed, to influence Senators and +members of Congress against the Sherman law, were matters of ordinary +comment at the time. Meanwhile the banks were putting in motion their +peculiar and enormous persuasions. For months no man could go into any +bank in any State of the Union for any purpose without having thrust +under his nose, with a more or less pointed request for his signature, +a petition demanding the repeal of the obnoxious statute. Then, in the +latter days of April, 1893, on the stock exchange, there began that +concerted onslaught upon stocks and values, vaunted as an +“object-lesson” to the people, as a result of which within eight +months six hundred of the relatively smaller banking institutions of +the country went down, dragging with them fifteen thousand industrial +and business enterprises, involving a total loss of seven hundred and +fifty millions of dollars.</p> + +<p>The object-lesson served its purpose. With the business<span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" id="page28">28</a></span> world +shattered into fragments, enterprise stifled, and credit dead, a +terror seized upon the people. The opportunity for which the big +bankers had been coolly waiting had come. Cunningly and in many places +at once they started the cry that the Sherman law had caused all this +havoc, and that the only hope for a return of prosperity lay in the +immediate repeal of the feature providing for the purchase of new +silver bullion. The clamor was eagerly repeated, and fear eagerly +believed it. At precisely the right moment the President himself made +official proclamation that the rumor was true, and summoned Congress +in extra session to obey the mandate of the bankers. Under this spell +Congress acted and the law was repealed. Thus was the country made +dependent upon gold alone for its new supplies of full-power money, +and thus, aided by similar action elsewhere, was inaugurated an era of +accelerated fall of prices more pronounced than the world has known +since the middle ages, and a precipitate decline of values more +ruinous than any other chronicled in history.</p> + +<p>“Agitators and demagogues” indeed! Is it not monstrous that any +intelligent man should believe the present frightful condition of the +country to be due to the work of agitators and demagogues? Mr. +Cleveland of course knows better; but many people have actually been +convinced that some millions of our citizens would rather agitate than +work; that thousands of them have deliberately and by preference +forsworn business and become demagogues by trade. The thoughtful man +knows that agitation is first a result and afterward a cause. It is a +cruel as well as an ignorant thing for Mr. Cleveland and his disciples +to cast into the faces of the suffering producers and workers of the +United States, as a reproach, the fact of their discontent and +complaining. Of course our people are in distress. Of course they are +crying out against it. Of course they will endeavor to learn what +occasions it. And of course when they have ascertained what the matter +is they will agitate for relief. Substantially all men prefer to be +busy about the ordinary and interdependent offices of social life. +This is especially true of the great middle classes in the United +States. Under just and rational laws they will be so. The absence of +such a temper is ground for suspicion against the laws. Existing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29">29</a></span> +conditions confess their weakness and injustice when they revile +admitted discontent. I would rather the cause I believe in sprang from +suffering than that suffering should follow my cause.</p> + +<p>The full magnitude of this achievement for the gold standard in the +repeal of the law of 1890, will not be grasped unless we bear in mind +that it occurred at a time when the indications were unusually +favorable that an international bimetallic agreement, which the world +had been trying to accomplish for nearly twenty years, might soon be +secured on an acceptable basis. It has long been suspected that the +strongest discouragement of this hope, and probably the determining +factor in its failure, was the attitude of President Cleveland as +quietly caused to be understood abroad. Very recently this +well-grounded suspicion has been turned into certainty by the +distinguished English bimetallist, Mr. Moreton Frewen, who, in a +letter to the Washington <i>Post</i>, says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>But Mr. Cleveland made it known, through the subterranean +channels of diplomacy, that, far from giving any support to +silver, he was preparing to urge on Congress the repeal of the +silver-purchase clauses of the Sherman act. Mr. Cleveland’s +intention became known in official circles in Calcutta. That this +was the case I learned at the time and at first hand. The +government of India believed that the cessation of all silver +purchases in America would still further reduce the exchange +value of the rupee, and therefore, in advance of the pending +anti-silver legislation anticipated from Washington, the Indian +mints were closed.</p></div> + +<p>Mr. Cleveland may well be deified in the gold-standard cult, for +clearly he has been the arch-enemy of bimetallism.</p> + +<p>One of the characteristics of the discussion now going on between the +advocates of gold monometallism and those of bimetallism is the +disingenuousness of the former. They will rarely consent to a clear +definition of the issue, but seek to evade it both by preëmpting the +use of moral labels and catchphrases which satisfy their partisans +without inquiry, and by stigmatizing their opponents with such vile +imputations and base epithets as seem to place them beyond the pale of +moral and intellectual tolerance. “Sound” and “honest” they write +above their creed. They pose as consecrated guardians of public honor +and private property. We are depicted as dishonest and imbecile, +repudiators of national and individual obligations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page30" id="page30">30</a></span> communists or +anarchists bearing the torch and axe. This specialty is Mr. +Cleveland’s long suit. Little wonder that his school should place him +at its head. His preëminence in the field where self-admiration is a +supreme virtue and ribald abuse passes for irrefutable argument will +scarcely be denied by anybody who shall have read the following +characteristic specimens from this Waldorf essay, carefully written +down and calmly delivered: “We are gathered here to-night as patriotic +citizens anxious to do something toward … protecting the fair fame +of our nation against shame and scandal.” It is not recorded that +anybody smiled at this. Indeed, the astonishing thing about this +business is that these people seem able to impose successfully on one +another. But Mr. Cleveland is even better at the other kind, as for +example: “Agitators and demagogues,” “ruthless agitators,” “sordid +greed,” “inflamed with tales of an ancient crime against their +rights,” “unfortunate and unreasonable,” “restless and turbulent,” +“reckless creed,” “boisterous and passionate campaign,” “allied forces +of calamity,” “encouraged by malign conditions,” and so on <i>ad +nauseam</i>.</p> + +<p>This is the attitude of nearly all the defenders of the gold standard +who have the hardihood to say anything at all. Undoubtedly in many +cases it is assumed because of ignorance on the merits of the case, so +that nothing remains but to “abuse the other fellow.” But occasionally +this course is adopted by men who are well informed, and who know that +the gold standard is incapable of meeting bimetallism in an honest +contest of argument with any hope of success. The strategy of these, +therefore, is to avoid fair discussion by so prejudicing the public +mind against their opponents as to forestall a hearing.</p> + +<p>The result has been surprisingly successful. In many localities, and +in fact in nearly all localities in the East, the most intolerant +spirit has been manifested by the most prominent persons in the +community, who had never taken the pains to examine the subject on +which they so violently and fanatically expressed themselves. To +people of any acquaintance with the literature, the history, and the +science of money, it has seemed most marvellous that business men of +large affairs, of much general information, and of excellent natural +abilities, should be content to remain absolutely ignorant of +fundamental<span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31">31</a></span> monetary principles and the overwhelmingly attested +lessons of past experience. It is infinitely pitiful to see men of +affairs led away in so-called “business men’s sound-money +associations” and other similar movements, when a knowledge of the +conditions on which their welfare depends would send them in an +exactly opposite direction.</p> + +<p>Why? Because business men are men who do business, or at any rate who +want to do business; and all legitimate business consists in the +performance of some appropriate function in connection with the +production or the exchange of commodities. It is apparent to even the +dullest apprehension that whatever prevents or discourages production +is destructive of business, and that a money system which provides a +measuring unit that constantly demands, as an equivalent, an +increasing quantity of everything produced, is the greatest burden on +production that could possibly be devised. But it is precisely this +kind of a unit that the gold standard furnishes. No one economic fact +is so conclusively established and so generally conceded as that of +the progressive fall of average prices throughout the gold-standard +world during the last twenty-four years. This fall amounts to almost +fifty per cent, and indeed, in respect to the great staple products of +the country, exceeds fifty per cent; so that, to state the same fact +in its converse, the purchasing power of gold has increased since 1873 +one hundred per cent.</p> + +<p>The significance of this awful fact is deftly obscured behind the +deceptive and specious plea for “a dollar of the greatest purchasing +power.” This is one of those artful expressions that are used by the +advocates of the gold standard as a kind of thought-deterrent. It +seems so obvious, at the first suggestion, that the best dollar is the +dollar that will buy the most, that it is hard for a man to get even a +hearing who asserts that, on the contrary, such a dollar is the very +worst dollar conceivable. But a moment’s reflection will satisfy any +sane mind that such is the case. The demonstration is so simple that +one feels like apologizing for making it. Yet it is in respect to +principles just as plain as this one that people are constantly +allowing themselves to be taken in by the supporters of the single +standard.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page32" id="page32">32</a></span></p> + +<p>The demonstration is this: whatever is bought by a dollar, itself buys +the dollar. For example, when a dollar exchanges for a bushel of +wheat, the dollar buys the wheat, and the wheat buys the dollar. To +say, therefore, that a dollar that buys two bushels of wheat, being a +dollar of greater purchasing power, is better than the dollar that +buys one bushel, is to say that the dollar which it requires two +bushels of wheat to buy is a better dollar than that which can be +bought with one bushel. Consequently, to increase the excellence of +your dollar all you need to do is to increase the scarcity of the +stuff out of which dollars are made, so that each one shall constantly +stand for more and more wheat, or, using wheat merely as +representative of commodities in general, so that it shall constantly +require more and more of all other things on earth to get a dollar. It +is wholly credible that the man with dollars should profess this +philosophy, but it is absolutely inexplicable how it should receive +the support of men interested in getting dollars with things, who +comprise about seven-eighths of society.</p> + +<p>Now as it continually takes more products to get a given quantity of +gold, is it not clear that the producer who becomes liable for taxes +and gets into debt must constantly bear an increasing burden of +taxation, and that his debt, payable in more commodities than it +represented when he incurred it, needs only to run long enough to grow +beyond the hope of his ability to pay it? Such a policy cannot but be +fraught with certain ruin to producers. It is causing in the United +States a condition frightful to contemplate. The mass of debts is +piling up at a ratio that absolutely threatens, if a halt in the +automatic process is not soon called, a universal insolvency. Indeed a +general liquidation is already impossible. He is no alarmist who +counsels a timely and rational remedy as not only demanded by justice, +but as anticipatory of violent readjustment. Under such disquieting +conditions is it not as criminal as it is unscientific for men to go +about prating of the system that has occasioned these things as +“honest money,” and “sound money,” and denouncing its opponents as +repudiators and anarchists?</p> + +<p>In the presence of epochal and fundamental disturbance, when men, +patient beyond example and willing to argue the correctness of their +claims, are crying out against the injustice of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id="page33">33</a></span> money system that +day and night and year upon year, with unerring and pitiless +precision, takes from the producing many and hands over to the idle +few that which it ruins those to lose and but pampers these to gain, +our ex-President offends decency and insults millions of his +fellow-citizens with this reference to their contention: “Honest +accumulation is called a crime.” Where does he find anybody calling +honest accumulation a crime? Men indeed stigmatize the maintenance of +this odious money system as a crime, but only because of the things +they claim it to be guilty of. Why does he not join issue on these? He +knows that nowhere in all this world is there, or has there ever been, +a more honest body of citizenship than the millions of Americans who +to-day are toiling on the farms and in the workshops of the country +and who demand from the laws they obey nothing but equity and justice. +It was easier, and more pleasant to those who heard him, to wrong +these men with a sneer than to answer them with an argument. He might +possibly have done well to relinquish this task to one who sat near +him, his ex-Secretary of the Treasury, who had himself, in 1878, +discovered something that <i>he</i> thought a crime and had thus denounced +it: “According to my views of the subject the conspiracy which seems +to have been formed here and in Europe to destroy, by legislation and +otherwise, from three-sevenths to one-half the metallic money of the +world, is the most gigantic crime of this or any other age.”</p> + +<p>The speech of Mr. Carlisle was notable for stating his position more +extremely than he had previously done since his apostasy. He boldly +takes the stand logically demanded by consistency in the man who +opposes silver coinage and denies the arguments based on the +appreciation of gold. He comes out squarely for the gold standard and +places bimetallism of any and all sorts under a common ban. But alas! +what a sorry appearance he makes. Nowhere in our political history do +I find quite so pathetic a figure as that presented by this once +strong and virile champion of the people’s rights in his contrasted +role of defender of their oppressors. Where now is that compact and +cogent argument, that sincere and moving eloquence, which made his +forensic style so singularly effective; which marked him the +parliamentary darling of his party, a predestined president of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" id="page34">34</a></span> +republic? Shrunken to the dreary platitudes of the gold-standard +catechism, babbling of “sound currency” and “intrinsic value.”</p> + +<p>This talk of intrinsic value was not confined to Mr. Carlisle. Mr. +Patterson, of Tennessee, and Senator Caffery, of Louisiana, were +likewise guilty of it. It is, indeed, the characteristic folly of +their school. Having destroyed the money demand for silver while +adding almost incalculably to that for gold, they have caused an +increasing disparity in the values of the two metals; and now, when it +is sought to restore the parity by restoring the equivalence of use +and demand on which alone it depends, they pretend to have discovered +some inherent perfection in gold and an original sin in silver which +forbid all attempts to reconcile them. In the face of monetary +principles whose nature has been understood for more than two thousand +years, and of historic and economic facts which every college freshman +knows, Mr. Carlisle has the appalling audacity to use the following +language: “Natural causes have separated the two metals, and while it +is possible that natural causes may hereafter change their present +relations to each other, it is certain that these relations cannot be +changed by artificial means.”</p> + +<p>It is difficult to speak with becoming moderation of such stuff as +this; and it is really pathetic to see the dominant opinion of whole +sections of the country taking its cue from men who assume superior +airs and rebuke the presumption of thinking on the part of some +millions of Americans, while they peddle such insufferable nonsense as +this just quoted from Mr. Carlisle. “Natural causes” indeed, when we +can turn to the statute books of half the world and put our fingers on +the “artificial means” whereby the hoarders of gold have legislated +demand into one metal and legislated it out of the other. Let once a +wrong be achieved by artificial means, and instantly those who profit +by it represent it as the inevitable decree of evolutional forces. +“Natural causes,” we are asked to believe, have made gold dear and +silver cheap during a period when the cost of producing gold has been +cheapened more than any other mechanical process; when both metals +have continued on substantially their old relative planes of use in +every respect save as money; when their relative production has been +from three<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35">35</a></span> to twenty times less disproportionate than at any other +similar period in the past four hundred years; and when in actual +weight the stocks of coin and bullion available for coinage have risen +from a proportion of thirty-two of silver to one of gold up to that of +sixteen of silver to one of gold coincidently with a fall of the +so-called market ratio from fifteen and one-half to one, when the +mints were open to both, down to thirty-three to one when only the one +can be freely coined. It is simply an incredible and impossible +proposition.</p> + +<p>Intrinsic value is as unthinkable as intrinsic distance. Both distance +and value are relations. Neither can exist or be stated except by +comparison. The value of a thing is what it is worth; and it is worth +what it will bring. Value in exchange is the only value that political +economy knows anything about; and what a given thing will exchange for +depends on the ratio of the supply of it to the demand for it. A piece +of money is worth what it will buy. Other things remaining the same, +it will buy more when the stuff out of which it is made is plentiful, +and less when that is scarce. The proposition of the bimetallists +rests on only time-honored doctrines of political economy as justified +by the experience of mankind. We desire to restore the parity of gold +and silver by perfectly “natural causes” set in operation by +“artificial means.” We propose to invoke the law to equalize their +opportunity and to make them interchangeably and indifferently +responsive to the same money demand.</p> + +<p>Space has not permitted reference to all the errors committed at this +wonderful banquet, nor a complete discussion of even those cited. I +have endeavored only to point out the most glaring ones in the hope +that some persons inclined to accept, somewhat carelessly, the +assumedly authoritative statements of these eminent men, may be led to +study this great subject whose proper understanding and wise +management are of such vast importance not only in American politics +but in the progress of the race. For the cause of bimetallism must +commend itself to the intellect and the conscience of the country or +it cannot win. Those who have spent some time in an earnest and +thoughtful investigation of the matter and are convinced that the +success of silver coinage is the first step in a series of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36">36</a></span> rational, +safe, and necessary reforms, are ready to be judged as much by the +reasonableness of their doctrine as by the sincerity of their motives. +They intend from now on to force the fight. The enemy will be sought +out and assailed wherever found. No pretentious claims of +infallibility will be accorded immunity from criticism. No authority +will be permitted to shelter folly. It is time to expose the +preposterous assurance of the gold-standard pundits. Nonsense will be +called nonsense whoever utters it, and, what is more, it will be +proved to be nonsense.</p> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37">37</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_4" id="article_4"></a> +DOES CREDIT ACT ON THE GENERAL LEVEL OF PRICES?</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline">BY A. J. UTLEY.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + + +<p><span class="sc">It</span> is conceded by all standard writers on political economy that the +value of money—that is, its purchasing power—is fixed and regulated +by the amount of money available for use.</p> + +<p>John Stuart Mill says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>If the whole money in circulation was doubled prices would be +doubled. If it was only increased one-fourth, prices would rise +one-fourth. There would be one-fourth more money, all of which +would be used to purchase goods of some description. When there +had been time for the increased supply of money to reach all +markets, or (according to conventional metaphor) to permeate all +the channels of circulation, all prices would have risen +one-fourth. But the general rise of price is independent of this +diffusing process. Even if some prices were raised more, and +others less, the average rise would be one-fourth. This is a +necessary consequence of the fact that a fourth more money would +have to be given for only the same quantity of goods. General +price, therefore, in any such case would be one-fourth higher. +The very same effect would be produced on prices if we suppose +the goods diminished, instead of the money increased: and the +contrary effect if the goods were increased, or the money +diminished. If there were less money in the hands of the +community, and the same amount of goods to be sold, less money +altogether would be given for them, and they would be sold at +lower prices; lower, too, in the precise ratio in which the money +was diminished. <i>So that the value of money, other things being +the same, varies inversely as its quantity; every increase in +quantity lowering the value, and every diminution raising it, in +a ratio exactly equivalent.</i></p></div> + +<p>This is known as the quantitative theory of money, and is recognized +by Ricardo, Jevons, Macleod, John Locke, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, +Senator John P. Jones, David Hume, William Huskisson, Sir James +Graham, Prof. Torrens, Prof. Sidgwick, J. R. McCulloch, Mr. Gallatin, +Prof. Fawcett, Prof. Perry, N. A. Nicholson, Earl Grey, Prof. Shield +Nicholson, Lord Overstone, and, in fact, by all writers on political +economy of any prominence since Adam Smith. Formerly it was supposed +that the value of money depended upon the cost of production; that the +reason why a dollar in gold or silver was worth 100 cents was because +it took 100 cents’ worth of labor<span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38">38</a></span> to produce metal enough to make a +dollar. This theory, however, has been abandoned by the best writers +and speakers; in fact, by all economists of any standing, and it is +now conceded that the cost of producing the metal has no influence on +its money value, only as it may tend to increase or reduce the amount +of money, and that it is the quantity of money, the number of units, +available for use that determines and regulates its value; that is, if +the quantity is increased its value will fall, and if the quantity is +diminished its value will rise, and that it will fall or rise in value +in a ratio exactly equivalent to the increase or diminution of the +volume of money; and that if sufficiently reduced in volume, a dollar, +whether stamped on gold, silver, or paper, would buy a plantation or +pay a man for the labor of a lifetime. There can be no doubt as to the +correctness of the quantitative theory of money.</p> + +<p>John Stuart Mill says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>That an increase in the quantity of money raises prices, and a +diminution lowers them, is the most elementary proposition in the +theory of currency, and without it we have no key to any of the +others.</p></div> + +<p>Prices, however, are not fixed by the total amount of money in +existence; only that part of the money that is available for use can +act on prices.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mill says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>Whatever may be the quantity of money in the country, only that +part of it will affect prices which goes into the market of +commodities and is there actually exchanged for goods of some +description. Whatever increases this portion of the money in the +country tends to raise prices. Money kept in reserve by +individuals to meet contingencies which do not occur, does not +act on prices. Money in the coffers of banks, or retained as a +reserve, does not act on prices until drawn out to be expended +for commodities.</p></div> + +<p>It is also conceded that in fixing prices not only all the money +actually available for use must be taken into consideration, but the +rapidity of circulation must also be regarded; and due allowance must +be made for the number of times commodities change hands before +consumption.</p> + +<p>The same dollar may, by passing from hand to hand, make a number of +purchases, and the same goods may be sold repeatedly before +consumption. It is, probably, correct to say, that the money available +for use multiplied by the rapidity of circulation, or, as Mr. Mill +expresses it, by its efficiency, equals the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id="page39">39</a></span> total money to be +considered; and the commodities sold multiplied by the average number +of sales equals the total commodities to be taken into consideration +in fixing the general level of prices.</p> + +<p>Are there any other elements that act on the general level of prices? +Of course an abundant yield, or a short crop, or an over-production, +so called, or under-consumption, of any particular commodity may +depress or raise the price of that particular crop or commodity; but +are there any elements other than those above enumerated that act on +the general level of prices? I think there are none.</p> + +<p>If, then, prices are controlled by the volume of money available for +use; and if the general level of prices will rise as the volume of +money is increased, and fall as the volume of money is diminished, and +rise or fall in an exact ratio corresponding with the expansion or +contraction of the volume of money, it becomes important to ascertain +what money is, and also whether there is anything which can be used as +a substitute for money in such a manner as to affect the general level +of prices.</p> + +<p>Senator John P. Jones, than whom there is no one better informed, +says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>The money of a country is that thing, whatever it may be, which +is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in +payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law or by +universal consent. Its value does not arise from the intrinsic +qualities which the material of which it is made may possess, but +depends entirely on extrinsic qualities which law or common +consent may confer.</p></div> + +<p>Aristotle says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>Money has value only by law and not by nature; so that a change +of convention between those who use it is sufficient to deprive +it of its value and power to satisfy our wants.</p></div> + +<p>Adam Smith says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>A guinea may be considered a bill for a certain quantity of goods +on all the tradesmen in the neighborhood.</p></div> + +<p>Henry Thornton says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>Money of every kind is an order for goods. It is so considered by +the laborer when he receives it, and it is almost instantly +converted into money’s worth. It is merely the instrument by +which the purchasable stock of the country is distributed with +convenience and advantage among the several members of the +community.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40">40</a></span></p> + +<p>John Stuart Mill says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>The pounds or shillings which a man receives are a sort of ticket +or order which he may present for payment at any shop he pleases, +and which entitles him to receive a certain value of any +commodity that he may choose.</p></div> + +<p>Appleton’s Cyclopædia defines money in the following words:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>Anything which freely circulates from hand to hand, in any +country, as a common, acceptable medium of exchange, is, in such +country, money, even though it ceases to be such, or to possess +any value, when passing into another country. In a word, an +article is determined to be money by reason of the performance by +it of certain functions, without regard to its form or substance.</p></div> + +<p>Francis A. Walker says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>Money is that which freely passes from hand to hand through the +community in final discharge of debt and in full payment for +commodities, being accepted equally without reference to the +character or credit of the person who offers it, and without the +intention of the person who receives it, to consume it, or enjoy +it, or apply it to any other use than in turn to tender it to +others in discharge of debts or in payment for commodities.</p></div> + +<p>It has been contended by certain economists that bank checks and bills +of exchange are money, or, at least, that they discharge the money +function and act on prices the same as money; but this definition +excludes checks and bills of exchange. A bill of exchange or bank +check is not accepted without reference to the character or credit of +the person who offers it. But Francis A. Walker leaves us in no doubt +on this question. On page 123 of his work on “Political Economy” he +says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>Money is a medium of exchange. Whatever performs this function, +does this work, is money, no matter what it is made of, and no +matter how it came to be a medium at first, or why it continues +to be such. So long as, in any community, there is an article +which all producers take freely and as a matter of course in +exchange for whatever they have to sell, instead of looking +about, at the time, for the particular things they, themselves, +wish to consume, that article is money, be it white, yellow, or +black, hard or soft, animal, vegetable, or mineral. There is no +other test of money than this. That which does the money work is +the money thing. It may do this well; it may do this ill. It may +be good money; it may be bad money; but it is money all the same. +We said <i>all</i> producers, since it is not enough that a thing is +extensively used in exchange, to constitute it money. <i>Bank +checks are used in numerous and important transactions, yet are +not money.</i> It is essential to money that its acceptability +should be so nearly universal that practically every person in +the community who has any product or service to dispose of will +freely, gladly, and of preference, take this thing money, instead +of the particular products or service which he may individually +require from others, being well assured that with money he will +unfailingly<span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id="page41">41</a></span> obtain whatever he shall desire, in form and amount, +and at times to suit his wants.</p></div> + +<p>It appears from the accepted definitions that bank checks and bills of +exchange are not money. They may to some extent, as other forms of +credit may to some extent, add to or increase the rapidity of +circulation; but, certainly, credit is not money nor does it possess +the essential elements of money. I think it is an essential element of +money that when used it closes the transaction between the parties to +the transaction. In other words, money, when paid in the purchase of a +commodity, closes the transaction, and neither party to the +transaction has any further claim or demand against the other. +Anything which does this (barter, of course, excluded) is money, and +anything which fails to do this is not money. If a credit is given or +a check received the transaction is not closed until the debt is paid +or the check cashed. I do not find that any economist has made this +distinction, in so many words, between money and credit, but I am +satisfied that it exists.</p> + +<p>Does all the money available for use act on prices? It is contended by +a certain class of economists that only money of ultimate and final +redemption—in other words, gold and silver, in countries where gold +and silver are the standard money, and gold only, in countries where +gold is the standard money—can act directly on prices, and that other +forms of money can only act on prices in an indirect manner, and to +the extent only that they may increase the rapidity of the circulation +of redemption or standard money; that paper money, whether convertible +or inconvertible, covered or uncovered, and token money, can have no +direct influence on the general level of prices.</p> + +<p>Is this contention true? We have already seen that money is a medium +of exchange, a counter for reckoning, an order for goods, and that its +value does not depend upon the intrinsic qualities which the material +out of which it is made may possess, but depends entirely upon +extrinsic qualities which law or common consent may confer, and that +anything (barter, of course, excluded) that closes transactions +between the parties to the transactions, is money; and also that the +value of money, that is, its purchasing power, is fixed and regulated +by the amount of money available for use. Why, then, should any<span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" id="page42">42</a></span> part +of the money that possesses and discharges all the functions of money +be excluded? What peculiar property has money stamped on gold and +silver that it only can act on prices?</p> + +<p>John Stuart Mill says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>After experience had shown that pieces of paper, of no intrinsic +value, by merely bearing upon them the written profession of +being equivalent to a certain number of francs, dollars, or +pounds, could be made to circulate as such, and to produce all +the benefit to the users which could have been produced by the +coins which they purported to represent, governments began to +think that it would be a happy device if they could appropriate +to themselves this benefit, free from the condition to which +individuals issuing such paper substitutes for money were +subject, of giving, when required, for the sign, the thing +signified. They determined to try whether they could not +emancipate themselves from this unpleasant obligation, and make a +piece of paper issued by them pass for a pound, by merely calling +it a pound and consenting to receive it in payment for taxes. And +such is the influence of almost all established governments, that +they have generally succeeded in attaining this object: <i>I +believe I may say they have always succeeded for a time, and the +power has only been lost to them after they had compromised it by +the most flagrant abuse.</i>—“Political Economy,” Book 3, Chap. 13.</p></div> + +<p>Mill further says that such inconvertible paper money will act on +prices. And if inconvertible paper money will act on prices, why will +not convertible paper money, that is, paper money convertible into +coin on demand, also act on prices? Token money, especially if a legal +tender, and whether a legal tender or not, if accepted without +objection in the payment of debt, or if received in full payment for +commodities, discharges the money function, and is to all intents and +purposes money. It is not absolutely necessary that to make a thing +money it should be a legal tender in the payment of debt. Anything +which is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in +payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law (that is, its +legal tender property) or by common consent, is money. From 1861 to +1873 we had no gold or silver money in the United States, or virtually +none. The official reports of the Secretary of the Treasury show that +the gold and silver coin, including the gold and silver bullion in the +United States Treasury during that period, amounted to but +$25,000,000, and even that was not in circulation, except to a very +limited extent on the Pacific Coast. Yet during that period prices +reached the highest level ever attained in this country. Certainly, +the level of prices during that period was not fixed by the gold and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id="page43">43</a></span> +silver money available for use. In view of the foregoing facts I think +it must be apparent that any money which is received in full payment +for commodities, whether so received on account of its legal tender +property or by universal consent, and whether it is gold, silver, +paper, or token money, acts on prices, and tends to fix the general +level of prices.</p> + +<p>It is claimed by a great many writers on political economy that credit +has the same influence in fixing the general level of prices that +money has, and that an expansion or contraction of credit would +inflate or contract prices in the same manner and to the same extent +as would result from a contraction or expansion of money; that if +credit is extended, if more commodities are sold on credit than +formerly, such extension of credit will tend to raise prices in the +same manner and to the same extent as would so much additional money; +and that if credits are contracted, if less credits are given than +formerly, such contraction of credits will tend to depress prices in +the same manner and to the same extent as a withdrawal of a like +amount of money from the channels of trade would depress them. At the +head of this school of political economists stands John Stuart Mill. +He says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>I apprehend that bank notes, bills, or cheques, as such, do not +act on prices at all. What does act on prices is credit, in +whatever shape given, and whether it gives rise to any +transferable instruments capable of passing into circulation or +not. (See Book 3, Chapter 12.)</p></div> + +<p>Is this contention true? If so, then it is not true that the general +level of prices is determined by the amount of money available for +use; but is determined, rather, by the amount of credits available for +use. The debts of the world (and the credits, of course, are precisely +equal to the debts, as there could be no debt without a corresponding +credit) amount, in round numbers, to $200,000,000,000, and the money +in the world amounts in round numbers to $10,000,000,000. That is, +there are twenty dollars of credit to one dollar of money; and if +credit exercises the same influence in fixing the general level of +prices that money exercises, then it is absurd to say that the volume +of money available for use fixes the general level of prices, and at +the same time to contend that credit, dollar for dollar, is an equal +factor in fixing prices. If credit<span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" id="page44">44</a></span> affects the general level of +prices in the same manner and to the same extent that money does, then +credit exerts an influence on prices twenty times greater than that +exerted by money, and we should say: The general level of prices is +fixed by credit, modified, it may be, to some extent by the amount of +money in circulation.</p> + +<p>The difficulty seems to be in distinguishing between money and credit. +If we keep in mind the fact that anything which closes the transaction +between the parties to the transaction (barter excluded) is money, and +anything which leaves something still to be done is credit, we shall +have no difficulty in making the distinction.</p> + +<p>Can credit affect the general level of prices? One of the most +familiar and common illustrations given by those who contend that +credit will raise the general level of prices, is that of a man +entering the market to buy cotton.</p> + +<p>They say: “Suppose a person with $5,000 in money enters the cotton +market, and with his money purchases $5,000 worth of cotton. His +demand for cotton and his purchase of $5,000 worth will tend to +advance or stimulate the price of cotton.” “Now,” they say, “suppose +he has a credit of $5,000 and with this credit he purchases an +additional $5,000 worth of cotton. The second purchase, made on +credit,” they contend, “will tend to still further advance the price +of cotton in the same manner and to the same extent that the cash +purchase did.” Is this true?</p> + +<p>Let us suppose that he purchased the second bunch of cotton on ninety +days’ time. At the end of the ninety days he must pay for this cotton. +If he draws the $5,000 with which he pays this debt from money +invested in the cotton trade, the withdrawal of that sum from money +invested in that industry will tend to depress the price of cotton to +the extent that it was stimulated by the credit. If he withdraws it +from the grain trade or from some other industry, the withdrawal of +that sum of money will tend to depress prices in the industry from +which it is withdrawn to the same extent as the cotton industry was +stimulated by the credit. Whether the money to pay the debt is taken +from the cotton industry or from some other industry, the general +level of prices has not been raised. The purchase<span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" id="page45">45</a></span> in the first +instance may have temporarily stimulated the price of cotton, but if +the payment of the debt is made from money drawn from that industry, +it will depress the price of cotton to where it was before the credit +purchase was made; and if the payment is made from money drawn from +some other industry, it will depress prices in that industry to the +same extent that the price of cotton was stimulated. In either event +the general level of prices remains the same. It is like robbing Peter +to pay Paul. It may make Paul richer, but how about Peter? There is no +more wealth in existence than before the robbery was committed.</p> + +<p>Again, it is claimed that credit stimulates prices by causing +commodities which are sold on credit to be sold for higher prices than +commodities of the same value are sold for when sold for cash. It is +true that sales on credit are, as a rule, at a higher price than sales +for cash in hand. Why is this so? For two reasons:</p> + +<p>1st. Business done on credit is always attended with considerable +risk. Even when the utmost caution is exercised, bad debts will be +made, and a greater margin on sales is necessary.</p> + +<p>2nd. When time is given a certain amount must be added to the price of +the goods to compensate the seller for the use of his capital between +the date of sale and the maturity of the account.</p> + +<p>The additional price, thus received, is of no advantage to the +producer or to the seller of the commodity. The addition to the price +is consumed by losses from bad debts and in interest on capital. In +fact, the additional prices charged, when properly analyzed, are not +for the goods, but for the risk on the credit and for interest on +capital. The net selling price of the commodity is not increased. +Experience has proven that men who sell for the lesser price for cash +in hand are more apt to succeed than those who charge the higher rate +on the credit system.</p> + +<p>Credit is always burdened with interest. If interest is not directly +charged, the goods are sold at an advance on the cash price equal to +the interest, which amounts to the same thing. Interest acts on +commerce like friction on machinery. As friction absorbs a portion of +the motive power, so interest absorbs a part of the value of all +commodities sold on credit. Interest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46">46</a></span> the necessary accompaniment of +credit, produces no wealth; but, on the contrary, absorbs wealth and +tends to concentrate it in the hands of the few; and, necessarily, in +the same ratio it takes from the masses the power to purchase the +things they desire and would otherwise consume. Its ultimate result +must be to lower prices. Credit burdened with interest, as it always +is, may temporarily increase the demand for a certain commodity and +consequently temporarily raise its price; but it must do this at the +expense of other commodities. Like a stimulant administered to a human +being, it may produce spasmodic results of extraordinary power; but +when the stimulant has spent its force it leaves the individual weaker +and in a worse condition than he was before the stimulant was +administered.</p> + +<p>Henry Thornton, an English economist, attempts to prove that a bill of +exchange is money, and that, being money, it acts on prices. He says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>Let us imagine a farmer in the country to discharge a debt of £10 +to his neighboring grocer by giving him a bill for that sum, +drawn on his corn-factor in London, for grain sold in the +metropolis; and the grocer to transmit the bill, he having +previously indorsed it, to a neighboring sugar-baker in discharge +of a like debt; and the sugar-baker to send it, when again +indorsed, to a West India merchant in an outport; and the West +India merchant to deliver it to his country banker, who also +indorses it and sends it into further circulation. The bill in +this case will have effected five payments, exactly as if it were +a £10 note payable to the bearer on demand. A multitude of bills +pass this way between traders in the country, in the manner which +has been described; <i>and they evidently form in the strictest +sense a part of the circulating medium of the kingdom</i>.</p></div> + +<p>Mill in his “Political Economy” quotes this illustration with +approval. Is the conclusion arrived at correct?</p> + +<p>Suppose that instead of a bill of exchange for £10, a horse worth £10 +had been made use of, and the farmer had delivered the horse to the +grocer in satisfaction of his debt, and the grocer had turned it over +to the sugar-baker, and the sugar-baker to the West India merchant, +etc. The horse would have paid the five debts in precisely the same +manner that the bill of exchange did, but would such a use of the +horse <i>have made the horse, in the strictest sense of the term, a part +of the circulating medium of the kingdom</i>? I think not! A bill of +exchange is not money, but an order for money, and would be valueless +unless honored by payment on presentation. From the time the bill was +drawn<span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47">47</a></span> until finally paid an amount of money equal to the demand of +the bill must be held out of circulation for its payment. It adds +nothing to the circulation, and in no sense does it constitute a part +of the circulating medium. It may, possibly, increase the rapidity of +circulation, but it is difficult to see how it could do even this. The +£10 held out of circulation for the payment of the bill would have +paid the debts in the same manner that the bill of exchange did, and I +fail to see why they would not have made the circuit as quickly. If a +horse had been made use of in the settlement of the debts mentioned by +Mr. Thornton, it would have been barter, pure and simple, and not a +money transaction.</p> + +<p>That the contraction of the volume of credit will not tend to depress +prices in the same manner and to the same extent that a contraction of +the volume of money would will be apparent from the following +illustration.</p> + +<p>The most conservative estimates place the national, municipal, +corporate, and individual debts in the United States at +$30,000,000,000. The Secretary of the Treasury estimates the amount of +money in circulation at $1,600,000,000. There is not, in fact, +one-third of the amount available for use; but for the purpose of this +illustration we will take the Secretary’s estimate as correct. Now let +us suppose that the volume of credit should be reduced to +$28,400,000,000, either by the payment of $1,600,000,000 of the debt +or by bankruptcy proceedings or in some other manner. If that amount +of the credits were extinguished by payment, business would be +stimulated. That sum of money, or at least a considerable portion of +it, would pass into the hands of the creditor class, where it would +seek investment, and the tendency would be, not to contract, but to +expand prices. If that amount of the credits were extinguished by +bankruptcy proceedings in which no money passed in either direction, +such an extinguishment could not depress or expand prices; it could +have no influence upon them.</p> + +<p>Now suppose that $1,600,000,000 of the money, every dollar now claimed +to be in circulation in the United States, should be withdrawn from +the channels of trade, it would not be difficult to see that prices +would fall; would, in fact, be completely annihilated. There would be +no money with which<span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id="page48">48</a></span> to make purchases or to pay debts, civilization +would go backwards, and universal bankruptcy and ruin would ensue. +Suppose that only one-half or one-third of the money available for use +should be withdrawn from circulation; even then business would be +paralyzed, the money remaining would be hoarded or would be collected +in the great money centres, prices would fall, and business men all +over the country would be forced into bankruptcy. I think that it must +be perfectly apparent that a contraction of credit does not act on the +general level of prices in the same manner and to the same extent that +a contraction of the volume of money does; that, in fact, it does not +act on the general level of prices at all.</p> + +<p>I, therefore, conclude that money, and money only, acts on the general +level of prices, and that credit does not and cannot act on prices +except only as it may increase the rapidity of the circulation of +money; and even then it is the greater efficiency of the money, and +not the credit, that stimulates prices. Credit may temporarily +stimulate the price of the product of some particular industry, but to +do this it must attract money from some other industry, and the +stimulation will be at the expense of a corresponding depression in +prices in the industry from which the money is attracted.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Los Angeles, Col.</span></p> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49">49</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_5" id="article_5"></a> +POINTS IN THE AMERICAN AND FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS COMPARED.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline">BY NIELS GRÖN.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + + +<p><span class="sc">There</span> are several reasons why, particularly in the light of what is +going on in the two countries, a comparison between certain points of +the constitutions of the French and United States republics should be +of more than passing interest. Successive ministerial crises in France +threaten the stability of the republic; here, while political +conventions representing millions of people meet and produce radical +platforms, nobody is apprehensive of revolution or trouble. The +constitution is a bulwark against sudden change; its wisdom is +believed to be guarded by impregnable security against caprice or +panic.</p> + +<p>One in the Eastern hemisphere, the other in the New World, the two +countries are the only great republics; both are watched by monarchies +with invidious eyes, and, as before suggested, both have passed +through, or are passing through, interesting not to say exciting +experiences. American admirers of the republican form of government +believe that the cause of human liberty would be seriously injured +were the French Republic to cease to exist; they go further, and say +that the death-knell of civil freedom would be sounded the moment the +American republic became a failure. Something like a crisis is seen in +the United States to-day, brought about by a whole series of +concomitant causes, such as business depression, bank failures, +industrial disputes terminating in strikes and lockouts, Coxey armies, +panicky people, and unsettled views regarding commerce and finance, +this last cause predominating.</p> + +<p>Though France has her difficulties about raising sufficient money to +carry on the administration, and an income tax is just as unpopular +there as it would be here, nevertheless the chief cause of her trouble +is to be traced, not to financial, but to constitutional sources. The +country is very rich, and its ministers probably will always find some +means of raising enough<span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id="page50">50</a></span> money to pay the cost of administration. +Quite true, it is a sore point for a proud country which yearns for +revenge upon Germany and longs for large colonial possessions, that +its population does not increase, while the populations of its enemy, +Germany, and of its well-wisher, the United States, go up by leaps and +bounds. True, there are economic writers who regard the dearth and +even the decrease of population in France as an advantage to the +country. But these need not be considered in this inquiry, for it is +quite obvious that any country which really aspires to be numbered +with the great powers, and effectually wishes to own important +colonial possessions, must have a stalwart and increasing people. And +it is a real source of weakness that there should yet be in France so +many Royalists constantly on the alert and hoping always for a change +in the existing form of government.</p> + +<p>Happily, on the contrary, no matter how widely the Western American +may differ from his friend in the East, or how keenly the +ex-Confederate may feel over the “lost cause,” the warm-blooded son of +Kentucky will fight as bravely under the flag of the republic as will +his frozen-featured brother from Minnesota, and the dreamy individual +who gazes poetically upon the placid waters of Puget Sound will shout +as loudly for one country, and one allegiance to its glorious emblem, +as will the gilded youth whose republicanism is artistically refreshed +by a constant vision of the Statue of Liberty triumphantly standing in +New York harbor.</p> + +<p>Royalism, conservatism, concentrationism, moderate republicanism, +opportunism, radicalism, ultra-radicalism, socialism, and heaven knows +how many other “isms” besides, exist in France to-day, and make it +hard for any ministry to carry on the government. Numerous +disintegrating influences are ever present, and political convictions +are seldom sufficiently decided for any ministry to form a stable +majority.</p> + +<p>Though France has had the experience of two previous experiments in +republican forms of government (the one set up in 1792, and the second +established in 1848), they were such mere makeshifts and so very +short-lived that they could not have taught the country very much of +the real genius of republican institutions. The centralization and +tyranny of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page51" id="page51">51</a></span> centuries brought revolt and hatred of the past, but did +not prepare the people for self-government; while here the principles +of civil liberty, transplanted from the mother country and flourishing +in congenial conditions under colonial administration, found apt and +natural expression in the Declaration of Independence and the +Constitution. The event of republican institutions twice tried in +France failed to show that even the leaders understood the principles +of liberty as they were understood by the fathers of the American +system of government, and enthusiastically adopted by the people, as +the crystallization, so to speak, in definite terms, of what they had +long enjoyed. Short-sighted acts of tyranny, exercised by George III +and his ministers, were regarded, and justly so, as mere accidents of +the time and as innovations to be resisted and overcome. The outcome +was the vindication of the principles of government founded by the +countrymen of King Alfred the Great, their expansion, and the +invaluable expression of those principles in the Declaration and the +Constitution.</p> + +<p>Some of the bravest and best under the French monarchy helped to +establish the reign of popular liberty in the United States, and there +can be no question but that the French Revolution was accomplished in +part as a result of what had been seen and done on this side of the +Atlantic on behalf of the civil rights of the people; but the founders +of the first republic in France had no complete foundation on which to +build a fabric firm and lasting. It was not easy for a venerable +European nation, intrenched within its own regal institutions, in +shaking off the past to begin a future of popular sovereignty. Much +was gained by sweeping away the worst abuses of the past, but reaction +came, succeeded, after a long lapse of time, by a second attempt to +establish a republic, again to fail, until the collapse of the power +of the adventurer whose election to the presidency was the beginning +of the end of the republic of 1848, led to the third experiment, the +permanent success of which we all hope for.</p> + +<p>If—much virtue in an “if”—the leaders of the first French Republic +had been thoroughly masters of and thoroughly imbued with the +principles of American liberty, it is possible they might have so +instructed and led a bright and capable<span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" id="page52">52</a></span> people as to lay a sure +foundation for the future. But even this modified statement is open to +question. While it may be regretted that the American Constitution was +not copied in the establishment of the successive French republics, it +is by no means certain that this matchless paper would have been so +far appreciated in its recognition of the great principles underlying +it, as to insure success. Some of the South American republics have +the American Constitution, more or less, but are not shining examples +of republican success. No one can question that monarchies like the +United Kingdom and Germany enjoy a larger diffusion of civil liberty +than they.</p> + +<p>Taking the French system, however, as it exists to-day, there can be +no question that it would be vastly improved by copying the American +model. It seems to have been founded with a view to the possibility of +restoring the monarchy, and, this being so, the men who created it had +no object in studying the American Constitution with a view to +preventing those ministerial crises which threaten the destruction of +the third republic. It will not do to attribute these crises to the +unstable character of the fiery Frenchman, nor can the difficulty be +disposed of by saying that a French minister will create a crisis for +the sake of a pleasing <i>bon mot</i> or a sprightly paradox. A crisis +supposes something outside of, or above, or beyond the ordinary, but +French ministerial crises have become so common that they are the +laughingstock of the nations, and may be said to be almost the normal +condition of the legislative assemblies of France. So long as such +critical situations can be thus easily brought about there cannot be +that continuity of policy which is essential for carrying out great +projects. The problem to be solved is a constitutional one,—a +statement, I think, easily proved true.</p> + +<p>Article Six of the constitution of 1875 reveals the real cause of +ministerial crises in France: “The ministers are in a body responsible +to the Chambers for the general policy of the government, and +individually for their personal acts.” This article obviously leaves +the respective powers of both houses very undefined. Which chamber is +the superior? To which of them are the ministers in fact responsible? +The ministers may have a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, and may +be in a minority<span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" id="page53">53</a></span> in the Senate. Then there is a crisis. The Senate +blocks the way and will not allow the government to go on, for it +claims that it is the superior body. This absence of the proper +demarcation of the powers of the Senate, of the Chamber of Deputies, +and of the ministers necessarily leads to conflict; conflict is but a +step from instability, and instability is a crisis which threatens +revolution.</p> + +<p>The remedy for these oft-recurring ministerial crises in France is to +be found in the American Constitution. The French Constitution should +be revised and changed at the part quoted and all parts relating to +it, so as to provide against ministerial crises; and the instrument +presenting a sure guide in the performance of this necessary work is +the American Constitution. It has been in operation over a hundred +years and has been found to be an admirable working document, +affording ministerial stability to its cabinets for over a century. +Such a document is surely worthy of the closest study by the public +men of the sister republic. It was inevitable that in so long a time +some amendments should have become necessary; but for a long period it +has undergone no change, save such as noted, and formulating the +results of the civil war. Now and then are heard murmurings which +claim the necessity of a sixteenth amendment, to the effect that the +name of God should be put in the Constitution. The obvious answer to +this is, that in the official life of the United States there is a +more real acknowledgment of the Divine Being than there is in the +official life of any other country, and it is better to have the name +of God impressed upon the hearts of the people than upon even the best +official document ever drawn up.</p> + +<p>It would not be correct to say that no attempts have been made to +bring about a ministerial crisis in the United States by encroachment +upon the rights of the Executive. Only once, however, when Andrew +Johnson was President, has the action of the Executive been seriously +hampered. Professor Bryce’s remark may be applied to all other +attempts. He writes: “Congress has constantly tried to encroach, both +on the Executive and on the States,—sometimes like a wild bull driven +into a corral, dashing itself against the imprisoning walls of the +Constitution.” There is the secret. The “imprisoning walls” of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id="page54">54</a></span> the +American Constitution keep contending powers in their proper places. +The Constitution is so well drawn up that a deadlock is an +impossibility, the equilibrium of concomitant powers is easily +maintained, and the sovereign will of the people has a fair +opportunity of finding a natural exponent.</p> + +<p>In the United States the Senate and the House of Representatives are +coördinate bodies; in the French Republic each claims superiority over +the other. In the United States bills are never introduced by the +Cabinet, all bills must originate either in the Senate or in the House +of Representatives; such is not the case in the French Republic. In +the United States the chief duty of the President is to see that the +laws are faithfully executed; the Cabinet administers; its members are +rather the aids or secretaries of the chief magistrate of the nation +than otherwise. They are his advisers and helpers. During the four +years for which the President of the United States is elected, the +limitations of his authority are so remote and theoretical that, for +practical purposes, it may be stated that he always serves out his +full term of office. On the contrary, Presidential resignations are +not unknown in the French Republic. France elects her President for +seven years, yet Thiers, MacMahon, Grévy, Carnot, Casimir-Périer, and +Faure make a list longer than that of the names of the men who have +lived in the White House during the past quarter of a century. In the +United States, the Cabinet lasts as long as the President’s term of +office; in the French Republic, the Cabinet sometimes goes to pieces +in four months. Briefly, it is quite clear that in the United States +there can be no ministerial crises, since the President’s chief duty +under the Constitution is to see that the laws are faithfully +executed, and the members of his Cabinet do not introduce bills, even +for finance or supplies, but act as his aids. As previously intimated, +the difficulty with the French legislative bodies is that royalistic +precedents and rules run side by side with republican principles, and +the result is a mongrel institution divided, too often, against +itself. When matters shall be so arranged that the French President +will have to fill out his full term of office, and French ministers +will not be permitted to originate legislation, and cabinets shall be +selected to serve as long as the Presidential term, then the French +Republic will<span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" id="page55">55</a></span> enjoy the same ministerial stability as that of the +United States.</p> + +<p>It were hard to say that the French method of electing a president is +any better or any worse than that of the United States. The President +of the French Republic is elected by the majority of the votes of both +Chambers. This plan does not seem to remove him further from the +people than does the system of electing a president by electors, as in +the United States. As human ingenuity has not yet succeeded in +creating the ideal republic, wherein, according to Ouida, there would +be no president, some system of election must be followed. The +question is not a burning one. There is notable, however, a growing +tendency in France in favor of electing the president directly by the +votes of the people. The seven-years’ period for which the French +president is elected is considered by many to be an excellent +provision; but it loses half its excellence by reason of the fact that +the president has the power to initiate laws, this and other things +concurring to make his resignation a possibility, and not a remote +one.</p> + +<p>That the office of vice-president does not exist in France seems to be +of no great consequence. In the history of the American Republic there +have been five vice-presidents who have been called upon to step into +the Presidential chair by the deaths of presidents. According to the +French Constitution, in case of a Presidential vacancy, whether from +death or any other cause, the two Chambers proceed immediately to the +election of a president. In the interval the ministers are invested +with executive power.</p> + +<p>What I have written regarding the growing tendency to think it would +be better to elect the president directly by the votes of the people, +applies with a little more force to the election of senators. In +France the municipalities elect the senators, as do State legislatures +in this country. It is held by some who have discussed the question +that it is much more in conformity with the genius of republican +institutions that the people express their will directly by ballot +rather than through the votes of municipal councils, as in France, or +of legislatures, as in the United States. I cannot see that the +difference of terms, that of French senators being nine years, and of +American<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" id="page56">56</a></span> six, is of practical consequence. While both republics are +at one as to the necessity of a second chamber, providing thus a check +to hasty and unconsidered legislation, many thinkers in both countries +agree that some change is necessary to make it possible for others +than millionaires to be elected senators.</p> + +<p>If I were a Frenchman and had the power, I should get every newspaper +throughout the land, and every public man and influential citizen, to +enter upon a crusade for the purpose of impressing upon the minds of +the whole people the following extract from the Constitution of the +United States:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of +religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.</p></div> + +<p>In France, there are constantly continuous and unseemly clashes +between church and state. No matter what complications may exist as +results of the past, surely it would be better for all concerned to +leave the churches to be sustained by the voluntary contributions of +the people. In the United States churches seem to live and thrive +under this system of noninterference by the state in religious +matters, and voluntary support. The more than eighty thousand +clergymen are provided for. In the French Republic one reads +everywhere, on the walls of churches and of schools, the words +“<i>Liberté, fraternité, égalité</i>,” while there seems to be a serious +disagreement between Clericals, on the one side, and Radicals, on the +other, as to the meaning of these words. To effectually put an end to +this strife, the adoption of the clause I have quoted would be +sufficient.</p> + +<p>In writing thus freely of the French Republic I am free, I trust, from +the spirit of the carping critic delighting in comparisons to the +advantage of his own country. I appreciate the splendid literature, +the brilliant art, the advanced civilization of the France of to-day. +I recognize with gratitude the debt which the United States owes the +gallant Gallic people for sympathy and material aid in her struggle +for independence. It is now only necessary to be in France on the +Fourth of July to realize the reality and depth of the friendship +which exists between the sister republics. But I do think that until +France shall copy more closely the Constitution of the United States, +the stability of the third republic cannot be regarded as assured.</p> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" id="page57">57</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_6" id="article_6"></a> +HONEST MONEY; OR, A TRUE STANDARD OF VALUE:<br /><small>A SYMPOSIUM.</small></h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline"><b>I.</b> BY WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + +<p><span class="sc">We</span> hear much about a “stable currency” and an “honest dollar.” It is a +significant fact that those who advocate a single gold standard have +for the most part avoided a discussion of the effect of an +appreciating standard. They take it for granted that a gold standard +is not only an honest standard, but the only stable standard. I +denounce that child of ignorance and avarice, the gold dollar under a +universal gold standard, as the most dishonest dollar which we could +employ.</p> + +<p>I stand upon the authority of every intelligent writer upon political +economy when I assert that there is not and never has been an honest +dollar. An honest dollar is a dollar absolutely stable in relation to +all other things. Laughlin, in his work on “Bimetallism,” says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>Monometallists do not—as it is often said—believe that gold +remains absolutely stable in value. They hold that there is no +such thing as a “standard of value” for future payments in either +gold or silver which remains absolutely invariable.</p></div> + +<p>He even suggests a multiple standard for long-time contracts. I quote +his words:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>As regards national debts, it is distinctly averred that neither +gold nor silver forms a just measure of deferred payments, and +that if justice in long contracts is sought for, we should not +seek it by the doubtful and untried expedient of international +bimetallism, but by the clear and certain method of a multiple +standard, a unit based upon the selling prices of a number of +articles of general consumption. A long time contract would +thereby be paid at its maturity by the same purchasing power as +was given in the beginning.</p></div> + +<p>Jevons, one of the most generally accepted of the writers in favor of +a gold standard, admits the instability of a single standard, and in +language very similar to that above quoted suggests the multiple +standard as the most equitable, if practicable.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" id="page58">58</a></span> Chevalier, who wrote +a book in 1858 to show the injustice of allowing a debtor to pay his +debts in a cheap gold dollar, recognized the same fact, and said:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>If the value of the metal declined, the creditor would suffer a +loss upon the quantity he had received; if, on the contrary, it +rose, the debtor would have to pay more than he calculated upon.</p></div> + +<p>I am on sound and scientific ground, therefore, when I say that a +dollar approaches honesty as its purchasing power approaches +stability. If I borrow a thousand dollars to-day and next year pay the +debt with a thousand dollars which will secure exactly as much of all +things desirable as the one thousand which I borrowed, I have paid in +honest dollars. If the money has increased or decreased in purchasing +power, I have satisfied my debt with dishonest dollars. While the +government can say that a given weight of gold or silver shall +constitute a dollar, and invest that dollar with legal-tender +qualities, it cannot fix the purchasing power of the dollar. That must +depend upon the law of supply and demand, and it may be well to +suggest that this government never tried to fix the exchangeable value +of a dollar until it began to limit the number of dollars coined.</p> + +<a name="HOWARD" id="HOWARD"></a> +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline"><b>II.</b> BY M. W. HOWARD.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + + +<p>The term, “a standard of value,” so often used, is erroneous and +misleading. There can be no fixed standard of value, and the student +who wishes to delve into our financial problems should clear his mind +of such a fallacy at the very threshold of his investigations.</p> + +<p>Money is a commodity; it is regulated by the same laws of supply and +demand which regulate the price of corn, cotton, wheat, land, labor, +etc. If the wheat crop is short, wheat will be dear; if abundant, it +will be cheap. So with money. If the money supply is not sufficient to +meet the demands of business and commerce,—if the money crop is +short, in other words,—the money will be dear; it will command too +high a price, its purchasing power will be too great.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, if the money supply is abundant, sufficient to meet +all demands upon it,—in other words, if there is a bountiful money +crop,—it will be cheaper; it will not have<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" id="page59">59</a></span> such a large purchasing +power; it will be worth less when measured by our labor, our lands, +and the products of our labor.</p> + +<p>I oppose the single gold standard because it makes the money crop +short, gives us a small circulating medium, and hence enhances the +value or price of money.</p> + +<p>We have a certain demand for breadstuff, which is constantly +increasing as our population multiplies; suppose that we cease +producing corn, and find no substitute for it, would not the price of +wheat be greatly enhanced, providing there is no increased wheat +production? So with the money supply. There is a certain demand for +money, ever increasing as population grows. How shall we meet it? By +producing more money, or by destroying one-half of that which we now +have, by eliminating one-half of the base of future supplies of money?</p> + +<p>The latter is now the policy of this government, and as a consequence +the price of gold has been greatly enhanced, and its purchasing power +has increased each year, and will continue to do so.</p> + +<p>The advocates of the gold standard call this “honest money.” Their +idea of honest money is money that ever increases in purchasing power +because of its ever-increasing scarcity.</p> + +<p>My definition of honest money is: “A sufficiently large circulating +medium, whether of gold, silver, or paper, to bring down the price of +money so that we shall obtain fair prices for all labor and products.” +Then as population increases and as the demand for money becomes +greater, let the government meet that demand from time to time by +enhancing the money supply.</p> + +<a name="BARKER" id="BARKER"></a> +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline"><b>III.</b> BY WHARTON BARKER.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>The true test of an honest dollar is its purchasing power, and that +dollar, and only that dollar, is honest that does exact justice +between creditor and debtor. The gold monometallists harp on the +injustice of a depreciating dollar, but they ignore the injuries +inflicted by an appreciating dollar. They tell us that a depreciating +dollar defrauds the creditor, but just as a depreciating dollar +defrauds the creditor, an appreciating dollar defrauds the debtor, and +it is not one whit worse to defraud the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id="page60">60</a></span> creditor by obliging him to +accept a depreciated dollar from his debtor than to defraud the debtor +by obliging him to pay in a dollar made artificially scarce and dear.</p> + +<p>An appreciating dollar works injustice to the debtor just as a +depreciating dollar works injustice to the creditor, but an +appreciating dollar is many fold more injurious to trade and industry, +for while the depreciating dollar taxes the creditor for the benefit +of the debtor, the appreciating dollar takes from the debtor, from +producers in general and the industrious classes, and gives to the +creditor classes, the drones of society, a larger and larger share of +the products of labor, which of necessity discourages industry. Under +a depreciating standard the recompense of the producer becomes greater +and greater, the creditor classes receive a smaller and smaller +portion of the products of labor, the profits of industry increase, +and consequently production is encouraged and trade and industry are +stimulated. But under an appreciating standard the recompense of labor +becomes smaller and smaller, and the share of the products of labor +absorbed by the creditor larger, which tends to discourage industry +and stifle enterprise.</p> + +<a name="FONDA" id="FONDA"></a> +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline"><b>IV.</b> BY ARTHUR I. FONDA.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>The value of any commodity is measured by what it will exchange for. +It is in fact its purchasing power, or power in exchange. This in +substance is the concrete definition of value given by all economists, +and they all unite in stating that value is determined by the supply +of a commodity relative to the demand for it; all other factors +affecting value being secondary and acting through their effect on +either supply or demand.</p> + +<p>Since both the supply of and the demand for every freely produced +commodity is variable, and since a true standard of value, like a true +standard of weight or length, must be invariable as regards that which +it measures, it necessarily follows that no single freely produced +commodity can be a true standard of value. But while it is true that +every single commodity must vary in value, it is also true that all +commodities taken together cannot do so. This principle is also +accepted as correct by all economists.</p> + +<p>It is evident then that a true standard of value can only<span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" id="page61">61</a></span> be found in +a composite unit containing a definite quantity of every commodity, or +practically speaking, a definite quantity of each of a large number of +the most important commodities. This is what is known as the “multiple +standard,” or the “commodity standard,” and has long been in use by +economists in the form of tables of index numbers to show fluctuations +in general prices, or what is the same thing, changes in money values.</p> + +<p>The only function of money is to facilitate the exchange of goods. In +doing this it acts directly as a circulating medium, and the demand +for it for this purpose, relative to the supply, determines its value; +for money, whether of coin or paper or both combined in one +circulation to meet one need, is subject to the same law of supply and +demand which governs all commodities, and which indeed is as universal +in the economic world as the law of gravitation is in the physical +world.</p> + +<p>Incidentally the value of money fills the important function of +serving as a measure of the values of goods transferred without the +direct use of money, both immediate and deferred. This, however, has +no effect on the demand for money or on its value.</p> + +<p>The people are accustomed to regard money as of constant value, and an +honest money must necessarily conform to this belief. If money varies +in value, the people are deluded, and many are wronged if they are +unaware of the fluctuation. If they become aware of it,—as they +generally do by a bitter experience,—they are confronted with an +uncertainty that is most detrimental to any business or enterprise. +Imagine what our business would be with our measures of weight, +length, and capacity all variable! Yet such a condition would be less +disastrous than a fluctuating money value when it became fully known +that it was so.</p> + +<p>The <i>demand</i> for money varies from many causes, chief among which are +changes in the quantity of goods exchanged, the extent to which other +credit instruments take the place of money in such exchanges, and the +activity of money, or the extent to which it is hoarded, all of which +are entirely beyond control. The <i>supply</i> of money, however, can be +controlled, and to maintain money at a constant value the supply must +be constantly adjusted to the ever-varying demand, so that its +general<span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" id="page62">62</a></span> purchasing power may remain the same. The test of a constant +money must be a constant general level of prices; and this must be +judged by the prices in the open market of those principal commodities +which would be selected to constitute the standard of value, the +quantity of each being proportioned to its importance in trade.</p> + +<p>The only function of gold and silver in a monetary system is to <i>limit +the volume of the money</i>, either by their scarcity when freely coined, +or by the laws limiting their coinage. And as this limitation of the +supply bears no definite relation to the demand for money, the value +of the money necessarily fluctuates. Our industrial system is +constantly growing more sensitive to even slight changes in money +value, owing to the greater diversification of industries and the +greater division of labor, and the need for preventing such changes is +constantly growing more imperative.</p> + +<p>When the people arrive at a clearer perception of these facts and +principles they will understand that the chance production of gold and +silver is too clumsy a contrivance to properly control so delicate a +matter as the value of money under modern industrial conditions, and I +believe they will substitute for the present system a circulating +medium of paper money, properly guaranteed, and susceptible of prompt +and certain increase or decrease of volume to meet every possible +variation in demand, and rigidly controlled to conform in value to a +true standard of value, a standard composed not alone of gold or +silver or both combined, but of all the leading commodities.</p> + +<p>In short, they will separate the standard of value from the medium of +exchange, demonetizing both gold and silver as to the latter function, +but using both and many other things in conjunction therewith for the +former function.</p> + +<a name="WARNER" id="WARNER"></a> +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline"><b>V.</b> BY A. J. WARNER.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>From whatever side the question is approached, in the last analysis +the value of money of any kind is found to depend upon its quantity, +and not upon color, or ductility, or malleability, or any other +particular quality of the thing upon which the money function is +impressed. There can be therefore, in fact,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" id="page63">63</a></span> no other standard of +value, or money standard, except the quantity of whatever is used as +money. When gold and silver are used, the value of each unit of money +depends upon the number of such units, and these in turn depend upon +the quantity of the metal from which the money is made. Any cause, +therefore, which restricts, limits, or contracts the quantity of any +kind of money, increases the value of each unit. On the contrary, +causes that operate to increase the supply of money have the opposite +effect.</p> + +<p>Hence, only that currency can properly be called “sound” currency +which is made to maintain stable relations to things to be bought and +sold. In other words, general prices are determined by the proportion +between money on the one side, and things offered against money on the +other side. Such money only is “honest” money.</p> + +<p>The whole question, therefore, of money standard is a question of +money supply; for, as the price of single things, money being +constant, depends upon supply on the one hand, as against demand for +it on the other, so, in general, prices depend on money supply on the +one hand, and things to be bought and sold on the other. This I +believe to be the fundamental law of money.</p> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page64" id="page64">64</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_7" id="article_7"></a> +THE NEW CIVIL CODE OF JAPAN.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline">BY TOKICHI MASAO, M. L., D. C. L.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + +<p><span class="sc">Ever</span> since the establishment of the present imperial government in +1868, the one unceasing aim of Japan’s foreign policy has been the +abolition of the extra-territoriality régime, under which certain +quasi-judicial functions are exercised on the Japanese soil by the +ambassadors and consuls of the Occidental nations. This anxiety on +Japan’s part to rid herself of this shameful régime imposed upon her +against her will, will not appear surprising when the fact is learnt +that one Occidental nation went so far as to call her consul at +Yokohama, “Her Britannic Majesty’s the Most Honourable Court for +Japan”—a name almost enough to imply that Japan was a British +province. Extra-territoriality rests upon the assumption that the laws +and procedure of the non-Christian nations are so unlike to and +different from those of the Christian nations that without the +protection of this system the safety and well-being of the subjects of +the latter sojourning in the territory of the former would be placed +in constant jeopardy. Accordingly in the early seventies Japan came to +the conclusion that the only possible way of emancipating herself from +the disgraceful yoke of extra-territoriality was to adopt one of the +systems of law obtaining in the Christian world and compile a code of +law based upon that system, and applicable alike to the Japanese and +to the foreigners residing in Japan.</p> + +<p>There were three such systems—the Anglo-American, the French, and the +Germanic Roman—each offering itself for adoption. Mr. Yeto +Shimpei,<a name="fn_marker_2" id="fn_marker_2"></a><a href="#fn_2" class="fn_marker">[2]</a> who became the Minister of Justice in 1872, seems to have +had a personal preference for<span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id="page65">65</a></span> the French system. He called to his +assistance some of the most eminent jurists of France and entered upon +the work of drafting a code. At the same time he established in Tokio +a law school known as the “Department of Justice Annex Law School,” in +which French law was taught by those same jurists whom he had called +from France. About this time there was also established in the +University of Tokio a law school in which instruction was given +chiefly in English law. It was while teaching in this university law +school that Mr. Henry T. Terry (a New York lawyer and an alumnus of +Yale College) wrote his memorable book on English law, designed +especially for the use of Japanese law students. From henceforth +“Terry’s Leading Principles of Anglo-American Law” became as familiar +to them as are “Blackstone’s Commentaries” to the law students of this +country.</p> + +<p>Thus, side by side there existed in Tokio two law schools in which two +distinct systems of law were taught—the English and the French. The +primary object of the Department of Justice in establishing the French +law school being to make it a training school of judicial officers, +the students of that school were, upon graduation, to render, for a +limited number of years, an obligatory service to the government in +the various capacities of judges, magistrates, and prosecuting +attorneys. On the other hand, the University of Tokio being a strictly +independent institution in which learning is pursued for the sake of +learning, the graduates of the university or English law school were +at entire liberty in their choice of professions. Naturally enough the +majority of these did not wish to enter the same service which the +graduates of the other school were obliged to enter as a matter of +fulfilment of contract. Thus it happened that the bench was recruited +from the French law school, while the bar was recruited from the +English law school. This state of affairs lasted for about twenty +years, during which time there was also established a German law +school in the University of Tokio. Those who know something about the +rivalry that existed in ancient times between the Sabinians and the +Proculians, or even about the rivalry which exists to-day between the +Yale method and the Harvard method, between the Waylandians and the +Langdellians,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" id="page66">66</a></span> can readily imagine what intellectual competition was +carried on between these three Japanese law schools representing three +distinct systems of law.</p> + +<p>After twenty years of assiduous labor the Code Commission submitted a +draft of a Civil Code to the two Houses of Parliament in 1890, +accompanied by the recommendation from the Bureau of Legislation that +the draft might receive the parliamentary sanction in such a manner +that it might be possible for it to be put in effect by the year 1893. +As might have been expected from the personnel of the Commission, +consisting, in its conception, of Mr. Yeto Shimpei and the eminent +French jurist Prof. Boissonade, etc., the draft was a genuine French +code, being almost a literal translation of the Code Napoleon in all +its parts excepting the part dealing with the Law of Persons. The +question may well be asked why it took the Commission twenty long +years to produce this imitation draft code when we know that the draft +of the Code Napoleon itself was completed within the short period of +four months. The answer seems to be that the Commission spent almost +this entire time in their efforts to reconcile the principles of the +French Law of Persons with the Japanese laws and customs bearing on +that subject.</p> + +<p>As has been the case with many other draft codes this draft Civil Code +of Japan was destined to go into oblivion. As soon as it was submitted +to the Parliament there ensued a most desperate fight against its +adoption. As figuring most prominently among the champions of the +opposition I may mention the names of Mr. Kazuo Hatoyama, the present +Speaker of the House of Commons of the Imperial Japanese Parliament, +and His Excellency Mr. Toru Hoshi, the present Japanese minister at +Washington.<a name="fn_marker_3" id="fn_marker_3"></a><a href="#fn_3" class="fn_marker">[3]</a> Inspired by these and other eminent jurists of the +English school the entire bar was set against the adoption of the +draft code. This was not a case of a bar accustomed to one set of +rules and formulas opposing the adoption<span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67">67</a></span> of a new code for fear that +they might be compelled to learn a new set of rules and formulas. On +the contrary, the bar was composed of men who had studied law as a +science, and science for the sake of science. The spirit of their +opposition was very plainly shown by the objections they raised +against the code. They said:—“The draft Code was a blind imitation of +a foreign Code which itself was far from being free from defects. It +abounded in definitions, illustrations, and examples, and presented an +appearance more becoming to a text-book of law than the Civil Code of +a great nation. It went into too minute details and left too little +room for voluntary development of jurisprudence. It incorporated, like +the French Code, the law of evidence into the body of the Civil Code, +which was totally at variance with the modern theory of evidence, +being a failure on the part of the Commissioners to distinguish +adjective from substantive law. It made too many innovations upon the +Law of Persons hitherto obtaining in Japan. It changed the Family Law +of the Japanese from the foundation, which was a gross disregard of +the historical principle of jurisprudence,” etc., etc., etc. Such were +some of the grounds upon which they opposed the adoption of the draft +code, reminding one of the fight in Europe between the historical +school and the analytical school, between the jurists of France and +those of Germany; of the fight in Germany between the Code party and +the anti-Code party, between Savigny and Thibaut. Who can say, then, +that the Japanese are childish imitators of anything that looks well? +The fact is that this sort of conflict between the more conservative +and the more radical, the more scrupulous and the more unscrupulous, +the more positive and the more speculative, is going on all the time.</p> + +<p>At last in 1892 the Parliament passed an act deferring the taking +effect of the code till 1897 and ordering in the meantime a careful +revisal of the draft. A new Commission was appointed which consisted +of three most eminent professors of law in Japan, each representing +one of the three systems of law recognized there.<a name="fn_marker_4" id="fn_marker_4"></a><a href="#fn_4" class="fn_marker">[4]</a> These +Commissioners, aided by a number of efficient assistants, looked into +the codes and laws of some fifteen<span class="pagenum"><a name="page68" id="page68">68</a></span> leading American and European +states. As representing the French system they consulted the codes of +Louisiana, Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. As +representing the German system they consulted the codes and laws of +Austria, Montenegro, Prussia, Saxony, Switzerland, and the draft Civil +Code of the German Empire. As representing the English system they +consulted the leading American and English reports and treatises, the +draft Civil Code of New York, and the codes of California and British +India.<a name="fn_marker_5" id="fn_marker_5"></a><a href="#fn_5" class="fn_marker">[5]</a></p> + +<p>After four years of the most constant application the Commission +submitted in 1896 a revisal of a part of the original draft. Had the +Commission had the entire code revised they could not have shown +greater wisdom. For the parts incomplete were those dealing with the +Family Law and Successions, and the Commission remembered that these +were the parts that occasioned the most vital objections to the old +code. The Parliament referred the revised draft code to a Committee of +their own, of which Mr. Hatoyama, the present Speaker, was made the +chairman. After making a careful examination and some important +modifications, Mr. Hatoyama reported favorably to its adoption. The +Parliament acted according to his advice, and the draft became the +law.</p> + +<p>In its general arrangement the new code follows what the German +jurists call the Pandekten system. It is divided into five general +parts. Part I is called “Sōsoku,” or General Laws, and deals with +persons, natural and artificial, as the subjects of rights; with +things as the objects of rights; and with juristic acts as setting +rights in motion. One cannot help being astonished at and gratified +with the remarkable extent to which Prof. Holland’s views as expressed +in his book on jurisprudence seem to be adopted in this part of the +code.<a name="fn_marker_6" id="fn_marker_6"></a><a href="#fn_6" class="fn_marker">[6]</a> Part II is called<span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" id="page69">69</a></span> “Bukken,” or <i>Jus in Rem</i>, corresponding +to the Sachenrecht of the German code, and dealing with Possession, +Ownership, etc., etc. Part III is called “Jinken,” or <i>Jus in +Personam</i>, corresponding to the Forderungsrecht of the German code, +and dealing with General Law of Obligations, with Obligations arising +<i>ex contractu</i>, <i>quasi ex contractu</i>, and <i>ex delicto</i>. The General +Law of Obligations is taken largely from the Forderungsrecht of the +Swiss code. The law of Contracts and Torts is taken entirely from the +English law. Parts IV and V, dealing with the Family Law and the Law +of Successions respectively, have not as yet been published, for +reasons already indicated.</p> + +<p>Such is the new Civil Code of Japan, adopted by the Imperial +Parliament in its session of 1896. Truly, the year 1896 has been an +eventful year for Japan. The war with China had brought glory to her +arms. Formosa and numerous other islands had been added to her +possessions. The insurgents of Formosa had been pacified. The treaties +with the leading nations of the world had been revised, providing for +the abolishment of the disgraceful extra-territoriality régime in +Japan, to take effect, however, upon the taking effect of the new +Civil Code. The last and greatest event of all, the new Code was +adopted. With equal propriety, then, the Emperor Mutsuhito might have +joined Justinian, in proclaiming:—“Imperatoriam Majestatem non solum +armis decoratam, sed etiam legibus opportet esse armatam, ut utrumque +tempus et bellorum et pacis recte possit gubernari!”</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" id="page70">70</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_8" id="article_8"></a> +JOHN RUSKIN:<br /><small><span class="smcap">A Type of Twentieth-Century Manhood</span>.</small></h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline">BY B. O. FLOWER.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + + +<p><span class="sc">The</span> name John Ruskin is justly entitled to a foremost place among +those of the builders of twentieth-century civilization. In him we +find a rare combination of genius, culture, and refinement, blended +with a tender concern for all earth’s unfortunates. He is at once +artist, philosopher, and philanthropist; but he is more than these; +there is much of the austere religious reformer, giving a serious +gravity to all the utterances of the glad-souled artist, a mingling of +the spirit of a Savonarola with the imagination of a Turner.</p> + +<p>John Ruskin, more than any other man of our time in like station of +life, stands for the civilization which we believe is destined to +glorify the coming century, for in his life all thought of ease, fame, +and preferment,—all consideration of self,—is overmastered by his +love for others. Endowed by nature with the imagination of a poet, the +eyes of an artist, the brain of a philosopher, the soul of a prophet, +and the heart of a man, he has conscientiously employed all his gifts +as a sacred trust given to him that he might bless and enlighten his +day, and ennoble his civilization for all time.</p> + +<p>He was born amid affluence, and received the best educational +advantages the age afforded. After graduating from Oxford in 1842, he +studied painting under Copley Fielding and J. D. Harding. Subsequently +he spent some time in Italy, finishing his art education in the land +of earth’s greatest painters.</p> + +<p>While in college he composed many poems, but on leaving the university +he turned his attention to art and prose composition. His “Modern +Painters” was justly hailed as one of the noblest works of the +century, and instantly placed its author in the ranks of the foremost +art critics of the world.</p> + +<p>Few if any of his admirers will agree with all his critical views. He +not infrequently falls into those errors which we naturally expect to +find in a man of intense feeling, of strong<span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id="page71">71</a></span> conviction, and of vivid +imagination. If a positive idea takes possession of his mind, it is +liable to give a strong bias to his thought, and in a degree +interferes with that nice sense of proportion so essential to a great +critic. On more than one occasion Mr. Ruskin has frankly admitted that +his views and opinions were erroneous owing to being based on a +partial appearance or influenced by pernicious ideas. A notable +illustration of his thought being biassed by preconceived ideas is +found in the religious opinions put forward in the early edition of +parts I and II of “Modern Painters.” And in a preface written in 1871 +for a revised edition of his works, the philosopher calls attention to +his early views, declaring that he was “wholly mistaken” and +continuing: “I had been educated in the narrow doctrine of a narrow +sect, and had read history obliquely, as a sectarian necessarily +must.”</p> + +<p>Such are the blemishes which occasionally creep into the works of this +master mind. They are, however, merely spots on the sun, which do not +appear frequently enough to seriously dim the splendor of a critical +work which in my judgment surpasses in real value that of any English +scholar of the century. “Modern Painters,” “The Stones of Venice,” +“The Seven Lamps,” and his other works dealing with art are far more +than criticisms; they touch the sleeping soul, they fire the spirit +and awaken the conscience. They make the reader feel a new love for +nature and art alike, and with this pure and inspiring love comes the +desire for more knowledge. They appeal to the spiritual aspirations +even more than to the artistic impulses or the intellectual +apprehension. The moral exaltation which pervades his writings springs +from his profoundly philosophical and religious nature. In all his +work, as in his noble life, he has ever been moved by an intense +desire to uplift and dignify humanity and to impress upon the public +mind the subtle but positive effect for good exerted by true art. “I +have had,” he tells us in “The Two Paths,” “but one steady aim in all +I have ever tried to teach, namely, to declare that whatever was great +in human art was the expression of man’s delight in God’s work.”</p> + +<p>With Ruskin, life is august; its possibilities for good and evil are +never forgotten.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id="page72">72</a></span></p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>“Remember,” he urges, “that every day of your life is ordaining +irrevocably for good or evil the custom and practice of your +soul; ordaining either sacred customs of dear and lovely +recurrence, or trenching deeper and deeper the furrows for seed +of sorrow. Now, therefore, see that no day passes in which you do +not make yourself a somewhat better creature…. You will find +that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to +help other people, will in the quickest and delicatest ways +improve yourself.”</p></div> + +<p>The pleasure which springs from loyalty to duty is strenuously +insisted upon by Ruskin, and he, more than any other illustrious man +in our time, has reached such heights of unselfishness as to enable +him to fully appreciate the unalloyed pleasure which flows from a life +of sacrifice. If he is austere, he is also very humane. The fountains +of pleasure that he would have us drink deeply from would leave no +bitter aftertaste. He delights in no pseudo-pleasure; faithfulness to +the highest ideal, untiring effort at complete self-mastery, a settled +determination to work for the good of all and to be ever on guard lest +by some inadvertence we injure some other living creature,—such are +some of the lessons upon which our philosopher insists as essential to +man’s happiness.</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>“If,” he urges, in writing for the young, “there is any one point +which, in six thousand years of thinking about right and wrong, +wise and good men have agreed upon, or successively by experience +discovered, it is that God dislikes idle and cruel people more +than any others; that His first order is, ‘Work while you have +light;’ and his second, ‘Be merciful while you have mercy.’ ‘Work +while you have light,’ especially while you have the light of +morning. There are few things more wonderful to me than that old +people never tell young ones how precious their youth is…. +Remember, then, that I, at least, have warned <i>you</i>, that the +happiness of your life, and its power, and its part and rank in +earth or in heaven, depend on the way you pass your days now. +They are not to be sad days; far from that, the first duty of +young people is to be delighted and delightful; but they are to +be in the deepest sense solemn days. There is no solemnity so +deep, to a rightly thinking creature, as that of dawn…. You +must be to the best of your strength usefully employed during the +greater part of the day, so that you may be able at the end of it +to say, as proudly as any peasant, that you have not eaten the +bread of idleness. Then, secondly, I said, you are not to be +cruel. Perhaps you think there is no chance of your being so; and +indeed I hope it is not likely that you should be deliberately +unkind to any creature; but <i>unless you are deliberately kind to +every creature, you will often be cruel to many</i>.”</p></div> + +<p>Ruskin is often disquieting to conventionalists; he is too candid to +be popular with those who make long prayers and descant on charity +while they ignore justice. He puts questions to them which they do not +want to consider themselves,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" id="page73">73</a></span> or to have others consider. By insisting +on the substitution of justice for charity, and by taking the +teachings of Jesus seriously, he offends the sleek money-changers who +occupy choice pews in the modern palaces of ease dedicated to the +lowly Nazarene. Such expressions as the following from the magnificent +lecture on “Work” prove far less satisfying to this class than the +popular sermons they are accustomed to hear:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>“It is the law of heaven,” says Ruskin, “that you shall not be +able to judge what is wise or easy, unless you are first resolved +to judge what is just, and to do it. That is the one thing +constantly reiterated by our master—the order of all others that +is given oftenest: ‘Do justice and judgment.’ That’s your Bible +order; that’s the ‘service of God.’ The one divine work—the one +ordered sacrifice—is to do justice; and it is the last we are +ever inclined to do. Anything rather than that! As much charity +as you choose, but no justice. ‘Nay,’ you will say, ‘charity is +greater than justice.’ Yes, it is greater; <i>it is the summit of +justice</i>; it is the temple of which justice is the foundation. +<i>But you can’t have the top without the bottom</i>; you cannot build +upon charity. You must build upon justice, for this main reason, +that you have not, at first, charity to build with. It is the +last reward of good work. It is all very fine to think you can +build upon charity to begin with; but you will find all you have +got to begin with begins at home, and is essentially love of +yourself.</p> + +<p>“You well-to-do people, for instance, who are here to-night will +go to ‘Divine Service’ next Sunday, all nice and tidy, and your +little children will have their tight little Sunday boots on, and +lovely little Sunday feathers in their hats; and you’ll think, +complacently and piously, how lovely they look! So they do; and +you love them heartily, and you like sticking feathers in their +hats. That’s all right; that <i>is</i> charity; but it is charity +beginning at home. Then you will come to the poor little +crossing-sweeper got up also—in its Sunday dress—the dirtiest +rags it has that it may beg the better: we shall give it a penny, +and think how good we are. That’s charity going abroad. But what +does justice say, walking and watching near us? Christian justice +has been strangely mute, and seemingly blind; and, if not blind, +decrepit this many a day: she keeps her accounts still, +however—quite steadily—doing them at nights, carefully, with +her bandage off, and through acutest spectacles (the only modern +scientific invention she cares about). You must put your ear down +ever so close to her lips to hear her speak; and then you will +start at what she first whispers, for it will certainly be, ‘Why +shouldn’t that little crossing-sweeper have a feather on its +head, as well as your own child?’ Then you may ask justice, in an +amazed manner, How she can possibly be so foolish as to think +children could sweep crossings with feathers on their heads? Then +you stoop again, and justice says—still in her dull, stupid +way—‘Then, why don’t you, every other Sunday, leave your child +to sweep the crossing, and take the little sweeper to church in a +hat and feather?’ Mercy on us (you think), what will she say +next? And you answer, of course, that you don’t, because +everybody ought to remain content in the position in which +Providence has placed them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" id="page74">74</a></span></p> + +<p>“Ah, my friends, that’s the gist of the whole question. <i>Did</i> +Providence put them in that position, or did <i>you</i>? You knock a +man into a ditch, and then you tell him to remain content in the +‘position in which Providence has placed him.’ That’s modern +Christianity. You say, ‘We did not knock him into the ditch.’ How +do you know what you have done or are doing? That’s just what we +have all got to know, and what we shall never know until the +question with us every morning, is, not how to do the gainful +thing, but how to do the just thing.”</p></div> + +<p>These thoughts suggest to us Ruskin, the social economist, for we must +not lose sight of the fact that this greatest of all art critics, this +strong, sane ethical philosopher who has emphasized so forcibly the +possibilities, duties, and responsibilities of the individual in all +his complex relations, is also one of the most enlightened and +broad-visioned economists of our wonderful age. By treatises, essays, +and letters he has striven for a brighter day for the breadwinners. He +has sought to elevate the ideals and tastes of all toilers, while he +has labored unremittingly to secure for them that meed of justice +which is their right, but which has so long been denied them.</p> + +<p>So far back as 1868, when few people of position dared advocate so +sane a proposition as the governmental ownership of “natural +monopolies,” John Ruskin published these bold and thoughtful words in +the London <i>Daily Telegraph</i>:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>The ingenious British public seemed to be discovering to its +cost, that the beautiful law of supply and demand does not apply +in a pleasant manner to railroad transit. But if they are +prepared to submit patiently to the “natural” laws of political +economy, what right have they to complain? The railroad belongs +to the shareholders; and has not everybody a right to ask the +highest he can get for his wares? The public have a perfect right +to walk, or to make other opposition railroads for themselves, if +they please, but not to abuse the shareholders for asking as much +as they think they can get. Will you allow me to put the <i>real</i> +rights of the matter before them in a few words?</p> + +<p>Neither the roads nor the railroads of any nation should belong +to any private persons. All means of public transit should be +provided at public expense, by public determination, where such +means are needed, and the public should be its own shareholder. +Neither road, nor railroad, nor canal should ever pay dividends +to anybody. They should pay their working expenses, and no more. +All dividends are simply a tax on the traveller and the goods, +levied by the persons to whom the road or canal belongs, for the +right of passing over his property, and this right should at once +be purchased by the nation, and the original cost of the +roadway—be it of gravel, iron, or adamant—at once defrayed by +the nation, and then the whole work of the carriage of persons or +goods done for ascertained prices, by salaried officers, as the +carriage of letters is done now.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75">75</a></span></p> + +<p>Happily these suggestions of the distinguished Englishman have been +followed, in part at least, by several enlightened nations, but to the +disgrace of our republic, and to the great cost of the producing and +consuming masses, we are lagging behind in these respects, becoming a +camp-follower instead of a leader in the march of progress, because of +the influence exerted by a small class, who have grown so powerful +through special privileges given to them by the nation that they now +assume to thwart beneficent legislation in order that they may +continue to grow richer through this vicious form of governmental +paternalism, which places the multitude in the power of a few.</p> + +<p>Ruskin’s views on money are as disturbing to the usurers and those who +through special privileges in money have amassed fortunes of unearned +wealth as his sound position on railroads is distasteful to the +monopolists who impoverish the producer and consumer by exorbitant +rates on transportation.</p> + +<p>The great Englishman is also too clear-sighted to accept the +fallacious doctrines of the money-changers in regard to the medium of +exchange. He is too honest to hold his peace in the presence of a +great wrong, hence his definition of money is far more nearly correct +than the false and essentially injurious definitions so industriously +promulgated by special pleaders for an interested class. “The final +and best definition of money,” says Ruskin, “is that it is a +documentary promise ratified and guaranteed by the nation to give or +find a certain quantity of labor on demand.”</p> + +<p>In 1873 our author carried on a spirited discussion with some +conventional economists regarding the money of the rich. One writer +undertook to defend the lavish and reckless expenditures of the +wealthy by calling to his aid the well-worn plea that money thus paid +out finds its way into the pockets of poor families, and that thus +through the bounty of the rich the starving are blest. Ruskin, in the +course of his reply, observed that, were he a poor man instead of a +moderately rich one, he would be sure that the paper referred to would +suggest the question:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>These <i>means of living</i>, which this generous and useful gentleman +is so fortunately disposed to bestow on me—where does he get +them himself?… These are the facts. The laborious poor produce +“the means of life” by their labor. Rich persons possess +themselves by various expedients of a right to dispense these +means of life, and, keeping as much means as they<span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76">76</a></span> want for +themselves, and rather more, dispense the rest usually only in +return for <i>more labor from the poor</i>, expended in producing +various delights for the rich dispenser. The idea is now +gradually entering poor men’s minds, that they may as well keep +in their own hands the right of distributing “the means of life” +they produce; and employ themselves, so far as they need extra +occupation, for their own entertainment or benefit, rather than +that of other people.</p></div> + +<p>The conventional economist replied to the question relating to how the +rich man got his wealth by stating that it was obtained by the +possessor or his ancestors through a “mutually beneficent partnership” +between the rich and the poor by which the poor had their share of the +joint returns advanced to them. Mr. Ruskin in his reply stated the +question again, and then proceeded to answer it by a telling personal +illustration. He says:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>“Where does the rich man get his means of living?” I don’t myself +see how a more straightforward question could be put! so +straightforward, indeed, that I particularly dislike making a +martyr of myself in answering it, as I must this blessed day—a +martyr, at least, in the way of witness; for if we rich people +don’t begin to speak honestly with our tongues, we shall, some +day soon, lose them and our heads together, having for sometime +back, most of us, made false use of the one and none of the +other. Well, for the point in question, then, as to means of +living: the most exemplary manner of answer is simply to state +how I got my own, or rather how my father got them for me. He and +his partners entered into what your correspondent mellifluously +styles “a mutually beneficent partnership” with certain laborers +in Spain. These laborers produced from the earth annually a +certain number of bottles of wine. These productions were sold by +my father and his partners, who kept nine-tenths, or thereabouts, +of the price themselves, and gave one-tenth, or thereabouts, to +the laborers. In which state of mutual beneficence my father and +his partners naturally became rich, and the laborers as naturally +remained poor. Then my good father gave all his money to me.</p></div> + +<p>Space forbids a more extended notice of Mr. Ruskin’s broad and +thoughtful views on economic problems, but before closing this paper, +I wish to notice how the life of this great philanthropist has touched +and brightened other lives. Many men think noble thoughts and at times +are stirred by the loftiest aspirations, but in actual everyday life +they sadly fail to live up to their teachings; but he who can and does +master himself, he who gives his life for justice and thinks of the +welfare of others before he considers himself, has reached a far +higher summit than have the most gifted intellects who, while +apprehending the beauty of goodness, fail to express that beauty in +their daily<span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77">77</a></span> lives. John Ruskin’s life has been at once earnest, pure, +and unselfish.</p> + +<p>Of the unexampled manner in which he gave up his beautiful wife to his +friend—how he quietly secured a divorce that she might become the +wife of the man she loved—electing to pass the rest of his life alone +rather than destroy her happiness,—these facts are well known, and +Mr. Ruskin has been severely criticised for not holding his wife in +unwilling bondage. But he was so constituted that it was impossible +for him to endure the thought of being directly or indirectly the +cause of another’s misery.</p> + +<p>Another striking illustration of his unselfishness is seen in the +manner in which he has disposed of his fortune, which at the time of +his father’s death amounted to a million dollars. With this money he +set about doing good. Poor young men and women who were struggling to +obtain an education were helped, homes for working men and women were +established, and model apartment-houses were erected. He also promoted +a work for reclaiming waste land outside of London. This land was used +for the aid of unfortunate men who wished to rise again from the state +into which they had fallen through cruel social conditions and their +own weaknesses. It is said that this work suggested to General Booth +his colonization farms. Ruskin has also ever been liberal in aiding +poor artists, and has done much to encourage the artistic taste among +the young. On one occasion he purchased ten fine water-color paintings +by Holman Hunt for $3,750, to be hung in public schools of London.</p> + +<p>By 1877 he had disposed of three-fourths of his inheritance, besides +all the income from his books. But the calls of the poor and the plans +which he wished to put into operation looking toward education and +ennobling the toilers, and giving to their gloomy lives something more +of sunshine and joy, were such that he determined to dispose of all +the remainder of his wealth except a sum sufficient to yield him +fifteen hundred dollars a year on which to live.</p> + +<p>Of all English writers of our century no one has left a more valuable +literary legacy than has John Ruskin, but the splendid and voluminous +works of his brain are even less priceless than<span class="pagenum"><a name="page78" id="page78">78</a></span> the example of his +wonderful life. That he is in the shadow in his old age is by no means +strange; a nature so sensitive, so finely strung, so keenly alive to +the sufferings of others on every hand, has necessarily felt what the +well-kept and self-engrossed animals around him knew nothing of. +Indeed, just here we find the chief reason why the finest natures +suffer so keenly in this age of heartless greed, self-absorption, and +gold madness, of wanton extravagance and biting poverty, of widespread +misery and growing discontent. Sensitive natures who are spiritually +alive to the misery around them must suffer while they sow the +seed-thoughts of a new day—suffer uncomplainingly until the +waiting-time of this great transition period has passed.</p> + +<p>In John Ruskin we find great breadth of thought and a wide range of +intellectual vision, going hand in hand with a profound philosophical +grasp of life’s deepest problems; and, what is more, these excellences +are rendered luminous by the influence of an enlightened soul. His +life has been characterized by nobility of purpose, purity of thought, +a passion for nature and art, and an enthusiasm for humanity.</p> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id="page79">79</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_9" id="article_9"></a> +THE SINGLE TAX IN OPERATION.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline">BY HON. HUGH H. LUSK,<br /> +<i>Ex-Member of the New Zealand Legislature.</i></p> +<hr class="short" /> + + +<p><span class="sc">Few</span> if any of the various economic theories that have been advanced, +claiming attention in virtue of their practical benefit to the +existing conditions of human affairs, have gained so immediate or so +widespread an acceptance amongst intelligent persons as that which is +familiarly known as “the single-tax” theory propounded by Mr. Henry +George. In all parts of the English-speaking world, at least, the +theory has obtained many and enthusiastic disciples, who have +believed, and probably still believe, that they find in Mr. George’s +doctrine a panacea for many of the most apparent of the evils which +oppress society not less under our advanced civilization than they did +at any former period of the world’s history. It may be said, indeed, +that we hear less of Mr. George and the single tax now than we did a +few years ago, and from this some will argue that the idea has died or +is dying out of men’s minds; this, however, is almost certainly a +mistake.</p> + +<p>In the history of any great system of alleged reform there may be +traced at least three distinct stages which are marked by different +degrees of prominence in the public regard. The first of these may be +called the period of promulgation, the second that of fermentation, +and the third that of experiment. If the evils proposed to be reformed +are manifest and widely recognized the first of these stages is almost +certain to excite wide attention and much controversy on both sides. +The earliest stage, that of mere discussion, however, soon wears +itself out, and the theorists who argued in favor of, as well as those +who argued against, the new system, having exhausted their ingenuity +in argument, turn for the most part to something newer, and let the +matter drop.</p> + +<p>Then follows the period of incubation. Removed from the din of +controversy a certain number of people are always found who are keenly +sensible of the evils which the new system was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id="page80">80</a></span> supposed to cure, and +who continue to meditate upon the possibility of its possessing the +power to do so. These persons, it may be, make but little noise in the +arena either of literature or politics, but they are not the less +active, nor perhaps in the end the less really influential, on that +account. Their influence is of the sort that depends upon a solid +conviction, right or wrong, that the theory which they support is the +true one; and as long as the evils, which the system they adhere to +professes to cure, continue to exist, so long their influence may be +expected to increase.</p> + +<p>It is the third or experimental stage which is the critical one, and +generally speaking it is well when that stage can be reached without +any needless delay. By experiment alone can the value of such theories +be tested to the satisfaction of the practical mind of humanity, and +it is only as the result of a trial that men will either consent to +admit the value of a proposed reform or to abandon a specious theory +to which they have once given their adherence.</p> + +<p>The single-tax theory of political economics advanced by Henry George, +having passed through the first of these three stages with something +more than the usual publicity and controversy, has already been in its +second stage for a good many years. The cessation of active +discussion, which appears to some people to argue that it has passed +into oblivion, or is at any rate well on the way toward such a +consummation, is only evidence that it is in its second, or +fermentation, period. Nobody can pretend for an instant that any one +of the evils pointed out by Henry George as the things that called +loudly for reform, have actually been reformed since the date of the +publication of his original essay on “Progress and Poverty.” No +reasonable man can doubt that many, if not all of these evils, ought +in some way to be dealt with, and if possible amended. While such is +the case it is impossible wholly to get rid of the theory which +trenchantly pointed out those evils and professed at least to offer an +effective remedy.</p> + +<p>Under these conditions few things could be more desirable than that +the matter should be advanced to the third of its natural stages by +being submitted to the critical test of experience. Nothing short of +this will ever satisfy the mass of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" id="page81">81</a></span> mankind of the feasibility of the +system proposed, or of its adequacy to meet the evils complained of; +nothing less will set free the minds of many thousands of intelligent +persons to inquire into other methods of reform than the fair trial of +the single-tax system, and its failure to cure the evils which its +author expected it to cure. The difficulty, which indeed is by no +means a slight one, is to find a favorable arena in which the +experiment can be tried, and a community prepared to make the +experiment.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered that, if the evils aimed at by the proposed +remedy of the single tax are great and far-reaching, its complete +application could hardly, in most communities, amount to less than a +practical revolution. Striking as it does at the whole received theory +of land tenure, as sanctioned throughout the civilized world by the +practice of many centuries, it arrays against itself the prejudices of +the most influential classes in every long-established community, and +its introduction is necessarily surrounded by difficulties and at +least apparent injustices which must indefinitely delay any attempt to +bring it to the test of experiment there. The only reasonable hope, +indeed, of reducing the theory of the single tax to the plane of +experience is to find a country not yet fully committed to any other +system, and occupied by a self-governing people sufficiently +intelligent to perceive the evils of other existing systems of land +tenure, and sufficiently enterprising to be willing to experiment in +this direction.</p> + +<p>It may perhaps prove of no little benefit to other communities that +one self-governing country has been found which has been both able and +willing to make trial of the principle which has been so strongly +contended for by the author of “Progress and Poverty,” and by those +who have seen in his proposals a way of escape from many of the most +serious difficulties that beset civilized communities at the present +day. There is probably no other country which is to-day in so good a +position to enter upon experimental legislation in this and other +directions as the British colony of New Zealand. An island community +separated by more than a thousand miles from its nearest neighbors, +possessed of practically unlimited powers of self-government, and +inhabited by a prosperous and intelligent population,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page82" id="page82">82</a></span> substantially +of unmixed British race, there is little either in their external +relations or internal circumstances to prevent the colonists of New +Zealand making many experiments in economic legislation. And during +the last quarter of a century this fact has been fully realized by the +people and their leaders. They have established a system of education +which is at once more popular, free, and comprehensive than even the +most complete systems in force in this country; they have placed local +option in the control of the liquor traffic upon a broad and entirely +popular basis, which has rendered New Zealand the most sober and +law-abiding of communities, without introducing the doubtful principle +of prohibition; they have thrown open the franchise unreservedly to +all persons of full age and competent education, without regard to +sex; and they have successfully introduced life insurance and +trusteeship of estates by the government, as well as many others of +the proposals which are generally comprehended under the term “State +Socialism.”</p> + +<p>It is by no means surprising that a community which has made so many +experiments in legislation should have turned its attention to the +question which may perhaps be looked upon as most specially inviting +attention from social reformers in a new country. The circumstances of +New Zealand in relation to the land were from the first exceptional. +In every other country occupied by savage tribes in modern times which +has been taken possession of for purposes of settlement by people of +European race, the ownership of the soil has been assumed, as a matter +of course, to vest not in the aboriginal natives, but in the intruding +settlers. Spain, England, France, Holland, Germany, and the United +States have one after the other adopted this convenient theory of +international morality, and entered with a cool assumption of right +upon the inheritance of their comparatively helpless predecessors. In +New Zealand the conditions of the country and its inhabitants rendered +this popular system wholly inapplicable. The area of the country was +limited, to an extent which rendered it impossible to adopt the +fiction which has lain at the root of nearly all the forcible +confiscation of the territory of native tribes, namely, that they +could make no profitable use of so great an area. The islands of New +Zealand contain only a little more land than Great Britain itself,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page83" id="page83">83</a></span> +and sixty years ago, when England first thought of annexing them to +her empire, the native inhabitants numbered little if anything short +of a hundred thousand souls. They were besides a settled people who +cultivated the soil, and moreover they were warlike, and formidable to +any invader. In consequence of these things a wholly new departure was +made in the case of New Zealand. The country was not occupied on any +plea of discovery or of conquest, as had been done in so many parts of +the world before, but the sovereignty of the islands was obtained by +treaty with the chiefs of the native tribes, upon the distinct +guarantee that the full rights of the aboriginal inhabitants to their +lands should be recognized and protected by England against all +comers.</p> + +<p>From the first, therefore, the lands of New Zealand have been +purchased by the government before they could be disposed of to the +settlers. The community had no vast tracts of land to dispose of which +had cost nothing but the expense of survey, but as a matter of fact +had to look on every acre as an investment which must be sold for a +certain definite price unless the transaction was to result in an +absolute loss of money to the people at large. It may well have +happened that the result of so unusual a condition of affairs was to +lead the community to regard the public lands in a somewhat different +light from other people. At any rate it led to all lands being sold +for a price which prevented their being lightly esteemed or as a rule +held as freeholds in large areas. So much was this the case that from +the first nearly all pastoral lands were held under leases from the +government at fixed annual rentals. Fully forty years ago the +southern, and larger, of the islands was nearly all purchased from the +comparatively small native population by the government, and in that +island a very large proportion of the land has always been let on +lease for grazing. In the northern island nearly one-half of the land +even now belongs to the original native owners, and much of this area +is leased from them by Europeans for farming or grazing purposes.</p> + +<p>In this way it has happened that in New Zealand, more than in any +other country occupied by people of European race, the inhabitants +have grown accustomed to the idea of holding land on lease, with the +people at large, as represented by the government, for landlord. Under +these conditions it is easy to understand<span class="pagenum"><a name="page84" id="page84">84</a></span> how the doctrine of the +single tax found a peculiarly congenial home in the minds of New +Zealand public men. It is true that large areas of the lands of the +country had been disposed of in freehold to settlers. It is true that +the freehold tenure of the native inhabitants had in a certain sense +been guaranteed to them by treaty, at least in so far that it should +never be taken from them without compensation. It is true that the +mass of the people were very fully possessed by the apparently almost +universal preference for the idea of a freehold over every other +tenure of lands so far as they were personally concerned. But, on the +other hand, they had grown accustomed to the practice of holding areas +of land on lease both from the government and from the native owners, +whose tenure was not individual, but tribal, and they had learned the +lesson that there was no intolerable hardship in the system.</p> + +<p>The attempt to introduce a system which should give effect to the +principle underlying the economic theory of Henry George in New +Zealand was not hastily made, nor was it attempted on a scale that +could be fairly open to the charge of being revolutionary in its +incidence. The first step taken by the legislature was in the +direction of so dealing with the public estate of the country as to +encourage settlers to lease rather than to purchase the freehold. With +this in view a system of leases in perpetuity was established, and +areas of the best and most accessible of the land still unsold were +set apart to be dealt with under the new plan. Any person, not already +the holder of land in freehold, which, together with the land applied +for under perpetual lease, would make an area of more than six hundred +and forty acres, or one square mile, could apply for a lease of not +more than three hundred and forty acres on perpetual lease. Five +dollars per acre was fixed as the price of the land, such being the +average price of first-class freehold land unimproved in the country, +and the applicant was entitled to a lease for 999 years of the land +applied for, subject to the conditions that he resided upon the land +during the first ten years of the tenancy; that he improved it to the +extent of thirty per cent of its upset value within six years; and +that he paid as annual rental interest at the rate of five per cent on +the price or value of the land.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page85" id="page85">85</a></span></p> + +<p>Each lease contained clauses rendering the land subject to revaluation +at the end of each period of twenty-one years, on which the rental +would be calculated. If the new valuation, which it was provided +should rigidly exclude all improvements on the land, was assented to +by the tenant, the matter was settled for another twenty-one years; +but if he objected to the new valuation as excessive, it was provided +that he could demand that it should be offered by public auction +(subject to payment of the value of his improvements), and that the +amount bid for it either by himself or by anybody else at the sale +should be esteemed the value on which the rental was to be calculated +during the twenty-one years next following the sale. In case the +present holder of the lease was the highest bidder, this was the only +result of the sale; but in case he was outbid he was bound to transfer +the lease to the best bidder, on receiving from the government the +amount at which his improvements had been valued. This payment might +be made in government bonds, bearing interest at four per cent, at the +option of the government, and the new holder of the lease was charged +as rent the interest on the value of the land as bid by himself and +also interest at five per cent upon the former leaseholder’s +improvements. By this means it was proposed to retain for the +community at large the increased value of the lands of the country +which was not due to the improvements made from time to time by the +leaseholder. The inducement held out to the public to accept such +leases in preference to a freehold was the saving of capital involved +in not paying for the land when taken up, but only interest on the +amount. This, it was hoped, would suffice to render it popular with a +considerable class of actual working settlers as distinguished from +speculative buyers.</p> + +<p>It is only fair to say that in spite of every effort that could be +made by the government, the system did not commend itself to the +judgment or the prejudices of the persons interested to any very great +extent. What they wanted—what it may be taken for granted is wanted +by nearly everybody in dealing with land—was a fixed tenure. It was +not enough to know that they had a lease for 999 years; they wanted to +know what they were to pay for it, not only during the first +twenty-one years, but at any time during the 999. Eventually this had +to be conceded, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" id="page86">86</a></span> as the land law of New Zealand now stands the +holder of a perpetual lease gets it for a rental of four per cent upon +the original price fixed by government on the land, subject still, +however, to the conditions as to residence and improvements on the +land during the first ten years.</p> + +<p>Having abandoned this promising and theoretically perfect plan for +securing to the state all state-produced increase in the value of the +public lands, the New Zealand parliament was still anxious to secure +for the country the other advantages held out by the author of the +single-tax doctrine. These advantages may be briefly summed up in the +words, the discouragement of large holdings and the prevention of +speculation in future land values. To obtain these results without +laying the community open to the charge of practical confiscation, +which has been, and probably will always be, the strongest argument +against the practical application of the doctrine of the single tax, +as propounded by its author, was felt to be no easy matter. Even in +New Zealand there were already some large freehold estates, and these +naturally included some of the most desirable and valuable of the +land. It was eventually decided to impose a land tax, the incidence of +which would tend at least to discourage speculation, while it supplied +revenue for the public expenditure.</p> + +<p>A uniform tax of one penny in the pound sterling, equivalent to one +two-hundred-and-fortieth part of the capital value of all land in the +country held in freehold by Europeans, was imposed, the value of +improvements being in all cases deducted from such valuation. Each +owner of land is, however, allowed an exemption of land to the value +of two thousand five hundred dollars, on which no tax is payable, as +well as of all mortgage money secured on the freehold. Thus all +freehold lands held by any individual are liable to be taxed above the +value of $2,500, so far as he is really interested in them; while all +money lent on mortgage of land is subject to a tax of five per cent on +the annual interest reserved by the terms of the mortgage. New Zealand +is mainly a country of small holdings, and the result of this system +has been that, out of about 90,000 holders of land in freehold, only +about 13,000 actually pay the tax on land. In other words, the +settlers of the colony who own land which, apart from improvements and +mortgage debts, is worth more<span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" id="page87">87</a></span> than $2,500, are found to be only about +one-seventh of the whole number.</p> + +<p>To provide for the discouragement of land speculation on a large scale +a further provision is made by the enactment of a further tax upon all +lands held by individuals or corporations of a value exceeding $25,000 +clear of incumbrance. This is called the graduated land tax, and +provides for a farther taxation on all such lands, beginning at +one-eighth in addition to the original tax, and rising by advances of +an additional eighth for each sum of $25,000 at which the land is +valued, until a maximum rate of three times the original tax is +reached in the case of large estates. To provide for the risk of +vexatious opposition to valuations on the part of owners, there is a +farther provision that the government may at its option elect to +purchase, at an advance of ten per cent over the valuation objected +to, any unimproved land held in freehold. It is also a part of the +system that the government may compulsorily purchase at a valuation +any lands not in actual use in case any association of persons shall +apply to have this done, undertaking satisfactorily to take the land +upon its purchase under the conditions of perpetual lease, which of +course includes subdivision into small areas, with residence and +improvement.</p> + +<p>By these means the people of New Zealand confidently expect to secure +the subdivision of the lands of the country into small areas; to +discourage to the utmost the holding of land by capitalists in +expectation of greatly increased values at the expense of the less +wealthy classes; to render practically impossible the establishment on +any extensive scale of private landlordism in respect of agricultural +lands; and gradually to substitute, as far as possible, the payment to +the state of a yearly interest on value, for the purchase of the +freehold in the land of the country.</p> + +<p>So far as the experience of the last eight years, during which the +system has been in force, may be taken as a reliable guide, the +experiment shows many signs of success. It has certainly checked the +tendency to speculate in lands with a view to a rise in price, which +threatened to become a great, as it certainly was a growing, evil. It +has been found that it will not pay to do this in the face of +taxation, and particularly of the graduated<span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" id="page88">88</a></span> tax; and owners of large +areas of land have developed a strong inclination to subdivide and +sell lands which they formerly were disposed to hoard and increase. +The power given to the government to purchase lands where the owners +have objected to the valuation for taxation purposes has not been +widely exercised, but several very important and considerable +compulsory purchases of estates have been made in cases where +associations of persons wishing to take the land on perpetual lease +have applied to the government for that purpose. The chief benefit of +such examples, indeed, seems to have been in compelling owners either +to use the land themselves or to offer it for sale to persons anxious +to use it; but from the New Zealand point of view this would appear to +be almost if not quite equally desirable. Finally, the land tax has +largely enabled the country to do without other taxes, which would +necessarily have fallen more heavily upon the class of workers with +small incomes, instead of being levied on the classes best able to +bear them.</p> + +<p>It yet remains to be seen whether evils may not lurk, as yet +unnoticed, in the system, which may impair if not destroy its +usefulness. One consequence which was predicted by its opponents, +however, has not been found to follow upon the introduction of the +system. It was said that capital would be withdrawn from the country, +and that poverty and stagnation would result. No such result has +followed up to this time. New Zealand, with its less than a million +inhabitants, is to-day looked on as one of the soundest dependencies +of the British empire; it continues to draw to it from the mother +country as much capital as it can profitably use; its exports steadily +increase; and its people, if not rich, are well-to-do and comfortable.</p> + +<p>It may be said, indeed, that New Zealand has not accepted Henry +George’s doctrines as they were propounded by their author, and this +is literally true. It is, however, also true that they have accepted +the essential spirit of those doctrines, and, applying that spirit to +the circumstances of their own country, are giving probably the most +useful practical illustration of all that is best in them for the +world’s acceptance. No doctrine in economics yet propounded for the +acceptance of humanity<span class="pagenum"><a name="page89" id="page89">89</a></span> has ever been found to be applicable in +exactly the same form or to exactly the same extent under all +circumstances, and this, it may be safely said, will prove +emphatically true of the doctrine of the single tax. The single tax, +like all other economic plans, is not an end, but only a means. The +end must be the amelioration of the condition of the masses of the +people, and the consequent prosperity and happiness of the great +majority. In New Zealand the people and their leaders believe this to +be secured by taxing wealth rather than comparative poverty; by giving +every encouragement to those who will devote themselves to the +cultivation of the land; and by throwing every obstacle in the path of +those who would fain establish and promote the pernicious system of +private landlordism, which everywhere tends to create and perpetuate +class distinctions, with their long train of attendant evils.</p> + +<p>In these respects New Zealand presents an object-lesson which can +hardly fail to be of value to other countries, even if their +conditions differ widely from her own. Her successes may be noted with +advantage, her mistakes may be criticised with profit, in every free +country and by all those who see that existing conditions are far from +perfect in any part of the world, and that the safety as well as the +advancement of society may depend largely upon the introduction of +wise and, it may be, far-reaching reforms.</p> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page90" id="page90">90</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_10" id="article_10"></a> +NATURAL SELECTION, SOCIAL SELECTION, AND HEREDITY.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline">BY PROFESSOR JOHN R. COMMONS,<br /> +<i>Of Syracuse University, N. Y.</i></p> +<hr class="short" /> + + +<p><span class="sc">The</span> term “natural selection” is a misnomer, as Darwin himself +perceived. It means merely survival. “Selection” proper involves +intention, and belongs to human reason. Selection by man we call +artificial. Natural selection is the outcome of certain physical +facts: 1. Environment: the complex of forces, such as soil, climate, +food, and competitors. 2. Heredity: the tendency in offspring to +follow the type of the parent. 3. Variation: the tendency to diverge +from that type. 4. Over-population: the tendency to multiply offspring +beyond the food supply. 5. Struggle for life: the effort to exclude +others or to consume others. 6. Consciousness of kind: the tendency to +spare and coöperate with offspring and others of like type. 7. +Survival of the fittest: the victory of those best fitted to their +environment by heredity, variation, numbers, and consciousness of +kind.</p> + +<p>These biological facts underlie human society, but a new factor enters +with novel results. This is self-consciousness. Society is based not +merely on consciousness of kind, as worked out by Professor Giddings, +but peculiarly on individual self-consciousness.</p> + +<p>Self-consciousness is a product of evolution, at first biological as +explained by natural selection, and second, sociological. The +biological character is the prolongation of infancy, i. e. the +prolonged plastic and unfolding state of the brain. This makes +possible a new kind of development unknown to the animal, namely, +education. Education is preëminently a social activity. I say +education instead of environment. In natural selection there is a +physical environment which presses upon individuals, and only those +survive who are fitted to sustain this pressure. In social selection +society enters between the individual and the physical environment, +and, while slowly subordinating the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page91" id="page91">91</a></span> latter, transforms its pressure +upon the individual, and he alone survives who is fitted to bear the +social pressure. This pressure reaches the individual through the +educational media of language and social institutions, especially the +family, the state, and property. Institutions rest upon ideas and +beliefs, and these are epitomized in language. Language in turn, by +giving names to things and relations, and by thus transmitting to each +individual the accumulated race experience, gradually brings him to +the consciousness of himself. This is education.</p> + +<p>But self-consciousness is at first only vague, capricious, and +unprincipled. It grows by becoming definite, self-controlled, and +conscientious; that is, more regardful both of its own higher self and +of others. It thus develops into moral character, which we call +personality. Personality is the final outcome of social selection. +When once liberated it becomes a new selective principle to which all +others are subordinated. What, then, are the social conditions which +promote or retard the survival of personality?</p> + +<p>It is a debated question where we shall place the dividing line +between pre-social and social man. In view of what precedes we should +look for that line at the point where self-consciousness begins to +throw about itself a social covering. This covering is private +property. The former view that primitive property was common property +is now nearly abandoned. The supposed village communities of free +proprietors were really villages of slaves and serfs. The semblance of +common property in primitive times belongs to the pre-social or +gregarious stage, and differs but little from the common use of a +given area by a colony of beavers.</p> + +<p>Private property involves two facts: 1. Perception of enduring value +in external objects; 2. Exclusive control and enjoyment of those +objects. Its psychological basis is therefore self-consciousness, +which is the knowledge not of an abstracted and isolated self, but of +self as related to external nature and human beings.</p> + +<p>The first private property was animals and tools. Artificial selection +begins with the domestication of animals. Soon it lays hold on man +himself by means of social institutions, all of which originate as +private property. The primitive social family<span class="pagenum"><a name="page92" id="page92">92</a></span> was not a state of +promiscuity nor even the voluntary pairing of animals and birds, but +it was private property in women, beginning as wife-capture and +becoming wife-purchase and polygamy. Natural selection, too, is +transcended when cannibalism ceases. The self-conscious victor +enslaves his enemy and reduces him to property. Next, government +arises as private despotism, and with it the land becomes the property +of the chief. Thus the family, the state, protracted industry, and the +control of social opportunities begin with that artificial selection +denoted by private property.</p> + +<p>Property in its early forms means the domination of the powerful over +the weak. Social institutions develop out of this primitive tyranny, +where the caprice of owners crushes the personality of the masses, +towards a state of equal rights and opportunities for all. The +industrial classes emerge from slavery and serfdom into a wage system, +which in turn is modified in the direction of fair wages, short hours, +and security of employment—fundamental conditions for personal +development.</p> + +<p>The family has arisen from the private property of a despot to the +mutual coöperation of lovers, and the woman becomes a person instead +of a chattel. The legal successor of polygamy—the slavery of +women—is not monogamy, but prostitution, which is the wage system of +the sexes, grounded on the subordinate position of women and their +meagre opportunities for self-support.</p> + +<p>Government is passing into democracy, and property in land and capital +is being hedged about by the police and taxing powers, or diffused and +socialized in the interest of the personal equality of all.</p> + +<p>Social evolution is therefore the evolution of freedom and +opportunity, on the one hand, and personality, on the other. Without +freedom and security there can be no free will and moral character. +Without exalted personality there can be no enduring freedom. The +educational environment, therefore, which develops personality must +itself develop with freedom. The ruling ideas of justice, integrity, +morality, must move in advance, else the personality of individuals +will not survive the temptations of freedom. To what extent, +therefore, can education modify the individual? The answer is to be +sought in the problems of heredity and degeneration.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" id="page93">93</a></span></p> + +<p>The human degenerate is essentially different from the animal +degenerate. The latter is solely a physical product, and by losing +certain organs is better fitted for survival, as parasites and snakes.</p> + +<p>Human degenerates, however, do not form a new type, but are on the +decline to extinction. They are those who lack personality; that is, +they are not moulded into harmony with a social environment which +unfolds self-consciousness. They are strictly biological only when +they are congenital and therefore not educable. They are social +degenerates when they are the product of a degraded education. Both +factors are radical. A born idiot can never be other than an idiot. On +the other hand, the deprivation during childhood and youth of language +and education, as shown by Caspar Hauser, or the wolf-boy of Agra, or +the experiment of Emperor Akbar, leaves the normal natural endowments +as idiotic as though they never existed. The two factors vary +independently through all degrees. Education ranges from the slums to +the pure firesides. The congenital equipment varies from the idiot to +the genius.</p> + +<p>The relative weight of these two factors is a matter of statistics. +Absolutely speaking, heredity is everything; relatively, its social +significance depends upon the actual proportion of abnormal to normal +births.</p> + +<p>The highest estimate I am able to make of the total number of +degenerates, both born and induced, is five and one-half per cent of +the population, as follows:</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Estimated Total of Defectives Per Million Population.</span></p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table summary="Estimated Total of Defectives"> +<tr><td class="left">Census estimate (1890).</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Insane</td><td class="right">1,697</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Feeble-minded</td><td class="right">1,526</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Deaf and Dumb</td><td class="right">659</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Blind</td><td class="right">805</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Prisoners</td><td class="right">1,315</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Juvenile delinquents</td><td class="right">237</td></tr> +<tr><td class="indent">Almshouse paupers</td><td class="right">1,166</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"> </td><td class="right">————</td><td class="right">7,405</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Outdoor Criminals (five times the number of inmates)</td><td> </td><td class="right">7,760</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Tramps (McCook, 1895, New Haven Conference of Charities and Correction, 85,768)</td><td> </td><td class="right">1,308</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Drunkards (Crothers, 1893, Chicago Conference, 1,200,000, equal to about 10 per cent of voting population)</td><td> </td><td class="right">19,000</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Prostitutes (weighted average of Levasseur’s estimate for rural (600) and urban (11,200 to 17,200) France, in “La Population Française,” vol. ii, p. 434)</td><td> </td><td class="right">5,000</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Outdoor Paupers (weighted average of report at Nashville Conference, 1894, 46 per cent in Penna. to 2.2 per cent in N. Y.)</td><td> </td><td class="right">15,000</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td class="right">—————</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"> </td><td> </td><td class="right">55,473</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>This estimate would make the maximum number of all degenerates 5.54 +per cent of the population. From these must be deducted those who are +not congenital. We can estimate the congenitals by three methods: by +statistics of <i>atavism</i>, or <i>consanguinity</i>, and by <i>experiment</i>.</p> + +<p>In the statistics of atavism we add together the physical +abnormalities of the individual, assuming that a criminal type is +found when these abnormalities reach the number of three or more. The +statistical method always suffers the limitation that it indicates not +identity, but probability. Yet it has an important value, provided it +discovers ratios of probability which concur. This is not the case in +the method by atavism. Sixty to seventy per cent of criminals do not +belong to the assumed criminal type; and sixteen per cent of normal +males are classed as criminals, whereas the actual number is less than +three per cent of the males of criminal age. (See Lombroso, “The +Female Offender,” pp. 104, 105.)</p> + +<p>While atavism itself is unquestioned, this method seizes upon rigid +physical characters to measure educable qualities. And where the +latter are themselves abnormal the causes may lie with education and +not heredity.</p> + +<p>The method by consanguinity seeks not the abnormalities of the patient +himself, but the signs of disease and degeneracy in his blood +relatives. It therefore greatly increases the apparent weight of +heredity, for it collects symptoms from several individuals instead of +one. The medical authorities ascribe fifty to eighty per cent of +inebriety to heredity. This method fails as does the other, for, as +seen in the Jukes or the drunkard, the child gets both its heredity +and its education from the same degraded parents, and the method +provides no measure for separating the two.</p> + +<p>In sociology the method of experiment has but limited employment. The +modern sociologist cannot mate the parents nor vivisect the soul, +after the methods of the biologist.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" id="page95">95</a></span> He can only move the child from +one education to another, and his experiment is incidental to the +larger purpose of saving the child. His results, too, can appear only +as a ratio of probability; but this ratio measures the mental and +moral qualities themselves directly and not by inference. Elmira +Reformatory and others cure eighty per cent of their charges. Model +placing-out institutions and free kindergartens save nearly all. And +these are taken from the most vicious and criminal parentage in the +land. Our five and one-half per cent of degenerates must therefore be +greatly reduced in order to find the residuum of congenitals. I have +made the following deductions:</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Estimated Defectives Not Congenital, Per Million Population.</span></p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table summary="Estimated Defectives Not Congenital"> +<tr><td class="left">Criminals (80 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">7,369</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Prostitutes (80 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">4,000</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Outdoor Paupers (80 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">16,000</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Tramps (80 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">1,046</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Drunkards (50 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">9,500</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"> </td><td class="right">———</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left"> </td><td class="right">37,915</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">Which deducted from</td><td class="right">55,473</td></tr> +<tr><td class="left">leaves congenital defectives</td><td class="right">17,558</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>equal to 1.75 per cent of the population. Overlappings would diminish +this ratio; greater infant mortality and the omitted youthful +defectives would increase it.</p> + +<p>If less than two per cent of the births are below the normal Aryan +brain level, on the other hand possibly two per cent are above the +average, and should be classed as the geniuses who could achieve +eminence regardless of surroundings. The remaining ninety per cent or +more are born with ordinary equipment; they are hereditarily neither +good nor bad, criminal nor virtuous, brilliant nor stupid. With these +masses of the people the first fifteen years of infancy and youth are +decisive.</p> + +<p>We may now classify the selective forces of society. Social selection +is partly natural and partly artificial. It originates artificially in +the self-consciousness of dominant individuals. Struggle and conflict +ensue, out of which private property survives in its various forms as +an intended control over others. This control is then transmitted as +the various social institutions to succeeding generations and becomes +for them natural<span class="pagenum"><a name="page96" id="page96">96</a></span> and unintended. These social institutions then +constitute a coercive environment, not over wholly unwilling subjects, +but over those whose wills are shaped by education and social pressure +to coöperate with the very institutions that suppress them.</p> + +<p>Gradually, as subordinate classes become self-conscious, innovations +are made which aim to check the unbridled despotism of private +property; new conflicts thereupon take place and certain innovations +survive, which, at first artificial, become natural for the next +generations.</p> + +<p>As society becomes more definite, reflective, and humane, as it +acquires fixed laws and government, it increases the range of +artificial selection; it supplants custom by statute, and remodels its +inherited institutions.</p> + +<p>It is now animated by a new motive, the development of moral character +in all the people. With reference to this new motive social selection +is either direct or indirect. Direct selection is highly artificial, +but it is only negative. It consists in segregating the degenerates to +prevent propagation. Society cannot, of course, directly interfere +with the marriage choice of normal persons, for that would be to choke +the purest expression of personality. But it can isolate the two per +cent who will never rise to moral responsibility. This would doubtless +increase the wards of the state, but it is needed both for the reason +already given and, more especially, to clarify the public mind on the +causes of delinquency and dependency. As long as these evils can be +charged to heredity the public is blinded to the share that springs +from social injustice.</p> + +<p>The increase and classification of the custodial population here +contemplated is a problem for administrative charity. Possibly the +colony system would make that population mutually self-supporting and +also remove the current sentimentalism against long isolation of the +incurables.</p> + +<p>With the ground cleared of the true degenerates, the operations of +indirect social selection can be seen. This also is artificial, but in +a less mechanical way. It consists in so adjusting the political, +industrial, and social environment as to affect personality, either to +suppress or develop it. The two instruments are legal rights and +education. For example, the tenement-house congestion, with its +significant educational environment,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97">97</a></span> is the product of laws of +property and taxation which favor owners and speculators instead of +tenants, and of private property in rapid transit which puts a tax on +exit to the suburbs. It cannot be said of this and other selective +factors, such as the profit-making saloon, long hours of work, low +pay, irregular employment, that they permit natural selection to +operate. They suppress personality, which preëminently is the natural +fact in the human being. Social selection is therefore tending to +become less and less arbitrary, but is making room for a higher +natural selection—a natural selection where not brute force and +cunning are the fittest to survive, but where, with freedom, security, +and equal opportunity, the human personality will work out its own +survival. Man alone of all the animals can rise to the angels, but he +alone can fall below the brutes. This is the glory and the penalty of +personality. It becomes a unique selective agency whose standard is +raised with the advance of civilization. The Australian cannibal, +without opium, tobacco, alcohol, or syphilis, may survive with a low +morality. The American exposed to these destroyers must be a better +man or perish. Personality, thus becoming a keen selective principle, +is based not necessarily on overpopulation and competition, but on +that self-destruction which comes from vice, disease, and drunkenness. +Its degraded offspring will perish or feed the ranks of the hereditary +degenerates to be properly segregated and ended.</p> + +<p>But with education and opportunity the higher forms of human character +will naturally increase and survive. With the independence and +education of women sexual selection becomes a refined and powerful +agent of progress. With the right to work guaranteed, the tramp and +indiscriminate charity have no excuse, and the honest workman becomes +secure in the training and survival of his family.</p> + +<p>We hear much of scientific charity. There is also a scientific +justice. The aim of the former is to educate true character and +self-reliance. The aim of the latter is to open the opportunities for +the free expression of character. Education and justice are the +methods of social selection. By their coöperation is shaped the moral +environment where alone can survive that natural yet supernatural +product, human personality.</p> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page98" id="page98">98</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_11" id="article_11"></a> +PSYCHIC OR SUPERMUNDANE EXPERIENCES.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline">BY CORA L. V. RICHMOND.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + + +<p><span class="sc">From</span> between ten and eleven years of age I have been endowed with +gifts and favored with experiences that, I am well assured, are very +exceptional, and that, until quite recently, have not been admitted to +the realm of psychical investigation, philosophical discussion, or +even human credence. Lately, however, there have been found a +sufficient number of well authenticated facts in similar lines of +experience to warrant the investigation and classification of them (if +possible) under a modern name, “Psychic Research,” and under a well +established and not so recent one, Spiritualism.</p> + +<p>I am not intending to discuss these subjects, <i>per se</i>, nor to +endeavor to classify or explain the experiences I am about to relate. +They are <i>experiences</i>, as real as any of those in my human or mundane +existence; indeed, if I were called upon to decide that one is real +and the other illusion, I should say without hesitation that these, +and similar ones throughout my lifetime, are the real, and the +ordinary mundane experiences unreal.</p> + +<p>At the age above referred to I was, without any seeking, and without +any surrounding circumstances to “suggest” such a state, taken +possession of (entranced) by intelligences, distinct personalities in +thought, word, and action, who spoke through my organism, unfolded and +educated my mind, in fact became my mental and spiritual instructors. +The public discourses and teachings given under these conditions are +well known to many of the readers of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>, as these labors are +the work of a lifetime.</p> + +<p>It is not of this public work that I am constrained to write; but I +may as well say here that I have had no other teachers, no other +instructors, and have pursued no course of study or reading of human +books; those whom I call my guides and guardians have been my +teachers. During the time that these outside intelligences are +controlling and speaking through my organism I am wholly unconscious +of what is passing in human<span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" id="page99">99</a></span> life and wholly unaware of that which is +being uttered through my lips. I am also unaware of the lapse of time.