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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/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..1577d8b --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #65582 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65582) diff --git a/old/65582-0.txt b/old/65582-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 373361f..0000000 --- a/old/65582-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3625 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Causes and Consequences, by John Jay -Chapman - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Causes and Consequences - -Author: John Jay Chapman - -Release Date: June 9, 2021 [eBook #65582] - -Language: English - -Produced by: The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive/American - Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES *** - - - - - -CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES - - _By the Same Author_ - EMERSON AND OTHER ESSAYS. 12mo. $1.25 - - - - -CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES - - BY - JOHN JAY CHAPMAN - - NEW YORK - CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS - 1899 - - - - - _Copyright, 1898_, - BY CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS - - University Press: - JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. - - - - - _DEDICATED_ - TO THE - MEMBERS OF CLUB C - - - - -PREFACE - - -As we unravel political knots, they resolve themselves into proverbs -and familiar truth, and thus our explanation becomes a treatise upon -human nature,--a profession of faith. - -The idea that man is an unselfish animal has gradually been forced -upon me, by the course of reflection which I give in the following -chapters, in the order in which it occurred to me. The chapters are -little more than presentations from different points of view of this -one idea. The chapters on Politics and Society seem to show that our -political corruptions and social inferiorities can be traced to the -same source,--namely, temporary distortion of human character by the -forces of commerce. The chapter on Education is a study on the law of -intellectual growth, and shows that a normal and rounded development -can only come from a use of the faculties very different from that -practised by the average American since the discovery of the cotton -gin. - -The chapter on Democracy is a review of that subject by the light of -the conclusions as to the Nature of Man, arrived at in the Essay on -Education; and it is seen that our frame of government is in accord -with sound philosophy, and is a constant influence tending to correct -the distortions described in the first two chapters. In the final -chapter on Government, some illustrations are drawn together, showing -that the whole course of reasoning of the book contains nothing novel, -but accords with the ideals and with the wisdom of the world. - -The book itself arose out of an attempt to explain an election. - - J. J. C. - ROKEBY, June 10, 1898. - - - - -CONTENTS - - PAGE - - I. POLITICS 3 - - II. SOCIETY 49 - - III. EDUCATION; FROEBEL 83 - - IV. DEMOCRACY 115 - - V. GOVERNMENT 137 - - - - -POLITICS - - - - -I - -POLITICS - - -Misgovernment in the United States is an incident in the history -of commerce. It is part of the triumph of industrial progress. Its -details are easier to understand if studied as a part of the commercial -development of the country than if studied as a part of government, -because many of the wheels and cranks in the complex machinery of -government are now performing functions so perverted as to be unmeaning -from the point of view of political theory, but which become perfectly -plain if looked at from the point of view of trade. - -The growth and concentration of capital which the railroad and the -telegraph made possible is the salient fact in the history of the last -quarter-century. That fact is at the bottom of our political troubles. -It was inevitable that the enormous masses of wealth, springing out of -new conditions and requiring new laws, should strive to control the -legislation and the administration which touched them at every point. -At the present time, we cannot say just what changes were or were not -required by enlightened theory. It is enough to see that such changes -as came were inevitable; and nothing can blind us to the fact that the -methods by which they were obtained were subversive of free government. - -Whatever form of government had been in force in America during -this era would have run the risk of being controlled by capital, of -being bought and run for revenue. It happened that the beginning of -the period found the machinery of our government in a particularly -purchasable state. The war had left the people divided into two -parties which were fanatically hostile to each other. The people were -party mad. Party name and party symbols were of an almost religious -importance. - -At the very moment when the enthusiasm of the nation had been exhausted -in a heroic war which left the Republican party-managers in possession -of the ark of the covenant, the best intellect of the country was -withdrawn from public affairs and devoted to trade. During the -period of expansion which followed, the industrial forces called in -the ablest men of the nation to aid them in getting control of the -machinery of government. The name of king was never freighted with more -power than the name of party in the United States; whatever was done -in that name was right. It is the old story: there has never been a -despotism which did not rest upon superstition. The same spirit that -made the Republican name all powerful in the nation at large made the -Democratic name valuable in Democratic districts. - -The situation as it existed was made to the hand of trade. Political -power had by the war been condensed and packed for delivery; and in -the natural course of things the political trademarks began to find -their way into the coffers of the capitalist. The change of motive -power behind the party organizations--from principles, to money--was -silently effected during the thirty years which followed the war. Like -all organic change, it was unconscious. It was understood by no one. -It is recorded only in a few names and phrases; as, for instance, that -part of the organization which was purchased was called the “machine,” -and the general manager of it became known as the “boss.” The external -political history of the country continued as before. It is true that -a steady degradation was to be seen in public life, a steady failure -of character, a steady decline of decency. But questions continued to -be discussed, and in form decided, on their merits, because it was in -the interest of commerce that they should in form be so decided. Only -quite recently has the control of money become complete; and there are -reasons for believing that the climax is past. - - * * * * * - -Let us take a look at the change on a small scale. A railroad is to be -run through a country town or small city, in New York or Pennsylvania. -The railroad employs a local attorney, naturally the ablest attorney in -the place. As time goes on, various permits for street uses are needed; -and instead of relying solely upon popular demand, the attorney finds -it easier to bribe the proper officials. All goes well: the railroad -thrives, the town grows. But in the course of a year new permits of -various kinds are needed. The town ordinances interfere with the road -and require amendment. There is to be a town election; and it occurs -to the railroad’s attorney that he might be in alliance with the town -officers before they are elected. He goes to the managers of the -party which is likely to win; for instance, the Republican party. -Everything that the railroad wants is really called for by the economic -needs of the town. The railroad wants only fair play and no factious -obstruction. The attorney talks to the Republican leader, and has a -chance to look over the list of candidates, and perhaps even to select -some of them. The railroad makes the largest campaign subscription ever -made in that part of the country. The Republican leader can now employ -more workers to man the polls, and, if necessary, he can buy votes. -He must also retain some fraction of the contribution for his own -support, and distribute the rest in such manner as will best keep his -“organization” together. - -The party wins, and the rights of the railroad are secured for a year. -It is true that the brother of the Republican leader is employed on the -road as a brakeman; but he is a competent man. - -During the year, a very nice point of law arises as to the rights of -the railroad to certain valuable land claimed by the town. The city -attorney is an able man, and reasonable. In spite of his ability, he -manages somehow to state the city’s case on an untenable ground. A -decision follows in favor of the railroad. At the following election, -the city attorney has become the Republican candidate for judge, and -the railroad’s campaign subscription is trebled. In the conduct of -railroads, even under the best management, accidents are common; and -while it is true that important decisions are appealable, a trial judge -has enormous powers which are practically discretionary. Meanwhile, -there have arisen questions of local taxation of the railroad’s -property, questions as to grade crossings, as to the lighting of cars, -as to time schedules, and the like. The court calendars are becoming -crowded with railroad business; and that business is now more than -one attorney can attend to. In fact, the half dozen local lawyers of -prominence are railroad men; the rest of the lawyers would like to -be. Every one of the railroad lawyers receives deferential treatment, -and, when possible, legal advantage in all of the public offices. The -community is now in the control of a ring, held together by just one -thing, the railroad company’s subscription to the campaign fund. - -By this time a serious scandal has occurred in the town,--nothing less -than the rumor of a deficit in the town treasurer’s accounts, and -the citizens are concerned about it. One of the railroad’s lawyers, -a strong party man, happens to be occupying the post of district -attorney; for the yearly campaign subscriptions continue. This district -attorney is, in fact, one of the committee on nominations who put the -town treasurer into office; and the Republican party is responsible -for both. No prosecution follows. The district attorney stands for -re-election. - -An outsider comes to live in the town. He wants to reform things, -and proceeds to talk politics. He is not so inexperienced as to -seek aid from the rich and respectable classes. He knows that the -men who subscribed to the railroad’s stock are the same men who own -the local bank, and that the manufacturers and other business men -of the place rely on the bank for carrying on their business. He -knows that all trades which are specially touched by the law, such -as the liquor-dealers’ and hotel-keepers’, must “stand in” with the -administration; so also must the small shopkeepers, and those who have -to do with sidewalk privileges and town ordinances generally. The -newcomer talks to the leading hardware merchant, a man of stainless -reputation, who admits that the district attorney has been remiss; -but the merchant is a Republican, and says that so long as he lives -he will vote for the party that saved the country. To vote for a -Democrat is a crime. The reformer next approaches the druggist (whose -father-in-law is in the employ of the railroad), and receives the -same reply. He goes to the florist. But the florist owns a piece of -real estate, and has a theory that it is assessed too high. The time -for revising the assessment rolls is coming near, and he has to see -the authorities about that. The florist agrees that the town is a den -of thieves; but he must live; he has no time to go into theoretical -politics. The stranger next interviews a retired grocer. But the grocer -has lent money to his nephew, who is in the coal business, and is -getting special rates from the railroad, and is paying off the debt -rapidly. The grocer would be willing to help, but his name must not be -used. - -It is needless to multiply instances of what every one knows. After -canvassing the whole community, the stranger finds five persons who are -willing to work to defeat the district attorney: a young doctor of good -education and small practice, a young lawyer who thinks he can make use -of the movement by betraying it, a retired anti-slavery preacher, a -maiden lady, and a piano-tuner. The district attorney is re-elected by -an overwhelming vote. - -All this time the railroad desires only a quiet life. It takes no -interest in politics. It is making money, and does not want values -disturbed. It is conservative. - -In the following year worse things happen. The town treasurer steals -more money, and the district attorney is openly accused of sharing -the profits. The Democrats are shouting for reform, and declare that -they will run the strongest man in town for district attorney. He is a -Democrat, but one who fought for the Union. He is no longer in active -practice, and is, on the whole, the most distinguished citizen of the -place. This suggestion is popular. The hardware merchant declares -that he will vote the Democratic ticket, and there is a sensation. -It appears that during all these years there has been a Democratic -organization in the town, and that the notorious corruption of the -Republicans makes a Democratic victory possible. The railroad company -therefore goes to the manager of the Democratic party, and explains -that it wants only to be let alone. It explains that it takes no -interest in politics, but that, if a change is to come, it desires only -that So-and-So shall be retained, and it leaves a subscription with -the Democratic manager. In short, it makes the best terms it can. The -Democratic leader, if he thinks that he can make a clean sweep, may -nominate the distinguished citizen, together with a group of his own -organization comrades. It obviously would be of no use to him to name a -full citizens’ ticket. That would be treason to his party. If he takes -this course and wins, we shall have ring rule of a slightly milder -type. The course begins anew, under a Democratic name; and it may be -several years before another malfeasance occurs. - -But the Republican leader and the railroad company do not want war; -they want peace. They may agree to make it worth while for the -Democrats not to run the distinguished citizen. A few Democrats are let -into the Republican ring. They are promised certain minor appointive -offices, and some contracts and emoluments. Accordingly, the Democrats -do not nominate the distinguished citizen. The hardware man sees little -choice between the two nominees for district attorney; at any rate, he -will not vote for a machine Democrat, and he again votes for his party -nominee. All the reform talk simmers down to silence. The Republicans -are returned to power. - -The town is now ruled by a Happy Family. Stable equilibrium has been -reached at last. Commercialism is in control. Henceforth, the railroad -company pays the bills for keeping up both party organizations, and it -receives care and protection from whichever side is nominally in power. - -The party leaders have by this time become the general utility men of -the railroad; they are its agents and factotums. The boss is the handy -man of the capitalist. So long as the people of the town are content -to vote on party lines they cannot get away from the railroad. In -fact, there are no national parties in the town. A man may talk about -them, but he cannot vote for one of them, because they do not exist. -He can vote only for or against the railroad; and to do the latter, an -independent ticket must be nominated. - -It must not be imagined that any part of the general public clearly -understands this situation. The state of mind of the Better Element -of the Republican side has been seen. The good Democrats are equally -distressed. The distinguished citizen ardently desires to oust the -Republican ring. He subscribes year after year to the campaign fund -of his own party, and declares that the defalcation of the town -treasurer has given it the opportunity of a generation. The Democratic -organization takes his money and accepts his moral support, and uses it -to build up one end of the machine. It cries, “Reform! Reform! Give us -back the principles of Jefferson and of Tilden!” - -The Boss-out-of-Power must welcome all popular movements. He must -sometimes accept a candidate from a citizens’ committee, sometimes -refuse to do so. He must spread his mainsail to the national party -wind of the moment. His immense advantage is an intellectual one. He -alone knows the principles of the game. He alone sees that the power -of the bosses comes from party loyalty. Croker recently stated his -case frankly thus: “A man who would desert his party would desert his -country.” - -It may be remarked, in passing, that New York city reached the Happy -Family stage many years ago. Tammany Hall is in power, being maintained -there by the great mercantile interests. The Republican party is out -of power, and its organization is kept going by the same interests. It -has always been the ear-mark of an enterprise of the first financial -magnitude in New York that it subscribed to both campaign funds. The -Republican function has been to prevent any one from disturbing Tammany -Hall. This has not been difficult; the Republicans have always been -in a hopeless minority, and the machine managers have understood this -perfectly. Now if, by the simple plan of denouncing Tammany Hall, -and appealing to the war record of the Republican party, they could -minimize the independent vote and hold their own constituency, Tammany -would be safe. The matter is actually more complex than this, but the -principle is obvious. - -To return to our country town. It is easy to see that the railroad -is pouring out its money in the systematic corruption of the entire -community. Even the offices with which it has no contact will be -affected by this corruption. Men put in office because they are tools -will work as tools only. Voters once bribed will thereafter vote for -money only. The subscribing and the voting classes, whose state of mind -is outlined above, are not purely mercenary. The retired grocer, the -florist, the druggist, are all influenced by mixed motives, in which -personal interest bears a greater or a smaller share. Each of these men -belongs to a party, as a Brahmin is born into a caste. His spirit must -suffer an agony of conversion before he can get free, even if he is -poor. If he has property, he must pay for that conversion by the loss -of money, also. - -Since 1865 the towns throughout the United States have been passing -through this stage. A ring was likely to spring up wherever there -was available capital. We hear a great talk about the failure of our -institutions as applied to cities, as if it were our incapacity to -deal with masses of people and with the problems of city expansion -that wrecked us. It is nothing of the sort. There is intellect and -business capacity enough in the country to run the Chinese Empire like -clockwork. Philosophers state broadly that our people “prefer to live -in towns,” and cite the rush to the cities during the last thirty -years. The truth is that the exploitation of the continent could be -done most conveniently by the assembling of business men in towns; and -hence it is that the worst rings are found in the larger cities. But -there are rings everywhere; and wherever you see one you will find a -factory behind it. If the population had remained scattered, commerce -would have pursued substantially the same course. We should have had -the rings just the same. It is perfectly true that the wonderful -and scientific concentration of business that we have seen in the -past thirty years gave the chance for the wonderful and scientific -concentration of its control over politics. The state machine could be -constructed easily, by consolidating local rings of the same party name. - - * * * * * - -The boss _par excellence_ is a state boss. He is a comparatively -recent development. He could exist only in a society which had long -been preparing for him. He could operate only in a society where -almost every class and almost every individual was in a certain -sense corrupted. The exact moment of his omnipotence in the State -of New York, for instance, was recorded by the actions of the State -legislature. Less than ten years ago, the bribing of the legislature -was done piecemeal and at Albany; and the great corporations of the -State were accustomed to keep separate attorneys in the capitol, ready -for any emergency. But the economy of having the legislature corrupted -before election soon became apparent. If the party organizations -could furnish a man with whom the corporation managers could contract -directly, they and their directors could sleep at night. The state boss -sprang into existence to meet this need. He is a commercial agent, -like his little local prototype; but the scope of his activities is so -great and their directions are so various, the forces that he deals -with are so complex and his mastery over them is so complete, that a -kind of mystery envelops him. He appears in the newspapers like a demon -of unaccountable power. He is the man who gives his attention to aiding -in the election of the candidates for state office, and to retaining -his hold upon them after election. His knowledge of local politics -all over a State, and the handling of the very large sums of money -subscribed by sundry promoters and corporations, explain the miracle of -his control. - -The government of a State is no more than a town government over a wide -area. The methods of bribery which work certain general results in a -town will work similar results in a State. But the scale of operations -is vastly greater. The State-controlled businesses, such as banking, -insurance, and the State public works, and the liquor traffic, involve -the expenditure of enormous sums of money. - -The effect of commercialism on politics is best seen in the state -System. The manner of nominating candidates shows how easily the major -force in a community makes use of its old customs. - -The American plan of party government provides for primaries, caucuses, -and town, county, and State conventions. It was devised on political -principles, and was intended to be a means of working out the will of -the majority, by a gradual delegation of power from bottom to top. The -exigencies of commerce required that this machinery should be made -to work backwards,--namely, from top to bottom. It was absolutely -necessary for commerce to have a political dictator; and this was found -to be perfectly easy. Every form and process of nomination is gravely -gone through with, the dictator merely standing by and designating the -officers and committee-men at every step. There is something positively -Egyptian in the formalism that has been kept up in practice, and in the -state of mind of men who are satisfied with the procedure. - -The men who, in the course of a party convention, are doing this -marching and countermarching, this forming and dissolving into -committees and delegations, and who appear like acolytes going through -mystical rites and ceremonies, are only self-seeking men, without a -real political idea in their heads. Their evolutions are done to be -seen by the masses of the people, who will give them party support if -these forms are complied with. - -We all know well another interesting perversion of function. A -legislator is by political theory a wise, enlightened man, pledged to -intellectual duties. He gives no bonds. He is responsible only under -the Constitution and to his own conscience. Therefore, if the place -is to be filled by a dummy, almost anybody will do. A town clerk must -be a competent man, even under boss rule; but a legislator will serve -the need so long as he is able to say “ay” and “no.” The boss, then, -governs the largest and the most complex business enterprise in the -State; and he is always a man of capacity. He is obliged to conduct it -in a cumbersome and antiquated manner, and to proceed at every step -according to precedent and by a series of fictions. When we consider -that the legislators and governors are, after all, not absolute -dummies; that among them are ambitious and rapacious men, with here -and there an enemy or a traitor to the boss and to his patrons, we see -that the boss must be well equipped with the intellect of intrigue. And -remember this: he must keep both himself and his patrons out of jail, -and so far as possible keep them clear of public reprobation. - -We have not as yet had any national boss, because the necessity for -owning Congress has not as yet become continuous; and the interests -which have bought the national legislature at one time or another have -done it by bribing individuals, in the old-fashioned way. - -Turning now to New York city, we find the political situation very -similar to that of the country town already described. The interests -which actually control the businesses of the city are managed by very -few individuals. It is only that the sums involved are different. One -of these men is president of an insurance company whose assets are -$130,000,000; another is president of a system of street railways -with a capital stock of $30,000,000; another is president of an -elevated road system with a capital of the same amount; a fourth is -vice-president of a paving company worth $10,000,000; a fifth owns -$50,000,000 worth of real estate; a sixth controls a great railroad -system; a seventh is president of a savings-bank in which $5,000,000 -are deposited; and so on. The commercial ties which bind the community -together are as close in the city as in the country town. The great -magnates live in palaces, and the lesser ones in palaces, also. -The hardware-dealer of the small town is in New York the owner of -iron-works, a man of stainless reputation. The florist is the owner of -a large tract of land within the city limits, through which a boulevard -is about to be cut. The retired merchant has become a partner of his -nephew, and is developing one of the suburbs by means of an extension -of an electric road system. But the commercial hierarchy does not stop -here; it continues radiating, spreading downward. All businesses are -united by the instruments and usages which the genius of trade has -devised. All these interests together represent the railroad of the -country town. They take no real interest in politics, and they desire -only to be let alone. - -For the twenty years before the Strong administration the government -of the city was almost continuously under the control of a ring, or, -accurately speaking, of a Happy Family. Special circumstances made -this ring well nigh indestructible. The Boss-out-of-Power of the -Happy Family happens to be also the boss of the State legislature. -He performs a double function. This is what has given Platt his -extraordinary power. It will have been noticed that some of the masses -of wealth above mentioned are peculiarly subject to State legislation: -they subscribe directly to the State boss’s fund. Some are subject to -interference from the city administration: they subscribe to the city -boss’s fund. - -We see that by the receipt of his fund the State boss is rendered -independent of the people of the city. He can use the State legislature -to strengthen his hands in his dealings with the city boss. After -all, he does not need many votes. He can buy enough votes to hold his -minority together and keep Tammany safely in power, and by now and then -taking a candidate from the citizens he advertises himself as a friend -of reform. - -As to the Tammany branch of the concern, the big money interests need -specific and often illegal advantages, and pay heavily over the Tammany -counter. But as we saw before, public officers, if once corrupted, will -work only for money. Every business that has to do with one or another -of the city offices must therefore now contribute for “protection.” A -foreign business that is started in this city subscribes to Tammany -Hall as a visitor writes his name in a book at a watering-place. It -gives him the run of the town. In the same way, the State-fearing -business man subscribes to Platt for “protection.” No secret is made of -these conditions. The business man regards the reformer as a monomaniac -who is not reasonable enough to see the necessity for his tribute. In -the conduct of any large business, this form of bribery is as regular -an item as rent. The machinery for such bribery is perfected. It is -only when some blundering attempt is made by a corporation to do the -bribing itself, when some unbusinesslike attempt is made to get rid of -the middleman, that the matter is discovered. A few boodle aldermen go -to jail, and every one is scandalized. The city and county officers -of the new city of New York will have to do with the disbursing -of $70,000,000 annually,--fully one half of it in the conduct of -administration. The power of these officers to affect or even control -values, by manipulation of one sort or another, is familiar to us all -from experience in the past. - - * * * * * - -So much for business. Let us look at the law. The most lucrative -practice is that of an attorney who protects great corporate interests -among these breakers. He needs but one client; he gets hundreds. The -mind of the average lawyer makes the same unconscious allowance for -bribery as that of the business man. Moreover, we cannot overlook the -cases of simple old-fashioned bribery to which the masses of capital -give rise. In a political emergency any amount of money is forthcoming -immediately, and it is given from aggregations of capital so large that -the items are easily concealed in the accounts. Bribery, in one form or -another, is part of the unwritten law. It is atmospheric; it is felt by -no one. The most able men in the community believe that society would -drop to pieces without bribery. They do not express it in this way, -but they act upon the principle in an emergency. A leader of the bar, -at the behest of his Wall Street clients, begs the reform police board -not to remove Inspector Byrnes, who is the Jonathan Wild of the period. -The bench is fairly able. But many of the judges on the bench have paid -large campaign assessments in return for their nominations; others have -given notes to the bosses. This reveals the exact condition of things. -In a corrupt era the judges pay cash. Now they help their friends. -The son or the son-in-law of a judge is sure of a good practice, and -referees are appointed from lists which are largely dictated by the -professional politicians of both parties. - -It would require an encyclopædia to state the various simple devices -by which the same principle runs through every department in the life -of the community. Such an encyclopædia for New York city would be the -best picture of municipal misgovernment in the United States during -the commercial era. But one main fact must again be noted: this great -complex ring is held together by the two campaign funds, the Tammany -Hall fund and the Republican fund. They are the two power houses which -run all this machinery. - -So far as human suffering goes, the positive evils of the system -fall largely on the poor. The rich buy immunity, but the poor are -persecuted, and have no escape. This has always been the case -under a tyranny. What else could we expect in New York? The Lexow -investigation showed us the condition of the police force. The lower -courts, both criminal and civil, and the police department were used -for vote-getting and for money-getting purposes. They were serving -as instruments of extortion and of favoritism. But in the old police -courts the foreigner and the honest poor were actually attacked. -Process was issued against them, their business was destroyed, and they -were jailed unless they could buy off. This system still exists to some -extent in the lower civil courts. - -It is obvious that all these things come to pass through the fault -of no one in particular. We have to-day reached the point where the -public is beginning to understand that the iniquity is accomplished -by means of the political boss. Every one is therefore abusing the -boss. But Platt and Croker are not worse than the men who continue to -employ them after understanding their function. These men stand for the -conservative morality of New York, and for standards but little lower -than the present standards. - -Let us now see how those standards came to exist. Imagine a community -in which, for more than a generation, the government has been -completely under boss rule, so that the system has become part of the -habits and of the thought of the people, and consider what views we -might expect to find in the hearts of the citizens of such a community. -The masses will have been controlled by what is really bribery and -terrorism, but what appears