</p> + +<p>It may be best for me to here declare that I am not, in the usual +sense, peculiar, nor was I different in my childhood from other +children, save as each differs from the other. I was very diffident, +and—not using the word in the psychical sense—sensitive. I was not +given to morbid states or to the “dreaming of dreams.” Perhaps I was +imaginative; most children are; and I loved fairy tales, but not +unduly. This is simply to show that there was no abnormal condition of +mind or body to produce the supernormal results that I have referred +to.</p> + +<p>I ought also to say that I never made the slightest preparation for +the discourses and poems given through my lips, many of which, as the +reader may know, were listened to by able and thoughtful minds, and +from them received the highest praise. I tell this, not boastingly, +but with humble gratitude that I have been made the instrument of +giving the message of immortality to the world.</p> + +<p>My own experiences during this period of entrancement, or while in the +supernormal state, may be of peculiar interest to the reader, since +they seem to be almost unique. While passing into this state I +experience no physical sensations that are describable; a sense of +being set free, of passing into a larger realm,—not of being +transported or going anywhere,—is all that I can ever recall as +sensation. Before I have time or opportunity to think how I feel, I am +in the other state. Then I see, but I now know it is perception more +than sight; I sometimes experience that which we call hearing in the +human state, but I am fully aware; perception supersedes the senses.</p> + +<p>Those whom I meet are individualities; many are friends known to me in +the form before they passed from the mortal state; many are those who +were unknown to me personally, only known by name and fame; and many I +have never known until they revealed themselves to me in this “inner,” +“higher,” other realm. When returning to outward consciousness, I +often see, or remember as sight, such visions of surpassing loveliness +that no language, no gift of art, even with genius-portraiture, could +describe or picture them. These scenes and visions are associated with +individuals who exist in that state, and, apparently,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100">100</a></span> are objective; +yet I am fully aware that they illustrate or depict the states and +tastes of the individuals with whom they are seen, and are not organic +physical forms, but psychic projections of the individual spirits. +These forms and scenes readily pass and change according to the state +of the one seeing them, or according to the state of the individual +with whom they are associated. The “sphere” of a spirit, or of +spirits, is the state or condition, not the environment.</p> + +<p>In early life, before my mind had thought on the “objective” and +“subjective” meanings of thoughts and things, I thought these scenes +were “objective” in the human, mundane sense. I am now perfectly aware +that every sensuous faculty—seeing, hearing, etc.—is superseded by +this “perception” to which I have before referred; in fact, that the +bodily senses as well as the mental faculties—brain expression—are +but the different avenues of perceiving and conveying the intelligence +of the individual spirit while associated with material form, this +perception, or awareness, being the one supreme state of the spirit.</p> + +<p>Still I have been shown series after series of beautiful +scenes,—gardens, landscapes, visions of art, transcendent pictures of +tint, form, and tone that no language can portray; and I am sure these +abide for all who wish for or have need of them, and are the +illustrations of the spiritual states of those with whom one comes in +spiritual contact—<i>rapport</i>. Yet the greater the degree of +perception, the less important become these illustrations of states; +we not only see “face to face,” but perceive soul to soul. I became +ashamed, almost, of the state of mind requiring these illustrations or +any similar presentations. I found knowledge, however, in all the +methods employed by my teachers, for they knew my needs.</p> + +<p>Conversation in that state is not by means of speech or even language; +sometimes before the thought is formulated the answer comes. Such is +the rare sympathy existing between teacher and pupil in this state +that the guide knows before the question is formed. Still, there must +be the conscious desire for knowledge, or no knowledge can be +received; reminding one of the “Seek, and ye shall find” of the +ancient Truth-Teller.</p> + +<p>When in that state I readily pass to a knowledge of what intimate +friends in earth-life are doing and thinking. I even<span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101">101</a></span> enter into such +<i>rapport</i> as to be aware of their material surroundings, their states +of mind, and their bodily health, obtaining all this from their minds, +not from physical consciousness or sensation. Many times they have +been also conscious of my presence, and we have afterward verified +these experiences by outward correspondence, mostly to satisfy our +friends. One or two instances will suffice to illustrate this class of +experiences.</p> + +<p>When I was yet a child, twelve years of age, my father accompanied me +on one of my pilgrimages of spiritual work to western New York, our +former home. During that visit or tour a circle for investigation and +experiment was formed in Dunkirk, N. Y. After we returned to our then +home in Wisconsin, I was one evening entranced,—as was usual,—and +while in that state was distinctly conscious of being in Dunkirk, of +seeing every member of the circle, with all of whom I was acquainted +except one lady. She proved to be the seer of the evening. She saw me +and described me so accurately that everyone in the circle recognized +me, and, of course, thought I was dead. This so disturbed her mental +or psychic state that I could not impress upon her mind that my body +was entranced and that this was but one of my usual spiritual +pilgrimages. On returning to my mundane state I narrated what I had +experienced, and asked my father to write at once to the circle in +Dunkirk and relieve their minds. He did so, but, as naturally would +occur, they had also written, the letters crossing each other on the +way, and their letter confirmed what I had told in every particular.</p> + +<p>Later in life I had a lady friend whom I repeatedly visited and +comforted, for she was in great sorrow. One time I made her see my +body, or its apparition, so plainly that she saw the dress in which it +was clothed—precisely what I had wished, as it was the color she most +liked to see me wear. Another friend in California became so +susceptible to my presence that she wrote long letters from +me—automatically—which I, in this state, dictated to her, thus +rendering correspondence between us almost superfluous except for +verification to our outward senses. My own mother was aware of my +presence almost daily; and it was a curious fact that my telltale +spirit would go to her and reveal the very things I wished to keep +from her,—any little surprises or presents, or the time of my<span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id="page102">102</a></span> +arrival home on a visit. However late the hour, I always found her +ready with a warm supper to receive me. When arriving after the +journey home she would say: “You came to me last night in spirit and +told me you were coming in body.” All important things connected with +my welfare she knew in a similar way.</p> + +<p>Two friends, Mr. and Mrs. B——, were extensive travellers. At one +time they were absent three years, taking a tour of the Orient. We did +not keep up a regular correspondence, as mutually our time was too +much taken up with our respective duties or pleasures, but I could +always locate them while I was in this “inner” state. At one time I +saw them surrounded by what seemed more like a scene in the spirit +state than in earth-life. They were on an island, surrounded by +water-lilies; the skies were full of golden light, and they were amid +pavilions, grottos, and altars of quaint and unique design. I could +not place them, but on returning to my mundane state I related to my +family what I had seen, and I wrote down the date. In about three or +four weeks I had a letter from them dated at Tokio, giving a +description of this very island I had seen; they were there on that +very day when I saw them, and the island was as I had seen it. It +proved to be one of the sacred islands in Japan.</p> + +<p>This consciousness of visiting earth friends is, however, only the +smallest part of these inner experiences; and usually occurs when I am +passing into or out of the deeper or more spiritual states. Although I +could fill volumes with these interesting experiences,—verified by +being shared with others in human life,—I feel it due to the reader +that I narrate my more inner experiences; at least in sufficient +degree that they may be recorded, and that there may be some +perception, however inadequately expressed, of what is possible in +this surpassing realm.</p> + +<p>I cannot pass from this subject of my visits to human friends, +however, without here recording one other phase of this many-threaded +line of experiences. While in this realm of spirit I often meet and +converse freely, or commune, with friends that are yet in human forms, +but who appear as spirits and seem to possess all the activities of +the spiritual state. They meet and mingle freely with those who have +“died” to human life, yet I<span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id="page103">103</a></span> am perfectly sure they recall nothing of +this when in their human state. Why I should remember or take with me +these experiences that the others whom I saw within this realm could +not recall, I could not divine until it was explained by my guide.</p> + +<p>The explanation is this: “In sleep mortals pass into this realm for +spiritual rest and change, as it is the normal realm of the spirit; +but they do not pass through the spiritual awakening of the faculties +as those do who are endowed with ‘spiritual gifts,’ therefore the +experiences cannot be recalled <i>as experiences</i>; still, they sometimes +have vague reminiscences or glimpses of ‘unremembered dreams’ that aid +them throughout the whole day, often for days; and thus the outward +life is sustained and fed from this realm. By and by the race will +have spiritual growth to know and remember the experiences of the +spirit as they now do of the human life.” I have frequently met those +in that state who were strangers to me here, and who were still in +human life; and in after years I have met them face to face in outward +form, often wondering if they thought they had seen me before, as I +was certain I had seen them. When the whole of this other side of +human experience is made known, how many things now veiled will stand +revealed! By far the greater number of volumes could be filled with +those transcendent experiences referred to earlier in these pages, +with friends in spirit states, with teachers and guides in their own +realm.</p> + +<p>My mother, always intuitive, sympathetic, religious, and caring much +for the sick and ailing while in earth life, I was accustomed to see +in a sphere or state of her own near the “Healing Sphere” of one of my +teachers. She was surrounded with her own favorite +flowers—old-fashioned hollyhocks, sweet-williams, and fragrant +healing herbs. My guide explained that in <i>her thought</i>, or spiritual, +state she requires these things to aid her in healing or ministering +to those on earth. Whenever I visited her state it seemed to be in the +midst of scenery such as she loved on earth, and under a +morning-glory-covered lattice, where she sat in a low chair like one I +had seen her use in earth life. Though not limited to that state, she +always revealed herself thus to me; and I would return to my earth +state with a sense of homesickness, and with the odor of thyme and +rosemary clinging to my <i>psychic olfactories</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page104" id="page104">104</a></span></p> + +<p>My father was interested in all the reforms of the day; he was a truly +practical Christian, though not a professing one. He was looking for +that ideal social state which we all hope is sometime coming, of +“peace on earth and love to all.” His spirit state was revealed to me +as among those arisen workers and reformers, whose work for humanity +he loved and shared on earth, and learning of the wise ones,—a vast +and wonderful sphere of individualities, who are still laboring for +the good of humanity. I wished to know of my father, who passed out +from the mortal form when I was thirteen years of age, and who was +often my spirit teacher in my early life, why, after my mother had +passed on, he was not always with her as in earth life. He replied, +with a rare smile: “We are together; our work is different, but when +we need each other we cannot be apart.”</p> + +<p>Singly or in groups, or as my needs seemed to require, I was aware of +every relative and friend who had passed from mortal life, whom our +mutual wish or need attracted toward me. I am sure there may be those +related by ties of consanguinity whom I have not seen, and many +related only by spiritual sympathy and kinship whom I have met and +loved in that state.</p> + +<p>My babe, now a beautiful young woman in the spirit state, is my almost +constant companion in those visitations and experiences. I have “seen +her grow,” to use our mortal speech; have noted her spiritual +unfoldment, and have many times been her pupil,—so wise are these +“little ones” in the love of the angels, so sweet and simple is she in +her teaching.</p> + +<p>How few know the real meaning of “nearness” as applied to those they +love! One thinks of the friend whose bodily presence is removed by +mountains, rivers, and oceans as being far away; yet London, China, +and India are as near in thought as the chair beside one, and doubly +near the one whose body may be sojourning there. This very nearness of +sympathy debars any separation. If people would turn to the real +indications,—sympathy, intuition,—whenever desired the friend is +near. Doubly true is this of those who have passed the barrier of +death and are revealed to the heart of love. They have not died, they +have not gone; they are so near as not to be seen or felt by the +grosser sense that governs the physical state of recognition; so very +near that even the thoughts of the friend still<span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105">105</a></span> immured in the +earthly form are shared by them, the very innermost longings responded +to. Yet people unaccustomed to seek them in the inner instead of outer +realm of existence, cannot find them, and say, “They are gone.” With +space and time annihilated, what shall prevent the loved from being +ever near?</p> + +<p>Teachers and guides bear a nearer relationship than those in human +states, and teach by the magic law of adaptation and love. I cannot +name, in earthly language, the tie that binds me to those who have led +me through these many realms, who have taught by vision, illustration, +and thought, until the awakened <i>perception</i> knew, the <i>a priori</i> +knowledge came.</p> + +<p>I have often been conscious of visiting at desire a realm of music +that led through the world of tone, through the spheres of matchless +harmony in which the great masters of music abide,—Beethoven, +Mendelssohn, Mozart, and to the divine realm of Wagner.</p> + +<p>The realm of art, leading through color and form to the images of +perfect life, until form and tint and tone are merged in the supreme +soul of beauty, and sculptured image or architectural grandeur is lost +in the eternal, all-forming, all-changing changelessness of the Soul +of Art.</p> + +<p>The realm of nature (the material universe), seen from the inverse +side, appears to be the effect of causes that are in that realm of +consciousness; laws that are the operation of the Supreme Will, the +Logos. There science is reconstructed and made plain, and made secure +by the knowledge of these fundamental principles.</p> + +<p>The realm of philosophy, traced to its primal sources, reveals the +truths concerning universal knowledge, often perceived by the great +teachers, but dimly stated by minds enshrouded by the environments of +earth.</p> + +<p>The realm of religion,—the ineffable meaning of the All-Love and +Wisdom; the nearness, the perfectness, the absoluteness of the Divine; +the kinship of souls, the fraternity of spirits,—never in all this +realm was there a thought, or teaching of thought, separate from a +conscious individual entity.</p> + +<p>I find that there is no Time or Space in this inner realm; the entity +is not governed by the limitations of the person, so the terms and +usages of earthly existence must fall into desuetude.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" id="page106">106</a></span> One is not +hampered by an ox-team while flying across the plains in a palace +coach impelled by steam, and one does not need winter garments and +furs in the tropics. The state of spirit needs no earthly day and +night; all these are but incident to the physical earth and physical +existence. The spirit is free from these limitations—time, space, and +sensuous environment.</p> + +<p>It will be interesting for the reader to know that my physical health +does not suffer from these experiences, nor from the active duties +incident to my spiritual work in human life.</p> + +<p>I enter this spirit realm as naturally and easily as one enters the +realm of sleep; yet it is not sleep. The body and brain are actively +employed by another intelligence, loaned as an instrument might be, +while the individual consciousness, the <i>ego</i> of the human being, is +set free to visit these illimitable realms or states of the “inner,” +the vaster, life.</p> + +<p>When the mundane consciousness returns, it is instantaneous; but the +mental and physical sensations vary according to whether the +experiences have been “near or far” from the human state, with +reference not to distance, but to resemblance or similarity in +quality. When the experiences have been furthest removed from those +usual in human consciousness, many minutes, and sometimes hours, are +required to adjust myself to the conditions. This inner state is far +more intense, but not unlike that experienced when one has been wholly +wrapped and folded from the outer world in perusing a favorite +author—living with and experiencing the scenes depicted; or when one +has listened for hours to the all-absorbing strains of music in the +grand operatic creations of Wagner. On returning to the mundane state +my food has often tasted like chips or straw; the fabric of my dress +would feel coarse to the touch, as though woven of cords or ropes; and +every sound seemed harsh or far too loud. Gradually these +supersensitive conditions would depart, leaving the usual state of +mind and body.</p> + +<p>I have said it is easy to pass into that state; not so easy is the +returning to the human environment; yet one <i>must</i> return. Like the +child bidden to the task, reluctant to leave the garden of flowers and +the freedom of the outer world, yet, constrained by love and duty, one +consents to return. I suspect that these sensations I experience, of +return to the human state, are something<span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" id="page107">107</a></span> like those of resuscitation +after one has been nearly drowned. The drowning is easy, because one +is going into life; the restoration is painful, because one returns, +if not to death, to mere existence. The work, the duty, the loved who +are embodied here must win one to the form which has been loaned; but +the spirit seems reluctant sometimes to leave that freedom and +knowledge for the narrow walls of clay, the prison-house of sense. The +only true way is to bring that realm with one into daily life. One +learns after a time to do this: to clothe the earthly scenes with the +inner brightness, and the human tasks with the spiritual aura of love +and wisdom.</p> + +<p>I cannot judge whether the scenes of earth seem lovelier to me than to +most mortals; whether there is more ravishing sweetness in the +springtime, more glory in summer, more richness and beauty in the +autumn, more rest and whiteness in the winter, more transcendent +splendor in the sunset sky and glory in the starlit heavens. But it is +certain that in being admitted to this inner realm the writer has not +lost any blessing of earth,—of love, of home, of friends, of +practical knowledge and interest in the daily duties and work of life; +nor, I believe, can one be barred from any needed experience, however +bitter. These teachings, visions, and experiences of soul-life have +given to earth an exquisite beauty; to life’s work a meaning and +impetus; to trials a lesson and interpretation; to the change called +death a glory and radiance; to spirit states a nearness, and to soul a +reality. Nor do these experiences rob one of one’s individuality; the +petty <i>personality</i> to which mortals cling is, happily, forgotten or +cast aside, but the <i>individuality</i> cannot be lost, merged in another, +or governed, except for its good. When the <i>personal</i> is cast aside, +one is grateful for the impersonality of the <i>individual</i>.</p> + +<p>Trailing clouds of glory accompany me across and into the barriers of +time and sense, and when the sharp contrast is over—which the guide +ever prevents from being too sudden—I realize the great sweetness of +the gardens of paradise by the fragrance that is filling the earthly +dwelling, and I know that being aware of the visitations of angels, +and of somewhat of the light which is theirs, does not hinder, but +helps human endeavor and accomplishment.</p> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108">108</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_12" id="article_12"></a> +THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CIVICS.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline">BY HENRY RANDALL WAITE, PH. D.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + +<p><span class="sc">The</span> standard represented by popular institutions will seldom be +higher, and as time goes on may become lower, than that set for +themselves by the majority of the people who established and are +intrusted with the duty of maintaining them. They may represent noble +aims and point to high ideals, but the extent of their duration and +salutary influence must always be dependent upon a sufficient +manifestation of the spirit which called them into being.</p> + +<p>Institutions and laws, however perfect in other respects, cannot, +therefore, safely omit from their functions provisions for the +fostering and developing of the spirit which gave them birth. This +spirit, it is to be remembered, may, and too often does, without +extinguishment, actually become a thing so much apart from the +machinery which it has established, as to have little appreciable +influence in controlling its operation.</p> + +<p>The institutions and laws of the United States, in their inception, +represented the spirit of a people who were actuated by the highest +concepts of human duty, and who sought to establish a political system +which should realize the highest ideals. The possibilities of the +system have been demonstrated by the experience of more than a hundred +years. Functionally considered this experience has made painfully +evident the failures which have attended the system in its operation. +It is evident to every intelligent student of American history that +these failures have been chiefly due to the fact that the spirit which +gave life to the American Republic has too often and too far been +supplanted in the control of its affairs by a spirit utterly hostile +to that which it was intended to be, and which, if the partial or +complete failure of the system is to be averted, must, everywhere and +always, be dominant. It is undoubtedly true that citizens whose +character and ability fit them for the service necessary for the +proper control of political affairs, constitute a sufficient number in +the voting population to assure the ascendency<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109">109</a></span> of right ideas if +their efforts can be united for the purpose. The fact that intelligent +and controlling convictions of duty are absent, and that they do not +thus unite, however explained, clearly accounts for the subversion of +the spirit which founded our institutions, and the ascendency of a +spirit of chicanery, greed, and corruption.</p> + +<p>It is also evident that the political evils which challenge our +attention are primarily due, not to faults in our institutions +themselves, but to failures in the assertion of the spirit of true +Americanism by which they are intended to be controlled. How to secure +ascendency for this spirit and thus to restore, in every part of the +republic, the sovereignty of highest manhood, is the most pressing +problem which can engage the attention of patriotic and intelligent +American citizens.</p> + +<p>For more than fifteen years this question has been a matter of +profound interest to the writer. The fact that ordinary uprisings +against political evils fail to accomplish permanent results, seemed +to him to afford convincing evidence that attention must be given to +the roots and not confined to the branches; and that this foundation +work must represent patient, persistent, and unselfish efforts for the +promotion everywhere of the basic virtues of true patriotism, +intelligence, integrity, and fidelity in citizenship relations. +Believing that this work could be best accomplished through a +permanent national institution which should invite and command the +coöperation of good citizens everywhere, regardless of party, creed, +sex, or class, he sought the advice and coöperation of a few +distinguished men in the preparation of plans for such an institution. +The assistance sought was willingly extended by such citizens as +Morrison R. Waite, William Strong, and S. F. Miller, then respectively +Chief Justice and Justices of the United States Supreme Court; by +Theodore Woolsey, Noah Porter, F. A. P. Barnard, Mark Hopkins, Julius +H. Seeley, and Theodore W. Dwight, among educators; and by such other +eminent Americans as U. S. Grant, William Fitzhugh Lee, Robert C. +Winthrop, Hugh McCulloch, John J. Knox, Orlando B. Potter, A. H. +Colquitt, George Bancroft, Hannibal Hamlin, John Jay, Right Reverend +William I. Kip, David Swing, and Phillips Brooks.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110">110</a></span></p> + +<p>The result of conferences and correspondence with these and other +citizens of like character led to the founding, in 1885, of the +American Institute of Civics, which was subsequently chartered under +the laws of Congress, and was dedicated to the service of promoting +the qualities in citizenship which Washington sought to promote by his +latest labors and final bequests, and which he, in common with +Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison, believed to be necessary “to the +security of a free constitution,” and to the welfare of the government +and people of the United States. Its distinctive purposes are +succinctly set forth in its charter as follows:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>1. To promote on the part of youths and adults generally, without +reference to the inculcation of special theories or partisan +views, a patient and conscientious study of the most essential +facts relating to affairs of government and citizenship, to the +end that every citizen may be qualified to act the part of an +intelligent and upright juror in all affairs submitted to the +decision of the ballot.</p> + +<p>2. To promote, in the same spirit, such special attention to the +study of Civics<a name="fn_marker_7" id="fn_marker_7"></a><a href="#fn_7" class="fn_marker">[7]</a> in higher institutions of learning, and +otherwise, as shall have a tendency to secure wise, impartial, +and patriotic action on the part of those who shall occupy +positions of trust and responsibility, as executive or +legislative officers, and as leaders of public opinion.</p></div> + +<p>Organized under such auspices and with such purposes it represents the +only practical and sustained effort which has been made by the people +of the United States for the realization of the aims above outlined; +and with persistency of purpose and increasing usefulness it has for +more than twelve years prosecuted its mission for the safeguarding of +American institutions.</p> + +<p>Political conditions past and present clearly justify the views of +Washington and his contemporaries, and the opinions of the Institute’s +founders, as to the need of a central source of salutary influences in +the form of a national institution wholly devoted to a propaganda of +the principles and ideas comprehensively described in Washington’s +words as “the fundamental maxims of true liberty.”</p> + +<p>The sole object of this national, non-partisan, non-sectarian, +popular, and permanent institution, is to voice these maxims, to +inspire the spirit and give force to the principles which should<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111">111</a></span> have +supreme control in affairs of government, citizenship, and social +order.</p> + +<p>What the national military establishments at West Point and Annapolis +are intended to accomplish in the way of preparing a few citizens for +useful service in times of war, it is the purpose of this popular +civil institution, with patriotic insistency and through all available +efficiencies, to aid in accomplishing through provisions for properly +preparing all citizens for the highest service of their country at all +times.</p> + +<p>In the accomplishment of its objects, it directs its endeavors not so +much to the creation of new agencies as to the giving of inspiration +and energy to those already existing; and in pursuing this wise policy +it has been a most useful factor in establishing the solidarity and +increasing the power of the influences which represent civic virtue +and true patriotism.</p> + +<p>Its efficiencies include, beside its National Board of Trustees, +composed of thirty-three members, and its advisory faculty, composed +of twelve members, the following departments:</p> + +<p>1. Department for the extension of information and activities +promotive of good citizenship, through which provisions are made for +home studies, and for lectures, discussions, studies, etc., in +connection with schools, lyceums, civic associations, labor +organizations, and institute clubs; this work being carried on with +the coöperation and under the supervision of councillors in the +communities where they reside, and with the aid of a corps of +lecturers now numbering more than two hundred.</p> + +<p>2. Department of Educational Institutions conducted in coöperation +with State and local officers of public instruction, teachers in +elementary and high schools, and members of faculties in nearly two +hundred and fifty higher institutions of learning.</p> + +<p>3. Publication Department, through which the equivalent of nearly +twenty million pages of octavo matter has been issued under its +auspices.</p> + +<p>4. Department of Legislation, in connection with which councillors and +citizens generally have efficiently aided in securing needed reforms +in the administration of public affairs, the protection and elevation +of the suffrage, and the conservation of the highest interests of +citizens and the state in other respects.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112">112</a></span></p> + +<p>5. Department of Applied Ethics, in connection with which efforts are +made to properly and efficiently enlist the great body of citizens, +including youths as well as adults, who profess to be governed by the +highest concepts of duty, in practical labors for the establishment of +wise, just, and salutary civic and social conditions.</p> + +<p>It is obvious that an institution of this character cannot depend for +its maintenance upon citizens of merely negative virtue, nor can it +expect the sympathy of scheming politicians to whose plans and power +it is in direct opposition. Its dependence must be solely upon the +willing services and financial support of those members of the body +politic who are animated by the spirit of Washington, and who believe +that in matters affecting the highest interests of our free +institutions, such as civic virtue and civic fidelity, formation is +better than re-formation, and that to constantly maintain salutary +political conditions is infinitely preferable to frequent and +disappointing struggles with corruptible elements, which through +neglect of civic duty have been permitted to secure controlling power; +in other words, that it is better to safely guard our inheritance of +freedom than to battle for its rescue from unworthy hands.</p> + +<p>The Institute admits to membership in its National Body of Councillors +all citizens who are commended to its Board of Trustees, by those +already members, or by other citizens of known high character, as +worthy of such membership by reason of their ability to contribute in +some degree to the accomplishment of its purposes. It does not solicit +the membership of citizens whose political affiliations are such as to +rank them among those who are contributing to the evils which it seeks +to correct. Its councillors are asked to share in an undertaking which +tests the character of their citizenship by offering no rewards for +their coöperation. It has employed no paid officers and no paid agents +for the solicitation of funds. The united activities of its members +have enabled it, and it is believed will continue to enable it, to +present in itself an eloquent object-lesson in patriotism and a potent +appeal to the spirit in citizenship—the true Americanism—which it +seeks to foster. Its contributing councillors are asked for annual +remittances of sums of from $2.00 upward, in accordance with their +financial ability<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" id="page113">113</a></span> and the degree of their interest in its work. Those +contributing $3.00 or more annually are entitled to receive all of its +own publications, and also <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>, whose aims are largely identical +with its own, and through which its official announcements will +hereafter be published.</p> + +<p>It will be seen that the degree of responsibility resting upon its +councillors financially and otherwise is a matter for their own +determination, and one which will be decided in accordance with the +disposition of each to recognize the truth, that the patriotic and +unselfish labors of those who have gone before us, and of which we +enjoy the priceless benefits, have laid upon us a sacred obligation +which we can discharge only by the performance of similar labors.</p> + +<p>The foregoing statements, however encouraging, are chiefly significant +as indicative of what may be, rather than of what has been, +accomplished. Gratifying as the results of the Institute’s work have +been, they represent but a tithe of what it might have accomplished +with a larger degree of moral and pecuniary support. The extent of its +field and the magnitude of the labors necessary in order to make it +widely and effectively useful, when compared with the resources at its +command, have constantly presented difficulties which would have +discouraged its officers but for their abiding confidence in the +ultimate willingness of the American people to give to it the measure +of support warranted by the importance of the objects to which it is +devoted. It has been not inaptly compared to a noble piece of +enginery, whose highest possibilities in the way of efficiency and +usefulness cannot be realized because the fuel furnished is +insufficient for the supply of motive power. Its highest possibilities +are, in truth, little more than dreams, the fulfilment of which may +not be realized in the lives of those who are now giving it such +unselfish service as they find possible in the midst of other pressing +occupations.</p> + +<p>The time must soon come when it will be necessary to make arrangements +for the permanent establishment of its central efficiencies, with +adequate provision for its maintenance, at some suitable point yet to +be selected. The suggestion has been made by some of the most +distinguished of its councillors, that the descendants of American +patriots cannot more worthily<span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id="page114">114</a></span> honor the memory of their sires, or +more effectively promote the safety and perpetuity of the institutions +for which they battled, than by making it their mission to maintain +the American Institute of Civics. The fact that it was conceived, +established, and has been conducted in the spirit of truest +patriotism, and the results which it has already accomplished through +services rendered wholly in the spirit of the words upon its corporate +seal, “Ducit Amor Patriæ,” would seem to prove its title to the +confidence and support of all who are proud of the fact that their +forbears have been among the founders and defenders of our American +institutions. It may not be a vain hope that this thought will, in +some manner and at some time, take definite shape, perhaps in the form +of a national memorial building at the capital, devoted to the +collection and preservation of material illustrative of the nation’s +history and progress, and to memorials of its illustrious dead. As has +been said elsewhere,</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>Such a building, dedicated by enfranchised manhood to the cause +of human freedom, may include a Hall of History and Civics, for +the collection of appropriate relics, manuscripts, and books of +colonial, continental, revolutionary, and subsequent periods; an +Army and Navy Hall, devoted to exhibits illustrative of military +and naval affairs, including battle-flags, arms, accoutrements, +and similar material; a Memorial Hall, where the memory of +illustrious Americans, statesmen, soldiers, philanthropists, and +other great leaders, may be honored, and their memory perpetuated +in statuary, paintings, mural tablets, and other appropriate +ways, and which shall be to the people of America what +Westminster Abbey is to the people of England—a place where the +great exemplars of virtue, wisdom, and patriotism, the noblest +citizens of the passing years, though dead, shall yet speak and +have salutary influence, through successive generations; and a +Hall of Instruction, which shall be the centre of the nation-wide +activities of this noble American institution, and also of a +school of civics to which American youth may come from every part +of the land to avail themselves of exceptional opportunities for +studies and investigations which shall qualify them for highest +usefulness in the public service and in all the walks of +citizenship.</p></div> + +<p>However this may be, the Institute, by its many years of patient, +persistent, and, in view of the circumstances, remarkably successful +activities, has established a claim upon the confidence and support of +good citizens which must in due time receive suitable recognition. +Further than this, these activities may be regarded as a necessary and +fitting preparation for labors which shall be more fruitful in +results, and in the hope of which those who have hitherto directed its +affairs have found inspiration and encouragement.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115">115</a></span></p> + +<p>It has been truly said that,</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>If any honor attaches to the citizenship in which intelligent, +loyal, and unselfish devotion to the highest interests of country +are made paramount, the names of those who have united in efforts +for the establishment of this Institute of Patriotism constitute +a roll of honor. Its ability to fully realize its objects is +dependent upon the number and the efforts of those whose names +are upon this roll.</p> + +<p>Here is an opportunity for, and an appeal to, citizens of wealth. +Money cannot be more worthily or wisely bestowed than in feeding +the streams in whose life-giving power is the strength of the +republic. Honorable names may find their noblest memorials by the +gifts and endowments which shall forever connect them with this +National School of Patriotism.</p></div> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116">116</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_13" id="article_13"></a> +AN INDUSTRIAL FABLE.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline">BY HAMILTON S. WICKS.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + + +<p><span class="sc">The</span> King of a certain country, whose power was absolute and whose will +was despotic, issued an edict that all the laborers of his dominion +who were engaged in honorable toil should exchange places with those +persons who did no work or were engaged in dishonorable or merely +speculative avocations, so that the laboring man should fare +sumptuously and the non-laborer poorly. Those who worked up in the +sunlight on the tall buildings should sit down in the evening to +bountiful banquets and should sleep in fine linen on luxurious +couches; while those who crawled below in the bleak valleys between +the beetling cliffs of architecture should go to frugal meals and +sleep amid the rough surroundings of the abodes of the poor. The +monarch reasoned that those who did the world’s work were more +deserving of the good things of the world than were the idle or the +vicious, however wealthy. He imagined that the world was turned upside +down socially and economically, and he proposed to turn it back again +by his royal fiat.</p> + +<p>Backed by his sword, “which is the badge of temporal power wherein +doth sit the dread and fear of kings,” he apprehended no failure in +his plans, which had been worked out in their minutest detail. His +army was the largest of any nation, and was to a man devoted to its +King. His genius had won many victories and extended the borders of +glory. Through his impartial system of promotion men from the ranks +had risen to be commanders. The soldiery were well fed, well housed, +and well paid. A word, a nod, from their King would set in motion this +mighty machine to crush out all opposition. Supplementing the military +arm of his government the King had organized the most elaborate system +of <i>espionage</i>, so that all secrets were open to him, and no +whisperings in the street or the club but were conveyed distinctly to +his royal ear by the microphone of his spy system. The press was +gagged or inspired; the legislature was composed of fawning +sycophants; his judiciary was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id="page117">117</a></span> merely a reflection of the royal will; +and Holy Church itself displayed its purple robe and golden bowl but +to ornament his processions or to hallow his feasts.</p> + +<p>Thus matters stood on the evening of the day this great social +revolution was inaugurated. It fell out that a group of honest +laborers were descending the elevator that carried the brick and +mortar to the twentieth story of a certain downtown sky-scraper. While +all of them knew of the edict of their King, none had taken it +seriously or imagined for a moment that it would be carried into +effect literally. On their arrival at the ground floor, a policeman +stationed there stopped them and, motioning to an elegant equipage +standing across the way, informed them that it was the King’s command +that they should enter it and be driven to one of the avenue clubs +which had been assigned for their accommodation. Into it they were +thrust, dinner-pails and all. They had scarcely time to recover their +equanimity, as they were rapidly whirled through one thoroughfare +after another, till the avenue in question was reached and they were +deposited in front of a stately brownstone mansion. Their coming had +been expected, and the great doors swung open as they alighted, whilst +a uniformed lackey motioned them to enter. Their astonishment was +redoubled at the splendor of the interior furnishings. Each was +assigned a room, where they were bathed and groomed and dressed in +garments suitable for their surroundings. Dinner was served by the +time they were ready, and into the glittering <i>salle à manger</i> they +were duly ushered. A fashionable <i>table d’hôte</i> was a new sensation to +every man of them, and they certainly astonished the <i>table d’hôte</i>. +It (the <i>table d’hôte</i>) never realized before what it was to be fully +appreciated. An evening of cigars, wine, and billiards followed; and +then they stretched their tough and sinewy workmen’s legs between the +whitest of silken sheets, spread over the springiest of hair +mattresses, on the brightest of brass bedsteads. There we leave them +to such dreams as their surroundings invited, to turn our attention to +four bachelor brokers on the stock exchange, whose apartments at the +club our bachelor workingmen were inhabiting.</p> + +<p>With as little thought of the reality of the great King’s edict as the +workingmen themselves, they were sauntering forth from<span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id="page118">118</a></span> the exchange +at the hour of 3 <span class="smcap">p. m.</span>, when they were pounced upon by a quarter score +of stalwart policemen and landed inside a rough luggage conveyance. +Baxter Street was a Garden of Eden compared to the slums to which they +were driven, and they were finally sheltered in a dirty tenement that +arose in a series of rickety stories to a dizzy height. Their +fastidious taste would not permit them to indulge in sleep amid such +commonplace surroundings, where the only furniture of their room +consisted of two dirty beds and a filthy sink. So they sat up all +night smoking the cigars they happened to have in their clothes when +captured, and muttering deep curses against their eccentric ruler.</p> + +<p>The following morning the awakening of the laborers resembled that of +Christopher Sly in “The Taming of the Shrew.” They were bewildered +with astonishment at the appointments of their surroundings and the +service of their attendants. A champagne headache was a natural +accompaniment to the previous night’s drinking and gorging; so that +fashionable “coffee and rolls,” though served in the most delicate of +faïence, seemed but meagre fare upon which to commence the arduous +labors of the day. At precisely 5:30 <span class="smcap">a. m.</span> the same carriage they had +occupied the previous evening, with its crested panels, its liveried +coachman, and its spanking span of bays, was at the door to convey +them back to work.</p> + +<p>The same routine was substantially carried into effect each day, a +natural consequence of which was that they became weary of their +enforced luxury, and their hearts yearned for the humble living of +their tenement, with its rough and hearty jollity, and its freedom +from constraint and the supervision of lackeys, however well dressed +or polite. In the case of the fastidious brokers kept under +surveillance, tired nature at last, reluctant, yielded. There came a +day, or rather a night, when even they were able to sleep—an uneasy, +troubled sleep, it is true—amid the mean surroundings of the +tenement.</p> + +<p>The determined will of the monarch so ordered affairs that the +conditions under his edict were kept in force for many days. He +proposed to give a thorough test to his quixotic ideas. The portion of +the workmen was hard manual labor by day in the upper regions of air +and light, and by night the relaxation of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" id="page119">119</a></span> enervating luxury; and the +portion of the brokers was deep dejection, deep curses, and haggard +sleeplessness.</p> + +<p>The culmination of this condition of unrest occurred at a great ball +which another royal edict had blazoned forth to be given as a tribute +to the laboring masses, and at which the non-producers would be +compelled to assist, not indeed as menials, but as experienced +advisers. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars at least would be +expended on the pomp and glory of the occasion. The sage counsellors +of state, men deeply versed in the lore of the past, were called +together to devise costumes for the crude working people and to frame +rules of etiquette for their behavior. The most elaborate descriptions +appeared in the daily press of what was proposed. For weeks the vast +preparations went steadily forward. Everything of luxury and ornament +that the commerce of the empire sucked up from the farthest confines +of the earth was made to minister to the great event.</p> + +<p>At last the auspicious day arrived. One of the grandest palaces of the +King himself was the scene of the festivity. The costumes worn +represented many of the great names of history, from Julius Cæsar to +Napoleon Bonaparte, and from Cleopatra to Marie Antoinette. The height +of the great occasion was reached somewhat after midnight when the +<i>quadrille d’honneur</i> was announced. The great King sat upon a raised +dais, or throne, the better to view the gorgeous pageant. A mighty +fanfare of trumpets, which seemed to whirl the feelings for a moment +into the forces beyond mortality, invited to the initial movements of +the quadrille. It was as though an army with banners was about to +launch its squadrons upon the foe in some majestic Friedland or +Gettysburg. As the sound died away, there was a pause. The great King +looked up in amazement, and stamping that foot whose heel had rested +upon the necks of mighty potentates, now his willing vassals, he arose +with frown black as midnight.</p> + +<p>Suffer me, O reader, to recall the elements of this unparalleled +occasion: On the one hand, almost omnipotent power, backed by +transcendent though wayward genius, a will that hitherto had never +been balked, an unsullied prestige, a front of Jove to threaten and +command, upon which great thought registered<span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" id="page120">120</a></span> every varying +expression, one of the least of which would have endowed an ordinary +prince with lasting renown. On the other hand, “fantastic compliment +strutting up and down tricked in outlandish feather.” A motion from +the hand of majesty, now fully erect, sent another mighty wave of +martial music flying on invisible wings, in thousand forms, throughout +every corridor. As this second summons for the masterpiece to be set +in motion died away in turn, two bands of men detached themselves from +the distant throng massed in the farthest background, and came slowly +forward with bowed heads and deferential tread. At the same instant a +hundred brilliant officers of the household stepped out of the +corridors behind the King with drawn swords, and other hundreds +crowded behind them prepared to do their master’s instant service.</p> + +<p>The Great Strategist comprehended the situation with a single sweeping +glance of his eagle eye, and drawing himself up full height motioned +his servitors with his left hand back into their concealment, while +with his extended right hand he encouraged with benignant gesture the +approach of the representatives of the people, who had shrunk back in +dismay when the King’s guard sprang forth so abruptly. It was now seen +that the approaching bands were composed in equal parts of the gaudily +caparisoned workmen and their plainly dressed advisers. Each party +bore in its midst an enormous roll, whose weight impeded anything like +rapid progress. On arriving at the front of the throne, they deposited +their burdens and then prostrated themselves before the King. When +bidden to arise and state their purpose, a stalwart son of toil +stepped forward in front of his comrades. He was attired in a $10,000 +costume, representing Henry of Navarre. This costume sat upon his +rugged limbs as though they had been melted into it. The King gazed +complacently upon his manufactured nobleman and bade him proceed.</p> + +<p>“August and Sovereign King!” thus began the blacksmith, for such he +was when not intoxicated or attending a costume ball—“August and +Sovereign King, I have been pushed forward by my fellows who have +joined in this petition, with a vast multitude of their co-workers, +similarly gorged with hateful luxury. They ask me to state plainly to +your Majesty that they now know from actual experience how hollow and +worthless<span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" id="page121">121</a></span> are all the glories of the merely rich, whose time is +devoted to vain shows and in devising new delicacies for the palate. +They beseech your Majesty that you, in accordance with your gracious +pleasure, should restore them to their simple and humble paths of +life, wherein they will dwell in reasonable contentment hereafter.”</p> + +<p>The workman ceased, and the spokesman for wealth and idleness stepped +forward and pleaded his case very eloquently. He showed, in the +petition which many thousands of his class had signed, that through +their recent experience they all had been made to feel the weight of +life as it rests upon those under them. He averred that he and his +fellows were heartily sick of their lives thus ordered, and that they +petitioned the King to send them beyond his confines, or place them in +his army, or, better still, allow them to seek honorable employment in +vocations more in accord with their taste and inclination.</p> + +<p>The King, esteeming that he had sufficiently disciplined the wealthy +and had measurably cast out the “daimon of unrest” from the mind of +labor, while at the same time he had given a notable illustration to +all his people of the folly of outrunning too far the sentiments of +your age, and the arrant rot of placing edicts upon the statute books +that at once become a dead letter unless backed by despotic force, and +feeling the security of his position, stood before his petitioners, +lightly leaning on his left foot, with his right hand in the breast of +his coat, and thus addressed them:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>“My people, the results flowing from my edict are not otherwise +than I fully believed would result; I am satisfied at the real +good that has been accomplished. Many there are who would like to +see human nature changed by an equally absurd upheaval of the +social fabric, which would instantly place the limbs of labor +between cambric sheets and line their stomachs with sweetmeats. +The truly wise base their expectations for the race upon no such +sudden revolution, but rather see salvation for their fellows in +a gradual and natural betterment of conditions, a growth upwards +that can be maintained through all the spasms of reform, a +lifting of the whole fabric of society by the great forces of +education, faith, and persistency, which are and have ever been +the architects of the race.”</p></div> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id="page122">122</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_14" id="article_14"></a> +PLAZA OF THE POETS.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline"><big>REPLY TO “LOCKSLEY HALL SIXTY YEARS AFTER.”</big><br /> +BY BARTON LOMAX PITTMAN.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + +<div class="small"> +<div class="poem10"><div class="stanza"> +<p>Nay, my grandsire, though you leave me latest lord of Locksley Hall,</p> +<p>Speak of Amy’s heavenly graces and the frailty of her fall,</p> +<p>Point me to the shield of Locksley, hanging in this mansion lone,</p> +<p>I must turn from such sad splendor ere my heart be changed to stone.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>While you prate of pride ancestral and the dead dreams of your youth,</p> +<p>I, despite my birth and lineage, am a battler for the truth.</p> +<p>To the work-worn, half-starved peasants of this realm my heart goes out—</p> +<p>Those who, plundered and forgotten, find this life a ruthless rout.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>In the rustling robes of Amy bloomed the roses that had fled</p> +<p>From the cheeks of pauper maidens forced into the brothel-bed;</p> +<p>In her saintly smiles and glances flashed the sunlight that was shut</p> +<p>By the iron-hand injustice from the cotter’s humble hut.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Nay, ‘tis wrong that we should range with science glorying in the time,</p> +<p>While we force our brother mortals into squalor, need, and crime;</p> +<p>Wicked we should pose as Christians singing songs to God on high,</p> +<p>Heedless of his tortured creatures who in pauper prisons lie.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Christless is the crime of turning creed-stopped ears to teardrops shed</p> +<p>By the women whom oppression robs of virtue for their bread.</p> +<p>Satan’s blush would mantle crimson could he see the stunted child</p> +<p>Slaving in our marts and markets, helpless, hopeless, and reviled—</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>See its pallid face uplifted from the whirling factory wheels,</p> +<p>Tear-stained with the grief and anguish of a baby brain that reels,</p> +<p>Tortured in life’s budding springtime, toiling on with stifled cries,</p> +<p>Seeing, through its tears refracted, rippling cascades, azure skies;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" id="page123">123</a></span></p> +<p>Skies and birds and flowery meadows made for children wealthy-born,</p> +<p>While God’s outcasts, with their parents, robbed and drudging, live forlorn,</p> +<p>Men in whom the fires of hope have sunk into a sordid spark,</p> +<p>Mothers rearing helpless infants for the brothel’s dawnless dark.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>While this world seems far too crowded to provide us work for all,</p> +<p>Acres spread their untilled bosoms, while the nations rise and fall.</p> +<p>Nature’s storehouse, made for all men, is monopolized by some,</p> +<p>Robbing labor of its produce, making almshouse, jail, and slum.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Side by side with art and progress creeps the haggard spectre, Want—</p> +<p>Creeps the frightful phantom, Hunger, with its bloodless body gaunt.</p> +<p>Wider, wider spreads the chasm ‘twixt the wealthy and the poor,</p> +<p>Social discontent declaring that such wrongs cannot endure.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>And this yawning of the chasm is the curse of every race,</p> +<p>As it saps and kills its manhood ere it reach the zenith-place;</p> +<p>Spartan valor, Grecian learning, Roman honor had their day,</p> +<p>But land plunder rose among them, dooming death by slow decay.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Shall we wait for evolution, let it right these monstrous wrongs,</p> +<p>While the helpless, young, and tender writhe and groan ‘neath social thongs?</p> +<p>Nay, ‘tis better all should perish in a battle for the right,</p> +<p>Than let philosophic cowards keep us in this stygian night.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Locksley Hall has now a master who would claim the earth for all,</p> +<p>Who would make the titled idler cease to rob his tenant-thrall;</p> +<p>Wreck the Church and State if need be (better such in time will rise),</p> +<p>But who from this glorious purpose nevermore will turn his eyes—</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Never, till the arms of nature clasp in joy her outcast child,</p> +<p>Long since driven from the meadow and the dell and woodland wild,</p> +<p>Till to each belongs the produce of his hand and heart and brain,</p> +<p>And glad heralds of millennium thrill along our path of pain.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Though the world has piled its fagots round the great and good and brave;</p> +<p>Thrust its Socrates the hemlock, scourged its Jesus to the grave;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id="page124">124</a></span></p> +<p>Though its sneer has chilled the tender, and its frown has cursed the good,</p> +<p>While its Nero sways the sceptre and its Emmett dies in blood;</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Yet in Truth there is a power that through ceaseless cycles slow</p> +<p>Will inscribe the doom of Error in an ever-fadeless glow,</p> +<p>That will trample on oppression, burst the chains and crush the throne,</p> +<p>Rearing on the blood and ruin justice-reign from zone to zone.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Idealistic dreamer, say you? In your youth you once felt so?</p> +<p>Well, I only pray life’s sunset, bowing down my head with snow,</p> +<p>Shall not swerve me from my purpose, though the victor-laurels twine</p> +<p>In my reach, and if forsaking my convictions they are mine.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Do not so condemn the realists, rhymesters, authors, and their way,</p> +<p>Just because they point about us to the errors of to-day;</p> +<p>Spare them, though they gaze not upward from our self-wrought piteous plight,</p> +<p>For, though blinded and despairing, they are struggling toward the light.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Let the realist dip his falcon in the boiling blood of life,</p> +<p>Tracing in heartrending horror all the hoary wrongs and strife,</p> +<p>Till the world shall sick and sadden of its folly and its sin,</p> +<p>Hearkening through the roar of traffic to the still small voice within—</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Voice which murmurs Christ’s own message as we circle round the sun:</p> +<p>That, though greed and creed divide us, still humanity is one—</p> +<p>One in all its godlike longing, one in all its hopes and fears,</p> +<p>With its calvaries, scaffolds, hemlocks, and its seas of unshed tears.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Then this star of sorrow swinging through the vast immortal void</p> +<p>Shall, regenerated, slumber while man’s heart is overjoyed,</p> +<p>Thrilled with yearnings altruistic, triumphing o’er clods of clay,</p> +<p>As we march into the love-light of the grand Millennial day.</p> +</div></div> +</div> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id="page125">125</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_15" id="article_15"></a> +JOHN BROWN.</h2> + +<p class="author_byline">BY COATES KINNEY.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>The Great Republic bred her free-born sons</p> +<p class="i2">To smother conscience in the coward’s hush,</p> +<p>And had to have a freedom-champion’s</p> +<p class="i2">Blood sprinkled in her face to make her blush.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>One Will became a passion to avenge</p> +<p class="i2">Her shame—a fury consecrate and weird,</p> +<p>As if the old religion of Stonehenge</p> +<p class="i2">Amid our weakling worships reappeared.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>It was a drawn sword of Jehovah’s wrath,</p> +<p class="i2">Two-edged and flaming, waved back to a host</p> +<p>Of mighty shadows gathering on its path,</p> +<p class="i2">Soon to emerge as soldiers, when the ghost</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Of John Brown should the lines of battle form.</p> +<p class="i2">When John Brown crossed the Nation’s Rubicon,</p> +<p>Him Freedom followed in the battle-storm,</p> +<p class="i2">And John Brown’s soul in song went marching on.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Though John Brown’s body lay beneath the sod,</p> +<p class="i2">His soul released the winds and loosed the flood:</p> +<p>The Nation wrought his will as hest of God,</p> +<p class="i2">And her bloodguiltiness atoned with blood.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>The world may censure and the world regret:</p> +<p class="i2">The present wrath becomes the future ruth;</p> +<p>For stern old History does not forget</p> +<p class="i2">The man who flings his life away for truth.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>In the far time to come, when it shall irk</p> +<p class="i2">The schoolboy to recite our Presidents’</p> +<p>Dull line of memorabilia, John Brown’s work</p> +<p class="i2">Shall thrill him through from all the elements.</p> +</div></div> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id="page126">126</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_16" id="article_16"></a> +DEMOS.</h2> + +<p class="author_byline">BY W. H. VENABLE, LL. D.</p> +<hr class="short" /> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>America, my own!</p> +<p class="i2">Thy spacious grandeurs rise</p> +<p>Faming the proudest zone</p> +<p class="i2">Pavilioned by the skies;</p> +<p>Day’s flying glory breaks</p> +<p class="i2">Thy vales and mountains o’er,</p> +<p>And gilds thy streams and lakes</p> +<p class="i2">From ocean shore to shore.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Praised be thy wood and wold,</p> +<p class="i2">Thy corn and wine and flocks,</p> +<p>The yellow blood of gold</p> +<p class="i2">Drained from thy cañon rocks;</p> +<p>Thy trains that shake the land,</p> +<p class="i2">Thy ships that plough the main!</p> +<p>Triumphant cities grand</p> +<p class="i2">Roaring with noise of gain!</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Yet not the things of sense,</p> +<p class="i2">By nature wrought, or art,</p> +<p>Prove soul’s preëminence,</p> +<p class="i2">Or swell the patriot heart;</p> +<p>Our country we revere</p> +<p class="i2">For that from sea to sea</p> +<p>Her vast-domed atmosphere</p> +<p class="i2">Is life-breath of the free.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Brown Labor, gazing up,</p> +<p class="i2">Takes hope, and Hunger stands</p> +<p>Holding her empty cup</p> +<p class="i2">In pale, expectant hands.</p> +<p>Brave young Ambition waits</p> +<p class="i2">Thy just law’s clarion call,</p> +<p>That power unbar the gates</p> +<p class="i2">Of privilege to all.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id="page127">127</a></span></p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Trade’s fickle signets coined</p> +<p class="i2">From Mammon’s molten dust,</p> +<p>With reverence conjoined,</p> +<p class="i2">Proclaim “In God we trust.”</p> +<p>Nor doth the legend lie:</p> +<p class="i2">The People, patient, bide,</p> +<p>Trusting the Lord on high,</p> +<p class="i2">To thunder on their side.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Earth’s races look to thee;</p> +<p class="i2">The peoples of the world</p> +<p>Thy risen splendors see,</p> +<p class="i2">And thy wide flag unfurled;</p> +<p>Kelt, Slav, and Hun behold</p> +<p class="i2">That banner from afar,</p> +<p>They bless each streaming fold,</p> +<p class="i2">And cheer its every star.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>For liberty is sweet</p> +<p class="i2">To every folk and age,—</p> +<p>Armenia, Cuba, Crete,—</p> +<p class="i2">Despite war’s heathen rage,</p> +<p>Or scheming diplomat</p> +<p class="i2">Whose words of peace enslave.</p> +<p>Columbia! Democrat</p> +<p class="i2">Of Nations! speak and save!</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>As mightful Moses led</p> +<p class="i2">To Canaan’s promised land;</p> +<p>As Christ victorious bled,</p> +<p class="i2">Obeying Love’s command;</p> +<p>So thou, Right’s champion,</p> +<p class="i2">God’s chosen leader strong,</p> +<p>Gird up thy loins! march on!</p> +<p class="i2">Defend mankind from Wrong.</p> +</div></div> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" id="page128">128</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_17" id="article_17"></a> +THE EDITOR’S EVENING.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> +<p class="author_byline"><b>Leaf From My Samoan Notebook.</b><br /> +(A. D. 2297.)</p> + + +<p><span class="sc">In</span> that age (<i>siècle</i> XIX, <i>ad finem</i>) great attention was given on +the continent of Am-ri-ka to increased speed in locomotion. Men and +women went darting about like the big yellow gnats that we see at +sundown on the western coast of our island when the bay is hazy. The +whole history of that century in both Am-ri-ka and Yoo-rup might well +be written around the fact of <i>transit</i>, for transit was the spinal +cord of the whole social, civil, and political order. Man-life then +seemed to oscillate more rapidly than ever before, as if in sympathy +with the vibration of the universal ether.</p> + +<p>The struggle for the increase of speed began in the early part of the +century referred to—about 1822. Scarcely had the wars of Na-Bu-Leon +subsided when the matter of getting over the earth’s surface at a +greater velocity was taken up as eagerly as if life consisted in going +quickly to a certain point. Men, it would appear, had not yet learned +that the principal aim of this existence is the <i>going</i>, and not the +<i>getting there</i>. Then it was that the steam En-jo-in was invented. The +Bah-lune had been frequently tried, but always with ludicrous or fatal +results. A young man by the name of Dee Green once essayed this method +in Am-ri-ka, with a most ridiculous catastrophe. A poem was written +about the affair beginning thus—</p> + +<p class="center"> +An aspiring genius was Dee Green.</p> + +<p>For more than half a century locomotion by steam prevailed in +Am-ri-ka, though it did not satisfy the demand for swiftness. When +this method no longer sufficed, several expedients were found to +<i>avoid</i> going anywhere. It was observed that the necessity of going +depended upon the limitation of the human voice; that is, of hearing +vocal utterances. The voices of human beings could not then be heard +beyond a certain limit. To hear the voice of a man from Am-ri-ka to +Ing-land was then thought to be impossible. The possessors of voices, +therefore,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id="page129">129</a></span> had in that age to <i>get together</i> before they could +communicate. True, there were some men upon whom this necessity did +not rest, for they could be heard at a great distance. It might be +noted, however, that this kind, called <i>Homo politicus</i>, had so little +sense that nobody cared to hear them, so that their success in +vociferation amounted to nothing.</p> + +<p>All the people of Am-ri-ka who were civilized spoke in a low tone, and +any who cared to communicate must seek each other’s presence. This had +been the reason for the old invention of E-pistol-ary correspondence. +This method, however, was not satisfactory, since it required much +time to say only a little, and since what was said in this manner was +found so wide of the mark as to produce disastrous results. Society +was, on this account, frequently rent with lawsuits, having no better +foundation than a bundle of Let-yers.</p> + +<p>To avoid this trouble another invention, called the Far-talker (or +Tel-ef-oan), was made; and by means of this conceit the people of +Am-ri-ka could speak to one another many miles apart. The Far-talker +was a remarkable sort of invention by which one merchant, by +stretching a copper thread across the country to the ear of another +merchant, could talk to him <i>through the wire</i>. The other merchant +could reverse and talk back! Sometimes a young woman would tiptoe up +to the box where the wire ended and say the most absurd things to her +favorite fop down-town; this was often overheard. People had not yet +learned the method of understanding each other’s thoughts without the +ridiculous contrivance of speech, written scratches, wires, and +Fo-ny-grafs.</p> + +<p>It was at this time that men, in their effort to carry themselves from +place to place, seem to have taken the first hints from nature. It was +remembered that <i>between</i> swimming and flying, and <i>between</i> flying +and walking, certain forms of locomotion, quite rapid withal, are used +by our poor relatives on land and sea. Thus the flying-fish rises from +the water and shoots, quite parabolically, for some distance through +the air. The genus Cheiroptera also gives a hint of progress by means +of wings that are not made of feathers. The flying lemur, nearly akin +to <i>Homo bifurcans</i>, shows how one may rise and go by a sort of aërial +progress along the ground.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page130" id="page130">130</a></span></p> + +<p>Out of these hints the men of Am-ri-ka, at the epoch of which we +speak, sought inventions by means of which they might keep close to +the ground for safety, but otherwise fly; for the age was very fast! +Under these conditions some Unknown Man invented what was called the +By-sigh-kel. It was a sort of flat-sided, rotary ground-skimmer, very +thin and notorious. It came coincidently with another invention called +the Trol-lee. The latter was an electrical wagon for general travel in +cities and suburbs, while the By-sigh-kel was a personal carriage for +one or possibly two. The passenger in this case had to start his +machine and then jump on. The propulsion was effected by a pump-like +action of the legs, very tiresome and elegant. The passenger generally +leaned forward in a position strongly suggestive of the favorite +attitude of his arboreal ancestors. It was the peculiarity of the +Trol-lee that it made a sort of humming roar as it went that sounded +like a hundred prisoners groaning in unison; but the By-sigh-kel made +no noise in going except in collisions and wrecks. The latter were so +frequent that a whole cycle of restorative arts had to be undertaken +of which the principal was dentistry. At the close of the century +there were few front teeth remaining—except artificials.</p> + +<p>Many accounts of the Age of the By-sigh-kel and Trol-lee have been +preserved among the old records of Am-ri-ka, and traditions of it are +found in the antiquarian papers of other countries. We have seen +pictorial representations made by Fo-to-graf-ure of scenes from the +age referred to. The streets of extinct cities are found pictured in +this way. There was an instrument called the Cow-dack which was used +in taking pictures in an instantaneous manner, so that the scene would +look like life.</p> + +<p>A busy street, thus pictured, in that time, shows many Trol-lees +rushing by, filled with merry people. Along the side-ways scores of +passengers are seen, mounted on their ‘Sigh-kels, going in divers +directions at full speed. The passengers present many aspects; for +riding the ‘Sigh-kel was an art which had to be acquired; and by some +this could not be done—at least not gracefully done. Many tried, but +few were chosen. Two classes of people suffered much in this +particular, namely, the very fat and the very bony. Those whom nature +had favored in form<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id="page131">131</a></span> and feature, and who had acquired the art of +sitting upright, look well enough in these old pictures of a past age. +But the clumsy and obese, the slender and angular people may well be +laughed at even through the shadowy retrospect of four centuries.</p> + +<p>One of the ‘Sigh-kel machines was made <i>double</i>; and an old cartoon +which is now before me gives to this kind the name of Tan-doom. On +this men and women frequently rode together, the woman going before, +for that was the age in which the woman, becoming new, showed her +newness by being forward.</p> + +<p>Nor may we leave these reminiscences of a bygone age without +reflecting upon the absurdities of our ancestors, who had not yet +imagined the ease and excellence of our own method of locomotion by +skimming at will the surface of the earth. The facile beauty and +natural art with which we now rise from the ground and propel +ourselves by our own thought and wish to any distance—thus +vindicating our superiority to all other creatures in our method of +excursion—are facts so obvious and ever-present that we fail to +reflect upon the impediments and hardships of the people of Am-ri-ka +and indeed of the whole world in the nineteenth century….</p> + +<p>Thinking on these things I can but imagine that I have myself seen +them in some previous epoch of my existence. The facts which I have +recorded appear dimly, as if in memory of what I once beheld; but the +vision of it is so obscure that I still doubt whether it be dream or +reality. I have long imagined that we retain from one epoch of our +existence to the next a vague recollection of our experiences in the +remote ages of the past. I sometimes think that it is not impossible +that I myself, in some forgotten avatar, used to sit alone at the +window of my office, looking into the street of one of the old towns +of Am-ri-ka where the Trol-lees were going one way and the +By-sigh-kels the other way, crossing and darting hither and yon, +according to the wills of the riders; but the vision is so dim that it +looks like the fictions of sleep.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="heading">Vita Longa.</p> + +<p>The question is not how long this bodily life may last, or how long +the mind, so conditioned, can endure. It is not even<span class="pagenum"><a name="page132" id="page132">132</a></span> how long the +mind may continue to produce; for the mind, like a poor, +half-exhausted field, urged with rain and fertilizers, may produce +only potatoes, mullen, and cockle. The real question—the deep-down +essence of it—is how long the mind, or soul, may retain the +enthusiasm and passionate power of <i>creation</i>. That is the only true +test of longevity; and when that ceases there is nothing left. The +real duration of man-life is measured only by the persistency of +creative power.</p> + +<p>Longfellow, standing in the old pulpit, on the fiftieth anniversary of +his class at Bowdoin, and saying to those who would introduce him, “I +wish the desk were large enough to conceal me all,” makes a beautiful +section of this theme by citing some of the most inspiring instances +of the long life of the soul:</p> + +<div class="small"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles</p> +<p>Wrote his grand Œdipus, and Simonides</p> +<p>Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers,</p> +<p>When each had numbered more than fourscore years;</p> +<p>And Theophrastus at fourscore and ten</p> +<p>Had but begun his “Characters of Men;”</p> +<p>Chaucer at Woodstock with his nightingales,</p> +<p>At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;</p> +<p>Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,</p> +<p>Completed Faust when eighty years were past:</p> +<p>These are indeed exceptions; but they show</p> +<p>How far the Gulf Stream of our youth may flow</p> +<p>Into the arctic regions of our lives,</p> +<p>Where little else than life itself survives.</p> +</div></div> +</div> + +<p>Measured by this test of creative power and its persistency, how +variable is the duration of human life! Sometimes the creative power +appears in early youth; but when that happens there is generally an +early surcease. Sometimes the power comes late and remains long. +Sometimes it flashes forth in the early morning and remains in the +after twilight. Estimated by years this productive power (which goes +by the name of genius) sometimes reaches only to a few score moons. +Sometimes it reaches to a score of years. Sometimes, though rarely, it +extends to three-score years or more.</p> + +<p>Thomas Chatterton went to a suicide’s grave in Potter’s Field when he +was only seventeen years, nine months, and four days of age. I know of +no other case of so great precocity; it is beyond belief. His mind had +been productive for about three years. Byron’s productive period +covered sixteen<span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133">133</a></span> years—no more. Pope began at twelve and ended at +fifty-six.</p> + +<p>In our own age, Tennyson has done well. Making an early effort to +begin, he, like Dryden, did not really reach the creative epoch until +he was fully thirty. His creative period covers about fifty-nine +years. It extends from “A Dream of Fair Women,” in 1833, to “Crossing +the Bar,” in 1892.</p> + +<p>The best example, however, in the history of the human mind, is that +of William Cullen Bryant; that is, Bryant has real creations that lie +further apart in time than can be paralleled, so far as I know, in the +case of any other of the sons of men. The date of “Thanatopsis” is not +precisely known. It belongs, however, to the years 1812-13. Bryant was +then eighteen—in his nineteenth year. Add to 1812 sixty-four years +and we have 1876, the date of the publication of the “Flood of Years.” +The two poems in question lie apart in production by the space of +fully three-score and four years. It is a marvel! And why not?</p> + +<div class="small"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>To him who in the love of nature holds</p> +<p>Communion with her visible forms,</p> +</div></div> +</div> + +<p>why should not life, productive life, enthusiastic fruitful life, be +extended until its last acts of creation, shot through with the +sunshine of experience and wisdom, shall flash in great bars of haze +and glory over the landscape of the twilight days?</p> + + +<p class="heading">Kaboto.</p> + +<div class="small"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>Old John à Venice in his cockleshell</p> +<p class="i2">Breasted the salt sea like an Englishman!</p> +<p class="i2">He saw the bleak coast of the Tartar Khan</p> +<p>To left-hand in the distance. “All is well!”</p> +<p>He cried to Labrador. The roaring swell</p> +<p class="i2">Bore him to shore, whereon his hands upran</p> +<p class="i2">The Lion flag and flag republican</p> +<p>Of the old Doges’ wave-girt citadel.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Dominion and Democracy are ours!</p> +<p class="i2">From the first day unto the last we hold</p> +<p class="i4">To Liberty and Empire! We shall be,</p> +<p>Under the Star-flag, for eternal hours,</p> +<p class="i2">Even as Cabot’s two flags first foretold,</p> +<p class="i4">Both free and strong from mountain crag to sea!</p> +</div></div> +</div> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page134" id="page134">134</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_18" id="article_18"></a> +A STROKE FOR THE PEOPLE.</h2> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p><span class="sc">Here</span> is a message for all: <span class="smcap">From and after the issuance of the number +for July the regular subscription price of The Arena, the Magazine Of +the People, will be reduced to</span> $2.50 A YEAR. The reasons for this +reduction are not far to seek. The stringency of the times, the +hardships of the people,—their lack of money, the decline in the +prices of their products, the relentless grip of the mortgages on +their homes,—and the absence of any symptom of present relief from a +Government under the domination and dictation of the money power, have +induced the managers of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> to bear their part of the common +burden and distress, and to express in a practical way their +sympathies with the masses by reducing the price of the magazine to +the lowest possible figure consistent with its maintenance at the +present standard of efficiency and excellence.</p> + +<p>One of the immediate causes and suggestions of this course will be +found in the following private letter written to <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> by a plain +Kansas farmer. We have obtained his permission to use his letter as an +appeal to the public:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p class="right"> +“<span class="smcap">Sylvan Grove, Kansas</span>, May 22, 1897.</p> +<p>“<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>.</p> + +<p>“<span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>: I enclose my subscription for <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> for the +current year. The only reason for my tardiness in doing this is +pinching, grinding poverty. If we farmers do not assist the <span class="smcap">Old +Arena</span>, so loyal to our interests, we shall deserve the fate many +of us have already accepted; that is, the doom of serfdom under +the club of plutocracy.</p> + +<p>“We, at <i>our</i> home, are straining every nerve and denying +ourselves of almost the comforts of life for the purpose of +meeting our mortgage that falls due on the first of July. Our +farmers here in the West are divided into four classes:</p> + +<p>“<i>First.</i> Those who have failed to meet even the interest on +loans, who have been closed out, and are now renters, often, of +the very farms which they once fondly hoped to make their own.</p> + +<p>“<i>Second.</i> Those who are still paying interest or keeping the +companies at bay in the courts until one more crop may ripen, but +without any well-founded hope of saving their homes.</p> + +<p>“<i>Third.</i> Those who are skimping, pinching, almost starving to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" id="page135">135</a></span> +pay their mortgages. I belong to this class. I still struggle +with the incubus.</p> + +<p>“<i>Fourth.</i> A very few who wisely have never encumbered their +homes. I have given the classes in the order of their numerical +importance.</p> + +<p>“I live in the beautiful little West Twin Creek valley about +seven miles in length. There are but two pieces of unencumbered +property in the valley; one belonging to a poor widow, and the +other to a bank president. Thirty-five per cent of the farms have +already passed into the hands of mortgagees; many of the +remainder have changed hands, shifted under renewals and various +expedients to avoid the ruination of closing out. This is more +than an average well-to-do community, selected from this or any +other central county of Kansas. We are realizing to the full that +‘Beneficent Effect of Falling Prices’ which was so ably set forth +(from his standpoint) by Dean Gordon in <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> for March. If +all people were out of debt, falling prices might not work so +great injustice. But when a vast majority of the people are in +debt, and heavily in debt, and when a man talks of the blessings +that fall from falling prices, the conviction is forced upon us +that the killer of fools in his annual round has missed one +conspicuous example. The trouble is, our dollar of debt, instead +of decreasing, has more than doubled in its power as compared +with labor and the products of labor. Meanwhile our Solons talk +glibly of ‘vested rights,’ ‘corporate rights,’ etc., strenuously +objecting to squeezing the water out of their stocks, while they +have by legislation for the last thirty-five years remorselessly +squeezed the <i>value</i> out of our property.</p> + +<p>“When our debts were contracted the values of everything were +double what they now are. I could then have sold my farm for +three thousand dollars; now, although it has been much improved, +it would go a-begging at one thousand dollars. Perhaps there is +not as much distress in our country as there was three or four +years ago. People have adjusted themselves somewhat to their +straitened circumstances, and a few are becoming actually +reconciled to their condition! I heard one man who had recently +failed in business as a grain-dealer say, ‘Well, Cleveland is +right on this money question; we want a money good in Yurrup or +any other part of the world.’ As I looked at the battered hat of +this personage, at the split toes of his shoes, the ragged elbows +of his coat, and the rents in his demoralized nether garments, I +could but ejaculate, ‘May the Lord have mercy on your ignorant +soul! what does it matter to <i>you</i> what kind of money they use in +Europe?’</p> + +<p>“We are now taking the advice of Governor Morrill, who says: ‘If +you cannot get seventy-five cents a day, work for fifty cents.’ +Our Republican speakers advise us to dress plainly, live the +same, and work still harder. We are told to ‘stop running around +to Alliances and picnics.’ We have taken this advice. <i>We had to +take it!</i> But we have now reached the bottom. We can curtail our +dress no further without making our garb identical with our +complexion. We cannot further reduce our rations and live. We +cannot extend<span class="pagenum"><a name="page136" id="page136">136</a></span> the hours of labor, for most of us have already +adopted the blessed eight-hour system; that is, we work eight +hours <i>before</i> dinner and eight hours <i>after</i> dinner.</p> + +<p>“However, Kansas is coming to the front again. Since the mortgage +companies are willing to do business once more our Governor is no +longer ‘ashamed of the State.’ Occasionally a Republican +politician squirms and kicks as the pressure is turned on. The +eloquent and volcanic Ingalls breaks out at intervals. In these +eruptions he pours lava upon his party in fine style. But he does +not break out often enough!</p> + +<p>“The most serious bar to the progress of reform is that the +people are too poor to pay for reform papers and magazines; out +of these they might get the truth. The publishers of such are +unable to send their periodicals for less than cost. Not so the +party in power. Thousands of people get complimentary copies of +the gold-bug papers, and other thousands get them for a nominal +sum. Somebody pays for them. Who?</p> + +<p>“I have been pleased with <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>, both old and new. I first +subscribed to it in order to get ‘The Bond and the Dollar,’ which +I consider the most succinct exposition of the American money +question ever written. No publication that I am acquainted with +equals <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> as an educator. I wish you godspeed in your +efforts for the betterment of our people and of humanity in +general. I hope (almost against hope) for the peaceful solution +of the difficulties that now beset our beloved country.</p> + +<p class="ltr-close">“Sincerely yours,</p> +<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">A. Biggs</span>.”</p> +</div> + +<p>Moved by the foregoing communication and scores of others of the same +purport, and knowing the truth of what the honest producers (who are +the very blood and sinew and soul of this Republic) say of their +trials and of the wrongs to which they have been mercilessly subjected +for years, <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> has decided to share the common lot. With the +people we shall stand or fall. Let all who <i>can</i> rally, therefore, +rally to the support of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>, and the management will try to show +the nation what a great and free American magazine devoted to American +interests and American democracy really is, and will be, in the battle +for human rights.</p> + +<p>Address all subscriptions and all other business communications to</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;"><span class="smcap">John D. McIntyre</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 18em;">Manager of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 22em;">Copley Square, Boston.</span><br /> +</p> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137">137</a></span></p> +<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_19" id="article_19"></a> +BOOK REVIEWS.</h2> + +<div class="small"> +<p>[<i>In this Department of</i> <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> <i>no book will be reviewed which is +not regarded as a real addition to literature.</i>]</p></div> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="heading">The Emperor.<a name="fn_marker_8" id="fn_marker_8"></a><a href="#fn_8" class="fn_marker">[8]</a></p> + +<p>At the hour when, on the evening of the first day of this century, the +first asteroid was discovered by Piazzi at Naples, an +olive-complexioned man was sitting smileless in a box in the opera +house in Paris. He sat back where nobody could see him. It was his way +not to be seen—except on business.</p> + +<p>The man was thirty-one years, four months, and sixteen days of age. He +had already done something. If he had not equalled the work of +Alexander at the corresponding age, he had at least surpassed Cæsar; +for Cæsar at thirty was still a comparatively unknown roué in Rome.</p> + +<p>The figure in the opera box was slender and trim. He who sat there was +only five feet, four and a half inches high; but his head was fine, +heavy, symmetrical. His features twitched when he was disturbed, but +were beautiful when he smiled. To a profound observer he looked +dangerous. He had the faculty of making his face signify nothing at +all. He had been begotten an insular Italian, but was born a +Frenchman. His wife, a Creole, more than six years older than he, was +in the box with him. She sat at the front, and was seen by thousands. +She <i>wished</i> to be seen; and when the pit shouted in the direction of +the box she smiled a little smile, with a puckered mouth—for her +teeth were not good.</p> + +<p>The birthplace of this man had been oddly set on the map of the world, +for the meridian of Discovery and the parallel of Conquest intersect +at the birthplace of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. The birthlines of Cæsar and +Columbus—drawn, the one due west from Rome, the other due south from +Genoa—cross each other within a few miles of Ajaccio! It is a +circumstance that might well incline one to astrology.</p> + +<p>About the birth of great men cycles of fiction grow. Friends and +enemies alike invent significant circumstances. The traducers of +Napoleon have said that he was illegitimate—that his father was the +French marshal Marbœuf. They also say, on better grounds,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" id="page138">138</a></span> that the +marriage of Letitia Ramolino to Carlo di Buonaparte was not solemnized +until 1767—that the first two children were therefore born out of +wedlock. On the other hand, the idol-worshippers would fain have +Napoleon born as a god or Titan. Premature pangs seize the mother at +church. She hurries home, barely reaching her apartment when the +heroic babe is delivered, without an accoucheur, on a piece of +tapestry inwrought with an effigy of Achilles! This probably occurred. +It was the 15th of August, 1769.</p> + +<p>Thus, as it were before the Corsican saw the light of day in this +world, dispute began about him. It has been continued for a hundred +and twenty-eight years. Whatever else he succeeded in doing—whatever +else he failed to do—he at least did succeed in dividing the +civilized world into two parties; he made himself the subject of a +controversy which has not ceased to the present hour. The reason, no +doubt, is that we do not as yet understand human history and the part +which the individual plays in the progress of events. Nearly all men +begin with a prejudice in judging all other men, and nearly all men +end as they begin. So it has been in the case of Bonaparte. After a +while we shall see things more clearly; after a while we shall be able +to interpret <i>men</i>—but not yet.</p> + +<p>The writings relative to this man constitute a cycle. The books on him +and his times make a library, the perusal and study of which might +absorb a large section of an active life. The name of such productions +is legion. Most of them will fortunately perish. The controversial +aspect of the life of the Emperor must at last subside. Nine out of +ten of the books about him will go down to the nether oblivion. Then +the judicial aspect will arise—if it has not already arisen—and will +occupy the attention of those who are still curious to study the +career of him who shares with the son of Philip and the matchless +Julius the triune honor of being the greatest warriors known to human +history. If a fourth should be added to the group it would be +Hannibal, and if a fifth, Charlemagne.</p> + +<p>Here at the date of a century from those days in which the star of +Napoleon emerged from the mists and clouds and began to climb the sky +the interest in his life revives. In America this revival is +attributable in part to general and in part to special causes. The +general causes are to be found in the fact that society <i>de la fin de +siècle</i> is in such a state of profound disturbance, and the existing +order feels so insecure, that that order—as it always does—begins to +cast about in the shadows to find, if it may, some Big Man with a +Sword; him when found we will make our Imperator, and by sharing some +of our estates with certain of his military subalterns we<span class="pagenum"><a name="page139" id="page139">139</a></span> will make +sure of the rest—and after us the deluge. The special cause—at least +in America—is the tremendous and growing tradition of General Grant. +Albeit, General Grant hated the Bonapartes, from the Great One to the +Little One; yet his own luminous setting has left a glow in which the +nation sees men as trees walking—and among these the greatest +simulacrum is Napoleon Bonaparte.</p> + +<p>Of this man, who began as the son of a Corsican peasant-mother working +in a mulberry orchard, and who, after fifty-one years, eight months, +and twenty days, ended in a cyclone on the rock called St. Helena, +having meanwhile for nearly a third of his life bestridden western +Europe like a colossus,—a new biography claiming to be the ultimate +summation of the Emperor’s life and character has appeared. Professor +William Milligan Sloane, of Princeton University, has entered the +lists which may be said to have opened with Walter Scott and finished +with the McClure Syndicate, passing meanwhile by way of such +personages as De Staël, Las Cases, Victor Hugo, and Lanfrey, and such +drudges as Bourrienne and Méneval, to lodge at last with the +miscellaneous hacks who get three dollars a column for their +boiler-plate philosophy in American newspapers! Heavens, what a +scrimmage!</p> + +<p>It were difficult to say when the <i>final</i> biography of a man has been +produced. Hard, hard is it to decide when anything in this world is +final. The never-ending progress of events shapes and readjusts not +only the present materials of history, but also by reaction the +materials of the past. Much that is supposed to be complete is seen to +be unfinished; the done becomes undone, and the peroration of an epoch +has to be rewritten for an exordium.</p> + +<p>This is as true of the individual lives of men as it is of great +events. If the ages have to be reconstructed, so also must the men of +the ages. If only a mummy now turn over in his porphyry sarcophagus, a +papyrus is generally found under him; and the finder, with the papyrus +in his hand, may go forth fully warranted to revise every event from +the first cataclysm of the Devonian age to the last earthquake in +Java, and every man from Moses to Cagliostro.</p> + +<p>On the whole I incline to the opinion that Professor Sloane has +brought the Emperor Napoleon to a kind of final interpretation; I will +not say to a full stop, but to something very much resembling a +period. In the first place, I offer on the “Life of Napoleon +Bonaparte,” the eulogium that the work has, in a great degree, +<i>naturalized</i> the Corsican as he was never naturalized before—thus +bringing him out of cloudland and mere impossible fog to the plain +level of human action and purpose.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page140" id="page140">140</a></span></p> + +<p>This is much. In accomplishing thus much Professor Sloane has +vindicated his claim to be regarded as a great biographer. It has been +the bane of nearly all biographical writing that the subjects of it +have been completely mythologized. Thus far in the history of mankind +biography might be defined as the art of myth-making. I scarcely know +what exceptions to cite to this universal vice except only and always +Boswell’s “Life of Samuel Johnson.” As for American biographies thus +far produced, there is scarcely a single example of a work which is +not to be classified as a recorded myth. The trouble in all this +business has been that the myth-makers, living in a certain +atmosphere, have imagined that they are obliged to make their +characters conform to the established antecedents of greatness. These +established antecedents of greatness have for the most part been +created out of superstitions, credulities, blank idealism, and mere +dogmatic bosh. No living, active men have ever conformed, or could +conform, to the standards which the logicians, the philosophers, and +the priests have fixed up for them; and if any of them should conform +to such a standard, their place under classification would be with +automata, not with living men.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, our biographers have been so weak and servile as to make +their characters according to this pattern. One character is labelled +Washington, another is labelled Franklin, another is labelled Adams, +and still another, Lincoln.</p> + +<p>All this, I think, Professor Sloane has studiously avoided. As a +literary doctor he has done much to destroy the mythical disease. He +has written an elaborate work in which the man Napoleon moves and +acts, neither as an angel nor as a devil, but as a man, moved upon and +moving by the common human passions, though inflamed, in his case, to +a white heat in the furnace of his ambition.</p> + +<p>All this was to have been expected in view of the plan of Professor +Sloane as expressed in his preface:</p> + +<div class="quotation"> +<p>“Until within a very recent period,” says he, “it seemed that no +man could discuss him [Napoleon] or his time without manifesting +such strong personal feeling as to vitiate his judgment and +conclusions. This was partly due to the lack of perspective, but +in the main to ignorance of the facts essential to a sober +treatment of the theme. In this respect the last quarter of a +century has seen a gradual but radical change, for a band of +dispassionate scientific scholars have during that time been +occupied in the preparation of material for his life without +reference to the advocacy of one theory or another concerning his +character. European archives, long carefully guarded, have been +thrown open; the diplomatic correspondence of the most important +periods has been published; family papers have been examined, and +numbers of valuable memoirs have been printed. It has therefore +been possible to check one account by another, to cancel +misrepresentations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" id="page141">141</a></span> to eliminate passion—in short, to establish +something like correct outline and accurate detail, at least in +regard to what the man actually did. Those hidden secrets of any +human mind which we call motives must ever remain to other minds +largely a matter of opinion, but a very fair indication of them +can be found when once the actual conduct of the actor has been +determined.”</p></div> + +<p>From this point of view Professor Sloane has proceeded with his +tremendous work. His studies at home and abroad have been ample. We +may remark, in passing, upon the physical vigor of the author as shown +in his portrait. From such a face and figure we can but expect energy, +persistency, accomplishment. I do not pretend to disclose the reasons +of Professor Sloane for indulging in this prodigious Napoleonic dream +and for delineating it in what is likely to be regarded as the best +product of his intellectual career. We can only take what he has +produced and give it such cursory notice as our space will permit.</p> + +<p>The first volume of the work extends from a survey of the conditions +under which Napoleon was born and reared to the conclusion of his +twenty-eighth year. The first events depicted are those historical +movements in which the Bonapartes, within the narrow limits of their +island, were involved in the seventh decade of the eighteenth century; +and the last event recorded in this volume is the fall of Venice, at +the end of May, 1797. I incline to regard this as the most +interesting, though not the most important, of the four great volumes +of Professor Sloane’s work. In the nature of the case the ascendant of +a man is the more inspiring part. In it he appears as an orb whose +full majesty, not yet revealed, solicits the imagination and kindles +by sympathy the ambitions that in some measure are common to us all. +Here in volume I is portrayed the youth of the man Napoleon Bonaparte. +In this he is revealed in the full charm of that electrical audacity +which had as yet lost none of its sharpness and burning flash. Nor had +Napoleon, as a <i>man</i>, as yet become sufficiently involved with the +general maze of history, sufficiently immersed in the storm-cloud of +that tempestuous epoch, to be lost from view. This volume shows the +man emerging from boyhood into the full career of a military +conqueror. It shows him in his magical transformation from the +character of an adventurer into the character of a leader of armies +and a dictator of events. It also shows Napoleon with the still fluid +heart of boyhood passing through the lava floods of his first loves, +in particular his love for Josephine, into the age of cynicism and +calculation.</p> + +<p>This first volume brings sufficiently to memory the progress of the +youthful Napoleon. Here we see him at his mother’s knee;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id="page142">142</a></span> then in the +time of his school days; then in Paris and Valence; then as a neophyte +author, quite absurd in his dreams; then on garrison duty, and then +swept away with the tides of the oncoming revolution. In the smoke of +the South his slender figure is seen here and there until he emerges +at Toulon. In his character of Jacobin he becomes a general in the +army at a time of life when most men are happy to be lieutenants. Then +for the first time he touches the revolutionary society of Paris. He +meets Josephine; Barras delivers her to the coming man. They are +wedded, and from that date the stage widens, the wars in Italy break +out, and the young general begins to whirl his sword at Mantua, +Arcole, and Rivoli—from which he was wont to date his military birth, +saying on that occasion, “Make my life begin at Rivoli;” and finally +at Montebello and Venice, where, in the late spring of 1797, he is +joined by Josephine. There from the French capital they seemed to +stand afar as the cynosure of all revolutionary eyes, expecting a +greater light.</p> + +<p>In the second volume Professor Sloane begins with the rescue of the +Directory. Hard after we have the great episode of the Treaty of Campo +Formio, and then the expedition to Egypt. The story of that expedition +is known through all the world; so also the return, and the overthrow +of the Directory.</p> + +<p>From that day Bonaparte became the embodiment of the revolution. He +became a statesman and a strategist. He found himself in the +geographical and historical storm-centre of Europe. Then came the +epoch of great wars. Marengo marks the close of the old century, and +the treaty of Lunéville the beginning of the new. Napoleon undertakes +the pacification of Europe, and reorganizes France. He steps +cautiously towards the restoration of monarchy. There is a +life-consulate, transforming itself quickly into an empire. The old +royalism is extinguished, and the new military imperialism is +glorified in its stead. The third coalition of Europe succeeds the +second. Trafalgar strews the sea with the wrecks of France, and +Austerlitz strews the land with the wrecks of Russia and Austria. The +sea is virtually abandoned by the man of destiny, but over the land he +rises as War-lord and Emperor.</p> + +<p>The second conflict breaks out with Prussia and ends with the ruin of +that power at Jena and Auerstadt. The year 1806 sees the parvenu +emperor, now thirty-seven years of age, the master of all the better +parts of Europe. Here ends the second volume of his life, according to +Professor Sloane’s division, and the third begins with the devastation +and humiliation of the Prussian kingdom.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" id="page143">143</a></span></p> + +<p>In this volume the author views Napoleon for the first time as the +arbitrary diplomatist of the West. It is evident that from this time +the emperor’s vision widens to a more remote horizon than he had ever +scanned before. The Berlin decree was issued. The battle of Eylau was +fought, and then was achieved the victory of Friedland. Nor may we +pass without noticing the acme which Napoleon, according to the +judgment of many, now reached on that memorable field. Here it is that +art has caught and transmitted him. For it is in the trodden +wheat-field of Friedland that Meissonier’s pencil has delineated +Napoleon with his marshals around him, in one of the greatest pictures +of the world.</p> + +<p>By this epoch ambition in the emperor had swallowed up all other +passions. He goes on from conquering to conquest. The dream of a +French Empire, coextensive with the borders of Europe, seizes the +Napoleonic imagination. The emperor’s armies strike left and right. +They are seen first on one horizon, then on another. The Corsican on +his white horse is now upon the Pyrenees, now on the Germanic +frontier, and now in Poland. He faces Alexander of Russia, and laughs +at him! His gray coat and three-cornered hat become the best known +symbols of military genius in modern times.</p> + +<p>Kingdoms and principalities are transformed. Already the mythical +Roman empire has passed away. Austria is threatened with extinction. +The Corsican is seen first in one and then in another of the ancient +capitals of Europe. Aspern follows Eckmühl, and Essling and Wagram +follow Aspern. The treaty of Schönbrunn promises peace to the nations, +but the hope is broken to the lips. In this crisis Josephine goes down +in the shadows, and the daughter of Austria is led to the imperial +chamber—this from the necessity of establishing a dynasty. The +relations between France and Russia are strained to breaking. The +fatal year 1812 comes, and there is a congress of kings. Alexander +gives his ultimatum, and the invasion of Russia is begun. There is an +indescribable struggle on the Moskwa, and then the flames of Moscow +are seen across the deserts of Russian snow.</p> + +<p>The fourth and last volume begins with the return of the allied armies +from Russia. Then follows the universal revolt of the nations. +Insurrection breaks out on every horizon, and treachery, as might have +been expected, is added to the combinations that are rapidly formed +against the imperial Corsican. The borders of France are broken in. +There is a narrowing rim of fire bursting into battle flame here and +there; and then the catastrophe of the capture of Paris. There is an +ambiguous abdication and an equivocal<span class="pagenum"><a name="page144" id="page144">144</a></span> exile of a few months’ duration +to Elba. It was much like the establishment of a live lion on +Governor’s Island!</p> + +<p>The lion got away. Then came an instantaneous upheaval of old +revolutionary France, which had now become imperial France. The +Emperor was welcomed home as a returning god. The country was drained +to the last drop of its resources, and everything was staked on the +final strategy of the Hundred Days and the hazard of the +ever-memorable battle.</p> + +<div class="small"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>“There was a sound of revelry by night,”</p> +</div></div> +</div> + +<p>and then the imperial eagle was seen stretched upon the plain, pierced +through with the shafts of banded nations. He was caged and +transported to that far rock which in his school-essay at Autun he had +described thus: “St. Helena is a <i>small</i> island!” He found it so. For +nearly six years his captivity continued until his stormy career ended +in a May hurricane that might well have shaken the desolate +foundations of his ocean-girt prison. Then the historical tide rolled +on without him. France was transformed into the old image, but her +soul was still imperial. At last the bones of her great dead were +recovered, to be placed at rest in that red-black sarcophagus over +which the world looks down and wonders.</p> + +<p>Such is the fiery but fruitful chaos through which the life-line of +Napoleon is drawn with a master hand by Professor William Milligan +Sloane. My judgment is that, on the whole, he has produced the +greatest biographical work which has yet appeared in American +literature. I think that in the main his accomplishment has been equal +to his ambition. It is not an unworthy thing that an <i>American</i> +professor, at the seat of an <i>American</i> university, turning his +energies to this great task, has succeeded in making a well-nigh final +record of the life and work of that unequalled organizer, that sublime +dissembler, that cruel reformer, that heartless philanthropist, who, +for half a lifetime, converted old Europe into a mire of murder and +desolation, for the ultimate good of man.</p> + +<p>Only one thing may be said in adverse criticism of Professor Sloane’s +book, and that is, that his style is too mathematical and too little +imaginative for the subject which he has in hand. His rather cold +precision, however, we concede to him; for it is, no doubt, the +natural method of his expression. We do our part to acknowledge and +welcome the remarkable work which he has produced, and to commend it +to all readers as the best existing and best probable account of the +personal and historical career of Napoleon Bonaparte.</p> + + +<hr class="full" /> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<h2 id="footnote_heading">Footnotes</h2> +<ol> +<li><p><a name="fn_1" id="fn_1"></a> +It will be recollected that Macaulay has pictured a New +Zealander of some future day as sitting upon a broken arch of London +Bridge, contemplating the ruins of St. Paul’s cathedral; and readers +of the classics may recall the forecast of Seneca in the time of Nero, +as to the discovery of a Western continent by which Rome should be +dwarfed: “In later ages the time shall come when the ocean shall +loosen the chains which bind us, a mighty continent shall be +disclosed, and a deity shall unveil a new world beyond Britannia.” +<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_1">Return to text</a></span></p></li> + +<li><p><a name="fn_2" id="fn_2"></a> +Those who have followed the course of events in Japan +since the beginning of the new era will remember that upon the return +of Prince Iwakura, in 1873, from his around-the-world embassy, Mr. +Yeto had to withdraw from the cabinet, owing to a difference of +opinion between him and the Prince with regard to the Corean problem +then pending. Returning to his native province, Saga, he tried to +raise troops against the government (to carry out, of course, his own +convictions in regard to the Corean problem), resulting in the famous +“Saga rebellion” of 1873. Defeated by the government troops, he betook +himself to the interior of the country in disguise, was arrested, +found guilty of treason, and executed according to law. It is a +familiar saying in Japan that Mr. Yeto died a criminal at the hand of +his own Penal Code. +<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_2">Return to text</a></span></p></li> + +<li><p><a name="fn_3" id="fn_3"></a> +I make mention of these two gentlemen as representative +of two classes of a fairly large number of Japanese lawyers, viz., +those who have been educated in the United States, and those who have +received their education in England. Mr. Hatoyama is a D. C. L. of +Yale. For nearly ten years (1880-1889) he was a professor of law in +the University of Tokio Law School, and during most of this time he +was also Dean of the school. Mr. Hoshi is a barrister-at-law of one of +the English Inns of Court. For many years he was regarded as the +leader of the Japanese bar. Like many distinguished members of the +English bar, he is more of a lawyer than of a jurist. +<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_3">Return to text</a></span></p></li> + +<li><p><a name="fn_4" id="fn_4"></a> +I refer to Professors Hodzumi, Tomii, and Ume. Prof. +Hodzumi is a barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple, and is one of the +ablest representatives of English law in Japan. Prof. Tomii is a +<i>Docteur en Droit</i> of the Facility of Lyons, and is by far the ablest +expounder of the French codes in Japan. Prof. Ume, though a bearer of +the same degree from the same Faculty as Prof. Tomii, has attended +several German universities, and is more of the German school than of +the French. The Commission itself consisted of several other +distinguished personages, with the Prime Minister at the head. But +these three professors composed what was called the “Compilation +Committee,” so that practically they were the Commission. +<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_4">Return to text</a></span></p></li> + +<li><p><a name="fn_5" id="fn_5"></a> +Prof. Ume, a member of the Commission, is responsible for +these statements so far as they relate to the codes and laws +consulted. The classifications, however, are my own. +<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_5">Return to text</a></span></p></li> + +<li><p><a name="fn_6" id="fn_6"></a> +This may be a mere conjecture on my own part. It is +possible that the Commissioners never consulted his book, though to +assert such a thing of them would be an insult to their scholarship. +Be it as it may, it is a fact beyond question that their arrangement +of these topics presents a remarkable coincidence to that of Prof. +Holland’s, and this is a matter upon which every thoughtful Japanese +may well pride himself. +<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_6">Return to text</a></span></p></li> + +<li><p><a name="fn_7" id="fn_7"></a> +Defined in the Standard Dictionary as follows: “The +science that treats of citizenship and of the relations between +citizens and the government: a new word directly derived from the +adjective <i>civic</i>, introduced by Henry Randall Waite.” +<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_7">Return to text</a></span></p></li> + +<li><p><a name="fn_8" id="fn_8"></a> +“Life of Napoleon Bonaparte.” By Willian Milligan Sloane, +Ph. D., L. H. D.; Professor of History in Princeton University. Four +volumes, imperial octavo; pp. 1120. New York: The Century Company. +Boston: Balch Brothers, 1896. +<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_8">Return to text</a></span></p></li> +</ol> +</div> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<div class="transcribers_note"> +<p class="heading">Transcriber’s Notes:</p> + +<p>Every effort has been made to replicate this text +as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings +and other inconsistencies.</p> + +<p>The transcriber made these changes to the text to correct obvious +errors:</p> + +<ol> +<li>p. 6 over-capatalized —> over-capitalized</li> +<li>p. 18 successfull —> successful</li> +<li>p. 23 benovelent —> benevolent</li> +<li>p. 60 ecocomists —> economists</li> +<li>p. 76 staightforward —> straightforward</li> +<li>p. 94 abnormalties —> abnormalities</li> +<li>p. 124 desparing —> despairing</li> +<li>p. 144 stategy —> strategy</li> +</ol> +</div> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30081 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6cae516 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #30081 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30081) diff --git a/old/30081-8.txt b/old/30081-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 887ba54..0000000 --- a/old/30081-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6435 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arena, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
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-
-
-Title: The Arena
- Volume 18, No. 92, July, 1897
-
-Author: Various
-
-Editor: John Clark Ridpath
-
-Release Date: September 25, 2009 [EBook #30081]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARENA ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Richard J. Shiffer
-and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-https://www.pgdp.net
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- THE ARENA.
-
-
-
- EDITED BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL. D.
-
-
-
- VOL. XVIII
-
-
-
- JULY TO DECEMBER, 1897
-
-
-
- PUBLISHED BY
- THE ARENA COMPANY
- BOSTON, MASS.
- 1897
-
-
- COPYRIGHTED, 1897
- BY
- THE ARENA COMPANY.
-
-
- SKINNER, BARTLETT & CO., 7 Federal Court, Boston.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
- PAGE
-
- The Citadel of the Money Power:
- I. Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future HENRY CLEWS 1
- II. The True Inwardness of Wall Street JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 9
- The Reform Club's Feast of Unreason Hon. CHARLES A. TOWNE 24
- Does Credit Act on Prices? A. J. UTLEY 37
- Points in the American and French Constitutions Compared,
- NIELS GRÖN 49
- Honest Money; or, A True Standard of Value: A Symposium.
- I. WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 57
- II. M. W. HOWARD 58
- III. WHARTON BARKER 59
- IV. ARTHUR I. FONDA 60
- V. Gen. A. J. WARNER 62
- The New Civil Code of Japan TOKICHI MASAO, M. L., D. C. L. 64
- John Ruskin: A Type of Twentieth-Century Manhood B. O. FLOWER 70
- The Single Tax in Operation Hon. HUGH H. LUSK 79
- Natural Selection, Social Selection, and Heredity,
- Prof. JOHN R. COMMONS 90
- Psychic or Supermundane Forces CORA L. V. RICHMOND 98
- The American Institute of Civics HENRY RANDALL WAITE, Ph. D. 108
- An Industrial Fable HAMILTON S. WICKS 116
- Plaza of the Poets:
- Reply to "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After," BARTON LOMAX PITTMAN 122
- John Brown COATES KINNEY 125
- Demos W. H. VENABLE, LL. D. 126
- The Editor's Evening: Leaf from My Samoan Notebook (A. D.
- 2297); _Vita Longa_; Kaboto (a Sonnet) 128
- A Stroke for the People: A Farmer's Letter to THE ARENA 134
- Evolution: What It Is and What It Is Not Dr. DAVID STARR JORDAN 145
- Has Wealth a Limitation? ROBERT N. REEVES 160
- The Battle of the Money Metals:
- I. Bimetallism Simplified GEORGE H. LEPPER 168
- II. Bimetallism Extinguished JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 180
- The Segregation and Permanent Isolation of Criminals,
- NORMAN ROBINSON 192
- How to Increase National Wealth by the Employment of Paralyzed
- Industry B. O. FLOWER 200
- Open Letter to Eastern Capitalists CHARLES C. MILLARD 211
- The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIII. Prof. FRANK PARSONS 218
- The Provisional Government of the Cubans THOMAS W. STEEP 226
- A Noted American Preacher DUNCAN MACDERMID 232
- The Civic Outlook HENRY RANDALL WAITE, Ph. D. 245
- "The Tempest" the Sequel to "Hamlet" EMILY DICKEY BEERY 254
- The Creative Man STINSON JARVIS 262
- Plaza of the Poets:
- The New Woman MILES MENANDER DAWSON 275
- Under the Stars COATES KINNEY 275
- The Cry of the Valley CHARLES MELVIN WILKINSON 276
- A Radical ROBERT F. GIBSON 277
- The Editor's Evening: Our Totem; _Vive La France! Le Siècle_
- (a Sonnet) 278
- The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part I,
- HERMAN E. TAUBENECK 289
- The Future of the Democratic Party: A Reply DAVID OVERMYER 302
- The Multiple Standard for Money ELTWEED POMEROY 318
- Anticipating the Unearned Increment I. W. HART 339
- Studies in Ultimate Society:
- I. A New Interpretation of Life LAURENCE GRONLUND 351
- II. Individualism _vs._ Altruism K. T. TAKAHASHI 362
- General Weyler's Campaign CRITTENDEN MARRIOTT 374
- The Author of "The Messiah" B. O. FLOWER 386
- Open Letter to President Andrews THE EDITOR 399
- Plaza of the Poets:
- The Onmarch FREEMAN E. MILLER 403
- The Toil of Empire JOHN VANCE CHENEY 404
- The Day Love Came THEODOSIA PICKERING 405
- The Question JULIA NEELY-FINCH 405
- Triolet CURTIS HIDDEN PAGE 406
- The Cry of the Poor JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 407
- The Editor's Evening: A Knotty Problem; A Case of Prevision;
- Concerning Eternity; A. L. (a Sonnet) 419
- The New Ostracism Hon. CHARLES A. TOWNE 433
- The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part II,
- HERMAN E. TAUBENECK 452
- The Rights of the Public over Quasi-Public Services,
- Hon. WALTER CLARK 470
- Prosperity: the Sham and the Reality JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 486
- Jefferson and His Political Philosophy MARY PLATT PARMELEE 505
- The Latest Social Vision B. O. FLOWER 517
- The Dead Hand in the Church Rev. CLARENCE LATHBURY 535
- Hypnotism in its Scientific and Forensic Aspects,
- MARION L. DAWSON, B. L. 544
- Suicide: Is It Worth While? CHARLES B. NEWCOMB 557
- Plaza of the Poets:
- Old Glory IRONQUILL 562
- _Vita Sum_ JUNIUS L. HEMPSTEAD 563
- Gold CLINTON SCOLLARD 564
- Richard Realfe REUBIE CARPENTER 565
- The Dreamer HELENA M. RICHARDSON 565
- The Editor's Evening: The Greatest Lyric; "Thrift, Thrift, Horatio;"
- The Pessimist; The Physician's Last Call (a Sonnet). 566
- Freedom and Its Opportunities: Part I Hon. JOHN R. ROGERS 577
- "The Case Against Bimetallism" Judge GEORGE H. SMITH 590
- The Initiative and the Referendum ELIHU F. BARKER 613
- The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIV Prof. FRANK PARSONS 628
- The Laborer's View of the Labor Question:
- I. How the Laborer Feels HERBERT M. RAMP 644
- II. Up or Down? W. EDWARDS 654
- III. The Farm Hand: An Unknown Quantity WILLIAM EMORY KEARNS 661
- Practical Measures for Promoting Manhood and Preventing Crime,
- B. O. FLOWER 673
- The Demand for Sensational Journals JOHN HENDERSON GARNSEY 681
- Is History a Science? JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 687
- Plaza of the Poets:
- Our Brother Simon ANNIE L. MUZZEY 707
- Thou Knowest Not HELENA M. RICHARDSON 708
- Optim: A Reply GEORGE H. WESTLEY 709
- The Murdered Trees BENJAMIN S. PARKER 709
- The Hidden Flute MINNA IRVING 710
- Retroensetta CURTIS HIDDEN PAGE 710
- The Editor's Evening: Tantalus and His Opportunities; The Man
- in Bronze; Franklin (a Sonnet) 711
- Idylls and Ideals of Christmas:
- I. What I Want for Christmas ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 721
- II. Christmas, the Human Holiday Rev. MINOT J. SAVAGE, D.D. 722
- III. Santa Claus: A Poem JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY 726
- IV. The Aryan at Christmas JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 727
- A Séance With Eusapia Paladino: Psychic Forces CAMILLE FLAMMARION 730
- The Influence of Hebrew Thought in the Development of the Social
- Democratic Idea in New England CHARLES S. ALLEN 748
- Priest and People E. T. HARGROVE 772
- Immigration, Hard Times, and the Veto JOHN CHETWOOD, Jr. 788
- The Founder of German Opera B. O. FLOWER 802
- The Truly Artistic Woman STINSON JARVIS 813
- Poor "Fairly Rich" People HENRY E. FOSTER 820
- Shall the United States be Europeanized? JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 827
- Hawaiian Annexation from a Japanese Point of View,
- KEIJIRO NAKAMURA 834
- A Political Deal: A Story ELIZA FRANCES ANDREWS 840
- Plaza of the Poets:
- Glad Tidings MARION MILLS MILLER 849
- The Yule Log CLINTON SCOLLARD 852
- How to Get an Article in a Magazine THE EDITOR 853
- The Editor's Evening: Sir Thomas Kho on Education; Journey
- and Sleep (a Sonnet) 855
-
-
-BOOK REVIEWS.
-
- The Emperor 137
- President Jordan's Saga of the Seal 284
- Some Prehistoric History 426
- A Bard of the Ohio 572
- Critic, Bard, and Moralist 717
- Guthrie's "Modern Poet Prophets" 860
-
-
-ILLUSTRATIONS.
-
- Opposite Page
- HON. CHARLES A. TOWNE 1
- DR. DAVID STARR JORDAN 145
- MULTIPLE-STANDARD TREASURY NOTE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY 289
- DR. E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS 433
- GOVERNOR JOHN R. ROGERS 577
- CAMILLE FLAMMARION 721
- PSYCHIC SÉANCE WITH EUSAPIA PALADINO 737
-
-
-
-
-THE ARENA.
-
-Vol. XVIII. JULY, 1897. No. 92.
-
-
-
-
-THE CITADEL OF THE MONEY POWER.
-
-I. WALL STREET, PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.
-
-BY HENRY CLEWS.
-
-
-I.
-
-The twenty-seven respectable citizens of New York who, in 1792, met
-under a buttonwood tree in front of the premises now known as Number
-60 Wall Street, and formed an association for the purchase and sale of
-public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a proviso of
-mutual help and preference, committed themselves to an enterprise of
-whose moment and influence in the future they could have formed no
-adequate conception. At that date Wall Street was a banking district,
-small indeed when compared with its present condition, but important
-in its relations to the commerce of the nation. This transaction of
-the twenty-seven--among whom we find the honored names of Barclay,
-Bleecker, Winthrop, Lawrence, which in themselves and their
-descendants were, and are, creditably identified with the growth of
-the community--added the prestige and power of the stock exchange to
-those of the banks, and fixed for an indefinitely long period the
-destinies of the financial centre of the Union.
-
-During the earlier part of this century the banking interests of Wall
-Street quite overshadowed those of the stock market. The growth of
-railway securities was not fairly under way until the opening of the
-fifth decade. Elderly men can recall the date when the New York
-Central existed only as a series of connecting links between Buffalo
-and Albany, under half-a-dozen different names of incorporation; and
-passenger cars were slowly and laboriously hoisted by chain power over
-the "divide" between the latter city and Schenectady. Since there were
-but few railways in the entire country, there were few opportunities
-for speculative dealings in their shares. These shares, too, were as a
-rule locally held, and were more frequently transferred by executors
-under court orders than by brokers on the stock exchange.
-
-Prior to 1840 and 1845, however, the members of the stock exchange
-were not idle. Public stocks were largely dealt in. The United States
-government frequently issued bonds, and the prices of these bonds
-fluctuated sufficiently to afford tempting chances of profits. State
-bonds also were sold in Wall Street in larger amounts than to-day.
-About the year 1850 the sales of Missouri sixes and Ohio sixes
-frequently amounted to millions of dollars daily. During that
-uncertain epoch of finance when the United States Bank was both a
-financial and a political power, the shares of that institution were a
-favorite subject of speculative dealing. The shares of Delaware &
-Hudson, and of the original Erie Railway, the latter laboriously
-constructed over a rough, barren, and thinly settled portion of the
-State, partly by State funds, had also become actively exchangeable in
-the market.
-
-During this period a relatively enormous quantity of banking capital
-had located itself in and near Wall Street. The Bank of New York
-existed before 1800, and later, although not long after, the Street
-witnessed the erection of buildings of a now obsolete, and yet at that
-time an attractive, style of architecture, devoted to the uses of the
-Manhattan Banking Company, the Bank of America, the Merchants, the
-Union, the Bank of Commerce, and others. Were it not that land in the
-banking district is so valuable, and that the need of upstair offices
-is so great, one might be tempted to regret the demolition of the
-graceful money temples occupied by three of these corporations on the
-north side of Wall Street. In each of them the entablature rested upon
-two fluted stone pillars with Doric capitals, in addition to the
-supports of the side walls. Between the steps and the doors of the
-temple extended a marble-paved court which often served as a
-convenient place of 'change for borrowers and lenders. Entering the
-doors you found yourself in a large, airy, dome-lighted room, the
-sides of which were occupied by the clerks of the institution, guarded
-by high barricades from the intrusive eyes and feet of the general
-public. At the rear were the offices of the president and cashier.
-Throughout the entire building there reigned a solemn and
-semi-religious silence. One may witness something like this to-day in
-the Wall-Street end of the U. S. Treasury Building, and only there.
-
-Up to the epoch of the rise of railway building and railway-share
-speculation, the main aliment of Wall-Street banks was the profit
-derived from the discount of commercial paper and from loans upon
-government and State securities. But when railway shares and bonds,
-based upon lines of road which were constructed through the rich
-regions of the Union lying between the Atlantic and the Mississippi
-river, came upon the market in large amounts, affording ample security
-for investment and loans, the great banks of Wall Street were quick to
-appreciate the advantages of loans made upon such undoubted values,
-which were at all times convertible into cash on the stock exchange.
-In times of pressure, commercial paper is an inferior asset for a
-bank, all of whose obligations are payable on demand. At such times
-notes become practically unsalable, and are not always paid at
-maturity. A failure of one firm brings down others, and renewals are
-urgently required from banks just when they are least able to grant
-them. Salable securities are on such occasions an ark of safety, and,
-dating from the early fifties, this class of securities has always
-been the basis of a large amount of the loans of the banks of Wall
-Street and their near neighbors of the same class in lower Nassau
-Street and also Broadway.
-
-With the immense outgrowth of business consequent upon the discovery
-of gold in California in 1849, and the construction of the great
-railways of the Middle West, such as the Michigan Southern, the
-Northern Indiana (now the Lake Shore), the Michigan Central, the
-Galena & Chicago, the Rock Island, and others of like importance and
-real value, the banks and banking houses of Wall Street, and the stock
-exchange, grew into most important factors in developing the
-prosperity of the country. Enterprises were originated by able men
-acting under corporate powers, and when these were brought before the
-committees of the stock exchange and duly approved and listed, capital
-instantly flowed forth from its reservoirs in answer to the
-securities thus offered. And it may safely be said that but for the
-combined machinery of the New York banks and the stock exchange the
-actual developments of twenty years would have dragged laboriously
-through an entire century.
-
-Amid so much progress and activity, speculation was not idle. Those
-were the days of many of our greatest railway operators, daring, able,
-enthusiastic men, who had the rare gift of imparting confidence to
-their followers and the public, and realized the fable of King Midas,
-whose touch transmuted all things into gold. Their careers were those
-of conquest and accumulation, like that of Napoleon; and, like him,
-they underwent, with few exceptions, their retreats from Russia and
-their Waterloos. Of such were Jacob Little, Daniel Drew, Anthony
-Morse, and others, to whom now the motto of Junius applies: _Stat
-nominis umbra_. Merely the shadows of their names reach over to us
-from the horizons where their suns set so long ago.
-
-There was an epoch too in the Wall Street of the past when gigantic
-and deeply considered combinations were set in motion, entitled
-"corners." As to corners, a word of explanation may not be amiss.
-There are always two factions in the stock market: the bulls, who want
-stocks to rise in price in order that they may sell out; and the
-bears, who want stocks to fall in price so that they can buy in.
-Contrary to the superficial belief of the public, the bulls are
-sellers and the bears are buyers. But in order to sell a commodity you
-must buy or borrow it; and in order to buy at a future date you must
-sell at a previous date; and thus the bull buys for the purpose of
-selling at a profit, and the bear sells something which he doesn't own
-for the purpose of buying it at a lower price. The bull therefore
-hopes to push prices up so that he can sell his purchase at a profit,
-and the bear hopes to drag prices down so that he can buy what he has
-sold, also at a profit.
-
-Meanwhile, the bear has delivered the shares sold by him, and in order
-to deliver them, has borrowed them, and given security in money at its
-market price. Here he has placed himself in danger, because the owner
-of the shares may at any time tender him this money and demand the
-shares, which the bear may not be able to provide himself with, except
-at the price which the owners choose to set upon them.
-
-Thus a person might be under contract to deliver the shares of some
-corporation which might be absolutely worthless, and yet these shares
-_might_ be so held that the holders could exact one thousand dollars a
-share. Given a railway with a share capital of ten millions, one
-person or knot of persons might own every certificate of its stock,
-and have it all loaned out to bears who had sold, borrowed, and
-delivered it. It is obvious that this person or club of persons could
-compel purchases of the shares which he or they alone possess, at
-whatever price he or they think proper to demand; and since such
-things can be done by skilful combinations under able generalship,
-they have been done, and were a favorite scheme during the eventful
-years between the sixties and the eighties. The corners in Harlem,
-Hudson, Erie and Northwest, in which Vanderbilt, Drew, and Gould
-achieved such success for themselves and their associates, have passed
-into history as a conspicuous portion of the great events of Wall
-Street. Their interest is chiefly historical, because of late years no
-comprehensive corners have been organized. Share capitals are so large
-that it is difficult for one man to control any one of them, and a
-divided corner is apt to fail. But in their day and generation they
-have offered brilliant illustrations of genius and strategic skill in
-financial warfare.
-
-The system of selling short, however, which gave birth to the idea of
-creating corners, and which came into vogue in the fifties, has never
-ceased to be a leading factor on the stock exchange. It was the result
-of certain inflations of values which necessarily follow the
-construction of great enterprises. However high a valuation may be set
-upon any given commodity, there are always persons who expect a higher
-price. Early historical examples of this fact are the South-Sea shares
-and John Law's Mississippi shares, over which England and France
-respectively went crazy in the last century. The loftier the figures
-to which these shares mounted, the greater was the eagerness of the
-public to buy them. But at that period the art and mystery of selling
-short had not been brought into practice, and when the bubbles
-collapsed there were universal losers and no direct winners.
-
-During the latter half of this century there have been periods in the
-history of Wall Street when the prices of railway and industrial
-shares have been forced enormously above the standard of actual
-values, and innumerable persons have parted with good money in
-exchange for mere phantoms of imaginary values. At such times the
-short sales of discernment, directing the X rays of clear-sighted
-criticism into the swollen and opaque mass of financial carrion that
-is exposed for sale in the market, are of the utmost benefit to the
-public. The bear is then a benefactor to the community, and when he
-pulls down and tears to pieces the rotten carcass of some gigantic
-humbug, strewing the highway with its remains, we cannot praise his
-work too highly.
-
-
-II.
-
-The present condition of Wall Street is one of lassitude and
-expectancy. The great banks have an abundance, perhaps a
-superabundance, of money, their own and their depositors, which they
-are only too glad to lend on solid and readily salable collateral at
-low rates of interest, approximating the prevalent rates in London and
-Paris, where similar accumulations of idle capital exist. A large part
-of this money is deposited with them by local banks in all parts of
-the country, which recognize New York City as the financial centre of
-the Union, and are content with interest of from one to two per cent
-upon the funds which they are unwilling or unable to use safely at
-home. The stock exchange is also in a condition of quietude. The
-public are neither buying nor selling stocks in any large amount.
-
-This state of things is the resultant of well-known facts. Numerous
-over-capitalized and badly managed railways have gone into bankruptcy,
-and either are in the hands of receivers or have emerged from such
-guardianship, and are painfully toiling along on the road to
-prosperity on the twin crutches of assessments upon stockholders and
-the withholding of dividends from the same long-suffering and patient
-class.
-
-The transactions at the stock exchange at present average about two
-hundred thousand shares a day, exclusive of bonds, government, State,
-and railway; and a certain class of observers who like to subject
-circumstances to a minute analysis inform the public that the daily
-profits of the members of the exchange are about sufficient to pay
-the expense of office rent and clerk hire. This conclusion takes it
-for granted that these profits should be equally divided among the
-membership. This is not a reasonable supposition. Many of the members
-are such only in name, and rarely go on the floor. Others live during
-most of the time on their accumulations, and come into the market to
-buy or sell only when prices are abnormally low or high. The
-comparatively small busy portion manage somehow to keep fairly active,
-and are cheerfully looking forward to better times, through a vista
-from which the cloud of a change of the monetary standard has already
-passed away, and into which the genius of enterprise beckons them to
-enter.
-
-
-III.
-
-While in many respects the future is a sealed book, yet there is such
-a thing in the economy of nature as an absolutely accurate prevision
-of events, such as eclipses of the sun and moon, and conjunctions of
-the planets, and a relatively correct prevision of events depending
-upon the growth of enlightened communities. Since the incorporation of
-the Bank of New York, at the corner of Wall and Williams Streets, the
-banking capital of New York has increased more than sixtyfold, of
-which more than one-half is held and used in and around Wall Street,
-and the aggregation of deposited and loanable capital has grown from a
-few millions to over half a billion. If this has been the result
-during one century, what will take place in the same direction during
-the next century? The ratio of increase will not be kept up. A
-thousand dollars may be doubled in a day, but no such ratio as a
-hundred per cent a day can be predicated of a million. And yet it is
-certain that, under proper management, the million will go on
-increasing; and in the same manner will our half-billion increase by
-its own earning power, and by contributions from all parts of the
-Union. The development of the United States in the direction of
-population, agriculture, manufactures, and mines is so enormous and so
-steady that this nation will at some not distant period become the
-most opulent of all the nations of the planet, unless unforeseen and
-improbable political events happen by which our great commonwealth
-shall be disrupted or its financial stability overturned. Under a
-normal condition of things the capital of the citizens of the Union
-will continually increase, and the banks of the city of New York will
-be the depositary of larger and larger reserves of whatever capital is
-temporarily idle in the places where it is created. In due time the
-financial centre of the world will be shifted from London to our
-imperial city.
-
-Such a destiny has been foretold for St. Petersburg, in view of the
-construction of the Siberian Railway and its branches, which in time
-will open up to industry an immense tract of productive soil in the
-most fertile parts of Asia, abounding in wheat and corn land, and full
-of superior water power. But in this superb rivalry between the United
-States and the colossus of Europe and Asia, the former nation has an
-immense start as to time, and a still greater advantage in the
-character of its population. And in addition to these we have the
-undoubted and constantly increasing supremacy of the English language.
-Just as during the Middle Ages Latin was the vernacular of the learned
-classes, and as to-day French is the language of diplomacy in Europe,
-so is English the common tongue in all the commercial localities of
-the globe. With English a man can commit himself to foreign travel
-anywhere, while outside of Russia there are few towns on the various
-continents in which Russian is not an unknown speech. These
-controlling conditions cannot be readily or easily changed, especially
-since no paramount reasons exist why they should be changed.
-
-It is then a reasonable forecast of the future, that in due time the
-weighty import of the names of Lombard[1] and Threadneedle Streets
-will be transferred to the name of Wall Street, and the facts implied
-by such a transfer are of a dignity and power which it is impossible
-to estimate. The road leading to this great destiny can only be
-blocked by injurious legislation, and the good sense of our citizens
-may be confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a
-barricade against national prosperity.
-
- [1] It will be recollected that Macaulay has pictured a New
- Zealander of some future day as sitting upon a broken arch
- of London Bridge, contemplating the ruins of St. Paul's
- cathedral; and readers of the classics may recall the
- forecast of Seneca in the time of Nero, as to the discovery
- of a Western continent by which Rome should be dwarfed: "In
- later ages the time shall come when the ocean shall loosen
- the chains which bind us, a mighty continent shall be
- disclosed, and a deity shall unveil a new world beyond
- Britannia."
-
-
-
-II. THE TRUE INWARDNESS OF WALL STREET.
-
-BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH.
-
-
-The organized powers of society are always anxious to conciliate
-public favor. They know that they exist by sufferance--by sufferance
-of a mightier than themselves. In proportion as they know themselves
-to be aggressors and spoliators their anxiety increases. Every abusive
-power in the world is thus driven to adopt schemes and devices--some
-dangerous and some merely ludicrous--to keep a footing at that silent
-bar of opinion before which all wrong must, sooner or later, quail and
-slink away.
-
-The great concern called Wall Street is such an organized power in
-society. It exists as a fact in our American system, and would fain
-conciliate the favor of the public. Wall Street has become one of the
-most conspicuous features in our national life. Knowing that it is
-challenged by public opinion--knowing indeed that it is already under
-the ban and condemnation of the American people--it now seeks, after
-the manner of its kind, to save itself alive. It would go further than
-mere salvation; it would make mankind believe that it is a reputable
-part of the universal swim. Aye more; it seeks to ingratiate itself,
-sometimes by force and sometimes by gentle craft and stratagem, into
-the good graces of that civilization which it has so mortally
-offended.
-
-To this end Wall Street strives to justify itself in periodical and
-general literature. No other power in human society to so great a
-degree and in so subtle a manner exploits its own virtues. Taking
-advantage of the well-known carelessness of American readers, and
-knowing full well how easily they are duped--how easily they are
-cozened out of their senses and led into false beliefs with mere
-plausibilities and sophisms--this imperial and far-reaching Wall
-Street, this elephantine fox of the world, takes possession of
-American journalism--owns it, controls it. It seizes and subsidizes
-the metropolitan press. It purchases newspapers and magazines by the
-score. It establishes bureaus; it buys every purchasable pen, from the
-pen of the gray philosopher to the pen of the snake editor. It
-overawes every timid brain, from the brain of the senator to the
-brain of the tramp. What it cannot purchase it terrorizes; and the
-small residue which it cannot terrorize it seeks to cajole: all this
-to the end that its dominion may be universal and everlasting.
-
-In this work of gaining possession of public opinion and perverting
-that opinion to its own uses Wall Street employs all methods and uses
-all expedients. Wall Street deliberately marks its game; and we have
-to confess that the game generally falls at the first fire. We have
-heard, however, of a single case of a brave man, now dead, who, when
-offered ten thousand dollars for his voice against his conviction and
-his opinion against his soul, in the matter of electing President of
-the United States the man who was the candidate of Wall Street, told
-the subtle committee to make an immediate and expeditious visit to the
-bottom of the old theology.
-
-This train of thought rises vividly to mind when I consider the
-article of Mr. Henry Clews on "Wall Street, Past, Present, and
-Future." This article came unsought and unexpected to the editorial
-desk of THE ARENA. I confess that I doubted its genuineness. For why
-should Mr. Clews address the public through the columns of THE ARENA?
-What has THE ARENA done to merit such distinction? Satisfying myself
-that the contribution was genuine, that it was not--and is not--a
-hallucination, I at once divined that it must be a sort of challenge
-to this magazine. I do the author of "Wall Street, Past, Present, and
-Future," the honor to believe that he does not suppose THE ARENA to be
-sufficiently verdant to publish his adroit and well-covered apology
-for the great institution which he represents,--without knowing the
-sense and significance of it. If indeed the distinguished gentleman
-imagined that we could do such a thing here, then in good sooth he
-must be undeceived. Or if he supposed that a paper of the kind
-submitted would be _rejected_ at this office because of our well-known
-antagonism to the fact which Mr. Clews defends, let him in that
-instance also be undeceived.
-
-At the office of THE ARENA we take all challenges. Nor should our
-friends suppose or fear that the welcome admission of Mr. Clews's
-article to the pages of THE ARENA implies timidity or some possible
-weakness in the presence of that gigantic institution known by the
-name of Wall Street. The fact is, that the nightmare which that power
-has been able to spread, bat-like, over the souls of men for a quarter
-of a century has about been dissipated; it is already the beginning of
-the end. It is the dawn; the day is not very far in the future when
-the American people, roused at last to the exertion of their majesty,
-will shake themselves from the dread of this incubus and spring up
-like a giant refreshed from slumber.
-
-Mr. Clews's article on "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future," is a
-most gentle and dove-like performance. It is not a paper intended to
-produce alarm, but to allay it. It is one of the finest examples of a
-literary opiate that I have ever seen. The bottom theme of the paper
-is that Wall Street is a natural growth, and is therefore inevitable.
-Wall Street has come by a gentle evolution. Good men and true have
-conspired with nature to bring it forth. Under natural and necessary
-conditions Wall Street has appeared in our American system, and under
-these conditions it flourishes. Whatever great fact in society has
-thus appeared has been born of necessity and out of the nature of
-things. If Wall Street have been born out of necessity and the nature
-of things, then it has come of righteousness, and is the child of
-truth. If of righteousness and truth, then Wall Street is good as well
-as glorious. That which is good and glorious ought to be admired and
-honored. Whatever is admired and honored, whatever is good and
-glorious, should have influence and power in society and state. Such a
-golden product of evolution is Wall Street; therefore the sceptre
-which Wall Street stretches forth over the prostrate Western world
-should be obeyed and upheld by the voice and hand of the American
-people.
-
-Not only so, but the sceptre should be extended. The empire of Wall
-Street should become universal. It should be enlarged and confirmed
-until all outlying kingdoms and all islands of the sea shall pass
-under the beneficent sway of this monarchy of the world! Then with Mr.
-Clews we may well consider his "reasonable forecast of the future."
-With him we shall be able to see "that in due time the weighty import
-of the names of Lombard and Threadneedle Streets will be transferred
-to the name of Wall Street." With Mr. Clews we shall be able to see
-that "the facts implied by such a transfer are of a dignity and power
-which it is impossible to estimate." Then, finally, with Mr. Clews we
-shall agree that "the road leading to this great destiny _can only be
-blocked by legislation_." Mr. Clews says "injurious" legislation.
-Certainly; that is true--most true. The consummation hoped for by Mr.
-Clews can verily be blocked by legislation! But when it comes to the
-definition of "injurious" how fearfully do we part company! The writer
-of "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future" flatters himself, in fine,
-with the belief that "the good sense of our citizens may be
-confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a barricade
-against national prosperity." Oh, it is "national prosperity" then
-that we have in view! That is good. If there be anything under heaven
-which Wall Street adores and dotes on more than any other thing in the
-world it is national prosperity! When it comes to national prosperity
-Wall Street is always full-handed. With the mere mention of national
-prosperity Wall Street raises a shout of sympathetic enthusiasm which
-reverberates from Passamaquoddy to San Diego, and from the Florida
-everglades to the snow-capped shoulders of Shasta!
-
-Let me, however, explain to Mr. Clews one thing, and that is that the
-blessed condition of universal society in which Wall Street, having
-absorbed Lombard and Threadneedle, shall be supreme over the nations
-will occur only when our free American institutions shall be crushed
-into fragments and when civil liberty shall lie bleeding among the
-ruins. It will occur _then_, and not before. It will occur when the
-residue of the old American spirit has been stamped out, and when a
-miserable, slavish subserviency shall have been substituted for the
-revolutionary freedom which our fathers won and made sacred with their
-blood on every patriot battlefield from Lexington to Appomattox.
-
-Temperately and patiently I will follow Mr. Clews's paper through. The
-writer of the article is a gentlemanly and able representative of that
-colossal power which he has helped to build up and fortify. From being
-a child of that power he has now become, in a most theosophical
-manner, one of the fathers of it! As such he has made himself the
-apologist of a gigantic and rampant beast on whose horns of hazard
-the values produced by the labor of seventy millions of Americans are
-tossed about as if the wreckage were so much waste excelsior thrown on
-the horns of a bull! Mr. Clews tells us that in 1792 twenty-seven
-gentlemen met under a buttonwood tree and formed the association known
-as Wall Street. The purpose of the association was "the purchase and
-sale of public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a
-proviso of mutual help and preference." The result was the addition of
-"the prestige and power of the stock exchange to the prestige and
-power of the banks." That indeed is a combination worthy to be
-considered! A consolidation of interests was effected between the
-exchange and the banks to purchase and sell stocks "with a proviso of
-mutual help."
-
-The organization thus created has existed for one hundred and five
-years. It has made a history. It has become ever greater and more
-firmly fixed in and _on_ American society. It has made itself to be
-the foundation of all things financial and political in the United
-States. The story of the process by which this prodigious result has
-been reached is narrated by Mr. Clews in the manner of one who gives
-an account of the formation of a temperance society or a Sunday
-school! In the whole article there does not appear a symptom of a
-suspicion that the thing of which he gives the history is the most
-dangerous and abusive fact that ever threatened the integrity of a
-nation. The argument is that if twenty-seven gentlemen thus met and
-created Wall Street, then the result, being a natural product, is good
-and wholesome. But the inquiry at once arises whether it is valid
-logic to suppose that what men do is right, simply because they do it.
-The affirmative of such a proposition would make Aristotle stagger. It
-amounts to this, that whatever is is right; therefore, let it alone.
-
-By this argument of Mr. Clews all the tyrannies of the past, all the
-horrors that have afflicted the human race, all the sufferings which
-men have endured from sword and pestilence, from servitude, from the
-butchery of war and the cruelty of the Inquisition, have been right
-merely because they have been natural. Under this rule every monster
-that has tormented society from the first day until now can find full
-justification for itself on the simple ground that it exists! Under
-such an argument a howitzer is as good as a plough, a sword is as good
-as a sickle, a pillory is as good as a baby-wagon. By such reasoning a
-shark is as useful as a horse. By this logic a boa-constrictor is as
-good as a reindeer, a tiger is as useful and salutary in his office as
-an ox or a St. Bernard, and a cancer is as beautiful as a blush. That
-is, everything is good, not because it is useful and just, but because
-it is.
-
-Or again, Mr. Clews's argument is this: that the men who created Wall
-Street were gentlemen; therefore their work was salutary. Just as
-though respectable people could not engage in a nefarious business.
-Just as though gentlemen could not, and would not, make a conspiracy
-to enslave the human race. The "gentleman" is a very uncertain factor
-in civilization; his devotion to right and truth requires always to be
-tested with a chemical and to be taken with the usual combination of
-chlorine and sodium.
-
-Mr. Clews explains that the stocks underlying our old railroad
-properties in the United States were aforetime "held locally," and
-that they were transferred "more frequently by executors than by
-brokers on the stock exchange"--as though that were an evil. Then
-"there were but few opportunities for dealing in shares"--as though
-_that_ were an evil! It thus became necessary for Wall Street to get
-the old stocks belonging to the people out of the people's hands and
-into the hands of the Street--as though _that_ were a good. Our public
-improvements were in the first place made by the people, but the
-people were not fit to own them. Our railways were constructed with
-capital subscribed by the people, generally by those through whose
-country the given improvement was extended. The people themselves then
-owned their own, and controlled it. Until Wall Street reached out and
-clutched such properties--first putting down the prices of the shares
-to nothing and then pulling the given stocks to par--the people were
-able to protect themselves; but never afterwards.
-
-The same was true of all other securities, whether public or private.
-Nearly all bonded debts were at first local; but the holding of
-securities _locally_ has always been a thing abhorrent to Wall Street.
-The idea of the Street is that all stocks and all securities belong,
-not to the public, but to itself. Of course the _money capital_ of the
-country belongs to the Street. And if, with the consent of public
-authority, the _stocks_ of the country also can be held by the Street,
-then a humble peasantry, paying perennial rents and compound interest,
-can be created and kept under forever throughout the domains of the
-great Republic. It may ultimately require arsenals to do it, but these
-we can supply.
-
-The next stage in the game was the creation by Wall Street of
-fictitious enterprises for the distinct purpose of getting possession
-of the stocks on which such enterprises were based, and of speculating
-in the shares of such properties. When the _existing_ stocks of
-railways were not sufficient--when the bonds of States and of the
-general government were insufficient in quantity to fill the maw of
-the benevolent being called Wall Street--then an _artificial_ supply
-must be created; that is, some scheme of debts must be invented by
-which the people might be made to pay tribute to the good Wall Street,
-and pay it still more abundantly.
-
-Thus were invented new banks and new banking systems. Thus came the
-bull and the bear and the bucket-shop. Thus were projected a thousand
-railways and canals. Many of these were laid into impossible
-regions--all "for the benefit of the people!" Other enterprises which
-were not sufficiently stocked began to be stocked more heavily--this
-also for the benefit of the people. The plan of watering was invented;
-the method of "promoting" enterprises was perfected,--until, as early
-as the time of the Civil War, Wall Street had acquired the greatest
-skill in _making_ debts, or, in the language of James Fisk, Jr., in
-"rescuing the property of other people from themselves."
-
-These beautiful processes are glossed over by Mr. Clews with a
-pleasant account of how, with the growth of business and the discovery
-of gold and the oncoming of the age of construction, great enterprises
-were "promoted" by Wall Street, and how "capital instantly flowed
-forth from its reservoirs in answer to the securities" that flowed
-thereto. The author of "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future,"
-affirms "that but for the combined machinery of the New York banks and
-the stock exchange the actual developments of twenty years would have
-dragged laboriously through an entire century." Permit us to say that
-it would have been better that such "actual developments" should have
-dragged through _two_ centuries than that the United States of America
-should have been stocked and mortgaged and bonded and enslaved, under
-the tyrannous lash of debt, by such a master as Wall Street.
-
-Mr. Clews next comes to the subject of corners. On this topic we doubt
-not that he speaks as one having authority. He tells us quite
-complacently that there was "an epoch in the Wall Street of the past
-when the gigantic and deeply considered combinations were set in
-motion entitled 'corners.'" Then he goes on to explain what corners
-are. He does so without the slightest expression of criticism or
-aversion. He tells us of the bulls and the bears by whose agency a
-corner is conducted as though they were the friendly competitors in
-some great philanthropy! Instead of describing corners as so many
-carefully contrived schemes to rob the people of the proceeds of their
-labor by putting the prices of their commodities and securities down
-until such commodities and securities are taken from their hands, and
-then putting the prices _up_ in order that the robbers may reap the
-harvest, he speaks of corners as offering "brilliant illustrations of
-genius and strategic skill in financial warfare!"
-
-The fact is that the men who are reared in Wall Street, who from their
-youth are familiarized with its processes, and who are well set in the
-plastic age to consider human life as an auspicious opportunity for
-getting possession of something that does not belong to them, are
-fatally blunted in their sensibilities; the ethical quality in them is
-battered out--or at least battered; they come to regard the human race
-as an enormous ranch of sheep to be shorn at the pleasure of the
-shearers; they even grow to consider each other as so much mutton to
-be butchered and roasted by whoever is able to do it.
-
-I notice with surprise that Mr. Clews in his sketch of Wall Street
-dwells not at all upon the benevolent agency of that power during the
-Civil War. This is an oversight which I beg leave to supply. There has
-never perhaps been an instance in human history in which a great power
-has so ardently devoted itself "to the preservation of free
-institutions" as did Wall Street in that epoch of mortal agony. Then
-it was that Wall Street engaged in the patriotic work, first of
-destroying the national credit, then of buying it up at half price,
-then of converting it into a bonded debt to be perpetuated for a full
-generation, and finally of compelling the people to pay it in a dollar
-worth four times as much as the dollar with which it was purchased. It
-was a beautiful scheme of devotion and self-sacrifice the like of
-which history has never before recorded. It was a speculation which
-involved the life of the American Republic. The Union was on trial.
-All nerves were strained, and all hearts were torn. The nation was
-bleeding at every pore. Every freight-train that came from the front
-brought back its loaded boxes of dead. Fathers and mothers gathered at
-the station, and each received his own. The rough coffin containing
-the body of the patriot boy who had given his life for the flag was
-taken by the silent father and mother to its resting-place under the
-apple trees. All true men had tearful faces, and a stern resolve in
-the heart. And while _this_ was the condition of the nation and the
-people, the high-toned Wall Street was speculating on the life of the
-Republic. It bought and sold blood. It was a bull on disaster and a
-bear on victory. It established bureaus through which to falsify
-intelligence and to bring the nation to the verge of ruin. It had no
-compunction. It regarded the gore of battlefields as the rich rain and
-mould out of which its own harvest was to grow. The more blood the
-merrier. The more tears the richer the yield. The more war the more
-debt. The more depression of the national credit the more cheaply we
-shall be able to gather it up! The more grape-vine despatches the more
-distraction and the better opportunity for us. The more death the more
-millions. The more horror and devastation the heavier will be our
-coffers. The more the people groan the more we will shout. The more
-they die the more we will live. The more the flag is torn the more our
-damask curtains will flutter. The more liberty perishes and withers
-from the earth the more we shall plant ourselves and flourish and rule
-and reign over a nation that we have destroyed and a people whom we
-have enslaved. If Mr. Clews wishes any further outline of the history
-of Wall Street during our Civil War we shall be glad to contribute
-such a sketch as a reminiscence of a great fact which appears to be
-dim in his memory.
-
-There is another almost fatal omission in Mr. Clews's article. He says
-but little about the principal work in which Wall Street, historically
-considered, has been engaged during the last thirty years. I do not
-like the way in which this great section of the "Past" of Wall Street
-is glossed over. During the period referred to, that institution has
-had one bottom purpose and one reason of action from which it has
-never deviated. This purpose, this reason of action, has been the
-perpetuation of the national debt and the increase of its value by
-bulling the unit of money in which the debt is payable. Wall Street
-knows that the bonded debt of the United States is the basis, or
-central fact, in the whole system of bonds and stocks. Wall Street
-knows that the dollar is the central fact in the bond. It knows that
-if the bond can be made everlasting and the dollar can be increased in
-value until a single unit of it shall be equivalent to an acre of
-farming land, then the Street can own the United States in fee simple,
-and can presently annex the rest of the world.
-
-I acknowledge a certain admiration when I consider this stupendous
-scheme. It is more than Napoleonic; it is continental, interplanetary,
-sidereal! I cannot recall another conspiracy in the history of mankind
-quite equal in colossal and criminal splendor to the profound and
-universal plot of Wall Street to make perpetual the national debt, to
-keep that debt the bottom fact in the banking system of the United
-States, and to bull the unit of money and account until it shall be
-worth four times as much, or perhaps ten times as much, as it was when
-the bulk of the debt was contracted.
-
-The history of this scheme in its true inwardness is the history of
-Wall Street for the past thirty years. The details of the history
-relate to such small circumstances as the transfer of the government
-of the great Republic from the hands and control of the people to the
-hands and control of the Street. Of course no such scheme as that
-referred to could be carried into successful operation _unless_ the
-national government could be delivered over to the keeping of the
-Street and be locked up, as it were, in the same vault where the
-national debt is deposited.
-
-This feat, however, was easily accomplished. Wall Street reached out
-its hand and plucked down the American eagle from his perch. Wall
-Street got possession of the government. The _coup_ was accomplished
-while the nation was asleep--else it never could have been
-accomplished. Wall Street climbed the Tarpeian rock in the night, and
-no goose cackled to give the alarm. Columbia had gone to bed. The
-keeper of her treasure-house had already given the key to the enemy.
-The keeper of the treasury was a _part_ of the enemy. He gave up both
-citadel and city. In the morning the walls were placarded with lying
-posters which said that the delivery of the government into the hands
-of the Hessians had been rendered necessary in order "to preserve the
-national honor!" It was done in order to keep faith with those
-benevolent patriots who had bought the debt of the nation at less than
-fifty cents to the dollar, and who, not satisfied with bringing it to
-par, were now engaged in the honorable work of making it worth two
-hundred cents to the dollar. The fact that the industries of the
-people would be crushed and the people themselves be reduced to
-poverty by the transfer of the national sovereignty from the capitol
-to the stock exchange was nothing in comparison with the "preservation
-of national honor."
-
-The scheme was carried out. The methods by which it was carried out
-constitute the subject-matter of the true history of Wall Street
-during the past generation. Wall Street, from being a financial
-organization, became a political power. It took full possession of the
-executive and legislative departments of the government. It controlled
-them both. It promptly established and defended its ownership. It
-instituted one scheme after another. For the purpose of fortifying its
-usurpation, it learned to choose its men and to prepare its measures
-in advance. In 1884 it created an administration for its own purposes,
-and manned it to the same end. It forced its way into the House of
-Representatives and stood with a bludgeon behind the Speaker's chair.
-It entered every committee-room and dictated every successful bill.
-The people's bills all went one way. If by any chance one of the
-people's bills got before the House the subsidized press, owned by
-Wall Street, raised against it a chorus of groans and catcalls; _that_
-was "an expression of public opinion"!
-
-From that day forth the popular voice was strangled into silence. The
-next administration (that of 1888) was prepared in the same manner.
-Wall Street has no politics except the politics of the bond; it has no
-platform except the platform of cent per cent. It suffices that when a
-president is to be elected he shall be one of us. He shall not be a
-man of the people; else in that case he would be a demagogue, a
-windbag, a _vox et præterea nil_. _Our_ man shall not even know the
-despised people. He shall not smell of the filthy ground, but must be
-"sound" on questions of finance. If he be not "sound," we will make
-him so. We will teach him his paces. If the people conclude to change
-their government, we will see to it that the incoming powers are just
-like the outgoing. As for the "principles" on which the candidate
-shall be chosen, we will attend to that. We will make his principles
-for him. We understand principles perfectly. We will fix the platform;
-we know the carpenters. If the candidate and his friends have already
-fixed a platform before the date of the convention, and if it have
-been published everywhere as the decision of the candidate and his
-following, we will take that platform from the wires and will
-carefully revise it, to the end that the "national honor" shall be
-preserved. We will write it over again into new meanings. We will
-interpret it so that no harm shall be done to the "national credit."
-We will make our candidate into a puppet. When we put our foot on the
-treadle his jaw shall drop and he shall utter many mocking words about
-the "national honor" and the "prospects of our glorious
-country"--signifying nothing.
-
-All this we will do for the public good. We will say that we are
-striving for national prosperity. We will proclaim our candidate as
-the advance agent of prosperity--until after the election. Then we
-will say that prosperity will come with the inauguration. Then we will
-say that it will shine out promptly when Congress adjourns and ceases
-to menace the national credit. Then we will say that prosperity will
-reveal itself when the hot season is over. By this time the hoodwinked
-people can be coddled to sleep, or else set to dancing with rumors of
-foreign wars. To this end we will have our newspapers carefully
-promote our principles and studiously avoid all reference to those
-subjects in which the people feel the deepest concern. Finally, we
-will omit all these matters from our history of "Wall Street, Past;"
-we will proceed to speak of our "Wall Street, Present," and will
-explain that it is in a state of "lassitude and expectancy." Indeed
-"lassitude and expectancy" is good.
-
-But there is still another yawning chasm in the history of "Wall
-Street, _Past_," and that is Mr. Clews's failure to discuss the
-transfer of the Treasury of the United States to the custody of the
-Street, and the consequent reduction of the Secretary of the Treasury
-to the rank of a clerk. This very thing has been most successfully
-accomplished. I believe that the Secretary still has an office at
-Washington, but that should be closed in the interest of economy and
-reform. To do so, we doubt not, would be a strong factor in the
-restoration of confidence. Perhaps the Washington office might be left
-in charge of a janitor, for it is understood that some official
-correspondence is still directed to the old address! The presence of
-the Secretary in New York, however, has become so essential to the
-proper discharge of his duties that the removal of his residence
-thither can only be deferred by an absurd deference to public opinion!
-
-The results of the transfer of this vital function of the national
-government have, in the meantime, been so salutary as fully to
-vindicate the change. This was shown in 1893-94 when the Street, with
-a strong repugnance to investing money in useful enterprises, and
-having a prodigious accumulation of funds on hand, concluded that a
-sale of Government bonds was necessary for the "national honor." To
-this end the managers began to pull the treasury. In that institution
-a large sum of gold was stored, wholly without warrant of law. The
-people needed the gold beyond measure--that is, they needed the
-_money_; and gold is one form of money. The industries of the people
-had been prostrated by an international conspiracy, and the nation was
-quivering on the verge of apprehended ruin.
-
-In this crisis the patriotic Street devised the bucket-chain, the
-crank of which was in the hand of the Street, while the "chain" ran
-through the Treasury of the United States. Every bucket came out
-filled with gold. Lazard Frères emptied out the gold and shipped it
-abroad to their confederates. This created the necessity for buying it
-back with bonds. The people were stunned with the audacity of the
-thing--just as the unfortunate owners of a house in flames are stunned
-to see gentlemen of the profession rush in and empty the safe. Wall
-Street danced and shouted while the work was done. The bonds were
-"popular," and the Street got them--got them for one price and sold
-them for another.
-
-By this beautiful process the great American nation was literally held
-up and _robbed_ of more than nineteen million dollars! No highwayman
-ever more successfully clutched the wizen of his victim than did the
-Street with its supple fingers around the white larynx of Columbia.
-The wheezing of the strangulated Republic could be heard from the St.
-Lawrence to the Rio Grande. The nation was thus "saved," and the
-robbers took the money and went sailing away on summer cruises to
-Norway and Venice and the Cyclades. The "national credit" was
-preserved; Wall Street "rescued" us from dishonor! That part of the
-proceeds not consumed in yacht races, pyrotechnics, and balls was
-passed to the credit of the reform fund, needed for the restoration of
-prosperity in the fall of 1896! Certainly a history of "Wall Street,
-Past," ought to contain some reference to these crimes.
-
-Mr. Clews, turning to "Wall Street, Present," tells the nation that
-now "the great banks have a superabundance of gold to lend on solid
-and readily salable collateral at low rates of interest, approximating
-the prevalent rates in London and Paris, where similar accumulations
-of idle capital exist." This is a true statement of the facts. Mr.
-Clews has here spoken by the books. What he says signifies that Wall
-Street is now ready to go ahead and issue new mortgages on the
-American people. It is now ready to offer inducements to our fourteen
-millions of voters to sell themselves into another twenty-year cycle
-of bondage. If they will only be gentle and not interrupt us; if they
-will give us a true death-grip on themselves, on all they possess, and
-all they ever hope to possess, we will lend back to them a part of the
-very money which we have sucked up from their wheat fields and
-pastures, from their barns and potato patches, from their humble
-stores and markets, from their mills and their mines, and we will thus
-_expedite_ them on the way to serfdom. Meanwhile we will continue to
-bankrupt their railways, to snatch their local stocks, to convert all
-shares in all enterprises into bonds, and to put the bonds into our
-safes to the end--that confidence may be restored and prosperity come
-back like the flowers that bloom in the spring.
-
-For the time being we, the Street, are able to toss "two hundred
-thousand shares a day" on the horns of our bull, and to put the same
-amount of securities under the custody of our bear. "This conclusion
-takes it for granted that the profits should be equally divided among
-the membership." Such are Mr. Clews's very words. By the bond of my
-faith! there is nothing else so beautiful and magnificent as this
-among the arts invented by mankind! As for the people, one of your own
-kings, Messieurs of the Street, has very properly indicated your wish
-and purpose with regard to _them_.
-
-Mr. Clews tells us that the "Future" of Wall Street is a sealed book;
-and yet we may allow that "there is such a thing as an accurate
-prevision of events." Of this kind are eclipses, occultations, and
-tides of the sea. If the capital of Wall Street has, since the
-institution was founded, increased more than sixtyfold, as Mr. Clews
-declares, then we may expect it, according to his philosophy, to
-increase full sixty times sixty, until the world shall be swallowed
-up. Then, when Threadneedle and Lombard Streets shall have lost their
-sceptre; then, when Seneca's forecast of the time to come shall have
-been fulfilled; then, when Macaulay's New Zealander shall have made
-his sketch, not only of St. Paul's, but also of the bank of England;
-then, when _all_ the wealth, and _all_ the power, and _all_ the
-functions of civil society in the United States shall have been
-transferred to Wall Street; then, when nothing shall remain to the
-American people except their squalid huts and the sorrowful
-reminiscences of a great republic; then, when Wall Street in very
-truth shall have possessed itself of the earth and consumed
-mankind,--I suppose that the benevolent owners of the world will found
-a few libraries, build a few marble mausoleums for themselves, and
-sally forth to establish a stock exchange in Mars! That done,
-interplanetary wars may be engendered, bonds on the solar system may
-be issued and bought at half price, a gold standard of values may be
-fixed on the basis of the pound sterling good from the sun out to
-Neptune, and the inhabitants of the worlds, either by arms or by
-journalism, may become the helots of consolidated wealth enthroned as
-the governing power of the universe.
-
-
-
-
-THE REFORM CLUB'S FEAST OF UNREASON.
-
-BY HON. CHARLES A. TOWNE,
-
-_Chairman Provisional National Committee Silver Republican Party._
-
-
-On Saturday evening, April 24, 1897, at the Waldorf Hotel, New York,
-there was held a political banquet intended as a most impressive
-function, but which has passed into history as a very ridiculous one.
-Big with self-complacence and puffed with pride, as it appeared in the
-brilliant lights and gorgeous appointments of the palatial
-supper-hall, within twenty-four hours the lacerating indignation of
-Mr. Watterson and the trenchant raillery of Mr. Bryan had let the
-tumid pretentiousness all out of it, and it had collapsed into a
-flaccid and "innocuous desuetude." The "star-eyed goddess" turned her
-back upon it, the "wild-orbed anarch" snapped his fingers at it, and
-even everyday Mrs. Grundy laughed it to scorn. Projected with the most
-alluring and satisfying expectations, the feast has dwindled to the
-memory of a sad mistake in the mind of every man that assisted at it.
-Planned as a sort of coronation ceremony, its completed performance
-unaccountably wore the complexion of belated obsequies irreverently
-disturbed by the guffaws of the multitude.
-
-But the aspect of this banquet as a piece of ill-conceived political
-strategy that never was formidable, or as a rite in the ceremonial of
-a hero-worship that is as inexplicable as inopportune, does not now so
-much concern me as does its office as a dispenser of misinformation
-and unsound philosophy, which are always dangerous. Many who condemn
-the folly of it as a move in practical politics nevertheless loudly
-commend the economic doctrines it contributed to spread. But inasmuch
-as, in my opinion, the science it taught is as bad as the politics it
-practised, I propose to call attention to a few of the arrogant
-assumptions and mischievous theories that found emphatic and repeated
-expression at this feast.
-
-Did the purpose of this article permit, it would be interesting to
-make Mr. Cleveland's speech the text of some examination into the
-ex-President's peculiarities of style. It was Clevelandesque to the
-core. All his protuberant characteristics are there: the leviathanic
-egotism, the profound and tenebrous ponderosity, the labored intricacy
-of the commonplace, the pedagogic moralizing, the oracular
-inconsequence. How absurdly obvious it all is now, and how
-inexplicable that the glamour of high place should ever have clothed
-such matter as his with the seeming of philosophy and statesmanship!
-'Tis the very frippery and trumpery of the stage after the lights are
-out and the audience has departed.
-
-In his opening Mr. Cleveland says: "On every side we are confronted
-with popular depression and complaint." This language stirs an echo of
-the long ago. In his special message to the extra session of the
-Fifty-third Congress in August, 1893, he thus announced a similar
-condition: "Suddenly financial distrust and fear have sprung up on
-every side." But he accounts differently for these two identical
-phenomena. The situation to-day he largely attributes to "the work of
-agitators and demagogues." In 1893 he declared: "I believe these
-things are principally chargeable to Congressional legislation
-touching the purchase and coinage of silver by the general
-government."
-
-The ex-President's explanations are both wrong, and nobody ought to
-know it so well as himself. His relations with the great gold bankers
-were exceedingly intimate in 1892 and 1893, and have been so ever
-since. It is notorious that the panic of 1893 was a bankers' panic
-deliberately brought about by these men to frighten public sentiment
-into supplementing their demand for the repeal of the purchasing
-clause of the Sherman law of 1890. The agitation against that law was
-a whooped-up and manufactured agitation. No legitimate interest had
-suffered from its operation. On the contrary, the access of standard
-silver dollars coined under the laws of 1878 and 1890 had been of
-incalculable advantage to the country. In his annual message of
-December 2, 1890, President Harrison had thus referred to this fact:
-"The general tendency of the markets was upward from influences wholly
-apart from the recent tariff legislation. The enlargement of our
-currency by the silver bill undoubtedly gave an upward tendency to
-trade and had a marked effect on prices." And again: "It is gratifying
-to know that the increased circulation secured by the act has
-exerted, and will continue to exert a most beneficial influence upon
-business and upon general values."
-
-Such an influence that circulation did indeed continue to exert. The
-comparative prosperity of the two following years, which, in contrast
-with the conditions of the subsequent period, causes 1892 to wear to
-wistful eyes so beautiful a hue in these unhappy days, would have been
-an absolute impossibility but for the silver legislation.
-
-Nor was the credit of the government menaced. It was a malicious
-afterthought that represented the silver dollar as a charge upon the
-credit of the nation. That dollar was a standard dollar. It was never
-"redeemed" in anything but the money-work it did. There was no law for
-its redemption, and there was as yet no attempt, such as Mr. Carlisle
-in 1896 declared himself ready to make, to commit the crime of an
-administrative degradation of the circulating silver dollars into
-promises for the payment of gold. The Treasury Notes, issued in
-payment for silver bullion under the law of 1890, were redeemable in
-either gold or silver at the discretion of the Secretary of the
-Treasury; and inasmuch as there was silver behind every one of them,
-they could become a menace to the credit of the government only in
-case of the betrayal of his duty by that official.
-
-But the contractionists looked with alarm upon the improving
-conditions of the country. Something must be done to discredit silver,
-or by and by there might arise such a demand for the full restoration
-of its mint privileges and money powers as could not be balked, as
-every similar demand had been balked since 1873; and in that event the
-slow villany of many years would have been fruitless and the
-contractionists' occupation would be gone. Then was formed the deep
-design to compel the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman
-law. The gigantic forces that had been behind Mr. Cleveland in the
-memorable campaign of 1892 had not lost their cunning or their power.
-They knew their implements, and they had had much experience. Their
-strategy was customary and it was effective. To-day Mr. Cleveland
-complains because the Republican party, having won the contest of last
-November on the money question, should have hurried into the current
-extra session on the tariff question. Let him recall his own course
-when, having carried the country in 1892 on the tariff question, he
-summoned the extra session of 1893 to consider the money question.
-Such a reflection might possibly assist him in fathoming the present
-motives of the men who won in 1892 to achieve the gold standard and in
-1896 to preserve it.
-
-For the election of Mr. Cleveland was a carefully executed move in an
-elaborate and merciless programme. The president of a national bank in
-North Dakota, a man of character and thorough reliability, has
-recently made public a conversation between himself and a prominent
-New York bank president, held not long after that election, in which
-the latter, whose institution was a member of the Associated National
-Banks, declared in substance as follows: "We have just elected Grover
-Cleveland President of the United States upon the express
-understanding with us that the policy of the administration shall be
-to uphold and advance the gold standard"; and he foretold, with
-startlingly faithful prevision, the repeal of the Sherman purchase
-law, the successive bond-issues, and the general and ruinous fall of
-prices, which seem to have evidenced the strict performance of the
-agreement by the party of the second part.
-
-How persistently the power of the executive was used, and how
-carefully the offices were dispensed, to influence Senators and
-members of Congress against the Sherman law, were matters of ordinary
-comment at the time. Meanwhile the banks were putting in motion their
-peculiar and enormous persuasions. For months no man could go into any
-bank in any State of the Union for any purpose without having thrust
-under his nose, with a more or less pointed request for his signature,
-a petition demanding the repeal of the obnoxious statute. Then, in the
-latter days of April, 1893, on the stock exchange, there began that
-concerted onslaught upon stocks and values, vaunted as an
-"object-lesson" to the people, as a result of which within eight
-months six hundred of the relatively smaller banking institutions of
-the country went down, dragging with them fifteen thousand industrial
-and business enterprises, involving a total loss of seven hundred and
-fifty millions of dollars.
-
-The object-lesson served its purpose. With the business world
-shattered into fragments, enterprise stifled, and credit dead, a
-terror seized upon the people. The opportunity for which the big
-bankers had been coolly waiting had come. Cunningly and in many places
-at once they started the cry that the Sherman law had caused all this
-havoc, and that the only hope for a return of prosperity lay in the
-immediate repeal of the feature providing for the purchase of new
-silver bullion. The clamor was eagerly repeated, and fear eagerly
-believed it. At precisely the right moment the President himself made
-official proclamation that the rumor was true, and summoned Congress
-in extra session to obey the mandate of the bankers. Under this spell
-Congress acted and the law was repealed. Thus was the country made
-dependent upon gold alone for its new supplies of full-power money,
-and thus, aided by similar action elsewhere, was inaugurated an era of
-accelerated fall of prices more pronounced than the world has known
-since the middle ages, and a precipitate decline of values more
-ruinous than any other chronicled in history.
-
-"Agitators and demagogues" indeed! Is it not monstrous that any
-intelligent man should believe the present frightful condition of the
-country to be due to the work of agitators and demagogues? Mr.
-Cleveland of course knows better; but many people have actually been
-convinced that some millions of our citizens would rather agitate than
-work; that thousands of them have deliberately and by preference
-forsworn business and become demagogues by trade. The thoughtful man
-knows that agitation is first a result and afterward a cause. It is a
-cruel as well as an ignorant thing for Mr. Cleveland and his disciples
-to cast into the faces of the suffering producers and workers of the
-United States, as a reproach, the fact of their discontent and
-complaining. Of course our people are in distress. Of course they are
-crying out against it. Of course they will endeavor to learn what
-occasions it. And of course when they have ascertained what the matter
-is they will agitate for relief. Substantially all men prefer to be
-busy about the ordinary and interdependent offices of social life.
-This is especially true of the great middle classes in the United
-States. Under just and rational laws they will be so. The absence of
-such a temper is ground for suspicion against the laws. Existing
-conditions confess their weakness and injustice when they revile
-admitted discontent. I would rather the cause I believe in sprang from
-suffering than that suffering should follow my cause.
-
-The full magnitude of this achievement for the gold standard in the
-repeal of the law of 1890, will not be grasped unless we bear in mind
-that it occurred at a time when the indications were unusually
-favorable that an international bimetallic agreement, which the world
-had been trying to accomplish for nearly twenty years, might soon be
-secured on an acceptable basis. It has long been suspected that the
-strongest discouragement of this hope, and probably the determining
-factor in its failure, was the attitude of President Cleveland as
-quietly caused to be understood abroad. Very recently this
-well-grounded suspicion has been turned into certainty by the
-distinguished English bimetallist, Mr. Moreton Frewen, who, in a
-letter to the Washington _Post_, says:
-
- But Mr. Cleveland made it known, through the subterranean
- channels of diplomacy, that, far from giving any support to
- silver, he was preparing to urge on Congress the repeal of the
- silver-purchase clauses of the Sherman act. Mr. Cleveland's
- intention became known in official circles in Calcutta. That this
- was the case I learned at the time and at first hand. The
- government of India believed that the cessation of all silver
- purchases in America would still further reduce the exchange
- value of the rupee, and therefore, in advance of the pending
- anti-silver legislation anticipated from Washington, the Indian
- mints were closed.
-
-Mr. Cleveland may well be deified in the gold-standard cult, for
-clearly he has been the arch-enemy of bimetallism.
-
-One of the characteristics of the discussion now going on between the
-advocates of gold monometallism and those of bimetallism is the
-disingenuousness of the former. They will rarely consent to a clear
-definition of the issue, but seek to evade it both by preëmpting the
-use of moral labels and catchphrases which satisfy their partisans
-without inquiry, and by stigmatizing their opponents with such vile
-imputations and base epithets as seem to place them beyond the pale of
-moral and intellectual tolerance. "Sound" and "honest" they write
-above their creed. They pose as consecrated guardians of public honor
-and private property. We are depicted as dishonest and imbecile,
-repudiators of national and individual obligations, communists or
-anarchists bearing the torch and axe. This specialty is Mr.
-Cleveland's long suit. Little wonder that his school should place him
-at its head. His preëminence in the field where self-admiration is a
-supreme virtue and ribald abuse passes for irrefutable argument will
-scarcely be denied by anybody who shall have read the following
-characteristic specimens from this Waldorf essay, carefully written
-down and calmly delivered: "We are gathered here to-night as patriotic
-citizens anxious to do something toward ... protecting the fair fame
-of our nation against shame and scandal." It is not recorded that
-anybody smiled at this. Indeed, the astonishing thing about this
-business is that these people seem able to impose successfully on one
-another. But Mr. Cleveland is even better at the other kind, as for
-example: "Agitators and demagogues," "ruthless agitators," "sordid
-greed," "inflamed with tales of an ancient crime against their
-rights," "unfortunate and unreasonable," "restless and turbulent,"
-"reckless creed," "boisterous and passionate campaign," "allied forces
-of calamity," "encouraged by malign conditions," and so on _ad
-nauseam_.
-
-This is the attitude of nearly all the defenders of the gold standard
-who have the hardihood to say anything at all. Undoubtedly in many
-cases it is assumed because of ignorance on the merits of the case, so
-that nothing remains but to "abuse the other fellow." But occasionally
-this course is adopted by men who are well informed, and who know that
-the gold standard is incapable of meeting bimetallism in an honest
-contest of argument with any hope of success. The strategy of these,
-therefore, is to avoid fair discussion by so prejudicing the public
-mind against their opponents as to forestall a hearing.
-
-The result has been surprisingly successful. In many localities, and
-in fact in nearly all localities in the East, the most intolerant
-spirit has been manifested by the most prominent persons in the
-community, who had never taken the pains to examine the subject on
-which they so violently and fanatically expressed themselves. To
-people of any acquaintance with the literature, the history, and the
-science of money, it has seemed most marvellous that business men of
-large affairs, of much general information, and of excellent natural
-abilities, should be content to remain absolutely ignorant of
-fundamental monetary principles and the overwhelmingly attested
-lessons of past experience. It is infinitely pitiful to see men of
-affairs led away in so-called "business men's sound-money
-associations" and other similar movements, when a knowledge of the
-conditions on which their welfare depends would send them in an
-exactly opposite direction.
-
-Why? Because business men are men who do business, or at any rate who
-want to do business; and all legitimate business consists in the
-performance of some appropriate function in connection with the
-production or the exchange of commodities. It is apparent to even the
-dullest apprehension that whatever prevents or discourages production
-is destructive of business, and that a money system which provides a
-measuring unit that constantly demands, as an equivalent, an
-increasing quantity of everything produced, is the greatest burden on
-production that could possibly be devised. But it is precisely this
-kind of a unit that the gold standard furnishes. No one economic fact
-is so conclusively established and so generally conceded as that of
-the progressive fall of average prices throughout the gold-standard
-world during the last twenty-four years. This fall amounts to almost
-fifty per cent, and indeed, in respect to the great staple products of
-the country, exceeds fifty per cent; so that, to state the same fact
-in its converse, the purchasing power of gold has increased since 1873
-one hundred per cent.
-
-The significance of this awful fact is deftly obscured behind the
-deceptive and specious plea for "a dollar of the greatest purchasing
-power." This is one of those artful expressions that are used by the
-advocates of the gold standard as a kind of thought-deterrent. It
-seems so obvious, at the first suggestion, that the best dollar is the
-dollar that will buy the most, that it is hard for a man to get even a
-hearing who asserts that, on the contrary, such a dollar is the very
-worst dollar conceivable. But a moment's reflection will satisfy any
-sane mind that such is the case. The demonstration is so simple that
-one feels like apologizing for making it. Yet it is in respect to
-principles just as plain as this one that people are constantly
-allowing themselves to be taken in by the supporters of the single
-standard.
-
-The demonstration is this: whatever is bought by a dollar, itself buys
-the dollar. For example, when a dollar exchanges for a bushel of
-wheat, the dollar buys the wheat, and the wheat buys the dollar. To
-say, therefore, that a dollar that buys two bushels of wheat, being a
-dollar of greater purchasing power, is better than the dollar that
-buys one bushel, is to say that the dollar which it requires two
-bushels of wheat to buy is a better dollar than that which can be
-bought with one bushel. Consequently, to increase the excellence of
-your dollar all you need to do is to increase the scarcity of the
-stuff out of which dollars are made, so that each one shall constantly
-stand for more and more wheat, or, using wheat merely as
-representative of commodities in general, so that it shall constantly
-require more and more of all other things on earth to get a dollar. It
-is wholly credible that the man with dollars should profess this
-philosophy, but it is absolutely inexplicable how it should receive
-the support of men interested in getting dollars with things, who
-comprise about seven-eighths of society.
-
-Now as it continually takes more products to get a given quantity of
-gold, is it not clear that the producer who becomes liable for taxes
-and gets into debt must constantly bear an increasing burden of
-taxation, and that his debt, payable in more commodities than it
-represented when he incurred it, needs only to run long enough to grow
-beyond the hope of his ability to pay it? Such a policy cannot but be
-fraught with certain ruin to producers. It is causing in the United
-States a condition frightful to contemplate. The mass of debts is
-piling up at a ratio that absolutely threatens, if a halt in the
-automatic process is not soon called, a universal insolvency. Indeed a
-general liquidation is already impossible. He is no alarmist who
-counsels a timely and rational remedy as not only demanded by justice,
-but as anticipatory of violent readjustment. Under such disquieting
-conditions is it not as criminal as it is unscientific for men to go
-about prating of the system that has occasioned these things as
-"honest money," and "sound money," and denouncing its opponents as
-repudiators and anarchists?
-
-In the presence of epochal and fundamental disturbance, when men,
-patient beyond example and willing to argue the correctness of their
-claims, are crying out against the injustice of a money system that
-day and night and year upon year, with unerring and pitiless
-precision, takes from the producing many and hands over to the idle
-few that which it ruins those to lose and but pampers these to gain,
-our ex-President offends decency and insults millions of his
-fellow-citizens with this reference to their contention: "Honest
-accumulation is called a crime." Where does he find anybody calling
-honest accumulation a crime? Men indeed stigmatize the maintenance of
-this odious money system as a crime, but only because of the things
-they claim it to be guilty of. Why does he not join issue on these? He
-knows that nowhere in all this world is there, or has there ever been,
-a more honest body of citizenship than the millions of Americans who
-to-day are toiling on the farms and in the workshops of the country
-and who demand from the laws they obey nothing but equity and justice.
-It was easier, and more pleasant to those who heard him, to wrong
-these men with a sneer than to answer them with an argument. He might
-possibly have done well to relinquish this task to one who sat near
-him, his ex-Secretary of the Treasury, who had himself, in 1878,
-discovered something that _he_ thought a crime and had thus denounced
-it: "According to my views of the subject the conspiracy which seems
-to have been formed here and in Europe to destroy, by legislation and
-otherwise, from three-sevenths to one-half the metallic money of the
-world, is the most gigantic crime of this or any other age."
-
-The speech of Mr. Carlisle was notable for stating his position more
-extremely than he had previously done since his apostasy. He boldly
-takes the stand logically demanded by consistency in the man who
-opposes silver coinage and denies the arguments based on the
-appreciation of gold. He comes out squarely for the gold standard and
-places bimetallism of any and all sorts under a common ban. But alas!
-what a sorry appearance he makes. Nowhere in our political history do
-I find quite so pathetic a figure as that presented by this once
-strong and virile champion of the people's rights in his contrasted
-role of defender of their oppressors. Where now is that compact and
-cogent argument, that sincere and moving eloquence, which made his
-forensic style so singularly effective; which marked him the
-parliamentary darling of his party, a predestined president of the
-republic? Shrunken to the dreary platitudes of the gold-standard
-catechism, babbling of "sound currency" and "intrinsic value."
-
-This talk of intrinsic value was not confined to Mr. Carlisle. Mr.
-Patterson, of Tennessee, and Senator Caffery, of Louisiana, were
-likewise guilty of it. It is, indeed, the characteristic folly of
-their school. Having destroyed the money demand for silver while
-adding almost incalculably to that for gold, they have caused an
-increasing disparity in the values of the two metals; and now, when it
-is sought to restore the parity by restoring the equivalence of use
-and demand on which alone it depends, they pretend to have discovered
-some inherent perfection in gold and an original sin in silver which
-forbid all attempts to reconcile them. In the face of monetary
-principles whose nature has been understood for more than two thousand
-years, and of historic and economic facts which every college freshman
-knows, Mr. Carlisle has the appalling audacity to use the following
-language: "Natural causes have separated the two metals, and while it
-is possible that natural causes may hereafter change their present
-relations to each other, it is certain that these relations cannot be
-changed by artificial means."
-
-It is difficult to speak with becoming moderation of such stuff as
-this; and it is really pathetic to see the dominant opinion of whole
-sections of the country taking its cue from men who assume superior
-airs and rebuke the presumption of thinking on the part of some
-millions of Americans, while they peddle such insufferable nonsense as
-this just quoted from Mr. Carlisle. "Natural causes" indeed, when we
-can turn to the statute books of half the world and put our fingers on
-the "artificial means" whereby the hoarders of gold have legislated
-demand into one metal and legislated it out of the other. Let once a
-wrong be achieved by artificial means, and instantly those who profit
-by it represent it as the inevitable decree of evolutional forces.
-"Natural causes," we are asked to believe, have made gold dear and
-silver cheap during a period when the cost of producing gold has been
-cheapened more than any other mechanical process; when both metals
-have continued on substantially their old relative planes of use in
-every respect save as money; when their relative production has been
-from three to twenty times less disproportionate than at any other
-similar period in the past four hundred years; and when in actual
-weight the stocks of coin and bullion available for coinage have risen
-from a proportion of thirty-two of silver to one of gold up to that of
-sixteen of silver to one of gold coincidently with a fall of the
-so-called market ratio from fifteen and one-half to one, when the
-mints were open to both, down to thirty-three to one when only the one
-can be freely coined. It is simply an incredible and impossible
-proposition.
-
-Intrinsic value is as unthinkable as intrinsic distance. Both distance
-and value are relations. Neither can exist or be stated except by
-comparison. The value of a thing is what it is worth; and it is worth
-what it will bring. Value in exchange is the only value that political
-economy knows anything about; and what a given thing will exchange for
-depends on the ratio of the supply of it to the demand for it. A piece
-of money is worth what it will buy. Other things remaining the same,
-it will buy more when the stuff out of which it is made is plentiful,
-and less when that is scarce. The proposition of the bimetallists
-rests on only time-honored doctrines of political economy as justified
-by the experience of mankind. We desire to restore the parity of gold
-and silver by perfectly "natural causes" set in operation by
-"artificial means." We propose to invoke the law to equalize their
-opportunity and to make them interchangeably and indifferently
-responsive to the same money demand.
-
-Space has not permitted reference to all the errors committed at this
-wonderful banquet, nor a complete discussion of even those cited. I
-have endeavored only to point out the most glaring ones in the hope
-that some persons inclined to accept, somewhat carelessly, the
-assumedly authoritative statements of these eminent men, may be led to
-study this great subject whose proper understanding and wise
-management are of such vast importance not only in American politics
-but in the progress of the race. For the cause of bimetallism must
-commend itself to the intellect and the conscience of the country or
-it cannot win. Those who have spent some time in an earnest and
-thoughtful investigation of the matter and are convinced that the
-success of silver coinage is the first step in a series of rational,
-safe, and necessary reforms, are ready to be judged as much by the
-reasonableness of their doctrine as by the sincerity of their motives.
-They intend from now on to force the fight. The enemy will be sought
-out and assailed wherever found. No pretentious claims of
-infallibility will be accorded immunity from criticism. No authority
-will be permitted to shelter folly. It is time to expose the
-preposterous assurance of the gold-standard pundits. Nonsense will be
-called nonsense whoever utters it, and, what is more, it will be
-proved to be nonsense.
-
-
-
-
-DOES CREDIT ACT ON THE GENERAL LEVEL OF PRICES?
-
-BY A. J. UTLEY.
-
-
-It is conceded by all standard writers on political economy that the
-value of money--that is, its purchasing power--is fixed and regulated
-by the amount of money available for use.
-
-John Stuart Mill says:
-
- If the whole money in circulation was doubled prices would be
- doubled. If it was only increased one-fourth, prices would rise
- one-fourth. There would be one-fourth more money, all of which
- would be used to purchase goods of some description. When there
- had been time for the increased supply of money to reach all
- markets, or (according to conventional metaphor) to permeate all
- the channels of circulation, all prices would have risen
- one-fourth. But the general rise of price is independent of this
- diffusing process. Even if some prices were raised more, and
- others less, the average rise would be one-fourth. This is a
- necessary consequence of the fact that a fourth more money would
- have to be given for only the same quantity of goods. General
- price, therefore, in any such case would be one-fourth higher.
- The very same effect would be produced on prices if we suppose
- the goods diminished, instead of the money increased: and the
- contrary effect if the goods were increased, or the money
- diminished. If there were less money in the hands of the
- community, and the same amount of goods to be sold, less money
- altogether would be given for them, and they would be sold at
- lower prices; lower, too, in the precise ratio in which the money
- was diminished. _So that the value of money, other things being
- the same, varies inversely as its quantity; every increase in
- quantity lowering the value, and every diminution raising it, in
- a ratio exactly equivalent._
-
-This is known as the quantitative theory of money, and is recognized
-by Ricardo, Jevons, Macleod, John Locke, James Mill, John Stuart Mill,
-Senator John P. Jones, David Hume, William Huskisson, Sir James
-Graham, Prof. Torrens, Prof. Sidgwick, J. R. McCulloch, Mr. Gallatin,
-Prof. Fawcett, Prof. Perry, N. A. Nicholson, Earl Grey, Prof. Shield
-Nicholson, Lord Overstone, and, in fact, by all writers on political
-economy of any prominence since Adam Smith. Formerly it was supposed
-that the value of money depended upon the cost of production; that the
-reason why a dollar in gold or silver was worth 100 cents was because
-it took 100 cents' worth of labor to produce metal enough to make a
-dollar. This theory, however, has been abandoned by the best writers
-and speakers; in fact, by all economists of any standing, and it is
-now conceded that the cost of producing the metal has no influence on
-its money value, only as it may tend to increase or reduce the amount
-of money, and that it is the quantity of money, the number of units,
-available for use that determines and regulates its value; that is, if
-the quantity is increased its value will fall, and if the quantity is
-diminished its value will rise, and that it will fall or rise in value
-in a ratio exactly equivalent to the increase or diminution of the
-volume of money; and that if sufficiently reduced in volume, a dollar,
-whether stamped on gold, silver, or paper, would buy a plantation or
-pay a man for the labor of a lifetime. There can be no doubt as to the
-correctness of the quantitative theory of money.
-
-John Stuart Mill says:
-
- That an increase in the quantity of money raises prices, and a
- diminution lowers them, is the most elementary proposition in the
- theory of currency, and without it we have no key to any of the
- others.
-
-Prices, however, are not fixed by the total amount of money in
-existence; only that part of the money that is available for use can
-act on prices.
-
-Mr. Mill says:
-
- Whatever may be the quantity of money in the country, only that
- part of it will affect prices which goes into the market of
- commodities and is there actually exchanged for goods of some
- description. Whatever increases this portion of the money in the
- country tends to raise prices. Money kept in reserve by
- individuals to meet contingencies which do not occur, does not
- act on prices. Money in the coffers of banks, or retained as a
- reserve, does not act on prices until drawn out to be expended
- for commodities.
-
-It is also conceded that in fixing prices not only all the money
-actually available for use must be taken into consideration, but the
-rapidity of circulation must also be regarded; and due allowance must
-be made for the number of times commodities change hands before
-consumption.
-
-The same dollar may, by passing from hand to hand, make a number of
-purchases, and the same goods may be sold repeatedly before
-consumption. It is, probably, correct to say, that the money available
-for use multiplied by the rapidity of circulation, or, as Mr. Mill
-expresses it, by its efficiency, equals the total money to be
-considered; and the commodities sold multiplied by the average number
-of sales equals the total commodities to be taken into consideration
-in fixing the general level of prices.
-
-Are there any other elements that act on the general level of prices?
-Of course an abundant yield, or a short crop, or an over-production,
-so called, or under-consumption, of any particular commodity may
-depress or raise the price of that particular crop or commodity; but
-are there any elements other than those above enumerated that act on
-the general level of prices? I think there are none.
-
-If, then, prices are controlled by the volume of money available for
-use; and if the general level of prices will rise as the volume of
-money is increased, and fall as the volume of money is diminished, and
-rise or fall in an exact ratio corresponding with the expansion or
-contraction of the volume of money, it becomes important to ascertain
-what money is, and also whether there is anything which can be used as
-a substitute for money in such a manner as to affect the general level
-of prices.
-
-Senator John P. Jones, than whom there is no one better informed,
-says:
-
- The money of a country is that thing, whatever it may be, which
- is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in
- payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law or by
- universal consent. Its value does not arise from the intrinsic
- qualities which the material of which it is made may possess, but
- depends entirely on extrinsic qualities which law or common
- consent may confer.
-
-Aristotle says:
-
- Money has value only by law and not by nature; so that a change
- of convention between those who use it is sufficient to deprive
- it of its value and power to satisfy our wants.
-
-Adam Smith says:
-
- A guinea may be considered a bill for a certain quantity of goods
- on all the tradesmen in the neighborhood.
-
-Henry Thornton says:
-
- Money of every kind is an order for goods. It is so considered by
- the laborer when he receives it, and it is almost instantly
- converted into money's worth. It is merely the instrument by
- which the purchasable stock of the country is distributed with
- convenience and advantage among the several members of the
- community.
-
-John Stuart Mill says:
-
- The pounds or shillings which a man receives are a sort of ticket
- or order which he may present for payment at any shop he pleases,
- and which entitles him to receive a certain value of any
- commodity that he may choose.
-
-Appleton's Cyclopædia defines money in the following words:
-
- Anything which freely circulates from hand to hand, in any
- country, as a common, acceptable medium of exchange, is, in such
- country, money, even though it ceases to be such, or to possess
- any value, when passing into another country. In a word, an
- article is determined to be money by reason of the performance by
- it of certain functions, without regard to its form or substance.
-
-Francis A. Walker says:
-
- Money is that which freely passes from hand to hand through the
- community in final discharge of debt and in full payment for
- commodities, being accepted equally without reference to the
- character or credit of the person who offers it, and without the
- intention of the person who receives it, to consume it, or enjoy
- it, or apply it to any other use than in turn to tender it to
- others in discharge of debts or in payment for commodities.
-
-It has been contended by certain economists that bank checks and bills
-of exchange are money, or, at least, that they discharge the money
-function and act on prices the same as money; but this definition
-excludes checks and bills of exchange. A bill of exchange or bank
-check is not accepted without reference to the character or credit of
-the person who offers it. But Francis A. Walker leaves us in no doubt
-on this question. On page 123 of his work on "Political Economy" he
-says:
-
- Money is a medium of exchange. Whatever performs this function,
- does this work, is money, no matter what it is made of, and no
- matter how it came to be a medium at first, or why it continues
- to be such. So long as, in any community, there is an article
- which all producers take freely and as a matter of course in
- exchange for whatever they have to sell, instead of looking
- about, at the time, for the particular things they, themselves,
- wish to consume, that article is money, be it white, yellow, or
- black, hard or soft, animal, vegetable, or mineral. There is no
- other test of money than this. That which does the money work is
- the money thing. It may do this well; it may do this ill. It may
- be good money; it may be bad money; but it is money all the same.
- We said _all_ producers, since it is not enough that a thing is
- extensively used in exchange, to constitute it money. _Bank
- checks are used in numerous and important transactions, yet are
- not money._ It is essential to money that its acceptability
- should be so nearly universal that practically every person in
- the community who has any product or service to dispose of will
- freely, gladly, and of preference, take this thing money, instead
- of the particular products or service which he may individually
- require from others, being well assured that with money he will
- unfailingly obtain whatever he shall desire, in form and amount,
- and at times to suit his wants.
-
-It appears from the accepted definitions that bank checks and bills of
-exchange are not money. They may to some extent, as other forms of
-credit may to some extent, add to or increase the rapidity of
-circulation; but, certainly, credit is not money nor does it possess
-the essential elements of money. I think it is an essential element of
-money that when used it closes the transaction between the parties to
-the transaction. In other words, money, when paid in the purchase of a
-commodity, closes the transaction, and neither party to the
-transaction has any further claim or demand against the other.
-Anything which does this (barter, of course, excluded) is money, and
-anything which fails to do this is not money. If a credit is given or
-a check received the transaction is not closed until the debt is paid
-or the check cashed. I do not find that any economist has made this
-distinction, in so many words, between money and credit, but I am
-satisfied that it exists.
-
-Does all the money available for use act on prices? It is contended by
-a certain class of economists that only money of ultimate and final
-redemption--in other words, gold and silver, in countries where gold
-and silver are the standard money, and gold only, in countries where
-gold is the standard money--can act directly on prices, and that other
-forms of money can only act on prices in an indirect manner, and to
-the extent only that they may increase the rapidity of the circulation
-of redemption or standard money; that paper money, whether convertible
-or inconvertible, covered or uncovered, and token money, can have no
-direct influence on the general level of prices.
-
-Is this contention true? We have already seen that money is a medium
-of exchange, a counter for reckoning, an order for goods, and that its
-value does not depend upon the intrinsic qualities which the material
-out of which it is made may possess, but depends entirely upon
-extrinsic qualities which law or common consent may confer, and that
-anything (barter, of course, excluded) that closes transactions
-between the parties to the transactions, is money; and also that the
-value of money, that is, its purchasing power, is fixed and regulated
-by the amount of money available for use. Why, then, should any part
-of the money that possesses and discharges all the functions of money
-be excluded? What peculiar property has money stamped on gold and
-silver that it only can act on prices?
-
-John Stuart Mill says:
-
- After experience had shown that pieces of paper, of no intrinsic
- value, by merely bearing upon them the written profession of
- being equivalent to a certain number of francs, dollars, or
- pounds, could be made to circulate as such, and to produce all
- the benefit to the users which could have been produced by the
- coins which they purported to represent, governments began to
- think that it would be a happy device if they could appropriate
- to themselves this benefit, free from the condition to which
- individuals issuing such paper substitutes for money were
- subject, of giving, when required, for the sign, the thing
- signified. They determined to try whether they could not
- emancipate themselves from this unpleasant obligation, and make a
- piece of paper issued by them pass for a pound, by merely calling
- it a pound and consenting to receive it in payment for taxes. And
- such is the influence of almost all established governments, that
- they have generally succeeded in attaining this object: _I
- believe I may say they have always succeeded for a time, and the
- power has only been lost to them after they had compromised it by
- the most flagrant abuse._--"Political Economy," Book 3, Chap. 13.
-
-Mill further says that such inconvertible paper money will act on
-prices. And if inconvertible paper money will act on prices, why will
-not convertible paper money, that is, paper money convertible into
-coin on demand, also act on prices? Token money, especially if a legal
-tender, and whether a legal tender or not, if accepted without
-objection in the payment of debt, or if received in full payment for
-commodities, discharges the money function, and is to all intents and
-purposes money. It is not absolutely necessary that to make a thing
-money it should be a legal tender in the payment of debt. Anything
-which is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in
-payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law (that is, its
-legal tender property) or by common consent, is money. From 1861 to
-1873 we had no gold or silver money in the United States, or virtually
-none. The official reports of the Secretary of the Treasury show that
-the gold and silver coin, including the gold and silver bullion in the
-United States Treasury during that period, amounted to but
-$25,000,000, and even that was not in circulation, except to a very
-limited extent on the Pacific Coast. Yet during that period prices
-reached the highest level ever attained in this country. Certainly,
-the level of prices during that period was not fixed by the gold and
-silver money available for use. In view of the foregoing facts I think
-it must be apparent that any money which is received in full payment
-for commodities, whether so received on account of its legal tender
-property or by universal consent, and whether it is gold, silver,
-paper, or token money, acts on prices, and tends to fix the general
-level of prices.
-
-It is claimed by a great many writers on political economy that credit
-has the same influence in fixing the general level of prices that
-money has, and that an expansion or contraction of credit would
-inflate or contract prices in the same manner and to the same extent
-as would result from a contraction or expansion of money; that if
-credit is extended, if more commodities are sold on credit than
-formerly, such extension of credit will tend to raise prices in the
-same manner and to the same extent as would so much additional money;
-and that if credits are contracted, if less credits are given than
-formerly, such contraction of credits will tend to depress prices in
-the same manner and to the same extent as a withdrawal of a like
-amount of money from the channels of trade would depress them. At the
-head of this school of political economists stands John Stuart Mill.
-He says:
-
- I apprehend that bank notes, bills, or cheques, as such, do not
- act on prices at all. What does act on prices is credit, in
- whatever shape given, and whether it gives rise to any
- transferable instruments capable of passing into circulation or
- not. (See Book 3, Chapter 12.)
-
-Is this contention true? If so, then it is not true that the general
-level of prices is determined by the amount of money available for
-use; but is determined, rather, by the amount of credits available for
-use. The debts of the world (and the credits, of course, are precisely
-equal to the debts, as there could be no debt without a corresponding
-credit) amount, in round numbers, to $200,000,000,000, and the money
-in the world amounts in round numbers to $10,000,000,000. That is,
-there are twenty dollars of credit to one dollar of money; and if
-credit exercises the same influence in fixing the general level of
-prices that money exercises, then it is absurd to say that the volume
-of money available for use fixes the general level of prices, and at
-the same time to contend that credit, dollar for dollar, is an equal
-factor in fixing prices. If credit affects the general level of
-prices in the same manner and to the same extent that money does, then
-credit exerts an influence on prices twenty times greater than that
-exerted by money, and we should say: The general level of prices is
-fixed by credit, modified, it may be, to some extent by the amount of
-money in circulation.
-
-The difficulty seems to be in distinguishing between money and credit.
-If we keep in mind the fact that anything which closes the transaction
-between the parties to the transaction (barter excluded) is money, and
-anything which leaves something still to be done is credit, we shall
-have no difficulty in making the distinction.
-
-Can credit affect the general level of prices? One of the most
-familiar and common illustrations given by those who contend that
-credit will raise the general level of prices, is that of a man
-entering the market to buy cotton.
-
-They say: "Suppose a person with $5,000 in money enters the cotton
-market, and with his money purchases $5,000 worth of cotton. His
-demand for cotton and his purchase of $5,000 worth will tend to
-advance or stimulate the price of cotton." "Now," they say, "suppose
-he has a credit of $5,000 and with this credit he purchases an
-additional $5,000 worth of cotton. The second purchase, made on
-credit," they contend, "will tend to still further advance the price
-of cotton in the same manner and to the same extent that the cash
-purchase did." Is this true?
-
-Let us suppose that he purchased the second bunch of cotton on ninety
-days' time. At the end of the ninety days he must pay for this cotton.
-If he draws the $5,000 with which he pays this debt from money
-invested in the cotton trade, the withdrawal of that sum from money
-invested in that industry will tend to depress the price of cotton to
-the extent that it was stimulated by the credit. If he withdraws it
-from the grain trade or from some other industry, the withdrawal of
-that sum of money will tend to depress prices in the industry from
-which it is withdrawn to the same extent as the cotton industry was
-stimulated by the credit. Whether the money to pay the debt is taken
-from the cotton industry or from some other industry, the general
-level of prices has not been raised. The purchase in the first
-instance may have temporarily stimulated the price of cotton, but if
-the payment of the debt is made from money drawn from that industry,
-it will depress the price of cotton to where it was before the credit
-purchase was made; and if the payment is made from money drawn from
-some other industry, it will depress prices in that industry to the
-same extent that the price of cotton was stimulated. In either event
-the general level of prices remains the same. It is like robbing Peter
-to pay Paul. It may make Paul richer, but how about Peter? There is no
-more wealth in existence than before the robbery was committed.
-
-Again, it is claimed that credit stimulates prices by causing
-commodities which are sold on credit to be sold for higher prices than
-commodities of the same value are sold for when sold for cash. It is
-true that sales on credit are, as a rule, at a higher price than sales
-for cash in hand. Why is this so? For two reasons:
-
-1st. Business done on credit is always attended with considerable
-risk. Even when the utmost caution is exercised, bad debts will be
-made, and a greater margin on sales is necessary.
-
-2nd. When time is given a certain amount must be added to the price of
-the goods to compensate the seller for the use of his capital between
-the date of sale and the maturity of the account.
-
-The additional price, thus received, is of no advantage to the
-producer or to the seller of the commodity. The addition to the price
-is consumed by losses from bad debts and in interest on capital. In
-fact, the additional prices charged, when properly analyzed, are not
-for the goods, but for the risk on the credit and for interest on
-capital. The net selling price of the commodity is not increased.
-Experience has proven that men who sell for the lesser price for cash
-in hand are more apt to succeed than those who charge the higher rate
-on the credit system.
-
-Credit is always burdened with interest. If interest is not directly
-charged, the goods are sold at an advance on the cash price equal to
-the interest, which amounts to the same thing. Interest acts on
-commerce like friction on machinery. As friction absorbs a portion of
-the motive power, so interest absorbs a part of the value of all
-commodities sold on credit. Interest, the necessary accompaniment of
-credit, produces no wealth; but, on the contrary, absorbs wealth and
-tends to concentrate it in the hands of the few; and, necessarily, in
-the same ratio it takes from the masses the power to purchase the
-things they desire and would otherwise consume. Its ultimate result
-must be to lower prices. Credit burdened with interest, as it always
-is, may temporarily increase the demand for a certain commodity and
-consequently temporarily raise its price; but it must do this at the
-expense of other commodities. Like a stimulant administered to a human
-being, it may produce spasmodic results of extraordinary power; but
-when the stimulant has spent its force it leaves the individual weaker
-and in a worse condition than he was before the stimulant was
-administered.
-
-Henry Thornton, an English economist, attempts to prove that a bill of
-exchange is money, and that, being money, it acts on prices. He says:
-
- Let us imagine a farmer in the country to discharge a debt of £10
- to his neighboring grocer by giving him a bill for that sum,
- drawn on his corn-factor in London, for grain sold in the
- metropolis; and the grocer to transmit the bill, he having
- previously indorsed it, to a neighboring sugar-baker in discharge
- of a like debt; and the sugar-baker to send it, when again
- indorsed, to a West India merchant in an outport; and the West
- India merchant to deliver it to his country banker, who also
- indorses it and sends it into further circulation. The bill in
- this case will have effected five payments, exactly as if it were
- a £10 note payable to the bearer on demand. A multitude of bills
- pass this way between traders in the country, in the manner which
- has been described; _and they evidently form in the strictest
- sense a part of the circulating medium of the kingdom_.
-
-Mill in his "Political Economy" quotes this illustration with
-approval. Is the conclusion arrived at correct?
-
-Suppose that instead of a bill of exchange for £10, a horse worth £10
-had been made use of, and the farmer had delivered the horse to the
-grocer in satisfaction of his debt, and the grocer had turned it over
-to the sugar-baker, and the sugar-baker to the West India merchant,
-etc. The horse would have paid the five debts in precisely the same
-manner that the bill of exchange did, but would such a use of the
-horse _have made the horse, in the strictest sense of the term, a part
-of the circulating medium of the kingdom_? I think not! A bill of
-exchange is not money, but an order for money, and would be valueless
-unless honored by payment on presentation. From the time the bill was
-drawn until finally paid an amount of money equal to the demand of
-the bill must be held out of circulation for its payment. It adds
-nothing to the circulation, and in no sense does it constitute a part
-of the circulating medium. It may, possibly, increase the rapidity of
-circulation, but it is difficult to see how it could do even this. The
-£10 held out of circulation for the payment of the bill would have
-paid the debts in the same manner that the bill of exchange did, and I
-fail to see why they would not have made the circuit as quickly. If a
-horse had been made use of in the settlement of the debts mentioned by
-Mr. Thornton, it would have been barter, pure and simple, and not a
-money transaction.
-
-That the contraction of the volume of credit will not tend to depress
-prices in the same manner and to the same extent that a contraction of
-the volume of money would will be apparent from the following
-illustration.
-
-The most conservative estimates place the national, municipal,
-corporate, and individual debts in the United States at
-$30,000,000,000. The Secretary of the Treasury estimates the amount of
-money in circulation at $1,600,000,000. There is not, in fact,
-one-third of the amount available for use; but for the purpose of this
-illustration we will take the Secretary's estimate as correct. Now let
-us suppose that the volume of credit should be reduced to
-$28,400,000,000, either by the payment of $1,600,000,000 of the debt
-or by bankruptcy proceedings or in some other manner. If that amount
-of the credits were extinguished by payment, business would be
-stimulated. That sum of money, or at least a considerable portion of
-it, would pass into the hands of the creditor class, where it would
-seek investment, and the tendency would be, not to contract, but to
-expand prices. If that amount of the credits were extinguished by
-bankruptcy proceedings in which no money passed in either direction,
-such an extinguishment could not depress or expand prices; it could
-have no influence upon them.
-
-Now suppose that $1,600,000,000 of the money, every dollar now claimed
-to be in circulation in the United States, should be withdrawn from
-the channels of trade, it would not be difficult to see that prices
-would fall; would, in fact, be completely annihilated. There would be
-no money with which to make purchases or to pay debts, civilization
-would go backwards, and universal bankruptcy and ruin would ensue.
-Suppose that only one-half or one-third of the money available for use
-should be withdrawn from circulation; even then business would be
-paralyzed, the money remaining would be hoarded or would be collected
-in the great money centres, prices would fall, and business men all
-over the country would be forced into bankruptcy. I think that it must
-be perfectly apparent that a contraction of credit does not act on the
-general level of prices in the same manner and to the same extent that
-a contraction of the volume of money does; that, in fact, it does not
-act on the general level of prices at all.
-
-I, therefore, conclude that money, and money only, acts on the general
-level of prices, and that credit does not and cannot act on prices
-except only as it may increase the rapidity of the circulation of
-money; and even then it is the greater efficiency of the money, and
-not the credit, that stimulates prices. Credit may temporarily
-stimulate the price of the product of some particular industry, but to
-do this it must attract money from some other industry, and the
-stimulation will be at the expense of a corresponding depression in
-prices in the industry from which the money is attracted.
-
-LOS ANGELES, COL.
-
-
-
-
-POINTS IN THE AMERICAN AND FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS COMPARED.
-
-BY NIELS GRÖN.
-
-
-There are several reasons why, particularly in the light of what is
-going on in the two countries, a comparison between certain points of
-the constitutions of the French and United States republics should be
-of more than passing interest. Successive ministerial crises in France
-threaten the stability of the republic; here, while political
-conventions representing millions of people meet and produce radical
-platforms, nobody is apprehensive of revolution or trouble. The
-constitution is a bulwark against sudden change; its wisdom is
-believed to be guarded by impregnable security against caprice or
-panic.
-
-One in the Eastern hemisphere, the other in the New World, the two
-countries are the only great republics; both are watched by monarchies
-with invidious eyes, and, as before suggested, both have passed
-through, or are passing through, interesting not to say exciting
-experiences. American admirers of the republican form of government
-believe that the cause of human liberty would be seriously injured
-were the French Republic to cease to exist; they go further, and say
-that the death-knell of civil freedom would be sounded the moment the
-American republic became a failure. Something like a crisis is seen in
-the United States to-day, brought about by a whole series of
-concomitant causes, such as business depression, bank failures,
-industrial disputes terminating in strikes and lockouts, Coxey armies,
-panicky people, and unsettled views regarding commerce and finance,
-this last cause predominating.
-
-Though France has her difficulties about raising sufficient money to
-carry on the administration, and an income tax is just as unpopular
-there as it would be here, nevertheless the chief cause of her trouble
-is to be traced, not to financial, but to constitutional sources. The
-country is very rich, and its ministers probably will always find some
-means of raising enough money to pay the cost of administration.
-Quite true, it is a sore point for a proud country which yearns for
-revenge upon Germany and longs for large colonial possessions, that
-its population does not increase, while the populations of its enemy,
-Germany, and of its well-wisher, the United States, go up by leaps and
-bounds. True, there are economic writers who regard the dearth and
-even the decrease of population in France as an advantage to the
-country. But these need not be considered in this inquiry, for it is
-quite obvious that any country which really aspires to be numbered
-with the great powers, and effectually wishes to own important
-colonial possessions, must have a stalwart and increasing people. And
-it is a real source of weakness that there should yet be in France so
-many Royalists constantly on the alert and hoping always for a change
-in the existing form of government.
-
-Happily, on the contrary, no matter how widely the Western American
-may differ from his friend in the East, or how keenly the
-ex-Confederate may feel over the "lost cause," the warm-blooded son of
-Kentucky will fight as bravely under the flag of the republic as will
-his frozen-featured brother from Minnesota, and the dreamy individual
-who gazes poetically upon the placid waters of Puget Sound will shout
-as loudly for one country, and one allegiance to its glorious emblem,
-as will the gilded youth whose republicanism is artistically refreshed
-by a constant vision of the Statue of Liberty triumphantly standing in
-New York harbor.
-
-Royalism, conservatism, concentrationism, moderate republicanism,
-opportunism, radicalism, ultra-radicalism, socialism, and heaven knows
-how many other "isms" besides, exist in France to-day, and make it
-hard for any ministry to carry on the government. Numerous
-disintegrating influences are ever present, and political convictions
-are seldom sufficiently decided for any ministry to form a stable
-majority.
-
-Though France has had the experience of two previous experiments in
-republican forms of government (the one set up in 1792, and the second
-established in 1848), they were such mere makeshifts and so very
-short-lived that they could not have taught the country very much of
-the real genius of republican institutions. The centralization and
-tyranny of centuries brought revolt and hatred of the past, but did
-not prepare the people for self-government; while here the principles
-of civil liberty, transplanted from the mother country and flourishing
-in congenial conditions under colonial administration, found apt and
-natural expression in the Declaration of Independence and the
-Constitution. The event of republican institutions twice tried in
-France failed to show that even the leaders understood the principles
-of liberty as they were understood by the fathers of the American
-system of government, and enthusiastically adopted by the people, as
-the crystallization, so to speak, in definite terms, of what they had
-long enjoyed. Short-sighted acts of tyranny, exercised by George III
-and his ministers, were regarded, and justly so, as mere accidents of
-the time and as innovations to be resisted and overcome. The outcome
-was the vindication of the principles of government founded by the
-countrymen of King Alfred the Great, their expansion, and the
-invaluable expression of those principles in the Declaration and the
-Constitution.
-
-Some of the bravest and best under the French monarchy helped to
-establish the reign of popular liberty in the United States, and there
-can be no question but that the French Revolution was accomplished in
-part as a result of what had been seen and done on this side of the
-Atlantic on behalf of the civil rights of the people; but the founders
-of the first republic in France had no complete foundation on which to
-build a fabric firm and lasting. It was not easy for a venerable
-European nation, intrenched within its own regal institutions, in
-shaking off the past to begin a future of popular sovereignty. Much
-was gained by sweeping away the worst abuses of the past, but reaction
-came, succeeded, after a long lapse of time, by a second attempt to
-establish a republic, again to fail, until the collapse of the power
-of the adventurer whose election to the presidency was the beginning
-of the end of the republic of 1848, led to the third experiment, the
-permanent success of which we all hope for.
-
-If--much virtue in an "if"--the leaders of the first French Republic
-had been thoroughly masters of and thoroughly imbued with the
-principles of American liberty, it is possible they might have so
-instructed and led a bright and capable people as to lay a sure
-foundation for the future. But even this modified statement is open to
-question. While it may be regretted that the American Constitution was
-not copied in the establishment of the successive French republics, it
-is by no means certain that this matchless paper would have been so
-far appreciated in its recognition of the great principles underlying
-it, as to insure success. Some of the South American republics have
-the American Constitution, more or less, but are not shining examples
-of republican success. No one can question that monarchies like the
-United Kingdom and Germany enjoy a larger diffusion of civil liberty
-than they.
-
-Taking the French system, however, as it exists to-day, there can be
-no question that it would be vastly improved by copying the American
-model. It seems to have been founded with a view to the possibility of
-restoring the monarchy, and, this being so, the men who created it had
-no object in studying the American Constitution with a view to
-preventing those ministerial crises which threaten the destruction of
-the third republic. It will not do to attribute these crises to the
-unstable character of the fiery Frenchman, nor can the difficulty be
-disposed of by saying that a French minister will create a crisis for
-the sake of a pleasing _bon mot_ or a sprightly paradox. A crisis
-supposes something outside of, or above, or beyond the ordinary, but
-French ministerial crises have become so common that they are the
-laughingstock of the nations, and may be said to be almost the normal
-condition of the legislative assemblies of France. So long as such
-critical situations can be thus easily brought about there cannot be
-that continuity of policy which is essential for carrying out great
-projects. The problem to be solved is a constitutional one,--a
-statement, I think, easily proved true.
-
-Article Six of the constitution of 1875 reveals the real cause of
-ministerial crises in France: "The ministers are in a body responsible
-to the Chambers for the general policy of the government, and
-individually for their personal acts." This article obviously leaves
-the respective powers of both houses very undefined. Which chamber is
-the superior? To which of them are the ministers in fact responsible?
-The ministers may have a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, and may
-be in a minority in the Senate. Then there is a crisis. The Senate
-blocks the way and will not allow the government to go on, for it
-claims that it is the superior body. This absence of the proper
-demarcation of the powers of the Senate, of the Chamber of Deputies,
-and of the ministers necessarily leads to conflict; conflict is but a
-step from instability, and instability is a crisis which threatens
-revolution.
-
-The remedy for these oft-recurring ministerial crises in France is to
-be found in the American Constitution. The French Constitution should
-be revised and changed at the part quoted and all parts relating to
-it, so as to provide against ministerial crises; and the instrument
-presenting a sure guide in the performance of this necessary work is
-the American Constitution. It has been in operation over a hundred
-years and has been found to be an admirable working document,
-affording ministerial stability to its cabinets for over a century.
-Such a document is surely worthy of the closest study by the public
-men of the sister republic. It was inevitable that in so long a time
-some amendments should have become necessary; but for a long period it
-has undergone no change, save such as noted, and formulating the
-results of the civil war. Now and then are heard murmurings which
-claim the necessity of a sixteenth amendment, to the effect that the
-name of God should be put in the Constitution. The obvious answer to
-this is, that in the official life of the United States there is a
-more real acknowledgment of the Divine Being than there is in the
-official life of any other country, and it is better to have the name
-of God impressed upon the hearts of the people than upon even the best
-official document ever drawn up.
-
-It would not be correct to say that no attempts have been made to
-bring about a ministerial crisis in the United States by encroachment
-upon the rights of the Executive. Only once, however, when Andrew
-Johnson was President, has the action of the Executive been seriously
-hampered. Professor Bryce's remark may be applied to all other
-attempts. He writes: "Congress has constantly tried to encroach, both
-on the Executive and on the States,--sometimes like a wild bull driven
-into a corral, dashing itself against the imprisoning walls of the
-Constitution." There is the secret. The "imprisoning walls" of the
-American Constitution keep contending powers in their proper places.
-The Constitution is so well drawn up that a deadlock is an
-impossibility, the equilibrium of concomitant powers is easily
-maintained, and the sovereign will of the people has a fair
-opportunity of finding a natural exponent.
-
-In the United States the Senate and the House of Representatives are
-coördinate bodies; in the French Republic each claims superiority over
-the other. In the United States bills are never introduced by the
-Cabinet, all bills must originate either in the Senate or in the House
-of Representatives; such is not the case in the French Republic. In
-the United States the chief duty of the President is to see that the
-laws are faithfully executed; the Cabinet administers; its members are
-rather the aids or secretaries of the chief magistrate of the nation
-than otherwise. They are his advisers and helpers. During the four
-years for which the President of the United States is elected, the
-limitations of his authority are so remote and theoretical that, for
-practical purposes, it may be stated that he always serves out his
-full term of office. On the contrary, Presidential resignations are
-not unknown in the French Republic. France elects her President for
-seven years, yet Thiers, MacMahon, Grévy, Carnot, Casimir-Périer, and
-Faure make a list longer than that of the names of the men who have
-lived in the White House during the past quarter of a century. In the
-United States, the Cabinet lasts as long as the President's term of
-office; in the French Republic, the Cabinet sometimes goes to pieces
-in four months. Briefly, it is quite clear that in the United States
-there can be no ministerial crises, since the President's chief duty
-under the Constitution is to see that the laws are faithfully
-executed, and the members of his Cabinet do not introduce bills, even
-for finance or supplies, but act as his aids. As previously intimated,
-the difficulty with the French legislative bodies is that royalistic
-precedents and rules run side by side with republican principles, and
-the result is a mongrel institution divided, too often, against
-itself. When matters shall be so arranged that the French President
-will have to fill out his full term of office, and French ministers
-will not be permitted to originate legislation, and cabinets shall be
-selected to serve as long as the Presidential term, then the French
-Republic will enjoy the same ministerial stability as that of the
-United States.
-
-It were hard to say that the French method of electing a president is
-any better or any worse than that of the United States. The President
-of the French Republic is elected by the majority of the votes of both
-Chambers. This plan does not seem to remove him further from the
-people than does the system of electing a president by electors, as in
-the United States. As human ingenuity has not yet succeeded in
-creating the ideal republic, wherein, according to Ouida, there would
-be no president, some system of election must be followed. The
-question is not a burning one. There is notable, however, a growing
-tendency in France in favor of electing the president directly by the
-votes of the people. The seven-years' period for which the French
-president is elected is considered by many to be an excellent
-provision; but it loses half its excellence by reason of the fact that
-the president has the power to initiate laws, this and other things
-concurring to make his resignation a possibility, and not a remote
-one.
-
-That the office of vice-president does not exist in France seems to be
-of no great consequence. In the history of the American Republic there
-have been five vice-presidents who have been called upon to step into
-the Presidential chair by the deaths of presidents. According to the
-French Constitution, in case of a Presidential vacancy, whether from
-death or any other cause, the two Chambers proceed immediately to the
-election of a president. In the interval the ministers are invested
-with executive power.
-
-What I have written regarding the growing tendency to think it would
-be better to elect the president directly by the votes of the people,
-applies with a little more force to the election of senators. In
-France the municipalities elect the senators, as do State legislatures
-in this country. It is held by some who have discussed the question
-that it is much more in conformity with the genius of republican
-institutions that the people express their will directly by ballot
-rather than through the votes of municipal councils, as in France, or
-of legislatures, as in the United States. I cannot see that the
-difference of terms, that of French senators being nine years, and of
-American six, is of practical consequence. While both republics are
-at one as to the necessity of a second chamber, providing thus a check
-to hasty and unconsidered legislation, many thinkers in both countries
-agree that some change is necessary to make it possible for others
-than millionaires to be elected senators.
-
-If I were a Frenchman and had the power, I should get every newspaper
-throughout the land, and every public man and influential citizen, to
-enter upon a crusade for the purpose of impressing upon the minds of
-the whole people the following extract from the Constitution of the
-United States:
-
- Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of
- religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
-
-In France, there are constantly continuous and unseemly clashes
-between church and state. No matter what complications may exist as
-results of the past, surely it would be better for all concerned to
-leave the churches to be sustained by the voluntary contributions of
-the people. In the United States churches seem to live and thrive
-under this system of noninterference by the state in religious
-matters, and voluntary support. The more than eighty thousand
-clergymen are provided for. In the French Republic one reads
-everywhere, on the walls of churches and of schools, the words
-"_Liberté, fraternité, égalité_," while there seems to be a serious
-disagreement between Clericals, on the one side, and Radicals, on the
-other, as to the meaning of these words. To effectually put an end to
-this strife, the adoption of the clause I have quoted would be
-sufficient.
-
-In writing thus freely of the French Republic I am free, I trust, from
-the spirit of the carping critic delighting in comparisons to the
-advantage of his own country. I appreciate the splendid literature,
-the brilliant art, the advanced civilization of the France of to-day.
-I recognize with gratitude the debt which the United States owes the
-gallant Gallic people for sympathy and material aid in her struggle
-for independence. It is now only necessary to be in France on the
-Fourth of July to realize the reality and depth of the friendship
-which exists between the sister republics. But I do think that until
-France shall copy more closely the Constitution of the United States,
-the stability of the third republic cannot be regarded as assured.
-
-
-
-
-HONEST MONEY; OR, A TRUE STANDARD OF VALUE:
-
-A SYMPOSIUM.
-
-
-I. BY WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.
-
-We hear much about a "stable currency" and an "honest dollar." It is a
-significant fact that those who advocate a single gold standard have
-for the most part avoided a discussion of the effect of an
-appreciating standard. They take it for granted that a gold standard
-is not only an honest standard, but the only stable standard. I
-denounce that child of ignorance and avarice, the gold dollar under a
-universal gold standard, as the most dishonest dollar which we could
-employ.
-
-I stand upon the authority of every intelligent writer upon political
-economy when I assert that there is not and never has been an honest
-dollar. An honest dollar is a dollar absolutely stable in relation to
-all other things. Laughlin, in his work on "Bimetallism," says:
-
- Monometallists do not--as it is often said--believe that gold
- remains absolutely stable in value. They hold that there is no
- such thing as a "standard of value" for future payments in either
- gold or silver which remains absolutely invariable.
-
-He even suggests a multiple standard for long-time contracts. I quote
-his words:
-
- As regards national debts, it is distinctly averred that neither
- gold nor silver forms a just measure of deferred payments, and
- that if justice in long contracts is sought for, we should not
- seek it by the doubtful and untried expedient of international
- bimetallism, but by the clear and certain method of a multiple
- standard, a unit based upon the selling prices of a number of
- articles of general consumption. A long time contract would
- thereby be paid at its maturity by the same purchasing power as
- was given in the beginning.
-
-Jevons, one of the most generally accepted of the writers in favor of
-a gold standard, admits the instability of a single standard, and in
-language very similar to that above quoted suggests the multiple
-standard as the most equitable, if practicable. Chevalier, who wrote
-a book in 1858 to show the injustice of allowing a debtor to pay his
-debts in a cheap gold dollar, recognized the same fact, and said:
-
- If the value of the metal declined, the creditor would suffer a
- loss upon the quantity he had received; if, on the contrary, it
- rose, the debtor would have to pay more than he calculated upon.
-
-I am on sound and scientific ground, therefore, when I say that a
-dollar approaches honesty as its purchasing power approaches
-stability. If I borrow a thousand dollars to-day and next year pay the
-debt with a thousand dollars which will secure exactly as much of all
-things desirable as the one thousand which I borrowed, I have paid in
-honest dollars. If the money has increased or decreased in purchasing
-power, I have satisfied my debt with dishonest dollars. While the
-government can say that a given weight of gold or silver shall
-constitute a dollar, and invest that dollar with legal-tender
-qualities, it cannot fix the purchasing power of the dollar. That must
-depend upon the law of supply and demand, and it may be well to
-suggest that this government never tried to fix the exchangeable value
-of a dollar until it began to limit the number of dollars coined.
-
-
-II. BY M. W. HOWARD.
-
-The term, "a standard of value," so often used, is erroneous and
-misleading. There can be no fixed standard of value, and the student
-who wishes to delve into our financial problems should clear his mind
-of such a fallacy at the very threshold of his investigations.
-
-Money is a commodity; it is regulated by the same laws of supply and
-demand which regulate the price of corn, cotton, wheat, land, labor,
-etc. If the wheat crop is short, wheat will be dear; if abundant, it
-will be cheap. So with money. If the money supply is not sufficient to
-meet the demands of business and commerce,--if the money crop is
-short, in other words,--the money will be dear; it will command too
-high a price, its purchasing power will be too great.
-
-On the other hand, if the money supply is abundant, sufficient to meet
-all demands upon it,--in other words, if there is a bountiful money
-crop,--it will be cheaper; it will not have such a large purchasing
-power; it will be worth less when measured by our labor, our lands,
-and the products of our labor.
-
-I oppose the single gold standard because it makes the money crop
-short, gives us a small circulating medium, and hence enhances the
-value or price of money.
-
-We have a certain demand for breadstuff, which is constantly
-increasing as our population multiplies; suppose that we cease
-producing corn, and find no substitute for it, would not the price of
-wheat be greatly enhanced, providing there is no increased wheat
-production? So with the money supply. There is a certain demand for
-money, ever increasing as population grows. How shall we meet it? By
-producing more money, or by destroying one-half of that which we now
-have, by eliminating one-half of the base of future supplies of money?
-
-The latter is now the policy of this government, and as a consequence
-the price of gold has been greatly enhanced, and its purchasing power
-has increased each year, and will continue to do so.
-
-The advocates of the gold standard call this "honest money." Their
-idea of honest money is money that ever increases in purchasing power
-because of its ever-increasing scarcity.
-
-My definition of honest money is: "A sufficiently large circulating
-medium, whether of gold, silver, or paper, to bring down the price of
-money so that we shall obtain fair prices for all labor and products."
-Then as population increases and as the demand for money becomes
-greater, let the government meet that demand from time to time by
-enhancing the money supply.
-
-
-III. BY WHARTON BARKER.
-
-The true test of an honest dollar is its purchasing power, and that
-dollar, and only that dollar, is honest that does exact justice
-between creditor and debtor. The gold monometallists harp on the
-injustice of a depreciating dollar, but they ignore the injuries
-inflicted by an appreciating dollar. They tell us that a depreciating
-dollar defrauds the creditor, but just as a depreciating dollar
-defrauds the creditor, an appreciating dollar defrauds the debtor, and
-it is not one whit worse to defraud the creditor by obliging him to
-accept a depreciated dollar from his debtor than to defraud the debtor
-by obliging him to pay in a dollar made artificially scarce and dear.
-
-An appreciating dollar works injustice to the debtor just as a
-depreciating dollar works injustice to the creditor, but an
-appreciating dollar is many fold more injurious to trade and industry,
-for while the depreciating dollar taxes the creditor for the benefit
-of the debtor, the appreciating dollar takes from the debtor, from
-producers in general and the industrious classes, and gives to the
-creditor classes, the drones of society, a larger and larger share of
-the products of labor, which of necessity discourages industry. Under
-a depreciating standard the recompense of the producer becomes greater
-and greater, the creditor classes receive a smaller and smaller
-portion of the products of labor, the profits of industry increase,
-and consequently production is encouraged and trade and industry are
-stimulated. But under an appreciating standard the recompense of labor
-becomes smaller and smaller, and the share of the products of labor
-absorbed by the creditor larger, which tends to discourage industry
-and stifle enterprise.
-
-
-IV. BY ARTHUR I. FONDA.
-
-The value of any commodity is measured by what it will exchange for.
-It is in fact its purchasing power, or power in exchange. This in
-substance is the concrete definition of value given by all economists,
-and they all unite in stating that value is determined by the supply
-of a commodity relative to the demand for it; all other factors
-affecting value being secondary and acting through their effect on
-either supply or demand.
-
-Since both the supply of and the demand for every freely produced
-commodity is variable, and since a true standard of value, like a true
-standard of weight or length, must be invariable as regards that which
-it measures, it necessarily follows that no single freely produced
-commodity can be a true standard of value. But while it is true that
-every single commodity must vary in value, it is also true that all
-commodities taken together cannot do so. This principle is also
-accepted as correct by all economists.
-
-It is evident then that a true standard of value can only be found in
-a composite unit containing a definite quantity of every commodity, or
-practically speaking, a definite quantity of each of a large number of
-the most important commodities. This is what is known as the "multiple
-standard," or the "commodity standard," and has long been in use by
-economists in the form of tables of index numbers to show fluctuations
-in general prices, or what is the same thing, changes in money values.
-
-The only function of money is to facilitate the exchange of goods. In
-doing this it acts directly as a circulating medium, and the demand
-for it for this purpose, relative to the supply, determines its value;
-for money, whether of coin or paper or both combined in one
-circulation to meet one need, is subject to the same law of supply and
-demand which governs all commodities, and which indeed is as universal
-in the economic world as the law of gravitation is in the physical
-world.
-
-Incidentally the value of money fills the important function of
-serving as a measure of the values of goods transferred without the
-direct use of money, both immediate and deferred. This, however, has
-no effect on the demand for money or on its value.
-
-The people are accustomed to regard money as of constant value, and an
-honest money must necessarily conform to this belief. If money varies
-in value, the people are deluded, and many are wronged if they are
-unaware of the fluctuation. If they become aware of it,--as they
-generally do by a bitter experience,--they are confronted with an
-uncertainty that is most detrimental to any business or enterprise.
-Imagine what our business would be with our measures of weight,
-length, and capacity all variable! Yet such a condition would be less
-disastrous than a fluctuating money value when it became fully known
-that it was so.
-
-The _demand_ for money varies from many causes, chief among which are
-changes in the quantity of goods exchanged, the extent to which other
-credit instruments take the place of money in such exchanges, and the
-activity of money, or the extent to which it is hoarded, all of which
-are entirely beyond control. The _supply_ of money, however, can be
-controlled, and to maintain money at a constant value the supply must
-be constantly adjusted to the ever-varying demand, so that its
-general purchasing power may remain the same. The test of a constant
-money must be a constant general level of prices; and this must be
-judged by the prices in the open market of those principal commodities
-which would be selected to constitute the standard of value, the
-quantity of each being proportioned to its importance in trade.
-
-The only function of gold and silver in a monetary system is to _limit
-the volume of the money_, either by their scarcity when freely coined,
-or by the laws limiting their coinage. And as this limitation of the
-supply bears no definite relation to the demand for money, the value
-of the money necessarily fluctuates. Our industrial system is
-constantly growing more sensitive to even slight changes in money
-value, owing to the greater diversification of industries and the
-greater division of labor, and the need for preventing such changes is
-constantly growing more imperative.
-
-When the people arrive at a clearer perception of these facts and
-principles they will understand that the chance production of gold and
-silver is too clumsy a contrivance to properly control so delicate a
-matter as the value of money under modern industrial conditions, and I
-believe they will substitute for the present system a circulating
-medium of paper money, properly guaranteed, and susceptible of prompt
-and certain increase or decrease of volume to meet every possible
-variation in demand, and rigidly controlled to conform in value to a
-true standard of value, a standard composed not alone of gold or
-silver or both combined, but of all the leading commodities.
-
-In short, they will separate the standard of value from the medium of
-exchange, demonetizing both gold and silver as to the latter function,
-but using both and many other things in conjunction therewith for the
-former function.
-
-
-V. BY A. J. WARNER.
-
-From whatever side the question is approached, in the last analysis
-the value of money of any kind is found to depend upon its quantity,
-and not upon color, or ductility, or malleability, or any other
-particular quality of the thing upon which the money function is
-impressed. There can be therefore, in fact, no other standard of
-value, or money standard, except the quantity of whatever is used as
-money. When gold and silver are used, the value of each unit of money
-depends upon the number of such units, and these in turn depend upon
-the quantity of the metal from which the money is made. Any cause,
-therefore, which restricts, limits, or contracts the quantity of any
-kind of money, increases the value of each unit. On the contrary,
-causes that operate to increase the supply of money have the opposite
-effect.
-
-Hence, only that currency can properly be called "sound" currency
-which is made to maintain stable relations to things to be bought and
-sold. In other words, general prices are determined by the proportion
-between money on the one side, and things offered against money on the
-other side. Such money only is "honest" money.
-
-The whole question, therefore, of money standard is a question of
-money supply; for, as the price of single things, money being
-constant, depends upon supply on the one hand, as against demand for
-it on the other, so, in general, prices depend on money supply on the
-one hand, and things to be bought and sold on the other. This I
-believe to be the fundamental law of money.
-
-
-
-
-THE NEW CIVIL CODE OF JAPAN.
-
-BY TOKICHI MASAO, M. L., D. C. L.
-
-
-Ever since the establishment of the present imperial government in
-1868, the one unceasing aim of Japan's foreign policy has been the
-abolition of the extra-territoriality régime, under which certain
-quasi-judicial functions are exercised on the Japanese soil by the
-ambassadors and consuls of the Occidental nations. This anxiety on
-Japan's part to rid herself of this shameful régime imposed upon her
-against her will, will not appear surprising when the fact is learnt
-that one Occidental nation went so far as to call her consul at
-Yokohama, "Her Britannic Majesty's the Most Honourable Court for
-Japan"--a name almost enough to imply that Japan was a British
-province. Extra-territoriality rests upon the assumption that the laws
-and procedure of the non-Christian nations are so unlike to and
-different from those of the Christian nations that without the
-protection of this system the safety and well-being of the subjects of
-the latter sojourning in the territory of the former would be placed
-in constant jeopardy. Accordingly in the early seventies Japan came to
-the conclusion that the only possible way of emancipating herself from
-the disgraceful yoke of extra-territoriality was to adopt one of the
-systems of law obtaining in the Christian world and compile a code of
-law based upon that system, and applicable alike to the Japanese and
-to the foreigners residing in Japan.
-
-There were three such systems--the Anglo-American, the French, and the
-Germanic Roman--each offering itself for adoption. Mr. Yeto
-Shimpei,[2] who became the Minister of Justice in 1872, seems to have
-had a personal preference for the French system. He called to his
-assistance some of the most eminent jurists of France and entered upon
-the work of drafting a code. At the same time he established in Tokio
-a law school known as the "Department of Justice Annex Law School," in
-which French law was taught by those same jurists whom he had called
-from France. About this time there was also established in the
-University of Tokio a law school in which instruction was given
-chiefly in English law. It was while teaching in this university law
-school that Mr. Henry T. Terry (a New York lawyer and an alumnus of
-Yale College) wrote his memorable book on English law, designed
-especially for the use of Japanese law students. From henceforth
-"Terry's Leading Principles of Anglo-American Law" became as familiar
-to them as are "Blackstone's Commentaries" to the law students of this
-country.
-
- [2] Those who have followed the course of events in Japan
- since the beginning of the new era will remember that upon
- the return of Prince Iwakura, in 1873, from his
- around-the-world embassy, Mr. Yeto had to withdraw from the
- cabinet, owing to a difference of opinion between him and
- the Prince with regard to the Corean problem then pending.
- Returning to his native province, Saga, he tried to raise
- troops against the government (to carry out, of course, his
- own convictions in regard to the Corean problem), resulting
- in the famous "Saga rebellion" of 1873. Defeated by the
- government troops, he betook himself to the interior of the
- country in disguise, was arrested, found guilty of treason,
- and executed according to law. It is a familiar saying in
- Japan that Mr. Yeto died a criminal at the hand of his own
- Penal Code.
-
-Thus, side by side there existed in Tokio two law schools in which two
-distinct systems of law were taught--the English and the French. The
-primary object of the Department of Justice in establishing the French
-law school being to make it a training school of judicial officers,
-the students of that school were, upon graduation, to render, for a
-limited number of years, an obligatory service to the government in
-the various capacities of judges, magistrates, and prosecuting
-attorneys. On the other hand, the University of Tokio being a strictly
-independent institution in which learning is pursued for the sake of
-learning, the graduates of the university or English law school were
-at entire liberty in their choice of professions. Naturally enough the
-majority of these did not wish to enter the same service which the
-graduates of the other school were obliged to enter as a matter of
-fulfilment of contract. Thus it happened that the bench was recruited
-from the French law school, while the bar was recruited from the
-English law school. This state of affairs lasted for about twenty
-years, during which time there was also established a German law
-school in the University of Tokio. Those who know something about the
-rivalry that existed in ancient times between the Sabinians and the
-Proculians, or even about the rivalry which exists to-day between the
-Yale method and the Harvard method, between the Waylandians and the
-Langdellians, can readily imagine what intellectual competition was
-carried on between these three Japanese law schools representing three
-distinct systems of law.
-
-After twenty years of assiduous labor the Code Commission submitted a
-draft of a Civil Code to the two Houses of Parliament in 1890,
-accompanied by the recommendation from the Bureau of Legislation that
-the draft might receive the parliamentary sanction in such a manner
-that it might be possible for it to be put in effect by the year 1893.
-As might have been expected from the personnel of the Commission,
-consisting, in its conception, of Mr. Yeto Shimpei and the eminent
-French jurist Prof. Boissonade, etc., the draft was a genuine French
-code, being almost a literal translation of the Code Napoleon in all
-its parts excepting the part dealing with the Law of Persons. The
-question may well be asked why it took the Commission twenty long
-years to produce this imitation draft code when we know that the draft
-of the Code Napoleon itself was completed within the short period of
-four months. The answer seems to be that the Commission spent almost
-this entire time in their efforts to reconcile the principles of the
-French Law of Persons with the Japanese laws and customs bearing on
-that subject.
-
-As has been the case with many other draft codes this draft Civil Code
-of Japan was destined to go into oblivion. As soon as it was submitted
-to the Parliament there ensued a most desperate fight against its
-adoption. As figuring most prominently among the champions of the
-opposition I may mention the names of Mr. Kazuo Hatoyama, the present
-Speaker of the House of Commons of the Imperial Japanese Parliament,
-and His Excellency Mr. Toru Hoshi, the present Japanese minister at
-Washington.[3] Inspired by these and other eminent jurists of the
-English school the entire bar was set against the adoption of the
-draft code. This was not a case of a bar accustomed to one set of
-rules and formulas opposing the adoption of a new code for fear that
-they might be compelled to learn a new set of rules and formulas. On
-the contrary, the bar was composed of men who had studied law as a
-science, and science for the sake of science. The spirit of their
-opposition was very plainly shown by the objections they raised
-against the code. They said:--"The draft Code was a blind imitation of
-a foreign Code which itself was far from being free from defects. It
-abounded in definitions, illustrations, and examples, and presented an
-appearance more becoming to a text-book of law than the Civil Code of
-a great nation. It went into too minute details and left too little
-room for voluntary development of jurisprudence. It incorporated, like
-the French Code, the law of evidence into the body of the Civil Code,
-which was totally at variance with the modern theory of evidence,
-being a failure on the part of the Commissioners to distinguish
-adjective from substantive law. It made too many innovations upon the
-Law of Persons hitherto obtaining in Japan. It changed the Family Law
-of the Japanese from the foundation, which was a gross disregard of
-the historical principle of jurisprudence," etc., etc., etc. Such were
-some of the grounds upon which they opposed the adoption of the draft
-code, reminding one of the fight in Europe between the historical
-school and the analytical school, between the jurists of France and
-those of Germany; of the fight in Germany between the Code party and
-the anti-Code party, between Savigny and Thibaut. Who can say, then,
-that the Japanese are childish imitators of anything that looks well?
-The fact is that this sort of conflict between the more conservative
-and the more radical, the more scrupulous and the more unscrupulous,
-the more positive and the more speculative, is going on all the time.
-
- [3] I make mention of these two gentlemen as representative
- of two classes of a fairly large number of Japanese lawyers,
- viz., those who have been educated in the United States, and
- those who have received their education in England. Mr.
- Hatoyama is a D. C. L. of Yale. For nearly ten years
- (1880-1889) he was a professor of law in the University of
- Tokio Law School, and during most of this time he was also
- Dean of the school. Mr. Hoshi is a barrister-at-law of one
- of the English Inns of Court. For many years he was regarded
- as the leader of the Japanese bar. Like many distinguished
- members of the English bar, he is more of a lawyer than of a
- jurist.
-
-At last in 1892 the Parliament passed an act deferring the taking
-effect of the code till 1897 and ordering in the meantime a careful
-revisal of the draft. A new Commission was appointed which consisted
-of three most eminent professors of law in Japan, each representing
-one of the three systems of law recognized there.[4] These
-Commissioners, aided by a number of efficient assistants, looked into
-the codes and laws of some fifteen leading American and European
-states. As representing the French system they consulted the codes of
-Louisiana, Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. As
-representing the German system they consulted the codes and laws of
-Austria, Montenegro, Prussia, Saxony, Switzerland, and the draft Civil
-Code of the German Empire. As representing the English system they
-consulted the leading American and English reports and treatises, the
-draft Civil Code of New York, and the codes of California and British
-India.[5]
-
- [4] I refer to Professors Hodzumi, Tomii, and Ume. Prof.
- Hodzumi is a barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple, and is
- one of the ablest representatives of English law in Japan.
- Prof. Tomii is a _Docteur en Droit_ of the Facility of
- Lyons, and is by far the ablest expounder of the French
- codes in Japan. Prof. Ume, though a bearer of the same
- degree from the same Faculty as Prof. Tomii, has attended
- several German universities, and is more of the German
- school than of the French. The Commission itself consisted
- of several other distinguished personages, with the Prime
- Minister at the head. But these three professors composed
- what was called the "Compilation Committee," so that
- practically they were the Commission.
-
- [5] Prof. Ume, a member of the Commission, is responsible
- for these statements so far as they relate to the codes and
- laws consulted. The classifications, however, are my own.
-
-After four years of the most constant application the Commission
-submitted in 1896 a revisal of a part of the original draft. Had the
-Commission had the entire code revised they could not have shown
-greater wisdom. For the parts incomplete were those dealing with the
-Family Law and Successions, and the Commission remembered that these
-were the parts that occasioned the most vital objections to the old
-code. The Parliament referred the revised draft code to a Committee of
-their own, of which Mr. Hatoyama, the present Speaker, was made the
-chairman. After making a careful examination and some important
-modifications, Mr. Hatoyama reported favorably to its adoption. The
-Parliament acted according to his advice, and the draft became the
-law.
-
-In its general arrangement the new code follows what the German
-jurists call the Pandekten system. It is divided into five general
-parts. Part I is called "S[=o]soku," or General Laws, and deals with
-persons, natural and artificial, as the subjects of rights; with
-things as the objects of rights; and with juristic acts as setting
-rights in motion. One cannot help being astonished at and gratified
-with the remarkable extent to which Prof. Holland's views as expressed
-in his book on jurisprudence seem to be adopted in this part of the
-code.[6] Part II is called "Bukken," or _Jus in Rem_, corresponding
-to the Sachenrecht of the German code, and dealing with Possession,
-Ownership, etc., etc. Part III is called "Jinken," or _Jus in
-Personam_, corresponding to the Forderungsrecht of the German code,
-and dealing with General Law of Obligations, with Obligations arising
-_ex contractu_, _quasi ex contractu_, and _ex delicto_. The General
-Law of Obligations is taken largely from the Forderungsrecht of the
-Swiss code. The law of Contracts and Torts is taken entirely from the
-English law. Parts IV and V, dealing with the Family Law and the Law
-of Successions respectively, have not as yet been published, for
-reasons already indicated.
-
- [6] This may be a mere conjecture on my own part. It is
- possible that the Commissioners never consulted his book,
- though to assert such a thing of them would be an insult to
- their scholarship. Be it as it may, it is a fact beyond
- question that their arrangement of these topics presents a
- remarkable coincidence to that of Prof. Holland's, and this
- is a matter upon which every thoughtful Japanese may well
- pride himself.
-
-Such is the new Civil Code of Japan, adopted by the Imperial
-Parliament in its session of 1896. Truly, the year 1896 has been an
-eventful year for Japan. The war with China had brought glory to her
-arms. Formosa and numerous other islands had been added to her
-possessions. The insurgents of Formosa had been pacified. The treaties
-with the leading nations of the world had been revised, providing for
-the abolishment of the disgraceful extra-territoriality régime in
-Japan, to take effect, however, upon the taking effect of the new
-Civil Code. The last and greatest event of all, the new Code was
-adopted. With equal propriety, then, the Emperor Mutsuhito might have
-joined Justinian, in proclaiming:--"Imperatoriam Majestatem non solum
-armis decoratam, sed etiam legibus opportet esse armatam, ut utrumque
-tempus et bellorum et pacis recte possit gubernari!"
-
-
-
-
-JOHN RUSKIN:
-
-A TYPE OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY MANHOOD.
-
-BY B. O. FLOWER.
-
-
-The name John Ruskin is justly entitled to a foremost place among
-those of the builders of twentieth-century civilization. In him we
-find a rare combination of genius, culture, and refinement, blended
-with a tender concern for all earth's unfortunates. He is at once
-artist, philosopher, and philanthropist; but he is more than these;
-there is much of the austere religious reformer, giving a serious
-gravity to all the utterances of the glad-souled artist, a mingling of
-the spirit of a Savonarola with the imagination of a Turner.
-
-John Ruskin, more than any other man of our time in like station of
-life, stands for the civilization which we believe is destined to
-glorify the coming century, for in his life all thought of ease, fame,
-and preferment,--all consideration of self,--is overmastered by his
-love for others. Endowed by nature with the imagination of a poet, the
-eyes of an artist, the brain of a philosopher, the soul of a prophet,
-and the heart of a man, he has conscientiously employed all his gifts
-as a sacred trust given to him that he might bless and enlighten his
-day, and ennoble his civilization for all time.
-
-He was born amid affluence, and received the best educational
-advantages the age afforded. After graduating from Oxford in 1842, he
-studied painting under Copley Fielding and J. D. Harding. Subsequently
-he spent some time in Italy, finishing his art education in the land
-of earth's greatest painters.
-
-While in college he composed many poems, but on leaving the university
-he turned his attention to art and prose composition. His "Modern
-Painters" was justly hailed as one of the noblest works of the
-century, and instantly placed its author in the ranks of the foremost
-art critics of the world.
-
-Few if any of his admirers will agree with all his critical views. He
-not infrequently falls into those errors which we naturally expect to
-find in a man of intense feeling, of strong conviction, and of vivid
-imagination. If a positive idea takes possession of his mind, it is
-liable to give a strong bias to his thought, and in a degree
-interferes with that nice sense of proportion so essential to a great
-critic. On more than one occasion Mr. Ruskin has frankly admitted that
-his views and opinions were erroneous owing to being based on a
-partial appearance or influenced by pernicious ideas. A notable
-illustration of his thought being biassed by preconceived ideas is
-found in the religious opinions put forward in the early edition of
-parts I and II of "Modern Painters." And in a preface written in 1871
-for a revised edition of his works, the philosopher calls attention to
-his early views, declaring that he was "wholly mistaken" and
-continuing: "I had been educated in the narrow doctrine of a narrow
-sect, and had read history obliquely, as a sectarian necessarily
-must."
-
-Such are the blemishes which occasionally creep into the works of this
-master mind. They are, however, merely spots on the sun, which do not
-appear frequently enough to seriously dim the splendor of a critical
-work which in my judgment surpasses in real value that of any English
-scholar of the century. "Modern Painters," "The Stones of Venice,"
-"The Seven Lamps," and his other works dealing with art are far more
-than criticisms; they touch the sleeping soul, they fire the spirit
-and awaken the conscience. They make the reader feel a new love for
-nature and art alike, and with this pure and inspiring love comes the
-desire for more knowledge. They appeal to the spiritual aspirations
-even more than to the artistic impulses or the intellectual
-apprehension. The moral exaltation which pervades his writings springs
-from his profoundly philosophical and religious nature. In all his
-work, as in his noble life, he has ever been moved by an intense
-desire to uplift and dignify humanity and to impress upon the public
-mind the subtle but positive effect for good exerted by true art. "I
-have had," he tells us in "The Two Paths," "but one steady aim in all
-I have ever tried to teach, namely, to declare that whatever was great
-in human art was the expression of man's delight in God's work."
-
-With Ruskin, life is august; its possibilities for good and evil are
-never forgotten.
-
- "Remember," he urges, "that every day of your life is ordaining
- irrevocably for good or evil the custom and practice of your
- soul; ordaining either sacred customs of dear and lovely
- recurrence, or trenching deeper and deeper the furrows for seed
- of sorrow. Now, therefore, see that no day passes in which you do
- not make yourself a somewhat better creature.... You will find
- that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to
- help other people, will in the quickest and delicatest ways
- improve yourself."
-
-The pleasure which springs from loyalty to duty is strenuously
-insisted upon by Ruskin, and he, more than any other illustrious man
-in our time, has reached such heights of unselfishness as to enable
-him to fully appreciate the unalloyed pleasure which flows from a life
-of sacrifice. If he is austere, he is also very humane. The fountains
-of pleasure that he would have us drink deeply from would leave no
-bitter aftertaste. He delights in no pseudo-pleasure; faithfulness to
-the highest ideal, untiring effort at complete self-mastery, a settled
-determination to work for the good of all and to be ever on guard lest
-by some inadvertence we injure some other living creature,--such are
-some of the lessons upon which our philosopher insists as essential to
-man's happiness.
-
- "If," he urges, in writing for the young, "there is any one point
- which, in six thousand years of thinking about right and wrong,
- wise and good men have agreed upon, or successively by experience
- discovered, it is that God dislikes idle and cruel people more
- than any others; that His first order is, 'Work while you have
- light;' and his second, 'Be merciful while you have mercy.' 'Work
- while you have light,' especially while you have the light of
- morning. There are few things more wonderful to me than that old
- people never tell young ones how precious their youth is....
- Remember, then, that I, at least, have warned _you_, that the
- happiness of your life, and its power, and its part and rank in
- earth or in heaven, depend on the way you pass your days now.
- They are not to be sad days; far from that, the first duty of
- young people is to be delighted and delightful; but they are to
- be in the deepest sense solemn days. There is no solemnity so
- deep, to a rightly thinking creature, as that of dawn.... You
- must be to the best of your strength usefully employed during the
- greater part of the day, so that you may be able at the end of it
- to say, as proudly as any peasant, that you have not eaten the
- bread of idleness. Then, secondly, I said, you are not to be
- cruel. Perhaps you think there is no chance of your being so; and
- indeed I hope it is not likely that you should be deliberately
- unkind to any creature; but _unless you are deliberately kind to
- every creature, you will often be cruel to many_."
-
-Ruskin is often disquieting to conventionalists; he is too candid to
-be popular with those who make long prayers and descant on charity
-while they ignore justice. He puts questions to them which they do not
-want to consider themselves, or to have others consider. By insisting
-on the substitution of justice for charity, and by taking the
-teachings of Jesus seriously, he offends the sleek money-changers who
-occupy choice pews in the modern palaces of ease dedicated to the
-lowly Nazarene. Such expressions as the following from the magnificent
-lecture on "Work" prove far less satisfying to this class than the
-popular sermons they are accustomed to hear:
-
- "It is the law of heaven," says Ruskin, "that you shall not be
- able to judge what is wise or easy, unless you are first resolved
- to judge what is just, and to do it. That is the one thing
- constantly reiterated by our master--the order of all others that
- is given oftenest: 'Do justice and judgment.' That's your Bible
- order; that's the 'service of God.' The one divine work--the one
- ordered sacrifice--is to do justice; and it is the last we are
- ever inclined to do. Anything rather than that! As much charity
- as you choose, but no justice. 'Nay,' you will say, 'charity is
- greater than justice.' Yes, it is greater; _it is the summit of
- justice_; it is the temple of which justice is the foundation.
- _But you can't have the top without the bottom_; you cannot build
- upon charity. You must build upon justice, for this main reason,
- that you have not, at first, charity to build with. It is the
- last reward of good work. It is all very fine to think you can
- build upon charity to begin with; but you will find all you have
- got to begin with begins at home, and is essentially love of
- yourself.
-
- "You well-to-do people, for instance, who are here to-night will
- go to 'Divine Service' next Sunday, all nice and tidy, and your
- little children will have their tight little Sunday boots on, and
- lovely little Sunday feathers in their hats; and you'll think,
- complacently and piously, how lovely they look! So they do; and
- you love them heartily, and you like sticking feathers in their
- hats. That's all right; that _is_ charity; but it is charity
- beginning at home. Then you will come to the poor little
- crossing-sweeper got up also--in its Sunday dress--the dirtiest
- rags it has that it may beg the better: we shall give it a penny,
- and think how good we are. That's charity going abroad. But what
- does justice say, walking and watching near us? Christian justice
- has been strangely mute, and seemingly blind; and, if not blind,
- decrepit this many a day: she keeps her accounts still,
- however--quite steadily--doing them at nights, carefully, with
- her bandage off, and through acutest spectacles (the only modern
- scientific invention she cares about). You must put your ear down
- ever so close to her lips to hear her speak; and then you will
- start at what she first whispers, for it will certainly be, 'Why
- shouldn't that little crossing-sweeper have a feather on its
- head, as well as your own child?' Then you may ask justice, in an
- amazed manner, How she can possibly be so foolish as to think
- children could sweep crossings with feathers on their heads? Then
- you stoop again, and justice says--still in her dull, stupid
- way--'Then, why don't you, every other Sunday, leave your child
- to sweep the crossing, and take the little sweeper to church in a
- hat and feather?' Mercy on us (you think), what will she say
- next? And you answer, of course, that you don't, because
- everybody ought to remain content in the position in which
- Providence has placed them.
-
- "Ah, my friends, that's the gist of the whole question. _Did_
- Providence put them in that position, or did _you_? You knock a
- man into a ditch, and then you tell him to remain content in the
- 'position in which Providence has placed him.' That's modern
- Christianity. You say, 'We did not knock him into the ditch.' How
- do you know what you have done or are doing? That's just what we
- have all got to know, and what we shall never know until the
- question with us every morning, is, not how to do the gainful
- thing, but how to do the just thing."
-
-These thoughts suggest to us Ruskin, the social economist, for we must
-not lose sight of the fact that this greatest of all art critics, this
-strong, sane ethical philosopher who has emphasized so forcibly the
-possibilities, duties, and responsibilities of the individual in all
-his complex relations, is also one of the most enlightened and
-broad-visioned economists of our wonderful age. By treatises, essays,
-and letters he has striven for a brighter day for the breadwinners. He
-has sought to elevate the ideals and tastes of all toilers, while he
-has labored unremittingly to secure for them that meed of justice
-which is their right, but which has so long been denied them.
-
-So far back as 1868, when few people of position dared advocate so
-sane a proposition as the governmental ownership of "natural
-monopolies," John Ruskin published these bold and thoughtful words in
-the London _Daily Telegraph_:
-
- The ingenious British public seemed to be discovering to its
- cost, that the beautiful law of supply and demand does not apply
- in a pleasant manner to railroad transit. But if they are
- prepared to submit patiently to the "natural" laws of political
- economy, what right have they to complain? The railroad belongs
- to the shareholders; and has not everybody a right to ask the
- highest he can get for his wares? The public have a perfect right
- to walk, or to make other opposition railroads for themselves, if
- they please, but not to abuse the shareholders for asking as much
- as they think they can get. Will you allow me to put the _real_
- rights of the matter before them in a few words?
-
- Neither the roads nor the railroads of any nation should belong
- to any private persons. All means of public transit should be
- provided at public expense, by public determination, where such
- means are needed, and the public should be its own shareholder.
- Neither road, nor railroad, nor canal should ever pay dividends
- to anybody. They should pay their working expenses, and no more.
- All dividends are simply a tax on the traveller and the goods,
- levied by the persons to whom the road or canal belongs, for the
- right of passing over his property, and this right should at once
- be purchased by the nation, and the original cost of the
- roadway--be it of gravel, iron, or adamant--at once defrayed by
- the nation, and then the whole work of the carriage of persons or
- goods done for ascertained prices, by salaried officers, as the
- carriage of letters is done now.
-
-Happily these suggestions of the distinguished Englishman have been
-followed, in part at least, by several enlightened nations, but to the
-disgrace of our republic, and to the great cost of the producing and
-consuming masses, we are lagging behind in these respects, becoming a
-camp-follower instead of a leader in the march of progress, because of
-the influence exerted by a small class, who have grown so powerful
-through special privileges given to them by the nation that they now
-assume to thwart beneficent legislation in order that they may
-continue to grow richer through this vicious form of governmental
-paternalism, which places the multitude in the power of a few.
-
-Ruskin's views on money are as disturbing to the usurers and those who
-through special privileges in money have amassed fortunes of unearned
-wealth as his sound position on railroads is distasteful to the
-monopolists who impoverish the producer and consumer by exorbitant
-rates on transportation.
-
-The great Englishman is also too clear-sighted to accept the
-fallacious doctrines of the money-changers in regard to the medium of
-exchange. He is too honest to hold his peace in the presence of a
-great wrong, hence his definition of money is far more nearly correct
-than the false and essentially injurious definitions so industriously
-promulgated by special pleaders for an interested class. "The final
-and best definition of money," says Ruskin, "is that it is a
-documentary promise ratified and guaranteed by the nation to give or
-find a certain quantity of labor on demand."
-
-In 1873 our author carried on a spirited discussion with some
-conventional economists regarding the money of the rich. One writer
-undertook to defend the lavish and reckless expenditures of the
-wealthy by calling to his aid the well-worn plea that money thus paid
-out finds its way into the pockets of poor families, and that thus
-through the bounty of the rich the starving are blest. Ruskin, in the
-course of his reply, observed that, were he a poor man instead of a
-moderately rich one, he would be sure that the paper referred to would
-suggest the question:
-
- These _means of living_, which this generous and useful gentleman
- is so fortunately disposed to bestow on me--where does he get
- them himself?... These are the facts. The laborious poor produce
- "the means of life" by their labor. Rich persons possess
- themselves by various expedients of a right to dispense these
- means of life, and, keeping as much means as they want for
- themselves, and rather more, dispense the rest usually only in
- return for _more labor from the poor_, expended in producing
- various delights for the rich dispenser. The idea is now
- gradually entering poor men's minds, that they may as well keep
- in their own hands the right of distributing "the means of life"
- they produce; and employ themselves, so far as they need extra
- occupation, for their own entertainment or benefit, rather than
- that of other people.
-
-The conventional economist replied to the question relating to how the
-rich man got his wealth by stating that it was obtained by the
-possessor or his ancestors through a "mutually beneficent partnership"
-between the rich and the poor by which the poor had their share of the
-joint returns advanced to them. Mr. Ruskin in his reply stated the
-question again, and then proceeded to answer it by a telling personal
-illustration. He says:
-
- "Where does the rich man get his means of living?" I don't myself
- see how a more straightforward question could be put! so
- straightforward, indeed, that I particularly dislike making a
- martyr of myself in answering it, as I must this blessed day--a
- martyr, at least, in the way of witness; for if we rich people
- don't begin to speak honestly with our tongues, we shall, some
- day soon, lose them and our heads together, having for sometime
- back, most of us, made false use of the one and none of the
- other. Well, for the point in question, then, as to means of
- living: the most exemplary manner of answer is simply to state
- how I got my own, or rather how my father got them for me. He and
- his partners entered into what your correspondent mellifluously
- styles "a mutually beneficent partnership" with certain laborers
- in Spain. These laborers produced from the earth annually a
- certain number of bottles of wine. These productions were sold by
- my father and his partners, who kept nine-tenths, or thereabouts,
- of the price themselves, and gave one-tenth, or thereabouts, to
- the laborers. In which state of mutual beneficence my father and
- his partners naturally became rich, and the laborers as naturally
- remained poor. Then my good father gave all his money to me.
-
-Space forbids a more extended notice of Mr. Ruskin's broad and
-thoughtful views on economic problems, but before closing this paper,
-I wish to notice how the life of this great philanthropist has touched
-and brightened other lives. Many men think noble thoughts and at times
-are stirred by the loftiest aspirations, but in actual everyday life
-they sadly fail to live up to their teachings; but he who can and does
-master himself, he who gives his life for justice and thinks of the
-welfare of others before he considers himself, has reached a far
-higher summit than have the most gifted intellects who, while
-apprehending the beauty of goodness, fail to express that beauty in
-their daily lives. John Ruskin's life has been at once earnest, pure,
-and unselfish.
-
-Of the unexampled manner in which he gave up his beautiful wife to his
-friend--how he quietly secured a divorce that she might become the
-wife of the man she loved--electing to pass the rest of his life alone
-rather than destroy her happiness,--these facts are well known, and
-Mr. Ruskin has been severely criticised for not holding his wife in
-unwilling bondage. But he was so constituted that it was impossible
-for him to endure the thought of being directly or indirectly the
-cause of another's misery.
-
-Another striking illustration of his unselfishness is seen in the
-manner in which he has disposed of his fortune, which at the time of
-his father's death amounted to a million dollars. With this money he
-set about doing good. Poor young men and women who were struggling to
-obtain an education were helped, homes for working men and women were
-established, and model apartment-houses were erected. He also promoted
-a work for reclaiming waste land outside of London. This land was used
-for the aid of unfortunate men who wished to rise again from the state
-into which they had fallen through cruel social conditions and their
-own weaknesses. It is said that this work suggested to General Booth
-his colonization farms. Ruskin has also ever been liberal in aiding
-poor artists, and has done much to encourage the artistic taste among
-the young. On one occasion he purchased ten fine water-color paintings
-by Holman Hunt for $3,750, to be hung in public schools of London.
-
-By 1877 he had disposed of three-fourths of his inheritance, besides
-all the income from his books. But the calls of the poor and the plans
-which he wished to put into operation looking toward education and
-ennobling the toilers, and giving to their gloomy lives something more
-of sunshine and joy, were such that he determined to dispose of all
-the remainder of his wealth except a sum sufficient to yield him
-fifteen hundred dollars a year on which to live.
-
-Of all English writers of our century no one has left a more valuable
-literary legacy than has John Ruskin, but the splendid and voluminous
-works of his brain are even less priceless than the example of his
-wonderful life. That he is in the shadow in his old age is by no means
-strange; a nature so sensitive, so finely strung, so keenly alive to
-the sufferings of others on every hand, has necessarily felt what the
-well-kept and self-engrossed animals around him knew nothing of.
-Indeed, just here we find the chief reason why the finest natures
-suffer so keenly in this age of heartless greed, self-absorption, and
-gold madness, of wanton extravagance and biting poverty, of widespread
-misery and growing discontent. Sensitive natures who are spiritually
-alive to the misery around them must suffer while they sow the
-seed-thoughts of a new day--suffer uncomplainingly until the
-waiting-time of this great transition period has passed.
-
-In John Ruskin we find great breadth of thought and a wide range of
-intellectual vision, going hand in hand with a profound philosophical
-grasp of life's deepest problems; and, what is more, these excellences
-are rendered luminous by the influence of an enlightened soul. His
-life has been characterized by nobility of purpose, purity of thought,
-a passion for nature and art, and an enthusiasm for humanity.
-
-
-
-
-THE SINGLE TAX IN OPERATION.
-
-BY HON. HUGH H. LUSK,
-
-_Ex-Member of the New Zealand Legislature._
-
-
-Few if any of the various economic theories that have been advanced,
-claiming attention in virtue of their practical benefit to the
-existing conditions of human affairs, have gained so immediate or so
-widespread an acceptance amongst intelligent persons as that which is
-familiarly known as "the single-tax" theory propounded by Mr. Henry
-George. In all parts of the English-speaking world, at least, the
-theory has obtained many and enthusiastic disciples, who have
-believed, and probably still believe, that they find in Mr. George's
-doctrine a panacea for many of the most apparent of the evils which
-oppress society not less under our advanced civilization than they did
-at any former period of the world's history. It may be said, indeed,
-that we hear less of Mr. George and the single tax now than we did a
-few years ago, and from this some will argue that the idea has died or
-is dying out of men's minds; this, however, is almost certainly a
-mistake.
-
-In the history of any great system of alleged reform there may be
-traced at least three distinct stages which are marked by different
-degrees of prominence in the public regard. The first of these may be
-called the period of promulgation, the second that of fermentation,
-and the third that of experiment. If the evils proposed to be reformed
-are manifest and widely recognized the first of these stages is almost
-certain to excite wide attention and much controversy on both sides.
-The earliest stage, that of mere discussion, however, soon wears
-itself out, and the theorists who argued in favor of, as well as those
-who argued against, the new system, having exhausted their ingenuity
-in argument, turn for the most part to something newer, and let the
-matter drop.
-
-Then follows the period of incubation. Removed from the din of
-controversy a certain number of people are always found who are keenly
-sensible of the evils which the new system was supposed to cure, and
-who continue to meditate upon the possibility of its possessing the
-power to do so. These persons, it may be, make but little noise in the
-arena either of literature or politics, but they are not the less
-active, nor perhaps in the end the less really influential, on that
-account. Their influence is of the sort that depends upon a solid
-conviction, right or wrong, that the theory which they support is the
-true one; and as long as the evils, which the system they adhere to
-professes to cure, continue to exist, so long their influence may be
-expected to increase.
-
-It is the third or experimental stage which is the critical one, and
-generally speaking it is well when that stage can be reached without
-any needless delay. By experiment alone can the value of such theories
-be tested to the satisfaction of the practical mind of humanity, and
-it is only as the result of a trial that men will either consent to
-admit the value of a proposed reform or to abandon a specious theory
-to which they have once given their adherence.
-
-The single-tax theory of political economics advanced by Henry George,
-having passed through the first of these three stages with something
-more than the usual publicity and controversy, has already been in its
-second stage for a good many years. The cessation of active
-discussion, which appears to some people to argue that it has passed
-into oblivion, or is at any rate well on the way toward such a
-consummation, is only evidence that it is in its second, or
-fermentation, period. Nobody can pretend for an instant that any one
-of the evils pointed out by Henry George as the things that called
-loudly for reform, have actually been reformed since the date of the
-publication of his original essay on "Progress and Poverty." No
-reasonable man can doubt that many, if not all of these evils, ought
-in some way to be dealt with, and if possible amended. While such is
-the case it is impossible wholly to get rid of the theory which
-trenchantly pointed out those evils and professed at least to offer an
-effective remedy.
-
-Under these conditions few things could be more desirable than that
-the matter should be advanced to the third of its natural stages by
-being submitted to the critical test of experience. Nothing short of
-this will ever satisfy the mass of mankind of the feasibility of the
-system proposed, or of its adequacy to meet the evils complained of;
-nothing less will set free the minds of many thousands of intelligent
-persons to inquire into other methods of reform than the fair trial of
-the single-tax system, and its failure to cure the evils which its
-author expected it to cure. The difficulty, which indeed is by no
-means a slight one, is to find a favorable arena in which the
-experiment can be tried, and a community prepared to make the
-experiment.
-
-It must be remembered that, if the evils aimed at by the proposed
-remedy of the single tax are great and far-reaching, its complete
-application could hardly, in most communities, amount to less than a
-practical revolution. Striking as it does at the whole received theory
-of land tenure, as sanctioned throughout the civilized world by the
-practice of many centuries, it arrays against itself the prejudices of
-the most influential classes in every long-established community, and
-its introduction is necessarily surrounded by difficulties and at
-least apparent injustices which must indefinitely delay any attempt to
-bring it to the test of experiment there. The only reasonable hope,
-indeed, of reducing the theory of the single tax to the plane of
-experience is to find a country not yet fully committed to any other
-system, and occupied by a self-governing people sufficiently
-intelligent to perceive the evils of other existing systems of land
-tenure, and sufficiently enterprising to be willing to experiment in
-this direction.
-
-It may perhaps prove of no little benefit to other communities that
-one self-governing country has been found which has been both able and
-willing to make trial of the principle which has been so strongly
-contended for by the author of "Progress and Poverty," and by those
-who have seen in his proposals a way of escape from many of the most
-serious difficulties that beset civilized communities at the present
-day. There is probably no other country which is to-day in so good a
-position to enter upon experimental legislation in this and other
-directions as the British colony of New Zealand. An island community
-separated by more than a thousand miles from its nearest neighbors,
-possessed of practically unlimited powers of self-government, and
-inhabited by a prosperous and intelligent population, substantially
-of unmixed British race, there is little either in their external
-relations or internal circumstances to prevent the colonists of New
-Zealand making many experiments in economic legislation. And during
-the last quarter of a century this fact has been fully realized by the
-people and their leaders. They have established a system of education
-which is at once more popular, free, and comprehensive than even the
-most complete systems in force in this country; they have placed local
-option in the control of the liquor traffic upon a broad and entirely
-popular basis, which has rendered New Zealand the most sober and
-law-abiding of communities, without introducing the doubtful principle
-of prohibition; they have thrown open the franchise unreservedly to
-all persons of full age and competent education, without regard to
-sex; and they have successfully introduced life insurance and
-trusteeship of estates by the government, as well as many others of
-the proposals which are generally comprehended under the term "State
-Socialism."
-
-It is by no means surprising that a community which has made so many
-experiments in legislation should have turned its attention to the
-question which may perhaps be looked upon as most specially inviting
-attention from social reformers in a new country. The circumstances of
-New Zealand in relation to the land were from the first exceptional.
-In every other country occupied by savage tribes in modern times which
-has been taken possession of for purposes of settlement by people of
-European race, the ownership of the soil has been assumed, as a matter
-of course, to vest not in the aboriginal natives, but in the intruding
-settlers. Spain, England, France, Holland, Germany, and the United
-States have one after the other adopted this convenient theory of
-international morality, and entered with a cool assumption of right
-upon the inheritance of their comparatively helpless predecessors. In
-New Zealand the conditions of the country and its inhabitants rendered
-this popular system wholly inapplicable. The area of the country was
-limited, to an extent which rendered it impossible to adopt the
-fiction which has lain at the root of nearly all the forcible
-confiscation of the territory of native tribes, namely, that they
-could make no profitable use of so great an area. The islands of New
-Zealand contain only a little more land than Great Britain itself,
-and sixty years ago, when England first thought of annexing them to
-her empire, the native inhabitants numbered little if anything short
-of a hundred thousand souls. They were besides a settled people who
-cultivated the soil, and moreover they were warlike, and formidable to
-any invader. In consequence of these things a wholly new departure was
-made in the case of New Zealand. The country was not occupied on any
-plea of discovery or of conquest, as had been done in so many parts of
-the world before, but the sovereignty of the islands was obtained by
-treaty with the chiefs of the native tribes, upon the distinct
-guarantee that the full rights of the aboriginal inhabitants to their
-lands should be recognized and protected by England against all
-comers.
-
-From the first, therefore, the lands of New Zealand have been
-purchased by the government before they could be disposed of to the
-settlers. The community had no vast tracts of land to dispose of which
-had cost nothing but the expense of survey, but as a matter of fact
-had to look on every acre as an investment which must be sold for a
-certain definite price unless the transaction was to result in an
-absolute loss of money to the people at large. It may well have
-happened that the result of so unusual a condition of affairs was to
-lead the community to regard the public lands in a somewhat different
-light from other people. At any rate it led to all lands being sold
-for a price which prevented their being lightly esteemed or as a rule
-held as freeholds in large areas. So much was this the case that from
-the first nearly all pastoral lands were held under leases from the
-government at fixed annual rentals. Fully forty years ago the
-southern, and larger, of the islands was nearly all purchased from the
-comparatively small native population by the government, and in that
-island a very large proportion of the land has always been let on
-lease for grazing. In the northern island nearly one-half of the land
-even now belongs to the original native owners, and much of this area
-is leased from them by Europeans for farming or grazing purposes.
-
-In this way it has happened that in New Zealand, more than in any
-other country occupied by people of European race, the inhabitants
-have grown accustomed to the idea of holding land on lease, with the
-people at large, as represented by the government, for landlord. Under
-these conditions it is easy to understand how the doctrine of the
-single tax found a peculiarly congenial home in the minds of New
-Zealand public men. It is true that large areas of the lands of the
-country had been disposed of in freehold to settlers. It is true that
-the freehold tenure of the native inhabitants had in a certain sense
-been guaranteed to them by treaty, at least in so far that it should
-never be taken from them without compensation. It is true that the
-mass of the people were very fully possessed by the apparently almost
-universal preference for the idea of a freehold over every other
-tenure of lands so far as they were personally concerned. But, on the
-other hand, they had grown accustomed to the practice of holding areas
-of land on lease both from the government and from the native owners,
-whose tenure was not individual, but tribal, and they had learned the
-lesson that there was no intolerable hardship in the system.
-
-The attempt to introduce a system which should give effect to the
-principle underlying the economic theory of Henry George in New
-Zealand was not hastily made, nor was it attempted on a scale that
-could be fairly open to the charge of being revolutionary in its
-incidence. The first step taken by the legislature was in the
-direction of so dealing with the public estate of the country as to
-encourage settlers to lease rather than to purchase the freehold. With
-this in view a system of leases in perpetuity was established, and
-areas of the best and most accessible of the land still unsold were
-set apart to be dealt with under the new plan. Any person, not already
-the holder of land in freehold, which, together with the land applied
-for under perpetual lease, would make an area of more than six hundred
-and forty acres, or one square mile, could apply for a lease of not
-more than three hundred and forty acres on perpetual lease. Five
-dollars per acre was fixed as the price of the land, such being the
-average price of first-class freehold land unimproved in the country,
-and the applicant was entitled to a lease for 999 years of the land
-applied for, subject to the conditions that he resided upon the land
-during the first ten years of the tenancy; that he improved it to the
-extent of thirty per cent of its upset value within six years; and
-that he paid as annual rental interest at the rate of five per cent on
-the price or value of the land.
-
-Each lease contained clauses rendering the land subject to revaluation
-at the end of each period of twenty-one years, on which the rental
-would be calculated. If the new valuation, which it was provided
-should rigidly exclude all improvements on the land, was assented to
-by the tenant, the matter was settled for another twenty-one years;
-but if he objected to the new valuation as excessive, it was provided
-that he could demand that it should be offered by public auction
-(subject to payment of the value of his improvements), and that the
-amount bid for it either by himself or by anybody else at the sale
-should be esteemed the value on which the rental was to be calculated
-during the twenty-one years next following the sale. In case the
-present holder of the lease was the highest bidder, this was the only
-result of the sale; but in case he was outbid he was bound to transfer
-the lease to the best bidder, on receiving from the government the
-amount at which his improvements had been valued. This payment might
-be made in government bonds, bearing interest at four per cent, at the
-option of the government, and the new holder of the lease was charged
-as rent the interest on the value of the land as bid by himself and
-also interest at five per cent upon the former leaseholder's
-improvements. By this means it was proposed to retain for the
-community at large the increased value of the lands of the country
-which was not due to the improvements made from time to time by the
-leaseholder. The inducement held out to the public to accept such
-leases in preference to a freehold was the saving of capital involved
-in not paying for the land when taken up, but only interest on the
-amount. This, it was hoped, would suffice to render it popular with a
-considerable class of actual working settlers as distinguished from
-speculative buyers.
-
-It is only fair to say that in spite of every effort that could be
-made by the government, the system did not commend itself to the
-judgment or the prejudices of the persons interested to any very great
-extent. What they wanted--what it may be taken for granted is wanted
-by nearly everybody in dealing with land--was a fixed tenure. It was
-not enough to know that they had a lease for 999 years; they wanted to
-know what they were to pay for it, not only during the first
-twenty-one years, but at any time during the 999. Eventually this had
-to be conceded, and as the land law of New Zealand now stands the
-holder of a perpetual lease gets it for a rental of four per cent upon
-the original price fixed by government on the land, subject still,
-however, to the conditions as to residence and improvements on the
-land during the first ten years.
-
-Having abandoned this promising and theoretically perfect plan for
-securing to the state all state-produced increase in the value of the
-public lands, the New Zealand parliament was still anxious to secure
-for the country the other advantages held out by the author of the
-single-tax doctrine. These advantages may be briefly summed up in the
-words, the discouragement of large holdings and the prevention of
-speculation in future land values. To obtain these results without
-laying the community open to the charge of practical confiscation,
-which has been, and probably will always be, the strongest argument
-against the practical application of the doctrine of the single tax,
-as propounded by its author, was felt to be no easy matter. Even in
-New Zealand there were already some large freehold estates, and these
-naturally included some of the most desirable and valuable of the
-land. It was eventually decided to impose a land tax, the incidence of
-which would tend at least to discourage speculation, while it supplied
-revenue for the public expenditure.
-
-A uniform tax of one penny in the pound sterling, equivalent to one
-two-hundred-and-fortieth part of the capital value of all land in the
-country held in freehold by Europeans, was imposed, the value of
-improvements being in all cases deducted from such valuation. Each
-owner of land is, however, allowed an exemption of land to the value
-of two thousand five hundred dollars, on which no tax is payable, as
-well as of all mortgage money secured on the freehold. Thus all
-freehold lands held by any individual are liable to be taxed above the
-value of $2,500, so far as he is really interested in them; while all
-money lent on mortgage of land is subject to a tax of five per cent on
-the annual interest reserved by the terms of the mortgage. New Zealand
-is mainly a country of small holdings, and the result of this system
-has been that, out of about 90,000 holders of land in freehold, only
-about 13,000 actually pay the tax on land. In other words, the
-settlers of the colony who own land which, apart from improvements and
-mortgage debts, is worth more than $2,500, are found to be only about
-one-seventh of the whole number.
-
-To provide for the discouragement of land speculation on a large scale
-a further provision is made by the enactment of a further tax upon all
-lands held by individuals or corporations of a value exceeding $25,000
-clear of incumbrance. This is called the graduated land tax, and
-provides for a farther taxation on all such lands, beginning at
-one-eighth in addition to the original tax, and rising by advances of
-an additional eighth for each sum of $25,000 at which the land is
-valued, until a maximum rate of three times the original tax is
-reached in the case of large estates. To provide for the risk of
-vexatious opposition to valuations on the part of owners, there is a
-farther provision that the government may at its option elect to
-purchase, at an advance of ten per cent over the valuation objected
-to, any unimproved land held in freehold. It is also a part of the
-system that the government may compulsorily purchase at a valuation
-any lands not in actual use in case any association of persons shall
-apply to have this done, undertaking satisfactorily to take the land
-upon its purchase under the conditions of perpetual lease, which of
-course includes subdivision into small areas, with residence and
-improvement.
-
-By these means the people of New Zealand confidently expect to secure
-the subdivision of the lands of the country into small areas; to
-discourage to the utmost the holding of land by capitalists in
-expectation of greatly increased values at the expense of the less
-wealthy classes; to render practically impossible the establishment on
-any extensive scale of private landlordism in respect of agricultural
-lands; and gradually to substitute, as far as possible, the payment to
-the state of a yearly interest on value, for the purchase of the
-freehold in the land of the country.
-
-So far as the experience of the last eight years, during which the
-system has been in force, may be taken as a reliable guide, the
-experiment shows many signs of success. It has certainly checked the
-tendency to speculate in lands with a view to a rise in price, which
-threatened to become a great, as it certainly was a growing, evil. It
-has been found that it will not pay to do this in the face of
-taxation, and particularly of the graduated tax; and owners of large
-areas of land have developed a strong inclination to subdivide and
-sell lands which they formerly were disposed to hoard and increase.
-The power given to the government to purchase lands where the owners
-have objected to the valuation for taxation purposes has not been
-widely exercised, but several very important and considerable
-compulsory purchases of estates have been made in cases where
-associations of persons wishing to take the land on perpetual lease
-have applied to the government for that purpose. The chief benefit of
-such examples, indeed, seems to have been in compelling owners either
-to use the land themselves or to offer it for sale to persons anxious
-to use it; but from the New Zealand point of view this would appear to
-be almost if not quite equally desirable. Finally, the land tax has
-largely enabled the country to do without other taxes, which would
-necessarily have fallen more heavily upon the class of workers with
-small incomes, instead of being levied on the classes best able to
-bear them.
-
-It yet remains to be seen whether evils may not lurk, as yet
-unnoticed, in the system, which may impair if not destroy its
-usefulness. One consequence which was predicted by its opponents,
-however, has not been found to follow upon the introduction of the
-system. It was said that capital would be withdrawn from the country,
-and that poverty and stagnation would result. No such result has
-followed up to this time. New Zealand, with its less than a million
-inhabitants, is to-day looked on as one of the soundest dependencies
-of the British empire; it continues to draw to it from the mother
-country as much capital as it can profitably use; its exports steadily
-increase; and its people, if not rich, are well-to-do and comfortable.
-
-It may be said, indeed, that New Zealand has not accepted Henry
-George's doctrines as they were propounded by their author, and this
-is literally true. It is, however, also true that they have accepted
-the essential spirit of those doctrines, and, applying that spirit to
-the circumstances of their own country, are giving probably the most
-useful practical illustration of all that is best in them for the
-world's acceptance. No doctrine in economics yet propounded for the
-acceptance of humanity has ever been found to be applicable in
-exactly the same form or to exactly the same extent under all
-circumstances, and this, it may be safely said, will prove
-emphatically true of the doctrine of the single tax. The single tax,
-like all other economic plans, is not an end, but only a means. The
-end must be the amelioration of the condition of the masses of the
-people, and the consequent prosperity and happiness of the great
-majority. In New Zealand the people and their leaders believe this to
-be secured by taxing wealth rather than comparative poverty; by giving
-every encouragement to those who will devote themselves to the
-cultivation of the land; and by throwing every obstacle in the path of
-those who would fain establish and promote the pernicious system of
-private landlordism, which everywhere tends to create and perpetuate
-class distinctions, with their long train of attendant evils.
-
-In these respects New Zealand presents an object-lesson which can
-hardly fail to be of value to other countries, even if their
-conditions differ widely from her own. Her successes may be noted with
-advantage, her mistakes may be criticised with profit, in every free
-country and by all those who see that existing conditions are far from
-perfect in any part of the world, and that the safety as well as the
-advancement of society may depend largely upon the introduction of
-wise and, it may be, far-reaching reforms.
-
-
-
-
-NATURAL SELECTION, SOCIAL SELECTION, AND HEREDITY.
-
-BY PROFESSOR JOHN R. COMMONS,
-
-_Of Syracuse University, N. Y._
-
-
-The term "natural selection" is a misnomer, as Darwin himself
-perceived. It means merely survival. "Selection" proper involves
-intention, and belongs to human reason. Selection by man we call
-artificial. Natural selection is the outcome of certain physical
-facts: 1. Environment: the complex of forces, such as soil, climate,
-food, and competitors. 2. Heredity: the tendency in offspring to
-follow the type of the parent. 3. Variation: the tendency to diverge
-from that type. 4. Over-population: the tendency to multiply offspring
-beyond the food supply. 5. Struggle for life: the effort to exclude
-others or to consume others. 6. Consciousness of kind: the tendency to
-spare and coöperate with offspring and others of like type. 7.
-Survival of the fittest: the victory of those best fitted to their
-environment by heredity, variation, numbers, and consciousness of
-kind.
-
-These biological facts underlie human society, but a new factor enters
-with novel results. This is self-consciousness. Society is based not
-merely on consciousness of kind, as worked out by Professor Giddings,
-but peculiarly on individual self-consciousness.
-
-Self-consciousness is a product of evolution, at first biological as
-explained by natural selection, and second, sociological. The
-biological character is the prolongation of infancy, i. e. the
-prolonged plastic and unfolding state of the brain. This makes
-possible a new kind of development unknown to the animal, namely,
-education. Education is preëminently a social activity. I say
-education instead of environment. In natural selection there is a
-physical environment which presses upon individuals, and only those
-survive who are fitted to sustain this pressure. In social selection
-society enters between the individual and the physical environment,
-and, while slowly subordinating the latter, transforms its pressure
-upon the individual, and he alone survives who is fitted to bear the
-social pressure. This pressure reaches the individual through the
-educational media of language and social institutions, especially the
-family, the state, and property. Institutions rest upon ideas and
-beliefs, and these are epitomized in language. Language in turn, by
-giving names to things and relations, and by thus transmitting to each
-individual the accumulated race experience, gradually brings him to
-the consciousness of himself. This is education.
-
-But self-consciousness is at first only vague, capricious, and
-unprincipled. It grows by becoming definite, self-controlled, and
-conscientious; that is, more regardful both of its own higher self and
-of others. It thus develops into moral character, which we call
-personality. Personality is the final outcome of social selection.
-When once liberated it becomes a new selective principle to which all
-others are subordinated. What, then, are the social conditions which
-promote or retard the survival of personality?
-
-It is a debated question where we shall place the dividing line
-between pre-social and social man. In view of what precedes we should
-look for that line at the point where self-consciousness begins to
-throw about itself a social covering. This covering is private
-property. The former view that primitive property was common property
-is now nearly abandoned. The supposed village communities of free
-proprietors were really villages of slaves and serfs. The semblance of
-common property in primitive times belongs to the pre-social or
-gregarious stage, and differs but little from the common use of a
-given area by a colony of beavers.
-
-Private property involves two facts: 1. Perception of enduring value
-in external objects; 2. Exclusive control and enjoyment of those
-objects. Its psychological basis is therefore self-consciousness,
-which is the knowledge not of an abstracted and isolated self, but of
-self as related to external nature and human beings.
-
-The first private property was animals and tools. Artificial selection
-begins with the domestication of animals. Soon it lays hold on man
-himself by means of social institutions, all of which originate as
-private property. The primitive social family was not a state of
-promiscuity nor even the voluntary pairing of animals and birds, but
-it was private property in women, beginning as wife-capture and
-becoming wife-purchase and polygamy. Natural selection, too, is
-transcended when cannibalism ceases. The self-conscious victor
-enslaves his enemy and reduces him to property. Next, government
-arises as private despotism, and with it the land becomes the property
-of the chief. Thus the family, the state, protracted industry, and the
-control of social opportunities begin with that artificial selection
-denoted by private property.
-
-Property in its early forms means the domination of the powerful over
-the weak. Social institutions develop out of this primitive tyranny,
-where the caprice of owners crushes the personality of the masses,
-towards a state of equal rights and opportunities for all. The
-industrial classes emerge from slavery and serfdom into a wage system,
-which in turn is modified in the direction of fair wages, short hours,
-and security of employment--fundamental conditions for personal
-development.
-
-The family has arisen from the private property of a despot to the
-mutual coöperation of lovers, and the woman becomes a person instead
-of a chattel. The legal successor of polygamy--the slavery of
-women--is not monogamy, but prostitution, which is the wage system of
-the sexes, grounded on the subordinate position of women and their
-meagre opportunities for self-support.
-
-Government is passing into democracy, and property in land and capital
-is being hedged about by the police and taxing powers, or diffused and
-socialized in the interest of the personal equality of all.
-
-Social evolution is therefore the evolution of freedom and
-opportunity, on the one hand, and personality, on the other. Without
-freedom and security there can be no free will and moral character.
-Without exalted personality there can be no enduring freedom. The
-educational environment, therefore, which develops personality must
-itself develop with freedom. The ruling ideas of justice, integrity,
-morality, must move in advance, else the personality of individuals
-will not survive the temptations of freedom. To what extent,
-therefore, can education modify the individual? The answer is to be
-sought in the problems of heredity and degeneration.
-
-The human degenerate is essentially different from the animal
-degenerate. The latter is solely a physical product, and by losing
-certain organs is better fitted for survival, as parasites and snakes.
-
-Human degenerates, however, do not form a new type, but are on the
-decline to extinction. They are those who lack personality; that is,
-they are not moulded into harmony with a social environment which
-unfolds self-consciousness. They are strictly biological only when
-they are congenital and therefore not educable. They are social
-degenerates when they are the product of a degraded education. Both
-factors are radical. A born idiot can never be other than an idiot. On
-the other hand, the deprivation during childhood and youth of language
-and education, as shown by Caspar Hauser, or the wolf-boy of Agra, or
-the experiment of Emperor Akbar, leaves the normal natural endowments
-as idiotic as though they never existed. The two factors vary
-independently through all degrees. Education ranges from the slums to
-the pure firesides. The congenital equipment varies from the idiot to
-the genius.
-
-The relative weight of these two factors is a matter of statistics.
-Absolutely speaking, heredity is everything; relatively, its social
-significance depends upon the actual proportion of abnormal to normal
-births.