in the form of a very plausible appeal to -the individual on the ground of self-interest. For forty years money -and place have been corrupting them. Their whole conception of politics -is that it is a matter of money and of place. The well-to-do will -have been apt to prosper in proportion as they have made themselves -serviceable to the dominant powers, and have become part and parcel -of the machinery of the system. It is not to be pretended that every -man in such a community is a rascal, but it is true that in so far as -his business brings him into contact with the administrative officers -every man will be put to the choice between lucrative malpractice and -thankless honesty. A conviction will spread throughout the community -that nothing can be done without a friend at court; that honesty does -not pay, and probably never has paid in the history of the world; -that a boss is part of the mechanism by which God governs mankind; -that property would not be safe without him; and, finally, that the -recognized bosses are not so bad as they are painted. The great masses -of corporate property have owners who really believe that the system -of government which enabled them to make money is the only safe -government. These people cling to abuses as to a life-preserver. They -fear that an honest police board will not be able to bribe the thieves -not to steal from them, that an honest State insurance department will -not be able to prevent the legislature from pillaging them. It is -absolutely certain that in the first struggles for reform the weight -of the mercantile classes will be thrown very largely on the side of -conservatism. - -Now, in a great city like New York the mercantile _bourgeoisie_ -will include almost every one who has an income of five thousand -dollars a year, or more. These men can be touched by the bosses, and -therefore, after forty years of tyranny, it is not to be expected -that many of those who wear black coats will have much enthusiasm -for reform. It is “impracticable;” it is “discredited;” it is -“expensive;” it is “advocated by unknown men;” it speaks ill of the -“respectable;” it “does harm” by exciting the poor against the rich; it -is “unbusinesslike” and “visionary;” it is “self-righteous.” We have -accordingly had, in New York city, a low and perverted moral tone, an -incapacity to think clearly or to tell the truth when we know it. This -is both the cause and the consequence of bondage. A generation of men -really believe that honesty is bad policy, and continue to be governed -by Tammany Hall. - - * * * * * - -The world has wondered that New York could not get rid of its famous -incubus. The gross evils as they existed at the time of Tweed are -remembered. The great improvements are not generally known. Reform has -been slow, because its leaders have not seen that their work was purely -educational. They did not understand the political combination, and -they kept striking at Tammany Hall. Like a child with a toy, they did -not see that the same mechanism which caused Punch to strike caused -Judy’s face to disappear from the window. - -It is not selfishness and treason that are mainly responsible for the -discredit which dogs “reform.” It is the inefficiency of upright and -patriotic men. The practical difficulty with reform movements in New -York has been that the leaders of such movements have clung to old -political methods. These men have thought that if they could hire or -imitate the regular party machinery, they could make it work for good. -They would fight banditti with bravi. They would expel Tammany Hall, -and lo, Tammany is within them. - -Is it a failure of intellect or of morality which prevents the -reformers from seeing that idealism is the shortest road to their goal? -It is the failure of both. It is a legacy of the old tyranny. In one -sense it is corruption; in another it is stupidity; in every sense it -is incompetence. Political incompetence is only another name for moral -degradation, and both exist in New York for the same reason that they -exist in Turkey. They are the offspring of blackmail. - -Well-meaning and public-spirited men, who have been engrossed in -business for the best part of their lives, are perhaps excusable -for not understanding the principles on which reform moves. Any one -can see that if what was wanted was merely a good school board, the -easiest way to get it would be to go to Croker, give him a hundred -thousand dollars, and offer to let him alone if he gave the good board. -But until very recently nobody could see that putting good school -commissioners on Platt’s ticket and giving Platt the hundred thousand -dollars was precisely the same thing. - -In an enterprise whose sole aim is to raise the moral standard, -idealism always pays. A reverse following a fight for principle, like -the defeat of Low, is pure gain. It records the exact state of the -cause. It educates the masses on a gigantic scale. The results of that -education are immediately visible. - -On the other hand, all compromise means delay. By compromise, the -awakened faith of the people is sold to the politicians for a mess of -reform. The failures and mistakes of Mayor Strong’s administration were -among the causes for Mr. Low’s defeat. People said, “If this be reform, -give us Tammany Hall.” Our reformers have always been in hot haste -to get results. They want a balance-sheet at the end of every year. -They think this will encourage the people. But the people recall only -their mistakes. The long line of reform leaders in New York city are -remembered with contempt. The evil that men do lives after them; the -good is oft interred with their bones. - -That weakness of intellect which makes reformers love quick returns is -twin brother to a certain defect of character. Personal vanity is very -natural in men who figure as tribunes of the people. They say, “Look at -Abraham Lincoln, and how he led the people out of the wilderness; let -us go no faster than the people in pushing these reforms; let us accept -half-measures; let us be Abraham Lincoln.” The example of Lincoln has -wrecked many a promising young man; for really Lincoln has no more to -do with the case than Julius Cæsar. As soon as the reformers give up -trying to be statesmen, and perceive that their own function is purely -educational, and that they are mere anti-slavery agitators and persons -of no account whatever, they will succeed better. - -As to the methods of work in reform,--whether it shall be by clubs or -by pamphlets, by caucus or by constitution,--they will be developed. -Executive capacity is simply that capacity which is always found in -people who really want something done. - - * * * * * - -In New York, the problem is not to oust Tammany Hall; another would -arise in a year. It is to make the great public understand the boss -system, of which Tammany is only a part. As fast as the reformers -see that clearly themselves, they will find the right machinery to -do the work in hand. It may be that, like the Jews, we shall have to -spend forty years more in the wilderness, until the entire generation -that lived under Pharaoh has perished. But education nowadays marches -quickly. The progress that has been made during the last seven years in -the city of New York gives hope that within a decade a majority of the -voters will understand clearly that all the bosses are in league. - -In 1890, this fact was so little understood by the managers of an -anti-Tammany movement which sprang up in that year that, after raising -a certain stir and outcry, they put in the field a ticket made up -exclusively of political hacks, whose election would have left matters -exactly where they stood. The people at large, led by the soundest -political instinct, re-elected Tammany Hall, and gave to sham reform -the rebuff it deserved. In 1894, after the Lexow investigation had -kept the town at fever-heat of indignation all summer, Mayor Strong -was nominated by the Committee of Seventy, under an arrangement with -Platt. The excitement was so great that the people at large did not -examine Mr. Strong’s credentials. He was a Republican merchant, and in -no way identified with the boss system. Mayor Strong’s administration -has been a distinct advance, in many ways encouraging. Its errors -and weaknesses have been so clearly traceable to the system which -helped elect him that it has been in the highest degree valuable as an -object-lesson. In 1895, only one year after Mayor Strong’s election, -the fruits of his administration could not yet be seen. In that year a -few judges and minor local officers were to be chosen. By this time the -“citizens’ movement” had become a regular part of a municipal election. -A group of radicals, the legatees of the Strong campaign, had for a -year been enrolled in clubs called Good Government Clubs. These men -took the novel course of nominating a complete ticket of their own. -This was considered a dangerous move by the moderate reformers, who -were headed by the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce and its -well-meaning supporters then took a step which, from an educational -standpoint, turned out to be most important. In their terror lest -Tammany Hall should gain the prestige of a by-election, they made an -arrangement with Platt, and were allowed to name some candidates on his -ticket. This was the famous “fusion,” which the Good Government men -attacked with as much energy as they might have expended on Tammany -Hall. A furious campaign of crimination between the two reform factions -followed, and of course Tammany was elected. - -The difference between the Good Government men (the Goo-Goos, as -they were called) and the Fusionists was entirely one of political -education. The Goo-Goo mind had advanced to the point of seeing -that Platt was a confederate of Tammany and represented one wing -of the great machine. To give him money was useless; to lend him -respectability was infamous. These ideas were disseminated by the -press; and it was immaterial that they were disseminated in the form of -denunciations of the Good Government Clubs. The people at large began -to comprehend clearly what they had always instinctively believed. -There was now a nucleus of men in the town who preferred Tammany Hall -to any victory that would discredit reform. - -It may be noted that the Good Government Clubs polled less than one -per cent of the vote cast in that election; and that in the recent -mayoralty campaign the Citizens’ Union ran Mr. Low on the Good -Government platform, and polled 150,000 votes. In this same election, -the straight Republican ticket, headed by Tracy, polled 100,000 votes, -and Tammany polled about as many as both its opponents together. A -total of about 40,000 votes were cast for George and other candidates. - -Much surprise has been expressed that there should be 100,000 -Republicans in New York whose loyalty to the party made them vote a -straight ticket with the certainty of electing Tammany Hall; but in -truth, when we consider the history of the city, we ought rather to be -surprised at the great size of the vote for Mr. Low. He was the man who -arranged the fusion of 1895. It was entirely due to a lack of clear -thinking and of political courage that such an arrangement was then -made. Two years ago the Chamber of Commerce did not clearly understand -the evils that it was fighting. Is it a wonder that 100,000 individual -voters are still backward in their education? If we discount the appeal -of self-interest, which determined many of them, there are probably -some 75,000 Republicans whose misguided party loyalty obscured their -view and deadened their feelings. They cannot be said to hate bad -government very much. They do not think Tammany Hall so very bad, after -all. As the London papers said, the dog has returned to his vomit. It -is unintelligent to abuse them. They are the children of the age. A few -years ago we were all such as they. Of Mr. Low’s 150,000 supporters, -on the other hand, there are probably at least 40,000 who would vote -through thick and thin for the principles which his campaign stood for. - -Any one who is a little removed by time or by distance from New York -knows that the city cannot have permanent good government until a -clear majority of our 500,000 voters shall develop what the economists -call an “effective desire” for it. It is not enough merely to want -reform. The majority must know how to get it. For educational purposes, -the intelligent discussion throughout the recent campaign is worth -all the effort that it cost. The Low campaign was notable in another -particular. The banking and the mercantile classes subscribed liberally -to the citizens’ campaign fund. They are the men who have had the most -accurate knowledge of the boss system, because they support it. At last -they have dared to expose it. Indeed, there was a rent in Wall Street. -The great capitalists and the promoters backed Tammany and Platt, as a -matter of course; but many individuals of power and importance in the -street came out strongly for Low. They acted at personal risk, with -courage, out of conscience. The great pendulum of wealth has swung -toward decency. It is very difficult to use this or any money in the -cause of reform without doing more harm than good. But the money is -not the main point; the personal influence of the men who give it -operates more powerfully than the money. Hereafter reform will be -respectable. The professional classes are pouring into it. The young -men are re-entering politics. Its victory is absolutely certain, and -will not be distant. - - * * * * * - -The effect of public-spirited activity on the character is very rapid. -Here again we cannot separate the cause from the consequence; but it is -certain that the moral tone of the community is changing very rapidly -for the better, and that the thousands of men who are at this moment -preparing to take part in the next citizens’ campaign, and who count -public activity as one of the regular occupations of their lives, are -affecting the social and commercial life of New York. The young men who -are working to reform politics find in it not only the satisfaction of -a religious instinct, but an excitement which business cannot provide. - -One effect of the commercial supremacy has been to make social life -intolerably dull, by dividing people into cliques and trade unions. The -millionaire dines with the millionaire, the artist with the artist, -the hat-maker with the hat-maker, gentlefolk with gentlefolk. All of -these sets are equally uninspiring, equally frightened at a strange -face. The hierarchy of commerce is dull. The intelligent people in -America are dull, because they have no contact, no social experience. -Their intelligence is a clique and wears a badge. They think they are -not affected by the commercialism of the times; but their attitude of -mind is precisely that of a lettered class living under a tyranny. They -flock by themselves. It is certain that the cure for class feeling -is public activity. The young jeweller, the young printer, and the -golf-player, each, after a campaign in which they have been fighting -for a principle, finds that social enjoyment lies in working with -people unlike himself, for a common object. Reform movements bring men -into touch, into struggle with the powers that are really shaping our -destinies, and show them the sinews and bones of the social organism. -The absurd social prejudices which unman the rich and the poor alike -vanish in a six weeks’ campaign. Indeed, the exhilaration of real life -is too much for many of the reformers. Even bankers neglect their -business, and dare not meet their partners, and a dim thought crosses -their minds that perhaps the most enlightened way to spend money is, -not to make it, but to invest their energies directly in life. - - * * * * * - -The reasons for believing that the boss system has reached its climax -are manifold. Some of them have been stated, others may be noted. In -the first place, the railroads are built. Business is growing more -settled. The sacking of the country’s natural resources goes on at -a slower pace. It is a matter of history, that economic laws did so -operate, that the New York Central Railroad controlled the State -legislature during the period of the building and consolidation of -the many small roads which make up the present great system. But -the conditions have changed. Bribery, like any other crime, may be -explained by an emergency; but everyone believes that bribery is not -a permanent necessity in the running of a railroad, and this general -belief will determine the practices of the future. Public opinion will -not stand the abuses; and without the abuse where is the profit? In -many places, the old system of bribery is still being continued out -of habit, and at a loss. The corporations can get what they want -more cheaply by legal methods, and they are discovering this. In the -second place, the boss system is now very generally understood. The -people are no longer deceived. The ratio between party feeling and -self-interest is changing rapidly, in the mind of the average man. -It was the mania of party feeling that supported the boss system and -rendered political progress impossible, and party feeling is dying out. -We have seen, for instance, that those men who, by the accident of the -war, were shaken in their party loyalty, have been the most politically -intelligent class in the nation. The Northern Democrats, who sided with -their opponents to save the Union, were the first men to be weaned of -party prejudice, and from their ranks, accordingly, came civil service -reformers, tariff reformers, etc. - -It is noteworthy, also, that the Jewish mind is active in all reform -movements. The isolation of the race has saved it from party blindness, -and has given scope to its extraordinary intelligence. The Hebrew -prophet first put his finger on blackmail, as the curse of the world, -and boldly laid the charge at the door of those who profited by the -abuse. It was the Jew who perceived that, in the nature of things, -the rich and the powerful in a community will be trammelled up and -identified with the evils of the times. The wrath of the Hebrew -prophets and the arraignments of the New Testament owe part of their -eternal power to their recognition of that fact. They record an -economic law. - -Moreover, time fights for reform. The old voters die off, and the young -men care little about party shibboleths. Hence these non-partisan -movements. Every election, local or national, which causes a body of -men to desert their party is a blow at the boss system. These movements -multiply annually. They are emancipating the small towns throughout the -Union, even as commerce was once disfranchising them. As party feeling -dies out in a man’s mind, it leaves him with a clearer vision. His -conscience begins to affect his conduct very seriously, when he sees -that a certain course is indefensible. It is from this source that the -reform will come. - -The voter will see that it is wrong to support the subsidized boss, -just as the capitalist has already begun to recoil from the monster -which he created. He sees that it is wrong at the very moment when he -is beginning to find it unprofitable. The old trademark has lost its -value. - -The citizens’ movement is, then, a purge to take the money out of -politics. The stronger the doses, the quicker the cure. If the citizens -maintain absolute standards, the old parties can regain their popular -support only by adopting those standards. All citizens’ movements are -destined to be temporary; they will vanish, to leave our politics -purified. But the work they do is as broad as the nation. - - * * * * * - -The question of boss rule is of national importance. The future of the -country is at stake. Until this question is settled, all others are in -abeyance. The fight against money is a fight for permission to decide -questions on their merits. The last presidential election furnished an -illustration of this. At a private meeting of capitalists held in New -York City, to raise money for the McKinley campaign, a very important -man fervidly declared that he had already subscribed $5000 to “buy -Indiana,” and that if called on to do so he would subscribe $5000 -more! He was greeted with cheers for his patriotism. Many of our best -citizens believe not only that money bought that election, but that -the money was well spent, because it averted a panic. These men do not -believe in republican institutions; they have found something better. - -This is precisely the situation in New York city. The men who -subscribed to the McKinley campaign fund are the same men who support -Tammany Hall. In 1896 they cried, “We cannot afford Bryan and his -panic!” In 1897 the same men in New York cried, “We cannot afford Low -and reform!” That is what was decided in each case. Yet it is quite -possible that the quickest, wisest, and cheapest way of dealing with -Bryan would have been to allow him and his panic to come on,--fighting -them only with arguments, which immediate consequences would have -driven home very forcibly. That is the way to educate the masses and -fit them for self-government; and it is the only way. - -In this last election the people of New York have crippled Platt. -It is a service done to the nation. Its consequences are as yet not -understood; for the public sees only the gross fact that Tammany is -again in power. - -But the election is memorable. It is a sign of the times. The grip of -commerce is growing weaker, the voice of conscience louder. A phase -in our history is passing away. That phase was predestined from the -beginning. - - * * * * * - -The war did no more than intensify existing conditions, both commercial -and political. It gave sharp outlines to certain economic phenomena, -and made them dramatic. It is due to the war that we are now able to -disentangle the threads and do justice to the nation. - -The corruption that we used to denounce so fiercely and understand -so little was a phase of the morality of an era which is already -vanishing. It was as natural as the virtue which is replacing it; it -will be a curiosity almost before we have done studying it. We see -that our institutions were particularly susceptible to this disease of -commercialism, and that the sickness was acute, but that it was not -mortal. Our institutions survived. - - - - -SOCIETY - - - - -II - -SOCIETY - - -Our institutions have survived, the perils of boss rule are past, and -we may look back upon the system with a kind of awe, and recognize how -easily the system might have overthrown our institutions and ushered -in a period which history would have recorded as the age of the State -Tyrants. - -Let us imagine that some State like Pennsylvania, on which the boss -system had been so firmly fixed that a boss was able to bequeath -his seat in the United States Senate to his son, had shown forth an -ambitious man, a ruler who realized that his function was not one of -business, but one of government; let us imagine that a President of -the Pennsylvania Railroad, some man of great capacity, had undertaken -to rule the State. He would, by his position as State boss, have been -able gradually to do away with the petty bosses and petty abuses. He -would give the State a general cities law, good schools, clean streets, -speedy justice; every necessary municipal improvement. Gas, water, -boulevards would be supplied with an economy positively startling to a -generation accustomed to jobs. He would destroy the middlemen as Louis -XI. destroyed the nobles, and give to his State, for the first time in -the history of the country, good government. A benign tyranny, with -every department in the hands of experts, makes the strongest form of -government in the world. Every class is satisfied. Pennsylvania would -have been famous the world over. Its inhabitants would have been proud -of it; foreigners would have written books about it; other States would -have imitated it. - -Meanwhile the power of self-government would have been lost. - -Biennial sessions of the Legislature are already a favorite device -for minimizing the evils of Legislatures. But the dictator would have -desired to discourage popular assemblies. The whole business world -would have backed the boss, in his plan for quinquennial or decennial -sessions. Once give way to the laziness, once cater to the inertia and -selfishness of the citizen, and he sinks into slumber. - -Our feeble and floundering citizens’ movements in New York during -the last ten years show us how hard it is to recover the power of -self-government when once lost; how gradual the gain, even under the -most stimulating conditions of misrule. Given thirty years of able -administration by a single man, and the boss system would have sunk -so deep into the popular mind, the arctic crust of prejudice and -incompetence would have frozen so deep, that it might easily take two -hundred years for the community to come to life. Recovery could only -come through the creeping in of abuses, through the decentralization of -the great tyranny. And as each abuse arose, the population would clamor -to the dictator and beg him to correct it. After a while a few thinkers -would arise who would see that the only way to revive our institutions -was by the painstaking education of the people. The stock in trade of -these teachers would be the practical abuses, and very often they would -be obliged to urge upon the people a course which would make the abuses -temporarily more acute. - -We have escaped an age of tyrants, because the eyes of the bosses and -their masters were fixed on money. They were not ambitious. Government -was an annex to trade. To certain people the boss appears as a ruler -of men. If proof were needed that he is a hired man employed to do the -dirty work of others, what better proof could we have than this: No one -of all the hundreds of bosses thrown up during the last thirty years -has ever lifted himself out of his sphere, or even essayed to rule. - -That devotion of the individual to his bank account which created -the boss and saved us from the dictator must now be traced back into -business. - - * * * * * - -For the sake of analysis it is convenient now to separate and again not -to separate the influences of business proper from the influences of -dishonesty, but in real life they are one thing. Dishonesty is a mere -result of excessive devotion to money-making. The general and somewhat -indefinite body of rules which are considered “honest” change from -time to time. I call a thing dishonest when it offends my instinct. -The next man may call it honest. The question is settled by society -at large. “What can a man do and remain in his club?” That gives the -practical standards of a community. The devotion of the individual to -his bank account gives the reason why the financier and his agent, the -boss, could always find councilmen, legislators, judges, lawyers, to -be their jackals, or to put the equation with the other end first, it -is the reason why the legislators could always combine to blackmail the -capitalist: this political corruption is a mere spur and offshoot of -our business corruption. We know more about it, because politics cannot -be carried on wholly in the dark. Business can. The main facts are -known. Companies organize subsidiary companies to which they vote the -money of the larger company--cheating their stockholders. The railroad -men get up small roads and sell them to the great roads which they -control--cheating their stockholders. The purchasing agents of many -great enterprises cheat the companies as a matter of course, not by a -recognized system of commissions--like French cooks--but by stealth. So -in trade, you cannot sell goods to the retailers, unless you corrupt -the proper person. It is all politics. All our politics is business and -our business is politics. - -There is something you want to do, and the “practical man” is the man -who knows the ropes, knows who is the proper person to be “seen.” The -slang word gives a picture of the times--to “see” a man means to bribe -him. - -But let no one think that dishonesty or anything else begins at the -top. These big business men were once little business men. - -To cut rates, to have a different price for each customer, to -substitute one article for another, are the prevailing policies of -the seller. To give uncollectible notes, to claim rebates, to make -assignments and compromises, to use one shift or another in order to -get possession of goods and pay less than the contract price, are the -prevailing aims of the buyer. - - * * * * * - -It is unquestionably possible for an incorruptible man to succeed in -business. But his scruples are an embarrassment. Not everybody wants -such a man. He insists on reducing every reckoning to pounds sterling, -while the rest of the world is figuring in maravedis. He must make up -in ability what he lacks in moral obliquity. - -He will no doubt find his nook in time. Honesty is the greatest luxury -in the world, and the American looks with awe on the man who can afford -it, or insists upon having it. It is right that he should pay for it. - -The long and short of the matter is that the sudden creation of -wealth in the United States has been too much for our people. We are -personally dishonest. The people of the United States are notably and -peculiarly dishonest in financial matters. - -The effect of this on government is but one of the forms in which the -ruling passion is manifest. “What is there in it for me?” is the state -of mind in which our people have been existing. Out of this come the -popular philosophy, the social life, the architecture, the letters, the -temper of the age; all tinged with the passion. - - * * * * * - -Let us look at the popular philosophy of the day. An almost ludicrous -disbelief that any one can be really disinterested is met at once. -Any one who takes an intelligent interest in public affairs becomes -a “reformer.” He is liked, if it can be reasonably inferred that he -is advancing his own interests. Otherwise he is incomprehensible. He -is respected, because it is impossible not to respect him, but he is -regarded as a mistaken fellow, a man who interferes with things that -are not his business, a meddler. - -The unspoken religion of all sensible men inculcates thrift as the -first virtue. Business thunders at the young man, “Thou shalt have -none other gods but me.” Nor is it a weak threat, for business, -when it speaks, means business. The young doctor in the small town -who advocates reform loses practice for two reasons: first, because -it is imagined that he is not a serious man, not a good doctor, if -he gives time to things outside his profession; second, because the -carriage-maker does not agree with him and regards it as a moral -duty to punish him. The newsdealer in the Arcade at Rector Street -lost custom because it was discovered that he was a Bryan man. The -bankers would not buy papers of him. Since the days of David, the -great luxury of the powerful has been to be free from the annoyance of -other persons’ opinions. The professional classes in any community are -parasites on the moneyed classes; they attend the distribution. They -cannot strike the hand that feeds them. In a country where economic -laws tend to throw the money into the hands of a certain type of men, -the morality of those men is bound to affect society very seriously. - -The world-famous “timidity” of Americans in matters of opinion, is the -outward and visible sign of a mental preoccupation. Tocqueville thought -it was due to their democratic form of government. It is not due to -democracy, but to commercial conditions. In Tocqueville’s day it arose -out of the slavery question, solely because that question affected -trade. - -In describing the social life of Boston, Josiah Quincy says of George -Ticknor’s hospitality: “There seemed to be a cosmopolitan spaciousness -about his very vestibule. He received company with great ease, and a -simple supper was always served to his evening visitors. Prescott, -Everett, Webster, Hillard, and other noted Bostonians well mixed with -the pick of such strangers as happened to be in the city, furnished a -social entertainment of the first quality. Politics, at least American -politics, were never mentioned.” - -It was at such “entertainments” as this that the foreign publicists -received their impressions as to the extinction of free speech in -America. Politics could not be mentioned; but this was not due to our -democratic form of government, but to the fact that Beacon Street was -trading with South Carolina. “Politics” meant slavery, and Beacon -Street could not afford to have values disturbed--not even at a dinner -party. - -We have seen that our more recent misgovernment has not been due to -democracy, and we now see that the most striking weakness of our social -life is not and never has been due to democracy. - -Let us take an example: A party of men meet in a club, and the subject -of free trade is launched. Each of these men has been occupied all day -in an avocation where silence is golden. Shall he be the one to speak -first? Who knows but what some phase of the discussion may