-
-The highest estimate I am able to make of the total number of
-degenerates, both born and induced, is five and one-half per cent of
-the population, as follows:
-
-ESTIMATED TOTAL OF DEFECTIVES PER MILLION POPULATION.
-
- Census estimate (1890).
-
- Insane 1,697
- Feeble-minded 1,526
- Deaf and Dumb 659
- Blind 805
- Prisoners 1,315
- Juvenile delinquents 237
- Almshouse paupers 1,166
- -----
- 7,405
- Outdoor Criminals (five times the number of inmates) 7,760
- Tramps (McCook, 1895, New Haven Conference of Charities
- and Correction, 85,768) 1,308
- Drunkards (Crothers, 1893, Chicago Conference, 1,200,000,
- equal to about 10 per cent of voting population) 19,000
- Prostitutes (weighted average of Levasseur's estimate for
- rural (600) and urban (11,200 to 17,200) France, in
- "La Population Française," vol. ii, p. 434) 5,000
- Outdoor Paupers (weighted average of report at Nashville
- Conference, 1894, 46 per cent in Penna. to 2.2 per cent
- in N. Y.) 15,000
- ------
- 55,473
-
-This estimate would make the maximum number of all degenerates 5.54
-per cent of the population. From these must be deducted those who are
-not congenital. We can estimate the congenitals by three methods: by
-statistics of _atavism_, or _consanguinity_, and by _experiment_.
-
-In the statistics of atavism we add together the physical
-abnormalities of the individual, assuming that a criminal type is
-found when these abnormalities reach the number of three or more. The
-statistical method always suffers the limitation that it indicates not
-identity, but probability. Yet it has an important value, provided it
-discovers ratios of probability which concur. This is not the case in
-the method by atavism. Sixty to seventy per cent of criminals do not
-belong to the assumed criminal type; and sixteen per cent of normal
-males are classed as criminals, whereas the actual number is less than
-three per cent of the males of criminal age. (See Lombroso, "The
-Female Offender," pp. 104, 105.)
-
-While atavism itself is unquestioned, this method seizes upon rigid
-physical characters to measure educable qualities. And where the
-latter are themselves abnormal the causes may lie with education and
-not heredity.
-
-The method by consanguinity seeks not the abnormalities of the patient
-himself, but the signs of disease and degeneracy in his blood
-relatives. It therefore greatly increases the apparent weight of
-heredity, for it collects symptoms from several individuals instead of
-one. The medical authorities ascribe fifty to eighty per cent of
-inebriety to heredity. This method fails as does the other, for, as
-seen in the Jukes or the drunkard, the child gets both its heredity
-and its education from the same degraded parents, and the method
-provides no measure for separating the two.
-
-In sociology the method of experiment has but limited employment. The
-modern sociologist cannot mate the parents nor vivisect the soul,
-after the methods of the biologist. He can only move the child from
-one education to another, and his experiment is incidental to the
-larger purpose of saving the child. His results, too, can appear only
-as a ratio of probability; but this ratio measures the mental and
-moral qualities themselves directly and not by inference. Elmira
-Reformatory and others cure eighty per cent of their charges. Model
-placing-out institutions and free kindergartens save nearly all. And
-these are taken from the most vicious and criminal parentage in the
-land. Our five and one-half per cent of degenerates must therefore be
-greatly reduced in order to find the residuum of congenitals. I have
-made the following deductions:
-
-ESTIMATED DEFECTIVES NOT CONGENITAL, PER MILLION POPULATION.
-
- Criminals (80 per cent of total) 7,369
- Prostitutes (80 per cent of total) 4,000
- Outdoor Paupers (80 per cent of total) 16,000
- Tramps (80 per cent of total) 1,046
- Drunkards (50 per cent of total) 9,500
- ------
- 37,915
- Which deducted from 55,473
- leaves congenital defectives 17,558
-
-equal to 1.75 per cent of the population. Overlappings would diminish
-this ratio; greater infant mortality and the omitted youthful
-defectives would increase it.
-
-If less than two per cent of the births are below the normal Aryan
-brain level, on the other hand possibly two per cent are above the
-average, and should be classed as the geniuses who could achieve
-eminence regardless of surroundings. The remaining ninety per cent or
-more are born with ordinary equipment; they are hereditarily neither
-good nor bad, criminal nor virtuous, brilliant nor stupid. With these
-masses of the people the first fifteen years of infancy and youth are
-decisive.
-
-We may now classify the selective forces of society. Social selection
-is partly natural and partly artificial. It originates artificially in
-the self-consciousness of dominant individuals. Struggle and conflict
-ensue, out of which private property survives in its various forms as
-an intended control over others. This control is then transmitted as
-the various social institutions to succeeding generations and becomes
-for them natural and unintended. These social institutions then
-constitute a coercive environment, not over wholly unwilling subjects,
-but over those whose wills are shaped by education and social pressure
-to coöperate with the very institutions that suppress them.
-
-Gradually, as subordinate classes become self-conscious, innovations
-are made which aim to check the unbridled despotism of private
-property; new conflicts thereupon take place and certain innovations
-survive, which, at first artificial, become natural for the next
-generations.
-
-As society becomes more definite, reflective, and humane, as it
-acquires fixed laws and government, it increases the range of
-artificial selection; it supplants custom by statute, and remodels its
-inherited institutions.
-
-It is now animated by a new motive, the development of moral character
-in all the people. With reference to this new motive social selection
-is either direct or indirect. Direct selection is highly artificial,
-but it is only negative. It consists in segregating the degenerates to
-prevent propagation. Society cannot, of course, directly interfere
-with the marriage choice of normal persons, for that would be to choke
-the purest expression of personality. But it can isolate the two per
-cent who will never rise to moral responsibility. This would doubtless
-increase the wards of the state, but it is needed both for the reason
-already given and, more especially, to clarify the public mind on the
-causes of delinquency and dependency. As long as these evils can be
-charged to heredity the public is blinded to the share that springs
-from social injustice.
-
-The increase and classification of the custodial population here
-contemplated is a problem for administrative charity. Possibly the
-colony system would make that population mutually self-supporting and
-also remove the current sentimentalism against long isolation of the
-incurables.
-
-With the ground cleared of the true degenerates, the operations of
-indirect social selection can be seen. This also is artificial, but in
-a less mechanical way. It consists in so adjusting the political,
-industrial, and social environment as to affect personality, either to
-suppress or develop it. The two instruments are legal rights and
-education. For example, the tenement-house congestion, with its
-significant educational environment, is the product of laws of
-property and taxation which favor owners and speculators instead of
-tenants, and of private property in rapid transit which puts a tax on
-exit to the suburbs. It cannot be said of this and other selective
-factors, such as the profit-making saloon, long hours of work, low
-pay, irregular employment, that they permit natural selection to
-operate. They suppress personality, which preëminently is the natural
-fact in the human being. Social selection is therefore tending to
-become less and less arbitrary, but is making room for a higher
-natural selection--a natural selection where not brute force and
-cunning are the fittest to survive, but where, with freedom, security,
-and equal opportunity, the human personality will work out its own
-survival. Man alone of all the animals can rise to the angels, but he
-alone can fall below the brutes. This is the glory and the penalty of
-personality. It becomes a unique selective agency whose standard is
-raised with the advance of civilization. The Australian cannibal,
-without opium, tobacco, alcohol, or syphilis, may survive with a low
-morality. The American exposed to these destroyers must be a better
-man or perish. Personality, thus becoming a keen selective principle,
-is based not necessarily on overpopulation and competition, but on
-that self-destruction which comes from vice, disease, and drunkenness.
-Its degraded offspring will perish or feed the ranks of the hereditary
-degenerates to be properly segregated and ended.
-
-But with education and opportunity the higher forms of human character
-will naturally increase and survive. With the independence and
-education of women sexual selection becomes a refined and powerful
-agent of progress. With the right to work guaranteed, the tramp and
-indiscriminate charity have no excuse, and the honest workman becomes
-secure in the training and survival of his family.
-
-We hear much of scientific charity. There is also a scientific
-justice. The aim of the former is to educate true character and
-self-reliance. The aim of the latter is to open the opportunities for
-the free expression of character. Education and justice are the
-methods of social selection. By their coöperation is shaped the moral
-environment where alone can survive that natural yet supernatural
-product, human personality.
-
-
-
-
-PSYCHIC OR SUPERMUNDANE EXPERIENCES.
-
-BY CORA L. V. RICHMOND.
-
-
-From between ten and eleven years of age I have been endowed with
-gifts and favored with experiences that, I am well assured, are very
-exceptional, and that, until quite recently, have not been admitted to
-the realm of psychical investigation, philosophical discussion, or
-even human credence. Lately, however, there have been found a
-sufficient number of well authenticated facts in similar lines of
-experience to warrant the investigation and classification of them (if
-possible) under a modern name, "Psychic Research," and under a well
-established and not so recent one, Spiritualism.
-
-I am not intending to discuss these subjects, _per se_, nor to
-endeavor to classify or explain the experiences I am about to relate.
-They are _experiences_, as real as any of those in my human or mundane
-existence; indeed, if I were called upon to decide that one is real
-and the other illusion, I should say without hesitation that these,
-and similar ones throughout my lifetime, are the real, and the
-ordinary mundane experiences unreal.
-
-At the age above referred to I was, without any seeking, and without
-any surrounding circumstances to "suggest" such a state, taken
-possession of (entranced) by intelligences, distinct personalities in
-thought, word, and action, who spoke through my organism, unfolded and
-educated my mind, in fact became my mental and spiritual instructors.
-The public discourses and teachings given under these conditions are
-well known to many of the readers of THE ARENA, as these labors are
-the work of a lifetime.
-
-It is not of this public work that I am constrained to write; but I
-may as well say here that I have had no other teachers, no other
-instructors, and have pursued no course of study or reading of human
-books; those whom I call my guides and guardians have been my
-teachers. During the time that these outside intelligences are
-controlling and speaking through my organism I am wholly unconscious
-of what is passing in human life and wholly unaware of that which is
-being uttered through my lips. I am also unaware of the lapse of time.
-
-It may be best for me to here declare that I am not, in the usual
-sense, peculiar, nor was I different in my childhood from other
-children, save as each differs from the other. I was very diffident,
-and--not using the word in the psychical sense--sensitive. I was not
-given to morbid states or to the "dreaming of dreams." Perhaps I was
-imaginative; most children are; and I loved fairy tales, but not
-unduly. This is simply to show that there was no abnormal condition of
-mind or body to produce the supernormal results that I have referred
-to.
-
-I ought also to say that I never made the slightest preparation for
-the discourses and poems given through my lips, many of which, as the
-reader may know, were listened to by able and thoughtful minds, and
-from them received the highest praise. I tell this, not boastingly,
-but with humble gratitude that I have been made the instrument of
-giving the message of immortality to the world.
-
-My own experiences during this period of entrancement, or while in the
-supernormal state, may be of peculiar interest to the reader, since
-they seem to be almost unique. While passing into this state I
-experience no physical sensations that are describable; a sense of
-being set free, of passing into a larger realm,--not of being
-transported or going anywhere,--is all that I can ever recall as
-sensation. Before I have time or opportunity to think how I feel, I am
-in the other state. Then I see, but I now know it is perception more
-than sight; I sometimes experience that which we call hearing in the
-human state, but I am fully aware; perception supersedes the senses.
-
-Those whom I meet are individualities; many are friends known to me in
-the form before they passed from the mortal state; many are those who
-were unknown to me personally, only known by name and fame; and many I
-have never known until they revealed themselves to me in this "inner,"
-"higher," other realm. When returning to outward consciousness, I
-often see, or remember as sight, such visions of surpassing loveliness
-that no language, no gift of art, even with genius-portraiture, could
-describe or picture them. These scenes and visions are associated with
-individuals who exist in that state, and, apparently, are objective;
-yet I am fully aware that they illustrate or depict the states and
-tastes of the individuals with whom they are seen, and are not organic
-physical forms, but psychic projections of the individual spirits.
-These forms and scenes readily pass and change according to the state
-of the one seeing them, or according to the state of the individual
-with whom they are associated. The "sphere" of a spirit, or of
-spirits, is the state or condition, not the environment.
-
-In early life, before my mind had thought on the "objective" and
-"subjective" meanings of thoughts and things, I thought these scenes
-were "objective" in the human, mundane sense. I am now perfectly aware
-that every sensuous faculty--seeing, hearing, etc.--is superseded by
-this "perception" to which I have before referred; in fact, that the
-bodily senses as well as the mental faculties--brain expression--are
-but the different avenues of perceiving and conveying the intelligence
-of the individual spirit while associated with material form, this
-perception, or awareness, being the one supreme state of the spirit.
-
-Still I have been shown series after series of beautiful
-scenes,--gardens, landscapes, visions of art, transcendent pictures of
-tint, form, and tone that no language can portray; and I am sure these
-abide for all who wish for or have need of them, and are the
-illustrations of the spiritual states of those with whom one comes in
-spiritual contact--_rapport_. Yet the greater the degree of
-perception, the less important become these illustrations of states;
-we not only see "face to face," but perceive soul to soul. I became
-ashamed, almost, of the state of mind requiring these illustrations or
-any similar presentations. I found knowledge, however, in all the
-methods employed by my teachers, for they knew my needs.
-
-Conversation in that state is not by means of speech or even language;
-sometimes before the thought is formulated the answer comes. Such is
-the rare sympathy existing between teacher and pupil in this state
-that the guide knows before the question is formed. Still, there must
-be the conscious desire for knowledge, or no knowledge can be
-received; reminding one of the "Seek, and ye shall find" of the
-ancient Truth-Teller.
-
-When in that state I readily pass to a knowledge of what intimate
-friends in earth-life are doing and thinking. I even enter into such
-_rapport_ as to be aware of their material surroundings, their states
-of mind, and their bodily health, obtaining all this from their minds,
-not from physical consciousness or sensation. Many times they have
-been also conscious of my presence, and we have afterward verified
-these experiences by outward correspondence, mostly to satisfy our
-friends. One or two instances will suffice to illustrate this class of
-experiences.
-
-When I was yet a child, twelve years of age, my father accompanied me
-on one of my pilgrimages of spiritual work to western New York, our
-former home. During that visit or tour a circle for investigation and
-experiment was formed in Dunkirk, N. Y. After we returned to our then
-home in Wisconsin, I was one evening entranced,--as was usual,--and
-while in that state was distinctly conscious of being in Dunkirk, of
-seeing every member of the circle, with all of whom I was acquainted
-except one lady. She proved to be the seer of the evening. She saw me
-and described me so accurately that everyone in the circle recognized
-me, and, of course, thought I was dead. This so disturbed her mental
-or psychic state that I could not impress upon her mind that my body
-was entranced and that this was but one of my usual spiritual
-pilgrimages. On returning to my mundane state I narrated what I had
-experienced, and asked my father to write at once to the circle in
-Dunkirk and relieve their minds. He did so, but, as naturally would
-occur, they had also written, the letters crossing each other on the
-way, and their letter confirmed what I had told in every particular.
-
-Later in life I had a lady friend whom I repeatedly visited and
-comforted, for she was in great sorrow. One time I made her see my
-body, or its apparition, so plainly that she saw the dress in which it
-was clothed--precisely what I had wished, as it was the color she most
-liked to see me wear. Another friend in California became so
-susceptible to my presence that she wrote long letters from
-me--automatically--which I, in this state, dictated to her, thus
-rendering correspondence between us almost superfluous except for
-verification to our outward senses. My own mother was aware of my
-presence almost daily; and it was a curious fact that my telltale
-spirit would go to her and reveal the very things I wished to keep
-from her,--any little surprises or presents, or the time of my
-arrival home on a visit. However late the hour, I always found her
-ready with a warm supper to receive me. When arriving after the
-journey home she would say: "You came to me last night in spirit and
-told me you were coming in body." All important things connected with
-my welfare she knew in a similar way.
-
-Two friends, Mr. and Mrs. B----, were extensive travellers. At one
-time they were absent three years, taking a tour of the Orient. We did
-not keep up a regular correspondence, as mutually our time was too
-much taken up with our respective duties or pleasures, but I could
-always locate them while I was in this "inner" state. At one time I
-saw them surrounded by what seemed more like a scene in the spirit
-state than in earth-life. They were on an island, surrounded by
-water-lilies; the skies were full of golden light, and they were amid
-pavilions, grottos, and altars of quaint and unique design. I could
-not place them, but on returning to my mundane state I related to my
-family what I had seen, and I wrote down the date. In about three or
-four weeks I had a letter from them dated at Tokio, giving a
-description of this very island I had seen; they were there on that
-very day when I saw them, and the island was as I had seen it. It
-proved to be one of the sacred islands in Japan.
-
-This consciousness of visiting earth friends is, however, only the
-smallest part of these inner experiences; and usually occurs when I am
-passing into or out of the deeper or more spiritual states. Although I
-could fill volumes with these interesting experiences,--verified by
-being shared with others in human life,--I feel it due to the reader
-that I narrate my more inner experiences; at least in sufficient
-degree that they may be recorded, and that there may be some
-perception, however inadequately expressed, of what is possible in
-this surpassing realm.
-
-I cannot pass from this subject of my visits to human friends,
-however, without here recording one other phase of this many-threaded
-line of experiences. While in this realm of spirit I often meet and
-converse freely, or commune, with friends that are yet in human forms,
-but who appear as spirits and seem to possess all the activities of
-the spiritual state. They meet and mingle freely with those who have
-"died" to human life, yet I am perfectly sure they recall nothing of
-this when in their human state. Why I should remember or take with me
-these experiences that the others whom I saw within this realm could
-not recall, I could not divine until it was explained by my guide.
-
-The explanation is this: "In sleep mortals pass into this realm for
-spiritual rest and change, as it is the normal realm of the spirit;
-but they do not pass through the spiritual awakening of the faculties
-as those do who are endowed with 'spiritual gifts,' therefore the
-experiences cannot be recalled _as experiences_; still, they sometimes
-have vague reminiscences or glimpses of 'unremembered dreams' that aid
-them throughout the whole day, often for days; and thus the outward
-life is sustained and fed from this realm. By and by the race will
-have spiritual growth to know and remember the experiences of the
-spirit as they now do of the human life." I have frequently met those
-in that state who were strangers to me here, and who were still in
-human life; and in after years I have met them face to face in outward
-form, often wondering if they thought they had seen me before, as I
-was certain I had seen them. When the whole of this other side of
-human experience is made known, how many things now veiled will stand
-revealed! By far the greater number of volumes could be filled with
-those transcendent experiences referred to earlier in these pages,
-with friends in spirit states, with teachers and guides in their own
-realm.
-
-My mother, always intuitive, sympathetic, religious, and caring much
-for the sick and ailing while in earth life, I was accustomed to see
-in a sphere or state of her own near the "Healing Sphere" of one
-of my teachers. She was surrounded with her own favorite
-flowers--old-fashioned hollyhocks, sweet-williams, and fragrant
-healing herbs. My guide explained that in _her thought_, or spiritual,
-state she requires these things to aid her in healing or ministering
-to those on earth. Whenever I visited her state it seemed to be in the
-midst of scenery such as she loved on earth, and under a
-morning-glory-covered lattice, where she sat in a low chair like one I
-had seen her use in earth life. Though not limited to that state, she
-always revealed herself thus to me; and I would return to my earth
-state with a sense of homesickness, and with the odor of thyme and
-rosemary clinging to my _psychic olfactories_.
-
-My father was interested in all the reforms of the day; he was a truly
-practical Christian, though not a professing one. He was looking for
-that ideal social state which we all hope is sometime coming, of
-"peace on earth and love to all." His spirit state was revealed to me
-as among those arisen workers and reformers, whose work for humanity
-he loved and shared on earth, and learning of the wise ones,--a vast
-and wonderful sphere of individualities, who are still laboring for
-the good of humanity. I wished to know of my father, who passed out
-from the mortal form when I was thirteen years of age, and who was
-often my spirit teacher in my early life, why, after my mother had
-passed on, he was not always with her as in earth life. He replied,
-with a rare smile: "We are together; our work is different, but when
-we need each other we cannot be apart."
-
-Singly or in groups, or as my needs seemed to require, I was aware of
-every relative and friend who had passed from mortal life, whom our
-mutual wish or need attracted toward me. I am sure there may be those
-related by ties of consanguinity whom I have not seen, and many
-related only by spiritual sympathy and kinship whom I have met and
-loved in that state.
-
-My babe, now a beautiful young woman in the spirit state, is my almost
-constant companion in those visitations and experiences. I have "seen
-her grow," to use our mortal speech; have noted her spiritual
-unfoldment, and have many times been her pupil,--so wise are these
-"little ones" in the love of the angels, so sweet and simple is she in
-her teaching.
-
-How few know the real meaning of "nearness" as applied to those they
-love! One thinks of the friend whose bodily presence is removed by
-mountains, rivers, and oceans as being far away; yet London, China,
-and India are as near in thought as the chair beside one, and doubly
-near the one whose body may be sojourning there. This very nearness of
-sympathy debars any separation. If people would turn to the real
-indications,--sympathy, intuition,--whenever desired the friend is
-near. Doubly true is this of those who have passed the barrier of
-death and are revealed to the heart of love. They have not died, they
-have not gone; they are so near as not to be seen or felt by the
-grosser sense that governs the physical state of recognition; so very
-near that even the thoughts of the friend still immured in the
-earthly form are shared by them, the very innermost longings responded
-to. Yet people unaccustomed to seek them in the inner instead of outer
-realm of existence, cannot find them, and say, "They are gone." With
-space and time annihilated, what shall prevent the loved from being
-ever near?
-
-Teachers and guides bear a nearer relationship than those in human
-states, and teach by the magic law of adaptation and love. I cannot
-name, in earthly language, the tie that binds me to those who have led
-me through these many realms, who have taught by vision, illustration,
-and thought, until the awakened _perception_ knew, the _a priori_
-knowledge came.
-
-I have often been conscious of visiting at desire a realm of music
-that led through the world of tone, through the spheres of matchless
-harmony in which the great masters of music abide,--Beethoven,
-Mendelssohn, Mozart, and to the divine realm of Wagner.
-
-The realm of art, leading through color and form to the images of
-perfect life, until form and tint and tone are merged in the supreme
-soul of beauty, and sculptured image or architectural grandeur is lost
-in the eternal, all-forming, all-changing changelessness of the Soul
-of Art.
-
-The realm of nature (the material universe), seen from the inverse
-side, appears to be the effect of causes that are in that realm of
-consciousness; laws that are the operation of the Supreme Will, the
-Logos. There science is reconstructed and made plain, and made secure
-by the knowledge of these fundamental principles.
-
-The realm of philosophy, traced to its primal sources, reveals the
-truths concerning universal knowledge, often perceived by the great
-teachers, but dimly stated by minds enshrouded by the environments of
-earth.
-
-The realm of religion,--the ineffable meaning of the All-Love and
-Wisdom; the nearness, the perfectness, the absoluteness of the Divine;
-the kinship of souls, the fraternity of spirits,--never in all this
-realm was there a thought, or teaching of thought, separate from a
-conscious individual entity.
-
-I find that there is no Time or Space in this inner realm; the entity
-is not governed by the limitations of the person, so the terms and
-usages of earthly existence must fall into desuetude. One is not
-hampered by an ox-team while flying across the plains in a palace
-coach impelled by steam, and one does not need winter garments and
-furs in the tropics. The state of spirit needs no earthly day and
-night; all these are but incident to the physical earth and physical
-existence. The spirit is free from these limitations--time, space, and
-sensuous environment.
-
-It will be interesting for the reader to know that my physical health
-does not suffer from these experiences, nor from the active duties
-incident to my spiritual work in human life.
-
-I enter this spirit realm as naturally and easily as one enters the
-realm of sleep; yet it is not sleep. The body and brain are actively
-employed by another intelligence, loaned as an instrument might be,
-while the individual consciousness, the _ego_ of the human being, is
-set free to visit these illimitable realms or states of the "inner,"
-the vaster, life.
-
-When the mundane consciousness returns, it is instantaneous; but the
-mental and physical sensations vary according to whether the
-experiences have been "near or far" from the human state, with
-reference not to distance, but to resemblance or similarity in
-quality. When the experiences have been furthest removed from those
-usual in human consciousness, many minutes, and sometimes hours, are
-required to adjust myself to the conditions. This inner state is far
-more intense, but not unlike that experienced when one has been wholly
-wrapped and folded from the outer world in perusing a favorite
-author--living with and experiencing the scenes depicted; or when one
-has listened for hours to the all-absorbing strains of music in the
-grand operatic creations of Wagner. On returning to the mundane state
-my food has often tasted like chips or straw; the fabric of my dress
-would feel coarse to the touch, as though woven of cords or ropes; and
-every sound seemed harsh or far too loud. Gradually these
-supersensitive conditions would depart, leaving the usual state of
-mind and body.
-
-I have said it is easy to pass into that state; not so easy is the
-returning to the human environment; yet one _must_ return. Like the
-child bidden to the task, reluctant to leave the garden of flowers and
-the freedom of the outer world, yet, constrained by love and duty, one
-consents to return. I suspect that these sensations I experience, of
-return to the human state, are something like those of resuscitation
-after one has been nearly drowned. The drowning is easy, because one
-is going into life; the restoration is painful, because one returns,
-if not to death, to mere existence. The work, the duty, the loved who
-are embodied here must win one to the form which has been loaned; but
-the spirit seems reluctant sometimes to leave that freedom and
-knowledge for the narrow walls of clay, the prison-house of sense. The
-only true way is to bring that realm with one into daily life. One
-learns after a time to do this: to clothe the earthly scenes with the
-inner brightness, and the human tasks with the spiritual aura of love
-and wisdom.
-
-I cannot judge whether the scenes of earth seem lovelier to me than to
-most mortals; whether there is more ravishing sweetness in the
-springtime, more glory in summer, more richness and beauty in the
-autumn, more rest and whiteness in the winter, more transcendent
-splendor in the sunset sky and glory in the starlit heavens. But it is
-certain that in being admitted to this inner realm the writer has not
-lost any blessing of earth,--of love, of home, of friends, of
-practical knowledge and interest in the daily duties and work of life;
-nor, I believe, can one be barred from any needed experience, however
-bitter. These teachings, visions, and experiences of soul-life have
-given to earth an exquisite beauty; to life's work a meaning and
-impetus; to trials a lesson and interpretation; to the change called
-death a glory and radiance; to spirit states a nearness, and to soul a
-reality. Nor do these experiences rob one of one's individuality; the
-petty _personality_ to which mortals cling is, happily, forgotten or
-cast aside, but the _individuality_ cannot be lost, merged in another,
-or governed, except for its good. When the _personal_ is cast aside,
-one is grateful for the impersonality of the _individual_.
-
-Trailing clouds of glory accompany me across and into the barriers of
-time and sense, and when the sharp contrast is over--which the guide
-ever prevents from being too sudden--I realize the great sweetness of
-the gardens of paradise by the fragrance that is filling the earthly
-dwelling, and I know that being aware of the visitations of angels,
-and of somewhat of the light which is theirs, does not hinder, but
-helps human endeavor and accomplishment.
-
-
-
-
-THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CIVICS.
-
-BY HENRY RANDALL WAITE, PH. D.
-
-
-The standard represented by popular institutions will seldom be
-higher, and as time goes on may become lower, than that set for
-themselves by the majority of the people who established and are
-intrusted with the duty of maintaining them. They may represent noble
-aims and point to high ideals, but the extent of their duration and
-salutary influence must always be dependent upon a sufficient
-manifestation of the spirit which called them into being.
-
-Institutions and laws, however perfect in other respects, cannot,
-therefore, safely omit from their functions provisions for the
-fostering and developing of the spirit which gave them birth. This
-spirit, it is to be remembered, may, and too often does, without
-extinguishment, actually become a thing so much apart from the
-machinery which it has established, as to have little appreciable
-influence in controlling its operation.
-
-The institutions and laws of the United States, in their inception,
-represented the spirit of a people who were actuated by the highest
-concepts of human duty, and who sought to establish a political system
-which should realize the highest ideals. The possibilities of the
-system have been demonstrated by the experience of more than a hundred
-years. Functionally considered this experience has made painfully
-evident the failures which have attended the system in its operation.
-It is evident to every intelligent student of American history that
-these failures have been chiefly due to the fact that the spirit which
-gave life to the American Republic has too often and too far been
-supplanted in the control of its affairs by a spirit utterly hostile
-to that which it was intended to be, and which, if the partial or
-complete failure of the system is to be averted, must, everywhere and
-always, be dominant. It is undoubtedly true that citizens whose
-character and ability fit them for the service necessary for the
-proper control of political affairs, constitute a sufficient number in
-the voting population to assure the ascendency of right ideas if
-their efforts can be united for the purpose. The fact that intelligent
-and controlling convictions of duty are absent, and that they do not
-thus unite, however explained, clearly accounts for the subversion of
-the spirit which founded our institutions, and the ascendency of a
-spirit of chicanery, greed, and corruption.
-
-It is also evident that the political evils which challenge our
-attention are primarily due, not to faults in our institutions
-themselves, but to failures in the assertion of the spirit of true
-Americanism by which they are intended to be controlled. How to secure
-ascendency for this spirit and thus to restore, in every part of the
-republic, the sovereignty of highest manhood, is the most pressing
-problem which can engage the attention of patriotic and intelligent
-American citizens.
-
-For more than fifteen years this question has been a matter of
-profound interest to the writer. The fact that ordinary uprisings
-against political evils fail to accomplish permanent results, seemed
-to him to afford convincing evidence that attention must be given to
-the roots and not confined to the branches; and that this foundation
-work must represent patient, persistent, and unselfish efforts for the
-promotion everywhere of the basic virtues of true patriotism,
-intelligence, integrity, and fidelity in citizenship relations.
-Believing that this work could be best accomplished through a
-permanent national institution which should invite and command the
-coöperation of good citizens everywhere, regardless of party, creed,
-sex, or class, he sought the advice and coöperation of a few
-distinguished men in the preparation of plans for such an institution.
-The assistance sought was willingly extended by such citizens as
-Morrison R. Waite, William Strong, and S. F. Miller, then respectively
-Chief Justice and Justices of the United States Supreme Court; by
-Theodore Woolsey, Noah Porter, F. A. P. Barnard, Mark Hopkins, Julius
-H. Seeley, and Theodore W. Dwight, among educators; and by such other
-eminent Americans as U. S. Grant, William Fitzhugh Lee, Robert C.
-Winthrop, Hugh McCulloch, John J. Knox, Orlando B. Potter, A. H.
-Colquitt, George Bancroft, Hannibal Hamlin, John Jay, Right Reverend
-William I. Kip, David Swing, and Phillips Brooks.
-
-The result of conferences and correspondence with these and other
-citizens of like character led to the founding, in 1885, of the
-American Institute of Civics, which was subsequently chartered under
-the laws of Congress, and was dedicated to the service of promoting
-the qualities in citizenship which Washington sought to promote by his
-latest labors and final bequests, and which he, in common with
-Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison, believed to be necessary "to the
-security of a free constitution," and to the welfare of the government
-and people of the United States. Its distinctive purposes are
-succinctly set forth in its charter as follows:
-
- 1. To promote on the part of youths and adults generally, without
- reference to the inculcation of special theories or partisan
- views, a patient and conscientious study of the most essential
- facts relating to affairs of government and citizenship, to the
- end that every citizen may be qualified to act the part of an
- intelligent and upright juror in all affairs submitted to the
- decision of the ballot.
-
- 2. To promote, in the same spirit, such special attention to the
- study of Civics[7] in higher institutions of learning, and
- otherwise, as shall have a tendency to secure wise, impartial,
- and patriotic action on the part of those who shall occupy
- positions of trust and responsibility, as executive or
- legislative officers, and as leaders of public opinion.
-
- [7] Defined in the Standard Dictionary as follows: "The
- science that treats of citizenship and of the relations
- between citizens and the government: a new word directly
- derived from the adjective _civic_, introduced by Henry
- Randall Waite."
-
-Organized under such auspices and with such purposes it represents the
-only practical and sustained effort which has been made by the people
-of the United States for the realization of the aims above outlined;
-and with persistency of purpose and increasing usefulness it has for
-more than twelve years prosecuted its mission for the safeguarding of
-American institutions.
-
-Political conditions past and present clearly justify the views of
-Washington and his contemporaries, and the opinions of the Institute's
-founders, as to the need of a central source of salutary influences in
-the form of a national institution wholly devoted to a propaganda of
-the principles and ideas comprehensively described in Washington's
-words as "the fundamental maxims of true liberty."
-
-The sole object of this national, non-partisan, non-sectarian,
-popular, and permanent institution, is to voice these maxims, to
-inspire the spirit and give force to the principles which should have
-supreme control in affairs of government, citizenship, and social
-order.
-
-What the national military establishments at West Point and Annapolis
-are intended to accomplish in the way of preparing a few citizens for
-useful service in times of war, it is the purpose of this popular
-civil institution, with patriotic insistency and through all available
-efficiencies, to aid in accomplishing through provisions for properly
-preparing all citizens for the highest service of their country at all
-times.
-
-In the accomplishment of its objects, it directs its endeavors not so
-much to the creation of new agencies as to the giving of inspiration
-and energy to those already existing; and in pursuing this wise policy
-it has been a most useful factor in establishing the solidarity and
-increasing the power of the influences which represent civic virtue
-and true patriotism.
-
-Its efficiencies include, beside its National Board of Trustees,
-composed of thirty-three members, and its advisory faculty, composed
-of twelve members, the following departments:
-
-1. Department for the extension of information and activities
-promotive of good citizenship, through which provisions are made for
-home studies, and for lectures, discussions, studies, etc., in
-connection with schools, lyceums, civic associations, labor
-organizations, and institute clubs; this work being carried on with
-the coöperation and under the supervision of councillors in the
-communities where they reside, and with the aid of a corps of
-lecturers now numbering more than two hundred.
-
-2. Department of Educational Institutions conducted in coöperation
-with State and local officers of public instruction, teachers in
-elementary and high schools, and members of faculties in nearly two
-hundred and fifty higher institutions of learning.
-
-3. Publication Department, through which the equivalent of nearly
-twenty million pages of octavo matter has been issued under its
-auspices.
-
-4. Department of Legislation, in connection with which councillors and
-citizens generally have efficiently aided in securing needed reforms
-in the administration of public affairs, the protection and elevation
-of the suffrage, and the conservation of the highest interests of
-citizens and the state in other respects.
-
-5. Department of Applied Ethics, in connection with which efforts are
-made to properly and efficiently enlist the great body of citizens,
-including youths as well as adults, who profess to be governed by the
-highest concepts of duty, in practical labors for the establishment of
-wise, just, and salutary civic and social conditions.
-
-It is obvious that an institution of this character cannot depend for
-its maintenance upon citizens of merely negative virtue, nor can it
-expect the sympathy of scheming politicians to whose plans and power
-it is in direct opposition. Its dependence must be solely upon the
-willing services and financial support of those members of the body
-politic who are animated by the spirit of Washington, and who believe
-that in matters affecting the highest interests of our free
-institutions, such as civic virtue and civic fidelity, formation is
-better than re-formation, and that to constantly maintain salutary
-political conditions is infinitely preferable to frequent and
-disappointing struggles with corruptible elements, which through
-neglect of civic duty have been permitted to secure controlling power;
-in other words, that it is better to safely guard our inheritance of
-freedom than to battle for its rescue from unworthy hands.
-
-The Institute admits to membership in its National Body of Councillors
-all citizens who are commended to its Board of Trustees, by those
-already members, or by other citizens of known high character, as
-worthy of such membership by reason of their ability to contribute in
-some degree to the accomplishment of its purposes. It does not solicit
-the membership of citizens whose political affiliations are such as to
-rank them among those who are contributing to the evils which it seeks
-to correct. Its councillors are asked to share in an undertaking which
-tests the character of their citizenship by offering no rewards for
-their coöperation. It has employed no paid officers and no paid agents
-for the solicitation of funds. The united activities of its members
-have enabled it, and it is believed will continue to enable it, to
-present in itself an eloquent object-lesson in patriotism and a potent
-appeal to the spirit in citizenship--the true Americanism--which it
-seeks to foster. Its contributing councillors are asked for annual
-remittances of sums of from $2.00 upward, in accordance with their
-financial ability and the degree of their interest in its work. Those
-contributing $3.00 or more annually are entitled to receive all of its
-own publications, and also THE ARENA, whose aims are largely identical
-with its own, and through which its official announcements will
-hereafter be published.
-
-It will be seen that the degree of responsibility resting upon its
-councillors financially and otherwise is a matter for their own
-determination, and one which will be decided in accordance with the
-disposition of each to recognize the truth, that the patriotic and
-unselfish labors of those who have gone before us, and of which we
-enjoy the priceless benefits, have laid upon us a sacred obligation
-which we can discharge only by the performance of similar labors.
-
-The foregoing statements, however encouraging, are chiefly significant
-as indicative of what may be, rather than of what has been,
-accomplished. Gratifying as the results of the Institute's work have
-been, they represent but a tithe of what it might have accomplished
-with a larger degree of moral and pecuniary support. The extent of its
-field and the magnitude of the labors necessary in order to make it
-widely and effectively useful, when compared with the resources at its
-command, have constantly presented difficulties which would have
-discouraged its officers but for their abiding confidence in the
-ultimate willingness of the American people to give to it the measure
-of support warranted by the importance of the objects to which it is
-devoted. It has been not inaptly compared to a noble piece of
-enginery, whose highest possibilities in the way of efficiency and
-usefulness cannot be realized because the fuel furnished is
-insufficient for the supply of motive power. Its highest possibilities
-are, in truth, little more than dreams, the fulfilment of which may
-not be realized in the lives of those who are now giving it such
-unselfish service as they find possible in the midst of other pressing
-occupations.
-
-The time must soon come when it will be necessary to make arrangements
-for the permanent establishment of its central efficiencies, with
-adequate provision for its maintenance, at some suitable point yet to
-be selected. The suggestion has been made by some of the most
-distinguished of its councillors, that the descendants of American
-patriots cannot more worthily honor the memory of their sires, or
-more effectively promote the safety and perpetuity of the institutions
-for which they battled, than by making it their mission to maintain
-the American Institute of Civics. The fact that it was conceived,
-established, and has been conducted in the spirit of truest
-patriotism, and the results which it has already accomplished through
-services rendered wholly in the spirit of the words upon its corporate
-seal, "Ducit Amor Patriæ," would seem to prove its title to the
-confidence and support of all who are proud of the fact that their
-forbears have been among the founders and defenders of our American
-institutions. It may not be a vain hope that this thought will, in
-some manner and at some time, take definite shape, perhaps in the form
-of a national memorial building at the capital, devoted to the
-collection and preservation of material illustrative of the nation's
-history and progress, and to memorials of its illustrious dead. As has
-been said elsewhere,
-
- Such a building, dedicated by enfranchised manhood to the cause
- of human freedom, may include a Hall of History and Civics, for
- the collection of appropriate relics, manuscripts, and books of
- colonial, continental, revolutionary, and subsequent periods; an
- Army and Navy Hall, devoted to exhibits illustrative of military
- and naval affairs, including battle-flags, arms, accoutrements,
- and similar material; a Memorial Hall, where the memory of
- illustrious Americans, statesmen, soldiers, philanthropists, and
- other great leaders, may be honored, and their memory perpetuated
- in statuary, paintings, mural tablets, and other appropriate
- ways, and which shall be to the people of America what
- Westminster Abbey is to the people of England--a place where the
- great exemplars of virtue, wisdom, and patriotism, the noblest
- citizens of the passing years, though dead, shall yet speak and
- have salutary influence, through successive generations; and a
- Hall of Instruction, which shall be the centre of the nation-wide
- activities of this noble American institution, and also of a
- school of civics to which American youth may come from every part
- of the land to avail themselves of exceptional opportunities for
- studies and investigations which shall qualify them for highest
- usefulness in the public service and in all the walks of
- citizenship.
-
-However this may be, the Institute, by its many years of patient,
-persistent, and, in view of the circumstances, remarkably successful
-activities, has established a claim upon the confidence and support of
-good citizens which must in due time receive suitable recognition.
-Further than this, these activities may be regarded as a necessary and
-fitting preparation for labors which shall be more fruitful in
-results, and in the hope of which those who have hitherto directed its
-affairs have found inspiration and encouragement.
-
-It has been truly said that,
-
- If any honor attaches to the citizenship in which intelligent,
- loyal, and unselfish devotion to the highest interests of country
- are made paramount, the names of those who have united in efforts
- for the establishment of this Institute of Patriotism constitute
- a roll of honor. Its ability to fully realize its objects is
- dependent upon the number and the efforts of those whose names
- are upon this roll.
-
- Here is an opportunity for, and an appeal to, citizens of wealth.
- Money cannot be more worthily or wisely bestowed than in feeding
- the streams in whose life-giving power is the strength of the
- republic. Honorable names may find their noblest memorials by the
- gifts and endowments which shall forever connect them with this
- National School of Patriotism.
-
-
-
-
-AN INDUSTRIAL FABLE.
-
-BY HAMILTON S. WICKS.
-
-
-The King of a certain country, whose power was absolute and whose will
-was despotic, issued an edict that all the laborers of his dominion
-who were engaged in honorable toil should exchange places with those
-persons who did no work or were engaged in dishonorable or merely
-speculative avocations, so that the laboring man should fare
-sumptuously and the non-laborer poorly. Those who worked up in the
-sunlight on the tall buildings should sit down in the evening to
-bountiful banquets and should sleep in fine linen on luxurious
-couches; while those who crawled below in the bleak valleys between
-the beetling cliffs of architecture should go to frugal meals and
-sleep amid the rough surroundings of the abodes of the poor. The
-monarch reasoned that those who did the world's work were more
-deserving of the good things of the world than were the idle or the
-vicious, however wealthy. He imagined that the world was turned upside
-down socially and economically, and he proposed to turn it back again
-by his royal fiat.
-
-Backed by his sword, "which is the badge of temporal power wherein
-doth sit the dread and fear of kings," he apprehended no failure in
-his plans, which had been worked out in their minutest detail. His
-army was the largest of any nation, and was to a man devoted to its
-King. His genius had won many victories and extended the borders of
-glory. Through his impartial system of promotion men from the ranks
-had risen to be commanders. The soldiery were well fed, well housed,
-and well paid. A word, a nod, from their King would set in motion this
-mighty machine to crush out all opposition. Supplementing the military
-arm of his government the King had organized the most elaborate system
-of _espionage_, so that all secrets were open to him, and no
-whisperings in the street or the club but were conveyed distinctly to
-his royal ear by the microphone of his spy system. The press was
-gagged or inspired; the legislature was composed of fawning
-sycophants; his judiciary was merely a reflection of the royal will;
-and Holy Church itself displayed its purple robe and golden bowl but
-to ornament his processions or to hallow his feasts.
-
-Thus matters stood on the evening of the day this great social
-revolution was inaugurated. It fell out that a group of honest
-laborers were descending the elevator that carried the brick and
-mortar to the twentieth story of a certain downtown sky-scraper. While
-all of them knew of the edict of their King, none had taken it
-seriously or imagined for a moment that it would be carried into
-effect literally. On their arrival at the ground floor, a policeman
-stationed there stopped them and, motioning to an elegant equipage
-standing across the way, informed them that it was the King's command
-that they should enter it and be driven to one of the avenue clubs
-which had been assigned for their accommodation. Into it they were
-thrust, dinner-pails and all. They had scarcely time to recover their
-equanimity, as they were rapidly whirled through one thoroughfare
-after another, till the avenue in question was reached and they were
-deposited in front of a stately brownstone mansion. Their coming had
-been expected, and the great doors swung open as they alighted, whilst
-a uniformed lackey motioned them to enter. Their astonishment was
-redoubled at the splendor of the interior furnishings. Each was
-assigned a room, where they were bathed and groomed and dressed in
-garments suitable for their surroundings. Dinner was served by the
-time they were ready, and into the glittering _salle à manger_ they
-were duly ushered. A fashionable _table d'hôte_ was a new sensation to
-every man of them, and they certainly astonished the _table d'hôte_.
-It (the _table d'hôte_) never realized before what it was to be fully
-appreciated. An evening of cigars, wine, and billiards followed; and
-then they stretched their tough and sinewy workmen's legs between the
-whitest of silken sheets, spread over the springiest of hair
-mattresses, on the brightest of brass bedsteads. There we leave them
-to such dreams as their surroundings invited, to turn our attention to
-four bachelor brokers on the stock exchange, whose apartments at the
-club our bachelor workingmen were inhabiting.
-
-With as little thought of the reality of the great King's edict as the
-workingmen themselves, they were sauntering forth from the exchange
-at the hour of 3 P. M., when they were pounced upon by a quarter score
-of stalwart policemen and landed inside a rough luggage conveyance.
-Baxter Street was a Garden of Eden compared to the slums to which they
-were driven, and they were finally sheltered in a dirty tenement that
-arose in a series of rickety stories to a dizzy height. Their
-fastidious taste would not permit them to indulge in sleep amid such
-commonplace surroundings, where the only furniture of their room
-consisted of two dirty beds and a filthy sink. So they sat up all
-night smoking the cigars they happened to have in their clothes when
-captured, and muttering deep curses against their eccentric ruler.
-
-The following morning the awakening of the laborers resembled that of
-Christopher Sly in "The Taming of the Shrew." They were bewildered
-with astonishment at the appointments of their surroundings and the
-service of their attendants. A champagne headache was a natural
-accompaniment to the previous night's drinking and gorging; so that
-fashionable "coffee and rolls," though served in the most delicate of
-faïence, seemed but meagre fare upon which to commence the arduous
-labors of the day. At precisely 5:30 A. M. the same carriage they had
-occupied the previous evening, with its crested panels, its liveried
-coachman, and its spanking span of bays, was at the door to convey
-them back to work.
-
-The same routine was substantially carried into effect each day, a
-natural consequence of which was that they became weary of their
-enforced luxury, and their hearts yearned for the humble living of
-their tenement, with its rough and hearty jollity, and its freedom
-from constraint and the supervision of lackeys, however well dressed
-or polite. In the case of the fastidious brokers kept under
-surveillance, tired nature at last, reluctant, yielded. There came a
-day, or rather a night, when even they were able to sleep--an uneasy,
-troubled sleep, it is true--amid the mean surroundings of the
-tenement.
-
-The determined will of the monarch so ordered affairs that the
-conditions under his edict were kept in force for many days. He
-proposed to give a thorough test to his quixotic ideas. The portion of
-the workmen was hard manual labor by day in the upper regions of air
-and light, and by night the relaxation of enervating luxury; and the
-portion of the brokers was deep dejection, deep curses, and haggard
-sleeplessness.
-
-The culmination of this condition of unrest occurred at a great ball
-which another royal edict had blazoned forth to be given as a tribute
-to the laboring masses, and at which the non-producers would be
-compelled to assist, not indeed as menials, but as experienced
-advisers. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars at least would be
-expended on the pomp and glory of the occasion. The sage counsellors
-of state, men deeply versed in the lore of the past, were called
-together to devise costumes for the crude working people and to frame
-rules of etiquette for their behavior. The most elaborate descriptions
-appeared in the daily press of what was proposed. For weeks the vast
-preparations went steadily forward. Everything of luxury and ornament
-that the commerce of the empire sucked up from the farthest confines
-of the earth was made to minister to the great event.
-
-At last the auspicious day arrived. One of the grandest palaces of the
-King himself was the scene of the festivity. The costumes worn
-represented many of the great names of history, from Julius Cæsar to
-Napoleon Bonaparte, and from Cleopatra to Marie Antoinette. The height
-of the great occasion was reached somewhat after midnight when the
-_quadrille d'honneur_ was announced. The great King sat upon a raised
-dais, or throne, the better to view the gorgeous pageant. A mighty
-fanfare of trumpets, which seemed to whirl the feelings for a moment
-into the forces beyond mortality, invited to the initial movements of
-the quadrille. It was as though an army with banners was about to
-launch its squadrons upon the foe in some majestic Friedland or
-Gettysburg. As the sound died away, there was a pause. The great King
-looked up in amazement, and stamping that foot whose heel had rested
-upon the necks of mighty potentates, now his willing vassals, he arose
-with frown black as midnight.
-
-Suffer me, O reader, to recall the elements of this unparalleled
-occasion: On the one hand, almost omnipotent power, backed by
-transcendent though wayward genius, a will that hitherto had never
-been balked, an unsullied prestige, a front of Jove to threaten and
-command, upon which great thought registered every varying
-expression, one of the least of which would have endowed an ordinary
-prince with lasting renown. On the other hand, "fantastic compliment
-strutting up and down tricked in outlandish feather." A motion from
-the hand of majesty, now fully erect, sent another mighty wave of
-martial music flying on invisible wings, in thousand forms, throughout
-every corridor. As this second summons for the masterpiece to be set
-in motion died away in turn, two bands of men detached themselves from
-the distant throng massed in the farthest background, and came slowly
-forward with bowed heads and deferential tread. At the same instant a
-hundred brilliant officers of the household stepped out of the
-corridors behind the King with drawn swords, and other hundreds
-crowded behind them prepared to do their master's instant service.
-
-The Great Strategist comprehended the situation with a single sweeping
-glance of his eagle eye, and drawing himself up full height motioned
-his servitors with his left hand back into their concealment, while
-with his extended right hand he encouraged with benignant gesture the
-approach of the representatives of the people, who had shrunk back in
-dismay when the King's guard sprang forth so abruptly. It was now seen
-that the approaching bands were composed in equal parts of the gaudily
-caparisoned workmen and their plainly dressed advisers. Each party
-bore in its midst an enormous roll, whose weight impeded anything like
-rapid progress. On arriving at the front of the throne, they deposited
-their burdens and then prostrated themselves before the King. When
-bidden to arise and state their purpose, a stalwart son of toil
-stepped forward in front of his comrades. He was attired in a $10,000
-costume, representing Henry of Navarre. This costume sat upon his
-rugged limbs as though they had been melted into it. The King gazed
-complacently upon his manufactured nobleman and bade him proceed.
-
-"August and Sovereign King!" thus began the blacksmith, for such he
-was when not intoxicated or attending a costume ball--"August and
-Sovereign King, I have been pushed forward by my fellows who have
-joined in this petition, with a vast multitude of their co-workers,
-similarly gorged with hateful luxury. They ask me to state plainly to
-your Majesty that they now know from actual experience how hollow and
-worthless are all the glories of the merely rich, whose time is
-devoted to vain shows and in devising new delicacies for the palate.
-They beseech your Majesty that you, in accordance with your gracious
-pleasure, should restore them to their simple and humble paths of
-life, wherein they will dwell in reasonable contentment hereafter."
-
-The workman ceased, and the spokesman for wealth and idleness stepped
-forward and pleaded his case very eloquently. He showed, in the
-petition which many thousands of his class had signed, that through
-their recent experience they all had been made to feel the weight of
-life as it rests upon those under them. He averred that he and his
-fellows were heartily sick of their lives thus ordered, and that they
-petitioned the King to send them beyond his confines, or place them in
-his army, or, better still, allow them to seek honorable employment in
-vocations more in accord with their taste and inclination.
-
-The King, esteeming that he had sufficiently disciplined the wealthy
-and had measurably cast out the "daimon of unrest" from the mind of
-labor, while at the same time he had given a notable illustration to
-all his people of the folly of outrunning too far the sentiments of
-your age, and the arrant rot of placing edicts upon the statute books
-that at once become a dead letter unless backed by despotic force, and
-feeling the security of his position, stood before his petitioners,
-lightly leaning on his left foot, with his right hand in the breast of
-his coat, and thus addressed them:
-
- "My people, the results flowing from my edict are not otherwise
- than I fully believed would result; I am satisfied at the real
- good that has been accomplished. Many there are who would like to
- see human nature changed by an equally absurd upheaval of the
- social fabric, which would instantly place the limbs of labor
- between cambric sheets and line their stomachs with sweetmeats.
- The truly wise base their expectations for the race upon no such
- sudden revolution, but rather see salvation for their fellows in
- a gradual and natural betterment of conditions, a growth upwards
- that can be maintained through all the spasms of reform, a
- lifting of the whole fabric of society by the great forces of
- education, faith, and persistency, which are and have ever been
- the architects of the race."
-
-
-
-
-PLAZA OF THE POETS.
-
-REPLY TO "LOCKSLEY HALL SIXTY YEARS AFTER."
-
-BY BARTON LOMAX PITTMAN.
-
-
- Nay, my grandsire, though you leave me latest lord of Locksley Hall,
- Speak of Amy's heavenly graces and the frailty of her fall,
- Point me to the shield of Locksley, hanging in this mansion lone,
- I must turn from such sad splendor ere my heart be changed to stone.
-
- While you prate of pride ancestral and the dead dreams of your youth,
- I, despite my birth and lineage, am a battler for the truth.
- To the work-worn, half-starved peasants of this realm my heart goes
- out--
- Those who, plundered and forgotten, find this life a ruthless rout.
-
- In the rustling robes of Amy bloomed the roses that had fled
- From the cheeks of pauper maidens forced into the brothel-bed;
- In her saintly smiles and glances flashed the sunlight that was shut
- By the iron-hand injustice from the cotter's humble hut.
-
- Nay, 'tis wrong that we should range with science glorying in the
- time,
- While we force our brother mortals into squalor, need, and crime;
- Wicked we should pose as Christians singing songs to God on high,
- Heedless of his tortured creatures who in pauper prisons lie.
-
- Christless is the crime of turning creed-stopped ears to teardrops
- shed
- By the women whom oppression robs of virtue for their bread.
- Satan's blush would mantle crimson could he see the stunted child
- Slaving in our marts and markets, helpless, hopeless, and reviled--
-
- See its pallid face uplifted from the whirling factory wheels,
- Tear-stained with the grief and anguish of a baby brain that reels,
- Tortured in life's budding springtime, toiling on with stifled cries,
- Seeing, through its tears refracted, rippling cascades, azure skies;
- Skies and birds and flowery meadows made for children wealthy-born,
- While God's outcasts, with their parents, robbed and drudging, live
- forlorn,
- Men in whom the fires of hope have sunk into a sordid spark,
- Mothers rearing helpless infants for the brothel's dawnless dark.
-
- While this world seems far too crowded to provide us work for all,
- Acres spread their untilled bosoms, while the nations rise and fall.
- Nature's storehouse, made for all men, is monopolized by some,
- Robbing labor of its produce, making almshouse, jail, and slum.
-
- Side by side with art and progress creeps the haggard spectre,
- Want--
- Creeps the frightful phantom, Hunger, with its bloodless body gaunt.
- Wider, wider spreads the chasm 'twixt the wealthy and the poor,
- Social discontent declaring that such wrongs cannot endure.
-
- And this yawning of the chasm is the curse of every race,
- As it saps and kills its manhood ere it reach the zenith-place;
- Spartan valor, Grecian learning, Roman honor had their day,
- But land plunder rose among them, dooming death by slow decay.
-
- Shall we wait for evolution, let it right these monstrous wrongs,
- While the helpless, young, and tender writhe and groan 'neath social
- thongs?
- Nay, 'tis better all should perish in a battle for the right,
- Than let philosophic cowards keep us in this stygian night.
-
- Locksley Hall has now a master who would claim the earth for all,
- Who would make the titled idler cease to rob his tenant-thrall;
- Wreck the Church and State if need be (better such in time will
- rise),
- But who from this glorious purpose nevermore will turn his eyes--
-
- Never, till the arms of nature clasp in joy her outcast child,
- Long since driven from the meadow and the dell and woodland wild,
- Till to each belongs the produce of his hand and heart and brain,
- And glad heralds of millennium thrill along our path of pain.
-
- Though the world has piled its fagots round the great and good and
- brave;
- Thrust its Socrates the hemlock, scourged its Jesus to the grave;
- Though its sneer has chilled the tender, and its frown has cursed
- the good,
- While its Nero sways the sceptre and its Emmett dies in blood;
-
- Yet in Truth there is a power that through ceaseless cycles slow
- Will inscribe the doom of Error in an ever-fadeless glow,
- That will trample on oppression, burst the chains and crush the
- throne,
- Rearing on the blood and ruin justice-reign from zone to zone.
-
- Idealistic dreamer, say you? In your youth you once felt so?
- Well, I only pray life's sunset, bowing down my head with snow,
- Shall not swerve me from my purpose, though the victor-laurels twine
- In my reach, and if forsaking my convictions they are mine.
-
- Do not so condemn the realists, rhymesters, authors, and their way,
- Just because they point about us to the errors of to-day;
- Spare them, though they gaze not upward from our self-wrought
- piteous plight,
- For, though blinded and despairing, they are struggling toward the
- light.
-
- Let the realist dip his falcon in the boiling blood of life,
- Tracing in heartrending horror all the hoary wrongs and strife,
- Till the world shall sick and sadden of its folly and its sin,
- Hearkening through the roar of traffic to the still small voice
- within--
-
- Voice which murmurs Christ's own message as we circle round the sun:
- That, though greed and creed divide us, still humanity is one--
- One in all its godlike longing, one in all its hopes and fears,
- With its calvaries, scaffolds, hemlocks, and its seas of unshed
- tears.
-
- Then this star of sorrow swinging through the vast immortal void
- Shall, regenerated, slumber while man's heart is overjoyed,
- Thrilled with yearnings altruistic, triumphing o'er clods of clay,
- As we march into the love-light of the grand Millennial day.
-
-
-
-
-JOHN BROWN.
-
-BY COATES KINNEY.
-
-
- The Great Republic bred her free-born sons
- To smother conscience in the coward's hush,
- And had to have a freedom-champion's
- Blood sprinkled in her face to make her blush.
-
- One Will became a passion to avenge
- Her shame--a fury consecrate and weird,
- As if the old religion of Stonehenge
- Amid our weakling worships reappeared.
-
- It was a drawn sword of Jehovah's wrath,
- Two-edged and flaming, waved back to a host
- Of mighty shadows gathering on its path,
- Soon to emerge as soldiers, when the ghost
-
- Of John Brown should the lines of battle form.
- When John Brown crossed the Nation's Rubicon,
- Him Freedom followed in the battle-storm,
- And John Brown's soul in song went marching on.
-
- Though John Brown's body lay beneath the sod,
- His soul released the winds and loosed the flood:
- The Nation wrought his will as hest of God,
- And her bloodguiltiness atoned with blood.
-
- The world may censure and the world regret:
- The present wrath becomes the future ruth;
- For stern old History does not forget
- The man who flings his life away for truth.
-
- In the far time to come, when it shall irk
- The schoolboy to recite our Presidents'
- Dull line of memorabilia, John Brown's work
- Shall thrill him through from all the elements.
-
-
-
-
-DEMOS.
-
-BY W. H. VENABLE, LL. D.
-
-
- America, my own!
- Thy spacious grandeurs rise
- Faming the proudest zone
- Pavilioned by the skies;
- Day's flying glory breaks
- Thy vales and mountains o'er,
- And gilds thy streams and lakes
- From ocean shore to shore.
-
- Praised be thy wood and wold,
- Thy corn and wine and flocks,
- The yellow blood of gold
- Drained from thy cañon rocks;
- Thy trains that shake the land,
- Thy ships that plough the main!
- Triumphant cities grand
- Roaring with noise of gain!
-
- Yet not the things of sense,
- By nature wrought, or art,
- Prove soul's preëminence,
- Or swell the patriot heart;
- Our country we revere
- For that from sea to sea
- Her vast-domed atmosphere
- Is life-breath of the free.
-
- Brown Labor, gazing up,
- Takes hope, and Hunger stands
- Holding her empty cup
- In pale, expectant hands.
- Brave young Ambition waits
- Thy just law's clarion call,
- That power unbar the gates
- Of privilege to all.
-
- Trade's fickle signets coined
- From Mammon's molten dust,
- With reverence conjoined,
- Proclaim "In God we trust."
- Nor doth the legend lie:
- The People, patient, bide,
- Trusting the Lord on high,
- To thunder on their side.
-
- Earth's races look to thee;
- The peoples of the world
- Thy risen splendors see,
- And thy wide flag unfurled;
- Kelt, Slav, and Hun behold
- That banner from afar,
- They bless each streaming fold,
- And cheer its every star.
-
- For liberty is sweet
- To every folk and age,--
- Armenia, Cuba, Crete,--
- Despite war's heathen rage,
- Or scheming diplomat
- Whose words of peace enslave.
- Columbia! Democrat
- Of Nations! speak and save!
-
- As mightful Moses led
- To Canaan's promised land;
- As Christ victorious bled,
- Obeying Love's command;
- So thou, Right's champion,
- God's chosen leader strong,
- Gird up thy loins! march on!
- Defend mankind from Wrong.
-
-
-
-
-THE EDITOR'S EVENING.
-
-Leaf From My Samoan Notebook. (A. D. 2297.)
-
-
-In that age (_siècle_ XIX, _ad finem_) great attention was given on
-the continent of Am-ri-ka to increased speed in locomotion. Men and
-women went darting about like the big yellow gnats that we see at
-sundown on the western coast of our island when the bay is hazy. The
-whole history of that century in both Am-ri-ka and Yoo-rup might well
-be written around the fact of _transit_, for transit was the spinal
-cord of the whole social, civil, and political order. Man-life then
-seemed to oscillate more rapidly than ever before, as if in sympathy
-with the vibration of the universal ether.
-
-The struggle for the increase of speed began in the early part of the
-century referred to--about 1822. Scarcely had the wars of Na-Bu-Leon
-subsided when the matter of getting over the earth's surface at a
-greater velocity was taken up as eagerly as if life consisted in going
-quickly to a certain point. Men, it would appear, had not yet learned
-that the principal aim of this existence is the _going_, and not the
-_getting there_. Then it was that the steam En-jo-in was invented. The
-Bah-lune had been frequently tried, but always with ludicrous or fatal
-results. A young man by the name of Dee Green once essayed this method
-in Am-ri-ka, with a most ridiculous catastrophe. A poem was written
-about the affair beginning thus--
-
- An aspiring genius was Dee Green.
-
-For more than half a century locomotion by steam prevailed in
-Am-ri-ka, though it did not satisfy the demand for swiftness. When
-this method no longer sufficed, several expedients were found to
-_avoid_ going anywhere. It was observed that the necessity of going
-depended upon the limitation of the human voice; that is, of hearing
-vocal utterances. The voices of human beings could not then be heard
-beyond a certain limit. To hear the voice of a man from Am-ri-ka to
-Ing-land was then thought to be impossible. The possessors of voices,
-therefore, had in that age to _get together_ before they could
-communicate. True, there were some men upon whom this necessity did
-not rest, for they could be heard at a great distance. It might be
-noted, however, that this kind, called _Homo politicus_, had so little
-sense that nobody cared to hear them, so that their success in
-vociferation amounted to nothing.
-
-All the people of Am-ri-ka who were civilized spoke in a low tone, and
-any who cared to communicate must seek each other's presence. This had
-been the reason for the old invention of E-pistol-ary correspondence.
-This method, however, was not satisfactory, since it required much
-time to say only a little, and since what was said in this manner was
-found so wide of the mark as to produce disastrous results. Society
-was, on this account, frequently rent with lawsuits, having no better
-foundation than a bundle of Let-yers.
-
-To avoid this trouble another invention, called the Far-talker (or
-Tel-ef-oan), was made; and by means of this conceit the people of
-Am-ri-ka could speak to one another many miles apart. The Far-talker
-was a remarkable sort of invention by which one merchant, by
-stretching a copper thread across the country to the ear of another
-merchant, could talk to him _through the wire_. The other merchant
-could reverse and talk back! Sometimes a young woman would tiptoe up
-to the box where the wire ended and say the most absurd things to her
-favorite fop down-town; this was often overheard. People had not yet
-learned the method of understanding each other's thoughts without the
-ridiculous contrivance of speech, written scratches, wires, and
-Fo-ny-grafs.
-
-It was at this time that men, in their effort to carry themselves from
-place to place, seem to have taken the first hints from nature. It was
-remembered that _between_ swimming and flying, and _between_ flying
-and walking, certain forms of locomotion, quite rapid withal, are used
-by our poor relatives on land and sea. Thus the flying-fish rises from
-the water and shoots, quite parabolically, for some distance through
-the air. The genus Cheiroptera also gives a hint of progress by means
-of wings that are not made of feathers. The flying lemur, nearly akin
-to _Homo bifurcans_, shows how one may rise and go by a sort of aërial
-progress along the ground.
-
-Out of these hints the men of Am-ri-ka, at the epoch of which we
-speak, sought inventions by means of which they might keep close to
-the ground for safety, but otherwise fly; for the age was very fast!
-Under these conditions some Unknown Man invented what was called the
-By-sigh-kel. It was a sort of flat-sided, rotary ground-skimmer, very
-thin and notorious. It came coincidently with another invention called
-the Trol-lee. The latter was an electrical wagon for general travel in
-cities and suburbs, while the By-sigh-kel was a personal carriage for
-one or possibly two. The passenger in this case had to start his
-machine and then jump on. The propulsion was effected by a pump-like
-action of the legs, very tiresome and elegant. The passenger generally
-leaned forward in a position strongly suggestive of the favorite
-attitude of his arboreal ancestors. It was the peculiarity of the
-Trol-lee that it made a sort of humming roar as it went that sounded
-like a hundred prisoners groaning in unison; but the By-sigh-kel made
-no noise in going except in collisions and wrecks. The latter were so
-frequent that a whole cycle of restorative arts had to be undertaken
-of which the principal was dentistry. At the close of the century
-there were few front teeth remaining--except artificials.
-
-Many accounts of the Age of the By-sigh-kel and Trol-lee have been
-preserved among the old records of Am-ri-ka, and traditions of it are
-found in the antiquarian papers of other countries. We have seen
-pictorial representations made by Fo-to-graf-ure of scenes from the
-age referred to. The streets of extinct cities are found pictured in
-this way. There was an instrument called the Cow-dack which was used
-in taking pictures in an instantaneous manner, so that the scene would
-look like life.
-
-A busy street, thus pictured, in that time, shows many Trol-lees
-rushing by, filled with merry people. Along the side-ways scores of
-passengers are seen, mounted on their 'Sigh-kels, going in divers
-directions at full speed. The passengers present many aspects; for
-riding the 'Sigh-kel was an art which had to be acquired; and by some
-this could not be done--at least not gracefully done. Many tried, but
-few were chosen. Two classes of people suffered much in this
-particular, namely, the very fat and the very bony. Those whom nature
-had favored in form and feature, and who had acquired the art of
-sitting upright, look well enough in these old pictures of a past age.
-But the clumsy and obese, the slender and angular people may well be
-laughed at even through the shadowy retrospect of four centuries.
-
-One of the 'Sigh-kel machines was made _double_; and an old cartoon
-which is now before me gives to this kind the name of Tan-doom. On
-this men and women frequently rode together, the woman going before,
-for that was the age in which the woman, becoming new, showed her
-newness by being forward.
-
-Nor may we leave these reminiscences of a bygone age without
-reflecting upon the absurdities of our ancestors, who had not yet
-imagined the ease and excellence of our own method of locomotion by
-skimming at will the surface of the earth. The facile beauty and
-natural art with which we now rise from the ground and propel
-ourselves by our own thought and wish to any distance--thus
-vindicating our superiority to all other creatures in our method of
-excursion--are facts so obvious and ever-present that we fail to
-reflect upon the impediments and hardships of the people of Am-ri-ka
-and indeed of the whole world in the nineteenth century....
-
-Thinking on these things I can but imagine that I have myself seen
-them in some previous epoch of my existence. The facts which I have
-recorded appear dimly, as if in memory of what I once beheld; but the
-vision of it is so obscure that I still doubt whether it be dream or
-reality. I have long imagined that we retain from one epoch of our
-existence to the next a vague recollection of our experiences in the
-remote ages of the past. I sometimes think that it is not impossible
-that I myself, in some forgotten avatar, used to sit alone at the
-window of my office, looking into the street of one of the old towns
-of Am-ri-ka where the Trol-lees were going one way and the
-By-sigh-kels the other way, crossing and darting hither and yon,
-according to the wills of the riders; but the vision is so dim that it
-looks like the fictions of sleep.
-
-
-Vita Longa.
-
-The question is not how long this bodily life may last, or how long
-the mind, so conditioned, can endure. It is not even how long the
-mind may continue to produce; for the mind, like a poor,
-half-exhausted field, urged with rain and fertilizers, may produce
-only potatoes, mullen, and cockle. The real question--the deep-down
-essence of it--is how long the mind, or soul, may retain the
-enthusiasm and passionate power of _creation_. That is the only true
-test of longevity; and when that ceases there is nothing left. The
-real duration of man-life is measured only by the persistency of
-creative power.
-
-Longfellow, standing in the old pulpit, on the fiftieth anniversary of
-his class at Bowdoin, and saying to those who would introduce him, "I
-wish the desk were large enough to conceal me all," makes a beautiful
-section of this theme by citing some of the most inspiring instances
-of the long life of the soul:
-
- Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles
- Wrote his grand OEdipus, and Simonides
- Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers,
- When each had numbered more than fourscore years;
- And Theophrastus at fourscore and ten
- Had but begun his "Characters of Men;"
- Chaucer at Woodstock with his nightingales,
- At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;
- Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,
- Completed Faust when eighty years were past:
- These are indeed exceptions; but they show
- How far the Gulf Stream of our youth may flow
- Into the arctic regions of our lives,
- Where little else than life itself survives.
-
-Measured by this test of creative power and its persistency, how
-variable is the duration of human life! Sometimes the creative power
-appears in early youth; but when that happens there is generally an
-early surcease. Sometimes the power comes late and remains long.
-Sometimes it flashes forth in the early morning and remains in the
-after twilight. Estimated by years this productive power (which goes
-by the name of genius) sometimes reaches only to a few score moons.
-Sometimes it reaches to a score of years. Sometimes, though rarely, it
-extends to three-score years or more.
-
-Thomas Chatterton went to a suicide's grave in Potter's Field when he
-was only seventeen years, nine months, and four days of age. I know of
-no other case of so great precocity; it is beyond belief. His mind had
-been productive for about three years. Byron's productive period
-covered sixteen years--no more. Pope began at twelve and ended at
-fifty-six.
-
-In our own age, Tennyson has done well. Making an early effort to
-begin, he, like Dryden, did not really reach the creative epoch until
-he was fully thirty. His creative period covers about fifty-nine
-years. It extends from "A Dream of Fair Women," in 1833, to "Crossing
-the Bar," in 1892.
-
-The best example, however, in the history of the human mind, is that
-of William Cullen Bryant; that is, Bryant has real creations that lie
-further apart in time than can be paralleled, so far as I know, in the
-case of any other of the sons of men. The date of "Thanatopsis" is not
-precisely known. It belongs, however, to the years 1812-13. Bryant was
-then eighteen--in his nineteenth year. Add to 1812 sixty-four years
-and we have 1876, the date of the publication of the "Flood of Years."
-The two poems in question lie apart in production by the space of
-fully three-score and four years. It is a marvel! And why not?
-
- To him who in the love of nature holds
- Communion with her visible forms,
-
-why should not life, productive life, enthusiastic fruitful life, be
-extended until its last acts of creation, shot through with the
-sunshine of experience and wisdom, shall flash in great bars of haze
-and glory over the landscape of the twilight days?
-
-
-Kaboto.
-
- Old John à Venice in his cockleshell
- Breasted the salt sea like an Englishman!
- He saw the bleak coast of the Tartar Khan
- To left-hand in the distance. "All is well!"
- He cried to Labrador. The roaring swell
- Bore him to shore, whereon his hands upran
- The Lion flag and flag republican
- Of the old Doges' wave-girt citadel.
-
- Dominion and Democracy are ours!
- From the first day unto the last we hold
- To Liberty and Empire! We shall be,
- Under the Star-flag, for eternal hours,
- Even as Cabot's two flags first foretold,
- Both free and strong from mountain crag to sea!
-
-
-
-
-A STROKE FOR THE PEOPLE.
-
-
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-FOR JULY THE REGULAR SUBSCRIPTION PRICE OF THE ARENA, THE MAGAZINE OF
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-
- "SYLVAN GROVE, KANSAS, May 22, 1897.
-
- "_To_ THE ARENA.
-
- "GENTLEMEN: I enclose my subscription for THE ARENA for the
- current year. The only reason for my tardiness in doing this is
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-
- "_First._ Those who have failed to meet even the interest on
- loans, who have been closed out, and are now renters, often, of
- the very farms which they once fondly hoped to make their own.
-
- "_Second._ Those who are still paying interest or keeping the
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-
- "_Fourth._ A very few who wisely have never encumbered their
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-
- "I live in the beautiful little West Twin Creek valley about
- seven miles in length. There are but two pieces of unencumbered
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- other to a bank president. Thirty-five per cent of the farms have
- already passed into the hands of mortgagees; many of the
- remainder have changed hands, shifted under renewals and various
- expedients to avoid the ruination of closing out. This is more
- than an average well-to-do community, selected from this or any
- other central county of Kansas. We are realizing to the full that
- 'Beneficent Effect of Falling Prices' which was so ably set forth
- (from his standpoint) by Dean Gordon in THE ARENA for March. If
- all people were out of debt, falling prices might not work so
- great injustice. But when a vast majority of the people are in
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- that fall from falling prices, the conviction is forced upon us
- that the killer of fools in his annual round has missed one
- conspicuous example. The trouble is, our dollar of debt, instead
- of decreasing, has more than doubled in its power as compared
- with labor and the products of labor. Meanwhile our Solons talk
- glibly of 'vested rights,' 'corporate rights,' etc., strenuously
- objecting to squeezing the water out of their stocks, while they
- have by legislation for the last thirty-five years remorselessly
- squeezed the _value_ out of our property.
-
- "When our debts were contracted the values of everything were
- double what they now are. I could then have sold my farm for
- three thousand dollars; now, although it has been much improved,
- it would go a-begging at one thousand dollars. Perhaps there is
- not as much distress in our country as there was three or four
- years ago. People have adjusted themselves somewhat to their
- straitened circumstances, and a few are becoming actually
- reconciled to their condition! I heard one man who had recently
- failed in business as a grain-dealer say, 'Well, Cleveland is
- right on this money question; we want a money good in Yurrup or
- any other part of the world.' As I looked at the battered hat of
- this personage, at the split toes of his shoes, the ragged elbows
- of his coat, and the rents in his demoralized nether garments, I
- could but ejaculate, 'May the Lord have mercy on your ignorant
- soul! what does it matter to _you_ what kind of money they use in
- Europe?'
-
- "We are now taking the advice of Governor Morrill, who says: 'If
- you cannot get seventy-five cents a day, work for fifty cents.'
- Our Republican speakers advise us to dress plainly, live the
- same, and work still harder. We are told to 'stop running around
- to Alliances and picnics.' We have taken this advice. _We had to
- take it!_ But we have now reached the bottom. We can curtail our
- dress no further without making our garb identical with our
- complexion. We cannot further reduce our rations and live. We
- cannot extend the hours of labor, for most of us have already
- adopted the blessed eight-hour system; that is, we work eight
- hours _before_ dinner and eight hours _after_ dinner.
-
- "However, Kansas is coming to the front again. Since the mortgage
- companies are willing to do business once more our Governor is no
- longer 'ashamed of the State.' Occasionally a Republican
- politician squirms and kicks as the pressure is turned on. The
- eloquent and volcanic Ingalls breaks out at intervals. In these
- eruptions he pours lava upon his party in fine style. But he does
- not break out often enough!
-
- "The most serious bar to the progress of reform is that the
- people are too poor to pay for reform papers and magazines; out
- of these they might get the truth. The publishers of such are
- unable to send their periodicals for less than cost. Not so the
- party in power. Thousands of people get complimentary copies of
- the gold-bug papers, and other thousands get them for a nominal
- sum. Somebody pays for them. Who?
-
- "I have been pleased with THE ARENA, both old and new. I first
- subscribed to it in order to get 'The Bond and the Dollar,' which
- I consider the most succinct exposition of the American money
- question ever written. No publication that I am acquainted with
- equals THE ARENA as an educator. I wish you godspeed in your
- efforts for the betterment of our people and of humanity in
- general. I hope (almost against hope) for the peaceful solution
- of the difficulties that now beset our beloved country.
-
- "Sincerely yours,
-
- "A. BIGGS."
-
-Moved by the foregoing communication and scores of others of the same
-purport, and knowing the truth of what the honest producers (who are
-the very blood and sinew and soul of this Republic) say of their
-trials and of the wrongs to which they have been mercilessly subjected
-for years, THE ARENA has decided to share the common lot. With the
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- JOHN D. MCINTYRE,
- Manager of THE ARENA,
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-
-
-
-
-BOOK REVIEWS.
-
-[_In this Department of_ THE ARENA _no book will be reviewed which is
-not regarded as a real addition to literature._]
-
-
-The Emperor.[8]
-
- [8] "Life of Napoleon Bonaparte." By Willian Milligan
- Sloane, Ph. D., L. H. D.; Professor of History in Princeton
- University. Four volumes, imperial octavo; pp. 1120. New
- York: The Century Company. Boston: Balch Brothers, 1896.
-
-At the hour when, on the evening of the first day of this century,
-the first asteroid was discovered by Piazzi at Naples, an
-olive-complexioned man was sitting smileless in a box in the opera
-house in Paris. He sat back where nobody could see him. It was his way
-not to be seen--except on business.
-
-The man was thirty-one years, four months, and sixteen days of age. He
-had already done something. If he had not equalled the work of
-Alexander at the corresponding age, he had at least surpassed Cæsar;
-for Cæsar at thirty was still a comparatively unknown roué in Rome.
-
-The figure in the opera box was slender and trim. He who sat there was
-only five feet, four and a half inches high; but his head was fine,
-heavy, symmetrical. His features twitched when he was disturbed, but
-were beautiful when he smiled. To a profound observer he looked
-dangerous. He had the faculty of making his face signify nothing at
-all. He had been begotten an insular Italian, but was born a
-Frenchman. His wife, a Creole, more than six years older than he, was
-in the box with him. She sat at the front, and was seen by thousands.
-She _wished_ to be seen; and when the pit shouted in the direction of
-the box she smiled a little smile, with a puckered mouth--for her
-teeth were not good.
-
-The birthplace of this man had been oddly set on the map of the world,
-for the meridian of Discovery and the parallel of Conquest intersect
-at the birthplace of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. The birthlines of Cæsar and
-Columbus--drawn, the one due west from Rome, the other due south from
-Genoa--cross each other within a few miles of Ajaccio! It is a
-circumstance that might well incline one to astrology.
-
-About the birth of great men cycles of fiction grow. Friends and
-enemies alike invent significant circumstances. The traducers of
-Napoleon have said that he was illegitimate--that his father was the
-French marshal Marboeuf. They also say, on better grounds, that the
-marriage of Letitia Ramolino to Carlo di Buonaparte was not solemnized
-until 1767--that the first two children were therefore born out of
-wedlock. On the other hand, the idol-worshippers would fain have
-Napoleon born as a god or Titan. Premature pangs seize the mother at
-church. She hurries home, barely reaching her apartment when the
-heroic babe is delivered, without an accoucheur, on a piece of
-tapestry inwrought with an effigy of Achilles! This probably occurred.
-It was the 15th of August, 1769.
-
-Thus, as it were before the Corsican saw the light of day in this
-world, dispute began about him. It has been continued for a hundred
-and twenty-eight years. Whatever else he succeeded in doing--whatever
-else he failed to do--he at least did succeed in dividing the
-civilized world into two parties; he made himself the subject of a
-controversy which has not ceased to the present hour. The reason, no
-doubt, is that we do not as yet understand human history and the part
-which the individual plays in the progress of events. Nearly all men
-begin with a prejudice in judging all other men, and nearly all men
-end as they begin. So it has been in the case of Bonaparte. After a
-while we shall see things more clearly; after a while we shall be able
-to interpret _men_--but not yet.
-
-The writings relative to this man constitute a cycle. The books on him
-and his times make a library, the perusal and study of which might
-absorb a large section of an active life. The name of such productions
-is legion. Most of them will fortunately perish. The controversial
-aspect of the life of the Emperor must at last subside. Nine out of
-ten of the books about him will go down to the nether oblivion. Then
-the judicial aspect will arise--if it has not already arisen--and will
-occupy the attention of those who are still curious to study the
-career of him who shares with the son of Philip and the matchless
-Julius the triune honor of being the greatest warriors known to human
-history. If a fourth should be added to the group it would be
-Hannibal, and if a fifth, Charlemagne.
-
-Here at the date of a century from those days in which the star of
-Napoleon emerged from the mists and clouds and began to climb the sky
-the interest in his life revives. In America this revival is
-attributable in part to general and in part to special causes. The
-general causes are to be found in the fact that society _de la fin de
-siècle_ is in such a state of profound disturbance, and the existing
-order feels so insecure, that that order--as it always does--begins to
-cast about in the shadows to find, if it may, some Big Man with a
-Sword; him when found we will make our Imperator, and by sharing some
-of our estates with certain of his military subalterns we will make
-sure of the rest--and after us the deluge. The special cause--at least
-in America--is the tremendous and growing tradition of General Grant.
-Albeit, General Grant hated the Bonapartes, from the Great One to the
-Little One; yet his own luminous setting has left a glow in which the
-nation sees men as trees walking--and among these the greatest
-simulacrum is Napoleon Bonaparte.
-
-Of this man, who began as the son of a Corsican peasant-mother working
-in a mulberry orchard, and who, after fifty-one years, eight months,
-and twenty days, ended in a cyclone on the rock called St. Helena,
-having meanwhile for nearly a third of his life bestridden western
-Europe like a colossus,--a new biography claiming to be the ultimate
-summation of the Emperor's life and character has appeared. Professor
-William Milligan Sloane, of Princeton University, has entered the
-lists which may be said to have opened with Walter Scott and finished
-with the McClure Syndicate, passing meanwhile by way of such
-personages as De Staël, Las Cases, Victor Hugo, and Lanfrey, and such
-drudges as Bourrienne and Méneval, to lodge at last with the
-miscellaneous hacks who get three dollars a column for their
-boiler-plate philosophy in American newspapers! Heavens, what a
-scrimmage!
-
-It were difficult to say when the _final_ biography of a man has been
-produced. Hard, hard is it to decide when anything in this world is
-final. The never-ending progress of events shapes and readjusts not
-only the present materials of history, but also by reaction the
-materials of the past. Much that is supposed to be complete is seen to
-be unfinished; the done becomes undone, and the peroration of an epoch
-has to be rewritten for an exordium.
-
-This is as true of the individual lives of men as it is of great
-events. If the ages have to be reconstructed, so also must the men of
-the ages. If only a mummy now turn over in his porphyry sarcophagus, a
-papyrus is generally found under him; and the finder, with the papyrus
-in his hand, may go forth fully warranted to revise every event from
-the first cataclysm of the Devonian age to the last earthquake in
-Java, and every man from Moses to Cagliostro.
-
-On the whole I incline to the opinion that Professor Sloane has
-brought the Emperor Napoleon to a kind of final interpretation; I will
-not say to a full stop, but to something very much resembling a
-period. In the first place, I offer on the "Life of Napoleon
-Bonaparte," the eulogium that the work has, in a great degree,
-_naturalized_ the Corsican as he was never naturalized before--thus
-bringing him out of cloudland and mere impossible fog to the plain
-level of human action and purpose.
-
-This is much. In accomplishing thus much Professor Sloane has
-vindicated his claim to be regarded as a great biographer. It has been
-the bane of nearly all biographical writing that the subjects of it
-have been completely mythologized. Thus far in the history of mankind
-biography might be defined as the art of myth-making. I scarcely know
-what exceptions to cite to this universal vice except only and always
-Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson." As for American biographies thus
-far produced, there is scarcely a single example of a work which is
-not to be classified as a recorded myth. The trouble in all this
-business has been that the myth-makers, living in a certain
-atmosphere, have imagined that they are obliged to make their
-characters conform to the established antecedents of greatness. These
-established antecedents of greatness have for the most part been
-created out of superstitions, credulities, blank idealism, and mere
-dogmatic bosh. No living, active men have ever conformed, or could
-conform, to the standards which the logicians, the philosophers, and
-the priests have fixed up for them; and if any of them should conform
-to such a standard, their place under classification would be with
-automata, not with living men.
-
-Nevertheless, our biographers have been so weak and servile as to make
-their characters according to this pattern. One character is labelled
-Washington, another is labelled Franklin, another is labelled Adams,
-and still another, Lincoln.
-
-All this, I think, Professor Sloane has studiously avoided. As a
-literary doctor he has done much to destroy the mythical disease. He
-has written an elaborate work in which the man Napoleon moves and
-acts, neither as an angel nor as a devil, but as a man, moved upon and
-moving by the common human passions, though inflamed, in his case, to
-a white heat in the furnace of his ambition.
-
-All this was to have been expected in view of the plan of Professor
-Sloane as expressed in his preface:
-
- "Until within a very recent period," says he, "it seemed that no
- man could discuss him [Napoleon] or his time without manifesting
- such strong personal feeling as to vitiate his judgment and
- conclusions. This was partly due to the lack of perspective, but
- in the main to ignorance of the facts essential to a sober
- treatment of the theme. In this respect the last quarter of a
- century has seen a gradual but radical change, for a band of
- dispassionate scientific scholars have during that time been
- occupied in the preparation of material for his life without
- reference to the advocacy of one theory or another concerning his
- character. European archives, long carefully guarded, have been
- thrown open; the diplomatic correspondence of the most important
- periods has been published; family papers have been examined, and
- numbers of valuable memoirs have been printed. It has therefore
- been possible to check one account by another, to cancel
- misrepresentations, to eliminate passion--in short, to establish
- something like correct outline and accurate detail, at least in
- regard to what the man actually did. Those hidden secrets of any
- human mind which we call motives must ever remain to other minds
- largely a matter of opinion, but a very fair indication of them
- can be found when once the actual conduct of the actor has been
- determined."
-
-From this point of view Professor Sloane has proceeded with his
-tremendous work. His studies at home and abroad have been ample. We
-may remark, in passing, upon the physical vigor of the author as shown
-in his portrait. From such a face and figure we can but expect energy,
-persistency, accomplishment. I do not pretend to disclose the reasons
-of Professor Sloane for indulging in this prodigious Napoleonic dream
-and for delineating it in what is likely to be regarded as the best
-product of his intellectual career. We can only take what he has
-produced and give it such cursory notice as our space will permit.
-
-The first volume of the work extends from a survey of the conditions
-under which Napoleon was born and reared to the conclusion of his
-twenty-eighth year. The first events depicted are those historical
-movements in which the Bonapartes, within the narrow limits of their
-island, were involved in the seventh decade of the eighteenth century;
-and the last event recorded in this volume is the fall of Venice, at
-the end of May, 1797. I incline to regard this as the most
-interesting, though not the most important, of the four great volumes
-of Professor Sloane's work. In the nature of the case the ascendant of
-a man is the more inspiring part. In it he appears as an orb whose
-full majesty, not yet revealed, solicits the imagination and kindles
-by sympathy the ambitions that in some measure are common to us all.
-Here in volume I is portrayed the youth of the man Napoleon Bonaparte.
-In this he is revealed in the full charm of that electrical audacity
-which had as yet lost none of its sharpness and burning flash. Nor had
-Napoleon, as a _man_, as yet become sufficiently involved with the
-general maze of history, sufficiently immersed in the storm-cloud of
-that tempestuous epoch, to be lost from view. This volume shows the
-man emerging from boyhood into the full career of a military
-conqueror. It shows him in his magical transformation from the
-character of an adventurer into the character of a leader of armies
-and a dictator of events. It also shows Napoleon with the still fluid
-heart of boyhood passing through the lava floods of his first loves,
-in particular his love for Josephine, into the age of cynicism and
-calculation.
-
-This first volume brings sufficiently to memory the progress of the
-youthful Napoleon. Here we see him at his mother's knee; then in the
-time of his school days; then in Paris and Valence; then as a neophyte
-author, quite absurd in his dreams; then on garrison duty, and then
-swept away with the tides of the oncoming revolution. In the smoke of
-the South his slender figure is seen here and there until he emerges
-at Toulon. In his character of Jacobin he becomes a general in the
-army at a time of life when most men are happy to be lieutenants. Then
-for the first time he touches the revolutionary society of Paris. He
-meets Josephine; Barras delivers her to the coming man. They are
-wedded, and from that date the stage widens, the wars in Italy break
-out, and the young general begins to whirl his sword at Mantua,
-Arcole, and Rivoli--from which he was wont to date his military birth,
-saying on that occasion, "Make my life begin at Rivoli;" and finally
-at Montebello and Venice, where, in the late spring of 1797, he is
-joined by Josephine. There from the French capital they seemed to
-stand afar as the cynosure of all revolutionary eyes, expecting a
-greater light.
-
-In the second volume Professor Sloane begins with the rescue of the
-Directory. Hard after we have the great episode of the Treaty of Campo
-Formio, and then the expedition to Egypt. The story of that expedition
-is known through all the world; so also the return, and the overthrow
-of the Directory.
-
-From that day Bonaparte became the embodiment of the revolution. He
-became a statesman and a strategist. He found himself in the
-geographical and historical storm-centre of Europe. Then came the
-epoch of great wars. Marengo marks the close of the old century, and
-the treaty of Lunéville the beginning of the new. Napoleon undertakes
-the pacification of Europe, and reorganizes France. He steps
-cautiously towards the restoration of monarchy. There is a
-life-consulate, transforming itself quickly into an empire. The old
-royalism is extinguished, and the new military imperialism is
-glorified in its stead. The third coalition of Europe succeeds the
-second. Trafalgar strews the sea with the wrecks of France, and
-Austerlitz strews the land with the wrecks of Russia and Austria. The
-sea is virtually abandoned by the man of destiny, but over the land he
-rises as War-lord and Emperor.
-
-The second conflict breaks out with Prussia and ends with the ruin of
-that power at Jena and Auerstadt. The year 1806 sees the parvenu
-emperor, now thirty-seven years of age, the master of all the better
-parts of Europe. Here ends the second volume of his life, according to
-Professor Sloane's division, and the third begins with the devastation
-and humiliation of the Prussian kingdom.
-
-In this volume the author views Napoleon for the first time as the
-arbitrary diplomatist of the West. It is evident that from this time
-the emperor's vision widens to a more remote horizon than he had ever
-scanned before. The Berlin decree was issued. The battle of Eylau was
-fought, and then was achieved the victory of Friedland. Nor may we
-pass without noticing the acme which Napoleon, according to the
-judgment of many, now reached on that memorable field. Here it is that
-art has caught and transmitted him. For it is in the trodden
-wheat-field of Friedland that Meissonier's pencil has delineated
-Napoleon with his marshals around him, in one of the greatest pictures
-of the world.
-
-By this epoch ambition in the emperor had swallowed up all other
-passions. He goes on from conquering to conquest. The dream of a
-French Empire, coextensive with the borders of Europe, seizes the
-Napoleonic imagination. The emperor's armies strike left and right.
-They are seen first on one horizon, then on another. The Corsican on
-his white horse is now upon the Pyrenees, now on the Germanic
-frontier, and now in Poland. He faces Alexander of Russia, and laughs
-at him! His gray coat and three-cornered hat become the best known
-symbols of military genius in modern times.
-
-Kingdoms and principalities are transformed. Already the mythical
-Roman empire has passed away. Austria is threatened with extinction.
-The Corsican is seen first in one and then in another of the ancient
-capitals of Europe. Aspern follows Eckmühl, and Essling and Wagram
-follow Aspern. The treaty of Schönbrunn promises peace to the nations,
-but the hope is broken to the lips. In this crisis Josephine goes down
-in the shadows, and the daughter of Austria is led to the imperial
-chamber--this from the necessity of establishing a dynasty. The
-relations between France and Russia are strained to breaking. The
-fatal year 1812 comes, and there is a congress of kings. Alexander
-gives his ultimatum, and the invasion of Russia is begun. There is an
-indescribable struggle on the Moskwa, and then the flames of Moscow
-are seen across the deserts of Russian snow.
-
-The fourth and last volume begins with the return of the allied armies
-from Russia. Then follows the universal revolt of the nations.
-Insurrection breaks out on every horizon, and treachery, as might have
-been expected, is added to the combinations that are rapidly formed
-against the imperial Corsican. The borders of France are broken in.
-There is a narrowing rim of fire bursting into battle flame here and
-there; and then the catastrophe of the capture of Paris. There is an
-ambiguous abdication and an equivocal exile of a few months' duration
-to Elba. It was much like the establishment of a live lion on
-Governor's Island!
-
-The lion got away. Then came an instantaneous upheaval of old
-revolutionary France, which had now become imperial France. The
-Emperor was welcomed home as a returning god. The country was drained
-to the last drop of its resources, and everything was staked on the
-final strategy of the Hundred Days and the hazard of the
-ever-memorable battle.
-
- "There was a sound of revelry by night,"
-
-and then the imperial eagle was seen stretched upon the plain, pierced
-through with the shafts of banded nations. He was caged and
-transported to that far rock which in his school-essay at Autun he had
-described thus: "St. Helena is a _small_ island!" He found it so. For
-nearly six years his captivity continued until his stormy career ended
-in a May hurricane that might well have shaken the desolate
-foundations of his ocean-girt prison. Then the historical tide rolled
-on without him. France was transformed into the old image, but her
-soul was still imperial. At last the bones of her great dead were
-recovered, to be placed at rest in that red-black sarcophagus over
-which the world looks down and wonders.
-
-Such is the fiery but fruitful chaos through which the life-line of
-Napoleon is drawn with a master hand by Professor William Milligan
-Sloane. My judgment is that, on the whole, he has produced the
-greatest biographical work which has yet appeared in American
-literature. I think that in the main his accomplishment has been equal
-to his ambition. It is not an unworthy thing that an _American_
-professor, at the seat of an _American_ university, turning his
-energies to this great task, has succeeded in making a well-nigh final
-record of the life and work of that unequalled organizer, that sublime
-dissembler, that cruel reformer, that heartless philanthropist, who,
-for half a lifetime, converted old Europe into a mire of murder and
-desolation, for the ultimate good of man.
-
-Only one thing may be said in adverse criticism of Professor Sloane's
-book, and that is, that his style is too mathematical and too little
-imaginative for the subject which he has in hand. His rather cold
-precision, however, we concede to him; for it is, no doubt, the
-natural method of his expression. We do our part to acknowledge and
-welcome the remarkable work which he has produced, and to commend it
-to all readers as the best existing and best probable account of the
-personal and historical career of Napoleon Bonaparte.
-
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-[Transcriber's Notes: Every effort has been made to replicate this
-text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant
-spellings and other inconsistencies.
-
-The transcriber made these changes to the text to correct obvious
-errors:
-
- 1. p. 6 over-capatalized --> over-capitalized
- 2. p. 18 successfull --> successful
- 3. p. 23 benovelent --> benevolent
- 4. p. 60 ecocomists --> economists
- 5. p. 68 A macron diacritical mark, a straight line above
- a letter, is found on the first letter o, in the
- word Sosoku. This letter is indicated here by the
- coding [=x] for a macron above any letter x.
- Thus, for example, the word Sosoku appears as
- S[=o]soku in the text.
- 6. p. 76 staightforward --> straightforward
- 7. p. 94 abnormalties --> abnormalities
- 8. p. 124 desparing --> despairing
- 9. p. 144 stategy --> strategy
-
-End of Transcriber's Notes]
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-<pre>
-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arena, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Arena
- Volume 18, No. 92, July, 1897
-
-Author: Various
-
-Editor: John Clark Ridpath
-
-Release Date: September 25, 2009 [EBook #30081]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARENA ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Richard J. Shiffer
-and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-https://www.pgdp.net
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-
-<hr class="full" />
-
-<h1>THE ARENA.</h1>
-
-
-<h4>EDITED BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL. D.</h4>
-
-<p><br /></p>
-
-<h3>VOL. XVIII</h3>
-
-
-<p><br /></p>
-
-<h4 class="smcap">July to December, 1897</h4>
-
-<p><br /></p>
-
-<h5><span class="smcap">published by</span><br />
-THE ARENA COMPANY<br />
-<span class="smcap">Boston, Mass.</span><br />
-1897</h5>
-
-<p><br /></p>
-
-<h5 class="smcap">Copyrighted, 1897<br />
-by<br />
-THE ARENA COMPANY.</h5>
-
-<p><br /></p>
-
-<h5><span class="smcap">Skinner, Bartlett & Co.</span>, 7 Federal Court, Boston.</h5>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">iii</a></span></p>
-<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
-
-
-
-
-<div class="center">
-<table summary="Contents">
-<tr><td class="right sc" colspan="3">Page</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_1">The Citadel of the Money Power:</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent"><a href="#article_1">I. Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future</a></td><td class="right sc">Henry Clews</td><td class="right">1</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent"><a href="#article_2">II. The True Inwardness of Wall Street</a></td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">9</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_3">The Reform Club’s Feast of Unreason</a></td><td class="right sc">Hon. Charles A. Towne</td><td class="right">24</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_4">Does Credit Act on Prices?</a></td><td class="right sc">A. J. Utley</td><td class="right">37</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_5">Points in the American and French Constitutions Compared</a></td><td class="right sc">Niels Grön</td><td class="right">49</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_6">Honest Money; or, A True Standard of Value: A Symposium.</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#article_6">I. William Jennings Bryan</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">57</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#HOWARD">II. M. W. Howard</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">58</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#BARKER">III. Wharton Barker</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">59</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#FONDA">IV. Arthur I. Fonda</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">60</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent sc"><a href="#WARNER">V. Gen. A. J. Warner</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">62</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_7">The New Civil Code of Japan</a></td><td class="right sc">Tokichi Masao, M. L., D. C. L.</td><td class="right">64</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_8">John Ruskin: A Type of Twentieth-Century Manhood</a></td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">70</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_9">The Single Tax in Operation</a></td><td class="right sc">Hon. Hugh H. Lusk</td><td class="right">79</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_10">Natural Selection, Social Selection, and Heredity</a></td><td class="right sc">Prof. John R. Commons</td><td class="right">90</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_11">Psychic or Supermundane Forces</a></td><td class="right sc">Cora L. V. Richmond</td><td class="right">98</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_12">The American Institute of Civics</a></td><td class="right sc">Henry Randall Waite, Ph. D.</td><td class="right">108</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_13">An Industrial Fable</a></td><td class="right sc">Hamilton S. Wicks</td><td class="right">116</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_14">Plaza of the Poets:</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left indent"><a href="#article_14">Reply to “Locksley Hall Sixty Years After”</a></td><td class="right sc">Barton Lomax Pittman</td><td class="right">122</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left indent"><a href="#article_15">John Brown</a></td><td class="right sc">Coates Kinney</td><td class="right">125</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left indent"><a href="#article_16">Demos</a></td><td class="right sc">W. H. Venable, LL. D.</td><td class="right">126</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left" colspan="2"><a href="#article_17">The Editor’s Evening: Leaf from My Samoan Notebook (A. D. 2297); <i>Vita Longa</i>; Kaboto (a Sonnet)</a></td><td class="right">128</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_18">A Stroke for the People: A Farmer’s Letter to The Arena</a></td><td class="right"> </td><td class="right">134</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Evolution: What It Is and What It Is Not</td><td class="right sc">Dr. David Starr Jordan</td><td class="right">145</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Has Wealth a Limitation?</td><td class="right sc">Robert N. Reeves</td><td class="right">160</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Battle of the Money Metals:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">I. Bimetallism Simplified</td><td class="right sc">George H. Lepper</td><td class="right">168</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">II. Bimetallism Extinguished</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">180</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Segregation and Permanent Isolation of Criminals</td><td class="right sc">Norman Robinson</td><td class="right">192</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">How to Increase National Wealth by the Employment of Paralyzed Industry</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">200</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Open Letter to Eastern Capitalists</td><td class="right sc">Charles C. Millard</td><td class="right">211</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIII.</td><td class="right sc">Prof. Frank Parsons</td><td class="right">218</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Provisional Government of the Cubans</td><td class="right sc">Thomas W. Steep</td><td class="right">226</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">A Noted American Preacher</td><td class="right sc">Duncan MacDermid</td><td class="right">232</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Civic Outlook</td><td class="right sc">Henry Randall Waite, Ph. D.</td><td class="right">245</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">“The Tempest” the Sequel to “Hamlet”</td><td class="right sc">Emily Dickey Beery</td><td class="right">254</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Creative Man</td><td class="right sc">Stinson Jarvis</td><td class="right">262<span class="pagenum"><a name="pageiv" id="pageiv">iv</a></span></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The New Woman</td><td class="right sc">Miles Menander Dawson</td><td class="right">275</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Under the Stars</td><td class="right sc">Coates Kinney</td><td class="right">275</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Cry of the Valley</td><td class="right sc">Charles Melvin Wilkinson</td><td class="right">276</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">A Radical</td><td class="right sc">Robert F. Gibson</td><td class="right">277</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: Our Totem; <i>Vive La France! Le Siècle</i> (a Sonnet)</td><td class="right">278</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part I</td><td class="right sc">Herman E. Taubeneck</td><td class="right">289</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Future of the Democratic Party: A Reply</td><td class="right sc">David Overmyer</td><td class="right">302</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Multiple Standard for Money</td><td class="right sc">Eltweed Pomeroy</td><td class="right">318</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Anticipating the Unearned Increment</td><td class="right sc">I. W. Hart</td><td class="right">339</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Studies in Ultimate Society:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">I. A New Interpretation of Life</td><td class="right sc">Laurence Gronlund</td><td class="right">351</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">II. Individualism <i>vs.</i> Altruism</td><td class="right sc">K. T. Takahashi</td><td class="right">362</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">General Weyler’s Campaign</td><td class="right sc">Crittenden Marriott</td><td class="right">374</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Author of “The Messiah”</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">386</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Open Letter to President Andrews</td><td class="right sc">The Editor</td><td class="right">399</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Onmarch</td><td class="right sc">Freeman E. Miller</td><td class="right">403</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Toil of Empire</td><td class="right sc">John Vance Cheney</td><td class="right">404</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Day Love Came</td><td class="right sc">Theodosia Pickering</td><td class="right">405</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Question</td><td class="right sc">Julia Neely-Finch</td><td class="right">405</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Triolet</td><td class="right sc">Curtis Hidden Page</td><td class="right">406</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Cry of the Poor</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">407</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: A Knotty Problem; A Case of Prevision; Concerning Eternity; A. L. (a Sonnet)</td><td class="right">419</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The New Ostracism</td><td class="right sc">Hon. Charles A. Towne</td><td class="right">433</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part II</td><td class="right sc">Herman E. Taubeneck</td><td class="right">452</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Rights of the Public over Quasi-Public Services</td><td class="right sc">Hon. Walter Clark</td><td class="right">470</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Prosperity: the Sham and the Reality</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">486</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Jefferson and His Political Philosophy</td><td class="right sc">Mary Platt Parmelee</td><td class="right">505</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Latest Social Vision</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">517</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Dead Hand in the Church</td><td class="right sc">Rev. Clarence Lathbury</td><td class="right">535</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Hypnotism in its Scientific and Forensic Aspects</td><td class="right sc">Marion L. Dawson, B. L.</td><td class="right">544</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Suicide: Is It Worth While?</td><td class="right sc">Charles B. Newcomb</td><td class="right">557</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Old Glory</td><td class="right">Ironquill</td><td class="right sc">562</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent"><i>Vita Sum</i></td><td class="right sc">Junius L. Hempstead</td><td class="right">563</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Gold</td><td class="right sc">Clinton Scollard</td><td class="right">564</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Richard Realfe</td><td class="right sc">Reubie Carpenter</td><td class="right">565</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Dreamer</td><td class="right sc">Helena M. Richardson</td><td class="right">565</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: The Greatest Lyric; “Thrift, Thrift, Horatio;” The Pessimist; The Physician’s Last Call (a Sonnet).</td><td class="right">566</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Freedom and Its Opportunities: Part I</td><td class="right sc">Hon. John R. Rogers</td><td class="right">577</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">“The Case Against Bimetallism”</td><td class="right sc">Judge George H. Smith</td><td class="right">590</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Initiative and the Referendum</td><td class="right sc">Elihu F. Barker</td><td class="right">613</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIV</td><td class="right sc">Prof. Frank Parsons</td><td class="right">628<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagev" id="pagev">v</a></span></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Laborer’s View of the Labor Question:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">I. How the Laborer Feels</td><td class="right sc">Herbert M. Ramp</td><td class="right">644</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">II. Up or Down?</td><td class="right sc">W. Edwards</td><td class="right">654</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">III. The Farm Hand: An Unknown Quantity</td><td class="right sc">William Emory Kearns</td><td class="right">661</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Practical Measures for Promoting Manhood and Preventing Crime</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">673</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Demand for Sensational Journals</td><td class="right sc">John Henderson Garnsey</td><td class="right">681</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Is History a Science?</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">687</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Our Brother Simon</td><td class="right sc">Annie L. Muzzey</td><td class="right">707</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Thou Knowest Not</td><td class="right sc">Helena M. Richardson</td><td class="right">708</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Optim: A Reply</td><td class="right sc">George H. Westley</td><td class="right">709</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Murdered Trees</td><td class="right sc">Benjamin S. Parker</td><td class="right">709</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Hidden Flute</td><td class="right sc">Minna Irving</td><td class="right">710</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Retroensetta</td><td class="right sc">Curtis Hidden Page</td><td class="right">710</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: Tantalus and His Opportunities; The Man in Bronze; Franklin (a Sonnet)</td><td class="right">711</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Idylls and Ideals of Christmas:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">I. What I Want for Christmas</td><td class="right sc">Robert G. Ingersoll</td><td class="right">721</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">II. Christmas, the Human Holiday</td><td class="right sc">Rev. Minot J. Savage, D.D.</td><td class="right">722</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">III. Santa Claus: A Poem</td><td class="right sc">James Whitcomb Riley</td><td class="right">726</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">IV. The Aryan at Christmas</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">727</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">A Séance With Eusapia Paladino: Psychic Forces</td><td class="right sc">Camille Flammarion</td><td class="right">730</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Influence of Hebrew Thought in the Development of the Social Democratic Idea in New England</td><td class="right sc">Charles S. Allen</td><td class="right">748</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Priest and People</td><td class="right sc">E. T. Hargrove</td><td class="right">772</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Immigration, Hard Times, and the Veto</td><td class="right sc">John Chetwood, Jr.</td><td class="right">788</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Founder of German Opera</td><td class="right sc">B. O. Flower</td><td class="right">802</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">The Truly Artistic Woman</td><td class="right sc">Stinson Jarvis</td><td class="right">813</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Poor “Fairly Rich” People</td><td class="right sc">Henry E. Foster</td><td class="right">820</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Shall the United States be Europeanized?</td><td class="right sc">John Clark Ridpath</td><td class="right">827</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Hawaiian Annexation from a Japanese Point of View</td><td class="right sc">Keijiro Nakamura</td><td class="right">834</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">A Political Deal: A Story</td><td class="right sc">Eliza Frances Andrews</td><td class="right">840</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Plaza of the Poets:</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Glad Tidings</td><td class="right sc">Marion Mills Miller</td><td class="right">849</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">The Yule Log</td><td class="right sc">Clinton Scollard</td><td class="right">852</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">How to Get an Article in a Magazine</td><td class="right sc">The Editor</td><td class="right">853</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left" colspan="2">The Editor’s Evening: Sir Thomas Kho on Education; Journey and Sleep (a Sonnet)</td><td class="right">855</td></tr>
-</table></div>
-
-<p> </p>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<h3 class="article_section">BOOK REVIEWS.</h3>
-
-<div class="center">
-<table width="70%" summary="Book Reviews">
-<tr><td class="left"><a href="#article_19">The Emperor</a></td><td class="right"> 137</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">President Jordan’s Saga of the Seal</td><td class="right">284</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Some Prehistoric History</td><td class="right">426</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">A Bard of the Ohio</td><td class="right">572</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Critic, Bard, and Moralist</td><td class="right">717</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Guthrie’s “Modern Poet Prophets”</td><td class="right">860</td></tr>
-</table></div>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pagevi" id="pagevi">vi</a></span></p>
-
-
-<h3 class="article_section">ILLUSTRATIONS.</h3>
-
-<div class="center">
-<table summary="Illustrations">
-<tr><td class="left sc"> </td><td class="right">Opposite Page</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Hon. Charles A. Towne</td><td class="right">1</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Dr. David Starr Jordan</td><td class="right">145</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Multiple-Standard Treasury Note of Massachusetts Bay</td><td class="right">289</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews</td><td class="right">433</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Governor John R. Rogers</td><td class="right">577</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Camille Flammarion</td><td class="right">721</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left sc">Psychic Séance With Eusapia Paladino</td><td class="right">737</td></tr>
-</table></div>
-
-
-
-<h2><a name="THE_ARENA" id="THE_ARENA"></a>THE ARENA.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<div class="center">
-<table width="70%" summary="Vol. XVIII">
-<tr><td align="center">Vol. XVIII.</td><td align="center">JULY, 1897.</td><td align="center">No. 92.</td></tr>
-</table></div>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page1" id="page1">1</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_1" id="article_1"></a>
-THE CITADEL OF THE MONEY POWER.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><big>I. WALL STREET, PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.</big><br />
-BY HENRY CLEWS.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<h3 class="article_section">I.</h3>
-
-<p><span class="sc">The</span> twenty-seven respectable citizens of New York who, in 1792, met
-under a buttonwood tree in front of the premises now known as Number
-60 Wall Street, and formed an association for the purchase and sale of
-public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a proviso of
-mutual help and preference, committed themselves to an enterprise of
-whose moment and influence in the future they could have formed no
-adequate conception. At that date Wall Street was a banking district,
-small indeed when compared with its present condition, but important
-in its relations to the commerce of the nation. This transaction of
-the twenty-seven—among whom we find the honored names of Barclay,
-Bleecker, Winthrop, Lawrence, which in themselves and their
-descendants were, and are, creditably identified with the growth of
-the community—added the prestige and power of the stock exchange to
-those of the banks, and fixed for an indefinitely long period the
-destinies of the financial centre of the Union.</p>
-
-<p>During the earlier part of this century the banking interests of Wall
-Street quite overshadowed those of the stock market. The growth of
-railway securities was not fairly under way until the opening of the
-fifth decade. Elderly men can recall the date when the New York
-Central existed only as a series of connecting links between Buffalo
-and Albany, under half-a-dozen different names of incorporation; and
-passenger cars were slowly and laboriously hoisted by chain power over
-the “divide” between the latter city and Schenectady. Since there were
-but few railways in the entire country, there were few opportunities<span class="pagenum"><a name="page2" id="page2">2</a></span>
-for speculative dealings in their shares. These shares, too, were as a
-rule locally held, and were more frequently transferred by executors
-under court orders than by brokers on the stock exchange.</p>
-
-<p>Prior to 1840 and 1845, however, the members of the stock exchange
-were not idle. Public stocks were largely dealt in. The United States
-government frequently issued bonds, and the prices of these bonds
-fluctuated sufficiently to afford tempting chances of profits. State
-bonds also were sold in Wall Street in larger amounts than to-day.
-About the year 1850 the sales of Missouri sixes and Ohio sixes
-frequently amounted to millions of dollars daily. During that
-uncertain epoch of finance when the United States Bank was both a
-financial and a political power, the shares of that institution were a
-favorite subject of speculative dealing. The shares of Delaware &
-Hudson, and of the original Erie Railway, the latter laboriously
-constructed over a rough, barren, and thinly settled portion of the
-State, partly by State funds, had also become actively exchangeable in
-the market.</p>
-
-<p>During this period a relatively enormous quantity of banking capital
-had located itself in and near Wall Street. The Bank of New York
-existed before 1800, and later, although not long after, the Street
-witnessed the erection of buildings of a now obsolete, and yet at that
-time an attractive, style of architecture, devoted to the uses of the
-Manhattan Banking Company, the Bank of America, the Merchants, the
-Union, the Bank of Commerce, and others. Were it not that land in the
-banking district is so valuable, and that the need of upstair offices
-is so great, one might be tempted to regret the demolition of the
-graceful money temples occupied by three of these corporations on the
-north side of Wall Street. In each of them the entablature rested upon
-two fluted stone pillars with Doric capitals, in addition to the
-supports of the side walls. Between the steps and the doors of the
-temple extended a marble-paved court which often served as a
-convenient place of ‘change for borrowers and lenders. Entering the
-doors you found yourself in a large, airy, dome-lighted room, the
-sides of which were occupied by the clerks of the institution, guarded
-by high barricades from the intrusive eyes and feet of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page3" id="page3">3</a></span> general
-public. At the rear were the offices of the president and cashier.
-Throughout the entire building there reigned a solemn and
-semi-religious silence. One may witness something like this to-day in
-the Wall-Street end of the U. S. Treasury Building, and only there.</p>
-
-<p>Up to the epoch of the rise of railway building and railway-share
-speculation, the main aliment of Wall-Street banks was the profit
-derived from the discount of commercial paper and from loans upon
-government and State securities. But when railway shares and bonds,
-based upon lines of road which were constructed through the rich
-regions of the Union lying between the Atlantic and the Mississippi
-river, came upon the market in large amounts, affording ample security
-for investment and loans, the great banks of Wall Street were quick to
-appreciate the advantages of loans made upon such undoubted values,
-which were at all times convertible into cash on the stock exchange.
-In times of pressure, commercial paper is an inferior asset for a
-bank, all of whose obligations are payable on demand. At such times
-notes become practically unsalable, and are not always paid at
-maturity. A failure of one firm brings down others, and renewals are
-urgently required from banks just when they are least able to grant
-them. Salable securities are on such occasions an ark of safety, and,
-dating from the early fifties, this class of securities has always
-been the basis of a large amount of the loans of the banks of Wall
-Street and their near neighbors of the same class in lower Nassau
-Street and also Broadway.</p>
-
-<p>With the immense outgrowth of business consequent upon the discovery
-of gold in California in 1849, and the construction of the great
-railways of the Middle West, such as the Michigan Southern, the
-Northern Indiana (now the Lake Shore), the Michigan Central, the
-Galena & Chicago, the Rock Island, and others of like importance and
-real value, the banks and banking houses of Wall Street, and the stock
-exchange, grew into most important factors in developing the
-prosperity of the country. Enterprises were originated by able men
-acting under corporate powers, and when these were brought before the
-committees of the stock exchange and duly approved and listed, capital
-instantly flowed forth from its reservoirs in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page4" id="page4">4</a></span> answer to the
-securities thus offered. And it may safely be said that but for the
-combined machinery of the New York banks and the stock exchange the
-actual developments of twenty years would have dragged laboriously
-through an entire century.</p>
-
-<p>Amid so much progress and activity, speculation was not idle. Those
-were the days of many of our greatest railway operators, daring, able,
-enthusiastic men, who had the rare gift of imparting confidence to
-their followers and the public, and realized the fable of King Midas,
-whose touch transmuted all things into gold. Their careers were those
-of conquest and accumulation, like that of Napoleon; and, like him,
-they underwent, with few exceptions, their retreats from Russia and
-their Waterloos. Of such were Jacob Little, Daniel Drew, Anthony
-Morse, and others, to whom now the motto of Junius applies: <i>Stat
-nominis umbra</i>. Merely the shadows of their names reach over to us
-from the horizons where their suns set so long ago.</p>
-
-<p>There was an epoch too in the Wall Street of the past when gigantic
-and deeply considered combinations were set in motion, entitled
-“corners.” As to corners, a word of explanation may not be amiss.
-There are always two factions in the stock market: the bulls, who want
-stocks to rise in price in order that they may sell out; and the
-bears, who want stocks to fall in price so that they can buy in.
-Contrary to the superficial belief of the public, the bulls are
-sellers and the bears are buyers. But in order to sell a commodity you
-must buy or borrow it; and in order to buy at a future date you must
-sell at a previous date; and thus the bull buys for the purpose of
-selling at a profit, and the bear sells something which he doesn’t own
-for the purpose of buying it at a lower price. The bull therefore
-hopes to push prices up so that he can sell his purchase at a profit,
-and the bear hopes to drag prices down so that he can buy what he has
-sold, also at a profit.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile, the bear has delivered the shares sold by him, and in order
-to deliver them, has borrowed them, and given security in money at its
-market price. Here he has placed himself in danger, because the owner
-of the shares may at any time tender him this money and demand the
-shares, which the bear may not be able to provide himself with, except
-at the price which the owners choose to set upon them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page5" id="page5">5</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Thus a person might be under contract to deliver the shares of some
-corporation which might be absolutely worthless, and yet these shares
-<i>might</i> be so held that the holders could exact one thousand dollars a
-share. Given a railway with a share capital of ten millions, one
-person or knot of persons might own every certificate of its stock,
-and have it all loaned out to bears who had sold, borrowed, and
-delivered it. It is obvious that this person or club of persons could
-compel purchases of the shares which he or they alone possess, at
-whatever price he or they think proper to demand; and since such
-things can be done by skilful combinations under able generalship,
-they have been done, and were a favorite scheme during the eventful
-years between the sixties and the eighties. The corners in Harlem,
-Hudson, Erie and Northwest, in which Vanderbilt, Drew, and Gould
-achieved such success for themselves and their associates, have passed
-into history as a conspicuous portion of the great events of Wall
-Street. Their interest is chiefly historical, because of late years no
-comprehensive corners have been organized. Share capitals are so large
-that it is difficult for one man to control any one of them, and a
-divided corner is apt to fail. But in their day and generation they
-have offered brilliant illustrations of genius and strategic skill in
-financial warfare.</p>
-
-<p>The system of selling short, however, which gave birth to the idea of
-creating corners, and which came into vogue in the fifties, has never
-ceased to be a leading factor on the stock exchange. It was the result
-of certain inflations of values which necessarily follow the
-construction of great enterprises. However high a valuation may be set
-upon any given commodity, there are always persons who expect a higher
-price. Early historical examples of this fact are the South-Sea shares
-and John Law’s Mississippi shares, over which England and France
-respectively went crazy in the last century. The loftier the figures
-to which these shares mounted, the greater was the eagerness of the
-public to buy them. But at that period the art and mystery of selling
-short had not been brought into practice, and when the bubbles
-collapsed there were universal losers and no direct winners.</p>
-
-<p>During the latter half of this century there have been periods<span class="pagenum"><a name="page6" id="page6">6</a></span> in the
-history of Wall Street when the prices of railway and industrial
-shares have been forced enormously above the standard of actual
-values, and innumerable persons have parted with good money in
-exchange for mere phantoms of imaginary values. At such times the
-short sales of discernment, directing the X rays of clear-sighted
-criticism into the swollen and opaque mass of financial carrion that
-is exposed for sale in the market, are of the utmost benefit to the
-public. The bear is then a benefactor to the community, and when he
-pulls down and tears to pieces the rotten carcass of some gigantic
-humbug, strewing the highway with its remains, we cannot praise his
-work too highly.</p>
-
-
-<h3 class="article_section">II.</h3>
-
-<p>The present condition of Wall Street is one of lassitude and
-expectancy. The great banks have an abundance, perhaps a
-superabundance, of money, their own and their depositors, which they
-are only too glad to lend on solid and readily salable collateral at
-low rates of interest, approximating the prevalent rates in London and
-Paris, where similar accumulations of idle capital exist. A large part
-of this money is deposited with them by local banks in all parts of
-the country, which recognize New York City as the financial centre of
-the Union, and are content with interest of from one to two per cent
-upon the funds which they are unwilling or unable to use safely at
-home. The stock exchange is also in a condition of quietude. The
-public are neither buying nor selling stocks in any large amount.</p>
-
-<p>This state of things is the resultant of well-known facts. Numerous
-over-capitalized and badly managed railways have gone into bankruptcy,
-and either are in the hands of receivers or have emerged from such
-guardianship, and are painfully toiling along on the road to
-prosperity on the twin crutches of assessments upon stockholders and
-the withholding of dividends from the same long-suffering and patient
-class.</p>
-
-<p>The transactions at the stock exchange at present average about two
-hundred thousand shares a day, exclusive of bonds, government, State,
-and railway; and a certain class of observers who like to subject
-circumstances to a minute analysis inform the public that the daily
-profits of the members of the exchange<span class="pagenum"><a name="page7" id="page7">7</a></span> are about sufficient to pay
-the expense of office rent and clerk hire. This conclusion takes it
-for granted that these profits should be equally divided among the
-membership. This is not a reasonable supposition. Many of the members
-are such only in name, and rarely go on the floor. Others live during
-most of the time on their accumulations, and come into the market to
-buy or sell only when prices are abnormally low or high. The
-comparatively small busy portion manage somehow to keep fairly active,
-and are cheerfully looking forward to better times, through a vista
-from which the cloud of a change of the monetary standard has already
-passed away, and into which the genius of enterprise beckons them to
-enter.</p>
-
-
-<h3 class="article_section">III.</h3>
-
-<p>While in many respects the future is a sealed book, yet there is such
-a thing in the economy of nature as an absolutely accurate prevision
-of events, such as eclipses of the sun and moon, and conjunctions of
-the planets, and a relatively correct prevision of events depending
-upon the growth of enlightened communities. Since the incorporation of
-the Bank of New York, at the corner of Wall and Williams Streets, the
-banking capital of New York has increased more than sixtyfold, of
-which more than one-half is held and used in and around Wall Street,
-and the aggregation of deposited and loanable capital has grown from a
-few millions to over half a billion. If this has been the result
-during one century, what will take place in the same direction during
-the next century? The ratio of increase will not be kept up. A
-thousand dollars may be doubled in a day, but no such ratio as a
-hundred per cent a day can be predicated of a million. And yet it is
-certain that, under proper management, the million will go on
-increasing; and in the same manner will our half-billion increase by
-its own earning power, and by contributions from all parts of the
-Union. The development of the United States in the direction of
-population, agriculture, manufactures, and mines is so enormous and so
-steady that this nation will at some not distant period become the
-most opulent of all the nations of the planet, unless unforeseen and
-improbable political events happen by which our great commonwealth
-shall be disrupted or its financial stability overturned. Under a
-normal<span class="pagenum"><a name="page8" id="page8">8</a></span> condition of things the capital of the citizens of the Union
-will continually increase, and the banks of the city of New York will
-be the depositary of larger and larger reserves of whatever capital is
-temporarily idle in the places where it is created. In due time the
-financial centre of the world will be shifted from London to our
-imperial city.</p>
-
-<p>Such a destiny has been foretold for St. Petersburg, in view of the
-construction of the Siberian Railway and its branches, which in time
-will open up to industry an immense tract of productive soil in the
-most fertile parts of Asia, abounding in wheat and corn land, and full
-of superior water power. But in this superb rivalry between the United
-States and the colossus of Europe and Asia, the former nation has an
-immense start as to time, and a still greater advantage in the
-character of its population. And in addition to these we have the
-undoubted and constantly increasing supremacy of the English language.
-Just as during the Middle Ages Latin was the vernacular of the learned
-classes, and as to-day French is the language of diplomacy in Europe,
-so is English the common tongue in all the commercial localities of
-the globe. With English a man can commit himself to foreign travel
-anywhere, while outside of Russia there are few towns on the various
-continents in which Russian is not an unknown speech. These
-controlling conditions cannot be readily or easily changed, especially
-since no paramount reasons exist why they should be changed.</p>
-
-<p>It is then a reasonable forecast of the future, that in due time the
-weighty import of the names of Lombard<a name="fn_marker_1" id="fn_marker_1"></a><a href="#fn_1" class="fn_marker">[1]</a> and Threadneedle Streets
-will be transferred to the name of Wall Street, and the facts implied
-by such a transfer are of a dignity and power which it is impossible
-to estimate. The road leading to this great destiny can only be
-blocked by injurious legislation, and the good sense of our citizens
-may be confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a
-barricade against national prosperity.</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page9" id="page9">9</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_2" id="article_2"></a>
-II. THE TRUE INWARDNESS OF WALL STREET.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p>The organized powers of society are always anxious to conciliate
-public favor. They know that they exist by sufferance—by sufferance
-of a mightier than themselves. In proportion as they know themselves
-to be aggressors and spoliators their anxiety increases. Every abusive
-power in the world is thus driven to adopt schemes and devices—some
-dangerous and some merely ludicrous—to keep a footing at that silent
-bar of opinion before which all wrong must, sooner or later, quail and
-slink away.</p>
-
-<p>The great concern called Wall Street is such an organized power in
-society. It exists as a fact in our American system, and would fain
-conciliate the favor of the public. Wall Street has become one of the
-most conspicuous features in our national life. Knowing that it is
-challenged by public opinion—knowing indeed that it is already under
-the ban and condemnation of the American people—it now seeks, after
-the manner of its kind, to save itself alive. It would go further than
-mere salvation; it would make mankind believe that it is a reputable
-part of the universal swim. Aye more; it seeks to ingratiate itself,
-sometimes by force and sometimes by gentle craft and stratagem, into
-the good graces of that civilization which it has so mortally
-offended.</p>
-
-<p>To this end Wall Street strives to justify itself in periodical and
-general literature. No other power in human society to so great a
-degree and in so subtle a manner exploits its own virtues. Taking
-advantage of the well-known carelessness of American readers, and
-knowing full well how easily they are duped—how easily they are
-cozened out of their senses and led into false beliefs with mere
-plausibilities and sophisms—this imperial and far-reaching Wall
-Street, this elephantine fox of the world, takes possession of
-American journalism—owns it, controls it. It seizes and subsidizes
-the metropolitan press. It purchases newspapers and magazines by the
-score. It establishes bureaus; it buys every purchasable pen, from the
-pen of the gray philosopher to the pen of the snake editor. It
-overawes every timid brain, from the brain of the senator to the
-brain<span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" id="page10">10</a></span> of the tramp. What it cannot purchase it terrorizes; and the
-small residue which it cannot terrorize it seeks to cajole: all this
-to the end that its dominion may be universal and everlasting.</p>
-
-<p>In this work of gaining possession of public opinion and perverting
-that opinion to its own uses Wall Street employs all methods and uses
-all expedients. Wall Street deliberately marks its game; and we have
-to confess that the game generally falls at the first fire. We have
-heard, however, of a single case of a brave man, now dead, who, when
-offered ten thousand dollars for his voice against his conviction and
-his opinion against his soul, in the matter of electing President of
-the United States the man who was the candidate of Wall Street, told
-the subtle committee to make an immediate and expeditious visit to the
-bottom of the old theology.</p>
-
-<p>This train of thought rises vividly to mind when I consider the
-article of Mr. Henry Clews on “Wall Street, Past, Present, and
-Future.” This article came unsought and unexpected to the editorial
-desk of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>. I confess that I doubted its genuineness. For why
-should Mr. Clews address the public through the columns of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>?
-What has <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> done to merit such distinction? Satisfying myself
-that the contribution was genuine, that it was not—and is not—a
-hallucination, I at once divined that it must be a sort of challenge
-to this magazine. I do the author of “Wall Street, Past, Present, and
-Future,” the honor to believe that he does not suppose <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> to be
-sufficiently verdant to publish his adroit and well-covered apology
-for the great institution which he represents,—without knowing the
-sense and significance of it. If indeed the distinguished gentleman
-imagined that we could do such a thing here, then in good sooth he
-must be undeceived. Or if he supposed that a paper of the kind
-submitted would be <i>rejected</i> at this office because of our well-known
-antagonism to the fact which Mr. Clews defends, let him in that
-instance also be undeceived.</p>
-
-<p>At the office of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> we take all challenges. Nor should our
-friends suppose or fear that the welcome admission of Mr. Clews’s
-article to the pages of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> implies timidity or some possible
-weakness in the presence of that<span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id="page11">11</a></span> gigantic institution known by the
-name of Wall Street. The fact is, that the nightmare which that power
-has been able to spread, bat-like, over the souls of men for a quarter
-of a century has about been dissipated; it is already the beginning of
-the end. It is the dawn; the day is not very far in the future when
-the American people, roused at last to the exertion of their majesty,
-will shake themselves from the dread of this incubus and spring up
-like a giant refreshed from slumber.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Clews’s article on “Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future,” is a
-most gentle and dove-like performance. It is not a paper intended to
-produce alarm, but to allay it. It is one of the finest examples of a
-literary opiate that I have ever seen. The bottom theme of the paper
-is that Wall Street is a natural growth, and is therefore inevitable.
-Wall Street has come by a gentle evolution. Good men and true have
-conspired with nature to bring it forth. Under natural and necessary
-conditions Wall Street has appeared in our American system, and under
-these conditions it flourishes. Whatever great fact in society has
-thus appeared has been born of necessity and out of the nature of
-things. If Wall Street have been born out of necessity and the nature
-of things, then it has come of righteousness, and is the child of
-truth. If of righteousness and truth, then Wall Street is good as well
-as glorious. That which is good and glorious ought to be admired and
-honored. Whatever is admired and honored, whatever is good and
-glorious, should have influence and power in society and state. Such a
-golden product of evolution is Wall Street; therefore the sceptre
-which Wall Street stretches forth over the prostrate Western world
-should be obeyed and upheld by the voice and hand of the American
-people.</p>
-
-<p>Not only so, but the sceptre should be extended. The empire of Wall
-Street should become universal. It should be enlarged and confirmed
-until all outlying kingdoms and all islands of the sea shall pass
-under the beneficent sway of this monarchy of the world! Then with Mr.
-Clews we may well consider his “reasonable forecast of the future.”
-With him we shall be able to see “that in due time the weighty import
-of the names of Lombard and Threadneedle Streets will be transferred
-to the name of Wall Street.” With Mr. Clews we shall be able to see
-that<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id="page12">12</a></span> “the facts implied by such a transfer are of a dignity and power
-which it is impossible to estimate.” Then, finally, with Mr. Clews we
-shall agree that “the road leading to this great destiny <i>can only be
-blocked by legislation</i>.” Mr. Clews says “injurious” legislation.
-Certainly; that is true—most true. The consummation hoped for by Mr.
-Clews can verily be blocked by legislation! But when it comes to the
-definition of “injurious” how fearfully do we part company! The writer
-of “Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future” flatters himself, in fine,
-with the belief that “the good sense of our citizens may be
-confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a barricade
-against national prosperity.” Oh, it is “national prosperity” then
-that we have in view! That is good. If there be anything under heaven
-which Wall Street adores and dotes on more than any other thing in the
-world it is national prosperity! When it comes to national prosperity
-Wall Street is always full-handed. With the mere mention of national
-prosperity Wall Street raises a shout of sympathetic enthusiasm which
-reverberates from Passamaquoddy to San Diego, and from the Florida
-everglades to the snow-capped shoulders of Shasta!</p>
-
-<p>Let me, however, explain to Mr. Clews one thing, and that is that the
-blessed condition of universal society in which Wall Street, having
-absorbed Lombard and Threadneedle, shall be supreme over the nations
-will occur only when our free American institutions shall be crushed
-into fragments and when civil liberty shall lie bleeding among the
-ruins. It will occur <i>then</i>, and not before. It will occur when the
-residue of the old American spirit has been stamped out, and when a
-miserable, slavish subserviency shall have been substituted for the
-revolutionary freedom which our fathers won and made sacred with their
-blood on every patriot battlefield from Lexington to Appomattox.</p>
-
-<p>Temperately and patiently I will follow Mr. Clews’s paper through. The
-writer of the article is a gentlemanly and able representative of that
-colossal power which he has helped to build up and fortify. From being
-a child of that power he has now become, in a most theosophical
-manner, one of the fathers of it! As such he has made himself the
-apologist of a gigantic<span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" id="page13">13</a></span> and rampant beast on whose horns of hazard
-the values produced by the labor of seventy millions of Americans are
-tossed about as if the wreckage were so much waste excelsior thrown on
-the horns of a bull! Mr. Clews tells us that in 1792 twenty-seven
-gentlemen met under a buttonwood tree and formed the association known
-as Wall Street. The purpose of the association was “the purchase and
-sale of public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a
-proviso of mutual help and preference.” The result was the addition of
-“the prestige and power of the stock exchange to the prestige and
-power of the banks.” That indeed is a combination worthy to be
-considered! A consolidation of interests was effected between the
-exchange and the banks to purchase and sell stocks “with a proviso of
-mutual help.”</p>
-
-<p>The organization thus created has existed for one hundred and five
-years. It has made a history. It has become ever greater and more
-firmly fixed in and <i>on</i> American society. It has made itself to be
-the foundation of all things financial and political in the United
-States. The story of the process by which this prodigious result has
-been reached is narrated by Mr. Clews in the manner of one who gives
-an account of the formation of a temperance society or a Sunday
-school! In the whole article there does not appear a symptom of a
-suspicion that the thing of which he gives the history is the most
-dangerous and abusive fact that ever threatened the integrity of a
-nation. The argument is that if twenty-seven gentlemen thus met and
-created Wall Street, then the result, being a natural product, is good
-and wholesome. But the inquiry at once arises whether it is valid
-logic to suppose that what men do is right, simply because they do it.
-The affirmative of such a proposition would make Aristotle stagger. It
-amounts to this, that whatever is is right; therefore, let it alone.</p>
-
-<p>By this argument of Mr. Clews all the tyrannies of the past, all the
-horrors that have afflicted the human race, all the sufferings which
-men have endured from sword and pestilence, from servitude, from the
-butchery of war and the cruelty of the Inquisition, have been right
-merely because they have been natural. Under this rule every monster
-that has tormented society from the first day until now can find full
-justification for itself on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id="page14">14</a></span> simple ground that it exists! Under
-such an argument a howitzer is as good as a plough, a sword is as good
-as a sickle, a pillory is as good as a baby-wagon. By such reasoning a
-shark is as useful as a horse. By this logic a boa-constrictor is as
-good as a reindeer, a tiger is as useful and salutary in his office as
-an ox or a St. Bernard, and a cancer is as beautiful as a blush. That
-is, everything is good, not because it is useful and just, but because
-it is.</p>
-
-<p>Or again, Mr. Clews’s argument is this: that the men who created Wall
-Street were gentlemen; therefore their work was salutary. Just as
-though respectable people could not engage in a nefarious business.
-Just as though gentlemen could not, and would not, make a conspiracy
-to enslave the human race. The “gentleman” is a very uncertain factor
-in civilization; his devotion to right and truth requires always to be
-tested with a chemical and to be taken with the usual combination of
-chlorine and sodium.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Clews explains that the stocks underlying our old railroad
-properties in the United States were aforetime “held locally,” and
-that they were transferred “more frequently by executors than by
-brokers on the stock exchange”—as though that were an evil. Then
-“there were but few opportunities for dealing in shares”—as though
-<i>that</i> were an evil! It thus became necessary for Wall Street to get
-the old stocks belonging to the people out of the people’s hands and
-into the hands of the Street—as though <i>that</i> were a good. Our public
-improvements were in the first place made by the people, but the
-people were not fit to own them. Our railways were constructed with
-capital subscribed by the people, generally by those through whose
-country the given improvement was extended. The people themselves then
-owned their own, and controlled it. Until Wall Street reached out and
-clutched such properties—first putting down the prices of the shares
-to nothing and then pulling the given stocks to par—the people were
-able to protect themselves; but never afterwards.</p>
-
-<p>The same was true of all other securities, whether public or private.
-Nearly all bonded debts were at first local; but the holding of
-securities <i>locally</i> has always been a thing abhorrent to Wall Street.
-The idea of the Street is that all stocks and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" id="page15">15</a></span> all securities belong,
-not to the public, but to itself. Of course the <i>money capital</i> of the
-country belongs to the Street. And if, with the consent of public
-authority, the <i>stocks</i> of the country also can be held by the Street,
-then a humble peasantry, paying perennial rents and compound interest,
-can be created and kept under forever throughout the domains of the
-great Republic. It may ultimately require arsenals to do it, but these
-we can supply.</p>
-
-<p>The next stage in the game was the creation by Wall Street of
-fictitious enterprises for the distinct purpose of getting possession
-of the stocks on which such enterprises were based, and of speculating
-in the shares of such properties. When the <i>existing</i> stocks of
-railways were not sufficient—when the bonds of States and of the
-general government were insufficient in quantity to fill the maw of
-the benevolent being called Wall Street—then an <i>artificial</i> supply
-must be created; that is, some scheme of debts must be invented by
-which the people might be made to pay tribute to the good Wall Street,
-and pay it still more abundantly.</p>
-
-<p>Thus were invented new banks and new banking systems. Thus came the
-bull and the bear and the bucket-shop. Thus were projected a thousand
-railways and canals. Many of these were laid into impossible
-regions—all “for the benefit of the people!” Other enterprises which
-were not sufficiently stocked began to be stocked more heavily—this
-also for the benefit of the people. The plan of watering was invented;
-the method of “promoting” enterprises was perfected,—until, as early
-as the time of the Civil War, Wall Street had acquired the greatest
-skill in <i>making</i> debts, or, in the language of James Fisk, Jr., in
-“rescuing the property of other people from themselves.”</p>
-
-<p>These beautiful processes are glossed over by Mr. Clews with a
-pleasant account of how, with the growth of business and the discovery
-of gold and the oncoming of the age of construction, great enterprises
-were “promoted” by Wall Street, and how “capital instantly flowed
-forth from its reservoirs in answer to the securities” that flowed
-thereto. The author of “Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future,”
-affirms “that but for the combined machinery of the New York banks and
-the stock exchange the actual developments of twenty years would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" id="page16">16</a></span>
-dragged laboriously through an entire century.” Permit us to say that
-it would have been better that such “actual developments” should have
-dragged through <i>two</i> centuries than that the United States of America
-should have been stocked and mortgaged and bonded and enslaved, under
-the tyrannous lash of debt, by such a master as Wall Street.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Clews next comes to the subject of corners. On this topic we doubt
-not that he speaks as one having authority. He tells us quite
-complacently that there was “an epoch in the Wall Street of the past
-when the gigantic and deeply considered combinations were set in
-motion entitled ‘corners.’” Then he goes on to explain what corners
-are. He does so without the slightest expression of criticism or
-aversion. He tells us of the bulls and the bears by whose agency a
-corner is conducted as though they were the friendly competitors in
-some great philanthropy! Instead of describing corners as so many
-carefully contrived schemes to rob the people of the proceeds of their
-labor by putting the prices of their commodities and securities down
-until such commodities and securities are taken from their hands, and
-then putting the prices <i>up</i> in order that the robbers may reap the
-harvest, he speaks of corners as offering “brilliant illustrations of
-genius and strategic skill in financial warfare!”</p>
-
-<p>The fact is that the men who are reared in Wall Street, who from their
-youth are familiarized with its processes, and who are well set in the
-plastic age to consider human life as an auspicious opportunity for
-getting possession of something that does not belong to them, are
-fatally blunted in their sensibilities; the ethical quality in them is
-battered out—or at least battered; they come to regard the human race
-as an enormous ranch of sheep to be shorn at the pleasure of the
-shearers; they even grow to consider each other as so much mutton to
-be butchered and roasted by whoever is able to do it.</p>
-
-<p>I notice with surprise that Mr. Clews in his sketch of Wall Street
-dwells not at all upon the benevolent agency of that power during the
-Civil War. This is an oversight which I beg leave to supply. There has
-never perhaps been an instance in human history in which a great power
-has so ardently devoted itself “to the preservation of free
-institutions” as did Wall Street in that epoch of mortal agony. Then
-it was that Wall<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17">17</a></span> Street engaged in the patriotic work, first of
-destroying the national credit, then of buying it up at half price,
-then of converting it into a bonded debt to be perpetuated for a full
-generation, and finally of compelling the people to pay it in a dollar
-worth four times as much as the dollar with which it was purchased. It
-was a beautiful scheme of devotion and self-sacrifice the like of
-which history has never before recorded. It was a speculation which
-involved the life of the American Republic. The Union was on trial.
-All nerves were strained, and all hearts were torn. The nation was
-bleeding at every pore. Every freight-train that came from the front
-brought back its loaded boxes of dead. Fathers and mothers gathered at
-the station, and each received his own. The rough coffin containing
-the body of the patriot boy who had given his life for the flag was
-taken by the silent father and mother to its resting-place under the
-apple trees. All true men had tearful faces, and a stern resolve in
-the heart. And while <i>this</i> was the condition of the nation and the
-people, the high-toned Wall Street was speculating on the life of the
-Republic. It bought and sold blood. It was a bull on disaster and a
-bear on victory. It established bureaus through which to falsify
-intelligence and to bring the nation to the verge of ruin. It had no
-compunction. It regarded the gore of battlefields as the rich rain and
-mould out of which its own harvest was to grow. The more blood the
-merrier. The more tears the richer the yield. The more war the more
-debt. The more depression of the national credit the more cheaply we
-shall be able to gather it up! The more grape-vine despatches the more
-distraction and the better opportunity for us. The more death the more
-millions. The more horror and devastation the heavier will be our
-coffers. The more the people groan the more we will shout. The more
-they die the more we will live. The more the flag is torn the more our
-damask curtains will flutter. The more liberty perishes and withers
-from the earth the more we shall plant ourselves and flourish and rule
-and reign over a nation that we have destroyed and a people whom we
-have enslaved. If Mr. Clews wishes any further outline of the history
-of Wall Street during our Civil War we shall be glad to contribute
-such a sketch as a reminiscence of a great fact which appears to be
-dim in his memory.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id="page18">18</a></span></p>
-
-<p>There is another almost fatal omission in Mr. Clews’s article. He says
-but little about the principal work in which Wall Street, historically
-considered, has been engaged during the last thirty years. I do not
-like the way in which this great section of the “Past” of Wall Street
-is glossed over. During the period referred to, that institution has
-had one bottom purpose and one reason of action from which it has
-never deviated. This purpose, this reason of action, has been the
-perpetuation of the national debt and the increase of its value by
-bulling the unit of money in which the debt is payable. Wall Street
-knows that the bonded debt of the United States is the basis, or
-central fact, in the whole system of bonds and stocks. Wall Street
-knows that the dollar is the central fact in the bond. It knows that
-if the bond can be made everlasting and the dollar can be increased in
-value until a single unit of it shall be equivalent to an acre of
-farming land, then the Street can own the United States in fee simple,
-and can presently annex the rest of the world.</p>
-
-<p>I acknowledge a certain admiration when I consider this stupendous
-scheme. It is more than Napoleonic; it is continental, interplanetary,
-sidereal! I cannot recall another conspiracy in the history of mankind
-quite equal in colossal and criminal splendor to the profound and
-universal plot of Wall Street to make perpetual the national debt, to
-keep that debt the bottom fact in the banking system of the United
-States, and to bull the unit of money and account until it shall be
-worth four times as much, or perhaps ten times as much, as it was when
-the bulk of the debt was contracted.</p>
-
-<p>The history of this scheme in its true inwardness is the history of
-Wall Street for the past thirty years. The details of the history
-relate to such small circumstances as the transfer of the government
-of the great Republic from the hands and control of the people to the
-hands and control of the Street. Of course no such scheme as that
-referred to could be carried into successful operation <i>unless</i> the
-national government could be delivered over to the keeping of the
-Street and be locked up, as it were, in the same vault where the
-national debt is deposited.</p>
-
-<p>This feat, however, was easily accomplished. Wall Street reached out
-its hand and plucked down the American eagle<span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19">19</a></span> from his perch. Wall
-Street got possession of the government. The <i>coup</i> was accomplished
-while the nation was asleep—else it never could have been
-accomplished. Wall Street climbed the Tarpeian rock in the night, and
-no goose cackled to give the alarm. Columbia had gone to bed. The
-keeper of her treasure-house had already given the key to the enemy.
-The keeper of the treasury was a <i>part</i> of the enemy. He gave up both
-citadel and city. In the morning the walls were placarded with lying
-posters which said that the delivery of the government into the hands
-of the Hessians had been rendered necessary in order “to preserve the
-national honor!” It was done in order to keep faith with those
-benevolent patriots who had bought the debt of the nation at less than
-fifty cents to the dollar, and who, not satisfied with bringing it to
-par, were now engaged in the honorable work of making it worth two
-hundred cents to the dollar. The fact that the industries of the
-people would be crushed and the people themselves be reduced to
-poverty by the transfer of the national sovereignty from the capitol
-to the stock exchange was nothing in comparison with the “preservation
-of national honor.”</p>
-
-<p>The scheme was carried out. The methods by which it was carried out
-constitute the subject-matter of the true history of Wall Street
-during the past generation. Wall Street, from being a financial
-organization, became a political power. It took full possession of the
-executive and legislative departments of the government. It controlled
-them both. It promptly established and defended its ownership. It
-instituted one scheme after another. For the purpose of fortifying its
-usurpation, it learned to choose its men and to prepare its measures
-in advance. In 1884 it created an administration for its own purposes,
-and manned it to the same end. It forced its way into the House of
-Representatives and stood with a bludgeon behind the Speaker’s chair.
-It entered every committee-room and dictated every successful bill.
-The people’s bills all went one way. If by any chance one of the
-people’s bills got before the House the subsidized press, owned by
-Wall Street, raised against it a chorus of groans and catcalls; <i>that</i>
-was “an expression of public opinion”!</p>
-
-<p>From that day forth the popular voice was strangled into silence. The
-next administration (that of 1888) was prepared<span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20">20</a></span> in the same manner.
-Wall Street has no politics except the politics of the bond; it has no
-platform except the platform of cent per cent. It suffices that when a
-president is to be elected he shall be one of us. He shall not be a
-man of the people; else in that case he would be a demagogue, a
-windbag, a <i>vox et præterea nil</i>. <i>Our</i> man shall not even know the
-despised people. He shall not smell of the filthy ground, but must be
-“sound” on questions of finance. If he be not “sound,” we will make
-him so. We will teach him his paces. If the people conclude to change
-their government, we will see to it that the incoming powers are just
-like the outgoing. As for the “principles” on which the candidate
-shall be chosen, we will attend to that. We will make his principles
-for him. We understand principles perfectly. We will fix the platform;
-we know the carpenters. If the candidate and his friends have already
-fixed a platform before the date of the convention, and if it have
-been published everywhere as the decision of the candidate and his
-following, we will take that platform from the wires and will
-carefully revise it, to the end that the “national honor” shall be
-preserved. We will write it over again into new meanings. We will
-interpret it so that no harm shall be done to the “national credit.”
-We will make our candidate into a puppet. When we put our foot on the
-treadle his jaw shall drop and he shall utter many mocking words about
-the “national honor” and the “prospects of our glorious
-country”—signifying nothing.</p>
-
-<p>All this we will do for the public good. We will say that we are
-striving for national prosperity. We will proclaim our candidate as
-the advance agent of prosperity—until after the election. Then we
-will say that prosperity will come with the inauguration. Then we will
-say that it will shine out promptly when Congress adjourns and ceases
-to menace the national credit. Then we will say that prosperity will
-reveal itself when the hot season is over. By this time the hoodwinked
-people can be coddled to sleep, or else set to dancing with rumors of
-foreign wars. To this end we will have our newspapers carefully
-promote our principles and studiously avoid all reference to those
-subjects in which the people feel the deepest concern. Finally, we
-will omit all these matters from our history of “Wall Street, Past;”
-we will proceed to speak of our “Wall Street, Present,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" id="page21">21</a></span> and will
-explain that it is in a state of “lassitude and expectancy.” Indeed
-“lassitude and expectancy” is good.</p>
-
-<p>But there is still another yawning chasm in the history of “Wall
-Street, <i>Past</i>,” and that is Mr. Clews’s failure to discuss the
-transfer of the Treasury of the United States to the custody of the
-Street, and the consequent reduction of the Secretary of the Treasury
-to the rank of a clerk. This very thing has been most successfully
-accomplished. I believe that the Secretary still has an office at
-Washington, but that should be closed in the interest of economy and
-reform. To do so, we doubt not, would be a strong factor in the
-restoration of confidence. Perhaps the Washington office might be left
-in charge of a janitor, for it is understood that some official
-correspondence is still directed to the old address! The presence of
-the Secretary in New York, however, has become so essential to the
-proper discharge of his duties that the removal of his residence
-thither can only be deferred by an absurd deference to public opinion!</p>
-
-<p>The results of the transfer of this vital function of the national
-government have, in the meantime, been so salutary as fully to
-vindicate the change. This was shown in 1893-94 when the Street, with
-a strong repugnance to investing money in useful enterprises, and
-having a prodigious accumulation of funds on hand, concluded that a
-sale of Government bonds was necessary for the “national honor.” To
-this end the managers began to pull the treasury. In that institution
-a large sum of gold was stored, wholly without warrant of law. The
-people needed the gold beyond measure—that is, they needed the
-<i>money</i>; and gold is one form of money. The industries of the people
-had been prostrated by an international conspiracy, and the nation was
-quivering on the verge of apprehended ruin.</p>
-
-<p>In this crisis the patriotic Street devised the bucket-chain, the
-crank of which was in the hand of the Street, while the “chain” ran
-through the Treasury of the United States. Every bucket came out
-filled with gold. Lazard Frères emptied out the gold and shipped it
-abroad to their confederates. This created the necessity for buying it
-back with bonds. The people were stunned with the audacity of the
-thing—just as the unfortunate owners of a house in flames are stunned
-to see gentlemen of the profession rush in and empty the safe. Wall
-Street danced and shouted while the work was done. The bonds<span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" id="page22">22</a></span> were
-“popular,” and the Street got them—got them for one price and sold
-them for another.</p>
-
-<p>By this beautiful process the great American nation was literally held
-up and <i>robbed</i> of more than nineteen million dollars! No highwayman
-ever more successfully clutched the wizen of his victim than did the
-Street with its supple fingers around the white larynx of Columbia.
-The wheezing of the strangulated Republic could be heard from the St.
-Lawrence to the Rio Grande. The nation was thus “saved,” and the
-robbers took the money and went sailing away on summer cruises to
-Norway and Venice and the Cyclades. The “national credit” was
-preserved; Wall Street “rescued” us from dishonor! That part of the
-proceeds not consumed in yacht races, pyrotechnics, and balls was
-passed to the credit of the reform fund, needed for the restoration of
-prosperity in the fall of 1896! Certainly a history of “Wall Street,
-Past,” ought to contain some reference to these crimes.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Clews, turning to “Wall Street, Present,” tells the nation that
-now “the great banks have a superabundance of gold to lend on solid
-and readily salable collateral at low rates of interest, approximating
-the prevalent rates in London and Paris, where similar accumulations
-of idle capital exist.” This is a true statement of the facts. Mr.
-Clews has here spoken by the books. What he says signifies that Wall
-Street is now ready to go ahead and issue new mortgages on the
-American people. It is now ready to offer inducements to our fourteen
-millions of voters to sell themselves into another twenty-year cycle
-of bondage. If they will only be gentle and not interrupt us; if they
-will give us a true death-grip on themselves, on all they possess, and
-all they ever hope to possess, we will lend back to them a part of the
-very money which we have sucked up from their wheat fields and
-pastures, from their barns and potato patches, from their humble
-stores and markets, from their mills and their mines, and we will thus
-<i>expedite</i> them on the way to serfdom. Meanwhile we will continue to
-bankrupt their railways, to snatch their local stocks, to convert all
-shares in all enterprises into bonds, and to put the bonds into our
-safes to the end—that confidence may be restored and prosperity come
-back like the flowers that bloom in the spring.</p>
-
-<p>For the time being we, the Street, are able to toss “two hundred<span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id="page23">23</a></span>
-thousand shares a day” on the horns of our bull, and to put the same
-amount of securities under the custody of our bear. “This conclusion
-takes it for granted that the profits should be equally divided among
-the membership.” Such are Mr. Clews’s very words. By the bond of my
-faith! there is nothing else so beautiful and magnificent as this
-among the arts invented by mankind! As for the people, one of your own
-kings, Messieurs of the Street, has very properly indicated your wish
-and purpose with regard to <i>them</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Clews tells us that the “Future” of Wall Street is a sealed book;
-and yet we may allow that “there is such a thing as an accurate
-prevision of events.” Of this kind are eclipses, occultations, and
-tides of the sea. If the capital of Wall Street has, since the
-institution was founded, increased more than sixtyfold, as Mr. Clews
-declares, then we may expect it, according to his philosophy, to
-increase full sixty times sixty, until the world shall be swallowed
-up. Then, when Threadneedle and Lombard Streets shall have lost their
-sceptre; then, when Seneca’s forecast of the time to come shall have
-been fulfilled; then, when Macaulay’s New Zealander shall have made
-his sketch, not only of St. Paul’s, but also of the bank of England;
-then, when <i>all</i> the wealth, and <i>all</i> the power, and <i>all</i> the
-functions of civil society in the United States shall have been
-transferred to Wall Street; then, when nothing shall remain to the
-American people except their squalid huts and the sorrowful
-reminiscences of a great republic; then, when Wall Street in very
-truth shall have possessed itself of the earth and consumed
-mankind,—I suppose that the benevolent owners of the world will found
-a few libraries, build a few marble mausoleums for themselves, and
-sally forth to establish a stock exchange in Mars! That done,
-interplanetary wars may be engendered, bonds on the solar system may
-be issued and bought at half price, a gold standard of values may be
-fixed on the basis of the pound sterling good from the sun out to
-Neptune, and the inhabitants of the worlds, either by arms or by
-journalism, may become the helots of consolidated wealth enthroned as
-the governing power of the universe.</p>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" id="page24">24</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_3" id="article_3"></a>
-THE REFORM CLUB’S FEAST OF UNREASON.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY HON. CHARLES A. TOWNE,<br />
-<i>Chairman Provisional National Committee Silver Republican Party.</i></p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">On</span> Saturday evening, April 24, 1897, at the Waldorf Hotel, New York,
-there was held a political banquet intended as a most impressive
-function, but which has passed into history as a very ridiculous one.
-Big with self-complacence and puffed with pride, as it appeared in the
-brilliant lights and gorgeous appointments of the palatial
-supper-hall, within twenty-four hours the lacerating indignation of
-Mr. Watterson and the trenchant raillery of Mr. Bryan had let the
-tumid pretentiousness all out of it, and it had collapsed into a
-flaccid and “innocuous desuetude.” The “star-eyed goddess” turned her
-back upon it, the “wild-orbed anarch” snapped his fingers at it, and
-even everyday Mrs. Grundy laughed it to scorn. Projected with the most
-alluring and satisfying expectations, the feast has dwindled to the
-memory of a sad mistake in the mind of every man that assisted at it.
-Planned as a sort of coronation ceremony, its completed performance
-unaccountably wore the complexion of belated obsequies irreverently
-disturbed by the guffaws of the multitude.</p>
-
-<p>But the aspect of this banquet as a piece of ill-conceived political
-strategy that never was formidable, or as a rite in the ceremonial of
-a hero-worship that is as inexplicable as inopportune, does not now so
-much concern me as does its office as a dispenser of misinformation
-and unsound philosophy, which are always dangerous. Many who condemn
-the folly of it as a move in practical politics nevertheless loudly
-commend the economic doctrines it contributed to spread. But inasmuch
-as, in my opinion, the science it taught is as bad as the politics it
-practised, I propose to call attention to a few of the arrogant
-assumptions and mischievous theories that found emphatic and repeated
-expression at this feast.</p>
-
-<p>Did the purpose of this article permit, it would be interesting to
-make Mr. Cleveland’s speech the text of some examination<span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" id="page25">25</a></span> into the
-ex-President’s peculiarities of style. It was Clevelandesque to the
-core. All his protuberant characteristics are there: the leviathanic
-egotism, the profound and tenebrous ponderosity, the labored intricacy
-of the commonplace, the pedagogic moralizing, the oracular
-inconsequence. How absurdly obvious it all is now, and how
-inexplicable that the glamour of high place should ever have clothed
-such matter as his with the seeming of philosophy and statesmanship!
-‘Tis the very frippery and trumpery of the stage after the lights are
-out and the audience has departed.</p>
-
-<p>In his opening Mr. Cleveland says: “On every side we are confronted
-with popular depression and complaint.” This language stirs an echo of
-the long ago. In his special message to the extra session of the
-Fifty-third Congress in August, 1893, he thus announced a similar
-condition: “Suddenly financial distrust and fear have sprung up on
-every side.” But he accounts differently for these two identical
-phenomena. The situation to-day he largely attributes to “the work of
-agitators and demagogues.” In 1893 he declared: “I believe these
-things are principally chargeable to Congressional legislation
-touching the purchase and coinage of silver by the general
-government.”</p>
-
-<p>The ex-President’s explanations are both wrong, and nobody ought to
-know it so well as himself. His relations with the great gold bankers
-were exceedingly intimate in 1892 and 1893, and have been so ever
-since. It is notorious that the panic of 1893 was a bankers’ panic
-deliberately brought about by these men to frighten public sentiment
-into supplementing their demand for the repeal of the purchasing
-clause of the Sherman law of 1890. The agitation against that law was
-a whooped-up and manufactured agitation. No legitimate interest had
-suffered from its operation. On the contrary, the access of standard
-silver dollars coined under the laws of 1878 and 1890 had been of
-incalculable advantage to the country. In his annual message of
-December 2, 1890, President Harrison had thus referred to this fact:
-“The general tendency of the markets was upward from influences wholly
-apart from the recent tariff legislation. The enlargement of our
-currency by the silver bill undoubtedly gave an upward tendency to
-trade and had a marked effect on prices.” And again: “It is gratifying
-to know that the increased circulation secured by<span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id="page26">26</a></span> the act has
-exerted, and will continue to exert a most beneficial influence upon
-business and upon general values.”</p>
-
-<p>Such an influence that circulation did indeed continue to exert. The
-comparative prosperity of the two following years, which, in contrast
-with the conditions of the subsequent period, causes 1892 to wear to
-wistful eyes so beautiful a hue in these unhappy days, would have been
-an absolute impossibility but for the silver legislation.</p>
-
-<p>Nor was the credit of the government menaced. It was a malicious
-afterthought that represented the silver dollar as a charge upon the
-credit of the nation. That dollar was a standard dollar. It was never
-“redeemed” in anything but the money-work it did. There was no law for
-its redemption, and there was as yet no attempt, such as Mr. Carlisle
-in 1896 declared himself ready to make, to commit the crime of an
-administrative degradation of the circulating silver dollars into
-promises for the payment of gold. The Treasury Notes, issued in
-payment for silver bullion under the law of 1890, were redeemable in
-either gold or silver at the discretion of the Secretary of the
-Treasury; and inasmuch as there was silver behind every one of them,
-they could become a menace to the credit of the government only in
-case of the betrayal of his duty by that official.</p>
-
-<p>But the contractionists looked with alarm upon the improving
-conditions of the country. Something must be done to discredit silver,
-or by and by there might arise such a demand for the full restoration
-of its mint privileges and money powers as could not be balked, as
-every similar demand had been balked since 1873; and in that event the
-slow villany of many years would have been fruitless and the
-contractionists’ occupation would be gone. Then was formed the deep
-design to compel the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman
-law. The gigantic forces that had been behind Mr. Cleveland in the
-memorable campaign of 1892 had not lost their cunning or their power.
-They knew their implements, and they had had much experience. Their
-strategy was customary and it was effective. To-day Mr. Cleveland
-complains because the Republican party, having won the contest of last
-November on the money question, should have hurried into the current
-extra session on the tariff<span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" id="page27">27</a></span> question. Let him recall his own course
-when, having carried the country in 1892 on the tariff question, he
-summoned the extra session of 1893 to consider the money question.
-Such a reflection might possibly assist him in fathoming the present
-motives of the men who won in 1892 to achieve the gold standard and in
-1896 to preserve it.</p>
-
-<p>For the election of Mr. Cleveland was a carefully executed move in an
-elaborate and merciless programme. The president of a national bank in
-North Dakota, a man of character and thorough reliability, has
-recently made public a conversation between himself and a prominent
-New York bank president, held not long after that election, in which
-the latter, whose institution was a member of the Associated National
-Banks, declared in substance as follows: “We have just elected Grover
-Cleveland President of the United States upon the express
-understanding with us that the policy of the administration shall be
-to uphold and advance the gold standard”; and he foretold, with
-startlingly faithful prevision, the repeal of the Sherman purchase
-law, the successive bond-issues, and the general and ruinous fall of
-prices, which seem to have evidenced the strict performance of the
-agreement by the party of the second part.</p>
-
-<p>How persistently the power of the executive was used, and how
-carefully the offices were dispensed, to influence Senators and
-members of Congress against the Sherman law, were matters of ordinary
-comment at the time. Meanwhile the banks were putting in motion their
-peculiar and enormous persuasions. For months no man could go into any
-bank in any State of the Union for any purpose without having thrust
-under his nose, with a more or less pointed request for his signature,
-a petition demanding the repeal of the obnoxious statute. Then, in the
-latter days of April, 1893, on the stock exchange, there began that
-concerted onslaught upon stocks and values, vaunted as an
-“object-lesson” to the people, as a result of which within eight
-months six hundred of the relatively smaller banking institutions of
-the country went down, dragging with them fifteen thousand industrial
-and business enterprises, involving a total loss of seven hundred and
-fifty millions of dollars.</p>
-
-<p>The object-lesson served its purpose. With the business<span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" id="page28">28</a></span> world
-shattered into fragments, enterprise stifled, and credit dead, a
-terror seized upon the people. The opportunity for which the big
-bankers had been coolly waiting had come. Cunningly and in many places
-at once they started the cry that the Sherman law had caused all this
-havoc, and that the only hope for a return of prosperity lay in the
-immediate repeal of the feature providing for the purchase of new
-silver bullion. The clamor was eagerly repeated, and fear eagerly
-believed it. At precisely the right moment the President himself made
-official proclamation that the rumor was true, and summoned Congress
-in extra session to obey the mandate of the bankers. Under this spell
-Congress acted and the law was repealed. Thus was the country made
-dependent upon gold alone for its new supplies of full-power money,
-and thus, aided by similar action elsewhere, was inaugurated an era of
-accelerated fall of prices more pronounced than the world has known
-since the middle ages, and a precipitate decline of values more
-ruinous than any other chronicled in history.</p>
-
-<p>“Agitators and demagogues” indeed! Is it not monstrous that any
-intelligent man should believe the present frightful condition of the
-country to be due to the work of agitators and demagogues? Mr.
-Cleveland of course knows better; but many people have actually been
-convinced that some millions of our citizens would rather agitate than
-work; that thousands of them have deliberately and by preference
-forsworn business and become demagogues by trade. The thoughtful man
-knows that agitation is first a result and afterward a cause. It is a
-cruel as well as an ignorant thing for Mr. Cleveland and his disciples
-to cast into the faces of the suffering producers and workers of the
-United States, as a reproach, the fact of their discontent and
-complaining. Of course our people are in distress. Of course they are
-crying out against it. Of course they will endeavor to learn what
-occasions it. And of course when they have ascertained what the matter
-is they will agitate for relief. Substantially all men prefer to be
-busy about the ordinary and interdependent offices of social life.
-This is especially true of the great middle classes in the United
-States. Under just and rational laws they will be so. The absence of
-such a temper is ground for suspicion against the laws. Existing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29">29</a></span>
-conditions confess their weakness and injustice when they revile
-admitted discontent. I would rather the cause I believe in sprang from
-suffering than that suffering should follow my cause.</p>
-
-<p>The full magnitude of this achievement for the gold standard in the
-repeal of the law of 1890, will not be grasped unless we bear in mind
-that it occurred at a time when the indications were unusually
-favorable that an international bimetallic agreement, which the world
-had been trying to accomplish for nearly twenty years, might soon be
-secured on an acceptable basis. It has long been suspected that the
-strongest discouragement of this hope, and probably the determining
-factor in its failure, was the attitude of President Cleveland as
-quietly caused to be understood abroad. Very recently this
-well-grounded suspicion has been turned into certainty by the
-distinguished English bimetallist, Mr. Moreton Frewen, who, in a
-letter to the Washington <i>Post</i>, says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>But Mr. Cleveland made it known, through the subterranean
-channels of diplomacy, that, far from giving any support to
-silver, he was preparing to urge on Congress the repeal of the
-silver-purchase clauses of the Sherman act. Mr. Cleveland’s
-intention became known in official circles in Calcutta. That this
-was the case I learned at the time and at first hand. The
-government of India believed that the cessation of all silver
-purchases in America would still further reduce the exchange
-value of the rupee, and therefore, in advance of the pending
-anti-silver legislation anticipated from Washington, the Indian
-mints were closed.</p></div>
-
-<p>Mr. Cleveland may well be deified in the gold-standard cult, for
-clearly he has been the arch-enemy of bimetallism.</p>
-
-<p>One of the characteristics of the discussion now going on between the
-advocates of gold monometallism and those of bimetallism is the
-disingenuousness of the former. They will rarely consent to a clear
-definition of the issue, but seek to evade it both by preëmpting the
-use of moral labels and catchphrases which satisfy their partisans
-without inquiry, and by stigmatizing their opponents with such vile
-imputations and base epithets as seem to place them beyond the pale of
-moral and intellectual tolerance. “Sound” and “honest” they write
-above their creed. They pose as consecrated guardians of public honor
-and private property. We are depicted as dishonest and imbecile,
-repudiators of national and individual obligations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page30" id="page30">30</a></span> communists or
-anarchists bearing the torch and axe. This specialty is Mr.
-Cleveland’s long suit. Little wonder that his school should place him
-at its head. His preëminence in the field where self-admiration is a
-supreme virtue and ribald abuse passes for irrefutable argument will
-scarcely be denied by anybody who shall have read the following
-characteristic specimens from this Waldorf essay, carefully written
-down and calmly delivered: “We are gathered here to-night as patriotic
-citizens anxious to do something toward … protecting the fair fame
-of our nation against shame and scandal.” It is not recorded that
-anybody smiled at this. Indeed, the astonishing thing about this
-business is that these people seem able to impose successfully on one
-another. But Mr. Cleveland is even better at the other kind, as for
-example: “Agitators and demagogues,” “ruthless agitators,” “sordid
-greed,” “inflamed with tales of an ancient crime against their
-rights,” “unfortunate and unreasonable,” “restless and turbulent,”
-“reckless creed,” “boisterous and passionate campaign,” “allied forces
-of calamity,” “encouraged by malign conditions,” and so on <i>ad
-nauseam</i>.</p>
-
-<p>This is the attitude of nearly all the defenders of the gold standard
-who have the hardihood to say anything at all. Undoubtedly in many
-cases it is assumed because of ignorance on the merits of the case, so
-that nothing remains but to “abuse the other fellow.” But occasionally
-this course is adopted by men who are well informed, and who know that
-the gold standard is incapable of meeting bimetallism in an honest
-contest of argument with any hope of success. The strategy of these,
-therefore, is to avoid fair discussion by so prejudicing the public
-mind against their opponents as to forestall a hearing.</p>
-
-<p>The result has been surprisingly successful. In many localities, and
-in fact in nearly all localities in the East, the most intolerant
-spirit has been manifested by the most prominent persons in the
-community, who had never taken the pains to examine the subject on
-which they so violently and fanatically expressed themselves. To
-people of any acquaintance with the literature, the history, and the
-science of money, it has seemed most marvellous that business men of
-large affairs, of much general information, and of excellent natural
-abilities, should be content to remain absolutely ignorant of
-fundamental<span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31">31</a></span> monetary principles and the overwhelmingly attested
-lessons of past experience. It is infinitely pitiful to see men of
-affairs led away in so-called “business men’s sound-money
-associations” and other similar movements, when a knowledge of the
-conditions on which their welfare depends would send them in an
-exactly opposite direction.</p>
-
-<p>Why? Because business men are men who do business, or at any rate who
-want to do business; and all legitimate business consists in the
-performance of some appropriate function in connection with the
-production or the exchange of commodities. It is apparent to even the
-dullest apprehension that whatever prevents or discourages production
-is destructive of business, and that a money system which provides a
-measuring unit that constantly demands, as an equivalent, an
-increasing quantity of everything produced, is the greatest burden on
-production that could possibly be devised. But it is precisely this
-kind of a unit that the gold standard furnishes. No one economic fact
-is so conclusively established and so generally conceded as that of
-the progressive fall of average prices throughout the gold-standard
-world during the last twenty-four years. This fall amounts to almost
-fifty per cent, and indeed, in respect to the great staple products of
-the country, exceeds fifty per cent; so that, to state the same fact
-in its converse, the purchasing power of gold has increased since 1873
-one hundred per cent.</p>
-
-<p>The significance of this awful fact is deftly obscured behind the
-deceptive and specious plea for “a dollar of the greatest purchasing
-power.” This is one of those artful expressions that are used by the
-advocates of the gold standard as a kind of thought-deterrent. It
-seems so obvious, at the first suggestion, that the best dollar is the
-dollar that will buy the most, that it is hard for a man to get even a
-hearing who asserts that, on the contrary, such a dollar is the very
-worst dollar conceivable. But a moment’s reflection will satisfy any
-sane mind that such is the case. The demonstration is so simple that
-one feels like apologizing for making it. Yet it is in respect to
-principles just as plain as this one that people are constantly
-allowing themselves to be taken in by the supporters of the single
-standard.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page32" id="page32">32</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The demonstration is this: whatever is bought by a dollar, itself buys
-the dollar. For example, when a dollar exchanges for a bushel of
-wheat, the dollar buys the wheat, and the wheat buys the dollar. To
-say, therefore, that a dollar that buys two bushels of wheat, being a
-dollar of greater purchasing power, is better than the dollar that
-buys one bushel, is to say that the dollar which it requires two
-bushels of wheat to buy is a better dollar than that which can be
-bought with one bushel. Consequently, to increase the excellence of
-your dollar all you need to do is to increase the scarcity of the
-stuff out of which dollars are made, so that each one shall constantly
-stand for more and more wheat, or, using wheat merely as
-representative of commodities in general, so that it shall constantly
-require more and more of all other things on earth to get a dollar. It
-is wholly credible that the man with dollars should profess this
-philosophy, but it is absolutely inexplicable how it should receive
-the support of men interested in getting dollars with things, who
-comprise about seven-eighths of society.</p>
-
-<p>Now as it continually takes more products to get a given quantity of
-gold, is it not clear that the producer who becomes liable for taxes
-and gets into debt must constantly bear an increasing burden of
-taxation, and that his debt, payable in more commodities than it
-represented when he incurred it, needs only to run long enough to grow
-beyond the hope of his ability to pay it? Such a policy cannot but be
-fraught with certain ruin to producers. It is causing in the United
-States a condition frightful to contemplate. The mass of debts is
-piling up at a ratio that absolutely threatens, if a halt in the
-automatic process is not soon called, a universal insolvency. Indeed a
-general liquidation is already impossible. He is no alarmist who
-counsels a timely and rational remedy as not only demanded by justice,
-but as anticipatory of violent readjustment. Under such disquieting
-conditions is it not as criminal as it is unscientific for men to go
-about prating of the system that has occasioned these things as
-“honest money,” and “sound money,” and denouncing its opponents as
-repudiators and anarchists?</p>
-
-<p>In the presence of epochal and fundamental disturbance, when men,
-patient beyond example and willing to argue the correctness of their
-claims, are crying out against the injustice of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id="page33">33</a></span> money system that
-day and night and year upon year, with unerring and pitiless
-precision, takes from the producing many and hands over to the idle
-few that which it ruins those to lose and but pampers these to gain,
-our ex-President offends decency and insults millions of his
-fellow-citizens with this reference to their contention: “Honest
-accumulation is called a crime.” Where does he find anybody calling
-honest accumulation a crime? Men indeed stigmatize the maintenance of
-this odious money system as a crime, but only because of the things
-they claim it to be guilty of. Why does he not join issue on these? He
-knows that nowhere in all this world is there, or has there ever been,
-a more honest body of citizenship than the millions of Americans who
-to-day are toiling on the farms and in the workshops of the country
-and who demand from the laws they obey nothing but equity and justice.
-It was easier, and more pleasant to those who heard him, to wrong
-these men with a sneer than to answer them with an argument. He might
-possibly have done well to relinquish this task to one who sat near
-him, his ex-Secretary of the Treasury, who had himself, in 1878,
-discovered something that <i>he</i> thought a crime and had thus denounced
-it: “According to my views of the subject the conspiracy which seems
-to have been formed here and in Europe to destroy, by legislation and
-otherwise, from three-sevenths to one-half the metallic money of the
-world, is the most gigantic crime of this or any other age.”</p>
-
-<p>The speech of Mr. Carlisle was notable for stating his position more
-extremely than he had previously done since his apostasy. He boldly
-takes the stand logically demanded by consistency in the man who
-opposes silver coinage and denies the arguments based on the
-appreciation of gold. He comes out squarely for the gold standard and
-places bimetallism of any and all sorts under a common ban. But alas!
-what a sorry appearance he makes. Nowhere in our political history do
-I find quite so pathetic a figure as that presented by this once
-strong and virile champion of the people’s rights in his contrasted
-role of defender of their oppressors. Where now is that compact and
-cogent argument, that sincere and moving eloquence, which made his
-forensic style so singularly effective; which marked him the
-parliamentary darling of his party, a predestined president of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" id="page34">34</a></span>
-republic? Shrunken to the dreary platitudes of the gold-standard
-catechism, babbling of “sound currency” and “intrinsic value.”</p>
-
-<p>This talk of intrinsic value was not confined to Mr. Carlisle. Mr.
-Patterson, of Tennessee, and Senator Caffery, of Louisiana, were
-likewise guilty of it. It is, indeed, the characteristic folly of
-their school. Having destroyed the money demand for silver while
-adding almost incalculably to that for gold, they have caused an
-increasing disparity in the values of the two metals; and now, when it
-is sought to restore the parity by restoring the equivalence of use
-and demand on which alone it depends, they pretend to have discovered
-some inherent perfection in gold and an original sin in silver which
-forbid all attempts to reconcile them. In the face of monetary
-principles whose nature has been understood for more than two thousand
-years, and of historic and economic facts which every college freshman
-knows, Mr. Carlisle has the appalling audacity to use the following
-language: “Natural causes have separated the two metals, and while it
-is possible that natural causes may hereafter change their present
-relations to each other, it is certain that these relations cannot be
-changed by artificial means.”</p>
-
-<p>It is difficult to speak with becoming moderation of such stuff as
-this; and it is really pathetic to see the dominant opinion of whole
-sections of the country taking its cue from men who assume superior
-airs and rebuke the presumption of thinking on the part of some
-millions of Americans, while they peddle such insufferable nonsense as
-this just quoted from Mr. Carlisle. “Natural causes” indeed, when we
-can turn to the statute books of half the world and put our fingers on
-the “artificial means” whereby the hoarders of gold have legislated
-demand into one metal and legislated it out of the other. Let once a
-wrong be achieved by artificial means, and instantly those who profit
-by it represent it as the inevitable decree of evolutional forces.
-“Natural causes,” we are asked to believe, have made gold dear and
-silver cheap during a period when the cost of producing gold has been
-cheapened more than any other mechanical process; when both metals
-have continued on substantially their old relative planes of use in
-every respect save as money; when their relative production has been
-from three<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35">35</a></span> to twenty times less disproportionate than at any other
-similar period in the past four hundred years; and when in actual
-weight the stocks of coin and bullion available for coinage have risen
-from a proportion of thirty-two of silver to one of gold up to that of
-sixteen of silver to one of gold coincidently with a fall of the
-so-called market ratio from fifteen and one-half to one, when the
-mints were open to both, down to thirty-three to one when only the one
-can be freely coined. It is simply an incredible and impossible
-proposition.</p>
-
-<p>Intrinsic value is as unthinkable as intrinsic distance. Both distance
-and value are relations. Neither can exist or be stated except by
-comparison. The value of a thing is what it is worth; and it is worth
-what it will bring. Value in exchange is the only value that political
-economy knows anything about; and what a given thing will exchange for
-depends on the ratio of the supply of it to the demand for it. A piece
-of money is worth what it will buy. Other things remaining the same,
-it will buy more when the stuff out of which it is made is plentiful,
-and less when that is scarce. The proposition of the bimetallists
-rests on only time-honored doctrines of political economy as justified
-by the experience of mankind. We desire to restore the parity of gold
-and silver by perfectly “natural causes” set in operation by
-“artificial means.” We propose to invoke the law to equalize their
-opportunity and to make them interchangeably and indifferently
-responsive to the same money demand.</p>
-
-<p>Space has not permitted reference to all the errors committed at this
-wonderful banquet, nor a complete discussion of even those cited. I
-have endeavored only to point out the most glaring ones in the hope
-that some persons inclined to accept, somewhat carelessly, the
-assumedly authoritative statements of these eminent men, may be led to
-study this great subject whose proper understanding and wise
-management are of such vast importance not only in American politics
-but in the progress of the race. For the cause of bimetallism must
-commend itself to the intellect and the conscience of the country or
-it cannot win. Those who have spent some time in an earnest and
-thoughtful investigation of the matter and are convinced that the
-success of silver coinage is the first step in a series of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36">36</a></span> rational,
-safe, and necessary reforms, are ready to be judged as much by the
-reasonableness of their doctrine as by the sincerity of their motives.
-They intend from now on to force the fight. The enemy will be sought
-out and assailed wherever found. No pretentious claims of
-infallibility will be accorded immunity from criticism. No authority
-will be permitted to shelter folly. It is time to expose the
-preposterous assurance of the gold-standard pundits. Nonsense will be
-called nonsense whoever utters it, and, what is more, it will be
-proved to be nonsense.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37">37</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_4" id="article_4"></a>
-DOES CREDIT ACT ON THE GENERAL LEVEL OF PRICES?</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY A. J. UTLEY.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">It</span> is conceded by all standard writers on political economy that the
-value of money—that is, its purchasing power—is fixed and regulated
-by the amount of money available for use.</p>
-
-<p>John Stuart Mill says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>If the whole money in circulation was doubled prices would be
-doubled. If it was only increased one-fourth, prices would rise
-one-fourth. There would be one-fourth more money, all of which
-would be used to purchase goods of some description. When there
-had been time for the increased supply of money to reach all
-markets, or (according to conventional metaphor) to permeate all
-the channels of circulation, all prices would have risen
-one-fourth. But the general rise of price is independent of this
-diffusing process. Even if some prices were raised more, and
-others less, the average rise would be one-fourth. This is a
-necessary consequence of the fact that a fourth more money would
-have to be given for only the same quantity of goods. General
-price, therefore, in any such case would be one-fourth higher.
-The very same effect would be produced on prices if we suppose
-the goods diminished, instead of the money increased: and the
-contrary effect if the goods were increased, or the money
-diminished. If there were less money in the hands of the
-community, and the same amount of goods to be sold, less money
-altogether would be given for them, and they would be sold at
-lower prices; lower, too, in the precise ratio in which the money
-was diminished. <i>So that the value of money, other things being
-the same, varies inversely as its quantity; every increase in
-quantity lowering the value, and every diminution raising it, in
-a ratio exactly equivalent.</i></p></div>
-
-<p>This is known as the quantitative theory of money, and is recognized
-by Ricardo, Jevons, Macleod, John Locke, James Mill, John Stuart Mill,
-Senator John P. Jones, David Hume, William Huskisson, Sir James
-Graham, Prof. Torrens, Prof. Sidgwick, J. R. McCulloch, Mr. Gallatin,
-Prof. Fawcett, Prof. Perry, N. A. Nicholson, Earl Grey, Prof. Shield
-Nicholson, Lord Overstone, and, in fact, by all writers on political
-economy of any prominence since Adam Smith. Formerly it was supposed
-that the value of money depended upon the cost of production; that the
-reason why a dollar in gold or silver was worth 100 cents was because
-it took 100 cents’ worth of labor<span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38">38</a></span> to produce metal enough to make a
-dollar. This theory, however, has been abandoned by the best writers
-and speakers; in fact, by all economists of any standing, and it is
-now conceded that the cost of producing the metal has no influence on
-its money value, only as it may tend to increase or reduce the amount
-of money, and that it is the quantity of money, the number of units,
-available for use that determines and regulates its value; that is, if
-the quantity is increased its value will fall, and if the quantity is
-diminished its value will rise, and that it will fall or rise in value
-in a ratio exactly equivalent to the increase or diminution of the
-volume of money; and that if sufficiently reduced in volume, a dollar,
-whether stamped on gold, silver, or paper, would buy a plantation or
-pay a man for the labor of a lifetime. There can be no doubt as to the
-correctness of the quantitative theory of money.</p>
-
-<p>John Stuart Mill says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>That an increase in the quantity of money raises prices, and a
-diminution lowers them, is the most elementary proposition in the
-theory of currency, and without it we have no key to any of the
-others.</p></div>
-
-<p>Prices, however, are not fixed by the total amount of money in
-existence; only that part of the money that is available for use can
-act on prices.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Mill says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Whatever may be the quantity of money in the country, only that
-part of it will affect prices which goes into the market of
-commodities and is there actually exchanged for goods of some
-description. Whatever increases this portion of the money in the
-country tends to raise prices. Money kept in reserve by
-individuals to meet contingencies which do not occur, does not
-act on prices. Money in the coffers of banks, or retained as a
-reserve, does not act on prices until drawn out to be expended
-for commodities.</p></div>
-
-<p>It is also conceded that in fixing prices not only all the money
-actually available for use must be taken into consideration, but the
-rapidity of circulation must also be regarded; and due allowance must
-be made for the number of times commodities change hands before
-consumption.</p>
-
-<p>The same dollar may, by passing from hand to hand, make a number of
-purchases, and the same goods may be sold repeatedly before
-consumption. It is, probably, correct to say, that the money available
-for use multiplied by the rapidity of circulation, or, as Mr. Mill
-expresses it, by its efficiency, equals the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id="page39">39</a></span> total money to be
-considered; and the commodities sold multiplied by the average number
-of sales equals the total commodities to be taken into consideration
-in fixing the general level of prices.</p>
-
-<p>Are there any other elements that act on the general level of prices?
-Of course an abundant yield, or a short crop, or an over-production,
-so called, or under-consumption, of any particular commodity may
-depress or raise the price of that particular crop or commodity; but
-are there any elements other than those above enumerated that act on
-the general level of prices? I think there are none.</p>
-
-<p>If, then, prices are controlled by the volume of money available for
-use; and if the general level of prices will rise as the volume of
-money is increased, and fall as the volume of money is diminished, and
-rise or fall in an exact ratio corresponding with the expansion or
-contraction of the volume of money, it becomes important to ascertain
-what money is, and also whether there is anything which can be used as
-a substitute for money in such a manner as to affect the general level
-of prices.</p>
-
-<p>Senator John P. Jones, than whom there is no one better informed,
-says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>The money of a country is that thing, whatever it may be, which
-is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in
-payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law or by
-universal consent. Its value does not arise from the intrinsic
-qualities which the material of which it is made may possess, but
-depends entirely on extrinsic qualities which law or common
-consent may confer.</p></div>
-
-<p>Aristotle says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Money has value only by law and not by nature; so that a change
-of convention between those who use it is sufficient to deprive
-it of its value and power to satisfy our wants.</p></div>
-
-<p>Adam Smith says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>A guinea may be considered a bill for a certain quantity of goods
-on all the tradesmen in the neighborhood.</p></div>
-
-<p>Henry Thornton says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Money of every kind is an order for goods. It is so considered by
-the laborer when he receives it, and it is almost instantly
-converted into money’s worth. It is merely the instrument by
-which the purchasable stock of the country is distributed with
-convenience and advantage among the several members of the
-community.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40">40</a></span></p>
-
-<p>John Stuart Mill says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>The pounds or shillings which a man receives are a sort of ticket
-or order which he may present for payment at any shop he pleases,
-and which entitles him to receive a certain value of any
-commodity that he may choose.</p></div>
-
-<p>Appleton’s Cyclopædia defines money in the following words:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Anything which freely circulates from hand to hand, in any
-country, as a common, acceptable medium of exchange, is, in such
-country, money, even though it ceases to be such, or to possess
-any value, when passing into another country. In a word, an
-article is determined to be money by reason of the performance by
-it of certain functions, without regard to its form or substance.</p></div>
-
-<p>Francis A. Walker says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Money is that which freely passes from hand to hand through the
-community in final discharge of debt and in full payment for
-commodities, being accepted equally without reference to the
-character or credit of the person who offers it, and without the
-intention of the person who receives it, to consume it, or enjoy
-it, or apply it to any other use than in turn to tender it to
-others in discharge of debts or in payment for commodities.</p></div>
-
-<p>It has been contended by certain economists that bank checks and bills
-of exchange are money, or, at least, that they discharge the money
-function and act on prices the same as money; but this definition
-excludes checks and bills of exchange. A bill of exchange or bank
-check is not accepted without reference to the character or credit of
-the person who offers it. But Francis A. Walker leaves us in no doubt
-on this question. On page 123 of his work on “Political Economy” he
-says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Money is a medium of exchange. Whatever performs this function,
-does this work, is money, no matter what it is made of, and no
-matter how it came to be a medium at first, or why it continues
-to be such. So long as, in any community, there is an article
-which all producers take freely and as a matter of course in
-exchange for whatever they have to sell, instead of looking
-about, at the time, for the particular things they, themselves,
-wish to consume, that article is money, be it white, yellow, or
-black, hard or soft, animal, vegetable, or mineral. There is no
-other test of money than this. That which does the money work is
-the money thing. It may do this well; it may do this ill. It may
-be good money; it may be bad money; but it is money all the same.
-We said <i>all</i> producers, since it is not enough that a thing is
-extensively used in exchange, to constitute it money. <i>Bank
-checks are used in numerous and important transactions, yet are
-not money.</i> It is essential to money that its acceptability
-should be so nearly universal that practically every person in
-the community who has any product or service to dispose of will
-freely, gladly, and of preference, take this thing money, instead
-of the particular products or service which he may individually
-require from others, being well assured that with money he will
-unfailingly<span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id="page41">41</a></span> obtain whatever he shall desire, in form and amount,
-and at times to suit his wants.</p></div>
-
-<p>It appears from the accepted definitions that bank checks and bills of
-exchange are not money. They may to some extent, as other forms of
-credit may to some extent, add to or increase the rapidity of
-circulation; but, certainly, credit is not money nor does it possess
-the essential elements of money. I think it is an essential element of
-money that when used it closes the transaction between the parties to
-the transaction. In other words, money, when paid in the purchase of a
-commodity, closes the transaction, and neither party to the
-transaction has any further claim or demand against the other.
-Anything which does this (barter, of course, excluded) is money, and
-anything which fails to do this is not money. If a credit is given or
-a check received the transaction is not closed until the debt is paid
-or the check cashed. I do not find that any economist has made this
-distinction, in so many words, between money and credit, but I am
-satisfied that it exists.</p>
-
-<p>Does all the money available for use act on prices? It is contended by
-a certain class of economists that only money of ultimate and final
-redemption—in other words, gold and silver, in countries where gold
-and silver are the standard money, and gold only, in countries where
-gold is the standard money—can act directly on prices, and that other
-forms of money can only act on prices in an indirect manner, and to
-the extent only that they may increase the rapidity of the circulation
-of redemption or standard money; that paper money, whether convertible
-or inconvertible, covered or uncovered, and token money, can have no
-direct influence on the general level of prices.</p>
-
-<p>Is this contention true? We have already seen that money is a medium
-of exchange, a counter for reckoning, an order for goods, and that its
-value does not depend upon the intrinsic qualities which the material
-out of which it is made may possess, but depends entirely upon
-extrinsic qualities which law or common consent may confer, and that
-anything (barter, of course, excluded) that closes transactions
-between the parties to the transactions, is money; and also that the
-value of money, that is, its purchasing power, is fixed and regulated
-by the amount of money available for use. Why, then, should any<span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" id="page42">42</a></span> part
-of the money that possesses and discharges all the functions of money
-be excluded? What peculiar property has money stamped on gold and
-silver that it only can act on prices?</p>
-
-<p>John Stuart Mill says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>After experience had shown that pieces of paper, of no intrinsic
-value, by merely bearing upon them the written profession of
-being equivalent to a certain number of francs, dollars, or
-pounds, could be made to circulate as such, and to produce all
-the benefit to the users which could have been produced by the
-coins which they purported to represent, governments began to
-think that it would be a happy device if they could appropriate
-to themselves this benefit, free from the condition to which
-individuals issuing such paper substitutes for money were
-subject, of giving, when required, for the sign, the thing
-signified. They determined to try whether they could not
-emancipate themselves from this unpleasant obligation, and make a
-piece of paper issued by them pass for a pound, by merely calling
-it a pound and consenting to receive it in payment for taxes. And
-such is the influence of almost all established governments, that
-they have generally succeeded in attaining this object: <i>I
-believe I may say they have always succeeded for a time, and the
-power has only been lost to them after they had compromised it by
-the most flagrant abuse.</i>—“Political Economy,” Book 3, Chap. 13.</p></div>
-
-<p>Mill further says that such inconvertible paper money will act on
-prices. And if inconvertible paper money will act on prices, why will
-not convertible paper money, that is, paper money convertible into
-coin on demand, also act on prices? Token money, especially if a legal
-tender, and whether a legal tender or not, if accepted without
-objection in the payment of debt, or if received in full payment for
-commodities, discharges the money function, and is to all intents and
-purposes money. It is not absolutely necessary that to make a thing
-money it should be a legal tender in the payment of debt. Anything
-which is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in
-payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law (that is, its
-legal tender property) or by common consent, is money. From 1861 to
-1873 we had no gold or silver money in the United States, or virtually
-none. The official reports of the Secretary of the Treasury show that
-the gold and silver coin, including the gold and silver bullion in the
-United States Treasury during that period, amounted to but
-$25,000,000, and even that was not in circulation, except to a very
-limited extent on the Pacific Coast. Yet during that period prices
-reached the highest level ever attained in this country. Certainly,
-the level of prices during that period was not fixed by the gold and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id="page43">43</a></span>
-silver money available for use. In view of the foregoing facts I think
-it must be apparent that any money which is received in full payment
-for commodities, whether so received on account of its legal tender
-property or by universal consent, and whether it is gold, silver,
-paper, or token money, acts on prices, and tends to fix the general
-level of prices.</p>
-
-<p>It is claimed by a great many writers on political economy that credit
-has the same influence in fixing the general level of prices that
-money has, and that an expansion or contraction of credit would
-inflate or contract prices in the same manner and to the same extent
-as would result from a contraction or expansion of money; that if
-credit is extended, if more commodities are sold on credit than
-formerly, such extension of credit will tend to raise prices in the
-same manner and to the same extent as would so much additional money;
-and that if credits are contracted, if less credits are given than
-formerly, such contraction of credits will tend to depress prices in
-the same manner and to the same extent as a withdrawal of a like
-amount of money from the channels of trade would depress them. At the
-head of this school of political economists stands John Stuart Mill.
-He says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>I apprehend that bank notes, bills, or cheques, as such, do not
-act on prices at all. What does act on prices is credit, in
-whatever shape given, and whether it gives rise to any
-transferable instruments capable of passing into circulation or
-not. (See Book 3, Chapter 12.)</p></div>
-
-<p>Is this contention true? If so, then it is not true that the general
-level of prices is determined by the amount of money available for
-use; but is determined, rather, by the amount of credits available for
-use. The debts of the world (and the credits, of course, are precisely
-equal to the debts, as there could be no debt without a corresponding
-credit) amount, in round numbers, to $200,000,000,000, and the money
-in the world amounts in round numbers to $10,000,000,000. That is,
-there are twenty dollars of credit to one dollar of money; and if
-credit exercises the same influence in fixing the general level of
-prices that money exercises, then it is absurd to say that the volume
-of money available for use fixes the general level of prices, and at
-the same time to contend that credit, dollar for dollar, is an equal
-factor in fixing prices. If credit<span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" id="page44">44</a></span> affects the general level of
-prices in the same manner and to the same extent that money does, then
-credit exerts an influence on prices twenty times greater than that
-exerted by money, and we should say: The general level of prices is
-fixed by credit, modified, it may be, to some extent by the amount of
-money in circulation.</p>
-
-<p>The difficulty seems to be in distinguishing between money and credit.
-If we keep in mind the fact that anything which closes the transaction
-between the parties to the transaction (barter excluded) is money, and
-anything which leaves something still to be done is credit, we shall
-have no difficulty in making the distinction.</p>
-
-<p>Can credit affect the general level of prices? One of the most
-familiar and common illustrations given by those who contend that
-credit will raise the general level of prices, is that of a man
-entering the market to buy cotton.</p>
-
-<p>They say: “Suppose a person with $5,000 in money enters the cotton
-market, and with his money purchases $5,000 worth of cotton. His
-demand for cotton and his purchase of $5,000 worth will tend to
-advance or stimulate the price of cotton.” “Now,” they say, “suppose
-he has a credit of $5,000 and with this credit he purchases an
-additional $5,000 worth of cotton. The second purchase, made on
-credit,” they contend, “will tend to still further advance the price
-of cotton in the same manner and to the same extent that the cash
-purchase did.” Is this true?</p>
-
-<p>Let us suppose that he purchased the second bunch of cotton on ninety
-days’ time. At the end of the ninety days he must pay for this cotton.
-If he draws the $5,000 with which he pays this debt from money
-invested in the cotton trade, the withdrawal of that sum from money
-invested in that industry will tend to depress the price of cotton to
-the extent that it was stimulated by the credit. If he withdraws it
-from the grain trade or from some other industry, the withdrawal of
-that sum of money will tend to depress prices in the industry from
-which it is withdrawn to the same extent as the cotton industry was
-stimulated by the credit. Whether the money to pay the debt is taken
-from the cotton industry or from some other industry, the general
-level of prices has not been raised. The purchase<span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" id="page45">45</a></span> in the first
-instance may have temporarily stimulated the price of cotton, but if
-the payment of the debt is made from money drawn from that industry,
-it will depress the price of cotton to where it was before the credit
-purchase was made; and if the payment is made from money drawn from
-some other industry, it will depress prices in that industry to the
-same extent that the price of cotton was stimulated. In either event
-the general level of prices remains the same. It is like robbing Peter
-to pay Paul. It may make Paul richer, but how about Peter? There is no
-more wealth in existence than before the robbery was committed.</p>
-
-<p>Again, it is claimed that credit stimulates prices by causing
-commodities which are sold on credit to be sold for higher prices than
-commodities of the same value are sold for when sold for cash. It is
-true that sales on credit are, as a rule, at a higher price than sales
-for cash in hand. Why is this so? For two reasons:</p>
-
-<p>1st. Business done on credit is always attended with considerable
-risk. Even when the utmost caution is exercised, bad debts will be
-made, and a greater margin on sales is necessary.</p>
-
-<p>2nd. When time is given a certain amount must be added to the price of
-the goods to compensate the seller for the use of his capital between
-the date of sale and the maturity of the account.</p>
-
-<p>The additional price, thus received, is of no advantage to the
-producer or to the seller of the commodity. The addition to the price
-is consumed by losses from bad debts and in interest on capital. In
-fact, the additional prices charged, when properly analyzed, are not
-for the goods, but for the risk on the credit and for interest on
-capital. The net selling price of the commodity is not increased.
-Experience has proven that men who sell for the lesser price for cash
-in hand are more apt to succeed than those who charge the higher rate
-on the credit system.</p>
-
-<p>Credit is always burdened with interest. If interest is not directly
-charged, the goods are sold at an advance on the cash price equal to
-the interest, which amounts to the same thing. Interest acts on
-commerce like friction on machinery. As friction absorbs a portion of
-the motive power, so interest absorbs a part of the value of all
-commodities sold on credit. Interest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46">46</a></span> the necessary accompaniment of
-credit, produces no wealth; but, on the contrary, absorbs wealth and
-tends to concentrate it in the hands of the few; and, necessarily, in
-the same ratio it takes from the masses the power to purchase the
-things they desire and would otherwise consume. Its ultimate result
-must be to lower prices. Credit burdened with interest, as it always
-is, may temporarily increase the demand for a certain commodity and
-consequently temporarily raise its price; but it must do this at the
-expense of other commodities. Like a stimulant administered to a human
-being, it may produce spasmodic results of extraordinary power; but
-when the stimulant has spent its force it leaves the individual weaker
-and in a worse condition than he was before the stimulant was
-administered.</p>
-
-<p>Henry Thornton, an English economist, attempts to prove that a bill of
-exchange is money, and that, being money, it acts on prices. He says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Let us imagine a farmer in the country to discharge a debt of £10
-to his neighboring grocer by giving him a bill for that sum,
-drawn on his corn-factor in London, for grain sold in the
-metropolis; and the grocer to transmit the bill, he having
-previously indorsed it, to a neighboring sugar-baker in discharge
-of a like debt; and the sugar-baker to send it, when again
-indorsed, to a West India merchant in an outport; and the West
-India merchant to deliver it to his country banker, who also
-indorses it and sends it into further circulation. The bill in
-this case will have effected five payments, exactly as if it were
-a £10 note payable to the bearer on demand. A multitude of bills
-pass this way between traders in the country, in the manner which
-has been described; <i>and they evidently form in the strictest
-sense a part of the circulating medium of the kingdom</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Mill in his “Political Economy” quotes this illustration with
-approval. Is the conclusion arrived at correct?</p>
-
-<p>Suppose that instead of a bill of exchange for £10, a horse worth £10
-had been made use of, and the farmer had delivered the horse to the
-grocer in satisfaction of his debt, and the grocer had turned it over
-to the sugar-baker, and the sugar-baker to the West India merchant,
-etc. The horse would have paid the five debts in precisely the same
-manner that the bill of exchange did, but would such a use of the
-horse <i>have made the horse, in the strictest sense of the term, a part
-of the circulating medium of the kingdom</i>? I think not! A bill of
-exchange is not money, but an order for money, and would be valueless
-unless honored by payment on presentation. From the time the bill was
-drawn<span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47">47</a></span> until finally paid an amount of money equal to the demand of
-the bill must be held out of circulation for its payment. It adds
-nothing to the circulation, and in no sense does it constitute a part
-of the circulating medium. It may, possibly, increase the rapidity of
-circulation, but it is difficult to see how it could do even this. The
-£10 held out of circulation for the payment of the bill would have
-paid the debts in the same manner that the bill of exchange did, and I
-fail to see why they would not have made the circuit as quickly. If a
-horse had been made use of in the settlement of the debts mentioned by
-Mr. Thornton, it would have been barter, pure and simple, and not a
-money transaction.</p>
-
-<p>That the contraction of the volume of credit will not tend to depress
-prices in the same manner and to the same extent that a contraction of
-the volume of money would will be apparent from the following
-illustration.</p>
-
-<p>The most conservative estimates place the national, municipal,
-corporate, and individual debts in the United States at
-$30,000,000,000. The Secretary of the Treasury estimates the amount of
-money in circulation at $1,600,000,000. There is not, in fact,
-one-third of the amount available for use; but for the purpose of this
-illustration we will take the Secretary’s estimate as correct. Now let
-us suppose that the volume of credit should be reduced to
-$28,400,000,000, either by the payment of $1,600,000,000 of the debt
-or by bankruptcy proceedings or in some other manner. If that amount
-of the credits were extinguished by payment, business would be
-stimulated. That sum of money, or at least a considerable portion of
-it, would pass into the hands of the creditor class, where it would
-seek investment, and the tendency would be, not to contract, but to
-expand prices. If that amount of the credits were extinguished by
-bankruptcy proceedings in which no money passed in either direction,
-such an extinguishment could not depress or expand prices; it could
-have no influence upon them.</p>
-
-<p>Now suppose that $1,600,000,000 of the money, every dollar now claimed
-to be in circulation in the United States, should be withdrawn from
-the channels of trade, it would not be difficult to see that prices
-would fall; would, in fact, be completely annihilated. There would be
-no money with which<span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id="page48">48</a></span> to make purchases or to pay debts, civilization
-would go backwards, and universal bankruptcy and ruin would ensue.
-Suppose that only one-half or one-third of the money available for use
-should be withdrawn from circulation; even then business would be
-paralyzed, the money remaining would be hoarded or would be collected
-in the great money centres, prices would fall, and business men all
-over the country would be forced into bankruptcy. I think that it must
-be perfectly apparent that a contraction of credit does not act on the
-general level of prices in the same manner and to the same extent that
-a contraction of the volume of money does; that, in fact, it does not
-act on the general level of prices at all.</p>
-
-<p>I, therefore, conclude that money, and money only, acts on the general
-level of prices, and that credit does not and cannot act on prices
-except only as it may increase the rapidity of the circulation of
-money; and even then it is the greater efficiency of the money, and
-not the credit, that stimulates prices. Credit may temporarily
-stimulate the price of the product of some particular industry, but to
-do this it must attract money from some other industry, and the
-stimulation will be at the expense of a corresponding depression in
-prices in the industry from which the money is attracted.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Los Angeles, Col.</span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49">49</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_5" id="article_5"></a>
-POINTS IN THE AMERICAN AND FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS COMPARED.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY NIELS GRÖN.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">There</span> are several reasons why, particularly in the light of what is
-going on in the two countries, a comparison between certain points of
-the constitutions of the French and United States republics should be
-of more than passing interest. Successive ministerial crises in France
-threaten the stability of the republic; here, while political
-conventions representing millions of people meet and produce radical
-platforms, nobody is apprehensive of revolution or trouble. The
-constitution is a bulwark against sudden change; its wisdom is
-believed to be guarded by impregnable security against caprice or
-panic.</p>
-
-<p>One in the Eastern hemisphere, the other in the New World, the two
-countries are the only great republics; both are watched by monarchies
-with invidious eyes, and, as before suggested, both have passed
-through, or are passing through, interesting not to say exciting
-experiences. American admirers of the republican form of government
-believe that the cause of human liberty would be seriously injured
-were the French Republic to cease to exist; they go further, and say
-that the death-knell of civil freedom would be sounded the moment the
-American republic became a failure. Something like a crisis is seen in
-the United States to-day, brought about by a whole series of
-concomitant causes, such as business depression, bank failures,
-industrial disputes terminating in strikes and lockouts, Coxey armies,
-panicky people, and unsettled views regarding commerce and finance,
-this last cause predominating.</p>
-
-<p>Though France has her difficulties about raising sufficient money to
-carry on the administration, and an income tax is just as unpopular
-there as it would be here, nevertheless the chief cause of her trouble
-is to be traced, not to financial, but to constitutional sources. The
-country is very rich, and its ministers probably will always find some
-means of raising enough<span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id="page50">50</a></span> money to pay the cost of administration.
-Quite true, it is a sore point for a proud country which yearns for
-revenge upon Germany and longs for large colonial possessions, that
-its population does not increase, while the populations of its enemy,
-Germany, and of its well-wisher, the United States, go up by leaps and
-bounds. True, there are economic writers who regard the dearth and
-even the decrease of population in France as an advantage to the
-country. But these need not be considered in this inquiry, for it is
-quite obvious that any country which really aspires to be numbered
-with the great powers, and effectually wishes to own important
-colonial possessions, must have a stalwart and increasing people. And
-it is a real source of weakness that there should yet be in France so
-many Royalists constantly on the alert and hoping always for a change
-in the existing form of government.</p>
-
-<p>Happily, on the contrary, no matter how widely the Western American
-may differ from his friend in the East, or how keenly the
-ex-Confederate may feel over the “lost cause,” the warm-blooded son of
-Kentucky will fight as bravely under the flag of the republic as will
-his frozen-featured brother from Minnesota, and the dreamy individual
-who gazes poetically upon the placid waters of Puget Sound will shout
-as loudly for one country, and one allegiance to its glorious emblem,
-as will the gilded youth whose republicanism is artistically refreshed
-by a constant vision of the Statue of Liberty triumphantly standing in
-New York harbor.</p>
-
-<p>Royalism, conservatism, concentrationism, moderate republicanism,
-opportunism, radicalism, ultra-radicalism, socialism, and heaven knows
-how many other “isms” besides, exist in France to-day, and make it
-hard for any ministry to carry on the government. Numerous
-disintegrating influences are ever present, and political convictions
-are seldom sufficiently decided for any ministry to form a stable
-majority.</p>
-
-<p>Though France has had the experience of two previous experiments in
-republican forms of government (the one set up in 1792, and the second
-established in 1848), they were such mere makeshifts and so very
-short-lived that they could not have taught the country very much of
-the real genius of republican institutions. The centralization and
-tyranny of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page51" id="page51">51</a></span> centuries brought revolt and hatred of the past, but did
-not prepare the people for self-government; while here the principles
-of civil liberty, transplanted from the mother country and flourishing
-in congenial conditions under colonial administration, found apt and
-natural expression in the Declaration of Independence and the
-Constitution. The event of republican institutions twice tried in
-France failed to show that even the leaders understood the principles
-of liberty as they were understood by the fathers of the American
-system of government, and enthusiastically adopted by the people, as
-the crystallization, so to speak, in definite terms, of what they had
-long enjoyed. Short-sighted acts of tyranny, exercised by George III
-and his ministers, were regarded, and justly so, as mere accidents of
-the time and as innovations to be resisted and overcome. The outcome
-was the vindication of the principles of government founded by the
-countrymen of King Alfred the Great, their expansion, and the
-invaluable expression of those principles in the Declaration and the
-Constitution.</p>
-
-<p>Some of the bravest and best under the French monarchy helped to
-establish the reign of popular liberty in the United States, and there
-can be no question but that the French Revolution was accomplished in
-part as a result of what had been seen and done on this side of the
-Atlantic on behalf of the civil rights of the people; but the founders
-of the first republic in France had no complete foundation on which to
-build a fabric firm and lasting. It was not easy for a venerable
-European nation, intrenched within its own regal institutions, in
-shaking off the past to begin a future of popular sovereignty. Much
-was gained by sweeping away the worst abuses of the past, but reaction
-came, succeeded, after a long lapse of time, by a second attempt to
-establish a republic, again to fail, until the collapse of the power
-of the adventurer whose election to the presidency was the beginning
-of the end of the republic of 1848, led to the third experiment, the
-permanent success of which we all hope for.</p>
-
-<p>If—much virtue in an “if”—the leaders of the first French Republic
-had been thoroughly masters of and thoroughly imbued with the
-principles of American liberty, it is possible they might have so
-instructed and led a bright and capable<span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" id="page52">52</a></span> people as to lay a sure
-foundation for the future. But even this modified statement is open to
-question. While it may be regretted that the American Constitution was
-not copied in the establishment of the successive French republics, it
-is by no means certain that this matchless paper would have been so
-far appreciated in its recognition of the great principles underlying
-it, as to insure success. Some of the South American republics have
-the American Constitution, more or less, but are not shining examples
-of republican success. No one can question that monarchies like the
-United Kingdom and Germany enjoy a larger diffusion of civil liberty
-than they.</p>
-
-<p>Taking the French system, however, as it exists to-day, there can be
-no question that it would be vastly improved by copying the American
-model. It seems to have been founded with a view to the possibility of
-restoring the monarchy, and, this being so, the men who created it had
-no object in studying the American Constitution with a view to
-preventing those ministerial crises which threaten the destruction of
-the third republic. It will not do to attribute these crises to the
-unstable character of the fiery Frenchman, nor can the difficulty be
-disposed of by saying that a French minister will create a crisis for
-the sake of a pleasing <i>bon mot</i> or a sprightly paradox. A crisis
-supposes something outside of, or above, or beyond the ordinary, but
-French ministerial crises have become so common that they are the
-laughingstock of the nations, and may be said to be almost the normal
-condition of the legislative assemblies of France. So long as such
-critical situations can be thus easily brought about there cannot be
-that continuity of policy which is essential for carrying out great
-projects. The problem to be solved is a constitutional one,—a
-statement, I think, easily proved true.</p>
-
-<p>Article Six of the constitution of 1875 reveals the real cause of
-ministerial crises in France: “The ministers are in a body responsible
-to the Chambers for the general policy of the government, and
-individually for their personal acts.” This article obviously leaves
-the respective powers of both houses very undefined. Which chamber is
-the superior? To which of them are the ministers in fact responsible?
-The ministers may have a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, and may
-be in a minority<span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" id="page53">53</a></span> in the Senate. Then there is a crisis. The Senate
-blocks the way and will not allow the government to go on, for it
-claims that it is the superior body. This absence of the proper
-demarcation of the powers of the Senate, of the Chamber of Deputies,
-and of the ministers necessarily leads to conflict; conflict is but a
-step from instability, and instability is a crisis which threatens
-revolution.</p>
-
-<p>The remedy for these oft-recurring ministerial crises in France is to
-be found in the American Constitution. The French Constitution should
-be revised and changed at the part quoted and all parts relating to
-it, so as to provide against ministerial crises; and the instrument
-presenting a sure guide in the performance of this necessary work is
-the American Constitution. It has been in operation over a hundred
-years and has been found to be an admirable working document,
-affording ministerial stability to its cabinets for over a century.
-Such a document is surely worthy of the closest study by the public
-men of the sister republic. It was inevitable that in so long a time
-some amendments should have become necessary; but for a long period it
-has undergone no change, save such as noted, and formulating the
-results of the civil war. Now and then are heard murmurings which
-claim the necessity of a sixteenth amendment, to the effect that the
-name of God should be put in the Constitution. The obvious answer to
-this is, that in the official life of the United States there is a
-more real acknowledgment of the Divine Being than there is in the
-official life of any other country, and it is better to have the name
-of God impressed upon the hearts of the people than upon even the best
-official document ever drawn up.</p>
-
-<p>It would not be correct to say that no attempts have been made to
-bring about a ministerial crisis in the United States by encroachment
-upon the rights of the Executive. Only once, however, when Andrew
-Johnson was President, has the action of the Executive been seriously
-hampered. Professor Bryce’s remark may be applied to all other
-attempts. He writes: “Congress has constantly tried to encroach, both
-on the Executive and on the States,—sometimes like a wild bull driven
-into a corral, dashing itself against the imprisoning walls of the
-Constitution.” There is the secret. The “imprisoning walls” of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id="page54">54</a></span> the
-American Constitution keep contending powers in their proper places.
-The Constitution is so well drawn up that a deadlock is an
-impossibility, the equilibrium of concomitant powers is easily
-maintained, and the sovereign will of the people has a fair
-opportunity of finding a natural exponent.</p>
-
-<p>In the United States the Senate and the House of Representatives are
-coördinate bodies; in the French Republic each claims superiority over
-the other. In the United States bills are never introduced by the
-Cabinet, all bills must originate either in the Senate or in the House
-of Representatives; such is not the case in the French Republic. In
-the United States the chief duty of the President is to see that the
-laws are faithfully executed; the Cabinet administers; its members are
-rather the aids or secretaries of the chief magistrate of the nation
-than otherwise. They are his advisers and helpers. During the four
-years for which the President of the United States is elected, the
-limitations of his authority are so remote and theoretical that, for
-practical purposes, it may be stated that he always serves out his
-full term of office. On the contrary, Presidential resignations are
-not unknown in the French Republic. France elects her President for
-seven years, yet Thiers, MacMahon, Grévy, Carnot, Casimir-Périer, and
-Faure make a list longer than that of the names of the men who have
-lived in the White House during the past quarter of a century. In the
-United States, the Cabinet lasts as long as the President’s term of
-office; in the French Republic, the Cabinet sometimes goes to pieces
-in four months. Briefly, it is quite clear that in the United States
-there can be no ministerial crises, since the President’s chief duty
-under the Constitution is to see that the laws are faithfully
-executed, and the members of his Cabinet do not introduce bills, even
-for finance or supplies, but act as his aids. As previously intimated,
-the difficulty with the French legislative bodies is that royalistic
-precedents and rules run side by side with republican principles, and
-the result is a mongrel institution divided, too often, against
-itself. When matters shall be so arranged that the French President
-will have to fill out his full term of office, and French ministers
-will not be permitted to originate legislation, and cabinets shall be
-selected to serve as long as the Presidential term, then the French
-Republic will<span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" id="page55">55</a></span> enjoy the same ministerial stability as that of the
-United States.</p>
-
-<p>It were hard to say that the French method of electing a president is
-any better or any worse than that of the United States. The President
-of the French Republic is elected by the majority of the votes of both
-Chambers. This plan does not seem to remove him further from the
-people than does the system of electing a president by electors, as in
-the United States. As human ingenuity has not yet succeeded in
-creating the ideal republic, wherein, according to Ouida, there would
-be no president, some system of election must be followed. The
-question is not a burning one. There is notable, however, a growing
-tendency in France in favor of electing the president directly by the
-votes of the people. The seven-years’ period for which the French
-president is elected is considered by many to be an excellent
-provision; but it loses half its excellence by reason of the fact that
-the president has the power to initiate laws, this and other things
-concurring to make his resignation a possibility, and not a remote
-one.</p>
-
-<p>That the office of vice-president does not exist in France seems to be
-of no great consequence. In the history of the American Republic there
-have been five vice-presidents who have been called upon to step into
-the Presidential chair by the deaths of presidents. According to the
-French Constitution, in case of a Presidential vacancy, whether from
-death or any other cause, the two Chambers proceed immediately to the
-election of a president. In the interval the ministers are invested
-with executive power.</p>
-
-<p>What I have written regarding the growing tendency to think it would
-be better to elect the president directly by the votes of the people,
-applies with a little more force to the election of senators. In
-France the municipalities elect the senators, as do State legislatures
-in this country. It is held by some who have discussed the question
-that it is much more in conformity with the genius of republican
-institutions that the people express their will directly by ballot
-rather than through the votes of municipal councils, as in France, or
-of legislatures, as in the United States. I cannot see that the
-difference of terms, that of French senators being nine years, and of
-American<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" id="page56">56</a></span> six, is of practical consequence. While both republics are
-at one as to the necessity of a second chamber, providing thus a check
-to hasty and unconsidered legislation, many thinkers in both countries
-agree that some change is necessary to make it possible for others
-than millionaires to be elected senators.</p>
-
-<p>If I were a Frenchman and had the power, I should get every newspaper
-throughout the land, and every public man and influential citizen, to
-enter upon a crusade for the purpose of impressing upon the minds of
-the whole people the following extract from the Constitution of the
-United States:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of
-religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.</p></div>
-
-<p>In France, there are constantly continuous and unseemly clashes
-between church and state. No matter what complications may exist as
-results of the past, surely it would be better for all concerned to
-leave the churches to be sustained by the voluntary contributions of
-the people. In the United States churches seem to live and thrive
-under this system of noninterference by the state in religious
-matters, and voluntary support. The more than eighty thousand
-clergymen are provided for. In the French Republic one reads
-everywhere, on the walls of churches and of schools, the words
-“<i>Liberté, fraternité, égalité</i>,” while there seems to be a serious
-disagreement between Clericals, on the one side, and Radicals, on the
-other, as to the meaning of these words. To effectually put an end to
-this strife, the adoption of the clause I have quoted would be
-sufficient.</p>
-
-<p>In writing thus freely of the French Republic I am free, I trust, from
-the spirit of the carping critic delighting in comparisons to the
-advantage of his own country. I appreciate the splendid literature,
-the brilliant art, the advanced civilization of the France of to-day.
-I recognize with gratitude the debt which the United States owes the
-gallant Gallic people for sympathy and material aid in her struggle
-for independence. It is now only necessary to be in France on the
-Fourth of July to realize the reality and depth of the friendship
-which exists between the sister republics. But I do think that until
-France shall copy more closely the Constitution of the United States,
-the stability of the third republic cannot be regarded as assured.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" id="page57">57</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_6" id="article_6"></a>
-HONEST MONEY; OR, A TRUE STANDARD OF VALUE:<br /><small>A SYMPOSIUM.</small></h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><b>I.</b> BY WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p><span class="sc">We</span> hear much about a “stable currency” and an “honest dollar.” It is a
-significant fact that those who advocate a single gold standard have
-for the most part avoided a discussion of the effect of an
-appreciating standard. They take it for granted that a gold standard
-is not only an honest standard, but the only stable standard. I
-denounce that child of ignorance and avarice, the gold dollar under a
-universal gold standard, as the most dishonest dollar which we could
-employ.</p>
-
-<p>I stand upon the authority of every intelligent writer upon political
-economy when I assert that there is not and never has been an honest
-dollar. An honest dollar is a dollar absolutely stable in relation to
-all other things. Laughlin, in his work on “Bimetallism,” says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Monometallists do not—as it is often said—believe that gold
-remains absolutely stable in value. They hold that there is no
-such thing as a “standard of value” for future payments in either
-gold or silver which remains absolutely invariable.</p></div>
-
-<p>He even suggests a multiple standard for long-time contracts. I quote
-his words:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>As regards national debts, it is distinctly averred that neither
-gold nor silver forms a just measure of deferred payments, and
-that if justice in long contracts is sought for, we should not
-seek it by the doubtful and untried expedient of international
-bimetallism, but by the clear and certain method of a multiple
-standard, a unit based upon the selling prices of a number of
-articles of general consumption. A long time contract would
-thereby be paid at its maturity by the same purchasing power as
-was given in the beginning.</p></div>
-
-<p>Jevons, one of the most generally accepted of the writers in favor of
-a gold standard, admits the instability of a single standard, and in
-language very similar to that above quoted suggests the multiple
-standard as the most equitable, if practicable.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" id="page58">58</a></span> Chevalier, who wrote
-a book in 1858 to show the injustice of allowing a debtor to pay his
-debts in a cheap gold dollar, recognized the same fact, and said:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>If the value of the metal declined, the creditor would suffer a
-loss upon the quantity he had received; if, on the contrary, it
-rose, the debtor would have to pay more than he calculated upon.</p></div>
-
-<p>I am on sound and scientific ground, therefore, when I say that a
-dollar approaches honesty as its purchasing power approaches
-stability. If I borrow a thousand dollars to-day and next year pay the
-debt with a thousand dollars which will secure exactly as much of all
-things desirable as the one thousand which I borrowed, I have paid in
-honest dollars. If the money has increased or decreased in purchasing
-power, I have satisfied my debt with dishonest dollars. While the
-government can say that a given weight of gold or silver shall
-constitute a dollar, and invest that dollar with legal-tender
-qualities, it cannot fix the purchasing power of the dollar. That must
-depend upon the law of supply and demand, and it may be well to
-suggest that this government never tried to fix the exchangeable value
-of a dollar until it began to limit the number of dollars coined.</p>
-
-<a name="HOWARD" id="HOWARD"></a>
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><b>II.</b> BY M. W. HOWARD.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p>The term, “a standard of value,” so often used, is erroneous and
-misleading. There can be no fixed standard of value, and the student
-who wishes to delve into our financial problems should clear his mind
-of such a fallacy at the very threshold of his investigations.</p>
-
-<p>Money is a commodity; it is regulated by the same laws of supply and
-demand which regulate the price of corn, cotton, wheat, land, labor,
-etc. If the wheat crop is short, wheat will be dear; if abundant, it
-will be cheap. So with money. If the money supply is not sufficient to
-meet the demands of business and commerce,—if the money crop is
-short, in other words,—the money will be dear; it will command too
-high a price, its purchasing power will be too great.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand, if the money supply is abundant, sufficient to meet
-all demands upon it,—in other words, if there is a bountiful money
-crop,—it will be cheaper; it will not have<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" id="page59">59</a></span> such a large purchasing
-power; it will be worth less when measured by our labor, our lands,
-and the products of our labor.</p>
-
-<p>I oppose the single gold standard because it makes the money crop
-short, gives us a small circulating medium, and hence enhances the
-value or price of money.</p>
-
-<p>We have a certain demand for breadstuff, which is constantly
-increasing as our population multiplies; suppose that we cease
-producing corn, and find no substitute for it, would not the price of
-wheat be greatly enhanced, providing there is no increased wheat
-production? So with the money supply. There is a certain demand for
-money, ever increasing as population grows. How shall we meet it? By
-producing more money, or by destroying one-half of that which we now
-have, by eliminating one-half of the base of future supplies of money?</p>
-
-<p>The latter is now the policy of this government, and as a consequence
-the price of gold has been greatly enhanced, and its purchasing power
-has increased each year, and will continue to do so.</p>
-
-<p>The advocates of the gold standard call this “honest money.” Their
-idea of honest money is money that ever increases in purchasing power
-because of its ever-increasing scarcity.</p>
-
-<p>My definition of honest money is: “A sufficiently large circulating
-medium, whether of gold, silver, or paper, to bring down the price of
-money so that we shall obtain fair prices for all labor and products.”
-Then as population increases and as the demand for money becomes
-greater, let the government meet that demand from time to time by
-enhancing the money supply.</p>
-
-<a name="BARKER" id="BARKER"></a>
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><b>III.</b> BY WHARTON BARKER.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p>The true test of an honest dollar is its purchasing power, and that
-dollar, and only that dollar, is honest that does exact justice
-between creditor and debtor. The gold monometallists harp on the
-injustice of a depreciating dollar, but they ignore the injuries
-inflicted by an appreciating dollar. They tell us that a depreciating
-dollar defrauds the creditor, but just as a depreciating dollar
-defrauds the creditor, an appreciating dollar defrauds the debtor, and
-it is not one whit worse to defraud the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id="page60">60</a></span> creditor by obliging him to
-accept a depreciated dollar from his debtor than to defraud the debtor
-by obliging him to pay in a dollar made artificially scarce and dear.</p>
-
-<p>An appreciating dollar works injustice to the debtor just as a
-depreciating dollar works injustice to the creditor, but an
-appreciating dollar is many fold more injurious to trade and industry,
-for while the depreciating dollar taxes the creditor for the benefit
-of the debtor, the appreciating dollar takes from the debtor, from
-producers in general and the industrious classes, and gives to the
-creditor classes, the drones of society, a larger and larger share of
-the products of labor, which of necessity discourages industry. Under
-a depreciating standard the recompense of the producer becomes greater
-and greater, the creditor classes receive a smaller and smaller
-portion of the products of labor, the profits of industry increase,
-and consequently production is encouraged and trade and industry are
-stimulated. But under an appreciating standard the recompense of labor
-becomes smaller and smaller, and the share of the products of labor
-absorbed by the creditor larger, which tends to discourage industry
-and stifle enterprise.</p>
-
-<a name="FONDA" id="FONDA"></a>
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><b>IV.</b> BY ARTHUR I. FONDA.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p>The value of any commodity is measured by what it will exchange for.
-It is in fact its purchasing power, or power in exchange. This in
-substance is the concrete definition of value given by all economists,
-and they all unite in stating that value is determined by the supply
-of a commodity relative to the demand for it; all other factors
-affecting value being secondary and acting through their effect on
-either supply or demand.</p>
-
-<p>Since both the supply of and the demand for every freely produced
-commodity is variable, and since a true standard of value, like a true
-standard of weight or length, must be invariable as regards that which
-it measures, it necessarily follows that no single freely produced
-commodity can be a true standard of value. But while it is true that
-every single commodity must vary in value, it is also true that all
-commodities taken together cannot do so. This principle is also
-accepted as correct by all economists.</p>
-
-<p>It is evident then that a true standard of value can only<span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" id="page61">61</a></span> be found in
-a composite unit containing a definite quantity of every commodity, or
-practically speaking, a definite quantity of each of a large number of
-the most important commodities. This is what is known as the “multiple
-standard,” or the “commodity standard,” and has long been in use by
-economists in the form of tables of index numbers to show fluctuations
-in general prices, or what is the same thing, changes in money values.</p>
-
-<p>The only function of money is to facilitate the exchange of goods. In
-doing this it acts directly as a circulating medium, and the demand
-for it for this purpose, relative to the supply, determines its value;
-for money, whether of coin or paper or both combined in one
-circulation to meet one need, is subject to the same law of supply and
-demand which governs all commodities, and which indeed is as universal
-in the economic world as the law of gravitation is in the physical
-world.</p>
-
-<p>Incidentally the value of money fills the important function of
-serving as a measure of the values of goods transferred without the
-direct use of money, both immediate and deferred. This, however, has
-no effect on the demand for money or on its value.</p>
-
-<p>The people are accustomed to regard money as of constant value, and an
-honest money must necessarily conform to this belief. If money varies
-in value, the people are deluded, and many are wronged if they are
-unaware of the fluctuation. If they become aware of it,—as they
-generally do by a bitter experience,—they are confronted with an
-uncertainty that is most detrimental to any business or enterprise.
-Imagine what our business would be with our measures of weight,
-length, and capacity all variable! Yet such a condition would be less
-disastrous than a fluctuating money value when it became fully known
-that it was so.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>demand</i> for money varies from many causes, chief among which are
-changes in the quantity of goods exchanged, the extent to which other
-credit instruments take the place of money in such exchanges, and the
-activity of money, or the extent to which it is hoarded, all of which
-are entirely beyond control. The <i>supply</i> of money, however, can be
-controlled, and to maintain money at a constant value the supply must
-be constantly adjusted to the ever-varying demand, so that its
-general<span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" id="page62">62</a></span> purchasing power may remain the same. The test of a constant
-money must be a constant general level of prices; and this must be
-judged by the prices in the open market of those principal commodities
-which would be selected to constitute the standard of value, the
-quantity of each being proportioned to its importance in trade.</p>
-
-<p>The only function of gold and silver in a monetary system is to <i>limit
-the volume of the money</i>, either by their scarcity when freely coined,
-or by the laws limiting their coinage. And as this limitation of the
-supply bears no definite relation to the demand for money, the value
-of the money necessarily fluctuates. Our industrial system is
-constantly growing more sensitive to even slight changes in money
-value, owing to the greater diversification of industries and the
-greater division of labor, and the need for preventing such changes is
-constantly growing more imperative.</p>
-
-<p>When the people arrive at a clearer perception of these facts and
-principles they will understand that the chance production of gold and
-silver is too clumsy a contrivance to properly control so delicate a
-matter as the value of money under modern industrial conditions, and I
-believe they will substitute for the present system a circulating
-medium of paper money, properly guaranteed, and susceptible of prompt
-and certain increase or decrease of volume to meet every possible
-variation in demand, and rigidly controlled to conform in value to a
-true standard of value, a standard composed not alone of gold or
-silver or both combined, but of all the leading commodities.</p>
-
-<p>In short, they will separate the standard of value from the medium of
-exchange, demonetizing both gold and silver as to the latter function,
-but using both and many other things in conjunction therewith for the
-former function.</p>
-
-<a name="WARNER" id="WARNER"></a>
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><b>V.</b> BY A. J. WARNER.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p>From whatever side the question is approached, in the last analysis
-the value of money of any kind is found to depend upon its quantity,
-and not upon color, or ductility, or malleability, or any other
-particular quality of the thing upon which the money function is
-impressed. There can be therefore, in fact,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" id="page63">63</a></span> no other standard of
-value, or money standard, except the quantity of whatever is used as
-money. When gold and silver are used, the value of each unit of money
-depends upon the number of such units, and these in turn depend upon
-the quantity of the metal from which the money is made. Any cause,
-therefore, which restricts, limits, or contracts the quantity of any
-kind of money, increases the value of each unit. On the contrary,
-causes that operate to increase the supply of money have the opposite
-effect.</p>
-
-<p>Hence, only that currency can properly be called “sound” currency
-which is made to maintain stable relations to things to be bought and
-sold. In other words, general prices are determined by the proportion
-between money on the one side, and things offered against money on the
-other side. Such money only is “honest” money.</p>
-
-<p>The whole question, therefore, of money standard is a question of
-money supply; for, as the price of single things, money being
-constant, depends upon supply on the one hand, as against demand for
-it on the other, so, in general, prices depend on money supply on the
-one hand, and things to be bought and sold on the other. This I
-believe to be the fundamental law of money.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page64" id="page64">64</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_7" id="article_7"></a>
-THE NEW CIVIL CODE OF JAPAN.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY TOKICHI MASAO, M. L., D. C. L.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p><span class="sc">Ever</span> since the establishment of the present imperial government in
-1868, the one unceasing aim of Japan’s foreign policy has been the
-abolition of the extra-territoriality régime, under which certain
-quasi-judicial functions are exercised on the Japanese soil by the
-ambassadors and consuls of the Occidental nations. This anxiety on
-Japan’s part to rid herself of this shameful régime imposed upon her
-against her will, will not appear surprising when the fact is learnt
-that one Occidental nation went so far as to call her consul at
-Yokohama, “Her Britannic Majesty’s the Most Honourable Court for
-Japan”—a name almost enough to imply that Japan was a British
-province. Extra-territoriality rests upon the assumption that the laws
-and procedure of the non-Christian nations are so unlike to and
-different from those of the Christian nations that without the
-protection of this system the safety and well-being of the subjects of
-the latter sojourning in the territory of the former would be placed
-in constant jeopardy. Accordingly in the early seventies Japan came to
-the conclusion that the only possible way of emancipating herself from
-the disgraceful yoke of extra-territoriality was to adopt one of the
-systems of law obtaining in the Christian world and compile a code of
-law based upon that system, and applicable alike to the Japanese and
-to the foreigners residing in Japan.</p>
-
-<p>There were three such systems—the Anglo-American, the French, and the
-Germanic Roman—each offering itself for adoption. Mr. Yeto
-Shimpei,<a name="fn_marker_2" id="fn_marker_2"></a><a href="#fn_2" class="fn_marker">[2]</a> who became the Minister of Justice in 1872, seems to have
-had a personal preference for<span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id="page65">65</a></span> the French system. He called to his
-assistance some of the most eminent jurists of France and entered upon
-the work of drafting a code. At the same time he established in Tokio
-a law school known as the “Department of Justice Annex Law School,” in
-which French law was taught by those same jurists whom he had called
-from France. About this time there was also established in the
-University of Tokio a law school in which instruction was given
-chiefly in English law. It was while teaching in this university law
-school that Mr. Henry T. Terry (a New York lawyer and an alumnus of
-Yale College) wrote his memorable book on English law, designed
-especially for the use of Japanese law students. From henceforth
-“Terry’s Leading Principles of Anglo-American Law” became as familiar
-to them as are “Blackstone’s Commentaries” to the law students of this
-country.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, side by side there existed in Tokio two law schools in which two
-distinct systems of law were taught—the English and the French. The
-primary object of the Department of Justice in establishing the French
-law school being to make it a training school of judicial officers,
-the students of that school were, upon graduation, to render, for a
-limited number of years, an obligatory service to the government in
-the various capacities of judges, magistrates, and prosecuting
-attorneys. On the other hand, the University of Tokio being a strictly
-independent institution in which learning is pursued for the sake of
-learning, the graduates of the university or English law school were
-at entire liberty in their choice of professions. Naturally enough the
-majority of these did not wish to enter the same service which the
-graduates of the other school were obliged to enter as a matter of
-fulfilment of contract. Thus it happened that the bench was recruited
-from the French law school, while the bar was recruited from the
-English law school. This state of affairs lasted for about twenty
-years, during which time there was also established a German law
-school in the University of Tokio. Those who know something about the
-rivalry that existed in ancient times between the Sabinians and the
-Proculians, or even about the rivalry which exists to-day between the
-Yale method and the Harvard method, between the Waylandians and the
-Langdellians,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" id="page66">66</a></span> can readily imagine what intellectual competition was
-carried on between these three Japanese law schools representing three
-distinct systems of law.</p>
-
-<p>After twenty years of assiduous labor the Code Commission submitted a
-draft of a Civil Code to the two Houses of Parliament in 1890,
-accompanied by the recommendation from the Bureau of Legislation that
-the draft might receive the parliamentary sanction in such a manner
-that it might be possible for it to be put in effect by the year 1893.
-As might have been expected from the personnel of the Commission,
-consisting, in its conception, of Mr. Yeto Shimpei and the eminent
-French jurist Prof. Boissonade, etc., the draft was a genuine French
-code, being almost a literal translation of the Code Napoleon in all
-its parts excepting the part dealing with the Law of Persons. The
-question may well be asked why it took the Commission twenty long
-years to produce this imitation draft code when we know that the draft
-of the Code Napoleon itself was completed within the short period of
-four months. The answer seems to be that the Commission spent almost
-this entire time in their efforts to reconcile the principles of the
-French Law of Persons with the Japanese laws and customs bearing on
-that subject.</p>
-
-<p>As has been the case with many other draft codes this draft Civil Code
-of Japan was destined to go into oblivion. As soon as it was submitted
-to the Parliament there ensued a most desperate fight against its
-adoption. As figuring most prominently among the champions of the
-opposition I may mention the names of Mr. Kazuo Hatoyama, the present
-Speaker of the House of Commons of the Imperial Japanese Parliament,
-and His Excellency Mr. Toru Hoshi, the present Japanese minister at
-Washington.<a name="fn_marker_3" id="fn_marker_3"></a><a href="#fn_3" class="fn_marker">[3]</a> Inspired by these and other eminent jurists of the
-English school the entire bar was set against the adoption of the
-draft code. This was not a case of a bar accustomed to one set of
-rules and formulas opposing the adoption<span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67">67</a></span> of a new code for fear that
-they might be compelled to learn a new set of rules and formulas. On
-the contrary, the bar was composed of men who had studied law as a
-science, and science for the sake of science. The spirit of their
-opposition was very plainly shown by the objections they raised
-against the code. They said:—“The draft Code was a blind imitation of
-a foreign Code which itself was far from being free from defects. It
-abounded in definitions, illustrations, and examples, and presented an
-appearance more becoming to a text-book of law than the Civil Code of
-a great nation. It went into too minute details and left too little
-room for voluntary development of jurisprudence. It incorporated, like
-the French Code, the law of evidence into the body of the Civil Code,
-which was totally at variance with the modern theory of evidence,
-being a failure on the part of the Commissioners to distinguish
-adjective from substantive law. It made too many innovations upon the
-Law of Persons hitherto obtaining in Japan. It changed the Family Law
-of the Japanese from the foundation, which was a gross disregard of
-the historical principle of jurisprudence,” etc., etc., etc. Such were
-some of the grounds upon which they opposed the adoption of the draft
-code, reminding one of the fight in Europe between the historical
-school and the analytical school, between the jurists of France and
-those of Germany; of the fight in Germany between the Code party and
-the anti-Code party, between Savigny and Thibaut. Who can say, then,
-that the Japanese are childish imitators of anything that looks well?
-The fact is that this sort of conflict between the more conservative
-and the more radical, the more scrupulous and the more unscrupulous,
-the more positive and the more speculative, is going on all the time.</p>
-
-<p>At last in 1892 the Parliament passed an act deferring the taking
-effect of the code till 1897 and ordering in the meantime a careful
-revisal of the draft. A new Commission was appointed which consisted
-of three most eminent professors of law in Japan, each representing
-one of the three systems of law recognized there.<a name="fn_marker_4" id="fn_marker_4"></a><a href="#fn_4" class="fn_marker">[4]</a> These
-Commissioners, aided by a number of efficient assistants, looked into
-the codes and laws of some fifteen<span class="pagenum"><a name="page68" id="page68">68</a></span> leading American and European
-states. As representing the French system they consulted the codes of
-Louisiana, Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. As
-representing the German system they consulted the codes and laws of
-Austria, Montenegro, Prussia, Saxony, Switzerland, and the draft Civil
-Code of the German Empire. As representing the English system they
-consulted the leading American and English reports and treatises, the
-draft Civil Code of New York, and the codes of California and British
-India.<a name="fn_marker_5" id="fn_marker_5"></a><a href="#fn_5" class="fn_marker">[5]</a></p>
-
-<p>After four years of the most constant application the Commission
-submitted in 1896 a revisal of a part of the original draft. Had the
-Commission had the entire code revised they could not have shown
-greater wisdom. For the parts incomplete were those dealing with the
-Family Law and Successions, and the Commission remembered that these
-were the parts that occasioned the most vital objections to the old
-code. The Parliament referred the revised draft code to a Committee of
-their own, of which Mr. Hatoyama, the present Speaker, was made the
-chairman. After making a careful examination and some important
-modifications, Mr. Hatoyama reported favorably to its adoption. The
-Parliament acted according to his advice, and the draft became the
-law.</p>
-
-<p>In its general arrangement the new code follows what the German
-jurists call the Pandekten system. It is divided into five general
-parts. Part I is called “Sōsoku,” or General Laws, and deals with
-persons, natural and artificial, as the subjects of rights; with
-things as the objects of rights; and with juristic acts as setting
-rights in motion. One cannot help being astonished at and gratified
-with the remarkable extent to which Prof. Holland’s views as expressed
-in his book on jurisprudence seem to be adopted in this part of the
-code.<a name="fn_marker_6" id="fn_marker_6"></a><a href="#fn_6" class="fn_marker">[6]</a> Part II is called<span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" id="page69">69</a></span> “Bukken,” or <i>Jus in Rem</i>, corresponding
-to the Sachenrecht of the German code, and dealing with Possession,
-Ownership, etc., etc. Part III is called “Jinken,” or <i>Jus in
-Personam</i>, corresponding to the Forderungsrecht of the German code,
-and dealing with General Law of Obligations, with Obligations arising
-<i>ex contractu</i>, <i>quasi ex contractu</i>, and <i>ex delicto</i>. The General
-Law of Obligations is taken largely from the Forderungsrecht of the
-Swiss code. The law of Contracts and Torts is taken entirely from the
-English law. Parts IV and V, dealing with the Family Law and the Law
-of Successions respectively, have not as yet been published, for
-reasons already indicated.</p>
-
-<p>Such is the new Civil Code of Japan, adopted by the Imperial
-Parliament in its session of 1896. Truly, the year 1896 has been an
-eventful year for Japan. The war with China had brought glory to her
-arms. Formosa and numerous other islands had been added to her
-possessions. The insurgents of Formosa had been pacified. The treaties
-with the leading nations of the world had been revised, providing for
-the abolishment of the disgraceful extra-territoriality régime in
-Japan, to take effect, however, upon the taking effect of the new
-Civil Code. The last and greatest event of all, the new Code was
-adopted. With equal propriety, then, the Emperor Mutsuhito might have
-joined Justinian, in proclaiming:—“Imperatoriam Majestatem non solum
-armis decoratam, sed etiam legibus opportet esse armatam, ut utrumque
-tempus et bellorum et pacis recte possit gubernari!”</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" id="page70">70</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_8" id="article_8"></a>
-JOHN RUSKIN:<br /><small><span class="smcap">A Type of Twentieth-Century Manhood</span>.</small></h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY B. O. FLOWER.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">The</span> name John Ruskin is justly entitled to a foremost place among
-those of the builders of twentieth-century civilization. In him we
-find a rare combination of genius, culture, and refinement, blended
-with a tender concern for all earth’s unfortunates. He is at once
-artist, philosopher, and philanthropist; but he is more than these;
-there is much of the austere religious reformer, giving a serious
-gravity to all the utterances of the glad-souled artist, a mingling of
-the spirit of a Savonarola with the imagination of a Turner.</p>
-
-<p>John Ruskin, more than any other man of our time in like station of
-life, stands for the civilization which we believe is destined to
-glorify the coming century, for in his life all thought of ease, fame,
-and preferment,—all consideration of self,—is overmastered by his
-love for others. Endowed by nature with the imagination of a poet, the
-eyes of an artist, the brain of a philosopher, the soul of a prophet,
-and the heart of a man, he has conscientiously employed all his gifts
-as a sacred trust given to him that he might bless and enlighten his
-day, and ennoble his civilization for all time.</p>
-
-<p>He was born amid affluence, and received the best educational
-advantages the age afforded. After graduating from Oxford in 1842, he
-studied painting under Copley Fielding and J. D. Harding. Subsequently
-he spent some time in Italy, finishing his art education in the land
-of earth’s greatest painters.</p>
-
-<p>While in college he composed many poems, but on leaving the university
-he turned his attention to art and prose composition. His “Modern
-Painters” was justly hailed as one of the noblest works of the
-century, and instantly placed its author in the ranks of the foremost
-art critics of the world.</p>
-
-<p>Few if any of his admirers will agree with all his critical views. He
-not infrequently falls into those errors which we naturally expect to
-find in a man of intense feeling, of strong<span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id="page71">71</a></span> conviction, and of vivid
-imagination. If a positive idea takes possession of his mind, it is
-liable to give a strong bias to his thought, and in a degree
-interferes with that nice sense of proportion so essential to a great
-critic. On more than one occasion Mr. Ruskin has frankly admitted that
-his views and opinions were erroneous owing to being based on a
-partial appearance or influenced by pernicious ideas. A notable
-illustration of his thought being biassed by preconceived ideas is
-found in the religious opinions put forward in the early edition of
-parts I and II of “Modern Painters.” And in a preface written in 1871
-for a revised edition of his works, the philosopher calls attention to
-his early views, declaring that he was “wholly mistaken” and
-continuing: “I had been educated in the narrow doctrine of a narrow
-sect, and had read history obliquely, as a sectarian necessarily
-must.”</p>
-
-<p>Such are the blemishes which occasionally creep into the works of this
-master mind. They are, however, merely spots on the sun, which do not
-appear frequently enough to seriously dim the splendor of a critical
-work which in my judgment surpasses in real value that of any English
-scholar of the century. “Modern Painters,” “The Stones of Venice,”
-“The Seven Lamps,” and his other works dealing with art are far more
-than criticisms; they touch the sleeping soul, they fire the spirit
-and awaken the conscience. They make the reader feel a new love for
-nature and art alike, and with this pure and inspiring love comes the
-desire for more knowledge. They appeal to the spiritual aspirations
-even more than to the artistic impulses or the intellectual
-apprehension. The moral exaltation which pervades his writings springs
-from his profoundly philosophical and religious nature. In all his
-work, as in his noble life, he has ever been moved by an intense
-desire to uplift and dignify humanity and to impress upon the public
-mind the subtle but positive effect for good exerted by true art. “I
-have had,” he tells us in “The Two Paths,” “but one steady aim in all
-I have ever tried to teach, namely, to declare that whatever was great
-in human art was the expression of man’s delight in God’s work.”</p>
-
-<p>With Ruskin, life is august; its possibilities for good and evil are
-never forgotten.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id="page72">72</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>“Remember,” he urges, “that every day of your life is ordaining
-irrevocably for good or evil the custom and practice of your
-soul; ordaining either sacred customs of dear and lovely
-recurrence, or trenching deeper and deeper the furrows for seed
-of sorrow. Now, therefore, see that no day passes in which you do
-not make yourself a somewhat better creature…. You will find
-that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to
-help other people, will in the quickest and delicatest ways
-improve yourself.”</p></div>
-
-<p>The pleasure which springs from loyalty to duty is strenuously
-insisted upon by Ruskin, and he, more than any other illustrious man
-in our time, has reached such heights of unselfishness as to enable
-him to fully appreciate the unalloyed pleasure which flows from a life
-of sacrifice. If he is austere, he is also very humane. The fountains
-of pleasure that he would have us drink deeply from would leave no
-bitter aftertaste. He delights in no pseudo-pleasure; faithfulness to
-the highest ideal, untiring effort at complete self-mastery, a settled
-determination to work for the good of all and to be ever on guard lest
-by some inadvertence we injure some other living creature,—such are
-some of the lessons upon which our philosopher insists as essential to
-man’s happiness.</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>“If,” he urges, in writing for the young, “there is any one point
-which, in six thousand years of thinking about right and wrong,
-wise and good men have agreed upon, or successively by experience
-discovered, it is that God dislikes idle and cruel people more
-than any others; that His first order is, ‘Work while you have
-light;’ and his second, ‘Be merciful while you have mercy.’ ‘Work
-while you have light,’ especially while you have the light of
-morning. There are few things more wonderful to me than that old
-people never tell young ones how precious their youth is….
-Remember, then, that I, at least, have warned <i>you</i>, that the
-happiness of your life, and its power, and its part and rank in
-earth or in heaven, depend on the way you pass your days now.
-They are not to be sad days; far from that, the first duty of
-young people is to be delighted and delightful; but they are to
-be in the deepest sense solemn days. There is no solemnity so
-deep, to a rightly thinking creature, as that of dawn…. You
-must be to the best of your strength usefully employed during the
-greater part of the day, so that you may be able at the end of it
-to say, as proudly as any peasant, that you have not eaten the
-bread of idleness. Then, secondly, I said, you are not to be
-cruel. Perhaps you think there is no chance of your being so; and
-indeed I hope it is not likely that you should be deliberately
-unkind to any creature; but <i>unless you are deliberately kind to
-every creature, you will often be cruel to many</i>.”</p></div>
-
-<p>Ruskin is often disquieting to conventionalists; he is too candid to
-be popular with those who make long prayers and descant on charity
-while they ignore justice. He puts questions to them which they do not
-want to consider themselves,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" id="page73">73</a></span> or to have others consider. By insisting
-on the substitution of justice for charity, and by taking the
-teachings of Jesus seriously, he offends the sleek money-changers who
-occupy choice pews in the modern palaces of ease dedicated to the
-lowly Nazarene. Such expressions as the following from the magnificent
-lecture on “Work” prove far less satisfying to this class than the
-popular sermons they are accustomed to hear:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>“It is the law of heaven,” says Ruskin, “that you shall not be
-able to judge what is wise or easy, unless you are first resolved
-to judge what is just, and to do it. That is the one thing
-constantly reiterated by our master—the order of all others that
-is given oftenest: ‘Do justice and judgment.’ That’s your Bible
-order; that’s the ‘service of God.’ The one divine work—the one
-ordered sacrifice—is to do justice; and it is the last we are
-ever inclined to do. Anything rather than that! As much charity
-as you choose, but no justice. ‘Nay,’ you will say, ‘charity is
-greater than justice.’ Yes, it is greater; <i>it is the summit of
-justice</i>; it is the temple of which justice is the foundation.
-<i>But you can’t have the top without the bottom</i>; you cannot build
-upon charity. You must build upon justice, for this main reason,
-that you have not, at first, charity to build with. It is the
-last reward of good work. It is all very fine to think you can
-build upon charity to begin with; but you will find all you have
-got to begin with begins at home, and is essentially love of
-yourself.</p>
-
-<p>“You well-to-do people, for instance, who are here to-night will
-go to ‘Divine Service’ next Sunday, all nice and tidy, and your
-little children will have their tight little Sunday boots on, and
-lovely little Sunday feathers in their hats; and you’ll think,
-complacently and piously, how lovely they look! So they do; and
-you love them heartily, and you like sticking feathers in their
-hats. That’s all right; that <i>is</i> charity; but it is charity
-beginning at home. Then you will come to the poor little
-crossing-sweeper got up also—in its Sunday dress—the dirtiest
-rags it has that it may beg the better: we shall give it a penny,
-and think how good we are. That’s charity going abroad. But what
-does justice say, walking and watching near us? Christian justice
-has been strangely mute, and seemingly blind; and, if not blind,
-decrepit this many a day: she keeps her accounts still,
-however—quite steadily—doing them at nights, carefully, with
-her bandage off, and through acutest spectacles (the only modern
-scientific invention she cares about). You must put your ear down
-ever so close to her lips to hear her speak; and then you will
-start at what she first whispers, for it will certainly be, ‘Why
-shouldn’t that little crossing-sweeper have a feather on its
-head, as well as your own child?’ Then you may ask justice, in an
-amazed manner, How she can possibly be so foolish as to think
-children could sweep crossings with feathers on their heads? Then
-you stoop again, and justice says—still in her dull, stupid
-way—‘Then, why don’t you, every other Sunday, leave your child
-to sweep the crossing, and take the little sweeper to church in a
-hat and feather?’ Mercy on us (you think), what will she say
-next? And you answer, of course, that you don’t, because
-everybody ought to remain content in the position in which
-Providence has placed them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" id="page74">74</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Ah, my friends, that’s the gist of the whole question. <i>Did</i>
-Providence put them in that position, or did <i>you</i>? You knock a
-man into a ditch, and then you tell him to remain content in the
-‘position in which Providence has placed him.’ That’s modern
-Christianity. You say, ‘We did not knock him into the ditch.’ How
-do you know what you have done or are doing? That’s just what we
-have all got to know, and what we shall never know until the
-question with us every morning, is, not how to do the gainful
-thing, but how to do the just thing.”</p></div>
-
-<p>These thoughts suggest to us Ruskin, the social economist, for we must
-not lose sight of the fact that this greatest of all art critics, this
-strong, sane ethical philosopher who has emphasized so forcibly the
-possibilities, duties, and responsibilities of the individual in all
-his complex relations, is also one of the most enlightened and
-broad-visioned economists of our wonderful age. By treatises, essays,
-and letters he has striven for a brighter day for the breadwinners. He
-has sought to elevate the ideals and tastes of all toilers, while he
-has labored unremittingly to secure for them that meed of justice
-which is their right, but which has so long been denied them.</p>
-
-<p>So far back as 1868, when few people of position dared advocate so
-sane a proposition as the governmental ownership of “natural
-monopolies,” John Ruskin published these bold and thoughtful words in
-the London <i>Daily Telegraph</i>:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>The ingenious British public seemed to be discovering to its
-cost, that the beautiful law of supply and demand does not apply
-in a pleasant manner to railroad transit. But if they are
-prepared to submit patiently to the “natural” laws of political
-economy, what right have they to complain? The railroad belongs
-to the shareholders; and has not everybody a right to ask the
-highest he can get for his wares? The public have a perfect right
-to walk, or to make other opposition railroads for themselves, if
-they please, but not to abuse the shareholders for asking as much
-as they think they can get. Will you allow me to put the <i>real</i>
-rights of the matter before them in a few words?</p>
-
-<p>Neither the roads nor the railroads of any nation should belong
-to any private persons. All means of public transit should be
-provided at public expense, by public determination, where such
-means are needed, and the public should be its own shareholder.
-Neither road, nor railroad, nor canal should ever pay dividends
-to anybody. They should pay their working expenses, and no more.
-All dividends are simply a tax on the traveller and the goods,
-levied by the persons to whom the road or canal belongs, for the
-right of passing over his property, and this right should at once
-be purchased by the nation, and the original cost of the
-roadway—be it of gravel, iron, or adamant—at once defrayed by
-the nation, and then the whole work of the carriage of persons or
-goods done for ascertained prices, by salaried officers, as the
-carriage of letters is done now.</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75">75</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Happily these suggestions of the distinguished Englishman have been
-followed, in part at least, by several enlightened nations, but to the
-disgrace of our republic, and to the great cost of the producing and
-consuming masses, we are lagging behind in these respects, becoming a
-camp-follower instead of a leader in the march of progress, because of
-the influence exerted by a small class, who have grown so powerful
-through special privileges given to them by the nation that they now
-assume to thwart beneficent legislation in order that they may
-continue to grow richer through this vicious form of governmental
-paternalism, which places the multitude in the power of a few.</p>
-
-<p>Ruskin’s views on money are as disturbing to the usurers and those who
-through special privileges in money have amassed fortunes of unearned
-wealth as his sound position on railroads is distasteful to the
-monopolists who impoverish the producer and consumer by exorbitant
-rates on transportation.</p>
-
-<p>The great Englishman is also too clear-sighted to accept the
-fallacious doctrines of the money-changers in regard to the medium of
-exchange. He is too honest to hold his peace in the presence of a
-great wrong, hence his definition of money is far more nearly correct
-than the false and essentially injurious definitions so industriously
-promulgated by special pleaders for an interested class. “The final
-and best definition of money,” says Ruskin, “is that it is a
-documentary promise ratified and guaranteed by the nation to give or
-find a certain quantity of labor on demand.”</p>
-
-<p>In 1873 our author carried on a spirited discussion with some
-conventional economists regarding the money of the rich. One writer
-undertook to defend the lavish and reckless expenditures of the
-wealthy by calling to his aid the well-worn plea that money thus paid
-out finds its way into the pockets of poor families, and that thus
-through the bounty of the rich the starving are blest. Ruskin, in the
-course of his reply, observed that, were he a poor man instead of a
-moderately rich one, he would be sure that the paper referred to would
-suggest the question:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>These <i>means of living</i>, which this generous and useful gentleman
-is so fortunately disposed to bestow on me—where does he get
-them himself?… These are the facts. The laborious poor produce
-“the means of life” by their labor. Rich persons possess
-themselves by various expedients of a right to dispense these
-means of life, and, keeping as much means as they<span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76">76</a></span> want for
-themselves, and rather more, dispense the rest usually only in
-return for <i>more labor from the poor</i>, expended in producing
-various delights for the rich dispenser. The idea is now
-gradually entering poor men’s minds, that they may as well keep
-in their own hands the right of distributing “the means of life”
-they produce; and employ themselves, so far as they need extra
-occupation, for their own entertainment or benefit, rather than
-that of other people.</p></div>
-
-<p>The conventional economist replied to the question relating to how the
-rich man got his wealth by stating that it was obtained by the
-possessor or his ancestors through a “mutually beneficent partnership”
-between the rich and the poor by which the poor had their share of the
-joint returns advanced to them. Mr. Ruskin in his reply stated the
-question again, and then proceeded to answer it by a telling personal
-illustration. He says:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>“Where does the rich man get his means of living?” I don’t myself
-see how a more straightforward question could be put! so
-straightforward, indeed, that I particularly dislike making a
-martyr of myself in answering it, as I must this blessed day—a
-martyr, at least, in the way of witness; for if we rich people
-don’t begin to speak honestly with our tongues, we shall, some
-day soon, lose them and our heads together, having for sometime
-back, most of us, made false use of the one and none of the
-other. Well, for the point in question, then, as to means of
-living: the most exemplary manner of answer is simply to state
-how I got my own, or rather how my father got them for me. He and
-his partners entered into what your correspondent mellifluously
-styles “a mutually beneficent partnership” with certain laborers
-in Spain. These laborers produced from the earth annually a
-certain number of bottles of wine. These productions were sold by
-my father and his partners, who kept nine-tenths, or thereabouts,
-of the price themselves, and gave one-tenth, or thereabouts, to
-the laborers. In which state of mutual beneficence my father and
-his partners naturally became rich, and the laborers as naturally
-remained poor. Then my good father gave all his money to me.</p></div>
-
-<p>Space forbids a more extended notice of Mr. Ruskin’s broad and
-thoughtful views on economic problems, but before closing this paper,
-I wish to notice how the life of this great philanthropist has touched
-and brightened other lives. Many men think noble thoughts and at times
-are stirred by the loftiest aspirations, but in actual everyday life
-they sadly fail to live up to their teachings; but he who can and does
-master himself, he who gives his life for justice and thinks of the
-welfare of others before he considers himself, has reached a far
-higher summit than have the most gifted intellects who, while
-apprehending the beauty of goodness, fail to express that beauty in
-their daily<span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77">77</a></span> lives. John Ruskin’s life has been at once earnest, pure,
-and unselfish.</p>
-
-<p>Of the unexampled manner in which he gave up his beautiful wife to his
-friend—how he quietly secured a divorce that she might become the
-wife of the man she loved—electing to pass the rest of his life alone
-rather than destroy her happiness,—these facts are well known, and
-Mr. Ruskin has been severely criticised for not holding his wife in
-unwilling bondage. But he was so constituted that it was impossible
-for him to endure the thought of being directly or indirectly the
-cause of another’s misery.</p>
-
-<p>Another striking illustration of his unselfishness is seen in the
-manner in which he has disposed of his fortune, which at the time of
-his father’s death amounted to a million dollars. With this money he
-set about doing good. Poor young men and women who were struggling to
-obtain an education were helped, homes for working men and women were
-established, and model apartment-houses were erected. He also promoted
-a work for reclaiming waste land outside of London. This land was used
-for the aid of unfortunate men who wished to rise again from the state
-into which they had fallen through cruel social conditions and their
-own weaknesses. It is said that this work suggested to General Booth
-his colonization farms. Ruskin has also ever been liberal in aiding
-poor artists, and has done much to encourage the artistic taste among
-the young. On one occasion he purchased ten fine water-color paintings
-by Holman Hunt for $3,750, to be hung in public schools of London.</p>
-
-<p>By 1877 he had disposed of three-fourths of his inheritance, besides
-all the income from his books. But the calls of the poor and the plans
-which he wished to put into operation looking toward education and
-ennobling the toilers, and giving to their gloomy lives something more
-of sunshine and joy, were such that he determined to dispose of all
-the remainder of his wealth except a sum sufficient to yield him
-fifteen hundred dollars a year on which to live.</p>
-
-<p>Of all English writers of our century no one has left a more valuable
-literary legacy than has John Ruskin, but the splendid and voluminous
-works of his brain are even less priceless than<span class="pagenum"><a name="page78" id="page78">78</a></span> the example of his
-wonderful life. That he is in the shadow in his old age is by no means
-strange; a nature so sensitive, so finely strung, so keenly alive to
-the sufferings of others on every hand, has necessarily felt what the
-well-kept and self-engrossed animals around him knew nothing of.
-Indeed, just here we find the chief reason why the finest natures
-suffer so keenly in this age of heartless greed, self-absorption, and
-gold madness, of wanton extravagance and biting poverty, of widespread
-misery and growing discontent. Sensitive natures who are spiritually
-alive to the misery around them must suffer while they sow the
-seed-thoughts of a new day—suffer uncomplainingly until the
-waiting-time of this great transition period has passed.</p>
-
-<p>In John Ruskin we find great breadth of thought and a wide range of
-intellectual vision, going hand in hand with a profound philosophical
-grasp of life’s deepest problems; and, what is more, these excellences
-are rendered luminous by the influence of an enlightened soul. His
-life has been characterized by nobility of purpose, purity of thought,
-a passion for nature and art, and an enthusiasm for humanity.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id="page79">79</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_9" id="article_9"></a>
-THE SINGLE TAX IN OPERATION.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY HON. HUGH H. LUSK,<br />
-<i>Ex-Member of the New Zealand Legislature.</i></p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">Few</span> if any of the various economic theories that have been advanced,
-claiming attention in virtue of their practical benefit to the
-existing conditions of human affairs, have gained so immediate or so
-widespread an acceptance amongst intelligent persons as that which is
-familiarly known as “the single-tax” theory propounded by Mr. Henry
-George. In all parts of the English-speaking world, at least, the
-theory has obtained many and enthusiastic disciples, who have
-believed, and probably still believe, that they find in Mr. George’s
-doctrine a panacea for many of the most apparent of the evils which
-oppress society not less under our advanced civilization than they did
-at any former period of the world’s history. It may be said, indeed,
-that we hear less of Mr. George and the single tax now than we did a
-few years ago, and from this some will argue that the idea has died or
-is dying out of men’s minds; this, however, is almost certainly a
-mistake.</p>
-
-<p>In the history of any great system of alleged reform there may be
-traced at least three distinct stages which are marked by different
-degrees of prominence in the public regard. The first of these may be
-called the period of promulgation, the second that of fermentation,
-and the third that of experiment. If the evils proposed to be reformed
-are manifest and widely recognized the first of these stages is almost
-certain to excite wide attention and much controversy on both sides.
-The earliest stage, that of mere discussion, however, soon wears
-itself out, and the theorists who argued in favor of, as well as those
-who argued against, the new system, having exhausted their ingenuity
-in argument, turn for the most part to something newer, and let the
-matter drop.</p>
-
-<p>Then follows the period of incubation. Removed from the din of
-controversy a certain number of people are always found who are keenly
-sensible of the evils which the new system was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id="page80">80</a></span> supposed to cure, and
-who continue to meditate upon the possibility of its possessing the
-power to do so. These persons, it may be, make but little noise in the
-arena either of literature or politics, but they are not the less
-active, nor perhaps in the end the less really influential, on that
-account. Their influence is of the sort that depends upon a solid
-conviction, right or wrong, that the theory which they support is the
-true one; and as long as the evils, which the system they adhere to
-professes to cure, continue to exist, so long their influence may be
-expected to increase.</p>
-
-<p>It is the third or experimental stage which is the critical one, and
-generally speaking it is well when that stage can be reached without
-any needless delay. By experiment alone can the value of such theories
-be tested to the satisfaction of the practical mind of humanity, and
-it is only as the result of a trial that men will either consent to
-admit the value of a proposed reform or to abandon a specious theory
-to which they have once given their adherence.</p>
-
-<p>The single-tax theory of political economics advanced by Henry George,
-having passed through the first of these three stages with something
-more than the usual publicity and controversy, has already been in its
-second stage for a good many years. The cessation of active
-discussion, which appears to some people to argue that it has passed
-into oblivion, or is at any rate well on the way toward such a
-consummation, is only evidence that it is in its second, or
-fermentation, period. Nobody can pretend for an instant that any one
-of the evils pointed out by Henry George as the things that called
-loudly for reform, have actually been reformed since the date of the
-publication of his original essay on “Progress and Poverty.” No
-reasonable man can doubt that many, if not all of these evils, ought
-in some way to be dealt with, and if possible amended. While such is
-the case it is impossible wholly to get rid of the theory which
-trenchantly pointed out those evils and professed at least to offer an
-effective remedy.</p>
-
-<p>Under these conditions few things could be more desirable than that
-the matter should be advanced to the third of its natural stages by
-being submitted to the critical test of experience. Nothing short of
-this will ever satisfy the mass of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" id="page81">81</a></span> mankind of the feasibility of the
-system proposed, or of its adequacy to meet the evils complained of;
-nothing less will set free the minds of many thousands of intelligent
-persons to inquire into other methods of reform than the fair trial of
-the single-tax system, and its failure to cure the evils which its
-author expected it to cure. The difficulty, which indeed is by no
-means a slight one, is to find a favorable arena in which the
-experiment can be tried, and a community prepared to make the
-experiment.</p>
-
-<p>It must be remembered that, if the evils aimed at by the proposed
-remedy of the single tax are great and far-reaching, its complete
-application could hardly, in most communities, amount to less than a
-practical revolution. Striking as it does at the whole received theory
-of land tenure, as sanctioned throughout the civilized world by the
-practice of many centuries, it arrays against itself the prejudices of
-the most influential classes in every long-established community, and
-its introduction is necessarily surrounded by difficulties and at
-least apparent injustices which must indefinitely delay any attempt to
-bring it to the test of experiment there. The only reasonable hope,
-indeed, of reducing the theory of the single tax to the plane of
-experience is to find a country not yet fully committed to any other
-system, and occupied by a self-governing people sufficiently
-intelligent to perceive the evils of other existing systems of land
-tenure, and sufficiently enterprising to be willing to experiment in
-this direction.</p>
-
-<p>It may perhaps prove of no little benefit to other communities that
-one self-governing country has been found which has been both able and
-willing to make trial of the principle which has been so strongly
-contended for by the author of “Progress and Poverty,” and by those
-who have seen in his proposals a way of escape from many of the most
-serious difficulties that beset civilized communities at the present
-day. There is probably no other country which is to-day in so good a
-position to enter upon experimental legislation in this and other
-directions as the British colony of New Zealand. An island community
-separated by more than a thousand miles from its nearest neighbors,
-possessed of practically unlimited powers of self-government, and
-inhabited by a prosperous and intelligent population,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page82" id="page82">82</a></span> substantially
-of unmixed British race, there is little either in their external
-relations or internal circumstances to prevent the colonists of New
-Zealand making many experiments in economic legislation. And during
-the last quarter of a century this fact has been fully realized by the
-people and their leaders. They have established a system of education
-which is at once more popular, free, and comprehensive than even the
-most complete systems in force in this country; they have placed local
-option in the control of the liquor traffic upon a broad and entirely
-popular basis, which has rendered New Zealand the most sober and
-law-abiding of communities, without introducing the doubtful principle
-of prohibition; they have thrown open the franchise unreservedly to
-all persons of full age and competent education, without regard to
-sex; and they have successfully introduced life insurance and
-trusteeship of estates by the government, as well as many others of
-the proposals which are generally comprehended under the term “State
-Socialism.”</p>
-
-<p>It is by no means surprising that a community which has made so many
-experiments in legislation should have turned its attention to the
-question which may perhaps be looked upon as most specially inviting
-attention from social reformers in a new country. The circumstances of
-New Zealand in relation to the land were from the first exceptional.