touch his -pocket? But the matter is deeper. Free speech is a habit. It cannot -be expected from such men, because a particular subject is free from -danger. Let the subject be dress reform, and the traders will be -equally politic. - -This pressure of self-interest which prevents a man from speaking his -mind comes on top of that familiar moral terrorism of any majority, -even a majority of two persons against one, which is one of the -ultimate phenomena of human intercourse. - -It is difficult to speak out a sentiment that your table companions -disapprove of. Even Don Quixote was afraid to confess that it was he -who had set the convicts at liberty, because he heard the barber and -curate denounce the thing as an outrage. Now the weight of this normal -social pressure in any particular case will depend on how closely -the individuals composing the majority resemble each other. But men, -lighted by the same passion, pursuing one object under the similar -conditions, of necessity grow alike. By a process of natural selection, -the self-seekers of Europe have for sixty years been poured into the -hopper of our great mill. The Suabian and the Pole each drops his -costume, his language, and his traditions as he goes in. They come out -American business men; and in the second generation they resemble each -other more closely in ideals, in aims, and in modes of thought than two -brothers who had been bred to different trades in Europe. - -The uniformity of occupation, the uniformity of law, the absence of -institutions, like the church, the army, family pride, in fact, the -uniformity of the present and the sudden evaporation of all the past, -have ground the men to a standard. - -America turns out only one kind of man. Listen to the conversation -of any two men in a street car. They are talking about the price of -something--building material, advertising, bonds, cigars. - -We have, then, two distinct kinds of pressure, each at its maximum, -both due to commerce: the pressure of fear that any unpopular sentiment -a man utters will show in his bank account; the pressure of a unified -majority who are alike in their opinions, have no private opinions, nor -patience with the private opinions of others. Of these two pressures, -the latter is by far the more important. - - * * * * * - -It cannot be denied that the catchwords of democracy have been used to -intensify this tyranny. If the individual must submit when outvoted in -politics, he ought to submit when outvoted in ethics, in opinion, or in -sentiment. Private opinion is a thing to be stamped out, like private -law. A prejudice is aroused by the very fact that a man thinks for -himself; he is dangerous; he is anarchistic. - -But this misapplication of a dogma is not the cause but the cloak of -oppression. It is like the theory of the divine right of Kings--a -thing invoked by conservatism to keep itself in control, a shibboleth -muttered by men whose cause will not bear argument. - -We must never expect to find in a dogma the explanation of the system -which it props up. That explanation must be sought for in history. -The dogma records but does not explain a supremacy. Therefore, when -we hear some one appeal to democratic principle for a justification -in suppressing the individual, we have to reflect how firmly must -this custom be established, upon what a strong basis of interest must -it rest, that it has power so to pervert the ideas of democracy. A -distrust of the individual running into something like hatred may -be seen reflected in the press of the United States. The main point -is that Americans have by business training been growing more alike -every day, and have seized upon any and every authority to aid them in -disciplining a recusant. - -We have then a social life in which caution and formalism prevail, and -can see why it is that the gathering at the club was a dull affair. - - * * * * * - -We must now add one dreadful fact: Many of these men at the club -are dishonest. The banker has come from a Directors’ meeting of a -large corporation, where he has voted to buy ten thousand shares of -railroad stock which he and his associates bought on foreclosure at -seventeen three weeks before, but which now stands at thirty, because -the quotations have been rigged. The attorney for the corporation is -here talking to Professor Scuddamore about the new citizens’ movement, -which the attorney has joined, for he is a great reformer, and lives -in horror of the wickedness of the times. Beyond him sits an important -man, whose corporation has just given a large sum to a political -organization. Next to him is a Judge, who is a Republican, but fond of -a chat with political opponents. With them is the editor of a reform -paper, whose financial articles are of much importance to the town. -A very eminent lawyer is in conversation with him. This lawyer has -just received a large fee from the city for work which would not have -brought him more than one-fifth of the amount if done for a private -client. He is, by the way, a law partner of the latest tribune of the -people, a man of stainless reputation. Here is also another type of -honor, the middle-aged practitioner of good family, who has one of the -best heads in town. He knows what all these other men are, and how -they make their money; yet he dines at their houses, and gets business -from them. On his left is a man much talked of ten years ago, a rare -man to be seen here. He was ambitious, and became the hope of reform. -But, unfortunately, he also had a talent for business. He became rich -and cynical, and you see that he is looking about, as if in search of -another disappointed man to talk to. There also is a great doctor, -visiting physician of three hospitals, one of which is in receipt -of city funds, and he knows the practice of packing the hospitals -before inspection day in order to increase the appropriation. The man -who endowed the hospital sits beyond. All these wires end in this -club-room. Now start your topic--jest about free silver, make a merry -sally on Mayor Jones. Start the question: “Why is not the last reform -commissioner of the gas works not in jail?” and see what a jovial crew -you are set down with. - -You will find as to any new topic, that each one requires time to -adjust his cravat to it. You are in a company of men who are so anxious -to be reasonable, to be “just,” that it will require them till judgment -day to make up their minds on any point. Nor is it easy to say how any -one of them ought to behave. Is it dishonest to draw dividends from -a corporation which you believe to be corruptly managed; to wink at -bribery done in the interest of widows and of orphans? Must you cut a -client because he owns a judge? What proof have you of any of these -things? Do you demand of any one of these men that he shall offend or -denounce the rest, and, short of that, what course should he take? - -The point here made is not an ethical one as to how any one of these -men ought to adjust himself to the corruption about him, but the -sociological point--that a civilization based upon a commerce which is -in all its parts corruptly managed will present a social life which is -unintelligent and mediocre, made up of people afraid of each other, -whose ideas are shopworn, whose manners are self-conscious. - -The ill-concealed dependence of these men on each other is not -resentful. They are the most good-natured men in the world. But -they are unenlightened. Without free speech free thought can hardly -exist. Without free speech you cannot gather the fruits of the mind’s -spontaneous workings. When a man talks with absolute sincerity and -freedom he goes on a voyage of discovery. The whole company has shares -in the enterprise. He may strike out some idea which explains the -sphinx. The moral consequences of circumspect and affable reticence are -even worse than the intellectual ones. “Live and let live,” says our -genial prudence. Well enough, but mark the event. No one ever lost his -social standing merely because of his offences, but because of the talk -about them. As free speech goes out the rascals come in. - -Speech is a great part of social life, but not the whole of it. Dress, -bearing, expression, betray a man, customs show character, all these -various utterances mingle and merge into the general tone which is the -voice of a national temperament; private motive is lost in it. - -This tone penetrates and envelops everything in America. It is -impossible to condemn it altogether. This desire to please, which has -so much of the shopman’s smile in it, graduates at one end of the scale -into a general kindliness, into public benefactions, hospitals, and -college foundations; at the other end it is seen melting into a desire -to efface one’s self rather than give offence, to hide rather than be -noticed. - -In Europe, the men in the pit at the theatre stand up between the acts, -face the house, and examine the audience at leisure. The American -dares not do this. He cannot stand the isolation, nor the publicity. -The American in a horse car can give his seat to a lady, but dares -not raise his voice while the conductor tramps over his toes. It -violates every instinct of his commercial body to thrust his private -concerns into prominence. The American addresses his equal, whom he -knows familiarly, as Mr. Jones, giving him the title with as much -subserviency as the Englishman pays to an unknown Earl. - -Mere financial dishonesty is of very little importance in the history -of civilization. Who cares whether Cæsar stole or Cæsar Borgia cheated? -Their intellects stayed clear. The real evil that follows in the wake -of a commercial dishonesty so general as ours is the intellectual -dishonesty it generates. One need not mind stealing, but one must cry -out at people whose minds are so befuddled that they do not know theft -when they see it. Robert Walpole bought votes. He deceived others, but -he did not deceive himself. - -We have seen that the retailer in the small town could not afford -to think clearly upon the political situation. But this was a mere -instance, a sample of his mental attitude. He dare not face any -question. He must shuffle, qualify, and defer. Here at last we -have the great characteristic which covers our continent like a -climate--intellectual dishonesty. This state of mind does not merely -prevent a man having positive opinions. The American is incapable -of taking a real interest in anything. The lack of passion in the -American--noticeable in his books and in himself--comes from the same -habitual mental distraction; for passion is concentration. Hence also -the flippancy, superficiality, and easy humor for which we are noted. -Nothing except the dollar is believed to be worthy the attention of a -serious man. People are even ashamed of their tastes. Until recently, -we thought it effeminate for a man to play on the piano. When a man -takes a living interest in anything, we call him a “crank.” There is -an element of self-sacrifice in any honest intellectual work which we -detect at once and score with contumely. - -It was not solely commercial interest that made the biographers of -Lincoln so thrifty to extend and veneer their book. It was that they -themselves did not, could not, take an interest in the truth about -him. The second-rate quality of all our letters and verse is due to -the same cause. The intellectual integrity is undermined. The literary -man is concerned for what “will go,” like the reformer who is half -politician. The attention of every one in the United States is on some -one else’s opinion, not on truth. - -The matter resolves itself at last into Pilate’s question: What is -truth? We do not know, and shall never know. But it seems to involve a -certain focussing and concentration of the attention that brings all -the life within us into harmony. When this happens to us, we discover -that truth is the only thing we had ever really cared about in the -world. The thing seems to be the same thing, no matter which avenue we -reach it by. At whatever point we are touched, we respond. A quartet, a -cathedral, a sonnet, an exhibition of juggling, anything well done--we -are at the mercy of it. But as the whole of us responds to it, so it -takes a whole man to do it. Whatever cracks men up and obliterates -parts of them, makes them powerless to give out this vibration. This is -about all we know of individualism and the integrity of the individual. -The sum of all the philosophies in the history of the world can be -packed back into it. All the tyrannies and abuses in the world are only -bad because they injure this integrity. We desire truth. It is the only -thing we desire. To have it, we must develop the individual. And there -are practical ways and means of doing this. We see that all our abuses -are only odious because they injure some individual man’s spirit. We -can trace the corruption of politics into business, and find private -selfishness at the bottom of it. We can see this spread out into a -network of invisible influence, in the form of intellectual dishonesty -blighting the minds of our people. We can look still closer and see -just why and how the temperament of the private man is expressed. - -We study this first in social life; for social life is the source and -fountain of all things. The touchstone for any civilization is what one -man says to another man in the street. Everything else that happens -there bears a traceable relation to the tone of his voice. The press -reflects it, the pulpit echoes it, the literature reproduces it, the -architecture embodies it. - -The rays of force which start in material prosperity pass through -the focus of social life, and extend out into literature, art, -architecture, religion, philosophy. All these things are but the -sparks thrown off the gestures and gaits, the records of the social -life of some civilization. That is the reason why it has been useful -to pause over a club-house and study its inmates. The ball-room, the -dinner-table, would have been equally instructive. The deference -to reigning convention is the same everywhere. The instinct of -self-concealment, the policy of classing like with like, leads to -the herding of the young with the young only, the sporting with the -sporting only, the rich with the rich only, which is the bane of our -society. The suffocation is mitigated here and there by the influence -of ambitious and educated women. They are doing their best to stem the -tide which they can neither control nor understand. The stratification -of our society, and its crystallization into social groups, is little -short of miraculous, considering the lightning changes of scene. The -_nouveaux riches_ of one decade are the old _noblesse_ of the -next decade, and yet any particular set, at any particular time, has -its exclusions, its code of hats and coats and small talk, which are -more rigid than those of London. - -The only place in the country where society is not dull is Washington, -because in Washington politics have always forced the social elements -to mix; because in Washington, some embers of the old ante-bellum -society survived; because the place has no commerce, and because the -foreign diplomats have been a constant factor, educating the Americans -in social matters. But Washington is not the centre of American -civilization. The controlling force in American life is not in its -politics, but in commerce. New York is the head and heart of the United -States. Chicago is America. And the elements of this life must be -sought, as always, in the small towns. Find the social factors which -are common to New York, to Poughkeepsie, and to Newport, and you have -the keynote to the country. We began with a city club. But it would -have made no difference what gathering we entered--a drawing-room at -Newport, a labor union in Fifteenth Street--we should have found the -same phenomena,--formalism, suppression of the individual, intellectual -dishonesty. - -The dandy at Newport who conscientiously follows his leaders and -observes the cab rule, the glove ordinance, and the mystery of the -oyster fork, is governed by the same law, is fettered by the same -force, as the labor man who fears to tell his fellows that he approves -of Waring’s clean streets. Each is a half-man, each is afraid of his -fellows, and for the same reason. Each is commercial, keeps his place -by conciliatory methods, and will be punished for contumacy by the -loss of his job. Neither of them has an independent opinion upon any -subject. - -The charge brought against our millionaire society is that it is -vulgar. The houses are palaces, the taste is for the most part -excellent, the people are in every sense but the commercial sense more -virtuous than the rich of any other nation. Wealth is poured out in -avalanches. - -Why is all this display not magnificent? The millionaire society is not -vulgar, but it is insignificant. The reason is, that you cannot have -splendor without personal and intellectual independence, and this does -not exist in America. The conversation on the Commodore’s steam yacht -is tedious. The talk at the weekly meeting of the amalgamated glaziers -is insipid, and impresses you with the selfishness of mankind. - -Now what is at the bottom of this identity? We are passing through the -great age of distribution. It is not confined to America. It qualifies -European history. All the different kinds of Socialism are mere proofs -of it. Every one either wants to get something himself, or, if he is -a philosopher, wants to show other people how to get it. Even Henry -George thought that man lives by bread alone; at least, he thought -that if you only give every one lots of bread, that is all you need -provide for; the rest will follow. In America we are leading the world -in the intensity with which this phase of progress goes on, because in -America there is nothing else to occupy men’s minds. Let us return to -our social focus and its relation to the arts. - -The world has groped for three thousand years to find the connection -between morality and the fine arts. It may be that we stand here on the -borderland of discovery. We can at least see that they are not likely -to arise in an era of subserviency and intellectual fog. - -The fine arts are departments of science, and the attitude of mind of -the artist toward his work, or of the public toward his product, is -that of an interest in truth for its own sake. It is the attitude of -the scientific man toward his problems. The scientists do not waver or -cringe. They are the great bullies of this era. They draw their power -from their work. They seek, they proclaim, they monopolize truth. There -is in them the note of greatness, not because of their discoveries, but -because of their pursuit. - -Commercial or sexual crime or violence, that does not unman the -artist, ought not to extinguish art, and it never has done so. Anything -that has made him time-serving or truthless ought to show in his work, -and it always has done so. - -Any system of morality or conjunction of circumstances that tends to -make men tell the truth as they see it will tend to produce what the -world will call art. If the statement be accurate, the world will call -it beautiful. Put it as you will, art is self-assertion and beauty is -accuracy. Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh. - -Anybody can see that fiction depends upon social conditions; for it is -nothing but a description of them. - -Take his clubs and his routs away from Thackeray, his hunting away from -White-Melville, his peasantry away from Scott, his street life away -from Dickens, and where would their books be? Vigorous and picturesque -individuality must precede good fiction. The great American novel, -except as the outcome of a vigorous social life, is the dream of an -idiot. You must have an age of ebullition, where the spontaneous life -about the novelist forces itself into his books, before you can have -good fiction. Architecture depends so plainly upon social life, that -we have only to look at our country houses from Colonial times down, -to read the hearts of the inmates. And so with the other fine arts and -decorations, they are mere languages. - -It is thought that our modern life is more complex than that of the -eighteenth century, because the machinery by which it is carried on is -expanded. Transportation, newspapers, corporations, oceans of books -and magazines, foreign cables, have changed the forms by which power -is transmitted. But the manifestations of humanity in government, in -social life, and in the arts proceed upon the same principles as ever. -Everything depends as completely on personal intercourse as it did in -Athens. The real struggle comes between two men across a table, my -force against your force. The devices which political philosophy has -always approved, are those which protect the spirit of the individual, -and enable it to grow strong. The struggles for English liberty have -been struggles over taxation. The rights of the sovereign to seize -a man’s property, or imprison his body without form of law, were -abolished. This comparative financial independence of the English -subject has been valued as the basis of spiritual independence. It -has no other claim to be thought important. Yet while we have been -praising our bills of rights and bulwarks of liberty, commerce in the -United States has been bringing power after power, battalion after -battalion, to bear upon the integrity of spirit of the individual man. -Here is a situation which no legislation can meet. Civil liberty has -been submerged in the boss system. But this is a mere symptom. It is -valuable only because it brings strikingly into view the intellectual -bondage it denotes. It is valuable only because it gives us a fighting -ground, an educational arena in which the fight for intellectual -liberty may be begun. - -It is unnecessary to go over the steps of the argument backward, and to -show how our citizen movements are a mere sign that the individual is -becoming more unselfish. How, partly through the settling of commerce -into more stable conditions, partly through revulsion in the heart of -man against so much wickedness, a reign of better things is coming. -The Christian Endeavorers, the University Settlements, the innumerable -leagues and propaganda which bring no dogmas, but which stand for -faith--speak for multitudes, affect every one. Their influence can -already be traced into business, into social life, and out again into -every department of our existence. The revolution is going forward on a -great scale, and the demonstration is about to be worked out throughout -the continent as if it were a blackboard. - - * * * * * - -The man who has subscribed $1,000 to the reform campaign, the man -who has worked for the cause, and the man who has voted the ticket, -have met. This personal meeting, this social focus, exists and is -indestructible. These people who have been kept apart by the old -political conditions, by the boss system, and the capitalist; these -men whom every element of selfishness and corruption fought with the -instinct of self-preservation to keep separate, have come together. -The downfall of the old social system, and the redistribution of every -force in the community, is inevitable. In the first place, every -individual in the community has talked about the movement with an -intensity proportionate to his power of good. Our form of government -throws the moral idea with terrible force, as a practical issue, into -the life of each man. “Thou art the man.” The extreme simplicity of -our social fabric makes it impossible for any one to get behind his -institution, his class, his prejudice. There is no one who cannot -be shown up. We are as defenceless before virtue as we were before -selfishness. Our politics can be worked as effectively by one passion -as by the other--but we are only just beginning to find this out. - -Free speech and the grouping, classing, and mingling of men according -to intellect, and not according to income, have begun already. They -are not more the outcome than they are the cause of these citizens’ -movements. They are the same elemental thing. The love of truth is the -same passion as the veneration for the individual. It is impossible -to really want reform and to remain socially exclusive or socially -deferential. And so, a social life is beginning to emerge in New York, -based on the noblest and the most natural passion that can stir in the -heart of man The results in the field of practical politics, will be -that “society”--at least such of our drawing-rooms and dinner tables -as any one, whether foreigner or native, knows or cares anything -about--will resume the political importance which such places have -always held in civilized times, and of which nothing but extraordinary -and transient conditions have deprived them. Let any one who doubts -this, compare the club talk and dinner table talk of to-day, with the -talk of ten years ago. It would be childish to guess the positive -results on the arts, theatres, novels, verse which will follow; but you -can no more keep the spirit of freedom out of these things than you can -keep it out of personal manners. These are changing daily. The decorums -and codes of behavior, the old self-consciousness and self-distrust -are dropping off. Steadily the flood of life advances, inspiring all -things. - - - - -EDUCATION: FROEBEL - - - - -III - -EDUCATION: FROEBEL - - -I have two boys, aged seven and four. They required a governess and I -got one. After a couple of months during which the usual experiences -in the training of young children were gone through, I discovered that -it was I who was being educated. My mind was being swayed and drawn -to a point of view. I was in contact with a method so profound that -it seemed as if I were dealing with, or rather being dealt with by -the forces of nature. I was in the presence of great genius. What was -it? The text book on Froebel by Hughes in the International Series on -Education made the matter clear. - -Froebel was an experimental psychologist who used the terms of the -German philosophy of his day. But the facts of life, the thing he was -studying, was never for a moment absent from his mind. He lived in an -age when the ideas of evolution were in the air, and before they had -received their conclusive proof by being applied to morphology. - -This application has for a time killed philosophy, for it has -identified the new ideas with the physical sciences, and led men to -study the human mind in psychology and from without. Whereas the mind -and its laws can, in the nature of things, be studied only through -introspection. Froebel had a scientific intellect of the very first -calibre; he had the conception of flux, of change, of evolution to -start with; and he took up introspectively the study of the laws of the -human mind, choosing that province of the universe where they are most -visibly and typically exposed,--the mind of the growing child. - -The “laws” which he states are little more than a description of the -phenomena that he observed. They are statements of the results of his -experiments, and the language he employs can be translated to suit -the education of almost any one. His attention was so concentrated -upon fact that his terminology does not mislead. It can be translated -into the language of metaphysics, of Christian theology, or of modern -science, and it remains incorruptibly coherent. - -His method of study was the only method which can obtain results in -philosophy, self-study unconsciously carried on. He observed the -child, and guessed at what was going on in its mind by a comparison -with what he knew of himself. He was anxious to train young children -intelligently, and he found it necessary to describe and formulate -his knowledge of the operation of their minds. It turns out that he -made a statement of the universe more comprehensive, a philosophy more -universal, than any other of which we have any record. - -But this is not the most important thing he did. He devised a method -based upon his experiments and set agoing the kindergarten upon -its course in conquest of the world. If it had not been for this, -he might never have been heard of, for the world has small use for -systems of philosophy, however profound, expressed in terms which have -been superseded and are become inexpressive. But Froebel started a -practice. He showed the way. He put in the hands of persons to whom his -philosophy must ever remain a mystery, the means of working out those -practical ends for which that philosophy was designed. - -The greatness of Froebel lies in this, that he saw the essential. What -sort of an animal is man, asks the morphologist, for he is beginning -to reach this point in his studies, and before he has asked it, Froebel -has answered him. - -‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength.’ - -It may be said at once that the substance of everything Froebel says -was known before. Solomon and Orpheus, Marcus Aurelius, Emerson, and -all of us have known it. Otherwise Froebel would be unimportant. It is -his correlation and his formulation of the main facts about human life -that make him important. It is as a summary of wisdom, as a focus of -idea, as a lens through which the rest of the ideas in the world can be -viewed, that he is great. - - * * * * * - -The laws he discovered may be stated in a paragraph. The child is a -growing organism. It is a unity. It develops through creative activity. -It is benefited by contact with other children and is happy in -proportion as it is unselfishly employed. - -Let us assume for a moment that these things are true, that they are -the most important truths about the child; and let us see how they -must affect our views of life, of politics, sociology, art, religion, -conduct. There is of course no moment at which the child ceases to be -a child. The laws of its growth and being are not at any discoverable -time superseded by any new laws. Man as a creature, as an organism, has -here by Froebel, and for the first time in history, been ingenuously -studied, and the main laws of him noted. With the discovery that he is -a unity, there vanishes every classification of science made since the -days of Aristotle. They are convenient dogmas, thumb rule distinctions, -useful as aids in the further pushing of our studies into the workings -of this unity. Take up now a book of political economy, a poem, a -history: this thought of Froebel’s runs through it like quicksilver. -The scheme of thought of the writer is by it dissolved at once into -human elements. You find you are studying the operation of the mind of -some one, whom you picture to yourself as a man, as a unit; you are -interpreting this by your own experience. It is all psychology, you are -pushing your analysis. The universe is receiving its interpretation -through you yourself. We are thus brought to the point of view of the -mystic, as the only conceivable point of view. - -“That the organism develops by creative activity.” This might have -come as a deduction from Darwin. It is an expression in metaphysical -language of the “struggle for life.” Froebel discovered it -independently. The consequences of a belief in it are so tremendous, -that no man who is not prepared to spend the rest of his life -completely dominated by the idea, ought even to pause to consider it. - -Your capacities, your beliefs, your development, your spiritual -existence are the result of what you do. Active creation of some sort, -occupation which takes your entire attention and calls upon you, -merely incidentally and as a matter of course, for thought, resource, -individual or original force; this will develop you and nothing else -will. - -The connection between this thought and the previous one is apparent. -It is only by such creative activity that the organism as a unit gets -into play. If you set a man copying or memorizing, you have occupied -only a fraction of him. If you set him to making something, the minute -he begins, his attention is concentrated. Willy nilly he is trying to -make something significant, he is endeavoring to express himself, the -forces and powers within him begin coming to his succor, offering aid -and suggestion. Before he knows it, his whole being is in operation. -The result is a statement of some sort, and in the process of making -it the creature has developed. But when you say “significant” you have -already implied the existence of other organisms. He is not expressing -himself only, he is expressing them all, and here comes Froebel with -his third great discovery, that it is by constant personal intercourse -with others that the power to express is gained. And on top of this -comes the last law, so closely related to the third as to be merely -a new view of it, but discovered by experiment, tested by practice, -announced empirically and as a fact, that the child is unselfish and -only really happy when at work creatively and for the use and behoof of -others. - -This conclusion throws back its rays over the course of the argument, -and we are compelled to see, what we have already known, that -unselfishness and intellectual development are one and the same thing, -that there is no failure of intellect which cannot be expressed in -terms of selfishness, and no selfishness that cannot be expressed as -intellectual shortcoming. Criminology has reached the same point by -another route. - -The matter is really very simple, for anything self-regardant means -a return of the organism upon itself, a stepping on your own toes, -and brings self-consciousness, discomfort, pain. Self-sacrifice -on the other hand brings fulfilment. The self-sacrifice is always -illusory, and the development real. This becomes frightfully apparent -in ingenuous and unhappy love affairs, for the organism robbed of -fulfilment returns upon itself. - -It makes little difference what province of thought we begin with in -applying these views to the world. They give results like a table of -logarithms. They do more than this, they unravel the most complex -situations, they give the key to conduct and put a compass in the hands -of progress. They explain history, they support religion, they justify -instinct, they interpret character. They give the formula for doing -consciously what mankind has been doing unconsciously in so far as it -has been doing what any one of us in his soul approves of or cares to -imitate. - -Let us take up the most obvious deductions. If people develop according -to their activities, their opinions will be a mere reflex of their -conduct. What they see in the world comes out of what they do in the -world. Here in a mere niche of Froebel we find the whole of Emerson. - -The power and permanence of Sainte Beuve are due to his having applied -this theory to the interpretation of literature. He is not content till -he has seen the relation between the conduct and the opinions, the -conduct and the art of a character. - -Or take Emerson himself, why was it that being so much he was not -more? How came it that after his magnificent prologue in the Phi Beta -Kappa address, which is like the opening of a symphony, he relapsed -into iteration and brilliant but momentary visions of his own horizon? -He kept repeating his theme till he piped himself into fragmentary -inconsequence. The reason is that he had learned all he knew before he -retired to Concord and contemplation. Active life would have made him -blossom annually and last like Gladstone. - -Or take Goethe: all that is questionable in him results from his -violation of two of Froebel’s laws of psychology. He fixed his -attention upon self-development and thereby gradually ossified. Every -moment of egotism was an intellectual loss. His contact with people, -meanwhile, became more and more formal as he grew older, and his work -more and more inexpressive. - -Give me a man’s beliefs, and I will give you his occupation. What has -happened to that radical that he seems to have become so moderate and -reasonable? You find that for six months he has been clerk to the Civil -Service Reform Club. Why is the mystical poetry of this intellectual -man as vacant as the fashion print he edits for his daily bread? His -employment has tracked his mind to these unearthly regions. He is dead -here too. - -There is no such thing as independent belief, based on evidence and -reflection. The thing we call belief is a mere record left by conduct. -If you sincerely go through the regimen of Loyola’s manual, you will -come out a Jesuit. You can no more resist it than you can resist the -operation of ether. This man is an optimist. It means that he has -struggled. That man is a pessimist. It means that he has shirked. -Here is one who has been in touch with all movements for good during -a dismal era of corruption, and yet he has no faith. It means that -the whole of him has not been enlisted. His conscience has drawn him -forward. It is not enough. There is compromise in him. He is not an -absolute fighter. - -Here is the most excellent gentleman in America, an old idealist -untouchably transcendental, an educated man. To your amazement he -thinks that it is occasionally necessary to subsidize the powers of -evil. He was bred a banker. - -Here is a village schoolma’am who from a rag of information in a county -paper has divined the true inwardness of a complicated controversy at -Washington which you happen to know all about. She has been reforming a -poorhouse. - -A is a clergyman, good but ineffective. He relies on beneficence and -persuasion. He does not know the world better than a club loafer knows -it. The only entry to it is by attack, the only progress by action. - -B is a good fellow, yet betrays a momentary want of delicacy which -gives you a shock, and which you forgive him, saying: “It is a -coarseness of natural fibre.” It is no such thing. There is in every -man a natural fibre as fine as a poet’s. His coarseness is the residuum -of an act. - -You meet a man whom you have known as a court stenographer, and whom -you have supposed to be drowned in worldly cares. At a chop house he -gives you a discourse on Plato’s Phædrus which he interprets in a novel -way. The brains of the man surprise you. This man, though he looks -sordid, positively must have been sending a younger brother to college -during many years. There is no other explanation of him. - -The nemesis of conduct then stalks about in the form of a natural law, -not as the pseudo science of fancy, but as a mode of growth, modestly -formulated by a great naturalist. - -Take the matter up on its other side. You can only discover in the -universe, try how you will, strain your eyes how you please, you can -only see what you have lived. Out of our activity comes our character, -and it is with this that we see beauty or ugliness, hope or despair. It -is by this that we gauge the operation of economic law and of all other -spiritual forces. It is with this that we interpret all things. What we -see is only our own lives. - -We are all more or less in contact with human life. We live in a -pandemonium, a paradise of illustrations, and if we have only eyes to -see, there is enough in any tenement house to-day to lay bare the heart -and progress of Greek art. - -But the worst is to come--the horror that makes intellect a plaything. -By a double consequence the past fetters the future. Once take any -course and our eyes begin to see it as right, our hearts to justify it. -Only fighting can save us, and we see nothing to fight for. Thraldom -enters and night like death where no voice reaches. The eternal -struggle is for vision. - -How idiotic are the compliments or the contempt of the inexperienced. -Nothing but life teaches. Hallam thinks Juliet immodest, and he had -read all the literatures of Europe. If you want to understand the Greek -civilization you have got to be Sophocles. If you want to understand -the New Testament you have got to be Christ. If you want to understand -that most complex and difficult of all things, the present, you must be -some or all of it, some of it any way. You must have it ground into you -by a contact so wrenchingly close, by a struggle so severe, that you -lose consciousness, and afterwards--next year--you will understand. - -Here is the reaction familiar to all men since the dawn of history, -which makes the man of action the hero of all times. It goes in -courage, it comes out power. - -This reaction, this transformation goes forward in the very stuff that -we are made of, and if we come to look at it closely, we are obliged -to speak of it in terms of consciousness. There are so many different -kinds of consciousness, that the best we can do is to remind some one -else of the kind we mean. The hand of the violinist is unconscious -to the extent that it is functioning properly, and as his command -over music develops, this unconsciousness creeps up his arm and -possesses his brain and being, until he, as he plays, is completely -unself-conscious and his music is the mere projection of an organism -which is functioning freely. - -But this condition of complete concentration makes us in a -different sense of the word self-conscious in the highest degree, -self-comprehending, self-controlled, self-expressing. And it is in -this philosophical sense that the word self-conscious is used by the -Germans, and may sometimes be conveniently used by us, if we can do so -without foregoing the right to use the words conscious and unconscious -in their popular sense at other times. - -The discovery of Froebel was that this mastery over our own powers was -to be obtained only through creative activity. The suggestion, it may -be noted, is destined to reorganize every school of violin playing in -Europe. For we have here the major canon of a rational criticism. We -find that in the old vocabulary such words as genius, temperament, -style, originality, etc., have always been fumblingly used to denote -different degrees in which some man’s brain was working freely and -with full self-consciousness. A deliverance of this kind has always -been designated as ‘creative,’ no matter in what field it was found. - -Approaching the matter more closely, we see that the whole of the -man must have responded in real life to every particle of experience -which he uses in his work. An imitation means something which does not -represent an original unitary vibration. - -Goethe puts in the mouth of the mad Gretchen a snatch of German song -in imitation of Ophelia. The treatment does not fit the character. It -has only been through that part of Goethe’s mind with which he read -Shakespeare. As a sequel to this suggestion, the peasant of the early -scenes has lavished upon her all the various reminiscences of the -pathetic that Goethe could muster. It is moving, but it is inorganic. -It is not true. - -For note this, that while it takes the whole of a man to do anything -true, no matter how small, anything that the whole of him does is -right. Hence the inimitable grotesques of greatness, the puns in -tragedy. These things belong to the very arcana of nature. By and by, -when the reasons are understood, nature will be respected. No one will -attempt to imitate genius, or to reproduce an artistic effect of any -kind. - -If we look at recent literature by the light of this canon, we find the -reason for its inferiority. It is the work of half minds, of men upon -whose intelligence the weight of a dogma is pressing. - -The eclipse of philosophy was of course reflected in fiction. There is -the same trouble with Herbert Spencer as with Zola. Each of them thinks -to wrest the secrets of sociology from external observation. Their -books lack objectivity and are ephemeral. Kant and Balzac did better -because their method was truer. - -Everything good that has been done in the last fifty years has been -done in the teeth of current science. The whole raft of English -scientists are children playing with Raphael’s brushes the moment they -leave some specialty. There never lived a set of men more blinded -by dogma, blinded to the meaning of the past, to the trend of the -future, by the belief that they had found new truth. Not one of them -can lift the stone and show what lies under Darwin’s demonstration. -They run about with little pamphlets and proclaim a New Universe like -Frenchmen. They bundle up all beliefs into a great Dogma of Unbelief, -and throw away the kernel of life with the shell. This was inevitable. -A generation or two was well sacrificed, in this last fusillade of the -Dogma of Science--the old guard dogma that dies but never surrenders. -Hereafter it will be plain that the whole matter is a matter of symbols -on the one hand, knowledge of human nature on the other. - -Herbert Spencer has been a useful church-warden to science, but his -knowledge of life was so trifling, his own personal development so -one-sided, that his sociology is a farce. - -This canon of criticism explains in a very simple manner the art ages, -times when apparently every one could paint, or speak, or compose. The -art which is lost is really the art of courageous action. Neither war -nor dogma nor revolution is necessary, for feeling can no more be lost -than force, and the power to express it depends upon an interest in -life. The past has enriched us with conventions, and whenever a man -or a group of men arises who uses them and is not subdued to them, we -have art. The thing is easy. To the doers it is a mere knack of the -attention. - -We had almost thought that art was finished, and we find we are -standing at the beginning of all things. Froebel has found a formula -which fits every human activity. - -Let us take the supreme case, the apogee of human development, and what -will it be? - -The sum of all possible human knowledge is, as we have seen, an -expansion of our understanding of human nature, and this is got by -intercourse, by dealing with men, by getting them to do something. In -order to make them do it, in order to govern, you must understand, and -the rulers of mankind are the wisest of the species. They summarize -society. Solomon, Cæsar, Hildebrand, Lincoln, Bismarck, these men knew -their world. - -But if a virtuous ruler be the prototype of all possible human -fulfilment, there is no other art or province of employment to which -the same views do not apply. When any man reaps some of the power -which his toil has sown, and throws it out as a note or a book or a -statue, it has an organic relation to the human soul and is valuable -forever. There is only one rule of art. Let a man work at a thing till -it looks right _to him_. Let him adjust and refine it till, as he -looks at it, it passes straight into him, and he grows for a moment -unconscious again, that the forces which produced it may be satisfied. -As it stands then, it is the best he can do. In so far as we completely -develop this power we become completely happy and completely useful, -for our acts, our statements, our notes, our books, our statues become -universally significant. - -Once feel this truth, and you begin to lose the sense of your identity, -to know that your destiny, your self, is an organic part of all men. -It is they that speak. It is themselves that have been found and -expressed. It was this toward which we tended, this that we cared -for--action, art, intellect, unselfishness, are they not one thing? - -The complete development of every individual is necessary to our -complete happiness. And there is no reason why any one who has ever -been to a dull dinner party should doubt this. Nay, history gives proof -that solitude is dangerous. Man cannot sing, nor write, nor paint, nor -reform, nor build, nor do anything except die, alone. The reasons for -this are showered upon us by the idea of Froebel, no matter which side -of it is turned toward us. - -This philosophy which seemed so dry till we began to see what it -meant, begins now to circumscribe God and include everything. For -Christ himself was one whose thoughts were laws and whose deeds are -universal truth. Shakespeare’s plays are universal truth. They are the -projection of a completely developed and completely unconscious human -intellect. They educated Germany, and it is to the study of them that -Hegel’s view of life is due. The great educational forces in the world -are proportioned in power to the development of the individual man in -the epochs they date from. Here and there, out of a hotbed, arises -a personal influence which directs thought for a thousand years and -qualifies time forever. - -The division of the old ethics into egoism and altruism receives the -sanction of science. The turning of the attention upon selfish ends, -no matter how remote nor how momentary, hurts the organism, contracts -the intellect, dries up the emotions, and is felt as unhappiness. The -turning of the attention toward public aims benefits the organism, -enlarges the intellect, and is felt as happiness. There is no -complexity possible, for any mixed motive is a selfish motive. - -All the virtues are different names for the injunction of self-mastery, -by which the internal struggle is made more severe, and the force -cooped in and controlled until it is released in the functioning of the -whole man. - -In any sincere struggle for right, then, no matter how petty, we are -fighting for mankind, and this is just what everybody has always known, -always believed. - -It is thrown at us as a great paradox, that somebody must pay the -bills; that if you live upon charity and can succeed in getting -yourself crucified, you are still a mere product of thrift and -selfishness somewhere. But the paradox is the same if put the other -way, for selfishness would never support you. - -The question is purely one of fact, what thing comes first, what thing -satisfies the heart of man. He may support himself merely as a means to -help others. A man may start a pauper and die a millionaire, and yet -never think a thought or do an act which does not add to the welfare of -man. It is a question of ultimate controlling intention. - -Man the microcosm is a kingdom where reigns continual war. Now he is -a furnace of love, the next moment he is a mean scamp. We know very -little about the mechanism by which these microcosms communicate with -one another. It seems likely that every iota of feeling must be either -transmitted or transformed; that if a spasm of selfishness be conveyed, -or some part of it, even by a glimpse of the eye, it must leave a -record of injury and start on a career of injury, just so much loss to -the world. On the other hand it may be transformed into the other kind -of force and expended later in good. - -The thing is governed by some simple law, although man has not yet -been able to reduce it to algebra. What is most curious is this, that -the tendency of any man to believe in the reaction as a law, is not -dependent upon his scientific training, but upon his moral experience. -The best heads in physics will still betray a belief that a man must -be able to afford to be unselfish, that selfishness often does good, -that it is a muddled up affair, and a thing outside of science which -they will get round to later. Everybody sees a few degrees in the arc -of this law. Read the index on the quadrant and you will have his -character. Now and then some saint swears he sees a circle. - -Let us press the inquest. It is not likely that life itself is duplex -or consists of two kinds of force, one egoistic, one altruistic. The -likelihood is the other way. There is only one force which vibrates -through these organisms. It is absolutely beneficent only when it -completely controls one of them, so that the whole thing sings together. - -This music is the highest, but the notes that go to make it up are -everywhere. Altruism does not arise, is not imposed from without, at -any period or by any crisis, by progress or by society. The spiral -unwinds with the unwinding life upon the globe. It is the form of -illusion under which all life proceeds. It is the law of mind. The -eye treats space and color as entities. It cannot see on any other -terms. The stomach digests food, but not its own lining. We are obliged -to think in terms of the objective universe. We are not wholesome -unless we are self-forgetting. There is no cranny in all the million -manifestations of nature where you can interfere between the organism -and its object without representing disease. - -And man is more than a mere altruistic animal. At least the religions -of Humanity have never expressed him. At those times when he is -entirely unselfish and therefore entirely himself, when he feels -himself to be one single well-spring, all unselfishness, all love, -all reverence, all service to something not himself, yet something -personal, he has faith. The theologies are attempts to formulate this -state of mind in order that it may be preserved. It is clear enough -that every mind must speak in its own symbols, and that the symbols -of one must always appear to another as illusions. Yet each man for -himself knows he faces a reality. This is a psychological necessity. -Destroy the belief, and on the instant he changes. Show him that he is -the victim of an illusion, and he is divided, a half man. A man whose -mind is divided, as, for instance, by the consciousness of a personal -motive, cannot believe. He stands like the wicked king in the play of -Hamlet; unable to pray. It is a psychological impossibility. - -The concern of mankind for their forms of doctrine is gratuitous. Faith -re-appears under new names. You cannot convince a lover that he is bent -on self-development, nor any decent man that he does not believe in, is -not controlled by something higher than himself. The question is not -one of words. - -We may trace this reverent attitude of mind upward through the acts and -activities of the spirit, and it makes no difference whether we regard -religion as the source and origin of them all or as the summary of them -all. - -In Shakespeare’s plays we see a cycle of human beings, the most living -that we have ever met with, and the absence of mystical or emotional -religion from many of the plays is one of the wonders of nature. -There is no God anywhere, and God is everywhere; we are not offended. -The reason may be that the element has been employed in the act of -creation. Religion has been consumed in the development of character. -It is felt in the relation of Shakespeare to the characters. It is here -seen as artistic perfection. The same is true of the Greek statues and -of the Sistine Sibyls, and of other work left by those two periods, the -only other periods in which the individual attained completion. - -Observe that in all this philosophy there is no dogma anywhere, no term -whose definition you have to learn, no term which makes the lying claim -that it can be used twice with the same connotation. Froebel had the -instinct of a poet and knew his language was figurative. It was this -that freed him from the Middle Ages and gave him to the future. He took -theology as lightly as he took metaphysics. He did not impose them, he -evoked them. He lived and thought in the spirit. - -If you turn from Froebel’s analysis of human nature to Goethe’s, there -seem to be a thousand years between them. The one is scientific, the -other is mediæval. The one has freed himself from the influences of the -revival of learning, the other has not. The one is open, the other is -closed. The one is free, the other is self-conscious. But Froebel has -not yet set free the rest of the race, and of course the literature -and practices of the kindergartners are full of dogmas. The terms of -Froebel are a snare to those whose interest in childhood came later -than their interest in education and whose attention is fixed upon the -terms rather than upon the child. He is easy reading to the other sort. - -But more important than Froebel’s formulation of these great truths -was his formulation of subsidiary truths. I do not mean his labored -systems, but his practical suggestions born of experience as to how to -help another person to develop. It was these methods, this attitude -of the teacher towards the child, of the individual towards his -fellow, that came at me in my own house unexpectedly, emanating from -some unknown mind, which seemed so great as practically to include -Christianity. - -“Do not imagine,” he says at every moment, “that you can do anything -for this creature except by getting it to move spontaneously. You have -not begun till you have done this, and remember that anything else you -do is just so much harm.” - -He was never tired of suggesting devices for doing this. The following -passage gives in a few words the answer to the most important practical -question in life: how we ought to approach another human being. The -thing is said so simply, it seems almost commonplace, yet it comes from -one greater than Kant. - -“Between educator and pupil, between request and obedience, there -should invisibly rule a third something to which educator and pupil -are equally subject. This third something is the _right_, -the _best_, necessarily conditioned and expressed without -arbitrariness in the circumstances. The calm recognition, the clear -knowledge, and the serene, cheerful obedience to the rule of this third -something, is the particular feature that should be constantly and -clearly manifest in the bearing and the conduct of the educator and -teacher, and often firmly and sternly emphasized by him.” - -Beneath this statement there lies a law of reaction. The human -organism responds in kind. Strike a man and he strikes, sneer and he -sneers, forget and he forgets. If you wish to convince him that you -are right, concede that from his point of view he is right, then move -the point and he follows. If you keep your temper in teaching a child, -you teach him to keep his temper, and this is more important than his -lesson. - -The difficulty we find is to resist the reaction in ourselves to -some one else’s initiative. The affair is outside the province of -reason, and results from a transfer of force by means which we do not -understand. The command to “turn the other cheek” is a picturesque -figure for the attitude which will enable you to prevail the quickest -and by the highest means, and which Froebel enables us to see in its -scientific aspect. - -But it is unnecessary to illustrate further what any one who comes in -contact with a kindergarten will, through all the mists of dogma and -ignorance which overspread the place, discover for himself. We have a -science founded upon human nature, applied to education. Mr. Hughes in -his closing paragraph uses the language of theology, but he makes no -overstatement:-- - -“When Froebel’s ethical teaching has wrought its perfect work in the -homes, the schools, and the churches, then his complete ideal, which -is the gospel ideal in practice, will be the greatest controlling and -uplifting force in the world.” - -One word more about the relation between Froebel’s thought and current -science. - -The view of man as an active animal, a struggler, alive and happy -only in activity, falls in naturally with what we know of the animal -kingdom. The philosophers are at war over science and religion, -over the origin of the non-self-regarding instincts. By an external -consideration of the animal hierarchy they have come to certain -conclusions which they strive to apply to the highest animal, man. -There is great boggling over him; because these non-self-regarding -instincts, which are not very apparent from the outside, seem to -conflict with certain generalizations relative to the conservation -of species. The scientists look into a drop of water and see animals -eating each other up. What they have not seen is that all this ferocity -goes forward, subject to customs as rigid as a military code, and -that it is this code which conserves the species. The “struggle for -existence” as it is commonly conceived would exterminate in short -order any species that indulged in it. - -Meanwhile Froebel, beginning at the other end of the scale and studying -life from the inside, has established certain facts, certain laws, -which have as great a weight, and deserve as much to be carried -downward in the scale, as the generalizations of the naturalists (very -likely imperfect) have to be carried upward. - -The animal man is unselfish. It is impossible to make his organism -vibrate as a unity except by some emotion which can be shown to be -non-self-regarding. At what point in the scale of nature does this -quality begin to manifest itself? Is the dog happy when he is selfish; -do the laws of psychology outlined by Froebel apply, and to what -extent do they apply, to the horse or the monkey? These things must be -patiently studied, and the corrections must be made. In the mean time, -in dealing with man himself, we are obliged to rely upon the latest -scientific report of him, however imperfect, and until Froebel’s laws -are destroyed, we need not attempt to adjust our ideas of man to the -dogmas developed by the study of the lower animals. - - - - -DEMOCRACY - - - - -IV - -DEMOCRACY - - -The system of choosing public officials by popular vote is properly -enough called Democracy. The terms of tenure and nomenclature, -etc., are matters of detail. If we are to seek any test as to what -constitutes a Democracy, we may as well take as a test the formal -setting up at a particular time of some scheme of government by the -popular will. England has been a democracy since the Act of Settlement, -and if it be said that universal suffrage was not then known, the -answer is that it is not known now, and never can be known. The -exclusions of women and non-naturalized residents or even of criminals -and lunatics are matters of convenience. It is a question of degree. - -Again, it is impossible that all the officials should be elected, and -the assignment to the elected officials of the power to appoint the -others is a matter of convenience. The very simple expedients adopted -by the framers of the United States Constitution were the result of -English experience and French theory. The intellect of France had, -during the eighteenth century, put into portable form the ideas that -had been at work in England’s institutions. The theoretical part of -it, the division of government into three departments, had been worked -out from European experience going back to Greek times. The written -constitution was a mere expansion of the Bill of Rights. Our Framers -were men who had had personal experience in governing under the -English system in force in the colonies, where the power of practical -self-government had been developed by isolation. They received from the -French a scientific view of that system. They had learned by experience -that a confederacy was not a government, and they proceeded to bind the -country together by the grant of that power which defines government, -the power to tax. The extension to a large territory of a system which -was in practical operation in all its parts, was in one sense a miracle -of intelligence, in another sense it was the only conceivable solution -of the problem of unity. Philosophers speak of Democracy as if it were -the outcome of choice. It has been the outcome of events. No other -system would have endured, and every formula of government that did not -embody an old usage would have been transformed in ten years by the -popular will into something that did. - -The reason the Constitution of the United States is the most remarkable -document in existence is that it contained so little of novelty. The -election of some officers and the appointment of the rest, that was -what the people were used to. That is democracy. There is of course no -such thing as a pure democracy, or a pure monarchy. Every government is -in practice the outcome of forces of which a very small fraction are -expressed in its constitution and laws. - -A constitution is a profession of faith, a summary written on a -bulletin board, and so far good. The United States had this advantage -in starting upon her career, that the bulletin was a very accurate -summary of existing customs, and was in itself an inspiring proof of -the virtue of the people. We are driven into admiring the Colonists -as among the most enlightened of their kind. It is true that the -revolution was conducted, and the Constitution adopted by the activity -of a small minority. But this is true of all revolutions. The point is -that the leaders represented sense and virtue. The people followed. - -The moment the scheme was launched it became the sport of the elements. -In the North a trading bourgeoisie grew up under it. In the South -a slave-holding oligarchy, a society so fantastically out of touch -with the modern world that it seems like something left over from the -times before Christ, found no difficulty in making use of the forms of -Democracy. During the half century that followed, these two societies -became so hostile to each other that conflict was inevitable, and there -ensued a death-grapple in four years of war, a war to extinction. At -the end of the war no trace of the oligarchy remained upon the face -of the earth. And yet these forms of government survived and began to -operate immediately, under new auspices of course, deflected by new -passions, showing new shapes of distortion, yet ideally the same. The -only common element between the north and the south was the reverence -for these forms of government. - -Meanwhile civilization had been creeping westward in a margin of -frontier life, conducted under these forms. Behind this moved a belt of -farming and village life, at war with the backwoods ideals, but using -the same forms of government. Then arose the railroad era and tore -millions of money from the continent, heaped it in cities, obliterated -State lines, centralized everything, controlled everything, ruled -everybody--still under these forms. - -Let us examine them. - -The problem of government is to protect the individuals in a community -against each other, and to protect them all against the rest of the -world. The power to interfere and the power to represent must be -lodged somewhere, and the question is how to arrange it so that this -power shall not be turned against the people. Democracy solves it by -election. Let the people choose their rulers. Instantly every man is -turned into a custodian, a part of him is dedicated to the public. -He is prevented by fundamental theory of law from being