-In every other country occupied by savage tribes in modern times which
-has been taken possession of for purposes of settlement by people of
-European race, the ownership of the soil has been assumed, as a matter
-of course, to vest not in the aboriginal natives, but in the intruding
-settlers. Spain, England, France, Holland, Germany, and the United
-States have one after the other adopted this convenient theory of
-international morality, and entered with a cool assumption of right
-upon the inheritance of their comparatively helpless predecessors. In
-New Zealand the conditions of the country and its inhabitants rendered
-this popular system wholly inapplicable. The area of the country was
-limited, to an extent which rendered it impossible to adopt the
-fiction which has lain at the root of nearly all the forcible
-confiscation of the territory of native tribes, namely, that they
-could make no profitable use of so great an area. The islands of New
-Zealand contain only a little more land than Great Britain itself,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page83" id="page83">83</a></span>
-and sixty years ago, when England first thought of annexing them to
-her empire, the native inhabitants numbered little if anything short
-of a hundred thousand souls. They were besides a settled people who
-cultivated the soil, and moreover they were warlike, and formidable to
-any invader. In consequence of these things a wholly new departure was
-made in the case of New Zealand. The country was not occupied on any
-plea of discovery or of conquest, as had been done in so many parts of
-the world before, but the sovereignty of the islands was obtained by
-treaty with the chiefs of the native tribes, upon the distinct
-guarantee that the full rights of the aboriginal inhabitants to their
-lands should be recognized and protected by England against all
-comers.</p>
-
-<p>From the first, therefore, the lands of New Zealand have been
-purchased by the government before they could be disposed of to the
-settlers. The community had no vast tracts of land to dispose of which
-had cost nothing but the expense of survey, but as a matter of fact
-had to look on every acre as an investment which must be sold for a
-certain definite price unless the transaction was to result in an
-absolute loss of money to the people at large. It may well have
-happened that the result of so unusual a condition of affairs was to
-lead the community to regard the public lands in a somewhat different
-light from other people. At any rate it led to all lands being sold
-for a price which prevented their being lightly esteemed or as a rule
-held as freeholds in large areas. So much was this the case that from
-the first nearly all pastoral lands were held under leases from the
-government at fixed annual rentals. Fully forty years ago the
-southern, and larger, of the islands was nearly all purchased from the
-comparatively small native population by the government, and in that
-island a very large proportion of the land has always been let on
-lease for grazing. In the northern island nearly one-half of the land
-even now belongs to the original native owners, and much of this area
-is leased from them by Europeans for farming or grazing purposes.</p>
-
-<p>In this way it has happened that in New Zealand, more than in any
-other country occupied by people of European race, the inhabitants
-have grown accustomed to the idea of holding land on lease, with the
-people at large, as represented by the government, for landlord. Under
-these conditions it is easy to understand<span class="pagenum"><a name="page84" id="page84">84</a></span> how the doctrine of the
-single tax found a peculiarly congenial home in the minds of New
-Zealand public men. It is true that large areas of the lands of the
-country had been disposed of in freehold to settlers. It is true that
-the freehold tenure of the native inhabitants had in a certain sense
-been guaranteed to them by treaty, at least in so far that it should
-never be taken from them without compensation. It is true that the
-mass of the people were very fully possessed by the apparently almost
-universal preference for the idea of a freehold over every other
-tenure of lands so far as they were personally concerned. But, on the
-other hand, they had grown accustomed to the practice of holding areas
-of land on lease both from the government and from the native owners,
-whose tenure was not individual, but tribal, and they had learned the
-lesson that there was no intolerable hardship in the system.</p>
-
-<p>The attempt to introduce a system which should give effect to the
-principle underlying the economic theory of Henry George in New
-Zealand was not hastily made, nor was it attempted on a scale that
-could be fairly open to the charge of being revolutionary in its
-incidence. The first step taken by the legislature was in the
-direction of so dealing with the public estate of the country as to
-encourage settlers to lease rather than to purchase the freehold. With
-this in view a system of leases in perpetuity was established, and
-areas of the best and most accessible of the land still unsold were
-set apart to be dealt with under the new plan. Any person, not already
-the holder of land in freehold, which, together with the land applied
-for under perpetual lease, would make an area of more than six hundred
-and forty acres, or one square mile, could apply for a lease of not
-more than three hundred and forty acres on perpetual lease. Five
-dollars per acre was fixed as the price of the land, such being the
-average price of first-class freehold land unimproved in the country,
-and the applicant was entitled to a lease for 999 years of the land
-applied for, subject to the conditions that he resided upon the land
-during the first ten years of the tenancy; that he improved it to the
-extent of thirty per cent of its upset value within six years; and
-that he paid as annual rental interest at the rate of five per cent on
-the price or value of the land.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page85" id="page85">85</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Each lease contained clauses rendering the land subject to revaluation
-at the end of each period of twenty-one years, on which the rental
-would be calculated. If the new valuation, which it was provided
-should rigidly exclude all improvements on the land, was assented to
-by the tenant, the matter was settled for another twenty-one years;
-but if he objected to the new valuation as excessive, it was provided
-that he could demand that it should be offered by public auction
-(subject to payment of the value of his improvements), and that the
-amount bid for it either by himself or by anybody else at the sale
-should be esteemed the value on which the rental was to be calculated
-during the twenty-one years next following the sale. In case the
-present holder of the lease was the highest bidder, this was the only
-result of the sale; but in case he was outbid he was bound to transfer
-the lease to the best bidder, on receiving from the government the
-amount at which his improvements had been valued. This payment might
-be made in government bonds, bearing interest at four per cent, at the
-option of the government, and the new holder of the lease was charged
-as rent the interest on the value of the land as bid by himself and
-also interest at five per cent upon the former leaseholder’s
-improvements. By this means it was proposed to retain for the
-community at large the increased value of the lands of the country
-which was not due to the improvements made from time to time by the
-leaseholder. The inducement held out to the public to accept such
-leases in preference to a freehold was the saving of capital involved
-in not paying for the land when taken up, but only interest on the
-amount. This, it was hoped, would suffice to render it popular with a
-considerable class of actual working settlers as distinguished from
-speculative buyers.</p>
-
-<p>It is only fair to say that in spite of every effort that could be
-made by the government, the system did not commend itself to the
-judgment or the prejudices of the persons interested to any very great
-extent. What they wanted—what it may be taken for granted is wanted
-by nearly everybody in dealing with land—was a fixed tenure. It was
-not enough to know that they had a lease for 999 years; they wanted to
-know what they were to pay for it, not only during the first
-twenty-one years, but at any time during the 999. Eventually this had
-to be conceded, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" id="page86">86</a></span> as the land law of New Zealand now stands the
-holder of a perpetual lease gets it for a rental of four per cent upon
-the original price fixed by government on the land, subject still,
-however, to the conditions as to residence and improvements on the
-land during the first ten years.</p>
-
-<p>Having abandoned this promising and theoretically perfect plan for
-securing to the state all state-produced increase in the value of the
-public lands, the New Zealand parliament was still anxious to secure
-for the country the other advantages held out by the author of the
-single-tax doctrine. These advantages may be briefly summed up in the
-words, the discouragement of large holdings and the prevention of
-speculation in future land values. To obtain these results without
-laying the community open to the charge of practical confiscation,
-which has been, and probably will always be, the strongest argument
-against the practical application of the doctrine of the single tax,
-as propounded by its author, was felt to be no easy matter. Even in
-New Zealand there were already some large freehold estates, and these
-naturally included some of the most desirable and valuable of the
-land. It was eventually decided to impose a land tax, the incidence of
-which would tend at least to discourage speculation, while it supplied
-revenue for the public expenditure.</p>
-
-<p>A uniform tax of one penny in the pound sterling, equivalent to one
-two-hundred-and-fortieth part of the capital value of all land in the
-country held in freehold by Europeans, was imposed, the value of
-improvements being in all cases deducted from such valuation. Each
-owner of land is, however, allowed an exemption of land to the value
-of two thousand five hundred dollars, on which no tax is payable, as
-well as of all mortgage money secured on the freehold. Thus all
-freehold lands held by any individual are liable to be taxed above the
-value of $2,500, so far as he is really interested in them; while all
-money lent on mortgage of land is subject to a tax of five per cent on
-the annual interest reserved by the terms of the mortgage. New Zealand
-is mainly a country of small holdings, and the result of this system
-has been that, out of about 90,000 holders of land in freehold, only
-about 13,000 actually pay the tax on land. In other words, the
-settlers of the colony who own land which, apart from improvements and
-mortgage debts, is worth more<span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" id="page87">87</a></span> than $2,500, are found to be only about
-one-seventh of the whole number.</p>
-
-<p>To provide for the discouragement of land speculation on a large scale
-a further provision is made by the enactment of a further tax upon all
-lands held by individuals or corporations of a value exceeding $25,000
-clear of incumbrance. This is called the graduated land tax, and
-provides for a farther taxation on all such lands, beginning at
-one-eighth in addition to the original tax, and rising by advances of
-an additional eighth for each sum of $25,000 at which the land is
-valued, until a maximum rate of three times the original tax is
-reached in the case of large estates. To provide for the risk of
-vexatious opposition to valuations on the part of owners, there is a
-farther provision that the government may at its option elect to
-purchase, at an advance of ten per cent over the valuation objected
-to, any unimproved land held in freehold. It is also a part of the
-system that the government may compulsorily purchase at a valuation
-any lands not in actual use in case any association of persons shall
-apply to have this done, undertaking satisfactorily to take the land
-upon its purchase under the conditions of perpetual lease, which of
-course includes subdivision into small areas, with residence and
-improvement.</p>
-
-<p>By these means the people of New Zealand confidently expect to secure
-the subdivision of the lands of the country into small areas; to
-discourage to the utmost the holding of land by capitalists in
-expectation of greatly increased values at the expense of the less
-wealthy classes; to render practically impossible the establishment on
-any extensive scale of private landlordism in respect of agricultural
-lands; and gradually to substitute, as far as possible, the payment to
-the state of a yearly interest on value, for the purchase of the
-freehold in the land of the country.</p>
-
-<p>So far as the experience of the last eight years, during which the
-system has been in force, may be taken as a reliable guide, the
-experiment shows many signs of success. It has certainly checked the
-tendency to speculate in lands with a view to a rise in price, which
-threatened to become a great, as it certainly was a growing, evil. It
-has been found that it will not pay to do this in the face of
-taxation, and particularly of the graduated<span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" id="page88">88</a></span> tax; and owners of large
-areas of land have developed a strong inclination to subdivide and
-sell lands which they formerly were disposed to hoard and increase.
-The power given to the government to purchase lands where the owners
-have objected to the valuation for taxation purposes has not been
-widely exercised, but several very important and considerable
-compulsory purchases of estates have been made in cases where
-associations of persons wishing to take the land on perpetual lease
-have applied to the government for that purpose. The chief benefit of
-such examples, indeed, seems to have been in compelling owners either
-to use the land themselves or to offer it for sale to persons anxious
-to use it; but from the New Zealand point of view this would appear to
-be almost if not quite equally desirable. Finally, the land tax has
-largely enabled the country to do without other taxes, which would
-necessarily have fallen more heavily upon the class of workers with
-small incomes, instead of being levied on the classes best able to
-bear them.</p>
-
-<p>It yet remains to be seen whether evils may not lurk, as yet
-unnoticed, in the system, which may impair if not destroy its
-usefulness. One consequence which was predicted by its opponents,
-however, has not been found to follow upon the introduction of the
-system. It was said that capital would be withdrawn from the country,
-and that poverty and stagnation would result. No such result has
-followed up to this time. New Zealand, with its less than a million
-inhabitants, is to-day looked on as one of the soundest dependencies
-of the British empire; it continues to draw to it from the mother
-country as much capital as it can profitably use; its exports steadily
-increase; and its people, if not rich, are well-to-do and comfortable.</p>
-
-<p>It may be said, indeed, that New Zealand has not accepted Henry
-George’s doctrines as they were propounded by their author, and this
-is literally true. It is, however, also true that they have accepted
-the essential spirit of those doctrines, and, applying that spirit to
-the circumstances of their own country, are giving probably the most
-useful practical illustration of all that is best in them for the
-world’s acceptance. No doctrine in economics yet propounded for the
-acceptance of humanity<span class="pagenum"><a name="page89" id="page89">89</a></span> has ever been found to be applicable in
-exactly the same form or to exactly the same extent under all
-circumstances, and this, it may be safely said, will prove
-emphatically true of the doctrine of the single tax. The single tax,
-like all other economic plans, is not an end, but only a means. The
-end must be the amelioration of the condition of the masses of the
-people, and the consequent prosperity and happiness of the great
-majority. In New Zealand the people and their leaders believe this to
-be secured by taxing wealth rather than comparative poverty; by giving
-every encouragement to those who will devote themselves to the
-cultivation of the land; and by throwing every obstacle in the path of
-those who would fain establish and promote the pernicious system of
-private landlordism, which everywhere tends to create and perpetuate
-class distinctions, with their long train of attendant evils.</p>
-
-<p>In these respects New Zealand presents an object-lesson which can
-hardly fail to be of value to other countries, even if their
-conditions differ widely from her own. Her successes may be noted with
-advantage, her mistakes may be criticised with profit, in every free
-country and by all those who see that existing conditions are far from
-perfect in any part of the world, and that the safety as well as the
-advancement of society may depend largely upon the introduction of
-wise and, it may be, far-reaching reforms.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page90" id="page90">90</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_10" id="article_10"></a>
-NATURAL SELECTION, SOCIAL SELECTION, AND HEREDITY.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY PROFESSOR JOHN R. COMMONS,<br />
-<i>Of Syracuse University, N. Y.</i></p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">The</span> term “natural selection” is a misnomer, as Darwin himself
-perceived. It means merely survival. “Selection” proper involves
-intention, and belongs to human reason. Selection by man we call
-artificial. Natural selection is the outcome of certain physical
-facts: 1. Environment: the complex of forces, such as soil, climate,
-food, and competitors. 2. Heredity: the tendency in offspring to
-follow the type of the parent. 3. Variation: the tendency to diverge
-from that type. 4. Over-population: the tendency to multiply offspring
-beyond the food supply. 5. Struggle for life: the effort to exclude
-others or to consume others. 6. Consciousness of kind: the tendency to
-spare and coöperate with offspring and others of like type. 7.
-Survival of the fittest: the victory of those best fitted to their
-environment by heredity, variation, numbers, and consciousness of
-kind.</p>
-
-<p>These biological facts underlie human society, but a new factor enters
-with novel results. This is self-consciousness. Society is based not
-merely on consciousness of kind, as worked out by Professor Giddings,
-but peculiarly on individual self-consciousness.</p>
-
-<p>Self-consciousness is a product of evolution, at first biological as
-explained by natural selection, and second, sociological. The
-biological character is the prolongation of infancy, i. e. the
-prolonged plastic and unfolding state of the brain. This makes
-possible a new kind of development unknown to the animal, namely,
-education. Education is preëminently a social activity. I say
-education instead of environment. In natural selection there is a
-physical environment which presses upon individuals, and only those
-survive who are fitted to sustain this pressure. In social selection
-society enters between the individual and the physical environment,
-and, while slowly subordinating the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page91" id="page91">91</a></span> latter, transforms its pressure
-upon the individual, and he alone survives who is fitted to bear the
-social pressure. This pressure reaches the individual through the
-educational media of language and social institutions, especially the
-family, the state, and property. Institutions rest upon ideas and
-beliefs, and these are epitomized in language. Language in turn, by
-giving names to things and relations, and by thus transmitting to each
-individual the accumulated race experience, gradually brings him to
-the consciousness of himself. This is education.</p>
-
-<p>But self-consciousness is at first only vague, capricious, and
-unprincipled. It grows by becoming definite, self-controlled, and
-conscientious; that is, more regardful both of its own higher self and
-of others. It thus develops into moral character, which we call
-personality. Personality is the final outcome of social selection.
-When once liberated it becomes a new selective principle to which all
-others are subordinated. What, then, are the social conditions which
-promote or retard the survival of personality?</p>
-
-<p>It is a debated question where we shall place the dividing line
-between pre-social and social man. In view of what precedes we should
-look for that line at the point where self-consciousness begins to
-throw about itself a social covering. This covering is private
-property. The former view that primitive property was common property
-is now nearly abandoned. The supposed village communities of free
-proprietors were really villages of slaves and serfs. The semblance of
-common property in primitive times belongs to the pre-social or
-gregarious stage, and differs but little from the common use of a
-given area by a colony of beavers.</p>
-
-<p>Private property involves two facts: 1. Perception of enduring value
-in external objects; 2. Exclusive control and enjoyment of those
-objects. Its psychological basis is therefore self-consciousness,
-which is the knowledge not of an abstracted and isolated self, but of
-self as related to external nature and human beings.</p>
-
-<p>The first private property was animals and tools. Artificial selection
-begins with the domestication of animals. Soon it lays hold on man
-himself by means of social institutions, all of which originate as
-private property. The primitive social family<span class="pagenum"><a name="page92" id="page92">92</a></span> was not a state of
-promiscuity nor even the voluntary pairing of animals and birds, but
-it was private property in women, beginning as wife-capture and
-becoming wife-purchase and polygamy. Natural selection, too, is
-transcended when cannibalism ceases. The self-conscious victor
-enslaves his enemy and reduces him to property. Next, government
-arises as private despotism, and with it the land becomes the property
-of the chief. Thus the family, the state, protracted industry, and the
-control of social opportunities begin with that artificial selection
-denoted by private property.</p>
-
-<p>Property in its early forms means the domination of the powerful over
-the weak. Social institutions develop out of this primitive tyranny,
-where the caprice of owners crushes the personality of the masses,
-towards a state of equal rights and opportunities for all. The
-industrial classes emerge from slavery and serfdom into a wage system,
-which in turn is modified in the direction of fair wages, short hours,
-and security of employment—fundamental conditions for personal
-development.</p>
-
-<p>The family has arisen from the private property of a despot to the
-mutual coöperation of lovers, and the woman becomes a person instead
-of a chattel. The legal successor of polygamy—the slavery of
-women—is not monogamy, but prostitution, which is the wage system of
-the sexes, grounded on the subordinate position of women and their
-meagre opportunities for self-support.</p>
-
-<p>Government is passing into democracy, and property in land and capital
-is being hedged about by the police and taxing powers, or diffused and
-socialized in the interest of the personal equality of all.</p>
-
-<p>Social evolution is therefore the evolution of freedom and
-opportunity, on the one hand, and personality, on the other. Without
-freedom and security there can be no free will and moral character.
-Without exalted personality there can be no enduring freedom. The
-educational environment, therefore, which develops personality must
-itself develop with freedom. The ruling ideas of justice, integrity,
-morality, must move in advance, else the personality of individuals
-will not survive the temptations of freedom. To what extent,
-therefore, can education modify the individual? The answer is to be
-sought in the problems of heredity and degeneration.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" id="page93">93</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The human degenerate is essentially different from the animal
-degenerate. The latter is solely a physical product, and by losing
-certain organs is better fitted for survival, as parasites and snakes.</p>
-
-<p>Human degenerates, however, do not form a new type, but are on the
-decline to extinction. They are those who lack personality; that is,
-they are not moulded into harmony with a social environment which
-unfolds self-consciousness. They are strictly biological only when
-they are congenital and therefore not educable. They are social
-degenerates when they are the product of a degraded education. Both
-factors are radical. A born idiot can never be other than an idiot. On
-the other hand, the deprivation during childhood and youth of language
-and education, as shown by Caspar Hauser, or the wolf-boy of Agra, or
-the experiment of Emperor Akbar, leaves the normal natural endowments
-as idiotic as though they never existed. The two factors vary
-independently through all degrees. Education ranges from the slums to
-the pure firesides. The congenital equipment varies from the idiot to
-the genius.</p>
-
-<p>The relative weight of these two factors is a matter of statistics.
-Absolutely speaking, heredity is everything; relatively, its social
-significance depends upon the actual proportion of abnormal to normal
-births.</p>
-
-<p>The highest estimate I am able to make of the total number of
-degenerates, both born and induced, is five and one-half per cent of
-the population, as follows:</p>
-
-<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Estimated Total of Defectives Per Million Population.</span></p>
-
-
-<div class="center">
-<table summary="Estimated Total of Defectives">
-<tr><td class="left">Census estimate (1890).</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Insane</td><td class="right">1,697</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Feeble-minded</td><td class="right">1,526</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Deaf and Dumb</td><td class="right">659</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Blind</td><td class="right">805</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Prisoners</td><td class="right">1,315</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Juvenile delinquents</td><td class="right">237</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="indent">Almshouse paupers</td><td class="right">1,166</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"> </td><td class="right">————</td><td class="right">7,405</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Outdoor Criminals (five times the number of inmates)</td><td> </td><td class="right">7,760</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Tramps (McCook, 1895, New Haven Conference of Charities and Correction, 85,768)</td><td> </td><td class="right">1,308</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Drunkards (Crothers, 1893, Chicago Conference, 1,200,000, equal to about 10 per cent of voting population)</td><td> </td><td class="right">19,000</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Prostitutes (weighted average of Levasseur’s estimate for rural (600) and urban (11,200 to 17,200) France, in “La Population Française,” vol. ii, p. 434)</td><td> </td><td class="right">5,000</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Outdoor Paupers (weighted average of report at Nashville Conference, 1894, 46 per cent in Penna. to 2.2 per cent in N. Y.)</td><td> </td><td class="right">15,000</td></tr>
-<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td class="right">—————</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"> </td><td> </td><td class="right">55,473</td></tr>
-</table></div>
-
-<p>This estimate would make the maximum number of all degenerates 5.54
-per cent of the population. From these must be deducted those who are
-not congenital. We can estimate the congenitals by three methods: by
-statistics of <i>atavism</i>, or <i>consanguinity</i>, and by <i>experiment</i>.</p>
-
-<p>In the statistics of atavism we add together the physical
-abnormalities of the individual, assuming that a criminal type is
-found when these abnormalities reach the number of three or more. The
-statistical method always suffers the limitation that it indicates not
-identity, but probability. Yet it has an important value, provided it
-discovers ratios of probability which concur. This is not the case in
-the method by atavism. Sixty to seventy per cent of criminals do not
-belong to the assumed criminal type; and sixteen per cent of normal
-males are classed as criminals, whereas the actual number is less than
-three per cent of the males of criminal age. (See Lombroso, “The
-Female Offender,” pp. 104, 105.)</p>
-
-<p>While atavism itself is unquestioned, this method seizes upon rigid
-physical characters to measure educable qualities. And where the
-latter are themselves abnormal the causes may lie with education and
-not heredity.</p>
-
-<p>The method by consanguinity seeks not the abnormalities of the patient
-himself, but the signs of disease and degeneracy in his blood
-relatives. It therefore greatly increases the apparent weight of
-heredity, for it collects symptoms from several individuals instead of
-one. The medical authorities ascribe fifty to eighty per cent of
-inebriety to heredity. This method fails as does the other, for, as
-seen in the Jukes or the drunkard, the child gets both its heredity
-and its education from the same degraded parents, and the method
-provides no measure for separating the two.</p>
-
-<p>In sociology the method of experiment has but limited employment. The
-modern sociologist cannot mate the parents nor vivisect the soul,
-after the methods of the biologist.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" id="page95">95</a></span> He can only move the child from
-one education to another, and his experiment is incidental to the
-larger purpose of saving the child. His results, too, can appear only
-as a ratio of probability; but this ratio measures the mental and
-moral qualities themselves directly and not by inference. Elmira
-Reformatory and others cure eighty per cent of their charges. Model
-placing-out institutions and free kindergartens save nearly all. And
-these are taken from the most vicious and criminal parentage in the
-land. Our five and one-half per cent of degenerates must therefore be
-greatly reduced in order to find the residuum of congenitals. I have
-made the following deductions:</p>
-
-<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Estimated Defectives Not Congenital, Per Million Population.</span></p>
-
-
-<div class="center">
-<table summary="Estimated Defectives Not Congenital">
-<tr><td class="left">Criminals (80 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">7,369</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Prostitutes (80 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">4,000</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Outdoor Paupers (80 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">16,000</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Tramps (80 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">1,046</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Drunkards (50 per cent of total)</td><td class="right">9,500</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"> </td><td class="right">———</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left"> </td><td class="right">37,915</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">Which deducted from</td><td class="right">55,473</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="left">leaves congenital defectives</td><td class="right">17,558</td></tr>
-</table></div>
-
-
-<p>equal to 1.75 per cent of the population. Overlappings would diminish
-this ratio; greater infant mortality and the omitted youthful
-defectives would increase it.</p>
-
-<p>If less than two per cent of the births are below the normal Aryan
-brain level, on the other hand possibly two per cent are above the
-average, and should be classed as the geniuses who could achieve
-eminence regardless of surroundings. The remaining ninety per cent or
-more are born with ordinary equipment; they are hereditarily neither
-good nor bad, criminal nor virtuous, brilliant nor stupid. With these
-masses of the people the first fifteen years of infancy and youth are
-decisive.</p>
-
-<p>We may now classify the selective forces of society. Social selection
-is partly natural and partly artificial. It originates artificially in
-the self-consciousness of dominant individuals. Struggle and conflict
-ensue, out of which private property survives in its various forms as
-an intended control over others. This control is then transmitted as
-the various social institutions to succeeding generations and becomes
-for them natural<span class="pagenum"><a name="page96" id="page96">96</a></span> and unintended. These social institutions then
-constitute a coercive environment, not over wholly unwilling subjects,
-but over those whose wills are shaped by education and social pressure
-to coöperate with the very institutions that suppress them.</p>
-
-<p>Gradually, as subordinate classes become self-conscious, innovations
-are made which aim to check the unbridled despotism of private
-property; new conflicts thereupon take place and certain innovations
-survive, which, at first artificial, become natural for the next
-generations.</p>
-
-<p>As society becomes more definite, reflective, and humane, as it
-acquires fixed laws and government, it increases the range of
-artificial selection; it supplants custom by statute, and remodels its
-inherited institutions.</p>
-
-<p>It is now animated by a new motive, the development of moral character
-in all the people. With reference to this new motive social selection
-is either direct or indirect. Direct selection is highly artificial,
-but it is only negative. It consists in segregating the degenerates to
-prevent propagation. Society cannot, of course, directly interfere
-with the marriage choice of normal persons, for that would be to choke
-the purest expression of personality. But it can isolate the two per
-cent who will never rise to moral responsibility. This would doubtless
-increase the wards of the state, but it is needed both for the reason
-already given and, more especially, to clarify the public mind on the
-causes of delinquency and dependency. As long as these evils can be
-charged to heredity the public is blinded to the share that springs
-from social injustice.</p>
-
-<p>The increase and classification of the custodial population here
-contemplated is a problem for administrative charity. Possibly the
-colony system would make that population mutually self-supporting and
-also remove the current sentimentalism against long isolation of the
-incurables.</p>
-
-<p>With the ground cleared of the true degenerates, the operations of
-indirect social selection can be seen. This also is artificial, but in
-a less mechanical way. It consists in so adjusting the political,
-industrial, and social environment as to affect personality, either to
-suppress or develop it. The two instruments are legal rights and
-education. For example, the tenement-house congestion, with its
-significant educational environment,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97">97</a></span> is the product of laws of
-property and taxation which favor owners and speculators instead of
-tenants, and of private property in rapid transit which puts a tax on
-exit to the suburbs. It cannot be said of this and other selective
-factors, such as the profit-making saloon, long hours of work, low
-pay, irregular employment, that they permit natural selection to
-operate. They suppress personality, which preëminently is the natural
-fact in the human being. Social selection is therefore tending to
-become less and less arbitrary, but is making room for a higher
-natural selection—a natural selection where not brute force and
-cunning are the fittest to survive, but where, with freedom, security,
-and equal opportunity, the human personality will work out its own
-survival. Man alone of all the animals can rise to the angels, but he
-alone can fall below the brutes. This is the glory and the penalty of
-personality. It becomes a unique selective agency whose standard is
-raised with the advance of civilization. The Australian cannibal,
-without opium, tobacco, alcohol, or syphilis, may survive with a low
-morality. The American exposed to these destroyers must be a better
-man or perish. Personality, thus becoming a keen selective principle,
-is based not necessarily on overpopulation and competition, but on
-that self-destruction which comes from vice, disease, and drunkenness.
-Its degraded offspring will perish or feed the ranks of the hereditary
-degenerates to be properly segregated and ended.</p>
-
-<p>But with education and opportunity the higher forms of human character
-will naturally increase and survive. With the independence and
-education of women sexual selection becomes a refined and powerful
-agent of progress. With the right to work guaranteed, the tramp and
-indiscriminate charity have no excuse, and the honest workman becomes
-secure in the training and survival of his family.</p>
-
-<p>We hear much of scientific charity. There is also a scientific
-justice. The aim of the former is to educate true character and
-self-reliance. The aim of the latter is to open the opportunities for
-the free expression of character. Education and justice are the
-methods of social selection. By their coöperation is shaped the moral
-environment where alone can survive that natural yet supernatural
-product, human personality.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page98" id="page98">98</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_11" id="article_11"></a>
-PSYCHIC OR SUPERMUNDANE EXPERIENCES.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY CORA L. V. RICHMOND.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">From</span> between ten and eleven years of age I have been endowed with
-gifts and favored with experiences that, I am well assured, are very
-exceptional, and that, until quite recently, have not been admitted to
-the realm of psychical investigation, philosophical discussion, or
-even human credence. Lately, however, there have been found a
-sufficient number of well authenticated facts in similar lines of
-experience to warrant the investigation and classification of them (if
-possible) under a modern name, “Psychic Research,” and under a well
-established and not so recent one, Spiritualism.</p>
-
-<p>I am not intending to discuss these subjects, <i>per se</i>, nor to
-endeavor to classify or explain the experiences I am about to relate.
-They are <i>experiences</i>, as real as any of those in my human or mundane
-existence; indeed, if I were called upon to decide that one is real
-and the other illusion, I should say without hesitation that these,
-and similar ones throughout my lifetime, are the real, and the
-ordinary mundane experiences unreal.</p>
-
-<p>At the age above referred to I was, without any seeking, and without
-any surrounding circumstances to “suggest” such a state, taken
-possession of (entranced) by intelligences, distinct personalities in
-thought, word, and action, who spoke through my organism, unfolded and
-educated my mind, in fact became my mental and spiritual instructors.
-The public discourses and teachings given under these conditions are
-well known to many of the readers of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>, as these labors are
-the work of a lifetime.</p>
-
-<p>It is not of this public work that I am constrained to write; but I
-may as well say here that I have had no other teachers, no other
-instructors, and have pursued no course of study or reading of human
-books; those whom I call my guides and guardians have been my
-teachers. During the time that these outside intelligences are
-controlling and speaking through my organism I am wholly unconscious
-of what is passing in human<span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" id="page99">99</a></span> life and wholly unaware of that which is
-being uttered through my lips. I am also unaware of the lapse of time.</p>
-
-<p>It may be best for me to here declare that I am not, in the usual
-sense, peculiar, nor was I different in my childhood from other
-children, save as each differs from the other. I was very diffident,
-and—not using the word in the psychical sense—sensitive. I was not
-given to morbid states or to the “dreaming of dreams.” Perhaps I was
-imaginative; most children are; and I loved fairy tales, but not
-unduly. This is simply to show that there was no abnormal condition of
-mind or body to produce the supernormal results that I have referred
-to.</p>
-
-<p>I ought also to say that I never made the slightest preparation for
-the discourses and poems given through my lips, many of which, as the
-reader may know, were listened to by able and thoughtful minds, and
-from them received the highest praise. I tell this, not boastingly,
-but with humble gratitude that I have been made the instrument of
-giving the message of immortality to the world.</p>
-
-<p>My own experiences during this period of entrancement, or while in the
-supernormal state, may be of peculiar interest to the reader, since
-they seem to be almost unique. While passing into this state I
-experience no physical sensations that are describable; a sense of
-being set free, of passing into a larger realm,—not of being
-transported or going anywhere,—is all that I can ever recall as
-sensation. Before I have time or opportunity to think how I feel, I am
-in the other state. Then I see, but I now know it is perception more
-than sight; I sometimes experience that which we call hearing in the
-human state, but I am fully aware; perception supersedes the senses.</p>
-
-<p>Those whom I meet are individualities; many are friends known to me in
-the form before they passed from the mortal state; many are those who
-were unknown to me personally, only known by name and fame; and many I
-have never known until they revealed themselves to me in this “inner,”
-“higher,” other realm. When returning to outward consciousness, I
-often see, or remember as sight, such visions of surpassing loveliness
-that no language, no gift of art, even with genius-portraiture, could
-describe or picture them. These scenes and visions are associated with
-individuals who exist in that state, and, apparently,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100">100</a></span> are objective;
-yet I am fully aware that they illustrate or depict the states and
-tastes of the individuals with whom they are seen, and are not organic
-physical forms, but psychic projections of the individual spirits.
-These forms and scenes readily pass and change according to the state
-of the one seeing them, or according to the state of the individual
-with whom they are associated. The “sphere” of a spirit, or of
-spirits, is the state or condition, not the environment.</p>
-
-<p>In early life, before my mind had thought on the “objective” and
-“subjective” meanings of thoughts and things, I thought these scenes
-were “objective” in the human, mundane sense. I am now perfectly aware
-that every sensuous faculty—seeing, hearing, etc.—is superseded by
-this “perception” to which I have before referred; in fact, that the
-bodily senses as well as the mental faculties—brain expression—are
-but the different avenues of perceiving and conveying the intelligence
-of the individual spirit while associated with material form, this
-perception, or awareness, being the one supreme state of the spirit.</p>
-
-<p>Still I have been shown series after series of beautiful
-scenes,—gardens, landscapes, visions of art, transcendent pictures of
-tint, form, and tone that no language can portray; and I am sure these
-abide for all who wish for or have need of them, and are the
-illustrations of the spiritual states of those with whom one comes in
-spiritual contact—<i>rapport</i>. Yet the greater the degree of
-perception, the less important become these illustrations of states;
-we not only see “face to face,” but perceive soul to soul. I became
-ashamed, almost, of the state of mind requiring these illustrations or
-any similar presentations. I found knowledge, however, in all the
-methods employed by my teachers, for they knew my needs.</p>
-
-<p>Conversation in that state is not by means of speech or even language;
-sometimes before the thought is formulated the answer comes. Such is
-the rare sympathy existing between teacher and pupil in this state
-that the guide knows before the question is formed. Still, there must
-be the conscious desire for knowledge, or no knowledge can be
-received; reminding one of the “Seek, and ye shall find” of the
-ancient Truth-Teller.</p>
-
-<p>When in that state I readily pass to a knowledge of what intimate
-friends in earth-life are doing and thinking. I even<span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101">101</a></span> enter into such
-<i>rapport</i> as to be aware of their material surroundings, their states
-of mind, and their bodily health, obtaining all this from their minds,
-not from physical consciousness or sensation. Many times they have
-been also conscious of my presence, and we have afterward verified
-these experiences by outward correspondence, mostly to satisfy our
-friends. One or two instances will suffice to illustrate this class of
-experiences.</p>
-
-<p>When I was yet a child, twelve years of age, my father accompanied me
-on one of my pilgrimages of spiritual work to western New York, our
-former home. During that visit or tour a circle for investigation and
-experiment was formed in Dunkirk, N. Y. After we returned to our then
-home in Wisconsin, I was one evening entranced,—as was usual,—and
-while in that state was distinctly conscious of being in Dunkirk, of
-seeing every member of the circle, with all of whom I was acquainted
-except one lady. She proved to be the seer of the evening. She saw me
-and described me so accurately that everyone in the circle recognized
-me, and, of course, thought I was dead. This so disturbed her mental
-or psychic state that I could not impress upon her mind that my body
-was entranced and that this was but one of my usual spiritual
-pilgrimages. On returning to my mundane state I narrated what I had
-experienced, and asked my father to write at once to the circle in
-Dunkirk and relieve their minds. He did so, but, as naturally would
-occur, they had also written, the letters crossing each other on the
-way, and their letter confirmed what I had told in every particular.</p>
-
-<p>Later in life I had a lady friend whom I repeatedly visited and
-comforted, for she was in great sorrow. One time I made her see my
-body, or its apparition, so plainly that she saw the dress in which it
-was clothed—precisely what I had wished, as it was the color she most
-liked to see me wear. Another friend in California became so
-susceptible to my presence that she wrote long letters from
-me—automatically—which I, in this state, dictated to her, thus
-rendering correspondence between us almost superfluous except for
-verification to our outward senses. My own mother was aware of my
-presence almost daily; and it was a curious fact that my telltale
-spirit would go to her and reveal the very things I wished to keep
-from her,—any little surprises or presents, or the time of my<span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id="page102">102</a></span>
-arrival home on a visit. However late the hour, I always found her
-ready with a warm supper to receive me. When arriving after the
-journey home she would say: “You came to me last night in spirit and
-told me you were coming in body.” All important things connected with
-my welfare she knew in a similar way.</p>
-
-<p>Two friends, Mr. and Mrs. B——, were extensive travellers. At one
-time they were absent three years, taking a tour of the Orient. We did
-not keep up a regular correspondence, as mutually our time was too
-much taken up with our respective duties or pleasures, but I could
-always locate them while I was in this “inner” state. At one time I
-saw them surrounded by what seemed more like a scene in the spirit
-state than in earth-life. They were on an island, surrounded by
-water-lilies; the skies were full of golden light, and they were amid
-pavilions, grottos, and altars of quaint and unique design. I could
-not place them, but on returning to my mundane state I related to my
-family what I had seen, and I wrote down the date. In about three or
-four weeks I had a letter from them dated at Tokio, giving a
-description of this very island I had seen; they were there on that
-very day when I saw them, and the island was as I had seen it. It
-proved to be one of the sacred islands in Japan.</p>
-
-<p>This consciousness of visiting earth friends is, however, only the
-smallest part of these inner experiences; and usually occurs when I am
-passing into or out of the deeper or more spiritual states. Although I
-could fill volumes with these interesting experiences,—verified by
-being shared with others in human life,—I feel it due to the reader
-that I narrate my more inner experiences; at least in sufficient
-degree that they may be recorded, and that there may be some
-perception, however inadequately expressed, of what is possible in
-this surpassing realm.</p>
-
-<p>I cannot pass from this subject of my visits to human friends,
-however, without here recording one other phase of this many-threaded
-line of experiences. While in this realm of spirit I often meet and
-converse freely, or commune, with friends that are yet in human forms,
-but who appear as spirits and seem to possess all the activities of
-the spiritual state. They meet and mingle freely with those who have
-“died” to human life, yet I<span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id="page103">103</a></span> am perfectly sure they recall nothing of
-this when in their human state. Why I should remember or take with me
-these experiences that the others whom I saw within this realm could
-not recall, I could not divine until it was explained by my guide.</p>
-
-<p>The explanation is this: “In sleep mortals pass into this realm for
-spiritual rest and change, as it is the normal realm of the spirit;
-but they do not pass through the spiritual awakening of the faculties
-as those do who are endowed with ‘spiritual gifts,’ therefore the
-experiences cannot be recalled <i>as experiences</i>; still, they sometimes
-have vague reminiscences or glimpses of ‘unremembered dreams’ that aid
-them throughout the whole day, often for days; and thus the outward
-life is sustained and fed from this realm. By and by the race will
-have spiritual growth to know and remember the experiences of the
-spirit as they now do of the human life.” I have frequently met those
-in that state who were strangers to me here, and who were still in
-human life; and in after years I have met them face to face in outward
-form, often wondering if they thought they had seen me before, as I
-was certain I had seen them. When the whole of this other side of
-human experience is made known, how many things now veiled will stand
-revealed! By far the greater number of volumes could be filled with
-those transcendent experiences referred to earlier in these pages,
-with friends in spirit states, with teachers and guides in their own
-realm.</p>
-
-<p>My mother, always intuitive, sympathetic, religious, and caring much
-for the sick and ailing while in earth life, I was accustomed to see
-in a sphere or state of her own near the “Healing Sphere” of one of my
-teachers. She was surrounded with her own favorite
-flowers—old-fashioned hollyhocks, sweet-williams, and fragrant
-healing herbs. My guide explained that in <i>her thought</i>, or spiritual,
-state she requires these things to aid her in healing or ministering
-to those on earth. Whenever I visited her state it seemed to be in the
-midst of scenery such as she loved on earth, and under a
-morning-glory-covered lattice, where she sat in a low chair like one I
-had seen her use in earth life. Though not limited to that state, she
-always revealed herself thus to me; and I would return to my earth
-state with a sense of homesickness, and with the odor of thyme and
-rosemary clinging to my <i>psychic olfactories</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page104" id="page104">104</a></span></p>
-
-<p>My father was interested in all the reforms of the day; he was a truly
-practical Christian, though not a professing one. He was looking for
-that ideal social state which we all hope is sometime coming, of
-“peace on earth and love to all.” His spirit state was revealed to me
-as among those arisen workers and reformers, whose work for humanity
-he loved and shared on earth, and learning of the wise ones,—a vast
-and wonderful sphere of individualities, who are still laboring for
-the good of humanity. I wished to know of my father, who passed out
-from the mortal form when I was thirteen years of age, and who was
-often my spirit teacher in my early life, why, after my mother had
-passed on, he was not always with her as in earth life. He replied,
-with a rare smile: “We are together; our work is different, but when
-we need each other we cannot be apart.”</p>
-
-<p>Singly or in groups, or as my needs seemed to require, I was aware of
-every relative and friend who had passed from mortal life, whom our
-mutual wish or need attracted toward me. I am sure there may be those
-related by ties of consanguinity whom I have not seen, and many
-related only by spiritual sympathy and kinship whom I have met and
-loved in that state.</p>
-
-<p>My babe, now a beautiful young woman in the spirit state, is my almost
-constant companion in those visitations and experiences. I have “seen
-her grow,” to use our mortal speech; have noted her spiritual
-unfoldment, and have many times been her pupil,—so wise are these
-“little ones” in the love of the angels, so sweet and simple is she in
-her teaching.</p>
-
-<p>How few know the real meaning of “nearness” as applied to those they
-love! One thinks of the friend whose bodily presence is removed by
-mountains, rivers, and oceans as being far away; yet London, China,
-and India are as near in thought as the chair beside one, and doubly
-near the one whose body may be sojourning there. This very nearness of
-sympathy debars any separation. If people would turn to the real
-indications,—sympathy, intuition,—whenever desired the friend is
-near. Doubly true is this of those who have passed the barrier of
-death and are revealed to the heart of love. They have not died, they
-have not gone; they are so near as not to be seen or felt by the
-grosser sense that governs the physical state of recognition; so very
-near that even the thoughts of the friend still<span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105">105</a></span> immured in the
-earthly form are shared by them, the very innermost longings responded
-to. Yet people unaccustomed to seek them in the inner instead of outer
-realm of existence, cannot find them, and say, “They are gone.” With
-space and time annihilated, what shall prevent the loved from being
-ever near?</p>
-
-<p>Teachers and guides bear a nearer relationship than those in human
-states, and teach by the magic law of adaptation and love. I cannot
-name, in earthly language, the tie that binds me to those who have led
-me through these many realms, who have taught by vision, illustration,
-and thought, until the awakened <i>perception</i> knew, the <i>a priori</i>
-knowledge came.</p>
-
-<p>I have often been conscious of visiting at desire a realm of music
-that led through the world of tone, through the spheres of matchless
-harmony in which the great masters of music abide,—Beethoven,
-Mendelssohn, Mozart, and to the divine realm of Wagner.</p>
-
-<p>The realm of art, leading through color and form to the images of
-perfect life, until form and tint and tone are merged in the supreme
-soul of beauty, and sculptured image or architectural grandeur is lost
-in the eternal, all-forming, all-changing changelessness of the Soul
-of Art.</p>
-
-<p>The realm of nature (the material universe), seen from the inverse
-side, appears to be the effect of causes that are in that realm of
-consciousness; laws that are the operation of the Supreme Will, the
-Logos. There science is reconstructed and made plain, and made secure
-by the knowledge of these fundamental principles.</p>
-
-<p>The realm of philosophy, traced to its primal sources, reveals the
-truths concerning universal knowledge, often perceived by the great
-teachers, but dimly stated by minds enshrouded by the environments of
-earth.</p>
-
-<p>The realm of religion,—the ineffable meaning of the All-Love and
-Wisdom; the nearness, the perfectness, the absoluteness of the Divine;
-the kinship of souls, the fraternity of spirits,—never in all this
-realm was there a thought, or teaching of thought, separate from a
-conscious individual entity.</p>
-
-<p>I find that there is no Time or Space in this inner realm; the entity
-is not governed by the limitations of the person, so the terms and
-usages of earthly existence must fall into desuetude.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" id="page106">106</a></span> One is not
-hampered by an ox-team while flying across the plains in a palace
-coach impelled by steam, and one does not need winter garments and
-furs in the tropics. The state of spirit needs no earthly day and
-night; all these are but incident to the physical earth and physical
-existence. The spirit is free from these limitations—time, space, and
-sensuous environment.</p>
-
-<p>It will be interesting for the reader to know that my physical health
-does not suffer from these experiences, nor from the active duties
-incident to my spiritual work in human life.</p>
-
-<p>I enter this spirit realm as naturally and easily as one enters the
-realm of sleep; yet it is not sleep. The body and brain are actively
-employed by another intelligence, loaned as an instrument might be,
-while the individual consciousness, the <i>ego</i> of the human being, is
-set free to visit these illimitable realms or states of the “inner,”
-the vaster, life.</p>
-
-<p>When the mundane consciousness returns, it is instantaneous; but the
-mental and physical sensations vary according to whether the
-experiences have been “near or far” from the human state, with
-reference not to distance, but to resemblance or similarity in
-quality. When the experiences have been furthest removed from those
-usual in human consciousness, many minutes, and sometimes hours, are
-required to adjust myself to the conditions. This inner state is far
-more intense, but not unlike that experienced when one has been wholly
-wrapped and folded from the outer world in perusing a favorite
-author—living with and experiencing the scenes depicted; or when one
-has listened for hours to the all-absorbing strains of music in the
-grand operatic creations of Wagner. On returning to the mundane state
-my food has often tasted like chips or straw; the fabric of my dress
-would feel coarse to the touch, as though woven of cords or ropes; and
-every sound seemed harsh or far too loud. Gradually these
-supersensitive conditions would depart, leaving the usual state of
-mind and body.</p>
-
-<p>I have said it is easy to pass into that state; not so easy is the
-returning to the human environment; yet one <i>must</i> return. Like the
-child bidden to the task, reluctant to leave the garden of flowers and
-the freedom of the outer world, yet, constrained by love and duty, one
-consents to return. I suspect that these sensations I experience, of
-return to the human state, are something<span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" id="page107">107</a></span> like those of resuscitation
-after one has been nearly drowned. The drowning is easy, because one
-is going into life; the restoration is painful, because one returns,
-if not to death, to mere existence. The work, the duty, the loved who
-are embodied here must win one to the form which has been loaned; but
-the spirit seems reluctant sometimes to leave that freedom and
-knowledge for the narrow walls of clay, the prison-house of sense. The
-only true way is to bring that realm with one into daily life. One
-learns after a time to do this: to clothe the earthly scenes with the
-inner brightness, and the human tasks with the spiritual aura of love
-and wisdom.</p>
-
-<p>I cannot judge whether the scenes of earth seem lovelier to me than to
-most mortals; whether there is more ravishing sweetness in the
-springtime, more glory in summer, more richness and beauty in the
-autumn, more rest and whiteness in the winter, more transcendent
-splendor in the sunset sky and glory in the starlit heavens. But it is
-certain that in being admitted to this inner realm the writer has not
-lost any blessing of earth,—of love, of home, of friends, of
-practical knowledge and interest in the daily duties and work of life;
-nor, I believe, can one be barred from any needed experience, however
-bitter. These teachings, visions, and experiences of soul-life have
-given to earth an exquisite beauty; to life’s work a meaning and
-impetus; to trials a lesson and interpretation; to the change called
-death a glory and radiance; to spirit states a nearness, and to soul a
-reality. Nor do these experiences rob one of one’s individuality; the
-petty <i>personality</i> to which mortals cling is, happily, forgotten or
-cast aside, but the <i>individuality</i> cannot be lost, merged in another,
-or governed, except for its good. When the <i>personal</i> is cast aside,
-one is grateful for the impersonality of the <i>individual</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Trailing clouds of glory accompany me across and into the barriers of
-time and sense, and when the sharp contrast is over—which the guide
-ever prevents from being too sudden—I realize the great sweetness of
-the gardens of paradise by the fragrance that is filling the earthly
-dwelling, and I know that being aware of the visitations of angels,
-and of somewhat of the light which is theirs, does not hinder, but
-helps human endeavor and accomplishment.</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108">108</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_12" id="article_12"></a>
-THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CIVICS.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY HENRY RANDALL WAITE, PH. D.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p><span class="sc">The</span> standard represented by popular institutions will seldom be
-higher, and as time goes on may become lower, than that set for
-themselves by the majority of the people who established and are
-intrusted with the duty of maintaining them. They may represent noble
-aims and point to high ideals, but the extent of their duration and
-salutary influence must always be dependent upon a sufficient
-manifestation of the spirit which called them into being.</p>
-
-<p>Institutions and laws, however perfect in other respects, cannot,
-therefore, safely omit from their functions provisions for the
-fostering and developing of the spirit which gave them birth. This
-spirit, it is to be remembered, may, and too often does, without
-extinguishment, actually become a thing so much apart from the
-machinery which it has established, as to have little appreciable
-influence in controlling its operation.</p>
-
-<p>The institutions and laws of the United States, in their inception,
-represented the spirit of a people who were actuated by the highest
-concepts of human duty, and who sought to establish a political system
-which should realize the highest ideals. The possibilities of the
-system have been demonstrated by the experience of more than a hundred
-years. Functionally considered this experience has made painfully
-evident the failures which have attended the system in its operation.
-It is evident to every intelligent student of American history that
-these failures have been chiefly due to the fact that the spirit which
-gave life to the American Republic has too often and too far been
-supplanted in the control of its affairs by a spirit utterly hostile
-to that which it was intended to be, and which, if the partial or
-complete failure of the system is to be averted, must, everywhere and
-always, be dominant. It is undoubtedly true that citizens whose
-character and ability fit them for the service necessary for the
-proper control of political affairs, constitute a sufficient number in
-the voting population to assure the ascendency<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109">109</a></span> of right ideas if
-their efforts can be united for the purpose. The fact that intelligent
-and controlling convictions of duty are absent, and that they do not
-thus unite, however explained, clearly accounts for the subversion of
-the spirit which founded our institutions, and the ascendency of a
-spirit of chicanery, greed, and corruption.</p>
-
-<p>It is also evident that the political evils which challenge our
-attention are primarily due, not to faults in our institutions
-themselves, but to failures in the assertion of the spirit of true
-Americanism by which they are intended to be controlled. How to secure
-ascendency for this spirit and thus to restore, in every part of the
-republic, the sovereignty of highest manhood, is the most pressing
-problem which can engage the attention of patriotic and intelligent
-American citizens.</p>
-
-<p>For more than fifteen years this question has been a matter of
-profound interest to the writer. The fact that ordinary uprisings
-against political evils fail to accomplish permanent results, seemed
-to him to afford convincing evidence that attention must be given to
-the roots and not confined to the branches; and that this foundation
-work must represent patient, persistent, and unselfish efforts for the
-promotion everywhere of the basic virtues of true patriotism,
-intelligence, integrity, and fidelity in citizenship relations.
-Believing that this work could be best accomplished through a
-permanent national institution which should invite and command the
-coöperation of good citizens everywhere, regardless of party, creed,
-sex, or class, he sought the advice and coöperation of a few
-distinguished men in the preparation of plans for such an institution.
-The assistance sought was willingly extended by such citizens as
-Morrison R. Waite, William Strong, and S. F. Miller, then respectively
-Chief Justice and Justices of the United States Supreme Court; by
-Theodore Woolsey, Noah Porter, F. A. P. Barnard, Mark Hopkins, Julius
-H. Seeley, and Theodore W. Dwight, among educators; and by such other
-eminent Americans as U. S. Grant, William Fitzhugh Lee, Robert C.
-Winthrop, Hugh McCulloch, John J. Knox, Orlando B. Potter, A. H.
-Colquitt, George Bancroft, Hannibal Hamlin, John Jay, Right Reverend
-William I. Kip, David Swing, and Phillips Brooks.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110">110</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The result of conferences and correspondence with these and other
-citizens of like character led to the founding, in 1885, of the
-American Institute of Civics, which was subsequently chartered under
-the laws of Congress, and was dedicated to the service of promoting
-the qualities in citizenship which Washington sought to promote by his
-latest labors and final bequests, and which he, in common with
-Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison, believed to be necessary “to the
-security of a free constitution,” and to the welfare of the government
-and people of the United States. Its distinctive purposes are
-succinctly set forth in its charter as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>1. To promote on the part of youths and adults generally, without
-reference to the inculcation of special theories or partisan
-views, a patient and conscientious study of the most essential
-facts relating to affairs of government and citizenship, to the
-end that every citizen may be qualified to act the part of an
-intelligent and upright juror in all affairs submitted to the
-decision of the ballot.</p>
-
-<p>2. To promote, in the same spirit, such special attention to the
-study of Civics<a name="fn_marker_7" id="fn_marker_7"></a><a href="#fn_7" class="fn_marker">[7]</a> in higher institutions of learning, and
-otherwise, as shall have a tendency to secure wise, impartial,
-and patriotic action on the part of those who shall occupy
-positions of trust and responsibility, as executive or
-legislative officers, and as leaders of public opinion.</p></div>
-
-<p>Organized under such auspices and with such purposes it represents the
-only practical and sustained effort which has been made by the people
-of the United States for the realization of the aims above outlined;
-and with persistency of purpose and increasing usefulness it has for
-more than twelve years prosecuted its mission for the safeguarding of
-American institutions.</p>
-
-<p>Political conditions past and present clearly justify the views of
-Washington and his contemporaries, and the opinions of the Institute’s
-founders, as to the need of a central source of salutary influences in
-the form of a national institution wholly devoted to a propaganda of
-the principles and ideas comprehensively described in Washington’s
-words as “the fundamental maxims of true liberty.”</p>
-
-<p>The sole object of this national, non-partisan, non-sectarian,
-popular, and permanent institution, is to voice these maxims, to
-inspire the spirit and give force to the principles which should<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111">111</a></span> have
-supreme control in affairs of government, citizenship, and social
-order.</p>
-
-<p>What the national military establishments at West Point and Annapolis
-are intended to accomplish in the way of preparing a few citizens for
-useful service in times of war, it is the purpose of this popular
-civil institution, with patriotic insistency and through all available
-efficiencies, to aid in accomplishing through provisions for properly
-preparing all citizens for the highest service of their country at all
-times.</p>
-
-<p>In the accomplishment of its objects, it directs its endeavors not so
-much to the creation of new agencies as to the giving of inspiration
-and energy to those already existing; and in pursuing this wise policy
-it has been a most useful factor in establishing the solidarity and
-increasing the power of the influences which represent civic virtue
-and true patriotism.</p>
-
-<p>Its efficiencies include, beside its National Board of Trustees,
-composed of thirty-three members, and its advisory faculty, composed
-of twelve members, the following departments:</p>
-
-<p>1. Department for the extension of information and activities
-promotive of good citizenship, through which provisions are made for
-home studies, and for lectures, discussions, studies, etc., in
-connection with schools, lyceums, civic associations, labor
-organizations, and institute clubs; this work being carried on with
-the coöperation and under the supervision of councillors in the
-communities where they reside, and with the aid of a corps of
-lecturers now numbering more than two hundred.</p>
-
-<p>2. Department of Educational Institutions conducted in coöperation
-with State and local officers of public instruction, teachers in
-elementary and high schools, and members of faculties in nearly two
-hundred and fifty higher institutions of learning.</p>
-
-<p>3. Publication Department, through which the equivalent of nearly
-twenty million pages of octavo matter has been issued under its
-auspices.</p>
-
-<p>4. Department of Legislation, in connection with which councillors and
-citizens generally have efficiently aided in securing needed reforms
-in the administration of public affairs, the protection and elevation
-of the suffrage, and the conservation of the highest interests of
-citizens and the state in other respects.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112">112</a></span></p>
-
-<p>5. Department of Applied Ethics, in connection with which efforts are
-made to properly and efficiently enlist the great body of citizens,
-including youths as well as adults, who profess to be governed by the
-highest concepts of duty, in practical labors for the establishment of
-wise, just, and salutary civic and social conditions.</p>
-
-<p>It is obvious that an institution of this character cannot depend for
-its maintenance upon citizens of merely negative virtue, nor can it
-expect the sympathy of scheming politicians to whose plans and power
-it is in direct opposition. Its dependence must be solely upon the
-willing services and financial support of those members of the body
-politic who are animated by the spirit of Washington, and who believe
-that in matters affecting the highest interests of our free
-institutions, such as civic virtue and civic fidelity, formation is
-better than re-formation, and that to constantly maintain salutary
-political conditions is infinitely preferable to frequent and
-disappointing struggles with corruptible elements, which through
-neglect of civic duty have been permitted to secure controlling power;
-in other words, that it is better to safely guard our inheritance of
-freedom than to battle for its rescue from unworthy hands.</p>
-
-<p>The Institute admits to membership in its National Body of Councillors
-all citizens who are commended to its Board of Trustees, by those
-already members, or by other citizens of known high character, as
-worthy of such membership by reason of their ability to contribute in
-some degree to the accomplishment of its purposes. It does not solicit
-the membership of citizens whose political affiliations are such as to
-rank them among those who are contributing to the evils which it seeks
-to correct. Its councillors are asked to share in an undertaking which
-tests the character of their citizenship by offering no rewards for
-their coöperation. It has employed no paid officers and no paid agents
-for the solicitation of funds. The united activities of its members
-have enabled it, and it is believed will continue to enable it, to
-present in itself an eloquent object-lesson in patriotism and a potent
-appeal to the spirit in citizenship—the true Americanism—which it
-seeks to foster. Its contributing councillors are asked for annual
-remittances of sums of from $2.00 upward, in accordance with their
-financial ability<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" id="page113">113</a></span> and the degree of their interest in its work. Those
-contributing $3.00 or more annually are entitled to receive all of its
-own publications, and also <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>, whose aims are largely identical
-with its own, and through which its official announcements will
-hereafter be published.</p>
-
-<p>It will be seen that the degree of responsibility resting upon its
-councillors financially and otherwise is a matter for their own
-determination, and one which will be decided in accordance with the
-disposition of each to recognize the truth, that the patriotic and
-unselfish labors of those who have gone before us, and of which we
-enjoy the priceless benefits, have laid upon us a sacred obligation
-which we can discharge only by the performance of similar labors.</p>
-
-<p>The foregoing statements, however encouraging, are chiefly significant
-as indicative of what may be, rather than of what has been,
-accomplished. Gratifying as the results of the Institute’s work have
-been, they represent but a tithe of what it might have accomplished
-with a larger degree of moral and pecuniary support. The extent of its
-field and the magnitude of the labors necessary in order to make it
-widely and effectively useful, when compared with the resources at its
-command, have constantly presented difficulties which would have
-discouraged its officers but for their abiding confidence in the
-ultimate willingness of the American people to give to it the measure
-of support warranted by the importance of the objects to which it is
-devoted. It has been not inaptly compared to a noble piece of
-enginery, whose highest possibilities in the way of efficiency and
-usefulness cannot be realized because the fuel furnished is
-insufficient for the supply of motive power. Its highest possibilities
-are, in truth, little more than dreams, the fulfilment of which may
-not be realized in the lives of those who are now giving it such
-unselfish service as they find possible in the midst of other pressing
-occupations.</p>
-
-<p>The time must soon come when it will be necessary to make arrangements
-for the permanent establishment of its central efficiencies, with
-adequate provision for its maintenance, at some suitable point yet to
-be selected. The suggestion has been made by some of the most
-distinguished of its councillors, that the descendants of American
-patriots cannot more worthily<span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id="page114">114</a></span> honor the memory of their sires, or
-more effectively promote the safety and perpetuity of the institutions
-for which they battled, than by making it their mission to maintain
-the American Institute of Civics. The fact that it was conceived,
-established, and has been conducted in the spirit of truest
-patriotism, and the results which it has already accomplished through
-services rendered wholly in the spirit of the words upon its corporate
-seal, “Ducit Amor Patriæ,” would seem to prove its title to the
-confidence and support of all who are proud of the fact that their
-forbears have been among the founders and defenders of our American
-institutions. It may not be a vain hope that this thought will, in
-some manner and at some time, take definite shape, perhaps in the form
-of a national memorial building at the capital, devoted to the
-collection and preservation of material illustrative of the nation’s
-history and progress, and to memorials of its illustrious dead. As has
-been said elsewhere,</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>Such a building, dedicated by enfranchised manhood to the cause
-of human freedom, may include a Hall of History and Civics, for
-the collection of appropriate relics, manuscripts, and books of
-colonial, continental, revolutionary, and subsequent periods; an
-Army and Navy Hall, devoted to exhibits illustrative of military
-and naval affairs, including battle-flags, arms, accoutrements,
-and similar material; a Memorial Hall, where the memory of
-illustrious Americans, statesmen, soldiers, philanthropists, and
-other great leaders, may be honored, and their memory perpetuated
-in statuary, paintings, mural tablets, and other appropriate
-ways, and which shall be to the people of America what
-Westminster Abbey is to the people of England—a place where the
-great exemplars of virtue, wisdom, and patriotism, the noblest
-citizens of the passing years, though dead, shall yet speak and
-have salutary influence, through successive generations; and a
-Hall of Instruction, which shall be the centre of the nation-wide
-activities of this noble American institution, and also of a
-school of civics to which American youth may come from every part
-of the land to avail themselves of exceptional opportunities for
-studies and investigations which shall qualify them for highest
-usefulness in the public service and in all the walks of
-citizenship.</p></div>
-
-<p>However this may be, the Institute, by its many years of patient,
-persistent, and, in view of the circumstances, remarkably successful
-activities, has established a claim upon the confidence and support of
-good citizens which must in due time receive suitable recognition.
-Further than this, these activities may be regarded as a necessary and
-fitting preparation for labors which shall be more fruitful in
-results, and in the hope of which those who have hitherto directed its
-affairs have found inspiration and encouragement.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115">115</a></span></p>
-
-<p>It has been truly said that,</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>If any honor attaches to the citizenship in which intelligent,
-loyal, and unselfish devotion to the highest interests of country
-are made paramount, the names of those who have united in efforts
-for the establishment of this Institute of Patriotism constitute
-a roll of honor. Its ability to fully realize its objects is
-dependent upon the number and the efforts of those whose names
-are upon this roll.</p>
-
-<p>Here is an opportunity for, and an appeal to, citizens of wealth.
-Money cannot be more worthily or wisely bestowed than in feeding
-the streams in whose life-giving power is the strength of the
-republic. Honorable names may find their noblest memorials by the
-gifts and endowments which shall forever connect them with this
-National School of Patriotism.</p></div>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116">116</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_13" id="article_13"></a>
-AN INDUSTRIAL FABLE.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline">BY HAMILTON S. WICKS.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">The</span> King of a certain country, whose power was absolute and whose will
-was despotic, issued an edict that all the laborers of his dominion
-who were engaged in honorable toil should exchange places with those
-persons who did no work or were engaged in dishonorable or merely
-speculative avocations, so that the laboring man should fare
-sumptuously and the non-laborer poorly. Those who worked up in the
-sunlight on the tall buildings should sit down in the evening to
-bountiful banquets and should sleep in fine linen on luxurious
-couches; while those who crawled below in the bleak valleys between
-the beetling cliffs of architecture should go to frugal meals and
-sleep amid the rough surroundings of the abodes of the poor. The
-monarch reasoned that those who did the world’s work were more
-deserving of the good things of the world than were the idle or the
-vicious, however wealthy. He imagined that the world was turned upside
-down socially and economically, and he proposed to turn it back again
-by his royal fiat.</p>
-
-<p>Backed by his sword, “which is the badge of temporal power wherein
-doth sit the dread and fear of kings,” he apprehended no failure in
-his plans, which had been worked out in their minutest detail. His
-army was the largest of any nation, and was to a man devoted to its
-King. His genius had won many victories and extended the borders of
-glory. Through his impartial system of promotion men from the ranks
-had risen to be commanders. The soldiery were well fed, well housed,
-and well paid. A word, a nod, from their King would set in motion this
-mighty machine to crush out all opposition. Supplementing the military
-arm of his government the King had organized the most elaborate system
-of <i>espionage</i>, so that all secrets were open to him, and no
-whisperings in the street or the club but were conveyed distinctly to
-his royal ear by the microphone of his spy system. The press was
-gagged or inspired; the legislature was composed of fawning
-sycophants; his judiciary was<span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id="page117">117</a></span> merely a reflection of the royal will;
-and Holy Church itself displayed its purple robe and golden bowl but
-to ornament his processions or to hallow his feasts.</p>
-
-<p>Thus matters stood on the evening of the day this great social
-revolution was inaugurated. It fell out that a group of honest
-laborers were descending the elevator that carried the brick and
-mortar to the twentieth story of a certain downtown sky-scraper. While
-all of them knew of the edict of their King, none had taken it
-seriously or imagined for a moment that it would be carried into
-effect literally. On their arrival at the ground floor, a policeman
-stationed there stopped them and, motioning to an elegant equipage
-standing across the way, informed them that it was the King’s command
-that they should enter it and be driven to one of the avenue clubs
-which had been assigned for their accommodation. Into it they were
-thrust, dinner-pails and all. They had scarcely time to recover their
-equanimity, as they were rapidly whirled through one thoroughfare
-after another, till the avenue in question was reached and they were
-deposited in front of a stately brownstone mansion. Their coming had
-been expected, and the great doors swung open as they alighted, whilst
-a uniformed lackey motioned them to enter. Their astonishment was
-redoubled at the splendor of the interior furnishings. Each was
-assigned a room, where they were bathed and groomed and dressed in
-garments suitable for their surroundings. Dinner was served by the
-time they were ready, and into the glittering <i>salle à manger</i> they
-were duly ushered. A fashionable <i>table d’hôte</i> was a new sensation to
-every man of them, and they certainly astonished the <i>table d’hôte</i>.
-It (the <i>table d’hôte</i>) never realized before what it was to be fully
-appreciated. An evening of cigars, wine, and billiards followed; and
-then they stretched their tough and sinewy workmen’s legs between the
-whitest of silken sheets, spread over the springiest of hair
-mattresses, on the brightest of brass bedsteads. There we leave them
-to such dreams as their surroundings invited, to turn our attention to
-four bachelor brokers on the stock exchange, whose apartments at the
-club our bachelor workingmen were inhabiting.</p>
-
-<p>With as little thought of the reality of the great King’s edict as the
-workingmen themselves, they were sauntering forth from<span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id="page118">118</a></span> the exchange
-at the hour of 3 <span class="smcap">p. m.</span>, when they were pounced upon by a quarter score
-of stalwart policemen and landed inside a rough luggage conveyance.
-Baxter Street was a Garden of Eden compared to the slums to which they
-were driven, and they were finally sheltered in a dirty tenement that
-arose in a series of rickety stories to a dizzy height. Their
-fastidious taste would not permit them to indulge in sleep amid such
-commonplace surroundings, where the only furniture of their room
-consisted of two dirty beds and a filthy sink. So they sat up all
-night smoking the cigars they happened to have in their clothes when
-captured, and muttering deep curses against their eccentric ruler.</p>
-
-<p>The following morning the awakening of the laborers resembled that of
-Christopher Sly in “The Taming of the Shrew.” They were bewildered
-with astonishment at the appointments of their surroundings and the
-service of their attendants. A champagne headache was a natural
-accompaniment to the previous night’s drinking and gorging; so that
-fashionable “coffee and rolls,” though served in the most delicate of
-faïence, seemed but meagre fare upon which to commence the arduous
-labors of the day. At precisely 5:30 <span class="smcap">a. m.</span> the same carriage they had
-occupied the previous evening, with its crested panels, its liveried
-coachman, and its spanking span of bays, was at the door to convey
-them back to work.</p>
-
-<p>The same routine was substantially carried into effect each day, a
-natural consequence of which was that they became weary of their
-enforced luxury, and their hearts yearned for the humble living of
-their tenement, with its rough and hearty jollity, and its freedom
-from constraint and the supervision of lackeys, however well dressed
-or polite. In the case of the fastidious brokers kept under
-surveillance, tired nature at last, reluctant, yielded. There came a
-day, or rather a night, when even they were able to sleep—an uneasy,
-troubled sleep, it is true—amid the mean surroundings of the
-tenement.</p>
-
-<p>The determined will of the monarch so ordered affairs that the
-conditions under his edict were kept in force for many days. He
-proposed to give a thorough test to his quixotic ideas. The portion of
-the workmen was hard manual labor by day in the upper regions of air
-and light, and by night the relaxation of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" id="page119">119</a></span> enervating luxury; and the
-portion of the brokers was deep dejection, deep curses, and haggard
-sleeplessness.</p>
-
-<p>The culmination of this condition of unrest occurred at a great ball
-which another royal edict had blazoned forth to be given as a tribute
-to the laboring masses, and at which the non-producers would be
-compelled to assist, not indeed as menials, but as experienced
-advisers. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars at least would be
-expended on the pomp and glory of the occasion. The sage counsellors
-of state, men deeply versed in the lore of the past, were called
-together to devise costumes for the crude working people and to frame
-rules of etiquette for their behavior. The most elaborate descriptions
-appeared in the daily press of what was proposed. For weeks the vast
-preparations went steadily forward. Everything of luxury and ornament
-that the commerce of the empire sucked up from the farthest confines
-of the earth was made to minister to the great event.</p>
-
-<p>At last the auspicious day arrived. One of the grandest palaces of the
-King himself was the scene of the festivity. The costumes worn
-represented many of the great names of history, from Julius Cæsar to
-Napoleon Bonaparte, and from Cleopatra to Marie Antoinette. The height
-of the great occasion was reached somewhat after midnight when the
-<i>quadrille d’honneur</i> was announced. The great King sat upon a raised
-dais, or throne, the better to view the gorgeous pageant. A mighty
-fanfare of trumpets, which seemed to whirl the feelings for a moment
-into the forces beyond mortality, invited to the initial movements of
-the quadrille. It was as though an army with banners was about to
-launch its squadrons upon the foe in some majestic Friedland or
-Gettysburg. As the sound died away, there was a pause. The great King
-looked up in amazement, and stamping that foot whose heel had rested
-upon the necks of mighty potentates, now his willing vassals, he arose
-with frown black as midnight.</p>
-
-<p>Suffer me, O reader, to recall the elements of this unparalleled
-occasion: On the one hand, almost omnipotent power, backed by
-transcendent though wayward genius, a will that hitherto had never
-been balked, an unsullied prestige, a front of Jove to threaten and
-command, upon which great thought registered<span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" id="page120">120</a></span> every varying
-expression, one of the least of which would have endowed an ordinary
-prince with lasting renown. On the other hand, “fantastic compliment
-strutting up and down tricked in outlandish feather.” A motion from
-the hand of majesty, now fully erect, sent another mighty wave of
-martial music flying on invisible wings, in thousand forms, throughout
-every corridor. As this second summons for the masterpiece to be set
-in motion died away in turn, two bands of men detached themselves from
-the distant throng massed in the farthest background, and came slowly
-forward with bowed heads and deferential tread. At the same instant a
-hundred brilliant officers of the household stepped out of the
-corridors behind the King with drawn swords, and other hundreds
-crowded behind them prepared to do their master’s instant service.</p>
-
-<p>The Great Strategist comprehended the situation with a single sweeping
-glance of his eagle eye, and drawing himself up full height motioned
-his servitors with his left hand back into their concealment, while
-with his extended right hand he encouraged with benignant gesture the
-approach of the representatives of the people, who had shrunk back in
-dismay when the King’s guard sprang forth so abruptly. It was now seen
-that the approaching bands were composed in equal parts of the gaudily
-caparisoned workmen and their plainly dressed advisers. Each party
-bore in its midst an enormous roll, whose weight impeded anything like
-rapid progress. On arriving at the front of the throne, they deposited
-their burdens and then prostrated themselves before the King. When
-bidden to arise and state their purpose, a stalwart son of toil
-stepped forward in front of his comrades. He was attired in a $10,000
-costume, representing Henry of Navarre. This costume sat upon his
-rugged limbs as though they had been melted into it. The King gazed
-complacently upon his manufactured nobleman and bade him proceed.</p>
-
-<p>“August and Sovereign King!” thus began the blacksmith, for such he
-was when not intoxicated or attending a costume ball—“August and
-Sovereign King, I have been pushed forward by my fellows who have
-joined in this petition, with a vast multitude of their co-workers,
-similarly gorged with hateful luxury. They ask me to state plainly to
-your Majesty that they now know from actual experience how hollow and
-worthless<span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" id="page121">121</a></span> are all the glories of the merely rich, whose time is
-devoted to vain shows and in devising new delicacies for the palate.
-They beseech your Majesty that you, in accordance with your gracious
-pleasure, should restore them to their simple and humble paths of
-life, wherein they will dwell in reasonable contentment hereafter.”</p>
-
-<p>The workman ceased, and the spokesman for wealth and idleness stepped
-forward and pleaded his case very eloquently. He showed, in the
-petition which many thousands of his class had signed, that through
-their recent experience they all had been made to feel the weight of
-life as it rests upon those under them. He averred that he and his
-fellows were heartily sick of their lives thus ordered, and that they
-petitioned the King to send them beyond his confines, or place them in
-his army, or, better still, allow them to seek honorable employment in
-vocations more in accord with their taste and inclination.</p>
-
-<p>The King, esteeming that he had sufficiently disciplined the wealthy
-and had measurably cast out the “daimon of unrest” from the mind of
-labor, while at the same time he had given a notable illustration to
-all his people of the folly of outrunning too far the sentiments of
-your age, and the arrant rot of placing edicts upon the statute books
-that at once become a dead letter unless backed by despotic force, and
-feeling the security of his position, stood before his petitioners,
-lightly leaning on his left foot, with his right hand in the breast of
-his coat, and thus addressed them:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>“My people, the results flowing from my edict are not otherwise
-than I fully believed would result; I am satisfied at the real
-good that has been accomplished. Many there are who would like to
-see human nature changed by an equally absurd upheaval of the
-social fabric, which would instantly place the limbs of labor
-between cambric sheets and line their stomachs with sweetmeats.
-The truly wise base their expectations for the race upon no such
-sudden revolution, but rather see salvation for their fellows in
-a gradual and natural betterment of conditions, a growth upwards
-that can be maintained through all the spasms of reform, a
-lifting of the whole fabric of society by the great forces of
-education, faith, and persistency, which are and have ever been
-the architects of the race.”</p></div>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id="page122">122</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_14" id="article_14"></a>
-PLAZA OF THE POETS.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><big>REPLY TO “LOCKSLEY HALL SIXTY YEARS AFTER.”</big><br />
-BY BARTON LOMAX PITTMAN.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<div class="small">
-<div class="poem10"><div class="stanza">
-<p>Nay, my grandsire, though you leave me latest lord of Locksley Hall,</p>
-<p>Speak of Amy’s heavenly graces and the frailty of her fall,</p>
-<p>Point me to the shield of Locksley, hanging in this mansion lone,</p>
-<p>I must turn from such sad splendor ere my heart be changed to stone.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>While you prate of pride ancestral and the dead dreams of your youth,</p>
-<p>I, despite my birth and lineage, am a battler for the truth.</p>
-<p>To the work-worn, half-starved peasants of this realm my heart goes out—</p>
-<p>Those who, plundered and forgotten, find this life a ruthless rout.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>In the rustling robes of Amy bloomed the roses that had fled</p>
-<p>From the cheeks of pauper maidens forced into the brothel-bed;</p>
-<p>In her saintly smiles and glances flashed the sunlight that was shut</p>
-<p>By the iron-hand injustice from the cotter’s humble hut.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Nay, ‘tis wrong that we should range with science glorying in the time,</p>
-<p>While we force our brother mortals into squalor, need, and crime;</p>
-<p>Wicked we should pose as Christians singing songs to God on high,</p>
-<p>Heedless of his tortured creatures who in pauper prisons lie.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Christless is the crime of turning creed-stopped ears to teardrops shed</p>
-<p>By the women whom oppression robs of virtue for their bread.</p>
-<p>Satan’s blush would mantle crimson could he see the stunted child</p>
-<p>Slaving in our marts and markets, helpless, hopeless, and reviled—</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>See its pallid face uplifted from the whirling factory wheels,</p>
-<p>Tear-stained with the grief and anguish of a baby brain that reels,</p>
-<p>Tortured in life’s budding springtime, toiling on with stifled cries,</p>
-<p>Seeing, through its tears refracted, rippling cascades, azure skies;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" id="page123">123</a></span></p>
-<p>Skies and birds and flowery meadows made for children wealthy-born,</p>
-<p>While God’s outcasts, with their parents, robbed and drudging, live forlorn,</p>
-<p>Men in whom the fires of hope have sunk into a sordid spark,</p>
-<p>Mothers rearing helpless infants for the brothel’s dawnless dark.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>While this world seems far too crowded to provide us work for all,</p>
-<p>Acres spread their untilled bosoms, while the nations rise and fall.</p>
-<p>Nature’s storehouse, made for all men, is monopolized by some,</p>
-<p>Robbing labor of its produce, making almshouse, jail, and slum.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Side by side with art and progress creeps the haggard spectre, Want—</p>
-<p>Creeps the frightful phantom, Hunger, with its bloodless body gaunt.</p>
-<p>Wider, wider spreads the chasm ‘twixt the wealthy and the poor,</p>
-<p>Social discontent declaring that such wrongs cannot endure.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>And this yawning of the chasm is the curse of every race,</p>
-<p>As it saps and kills its manhood ere it reach the zenith-place;</p>
-<p>Spartan valor, Grecian learning, Roman honor had their day,</p>
-<p>But land plunder rose among them, dooming death by slow decay.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Shall we wait for evolution, let it right these monstrous wrongs,</p>
-<p>While the helpless, young, and tender writhe and groan ‘neath social thongs?</p>
-<p>Nay, ‘tis better all should perish in a battle for the right,</p>
-<p>Than let philosophic cowards keep us in this stygian night.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Locksley Hall has now a master who would claim the earth for all,</p>
-<p>Who would make the titled idler cease to rob his tenant-thrall;</p>
-<p>Wreck the Church and State if need be (better such in time will rise),</p>
-<p>But who from this glorious purpose nevermore will turn his eyes—</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Never, till the arms of nature clasp in joy her outcast child,</p>
-<p>Long since driven from the meadow and the dell and woodland wild,</p>
-<p>Till to each belongs the produce of his hand and heart and brain,</p>
-<p>And glad heralds of millennium thrill along our path of pain.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Though the world has piled its fagots round the great and good and brave;</p>
-<p>Thrust its Socrates the hemlock, scourged its Jesus to the grave;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id="page124">124</a></span></p>
-<p>Though its sneer has chilled the tender, and its frown has cursed the good,</p>
-<p>While its Nero sways the sceptre and its Emmett dies in blood;</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Yet in Truth there is a power that through ceaseless cycles slow</p>
-<p>Will inscribe the doom of Error in an ever-fadeless glow,</p>
-<p>That will trample on oppression, burst the chains and crush the throne,</p>
-<p>Rearing on the blood and ruin justice-reign from zone to zone.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Idealistic dreamer, say you? In your youth you once felt so?</p>
-<p>Well, I only pray life’s sunset, bowing down my head with snow,</p>
-<p>Shall not swerve me from my purpose, though the victor-laurels twine</p>
-<p>In my reach, and if forsaking my convictions they are mine.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Do not so condemn the realists, rhymesters, authors, and their way,</p>
-<p>Just because they point about us to the errors of to-day;</p>
-<p>Spare them, though they gaze not upward from our self-wrought piteous plight,</p>
-<p>For, though blinded and despairing, they are struggling toward the light.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Let the realist dip his falcon in the boiling blood of life,</p>
-<p>Tracing in heartrending horror all the hoary wrongs and strife,</p>
-<p>Till the world shall sick and sadden of its folly and its sin,</p>
-<p>Hearkening through the roar of traffic to the still small voice within—</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Voice which murmurs Christ’s own message as we circle round the sun:</p>
-<p>That, though greed and creed divide us, still humanity is one—</p>
-<p>One in all its godlike longing, one in all its hopes and fears,</p>
-<p>With its calvaries, scaffolds, hemlocks, and its seas of unshed tears.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Then this star of sorrow swinging through the vast immortal void</p>
-<p>Shall, regenerated, slumber while man’s heart is overjoyed,</p>
-<p>Thrilled with yearnings altruistic, triumphing o’er clods of clay,</p>
-<p>As we march into the love-light of the grand Millennial day.</p>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id="page125">125</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_15" id="article_15"></a>
-JOHN BROWN.</h2>
-
-<p class="author_byline">BY COATES KINNEY.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<p>The Great Republic bred her free-born sons</p>
-<p class="i2">To smother conscience in the coward’s hush,</p>
-<p>And had to have a freedom-champion’s</p>
-<p class="i2">Blood sprinkled in her face to make her blush.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>One Will became a passion to avenge</p>
-<p class="i2">Her shame—a fury consecrate and weird,</p>
-<p>As if the old religion of Stonehenge</p>
-<p class="i2">Amid our weakling worships reappeared.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>It was a drawn sword of Jehovah’s wrath,</p>
-<p class="i2">Two-edged and flaming, waved back to a host</p>
-<p>Of mighty shadows gathering on its path,</p>
-<p class="i2">Soon to emerge as soldiers, when the ghost</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Of John Brown should the lines of battle form.</p>
-<p class="i2">When John Brown crossed the Nation’s Rubicon,</p>
-<p>Him Freedom followed in the battle-storm,</p>
-<p class="i2">And John Brown’s soul in song went marching on.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Though John Brown’s body lay beneath the sod,</p>
-<p class="i2">His soul released the winds and loosed the flood:</p>
-<p>The Nation wrought his will as hest of God,</p>
-<p class="i2">And her bloodguiltiness atoned with blood.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>The world may censure and the world regret:</p>
-<p class="i2">The present wrath becomes the future ruth;</p>
-<p>For stern old History does not forget</p>
-<p class="i2">The man who flings his life away for truth.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>In the far time to come, when it shall irk</p>
-<p class="i2">The schoolboy to recite our Presidents’</p>
-<p>Dull line of memorabilia, John Brown’s work</p>
-<p class="i2">Shall thrill him through from all the elements.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id="page126">126</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_16" id="article_16"></a>
-DEMOS.</h2>
-
-<p class="author_byline">BY W. H. VENABLE, LL. D.</p>
-<hr class="short" />
-
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<p>America, my own!</p>
-<p class="i2">Thy spacious grandeurs rise</p>
-<p>Faming the proudest zone</p>
-<p class="i2">Pavilioned by the skies;</p>
-<p>Day’s flying glory breaks</p>
-<p class="i2">Thy vales and mountains o’er,</p>
-<p>And gilds thy streams and lakes</p>
-<p class="i2">From ocean shore to shore.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Praised be thy wood and wold,</p>
-<p class="i2">Thy corn and wine and flocks,</p>
-<p>The yellow blood of gold</p>
-<p class="i2">Drained from thy cañon rocks;</p>
-<p>Thy trains that shake the land,</p>
-<p class="i2">Thy ships that plough the main!</p>
-<p>Triumphant cities grand</p>
-<p class="i2">Roaring with noise of gain!</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Yet not the things of sense,</p>
-<p class="i2">By nature wrought, or art,</p>
-<p>Prove soul’s preëminence,</p>
-<p class="i2">Or swell the patriot heart;</p>
-<p>Our country we revere</p>
-<p class="i2">For that from sea to sea</p>
-<p>Her vast-domed atmosphere</p>
-<p class="i2">Is life-breath of the free.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Brown Labor, gazing up,</p>
-<p class="i2">Takes hope, and Hunger stands</p>
-<p>Holding her empty cup</p>
-<p class="i2">In pale, expectant hands.</p>
-<p>Brave young Ambition waits</p>
-<p class="i2">Thy just law’s clarion call,</p>
-<p>That power unbar the gates</p>
-<p class="i2">Of privilege to all.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id="page127">127</a></span></p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Trade’s fickle signets coined</p>
-<p class="i2">From Mammon’s molten dust,</p>
-<p>With reverence conjoined,</p>
-<p class="i2">Proclaim “In God we trust.”</p>
-<p>Nor doth the legend lie:</p>
-<p class="i2">The People, patient, bide,</p>
-<p>Trusting the Lord on high,</p>
-<p class="i2">To thunder on their side.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Earth’s races look to thee;</p>
-<p class="i2">The peoples of the world</p>
-<p>Thy risen splendors see,</p>
-<p class="i2">And thy wide flag unfurled;</p>
-<p>Kelt, Slav, and Hun behold</p>
-<p class="i2">That banner from afar,</p>
-<p>They bless each streaming fold,</p>
-<p class="i2">And cheer its every star.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>For liberty is sweet</p>
-<p class="i2">To every folk and age,—</p>
-<p>Armenia, Cuba, Crete,—</p>
-<p class="i2">Despite war’s heathen rage,</p>
-<p>Or scheming diplomat</p>
-<p class="i2">Whose words of peace enslave.</p>
-<p>Columbia! Democrat</p>
-<p class="i2">Of Nations! speak and save!</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>As mightful Moses led</p>
-<p class="i2">To Canaan’s promised land;</p>
-<p>As Christ victorious bled,</p>
-<p class="i2">Obeying Love’s command;</p>
-<p>So thou, Right’s champion,</p>
-<p class="i2">God’s chosen leader strong,</p>
-<p>Gird up thy loins! march on!</p>
-<p class="i2">Defend mankind from Wrong.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" id="page128">128</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_17" id="article_17"></a>
-THE EDITOR’S EVENING.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-<p class="author_byline"><b>Leaf From My Samoan Notebook.</b><br />
-(A. D. 2297.)</p>
-
-
-<p><span class="sc">In</span> that age (<i>siècle</i> XIX, <i>ad finem</i>) great attention was given on
-the continent of Am-ri-ka to increased speed in locomotion. Men and
-women went darting about like the big yellow gnats that we see at
-sundown on the western coast of our island when the bay is hazy. The
-whole history of that century in both Am-ri-ka and Yoo-rup might well
-be written around the fact of <i>transit</i>, for transit was the spinal
-cord of the whole social, civil, and political order. Man-life then
-seemed to oscillate more rapidly than ever before, as if in sympathy
-with the vibration of the universal ether.</p>
-
-<p>The struggle for the increase of speed began in the early part of the
-century referred to—about 1822. Scarcely had the wars of Na-Bu-Leon
-subsided when the matter of getting over the earth’s surface at a
-greater velocity was taken up as eagerly as if life consisted in going
-quickly to a certain point. Men, it would appear, had not yet learned
-that the principal aim of this existence is the <i>going</i>, and not the
-<i>getting there</i>. Then it was that the steam En-jo-in was invented. The
-Bah-lune had been frequently tried, but always with ludicrous or fatal
-results. A young man by the name of Dee Green once essayed this method
-in Am-ri-ka, with a most ridiculous catastrophe. A poem was written
-about the affair beginning thus—</p>
-
-<p class="center">
-An aspiring genius was Dee Green.</p>
-
-<p>For more than half a century locomotion by steam prevailed in
-Am-ri-ka, though it did not satisfy the demand for swiftness. When
-this method no longer sufficed, several expedients were found to
-<i>avoid</i> going anywhere. It was observed that the necessity of going
-depended upon the limitation of the human voice; that is, of hearing
-vocal utterances. The voices of human beings could not then be heard
-beyond a certain limit. To hear the voice of a man from Am-ri-ka to
-Ing-land was then thought to be impossible. The possessors of voices,
-therefore,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id="page129">129</a></span> had in that age to <i>get together</i> before they could
-communicate. True, there were some men upon whom this necessity did
-not rest, for they could be heard at a great distance. It might be
-noted, however, that this kind, called <i>Homo politicus</i>, had so little
-sense that nobody cared to hear them, so that their success in
-vociferation amounted to nothing.</p>
-
-<p>All the people of Am-ri-ka who were civilized spoke in a low tone, and
-any who cared to communicate must seek each other’s presence. This had
-been the reason for the old invention of E-pistol-ary correspondence.
-This method, however, was not satisfactory, since it required much
-time to say only a little, and since what was said in this manner was
-found so wide of the mark as to produce disastrous results. Society
-was, on this account, frequently rent with lawsuits, having no better
-foundation than a bundle of Let-yers.</p>
-
-<p>To avoid this trouble another invention, called the Far-talker (or
-Tel-ef-oan), was made; and by means of this conceit the people of
-Am-ri-ka could speak to one another many miles apart. The Far-talker
-was a remarkable sort of invention by which one merchant, by
-stretching a copper thread across the country to the ear of another
-merchant, could talk to him <i>through the wire</i>. The other merchant
-could reverse and talk back! Sometimes a young woman would tiptoe up
-to the box where the wire ended and say the most absurd things to her
-favorite fop down-town; this was often overheard. People had not yet
-learned the method of understanding each other’s thoughts without the
-ridiculous contrivance of speech, written scratches, wires, and
-Fo-ny-grafs.</p>
-
-<p>It was at this time that men, in their effort to carry themselves from
-place to place, seem to have taken the first hints from nature. It was
-remembered that <i>between</i> swimming and flying, and <i>between</i> flying
-and walking, certain forms of locomotion, quite rapid withal, are used
-by our poor relatives on land and sea. Thus the flying-fish rises from
-the water and shoots, quite parabolically, for some distance through
-the air. The genus Cheiroptera also gives a hint of progress by means
-of wings that are not made of feathers. The flying lemur, nearly akin
-to <i>Homo bifurcans</i>, shows how one may rise and go by a sort of aërial
-progress along the ground.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page130" id="page130">130</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Out of these hints the men of Am-ri-ka, at the epoch of which we
-speak, sought inventions by means of which they might keep close to
-the ground for safety, but otherwise fly; for the age was very fast!
-Under these conditions some Unknown Man invented what was called the
-By-sigh-kel. It was a sort of flat-sided, rotary ground-skimmer, very
-thin and notorious. It came coincidently with another invention called
-the Trol-lee. The latter was an electrical wagon for general travel in
-cities and suburbs, while the By-sigh-kel was a personal carriage for
-one or possibly two. The passenger in this case had to start his
-machine and then jump on. The propulsion was effected by a pump-like
-action of the legs, very tiresome and elegant. The passenger generally
-leaned forward in a position strongly suggestive of the favorite
-attitude of his arboreal ancestors. It was the peculiarity of the
-Trol-lee that it made a sort of humming roar as it went that sounded
-like a hundred prisoners groaning in unison; but the By-sigh-kel made
-no noise in going except in collisions and wrecks. The latter were so
-frequent that a whole cycle of restorative arts had to be undertaken
-of which the principal was dentistry. At the close of the century
-there were few front teeth remaining—except artificials.</p>
-
-<p>Many accounts of the Age of the By-sigh-kel and Trol-lee have been
-preserved among the old records of Am-ri-ka, and traditions of it are
-found in the antiquarian papers of other countries. We have seen
-pictorial representations made by Fo-to-graf-ure of scenes from the
-age referred to. The streets of extinct cities are found pictured in
-this way. There was an instrument called the Cow-dack which was used
-in taking pictures in an instantaneous manner, so that the scene would
-look like life.</p>
-
-<p>A busy street, thus pictured, in that time, shows many Trol-lees
-rushing by, filled with merry people. Along the side-ways scores of
-passengers are seen, mounted on their ‘Sigh-kels, going in divers
-directions at full speed. The passengers present many aspects; for
-riding the ‘Sigh-kel was an art which had to be acquired; and by some
-this could not be done—at least not gracefully done. Many tried, but
-few were chosen. Two classes of people suffered much in this
-particular, namely, the very fat and the very bony. Those whom nature
-had favored in form<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id="page131">131</a></span> and feature, and who had acquired the art of
-sitting upright, look well enough in these old pictures of a past age.
-But the clumsy and obese, the slender and angular people may well be
-laughed at even through the shadowy retrospect of four centuries.</p>
-
-<p>One of the ‘Sigh-kel machines was made <i>double</i>; and an old cartoon
-which is now before me gives to this kind the name of Tan-doom. On
-this men and women frequently rode together, the woman going before,
-for that was the age in which the woman, becoming new, showed her
-newness by being forward.</p>
-
-<p>Nor may we leave these reminiscences of a bygone age without
-reflecting upon the absurdities of our ancestors, who had not yet
-imagined the ease and excellence of our own method of locomotion by
-skimming at will the surface of the earth. The facile beauty and
-natural art with which we now rise from the ground and propel
-ourselves by our own thought and wish to any distance—thus
-vindicating our superiority to all other creatures in our method of
-excursion—are facts so obvious and ever-present that we fail to
-reflect upon the impediments and hardships of the people of Am-ri-ka
-and indeed of the whole world in the nineteenth century….</p>
-
-<p>Thinking on these things I can but imagine that I have myself seen
-them in some previous epoch of my existence. The facts which I have
-recorded appear dimly, as if in memory of what I once beheld; but the
-vision of it is so obscure that I still doubt whether it be dream or
-reality. I have long imagined that we retain from one epoch of our
-existence to the next a vague recollection of our experiences in the
-remote ages of the past. I sometimes think that it is not impossible
-that I myself, in some forgotten avatar, used to sit alone at the
-window of my office, looking into the street of one of the old towns
-of Am-ri-ka where the Trol-lees were going one way and the
-By-sigh-kels the other way, crossing and darting hither and yon,
-according to the wills of the riders; but the vision is so dim that it
-looks like the fictions of sleep.</p>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p class="heading">Vita Longa.</p>
-
-<p>The question is not how long this bodily life may last, or how long
-the mind, so conditioned, can endure. It is not even<span class="pagenum"><a name="page132" id="page132">132</a></span> how long the
-mind may continue to produce; for the mind, like a poor,
-half-exhausted field, urged with rain and fertilizers, may produce
-only potatoes, mullen, and cockle. The real question—the deep-down
-essence of it—is how long the mind, or soul, may retain the
-enthusiasm and passionate power of <i>creation</i>. That is the only true
-test of longevity; and when that ceases there is nothing left. The
-real duration of man-life is measured only by the persistency of
-creative power.</p>
-
-<p>Longfellow, standing in the old pulpit, on the fiftieth anniversary of
-his class at Bowdoin, and saying to those who would introduce him, “I
-wish the desk were large enough to conceal me all,” makes a beautiful
-section of this theme by citing some of the most inspiring instances
-of the long life of the soul:</p>
-
-<div class="small">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<p>Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles</p>
-<p>Wrote his grand Œdipus, and Simonides</p>
-<p>Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers,</p>
-<p>When each had numbered more than fourscore years;</p>
-<p>And Theophrastus at fourscore and ten</p>
-<p>Had but begun his “Characters of Men;”</p>
-<p>Chaucer at Woodstock with his nightingales,</p>
-<p>At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;</p>
-<p>Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,</p>
-<p>Completed Faust when eighty years were past:</p>
-<p>These are indeed exceptions; but they show</p>
-<p>How far the Gulf Stream of our youth may flow</p>
-<p>Into the arctic regions of our lives,</p>
-<p>Where little else than life itself survives.</p>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Measured by this test of creative power and its persistency, how
-variable is the duration of human life! Sometimes the creative power
-appears in early youth; but when that happens there is generally an
-early surcease. Sometimes the power comes late and remains long.
-Sometimes it flashes forth in the early morning and remains in the
-after twilight. Estimated by years this productive power (which goes
-by the name of genius) sometimes reaches only to a few score moons.
-Sometimes it reaches to a score of years. Sometimes, though rarely, it
-extends to three-score years or more.</p>
-
-<p>Thomas Chatterton went to a suicide’s grave in Potter’s Field when he
-was only seventeen years, nine months, and four days of age. I know of
-no other case of so great precocity; it is beyond belief. His mind had
-been productive for about three years. Byron’s productive period
-covered sixteen<span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133">133</a></span> years—no more. Pope began at twelve and ended at
-fifty-six.</p>
-
-<p>In our own age, Tennyson has done well. Making an early effort to
-begin, he, like Dryden, did not really reach the creative epoch until
-he was fully thirty. His creative period covers about fifty-nine
-years. It extends from “A Dream of Fair Women,” in 1833, to “Crossing
-the Bar,” in 1892.</p>
-
-<p>The best example, however, in the history of the human mind, is that
-of William Cullen Bryant; that is, Bryant has real creations that lie
-further apart in time than can be paralleled, so far as I know, in the
-case of any other of the sons of men. The date of “Thanatopsis” is not
-precisely known. It belongs, however, to the years 1812-13. Bryant was
-then eighteen—in his nineteenth year. Add to 1812 sixty-four years
-and we have 1876, the date of the publication of the “Flood of Years.”
-The two poems in question lie apart in production by the space of
-fully three-score and four years. It is a marvel! And why not?</p>
-
-<div class="small">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<p>To him who in the love of nature holds</p>
-<p>Communion with her visible forms,</p>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>why should not life, productive life, enthusiastic fruitful life, be
-extended until its last acts of creation, shot through with the
-sunshine of experience and wisdom, shall flash in great bars of haze
-and glory over the landscape of the twilight days?</p>
-
-
-<p class="heading">Kaboto.</p>
-
-<div class="small">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<p>Old John à Venice in his cockleshell</p>
-<p class="i2">Breasted the salt sea like an Englishman!</p>
-<p class="i2">He saw the bleak coast of the Tartar Khan</p>
-<p>To left-hand in the distance. “All is well!”</p>
-<p>He cried to Labrador. The roaring swell</p>
-<p class="i2">Bore him to shore, whereon his hands upran</p>
-<p class="i2">The Lion flag and flag republican</p>
-<p>Of the old Doges’ wave-girt citadel.</p>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<p>Dominion and Democracy are ours!</p>
-<p class="i2">From the first day unto the last we hold</p>
-<p class="i4">To Liberty and Empire! We shall be,</p>
-<p>Under the Star-flag, for eternal hours,</p>
-<p class="i2">Even as Cabot’s two flags first foretold,</p>
-<p class="i4">Both free and strong from mountain crag to sea!</p>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page134" id="page134">134</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_18" id="article_18"></a>
-A STROKE FOR THE PEOPLE.</h2>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p><span class="sc">Here</span> is a message for all: <span class="smcap">From and after the issuance of the number
-for July the regular subscription price of The Arena, the Magazine Of
-the People, will be reduced to</span> $2.50 A YEAR. The reasons for this
-reduction are not far to seek. The stringency of the times, the
-hardships of the people,—their lack of money, the decline in the
-prices of their products, the relentless grip of the mortgages on
-their homes,—and the absence of any symptom of present relief from a
-Government under the domination and dictation of the money power, have
-induced the managers of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> to bear their part of the common
-burden and distress, and to express in a practical way their
-sympathies with the masses by reducing the price of the magazine to
-the lowest possible figure consistent with its maintenance at the
-present standard of efficiency and excellence.</p>
-
-<p>One of the immediate causes and suggestions of this course will be
-found in the following private letter written to <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> by a plain
-Kansas farmer. We have obtained his permission to use his letter as an
-appeal to the public:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p class="right">
-“<span class="smcap">Sylvan Grove, Kansas</span>, May 22, 1897.</p>
-<p>“<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>.</p>
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>: I enclose my subscription for <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> for the
-current year. The only reason for my tardiness in doing this is
-pinching, grinding poverty. If we farmers do not assist the <span class="smcap">Old
-Arena</span>, so loyal to our interests, we shall deserve the fate many
-of us have already accepted; that is, the doom of serfdom under
-the club of plutocracy.</p>
-
-<p>“We, at <i>our</i> home, are straining every nerve and denying
-ourselves of almost the comforts of life for the purpose of
-meeting our mortgage that falls due on the first of July. Our
-farmers here in the West are divided into four classes:</p>
-
-<p>“<i>First.</i> Those who have failed to meet even the interest on
-loans, who have been closed out, and are now renters, often, of
-the very farms which they once fondly hoped to make their own.</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Second.</i> Those who are still paying interest or keeping the
-companies at bay in the courts until one more crop may ripen, but
-without any well-founded hope of saving their homes.</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Third.</i> Those who are skimping, pinching, almost starving to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" id="page135">135</a></span>
-pay their mortgages. I belong to this class. I still struggle
-with the incubus.</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Fourth.</i> A very few who wisely have never encumbered their
-homes. I have given the classes in the order of their numerical
-importance.</p>
-
-<p>“I live in the beautiful little West Twin Creek valley about
-seven miles in length. There are but two pieces of unencumbered
-property in the valley; one belonging to a poor widow, and the
-other to a bank president. Thirty-five per cent of the farms have
-already passed into the hands of mortgagees; many of the
-remainder have changed hands, shifted under renewals and various
-expedients to avoid the ruination of closing out. This is more
-than an average well-to-do community, selected from this or any
-other central county of Kansas. We are realizing to the full that
-‘Beneficent Effect of Falling Prices’ which was so ably set forth
-(from his standpoint) by Dean Gordon in <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> for March. If
-all people were out of debt, falling prices might not work so
-great injustice. But when a vast majority of the people are in
-debt, and heavily in debt, and when a man talks of the blessings
-that fall from falling prices, the conviction is forced upon us
-that the killer of fools in his annual round has missed one
-conspicuous example. The trouble is, our dollar of debt, instead
-of decreasing, has more than doubled in its power as compared
-with labor and the products of labor. Meanwhile our Solons talk
-glibly of ‘vested rights,’ ‘corporate rights,’ etc., strenuously
-objecting to squeezing the water out of their stocks, while they
-have by legislation for the last thirty-five years remorselessly
-squeezed the <i>value</i> out of our property.</p>
-
-<p>“When our debts were contracted the values of everything were
-double what they now are. I could then have sold my farm for
-three thousand dollars; now, although it has been much improved,
-it would go a-begging at one thousand dollars. Perhaps there is
-not as much distress in our country as there was three or four
-years ago. People have adjusted themselves somewhat to their
-straitened circumstances, and a few are becoming actually
-reconciled to their condition! I heard one man who had recently
-failed in business as a grain-dealer say, ‘Well, Cleveland is
-right on this money question; we want a money good in Yurrup or
-any other part of the world.’ As I looked at the battered hat of
-this personage, at the split toes of his shoes, the ragged elbows
-of his coat, and the rents in his demoralized nether garments, I
-could but ejaculate, ‘May the Lord have mercy on your ignorant
-soul! what does it matter to <i>you</i> what kind of money they use in
-Europe?’</p>
-
-<p>“We are now taking the advice of Governor Morrill, who says: ‘If
-you cannot get seventy-five cents a day, work for fifty cents.’
-Our Republican speakers advise us to dress plainly, live the
-same, and work still harder. We are told to ‘stop running around
-to Alliances and picnics.’ We have taken this advice. <i>We had to
-take it!</i> But we have now reached the bottom. We can curtail our
-dress no further without making our garb identical with our
-complexion. We cannot further reduce our rations and live. We
-cannot extend<span class="pagenum"><a name="page136" id="page136">136</a></span> the hours of labor, for most of us have already
-adopted the blessed eight-hour system; that is, we work eight
-hours <i>before</i> dinner and eight hours <i>after</i> dinner.</p>
-
-<p>“However, Kansas is coming to the front again. Since the mortgage
-companies are willing to do business once more our Governor is no
-longer ‘ashamed of the State.’ Occasionally a Republican
-politician squirms and kicks as the pressure is turned on. The
-eloquent and volcanic Ingalls breaks out at intervals. In these
-eruptions he pours lava upon his party in fine style. But he does
-not break out often enough!</p>
-
-<p>“The most serious bar to the progress of reform is that the
-people are too poor to pay for reform papers and magazines; out
-of these they might get the truth. The publishers of such are
-unable to send their periodicals for less than cost. Not so the
-party in power. Thousands of people get complimentary copies of
-the gold-bug papers, and other thousands get them for a nominal
-sum. Somebody pays for them. Who?</p>
-
-<p>“I have been pleased with <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>, both old and new. I first
-subscribed to it in order to get ‘The Bond and the Dollar,’ which
-I consider the most succinct exposition of the American money
-question ever written. No publication that I am acquainted with
-equals <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> as an educator. I wish you godspeed in your
-efforts for the betterment of our people and of humanity in
-general. I hope (almost against hope) for the peaceful solution
-of the difficulties that now beset our beloved country.</p>
-
-<p class="ltr-close">“Sincerely yours,</p>
-<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">A. Biggs</span>.”</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>Moved by the foregoing communication and scores of others of the same
-purport, and knowing the truth of what the honest producers (who are
-the very blood and sinew and soul of this Republic) say of their
-trials and of the wrongs to which they have been mercilessly subjected
-for years, <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> has decided to share the common lot. With the
-people we shall stand or fall. Let all who <i>can</i> rally, therefore,
-rally to the support of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>, and the management will try to show
-the nation what a great and free American magazine devoted to American
-interests and American democracy really is, and will be, in the battle
-for human rights.</p>
-
-<p>Address all subscriptions and all other business communications to</p>
-
-<p>
-<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;"><span class="smcap">John D. McIntyre</span>,</span><br />
-<span style="margin-left: 18em;">Manager of <span class="smcap">The Arena</span>,</span><br />
-<span style="margin-left: 22em;">Copley Square, Boston.</span><br />
-</p>
-
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137">137</a></span></p>
-<h2 class="article_title"><a name="article_19" id="article_19"></a>
-BOOK REVIEWS.</h2>
-
-<div class="small">
-<p>[<i>In this Department of</i> <span class="smcap">The Arena</span> <i>no book will be reviewed which is
-not regarded as a real addition to literature.</i>]</p></div>
-
-<hr class="short" />
-
-<p class="heading">The Emperor.<a name="fn_marker_8" id="fn_marker_8"></a><a href="#fn_8" class="fn_marker">[8]</a></p>
-
-<p>At the hour when, on the evening of the first day of this century, the
-first asteroid was discovered by Piazzi at Naples, an
-olive-complexioned man was sitting smileless in a box in the opera
-house in Paris. He sat back where nobody could see him. It was his way
-not to be seen—except on business.</p>
-
-<p>The man was thirty-one years, four months, and sixteen days of age. He
-had already done something. If he had not equalled the work of
-Alexander at the corresponding age, he had at least surpassed Cæsar;
-for Cæsar at thirty was still a comparatively unknown roué in Rome.</p>
-
-<p>The figure in the opera box was slender and trim. He who sat there was
-only five feet, four and a half inches high; but his head was fine,
-heavy, symmetrical. His features twitched when he was disturbed, but
-were beautiful when he smiled. To a profound observer he looked
-dangerous. He had the faculty of making his face signify nothing at
-all. He had been begotten an insular Italian, but was born a
-Frenchman. His wife, a Creole, more than six years older than he, was
-in the box with him. She sat at the front, and was seen by thousands.
-She <i>wished</i> to be seen; and when the pit shouted in the direction of
-the box she smiled a little smile, with a puckered mouth—for her
-teeth were not good.</p>
-
-<p>The birthplace of this man had been oddly set on the map of the world,
-for the meridian of Discovery and the parallel of Conquest intersect
-at the birthplace of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. The birthlines of Cæsar and
-Columbus—drawn, the one due west from Rome, the other due south from
-Genoa—cross each other within a few miles of Ajaccio! It is a
-circumstance that might well incline one to astrology.</p>
-
-<p>About the birth of great men cycles of fiction grow. Friends and
-enemies alike invent significant circumstances. The traducers of
-Napoleon have said that he was illegitimate—that his father was the
-French marshal Marbœuf. They also say, on better grounds,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" id="page138">138</a></span> that the
-marriage of Letitia Ramolino to Carlo di Buonaparte was not solemnized
-until 1767—that the first two children were therefore born out of
-wedlock. On the other hand, the idol-worshippers would fain have
-Napoleon born as a god or Titan. Premature pangs seize the mother at
-church. She hurries home, barely reaching her apartment when the
-heroic babe is delivered, without an accoucheur, on a piece of
-tapestry inwrought with an effigy of Achilles! This probably occurred.
-It was the 15th of August, 1769.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, as it were before the Corsican saw the light of day in this
-world, dispute began about him. It has been continued for a hundred
-and twenty-eight years. Whatever else he succeeded in doing—whatever
-else he failed to do—he at least did succeed in dividing the
-civilized world into two parties; he made himself the subject of a
-controversy which has not ceased to the present hour. The reason, no
-doubt, is that we do not as yet understand human history and the part
-which the individual plays in the progress of events. Nearly all men
-begin with a prejudice in judging all other men, and nearly all men
-end as they begin. So it has been in the case of Bonaparte. After a
-while we shall see things more clearly; after a while we shall be able
-to interpret <i>men</i>—but not yet.</p>
-
-<p>The writings relative to this man constitute a cycle. The books on him
-and his times make a library, the perusal and study of which might
-absorb a large section of an active life. The name of such productions
-is legion. Most of them will fortunately perish. The controversial
-aspect of the life of the Emperor must at last subside. Nine out of
-ten of the books about him will go down to the nether oblivion. Then
-the judicial aspect will arise—if it has not already arisen—and will
-occupy the attention of those who are still curious to study the
-career of him who shares with the son of Philip and the matchless
-Julius the triune honor of being the greatest warriors known to human
-history. If a fourth should be added to the group it would be
-Hannibal, and if a fifth, Charlemagne.</p>
-
-<p>Here at the date of a century from those days in which the star of
-Napoleon emerged from the mists and clouds and began to climb the sky
-the interest in his life revives. In America this revival is
-attributable in part to general and in part to special causes. The
-general causes are to be found in the fact that society <i>de la fin de
-siècle</i> is in such a state of profound disturbance, and the existing
-order feels so insecure, that that order—as it always does—begins to
-cast about in the shadows to find, if it may, some Big Man with a
-Sword; him when found we will make our Imperator, and by sharing some
-of our estates with certain of his military subalterns we<span class="pagenum"><a name="page139" id="page139">139</a></span> will make
-sure of the rest—and after us the deluge. The special cause—at least
-in America—is the tremendous and growing tradition of General Grant.
-Albeit, General Grant hated the Bonapartes, from the Great One to the
-Little One; yet his own luminous setting has left a glow in which the
-nation sees men as trees walking—and among these the greatest
-simulacrum is Napoleon Bonaparte.</p>
-
-<p>Of this man, who began as the son of a Corsican peasant-mother working
-in a mulberry orchard, and who, after fifty-one years, eight months,
-and twenty days, ended in a cyclone on the rock called St. Helena,
-having meanwhile for nearly a third of his life bestridden western
-Europe like a colossus,—a new biography claiming to be the ultimate
-summation of the Emperor’s life and character has appeared. Professor
-William Milligan Sloane, of Princeton University, has entered the
-lists which may be said to have opened with Walter Scott and finished
-with the McClure Syndicate, passing meanwhile by way of such
-personages as De Staël, Las Cases, Victor Hugo, and Lanfrey, and such
-drudges as Bourrienne and Méneval, to lodge at last with the
-miscellaneous hacks who get three dollars a column for their
-boiler-plate philosophy in American newspapers! Heavens, what a
-scrimmage!</p>
-
-<p>It were difficult to say when the <i>final</i> biography of a man has been
-produced. Hard, hard is it to decide when anything in this world is
-final. The never-ending progress of events shapes and readjusts not
-only the present materials of history, but also by reaction the
-materials of the past. Much that is supposed to be complete is seen to
-be unfinished; the done becomes undone, and the peroration of an epoch
-has to be rewritten for an exordium.</p>
-
-<p>This is as true of the individual lives of men as it is of great
-events. If the ages have to be reconstructed, so also must the men of
-the ages. If only a mummy now turn over in his porphyry sarcophagus, a
-papyrus is generally found under him; and the finder, with the papyrus
-in his hand, may go forth fully warranted to revise every event from
-the first cataclysm of the Devonian age to the last earthquake in
-Java, and every man from Moses to Cagliostro.</p>
-
-<p>On the whole I incline to the opinion that Professor Sloane has
-brought the Emperor Napoleon to a kind of final interpretation; I will
-not say to a full stop, but to something very much resembling a
-period. In the first place, I offer on the “Life of Napoleon
-Bonaparte,” the eulogium that the work has, in a great degree,
-<i>naturalized</i> the Corsican as he was never naturalized before—thus
-bringing him out of cloudland and mere impossible fog to the plain
-level of human action and purpose.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page140" id="page140">140</a></span></p>
-
-<p>This is much. In accomplishing thus much Professor Sloane has
-vindicated his claim to be regarded as a great biographer. It has been
-the bane of nearly all biographical writing that the subjects of it
-have been completely mythologized. Thus far in the history of mankind
-biography might be defined as the art of myth-making. I scarcely know
-what exceptions to cite to this universal vice except only and always
-Boswell’s “Life of Samuel Johnson.” As for American biographies thus
-far produced, there is scarcely a single example of a work which is
-not to be classified as a recorded myth. The trouble in all this
-business has been that the myth-makers, living in a certain
-atmosphere, have imagined that they are obliged to make their
-characters conform to the established antecedents of greatness. These
-established antecedents of greatness have for the most part been
-created out of superstitions, credulities, blank idealism, and mere
-dogmatic bosh. No living, active men have ever conformed, or could
-conform, to the standards which the logicians, the philosophers, and
-the priests have fixed up for them; and if any of them should conform
-to such a standard, their place under classification would be with
-automata, not with living men.</p>
-
-<p>Nevertheless, our biographers have been so weak and servile as to make
-their characters according to this pattern. One character is labelled
-Washington, another is labelled Franklin, another is labelled Adams,
-and still another, Lincoln.</p>
-
-<p>All this, I think, Professor Sloane has studiously avoided. As a
-literary doctor he has done much to destroy the mythical disease. He
-has written an elaborate work in which the man Napoleon moves and
-acts, neither as an angel nor as a devil, but as a man, moved upon and
-moving by the common human passions, though inflamed, in his case, to
-a white heat in the furnace of his ambition.</p>
-
-<p>All this was to have been expected in view of the plan of Professor
-Sloane as expressed in his preface:</p>
-
-<div class="quotation">
-<p>“Until within a very recent period,” says he, “it seemed that no
-man could discuss him [Napoleon] or his time without manifesting
-such strong personal feeling as to vitiate his judgment and
-conclusions. This was partly due to the lack of perspective, but
-in the main to ignorance of the facts essential to a sober
-treatment of the theme. In this respect the last quarter of a
-century has seen a gradual but radical change, for a band of
-dispassionate scientific scholars have during that time been
-occupied in the preparation of material for his life without
-reference to the advocacy of one theory or another concerning his
-character. European archives, long carefully guarded, have been
-thrown open; the diplomatic correspondence of the most important
-periods has been published; family papers have been examined, and
-numbers of valuable memoirs have been printed. It has therefore
-been possible to check one account by another, to cancel
-misrepresentations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" id="page141">141</a></span> to eliminate passion—in short, to establish
-something like correct outline and accurate detail, at least in
-regard to what the man actually did. Those hidden secrets of any
-human mind which we call motives must ever remain to other minds
-largely a matter of opinion, but a very fair indication of them
-can be found when once the actual conduct of the actor has been
-determined.”</p></div>
-
-<p>From this point of view Professor Sloane has proceeded with his
-tremendous work. His studies at home and abroad have been ample. We
-may remark, in passing, upon the physical vigor of the author as shown
-in his portrait. From such a face and figure we can but expect energy,
-persistency, accomplishment. I do not pretend to disclose the reasons
-of Professor Sloane for indulging in this prodigious Napoleonic dream
-and for delineating it in what is likely to be regarded as the best
-product of his intellectual career. We can only take what he has
-produced and give it such cursory notice as our space will permit.</p>
-
-<p>The first volume of the work extends from a survey of the conditions
-under which Napoleon was born and reared to the conclusion of his
-twenty-eighth year. The first events depicted are those historical
-movements in which the Bonapartes, within the narrow limits of their
-island, were involved in the seventh decade of the eighteenth century;
-and the last event recorded in this volume is the fall of Venice, at
-the end of May, 1797. I incline to regard this as the most
-interesting, though not the most important, of the four great volumes
-of Professor Sloane’s work. In the nature of the case the ascendant of
-a man is the more inspiring part. In it he appears as an orb whose
-full majesty, not yet revealed, solicits the imagination and kindles
-by sympathy the ambitions that in some measure are common to us all.
-Here in volume I is portrayed the youth of the man Napoleon Bonaparte.
-In this he is revealed in the full charm of that electrical audacity
-which had as yet lost none of its sharpness and burning flash. Nor had
-Napoleon, as a <i>man</i>, as yet become sufficiently involved with the
-general maze of history, sufficiently immersed in the storm-cloud of
-that tempestuous epoch, to be lost from view. This volume shows the
-man emerging from boyhood into the full career of a military
-conqueror. It shows him in his magical transformation from the
-character of an adventurer into the character of a leader of armies
-and a dictator of events. It also shows Napoleon with the still fluid
-heart of boyhood passing through the lava floods of his first loves,
-in particular his love for Josephine, into the age of cynicism and
-calculation.</p>
-
-<p>This first volume brings sufficiently to memory the progress of the
-youthful Napoleon. Here we see him at his mother’s knee;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id="page142">142</a></span> then in the
-time of his school days; then in Paris and Valence; then as a neophyte
-author, quite absurd in his dreams; then on garrison duty, and then
-swept away with the tides of the oncoming revolution. In the smoke of
-the South his slender figure is seen here and there until he emerges
-at Toulon. In his character of Jacobin he becomes a general in the
-army at a time of life when most men are happy to be lieutenants. Then
-for the first time he touches the revolutionary society of Paris. He
-meets Josephine; Barras delivers her to the coming man. They are
-wedded, and from that date the stage widens, the wars in Italy break
-out, and the young general begins to whirl his sword at Mantua,
-Arcole, and Rivoli—from which he was wont to date his military birth,
-saying on that occasion, “Make my life begin at Rivoli;” and finally
-at Montebello and Venice, where, in the late spring of 1797, he is
-joined by Josephine. There from the French capital they seemed to
-stand afar as the cynosure of all revolutionary eyes, expecting a
-greater light.</p>
-
-<p>In the second volume Professor Sloane begins with the rescue of the
-Directory. Hard after we have the great episode of the Treaty of Campo
-Formio, and then the expedition to Egypt. The story of that expedition
-is known through all the world; so also the return, and the overthrow
-of the Directory.</p>
-
-<p>From that day Bonaparte became the embodiment of the revolution. He
-became a statesman and a strategist. He found himself in the
-geographical and historical storm-centre of Europe. Then came the
-epoch of great wars. Marengo marks the close of the old century, and
-the treaty of Lunéville the beginning of the new. Napoleon undertakes
-the pacification of Europe, and reorganizes France. He steps
-cautiously towards the restoration of monarchy. There is a
-life-consulate, transforming itself quickly into an empire. The old
-royalism is extinguished, and the new military imperialism is
-glorified in its stead. The third coalition of Europe succeeds the
-second. Trafalgar strews the sea with the wrecks of France, and
-Austerlitz strews the land with the wrecks of Russia and Austria. The
-sea is virtually abandoned by the man of destiny, but over the land he
-rises as War-lord and Emperor.</p>
-
-<p>The second conflict breaks out with Prussia and ends with the ruin of
-that power at Jena and Auerstadt. The year 1806 sees the parvenu
-emperor, now thirty-seven years of age, the master of all the better
-parts of Europe. Here ends the second volume of his life, according to
-Professor Sloane’s division, and the third begins with the devastation
-and humiliation of the Prussian kingdom.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" id="page143">143</a></span></p>
-
-<p>In this volume the author views Napoleon for the first time as the
-arbitrary diplomatist of the West. It is evident that from this time
-the emperor’s vision widens to a more remote horizon than he had ever
-scanned before. The Berlin decree was issued. The battle of Eylau was
-fought, and then was achieved the victory of Friedland. Nor may we
-pass without noticing the acme which Napoleon, according to the
-judgment of many, now reached on that memorable field. Here it is that
-art has caught and transmitted him. For it is in the trodden
-wheat-field of Friedland that Meissonier’s pencil has delineated
-Napoleon with his marshals around him, in one of the greatest pictures
-of the world.</p>
-
-<p>By this epoch ambition in the emperor had swallowed up all other
-passions. He goes on from conquering to conquest. The dream of a
-French Empire, coextensive with the borders of Europe, seizes the
-Napoleonic imagination. The emperor’s armies strike left and right.
-They are seen first on one horizon, then on another. The Corsican on
-his white horse is now upon the Pyrenees, now on the Germanic
-frontier, and now in Poland. He faces Alexander of Russia, and laughs
-at him! His gray coat and three-cornered hat become the best known
-symbols of military genius in modern times.</p>
-
-<p>Kingdoms and principalities are transformed. Already the mythical
-Roman empire has passed away. Austria is threatened with extinction.
-The Corsican is seen first in one and then in another of the ancient
-capitals of Europe. Aspern follows Eckmühl, and Essling and Wagram
-follow Aspern. The treaty of Schönbrunn promises peace to the nations,
-but the hope is broken to the lips. In this crisis Josephine goes down
-in the shadows, and the daughter of Austria is led to the imperial
-chamber—this from the necessity of establishing a dynasty. The
-relations between France and Russia are strained to breaking. The
-fatal year 1812 comes, and there is a congress of kings. Alexander
-gives his ultimatum, and the invasion of Russia is begun. There is an
-indescribable struggle on the Moskwa, and then the flames of Moscow
-are seen across the deserts of Russian snow.</p>
-
-<p>The fourth and last volume begins with the return of the allied armies
-from Russia. Then follows the universal revolt of the nations.
-Insurrection breaks out on every horizon, and treachery, as might have
-been expected, is added to the combinations that are rapidly formed
-against the imperial Corsican. The borders of France are broken in.
-There is a narrowing rim of fire bursting into battle flame here and
-there; and then the catastrophe of the capture of Paris. There is an
-ambiguous abdication and an equivocal<span class="pagenum"><a name="page144" id="page144">144</a></span> exile of a few months’ duration
-to Elba. It was much like the establishment of a live lion on
-Governor’s Island!</p>
-
-<p>The lion got away. Then came an instantaneous upheaval of old
-revolutionary France, which had now become imperial France. The
-Emperor was welcomed home as a returning god. The country was drained
-to the last drop of its resources, and everything was staked on the
-final strategy of the Hundred Days and the hazard of the
-ever-memorable battle.</p>
-
-<div class="small">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<p>“There was a sound of revelry by night,”</p>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>and then the imperial eagle was seen stretched upon the plain, pierced
-through with the shafts of banded nations. He was caged and
-transported to that far rock which in his school-essay at Autun he had
-described thus: “St. Helena is a <i>small</i> island!” He found it so. For
-nearly six years his captivity continued until his stormy career ended
-in a May hurricane that might well have shaken the desolate
-foundations of his ocean-girt prison. Then the historical tide rolled
-on without him. France was transformed into the old image, but her
-soul was still imperial. At last the bones of her great dead were
-recovered, to be placed at rest in that red-black sarcophagus over
-which the world looks down and wonders.</p>
-
-<p>Such is the fiery but fruitful chaos through which the life-line of
-Napoleon is drawn with a master hand by Professor William Milligan
-Sloane. My judgment is that, on the whole, he has produced the
-greatest biographical work which has yet appeared in American
-literature. I think that in the main his accomplishment has been equal
-to his ambition. It is not an unworthy thing that an <i>American</i>
-professor, at the seat of an <i>American</i> university, turning his
-energies to this great task, has succeeded in making a well-nigh final
-record of the life and work of that unequalled organizer, that sublime
-dissembler, that cruel reformer, that heartless philanthropist, who,
-for half a lifetime, converted old Europe into a mire of murder and
-desolation, for the ultimate good of man.</p>
-
-<p>Only one thing may be said in adverse criticism of Professor Sloane’s
-book, and that is, that his style is too mathematical and too little
-imaginative for the subject which he has in hand. His rather cold
-precision, however, we concede to him; for it is, no doubt, the
-natural method of his expression. We do our part to acknowledge and
-welcome the remarkable work which he has produced, and to commend it
-to all readers as the best existing and best probable account of the
-personal and historical career of Napoleon Bonaparte.</p>
-
-
-<hr class="full" />
-
-<div class="footnotes">
-
-<h2 id="footnote_heading">Footnotes</h2>
-<ol>
-<li><p><a name="fn_1" id="fn_1"></a>
-It will be recollected that Macaulay has pictured a New
-Zealander of some future day as sitting upon a broken arch of London
-Bridge, contemplating the ruins of St. Paul’s cathedral; and readers
-of the classics may recall the forecast of Seneca in the time of Nero,
-as to the discovery of a Western continent by which Rome should be
-dwarfed: “In later ages the time shall come when the ocean shall
-loosen the chains which bind us, a mighty continent shall be
-disclosed, and a deity shall unveil a new world beyond Britannia.”
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_1">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_2" id="fn_2"></a>
-Those who have followed the course of events in Japan
-since the beginning of the new era will remember that upon the return
-of Prince Iwakura, in 1873, from his around-the-world embassy, Mr.
-Yeto had to withdraw from the cabinet, owing to a difference of
-opinion between him and the Prince with regard to the Corean problem
-then pending. Returning to his native province, Saga, he tried to
-raise troops against the government (to carry out, of course, his own
-convictions in regard to the Corean problem), resulting in the famous
-“Saga rebellion” of 1873. Defeated by the government troops, he betook
-himself to the interior of the country in disguise, was arrested,
-found guilty of treason, and executed according to law. It is a
-familiar saying in Japan that Mr. Yeto died a criminal at the hand of
-his own Penal Code.
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_2">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_3" id="fn_3"></a>
-I make mention of these two gentlemen as representative
-of two classes of a fairly large number of Japanese lawyers, viz.,
-those who have been educated in the United States, and those who have
-received their education in England. Mr. Hatoyama is a D. C. L. of
-Yale. For nearly ten years (1880-1889) he was a professor of law in
-the University of Tokio Law School, and during most of this time he
-was also Dean of the school. Mr. Hoshi is a barrister-at-law of one of
-the English Inns of Court. For many years he was regarded as the
-leader of the Japanese bar. Like many distinguished members of the
-English bar, he is more of a lawyer than of a jurist.
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_3">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_4" id="fn_4"></a>
-I refer to Professors Hodzumi, Tomii, and Ume. Prof.
-Hodzumi is a barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple, and is one of the
-ablest representatives of English law in Japan. Prof. Tomii is a
-<i>Docteur en Droit</i> of the Facility of Lyons, and is by far the ablest
-expounder of the French codes in Japan. Prof. Ume, though a bearer of
-the same degree from the same Faculty as Prof. Tomii, has attended
-several German universities, and is more of the German school than of
-the French. The Commission itself consisted of several other
-distinguished personages, with the Prime Minister at the head. But
-these three professors composed what was called the “Compilation
-Committee,” so that practically they were the Commission.
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_4">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_5" id="fn_5"></a>
-Prof. Ume, a member of the Commission, is responsible for
-these statements so far as they relate to the codes and laws
-consulted. The classifications, however, are my own.
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_5">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_6" id="fn_6"></a>
-This may be a mere conjecture on my own part. It is
-possible that the Commissioners never consulted his book, though to
-assert such a thing of them would be an insult to their scholarship.
-Be it as it may, it is a fact beyond question that their arrangement
-of these topics presents a remarkable coincidence to that of Prof.
-Holland’s, and this is a matter upon which every thoughtful Japanese
-may well pride himself.
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_6">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_7" id="fn_7"></a>
-Defined in the Standard Dictionary as follows: “The
-science that treats of citizenship and of the relations between
-citizens and the government: a new word directly derived from the
-adjective <i>civic</i>, introduced by Henry Randall Waite.”
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_7">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-
-<li><p><a name="fn_8" id="fn_8"></a>
-“Life of Napoleon Bonaparte.” By Willian Milligan Sloane,
-Ph. D., L. H. D.; Professor of History in Princeton University. Four
-volumes, imperial octavo; pp. 1120. New York: The Century Company.
-Boston: Balch Brothers, 1896.
-<span class="fn_return"><a href="#fn_marker_8">Return to text</a></span></p></li>
-</ol>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="full" />
-
-<div class="transcribers_note">
-<p class="heading">Transcriber’s Notes:</p>
-
-<p>Every effort has been made to replicate this text
-as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings
-and other inconsistencies.</p>
-
-<p>The transcriber made these changes to the text to correct obvious
-errors:</p>
-
-<ol>
-<li>p. 6 over-capatalized —> over-capitalized</li>
-<li>p. 18 successfull —> successful</li>
-<li>p. 23 benovelent —> benevolent</li>
-<li>p. 60 ecocomists —> economists</li>
-<li>p. 76 staightforward —> straightforward</li>
-<li>p. 94 abnormalties —> abnormalities</li>
-<li>p. 124 desparing —> despairing</li>
-<li>p. 144 stategy —> strategy</li>
-</ol>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="full" />
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
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diff --git a/old/30081.txt b/old/30081.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 42edf91..0000000 --- a/old/30081.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6435 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arena, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Arena
- Volume 18, No. 92, July, 1897
-
-Author: Various
-
-Editor: John Clark Ridpath
-
-Release Date: September 25, 2009 [EBook #30081]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARENA ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Richard J. Shiffer
-and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-https://www.pgdp.net
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- THE ARENA.
-
-
-
- EDITED BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL. D.
-
-
-
- VOL. XVIII
-
-
-
- JULY TO DECEMBER, 1897
-
-
-
- PUBLISHED BY
- THE ARENA COMPANY
- BOSTON, MASS.
- 1897
-
-
- COPYRIGHTED, 1897
- BY
- THE ARENA COMPANY.
-
-
- SKINNER, BARTLETT & CO., 7 Federal Court, Boston.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
- PAGE
-
- The Citadel of the Money Power:
- I. Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future HENRY CLEWS 1
- II. The True Inwardness of Wall Street JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 9
- The Reform Club's Feast of Unreason Hon. CHARLES A. TOWNE 24
- Does Credit Act on Prices? A. J. UTLEY 37
- Points in the American and French Constitutions Compared,
- NIELS GROeN 49
- Honest Money; or, A True Standard of Value: A Symposium.
- I. WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 57
- II. M. W. HOWARD 58
- III. WHARTON BARKER 59
- IV. ARTHUR I. FONDA 60
- V. Gen. A. J. WARNER 62
- The New Civil Code of Japan TOKICHI MASAO, M. L., D. C. L. 64
- John Ruskin: A Type of Twentieth-Century Manhood B. O. FLOWER 70
- The Single Tax in Operation Hon. HUGH H. LUSK 79
- Natural Selection, Social Selection, and Heredity,
- Prof. JOHN R. COMMONS 90
- Psychic or Supermundane Forces CORA L. V. RICHMOND 98
- The American Institute of Civics HENRY RANDALL WAITE, Ph. D. 108
- An Industrial Fable HAMILTON S. WICKS 116
- Plaza of the Poets:
- Reply to "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After," BARTON LOMAX PITTMAN 122
- John Brown COATES KINNEY 125
- Demos W. H. VENABLE, LL. D. 126
- The Editor's Evening: Leaf from My Samoan Notebook (A. D.
- 2297); _Vita Longa_; Kaboto (a Sonnet) 128
- A Stroke for the People: A Farmer's Letter to THE ARENA 134
- Evolution: What It Is and What It Is Not Dr. DAVID STARR JORDAN 145
- Has Wealth a Limitation? ROBERT N. REEVES 160
- The Battle of the Money Metals:
- I. Bimetallism Simplified GEORGE H. LEPPER 168
- II. Bimetallism Extinguished JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 180
- The Segregation and Permanent Isolation of Criminals,
- NORMAN ROBINSON 192
- How to Increase National Wealth by the Employment of Paralyzed
- Industry B. O. FLOWER 200
- Open Letter to Eastern Capitalists CHARLES C. MILLARD 211
- The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIII. Prof. FRANK PARSONS 218
- The Provisional Government of the Cubans THOMAS W. STEEP 226
- A Noted American Preacher DUNCAN MACDERMID 232
- The Civic Outlook HENRY RANDALL WAITE, Ph. D. 245
- "The Tempest" the Sequel to "Hamlet" EMILY DICKEY BEERY 254
- The Creative Man STINSON JARVIS 262
- Plaza of the Poets:
- The New Woman MILES MENANDER DAWSON 275
- Under the Stars COATES KINNEY 275
- The Cry of the Valley CHARLES MELVIN WILKINSON 276
- A Radical ROBERT F. GIBSON 277
- The Editor's Evening: Our Totem; _Vive La France! Le Siecle_
- (a Sonnet) 278
- The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part I,
- HERMAN E. TAUBENECK 289
- The Future of the Democratic Party: A Reply DAVID OVERMYER 302
- The Multiple Standard for Money ELTWEED POMEROY 318
- Anticipating the Unearned Increment I. W. HART 339
- Studies in Ultimate Society:
- I. A New Interpretation of Life LAURENCE GRONLUND 351
- II. Individualism _vs._ Altruism K. T. TAKAHASHI 362
- General Weyler's Campaign CRITTENDEN MARRIOTT 374
- The Author of "The Messiah" B. O. FLOWER 386
- Open Letter to President Andrews THE EDITOR 399
- Plaza of the Poets:
- The Onmarch FREEMAN E. MILLER 403
- The Toil of Empire JOHN VANCE CHENEY 404
- The Day Love Came THEODOSIA PICKERING 405
- The Question JULIA NEELY-FINCH 405
- Triolet CURTIS HIDDEN PAGE 406
- The Cry of the Poor JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 407
- The Editor's Evening: A Knotty Problem; A Case of Prevision;
- Concerning Eternity; A. L. (a Sonnet) 419
- The New Ostracism Hon. CHARLES A. TOWNE 433
- The Concentration of Wealth: Its Causes and Results: Part II,
- HERMAN E. TAUBENECK 452
- The Rights of the Public over Quasi-Public Services,
- Hon. WALTER CLARK 470
- Prosperity: the Sham and the Reality JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 486
- Jefferson and His Political Philosophy MARY PLATT PARMELEE 505
- The Latest Social Vision B. O. FLOWER 517
- The Dead Hand in the Church Rev. CLARENCE LATHBURY 535
- Hypnotism in its Scientific and Forensic Aspects,
- MARION L. DAWSON, B. L. 544
- Suicide: Is It Worth While? CHARLES B. NEWCOMB 557
- Plaza of the Poets:
- Old Glory IRONQUILL 562
- _Vita Sum_ JUNIUS L. HEMPSTEAD 563
- Gold CLINTON SCOLLARD 564
- Richard Realfe REUBIE CARPENTER 565
- The Dreamer HELENA M. RICHARDSON 565
- The Editor's Evening: The Greatest Lyric; "Thrift, Thrift, Horatio;"
- The Pessimist; The Physician's Last Call (a Sonnet). 566
- Freedom and Its Opportunities: Part I Hon. JOHN R. ROGERS 577
- "The Case Against Bimetallism" Judge GEORGE H. SMITH 590
- The Initiative and the Referendum ELIHU F. BARKER 613
- The Telegraph Monopoly: Part XIV Prof. FRANK PARSONS 628
- The Laborer's View of the Labor Question:
- I. How the Laborer Feels HERBERT M. RAMP 644
- II. Up or Down? W. EDWARDS 654
- III. The Farm Hand: An Unknown Quantity WILLIAM EMORY KEARNS 661
- Practical Measures for Promoting Manhood and Preventing Crime,
- B. O. FLOWER 673
- The Demand for Sensational Journals JOHN HENDERSON GARNSEY 681
- Is History a Science? JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 687
- Plaza of the Poets:
- Our Brother Simon ANNIE L. MUZZEY 707
- Thou Knowest Not HELENA M. RICHARDSON 708
- Optim: A Reply GEORGE H. WESTLEY 709
- The Murdered Trees BENJAMIN S. PARKER 709
- The Hidden Flute MINNA IRVING 710
- Retroensetta CURTIS HIDDEN PAGE 710
- The Editor's Evening: Tantalus and His Opportunities; The Man
- in Bronze; Franklin (a Sonnet) 711
- Idylls and Ideals of Christmas:
- I. What I Want for Christmas ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 721
- II. Christmas, the Human Holiday Rev. MINOT J. SAVAGE, D.D. 722
- III. Santa Claus: A Poem JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY 726
- IV. The Aryan at Christmas JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 727
- A Seance With Eusapia Paladino: Psychic Forces CAMILLE FLAMMARION 730
- The Influence of Hebrew Thought in the Development of the Social
- Democratic Idea in New England CHARLES S. ALLEN 748
- Priest and People E. T. HARGROVE 772
- Immigration, Hard Times, and the Veto JOHN CHETWOOD, Jr. 788
- The Founder of German Opera B. O. FLOWER 802
- The Truly Artistic Woman STINSON JARVIS 813
- Poor "Fairly Rich" People HENRY E. FOSTER 820
- Shall the United States be Europeanized? JOHN CLARK RIDPATH 827
- Hawaiian Annexation from a Japanese Point of View,
- KEIJIRO NAKAMURA 834
- A Political Deal: A Story ELIZA FRANCES ANDREWS 840
- Plaza of the Poets:
- Glad Tidings MARION MILLS MILLER 849
- The Yule Log CLINTON SCOLLARD 852
- How to Get an Article in a Magazine THE EDITOR 853
- The Editor's Evening: Sir Thomas Kho on Education; Journey
- and Sleep (a Sonnet) 855
-
-
-BOOK REVIEWS.
-
- The Emperor 137
- President Jordan's Saga of the Seal 284
- Some Prehistoric History 426
- A Bard of the Ohio 572
- Critic, Bard, and Moralist 717
- Guthrie's "Modern Poet Prophets" 860
-
-
-ILLUSTRATIONS.
-
- Opposite Page
- HON. CHARLES A. TOWNE 1
- DR. DAVID STARR JORDAN 145
- MULTIPLE-STANDARD TREASURY NOTE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY 289
- DR. E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS 433
- GOVERNOR JOHN R. ROGERS 577
- CAMILLE FLAMMARION 721
- PSYCHIC SEANCE WITH EUSAPIA PALADINO 737
-
-
-
-
-THE ARENA.
-
-Vol. XVIII. JULY, 1897. No. 92.
-
-
-
-
-THE CITADEL OF THE MONEY POWER.
-
-I. WALL STREET, PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.
-
-BY HENRY CLEWS.
-
-
-I.
-
-The twenty-seven respectable citizens of New York who, in 1792, met
-under a buttonwood tree in front of the premises now known as Number
-60 Wall Street, and formed an association for the purchase and sale of
-public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a proviso of
-mutual help and preference, committed themselves to an enterprise of
-whose moment and influence in the future they could have formed no
-adequate conception. At that date Wall Street was a banking district,
-small indeed when compared with its present condition, but important
-in its relations to the commerce of the nation. This transaction of
-the twenty-seven--among whom we find the honored names of Barclay,
-Bleecker, Winthrop, Lawrence, which in themselves and their
-descendants were, and are, creditably identified with the growth of
-the community--added the prestige and power of the stock exchange to
-those of the banks, and fixed for an indefinitely long period the
-destinies of the financial centre of the Union.
-
-During the earlier part of this century the banking interests of Wall
-Street quite overshadowed those of the stock market. The growth of
-railway securities was not fairly under way until the opening of the
-fifth decade. Elderly men can recall the date when the New York
-Central existed only as a series of connecting links between Buffalo
-and Albany, under half-a-dozen different names of incorporation; and
-passenger cars were slowly and laboriously hoisted by chain power over
-the "divide" between the latter city and Schenectady. Since there were
-but few railways in the entire country, there were few opportunities
-for speculative dealings in their shares. These shares, too, were as a
-rule locally held, and were more frequently transferred by executors
-under court orders than by brokers on the stock exchange.
-
-Prior to 1840 and 1845, however, the members of the stock exchange
-were not idle. Public stocks were largely dealt in. The United States
-government frequently issued bonds, and the prices of these bonds
-fluctuated sufficiently to afford tempting chances of profits. State
-bonds also were sold in Wall Street in larger amounts than to-day.
-About the year 1850 the sales of Missouri sixes and Ohio sixes
-frequently amounted to millions of dollars daily. During that
-uncertain epoch of finance when the United States Bank was both a
-financial and a political power, the shares of that institution were a
-favorite subject of speculative dealing. The shares of Delaware &
-Hudson, and of the original Erie Railway, the latter laboriously
-constructed over a rough, barren, and thinly settled portion of the
-State, partly by State funds, had also become actively exchangeable in
-the market.
-
-During this period a relatively enormous quantity of banking capital
-had located itself in and near Wall Street. The Bank of New York
-existed before 1800, and later, although not long after, the Street
-witnessed the erection of buildings of a now obsolete, and yet at that
-time an attractive, style of architecture, devoted to the uses of the
-Manhattan Banking Company, the Bank of America, the Merchants, the
-Union, the Bank of Commerce, and others. Were it not that land in the
-banking district is so valuable, and that the need of upstair offices
-is so great, one might be tempted to regret the demolition of the
-graceful money temples occupied by three of these corporations on the
-north side of Wall Street. In each of them the entablature rested upon
-two fluted stone pillars with Doric capitals, in addition to the
-supports of the side walls. Between the steps and the doors of the
-temple extended a marble-paved court which often served as a
-convenient place of 'change for borrowers and lenders. Entering the
-doors you found yourself in a large, airy, dome-lighted room, the
-sides of which were occupied by the clerks of the institution, guarded
-by high barricades from the intrusive eyes and feet of the general
-public. At the rear were the offices of the president and cashier.
-Throughout the entire building there reigned a solemn and
-semi-religious silence. One may witness something like this to-day in
-the Wall-Street end of the U. S. Treasury Building, and only there.
-
-Up to the epoch of the rise of railway building and railway-share
-speculation, the main aliment of Wall-Street banks was the profit
-derived from the discount of commercial paper and from loans upon
-government and State securities. But when railway shares and bonds,
-based upon lines of road which were constructed through the rich
-regions of the Union lying between the Atlantic and the Mississippi
-river, came upon the market in large amounts, affording ample security
-for investment and loans, the great banks of Wall Street were quick to
-appreciate the advantages of loans made upon such undoubted values,
-which were at all times convertible into cash on the stock exchange.
-In times of pressure, commercial paper is an inferior asset for a
-bank, all of whose obligations are payable on demand. At such times
-notes become practically unsalable, and are not always paid at
-maturity. A failure of one firm brings down others, and renewals are
-urgently required from banks just when they are least able to grant
-them. Salable securities are on such occasions an ark of safety, and,
-dating from the early fifties, this class of securities has always
-been the basis of a large amount of the loans of the banks of Wall
-Street and their near neighbors of the same class in lower Nassau
-Street and also Broadway.
-
-With the immense outgrowth of business consequent upon the discovery
-of gold in California in 1849, and the construction of the great
-railways of the Middle West, such as the Michigan Southern, the
-Northern Indiana (now the Lake Shore), the Michigan Central, the
-Galena & Chicago, the Rock Island, and others of like importance and
-real value, the banks and banking houses of Wall Street, and the stock
-exchange, grew into most important factors in developing the
-prosperity of the country. Enterprises were originated by able men
-acting under corporate powers, and when these were brought before the
-committees of the stock exchange and duly approved and listed, capital
-instantly flowed forth from its reservoirs in answer to the
-securities thus offered. And it may safely be said that but for the
-combined machinery of the New York banks and the stock exchange the
-actual developments of twenty years would have dragged laboriously
-through an entire century.
-
-Amid so much progress and activity, speculation was not idle. Those
-were the days of many of our greatest railway operators, daring, able,
-enthusiastic men, who had the rare gift of imparting confidence to
-their followers and the public, and realized the fable of King Midas,
-whose touch transmuted all things into gold. Their careers were those
-of conquest and accumulation, like that of Napoleon; and, like him,
-they underwent, with few exceptions, their retreats from Russia and
-their Waterloos. Of such were Jacob Little, Daniel Drew, Anthony
-Morse, and others, to whom now the motto of Junius applies: _Stat
-nominis umbra_. Merely the shadows of their names reach over to us
-from the horizons where their suns set so long ago.
-
-There was an epoch too in the Wall Street of the past when gigantic
-and deeply considered combinations were set in motion, entitled
-"corners." As to corners, a word of explanation may not be amiss.
-There are always two factions in the stock market: the bulls, who want
-stocks to rise in price in order that they may sell out; and the
-bears, who want stocks to fall in price so that they can buy in.
-Contrary to the superficial belief of the public, the bulls are
-sellers and the bears are buyers. But in order to sell a commodity you
-must buy or borrow it; and in order to buy at a future date you must
-sell at a previous date; and thus the bull buys for the purpose of
-selling at a profit, and the bear sells something which he doesn't own
-for the purpose of buying it at a lower price. The bull therefore
-hopes to push prices up so that he can sell his purchase at a profit,
-and the bear hopes to drag prices down so that he can buy what he has
-sold, also at a profit.
-
-Meanwhile, the bear has delivered the shares sold by him, and in order
-to deliver them, has borrowed them, and given security in money at its
-market price. Here he has placed himself in danger, because the owner
-of the shares may at any time tender him this money and demand the
-shares, which the bear may not be able to provide himself with, except
-at the price which the owners choose to set upon them.
-
-Thus a person might be under contract to deliver the shares of some
-corporation which might be absolutely worthless, and yet these shares
-_might_ be so held that the holders could exact one thousand dollars a
-share. Given a railway with a share capital of ten millions, one
-person or knot of persons might own every certificate of its stock,
-and have it all loaned out to bears who had sold, borrowed, and
-delivered it. It is obvious that this person or club of persons could
-compel purchases of the shares which he or they alone possess, at
-whatever price he or they think proper to demand; and since such
-things can be done by skilful combinations under able generalship,
-they have been done, and were a favorite scheme during the eventful
-years between the sixties and the eighties. The corners in Harlem,
-Hudson, Erie and Northwest, in which Vanderbilt, Drew, and Gould
-achieved such success for themselves and their associates, have passed
-into history as a conspicuous portion of the great events of Wall
-Street. Their interest is chiefly historical, because of late years no
-comprehensive corners have been organized. Share capitals are so large
-that it is difficult for one man to control any one of them, and a
-divided corner is apt to fail. But in their day and generation they
-have offered brilliant illustrations of genius and strategic skill in
-financial warfare.
-
-The system of selling short, however, which gave birth to the idea of
-creating corners, and which came into vogue in the fifties, has never
-ceased to be a leading factor on the stock exchange. It was the result
-of certain inflations of values which necessarily follow the
-construction of great enterprises. However high a valuation may be set
-upon any given commodity, there are always persons who expect a higher
-price. Early historical examples of this fact are the South-Sea shares
-and John Law's Mississippi shares, over which England and France
-respectively went crazy in the last century. The loftier the figures
-to which these shares mounted, the greater was the eagerness of the
-public to buy them. But at that period the art and mystery of selling
-short had not been brought into practice, and when the bubbles
-collapsed there were universal losers and no direct winners.
-
-During the latter half of this century there have been periods in the
-history of Wall Street when the prices of railway and industrial
-shares have been forced enormously above the standard of actual
-values, and innumerable persons have parted with good money in
-exchange for mere phantoms of imaginary values. At such times the
-short sales of discernment, directing the X rays of clear-sighted
-criticism into the swollen and opaque mass of financial carrion that
-is exposed for sale in the market, are of the utmost benefit to the
-public. The bear is then a benefactor to the community, and when he
-pulls down and tears to pieces the rotten carcass of some gigantic
-humbug, strewing the highway with its remains, we cannot praise his
-work too highly.
-
-
-II.
-
-The present condition of Wall Street is one of lassitude and
-expectancy. The great banks have an abundance, perhaps a
-superabundance, of money, their own and their depositors, which they
-are only too glad to lend on solid and readily salable collateral at
-low rates of interest, approximating the prevalent rates in London and
-Paris, where similar accumulations of idle capital exist. A large part
-of this money is deposited with them by local banks in all parts of
-the country, which recognize New York City as the financial centre of
-the Union, and are content with interest of from one to two per cent
-upon the funds which they are unwilling or unable to use safely at
-home. The stock exchange is also in a condition of quietude. The
-public are neither buying nor selling stocks in any large amount.
-
-This state of things is the resultant of well-known facts. Numerous
-over-capitalized and badly managed railways have gone into bankruptcy,
-and either are in the hands of receivers or have emerged from such
-guardianship, and are painfully toiling along on the road to
-prosperity on the twin crutches of assessments upon stockholders and
-the withholding of dividends from the same long-suffering and patient
-class.
-
-The transactions at the stock exchange at present average about two
-hundred thousand shares a day, exclusive of bonds, government, State,
-and railway; and a certain class of observers who like to subject
-circumstances to a minute analysis inform the public that the daily
-profits of the members of the exchange are about sufficient to pay
-the expense of office rent and clerk hire. This conclusion takes it
-for granted that these profits should be equally divided among the
-membership. This is not a reasonable supposition. Many of the members
-are such only in name, and rarely go on the floor. Others live during
-most of the time on their accumulations, and come into the market to
-buy or sell only when prices are abnormally low or high. The
-comparatively small busy portion manage somehow to keep fairly active,
-and are cheerfully looking forward to better times, through a vista
-from which the cloud of a change of the monetary standard has already
-passed away, and into which the genius of enterprise beckons them to
-enter.
-
-
-III.
-
-While in many respects the future is a sealed book, yet there is such
-a thing in the economy of nature as an absolutely accurate prevision
-of events, such as eclipses of the sun and moon, and conjunctions of
-the planets, and a relatively correct prevision of events depending
-upon the growth of enlightened communities. Since the incorporation of
-the Bank of New York, at the corner of Wall and Williams Streets, the
-banking capital of New York has increased more than sixtyfold, of
-which more than one-half is held and used in and around Wall Street,
-and the aggregation of deposited and loanable capital has grown from a
-few millions to over half a billion. If this has been the result
-during one century, what will take place in the same direction during
-the next century? The ratio of increase will not be kept up. A
-thousand dollars may be doubled in a day, but no such ratio as a
-hundred per cent a day can be predicated of a million. And yet it is
-certain that, under proper management, the million will go on
-increasing; and in the same manner will our half-billion increase by
-its own earning power, and by contributions from all parts of the
-Union. The development of the United States in the direction of
-population, agriculture, manufactures, and mines is so enormous and so
-steady that this nation will at some not distant period become the
-most opulent of all the nations of the planet, unless unforeseen and
-improbable political events happen by which our great commonwealth
-shall be disrupted or its financial stability overturned. Under a
-normal condition of things the capital of the citizens of the Union
-will continually increase, and the banks of the city of New York will
-be the depositary of larger and larger reserves of whatever capital is
-temporarily idle in the places where it is created. In due time the
-financial centre of the world will be shifted from London to our
-imperial city.
-
-Such a destiny has been foretold for St. Petersburg, in view of the
-construction of the Siberian Railway and its branches, which in time
-will open up to industry an immense tract of productive soil in the
-most fertile parts of Asia, abounding in wheat and corn land, and full
-of superior water power. But in this superb rivalry between the United
-States and the colossus of Europe and Asia, the former nation has an
-immense start as to time, and a still greater advantage in the
-character of its population. And in addition to these we have the
-undoubted and constantly increasing supremacy of the English language.
-Just as during the Middle Ages Latin was the vernacular of the learned
-classes, and as to-day French is the language of diplomacy in Europe,
-so is English the common tongue in all the commercial localities of
-the globe. With English a man can commit himself to foreign travel
-anywhere, while outside of Russia there are few towns on the various
-continents in which Russian is not an unknown speech. These
-controlling conditions cannot be readily or easily changed, especially
-since no paramount reasons exist why they should be changed.
-
-It is then a reasonable forecast of the future, that in due time the
-weighty import of the names of Lombard[1] and Threadneedle Streets
-will be transferred to the name of Wall Street, and the facts implied
-by such a transfer are of a dignity and power which it is impossible
-to estimate. The road leading to this great destiny can only be
-blocked by injurious legislation, and the good sense of our citizens
-may be confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a
-barricade against national prosperity.
-
- [1] It will be recollected that Macaulay has pictured a New
- Zealander of some future day as sitting upon a broken arch
- of London Bridge, contemplating the ruins of St. Paul's
- cathedral; and readers of the classics may recall the
- forecast of Seneca in the time of Nero, as to the discovery
- of a Western continent by which Rome should be dwarfed: "In
- later ages the time shall come when the ocean shall loosen
- the chains which bind us, a mighty continent shall be
- disclosed, and a deity shall unveil a new world beyond
- Britannia."
-
-
-
-II. THE TRUE INWARDNESS OF WALL STREET.
-
-BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH.
-
-
-The organized powers of society are always anxious to conciliate
-public favor. They know that they exist by sufferance--by sufferance
-of a mightier than themselves. In proportion as they know themselves
-to be aggressors and spoliators their anxiety increases. Every abusive
-power in the world is thus driven to adopt schemes and devices--some
-dangerous and some merely ludicrous--to keep a footing at that silent
-bar of opinion before which all wrong must, sooner or later, quail and
-slink away.
-
-The great concern called Wall Street is such an organized power in
-society. It exists as a fact in our American system, and would fain
-conciliate the favor of the public. Wall Street has become one of the
-most conspicuous features in our national life. Knowing that it is
-challenged by public opinion--knowing indeed that it is already under
-the ban and condemnation of the American people--it now seeks, after
-the manner of its kind, to save itself alive. It would go further than
-mere salvation; it would make mankind believe that it is a reputable
-part of the universal swim. Aye more; it seeks to ingratiate itself,
-sometimes by force and sometimes by gentle craft and stratagem, into
-the good graces of that civilization which it has so mortally
-offended.
-
-To this end Wall Street strives to justify itself in periodical and
-general literature. No other power in human society to so great a
-degree and in so subtle a manner exploits its own virtues. Taking
-advantage of the well-known carelessness of American readers, and
-knowing full well how easily they are duped--how easily they are
-cozened out of their senses and led into false beliefs with mere
-plausibilities and sophisms--this imperial and far-reaching Wall
-Street, this elephantine fox of the world, takes possession of
-American journalism--owns it, controls it. It seizes and subsidizes
-the metropolitan press. It purchases newspapers and magazines by the
-score. It establishes bureaus; it buys every purchasable pen, from the
-pen of the gray philosopher to the pen of the snake editor. It
-overawes every timid brain, from the brain of the senator to the
-brain of the tramp. What it cannot purchase it terrorizes; and the
-small residue which it cannot terrorize it seeks to cajole: all this
-to the end that its dominion may be universal and everlasting.
-
-In this work of gaining possession of public opinion and perverting
-that opinion to its own uses Wall Street employs all methods and uses
-all expedients. Wall Street deliberately marks its game; and we have
-to confess that the game generally falls at the first fire. We have
-heard, however, of a single case of a brave man, now dead, who, when
-offered ten thousand dollars for his voice against his conviction and
-his opinion against his soul, in the matter of electing President of
-the United States the man who was the candidate of Wall Street, told
-the subtle committee to make an immediate and expeditious visit to the
-bottom of the old theology.
-
-This train of thought rises vividly to mind when I consider the
-article of Mr. Henry Clews on "Wall Street, Past, Present, and
-Future." This article came unsought and unexpected to the editorial
-desk of THE ARENA. I confess that I doubted its genuineness. For why
-should Mr. Clews address the public through the columns of THE ARENA?
-What has THE ARENA done to merit such distinction? Satisfying myself
-that the contribution was genuine, that it was not--and is not--a
-hallucination, I at once divined that it must be a sort of challenge
-to this magazine. I do the author of "Wall Street, Past, Present, and
-Future," the honor to believe that he does not suppose THE ARENA to be
-sufficiently verdant to publish his adroit and well-covered apology
-for the great institution which he represents,--without knowing the
-sense and significance of it. If indeed the distinguished gentleman
-imagined that we could do such a thing here, then in good sooth he
-must be undeceived. Or if he supposed that a paper of the kind
-submitted would be _rejected_ at this office because of our well-known
-antagonism to the fact which Mr. Clews defends, let him in that
-instance also be undeceived.
-
-At the office of THE ARENA we take all challenges. Nor should our
-friends suppose or fear that the welcome admission of Mr. Clews's
-article to the pages of THE ARENA implies timidity or some possible
-weakness in the presence of that gigantic institution known by the
-name of Wall Street. The fact is, that the nightmare which that power
-has been able to spread, bat-like, over the souls of men for a quarter
-of a century has about been dissipated; it is already the beginning of
-the end. It is the dawn; the day is not very far in the future when
-the American people, roused at last to the exertion of their majesty,
-will shake themselves from the dread of this incubus and spring up
-like a giant refreshed from slumber.
-
-Mr. Clews's article on "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future," is a
-most gentle and dove-like performance. It is not a paper intended to
-produce alarm, but to allay it. It is one of the finest examples of a
-literary opiate that I have ever seen. The bottom theme of the paper
-is that Wall Street is a natural growth, and is therefore inevitable.
-Wall Street has come by a gentle evolution. Good men and true have
-conspired with nature to bring it forth. Under natural and necessary
-conditions Wall Street has appeared in our American system, and under
-these conditions it flourishes. Whatever great fact in society has
-thus appeared has been born of necessity and out of the nature of
-things. If Wall Street have been born out of necessity and the nature
-of things, then it has come of righteousness, and is the child of
-truth. If of righteousness and truth, then Wall Street is good as well
-as glorious. That which is good and glorious ought to be admired and
-honored. Whatever is admired and honored, whatever is good and
-glorious, should have influence and power in society and state. Such a
-golden product of evolution is Wall Street; therefore the sceptre
-which Wall Street stretches forth over the prostrate Western world
-should be obeyed and upheld by the voice and hand of the American
-people.
-
-Not only so, but the sceptre should be extended. The empire of Wall
-Street should become universal. It should be enlarged and confirmed
-until all outlying kingdoms and all islands of the sea shall pass
-under the beneficent sway of this monarchy of the world! Then with Mr.
-Clews we may well consider his "reasonable forecast of the future."
-With him we shall be able to see "that in due time the weighty import
-of the names of Lombard and Threadneedle Streets will be transferred
-to the name of Wall Street." With Mr. Clews we shall be able to see
-that "the facts implied by such a transfer are of a dignity and power
-which it is impossible to estimate." Then, finally, with Mr. Clews we
-shall agree that "the road leading to this great destiny _can only be
-blocked by legislation_." Mr. Clews says "injurious" legislation.
-Certainly; that is true--most true. The consummation hoped for by Mr.
-Clews can verily be blocked by legislation! But when it comes to the
-definition of "injurious" how fearfully do we part company! The writer
-of "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future" flatters himself, in fine,
-with the belief that "the good sense of our citizens may be
-confidently relied upon to prevent the creation of such a barricade
-against national prosperity." Oh, it is "national prosperity" then
-that we have in view! That is good. If there be anything under heaven
-which Wall Street adores and dotes on more than any other thing in the
-world it is national prosperity! When it comes to national prosperity
-Wall Street is always full-handed. With the mere mention of national
-prosperity Wall Street raises a shout of sympathetic enthusiasm which
-reverberates from Passamaquoddy to San Diego, and from the Florida
-everglades to the snow-capped shoulders of Shasta!
-
-Let me, however, explain to Mr. Clews one thing, and that is that the
-blessed condition of universal society in which Wall Street, having
-absorbed Lombard and Threadneedle, shall be supreme over the nations
-will occur only when our free American institutions shall be crushed
-into fragments and when civil liberty shall lie bleeding among the
-ruins. It will occur _then_, and not before. It will occur when the
-residue of the old American spirit has been stamped out, and when a
-miserable, slavish subserviency shall have been substituted for the
-revolutionary freedom which our fathers won and made sacred with their
-blood on every patriot battlefield from Lexington to Appomattox.
-
-Temperately and patiently I will follow Mr. Clews's paper through. The
-writer of the article is a gentlemanly and able representative of that
-colossal power which he has helped to build up and fortify. From being
-a child of that power he has now become, in a most theosophical
-manner, one of the fathers of it! As such he has made himself the
-apologist of a gigantic and rampant beast on whose horns of hazard
-the values produced by the labor of seventy millions of Americans are
-tossed about as if the wreckage were so much waste excelsior thrown on
-the horns of a bull! Mr. Clews tells us that in 1792 twenty-seven
-gentlemen met under a buttonwood tree and formed the association known
-as Wall Street. The purpose of the association was "the purchase and
-sale of public stocks at a fixed and unvarying commission, with a
-proviso of mutual help and preference." The result was the addition of
-"the prestige and power of the stock exchange to the prestige and
-power of the banks." That indeed is a combination worthy to be
-considered! A consolidation of interests was effected between the
-exchange and the banks to purchase and sell stocks "with a proviso of
-mutual help."
-
-The organization thus created has existed for one hundred and five
-years. It has made a history. It has become ever greater and more
-firmly fixed in and _on_ American society. It has made itself to be
-the foundation of all things financial and political in the United
-States. The story of the process by which this prodigious result has
-been reached is narrated by Mr. Clews in the manner of one who gives
-an account of the formation of a temperance society or a Sunday
-school! In the whole article there does not appear a symptom of a
-suspicion that the thing of which he gives the history is the most
-dangerous and abusive fact that ever threatened the integrity of a
-nation. The argument is that if twenty-seven gentlemen thus met and
-created Wall Street, then the result, being a natural product, is good
-and wholesome. But the inquiry at once arises whether it is valid
-logic to suppose that what men do is right, simply because they do it.
-The affirmative of such a proposition would make Aristotle stagger. It
-amounts to this, that whatever is is right; therefore, let it alone.
-
-By this argument of Mr. Clews all the tyrannies of the past, all the
-horrors that have afflicted the human race, all the sufferings which
-men have endured from sword and pestilence, from servitude, from the
-butchery of war and the cruelty of the Inquisition, have been right
-merely because they have been natural. Under this rule every monster
-that has tormented society from the first day until now can find full
-justification for itself on the simple ground that it exists! Under
-such an argument a howitzer is as good as a plough, a sword is as good
-as a sickle, a pillory is as good as a baby-wagon. By such reasoning a
-shark is as useful as a horse. By this logic a boa-constrictor is as
-good as a reindeer, a tiger is as useful and salutary in his office as
-an ox or a St. Bernard, and a cancer is as beautiful as a blush. That
-is, everything is good, not because it is useful and just, but because
-it is.
-
-Or again, Mr. Clews's argument is this: that the men who created Wall
-Street were gentlemen; therefore their work was salutary. Just as
-though respectable people could not engage in a nefarious business.
-Just as though gentlemen could not, and would not, make a conspiracy
-to enslave the human race. The "gentleman" is a very uncertain factor
-in civilization; his devotion to right and truth requires always to be
-tested with a chemical and to be taken with the usual combination of
-chlorine and sodium.
-
-Mr. Clews explains that the stocks underlying our old railroad
-properties in the United States were aforetime "held locally," and
-that they were transferred "more frequently by executors than by
-brokers on the stock exchange"--as though that were an evil. Then
-"there were but few opportunities for dealing in shares"--as though
-_that_ were an evil! It thus became necessary for Wall Street to get
-the old stocks belonging to the people out of the people's hands and
-into the hands of the Street--as though _that_ were a good. Our public
-improvements were in the first place made by the people, but the
-people were not fit to own them. Our railways were constructed with
-capital subscribed by the people, generally by those through whose
-country the given improvement was extended. The people themselves then
-owned their own, and controlled it. Until Wall Street reached out and
-clutched such properties--first putting down the prices of the shares
-to nothing and then pulling the given stocks to par--the people were
-able to protect themselves; but never afterwards.
-
-The same was true of all other securities, whether public or private.
-Nearly all bonded debts were at first local; but the holding of
-securities _locally_ has always been a thing abhorrent to Wall Street.
-The idea of the Street is that all stocks and all securities belong,
-not to the public, but to itself. Of course the _money capital_ of the
-country belongs to the Street. And if, with the consent of public
-authority, the _stocks_ of the country also can be held by the Street,
-then a humble peasantry, paying perennial rents and compound interest,
-can be created and kept under forever throughout the domains of the
-great Republic. It may ultimately require arsenals to do it, but these
-we can supply.
-
-The next stage in the game was the creation by Wall Street of
-fictitious enterprises for the distinct purpose of getting possession
-of the stocks on which such enterprises were based, and of speculating
-in the shares of such properties. When the _existing_ stocks of
-railways were not sufficient--when the bonds of States and of the
-general government were insufficient in quantity to fill the maw of
-the benevolent being called Wall Street--then an _artificial_ supply
-must be created; that is, some scheme of debts must be invented by
-which the people might be made to pay tribute to the good Wall Street,
-and pay it still more abundantly.
-
-Thus were invented new banks and new banking systems. Thus came the
-bull and the bear and the bucket-shop. Thus were projected a thousand
-railways and canals. Many of these were laid into impossible
-regions--all "for the benefit of the people!" Other enterprises which
-were not sufficiently stocked began to be stocked more heavily--this
-also for the benefit of the people. The plan of watering was invented;
-the method of "promoting" enterprises was perfected,--until, as early
-as the time of the Civil War, Wall Street had acquired the greatest
-skill in _making_ debts, or, in the language of James Fisk, Jr., in
-"rescuing the property of other people from themselves."
-
-These beautiful processes are glossed over by Mr. Clews with a
-pleasant account of how, with the growth of business and the discovery
-of gold and the oncoming of the age of construction, great enterprises
-were "promoted" by Wall Street, and how "capital instantly flowed
-forth from its reservoirs in answer to the securities" that flowed
-thereto. The author of "Wall Street, Past, Present, and Future,"
-affirms "that but for the combined machinery of the New York banks and
-the stock exchange the actual developments of twenty years would have
-dragged laboriously through an entire century." Permit us to say that
-it would have been better that such "actual developments" should have
-dragged through _two_ centuries than that the United States of America
-should have been stocked and mortgaged and bonded and enslaved, under
-the tyrannous lash of debt, by such a master as Wall Street.
-
-Mr. Clews next comes to the subject of corners. On this topic we doubt
-not that he speaks as one having authority. He tells us quite
-complacently that there was "an epoch in the Wall Street of the past
-when the gigantic and deeply considered combinations were set in
-motion entitled 'corners.'" Then he goes on to explain what corners
-are. He does so without the slightest expression of criticism or
-aversion. He tells us of the bulls and the bears by whose agency a
-corner is conducted as though they were the friendly competitors in
-some great philanthropy! Instead of describing corners as so many
-carefully contrived schemes to rob the people of the proceeds of their
-labor by putting the prices of their commodities and securities down
-until such commodities and securities are taken from their hands, and
-then putting the prices _up_ in order that the robbers may reap the
-harvest, he speaks of corners as offering "brilliant illustrations of
-genius and strategic skill in financial warfare!"
-
-The fact is that the men who are reared in Wall Street, who from their
-youth are familiarized with its processes, and who are well set in the
-plastic age to consider human life as an auspicious opportunity for
-getting possession of something that does not belong to them, are
-fatally blunted in their sensibilities; the ethical quality in them is
-battered out--or at least battered; they come to regard the human race
-as an enormous ranch of sheep to be shorn at the pleasure of the
-shearers; they even grow to consider each other as so much mutton to
-be butchered and roasted by whoever is able to do it.
-
-I notice with surprise that Mr. Clews in his sketch of Wall Street
-dwells not at all upon the benevolent agency of that power during the
-Civil War. This is an oversight which I beg leave to supply. There has
-never perhaps been an instance in human history in which a great power
-has so ardently devoted itself "to the preservation of free
-institutions" as did Wall Street in that epoch of mortal agony. Then
-it was that Wall Street engaged in the patriotic work, first of
-destroying the national credit, then of buying it up at half price,
-then of converting it into a bonded debt to be perpetuated for a full
-generation, and finally of compelling the people to pay it in a dollar
-worth four times as much as the dollar with which it was purchased. It
-was a beautiful scheme of devotion and self-sacrifice the like of
-which history has never before recorded. It was a speculation which
-involved the life of the American Republic. The Union was on trial.
-All nerves were strained, and all hearts were torn. The nation was
-bleeding at every pore. Every freight-train that came from the front
-brought back its loaded boxes of dead. Fathers and mothers gathered at
-the station, and each received his own. The rough coffin containing
-the body of the patriot boy who had given his life for the flag was
-taken by the silent father and mother to its resting-place under the
-apple trees. All true men had tearful faces, and a stern resolve in
-the heart. And while _this_ was the condition of the nation and the
-people, the high-toned Wall Street was speculating on the life of the
-Republic. It bought and sold blood. It was a bull on disaster and a
-bear on victory. It established bureaus through which to falsify
-intelligence and to bring the nation to the verge of ruin. It had no
-compunction. It regarded the gore of battlefields as the rich rain and
-mould out of which its own harvest was to grow. The more blood the
-merrier. The more tears the richer the yield. The more war the more
-debt. The more depression of the national credit the more cheaply we
-shall be able to gather it up! The more grape-vine despatches the more
-distraction and the better opportunity for us. The more death the more
-millions. The more horror and devastation the heavier will be our
-coffers. The more the people groan the more we will shout. The more
-they die the more we will live. The more the flag is torn the more our
-damask curtains will flutter. The more liberty perishes and withers
-from the earth the more we shall plant ourselves and flourish and rule
-and reign over a nation that we have destroyed and a people whom we
-have enslaved. If Mr. Clews wishes any further outline of the history
-of Wall Street during our Civil War we shall be glad to contribute
-such a sketch as a reminiscence of a great fact which appears to be
-dim in his memory.
-
-There is another almost fatal omission in Mr. Clews's article. He says
-but little about the principal work in which Wall Street, historically
-considered, has been engaged during the last thirty years. I do not
-like the way in which this great section of the "Past" of Wall Street
-is glossed over. During the period referred to, that institution has
-had one bottom purpose and one reason of action from which it has
-never deviated. This purpose, this reason of action, has been the
-perpetuation of the national debt and the increase of its value by
-bulling the unit of money in which the debt is payable. Wall Street
-knows that the bonded debt of the United States is the basis, or
-central fact, in the whole system of bonds and stocks. Wall Street
-knows that the dollar is the central fact in the bond. It knows that
-if the bond can be made everlasting and the dollar can be increased in
-value until a single unit of it shall be equivalent to an acre of
-farming land, then the Street can own the United States in fee simple,
-and can presently annex the rest of the world.
-
-I acknowledge a certain admiration when I consider this stupendous
-scheme. It is more than Napoleonic; it is continental, interplanetary,
-sidereal! I cannot recall another conspiracy in the history of mankind
-quite equal in colossal and criminal splendor to the profound and
-universal plot of Wall Street to make perpetual the national debt, to
-keep that debt the bottom fact in the banking system of the United
-States, and to bull the unit of money and account until it shall be
-worth four times as much, or perhaps ten times as much, as it was when
-the bulk of the debt was contracted.
-
-The history of this scheme in its true inwardness is the history of
-Wall Street for the past thirty years. The details of the history
-relate to such small circumstances as the transfer of the government
-of the great Republic from the hands and control of the people to the
-hands and control of the Street. Of course no such scheme as that
-referred to could be carried into successful operation _unless_ the
-national government could be delivered over to the keeping of the
-Street and be locked up, as it were, in the same vault where the
-national debt is deposited.
-
-This feat, however, was easily accomplished. Wall Street reached out
-its hand and plucked down the American eagle from his perch. Wall
-Street got possession of the government. The _coup_ was accomplished
-while the nation was asleep--else it never could have been
-accomplished. Wall Street climbed the Tarpeian rock in the night, and
-no goose cackled to give the alarm. Columbia had gone to bed. The
-keeper of her treasure-house had already given the key to the enemy.
-The keeper of the treasury was a _part_ of the enemy. He gave up both
-citadel and city. In the morning the walls were placarded with lying
-posters which said that the delivery of the government into the hands
-of the Hessians had been rendered necessary in order "to preserve the
-national honor!" It was done in order to keep faith with those
-benevolent patriots who had bought the debt of the nation at less than
-fifty cents to the dollar, and who, not satisfied with bringing it to
-par, were now engaged in the honorable work of making it worth two
-hundred cents to the dollar. The fact that the industries of the
-people would be crushed and the people themselves be reduced to
-poverty by the transfer of the national sovereignty from the capitol
-to the stock exchange was nothing in comparison with the "preservation
-of national honor."
-
-The scheme was carried out. The methods by which it was carried out
-constitute the subject-matter of the true history of Wall Street
-during the past generation. Wall Street, from being a financial
-organization, became a political power. It took full possession of the
-executive and legislative departments of the government. It controlled
-them both. It promptly established and defended its ownership. It
-instituted one scheme after another. For the purpose of fortifying its
-usurpation, it learned to choose its men and to prepare its measures
-in advance. In 1884 it created an administration for its own purposes,
-and manned it to the same end. It forced its way into the House of
-Representatives and stood with a bludgeon behind the Speaker's chair.
-It entered every committee-room and dictated every successful bill.
-The people's bills all went one way. If by any chance one of the
-people's bills got before the House the subsidized press, owned by
-Wall Street, raised against it a chorus of groans and catcalls; _that_
-was "an expression of public opinion"!
-
-From that day forth the popular voice was strangled into silence. The
-next administration (that of 1888) was prepared in the same manner.
-Wall Street has no politics except the politics of the bond; it has no
-platform except the platform of cent per cent. It suffices that when a
-president is to be elected he shall be one of us. He shall not be a
-man of the people; else in that case he would be a demagogue, a
-windbag, a _vox et praeterea nil_. _Our_ man shall not even know the
-despised people. He shall not smell of the filthy ground, but must be
-"sound" on questions of finance. If he be not "sound," we will make
-him so. We will teach him his paces. If the people conclude to change
-their government, we will see to it that the incoming powers are just
-like the outgoing. As for the "principles" on which the candidate
-shall be chosen, we will attend to that. We will make his principles
-for him. We understand principles perfectly. We will fix the platform;
-we know the carpenters. If the candidate and his friends have already
-fixed a platform before the date of the convention, and if it have
-been published everywhere as the decision of the candidate and his
-following, we will take that platform from the wires and will
-carefully revise it, to the end that the "national honor" shall be
-preserved. We will write it over again into new meanings. We will
-interpret it so that no harm shall be done to the "national credit."
-We will make our candidate into a puppet. When we put our foot on the
-treadle his jaw shall drop and he shall utter many mocking words about
-the "national honor" and the "prospects of our glorious
-country"--signifying nothing.
-
-All this we will do for the public good. We will say that we are
-striving for national prosperity. We will proclaim our candidate as
-the advance agent of prosperity--until after the election. Then we
-will say that prosperity will come with the inauguration. Then we will
-say that it will shine out promptly when Congress adjourns and ceases
-to menace the national credit. Then we will say that prosperity will
-reveal itself when the hot season is over. By this time the hoodwinked
-people can be coddled to sleep, or else set to dancing with rumors of
-foreign wars. To this end we will have our newspapers carefully
-promote our principles and studiously avoid all reference to those
-subjects in which the people feel the deepest concern. Finally, we
-will omit all these matters from our history of "Wall Street, Past;"
-we will proceed to speak of our "Wall Street, Present," and will
-explain that it is in a state of "lassitude and expectancy." Indeed
-"lassitude and expectancy" is good.
-
-But there is still another yawning chasm in the history of "Wall
-Street, _Past_," and that is Mr. Clews's failure to discuss the
-transfer of the Treasury of the United States to the custody of the
-Street, and the consequent reduction of the Secretary of the Treasury
-to the rank of a clerk. This very thing has been most successfully
-accomplished. I believe that the Secretary still has an office at
-Washington, but that should be closed in the interest of economy and
-reform. To do so, we doubt not, would be a strong factor in the
-restoration of confidence. Perhaps the Washington office might be left
-in charge of a janitor, for it is understood that some official
-correspondence is still directed to the old address! The presence of
-the Secretary in New York, however, has become so essential to the
-proper discharge of his duties that the removal of his residence
-thither can only be deferred by an absurd deference to public opinion!
-
-The results of the transfer of this vital function of the national
-government have, in the meantime, been so salutary as fully to
-vindicate the change. This was shown in 1893-94 when the Street, with
-a strong repugnance to investing money in useful enterprises, and
-having a prodigious accumulation of funds on hand, concluded that a
-sale of Government bonds was necessary for the "national honor." To
-this end the managers began to pull the treasury. In that institution
-a large sum of gold was stored, wholly without warrant of law. The
-people needed the gold beyond measure--that is, they needed the
-_money_; and gold is one form of money. The industries of the people
-had been prostrated by an international conspiracy, and the nation was
-quivering on the verge of apprehended ruin.
-
-In this crisis the patriotic Street devised the bucket-chain, the
-crank of which was in the hand of the Street, while the "chain" ran
-through the Treasury of the United States. Every bucket came out
-filled with gold. Lazard Freres emptied out the gold and shipped it
-abroad to their confederates. This created the necessity for buying it
-back with bonds. The people were stunned with the audacity of the
-thing--just as the unfortunate owners of a house in flames are stunned
-to see gentlemen of the profession rush in and empty the safe. Wall
-Street danced and shouted while the work was done. The bonds were
-"popular," and the Street got them--got them for one price and sold
-them for another.
-
-By this beautiful process the great American nation was literally held
-up and _robbed_ of more than nineteen million dollars! No highwayman
-ever more successfully clutched the wizen of his victim than did the
-Street with its supple fingers around the white larynx of Columbia.
-The wheezing of the strangulated Republic could be heard from the St.
-Lawrence to the Rio Grande. The nation was thus "saved," and the
-robbers took the money and went sailing away on summer cruises to
-Norway and Venice and the Cyclades. The "national credit" was
-preserved; Wall Street "rescued" us from dishonor! That part of the
-proceeds not consumed in yacht races, pyrotechnics, and balls was
-passed to the credit of the reform fund, needed for the restoration of
-prosperity in the fall of 1896! Certainly a history of "Wall Street,
-Past," ought to contain some reference to these crimes.
-
-Mr. Clews, turning to "Wall Street, Present," tells the nation that
-now "the great banks have a superabundance of gold to lend on solid
-and readily salable collateral at low rates of interest, approximating
-the prevalent rates in London and Paris, where similar accumulations
-of idle capital exist." This is a true statement of the facts. Mr.
-Clews has here spoken by the books. What he says signifies that Wall
-Street is now ready to go ahead and issue new mortgages on the
-American people. It is now ready to offer inducements to our fourteen
-millions of voters to sell themselves into another twenty-year cycle
-of bondage. If they will only be gentle and not interrupt us; if they
-will give us a true death-grip on themselves, on all they possess, and
-all they ever hope to possess, we will lend back to them a part of the
-very money which we have sucked up from their wheat fields and
-pastures, from their barns and potato patches, from their humble
-stores and markets, from their mills and their mines, and we will thus
-_expedite_ them on the way to serfdom. Meanwhile we will continue to
-bankrupt their railways, to snatch their local stocks, to convert all
-shares in all enterprises into bonds, and to put the bonds into our
-safes to the end--that confidence may be restored and prosperity come
-back like the flowers that bloom in the spring.
-
-For the time being we, the Street, are able to toss "two hundred
-thousand shares a day" on the horns of our bull, and to put the same
-amount of securities under the custody of our bear. "This conclusion
-takes it for granted that the profits should be equally divided among
-the membership." Such are Mr. Clews's very words. By the bond of my
-faith! there is nothing else so beautiful and magnificent as this
-among the arts invented by mankind! As for the people, one of your own
-kings, Messieurs of the Street, has very properly indicated your wish
-and purpose with regard to _them_.
-
-Mr. Clews tells us that the "Future" of Wall Street is a sealed book;
-and yet we may allow that "there is such a thing as an accurate
-prevision of events." Of this kind are eclipses, occultations, and
-tides of the sea. If the capital of Wall Street has, since the
-institution was founded, increased more than sixtyfold, as Mr. Clews
-declares, then we may expect it, according to his philosophy, to
-increase full sixty times sixty, until the world shall be swallowed
-up. Then, when Threadneedle and Lombard Streets shall have lost their
-sceptre; then, when Seneca's forecast of the time to come shall have
-been fulfilled; then, when Macaulay's New Zealander shall have made
-his sketch, not only of St. Paul's, but also of the bank of England;
-then, when _all_ the wealth, and _all_ the power, and _all_ the
-functions of civil society in the United States shall have been
-transferred to Wall Street; then, when nothing shall remain to the
-American people except their squalid huts and the sorrowful
-reminiscences of a great republic; then, when Wall Street in very
-truth shall have possessed itself of the earth and consumed
-mankind,--I suppose that the benevolent owners of the world will found
-a few libraries, build a few marble mausoleums for themselves, and
-sally forth to establish a stock exchange in Mars! That done,
-interplanetary wars may be engendered, bonds on the solar system may
-be issued and bought at half price, a gold standard of values may be
-fixed on the basis of the pound sterling good from the sun out to
-Neptune, and the inhabitants of the worlds, either by arms or by
-journalism, may become the helots of consolidated wealth enthroned as
-the governing power of the universe.
-
-
-
-
-THE REFORM CLUB'S FEAST OF UNREASON.
-
-BY HON. CHARLES A. TOWNE,
-
-_Chairman Provisional National Committee Silver Republican Party._
-
-
-On Saturday evening, April 24, 1897, at the Waldorf Hotel, New York,
-there was held a political banquet intended as a most impressive
-function, but which has passed into history as a very ridiculous one.
-Big with self-complacence and puffed with pride, as it appeared in the
-brilliant lights and gorgeous appointments of the palatial
-supper-hall, within twenty-four hours the lacerating indignation of
-Mr. Watterson and the trenchant raillery of Mr. Bryan had let the
-tumid pretentiousness all out of it, and it had collapsed into a
-flaccid and "innocuous desuetude." The "star-eyed goddess" turned her
-back upon it, the "wild-orbed anarch" snapped his fingers at it, and
-even everyday Mrs. Grundy laughed it to scorn. Projected with the most
-alluring and satisfying expectations, the feast has dwindled to the
-memory of a sad mistake in the mind of every man that assisted at it.
-Planned as a sort of coronation ceremony, its completed performance
-unaccountably wore the complexion of belated obsequies irreverently
-disturbed by the guffaws of the multitude.
-
-But the aspect of this banquet as a piece of ill-conceived political
-strategy that never was formidable, or as a rite in the ceremonial of
-a hero-worship that is as inexplicable as inopportune, does not now so
-much concern me as does its office as a dispenser of misinformation
-and unsound philosophy, which are always dangerous. Many who condemn
-the folly of it as a move in practical politics nevertheless loudly
-commend the economic doctrines it contributed to spread. But inasmuch
-as, in my opinion, the science it taught is as bad as the politics it
-practised, I propose to call attention to a few of the arrogant
-assumptions and mischievous theories that found emphatic and repeated
-expression at this feast.
-
-Did the purpose of this article permit, it would be interesting to
-make Mr. Cleveland's speech the text of some examination into the
-ex-President's peculiarities of style. It was Clevelandesque to the
-core. All his protuberant characteristics are there: the leviathanic
-egotism, the profound and tenebrous ponderosity, the labored intricacy
-of the commonplace, the pedagogic moralizing, the oracular
-inconsequence. How absurdly obvious it all is now, and how
-inexplicable that the glamour of high place should ever have clothed
-such matter as his with the seeming of philosophy and statesmanship!
-'Tis the very frippery and trumpery of the stage after the lights are
-out and the audience has departed.
-
-In his opening Mr. Cleveland says: "On every side we are confronted
-with popular depression and complaint." This language stirs an echo of
-the long ago. In his special message to the extra session of the
-Fifty-third Congress in August, 1893, he thus announced a similar
-condition: "Suddenly financial distrust and fear have sprung up on
-every side." But he accounts differently for these two identical
-phenomena. The situation to-day he largely attributes to "the work of
-agitators and demagogues." In 1893 he declared: "I believe these
-things are principally chargeable to Congressional legislation
-touching the purchase and coinage of silver by the general
-government."
-
-The ex-President's explanations are both wrong, and nobody ought to
-know it so well as himself. His relations with the great gold bankers
-were exceedingly intimate in 1892 and 1893, and have been so ever
-since. It is notorious that the panic of 1893 was a bankers' panic
-deliberately brought about by these men to frighten public sentiment
-into supplementing their demand for the repeal of the purchasing
-clause of the Sherman law of 1890. The agitation against that law was
-a whooped-up and manufactured agitation. No legitimate interest had
-suffered from its operation. On the contrary, the access of standard
-silver dollars coined under the laws of 1878 and 1890 had been of
-incalculable advantage to the country. In his annual message of
-December 2, 1890, President Harrison had thus referred to this fact:
-"The general tendency of the markets was upward from influences wholly
-apart from the recent tariff legislation. The enlargement of our
-currency by the silver bill undoubtedly gave an upward tendency to
-trade and had a marked effect on prices." And again: "It is gratifying
-to know that the increased circulation secured by the act has
-exerted, and will continue to exert a most beneficial influence upon
-business and upon general values."
-
-Such an influence that circulation did indeed continue to exert. The
-comparative prosperity of the two following years, which, in contrast
-with the conditions of the subsequent period, causes 1892 to wear to
-wistful eyes so beautiful a hue in these unhappy days, would have been
-an absolute impossibility but for the silver legislation.
-
-Nor was the credit of the government menaced. It was a malicious
-afterthought that represented the silver dollar as a charge upon the
-credit of the nation. That dollar was a standard dollar. It was never
-"redeemed" in anything but the money-work it did. There was no law for
-its redemption, and there was as yet no attempt, such as Mr. Carlisle
-in 1896 declared himself ready to make, to commit the crime of an
-administrative degradation of the circulating silver dollars into
-promises for the payment of gold. The Treasury Notes, issued in
-payment for silver bullion under the law of 1890, were redeemable in
-either gold or silver at the discretion of the Secretary of the
-Treasury; and inasmuch as there was silver behind every one of them,
-they could become a menace to the credit of the government only in
-case of the betrayal of his duty by that official.
-
-But the contractionists looked with alarm upon the improving
-conditions of the country. Something must be done to discredit silver,
-or by and by there might arise such a demand for the full restoration
-of its mint privileges and money powers as could not be balked, as
-every similar demand had been balked since 1873; and in that event the
-slow villany of many years would have been fruitless and the
-contractionists' occupation would be gone. Then was formed the deep
-design to compel the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman
-law. The gigantic forces that had been behind Mr. Cleveland in the
-memorable campaign of 1892 had not lost their cunning or their power.
-They knew their implements, and they had had much experience. Their
-strategy was customary and it was effective. To-day Mr. Cleveland
-complains because the Republican party, having won the contest of last
-November on the money question, should have hurried into the current
-extra session on the tariff question. Let him recall his own course
-when, having carried the country in 1892 on the tariff question, he
-summoned the extra session of 1893 to consider the money question.
-Such a reflection might possibly assist him in fathoming the present
-motives of the men who won in 1892 to achieve the gold standard and in
-1896 to preserve it.
-
-For the election of Mr. Cleveland was a carefully executed move in an
-elaborate and merciless programme. The president of a national bank in
-North Dakota, a man of character and thorough reliability, has
-recently made public a conversation between himself and a prominent
-New York bank president, held not long after that election, in which
-the latter, whose institution was a member of the Associated National
-Banks, declared in substance as follows: "We have just elected Grover
-Cleveland President of the United States upon the express
-understanding with us that the policy of the administration shall be
-to uphold and advance the gold standard"; and he foretold, with
-startlingly faithful prevision, the repeal of the Sherman purchase
-law, the successive bond-issues, and the general and ruinous fall of
-prices, which seem to have evidenced the strict performance of the
-agreement by the party of the second part.
-
-How persistently the power of the executive was used, and how
-carefully the offices were dispensed, to influence Senators and
-members of Congress against the Sherman law, were matters of ordinary
-comment at the time. Meanwhile the banks were putting in motion their
-peculiar and enormous persuasions. For months no man could go into any
-bank in any State of the Union for any purpose without having thrust
-under his nose, with a more or less pointed request for his signature,
-a petition demanding the repeal of the obnoxious statute. Then, in the
-latter days of April, 1893, on the stock exchange, there began that
-concerted onslaught upon stocks and values, vaunted as an
-"object-lesson" to the people, as a result of which within eight
-months six hundred of the relatively smaller banking institutions of
-the country went down, dragging with them fifteen thousand industrial
-and business enterprises, involving a total loss of seven hundred and
-fifty millions of dollars.
-
-The object-lesson served its purpose. With the business world
-shattered into fragments, enterprise stifled, and credit dead, a
-terror seized upon the people. The opportunity for which the big
-bankers had been coolly waiting had come. Cunningly and in many places
-at once they started the cry that the Sherman law had caused all this
-havoc, and that the only hope for a return of prosperity lay in the
-immediate repeal of the feature providing for the purchase of new
-silver bullion. The clamor was eagerly repeated, and fear eagerly
-believed it. At precisely the right moment the President himself made
-official proclamation that the rumor was true, and summoned Congress
-in extra session to obey the mandate of the bankers. Under this spell
-Congress acted and the law was repealed. Thus was the country made
-dependent upon gold alone for its new supplies of full-power money,
-and thus, aided by similar action elsewhere, was inaugurated an era of
-accelerated fall of prices more pronounced than the world has known
-since the middle ages, and a precipitate decline of values more
-ruinous than any other chronicled in history.
-
-"Agitators and demagogues" indeed! Is it not monstrous that any
-intelligent man should believe the present frightful condition of the
-country to be due to the work of agitators and demagogues? Mr.
-Cleveland of course knows better; but many people have actually been
-convinced that some millions of our citizens would rather agitate than
-work; that thousands of them have deliberately and by preference
-forsworn business and become demagogues by trade. The thoughtful man
-knows that agitation is first a result and afterward a cause. It is a
-cruel as well as an ignorant thing for Mr. Cleveland and his disciples
-to cast into the faces of the suffering producers and workers of the
-United States, as a reproach, the fact of their discontent and
-complaining. Of course our people are in distress. Of course they are
-crying out against it. Of course they will endeavor to learn what
-occasions it. And of course when they have ascertained what the matter
-is they will agitate for relief. Substantially all men prefer to be
-busy about the ordinary and interdependent offices of social life.
-This is especially true of the great middle classes in the United
-States. Under just and rational laws they will be so. The absence of
-such a temper is ground for suspicion against the laws. Existing
-conditions confess their weakness and injustice when they revile
-admitted discontent. I would rather the cause I believe in sprang from
-suffering than that suffering should follow my cause.
-
-The full magnitude of this achievement for the gold standard in the
-repeal of the law of 1890, will not be grasped unless we bear in mind
-that it occurred at a time when the indications were unusually
-favorable that an international bimetallic agreement, which the world
-had been trying to accomplish for nearly twenty years, might soon be
-secured on an acceptable basis. It has long been suspected that the
-strongest discouragement of this hope, and probably the determining
-factor in its failure, was the attitude of President Cleveland as
-quietly caused to be understood abroad. Very recently this
-well-grounded suspicion has been turned into certainty by the
-distinguished English bimetallist, Mr. Moreton Frewen, who, in a
-letter to the Washington _Post_, says:
-
- But Mr. Cleveland made it known, through the subterranean
- channels of diplomacy, that, far from giving any support to
- silver, he was preparing to urge on Congress the repeal of the
- silver-purchase clauses of the Sherman act. Mr. Cleveland's
- intention became known in official circles in Calcutta. That this
- was the case I learned at the time and at first hand. The
- government of India believed that the cessation of all silver
- purchases in America would still further reduce the exchange
- value of the rupee, and therefore, in advance of the pending
- anti-silver legislation anticipated from Washington, the Indian
- mints were closed.
-
-Mr. Cleveland may well be deified in the gold-standard cult, for
-clearly he has been the arch-enemy of bimetallism.
-
-One of the characteristics of the discussion now going on between the
-advocates of gold monometallism and those of bimetallism is the
-disingenuousness of the former. They will rarely consent to a clear
-definition of the issue, but seek to evade it both by preempting the
-use of moral labels and catchphrases which satisfy their partisans
-without inquiry, and by stigmatizing their opponents with such vile
-imputations and base epithets as seem to place them beyond the pale of
-moral and intellectual tolerance. "Sound" and "honest" they write
-above their creed. They pose as consecrated guardians of public honor
-and private property. We are depicted as dishonest and imbecile,
-repudiators of national and individual obligations, communists or
-anarchists bearing the torch and axe. This specialty is Mr.
-Cleveland's long suit. Little wonder that his school should place him
-at its head. His preeminence in the field where self-admiration is a
-supreme virtue and ribald abuse passes for irrefutable argument will
-scarcely be denied by anybody who shall have read the following
-characteristic specimens from this Waldorf essay, carefully written
-down and calmly delivered: "We are gathered here to-night as patriotic
-citizens anxious to do something toward ... protecting the fair fame
-of our nation against shame and scandal." It is not recorded that
-anybody smiled at this. Indeed, the astonishing thing about this
-business is that these people seem able to impose successfully on one
-another. But Mr. Cleveland is even better at the other kind, as for
-example: "Agitators and demagogues," "ruthless agitators," "sordid
-greed," "inflamed with tales of an ancient crime against their
-rights," "unfortunate and unreasonable," "restless and turbulent,"
-"reckless creed," "boisterous and passionate campaign," "allied forces
-of calamity," "encouraged by malign conditions," and so on _ad
-nauseam_.
-
-This is the attitude of nearly all the defenders of the gold standard
-who have the hardihood to say anything at all. Undoubtedly in many
-cases it is assumed because of ignorance on the merits of the case, so
-that nothing remains but to "abuse the other fellow." But occasionally
-this course is adopted by men who are well informed, and who know that
-the gold standard is incapable of meeting bimetallism in an honest
-contest of argument with any hope of success. The strategy of these,
-therefore, is to avoid fair discussion by so prejudicing the public
-mind against their opponents as to forestall a hearing.
-
-The result has been surprisingly successful. In many localities, and
-in fact in nearly all localities in the East, the most intolerant
-spirit has been manifested by the most prominent persons in the
-community, who had never taken the pains to examine the subject on
-which they so violently and fanatically expressed themselves. To
-people of any acquaintance with the literature, the history, and the
-science of money, it has seemed most marvellous that business men of
-large affairs, of much general information, and of excellent natural
-abilities, should be content to remain absolutely ignorant of
-fundamental monetary principles and the overwhelmingly attested
-lessons of past experience. It is infinitely pitiful to see men of
-affairs led away in so-called "business men's sound-money
-associations" and other similar movements, when a knowledge of the
-conditions on which their welfare depends would send them in an
-exactly opposite direction.
-
-Why? Because business men are men who do business, or at any rate who
-want to do business; and all legitimate business consists in the
-performance of some appropriate function in connection with the
-production or the exchange of commodities. It is apparent to even the
-dullest apprehension that whatever prevents or discourages production
-is destructive of business, and that a money system which provides a
-measuring unit that constantly demands, as an equivalent, an
-increasing quantity of everything produced, is the greatest burden on
-production that could possibly be devised. But it is precisely this
-kind of a unit that the gold standard furnishes. No one economic fact
-is so conclusively established and so generally conceded as that of
-the progressive fall of average prices throughout the gold-standard
-world during the last twenty-four years. This fall amounts to almost
-fifty per cent, and indeed, in respect to the great staple products of
-the country, exceeds fifty per cent; so that, to state the same fact
-in its converse, the purchasing power of gold has increased since 1873
-one hundred per cent.
-
-The significance of this awful fact is deftly obscured behind the
-deceptive and specious plea for "a dollar of the greatest purchasing
-power." This is one of those artful expressions that are used by the
-advocates of the gold standard as a kind of thought-deterrent. It
-seems so obvious, at the first suggestion, that the best dollar is the
-dollar that will buy the most, that it is hard for a man to get even a
-hearing who asserts that, on the contrary, such a dollar is the very
-worst dollar conceivable. But a moment's reflection will satisfy any
-sane mind that such is the case. The demonstration is so simple that
-one feels like apologizing for making it. Yet it is in respect to
-principles just as plain as this one that people are constantly
-allowing themselves to be taken in by the supporters of the single
-standard.
-
-The demonstration is this: whatever is bought by a dollar, itself buys
-the dollar. For example, when a dollar exchanges for a bushel of
-wheat, the dollar buys the wheat, and the wheat buys the dollar. To
-say, therefore, that a dollar that buys two bushels of wheat, being a
-dollar of greater purchasing power, is better than the dollar that
-buys one bushel, is to say that the dollar which it requires two
-bushels of wheat to buy is a better dollar than that which can be
-bought with one bushel. Consequently, to increase the excellence of
-your dollar all you need to do is to increase the scarcity of the
-stuff out of which dollars are made, so that each one shall constantly
-stand for more and more wheat, or, using wheat merely as
-representative of commodities in general, so that it shall constantly
-require more and more of all other things on earth to get a dollar. It
-is wholly credible that the man with dollars should profess this
-philosophy, but it is absolutely inexplicable how it should receive
-the support of men interested in getting dollars with things, who
-comprise about seven-eighths of society.
-
-Now as it continually takes more products to get a given quantity of
-gold, is it not clear that the producer who becomes liable for taxes
-and gets into debt must constantly bear an increasing burden of
-taxation, and that his debt, payable in more commodities than it
-represented when he incurred it, needs only to run long enough to grow
-beyond the hope of his ability to pay it? Such a policy cannot but be
-fraught with certain ruin to producers. It is causing in the United
-States a condition frightful to contemplate. The mass of debts is
-piling up at a ratio that absolutely threatens, if a halt in the
-automatic process is not soon called, a universal insolvency. Indeed a
-general liquidation is already impossible. He is no alarmist who
-counsels a timely and rational remedy as not only demanded by justice,
-but as anticipatory of violent readjustment. Under such disquieting
-conditions is it not as criminal as it is unscientific for men to go
-about prating of the system that has occasioned these things as
-"honest money," and "sound money," and denouncing its opponents as
-repudiators and anarchists?
-
-In the presence of epochal and fundamental disturbance, when men,
-patient beyond example and willing to argue the correctness of their
-claims, are crying out against the injustice of a money system that
-day and night and year upon year, with unerring and pitiless
-precision, takes from the producing many and hands over to the idle
-few that which it ruins those to lose and but pampers these to gain,
-our ex-President offends decency and insults millions of his
-fellow-citizens with this reference to their contention: "Honest
-accumulation is called a crime." Where does he find anybody calling
-honest accumulation a crime? Men indeed stigmatize the maintenance of
-this odious money system as a crime, but only because of the things
-they claim it to be guilty of. Why does he not join issue on these? He
-knows that nowhere in all this world is there, or has there ever been,
-a more honest body of citizenship than the millions of Americans who
-to-day are toiling on the farms and in the workshops of the country
-and who demand from the laws they obey nothing but equity and justice.
-It was easier, and more pleasant to those who heard him, to wrong
-these men with a sneer than to answer them with an argument. He might
-possibly have done well to relinquish this task to one who sat near
-him, his ex-Secretary of the Treasury, who had himself, in 1878,
-discovered something that _he_ thought a crime and had thus denounced
-it: "According to my views of the subject the conspiracy which seems
-to have been formed here and in Europe to destroy, by legislation and
-otherwise, from three-sevenths to one-half the metallic money of the
-world, is the most gigantic crime of this or any other age."
-
-The speech of Mr. Carlisle was notable for stating his position more
-extremely than he had previously done since his apostasy. He boldly
-takes the stand logically demanded by consistency in the man who
-opposes silver coinage and denies the arguments based on the
-appreciation of gold. He comes out squarely for the gold standard and
-places bimetallism of any and all sorts under a common ban. But alas!
-what a sorry appearance he makes. Nowhere in our political history do
-I find quite so pathetic a figure as that presented by this once
-strong and virile champion of the people's rights in his contrasted
-role of defender of their oppressors. Where now is that compact and
-cogent argument, that sincere and moving eloquence, which made his
-forensic style so singularly effective; which marked him the
-parliamentary darling of his party, a predestined president of the
-republic? Shrunken to the dreary platitudes of the gold-standard
-catechism, babbling of "sound currency" and "intrinsic value."
-
-This talk of intrinsic value was not confined to Mr. Carlisle. Mr.
-Patterson, of Tennessee, and Senator Caffery, of Louisiana, were
-likewise guilty of it. It is, indeed, the characteristic folly of
-their school. Having destroyed the money demand for silver while
-adding almost incalculably to that for gold, they have caused an
-increasing disparity in the values of the two metals; and now, when it
-is sought to restore the parity by restoring the equivalence of use
-and demand on which alone it depends, they pretend to have discovered
-some inherent perfection in gold and an original sin in silver which
-forbid all attempts to reconcile them. In the face of monetary
-principles whose nature has been understood for more than two thousand
-years, and of historic and economic facts which every college freshman
-knows, Mr. Carlisle has the appalling audacity to use the following
-language: "Natural causes have separated the two metals, and while it
-is possible that natural causes may hereafter change their present
-relations to each other, it is certain that these relations cannot be
-changed by artificial means."
-
-It is difficult to speak with becoming moderation of such stuff as
-this; and it is really pathetic to see the dominant opinion of whole
-sections of the country taking its cue from men who assume superior
-airs and rebuke the presumption of thinking on the part of some
-millions of Americans, while they peddle such insufferable nonsense as
-this just quoted from Mr. Carlisle. "Natural causes" indeed, when we
-can turn to the statute books of half the world and put our fingers on
-the "artificial means" whereby the hoarders of gold have legislated
-demand into one metal and legislated it out of the other. Let once a
-wrong be achieved by artificial means, and instantly those who profit
-by it represent it as the inevitable decree of evolutional forces.
-"Natural causes," we are asked to believe, have made gold dear and
-silver cheap during a period when the cost of producing gold has been
-cheapened more than any other mechanical process; when both metals
-have continued on substantially their old relative planes of use in
-every respect save as money; when their relative production has been
-from three to twenty times less disproportionate than at any other
-similar period in the past four hundred years; and when in actual
-weight the stocks of coin and bullion available for coinage have risen
-from a proportion of thirty-two of silver to one of gold up to that of
-sixteen of silver to one of gold coincidently with a fall of the
-so-called market ratio from fifteen and one-half to one, when the
-mints were open to both, down to thirty-three to one when only the one
-can be freely coined. It is simply an incredible and impossible
-proposition.
-
-Intrinsic value is as unthinkable as intrinsic distance. Both distance
-and value are relations. Neither can exist or be stated except by
-comparison. The value of a thing is what it is worth; and it is worth
-what it will bring. Value in exchange is the only value that political
-economy knows anything about; and what a given thing will exchange for
-depends on the ratio of the supply of it to the demand for it. A piece
-of money is worth what it will buy. Other things remaining the same,
-it will buy more when the stuff out of which it is made is plentiful,
-and less when that is scarce. The proposition of the bimetallists
-rests on only time-honored doctrines of political economy as justified
-by the experience of mankind. We desire to restore the parity of gold
-and silver by perfectly "natural causes" set in operation by
-"artificial means." We propose to invoke the law to equalize their
-opportunity and to make them interchangeably and indifferently
-responsive to the same money demand.
-
-Space has not permitted reference to all the errors committed at this
-wonderful banquet, nor a complete discussion of even those cited. I
-have endeavored only to point out the most glaring ones in the hope
-that some persons inclined to accept, somewhat carelessly, the
-assumedly authoritative statements of these eminent men, may be led to
-study this great subject whose proper understanding and wise
-management are of such vast importance not only in American politics
-but in the progress of the race. For the cause of bimetallism must
-commend itself to the intellect and the conscience of the country or
-it cannot win. Those who have spent some time in an earnest and
-thoughtful investigation of the matter and are convinced that the
-success of silver coinage is the first step in a series of rational,
-safe, and necessary reforms, are ready to be judged as much by the
-reasonableness of their doctrine as by the sincerity of their motives.
-They intend from now on to force the fight. The enemy will be sought
-out and assailed wherever found. No pretentious claims of
-infallibility will be accorded immunity from criticism. No authority
-will be permitted to shelter folly. It is time to expose the
-preposterous assurance of the gold-standard pundits. Nonsense will be
-called nonsense whoever utters it, and, what is more, it will be
-proved to be nonsense.
-
-
-
-
-DOES CREDIT ACT ON THE GENERAL LEVEL OF PRICES?
-
-BY A. J. UTLEY.
-
-
-It is conceded by all standard writers on political economy that the
-value of money--that is, its purchasing power--is fixed and regulated
-by the amount of money available for use.
-
-John Stuart Mill says:
-
- If the whole money in circulation was doubled prices would be
- doubled. If it was only increased one-fourth, prices would rise
- one-fourth. There would be one-fourth more money, all of which
- would be used to purchase goods of some description. When there
- had been time for the increased supply of money to reach all
- markets, or (according to conventional metaphor) to permeate all
- the channels of circulation, all prices would have risen
- one-fourth. But the general rise of price is independent of this
- diffusing process. Even if some prices were raised more, and
- others less, the average rise would be one-fourth. This is a
- necessary consequence of the fact that a fourth more money would
- have to be given for only the same quantity of goods. General
- price, therefore, in any such case would be one-fourth higher.
- The very same effect would be produced on prices if we suppose
- the goods diminished, instead of the money increased: and the
- contrary effect if the goods were increased, or the money
- diminished. If there were less money in the hands of the
- community, and the same amount of goods to be sold, less money
- altogether would be given for them, and they would be sold at
- lower prices; lower, too, in the precise ratio in which the money
- was diminished. _So that the value of money, other things being
- the same, varies inversely as its quantity; every increase in
- quantity lowering the value, and every diminution raising it, in
- a ratio exactly equivalent._
-
-This is known as the quantitative theory of money, and is recognized
-by Ricardo, Jevons, Macleod, John Locke, James Mill, John Stuart Mill,
-Senator John P. Jones, David Hume, William Huskisson, Sir James
-Graham, Prof. Torrens, Prof. Sidgwick, J. R. McCulloch, Mr. Gallatin,
-Prof. Fawcett, Prof. Perry, N. A. Nicholson, Earl Grey, Prof. Shield
-Nicholson, Lord Overstone, and, in fact, by all writers on political
-economy of any prominence since Adam Smith. Formerly it was supposed
-that the value of money depended upon the cost of production; that the
-reason why a dollar in gold or silver was worth 100 cents was because
-it took 100 cents' worth of labor to produce metal enough to make a
-dollar. This theory, however, has been abandoned by the best writers
-and speakers; in fact, by all economists of any standing, and it is
-now conceded that the cost of producing the metal has no influence on
-its money value, only as it may tend to increase or reduce the amount
-of money, and that it is the quantity of money, the number of units,
-available for use that determines and regulates its value; that is, if
-the quantity is increased its value will fall, and if the quantity is
-diminished its value will rise, and that it will fall or rise in value
-in a ratio exactly equivalent to the increase or diminution of the
-volume of money; and that if sufficiently reduced in volume, a dollar,
-whether stamped on gold, silver, or paper, would buy a plantation or
-pay a man for the labor of a lifetime. There can be no doubt as to the
-correctness of the quantitative theory of money.
-
-John Stuart Mill says:
-
- That an increase in the quantity of money raises prices, and a
- diminution lowers them, is the most elementary proposition in the
- theory of currency, and without it we have no key to any of the
- others.
-
-Prices, however, are not fixed by the total amount of money in
-existence; only that part of the money that is available for use can
-act on prices.
-
-Mr. Mill says:
-
- Whatever may be the quantity of money in the country, only that
- part of it will affect prices which goes into the market of
- commodities and is there actually exchanged for goods of some
- description. Whatever increases this portion of the money in the
- country tends to raise prices. Money kept in reserve by
- individuals to meet contingencies which do not occur, does not
- act on prices. Money in the coffers of banks, or retained as a
- reserve, does not act on prices until drawn out to be expended
- for commodities.
-
-It is also conceded that in fixing prices not only all the money
-actually available for use must be taken into consideration, but the
-rapidity of circulation must also be regarded; and due allowance must
-be made for the number of times commodities change hands before
-consumption.
-
-The same dollar may, by passing from hand to hand, make a number of
-purchases, and the same goods may be sold repeatedly before
-consumption. It is, probably, correct to say, that the money available
-for use multiplied by the rapidity of circulation, or, as Mr. Mill
-expresses it, by its efficiency, equals the total money to be
-considered; and the commodities sold multiplied by the average number
-of sales equals the total commodities to be taken into consideration
-in fixing the general level of prices.
-
-Are there any other elements that act on the general level of prices?
-Of course an abundant yield, or a short crop, or an over-production,
-so called, or under-consumption, of any particular commodity may
-depress or raise the price of that particular crop or commodity; but
-are there any elements other than those above enumerated that act on
-the general level of prices? I think there are none.
-
-If, then, prices are controlled by the volume of money available for
-use; and if the general level of prices will rise as the volume of
-money is increased, and fall as the volume of money is diminished, and
-rise or fall in an exact ratio corresponding with the expansion or
-contraction of the volume of money, it becomes important to ascertain
-what money is, and also whether there is anything which can be used as
-a substitute for money in such a manner as to affect the general level
-of prices.
-
-Senator John P. Jones, than whom there is no one better informed,
-says:
-
- The money of a country is that thing, whatever it may be, which
- is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in
- payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law or by
- universal consent. Its value does not arise from the intrinsic
- qualities which the material of which it is made may possess, but
- depends entirely on extrinsic qualities which law or common
- consent may confer.
-
-Aristotle says:
-
- Money has value only by law and not by nature; so that a change
- of convention between those who use it is sufficient to deprive
- it of its value and power to satisfy our wants.
-
-Adam Smith says:
-
- A guinea may be considered a bill for a certain quantity of goods
- on all the tradesmen in the neighborhood.
-
-Henry Thornton says:
-
- Money of every kind is an order for goods. It is so considered by
- the laborer when he receives it, and it is almost instantly
- converted into money's worth. It is merely the instrument by
- which the purchasable stock of the country is distributed with
- convenience and advantage among the several members of the
- community.
-
-John Stuart Mill says:
-
- The pounds or shillings which a man receives are a sort of ticket
- or order which he may present for payment at any shop he pleases,
- and which entitles him to receive a certain value of any
- commodity that he may choose.
-
-Appleton's Cyclopaedia defines money in the following words:
-
- Anything which freely circulates from hand to hand, in any
- country, as a common, acceptable medium of exchange, is, in such
- country, money, even though it ceases to be such, or to possess
- any value, when passing into another country. In a word, an
- article is determined to be money by reason of the performance by
- it of certain functions, without regard to its form or substance.
-
-Francis A. Walker says:
-
- Money is that which freely passes from hand to hand through the
- community in final discharge of debt and in full payment for
- commodities, being accepted equally without reference to the
- character or credit of the person who offers it, and without the
- intention of the person who receives it, to consume it, or enjoy
- it, or apply it to any other use than in turn to tender it to
- others in discharge of debts or in payment for commodities.
-
-It has been contended by certain economists that bank checks and bills
-of exchange are money, or, at least, that they discharge the money
-function and act on prices the same as money; but this definition
-excludes checks and bills of exchange. A bill of exchange or bank
-check is not accepted without reference to the character or credit of
-the person who offers it. But Francis A. Walker leaves us in no doubt
-on this question. On page 123 of his work on "Political Economy" he
-says:
-
- Money is a medium of exchange. Whatever performs this function,
- does this work, is money, no matter what it is made of, and no
- matter how it came to be a medium at first, or why it continues
- to be such. So long as, in any community, there is an article
- which all producers take freely and as a matter of course in
- exchange for whatever they have to sell, instead of looking
- about, at the time, for the particular things they, themselves,
- wish to consume, that article is money, be it white, yellow, or
- black, hard or soft, animal, vegetable, or mineral. There is no
- other test of money than this. That which does the money work is
- the money thing. It may do this well; it may do this ill. It may
- be good money; it may be bad money; but it is money all the same.
- We said _all_ producers, since it is not enough that a thing is
- extensively used in exchange, to constitute it money. _Bank
- checks are used in numerous and important transactions, yet are
- not money._ It is essential to money that its acceptability
- should be so nearly universal that practically every person in
- the community who has any product or service to dispose of will
- freely, gladly, and of preference, take this thing money, instead
- of the particular products or service which he may individually
- require from others, being well assured that with money he will
- unfailingly obtain whatever he shall desire, in form and amount,
- and at times to suit his wants.
-
-It appears from the accepted definitions that bank checks and bills of
-exchange are not money. They may to some extent, as other forms of
-credit may to some extent, add to or increase the rapidity of
-circulation; but, certainly, credit is not money nor does it possess
-the essential elements of money. I think it is an essential element of
-money that when used it closes the transaction between the parties to
-the transaction. In other words, money, when paid in the purchase of a
-commodity, closes the transaction, and neither party to the
-transaction has any further claim or demand against the other.
-Anything which does this (barter, of course, excluded) is money, and
-anything which fails to do this is not money. If a credit is given or
-a check received the transaction is not closed until the debt is paid
-or the check cashed. I do not find that any economist has made this
-distinction, in so many words, between money and credit, but I am
-satisfied that it exists.
-
-Does all the money available for use act on prices? It is contended by
-a certain class of economists that only money of ultimate and final
-redemption--in other words, gold and silver, in countries where gold
-and silver are the standard money, and gold only, in countries where
-gold is the standard money--can act directly on prices, and that other
-forms of money can only act on prices in an indirect manner, and to
-the extent only that they may increase the rapidity of the circulation
-of redemption or standard money; that paper money, whether convertible
-or inconvertible, covered or uncovered, and token money, can have no
-direct influence on the general level of prices.
-
-Is this contention true? We have already seen that money is a medium
-of exchange, a counter for reckoning, an order for goods, and that its
-value does not depend upon the intrinsic qualities which the material
-out of which it is made may possess, but depends entirely upon
-extrinsic qualities which law or common consent may confer, and that
-anything (barter, of course, excluded) that closes transactions
-between the parties to the transactions, is money; and also that the
-value of money, that is, its purchasing power, is fixed and regulated
-by the amount of money available for use. Why, then, should any part
-of the money that possesses and discharges all the functions of money
-be excluded? What peculiar property has money stamped on gold and
-silver that it only can act on prices?
-
-John Stuart Mill says:
-
- After experience had shown that pieces of paper, of no intrinsic
- value, by merely bearing upon them the written profession of
- being equivalent to a certain number of francs, dollars, or
- pounds, could be made to circulate as such, and to produce all
- the benefit to the users which could have been produced by the
- coins which they purported to represent, governments began to
- think that it would be a happy device if they could appropriate
- to themselves this benefit, free from the condition to which
- individuals issuing such paper substitutes for money were
- subject, of giving, when required, for the sign, the thing
- signified. They determined to try whether they could not
- emancipate themselves from this unpleasant obligation, and make a
- piece of paper issued by them pass for a pound, by merely calling
- it a pound and consenting to receive it in payment for taxes. And
- such is the influence of almost all established governments, that
- they have generally succeeded in attaining this object: _I
- believe I may say they have always succeeded for a time, and the
- power has only been lost to them after they had compromised it by
- the most flagrant abuse._--"Political Economy," Book 3, Chap. 13.
-
-Mill further says that such inconvertible paper money will act on
-prices. And if inconvertible paper money will act on prices, why will
-not convertible paper money, that is, paper money convertible into
-coin on demand, also act on prices? Token money, especially if a legal
-tender, and whether a legal tender or not, if accepted without
-objection in the payment of debt, or if received in full payment for
-commodities, discharges the money function, and is to all intents and
-purposes money. It is not absolutely necessary that to make a thing
-money it should be a legal tender in the payment of debt. Anything
-which is commonly accepted in exchange for labor or property and in
-payment of debt, whether so accepted by force of law (that is, its
-legal tender property) or by common consent, is money. From 1861 to
-1873 we had no gold or silver money in the United States, or virtually
-none. The official reports of the Secretary of the Treasury show that
-the gold and silver coin, including the gold and silver bullion in the
-United States Treasury during that period, amounted to but
-$25,000,000, and even that was not in circulation, except to a very
-limited extent on the Pacific Coast. Yet during that period prices
-reached the highest level ever attained in this country. Certainly,
-the level of prices during that period was not fixed by the gold and
-silver money available for use. In view of the foregoing facts I think
-it must be apparent that any money which is received in full payment
-for commodities, whether so received on account of its legal tender
-property or by universal consent, and whether it is gold, silver,
-paper, or token money, acts on prices, and tends to fix the general
-level of prices.
-
-It is claimed by a great many writers on political economy that credit
-has the same influence in fixing the general level of prices that
-money has, and that an expansion or contraction of credit would
-inflate or contract prices in the same manner and to the same extent
-as would result from a contraction or expansion of money; that if
-credit is extended, if more commodities are sold on credit than
-formerly, such extension of credit will tend to raise prices in the
-same manner and to the same extent as would so much additional money;
-and that if credits are contracted, if less credits are given than
-formerly, such contraction of credits will tend to depress prices in
-the same manner and to the same extent as a withdrawal of a like
-amount of money from the channels of trade would depress them. At the
-head of this school of political economists stands John Stuart Mill.
-He says:
-
- I apprehend that bank notes, bills, or cheques, as such, do not
- act on prices at all. What does act on prices is credit, in
- whatever shape given, and whether it gives rise to any
- transferable instruments capable of passing into circulation or
- not. (See Book 3, Chapter 12.)
-
-Is this contention true? If so, then it is not true that the general
-level of prices is determined by the amount of money available for
-use; but is determined, rather, by the amount of credits available for
-use. The debts of the world (and the credits, of course, are precisely
-equal to the debts, as there could be no debt without a corresponding
-credit) amount, in round numbers, to $200,000,000,000, and the money
-in the world amounts in round numbers to $10,000,000,000. That is,
-there are twenty dollars of credit to one dollar of money; and if
-credit exercises the same influence in fixing the general level of
-prices that money exercises, then it is absurd to say that the volume
-of money available for use fixes the general level of prices, and at
-the same time to contend that credit, dollar for dollar, is an equal
-factor in fixing prices. If credit affects the general level of
-prices in the same manner and to the same extent that money does, then
-credit exerts an influence on prices twenty times greater than that
-exerted by money, and we should say: The general level of prices is
-fixed by credit, modified, it may be, to some extent by the amount of
-money in circulation.
-
-The difficulty seems to be in distinguishing between money and credit.
-If we keep in mind the fact that anything which closes the transaction
-between the parties to the transaction (barter excluded) is money, and
-anything which leaves something still to be done is credit, we shall
-have no difficulty in making the distinction.
-
-Can credit affect the general level of prices? One of the most
-familiar and common illustrations given by those who contend that
-credit will raise the general level of prices, is that of a man
-entering the market to buy cotton.
-
-They say: "Suppose a person with $5,000 in money enters the cotton
-market, and with his money purchases $5,000 worth of cotton. His
-demand for cotton and his purchase of $5,000 worth will tend to
-advance or stimulate the price of cotton." "Now," they say, "suppose
-he has a credit of $5,000 and with this credit he purchases an
-additional $5,000 worth of cotton. The second purchase, made on
-credit," they contend, "will tend to still further advance the price
-of cotton in the same manner and to the same extent that the cash
-purchase did." Is this true?
-
-Let us suppose that he purchased the second bunch of cotton on ninety
-days' time. At the end of the ninety days he must pay for this cotton.
-If he draws the $5,000 with which he pays this debt from money
-invested in the cotton trade, the withdrawal of that sum from money
-invested in that industry will tend to depress the price of cotton to
-the extent that it was stimulated by the credit. If he withdraws it
-from the grain trade or from some other industry, the withdrawal of
-that sum of money will tend to depress prices in the industry from
-which it is withdrawn to the same extent as the cotton industry was
-stimulated by the credit. Whether the money to pay the debt is taken
-from the cotton industry or from some other industry, the general
-level of prices has not been raised. The purchase in the first
-instance may have temporarily stimulated the price of cotton, but if
-the payment of the debt is made from money drawn from that industry,
-it will depress the price of cotton to where it was before the credit
-purchase was made; and if the payment is made from money drawn from
-some other industry, it will depress prices in that industry to the
-same extent that the price of cotton was stimulated. In either event
-the general level of prices remains the same. It is like robbing Peter
-to pay Paul. It may make Paul richer, but how about Peter? There is no
-more wealth in existence than before the robbery was committed.
-
-Again, it is claimed that credit stimulates prices by causing
-commodities which are sold on credit to be sold for higher prices than
-commodities of the same value are sold for when sold for cash. It is
-true that sales on credit are, as a rule, at a higher price than sales
-for cash in hand. Why is this so? For two reasons:
-
-1st. Business done on credit is always attended with considerable
-risk. Even when the utmost caution is exercised, bad debts will be
-made, and a greater margin on sales is necessary.
-
-2nd. When time is given a certain amount must be added to the price of
-the goods to compensate the seller for the use of his capital between
-the date of sale and the maturity of the account.
-
-The additional price, thus received, is of no advantage to the
-producer or to the seller of the commodity. The addition to the price
-is consumed by losses from bad debts and in interest on capital. In
-fact, the additional prices charged, when properly analyzed, are not
-for the goods, but for the risk on the credit and for interest on
-capital. The net selling price of the commodity is not increased.
-Experience has proven that men who sell for the lesser price for cash
-in hand are more apt to succeed than those who charge the higher rate
-on the credit system.
-
-Credit is always burdened with interest. If interest is not directly
-charged, the goods are sold at an advance on the cash price equal to
-the interest, which amounts to the same thing. Interest acts on
-commerce like friction on machinery. As friction absorbs a portion of
-the motive power, so interest absorbs a part of the value of all
-commodities sold on credit. Interest, the necessary accompaniment of
-credit, produces no wealth; but, on the contrary, absorbs wealth and
-tends to concentrate it in the hands of the few; and, necessarily, in
-the same ratio it takes from the masses the power to purchase the
-things they desire and would otherwise consume. Its ultimate result
-must be to lower prices. Credit burdened with interest, as it always
-is, may temporarily increase the demand for a certain commodity and
-consequently temporarily raise its price; but it must do this at the
-expense of other commodities. Like a stimulant administered to a human
-being, it may produce spasmodic results of extraordinary power; but
-when the stimulant has spent its force it leaves the individual weaker
-and in a worse condition than he was before the stimulant was
-administered.
-
-Henry Thornton, an English economist, attempts to prove that a bill of
-exchange is money, and that, being money, it acts on prices. He says:
-
- Let us imagine a farmer in the country to discharge a debt of L10
- to his neighboring grocer by giving him a bill for that sum,
- drawn on his corn-factor in London, for grain sold in the
- metropolis; and the grocer to transmit the bill, he having
- previously indorsed it, to a neighboring sugar-baker in discharge
- of a like debt; and the sugar-baker to send it, when again
- indorsed, to a West India merchant in an outport; and the West
- India merchant to deliver it to his country banker, who also
- indorses it and sends it into further circulation. The bill in
- this case will have effected five payments, exactly as if it were
- a L10 note payable to the bearer on demand. A multitude of bills
- pass this way between traders in the country, in the manner which
- has been described; _and they evidently form in the strictest
- sense a part of the circulating medium of the kingdom_.
-
-Mill in his "Political Economy" quotes this illustration with
-approval. Is the conclusion arrived at correct?
-
-Suppose that instead of a bill of exchange for L10, a horse worth L10
-had been made use of, and the farmer had delivered the horse to the
-grocer in satisfaction of his debt, and the grocer had turned it over
-to the sugar-baker, and the sugar-baker to the West India merchant,
-etc. The horse would have paid the five debts in precisely the same
-manner that the bill of exchange did, but would such a use of the
-horse _have made the horse, in the strictest sense of the term, a part
-of the circulating medium of the kingdom_? I think not! A bill of
-exchange is not money, but an order for money, and would be valueless
-unless honored by payment on presentation. From the time the bill was
-drawn until finally paid an amount of money equal to the demand of
-the bill must be held out of circulation for its payment. It adds
-nothing to the circulation, and in no sense does it constitute a part
-of the circulating medium. It may, possibly, increase the rapidity of
-circulation, but it is difficult to see how it could do even this. The
-L10 held out of circulation for the payment of the bill would have
-paid the debts in the same manner that the bill of exchange did, and I
-fail to see why they would not have made the circuit as quickly. If a
-horse had been made use of in the settlement of the debts mentioned by
-Mr. Thornton, it would have been barter, pure and simple, and not a
-money transaction.
-
-That the contraction of the volume of credit will not tend to depress
-prices in the same manner and to the same extent that a contraction of
-the volume of money would will be apparent from the following
-illustration.
-
-The most conservative estimates place the national, municipal,
-corporate, and individual debts in the United States at
-$30,000,000,000. The Secretary of the Treasury estimates the amount of
-money in circulation at $1,600,000,000. There is not, in fact,
-one-third of the amount available for use; but for the purpose of this
-illustration we will take the Secretary's estimate as correct. Now let
-us suppose that the volume of credit should be reduced to
-$28,400,000,000, either by the payment of $1,600,000,000 of the debt
-or by bankruptcy proceedings or in some other manner. If that amount
-of the credits were extinguished by payment, business would be
-stimulated. That sum of money, or at least a considerable portion of
-it, would pass into the hands of the creditor class, where it would
-seek investment, and the tendency would be, not to contract, but to
-expand prices. If that amount of the credits were extinguished by
-bankruptcy proceedings in which no money passed in either direction,
-such an extinguishment could not depress or expand prices; it could
-have no influence upon them.
-
-Now suppose that $1,600,000,000 of the money, every dollar now claimed
-to be in circulation in the United States, should be withdrawn from
-the channels of trade, it would not be difficult to see that prices
-would fall; would, in fact, be completely annihilated. There would be
-no money with which to make purchases or to pay debts, civilization
-would go backwards, and universal bankruptcy and ruin would ensue.
-Suppose that only one-half or one-third of the money available for use
-should be withdrawn from circulation; even then business would be
-paralyzed, the money remaining would be hoarded or would be collected
-in the great money centres, prices would fall, and business men all
-over the country would be forced into bankruptcy. I think that it must
-be perfectly apparent that a contraction of credit does not act on the
-general level of prices in the same manner and to the same extent that
-a contraction of the volume of money does; that, in fact, it does not
-act on the general level of prices at all.
-
-I, therefore, conclude that money, and money only, acts on the general
-level of prices, and that credit does not and cannot act on prices
-except only as it may increase the rapidity of the circulation of
-money; and even then it is the greater efficiency of the money, and
-not the credit, that stimulates prices. Credit may temporarily
-stimulate the price of the product of some particular industry, but to
-do this it must attract money from some other industry, and the
-stimulation will be at the expense of a corresponding depression in
-prices in the industry from which the money is attracted.
-
-LOS ANGELES, COL.
-
-
-
-
-POINTS IN THE AMERICAN AND FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS COMPARED.
-
-BY NIELS GROeN.
-
-
-There are several reasons why, particularly in the light of what is
-going on in the two countries, a comparison between certain points of
-the constitutions of the French and United States republics should be
-of more than passing interest. Successive ministerial crises in France
-threaten the stability of the republic; here, while political
-conventions representing millions of people meet and produce radical
-platforms, nobody is apprehensive of revolution or trouble. The
-constitution is a bulwark against sudden change; its wisdom is
-believed to be guarded by impregnable security against caprice or
-panic.
-
-One in the Eastern hemisphere, the other in the New World, the two
-countries are the only great republics; both are watched by monarchies
-with invidious eyes, and, as before suggested, both have passed
-through, or are passing through, interesting not to say exciting
-experiences. American admirers of the republican form of government
-believe that the cause of human liberty would be seriously injured
-were the French Republic to cease to exist; they go further, and say
-that the death-knell of civil freedom would be sounded the moment the
-American republic became a failure. Something like a crisis is seen in
-the United States to-day, brought about by a whole series of
-concomitant causes, such as business depression, bank failures,
-industrial disputes terminating in strikes and lockouts, Coxey armies,
-panicky people, and unsettled views regarding commerce and finance,
-this last cause predominating.
-
-Though France has her difficulties about raising sufficient money to
-carry on the administration, and an income tax is just as unpopular
-there as it would be here, nevertheless the chief cause of her trouble
-is to be traced, not to financial, but to constitutional sources. The
-country is very rich, and its ministers probably will always find some
-means of raising enough money to pay the cost of administration.
-Quite true, it is a sore point for a proud country which yearns for
-revenge upon Germany and longs for large colonial possessions, that
-its population does not increase, while the populations of its enemy,
-Germany, and of its well-wisher, the United States, go up by leaps and
-bounds. True, there are economic writers who regard the dearth and
-even the decrease of population in France as an advantage to the
-country. But these need not be considered in this inquiry, for it is
-quite obvious that any country which really aspires to be numbered
-with the great powers, and effectually wishes to own important
-colonial possessions, must have a stalwart and increasing people. And
-it is a real source of weakness that there should yet be in France so
-many Royalists constantly on the alert and hoping always for a change
-in the existing form of government.
-
-Happily, on the contrary, no matter how widely the Western American
-may differ from his friend in the East, or how keenly the
-ex-Confederate may feel over the "lost cause," the warm-blooded son of
-Kentucky will fight as bravely under the flag of the republic as will
-his frozen-featured brother from Minnesota, and the dreamy individual
-who gazes poetically upon the placid waters of Puget Sound will shout
-as loudly for one country, and one allegiance to its glorious emblem,
-as will the gilded youth whose republicanism is artistically refreshed
-by a constant vision of the Statue of Liberty triumphantly standing in
-New York harbor.
-
-Royalism, conservatism, concentrationism, moderate republicanism,
-opportunism, radicalism, ultra-radicalism, socialism, and heaven knows
-how many other "isms" besides, exist in France to-day, and make it
-hard for any ministry to carry on the government. Numerous
-disintegrating influences are ever present, and political convictions
-are seldom sufficiently decided for any ministry to form a stable
-majority.
-
-Though France has had the experience of two previous experiments in
-republican forms of government (the one set up in 1792, and the second
-established in 1848), they were such mere makeshifts and so very
-short-lived that they could not have taught the country very much of
-the real genius of republican institutions. The centralization and
-tyranny of centuries brought revolt and hatred of the past, but did
-not prepare the people for self-government; while here the principles
-of civil liberty, transplanted from the mother country and flourishing
-in congenial conditions under colonial administration, found apt and
-natural expression in the Declaration of Independence and the
-Constitution. The event of republican institutions twice tried in
-France failed to show that even the leaders understood the principles
-of liberty as they were understood by the fathers of the American
-system of government, and enthusiastically adopted by the people, as
-the crystallization, so to speak, in definite terms, of what they had
-long enjoyed. Short-sighted acts of tyranny, exercised by George III
-and his ministers, were regarded, and justly so, as mere accidents of
-the time and as innovations to be resisted and overcome. The outcome
-was the vindication of the principles of government founded by the
-countrymen of King Alfred the Great, their expansion, and the
-invaluable expression of those principles in the Declaration and the
-Constitution.
-
-Some of the bravest and best under the French monarchy helped to
-establish the reign of popular liberty in the United States, and there
-can be no question but that the French Revolution was accomplished in
-part as a result of what had been seen and done on this side of the
-Atlantic on behalf of the civil rights of the people; but the founders
-of the first republic in France had no complete foundation on which to
-build a fabric firm and lasting. It was not easy for a venerable
-European nation, intrenched within its own regal institutions, in
-shaking off the past to begin a future of popular sovereignty. Much
-was gained by sweeping away the worst abuses of the past, but reaction
-came, succeeded, after a long lapse of time, by a second attempt to
-establish a republic, again to fail, until the collapse of the power
-of the adventurer whose election to the presidency was the beginning
-of the end of the republic of 1848, led to the third experiment, the
-permanent success of which we all hope for.
-
-If--much virtue in an "if"--the leaders of the first French Republic
-had been thoroughly masters of and thoroughly imbued with the
-principles of American liberty, it is possible they might have so
-instructed and led a bright and capable people as to lay a sure
-foundation for the future. But even this modified statement is open to
-question. While it may be regretted that the American Constitution was
-not copied in the establishment of the successive French republics, it
-is by no means certain that this matchless paper would have been so
-far appreciated in its recognition of the great principles underlying
-it, as to insure success. Some of the South American republics have
-the American Constitution, more or less, but are not shining examples
-of republican success. No one can question that monarchies like the
-United Kingdom and Germany enjoy a larger diffusion of civil liberty
-than they.
-
-Taking the French system, however, as it exists to-day, there can be
-no question that it would be vastly improved by copying the American
-model. It seems to have been founded with a view to the possibility of
-restoring the monarchy, and, this being so, the men who created it had
-no object in studying the American Constitution with a view to
-preventing those ministerial crises which threaten the destruction of
-the third republic. It will not do to attribute these crises to the
-unstable character of the fiery Frenchman, nor can the difficulty be
-disposed of by saying that a French minister will create a crisis for
-the sake of a pleasing _bon mot_ or a sprightly paradox. A crisis
-supposes something outside of, or above, or beyond the ordinary, but
-French ministerial crises have become so common that they are the
-laughingstock of the nations, and may be said to be almost the normal
-condition of the legislative assemblies of France. So long as such
-critical situations can be thus easily brought about there cannot be
-that continuity of policy which is essential for carrying out great
-projects. The problem to be solved is a constitutional one,--a
-statement, I think, easily proved true.
-
-Article Six of the constitution of 1875 reveals the real cause of
-ministerial crises in France: "The ministers are in a body responsible
-to the Chambers for the general policy of the government, and
-individually for their personal acts." This article obviously leaves
-the respective powers of both houses very undefined. Which chamber is
-the superior? To which of them are the ministers in fact responsible?
-The ministers may have a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, and may
-be in a minority in the Senate. Then there is a crisis. The Senate
-blocks the way and will not allow the government to go on, for it
-claims that it is the superior body. This absence of the proper
-demarcation of the powers of the Senate, of the Chamber of Deputies,
-and of the ministers necessarily leads to conflict; conflict is but a
-step from instability, and instability is a crisis which threatens
-revolution.
-
-The remedy for these oft-recurring ministerial crises in France is to
-be found in the American Constitution. The French Constitution should
-be revised and changed at the part quoted and all parts relating to
-it, so as to provide against ministerial crises; and the instrument
-presenting a sure guide in the performance of this necessary work is
-the American Constitution. It has been in operation over a hundred
-years and has been found to be an admirable working document,
-affording ministerial stability to its cabinets for over a century.
-Such a document is surely worthy of the closest study by the public
-men of the sister republic. It was inevitable that in so long a time
-some amendments should have become necessary; but for a long period it
-has undergone no change, save such as noted, and formulating the
-results of the civil war. Now and then are heard murmurings which
-claim the necessity of a sixteenth amendment, to the effect that the
-name of God should be put in the Constitution. The obvious answer to
-this is, that in the official life of the United States there is a
-more real acknowledgment of the Divine Being than there is in the
-official life of any other country, and it is better to have the name
-of God impressed upon the hearts of the people than upon even the best
-official document ever drawn up.
-
-It would not be correct to say that no attempts have been made to
-bring about a ministerial crisis in the United States by encroachment
-upon the rights of the Executive. Only once, however, when Andrew
-Johnson was President, has the action of the Executive been seriously
-hampered. Professor Bryce's remark may be applied to all other
-attempts. He writes: "Congress has constantly tried to encroach, both
-on the Executive and on the States,--sometimes like a wild bull driven
-into a corral, dashing itself against the imprisoning walls of the
-Constitution." There is the secret. The "imprisoning walls" of the
-American Constitution keep contending powers in their proper places.
-The Constitution is so well drawn up that a deadlock is an
-impossibility, the equilibrium of concomitant powers is easily
-maintained, and the sovereign will of the people has a fair
-opportunity of finding a natural exponent.
-
-In the United States the Senate and the House of Representatives are
-coordinate bodies; in the French Republic each claims superiority over
-the other. In the United States bills are never introduced by the
-Cabinet, all bills must originate either in the Senate or in the House
-of Representatives; such is not the case in the French Republic. In
-the United States the chief duty of the President is to see that the
-laws are faithfully executed; the Cabinet administers; its members are
-rather the aids or secretaries of the chief magistrate of the nation
-than otherwise. They are his advisers and helpers. During the four
-years for which the President of the United States is elected, the
-limitations of his authority are so remote and theoretical that, for
-practical purposes, it may be stated that he always serves out his
-full term of office. On the contrary, Presidential resignations are
-not unknown in the French Republic. France elects her President for
-seven years, yet Thiers, MacMahon, Grevy, Carnot, Casimir-Perier, and
-Faure make a list longer than that of the names of the men who have
-lived in the White House during the past quarter of a century. In the
-United States, the Cabinet lasts as long as the President's term of
-office; in the French Republic, the Cabinet sometimes goes to pieces
-in four months. Briefly, it is quite clear that in the United States
-there can be no ministerial crises, since the President's chief duty
-under the Constitution is to see that the laws are faithfully
-executed, and the members of his Cabinet do not introduce bills, even
-for finance or supplies, but act as his aids. As previously intimated,
-the difficulty with the French legislative bodies is that royalistic
-precedents and rules run side by side with republican principles, and
-the result is a mongrel institution divided, too often, against
-itself. When matters shall be so arranged that the French President
-will have to fill out his full term of office, and French ministers
-will not be permitted to originate legislation, and cabinets shall be
-selected to serve as long as the Presidential term, then the French
-Republic will enjoy the same ministerial stability as that of the
-United States.
-
-It were hard to say that the French method of electing a president is
-any better or any worse than that of the United States. The President
-of the French Republic is elected by the majority of the votes of both
-Chambers. This plan does not seem to remove him further from the
-people than does the system of electing a president by electors, as in
-the United States. As human ingenuity has not yet succeeded in
-creating the ideal republic, wherein, according to Ouida, there would
-be no president, some system of election must be followed. The
-question is not a burning one. There is notable, however, a growing
-tendency in France in favor of electing the president directly by the
-votes of the people. The seven-years' period for which the French
-president is elected is considered by many to be an excellent
-provision; but it loses half its excellence by reason of the fact that
-the president has the power to initiate laws, this and other things
-concurring to make his resignation a possibility, and not a remote
-one.
-
-That the office of vice-president does not exist in France seems to be
-of no great consequence. In the history of the American Republic there
-have been five vice-presidents who have been called upon to step into
-the Presidential chair by the deaths of presidents. According to the
-French Constitution, in case of a Presidential vacancy, whether from
-death or any other cause, the two Chambers proceed immediately to the
-election of a president. In the interval the ministers are invested
-with executive power.
-
-What I have written regarding the growing tendency to think it would
-be better to elect the president directly by the votes of the people,
-applies with a little more force to the election of senators. In
-France the municipalities elect the senators, as do State legislatures
-in this country. It is held by some who have discussed the question
-that it is much more in conformity with the genius of republican
-institutions that the people express their will directly by ballot
-rather than through the votes of municipal councils, as in France, or
-of legislatures, as in the United States. I cannot see that the
-difference of terms, that of French senators being nine years, and of
-American six, is of practical consequence. While both republics are
-at one as to the necessity of a second chamber, providing thus a check
-to hasty and unconsidered legislation, many thinkers in both countries
-agree that some change is necessary to make it possible for others
-than millionaires to be elected senators.
-
-If I were a Frenchman and had the power, I should get every newspaper
-throughout the land, and every public man and influential citizen, to
-enter upon a crusade for the purpose of impressing upon the minds of
-the whole people the following extract from the Constitution of the
-United States:
-
- Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of
- religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
-
-In France, there are constantly continuous and unseemly clashes
-between church and state. No matter what complications may exist as
-results of the past, surely it would be better for all concerned to
-leave the churches to be sustained by the voluntary contributions of
-the people. In the United States churches seem to live and thrive
-under this system of noninterference by the state in religious
-matters, and voluntary support. The more than eighty thousand
-clergymen are provided for. In the French Republic one reads
-everywhere, on the walls of churches and of schools, the words
-"_Liberte, fraternite, egalite_," while there seems to be a serious
-disagreement between Clericals, on the one side, and Radicals, on the
-other, as to the meaning of these words. To effectually put an end to
-this strife, the adoption of the clause I have quoted would be
-sufficient.
-
-In writing thus freely of the French Republic I am free, I trust, from
-the spirit of the carping critic delighting in comparisons to the
-advantage of his own country. I appreciate the splendid literature,
-the brilliant art, the advanced civilization of the France of to-day.
-I recognize with gratitude the debt which the United States owes the
-gallant Gallic people for sympathy and material aid in her struggle
-for independence. It is now only necessary to be in France on the
-Fourth of July to realize the reality and depth of the friendship
-which exists between the sister republics. But I do think that until
-France shall copy more closely the Constitution of the United States,
-the stability of the third republic cannot be regarded as assured.
-
-
-
-
-HONEST MONEY; OR, A TRUE STANDARD OF VALUE:
-
-A SYMPOSIUM.
-
-
-I. BY WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.
-
-We hear much about a "stable currency" and an "honest dollar." It is a
-significant fact that those who advocate a single gold standard have
-for the most part avoided a discussion of the effect of an
-appreciating standard. They take it for granted that a gold standard
-is not only an honest standard, but the only stable standard. I
-denounce that child of ignorance and avarice, the gold dollar under a
-universal gold standard, as the most dishonest dollar which we could
-employ.
-
-I stand upon the authority of every intelligent writer upon political
-economy when I assert that there is not and never has been an honest
-dollar. An honest dollar is a dollar absolutely stable in relation to
-all other things. Laughlin, in his work on "Bimetallism," says:
-
- Monometallists do not--as it is often said--believe that gold
- remains absolutely stable in value. They hold that there is no
- such thing as a "standard of value" for future payments in either
- gold or silver which remains absolutely invariable.
-
-He even suggests a multiple standard for long-time contracts. I quote
-his words:
-
- As regards national debts, it is distinctly averred that neither
- gold nor silver forms a just measure of deferred payments, and
- that if justice in long contracts is sought for, we should not
- seek it by the doubtful and untried expedient of international
- bimetallism, but by the clear and certain method of a multiple
- standard, a unit based upon the selling prices of a number of
- articles of general consumption. A long time contract would
- thereby be paid at its maturity by the same purchasing power as
- was given in the beginning.
-
-Jevons, one of the most generally accepted of the writers in favor of
-a gold standard, admits the instability of a single standard, and in
-language very similar to that above quoted suggests the multiple
-standard as the most equitable, if practicable. Chevalier, who wrote
-a book in 1858 to show the injustice of allowing a debtor to pay his
-debts in a cheap gold dollar, recognized the same fact, and said:
-
- If the value of the metal declined, the creditor would suffer a
- loss upon the quantity he had received; if, on the contrary, it
- rose, the debtor would have to pay more than he calculated upon.
-
-I am on sound and scientific ground, therefore, when I say that a
-dollar approaches honesty as its purchasing power approaches
-stability. If I borrow a thousand dollars to-day and next year pay the
-debt with a thousand dollars which will secure exactly as much of all
-things desirable as the one thousand which I borrowed, I have paid in
-honest dollars. If the money has increased or decreased in purchasing
-power, I have satisfied my debt with dishonest dollars. While the
-government can say that a given weight of gold or silver shall
-constitute a dollar, and invest that dollar with legal-tender
-qualities, it cannot fix the purchasing power of the dollar. That must
-depend upon the law of supply and demand, and it may be well to
-suggest that this government never tried to fix the exchangeable value
-of a dollar until it began to limit the number of dollars coined.
-
-
-II. BY M. W. HOWARD.
-
-The term, "a standard of value," so often used, is erroneous and
-misleading. There can be no fixed standard of value, and the student
-who wishes to delve into our financial problems should clear his mind
-of such a fallacy at the very threshold of his investigations.
-
-Money is a commodity; it is regulated by the same laws of supply and
-demand which regulate the price of corn, cotton, wheat, land, labor,
-etc. If the wheat crop is short, wheat will be dear; if abundant, it
-will be cheap. So with money. If the money supply is not sufficient to
-meet the demands of business and commerce,--if the money crop is
-short, in other words,--the money will be dear; it will command too
-high a price, its purchasing power will be too great.
-
-On the other hand, if the money supply is abundant, sufficient to meet
-all demands upon it,--in other words, if there is a bountiful money
-crop,--it will be cheaper; it will not have such a large purchasing
-power; it will be worth less when measured by our labor, our lands,
-and the products of our labor.
-
-I oppose the single gold standard because it makes the money crop
-short, gives us a small circulating medium, and hence enhances the
-value or price of money.
-
-We have a certain demand for breadstuff, which is constantly
-increasing as our population multiplies; suppose that we cease
-producing corn, and find no substitute for it, would not the price of
-wheat be greatly enhanced, providing there is no increased wheat
-production? So with the money supply. There is a certain demand for
-money, ever increasing as population grows. How shall we meet it? By
-producing more money, or by destroying one-half of that which we now
-have, by eliminating one-half of the base of future supplies of money?
-
-The latter is now the policy of this government, and as a consequence
-the price of gold has been greatly enhanced, and its purchasing power
-has increased each year, and will continue to do so.
-
-The advocates of the gold standard call this "honest money." Their
-idea of honest money is money that ever increases in purchasing power
-because of its ever-increasing scarcity.
-
-My definition of honest money is: "A sufficiently large circulating
-medium, whether of gold, silver, or paper, to bring down the price of
-money so that we shall obtain fair prices for all labor and products."
-Then as population increases and as the demand for money becomes
-greater, let the government meet that demand from time to time by
-enhancing the money supply.
-
-
-III. BY WHARTON BARKER.
-
-The true test of an honest dollar is its purchasing power, and that
-dollar, and only that dollar, is honest that does exact justice
-between creditor and debtor. The gold monometallists harp on the
-injustice of a depreciating dollar, but they ignore the injuries
-inflicted by an appreciating dollar. They tell us that a depreciating
-dollar defrauds the creditor, but just as a depreciating dollar
-defrauds the creditor, an appreciating dollar defrauds the debtor, and
-it is not one whit worse to defraud the creditor by obliging him to
-accept a depreciated dollar from his debtor than to defraud the debtor
-by obliging him to pay in a dollar made artificially scarce and dear.
-
-An appreciating dollar works injustice to the debtor just as a
-depreciating dollar works injustice to the creditor, but an
-appreciating dollar is many fold more injurious to trade and industry,
-for while the depreciating dollar taxes the creditor for the benefit
-of the debtor, the appreciating dollar takes from the debtor, from
-producers in general and the industrious classes, and gives to the
-creditor classes, the drones of society, a larger and larger share of
-the products of labor, which of necessity discourages industry. Under
-a depreciating standard the recompense of the producer becomes greater
-and greater, the creditor classes receive a smaller and smaller
-portion of the products of labor, the profits of industry increase,
-and consequently production is encouraged and trade and industry are
-stimulated. But under an appreciating standard the recompense of labor
-becomes smaller and smaller, and the share of the products of labor
-absorbed by the creditor larger, which tends to discourage industry
-and stifle enterprise.
-
-
-IV. BY ARTHUR I. FONDA.
-
-The value of any commodity is measured by what it will exchange for.
-It is in fact its purchasing power, or power in exchange. This in
-substance is the concrete definition of value given by all economists,
-and they all unite in stating that value is determined by the supply
-of a commodity relative to the demand for it; all other factors
-affecting value being secondary and acting through their effect on
-either supply or demand.
-
-Since both the supply of and the demand for every freely produced
-commodity is variable, and since a true standard of value, like a true
-standard of weight or length, must be invariable as regards that which
-it measures, it necessarily follows that no single freely produced
-commodity can be a true standard of value. But while it is true that
-every single commodity must vary in value, it is also true that all
-commodities taken together cannot do so. This principle is also
-accepted as correct by all economists.
-
-It is evident then that a true standard of value can only be found in
-a composite unit containing a definite quantity of every commodity, or
-practically speaking, a definite quantity of each of a large number of
-the most important commodities. This is what is known as the "multiple
-standard," or the "commodity standard," and has long been in use by
-economists in the form of tables of index numbers to show fluctuations
-in general prices, or what is the same thing, changes in money values.
-
-The only function of money is to facilitate the exchange of goods. In
-doing this it acts directly as a circulating medium, and the demand
-for it for this purpose, relative to the supply, determines its value;
-for money, whether of coin or paper or both combined in one
-circulation to meet one need, is subject to the same law of supply and
-demand which governs all commodities, and which indeed is as universal
-in the economic world as the law of gravitation is in the physical
-world.
-
-Incidentally the value of money fills the important function of
-serving as a measure of the values of goods transferred without the
-direct use of money, both immediate and deferred. This, however, has
-no effect on the demand for money or on its value.
-
-The people are accustomed to regard money as of constant value, and an
-honest money must necessarily conform to this belief. If money varies
-in value, the people are deluded, and many are wronged if they are
-unaware of the fluctuation. If they become aware of it,--as they
-generally do by a bitter experience,--they are confronted with an
-uncertainty that is most detrimental to any business or enterprise.
-Imagine what our business would be with our measures of weight,
-length, and capacity all variable! Yet such a condition would be less
-disastrous than a fluctuating money value when it became fully known
-that it was so.
-
-The _demand_ for money varies from many causes, chief among which are
-changes in the quantity of goods exchanged, the extent to which other
-credit instruments take the place of money in such exchanges, and the
-activity of money, or the extent to which it is hoarded, all of which
-are entirely beyond control. The _supply_ of money, however, can be
-controlled, and to maintain money at a constant value the supply must
-be constantly adjusted to the ever-varying demand, so that its
-general purchasing power may remain the same. The test of a constant
-money must be a constant general level of prices; and this must be
-judged by the prices in the open market of those principal commodities
-which would be selected to constitute the standard of value, the
-quantity of each being proportioned to its importance in trade.
-
-The only function of gold and silver in a monetary system is to _limit
-the volume of the money_, either by their scarcity when freely coined,
-or by the laws limiting their coinage. And as this limitation of the
-supply bears no definite relation to the demand for money, the value
-of the money necessarily fluctuates. Our industrial system is
-constantly growing more sensitive to even slight changes in money
-value, owing to the greater diversification of industries and the
-greater division of labor, and the need for preventing such changes is
-constantly growing more imperative.
-
-When the people arrive at a clearer perception of these facts and
-principles they will understand that the chance production of gold and
-silver is too clumsy a contrivance to properly control so delicate a
-matter as the value of money under modern industrial conditions, and I
-believe they will substitute for the present system a circulating
-medium of paper money, properly guaranteed, and susceptible of prompt
-and certain increase or decrease of volume to meet every possible
-variation in demand, and rigidly controlled to conform in value to a
-true standard of value, a standard composed not alone of gold or
-silver or both combined, but of all the leading commodities.
-
-In short, they will separate the standard of value from the medium of
-exchange, demonetizing both gold and silver as to the latter function,
-but using both and many other things in conjunction therewith for the
-former function.
-
-
-V. BY A. J. WARNER.
-
-From whatever side the question is approached, in the last analysis
-the value of money of any kind is found to depend upon its quantity,
-and not upon color, or ductility, or malleability, or any other
-particular quality of the thing upon which the money function is
-impressed. There can be therefore, in fact, no other standard of
-value, or money standard, except the quantity of whatever is used as
-money. When gold and silver are used, the value of each unit of money
-depends upon the number of such units, and these in turn depend upon
-the quantity of the metal from which the money is made. Any cause,
-therefore, which restricts, limits, or contracts the quantity of any
-kind of money, increases the value of each unit. On the contrary,
-causes that operate to increase the supply of money have the opposite
-effect.
-
-Hence, only that currency can properly be called "sound" currency
-which is made to maintain stable relations to things to be bought and
-sold. In other words, general prices are determined by the proportion
-between money on the one side, and things offered against money on the
-other side. Such money only is "honest" money.
-
-The whole question, therefore, of money standard is a question of
-money supply; for, as the price of single things, money being
-constant, depends upon supply on the one hand, as against demand for
-it on the other, so, in general, prices depend on money supply on the
-one hand, and things to be bought and sold on the other. This I
-believe to be the fundamental law of money.
-
-
-
-
-THE NEW CIVIL CODE OF JAPAN.
-
-BY TOKICHI MASAO, M. L., D. C. L.
-
-
-Ever since the establishment of the present imperial government in
-1868, the one unceasing aim of Japan's foreign policy has been the
-abolition of the extra-territoriality regime, under which certain
-quasi-judicial functions are exercised on the Japanese soil by the
-ambassadors and consuls of the Occidental nations. This anxiety on
-Japan's part to rid herself of this shameful regime imposed upon her
-against her will, will not appear surprising when the fact is learnt
-that one Occidental nation went so far as to call her consul at
-Yokohama, "Her Britannic Majesty's the Most Honourable Court for
-Japan"--a name almost enough to imply that Japan was a British
-province. Extra-territoriality rests upon the assumption that the laws
-and procedure of the non-Christian nations are so unlike to and
-different from those of the Christian nations that without the
-protection of this system the safety and well-being of the subjects of
-the latter sojourning in the territory of the former would be placed
-in constant jeopardy. Accordingly in the early seventies Japan came to
-the conclusion that the only possible way of emancipating herself from
-the disgraceful yoke of extra-territoriality was to adopt one of the
-systems of law obtaining in the Christian world and compile a code of
-law based upon that system, and applicable alike to the Japanese and
-to the foreigners residing in Japan.
-
-There were three such systems--the Anglo-American, the French, and the
-Germanic Roman--each offering itself for adoption. Mr. Yeto
-Shimpei,[2] who became the Minister of Justice in 1872, seems to have
-had a personal preference for the French system. He called to his
-assistance some of the most eminent jurists of France and entered upon
-the work of drafting a code. At the same time he established in Tokio
-a law school known as the "Department of Justice Annex Law School," in
-which French law was taught by those same jurists whom he had called
-from France. About this time there was also established in the
-University of Tokio a law school in which instruction was given
-chiefly in English law. It was while teaching in this university law
-school that Mr. Henry T. Terry (a New York lawyer and an alumnus of
-Yale College) wrote his memorable book on English law, designed
-especially for the use of Japanese law students. From henceforth
-"Terry's Leading Principles of Anglo-American Law" became as familiar
-to them as are "Blackstone's Commentaries" to the law students of this
-country.
-
- [2] Those who have followed the course of events in Japan
- since the beginning of the new era will remember that upon
- the return of Prince Iwakura, in 1873, from his
- around-the-world embassy, Mr. Yeto had to withdraw from the
- cabinet, owing to a difference of opinion between him and
- the Prince with regard to the Corean problem then pending.
- Returning to his native province, Saga, he tried to raise
- troops against the government (to carry out, of course, his
- own convictions in regard to the Corean problem), resulting
- in the famous "Saga rebellion" of 1873. Defeated by the
- government troops, he betook himself to the interior of the
- country in disguise, was arrested, found guilty of treason,
- and executed according to law. It is a familiar saying in
- Japan that Mr. Yeto died a criminal at the hand of his own
- Penal Code.
-
-Thus, side by side there existed in Tokio two law schools in which two
-distinct systems of law were taught--the English and the French. The
-primary object of the Department of Justice in establishing the French
-law school being to make it a training school of judicial officers,
-the students of that school were, upon graduation, to render, for a
-limited number of years, an obligatory service to the government in
-the various capacities of judges, magistrates, and prosecuting
-attorneys. On the other hand, the University of Tokio being a strictly
-independent institution in which learning is pursued for the sake of
-learning, the graduates of the university or English law school were
-at entire liberty in their choice of professions. Naturally enough the
-majority of these did not wish to enter the same service which the
-graduates of the other school were obliged to enter as a matter of
-fulfilment of contract. Thus it happened that the bench was recruited
-from the French law school, while the bar was recruited from the
-English law school. This state of affairs lasted for about twenty
-years, during which time there was also established a German law
-school in the University of Tokio. Those who know something about the
-rivalry that existed in ancient times between the Sabinians and the
-Proculians, or even about the rivalry which exists to-day between the
-Yale method and the Harvard method, between the Waylandians and the
-Langdellians, can readily imagine what intellectual competition was
-carried on between these three Japanese law schools representing three
-distinct systems of law.
-
-After twenty years of assiduous labor the Code Commission submitted a
-draft of a Civil Code to the two Houses of Parliament in 1890,
-accompanied by the recommendation from the Bureau of Legislation that
-the draft might receive the parliamentary sanction in such a manner
-that it might be possible for it to be put in effect by the year 1893.
-As might have been expected from the personnel of the Commission,
-consisting, in its conception, of Mr. Yeto Shimpei and the eminent
-French jurist Prof. Boissonade, etc., the draft was a genuine French
-code, being almost a literal translation of the Code Napoleon in all
-its parts excepting the part dealing with the Law of Persons. The
-question may well be asked why it took the Commission twenty long
-years to produce this imitation draft code when we know that the draft
-of the Code Napoleon itself was completed within the short period of
-four months. The answer seems to be that the Commission spent almost
-this entire time in their efforts to reconcile the principles of the
-French Law of Persons with the Japanese laws and customs bearing on
-that subject.
-
-As has been the case with many other draft codes this draft Civil Code
-of Japan was destined to go into oblivion. As soon as it was submitted
-to the Parliament there ensued a most desperate fight against its
-adoption. As figuring most prominently among the champions of the
-opposition I may mention the names of Mr. Kazuo Hatoyama, the present
-Speaker of the House of Commons of the Imperial Japanese Parliament,
-and His Excellency Mr. Toru Hoshi, the present Japanese minister at
-Washington.[3] Inspired by these and other eminent jurists of the
-English school the entire bar was set against the adoption of the
-draft code. This was not a case of a bar accustomed to one set of
-rules and formulas opposing the adoption of a new code for fear that
-they might be compelled to learn a new set of rules and formulas. On
-the contrary, the bar was composed of men who had studied law as a
-science, and science for the sake of science. The spirit of their
-opposition was very plainly shown by the objections they raised
-against the code. They said:--"The draft Code was a blind imitation of
-a foreign Code which itself was far from being free from defects. It
-abounded in definitions, illustrations, and examples, and presented an
-appearance more becoming to a text-book of law than the Civil Code of
-a great nation. It went into too minute details and left too little
-room for voluntary development of jurisprudence. It incorporated, like
-the French Code, the law of evidence into the body of the Civil Code,
-which was totally at variance with the modern theory of evidence,
-being a failure on the part of the Commissioners to distinguish
-adjective from substantive law. It made too many innovations upon the
-Law of Persons hitherto obtaining in Japan. It changed the Family Law
-of the Japanese from the foundation, which was a gross disregard of
-the historical principle of jurisprudence," etc., etc., etc. Such were
-some of the grounds upon which they opposed the adoption of the draft
-code, reminding one of the fight in Europe between the historical
-school and the analytical school, between the jurists of France and
-those of Germany; of the fight in Germany between the Code party and
-the anti-Code party, between Savigny and Thibaut. Who can say, then,
-that the Japanese are childish imitators of anything that looks well?
-The fact is that this sort of conflict between the more conservative
-and the more radical, the more scrupulous and the more unscrupulous,
-the more positive and the more speculative, is going on all the time.
-
- [3] I make mention of these two gentlemen as representative
- of two classes of a fairly large number of Japanese lawyers,
- viz., those who have been educated in the United States, and
- those who have received their education in England. Mr.
- Hatoyama is a D. C. L. of Yale. For nearly ten years
- (1880-1889) he was a professor of law in the University of
- Tokio Law School, and during most of this time he was also
- Dean of the school. Mr. Hoshi is a barrister-at-law of one
- of the English Inns of Court. For many years he was regarded
- as the leader of the Japanese bar. Like many distinguished
- members of the English bar, he is more of a lawyer than of a
- jurist.
-
-At last in 1892 the Parliament passed an act deferring the taking
-effect of the code till 1897 and ordering in the meantime a careful
-revisal of the draft. A new Commission was appointed which consisted
-of three most eminent professors of law in Japan, each representing
-one of the three systems of law recognized there.[4] These
-Commissioners, aided by a number of efficient assistants, looked into
-the codes and laws of some fifteen leading American and European
-states. As representing the French system they consulted the codes of
-Louisiana, Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. As
-representing the German system they consulted the codes and laws of
-Austria, Montenegro, Prussia, Saxony, Switzerland, and the draft Civil
-Code of the German Empire. As representing the English system they
-consulted the leading American and English reports and treatises, the
-draft Civil Code of New York, and the codes of California and British
-India.[5]
-
- [4] I refer to Professors Hodzumi, Tomii, and Ume. Prof.
- Hodzumi is a barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple, and is
- one of the ablest representatives of English law in Japan.
- Prof. Tomii is a _Docteur en Droit_ of the Facility of
- Lyons, and is by far the ablest expounder of the French
- codes in Japan. Prof. Ume, though a bearer of the same
- degree from the same Faculty as Prof. Tomii, has attended
- several German universities, and is more of the German
- school than of the French. The Commission itself consisted
- of several other distinguished personages, with the Prime
- Minister at the head. But these three professors composed
- what was called the "Compilation Committee," so that
- practically they were the Commission.
-
- [5] Prof. Ume, a member of the Commission, is responsible
- for these statements so far as they relate to the codes and
- laws consulted. The classifications, however, are my own.
-
-After four years of the most constant application the Commission
-submitted in 1896 a revisal of a part of the original draft. Had the
-Commission had the entire code revised they could not have shown
-greater wisdom. For the parts incomplete were those dealing with the
-Family Law and Successions, and the Commission remembered that these
-were the parts that occasioned the most vital objections to the old
-code. The Parliament referred the revised draft code to a Committee of
-their own, of which Mr. Hatoyama, the present Speaker, was made the
-chairman. After making a careful examination and some important
-modifications, Mr. Hatoyama reported favorably to its adoption. The
-Parliament acted according to his advice, and the draft became the
-law.
-
-In its general arrangement the new code follows what the German
-jurists call the Pandekten system. It is divided into five general
-parts. Part I is called "S[=o]soku," or General Laws, and deals with
-persons, natural and artificial, as the subjects of rights; with
-things as the objects of rights; and with juristic acts as setting
-rights in motion. One cannot help being astonished at and gratified
-with the remarkable extent to which Prof. Holland's views as expressed
-in his book on jurisprudence seem to be adopted in this part of the
-code.[6] Part II is called "Bukken," or _Jus in Rem_, corresponding
-to the Sachenrecht of the German code, and dealing with Possession,
-Ownership, etc., etc. Part III is called "Jinken," or _Jus in
-Personam_, corresponding to the Forderungsrecht of the German code,
-and dealing with General Law of Obligations, with Obligations arising
-_ex contractu_, _quasi ex contractu_, and _ex delicto_. The General
-Law of Obligations is taken largely from the Forderungsrecht of the
-Swiss code. The law of Contracts and Torts is taken entirely from the
-English law. Parts IV and V, dealing with the Family Law and the Law
-of Successions respectively, have not as yet been published, for
-reasons already indicated.
-
- [6] This may be a mere conjecture on my own part. It is
- possible that the Commissioners never consulted his book,
- though to assert such a thing of them would be an insult to
- their scholarship. Be it as it may, it is a fact beyond
- question that their arrangement of these topics presents a
- remarkable coincidence to that of Prof. Holland's, and this
- is a matter upon which every thoughtful Japanese may well
- pride himself.
-
-Such is the new Civil Code of Japan, adopted by the Imperial
-Parliament in its session of 1896. Truly, the year 1896 has been an
-eventful year for Japan. The war with China had brought glory to her
-arms. Formosa and numerous other islands had been added to her
-possessions. The insurgents of Formosa had been pacified. The treaties
-with the leading nations of the world had been revised, providing for
-the abolishment of the disgraceful extra-territoriality regime in
-Japan, to take effect, however, upon the taking effect of the new
-Civil Code. The last and greatest event of all, the new Code was
-adopted. With equal propriety, then, the Emperor Mutsuhito might have
-joined Justinian, in proclaiming:--"Imperatoriam Majestatem non solum
-armis decoratam, sed etiam legibus opportet esse armatam, ut utrumque
-tempus et bellorum et pacis recte possit gubernari!"
-
-
-
-
-JOHN RUSKIN:
-
-A TYPE OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY MANHOOD.
-
-BY B. O. FLOWER.
-
-
-The name John Ruskin is justly entitled to a foremost place among
-those of the builders of twentieth-century civilization. In him we
-find a rare combination of genius, culture, and refinement, blended
-with a tender concern for all earth's unfortunates. He is at once
-artist, philosopher, and philanthropist; but he is more than these;
-there is much of the austere religious reformer, giving a serious
-gravity to all the utterances of the glad-souled artist, a mingling of
-the spirit of a Savonarola with the imagination of a Turner.
-
-John Ruskin, more than any other man of our time in like station of
-life, stands for the civilization which we believe is destined to
-glorify the coming century, for in his life all thought of ease, fame,
-and preferment,--all consideration of self,--is overmastered by his
-love for others. Endowed by nature with the imagination of a poet, the
-eyes of an artist, the brain of a philosopher, the soul of a prophet,
-and the heart of a man, he has conscientiously employed all his gifts
-as a sacred trust given to him that he might bless and enlighten his
-day, and ennoble his civilization for all time.
-
-He was born amid affluence, and received the best educational
-advantages the age afforded. After graduating from Oxford in 1842, he
-studied painting under Copley Fielding and J. D. Harding. Subsequently
-he spent some time in Italy, finishing his art education in the land
-of earth's greatest painters.
-
-While in college he composed many poems, but on leaving the university
-he turned his attention to art and prose composition. His "Modern
-Painters" was justly hailed as one of the noblest works of the
-century, and instantly placed its author in the ranks of the foremost
-art critics of the world.
-
-Few if any of his admirers will agree with all his critical views. He
-not infrequently falls into those errors which we naturally expect to
-find in a man of intense feeling, of strong conviction, and of vivid
-imagination. If a positive idea takes possession of his mind, it is
-liable to give a strong bias to his thought, and in a degree
-interferes with that nice sense of proportion so essential to a great
-critic. On more than one occasion Mr. Ruskin has frankly admitted that
-his views and opinions were erroneous owing to being based on a
-partial appearance or influenced by pernicious ideas. A notable
-illustration of his thought being biassed by preconceived ideas is
-found in the religious opinions put forward in the early edition of
-parts I and II of "Modern Painters." And in a preface written in 1871
-for a revised edition of his works, the philosopher calls attention to
-his early views, declaring that he was "wholly mistaken" and
-continuing: "I had been educated in the narrow doctrine of a narrow
-sect, and had read history obliquely, as a sectarian necessarily
-must."
-
-Such are the blemishes which occasionally creep into the works of this
-master mind. They are, however, merely spots on the sun, which do not
-appear frequently enough to seriously dim the splendor of a critical
-work which in my judgment surpasses in real value that of any English
-scholar of the century. "Modern Painters," "The Stones of Venice,"
-"The Seven Lamps," and his other works dealing with art are far more
-than criticisms; they touch the sleeping soul, they fire the spirit
-and awaken the conscience. They make the reader feel a new love for
-nature and art alike, and with this pure and inspiring love comes the
-desire for more knowledge. They appeal to the spiritual aspirations
-even more than to the artistic impulses or the intellectual
-apprehension. The moral exaltation which pervades his writings springs
-from his profoundly philosophical and religious nature. In all his
-work, as in his noble life, he has ever been moved by an intense
-desire to uplift and dignify humanity and to impress upon the public
-mind the subtle but positive effect for good exerted by true art. "I
-have had," he tells us in "The Two Paths," "but one steady aim in all
-I have ever tried to teach, namely, to declare that whatever was great
-in human art was the expression of man's delight in God's work."
-
-With Ruskin, life is august; its possibilities for good and evil are
-never forgotten.
-
- "Remember," he urges, "that every day of your life is ordaining
- irrevocably for good or evil the custom and practice of your
- soul; ordaining either sacred customs of dear and lovely
- recurrence, or trenching deeper and deeper the furrows for seed
- of sorrow. Now, therefore, see that no day passes in which you do
- not make yourself a somewhat better creature.... You will find
- that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to
- help other people, will in the quickest and delicatest ways
- improve yourself."
-
-The pleasure which springs from loyalty to duty is strenuously
-insisted upon by Ruskin, and he, more than any other illustrious man
-in our time, has reached such heights of unselfishness as to enable
-him to fully appreciate the unalloyed pleasure which flows from a life
-of sacrifice. If he is austere, he is also very humane. The fountains
-of pleasure that he would have us drink deeply from would leave no
-bitter aftertaste. He delights in no pseudo-pleasure; faithfulness to
-the highest ideal, untiring effort at complete self-mastery, a settled
-determination to work for the good of all and to be ever on guard lest
-by some inadvertence we injure some other living creature,--such are
-some of the lessons upon which our philosopher insists as essential to
-man's happiness.
-
- "If," he urges, in writing for the young, "there is any one point
- which, in six thousand years of thinking about right and wrong,
- wise and good men have agreed upon, or successively by experience
- discovered, it is that God dislikes idle and cruel people more
- than any others; that His first order is, 'Work while you have
- light;' and his second, 'Be merciful while you have mercy.' 'Work
- while you have light,' especially while you have the light of
- morning. There are few things more wonderful to me than that old
- people never tell young ones how precious their youth is....
- Remember, then, that I, at least, have warned _you_, that the
- happiness of your life, and its power, and its part and rank in
- earth or in heaven, depend on the way you pass your days now.
- They are not to be sad days; far from that, the first duty of
- young people is to be delighted and delightful; but they are to
- be in the deepest sense solemn days. There is no solemnity so
- deep, to a rightly thinking creature, as that of dawn.... You
- must be to the best of your strength usefully employed during the
- greater part of the day, so that you may be able at the end of it
- to say, as proudly as any peasant, that you have not eaten the
- bread of idleness. Then, secondly, I said, you are not to be
- cruel. Perhaps you think there is no chance of your being so; and
- indeed I hope it is not likely that you should be deliberately
- unkind to any creature; but _unless you are deliberately kind to
- every creature, you will often be cruel to many_."
-
-Ruskin is often disquieting to conventionalists; he is too candid to
-be popular with those who make long prayers and descant on charity
-while they ignore justice. He puts questions to them which they do not
-want to consider themselves, or to have others consider. By insisting
-on the substitution of justice for charity, and by taking the
-teachings of Jesus seriously, he offends the sleek money-changers who
-occupy choice pews in the modern palaces of ease dedicated to the
-lowly Nazarene. Such expressions as the following from the magnificent
-lecture on "Work" prove far less satisfying to this class than the
-popular sermons they are accustomed to hear:
-
- "It is the law of heaven," says Ruskin, "that you shall not be
- able to judge what is wise or easy, unless you are first resolved
- to judge what is just, and to do it. That is the one thing
- constantly reiterated by our master--the order of all others that
- is given oftenest: 'Do justice and judgment.' That's your Bible
- order; that's the 'service of God.' The one divine work--the one
- ordered sacrifice--is to do justice; and it is the last we are
- ever inclined to do. Anything rather than that! As much charity
- as you choose, but no justice. 'Nay,' you will say, 'charity is
- greater than justice.' Yes, it is greater; _it is the summit of
- justice_; it is the temple of which justice is the foundation.