absolutely -selfish. Corrupt him how you will, deflect him, play upon him, degrade, -deceive him, you cannot shut him off from this influence. The framework -of government makes continuous appeal to the highest within him. It -draws him as the moon draws the sea. This appeal is one to which -the organic nature of man responds, as we have seen. For man is an -unselfish animal. The law of his nature is expressed in the framework -of government. The arrangement shows a wisdom so profound that all -historical philosophy grows cheap before it. - -If you jump from the study of psychology straight into the theory of -democracy, you see why it was that the allegiance to the ideas of -the United States Constitution endured through slavery, through the -carpetbag era, through the Tweed ring. It was not the letter, but the -spirit which was inextinguishable. - -It has taken a century of pamphlets to break down the distinctions -between men based upon orders of nobility, property, creed, etc. -Fifteen minutes of psychology would have levelled men and set them upon -the same footing as that upon which they walk into a hospital. - -The creature man is by this system dealt with so simply as he had not -been dealt with since the birth of Christ. It must be conceded that the -thing could not even have been tried, except with a people familiar -with the distinctions between legislative, executive, and judicial -power, criminal and civil law, etc. Altruistic impulse would not have -sufficed to execute itself. But the divisions and forms of thought -expressive of that altruism already existed, and were in operation, as -we have seen. - -It is thought that the peculiar merit of Democracy lies in this: that -it gives to every man a chance to pursue his own ends. The reverse is -true. The merit lies in the assumption imposed upon every man that he -shall serve his fellow men. This is by the law of his being his only -chance for happiness. You cannot find a man who does not know this. If -you examine the consciousness of any typical minion of success, you -will find that his source of inward content lies in a belief that his -success has benefited somebody--his kindred, his townsfolk--mankind. - -The concentration of every man on his own interests has been the danger -and not the safety of Democracy; for Democracy contemplates that every -man shall think first of the State and next of himself. This is its -only justification. In so far as it is operated by men who are thinking -first of their own interests and then of the State, its operation is -distorted. - -Democracy assumes perfection in human nature. In so far as an official -or a voter is corrupt, you will have bad government. Or to put the -same thing in another way, all corruption is shown up as a loss of -the power of self-government. The framework of government lies there -exposed in all its parts like a vast and complex dial, recording with -the nicety of a scientific instrument every departure from virtue of -the human beings whose lives, whose standards, whose very thoughts are -registered against it. When selfishness reaches a certain point, the -machine stops. Government by force comes in. We have had railroad riots -and iron foundry riots. In Denver not many months ago thirty thousand -people, or about one-fifth of the population, engaged in a carnival of -destruction and raided a picnic given by the Cattle Association. These -ebullitions, which look like mania, are nothing but an acute form of -blind selfishness, due to the education of a period in which everything -has been settled by an appeal to the self-interest of the individual. -The Bryanism, with which we must all sympathize, is nothing but a -revolt on the part of the poorer classes against the exploitation of -the country by the capitalist, due to pension laws, tariffs, trusts, -etc. “Something must now be done for me,” says the laboring man, and -the mine owner says “Silver.” The appeal is by a little manipulation -worked up into a craze, with the result that property is unsafe. -The craze is a craze of mistaken selfishness. One of the weapons -with which the richer classes fought it was corruption. They fed the -element which was devouring them. There is talk of bayonets, and it is -true that either bayonets or public spirit must in such cases be the -issue. We cannot have property at the mercy of a mob, and if any single -state like Colorado were separated from the rest, and the spirit of -unreason should possess it utterly, government by force would ensue. -Elections would be superseded, and property would improvise some mode -of practical government which every intelligent man would back. The -danger of an episode of this sort is that it interrupts the course of -things. It is revolution. It is the breakdown of democracy, and tends -to perpetuate the conditions of incompetence out of which the crisis -arises. Fortunately the country is so large that one State holds up the -next. No community would tolerate a state of siege for more than six -months, and the State would return to educational methods, weaker but -alive. - -A military imposition of order is then the extreme case. But the Boss -system is the halfway house in the breakdown of free government. -In the Boss system we have seen a lack of virtue in the people show -itself in the shape of a government, in fact autocratic, but in form -republican. Here again the loss in the power of self-government is -apparent. - -But there is no departure from civic virtue which can get by unnoticed. -Take the case of a voter who submits to having his street kept -dirty because he fears that a protest would make him disagreeably -conspicuous. Here also the loss of power of self-government is -traceably recorded. So much selfishness--so much filth. - -If we now recur for a moment to the state of things described in the -essay on politics, we see that our government in all its branches -has reflected the occupation and spiritual state of the people very -perfectly. But outside of the recurrent and regular political activity -of the country, there has grown up during the past few years a sort of -guerilla warfare of reform. This represents the conservative morality -of the community, the instinct of right government which resents the -treason to our institutions seen in their operation for private gain. -The reformers’ methods of work are necessarily democratic, and it is -here that the most delicate tests of self-seeking are to be found. -These reformers desire to increase the unselfishness in the world, -yet the moment they attempt a practical reform they are told that any -appeal to an unselfish motive in politics means sure failure. They -accordingly make every variety of endeavor to use the selfishness of -some one as a lever to increase the unselfishness of somebody else. -The thing is worked out in daylight time after time, year after year, -and the results are recorded in millegrams. No obscurity is possible -because every man stands on the same footing. Our minds are not -obscured by thinking that A must be sincere because he is a bishop, or -need not be sincere because he is a lord. - -There is no landlord class with prejudices, no socialist class with -theories. There are no interests except money interests, and against -money the fight is made. If a man is a traitor it is because he has -been bought. The results, stated in terms of ethical theory, are simply -startling. - -A reform movement employs a paid secretary. In so far as he gets -the place because of his reform principles he represents an appeal -to selfishness. This is instantly reflected in his associates, it -colors the movement. He himself is attracted partly by the pay. By -an operation as impossible to avoid as the law of gravity he enlists -others who are also partially self-seeking. - -A Good Government Club is formed by X, and every member is called upon -for dues and work. It thrives. Another is founded by Y and supported -by him because of his belief that reform cannot support itself but -must be subsidized. Inside of three weeks the existence of X’s Club -is threatened, because its members hear that Y’s Club is charitably -supported and they themselves wish relief. They are turned from workers -into strikers by the mere report that there is money somewhere. -Spend $100 on the Club, and Tammany will be able to buy it when the -need arises. So frightfully accurate is the record of an appeal to -self-interest made in the course of reform, that no one who watches -such an attempt can ever thereafter hope to do evil that good may come. - -The system lays bare the operation of forces hitherto merely suspected. -Democracy makes the bold cut across every man and divides him into a -public man and a private man. It is a man-ometer. You could by means of -it stand up in line every man in New York, grading them according to -the ratio of principle and self-interest in each. - -In England a man takes office as the pay for services to the -government. In America he does the same. It is part of their system, -part of our corruption. This may seem a small point, but it will work -out large. An absolute standard is imposed. That our most pronounced -reformers are far from understanding their duties gives proof of the -degradation of the times, but it exalts the plan of government. These -men will lead a reform for four weeks, as a great favor, a great -sacrifice, under protest, apologizing to business. They say public -duties come first only in war time. They give, out of conscience and -with the left hand, what remains after a feast for themselves. And -these are the saints. Tell one of them that he has not set an honorable -standard of living for his contemporaries unless, having his wants -supplied, he makes public activity his first aim in life, and he will -reply he wishes he could do so. He hopes later to devote himself to -such things. He will give you a subscription. This man lives in a -Democracy but he denies its claims. He too is recorded. - -The English, who gave us all we know of freedom, have been the first -to understand its meaning. They too have suffered during the last -century from the ravages of plutocracy, from the disease of commerce. -But they had behind them the intellectual heritage of the world. They -had bulwarks of education, philanthropy, thought, training, ambition, -enthusiasm, the ideals of man. It was these things, this reservoir of -spiritual power, that turned the tide of commercialism in England, and -not as we so cheaply imagine her “leisure class.” The men and women who -in the last ten years have taken hold of the Municipality of London, -and now work like beavers in its reform, are not rich. Some of them may -be rich, but the force that makes them toil comes neither out of riches -nor out of poverty, but out of a discovery as to the use of life. These -Englishmen have outlived the illusions of business. As towards them we -are like children. If it were a matter of mere riches we have wealth -enough to make their “leisure class” ridiculous. If there must be some -term in the heaping of money before the energies of our better burghers -are to be diverted toward public ends, we may wait till doomsday. But -the reaction is of another sort, and is very simple. Let us be just -to the conscience-givers. They dare not give more. The American is -ashamed to lose a dollar. He does not want the dollar half the time, -but he will lose caste if he foregoes it. Our merchant princes go on -special commissions for rapid transit, and receive $5000 apiece. They -must be paid. Out of custom they must receive pay because “their time -is valuable,” and thus the virtue and meaning of their office receives -a soil: they do not work. All this is, even at the present moment, -against the private instincts of many of them. It is apparent that they -stand without, shame-faced. It needs only example to give them courage. -A few more reform movements in which they see each other as citizens, -will knock the shackles from their imagination and make men of them. -And then we shall have reform in earnest. For with this enfranchisement -will come their great awakening to the fact that not they only but all -men are really unselfish. It is the obscure disbelief in this salvation -which has made reform so hard where it might be so easy. As soon as the -reformers shall have reformed themselves, they will avoid making any -appeal to self-interest as so much lost time, so much corruption, and -will walk boldly upon the waves of idealism which will hold them up. - -If commerce has been our ruin, our form of government is our -salvation. Imagine a hereditary aristocracy, a State church, a -limited monarchy to have existed here during the last thirty years. -By this time it would have been owned hand and foot, tied up and -anchored in every abuse, engaged day and night in devising new yokes -for the people. The interests now dominant know the ropes and do -their best, but they cannot corrupt the sea. They cannot stop the -continual ferment of popular election and reform candidate. The whole -apparatus of government is a great educational machine which no one -can stop. The power of light is enlisted on the side of order. A -property qualification would have been an anchor to windward for the -unrighteous. At the bottom of the peculiarly hopeless condition of -Philadelphia lie the small house and lot of the laboring man. They -can be taxed. They can be cajoled and conjured with. Corruption is -entrenched. - - * * * * * - -We find then in democracy a frame of government by which private -selfishness, the bane and terror of all government, is thrust brutally -to the front and kept there, staring in hideous openness. - -Nothing except such an era as that which we have just come through, -during which we have grown used to absolute self-seeking as the normal -state of man, could so have glazed the eyes of men that they could not -see thrift even in a public official as a crime, or self-sacrifice even -in a public official except as a folly. And yet so sound is the heart -of man that in spite of this corruption and debauchery, the American -people, the masses of them, are the most promising people extant. We -have a special disease. It is our minds which have been injured. We -are cross-eyed with business selfishness and open to the heavens on -all other sides. For this openness we must thank Democracy. Here are -no warped beings, but sane and healthy creatures under a temporary -spell. The American citizen, by escaping the superstitions studded over -Europe since the days of the Roman empire, has a directer view of life -(when he shall open his eyes) than any people since the Elizabethans. -He will have no prejudices. He will be empirical. But he must forswear -thrift, and the calculating of interest in his sleep. No religious -revival will help us. We are religious enough already. It is our -relaxation. Only the painful unwinding of that intellectual knot into -which our minds are tied,--that state of intense selfishness during -which we see business advancement as our first duty, taught us at the -cradle, enforced by example, inculcated like a religion,--can make us -begin to operate our institutions upon the lines on which they alone -can run freely, and we ourselves develop normally. This unwinding will -come through a simple inspection of our condition. Let no one worry -about the forms and particular measures of betterment. They will flow -naturally from the public acknowledgment by the individual of facts -which he privately knows and has always known and always denied. - -This goes on hourly. Those people who do not see it, look for it in -the wrong places. You cannot expect it to show itself in the public -offices. They are the strongholds of the enemy. You cannot expect it to -appear very often in the children of captivity, the upper bourgeoisie. -These men are easily put to sleep and will take the promise of a -politician any day as an excuse for non-activity. They give consent. -What we want is assertion, and it is coming like a murmur from the -poorer classes who desire the right and who need only leadership to -make them honest. - -It is the recurrent tragedy in reform movements that the merchants put -forward something that the laboring man instantly nails for a lie. It -is not the loss of the election which does the harm, but this insult to -the souls of men. - -Let no one expect the millennium, but let us play fair. We can see that -our standards, particularly among the well-to-do, are so low that mere -inspection of them causes indignant protest. But we must also know that -when we accepted democracy as our form of government we ranked the -political education of the individual as more important than the expert -administration of government. This last can come only as a result, not -as a precurser of the other. - -The example of a whole people, mad with one passion, living under a -system which implies the abnegation of that passion, has laid bare -the heart of a community, has shown the interrelations between the -organs and functions of a society, in a way never before visible in -the history of the world. Everything is disturbed, but everything is -visible. We see Literature, a mere thread, yet betraying all things; -Architecture, still submerged in commerce but showing every year some -vital change; Social Life, the mere creature of abuses, like a child -covered with scars, but growing healthy; the Drama, a drudge to thrift -every way and yet palpably alive. By the light of these things and -their relation to each other we may view history. - -The American is a typical being. He is a creature of a single passion. -In so far as Tyre was commercial she was American. You can reconstruct -much of Venetian politics from a town caucus. In so far as London is -commercial it is American. You can trace the thing in the shape of a -handbill in Moscow. Or to take the matter up from the other side: you -can, by taking up these correlated ganglia of American society, which -do nevertheless simply represent the heart of man, and are always -present in every society--by imagining the enlargement of one function, -and the disuse of the next, you can reconstruct the Greek period and -re-imagine Athens. - -No wonder the sociologists study America. It seems as if the key and -cause of human progress might be clutched from her entrails. - - - - -GOVERNMENT - - - - -V - -GOVERNMENT - - -When two men are fighting and agree that they will stop at sundown, -we have government. Their consent is government. Their memory of that -consent is an institution. There never was a government of any kind or -for any purpose that did not rest upon the consent of the governed; but -the means by which the consent is obtained have varied. The consent -records the extent to which the individuals are alike. It is only by -virtue of similarity in the governed that government exists. On a -ship, all men are alike in their danger of being drowned, and they -consent to dictation from the captain for the welfare of all. The aim -of the despot is to keep the population alike in their need of him -or their fear of him. After the French Revolution, the entire French -people were alike both in their desire for order and in their lack of -training in self-government. A dictator was inevitable. Gouverneur -Morris, whose experience in America qualified him to judge, saw the -matter clearly as early as 1791. Napoleon kept the people alike, by the -two opposite means of giving them social order and foreign war. Henry -V. kept himself on top in England by waging war in France. Seward in -1861 thought to unite the people of the United States by declaring war -against everybody in Europe. The German Emperor is sustained to-day -by the popular fear of France and Russia. It makes no difference what -foolishness he commits; so long as that fear predominates he will be -absolute. - -For the converse proposition is also true, that in so far as people -are like-minded, they must be ruled by a single mind. A hundred Malays -cannot establish a representative government. They must have a boss. -The population of Russia can only be ruled by a Czar. So also whenever -under any form of government all the people want one thing, one man -does it. The reasons for it are invented afterwards, and “war powers” -are found to justify the proclamation setting the slaves free. - -The extent to which people are similar to each other will be recorded -in their institutions; in fact, those institutions are nothing but -dials of similarity. For this reason any popular national institution -gives you the nation. Moreover any ruler, any system, any consent has -a tendency to modify the future because he or it is advertised and -established. It is a factor in the consciousness of every individual. -It is the conservative. It tends to affect the conduct and mind of -every one, for any one coming in contact with it must conform or -resist. It is a challenge to the individual. It impinges upon him. -The thing changes daily in his mind, and occupies now more, now less, -of his activities. In cases where his whole external conduct has -been absorbed by one such power we have absolute rule, religious or -military, and a uniform population. If there be a single predominating -power which has not yet completely conquered, we have in some form or -another a record of its growth by a tendency toward absolutism. - -The American people have been growing strikingly uniform, owing to -their one occupation,--business, their one passion,--a desire for -money. They are divided by their system of politics into two great -categories, and hence we see the two opposing Bosses, little nodes of -power representing this identity of consciousness in each of the two -great categories of the population, Republicans and Democrats. If you -could cut open the consciousness of one thousand Americans and examine -it with a microscope, you could set up our government with great ease. - -Let us concede for the sake of argument that the full development of -individual character and intellect is the aim of life. - -Now in so far as individuals are developed, they differ from each -other. We ought then to be distressed by any identity whatever found in -the heads of individuals examined; and greatly distressed by the reign -of the same passion manifested in the one thousand American organisms. -You would say, ‘If this thing goes on, a dictator is absolutely -certain,’ and then you would remember that you had heard a business man -remark at the Club the evening before, that he would welcome a dictator -as a cheap practical way out of it. - -Let us now suppose you to examine one thousand English heads. The first -thing you would notice would be that the number was not large enough -to give reliable results. Certain types would be manifest, but the -special variations would be so striking as to cloud your conclusions. -In all these heads there would be spots of a density nowhere found in -America, but the spontaneous variations outside and round about them -would be magnificent. You would say, “These spots represent different -kinds of conservatism. This one is reverence for the church, that one -for the army, a third for the judiciary. They represent prejudice, but -they also represent stability, a stability that is the resultant of a -thousand positive and various forces. These spots hold England together -and give scope to free government. The world never has done and never -can do better than this. These individuals are developed. The line of -force of one man passes through one institution, that of the next man -through the next. No force, no passion, can make them all alike at any -one time. They are anchored by the Middle Ages. They are fluid and free -in the present. The only hope for freedom in the individual lies in the -existence of different sorts of institutions.” - -It is true that English society is like a menagerie, or rather like one -of those collections of different animals, all in one cage, seen at -the circus. Every one of these animals is trained to regard the rights -of the rest. Diversity is in itself a good. A college of Jesuits is a -protection to liberty if it is set down in Denver. The Jesuits are not -money-mad. It is an education for a Denver child to see a new kind of -man. You will conclude, as some philosophers are now concluding, that -to have free government you must encourage institutions--and you will -be wrong. - -The fundamental reason why you are wrong is that these beneficent -institutions are what is left of the activity of people who believed in -them for their own sake. You can no more imitate one of them, or catch -the power of one of them, than you can set up a king here to repel an -invasion. You yourself believe in individualism. Go straight for that, -and leave it to erect its bulwarks in what form it may. - -A multiplication of institutions then serves two contradictory -purposes. It limits the individual, creates black spots of prejudice -and unreason in him; but on the other hand it encourages a free -development of the individual outside of those spots. It creates types, -and types are mutually protective. This is only another way of saying -that free government results from a segregation of the government into -provinces, which cannot all be captured, at one time, by one force. - -The highly intelligent and artificial separation of our government -into the branches of Executive, Legislative, and Judicial was in a -sense an attempt to get free government by the erection of independent -institutions. But these were never strong enough to create types (we -have hardly the type of judge among us); and certainly no attachment to -any part, but the sacredness of the entire system, has preserved it. It -was the sentiment attaching to the single idea of a central government. - -It is to institutions that the consent to be governed is given. The -consent is always a highly complex affair. It implies a civilization. -It is qualified, limited, infinitely diversified, and is in every case -regulated by historic fact. For instance, under a limited monarchy, -it is a consent to be governed by a particular dynasty after special -ceremonies, tempered by some priesthood, subject to such and such -customs,--each and all existing in the imagination of the subject. -For government is entirely a matter of the imagination, and it is -inconceivable that it should ever be anything else. The English have -spent two centuries in impressing the imagination of India with the -vision of English power. A violation by the government, no matter -how strong, of the popular imagination, an assumption of power in a -field not yet subdued, always brings on riots. The Persians resented -furiously the creation of a tobacco monopoly. The Sultan had to rescind -it. The Americans threw the tea into the harbor. - -The forms and modes by which government is carried on are the record -of things to which people have consented, and hence become important, -become symbols so identified with power that almost all historical -writing deals with them as entities. The power of the symbols in any -case varies inversely to the power of the people for self-government, -that is, to the average differentiation between individuals; or to put -the thing the other way, the extent to which a man will permit another -to rule him depends upon his incapacity to rule himself. - -The great unifying forces have always been regarded as dangers to -free government. War makes a nation a unit. It cannot be conducted by -individualism. Religion condenses power. That is the reason why our -ancestors were so afraid of a State church. Commerce has generally -been thought a blessing because commerce gives scope to individualism. -It enriches and educates. Yet commerce itself may bring in tyranny. -Witness Venice. Commerce has centralized our government. Anything that -affects everybody’s mind with the same appeal strengthens government -and makes for unity. A nation only exists by virtue of such general -appeals. It is inside of and subordinate to this general unity of -feeling that individualism must go on. The rulers of mankind are -men who have got control of the symbols, of the institutions, which -stood in the imagination of the people as most important, and who by -manipulating them extended their range over the popular imagination. -Or to put the thing a little differently, the passions of the people -are reflected in ever-changing institutions. The people seize a man -and force him to do their bidding and rule them in such manner as to -assuage their passions. They make a saint out of Lincoln, and a devil -out of Torquemada. - -If a man seems to be a great man, and seems to be leading the people, -it is because he knows the people better than they know themselves. -There was never a people yet that did not in this sense govern -themselves, being themselves governed by the resultant of their -dominant passions. The Southern Pacific Railroad has for years owned -the State of California as completely as if it had bought it from -a tyrant who ruled over a population of slaves. It was done by the -purchase of votes. In so far as virtue shall regain predominance in the -breast of the voter and set him free, virtue will replace money in the -voting, and set free the State. - -Universal suffrage is a mode and a symbol. Under certain conditions -of education people must have it. Under others they cannot have it. -But whether they have it or not, they will be ruled by their ruling -passion, and if this renders them alike in character, their government -will be a tyranny. If the reign of the passion be tempered, the reign -of the tyrant will be tempered. Express the thing in terms of human -feeling (and what else is there?) and universal suffrage is seen as a -_quantité négligeable_. - -It is thus apparent that there is no institution that cannot easily be -made to operate to a contradictory end. The criminal courts here have -been used to collect debt. There is no wickedness to which the enginery -of the Christian Church has not at one time or another been lent. The -passions of a period run its institutions as easily as a stream turns -any sort of a mill. To-day the United States Senate is a millionaires’ -club. To-morrow the Stock Exchange may become a church. - -Now what is an institution? - -It is a custom which receives an assent because it is a custom. Man -has always been ruled by custom. The notion that there was a time when -disputes were settled by fighting, and that arbitration came in as a -matter of convenience, stands on the same sort of footing as Rousseau’s -social contract. It is an academic _jeu d’esprit_. In looking back -over history all we see is custom, and farther back, still custom. All -the fighting of savages is regulated by custom and always has been -regulated by custom. Nay, the bees and the ants are ruled by custom. -The idea of custom is the one idea that the genius of Kipling led him -to see in the jungle. - -Now what is at the bottom of all this regard for custom? At the -bottom of custom is non-self-regarding impulse. Man is both selfish -and unselfish, but it makes a great difference whether we regard him -_primarily_ as one thing or the other. The scientists, owing -to their study of the lower animals, have tried to explain man on -the selfish hypothesis and have made a mystery of him. They say “He -must eat or die; therefore, he must be primarily egoistic.” And they -attempt to explain progress by the expanding of egoism to include, -first the family, then the tribe, then the nation, and finally mankind. -Society according to them is a convention of egoism, a compromise, -a joint-stock company. Religion is a matter of ghosts and ancestor -worship, not fully explained yet. Note that this whole view depends -upon a dogma that man _must_ be primarily selfish because he must -eat. It is fair enough to retort with a paradox. Man absolutely selfish -could not survive. Man absolutely unselfish would thrive splendidly. -The individuals would support each other. - -But let us start square and remember that it is a question of science. -Take the other hypothesis. The horse runs in herds and propagates -his species because he is fond of the species. Incidentally he gets -protected. It is through the illusion that he loves his fellows that -his own welfare is secured. Non-self-regardant impulse is at the -bottom, self-protection the result. - -It is the same with every human institution. Non-self-regardant impulse -is at the bottom of all regard for law. We have seen that Democracy -is organized altruism, but there was never a government that did not -profess to be organized altruism. You cannot bring men together on any -other plea, nor hold them together by any other tie. It is only in so -far as altruism in conduct exists that progress is possible. If the -men will not stop fighting at sundown, they have no institutions. They -perish. - -The regard that every custom receives from the individual who -supports it is a non-self-regarding emotion. From the ceremonials of -savages, through the custom of the Frenchman who lifts his hat as a -funeral passes, to the feeling of Kant as he contemplated the moral -law, the element is the same. It is reverence. It is respect. It is -self-surrender. - -But reverence may become intensified into fear. The imagination of the -worshipper curls over like a wave. It looks back at him and frightens -him, and when this happens we call it Superstition. The pain of it, -like all pain, like the distress of insanity, comes wholly from the -fact that it is a self-regarding emotion, it is a disease. Man in -every stage of his culture is liable to this disease. Want of food or -tyranny, bad water or bad government, brings on this trouble. Every -country and every age shows forms of it: and very naturally, the savage -who is subject by reason of hardships to many diseases, shows terrible -forms of this disease of superstition. This is the chief fact that the -scientists have seen in the savage. These savants, holding the egoism -of man as their major thought, have through their ignorance of human -nature been led to base their explanation of the religion of mankind -upon a disease of the savage. - -The opposite explanation stares them in the face. We all know in a -general way that the New Testament civilized Europe. The book is a mere -cryptogram of all possible altruism, and therefore fits the soul of -man. Give two men the New Testament--and each man sees himself in it, -and it affects each one differently. By developing and unfolding the -character and emotions of each according to the law of his individual -growth, the book differentiates them at once. The more unhappy a man is -the more he needs it. Oppress a man or put him in jail, let him lead a -life of self-indulgence, or isolation, and he grows quasi-religious; -the altruistic emotion has not been expended in intercourse with his -fellows, and it accumulates. This book then, by focussing the altruism -in each individual of many generations of men, by being perpetually -rediscovered, by existing as a constant force differentiating -individuals and so undoing the tyranny of institution after institution -founded upon itself, gradually got itself enacted into international -law, into custom, into sentiment, and into municipal rule, and has been -on the whole the controlling force in Western Europe during the last -eighteen centuries. Its symbols express the constant factor in human -nature. It is only in so far as a book does this that it is remembered -at all. - -Of course, when a custom arises it is turned on the instant into -something that can be used by egoism, and here comes the pivot of the -matter. Custom renders men similar to each other. The letter killeth. -But the letter does much more than kill. It educates, it trains, it -transmits. Hence the two contradictory functions of an institution -which we found at work in England, the one to educate, the other to -limit. - -In studying the effect of institutions upon the individual, the whole -hierarchy of nature must be reviewed at once. We have nothing to guide -us in our study of the animals except our knowledge of man, but we have -much to find in that study which will enlarge and illustrate that -knowledge. Every naturalist and every sociologist should receive his -preliminary training in the political arena, and every politician in -the greenhouse and the menagerie. - -Let us look at the social life of the ants. - -The ant seems to show a stage of progress in which the individuals -have grown alike through a slavish observance of certain institutions. -It is certain that the ant is a ritualistic being, formal, narrow, -intolerant, incapable of new ideas or private enterprise. He hates any -one differing from himself, whether more or less virtuous. He would -regard any suggested improvement in the arrangement of his house as -a sacrilege. He works constantly for the public with a devotion that -nothing but religious zeal can explain, and is in his own limited way -completely happy. But the tyranny of public opinion, the subserviency -to a State church goes far to make him contemptible. - -This is the worst that an institution can do. The individual is -crushed. The primeval reverence for custom seen in the ants has -crystallized without getting developed and specialized into its higher -form of reverence for the individual ant. He is a type of arrested -development. - -The natural history of religion is then to be sought in a reverence -for custom that gradually specializes itself into a regard for -the individual. If these things are true, the advancement of any -civilization may be measured by the extent in which the rights of -individuals are held sacred. And this is what we have always been -taught. - -Government was in its origin indistinguishable from religion, and down -to the latest day of time, the fluctuating institutions of man will -record this kinship between ritual and law. - -The scientists, in trying to explain religion and progress as the -result of an egoism gradually expanding itself to a regard for mankind, -have been pulling at the wrong end of the cocoon. The thread unwound a -bit and then broke; unwound again and again broke. They were puzzling -themselves over a conception fundamentally unscientific and at war with -their own first principles. - -The genesis of the emotions proceeds like other developments from the -simple towards the complex. The notion that the egoism of man gradually -expanded so as to include the whole human race in a love which was in -reality a love of himself, assumes that this large love is the sum of -lesser loves. It fixes the attention on the objects of human feeling, -and not upon the character of the feeling itself. This character is -the thing to be studied. When we contrast the religious and social -feelings of the civilized man with those of the savage we see the same -specialization and complexity in the emotions themselves which is -traceable in any higher development. The forms, arguments, theories, -customs by which the feeling is expressed, show an ever-increasing -refinement of sympathy. We are not approaching a general and vague -emotion built up out of lesser regards for particular people. We are -approaching a stage of differentiation, of analysis, a stage of the -personal application of that same altruism which appears in its lower -form as blind worship and self-abasement before some fetich. The -utility of this emotion, in whatever stage of its development, is a -consideration that may justify it to the philosopher, but which is not -the _primum mobile_ in the breast of him that has it. The whole -history of man shows that progress comes in the shape of an increasing -tender-heartedness which can give no lucid account of itself, because -it is an organic process. - -The learned classes are apt to approach a problem in its most difficult -form. Out of travellers’ tales about man in the South Sea Islands, -the sociologist evolves a theory of religion. Take up a book on the -natural history of religion and you will find enough learned citations -about the Hurons and the Esquimaux and the Thibet tribes to furnish -the library of Pantagruel. Now the regard of a savage for his idol is -a very obscure question of psychology. Ten years of youth spent among -a tribe would not be too long a period in which to lay the foundations -for an intelligent guess at the facts, let alone their significance. - -Meanwhile, the actual genealogy of our own religious feelings is -neglected as too familiar. Yet the spiritual history of that race which -gave Europe many of its religions, is better known than any other -history of a like antiquity. The point of view and feeling about life -which has given us our own experience of religion was developed in the -Jew. The Old Testament is the place in which to study the growth and -meaning of the only religious feeling that we are sure we understand. -The history of the Jews is the history of a single overpowering emotion -which appears in its two forms,--so identical in content that you -may often find them both in the same sentence, both in the same verse -of Isaiah or Psalm of David,--prostration before the Lord of Hosts, -compassion for the poor and the oppressed. This passion of altruism -which gave the prophets their terrible power is the legacy of the Jew -to the world. The emotion of self-abasement and self-sacrifice and -the emotion of love towards others, are one thing. This, in its lower -forms, leads to self-mutilation and incantations; in its higher forms, -it becomes embodied by the prophetic fury of great poets into the idea -of a Messiah who shall be both savior and sacrifice. There is only one -passion at work in all these great protagonists of human nature, in -Nathan, Elijah, Jeremiah and in the innumerable prophets who confronted -the arbitrary power of the kings. These men stood for righteousness -and showed an intensity of moral courage which nothing but compassion -has ever engendered, and nothing but faith has ever expressed. The -rags and the self surrender, the purity and the power, the belief -that they spoke not of themselves but for the Lord, have been the -same in all ages. It is impossible to feel compassion in this degree -and not express it in this manner. All just anger is compassion. The -terrible wrath of these men is as comprehensible as their hymns or -their triumph. There is no child that reads Isaiah whose nature does -not respond to him, because the course of feeling in him is true to -life. Between the Old Testament and the New we see a perfectly coherent -development of the same passion of the same race into its higher kind. -Both forms of it have changed. In the New Testament the love has -become specialized into that particular and especial regard for the -soul of each individual man for which we have no counterpart; and the -prostration, the adoration for God the Father, the identification of -the individual with God the Father, has received expression in forms -which one can refer to but not describe. The kingdom of heaven is -within you. - -That modern philanthropy which has been overcoming the world during -the last century and has put a spirit of religion into politics, is -expressed in ten thousand dogmas and formulas. These things are the -hieroglyphics of the most complex period in history, but they all read -Love. - -The love of man for his fellows is the substantial content of every -ideal, of every reform. In so far as any political cry is valuable, -it represents this and nothing more. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, -The Declaration of Independence, Utilitarianism, Fourierism, Socialism, -Prohibition, Christian Science and the Salvation Army carry the same -message; and it is only because of this truth, and in spite of the -fact that it is always wrapped up in every kind of falsehood, that -they move the world forward. Take socialism. This thing is the logical -outcome of the passion of pity at work in men who believe that the -desire for property is the controlling factor in human arrangements. -The selfishness of the individual has been assumed as a fundamental law -in that school of thought, which has been dominating all our thought, -and which we habitually accept as final. It receives support from a -superficial view of human nature, and time out of mind has been the -belief of shallow people. But the great intellect and the great labor -of the socialists have been unable to make any impression upon the mind -of a man. We know that their reasoning is foolish. It is to the heart -that their appeal is made. Bellamy’s book sells by the hundred thousand -to tender-hearted people. It is a plea for humanity. It is Uncle Tom’s -Cabin. The function of Socialism is clear. It is a religious reaction -going on in an age which thinks in terms of money. We are very nearly -at the end of it, because we are very nearly at the end of the age. -Some people believe they hate the wealth of the millionaire. They -denounce corporations and trusts, as if these things had hurt them. -They strike at the symbol. What they really hate is the irresponsible -rapacity which these things typify, and which nothing but moral forces -will correct. In so far as people seek the cure in property-laws they -are victims of the plague. The cure will come entirely from the other -side; for as soon as the millionaires begin to exert and enjoy the -enormous power for good which they possess, everybody will be glad they -have the money. - -Socialism was useful, but as a theory it was fated from the beginning, -because its prophets and saints are themselves spurred on by a -different motive from that which they evoke in others. They offer -us a religion that assumes that human nature is other than it is, a -religion not based upon self-sacrifice, and so not based upon an appeal -to primary passion, a religion beseeching us to make other people -comfortable. Now the only motive which will make men labor for the -comfort of others, is a belief that this is the quickest way of saving -their souls. If souls are to be saved only through their own unselfish -activity, then it is a lie to hold up property as a goal. The laboring -man can be made happy only by the same means as the merchant. They must -be saved together. The matter of the physical support of the individual -follows in the wake of a regard for his soul, but never precedes it. -The awakening of the spirit of individualism will bring support to the -artisan by bringing in hand work. The machine work with which we have -been content represents a loss of religion in the buyer proportionate -to the selfishness of the times. No system based on thrift will -displace it, but any movement based on self-sacrifice will tend to -correct it. While socialism is worrying out the proof that a wise -distribution of property will bring in virtue and happiness, other and -directer formulations of the truth will have seized the spirits of men -and saved the people. - -The balance of altruism in the people of a country, preserved in the -form of practical self-control (no matter under what name), gives the -wealth and power of the country. - -Good government then consists in customs which differentiate people. -They represent a permission to each man to be different from his -neighbor. They are the record of what once was love, and now is law. - -Bad government consists in institutions which render men similar -through some self-interest, some superstition. - -Let us take a few examples at random from history, and see whether -everything of permanent value to the race is not merely a different -form of expression for the same ideal. - -Napoleon is a type of selfishness. The focus of his almost illimitable -intelligence fell within himself. He was so self-centred that he did -not precipitate all the passion which supported him upon an idea. -He did much, but he could not transcend the laws of psychology or -escape the insecurity they dealt him out. He was a great reactionary, -living in an age of progress, a great egoist in an age of altruism, -a great criminal. The whole of Europe had hardly strength enough to -shut him up. He went down finally, and yet before he went down, he had -stood for civilization in every country he touched by establishing -law. He gave France his code and his bureaux, things greater than -his dynasty. He made use of the enlightenment, the expert intellect -of France to establish order, and became a great educator through -his institutions, his genius for administration. His worshippers are -so struck with this side of his character that they forgive him his -crimes. For our admiration is chained to the educator. Every great man -is a great educator, and there is no greatness but this. The great man -represents, draws out, projects, and establishes the non-self-regarding -part, the intellectual apparatus of others, and those who do it by the -establishment of law and order receive their tribute as civilizers. The -saints serve the same end. They speak a language different from that of -the law-givers, yet their function is the same. The part a man plays in -the formal government of his times depends on circumstance. It seems to -be governed by the ratio of his altruism to that of his contemporaries. -People will not tolerate a man who is too good or too bad. Had Napoleon -lived in an age of retrogression, very likely he would have died upon -the throne. Had he been less self-seeking than he was, had he possessed -for instance the imagination of Washington, very likely the French -would have deposed him sooner, but in the end the memory of him would -have educated France. - -For this is the work of heroes. Where a leader has ideas that are -more unselfish than those of his time, he is deposed, poisoned, or -ridiculed, and his value as an educational force may be increased by -any of these things. Socrates deliberately kept out of politics for -many years, knowing that if he took part, his sense of justice would -lead to his execution, and fearing to throw away his life; he finally -expended it with such ability as to make every atom count. The scholars -have not understood his Apology because they could not fathom the -instinct of the agitator. It is the same with the martyrs, with the -Quakers in Puritan New England, with the Anti-Slavery people. Their -conduct was governed by the truest understanding of how to draw out and -develop the conscience of others. The man who dies for his country does -no more. - -Another gigantic educator was Bismarck. To have welded the squabbling -principalities of Germany into an Empire within a lifetime is one of -the achievements of history. But Bismarck held the trump card. He -had a cause to serve. His early work must have been his strongest; -for since the war with France, patriotism has become the curse of -Germany. It is caked into fanaticism, and is being used by autocracy -to ruin intellect. This is the mystical yet relentless punishment for -the element which was not patriotism but thrift in their conduct. The -Germans must be great and unified and recover Alsace for their honor. -But what did they want with the French milliards? They mulcted France -to spare their pockets, and fastened upon themselves the personal -hatred of the French peasant, which gives them William II. for a ruler. -They looked upon property as power. Had they seen clearly that power is -nothing but sentiment, they would have sown peace. - -One reason why Holland lost her supremacy was because she came to -regard money as power. She grasped the symbol. For a decline sets in as -soon as selfishness has reached such a point that any of these symbols -are worshipped. Witness Spain, where the gold of Peru ruined the -Spaniards by making them individually selfish. - -In the long run virtue and vice contend over national wealth, the first -collecting, the second dissipating. Witness Cuba. Witness Ireland. -China is wrecked by private greed. In the last analysis it is a matter -of personal virtue. - -The magnificent intellect and self-control epitomized in Roman -Government, took centuries to perish. Is it a wonder these people -conquered the world? - -The United States has been held together by English virtue, and there -was so much of it in the race, that a few generations of money-changers -could not ruin us. We had, not only the creed, but the beliefs of -English liberty. The future of England depends upon her perception of -this truth that power is sentiment. The Venezuela trouble showed her -that her selfish conduct in 1861 made her empire in 1896 insecure. The -spread of England’s empire has been due to a practice in dealing with -the imagination of others. Establish by force, develop by the organized -altruism of good government, protect by display of force. - -This system will not apply here. We are the youngest nation and the -most naif. We are at the mercy of wise or unwise treatment. But we can -no more be fooled than a child. No display of force could touch our -imagination or do more than irritate us. Our feelings must be directly -engaged by means not known to diplomacy or to international law. Let -England take a high tone. She must not only seem but be unselfish -towards us, and she will master the globe. - -There is one result from the fact that government is a matter of -imagination which is wholly satisfactory. Once set up a scheme of -things which people approve of and it remains. We shall not have good -government in the United States till the people get over their personal -dishonesty; but when we do get it, it will last without effort. It will -be harder to destroy than the spoils system. Vigilance will be needed -constantly, but action rarely. 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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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:table; margin-bottom:1em;'> - <div style='display:table-row'> - <div style='display:table-cell; padding-right:0.5em'>Title:</div> - <div style='display:table-cell'>Causes and Consequences</div> - </div> -</div> -<div style='display:table; margin-bottom:1em;'> -<div style='display:table-row'> - <div style='display:table-cell; padding-right:0.5em'>Author:</div> - <div style='display:table-cell'>John Jay Chapman</div> -</div> -</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 9, 2021 [eBook #65582]</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> -<div style='display:table; margin-bottom:1em;'> - <div style='display:table-row'> - <div style='display:table-cell; padding-right:0.5em; white-space:nowrap;'>Produced by:</div> - <div style='display:table-cell'>The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</div> - </div> -</div> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES ***</div> - -<hr class="divider" /> -<h1>CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES</h1> -<hr class="divider2" /> - - -<div class="x-ebookmaker-drop figcenter width500" id="cover2"> - <img src="images/cover2.jpg" width="500" height="755" alt="Cover" /> -</div> - - - - -<div class="section"> -<div class="box"> -<p class="center"><em>By the Same Author</em></p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Emerson and Other Essays.</span> 12mo. $1.25</p> -</div></div> - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<p class="center p180">CAUSES<br /> -<span class="p50">AND</span><br /> -CONSEQUENCES</p> - -<p class="center mt3">BY<br /> -<span class="p120">JOHN JAY CHAPMAN</span></p> - -<p class="center mt3">NEW YORK<br /> -<span class="p80">CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS<br /> -1899</span></p> -</div> - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider2 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<p class="center"><i>Copyright, 1898</i>,<br /> -<span class="smcap">By Charles Scribner’s Sons</span></p> - -<p class="center mt3"><span class="oldenglish">University Press:</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.</span></p> -</div> - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider2 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<p class="center"><em>DEDICATED</em><br /> -TO THE<br /> -MEMBERS OF CLUB C</p> -</div> - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 id="preface">PREFACE</h2> -</div> - -<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">As</span> -we unravel political knots, they resolve themselves into proverbs -and familiar truth, and thus our explanation becomes a treatise upon -human nature,—a profession of faith.</p> - -<p>The idea that man is an unselfish animal has gradually been forced -upon me, by the course of reflection which I give in the following -chapters, in the order in which it occurred to me. The chapters are -little more than presentations from different points of view of this -one idea. The chapters on Politics and Society seem to show that our -political corruptions and social inferiorities can be traced to the -same source,—namely, temporary distortion of human character by the -forces of commerce. The chapter on Education is a study on the law of -intellectual growth, and shows that a normal and rounded development -can only come from a use of the faculties very different from that -practised by the average American since the discovery of the cotton -gin.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_viii"></a>viii</span> -The chapter on Democracy is a review of that subject by the light of -the conclusions as to the Nature of Man, arrived at in the Essay on -Education; and it is seen that our frame of government is in accord -with sound philosophy, and is a constant influence tending to correct -the distortions described in the first two chapters. In the final -chapter on Government, some illustrations are drawn together, showing -that the whole course of reasoning of the book contains nothing novel, -but accords with the ideals and with the wisdom of the world.</p> - -<p>The book itself arose out of an attempt to explain an election.</p> - -<p class="right nmb">J. J. C.</p> -<p class="nmt"><span class="p80"><b>ROKEBY, June 10, 1898.</b></span></p> - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider2 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<h2 id="contents">CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table summary="Contents"> -<tr> -<th class="tdr2" colspan="3"><span class="smcap">Page</span></th> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">I.</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Politics</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#i">3</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">II.</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Society</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#ii">49</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">III.</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Education; Froebel</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iii">83</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">IV.</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Democracy</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iv">115</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">V.</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Government</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#v">137</a></td> -</tr> -</table> - - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<p class="center p180" id="politics">POLITICS</p> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider2 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a>3</span> -</div> - -<h2 id="i">I<br /> -<span>POLITICS</span></h2> - -<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">Misgovernment</span> -in the United States is an incident in the history -of commerce. It is part of the triumph of industrial progress. Its -details are easier to understand if studied as a part of the commercial -development of the country than if studied as a part of government, -because many of the wheels and cranks in the complex machinery of -government are now performing functions so perverted as to be unmeaning -from the point of view of political theory, but which become perfectly -plain if looked at from the point of view of trade.</p> - -<p>The growth and concentration of capital which the railroad and the -telegraph made possible is the salient fact in the history of the last -quarter-century. That fact is at the bottom of our political troubles. -It was inevitable that the enormous masses of wealth, springing out of -new conditions and requiring new laws, should strive to control the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a>4</span> -legislation and the administration which touched them at every point. -At the present time, we cannot say just what changes were or were not -required by enlightened theory. It is enough to see that such changes -as came were inevitable; and nothing can blind us to the fact that the -methods by which they were obtained were subversive of free government.</p> - -<p>Whatever form of government had been in force in America during -this era would have run the risk of being controlled by capital, of -being bought and run for revenue. It happened that the beginning of -the period found the machinery of our government in a particularly -purchasable state. The war had left the people divided into two -parties which were fanatically hostile to each other. The people were -party mad. Party name and party symbols were of an almost religious -importance.</p> - -<p>At the very moment when the enthusiasm of the nation had been exhausted -in a heroic war which left the Republican party-managers in possession -of the ark of the covenant, the best intellect of the country was -withdrawn from public affairs and devoted to trade. During the -period of expansion which followed, the industrial forces called in -the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>5</span> ablest men of the nation to aid them in getting control of the -machinery of government. The name of king was never freighted with more -power than the name of party in the United States; whatever was done -in that name was right. It is the old story: there has never been a -despotism which did not rest upon superstition. The same spirit that -made the Republican name all powerful in the nation at large made the -Democratic name valuable in Democratic districts.</p> - -<p>The situation as it existed was made to the hand of trade. Political -power had by the war been condensed and packed for delivery; and in -the natural course of things the political trademarks began to find -their way into the coffers of the capitalist. The change of motive -power behind the party organizations—from principles, to money—was -silently effected during the thirty years which followed the war. Like -all organic change, it was unconscious. It was understood by no one. -It is recorded only in a few names and phrases; as, for instance, that -part of the organization which was purchased was called the “machine,” -and the general manager of it became known as the “boss.” The external -political history of the country continued as before. It is true that -a steady<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>6</span> degradation was to be seen in public life, a steady failure -of character, a steady decline of decency. But questions continued to -be discussed, and in form decided, on their merits, because it was in -the interest of commerce that they should in form be so decided. Only -quite recently has the control of money become complete; and there are -reasons for believing that the climax is past.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Let us take a look at the change on a small scale. A railroad is to be -run through a country town or small city, in New York or Pennsylvania. -The railroad employs a local attorney, naturally the ablest attorney in -the place. As time goes on, various permits for street uses are needed; -and instead of relying solely upon popular demand, the attorney finds -it easier to bribe the proper officials. All goes well: the railroad -thrives, the town grows. But in the course of a year new permits of -various kinds are needed. The town ordinances interfere with the road -and require amendment. There is to be a town election; and it occurs -to the railroad’s attorney that he might be in alliance with the town -officers before they are elected. He goes to the managers of the -party which is likely to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>7</span> win; for instance, the Republican party. -Everything that the railroad wants is really called for by the economic -needs of the town. The railroad wants only fair play and no factious -obstruction. The attorney talks to the Republican leader, and has a -chance to look over the list of candidates, and perhaps even to select -some of them. The railroad makes the largest campaign subscription ever -made in that part of the country. The Republican leader can now employ -more workers to man the polls, and, if necessary, he can buy votes. -He must also retain some fraction of the contribution for his own -support, and distribute the rest in such manner as will best keep his -“organization” together.</p> - -<p>The party wins, and the rights of the railroad are secured for a year. -It is true that the brother of the Republican leader is employed on the -road as a brakeman; but he is a competent man.</p> - -<p>During the year, a very nice point of law arises as to the rights of -the railroad to certain valuable land claimed by the town. The city -attorney is an able man, and reasonable. In spite of his ability, he -manages somehow to state the city’s case on an untenable ground. A -decision follows in favor<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>8</span> of the railroad. At the following election, -the city attorney has become the Republican candidate for judge, and -the railroad’s campaign subscription is trebled. In the conduct of -railroads, even under the best management, accidents are common; and -while it is true that important decisions are appealable, a trial judge -has enormous powers which are practically discretionary. Meanwhile, -there have arisen questions of local taxation of the railroad’s -property, questions as to grade crossings, as to the lighting of cars, -as to time schedules, and the like. The court calendars are becoming -crowded with railroad business; and that business is now more than -one attorney can attend to. In fact, the half dozen local lawyers of -prominence are railroad men; the rest of the lawyers would like to -be. Every one of the railroad lawyers receives deferential treatment, -and, when possible, legal advantage in all of the public offices. The -community is now in the control of a ring, held together by just one -thing, the railroad company’s subscription to the campaign fund.