- _But you can't have the top without the bottom_; you cannot build
- upon charity. You must build upon justice, for this main reason,
- that you have not, at first, charity to build with. It is the
- last reward of good work. It is all very fine to think you can
- build upon charity to begin with; but you will find all you have
- got to begin with begins at home, and is essentially love of
- yourself.
-
- "You well-to-do people, for instance, who are here to-night will
- go to 'Divine Service' next Sunday, all nice and tidy, and your
- little children will have their tight little Sunday boots on, and
- lovely little Sunday feathers in their hats; and you'll think,
- complacently and piously, how lovely they look! So they do; and
- you love them heartily, and you like sticking feathers in their
- hats. That's all right; that _is_ charity; but it is charity
- beginning at home. Then you will come to the poor little
- crossing-sweeper got up also--in its Sunday dress--the dirtiest
- rags it has that it may beg the better: we shall give it a penny,
- and think how good we are. That's charity going abroad. But what
- does justice say, walking and watching near us? Christian justice
- has been strangely mute, and seemingly blind; and, if not blind,
- decrepit this many a day: she keeps her accounts still,
- however--quite steadily--doing them at nights, carefully, with
- her bandage off, and through acutest spectacles (the only modern
- scientific invention she cares about). You must put your ear down
- ever so close to her lips to hear her speak; and then you will
- start at what she first whispers, for it will certainly be, 'Why
- shouldn't that little crossing-sweeper have a feather on its
- head, as well as your own child?' Then you may ask justice, in an
- amazed manner, How she can possibly be so foolish as to think
- children could sweep crossings with feathers on their heads? Then
- you stoop again, and justice says--still in her dull, stupid
- way--'Then, why don't you, every other Sunday, leave your child
- to sweep the crossing, and take the little sweeper to church in a
- hat and feather?' Mercy on us (you think), what will she say
- next? And you answer, of course, that you don't, because
- everybody ought to remain content in the position in which
- Providence has placed them.
-
- "Ah, my friends, that's the gist of the whole question. _Did_
- Providence put them in that position, or did _you_? You knock a
- man into a ditch, and then you tell him to remain content in the
- 'position in which Providence has placed him.' That's modern
- Christianity. You say, 'We did not knock him into the ditch.' How
- do you know what you have done or are doing? That's just what we
- have all got to know, and what we shall never know until the
- question with us every morning, is, not how to do the gainful
- thing, but how to do the just thing."
-
-These thoughts suggest to us Ruskin, the social economist, for we must
-not lose sight of the fact that this greatest of all art critics, this
-strong, sane ethical philosopher who has emphasized so forcibly the
-possibilities, duties, and responsibilities of the individual in all
-his complex relations, is also one of the most enlightened and
-broad-visioned economists of our wonderful age. By treatises, essays,
-and letters he has striven for a brighter day for the breadwinners. He
-has sought to elevate the ideals and tastes of all toilers, while he
-has labored unremittingly to secure for them that meed of justice
-which is their right, but which has so long been denied them.
-
-So far back as 1868, when few people of position dared advocate so
-sane a proposition as the governmental ownership of "natural
-monopolies," John Ruskin published these bold and thoughtful words in
-the London _Daily Telegraph_:
-
- The ingenious British public seemed to be discovering to its
- cost, that the beautiful law of supply and demand does not apply
- in a pleasant manner to railroad transit. But if they are
- prepared to submit patiently to the "natural" laws of political
- economy, what right have they to complain? The railroad belongs
- to the shareholders; and has not everybody a right to ask the
- highest he can get for his wares? The public have a perfect right
- to walk, or to make other opposition railroads for themselves, if
- they please, but not to abuse the shareholders for asking as much
- as they think they can get. Will you allow me to put the _real_
- rights of the matter before them in a few words?
-
- Neither the roads nor the railroads of any nation should belong
- to any private persons. All means of public transit should be
- provided at public expense, by public determination, where such
- means are needed, and the public should be its own shareholder.
- Neither road, nor railroad, nor canal should ever pay dividends
- to anybody. They should pay their working expenses, and no more.
- All dividends are simply a tax on the traveller and the goods,
- levied by the persons to whom the road or canal belongs, for the
- right of passing over his property, and this right should at once
- be purchased by the nation, and the original cost of the
- roadway--be it of gravel, iron, or adamant--at once defrayed by
- the nation, and then the whole work of the carriage of persons or
- goods done for ascertained prices, by salaried officers, as the
- carriage of letters is done now.
-
-Happily these suggestions of the distinguished Englishman have been
-followed, in part at least, by several enlightened nations, but to the
-disgrace of our republic, and to the great cost of the producing and
-consuming masses, we are lagging behind in these respects, becoming a
-camp-follower instead of a leader in the march of progress, because of
-the influence exerted by a small class, who have grown so powerful
-through special privileges given to them by the nation that they now
-assume to thwart beneficent legislation in order that they may
-continue to grow richer through this vicious form of governmental
-paternalism, which places the multitude in the power of a few.
-
-Ruskin's views on money are as disturbing to the usurers and those who
-through special privileges in money have amassed fortunes of unearned
-wealth as his sound position on railroads is distasteful to the
-monopolists who impoverish the producer and consumer by exorbitant
-rates on transportation.
-
-The great Englishman is also too clear-sighted to accept the
-fallacious doctrines of the money-changers in regard to the medium of
-exchange. He is too honest to hold his peace in the presence of a
-great wrong, hence his definition of money is far more nearly correct
-than the false and essentially injurious definitions so industriously
-promulgated by special pleaders for an interested class. "The final
-and best definition of money," says Ruskin, "is that it is a
-documentary promise ratified and guaranteed by the nation to give or
-find a certain quantity of labor on demand."
-
-In 1873 our author carried on a spirited discussion with some
-conventional economists regarding the money of the rich. One writer
-undertook to defend the lavish and reckless expenditures of the
-wealthy by calling to his aid the well-worn plea that money thus paid
-out finds its way into the pockets of poor families, and that thus
-through the bounty of the rich the starving are blest. Ruskin, in the
-course of his reply, observed that, were he a poor man instead of a
-moderately rich one, he would be sure that the paper referred to would
-suggest the question:
-
- These _means of living_, which this generous and useful gentleman
- is so fortunately disposed to bestow on me--where does he get
- them himself?... These are the facts. The laborious poor produce
- "the means of life" by their labor. Rich persons possess
- themselves by various expedients of a right to dispense these
- means of life, and, keeping as much means as they want for
- themselves, and rather more, dispense the rest usually only in
- return for _more labor from the poor_, expended in producing
- various delights for the rich dispenser. The idea is now
- gradually entering poor men's minds, that they may as well keep
- in their own hands the right of distributing "the means of life"
- they produce; and employ themselves, so far as they need extra
- occupation, for their own entertainment or benefit, rather than
- that of other people.
-
-The conventional economist replied to the question relating to how the
-rich man got his wealth by stating that it was obtained by the
-possessor or his ancestors through a "mutually beneficent partnership"
-between the rich and the poor by which the poor had their share of the
-joint returns advanced to them. Mr. Ruskin in his reply stated the
-question again, and then proceeded to answer it by a telling personal
-illustration. He says:
-
- "Where does the rich man get his means of living?" I don't myself
- see how a more straightforward question could be put! so
- straightforward, indeed, that I particularly dislike making a
- martyr of myself in answering it, as I must this blessed day--a
- martyr, at least, in the way of witness; for if we rich people
- don't begin to speak honestly with our tongues, we shall, some
- day soon, lose them and our heads together, having for sometime
- back, most of us, made false use of the one and none of the
- other. Well, for the point in question, then, as to means of
- living: the most exemplary manner of answer is simply to state
- how I got my own, or rather how my father got them for me. He and
- his partners entered into what your correspondent mellifluously
- styles "a mutually beneficent partnership" with certain laborers
- in Spain. These laborers produced from the earth annually a
- certain number of bottles of wine. These productions were sold by
- my father and his partners, who kept nine-tenths, or thereabouts,
- of the price themselves, and gave one-tenth, or thereabouts, to
- the laborers. In which state of mutual beneficence my father and
- his partners naturally became rich, and the laborers as naturally
- remained poor. Then my good father gave all his money to me.
-
-Space forbids a more extended notice of Mr. Ruskin's broad and
-thoughtful views on economic problems, but before closing this paper,
-I wish to notice how the life of this great philanthropist has touched
-and brightened other lives. Many men think noble thoughts and at times
-are stirred by the loftiest aspirations, but in actual everyday life
-they sadly fail to live up to their teachings; but he who can and does
-master himself, he who gives his life for justice and thinks of the
-welfare of others before he considers himself, has reached a far
-higher summit than have the most gifted intellects who, while
-apprehending the beauty of goodness, fail to express that beauty in
-their daily lives. John Ruskin's life has been at once earnest, pure,
-and unselfish.
-
-Of the unexampled manner in which he gave up his beautiful wife to his
-friend--how he quietly secured a divorce that she might become the
-wife of the man she loved--electing to pass the rest of his life alone
-rather than destroy her happiness,--these facts are well known, and
-Mr. Ruskin has been severely criticised for not holding his wife in
-unwilling bondage. But he was so constituted that it was impossible
-for him to endure the thought of being directly or indirectly the
-cause of another's misery.
-
-Another striking illustration of his unselfishness is seen in the
-manner in which he has disposed of his fortune, which at the time of
-his father's death amounted to a million dollars. With this money he
-set about doing good. Poor young men and women who were struggling to
-obtain an education were helped, homes for working men and women were
-established, and model apartment-houses were erected. He also promoted
-a work for reclaiming waste land outside of London. This land was used
-for the aid of unfortunate men who wished to rise again from the state
-into which they had fallen through cruel social conditions and their
-own weaknesses. It is said that this work suggested to General Booth
-his colonization farms. Ruskin has also ever been liberal in aiding
-poor artists, and has done much to encourage the artistic taste among
-the young. On one occasion he purchased ten fine water-color paintings
-by Holman Hunt for $3,750, to be hung in public schools of London.
-
-By 1877 he had disposed of three-fourths of his inheritance, besides
-all the income from his books. But the calls of the poor and the plans
-which he wished to put into operation looking toward education and
-ennobling the toilers, and giving to their gloomy lives something more
-of sunshine and joy, were such that he determined to dispose of all
-the remainder of his wealth except a sum sufficient to yield him
-fifteen hundred dollars a year on which to live.
-
-Of all English writers of our century no one has left a more valuable
-literary legacy than has John Ruskin, but the splendid and voluminous
-works of his brain are even less priceless than the example of his
-wonderful life. That he is in the shadow in his old age is by no means
-strange; a nature so sensitive, so finely strung, so keenly alive to
-the sufferings of others on every hand, has necessarily felt what the
-well-kept and self-engrossed animals around him knew nothing of.
-Indeed, just here we find the chief reason why the finest natures
-suffer so keenly in this age of heartless greed, self-absorption, and
-gold madness, of wanton extravagance and biting poverty, of widespread
-misery and growing discontent. Sensitive natures who are spiritually
-alive to the misery around them must suffer while they sow the
-seed-thoughts of a new day--suffer uncomplainingly until the
-waiting-time of this great transition period has passed.
-
-In John Ruskin we find great breadth of thought and a wide range of
-intellectual vision, going hand in hand with a profound philosophical
-grasp of life's deepest problems; and, what is more, these excellences
-are rendered luminous by the influence of an enlightened soul. His
-life has been characterized by nobility of purpose, purity of thought,
-a passion for nature and art, and an enthusiasm for humanity.
-
-
-
-
-THE SINGLE TAX IN OPERATION.
-
-BY HON. HUGH H. LUSK,
-
-_Ex-Member of the New Zealand Legislature._
-
-
-Few if any of the various economic theories that have been advanced,
-claiming attention in virtue of their practical benefit to the
-existing conditions of human affairs, have gained so immediate or so
-widespread an acceptance amongst intelligent persons as that which is
-familiarly known as "the single-tax" theory propounded by Mr. Henry
-George. In all parts of the English-speaking world, at least, the
-theory has obtained many and enthusiastic disciples, who have
-believed, and probably still believe, that they find in Mr. George's
-doctrine a panacea for many of the most apparent of the evils which
-oppress society not less under our advanced civilization than they did
-at any former period of the world's history. It may be said, indeed,
-that we hear less of Mr. George and the single tax now than we did a
-few years ago, and from this some will argue that the idea has died or
-is dying out of men's minds; this, however, is almost certainly a
-mistake.
-
-In the history of any great system of alleged reform there may be
-traced at least three distinct stages which are marked by different
-degrees of prominence in the public regard. The first of these may be
-called the period of promulgation, the second that of fermentation,
-and the third that of experiment. If the evils proposed to be reformed
-are manifest and widely recognized the first of these stages is almost
-certain to excite wide attention and much controversy on both sides.
-The earliest stage, that of mere discussion, however, soon wears
-itself out, and the theorists who argued in favor of, as well as those
-who argued against, the new system, having exhausted their ingenuity
-in argument, turn for the most part to something newer, and let the
-matter drop.
-
-Then follows the period of incubation. Removed from the din of
-controversy a certain number of people are always found who are keenly
-sensible of the evils which the new system was supposed to cure, and
-who continue to meditate upon the possibility of its possessing the
-power to do so. These persons, it may be, make but little noise in the
-arena either of literature or politics, but they are not the less
-active, nor perhaps in the end the less really influential, on that
-account. Their influence is of the sort that depends upon a solid
-conviction, right or wrong, that the theory which they support is the
-true one; and as long as the evils, which the system they adhere to
-professes to cure, continue to exist, so long their influence may be
-expected to increase.
-
-It is the third or experimental stage which is the critical one, and
-generally speaking it is well when that stage can be reached without
-any needless delay. By experiment alone can the value of such theories
-be tested to the satisfaction of the practical mind of humanity, and
-it is only as the result of a trial that men will either consent to
-admit the value of a proposed reform or to abandon a specious theory
-to which they have once given their adherence.
-
-The single-tax theory of political economics advanced by Henry George,
-having passed through the first of these three stages with something
-more than the usual publicity and controversy, has already been in its
-second stage for a good many years. The cessation of active
-discussion, which appears to some people to argue that it has passed
-into oblivion, or is at any rate well on the way toward such a
-consummation, is only evidence that it is in its second, or
-fermentation, period. Nobody can pretend for an instant that any one
-of the evils pointed out by Henry George as the things that called
-loudly for reform, have actually been reformed since the date of the
-publication of his original essay on "Progress and Poverty." No
-reasonable man can doubt that many, if not all of these evils, ought
-in some way to be dealt with, and if possible amended. While such is
-the case it is impossible wholly to get rid of the theory which
-trenchantly pointed out those evils and professed at least to offer an
-effective remedy.
-
-Under these conditions few things could be more desirable than that
-the matter should be advanced to the third of its natural stages by
-being submitted to the critical test of experience. Nothing short of
-this will ever satisfy the mass of mankind of the feasibility of the
-system proposed, or of its adequacy to meet the evils complained of;
-nothing less will set free the minds of many thousands of intelligent
-persons to inquire into other methods of reform than the fair trial of
-the single-tax system, and its failure to cure the evils which its
-author expected it to cure. The difficulty, which indeed is by no
-means a slight one, is to find a favorable arena in which the
-experiment can be tried, and a community prepared to make the
-experiment.
-
-It must be remembered that, if the evils aimed at by the proposed
-remedy of the single tax are great and far-reaching, its complete
-application could hardly, in most communities, amount to less than a
-practical revolution. Striking as it does at the whole received theory
-of land tenure, as sanctioned throughout the civilized world by the
-practice of many centuries, it arrays against itself the prejudices of
-the most influential classes in every long-established community, and
-its introduction is necessarily surrounded by difficulties and at
-least apparent injustices which must indefinitely delay any attempt to
-bring it to the test of experiment there. The only reasonable hope,
-indeed, of reducing the theory of the single tax to the plane of
-experience is to find a country not yet fully committed to any other
-system, and occupied by a self-governing people sufficiently
-intelligent to perceive the evils of other existing systems of land
-tenure, and sufficiently enterprising to be willing to experiment in
-this direction.
-
-It may perhaps prove of no little benefit to other communities that
-one self-governing country has been found which has been both able and
-willing to make trial of the principle which has been so strongly
-contended for by the author of "Progress and Poverty," and by those
-who have seen in his proposals a way of escape from many of the most
-serious difficulties that beset civilized communities at the present
-day. There is probably no other country which is to-day in so good a
-position to enter upon experimental legislation in this and other
-directions as the British colony of New Zealand. An island community
-separated by more than a thousand miles from its nearest neighbors,
-possessed of practically unlimited powers of self-government, and
-inhabited by a prosperous and intelligent population, substantially
-of unmixed British race, there is little either in their external
-relations or internal circumstances to prevent the colonists of New
-Zealand making many experiments in economic legislation. And during
-the last quarter of a century this fact has been fully realized by the
-people and their leaders. They have established a system of education
-which is at once more popular, free, and comprehensive than even the
-most complete systems in force in this country; they have placed local
-option in the control of the liquor traffic upon a broad and entirely
-popular basis, which has rendered New Zealand the most sober and
-law-abiding of communities, without introducing the doubtful principle
-of prohibition; they have thrown open the franchise unreservedly to
-all persons of full age and competent education, without regard to
-sex; and they have successfully introduced life insurance and
-trusteeship of estates by the government, as well as many others of
-the proposals which are generally comprehended under the term "State
-Socialism."
-
-It is by no means surprising that a community which has made so many
-experiments in legislation should have turned its attention to the
-question which may perhaps be looked upon as most specially inviting
-attention from social reformers in a new country. The circumstances of
-New Zealand in relation to the land were from the first exceptional.
-In every other country occupied by savage tribes in modern times which
-has been taken possession of for purposes of settlement by people of
-European race, the ownership of the soil has been assumed, as a matter
-of course, to vest not in the aboriginal natives, but in the intruding
-settlers. Spain, England, France, Holland, Germany, and the United
-States have one after the other adopted this convenient theory of
-international morality, and entered with a cool assumption of right
-upon the inheritance of their comparatively helpless predecessors. In
-New Zealand the conditions of the country and its inhabitants rendered
-this popular system wholly inapplicable. The area of the country was
-limited, to an extent which rendered it impossible to adopt the
-fiction which has lain at the root of nearly all the forcible
-confiscation of the territory of native tribes, namely, that they
-could make no profitable use of so great an area. The islands of New
-Zealand contain only a little more land than Great Britain itself,
-and sixty years ago, when England first thought of annexing them to
-her empire, the native inhabitants numbered little if anything short
-of a hundred thousand souls. They were besides a settled people who
-cultivated the soil, and moreover they were warlike, and formidable to
-any invader. In consequence of these things a wholly new departure was
-made in the case of New Zealand. The country was not occupied on any
-plea of discovery or of conquest, as had been done in so many parts of
-the world before, but the sovereignty of the islands was obtained by
-treaty with the chiefs of the native tribes, upon the distinct
-guarantee that the full rights of the aboriginal inhabitants to their
-lands should be recognized and protected by England against all
-comers.
-
-From the first, therefore, the lands of New Zealand have been
-purchased by the government before they could be disposed of to the
-settlers. The community had no vast tracts of land to dispose of which
-had cost nothing but the expense of survey, but as a matter of fact
-had to look on every acre as an investment which must be sold for a
-certain definite price unless the transaction was to result in an
-absolute loss of money to the people at large. It may well have
-happened that the result of so unusual a condition of affairs was to
-lead the community to regard the public lands in a somewhat different
-light from other people. At any rate it led to all lands being sold
-for a price which prevented their being lightly esteemed or as a rule
-held as freeholds in large areas. So much was this the case that from
-the first nearly all pastoral lands were held under leases from the
-government at fixed annual rentals. Fully forty years ago the
-southern, and larger, of the islands was nearly all purchased from the
-comparatively small native population by the government, and in that
-island a very large proportion of the land has always been let on
-lease for grazing. In the northern island nearly one-half of the land
-even now belongs to the original native owners, and much of this area
-is leased from them by Europeans for farming or grazing purposes.
-
-In this way it has happened that in New Zealand, more than in any
-other country occupied by people of European race, the inhabitants
-have grown accustomed to the idea of holding land on lease, with the
-people at large, as represented by the government, for landlord. Under
-these conditions it is easy to understand how the doctrine of the
-single tax found a peculiarly congenial home in the minds of New
-Zealand public men. It is true that large areas of the lands of the
-country had been disposed of in freehold to settlers. It is true that
-the freehold tenure of the native inhabitants had in a certain sense
-been guaranteed to them by treaty, at least in so far that it should
-never be taken from them without compensation. It is true that the
-mass of the people were very fully possessed by the apparently almost
-universal preference for the idea of a freehold over every other
-tenure of lands so far as they were personally concerned. But, on the
-other hand, they had grown accustomed to the practice of holding areas
-of land on lease both from the government and from the native owners,
-whose tenure was not individual, but tribal, and they had learned the
-lesson that there was no intolerable hardship in the system.
-
-The attempt to introduce a system which should give effect to the
-principle underlying the economic theory of Henry George in New
-Zealand was not hastily made, nor was it attempted on a scale that
-could be fairly open to the charge of being revolutionary in its
-incidence. The first step taken by the legislature was in the
-direction of so dealing with the public estate of the country as to
-encourage settlers to lease rather than to purchase the freehold. With
-this in view a system of leases in perpetuity was established, and
-areas of the best and most accessible of the land still unsold were
-set apart to be dealt with under the new plan. Any person, not already
-the holder of land in freehold, which, together with the land applied
-for under perpetual lease, would make an area of more than six hundred
-and forty acres, or one square mile, could apply for a lease of not
-more than three hundred and forty acres on perpetual lease. Five
-dollars per acre was fixed as the price of the land, such being the
-average price of first-class freehold land unimproved in the country,
-and the applicant was entitled to a lease for 999 years of the land
-applied for, subject to the conditions that he resided upon the land
-during the first ten years of the tenancy; that he improved it to the
-extent of thirty per cent of its upset value within six years; and
-that he paid as annual rental interest at the rate of five per cent on
-the price or value of the land.
-
-Each lease contained clauses rendering the land subject to revaluation
-at the end of each period of twenty-one years, on which the rental
-would be calculated. If the new valuation, which it was provided
-should rigidly exclude all improvements on the land, was assented to
-by the tenant, the matter was settled for another twenty-one years;
-but if he objected to the new valuation as excessive, it was provided
-that he could demand that it should be offered by public auction
-(subject to payment of the value of his improvements), and that the
-amount bid for it either by himself or by anybody else at the sale
-should be esteemed the value on which the rental was to be calculated
-during the twenty-one years next following the sale. In case the
-present holder of the lease was the highest bidder, this was the only
-result of the sale; but in case he was outbid he was bound to transfer
-the lease to the best bidder, on receiving from the government the
-amount at which his improvements had been valued. This payment might
-be made in government bonds, bearing interest at four per cent, at the
-option of the government, and the new holder of the lease was charged
-as rent the interest on the value of the land as bid by himself and
-also interest at five per cent upon the former leaseholder's
-improvements. By this means it was proposed to retain for the
-community at large the increased value of the lands of the country
-which was not due to the improvements made from time to time by the
-leaseholder. The inducement held out to the public to accept such
-leases in preference to a freehold was the saving of capital involved
-in not paying for the land when taken up, but only interest on the
-amount. This, it was hoped, would suffice to render it popular with a
-considerable class of actual working settlers as distinguished from
-speculative buyers.
-
-It is only fair to say that in spite of every effort that could be
-made by the government, the system did not commend itself to the
-judgment or the prejudices of the persons interested to any very great
-extent. What they wanted--what it may be taken for granted is wanted
-by nearly everybody in dealing with land--was a fixed tenure. It was
-not enough to know that they had a lease for 999 years; they wanted to
-know what they were to pay for it, not only during the first
-twenty-one years, but at any time during the 999. Eventually this had
-to be conceded, and as the land law of New Zealand now stands the
-holder of a perpetual lease gets it for a rental of four per cent upon
-the original price fixed by government on the land, subject still,
-however, to the conditions as to residence and improvements on the
-land during the first ten years.
-
-Having abandoned this promising and theoretically perfect plan for
-securing to the state all state-produced increase in the value of the
-public lands, the New Zealand parliament was still anxious to secure
-for the country the other advantages held out by the author of the
-single-tax doctrine. These advantages may be briefly summed up in the
-words, the discouragement of large holdings and the prevention of
-speculation in future land values. To obtain these results without
-laying the community open to the charge of practical confiscation,
-which has been, and probably will always be, the strongest argument
-against the practical application of the doctrine of the single tax,
-as propounded by its author, was felt to be no easy matter. Even in
-New Zealand there were already some large freehold estates, and these
-naturally included some of the most desirable and valuable of the
-land. It was eventually decided to impose a land tax, the incidence of
-which would tend at least to discourage speculation, while it supplied
-revenue for the public expenditure.
-
-A uniform tax of one penny in the pound sterling, equivalent to one
-two-hundred-and-fortieth part of the capital value of all land in the
-country held in freehold by Europeans, was imposed, the value of
-improvements being in all cases deducted from such valuation. Each
-owner of land is, however, allowed an exemption of land to the value
-of two thousand five hundred dollars, on which no tax is payable, as
-well as of all mortgage money secured on the freehold. Thus all
-freehold lands held by any individual are liable to be taxed above the
-value of $2,500, so far as he is really interested in them; while all
-money lent on mortgage of land is subject to a tax of five per cent on
-the annual interest reserved by the terms of the mortgage. New Zealand
-is mainly a country of small holdings, and the result of this system
-has been that, out of about 90,000 holders of land in freehold, only
-about 13,000 actually pay the tax on land. In other words, the
-settlers of the colony who own land which, apart from improvements and
-mortgage debts, is worth more than $2,500, are found to be only about
-one-seventh of the whole number.
-
-To provide for the discouragement of land speculation on a large scale
-a further provision is made by the enactment of a further tax upon all
-lands held by individuals or corporations of a value exceeding $25,000
-clear of incumbrance. This is called the graduated land tax, and
-provides for a farther taxation on all such lands, beginning at
-one-eighth in addition to the original tax, and rising by advances of
-an additional eighth for each sum of $25,000 at which the land is
-valued, until a maximum rate of three times the original tax is
-reached in the case of large estates. To provide for the risk of
-vexatious opposition to valuations on the part of owners, there is a
-farther provision that the government may at its option elect to
-purchase, at an advance of ten per cent over the valuation objected
-to, any unimproved land held in freehold. It is also a part of the
-system that the government may compulsorily purchase at a valuation
-any lands not in actual use in case any association of persons shall
-apply to have this done, undertaking satisfactorily to take the land
-upon its purchase under the conditions of perpetual lease, which of
-course includes subdivision into small areas, with residence and
-improvement.
-
-By these means the people of New Zealand confidently expect to secure
-the subdivision of the lands of the country into small areas; to
-discourage to the utmost the holding of land by capitalists in
-expectation of greatly increased values at the expense of the less
-wealthy classes; to render practically impossible the establishment on
-any extensive scale of private landlordism in respect of agricultural
-lands; and gradually to substitute, as far as possible, the payment to
-the state of a yearly interest on value, for the purchase of the
-freehold in the land of the country.
-
-So far as the experience of the last eight years, during which the
-system has been in force, may be taken as a reliable guide, the
-experiment shows many signs of success. It has certainly checked the
-tendency to speculate in lands with a view to a rise in price, which
-threatened to become a great, as it certainly was a growing, evil. It
-has been found that it will not pay to do this in the face of
-taxation, and particularly of the graduated tax; and owners of large
-areas of land have developed a strong inclination to subdivide and
-sell lands which they formerly were disposed to hoard and increase.
-The power given to the government to purchase lands where the owners
-have objected to the valuation for taxation purposes has not been
-widely exercised, but several very important and considerable
-compulsory purchases of estates have been made in cases where
-associations of persons wishing to take the land on perpetual lease
-have applied to the government for that purpose. The chief benefit of
-such examples, indeed, seems to have been in compelling owners either
-to use the land themselves or to offer it for sale to persons anxious
-to use it; but from the New Zealand point of view this would appear to
-be almost if not quite equally desirable. Finally, the land tax has
-largely enabled the country to do without other taxes, which would
-necessarily have fallen more heavily upon the class of workers with
-small incomes, instead of being levied on the classes best able to
-bear them.
-
-It yet remains to be seen whether evils may not lurk, as yet
-unnoticed, in the system, which may impair if not destroy its
-usefulness. One consequence which was predicted by its opponents,
-however, has not been found to follow upon the introduction of the
-system. It was said that capital would be withdrawn from the country,
-and that poverty and stagnation would result. No such result has
-followed up to this time. New Zealand, with its less than a million
-inhabitants, is to-day looked on as one of the soundest dependencies
-of the British empire; it continues to draw to it from the mother
-country as much capital as it can profitably use; its exports steadily
-increase; and its people, if not rich, are well-to-do and comfortable.
-
-It may be said, indeed, that New Zealand has not accepted Henry
-George's doctrines as they were propounded by their author, and this
-is literally true. It is, however, also true that they have accepted
-the essential spirit of those doctrines, and, applying that spirit to
-the circumstances of their own country, are giving probably the most
-useful practical illustration of all that is best in them for the
-world's acceptance. No doctrine in economics yet propounded for the
-acceptance of humanity has ever been found to be applicable in
-exactly the same form or to exactly the same extent under all
-circumstances, and this, it may be safely said, will prove
-emphatically true of the doctrine of the single tax. The single tax,
-like all other economic plans, is not an end, but only a means. The
-end must be the amelioration of the condition of the masses of the
-people, and the consequent prosperity and happiness of the great
-majority. In New Zealand the people and their leaders believe this to
-be secured by taxing wealth rather than comparative poverty; by giving
-every encouragement to those who will devote themselves to the
-cultivation of the land; and by throwing every obstacle in the path of
-those who would fain establish and promote the pernicious system of
-private landlordism, which everywhere tends to create and perpetuate
-class distinctions, with their long train of attendant evils.
-
-In these respects New Zealand presents an object-lesson which can
-hardly fail to be of value to other countries, even if their
-conditions differ widely from her own. Her successes may be noted with
-advantage, her mistakes may be criticised with profit, in every free
-country and by all those who see that existing conditions are far from
-perfect in any part of the world, and that the safety as well as the
-advancement of society may depend largely upon the introduction of
-wise and, it may be, far-reaching reforms.
-
-
-
-
-NATURAL SELECTION, SOCIAL SELECTION, AND HEREDITY.
-
-BY PROFESSOR JOHN R. COMMONS,
-
-_Of Syracuse University, N. Y._
-
-
-The term "natural selection" is a misnomer, as Darwin himself
-perceived. It means merely survival. "Selection" proper involves
-intention, and belongs to human reason. Selection by man we call
-artificial. Natural selection is the outcome of certain physical
-facts: 1. Environment: the complex of forces, such as soil, climate,
-food, and competitors. 2. Heredity: the tendency in offspring to
-follow the type of the parent. 3. Variation: the tendency to diverge
-from that type. 4. Over-population: the tendency to multiply offspring
-beyond the food supply. 5. Struggle for life: the effort to exclude
-others or to consume others. 6. Consciousness of kind: the tendency to
-spare and cooperate with offspring and others of like type. 7.
-Survival of the fittest: the victory of those best fitted to their
-environment by heredity, variation, numbers, and consciousness of
-kind.
-
-These biological facts underlie human society, but a new factor enters
-with novel results. This is self-consciousness. Society is based not
-merely on consciousness of kind, as worked out by Professor Giddings,
-but peculiarly on individual self-consciousness.
-
-Self-consciousness is a product of evolution, at first biological as
-explained by natural selection, and second, sociological. The
-biological character is the prolongation of infancy, i. e. the
-prolonged plastic and unfolding state of the brain. This makes
-possible a new kind of development unknown to the animal, namely,
-education. Education is preeminently a social activity. I say
-education instead of environment. In natural selection there is a
-physical environment which presses upon individuals, and only those
-survive who are fitted to sustain this pressure. In social selection
-society enters between the individual and the physical environment,
-and, while slowly subordinating the latter, transforms its pressure
-upon the individual, and he alone survives who is fitted to bear the
-social pressure. This pressure reaches the individual through the
-educational media of language and social institutions, especially the
-family, the state, and property. Institutions rest upon ideas and
-beliefs, and these are epitomized in language. Language in turn, by
-giving names to things and relations, and by thus transmitting to each
-individual the accumulated race experience, gradually brings him to
-the consciousness of himself. This is education.
-
-But self-consciousness is at first only vague, capricious, and
-unprincipled. It grows by becoming definite, self-controlled, and
-conscientious; that is, more regardful both of its own higher self and
-of others. It thus develops into moral character, which we call
-personality. Personality is the final outcome of social selection.
-When once liberated it becomes a new selective principle to which all
-others are subordinated. What, then, are the social conditions which
-promote or retard the survival of personality?
-
-It is a debated question where we shall place the dividing line
-between pre-social and social man. In view of what precedes we should
-look for that line at the point where self-consciousness begins to
-throw about itself a social covering. This covering is private
-property. The former view that primitive property was common property
-is now nearly abandoned. The supposed village communities of free
-proprietors were really villages of slaves and serfs. The semblance of
-common property in primitive times belongs to the pre-social or
-gregarious stage, and differs but little from the common use of a
-given area by a colony of beavers.
-
-Private property involves two facts: 1. Perception of enduring value
-in external objects; 2. Exclusive control and enjoyment of those
-objects. Its psychological basis is therefore self-consciousness,
-which is the knowledge not of an abstracted and isolated self, but of
-self as related to external nature and human beings.
-
-The first private property was animals and tools. Artificial selection
-begins with the domestication of animals. Soon it lays hold on man
-himself by means of social institutions, all of which originate as
-private property. The primitive social family was not a state of
-promiscuity nor even the voluntary pairing of animals and birds, but
-it was private property in women, beginning as wife-capture and
-becoming wife-purchase and polygamy. Natural selection, too, is
-transcended when cannibalism ceases. The self-conscious victor
-enslaves his enemy and reduces him to property. Next, government
-arises as private despotism, and with it the land becomes the property
-of the chief. Thus the family, the state, protracted industry, and the
-control of social opportunities begin with that artificial selection
-denoted by private property.
-
-Property in its early forms means the domination of the powerful over
-the weak. Social institutions develop out of this primitive tyranny,
-where the caprice of owners crushes the personality of the masses,
-towards a state of equal rights and opportunities for all. The
-industrial classes emerge from slavery and serfdom into a wage system,
-which in turn is modified in the direction of fair wages, short hours,
-and security of employment--fundamental conditions for personal
-development.
-
-The family has arisen from the private property of a despot to the
-mutual cooperation of lovers, and the woman becomes a person instead
-of a chattel. The legal successor of polygamy--the slavery of
-women--is not monogamy, but prostitution, which is the wage system of
-the sexes, grounded on the subordinate position of women and their
-meagre opportunities for self-support.
-
-Government is passing into democracy, and property in land and capital
-is being hedged about by the police and taxing powers, or diffused and
-socialized in the interest of the personal equality of all.
-
-Social evolution is therefore the evolution of freedom and
-opportunity, on the one hand, and personality, on the other. Without
-freedom and security there can be no free will and moral character.
-Without exalted personality there can be no enduring freedom. The
-educational environment, therefore, which develops personality must
-itself develop with freedom. The ruling ideas of justice, integrity,
-morality, must move in advance, else the personality of individuals
-will not survive the temptations of freedom. To what extent,
-therefore, can education modify the individual? The answer is to be
-sought in the problems of heredity and degeneration.
-
-The human degenerate is essentially different from the animal
-degenerate. The latter is solely a physical product, and by losing
-certain organs is better fitted for survival, as parasites and snakes.
-
-Human degenerates, however, do not form a new type, but are on the
-decline to extinction. They are those who lack personality; that is,
-they are not moulded into harmony with a social environment which
-unfolds self-consciousness. They are strictly biological only when
-they are congenital and therefore not educable. They are social
-degenerates when they are the product of a degraded education. Both
-factors are radical. A born idiot can never be other than an idiot. On
-the other hand, the deprivation during childhood and youth of language
-and education, as shown by Caspar Hauser, or the wolf-boy of Agra, or
-the experiment of Emperor Akbar, leaves the normal natural endowments
-as idiotic as though they never existed. The two factors vary
-independently through all degrees. Education ranges from the slums to
-the pure firesides. The congenital equipment varies from the idiot to
-the genius.
-
-The relative weight of these two factors is a matter of statistics.
-Absolutely speaking, heredity is everything; relatively, its social
-significance depends upon the actual proportion of abnormal to normal
-births.
-
-The highest estimate I am able to make of the total number of
-degenerates, both born and induced, is five and one-half per cent of
-the population, as follows:
-
-ESTIMATED TOTAL OF DEFECTIVES PER MILLION POPULATION.
-
- Census estimate (1890).
-
- Insane 1,697
- Feeble-minded 1,526
- Deaf and Dumb 659
- Blind 805
- Prisoners 1,315
- Juvenile delinquents 237
- Almshouse paupers 1,166
- -----
- 7,405
- Outdoor Criminals (five times the number of inmates) 7,760
- Tramps (McCook, 1895, New Haven Conference of Charities
- and Correction, 85,768) 1,308
- Drunkards (Crothers, 1893, Chicago Conference, 1,200,000,
- equal to about 10 per cent of voting population) 19,000
- Prostitutes (weighted average of Levasseur's estimate for
- rural (600) and urban (11,200 to 17,200) France, in
- "La Population Francaise," vol. ii, p. 434) 5,000
- Outdoor Paupers (weighted average of report at Nashville
- Conference, 1894, 46 per cent in Penna. to 2.2 per cent
- in N. Y.) 15,000
- ------
- 55,473
-
-This estimate would make the maximum number of all degenerates 5.54
-per cent of the population. From these must be deducted those who are
-not congenital. We can estimate the congenitals by three methods: by
-statistics of _atavism_, or _consanguinity_, and by _experiment_.
-
-In the statistics of atavism we add together the physical
-abnormalities of the individual, assuming that a criminal type is
-found when these abnormalities reach the number of three or more. The
-statistical method always suffers the limitation that it indicates not
-identity, but probability. Yet it has an important value, provided it
-discovers ratios of probability which concur. This is not the case in
-the method by atavism. Sixty to seventy per cent of criminals do not
-belong to the assumed criminal type; and sixteen per cent of normal
-males are classed as criminals, whereas the actual number is less than
-three per cent of the males of criminal age. (See Lombroso, "The
-Female Offender," pp. 104, 105.)
-
-While atavism itself is unquestioned, this method seizes upon rigid
-physical characters to measure educable qualities. And where the
-latter are themselves abnormal the causes may lie with education and
-not heredity.
-
-The method by consanguinity seeks not the abnormalities of the patient
-himself, but the signs of disease and degeneracy in his blood
-relatives. It therefore greatly increases the apparent weight of
-heredity, for it collects symptoms from several individuals instead of
-one. The medical authorities ascribe fifty to eighty per cent of
-inebriety to heredity. This method fails as does the other, for, as
-seen in the Jukes or the drunkard, the child gets both its heredity
-and its education from the same degraded parents, and the method
-provides no measure for separating the two.
-
-In sociology the method of experiment has but limited employment. The
-modern sociologist cannot mate the parents nor vivisect the soul,
-after the methods of the biologist. He can only move the child from
-one education to another, and his experiment is incidental to the
-larger purpose of saving the child. His results, too, can appear only
-as a ratio of probability; but this ratio measures the mental and
-moral qualities themselves directly and not by inference. Elmira
-Reformatory and others cure eighty per cent of their charges. Model
-placing-out institutions and free kindergartens save nearly all. And
-these are taken from the most vicious and criminal parentage in the
-land. Our five and one-half per cent of degenerates must therefore be
-greatly reduced in order to find the residuum of congenitals. I have
-made the following deductions:
-
-ESTIMATED DEFECTIVES NOT CONGENITAL, PER MILLION POPULATION.
-
- Criminals (80 per cent of total) 7,369
- Prostitutes (80 per cent of total) 4,000
- Outdoor Paupers (80 per cent of total) 16,000
- Tramps (80 per cent of total) 1,046
- Drunkards (50 per cent of total) 9,500
- ------
- 37,915
- Which deducted from 55,473
- leaves congenital defectives 17,558
-
-equal to 1.75 per cent of the population. Overlappings would diminish
-this ratio; greater infant mortality and the omitted youthful
-defectives would increase it.
-
-If less than two per cent of the births are below the normal Aryan
-brain level, on the other hand possibly two per cent are above the
-average, and should be classed as the geniuses who could achieve
-eminence regardless of surroundings. The remaining ninety per cent or
-more are born with ordinary equipment; they are hereditarily neither
-good nor bad, criminal nor virtuous, brilliant nor stupid. With these
-masses of the people the first fifteen years of infancy and youth are
-decisive.
-
-We may now classify the selective forces of society. Social selection
-is partly natural and partly artificial. It originates artificially in
-the self-consciousness of dominant individuals. Struggle and conflict
-ensue, out of which private property survives in its various forms as
-an intended control over others. This control is then transmitted as
-the various social institutions to succeeding generations and becomes
-for them natural and unintended. These social institutions then
-constitute a coercive environment, not over wholly unwilling subjects,
-but over those whose wills are shaped by education and social pressure
-to cooperate with the very institutions that suppress them.
-
-Gradually, as subordinate classes become self-conscious, innovations
-are made which aim to check the unbridled despotism of private
-property; new conflicts thereupon take place and certain innovations
-survive, which, at first artificial, become natural for the next
-generations.
-
-As society becomes more definite, reflective, and humane, as it
-acquires fixed laws and government, it increases the range of
-artificial selection; it supplants custom by statute, and remodels its
-inherited institutions.
-
-It is now animated by a new motive, the development of moral character
-in all the people. With reference to this new motive social selection
-is either direct or indirect. Direct selection is highly artificial,
-but it is only negative. It consists in segregating the degenerates to
-prevent propagation. Society cannot, of course, directly interfere
-with the marriage choice of normal persons, for that would be to choke
-the purest expression of personality. But it can isolate the two per
-cent who will never rise to moral responsibility. This would doubtless
-increase the wards of the state, but it is needed both for the reason
-already given and, more especially, to clarify the public mind on the
-causes of delinquency and dependency. As long as these evils can be
-charged to heredity the public is blinded to the share that springs
-from social injustice.
-
-The increase and classification of the custodial population here
-contemplated is a problem for administrative charity. Possibly the
-colony system would make that population mutually self-supporting and
-also remove the current sentimentalism against long isolation of the
-incurables.
-
-With the ground cleared of the true degenerates, the operations of
-indirect social selection can be seen. This also is artificial, but in
-a less mechanical way. It consists in so adjusting the political,
-industrial, and social environment as to affect personality, either to
-suppress or develop it. The two instruments are legal rights and
-education. For example, the tenement-house congestion, with its
-significant educational environment, is the product of laws of
-property and taxation which favor owners and speculators instead of
-tenants, and of private property in rapid transit which puts a tax on
-exit to the suburbs. It cannot be said of this and other selective
-factors, such as the profit-making saloon, long hours of work, low
-pay, irregular employment, that they permit natural selection to
-operate. They suppress personality, which preeminently is the natural
-fact in the human being. Social selection is therefore tending to
-become less and less arbitrary, but is making room for a higher
-natural selection--a natural selection where not brute force and
-cunning are the fittest to survive, but where, with freedom, security,
-and equal opportunity, the human personality will work out its own
-survival. Man alone of all the animals can rise to the angels, but he
-alone can fall below the brutes. This is the glory and the penalty of
-personality. It becomes a unique selective agency whose standard is
-raised with the advance of civilization. The Australian cannibal,
-without opium, tobacco, alcohol, or syphilis, may survive with a low
-morality. The American exposed to these destroyers must be a better
-man or perish. Personality, thus becoming a keen selective principle,
-is based not necessarily on overpopulation and competition, but on
-that self-destruction which comes from vice, disease, and drunkenness.
-Its degraded offspring will perish or feed the ranks of the hereditary
-degenerates to be properly segregated and ended.
-
-But with education and opportunity the higher forms of human character
-will naturally increase and survive. With the independence and
-education of women sexual selection becomes a refined and powerful
-agent of progress. With the right to work guaranteed, the tramp and
-indiscriminate charity have no excuse, and the honest workman becomes
-secure in the training and survival of his family.
-
-We hear much of scientific charity. There is also a scientific
-justice. The aim of the former is to educate true character and
-self-reliance. The aim of the latter is to open the opportunities for
-the free expression of character. Education and justice are the
-methods of social selection. By their cooperation is shaped the moral
-environment where alone can survive that natural yet supernatural
-product, human personality.
-
-
-
-
-PSYCHIC OR SUPERMUNDANE EXPERIENCES.
-
-BY CORA L. V. RICHMOND.
-
-
-From between ten and eleven years of age I have been endowed with
-gifts and favored with experiences that, I am well assured, are very
-exceptional, and that, until quite recently, have not been admitted to
-the realm of psychical investigation, philosophical discussion, or
-even human credence. Lately, however, there have been found a
-sufficient number of well authenticated facts in similar lines of
-experience to warrant the investigation and classification of them (if
-possible) under a modern name, "Psychic Research," and under a well
-established and not so recent one, Spiritualism.
-
-I am not intending to discuss these subjects, _per se_, nor to
-endeavor to classify or explain the experiences I am about to relate.
-They are _experiences_, as real as any of those in my human or mundane
-existence; indeed, if I were called upon to decide that one is real
-and the other illusion, I should say without hesitation that these,
-and similar ones throughout my lifetime, are the real, and the
-ordinary mundane experiences unreal.
-
-At the age above referred to I was, without any seeking, and without
-any surrounding circumstances to "suggest" such a state, taken
-possession of (entranced) by intelligences, distinct personalities in
-thought, word, and action, who spoke through my organism, unfolded and
-educated my mind, in fact became my mental and spiritual instructors.
-The public discourses and teachings given under these conditions are
-well known to many of the readers of THE ARENA, as these labors are
-the work of a lifetime.
-
-It is not of this public work that I am constrained to write; but I
-may as well say here that I have had no other teachers, no other
-instructors, and have pursued no course of study or reading of human
-books; those whom I call my guides and guardians have been my
-teachers. During the time that these outside intelligences are
-controlling and speaking through my organism I am wholly unconscious
-of what is passing in human life and wholly unaware of that which is
-being uttered through my lips. I am also unaware of the lapse of time.
-
-It may be best for me to here declare that I am not, in the usual
-sense, peculiar, nor was I different in my childhood from other
-children, save as each differs from the other. I was very diffident,
-and--not using the word in the psychical sense--sensitive. I was not
-given to morbid states or to the "dreaming of dreams." Perhaps I was
-imaginative; most children are; and I loved fairy tales, but not
-unduly. This is simply to show that there was no abnormal condition of
-mind or body to produce the supernormal results that I have referred
-to.
-
-I ought also to say that I never made the slightest preparation for
-the discourses and poems given through my lips, many of which, as the
-reader may know, were listened to by able and thoughtful minds, and
-from them received the highest praise. I tell this, not boastingly,
-but with humble gratitude that I have been made the instrument of
-giving the message of immortality to the world.
-
-My own experiences during this period of entrancement, or while in the
-supernormal state, may be of peculiar interest to the reader, since
-they seem to be almost unique. While passing into this state I
-experience no physical sensations that are describable; a sense of
-being set free, of passing into a larger realm,--not of being
-transported or going anywhere,--is all that I can ever recall as
-sensation. Before I have time or opportunity to think how I feel, I am
-in the other state. Then I see, but I now know it is perception more
-than sight; I sometimes experience that which we call hearing in the
-human state, but I am fully aware; perception supersedes the senses.
-
-Those whom I meet are individualities; many are friends known to me in
-the form before they passed from the mortal state; many are those who
-were unknown to me personally, only known by name and fame; and many I
-have never known until they revealed themselves to me in this "inner,"
-"higher," other realm. When returning to outward consciousness, I
-often see, or remember as sight, such visions of surpassing loveliness
-that no language, no gift of art, even with genius-portraiture, could
-describe or picture them. These scenes and visions are associated with
-individuals who exist in that state, and, apparently, are objective;
-yet I am fully aware that they illustrate or depict the states and
-tastes of the individuals with whom they are seen, and are not organic
-physical forms, but psychic projections of the individual spirits.
-These forms and scenes readily pass and change according to the state
-of the one seeing them, or according to the state of the individual
-with whom they are associated. The "sphere" of a spirit, or of
-spirits, is the state or condition, not the environment.
-
-In early life, before my mind had thought on the "objective" and
-"subjective" meanings of thoughts and things, I thought these scenes
-were "objective" in the human, mundane sense. I am now perfectly aware
-that every sensuous faculty--seeing, hearing, etc.--is superseded by
-this "perception" to which I have before referred; in fact, that the
-bodily senses as well as the mental faculties--brain expression--are
-but the different avenues of perceiving and conveying the intelligence
-of the individual spirit while associated with material form, this
-perception, or awareness, being the one supreme state of the spirit.
-
-Still I have been shown series after series of beautiful
-scenes,--gardens, landscapes, visions of art, transcendent pictures of
-tint, form, and tone that no language can portray; and I am sure these
-abide for all who wish for or have need of them, and are the
-illustrations of the spiritual states of those with whom one comes in
-spiritual contact--_rapport_. Yet the greater the degree of
-perception, the less important become these illustrations of states;
-we not only see "face to face," but perceive soul to soul. I became
-ashamed, almost, of the state of mind requiring these illustrations or
-any similar presentations. I found knowledge, however, in all the
-methods employed by my teachers, for they knew my needs.
-
-Conversation in that state is not by means of speech or even language;
-sometimes before the thought is formulated the answer comes. Such is
-the rare sympathy existing between teacher and pupil in this state
-that the guide knows before the question is formed. Still, there must
-be the conscious desire for knowledge, or no knowledge can be
-received; reminding one of the "Seek, and ye shall find" of the
-ancient Truth-Teller.
-
-When in that state I readily pass to a knowledge of what intimate
-friends in earth-life are doing and thinking. I even enter into such
-_rapport_ as to be aware of their material surroundings, their states
-of mind, and their bodily health, obtaining all this from their minds,
-not from physical consciousness or sensation. Many times they have
-been also conscious of my presence, and we have afterward verified
-these experiences by outward correspondence, mostly to satisfy our
-friends. One or two instances will suffice to illustrate this class of
-experiences.
-
-When I was yet a child, twelve years of age, my father accompanied me
-on one of my pilgrimages of spiritual work to western New York, our
-former home. During that visit or tour a circle for investigation and
-experiment was formed in Dunkirk, N. Y. After we returned to our then
-home in Wisconsin, I was one evening entranced,--as was usual,--and
-while in that state was distinctly conscious of being in Dunkirk, of
-seeing every member of the circle, with all of whom I was acquainted
-except one lady. She proved to be the seer of the evening. She saw me
-and described me so accurately that everyone in the circle recognized
-me, and, of course, thought I was dead. This so disturbed her mental
-or psychic state that I could not impress upon her mind that my body
-was entranced and that this was but one of my usual spiritual
-pilgrimages. On returning to my mundane state I narrated what I had
-experienced, and asked my father to write at once to the circle in
-Dunkirk and relieve their minds. He did so, but, as naturally would
-occur, they had also written, the letters crossing each other on the
-way, and their letter confirmed what I had told in every particular.
-
-Later in life I had a lady friend whom I repeatedly visited and
-comforted, for she was in great sorrow. One time I made her see my
-body, or its apparition, so plainly that she saw the dress in which it
-was clothed--precisely what I had wished, as it was the color she most
-liked to see me wear. Another friend in California became so
-susceptible to my presence that she wrote long letters from
-me--automatically--which I, in this state, dictated to her, thus
-rendering correspondence between us almost superfluous except for
-verification to our outward senses. My own mother was aware of my
-presence almost daily; and it was a curious fact that my telltale
-spirit would go to her and reveal the very things I wished to keep
-from her,--any little surprises or presents, or the time of my
-arrival home on a visit. However late the hour, I always found her
-ready with a warm supper to receive me. When arriving after the
-journey home she would say: "You came to me last night in spirit and
-told me you were coming in body." All important things connected with
-my welfare she knew in a similar way.
-
-Two friends, Mr. and Mrs. B----, were extensive travellers. At one
-time they were absent three years, taking a tour of the Orient. We did
-not keep up a regular correspondence, as mutually our time was too
-much taken up with our respective duties or pleasures, but I could
-always locate them while I was in this "inner" state. At one time I
-saw them surrounded by what seemed more like a scene in the spirit
-state than in earth-life. They were on an island, surrounded by
-water-lilies; the skies were full of golden light, and they were amid
-pavilions, grottos, and altars of quaint and unique design. I could
-not place them, but on returning to my mundane state I related to my
-family what I had seen, and I wrote down the date. In about three or
-four weeks I had a letter from them dated at Tokio, giving a
-description of this very island I had seen; they were there on that
-very day when I saw them, and the island was as I had seen it. It
-proved to be one of the sacred islands in Japan.
-
-This consciousness of visiting earth friends is, however, only the
-smallest part of these inner experiences; and usually occurs when I am
-passing into or out of the deeper or more spiritual states. Although I
-could fill volumes with these interesting experiences,--verified by
-being shared with others in human life,--I feel it due to the reader
-that I narrate my more inner experiences; at least in sufficient
-degree that they may be recorded, and that there may be some
-perception, however inadequately expressed, of what is possible in
-this surpassing realm.
-
-I cannot pass from this subject of my visits to human friends,
-however, without here recording one other phase of this many-threaded
-line of experiences. While in this realm of spirit I often meet and
-converse freely, or commune, with friends that are yet in human forms,
-but who appear as spirits and seem to possess all the activities of
-the spiritual state. They meet and mingle freely with those who have
-"died" to human life, yet I am perfectly sure they recall nothing of
-this when in their human state. Why I should remember or take with me
-these experiences that the others whom I saw within this realm could
-not recall, I could not divine until it was explained by my guide.
-
-The explanation is this: "In sleep mortals pass into this realm for
-spiritual rest and change, as it is the normal realm of the spirit;
-but they do not pass through the spiritual awakening of the faculties
-as those do who are endowed with 'spiritual gifts,' therefore the
-experiences cannot be recalled _as experiences_; still, they sometimes
-have vague reminiscences or glimpses of 'unremembered dreams' that aid
-them throughout the whole day, often for days; and thus the outward
-life is sustained and fed from this realm. By and by the race will
-have spiritual growth to know and remember the experiences of the
-spirit as they now do of the human life." I have frequently met those
-in that state who were strangers to me here, and who were still in
-human life; and in after years I have met them face to face in outward
-form, often wondering if they thought they had seen me before, as I
-was certain I had seen them. When the whole of this other side of
-human experience is made known, how many things now veiled will stand
-revealed! By far the greater number of volumes could be filled with
-those transcendent experiences referred to earlier in these pages,
-with friends in spirit states, with teachers and guides in their own
-realm.
-
-My mother, always intuitive, sympathetic, religious, and caring much
-for the sick and ailing while in earth life, I was accustomed to see
-in a sphere or state of her own near the "Healing Sphere" of one
-of my teachers. She was surrounded with her own favorite
-flowers--old-fashioned hollyhocks, sweet-williams, and fragrant
-healing herbs. My guide explained that in _her thought_, or spiritual,
-state she requires these things to aid her in healing or ministering
-to those on earth. Whenever I visited her state it seemed to be in the
-midst of scenery such as she loved on earth, and under a
-morning-glory-covered lattice, where she sat in a low chair like one I
-had seen her use in earth life. Though not limited to that state, she
-always revealed herself thus to me; and I would return to my earth
-state with a sense of homesickness, and with the odor of thyme and
-rosemary clinging to my _psychic olfactories_.
-
-My father was interested in all the reforms of the day; he was a truly
-practical Christian, though not a professing one. He was looking for
-that ideal social state which we all hope is sometime coming, of
-"peace on earth and love to all." His spirit state was revealed to me
-as among those arisen workers and reformers, whose work for humanity
-he loved and shared on earth, and learning of the wise ones,--a vast
-and wonderful sphere of individualities, who are still laboring for
-the good of humanity. I wished to know of my father, who passed out
-from the mortal form when I was thirteen years of age, and who was
-often my spirit teacher in my early life, why, after my mother had
-passed on, he was not always with her as in earth life. He replied,
-with a rare smile: "We are together; our work is different, but when
-we need each other we cannot be apart."
-
-Singly or in groups, or as my needs seemed to require, I was aware of
-every relative and friend who had passed from mortal life, whom our
-mutual wish or need attracted toward me. I am sure there may be those
-related by ties of consanguinity whom I have not seen, and many
-related only by spiritual sympathy and kinship whom I have met and
-loved in that state.
-
-My babe, now a beautiful young woman in the spirit state, is my almost
-constant companion in those visitations and experiences. I have "seen
-her grow," to use our mortal speech; have noted her spiritual
-unfoldment, and have many times been her pupil,--so wise are these
-"little ones" in the love of the angels, so sweet and simple is she in
-her teaching.
-
-How few know the real meaning of "nearness" as applied to those they
-love! One thinks of the friend whose bodily presence is removed by
-mountains, rivers, and oceans as being far away; yet London, China,
-and India are as near in thought as the chair beside one, and doubly
-near the one whose body may be sojourning there. This very nearness of
-sympathy debars any separation. If people would turn to the real
-indications,--sympathy, intuition,--whenever desired the friend is
-near. Doubly true is this of those who have passed the barrier of
-death and are revealed to the heart of love. They have not died, they
-have not gone; they are so near as not to be seen or felt by the
-grosser sense that governs the physical state of recognition; so very
-near that even the thoughts of the friend still immured in the
-earthly form are shared by them, the very innermost longings responded
-to. Yet people unaccustomed to seek them in the inner instead of outer
-realm of existence, cannot find them, and say, "They are gone." With
-space and time annihilated, what shall prevent the loved from being
-ever near?
-
-Teachers and guides bear a nearer relationship than those in human
-states, and teach by the magic law of adaptation and love. I cannot
-name, in earthly language, the tie that binds me to those who have led
-me through these many realms, who have taught by vision, illustration,
-and thought, until the awakened _perception_ knew, the _a priori_
-knowledge came.
-
-I have often been conscious of visiting at desire a realm of music
-that led through the world of tone, through the spheres of matchless
-harmony in which the great masters of music abide,--Beethoven,
-Mendelssohn, Mozart, and to the divine realm of Wagner.
-
-The realm of art, leading through color and form to the images of
-perfect life, until form and tint and tone are merged in the supreme
-soul of beauty, and sculptured image or architectural grandeur is lost
-in the eternal, all-forming, all-changing changelessness of the Soul
-of Art.
-
-The realm of nature (the material universe), seen from the inverse
-side, appears to be the effect of causes that are in that realm of
-consciousness; laws that are the operation of the Supreme Will, the
-Logos. There science is reconstructed and made plain, and made secure
-by the knowledge of these fundamental principles.
-
-The realm of philosophy, traced to its primal sources, reveals the
-truths concerning universal knowledge, often perceived by the great
-teachers, but dimly stated by minds enshrouded by the environments of
-earth.
-
-The realm of religion,--the ineffable meaning of the All-Love and
-Wisdom; the nearness, the perfectness, the absoluteness of the Divine;
-the kinship of souls, the fraternity of spirits,--never in all this
-realm was there a thought, or teaching of thought, separate from a
-conscious individual entity.
-
-I find that there is no Time or Space in this inner realm; the entity
-is not governed by the limitations of the person, so the terms and
-usages of earthly existence must fall into desuetude. One is not
-hampered by an ox-team while flying across the plains in a palace
-coach impelled by steam, and one does not need winter garments and
-furs in the tropics. The state of spirit needs no earthly day and
-night; all these are but incident to the physical earth and physical
-existence. The spirit is free from these limitations--time, space, and
-sensuous environment.
-
-It will be interesting for the reader to know that my physical health
-does not suffer from these experiences, nor from the active duties
-incident to my spiritual work in human life.
-
-I enter this spirit realm as naturally and easily as one enters the
-realm of sleep; yet it is not sleep. The body and brain are actively
-employed by another intelligence, loaned as an instrument might be,
-while the individual consciousness, the _ego_ of the human being, is
-set free to visit these illimitable realms or states of the "inner,"
-the vaster, life.
-
-When the mundane consciousness returns, it is instantaneous; but the
-mental and physical sensations vary according to whether the
-experiences have been "near or far" from the human state, with
-reference not to distance, but to resemblance or similarity in
-quality. When the experiences have been furthest removed from those
-usual in human consciousness, many minutes, and sometimes hours, are
-required to adjust myself to the conditions. This inner state is far
-more intense, but not unlike that experienced when one has been wholly
-wrapped and folded from the outer world in perusing a favorite
-author--living with and experiencing the scenes depicted; or when one
-has listened for hours to the all-absorbing strains of music in the
-grand operatic creations of Wagner. On returning to the mundane state
-my food has often tasted like chips or straw; the fabric of my dress
-would feel coarse to the touch, as though woven of cords or ropes; and
-every sound seemed harsh or far too loud. Gradually these
-supersensitive conditions would depart, leaving the usual state of
-mind and body.
-
-I have said it is easy to pass into that state; not so easy is the
-returning to the human environment; yet one _must_ return. Like the
-child bidden to the task, reluctant to leave the garden of flowers and
-the freedom of the outer world, yet, constrained by love and duty, one
-consents to return. I suspect that these sensations I experience, of
-return to the human state, are something like those of resuscitation
-after one has been nearly drowned. The drowning is easy, because one
-is going into life; the restoration is painful, because one returns,
-if not to death, to mere existence. The work, the duty, the loved who
-are embodied here must win one to the form which has been loaned; but
-the spirit seems reluctant sometimes to leave that freedom and
-knowledge for the narrow walls of clay, the prison-house of sense. The
-only true way is to bring that realm with one into daily life. One
-learns after a time to do this: to clothe the earthly scenes with the
-inner brightness, and the human tasks with the spiritual aura of love
-and wisdom.
-
-I cannot judge whether the scenes of earth seem lovelier to me than to
-most mortals; whether there is more ravishing sweetness in the
-springtime, more glory in summer, more richness and beauty in the
-autumn, more rest and whiteness in the winter, more transcendent
-splendor in the sunset sky and glory in the starlit heavens. But it is
-certain that in being admitted to this inner realm the writer has not
-lost any blessing of earth,--of love, of home, of friends, of
-practical knowledge and interest in the daily duties and work of life;
-nor, I believe, can one be barred from any needed experience, however
-bitter. These teachings, visions, and experiences of soul-life have
-given to earth an exquisite beauty; to life's work a meaning and
-impetus; to trials a lesson and interpretation; to the change called
-death a glory and radiance; to spirit states a nearness, and to soul a
-reality. Nor do these experiences rob one of one's individuality; the
-petty _personality_ to which mortals cling is, happily, forgotten or
-cast aside, but the _individuality_ cannot be lost, merged in another,
-or governed, except for its good. When the _personal_ is cast aside,
-one is grateful for the impersonality of the _individual_.
-
-Trailing clouds of glory accompany me across and into the barriers of
-time and sense, and when the sharp contrast is over--which the guide
-ever prevents from being too sudden--I realize the great sweetness of
-the gardens of paradise by the fragrance that is filling the earthly
-dwelling, and I know that being aware of the visitations of angels,
-and of somewhat of the light which is theirs, does not hinder, but
-helps human endeavor and accomplishment.
-
-
-
-
-THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CIVICS.
-
-BY HENRY RANDALL WAITE, PH. D.
-
-
-The standard represented by popular institutions will seldom be
-higher, and as time goes on may become lower, than that set for
-themselves by the majority of the people who established and are
-intrusted with the duty of maintaining them. They may represent noble
-aims and point to high ideals, but the extent of their duration and
-salutary influence must always be dependent upon a sufficient
-manifestation of the spirit which called them into being.
-
-Institutions and laws, however perfect in other respects, cannot,
-therefore, safely omit from their functions provisions for the
-fostering and developing of the spirit which gave them birth. This
-spirit, it is to be remembered, may, and too often does, without
-extinguishment, actually become a thing so much apart from the
-machinery which it has established, as to have little appreciable
-influence in controlling its operation.
-
-The institutions and laws of the United States, in their inception,
-represented the spirit of a people who were actuated by the highest
-concepts of human duty, and who sought to establish a political system
-which should realize the highest ideals. The possibilities of the
-system have been demonstrated by the experience of more than a hundred
-years. Functionally considered this experience has made painfully
-evident the failures which have attended the system in its operation.
-It is evident to every intelligent student of American history that
-these failures have been chiefly due to the fact that the spirit which
-gave life to the American Republic has too often and too far been
-supplanted in the control of its affairs by a spirit utterly hostile
-to that which it was intended to be, and which, if the partial or
-complete failure of the system is to be averted, must, everywhere and
-always, be dominant. It is undoubtedly true that citizens whose
-character and ability fit them for the service necessary for the
-proper control of political affairs, constitute a sufficient number in
-the voting population to assure the ascendency of right ideas if
-their efforts can be united for the purpose. The fact that intelligent
-and controlling convictions of duty are absent, and that they do not
-thus unite, however explained, clearly accounts for the subversion of
-the spirit which founded our institutions, and the ascendency of a
-spirit of chicanery, greed, and corruption.
-
-It is also evident that the political evils which challenge our
-attention are primarily due, not to faults in our institutions
-themselves, but to failures in the assertion of the spirit of true
-Americanism by which they are intended to be controlled. How to secure
-ascendency for this spirit and thus to restore, in every part of the
-republic, the sovereignty of highest manhood, is the most pressing
-problem which can engage the attention of patriotic and intelligent
-American citizens.
-
-For more than fifteen years this question has been a matter of
-profound interest to the writer. The fact that ordinary uprisings
-against political evils fail to accomplish permanent results, seemed
-to him to afford convincing evidence that attention must be given to
-the roots and not confined to the branches; and that this foundation
-work must represent patient, persistent, and unselfish efforts for the
-promotion everywhere of the basic virtues of true patriotism,
-intelligence, integrity, and fidelity in citizenship relations.
-Believing that this work could be best accomplished through a
-permanent national institution which should invite and command the
-cooperation of good citizens everywhere, regardless of party, creed,
-sex, or class, he sought the advice and cooperation of a few
-distinguished men in the preparation of plans for such an institution.
-The assistance sought was willingly extended by such citizens as
-Morrison R. Waite, William Strong, and S. F. Miller, then respectively
-Chief Justice and Justices of the United States Supreme Court; by
-Theodore Woolsey, Noah Porter, F. A. P. Barnard, Mark Hopkins, Julius
-H. Seeley, and Theodore W. Dwight, among educators; and by such other
-eminent Americans as U. S. Grant, William Fitzhugh Lee, Robert C.
-Winthrop, Hugh McCulloch, John J. Knox, Orlando B. Potter, A. H.
-Colquitt, George Bancroft, Hannibal Hamlin, John Jay, Right Reverend
-William I. Kip, David Swing, and Phillips Brooks.
-
-The result of conferences and correspondence with these and other
-citizens of like character led to the founding, in 1885, of the
-American Institute of Civics, which was subsequently chartered under
-the laws of Congress, and was dedicated to the service of promoting
-the qualities in citizenship which Washington sought to promote by his
-latest labors and final bequests, and which he, in common with
-Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison, believed to be necessary "to the
-security of a free constitution," and to the welfare of the government
-and people of the United States. Its distinctive purposes are
-succinctly set forth in its charter as follows:
-
- 1. To promote on the part of youths and adults generally, without
- reference to the inculcation of special theories or partisan
- views, a patient and conscientious study of the most essential
- facts relating to affairs of government and citizenship, to the
- end that every citizen may be qualified to act the part of an
- intelligent and upright juror in all affairs submitted to the
- decision of the ballot.
-
- 2. To promote, in the same spirit, such special attention to the
- study of Civics[7] in higher institutions of learning, and
- otherwise, as shall have a tendency to secure wise, impartial,
- and patriotic action on the part of those who shall occupy
- positions of trust and responsibility, as executive or
- legislative officers, and as leaders of public opinion.
-
- [7] Defined in the Standard Dictionary as follows: "The
- science that treats of citizenship and of the relations
- between citizens and the government: a new word directly
- derived from the adjective _civic_, introduced by Henry
- Randall Waite."
-
-Organized under such auspices and with such purposes it represents the
-only practical and sustained effort which has been made by the people
-of the United States for the realization of the aims above outlined;
-and with persistency of purpose and increasing usefulness it has for
-more than twelve years prosecuted its mission for the safeguarding of
-American institutions.
-
-Political conditions past and present clearly justify the views of
-Washington and his contemporaries, and the opinions of the Institute's
-founders, as to the need of a central source of salutary influences in
-the form of a national institution wholly devoted to a propaganda of
-the principles and ideas comprehensively described in Washington's
-words as "the fundamental maxims of true liberty."
-
-The sole object of this national, non-partisan, non-sectarian,
-popular, and permanent institution, is to voice these maxims, to
-inspire the spirit and give force to the principles which should have
-supreme control in affairs of government, citizenship, and social
-order.
-
-What the national military establishments at West Point and Annapolis
-are intended to accomplish in the way of preparing a few citizens for
-useful service in times of war, it is the purpose of this popular
-civil institution, with patriotic insistency and through all available
-efficiencies, to aid in accomplishing through provisions for properly
-preparing all citizens for the highest service of their country at all
-times.
-
-In the accomplishment of its objects, it directs its endeavors not so
-much to the creation of new agencies as to the giving of inspiration
-and energy to those already existing; and in pursuing this wise policy
-it has been a most useful factor in establishing the solidarity and
-increasing the power of the influences which represent civic virtue
-and true patriotism.
-
-Its efficiencies include, beside its National Board of Trustees,
-composed of thirty-three members, and its advisory faculty, composed
-of twelve members, the following departments:
-
-1. Department for the extension of information and activities
-promotive of good citizenship, through which provisions are made for
-home studies, and for lectures, discussions, studies, etc., in
-connection with schools, lyceums, civic associations, labor
-organizations, and institute clubs; this work being carried on with
-the cooperation and under the supervision of councillors in the
-communities where they reside, and with the aid of a corps of
-lecturers now numbering more than two hundred.
-
-2. Department of Educational Institutions conducted in cooperation
-with State and local officers of public instruction, teachers in
-elementary and high schools, and members of faculties in nearly two
-hundred and fifty higher institutions of learning.
-
-3. Publication Department, through which the equivalent of nearly
-twenty million pages of octavo matter has been issued under its
-auspices.
-
-4. Department of Legislation, in connection with which councillors and
-citizens generally have efficiently aided in securing needed reforms
-in the administration of public affairs, the protection and elevation
-of the suffrage, and the conservation of the highest interests of
-citizens and the state in other respects.
-
-5. Department of Applied Ethics, in connection with which efforts are
-made to properly and efficiently enlist the great body of citizens,
-including youths as well as adults, who profess to be governed by the
-highest concepts of duty, in practical labors for the establishment of
-wise, just, and salutary civic and social conditions.
-
-It is obvious that an institution of this character cannot depend for
-its maintenance upon citizens of merely negative virtue, nor can it
-expect the sympathy of scheming politicians to whose plans and power
-it is in direct opposition. Its dependence must be solely upon the
-willing services and financial support of those members of the body
-politic who are animated by the spirit of Washington, and who believe
-that in matters affecting the highest interests of our free
-institutions, such as civic virtue and civic fidelity, formation is
-better than re-formation, and that to constantly maintain salutary
-political conditions is infinitely preferable to frequent and
-disappointing struggles with corruptible elements, which through
-neglect of civic duty have been permitted to secure controlling power;
-in other words, that it is better to safely guard our inheritance of
-freedom than to battle for its rescue from unworthy hands.
-
-The Institute admits to membership in its National Body of Councillors
-all citizens who are commended to its Board of Trustees, by those
-already members, or by other citizens of known high character, as
-worthy of such membership by reason of their ability to contribute in
-some degree to the accomplishment of its purposes. It does not solicit
-the membership of citizens whose political affiliations are such as to
-rank them among those who are contributing to the evils which it seeks
-to correct. Its councillors are asked to share in an undertaking which
-tests the character of their citizenship by offering no rewards for
-their cooperation. It has employed no paid officers and no paid agents
-for the solicitation of funds. The united activities of its members
-have enabled it, and it is believed will continue to enable it, to
-present in itself an eloquent object-lesson in patriotism and a potent
-appeal to the spirit in citizenship--the true Americanism--which it
-seeks to foster. Its contributing councillors are asked for annual
-remittances of sums of from $2.00 upward, in accordance with their
-financial ability and the degree of their interest in its work. Those
-contributing $3.00 or more annually are entitled to receive all of its
-own publications, and also THE ARENA, whose aims are largely identical
-with its own, and through which its official announcements will
-hereafter be published.
-
-It will be seen that the degree of responsibility resting upon its
-councillors financially and otherwise is a matter for their own
-determination, and one which will be decided in accordance with the
-disposition of each to recognize the truth, that the patriotic and
-unselfish labors of those who have gone before us, and of which we
-enjoy the priceless benefits, have laid upon us a sacred obligation
-which we can discharge only by the performance of similar labors.
-
-The foregoing statements, however encouraging, are chiefly significant
-as indicative of what may be, rather than of what has been,
-accomplished. Gratifying as the results of the Institute's work have
-been, they represent but a tithe of what it might have accomplished
-with a larger degree of moral and pecuniary support. The extent of its
-field and the magnitude of the labors necessary in order to make it
-widely and effectively useful, when compared with the resources at its
-command, have constantly presented difficulties which would have
-discouraged its officers but for their abiding confidence in the
-ultimate willingness of the American people to give to it the measure
-of support warranted by the importance of the objects to which it is
-devoted. It has been not inaptly compared to a noble piece of
-enginery, whose highest possibilities in the way of efficiency and
-usefulness cannot be realized because the fuel furnished is
-insufficient for the supply of motive power. Its highest possibilities
-are, in truth, little more than dreams, the fulfilment of which may
-not be realized in the lives of those who are now giving it such
-unselfish service as they find possible in the midst of other pressing
-occupations.
-
-The time must soon come when it will be necessary to make arrangements
-for the permanent establishment of its central efficiencies, with
-adequate provision for its maintenance, at some suitable point yet to
-be selected. The suggestion has been made by some of the most
-distinguished of its councillors, that the descendants of American
-patriots cannot more worthily honor the memory of their sires, or
-more effectively promote the safety and perpetuity of the institutions
-for which they battled, than by making it their mission to maintain
-the American Institute of Civics. The fact that it was conceived,
-established, and has been conducted in the spirit of truest
-patriotism, and the results which it has already accomplished through
-services rendered wholly in the spirit of the words upon its corporate
-seal, "Ducit Amor Patriae," would seem to prove its title to the
-confidence and support of all who are proud of the fact that their
-forbears have been among the founders and defenders of our American
-institutions. It may not be a vain hope that this thought will, in
-some manner and at some time, take definite shape, perhaps in the form
-of a national memorial building at the capital, devoted to the
-collection and preservation of material illustrative of the nation's
-history and progress, and to memorials of its illustrious dead. As has
-been said elsewhere,
-
- Such a building, dedicated by enfranchised manhood to the cause
- of human freedom, may include a Hall of History and Civics, for
- the collection of appropriate relics, manuscripts, and books of
- colonial, continental, revolutionary, and subsequent periods; an
- Army and Navy Hall, devoted to exhibits illustrative of military
- and naval affairs, including battle-flags, arms, accoutrements,
- and similar material; a Memorial Hall, where the memory of
- illustrious Americans, statesmen, soldiers, philanthropists, and
- other great leaders, may be honored, and their memory perpetuated
- in statuary, paintings, mural tablets, and other appropriate
- ways, and which shall be to the people of America what
- Westminster Abbey is to the people of England--a place where the
- great exemplars of virtue, wisdom, and patriotism, the noblest
- citizens of the passing years, though dead, shall yet speak and
- have salutary influence, through successive generations; and a
- Hall of Instruction, which shall be the centre of the nation-wide
- activities of this noble American institution, and also of a
- school of civics to which American youth may come from every part
- of the land to avail themselves of exceptional opportunities for
- studies and investigations which shall qualify them for highest
- usefulness in the public service and in all the walks of
- citizenship.
-
-However this may be, the Institute, by its many years of patient,
-persistent, and, in view of the circumstances, remarkably successful
-activities, has established a claim upon the confidence and support of
-good citizens which must in due time receive suitable recognition.
-Further than this, these activities may be regarded as a necessary and
-fitting preparation for labors which shall be more fruitful in
-results, and in the hope of which those who have hitherto directed its
-affairs have found inspiration and encouragement.
-
-It has been truly said that,
-
- If any honor attaches to the citizenship in which intelligent,
- loyal, and unselfish devotion to the highest interests of country
- are made paramount, the names of those who have united in efforts
- for the establishment of this Institute of Patriotism constitute
- a roll of honor. Its ability to fully realize its objects is
- dependent upon the number and the efforts of those whose names
- are upon this roll.
-
- Here is an opportunity for, and an appeal to, citizens of wealth.
- Money cannot be more worthily or wisely bestowed than in feeding
- the streams in whose life-giving power is the strength of the
- republic. Honorable names may find their noblest memorials by the
- gifts and endowments which shall forever connect them with this
- National School of Patriotism.
-
-
-
-
-AN INDUSTRIAL FABLE.
-
-BY HAMILTON S. WICKS.
-
-
-The King of a certain country, whose power was absolute and whose will
-was despotic, issued an edict that all the laborers of his dominion
-who were engaged in honorable toil should exchange places with those
-persons who did no work or were engaged in dishonorable or merely
-speculative avocations, so that the laboring man should fare
-sumptuously and the non-laborer poorly. Those who worked up in the
-sunlight on the tall buildings should sit down in the evening to
-bountiful banquets and should sleep in fine linen on luxurious
-couches; while those who crawled below in the bleak valleys between
-the beetling cliffs of architecture should go to frugal meals and
-sleep amid the rough surroundings of the abodes of the poor. The
-monarch reasoned that those who did the world's work were more
-deserving of the good things of the world than were the idle or the
-vicious, however wealthy. He imagined that the world was turned upside
-down socially and economically, and he proposed to turn it back again
-by his royal fiat.
-
-Backed by his sword, "which is the badge of temporal power wherein
-doth sit the dread and fear of kings," he apprehended no failure in
-his plans, which had been worked out in their minutest detail. His
-army was the largest of any nation, and was to a man devoted to its
-King. His genius had won many victories and extended the borders of
-glory. Through his impartial system of promotion men from the ranks
-had risen to be commanders. The soldiery were well fed, well housed,
-and well paid. A word, a nod, from their King would set in motion this
-mighty machine to crush out all opposition. Supplementing the military
-arm of his government the King had organized the most elaborate system
-of _espionage_, so that all secrets were open to him, and no
-whisperings in the street or the club but were conveyed distinctly to
-his royal ear by the microphone of his spy system. The press was
-gagged or inspired; the legislature was composed of fawning
-sycophants; his judiciary was merely a reflection of the royal will;
-and Holy Church itself displayed its purple robe and golden bowl but
-to ornament his processions or to hallow his feasts.
-
-Thus matters stood on the evening of the day this great social
-revolution was inaugurated. It fell out that a group of honest
-laborers were descending the elevator that carried the brick and
-mortar to the twentieth story of a certain downtown sky-scraper. While
-all of them knew of the edict of their King, none had taken it
-seriously or imagined for a moment that it would be carried into
-effect literally. On their arrival at the ground floor, a policeman
-stationed there stopped them and, motioning to an elegant equipage
-standing across the way, informed them that it was the King's command
-that they should enter it and be driven to one of the avenue clubs
-which had been assigned for their accommodation. Into it they were
-thrust, dinner-pails and all. They had scarcely time to recover their
-equanimity, as they were rapidly whirled through one thoroughfare
-after another, till the avenue in question was reached and they were
-deposited in front of a stately brownstone mansion. Their coming had
-been expected, and the great doors swung open as they alighted, whilst
-a uniformed lackey motioned them to enter. Their astonishment was
-redoubled at the splendor of the interior furnishings. Each was
-assigned a room, where they were bathed and groomed and dressed in
-garments suitable for their surroundings. Dinner was served by the
-time they were ready, and into the glittering _salle a manger_ they
-were duly ushered. A fashionable _table d'hote_ was a new sensation to
-every man of them, and they certainly astonished the _table d'hote_.
-It (the _table d'hote_) never realized before what it was to be fully
-appreciated. An evening of cigars, wine, and billiards followed; and
-then they stretched their tough and sinewy workmen's legs between the
-whitest of silken sheets, spread over the springiest of hair
-mattresses, on the brightest of brass bedsteads. There we leave them
-to such dreams as their surroundings invited, to turn our attention to
-four bachelor brokers on the stock exchange, whose apartments at the
-club our bachelor workingmen were inhabiting.
-
-With as little thought of the reality of the great King's edict as the
-workingmen themselves, they were sauntering forth from the exchange
-at the hour of 3 P. M., when they were pounced upon by a quarter score
-of stalwart policemen and landed inside a rough luggage conveyance.
-Baxter Street was a Garden of Eden compared to the slums to which they
-were driven, and they were finally sheltered in a dirty tenement that
-arose in a series of rickety stories to a dizzy height. Their
-fastidious taste would not permit them to indulge in sleep amid such
-commonplace surroundings, where the only furniture of their room
-consisted of two dirty beds and a filthy sink. So they sat up all
-night smoking the cigars they happened to have in their clothes when
-captured, and muttering deep curses against their eccentric ruler.
-
-The following morning the awakening of the laborers resembled that of
-Christopher Sly in "The Taming of the Shrew." They were bewildered
-with astonishment at the appointments of their surroundings and the
-service of their attendants. A champagne headache was a natural
-accompaniment to the previous night's drinking and gorging; so that
-fashionable "coffee and rolls," though served in the most delicate of
-faience, seemed but meagre fare upon which to commence the arduous
-labors of the day. At precisely 5:30 A. M. the same carriage they had
-occupied the previous evening, with its crested panels, its liveried
-coachman, and its spanking span of bays, was at the door to convey
-them back to work.
-
-The same routine was substantially carried into effect each day, a
-natural consequence of which was that they became weary of their
-enforced luxury, and their hearts yearned for the humble living of
-their tenement, with its rough and hearty jollity, and its freedom
-from constraint and the supervision of lackeys, however well dressed
-or polite. In the case of the fastidious brokers kept under
-surveillance, tired nature at last, reluctant, yielded. There came a
-day, or rather a night, when even they were able to sleep--an uneasy,
-troubled sleep, it is true--amid the mean surroundings of the
-tenement.
-
-The determined will of the monarch so ordered affairs that the
-conditions under his edict were kept in force for many days. He
-proposed to give a thorough test to his quixotic ideas. The portion of
-the workmen was hard manual labor by day in the upper regions of air
-and light, and by night the relaxation of enervating luxury; and the
-portion of the brokers was deep dejection, deep curses, and haggard
-sleeplessness.
-
-The culmination of this condition of unrest occurred at a great ball
-which another royal edict had blazoned forth to be given as a tribute
-to the laboring masses, and at which the non-producers would be
-compelled to assist, not indeed as menials, but as experienced
-advisers. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars at least would be
-expended on the pomp and glory of the occasion. The sage counsellors
-of state, men deeply versed in the lore of the past, were called
-together to devise costumes for the crude working people and to frame
-rules of etiquette for their behavior. The most elaborate descriptions
-appeared in the daily press of what was proposed. For weeks the vast
-preparations went steadily forward. Everything of luxury and ornament
-that the commerce of the empire sucked up from the farthest confines
-of the earth was made to minister to the great event.
-
-At last the auspicious day arrived. One of the grandest palaces of the
-King himself was the scene of the festivity. The costumes worn
-represented many of the great names of history, from Julius Caesar to
-Napoleon Bonaparte, and from Cleopatra to Marie Antoinette. The height
-of the great occasion was reached somewhat after midnight when the
-_quadrille d'honneur_ was announced. The great King sat upon a raised
-dais, or throne, the better to view the gorgeous pageant. A mighty
-fanfare of trumpets, which seemed to whirl the feelings for a moment
-into the forces beyond mortality, invited to the initial movements of
-the quadrille. It was as though an army with banners was about to
-launch its squadrons upon the foe in some majestic Friedland or
-Gettysburg. As the sound died away, there was a pause. The great King
-looked up in amazement, and stamping that foot whose heel had rested
-upon the necks of mighty potentates, now his willing vassals, he arose
-with frown black as midnight.
-
-Suffer me, O reader, to recall the elements of this unparalleled
-occasion: On the one hand, almost omnipotent power, backed by
-transcendent though wayward genius, a will that hitherto had never
-been balked, an unsullied prestige, a front of Jove to threaten and
-command, upon which great thought registered every varying
-expression, one of the least of which would have endowed an ordinary
-prince with lasting renown. On the other hand, "fantastic compliment
-strutting up and down tricked in outlandish feather." A motion from
-the hand of majesty, now fully erect, sent another mighty wave of
-martial music flying on invisible wings, in thousand forms, throughout
-every corridor. As this second summons for the masterpiece to be set
-in motion died away in turn, two bands of men detached themselves from
-the distant throng massed in the farthest background, and came slowly
-forward with bowed heads and deferential tread. At the same instant a
-hundred brilliant officers of the household stepped out of the
-corridors behind the King with drawn swords, and other hundreds
-crowded behind them prepared to do their master's instant service.
-
-The Great Strategist comprehended the situation with a single sweeping
-glance of his eagle eye, and drawing himself up full height motioned
-his servitors with his left hand back into their concealment, while
-with his extended right hand he encouraged with benignant gesture the
-approach of the representatives of the people, who had shrunk back in
-dismay when the King's guard sprang forth so abruptly. It was now seen
-that the approaching bands were composed in equal parts of the gaudily
-caparisoned workmen and their plainly dressed advisers. Each party
-bore in its midst an enormous roll, whose weight impeded anything like
-rapid progress. On arriving at the front of the throne, they deposited
-their burdens and then prostrated themselves before the King. When
-bidden to arise and state their purpose, a stalwart son of toil
-stepped forward in front of his comrades. He was attired in a $10,000
-costume, representing Henry of Navarre. This costume sat upon his
-rugged limbs as though they had been melted into it. The King gazed
-complacently upon his manufactured nobleman and bade him proceed.
-
-"August and Sovereign King!" thus began the blacksmith, for such he
-was when not intoxicated or attending a costume ball--"August and
-Sovereign King, I have been pushed forward by my fellows who have
-joined in this petition, with a vast multitude of their co-workers,
-similarly gorged with hateful luxury. They ask me to state plainly to
-your Majesty that they now know from actual experience how hollow and
-worthless are all the glories of the merely rich, whose time is
-devoted to vain shows and in devising new delicacies for the palate.
-They beseech your Majesty that you, in accordance with your gracious
-pleasure, should restore them to their simple and humble paths of
-life, wherein they will dwell in reasonable contentment hereafter."
-
-The workman ceased, and the spokesman for wealth and idleness stepped
-forward and pleaded his case very eloquently. He showed, in the
-petition which many thousands of his class had signed, that through
-their recent experience they all had been made to feel the weight of
-life as it rests upon those under them. He averred that he and his
-fellows were heartily sick of their lives thus ordered, and that they
-petitioned the King to send them beyond his confines, or place them in
-his army, or, better still, allow them to seek honorable employment in
-vocations more in accord with their taste and inclination.
-
-The King, esteeming that he had sufficiently disciplined the wealthy
-and had measurably cast out the "daimon of unrest" from the mind of
-labor, while at the same time he had given a notable illustration to
-all his people of the folly of outrunning too far the sentiments of
-your age, and the arrant rot of placing edicts upon the statute books
-that at once become a dead letter unless backed by despotic force, and
-feeling the security of his position, stood before his petitioners,
-lightly leaning on his left foot, with his right hand in the breast of
-his coat, and thus addressed them:
-
- "My people, the results flowing from my edict are not otherwise
- than I fully believed would result; I am satisfied at the real
- good that has been accomplished. Many there are who would like to
- see human nature changed by an equally absurd upheaval of the
- social fabric, which would instantly place the limbs of labor
- between cambric sheets and line their stomachs with sweetmeats.
- The truly wise base their expectations for the race upon no such
- sudden revolution, but rather see salvation for their fellows in
- a gradual and natural betterment of conditions, a growth upwards
- that can be maintained through all the spasms of reform, a
- lifting of the whole fabric of society by the great forces of
- education, faith, and persistency, which are and have ever been
- the architects of the race."
-
-
-
-
-PLAZA OF THE POETS.
-
-REPLY TO "LOCKSLEY HALL SIXTY YEARS AFTER."
-
-BY BARTON LOMAX PITTMAN.
-
-
- Nay, my grandsire, though you leave me latest lord of Locksley Hall,
- Speak of Amy's heavenly graces and the frailty of her fall,
- Point me to the shield of Locksley, hanging in this mansion lone,
- I must turn from such sad splendor ere my heart be changed to stone.
-
- While you prate of pride ancestral and the dead dreams of your youth,
- I, despite my birth and lineage, am a battler for the truth.
- To the work-worn, half-starved peasants of this realm my heart goes
- out--
- Those who, plundered and forgotten, find this life a ruthless rout.
-
- In the rustling robes of Amy bloomed the roses that had fled
- From the cheeks of pauper maidens forced into the brothel-bed;
- In her saintly smiles and glances flashed the sunlight that was shut
- By the iron-hand injustice from the cotter's humble hut.
-
- Nay, 'tis wrong that we should range with science glorying in the
- time,
- While we force our brother mortals into squalor, need, and crime;
- Wicked we should pose as Christians singing songs to God on high,
- Heedless of his tortured creatures who in pauper prisons lie.
-
- Christless is the crime of turning creed-stopped ears to teardrops
- shed
- By the women whom oppression robs of virtue for their bread.
- Satan's blush would mantle crimson could he see the stunted child
- Slaving in our marts and markets, helpless, hopeless, and reviled--
-
- See its pallid face uplifted from the whirling factory wheels,
- Tear-stained with the grief and anguish of a baby brain that reels,
- Tortured in life's budding springtime, toiling on with stifled cries,
- Seeing, through its tears refracted, rippling cascades, azure skies;
- Skies and birds and flowery meadows made for children wealthy-born,
- While God's outcasts, with their parents, robbed and drudging, live
- forlorn,
- Men in whom the fires of hope have sunk into a sordid spark,
- Mothers rearing helpless infants for the brothel's dawnless dark.
-
- While this world seems far too crowded to provide us work for all,
- Acres spread their untilled bosoms, while the nations rise and fall.
- Nature's storehouse, made for all men, is monopolized by some,
- Robbing labor of its produce, making almshouse, jail, and slum.
-
- Side by side with art and progress creeps the haggard spectre,
- Want--
- Creeps the frightful phantom, Hunger, with its bloodless body gaunt.
- Wider, wider spreads the chasm 'twixt the wealthy and the poor,
- Social discontent declaring that such wrongs cannot endure.
-
- And this yawning of the chasm is the curse of every race,
- As it saps and kills its manhood ere it reach the zenith-place;
- Spartan valor, Grecian learning, Roman honor had their day,
- But land plunder rose among them, dooming death by slow decay.
-
- Shall we wait for evolution, let it right these monstrous wrongs,
- While the helpless, young, and tender writhe and groan 'neath social
- thongs?
- Nay, 'tis better all should perish in a battle for the right,
- Than let philosophic cowards keep us in this stygian night.
-
- Locksley Hall has now a master who would claim the earth for all,
- Who would make the titled idler cease to rob his tenant-thrall;
- Wreck the Church and State if need be (better such in time will
- rise),
- But who from this glorious purpose nevermore will turn his eyes--
-
- Never, till the arms of nature clasp in joy her outcast child,
- Long since driven from the meadow and the dell and woodland wild,
- Till to each belongs the produce of his hand and heart and brain,
- And glad heralds of millennium thrill along our path of pain.
-
- Though the world has piled its fagots round the great and good and
- brave;
- Thrust its Socrates the hemlock, scourged its Jesus to the grave;
- Though its sneer has chilled the tender, and its frown has cursed
- the good,
- While its Nero sways the sceptre and its Emmett dies in blood;
-
- Yet in Truth there is a power that through ceaseless cycles slow
- Will inscribe the doom of Error in an ever-fadeless glow,
- That will trample on oppression, burst the chains and crush the
- throne,
- Rearing on the blood and ruin justice-reign from zone to zone.
-
- Idealistic dreamer, say you? In your youth you once felt so?
- Well, I only pray life's sunset, bowing down my head with snow,
- Shall not swerve me from my purpose, though the victor-laurels twine
- In my reach, and if forsaking my convictions they are mine.
-
- Do not so condemn the realists, rhymesters, authors, and their way,
- Just because they point about us to the errors of to-day;
- Spare them, though they gaze not upward from our self-wrought
- piteous plight,
- For, though blinded and despairing, they are struggling toward the
- light.
-
- Let the realist dip his falcon in the boiling blood of life,
- Tracing in heartrending horror all the hoary wrongs and strife,
- Till the world shall sick and sadden of its folly and its sin,
- Hearkening through the roar of traffic to the still small voice
- within--
-
- Voice which murmurs Christ's own message as we circle round the sun:
- That, though greed and creed divide us, still humanity is one--
- One in all its godlike longing, one in all its hopes and fears,
- With its calvaries, scaffolds, hemlocks, and its seas of unshed
- tears.
-
- Then this star of sorrow swinging through the vast immortal void
- Shall, regenerated, slumber while man's heart is overjoyed,
- Thrilled with yearnings altruistic, triumphing o'er clods of clay,
- As we march into the love-light of the grand Millennial day.
-
-
-
-
-JOHN BROWN.
-
-BY COATES KINNEY.
-
-
- The Great Republic bred her free-born sons
- To smother conscience in the coward's hush,
- And had to have a freedom-champion's
- Blood sprinkled in her face to make her blush.
-
- One Will became a passion to avenge
- Her shame--a fury consecrate and weird,
- As if the old religion of Stonehenge
- Amid our weakling worships reappeared.
-
- It was a drawn sword of Jehovah's wrath,
- Two-edged and flaming, waved back to a host
- Of mighty shadows gathering on its path,
- Soon to emerge as soldiers, when the ghost
-
- Of John Brown should the lines of battle form.
- When John Brown crossed the Nation's Rubicon,
- Him Freedom followed in the battle-storm,
- And John Brown's soul in song went marching on.
-
- Though John Brown's body lay beneath the sod,
- His soul released the winds and loosed the flood:
- The Nation wrought his will as hest of God,
- And her bloodguiltiness atoned with blood.
-
- The world may censure and the world regret:
- The present wrath becomes the future ruth;
- For stern old History does not forget
- The man who flings his life away for truth.
-
- In the far time to come, when it shall irk
- The schoolboy to recite our Presidents'
- Dull line of memorabilia, John Brown's work
- Shall thrill him through from all the elements.
-
-
-
-
-DEMOS.
-
-BY W. H. VENABLE, LL. D.
-
-
- America, my own!
- Thy spacious grandeurs rise
- Faming the proudest zone
- Pavilioned by the skies;
- Day's flying glory breaks
- Thy vales and mountains o'er,
- And gilds thy streams and lakes
- From ocean shore to shore.
-
- Praised be thy wood and wold,
- Thy corn and wine and flocks,
- The yellow blood of gold
- Drained from thy canon rocks;
- Thy trains that shake the land,
- Thy ships that plough the main!
- Triumphant cities grand
- Roaring with noise of gain!
-
- Yet not the things of sense,
- By nature wrought, or art,
- Prove soul's preeminence,
- Or swell the patriot heart;
- Our country we revere
- For that from sea to sea
- Her vast-domed atmosphere
- Is life-breath of the free.
-
- Brown Labor, gazing up,
- Takes hope, and Hunger stands
- Holding her empty cup
- In pale, expectant hands.
- Brave young Ambition waits
- Thy just law's clarion call,
- That power unbar the gates
- Of privilege to all.
-
- Trade's fickle signets coined
- From Mammon's molten dust,
- With reverence conjoined,
- Proclaim "In God we trust."
- Nor doth the legend lie:
- The People, patient, bide,
- Trusting the Lord on high,
- To thunder on their side.
-
- Earth's races look to thee;
- The peoples of the world
- Thy risen splendors see,
- And thy wide flag unfurled;
- Kelt, Slav, and Hun behold
- That banner from afar,
- They bless each streaming fold,
- And cheer its every star.
-
- For liberty is sweet
- To every folk and age,--
- Armenia, Cuba, Crete,--
- Despite war's heathen rage,
- Or scheming diplomat
- Whose words of peace enslave.
- Columbia! Democrat
- Of Nations! speak and save!
-
- As mightful Moses led
- To Canaan's promised land;
- As Christ victorious bled,
- Obeying Love's command;
- So thou, Right's champion,
- God's chosen leader strong,
- Gird up thy loins! march on!
- Defend mankind from Wrong.
-
-
-
-
-THE EDITOR'S EVENING.
-
-Leaf From My Samoan Notebook. (A. D. 2297.)
-
-
-In that age (_siecle_ XIX, _ad finem_) great attention was given on
-the continent of Am-ri-ka to increased speed in locomotion. Men and
-women went darting about like the big yellow gnats that we see at
-sundown on the western coast of our island when the bay is hazy. The
-whole history of that century in both Am-ri-ka and Yoo-rup might well
-be written around the fact of _transit_, for transit was the spinal
-cord of the whole social, civil, and political order. Man-life then
-seemed to oscillate more rapidly than ever before, as if in sympathy
-with the vibration of the universal ether.
-
-The struggle for the increase of speed began in the early part of the
-century referred to--about 1822. Scarcely had the wars of Na-Bu-Leon
-subsided when the matter of getting over the earth's surface at a
-greater velocity was taken up as eagerly as if life consisted in going
-quickly to a certain point. Men, it would appear, had not yet learned
-that the principal aim of this existence is the _going_, and not the
-_getting there_. Then it was that the steam En-jo-in was invented. The
-Bah-lune had been frequently tried, but always with ludicrous or fatal
-results. A young man by the name of Dee Green once essayed this method
-in Am-ri-ka, with a most ridiculous catastrophe. A poem was written
-about the affair beginning thus--
-
- An aspiring genius was Dee Green.
-
-For more than half a century locomotion by steam prevailed in
-Am-ri-ka, though it did not satisfy the demand for swiftness. When
-this method no longer sufficed, several expedients were found to
-_avoid_ going anywhere. It was observed that the necessity of going
-depended upon the limitation of the human voice; that is, of hearing
-vocal utterances. The voices of human beings could not then be heard
-beyond a certain limit. To hear the voice of a man from Am-ri-ka to
-Ing-land was then thought to be impossible. The possessors of voices,
-therefore, had in that age to _get together_ before they could
-communicate. True, there were some men upon whom this necessity did
-not rest, for they could be heard at a great distance. It might be
-noted, however, that this kind, called _Homo politicus_, had so little
-sense that nobody cared to hear them, so that their success in
-vociferation amounted to nothing.
-
-All the people of Am-ri-ka who were civilized spoke in a low tone, and
-any who cared to communicate must seek each other's presence. This had
-been the reason for the old invention of E-pistol-ary correspondence.
-This method, however, was not satisfactory, since it required much
-time to say only a little, and since what was said in this manner was
-found so wide of the mark as to produce disastrous results. Society
-was, on this account, frequently rent with lawsuits, having no better
-foundation than a bundle of Let-yers.
-
-To avoid this trouble another invention, called the Far-talker (or
-Tel-ef-oan), was made; and by means of this conceit the people of
-Am-ri-ka could speak to one another many miles apart. The Far-talker
-was a remarkable sort of invention by which one merchant, by
-stretching a copper thread across the country to the ear of another
-merchant, could talk to him _through the wire_. The other merchant
-could reverse and talk back! Sometimes a young woman would tiptoe up
-to the box where the wire ended and say the most absurd things to her
-favorite fop down-town; this was often overheard. People had not yet
-learned the method of understanding each other's thoughts without the
-ridiculous contrivance of speech, written scratches, wires, and
-Fo-ny-grafs.
-
-It was at this time that men, in their effort to carry themselves from
-place to place, seem to have taken the first hints from nature. It was
-remembered that _between_ swimming and flying, and _between_ flying
-and walking, certain forms of locomotion, quite rapid withal, are used
-by our poor relatives on land and sea. Thus the flying-fish rises from
-the water and shoots, quite parabolically, for some distance through
-the air. The genus Cheiroptera also gives a hint of progress by means
-of wings that are not made of feathers. The flying lemur, nearly akin
-to _Homo bifurcans_, shows how one may rise and go by a sort of aerial
-progress along the ground.
-
-Out of these hints the men of Am-ri-ka, at the epoch of which we
-speak, sought inventions by means of which they might keep close to
-the ground for safety, but otherwise fly; for the age was very fast!
-Under these conditions some Unknown Man invented what was called the
-By-sigh-kel. It was a sort of flat-sided, rotary ground-skimmer, very
-thin and notorious. It came coincidently with another invention called
-the Trol-lee. The latter was an electrical wagon for general travel in
-cities and suburbs, while the By-sigh-kel was a personal carriage for
-one or possibly two. The passenger in this case had to start his
-machine and then jump on. The propulsion was effected by a pump-like
-action of the legs, very tiresome and elegant. The passenger generally
-leaned forward in a position strongly suggestive of the favorite
-attitude of his arboreal ancestors. It was the peculiarity of the
-Trol-lee that it made a sort of humming roar as it went that sounded
-like a hundred prisoners groaning in unison; but the By-sigh-kel made
-no noise in going except in collisions and wrecks. The latter were so
-frequent that a whole cycle of restorative arts had to be undertaken
-of which the principal was dentistry. At the close of the century
-there were few front teeth remaining--except artificials.
-
-Many accounts of the Age of the By-sigh-kel and Trol-lee have been
-preserved among the old records of Am-ri-ka, and traditions of it are
-found in the antiquarian papers of other countries. We have seen
-pictorial representations made by Fo-to-graf-ure of scenes from the
-age referred to. The streets of extinct cities are found pictured in
-this way. There was an instrument called the Cow-dack which was used
-in taking pictures in an instantaneous manner, so that the scene would
-look like life.
-
-A busy street, thus pictured, in that time, shows many Trol-lees
-rushing by, filled with merry people. Along the side-ways scores of
-passengers are seen, mounted on their 'Sigh-kels, going in divers
-directions at full speed. The passengers present many aspects; for
-riding the 'Sigh-kel was an art which had to be acquired; and by some
-this could not be done--at least not gracefully done. Many tried, but
-few were chosen. Two classes of people suffered much in this
-particular, namely, the very fat and the very bony. Those whom nature
-had favored in form and feature, and who had acquired the art of
-sitting upright, look well enough in these old pictures of a past age.
-But the clumsy and obese, the slender and angular people may well be
-laughed at even through the shadowy retrospect of four centuries.
-
-One of the 'Sigh-kel machines was made _double_; and an old cartoon
-which is now before me gives to this kind the name of Tan-doom. On
-this men and women frequently rode together, the woman going before,
-for that was the age in which the woman, becoming new, showed her
-newness by being forward.
-
-Nor may we leave these reminiscences of a bygone age without
-reflecting upon the absurdities of our ancestors, who had not yet
-imagined the ease and excellence of our own method of locomotion by
-skimming at will the surface of the earth. The facile beauty and
-natural art with which we now rise from the ground and propel
-ourselves by our own thought and wish to any distance--thus
-vindicating our superiority to all other creatures in our method of
-excursion--are facts so obvious and ever-present that we fail to
-reflect upon the impediments and hardships of the people of Am-ri-ka
-and indeed of the whole world in the nineteenth century....
-
-Thinking on these things I can but imagine that I have myself seen
-them in some previous epoch of my existence. The facts which I have
-recorded appear dimly, as if in memory of what I once beheld; but the
-vision of it is so obscure that I still doubt whether it be dream or
-reality. I have long imagined that we retain from one epoch of our
-existence to the next a vague recollection of our experiences in the
-remote ages of the past. I sometimes think that it is not impossible
-that I myself, in some forgotten avatar, used to sit alone at the
-window of my office, looking into the street of one of the old towns
-of Am-ri-ka where the Trol-lees were going one way and the
-By-sigh-kels the other way, crossing and darting hither and yon,
-according to the wills of the riders; but the vision is so dim that it
-looks like the fictions of sleep.
-
-
-Vita Longa.
-
-The question is not how long this bodily life may last, or how long
-the mind, so conditioned, can endure. It is not even how long the
-mind may continue to produce; for the mind, like a poor,
-half-exhausted field, urged with rain and fertilizers, may produce
-only potatoes, mullen, and cockle. The real question--the deep-down
-essence of it--is how long the mind, or soul, may retain the
-enthusiasm and passionate power of _creation_. That is the only true
-test of longevity; and when that ceases there is nothing left. The
-real duration of man-life is measured only by the persistency of
-creative power.
-
-Longfellow, standing in the old pulpit, on the fiftieth anniversary of
-his class at Bowdoin, and saying to those who would introduce him, "I
-wish the desk were large enough to conceal me all," makes a beautiful
-section of this theme by citing some of the most inspiring instances
-of the long life of the soul:
-
- Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles
- Wrote his grand OEdipus, and Simonides
- Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers,
- When each had numbered more than fourscore years;
- And Theophrastus at fourscore and ten
- Had but begun his "Characters of Men;"
- Chaucer at Woodstock with his nightingales,
- At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;
- Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,
- Completed Faust when eighty years were past:
- These are indeed exceptions; but they show
- How far the Gulf Stream of our youth may flow
- Into the arctic regions of our lives,
- Where little else than life itself survives.
-
-Measured by this test of creative power and its persistency, how
-variable is the duration of human life! Sometimes the creative power
-appears in early youth; but when that happens there is generally an
-early surcease. Sometimes the power comes late and remains long.
-Sometimes it flashes forth in the early morning and remains in the
-after twilight. Estimated by years this productive power (which goes
-by the name of genius) sometimes reaches only to a few score moons.
-Sometimes it reaches to a score of years. Sometimes, though rarely, it
-extends to three-score years or more.
-
-Thomas Chatterton went to a suicide's grave in Potter's Field when he
-was only seventeen years, nine months, and four days of age. I know of
-no other case of so great precocity; it is beyond belief. His mind had
-been productive for about three years. Byron's productive period
-covered sixteen years--no more. Pope began at twelve and ended at
-fifty-six.
-
-In our own age, Tennyson has done well. Making an early effort to
-begin, he, like Dryden, did not really reach the creative epoch until
-he was fully thirty. His creative period covers about fifty-nine
-years. It extends from "A Dream of Fair Women," in 1833, to "Crossing
-the Bar," in 1892.
-
-The best example, however, in the history of the human mind, is that
-of William Cullen Bryant; that is, Bryant has real creations that lie
-further apart in time than can be paralleled, so far as I know, in the
-case of any other of the sons of men. The date of "Thanatopsis" is not
-precisely known. It belongs, however, to the years 1812-13. Bryant was
-then eighteen--in his nineteenth year. Add to 1812 sixty-four years
-and we have 1876, the date of the publication of the "Flood of Years."
-The two poems in question lie apart in production by the space of
-fully three-score and four years. It is a marvel! And why not?
-
- To him who in the love of nature holds
- Communion with her visible forms,
-
-why should not life, productive life, enthusiastic fruitful life, be
-extended until its last acts of creation, shot through with the
-sunshine of experience and wisdom, shall flash in great bars of haze
-and glory over the landscape of the twilight days?
-
-
-Kaboto.
-
- Old John a Venice in his cockleshell
- Breasted the salt sea like an Englishman!
- He saw the bleak coast of the Tartar Khan
- To left-hand in the distance. "All is well!"
- He cried to Labrador. The roaring swell
- Bore him to shore, whereon his hands upran
- The Lion flag and flag republican
- Of the old Doges' wave-girt citadel.
-
- Dominion and Democracy are ours!
- From the first day unto the last we hold
- To Liberty and Empire! We shall be,
- Under the Star-flag, for eternal hours,
- Even as Cabot's two flags first foretold,
- Both free and strong from mountain crag to sea!
-
-
-
-
-A STROKE FOR THE PEOPLE.
-
-
-Here is a message for all: FROM AND AFTER THE ISSUANCE OF THE NUMBER
-FOR JULY THE REGULAR SUBSCRIPTION PRICE OF THE ARENA, THE MAGAZINE OF
-THE PEOPLE, WILL BE REDUCED TO $2.50 A YEAR. The reasons for this
-reduction are not far to seek. The stringency of the times, the
-hardships of the people,--their lack of money, the decline in the
-prices of their products, the relentless grip of the mortgages on
-their homes,--and the absence of any symptom of present relief from a
-Government under the domination and dictation of the money power, have
-induced the managers of THE ARENA to bear their part of the common
-burden and distress, and to express in a practical way their
-sympathies with the masses by reducing the price of the magazine to
-the lowest possible figure consistent with its maintenance at the
-present standard of efficiency and excellence.
-
-One of the immediate causes and suggestions of this course will be
-found in the following private letter written to THE ARENA by a plain
-Kansas farmer. We have obtained his permission to use his letter as an
-appeal to the public:
-
- "SYLVAN GROVE, KANSAS, May 22, 1897.
-
- "_To_ THE ARENA.
-
- "GENTLEMEN: I enclose my subscription for THE ARENA for the
- current year. The only reason for my tardiness in doing this is
- pinching, grinding poverty. If we farmers do not assist the OLD
- ARENA, so loyal to our interests, we shall deserve the fate many
- of us have already accepted; that is, the doom of serfdom under
- the club of plutocracy.
-
- "We, at _our_ home, are straining every nerve and denying
- ourselves of almost the comforts of life for the purpose of
- meeting our mortgage that falls due on the first of July. Our
- farmers here in the West are divided into four classes:
-
- "_First._ Those who have failed to meet even the interest on
- loans, who have been closed out, and are now renters, often, of
- the very farms which they once fondly hoped to make their own.
-
- "_Second._ Those who are still paying interest or keeping the
- companies at bay in the courts until one more crop may ripen, but
- without any well-founded hope of saving their homes.
-
- "_Third._ Those who are skimping, pinching, almost starving to
- pay their mortgages. I belong to this class. I still struggle
- with the incubus.
-
- "_Fourth._ A very few who wisely have never encumbered their
- homes. I have given the classes in the order of their numerical
- importance.
-
- "I live in the beautiful little West Twin Creek valley about
- seven miles in length. There are but two pieces of unencumbered
- property in the valley; one belonging to a poor widow, and the
- other to a bank president. Thirty-five per cent of the farms have
- already passed into the hands of mortgagees; many of the
- remainder have changed hands, shifted under renewals and various
- expedients to avoid the ruination of closing out. This is more
- than an average well-to-do community, selected from this or any
- other central county of Kansas. We are realizing to the full that
- 'Beneficent Effect of Falling Prices' which was so ably set forth
- (from his standpoint) by Dean Gordon in THE ARENA for March. If
- all people were out of debt, falling prices might not work so
- great injustice. But when a vast majority of the people are in
- debt, and heavily in debt, and when a man talks of the blessings
- that fall from falling prices, the conviction is forced upon us
- that the killer of fools in his annual round has missed one
- conspicuous example. The trouble is, our dollar of debt, instead
- of decreasing, has more than doubled in its power as compared
- with labor and the products of labor. Meanwhile our Solons talk
- glibly of 'vested rights,' 'corporate rights,' etc., strenuously
- objecting to squeezing the water out of their stocks, while they
- have by legislation for the last thirty-five years remorselessly
- squeezed the _value_ out of our property.
-
- "When our debts were contracted the values of everything were
- double what they now are. I could then have sold my farm for
- three thousand dollars; now, although it has been much improved,
- it would go a-begging at one thousand dollars. Perhaps there is
- not as much distress in our country as there was three or four
- years ago. People have adjusted themselves somewhat to their
- straitened circumstances, and a few are becoming actually
- reconciled to their condition! I heard one man who had recently
- failed in business as a grain-dealer say, 'Well, Cleveland is
- right on this money question; we want a money good in Yurrup or
- any other part of the world.' As I looked at the battered hat of
- this personage, at the split toes of his shoes, the ragged elbows
- of his coat, and the rents in his demoralized nether garments, I
- could but ejaculate, 'May the Lord have mercy on your ignorant
- soul! what does it matter to _you_ what kind of money they use in
- Europe?'
-
- "We are now taking the advice of Governor Morrill, who says: 'If
- you cannot get seventy-five cents a day, work for fifty cents.'
- Our Republican speakers advise us to dress plainly, live the
- same, and work still harder. We are told to 'stop running around
- to Alliances and picnics.' We have taken this advice. _We had to
- take it!_ But we have now reached the bottom. We can curtail our
- dress no further without making our garb identical with our
- complexion. We cannot further reduce our rations and live. We
- cannot extend the hours of labor, for most of us have already
- adopted the blessed eight-hour system; that is, we work eight
- hours _before_ dinner and eight hours _after_ dinner.
-
- "However, Kansas is coming to the front again. Since the mortgage
- companies are willing to do business once more our Governor is no
- longer 'ashamed of the State.' Occasionally a Republican
- politician squirms and kicks as the pressure is turned on. The
- eloquent and volcanic Ingalls breaks out at intervals. In these
- eruptions he pours lava upon his party in fine style. But he does
- not break out often enough!
-
- "The most serious bar to the progress of reform is that the
- people are too poor to pay for reform papers and magazines; out
- of these they might get the truth. The publishers of such are
- unable to send their periodicals for less than cost. Not so the
- party in power. Thousands of people get complimentary copies of
- the gold-bug papers, and other thousands get them for a nominal
- sum. Somebody pays for them. Who?
-
- "I have been pleased with THE ARENA, both old and new. I first
- subscribed to it in order to get 'The Bond and the Dollar,' which
- I consider the most succinct exposition of the American money
- question ever written. No publication that I am acquainted with
- equals THE ARENA as an educator. I wish you godspeed in your
- efforts for the betterment of our people and of humanity in
- general. I hope (almost against hope) for the peaceful solution
- of the difficulties that now beset our beloved country.
-
- "Sincerely yours,
-
- "A. BIGGS."
-
-Moved by the foregoing communication and scores of others of the same
-purport, and knowing the truth of what the honest producers (who are
-the very blood and sinew and soul of this Republic) say of their
-trials and of the wrongs to which they have been mercilessly subjected
-for years, THE ARENA has decided to share the common lot. With the
-people we shall stand or fall. Let all who _can_ rally, therefore,
-rally to the support of THE ARENA, and the management will try to show
-the nation what a great and free American magazine devoted to American
-interests and American democracy really is, and will be, in the battle
-for human rights.
-
-Address all subscriptions and all other business communications to
-
- JOHN D. MCINTYRE,
- Manager of THE ARENA,
- Copley Square, Boston.
-
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-
-
-BOOK REVIEWS.
-
-[_In this Department of_ THE ARENA _no book will be reviewed which is
-not regarded as a real addition to literature._]
-
-
-The Emperor.[8]
-
- [8] "Life of Napoleon Bonaparte." By Willian Milligan
- Sloane, Ph. D., L. H. D.; Professor of History in Princeton
- University. Four volumes, imperial octavo; pp. 1120. New
- York: The Century Company. Boston: Balch Brothers, 1896.
-
-At the hour when, on the evening of the first day of this century,
-the first asteroid was discovered by Piazzi at Naples, an
-olive-complexioned man was sitting smileless in a box in the opera
-house in Paris. He sat back where nobody could see him. It was his way
-not to be seen--except on business.
-
-The man was thirty-one years, four months, and sixteen days of age. He
-had already done something. If he had not equalled the work of
-Alexander at the corresponding age, he had at least surpassed Caesar;
-for Caesar at thirty was still a comparatively unknown roue in Rome.
-
-The figure in the opera box was slender and trim. He who sat there was
-only five feet, four and a half inches high; but his head was fine,
-heavy, symmetrical. His features twitched when he was disturbed, but
-were beautiful when he smiled. To a profound observer he looked
-dangerous. He had the faculty of making his face signify nothing at
-all. He had been begotten an insular Italian, but was born a
-Frenchman. His wife, a Creole, more than six years older than he, was
-in the box with him. She sat at the front, and was seen by thousands.
-She _wished_ to be seen; and when the pit shouted in the direction of
-the box she smiled a little smile, with a puckered mouth--for her
-teeth were not good.
-
-The birthplace of this man had been oddly set on the map of the world,
-for the meridian of Discovery and the parallel of Conquest intersect
-at the birthplace of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. The birthlines of Caesar and
-Columbus--drawn, the one due west from Rome, the other due south from
-Genoa--cross each other within a few miles of Ajaccio! It is a
-circumstance that might well incline one to astrology.
-
-About the birth of great men cycles of fiction grow. Friends and
-enemies alike invent significant circumstances. The traducers of
-Napoleon have said that he was illegitimate--that his father was the
-French marshal Marboeuf. They also say, on better grounds, that the
-marriage of Letitia Ramolino to Carlo di Buonaparte was not solemnized
-until 1767--that the first two children were therefore born out of
-wedlock. On the other hand, the idol-worshippers would fain have
-Napoleon born as a god or Titan. Premature pangs seize the mother at
-church. She hurries home, barely reaching her apartment when the
-heroic babe is delivered, without an accoucheur, on a piece of
-tapestry inwrought with an effigy of Achilles! This probably occurred.
-It was the 15th of August, 1769.
-
-Thus, as it were before the Corsican saw the light of day in this
-world, dispute began about him. It has been continued for a hundred
-and twenty-eight years. Whatever else he succeeded in doing--whatever
-else he failed to do--he at least did succeed in dividing the
-civilized world into two parties; he made himself the subject of a
-controversy which has not ceased to the present hour. The reason, no
-doubt, is that we do not as yet understand human history and the part
-which the individual plays in the progress of events. Nearly all men
-begin with a prejudice in judging all other men, and nearly all men
-end as they begin. So it has been in the case of Bonaparte. After a
-while we shall see things more clearly; after a while we shall be able
-to interpret _men_--but not yet.
-
-The writings relative to this man constitute a cycle. The books on him
-and his times make a library, the perusal and study of which might
-absorb a large section of an active life. The name of such productions
-is legion. Most of them will fortunately perish. The controversial
-aspect of the life of the Emperor must at last subside. Nine out of
-ten of the books about him will go down to the nether oblivion. Then
-the judicial aspect will arise--if it has not already arisen--and will
-occupy the attention of those who are still curious to study the
-career of him who shares with the son of Philip and the matchless
-Julius the triune honor of being the greatest warriors known to human
-history. If a fourth should be added to the group it would be
-Hannibal, and if a fifth, Charlemagne.
-
-Here at the date of a century from those days in which the star of
-Napoleon emerged from the mists and clouds and began to climb the sky
-the interest in his life revives. In America this revival is
-attributable in part to general and in part to special causes. The
-general causes are to be found in the fact that society _de la fin de
-siecle_ is in such a state of profound disturbance, and the existing
-order feels so insecure, that that order--as it always does--begins to
-cast about in the shadows to find, if it may, some Big Man with a
-Sword; him when found we will make our Imperator, and by sharing some
-of our estates with certain of his military subalterns we will make
-sure of the rest--and after us the deluge. The special cause--at least
-in America--is the tremendous and growing tradition of General Grant.
-Albeit, General Grant hated the Bonapartes, from the Great One to the
-Little One; yet his own luminous setting has left a glow in which the
-nation sees men as trees walking--and among these the greatest
-simulacrum is Napoleon Bonaparte.
-
-Of this man, who began as the son of a Corsican peasant-mother working
-in a mulberry orchard, and who, after fifty-one years, eight months,
-and twenty days, ended in a cyclone on the rock called St. Helena,
-having meanwhile for nearly a third of his life bestridden western
-Europe like a colossus,--a new biography claiming to be the ultimate
-summation of the Emperor's life and character has appeared. Professor
-William Milligan Sloane, of Princeton University, has entered the
-lists which may be said to have opened with Walter Scott and finished
-with the McClure Syndicate, passing meanwhile by way of such
-personages as De Stael, Las Cases, Victor Hugo, and Lanfrey, and such
-drudges as Bourrienne and Meneval, to lodge at last with the
-miscellaneous hacks who get three dollars a column for their
-boiler-plate philosophy in American newspapers! Heavens, what a
-scrimmage!
-
-It were difficult to say when the _final_ biography of a man has been
-produced. Hard, hard is it to decide when anything in this world is
-final. The never-ending progress of events shapes and readjusts not
-only the present materials of history, but also by reaction the
-materials of the past. Much that is supposed to be complete is seen to
-be unfinished; the done becomes undone, and the peroration of an epoch
-has to be rewritten for an exordium.
-
-This is as true of the individual lives of men as it is of great
-events. If the ages have to be reconstructed, so also must the men of
-the ages. If only a mummy now turn over in his porphyry sarcophagus, a
-papyrus is generally found under him; and the finder, with the papyrus
-in his hand, may go forth fully warranted to revise every event from
-the first cataclysm of the Devonian age to the last earthquake in
-Java, and every man from Moses to Cagliostro.
-
-On the whole I incline to the opinion that Professor Sloane has
-brought the Emperor Napoleon to a kind of final interpretation; I will
-not say to a full stop, but to something very much resembling a
-period. In the first place, I offer on the "Life of Napoleon
-Bonaparte," the eulogium that the work has, in a great degree,
-_naturalized_ the Corsican as he was never naturalized before--thus
-bringing him out of cloudland and mere impossible fog to the plain
-level of human action and purpose.
-
-This is much. In accomplishing thus much Professor Sloane has
-vindicated his claim to be regarded as a great biographer. It has been
-the bane of nearly all biographical writing that the subjects of it
-have been completely mythologized. Thus far in the history of mankind
-biography might be defined as the art of myth-making. I scarcely know
-what exceptions to cite to this universal vice except only and always
-Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson." As for American biographies thus
-far produced, there is scarcely a single example of a work which is
-not to be classified as a recorded myth. The trouble in all this
-business has been that the myth-makers, living in a certain
-atmosphere, have imagined that they are obliged to make their
-characters conform to the established antecedents of greatness. These
-established antecedents of greatness have for the most part been
-created out of superstitions, credulities, blank idealism, and mere
-dogmatic bosh. No living, active men have ever conformed, or could
-conform, to the standards which the logicians, the philosophers, and
-the priests have fixed up for them; and if any of them should conform
-to such a standard, their place under classification would be with
-automata, not with living men.
-
-Nevertheless, our biographers have been so weak and servile as to make
-their characters according to this pattern. One character is labelled
-Washington, another is labelled Franklin, another is labelled Adams,
-and still another, Lincoln.
-
-All this, I think, Professor Sloane has studiously avoided. As a
-literary doctor he has done much to destroy the mythical disease. He
-has written an elaborate work in which the man Napoleon moves and
-acts, neither as an angel nor as a devil, but as a man, moved upon and
-moving by the common human passions, though inflamed, in his case, to
-a white heat in the furnace of his ambition.
-
-All this was to have been expected in view of the plan of Professor
-Sloane as expressed in his preface:
-
- "Until within a very recent period," says he, "it seemed that no
- man could discuss him [Napoleon] or his time without manifesting
- such strong personal feeling as to vitiate his judgment and
- conclusions. This was partly due to the lack of perspective, but
- in the main to ignorance of the facts essential to a sober
- treatment of the theme. In this respect the last quarter of a
- century has seen a gradual but radical change, for a band of
- dispassionate scientific scholars have during that time been
- occupied in the preparation of material for his life without
- reference to the advocacy of one theory or another concerning his
- character. European archives, long carefully guarded, have been
- thrown open; the diplomatic correspondence of the most important
- periods has been published; family papers have been examined, and
- numbers of valuable memoirs have been printed. It has therefore
- been possible to check one account by another, to cancel
- misrepresentations, to eliminate passion--in short, to establish
- something like correct outline and accurate detail, at least in
- regard to what the man actually did. Those hidden secrets of any
- human mind which we call motives must ever remain to other minds
- largely a matter of opinion, but a very fair indication of them
- can be found when once the actual conduct of the actor has been
- determined."
-
-From this point of view Professor Sloane has proceeded with his
-tremendous work. His studies at home and abroad have been ample. We
-may remark, in passing, upon the physical vigor of the author as shown
-in his portrait. From such a face and figure we can but expect energy,
-persistency, accomplishment. I do not pretend to disclose the reasons
-of Professor Sloane for indulging in this prodigious Napoleonic dream
-and for delineating it in what is likely to be regarded as the best
-product of his intellectual career. We can only take what he has
-produced and give it such cursory notice as our space will permit.
-
-The first volume of the work extends from a survey of the conditions
-under which Napoleon was born and reared to the conclusion of his
-twenty-eighth year. The first events depicted are those historical
-movements in which the Bonapartes, within the narrow limits of their
-island, were involved in the seventh decade of the eighteenth century;
-and the last event recorded in this volume is the fall of Venice, at
-the end of May, 1797. I incline to regard this as the most
-interesting, though not the most important, of the four great volumes
-of Professor Sloane's work. In the nature of the case the ascendant of
-a man is the more inspiring part. In it he appears as an orb whose
-full majesty, not yet revealed, solicits the imagination and kindles
-by sympathy the ambitions that in some measure are common to us all.
-Here in volume I is portrayed the youth of the man Napoleon Bonaparte.
-In this he is revealed in the full charm of that electrical audacity
-which had as yet lost none of its sharpness and burning flash. Nor had
-Napoleon, as a _man_, as yet become sufficiently involved with the
-general maze of history, sufficiently immersed in the storm-cloud of
-that tempestuous epoch, to be lost from view. This volume shows the
-man emerging from boyhood into the full career of a military
-conqueror. It shows him in his magical transformation from the
-character of an adventurer into the character of a leader of armies
-and a dictator of events. It also shows Napoleon with the still fluid
-heart of boyhood passing through the lava floods of his first loves,
-in particular his love for Josephine, into the age of cynicism and
-calculation.
-
-This first volume brings sufficiently to memory the progress of the
-youthful Napoleon. Here we see him at his mother's knee; then in the
-time of his school days; then in Paris and Valence; then as a neophyte
-author, quite absurd in his dreams; then on garrison duty, and then
-swept away with the tides of the oncoming revolution. In the smoke of
-the South his slender figure is seen here and there until he emerges
-at Toulon. In his character of Jacobin he becomes a general in the
-army at a time of life when most men are happy to be lieutenants. Then
-for the first time he touches the revolutionary society of Paris. He
-meets Josephine; Barras delivers her to the coming man. They are
-wedded, and from that date the stage widens, the wars in Italy break
-out, and the young general begins to whirl his sword at Mantua,
-Arcole, and Rivoli--from which he was wont to date his military birth,
-saying on that occasion, "Make my life begin at Rivoli;" and finally
-at Montebello and Venice, where, in the late spring of 1797, he is
-joined by Josephine. There from the French capital they seemed to
-stand afar as the cynosure of all revolutionary eyes, expecting a
-greater light.
-
-In the second volume Professor Sloane begins with the rescue of the
-Directory. Hard after we have the great episode of the Treaty of Campo
-Formio, and then the expedition to Egypt. The story of that expedition
-is known through all the world; so also the return, and the overthrow
-of the Directory.
-
-From that day Bonaparte became the embodiment of the revolution. He
-became a statesman and a strategist. He found himself in the
-geographical and historical storm-centre of Europe. Then came the
-epoch of great wars. Marengo marks the close of the old century, and
-the treaty of Luneville the beginning of the new. Napoleon undertakes
-the pacification of Europe, and reorganizes France. He steps
-cautiously towards the restoration of monarchy. There is a
-life-consulate, transforming itself quickly into an empire. The old
-royalism is extinguished, and the new military imperialism is
-glorified in its stead. The third coalition of Europe succeeds the
-second. Trafalgar strews the sea with the wrecks of France, and
-Austerlitz strews the land with the wrecks of Russia and Austria. The
-sea is virtually abandoned by the man of destiny, but over the land he
-rises as War-lord and Emperor.
-
-The second conflict breaks out with Prussia and ends with the ruin of
-that power at Jena and Auerstadt. The year 1806 sees the parvenu
-emperor, now thirty-seven years of age, the master of all the better
-parts of Europe. Here ends the second volume of his life, according to
-Professor Sloane's division, and the third begins with the devastation
-and humiliation of the Prussian kingdom.
-
-In this volume the author views Napoleon for the first time as the
-arbitrary diplomatist of the West. It is evident that from this time
-the emperor's vision widens to a more remote horizon than he had ever
-scanned before. The Berlin decree was issued. The battle of Eylau was
-fought, and then was achieved the victory of Friedland. Nor may we
-pass without noticing the acme which Napoleon, according to the
-judgment of many, now reached on that memorable field. Here it is that
-art has caught and transmitted him. For it is in the trodden
-wheat-field of Friedland that Meissonier's pencil has delineated
-Napoleon with his marshals around him, in one of the greatest pictures
-of the world.
-
-By this epoch ambition in the emperor had swallowed up all other
-passions. He goes on from conquering to conquest. The dream of a
-French Empire, coextensive with the borders of Europe, seizes the
-Napoleonic imagination. The emperor's armies strike left and right.
-They are seen first on one horizon, then on another. The Corsican on
-his white horse is now upon the Pyrenees, now on the Germanic
-frontier, and now in Poland. He faces Alexander of Russia, and laughs
-at him! His gray coat and three-cornered hat become the best known
-symbols of military genius in modern times.
-
-Kingdoms and principalities are transformed. Already the mythical
-Roman empire has passed away. Austria is threatened with extinction.
-The Corsican is seen first in one and then in another of the ancient
-capitals of Europe. Aspern follows Eckmuehl, and Essling and Wagram
-follow Aspern. The treaty of Schoenbrunn promises peace to the nations,
-but the hope is broken to the lips. In this crisis Josephine goes down
-in the shadows, and the daughter of Austria is led to the imperial
-chamber--this from the necessity of establishing a dynasty. The
-relations between France and Russia are strained to breaking. The
-fatal year 1812 comes, and there is a congress of kings. Alexander
-gives his ultimatum, and the invasion of Russia is begun. There is an
-indescribable struggle on the Moskwa, and then the flames of Moscow
-are seen across the deserts of Russian snow.
-
-The fourth and last volume begins with the return of the allied armies
-from Russia. Then follows the universal revolt of the nations.
-Insurrection breaks out on every horizon, and treachery, as might have
-been expected, is added to the combinations that are rapidly formed
-against the imperial Corsican. The borders of France are broken in.
-There is a narrowing rim of fire bursting into battle flame here and
-there; and then the catastrophe of the capture of Paris. There is an
-ambiguous abdication and an equivocal exile of a few months' duration
-to Elba. It was much like the establishment of a live lion on
-Governor's Island!
-
-The lion got away. Then came an instantaneous upheaval of old
-revolutionary France, which had now become imperial France. The
-Emperor was welcomed home as a returning god. The country was drained
-to the last drop of its resources, and everything was staked on the
-final strategy of the Hundred Days and the hazard of the
-ever-memorable battle.
-
- "There was a sound of revelry by night,"
-
-and then the imperial eagle was seen stretched upon the plain, pierced
-through with the shafts of banded nations. He was caged and
-transported to that far rock which in his school-essay at Autun he had
-described thus: "St. Helena is a _small_ island!" He found it so. For
-nearly six years his captivity continued until his stormy career ended
-in a May hurricane that might well have shaken the desolate
-foundations of his ocean-girt prison. Then the historical tide rolled
-on without him. France was transformed into the old image, but her
-soul was still imperial. At last the bones of her great dead were
-recovered, to be placed at rest in that red-black sarcophagus over
-which the world looks down and wonders.
-
-Such is the fiery but fruitful chaos through which the life-line of
-Napoleon is drawn with a master hand by Professor William Milligan
-Sloane. My judgment is that, on the whole, he has produced the
-greatest biographical work which has yet appeared in American
-literature. I think that in the main his accomplishment has been equal
-to his ambition. It is not an unworthy thing that an _American_
-professor, at the seat of an _American_ university, turning his
-energies to this great task, has succeeded in making a well-nigh final
-record of the life and work of that unequalled organizer, that sublime
-dissembler, that cruel reformer, that heartless philanthropist, who,
-for half a lifetime, converted old Europe into a mire of murder and
-desolation, for the ultimate good of man.
-
-Only one thing may be said in adverse criticism of Professor Sloane's
-book, and that is, that his style is too mathematical and too little
-imaginative for the subject which he has in hand. His rather cold
-precision, however, we concede to him; for it is, no doubt, the
-natural method of his expression. We do our part to acknowledge and
-welcome the remarkable work which he has produced, and to commend it
-to all readers as the best existing and best probable account of the
-personal and historical career of Napoleon Bonaparte.
-
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-[Transcriber's Notes: Every effort has been made to replicate this
-text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant
-spellings and other inconsistencies.
-
-The transcriber made these changes to the text to correct obvious
-errors:
-
- 1. p. 6 over-capatalized --> over-capitalized
- 2. p. 18 successfull --> successful
- 3. p. 23 benovelent --> benevolent
- 4. p. 60 ecocomists --> economists
- 5. p. 68 A macron diacritical mark, a straight line above
- a letter, is found on the first letter o, in the
- word Sosoku. This letter is indicated here by the
- coding [=x] for a macron above any letter x.
- Thus, for example, the word Sosoku appears as
- S[=o]soku in the text.
- 6. p. 76 staightforward --> straightforward
- 7. p. 94 abnormalties --> abnormalities
- 8. p. 124 desparing --> despairing
- 9. p. 144 stategy --> strategy
-
-End of Transcriber's Notes]
-
-
-
-
-
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