</p> - -<p>By this time a serious scandal has occurred in the town,—nothing less -than the rumor of a deficit in the town treasurer’s accounts, and -the citizens are concerned about it. One<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>9</span> of the railroad’s lawyers, -a strong party man, happens to be occupying the post of district -attorney; for the yearly campaign subscriptions continue. This district -attorney is, in fact, one of the committee on nominations who put the -town treasurer into office; and the Republican party is responsible -for both. No prosecution follows. The district attorney stands for -re-election.</p> - -<p>An outsider comes to live in the town. He wants to reform things, -and proceeds to talk politics. He is not so inexperienced as to -seek aid from the rich and respectable classes. He knows that the -men who subscribed to the railroad’s stock are the same men who own -the local bank, and that the manufacturers and other business men -of the place rely on the bank for carrying on their business. He -knows that all trades which are specially touched by the law, such -as the liquor-dealers’ and hotel-keepers’, must “stand in” with the -administration; so also must the small shopkeepers, and those who have -to do with sidewalk privileges and town ordinances generally. The -newcomer talks to the leading hardware merchant, a man of stainless -reputation, who admits that the district attorney has been remiss; -but the merchant is a Republican, and says that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>10</span> so long as he lives -he will vote for the party that saved the country. To vote for a -Democrat is a crime. The reformer next approaches the druggist (whose -father-in-law is in the employ of the railroad), and receives the -same reply. He goes to the florist. But the florist owns a piece of -real estate, and has a theory that it is assessed too high. The time -for revising the assessment rolls is coming near, and he has to see -the authorities about that. The florist agrees that the town is a den -of thieves; but he must live; he has no time to go into theoretical -politics. The stranger next interviews a retired grocer. But the grocer -has lent money to his nephew, who is in the coal business, and is -getting special rates from the railroad, and is paying off the debt -rapidly. The grocer would be willing to help, but his name must not be -used.</p> - -<p>It is needless to multiply instances of what every one knows. After -canvassing the whole community, the stranger finds five persons who are -willing to work to defeat the district attorney: a young doctor of good -education and small practice, a young lawyer who thinks he can make use -of the movement by betraying it, a retired anti-slavery preacher, a -maiden lady, and a piano-tuner.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>11</span> The district attorney is re-elected by -an overwhelming vote.</p> - -<p>All this time the railroad desires only a quiet life. It takes no -interest in politics. It is making money, and does not want values -disturbed. It is conservative.</p> - -<p>In the following year worse things happen. The town treasurer steals -more money, and the district attorney is openly accused of sharing -the profits. The Democrats are shouting for reform, and declare that -they will run the strongest man in town for district attorney. He is a -Democrat, but one who fought for the Union. He is no longer in active -practice, and is, on the whole, the most distinguished citizen of the -place. This suggestion is popular. The hardware merchant declares -that he will vote the Democratic ticket, and there is a sensation. -It appears that during all these years there has been a Democratic -organization in the town, and that the notorious corruption of the -Republicans makes a Democratic victory possible. The railroad company -therefore goes to the manager of the Democratic party, and explains -that it wants only to be let alone. It explains that it takes no -interest in politics, but that, if a change is to come, it desires only -that So-and-So shall be retained,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>12</span> and it leaves a subscription with -the Democratic manager. In short, it makes the best terms it can. The -Democratic leader, if he thinks that he can make a clean sweep, may -nominate the distinguished citizen, together with a group of his own -organization comrades. It obviously would be of no use to him to name a -full citizens’ ticket. That would be treason to his party. If he takes -this course and wins, we shall have ring rule of a slightly milder -type. The course begins anew, under a Democratic name; and it may be -several years before another malfeasance occurs.</p> - -<p>But the Republican leader and the railroad company do not want war; -they want peace. They may agree to make it worth while for the -Democrats not to run the distinguished citizen. A few Democrats are let -into the Republican ring. They are promised certain minor appointive -offices, and some contracts and emoluments. Accordingly, the Democrats -do not nominate the distinguished citizen. The hardware man sees little -choice between the two nominees for district attorney; at any rate, he -will not vote for a machine Democrat, and he again votes for his party -nominee. All the reform talk simmers down to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>13</span> silence. The Republicans -are returned to power.</p> - -<p>The town is now ruled by a Happy Family. Stable equilibrium has been -reached at last. Commercialism is in control. Henceforth, the railroad -company pays the bills for keeping up both party organizations, and it -receives care and protection from whichever side is nominally in power.</p> - -<p>The party leaders have by this time become the general utility men of -the railroad; they are its agents and factotums. The boss is the handy -man of the capitalist. So long as the people of the town are content -to vote on party lines they cannot get away from the railroad. In -fact, there are no national parties in the town. A man may talk about -them, but he cannot vote for one of them, because they do not exist. -He can vote only for or against the railroad; and to do the latter, an -independent ticket must be nominated.</p> - -<p>It must not be imagined that any part of the general public clearly -understands this situation. The state of mind of the Better Element -of the Republican side has been seen. The good Democrats are equally -distressed. The distinguished citizen ardently desires to oust the -Republican ring. He<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>14</span> subscribes year after year to the campaign fund -of his own party, and declares that the defalcation of the town -treasurer has given it the opportunity of a generation. The Democratic -organization takes his money and accepts his moral support, and uses it -to build up one end of the machine. It cries, “Reform! Reform! Give us -back the principles of Jefferson and of Tilden!”</p> - -<p>The Boss-out-of-Power must welcome all popular movements. He must -sometimes accept a candidate from a citizens’ committee, sometimes -refuse to do so. He must spread his mainsail to the national party -wind of the moment. His immense advantage is an intellectual one. He -alone knows the principles of the game. He alone sees that the power -of the bosses comes from party loyalty. Croker recently stated his -case frankly thus: “A man who would desert his party would desert his -country.”</p> - -<p>It may be remarked, in passing, that New York city reached the Happy -Family stage many years ago. Tammany Hall is in power, being maintained -there by the great mercantile interests. The Republican party is out -of power, and its organization is kept going by the same interests. It -has always been the ear-mark of an enterprise of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>15</span> first financial -magnitude in New York that it subscribed to both campaign funds. The -Republican function has been to prevent any one from disturbing Tammany -Hall. This has not been difficult; the Republicans have always been -in a hopeless minority, and the machine managers have understood this -perfectly. Now if, by the simple plan of denouncing Tammany Hall, -and appealing to the war record of the Republican party, they could -minimize the independent vote and hold their own constituency, Tammany -would be safe. The matter is actually more complex than this, but the -principle is obvious.</p> - -<p>To return to our country town. It is easy to see that the railroad -is pouring out its money in the systematic corruption of the entire -community. Even the offices with which it has no contact will be -affected by this corruption. Men put in office because they are tools -will work as tools only. Voters once bribed will thereafter vote for -money only. The subscribing and the voting classes, whose state of mind -is outlined above, are not purely mercenary. The retired grocer, the -florist, the druggist, are all influenced by mixed motives, in which -personal interest bears a greater or a smaller share. Each of these men -belongs to a party, as a Brahmin is born into a caste.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>16</span> His spirit must -suffer an agony of conversion before he can get free, even if he is -poor. If he has property, he must pay for that conversion by the loss -of money, also.</p> - -<p>Since 1865 the towns throughout the United States have been passing -through this stage. A ring was likely to spring up wherever there -was available capital. We hear a great talk about the failure of our -institutions as applied to cities, as if it were our incapacity to -deal with masses of people and with the problems of city expansion -that wrecked us. It is nothing of the sort. There is intellect and -business capacity enough in the country to run the Chinese Empire like -clockwork. Philosophers state broadly that our people “prefer to live -in towns,” and cite the rush to the cities during the last thirty -years. The truth is that the exploitation of the continent could be -done most conveniently by the assembling of business men in towns; and -hence it is that the worst rings are found in the larger cities. But -there are rings everywhere; and wherever you see one you will find a -factory behind it. If the population had remained scattered, commerce -would have pursued substantially the same course. We should have had -the rings just the same. It is perfectly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>17</span> true that the wonderful -and scientific concentration of business that we have seen in the -past thirty years gave the chance for the wonderful and scientific -concentration of its control over politics. The state machine could be -constructed easily, by consolidating local rings of the same party name.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The boss <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">par excellence</i> is a state boss. He is a comparatively -recent development. He could exist only in a society which had long -been preparing for him. He could operate only in a society where -almost every class and almost every individual was in a certain -sense corrupted. The exact moment of his omnipotence in the State -of New York, for instance, was recorded by the actions of the State -legislature. Less than ten years ago, the bribing of the legislature -was done piecemeal and at Albany; and the great corporations of the -State were accustomed to keep separate attorneys in the capitol, ready -for any emergency. But the economy of having the legislature corrupted -before election soon became apparent. If the party organizations -could furnish a man with whom the corporation managers could contract -directly, they and their directors could sleep at night. The state boss -sprang into existence to meet<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>18</span> this need. He is a commercial agent, -like his little local prototype; but the scope of his activities is so -great and their directions are so various, the forces that he deals -with are so complex and his mastery over them is so complete, that a -kind of mystery envelops him. He appears in the newspapers like a demon -of unaccountable power. He is the man who gives his attention to aiding -in the election of the candidates for state office, and to retaining -his hold upon them after election. His knowledge of local politics -all over a State, and the handling of the very large sums of money -subscribed by sundry promoters and corporations, explain the miracle of -his control.</p> - -<p>The government of a State is no more than a town government over a wide -area. The methods of bribery which work certain general results in a -town will work similar results in a State. But the scale of operations -is vastly greater. The State-controlled businesses, such as banking, -insurance, and the State public works, and the liquor traffic, involve -the expenditure of enormous sums of money.</p> - -<p>The effect of commercialism on politics is best seen in the state -System. The manner of nominating candidates shows how easily<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>19</span> the major -force in a community makes use of its old customs.</p> - -<p>The American plan of party government provides for primaries, caucuses, -and town, county, and State conventions. It was devised on political -principles, and was intended to be a means of working out the will of -the majority, by a gradual delegation of power from bottom to top. The -exigencies of commerce required that this machinery should be made -to work backwards,—namely, from top to bottom. It was absolutely -necessary for commerce to have a political dictator; and this was found -to be perfectly easy. Every form and process of nomination is gravely -gone through with, the dictator merely standing by and designating the -officers and committee-men at every step. There is something positively -Egyptian in the formalism that has been kept up in practice, and in the -state of mind of men who are satisfied with the procedure.</p> - -<p>The men who, in the course of a party convention, are doing this -marching and countermarching, this forming and dissolving into -committees and delegations, and who appear like acolytes going through -mystical rites and ceremonies, are only self-seeking men, without a -real political idea<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>20</span> in their heads. Their evolutions are done to be -seen by the masses of the people, who will give them party support if -these forms are complied with.</p> - -<p>We all know well another interesting perversion of function. A -legislator is by political theory a wise, enlightened man, pledged to -intellectual duties. He gives no bonds. He is responsible only under -the Constitution and to his own conscience. Therefore, if the place -is to be filled by a dummy, almost anybody will do. A town clerk must -be a competent man, even under boss rule; but a legislator will serve -the need so long as he is able to say “ay” and “no.” The boss, then, -governs the largest and the most complex business enterprise in the -State; and he is always a man of capacity. He is obliged to conduct it -in a cumbersome and antiquated manner, and to proceed at every step -according to precedent and by a series of fictions. When we consider -that the legislators and governors are, after all, not absolute -dummies; that among them are ambitious and rapacious men, with here -and there an enemy or a traitor to the boss and to his patrons, we see -that the boss must be well equipped with the intellect of intrigue. And -remember this: he must keep both<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>21</span> himself and his patrons out of jail, -and so far as possible keep them clear of public reprobation.</p> - -<p>We have not as yet had any national boss, because the necessity for -owning Congress has not as yet become continuous; and the interests -which have bought the national legislature at one time or another have -done it by bribing individuals, in the old-fashioned way.</p> - -<p>Turning now to New York city, we find the political situation very -similar to that of the country town already described. The interests -which actually control the businesses of the city are managed by very -few individuals. It is only that the sums involved are different. One -of these men is president of an insurance company whose assets are -$130,000,000; another is president of a system of street railways -with a capital stock of $30,000,000; another is president of an -elevated road system with a capital of the same amount; a fourth is -vice-president of a paving company worth $10,000,000; a fifth owns -$50,000,000 worth of real estate; a sixth controls a great railroad -system; a seventh is president of a savings-bank in which $5,000,000 -are deposited; and so on. The commercial ties which bind the community -together are as close in the city as in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>22</span> country town. The great -magnates live in palaces, and the lesser ones in palaces, also. -The hardware-dealer of the small town is in New York the owner of -iron-works, a man of stainless reputation. The florist is the owner of -a large tract of land within the city limits, through which a boulevard -is about to be cut. The retired merchant has become a partner of his -nephew, and is developing one of the suburbs by means of an extension -of an electric road system. But the commercial hierarchy does not stop -here; it continues radiating, spreading downward. All businesses are -united by the instruments and usages which the genius of trade has -devised. All these interests together represent the railroad of the -country town. They take no real interest in politics, and they desire -only to be let alone.</p> - -<p>For the twenty years before the Strong administration the government -of the city was almost continuously under the control of a ring, or, -accurately speaking, of a Happy Family. Special circumstances made -this ring well nigh indestructible. The Boss-out-of-Power of the -Happy Family happens to be also the boss of the State legislature. -He performs a double function. This is what has given Platt his -extraordinary power.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>23</span> It will have been noticed that some of the masses -of wealth above mentioned are peculiarly subject to State legislation: -they subscribe directly to the State boss’s fund. Some are subject to -interference from the city administration: they subscribe to the city -boss’s fund.</p> - -<p>We see that by the receipt of his fund the State boss is rendered -independent of the people of the city. He can use the State legislature -to strengthen his hands in his dealings with the city boss. After -all, he does not need many votes. He can buy enough votes to hold his -minority together and keep Tammany safely in power, and by now and then -taking a candidate from the citizens he advertises himself as a friend -of reform.</p> - -<p>As to the Tammany branch of the concern, the big money interests need -specific and often illegal advantages, and pay heavily over the Tammany -counter. But as we saw before, public officers, if once corrupted, will -work only for money. Every business that has to do with one or another -of the city offices must therefore now contribute for “protection.” A -foreign business that is started in this city subscribes to Tammany -Hall as a visitor writes his name in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>24</span> a book at a watering-place. It -gives him the run of the town. In the same way, the State-fearing -business man subscribes to Platt for “protection.” No secret is made of -these conditions. The business man regards the reformer as a monomaniac -who is not reasonable enough to see the necessity for his tribute. In -the conduct of any large business, this form of bribery is as regular -an item as rent. The machinery for such bribery is perfected. It is -only when some blundering attempt is made by a corporation to do the -bribing itself, when some unbusinesslike attempt is made to get rid of -the middleman, that the matter is discovered. A few boodle aldermen go -to jail, and every one is scandalized. The city and county officers -of the new city of New York will have to do with the disbursing -of $70,000,000 annually,—fully one half of it in the conduct of -administration. The power of these officers to affect or even control -values, by manipulation of one sort or another, is familiar to us all -from experience in the past.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>So much for business. Let us look at the law. The most lucrative -practice is that of an attorney who protects great corporate interests -among these breakers. He needs<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>25</span> but one client; he gets hundreds. The -mind of the average lawyer makes the same unconscious allowance for -bribery as that of the business man. Moreover, we cannot overlook the -cases of simple old-fashioned bribery to which the masses of capital -give rise. In a political emergency any amount of money is forthcoming -immediately, and it is given from aggregations of capital so large that -the items are easily concealed in the accounts. Bribery, in one form or -another, is part of the unwritten law. It is atmospheric; it is felt by -no one. The most able men in the community believe that society would -drop to pieces without bribery. They do not express it in this way, -but they act upon the principle in an emergency. A leader of the bar, -at the behest of his Wall Street clients, begs the reform police board -not to remove Inspector Byrnes, who is the Jonathan Wild of the period. -The bench is fairly able. But many of the judges on the bench have paid -large campaign assessments in return for their nominations; others have -given notes to the bosses. This reveals the exact condition of things. -In a corrupt era the judges pay cash. Now they help their friends. -The son or the son-in-law of a judge is sure of a good practice, and -referees<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>26</span> are appointed from lists which are largely dictated by the -professional politicians of both parties.</p> - -<p>It would require an encyclopædia to state the various simple devices -by which the same principle runs through every department in the life -of the community. Such an encyclopædia for New York city would be the -best picture of municipal misgovernment in the United States during -the commercial era. But one main fact must again be noted: this great -complex ring is held together by the two campaign funds, the Tammany -Hall fund and the Republican fund. They are the two power houses which -run all this machinery.</p> - -<p>So far as human suffering goes, the positive evils of the system -fall largely on the poor. The rich buy immunity, but the poor are -persecuted, and have no escape. This has always been the case -under a tyranny. What else could we expect in New York? The Lexow -investigation showed us the condition of the police force. The lower -courts, both criminal and civil, and the police department were used -for vote-getting and for money-getting purposes. They were serving -as instruments of extortion and of favoritism. But in the old police -courts the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>27</span> foreigner and the honest poor were actually attacked. -Process was issued against them, their business was destroyed, and they -were jailed unless they could buy off. This system still exists to some -extent in the lower civil courts.</p> - -<p>It is obvious that all these things come to pass through the fault -of no one in particular. We have to-day reached the point where the -public is beginning to understand that the iniquity is accomplished -by means of the political boss. Every one is therefore abusing the -boss. But Platt and Croker are not worse than the men who continue to -employ them after understanding their function. These men stand for the -conservative morality of New York, and for standards but little lower -than the present standards.</p> - -<p>Let us now see how those standards came to exist. Imagine a community -in which, for more than a generation, the government has been -completely under boss rule, so that the system has become part of the -habits and of the thought of the people, and consider what views we -might expect to find in the hearts of the citizens of such a community. -The masses will have been controlled by what is really bribery and -terrorism, but what appears in the form of a very plausible<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>28</span> appeal to -the individual on the ground of self-interest. For forty years money -and place have been corrupting them. Their whole conception of politics -is that it is a matter of money and of place. The well-to-do will -have been apt to prosper in proportion as they have made themselves -serviceable to the dominant powers, and have become part and parcel -of the machinery of the system. It is not to be pretended that every -man in such a community is a rascal, but it is true that in so far as -his business brings him into contact with the administrative officers -every man will be put to the choice between lucrative malpractice and -thankless honesty. A conviction will spread throughout the community -that nothing can be done without a friend at court; that honesty does -not pay, and probably never has paid in the history of the world; -that a boss is part of the mechanism by which God governs mankind; -that property would not be safe without him; and, finally, that the -recognized bosses are not so bad as they are painted. The great masses -of corporate property have owners who really believe that the system -of government which enabled them to make money is the only safe -government. These people cling to abuses as to a life-preserver. They<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>29</span> -fear that an honest police board will not be able to bribe the thieves -not to steal from them, that an honest State insurance department will -not be able to prevent the legislature from pillaging them. It is -absolutely certain that in the first struggles for reform the weight -of the mercantile classes will be thrown very largely on the side of -conservatism.</p> - -<p>Now, in a great city like New York the mercantile <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">bourgeoisie</i> -will include almost every one who has an income of five thousand -dollars a year, or more. These men can be touched by the bosses, and -therefore, after forty years of tyranny, it is not to be expected -that many of those who wear black coats will have much enthusiasm -for reform. It is “impracticable;” it is “discredited;” it is -“expensive;” it is “advocated by unknown men;” it speaks ill of the -“respectable;” it “does harm” by exciting the poor against the rich; it -is “unbusinesslike” and “visionary;” it is “self-righteous.” We have -accordingly had, in New York city, a low and perverted moral tone, an -incapacity to think clearly or to tell the truth when we know it. This -is both the cause and the consequence of bondage. A generation of men -really believe that honesty is bad policy,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>30</span> and continue to be governed -by Tammany Hall.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The world has wondered that New York could not get rid of its famous -incubus. The gross evils as they existed at the time of Tweed are -remembered. The great improvements are not generally known. Reform has -been slow, because its leaders have not seen that their work was purely -educational. They did not understand the political combination, and -they kept striking at Tammany Hall. Like a child with a toy, they did -not see that the same mechanism which caused Punch to strike caused -Judy’s face to disappear from the window.</p> - -<p>It is not selfishness and treason that are mainly responsible for the -discredit which dogs “reform.” It is the inefficiency of upright and -patriotic men. The practical difficulty with reform movements in New -York has been that the leaders of such movements have clung to old -political methods. These men have thought that if they could hire or -imitate the regular party machinery, they could make it work for good. -They would fight banditti with bravi. They would expel Tammany Hall, -and lo, Tammany is within them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>31</span> -Is it a failure of intellect or of morality which prevents the -reformers from seeing that idealism is the shortest road to their goal? -It is the failure of both. It is a legacy of the old tyranny. In one -sense it is corruption; in another it is stupidity; in every sense it -is incompetence. Political incompetence is only another name for moral -degradation, and both exist in New York for the same reason that they -exist in Turkey. They are the offspring of blackmail.</p> - -<p>Well-meaning and public-spirited men, who have been engrossed in -business for the best part of their lives, are perhaps excusable -for not understanding the principles on which reform moves. Any one -can see that if what was wanted was merely a good school board, the -easiest way to get it would be to go to Croker, give him a hundred -thousand dollars, and offer to let him alone if he gave the good board. -But until very recently nobody could see that putting good school -commissioners on Platt’s ticket and giving Platt the hundred thousand -dollars was precisely the same thing.</p> - -<p>In an enterprise whose sole aim is to raise the moral standard, -idealism always pays. A reverse following a fight for principle, like -the defeat of Low, is pure gain. It records<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>32</span> the exact state of the -cause. It educates the masses on a gigantic scale. The results of that -education are immediately visible.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, all compromise means delay. By compromise, the -awakened faith of the people is sold to the politicians for a mess of -reform. The failures and mistakes of Mayor Strong’s administration were -among the causes for Mr. Low’s defeat. People said, “If this be reform, -give us Tammany Hall.” Our reformers have always been in hot haste -to get results. They want a balance-sheet at the end of every year. -They think this will encourage the people. But the people recall only -their mistakes. The long line of reform leaders in New York city are -remembered with contempt. The evil that men do lives after them; the -good is oft interred with their bones.</p> - -<p>That weakness of intellect which makes reformers love quick returns is -twin brother to a certain defect of character. Personal vanity is very -natural in men who figure as tribunes of the people. They say, “Look at -Abraham Lincoln, and how he led the people out of the wilderness; let -us go no faster than the people in pushing these reforms; let us accept -half-measures; let us be Abraham Lincoln.” The example of Lincoln has<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>33</span> -wrecked many a promising young man; for really Lincoln has no more to -do with the case than Julius Cæsar. As soon as the reformers give up -trying to be statesmen, and perceive that their own function is purely -educational, and that they are mere anti-slavery agitators and persons -of no account whatever, they will succeed better.</p> - -<p>As to the methods of work in reform,—whether it shall be by clubs or -by pamphlets, by caucus or by constitution,—they will be developed. -Executive capacity is simply that capacity which is always found in -people who really want something done.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>In New York, the problem is not to oust Tammany Hall; another would -arise in a year. It is to make the great public understand the boss -system, of which Tammany is only a part. As fast as the reformers -see that clearly themselves, they will find the right machinery to -do the work in hand. It may be that, like the Jews, we shall have to -spend forty years more in the wilderness, until the entire generation -that lived under Pharaoh has perished. But education nowadays marches -quickly. The progress that has been made during the last seven years in -the city of New York gives hope that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>34</span> within a decade a majority of the -voters will understand clearly that all the bosses are in league.</p> - -<p>In 1890, this fact was so little understood by the managers of an -anti-Tammany movement which sprang up in that year that, after raising -a certain stir and outcry, they put in the field a ticket made up -exclusively of political hacks, whose election would have left matters -exactly where they stood. The people at large, led by the soundest -political instinct, re-elected Tammany Hall, and gave to sham reform -the rebuff it deserved. In 1894, after the Lexow investigation had -kept the town at fever-heat of indignation all summer, Mayor Strong -was nominated by the Committee of Seventy, under an arrangement with -Platt. The excitement was so great that the people at large did not -examine Mr. Strong’s credentials. He was a Republican merchant, and in -no way identified with the boss system. Mayor Strong’s administration -has been a distinct advance, in many ways encouraging. Its errors -and weaknesses have been so clearly traceable to the system which -helped elect him that it has been in the highest degree valuable as an -object-lesson. In 1895, only one year after Mayor Strong’s election, -the fruits of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>35</span> his administration could not yet be seen. In that year a -few judges and minor local officers were to be chosen. By this time the -“citizens’ movement” had become a regular part of a municipal election. -A group of radicals, the legatees of the Strong campaign, had for a -year been enrolled in clubs called Good Government Clubs. These men -took the novel course of nominating a complete ticket of their own. -This was considered a dangerous move by the moderate reformers, who -were headed by the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce and its -well-meaning supporters then took a step which, from an educational -standpoint, turned out to be most important. In their terror lest -Tammany Hall should gain the prestige of a by-election, they made an -arrangement with Platt, and were allowed to name some candidates on his -ticket. This was the famous “fusion,” which the Good Government men -attacked with as much energy as they might have expended on Tammany -Hall. A furious campaign of crimination between the two reform factions -followed, and of course Tammany was elected.</p> - -<p>The difference between the Good Government men (the Goo-Goos, as -they were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>36</span> called) and the Fusionists was entirely one of political -education. The Goo-Goo mind had advanced to the point of seeing -that Platt was a confederate of Tammany and represented one wing -of the great machine. To give him money was useless; to lend him -respectability was infamous. These ideas were disseminated by the -press; and it was immaterial that they were disseminated in the form of -denunciations of the Good Government Clubs. The people at large began -to comprehend clearly what they had always instinctively believed. -There was now a nucleus of men in the town who preferred Tammany Hall -to any victory that would discredit reform.</p> - -<p>It may be noted that the Good Government Clubs polled less than one -per cent of the vote cast in that election; and that in the recent -mayoralty campaign the Citizens’ Union ran Mr. Low on the Good -Government platform, and polled 150,000 votes. In this same election, -the straight Republican ticket, headed by Tracy, polled 100,000 votes, -and Tammany polled about as many as both its opponents together. A -total of about 40,000 votes were cast for George and other candidates.</p> - -<p>Much surprise has been expressed that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>37</span> there should be 100,000 -Republicans in New York whose loyalty to the party made them vote a -straight ticket with the certainty of electing Tammany Hall; but in -truth, when we consider the history of the city, we ought rather to be -surprised at the great size of the vote for Mr. Low. He was the man who -arranged the fusion of 1895. It was entirely due to a lack of clear -thinking and of political courage that such an arrangement was then -made. Two years ago the Chamber of Commerce did not clearly understand -the evils that it was fighting. Is it a wonder that 100,000 individual -voters are still backward in their education? If we discount the appeal -of self-interest, which determined many of them, there are probably -some 75,000 Republicans whose misguided party loyalty obscured their -view and deadened their feelings. They cannot be said to hate bad -government very much. They do not think Tammany Hall so very bad, after -all. As the London papers said, the dog has returned to his vomit. It -is unintelligent to abuse them. They are the children of the age. A few -years ago we were all such as they. Of Mr. Low’s 150,000 supporters, -on the other hand, there are probably at least 40,000 who would vote -through thick<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>38</span> and thin for the principles which his campaign stood for.</p> - -<p>Any one who is a little removed by time or by distance from New York -knows that the city cannot have permanent good government until a -clear majority of our 500,000 voters shall develop what the economists -call an “effective desire” for it. It is not enough merely to want -reform. The majority must know how to get it. For educational purposes, -the intelligent discussion throughout the recent campaign is worth -all the effort that it cost. The Low campaign was notable in another -particular. The banking and the mercantile classes subscribed liberally -to the citizens’ campaign fund. They are the men who have had the most -accurate knowledge of the boss system, because they support it. At last -they have dared to expose it. Indeed, there was a rent in Wall Street. -The great capitalists and the promoters backed Tammany and Platt, as a -matter of course; but many individuals of power and importance in the -street came out strongly for Low. They acted at personal risk, with -courage, out of conscience. The great pendulum of wealth has swung -toward decency. It is very difficult to use this or any money in the -cause of reform<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>39</span> without doing more harm than good. But the money is -not the main point; the personal influence of the men who give it -operates more powerfully than the money. Hereafter reform will be -respectable. The professional classes are pouring into it. The young -men are re-entering politics. Its victory is absolutely certain, and -will not be distant.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The effect of public-spirited activity on the character is very rapid. -Here again we cannot separate the cause from the consequence; but it is -certain that the moral tone of the community is changing very rapidly -for the better, and that the thousands of men who are at this moment -preparing to take part in the next citizens’ campaign, and who count -public activity as one of the regular occupations of their lives, are -affecting the social and commercial life of New York. The young men who -are working to reform politics find in it not only the satisfaction of -a religious instinct, but an excitement which business cannot provide.</p> - -<p>One effect of the commercial supremacy has been to make social life -intolerably dull, by dividing people into cliques and trade unions. The -millionaire dines with the millionaire, the artist with the artist, -the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>40</span> hat-maker with the hat-maker, gentlefolk with gentlefolk. All of -these sets are equally uninspiring, equally frightened at a strange -face. The hierarchy of commerce is dull. The intelligent people in -America are dull, because they have no contact, no social experience. -Their intelligence is a clique and wears a badge. They think they are -not affected by the commercialism of the times; but their attitude of -mind is precisely that of a lettered class living under a tyranny. They -flock by themselves. It is certain that the cure for class feeling -is public activity. The young jeweller, the young printer, and the -golf-player, each, after a campaign in which they have been fighting -for a principle, finds that social enjoyment lies in working with -people unlike himself, for a common object. Reform movements bring men -into touch, into struggle with the powers that are really shaping our -destinies, and show them the sinews and bones of the social organism. -The absurd social prejudices which unman the rich and the poor alike -vanish in a six weeks’ campaign. Indeed, the exhilaration of real life -is too much for many of the reformers. Even bankers neglect their -business, and dare not meet their partners, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>41</span> a dim thought crosses -their minds that perhaps the most enlightened way to spend money is, -not to make it, but to invest their energies directly in life.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The reasons for believing that the boss system has reached its climax -are manifold. Some of them have been stated, others may be noted. In -the first place, the railroads are built. Business is growing more -settled. The sacking of the country’s natural resources goes on at -a slower pace. It is a matter of history, that economic laws did so -operate, that the New York Central Railroad controlled the State -legislature during the period of the building and consolidation of -the many small roads which make up the present great system. But -the conditions have changed. Bribery, like any other crime, may be -explained by an emergency; but everyone believes that bribery is not -a permanent necessity in the running of a railroad, and this general -belief will determine the practices of the future. Public opinion will -not stand the abuses; and without the abuse where is the profit? In -many places, the old system of bribery is still being continued out -of habit, and at a loss. The corporations can get what they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>42</span> want -more cheaply by legal methods, and they are discovering this. In the -second place, the boss system is now very generally understood. The -people are no longer deceived. The ratio between party feeling and -self-interest is changing rapidly, in the mind of the average man. -It was the mania of party feeling that supported the boss system and -rendered political progress impossible, and party feeling is dying out. -We have seen, for instance, that those men who, by the accident of the -war, were shaken in their party loyalty, have been the most politically -intelligent class in the nation. The Northern Democrats, who sided with -their opponents to save the Union, were the first men to be weaned of -party prejudice, and from their ranks, accordingly, came civil service -reformers, tariff reformers, etc.</p> - -<p>It is noteworthy, also, that the Jewish mind is active in all reform -movements. The isolation of the race has saved it from party blindness, -and has given scope to its extraordinary intelligence. The Hebrew -prophet first put his finger on blackmail, as the curse of the world, -and boldly laid the charge at the door of those who profited by the -abuse. It was the Jew who perceived<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>43</span> that, in the nature of things, -the rich and the powerful in a community will be trammelled up and -identified with the evils of the times. The wrath of the Hebrew -prophets and the arraignments of the New Testament owe part of their -eternal power to their recognition of that fact. They record an -economic law.</p> - -<p>Moreover, time fights for reform. The old voters die off, and the young -men care little about party shibboleths. Hence these non-partisan -movements. Every election, local or national, which causes a body of -men to desert their party is a blow at the boss system. These movements -multiply annually. They are emancipating the small towns throughout the -Union, even as commerce was once disfranchising them. As party feeling -dies out in a man’s mind, it leaves him with a clearer vision. His -conscience begins to affect his conduct very seriously, when he sees -that a certain course is indefensible. It is from this source that the -reform will come.</p> - -<p>The voter will see that it is wrong to support the subsidized boss, -just as the capitalist has already begun to recoil from the monster -which he created. He sees that it is wrong at the very moment when he -is<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>44</span> beginning to find it unprofitable. The old trademark has lost its -value.</p> - -<p>The citizens’ movement is, then, a purge to take the money out of -politics. The stronger the doses, the quicker the cure. If the citizens -maintain absolute standards, the old parties can regain their popular -support only by adopting those standards. All citizens’ movements are -destined to be temporary; they will vanish, to leave our politics -purified. But the work they do is as broad as the nation.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The question of boss rule is of national importance. The future of the -country is at stake. Until this question is settled, all others are in -abeyance. The fight against money is a fight for permission to decide -questions on their merits. The last presidential election furnished an -illustration of this. At a private meeting of capitalists held in New -York City, to raise money for the McKinley campaign, a very important -man fervidly declared that he had already subscribed $5000 to “buy -Indiana,” and that if called on to do so he would subscribe $5000 -more! He was greeted with cheers for his patriotism. Many of our best -citizens believe not only that money bought<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>45</span> that election, but that -the money was well spent, because it averted a panic. These men do not -believe in republican institutions; they have found something better.</p> - -<p>This is precisely the situation in New York city. The men who -subscribed to the McKinley campaign fund are the same men who support -Tammany Hall. In 1896 they cried, “We cannot afford Bryan and his -panic!” In 1897 the same men in New York cried, “We cannot afford Low -and reform!” That is what was decided in each case. Yet it is quite -possible that the quickest, wisest, and cheapest way of dealing with -Bryan would have been to allow him and his panic to come on,—fighting -them only with arguments, which immediate consequences would have -driven home very forcibly. That is the way to educate the masses and -fit them for self-government; and it is the only way.</p> - -<p>In this last election the people of New York have crippled Platt. -It is a service done to the nation. Its consequences are as yet not -understood; for the public sees only the gross fact that Tammany is -again in power.</p> - -<p>But the election is memorable. It is a sign of the times. The grip of -commerce<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>46</span> is growing weaker, the voice of conscience louder. A phase -in our history is passing away. That phase was predestined from the -beginning.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The war did no more than intensify existing conditions, both commercial -and political. It gave sharp outlines to certain economic phenomena, -and made them dramatic. It is due to the war that we are now able to -disentangle the threads and do justice to the nation.</p> - -<p>The corruption that we used to denounce so fiercely and understand -so little was a phase of the morality of an era which is already -vanishing. It was as natural as the virtue which is replacing it; it -will be a curiosity almost before we have done studying it. We see -that our institutions were particularly susceptible to this disease of -commercialism, and that the sickness was acute, but that it was not -mortal. Our institutions survived.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>47</span></p> - - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>48</span> -<p class="center p180" id="society">SOCIETY</p> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider2 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>49</span> -</div> - -<h2 id="ii">II<br /> -<span>SOCIETY</span></h2> - -<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">Our</span> institutions have survived, the perils of boss rule are past, and -we may look back upon the system with a kind of awe, and recognize how -easily the system might have overthrown our institutions and ushered -in a period which history would have recorded as the age of the State -Tyrants.</p> - -<p>Let us imagine that some State like Pennsylvania, on which the boss -system had been so firmly fixed that a boss was able to bequeath -his seat in the United States Senate to his son, had shown forth an -ambitious man, a ruler who realized that his function was not one of -business, but one of government; let us imagine that a President of -the Pennsylvania Railroad, some man of great capacity, had undertaken -to rule the State. He would, by his position as State boss, have been -able gradually to do away with the petty bosses and petty abuses. He -would give the State a general cities law, good schools, clean streets, -speedy justice;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>50</span> every necessary municipal improvement. Gas, water, -boulevards would be supplied with an economy positively startling to a -generation accustomed to jobs. He would destroy the middlemen as Louis -XI. destroyed the nobles, and give to his State, for the first time in -the history of the country, good government. A benign tyranny, with -every department in the hands of experts, makes the strongest form of -government in the world. Every class is satisfied. Pennsylvania would -have been famous the world over. Its inhabitants would have been proud -of it; foreigners would have written books about it; other States would -have imitated it.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the power of self-government would have been lost.</p> - -<p>Biennial sessions of the Legislature are already a favorite device -for minimizing the evils of Legislatures. But the dictator would have -desired to discourage popular assemblies. The whole business world -would have backed the boss, in his plan for quinquennial or decennial -sessions. Once give way to the laziness, once cater to the inertia and -selfishness of the citizen, and he sinks into slumber.</p> - -<p>Our feeble and floundering citizens’ movements in New York during -the last ten<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>51</span> years show us how hard it is to recover the power of -self-government when once lost; how gradual the gain, even under the -most stimulating conditions of misrule. Given thirty years of able -administration by a single man, and the boss system would have sunk -so deep into the popular mind, the arctic crust of prejudice and -incompetence would have frozen so deep, that it might easily take two -hundred years for the community to come to life. Recovery could only -come through the creeping in of abuses, through the decentralization of -the great tyranny. And as each abuse arose, the population would clamor -to the dictator and beg him to correct it. After a while a few thinkers -would arise who would see that the only way to revive our institutions -was by the painstaking education of the people. The stock in trade of -these teachers would be the practical abuses, and very often they would -be obliged to urge upon the people a course which would make the abuses -temporarily more acute.</p> - -<p>We have escaped an age of tyrants, because the eyes of the bosses and -their masters were fixed on money. They were not ambitious. Government -was an annex to trade. To certain people the boss appears<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>52</span> as a ruler -of men. If proof were needed that he is a hired man employed to do the -dirty work of others, what better proof could we have than this: No one -of all the hundreds of bosses thrown up during the last thirty years -has ever lifted himself out of his sphere, or even essayed to rule.</p> - -<p>That devotion of the individual to his bank account which created -the boss and saved us from the dictator must now be traced back into -business.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>For the sake of analysis it is convenient now to separate and again not -to separate the influences of business proper from the influences of -dishonesty, but in real life they are one thing. Dishonesty is a mere -result of excessive devotion to money-making. The general and somewhat -indefinite body of rules which are considered “honest” change from -time to time. I call a thing dishonest when it offends my instinct. -The next man may call it honest. The question is settled by society -at large. “What can a man do and remain in his club?” That gives the -practical standards of a community. The devotion of the individual to -his bank account gives the reason why the financier and his agent, the -boss, could always find<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>53</span> councilmen, legislators, judges, lawyers, to -be their jackals, or to put the equation with the other end first, it -is the reason why the legislators could always combine to blackmail the -capitalist: this political corruption is a mere spur and offshoot of -our business corruption. We know more about it, because politics cannot -be carried on wholly in the dark. Business can. The main facts are -known. Companies organize subsidiary companies to which they vote the -money of the larger company—cheating their stockholders. The railroad -men get up small roads and sell them to the great roads which they -control—cheating their stockholders. The purchasing agents of many -great enterprises cheat the companies as a matter of course, not by a -recognized system of commissions—like French cooks—but by stealth. So -in trade, you cannot sell goods to the retailers, unless you corrupt -the proper person. It is all politics. All our politics is business and -our business is politics.</p> - -<p>There is something you want to do, and the “practical man” is the man -who knows the ropes, knows who is the proper person to be “seen.” The -slang word gives a picture of the times—to “see” a man means to bribe -him.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>54</span> -But let no one think that dishonesty or anything else begins at the -top. These big business men were once little business men.</p> - -<p>To cut rates, to have a different price for each customer, to -substitute one article for another, are the prevailing policies of -the seller. To give uncollectible notes, to claim rebates, to make -assignments and compromises, to use one shift or another in order to -get possession of goods and pay less than the contract price, are the -prevailing aims of the buyer.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It is unquestionably possible for an incorruptible man to succeed in -business. But his scruples are an embarrassment. Not everybody wants -such a man. He insists on reducing every reckoning to pounds sterling, -while the rest of the world is figuring in maravedis. He must make up -in ability what he lacks in moral obliquity.</p> - -<p>He will no doubt find his nook in time. Honesty is the greatest luxury -in the world, and the American looks with awe on the man who can afford -it, or insists upon having it. It is right that he should pay for it.</p> - -<p>The long and short of the matter is that the sudden creation of -wealth in the United States has been too much for our people.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>55</span> We are -personally dishonest. The people of the United States are notably and -peculiarly dishonest in financial matters.</p> - -<p>The effect of this on government is but one of the forms in which the -ruling passion is manifest. “What is there in it for me?” is the state -of mind in which our people have been existing. Out of this come the -popular philosophy, the social life, the architecture, the letters, the -temper of the age; all tinged with the passion.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Let us look at the popular philosophy of the day. An almost ludicrous -disbelief that any one can be really disinterested is met at once. -Any one who takes an intelligent interest in public affairs becomes -a “reformer.” He is liked, if it can be reasonably inferred that he -is advancing his own interests. Otherwise he is incomprehensible. He -is respected, because it is impossible not to respect him, but he is -regarded as a mistaken fellow, a man who interferes with things that -are not his business, a meddler.</p> - -<p>The unspoken religion of all sensible men inculcates thrift as the -first virtue. Business thunders at the young man, “Thou shalt have -none other gods but me.” Nor<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>56</span> is it a weak threat, for business, -when it speaks, means business. The young doctor in the small town -who advocates reform loses practice for two reasons: first, because -it is imagined that he is not a serious man, not a good doctor, if -he gives time to things outside his profession; second, because the -carriage-maker does not agree with him and regards it as a moral -duty to punish him. The newsdealer in the Arcade at Rector Street -lost custom because it was discovered that he was a Bryan man. The -bankers would not buy papers of him. Since the days of David, the -great luxury of the powerful has been to be free from the annoyance of -other persons’ opinions. The professional classes in any community are -parasites on the moneyed classes; they attend the distribution. They -cannot strike the hand that feeds them. In a country where economic -laws tend to throw the money into the hands of a certain type of men, -the morality of those men is bound to affect society very seriously.</p> - -<p>The world-famous “timidity” of Americans in matters of opinion, is the -outward and visible sign of a mental preoccupation. Tocqueville thought -it was due to their democratic form of government. It is not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>57</span> due to -democracy, but to commercial conditions. In Tocqueville’s day it arose -out of the slavery question, solely because that question affected -trade.</p> - -<p>In describing the social life of Boston, Josiah Quincy says of George -Ticknor’s hospitality: “There seemed to be a cosmopolitan spaciousness -about his very vestibule. He received company with great ease, and a -simple supper was always served to his evening visitors. Prescott, -Everett, Webster, Hillard, and other noted Bostonians well mixed with -the pick of such strangers as happened to be in the city, furnished a -social entertainment of the first quality. Politics, at least American -politics, were never mentioned.”</p> - -<p>It was at such “entertainments” as this that the foreign publicists -received their impressions as to the extinction of free speech in -America. Politics could not be mentioned; but this was not due to our -democratic form of government, but to the fact that Beacon Street was -trading with South Carolina. “Politics” meant slavery, and Beacon -Street could not afford to have values disturbed—not even at a dinner -party.</p> - -<p>We have seen that our more recent misgovernment<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>58</span> has not been due to -democracy, and we now see that the most striking weakness of our social -life is not and never has been due to democracy.</p> - -<p>Let us take an example: A party of men meet in a club, and the subject -of free trade is launched. Each of these men has been occupied all day -in an avocation where silence is golden. Shall he be the one to speak -first? Who knows but what some phase of the discussion may touch his -pocket? But the matter is deeper. Free speech is a habit. It cannot -be expected from such men, because a particular subject is free from -danger. Let the subject be dress reform, and the traders will be -equally politic.</p> - -<p>This pressure of self-interest which prevents a man from speaking his -mind comes on top of that familiar moral terrorism of any majority, -even a majority of two persons against one, which is one of the -ultimate phenomena of human intercourse.</p> - -<p>It is difficult to speak out a sentiment that your table companions -disapprove of. Even Don Quixote was afraid to confess that it was he -who had set the convicts at liberty, because he heard the barber and -curate denounce the thing as an outrage.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>59</span> Now the weight of this normal -social pressure in any particular case will depend on how closely -the individuals composing the majority resemble each other. But men, -lighted by the same passion, pursuing one object under the similar -conditions, of necessity grow alike. By a process of natural selection, -the self-seekers of Europe have for sixty years been poured into the -hopper of our great mill. The Suabian and the Pole each drops his -costume, his language, and his traditions as he goes in. They come out -American business men; and in the second generation they resemble each -other more closely in ideals, in aims, and in modes of thought than two -brothers who had been bred to different trades in Europe.</p> - -<p>The uniformity of occupation, the uniformity of law, the absence of -institutions, like the church, the army, family pride, in fact, the -uniformity of the present and the sudden evaporation of all the past, -have ground the men to a standard.</p> - -<p>America turns out only one kind of man. Listen to the conversation -of any two men in a street car. They are talking about the price of -something—building material, advertising, bonds, cigars.</p> - -<p>We have, then, two distinct kinds of pressure,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>60</span> each at its maximum, -both due to commerce: the pressure of fear that any unpopular sentiment -a man utters will show in his bank account; the pressure of a unified -majority who are alike in their opinions, have no private opinions, nor -patience with the private opinions of others. Of these two pressures, -the latter is by far the more important.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It cannot be denied that the catchwords of democracy have been used to -intensify this tyranny. If the individual must submit when outvoted in -politics, he ought to submit when outvoted in ethics, in opinion, or in -sentiment. Private opinion is a thing to be stamped out, like private -law. A prejudice is aroused by the very fact that a man thinks for -himself; he is dangerous; he is anarchistic.</p> - -<p>But this misapplication of a dogma is not the cause but the cloak of -oppression. It is like the theory of the divine right of Kings—a -thing invoked by conservatism to keep itself in control, a shibboleth -muttered by men whose cause will not bear argument.</p> - -<p>We must never expect to find in a dogma the explanation of the system -which it props up. That explanation must be sought for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>61</span> in history. -The dogma records but does not explain a supremacy. Therefore, when -we hear some one appeal to democratic principle for a justification -in suppressing the individual, we have to reflect how firmly must -this custom be established, upon what a strong basis of interest must -it rest, that it has power so to pervert the ideas of democracy. A -distrust of the individual running into something like hatred may -be seen reflected in the press of the United States. The main point -is that Americans have by business training been growing more alike -every day, and have seized upon any and every authority to aid them in -disciplining a recusant.</p> - -<p>We have then a social life in which caution and formalism prevail, and -can see why it is that the gathering at the club was a dull affair.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>We must now add one dreadful fact: Many of these men at the club -are dishonest. The banker has come from a Directors’ meeting of a -large corporation, where he has voted to buy ten thousand shares of -railroad stock which he and his associates bought on foreclosure at -seventeen three weeks before, but which now stands at thirty, because -the quotations<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>62</span> have been rigged. The attorney for the corporation is -here talking to Professor Scuddamore about the new citizens’ movement, -which the attorney has joined, for he is a great reformer, and lives -in horror of the wickedness of the times. Beyond him sits an important -man, whose corporation has just given a large sum to a political -organization. Next to him is a Judge, who is a Republican, but fond of -a chat with political opponents. With them is the editor of a reform -paper, whose financial articles are of much importance to the town. -A very eminent lawyer is in conversation with him. This lawyer has -just received a large fee from the city for work which would not have -brought him more than one-fifth of the amount if done for a private -client. He is, by the way, a law partner of the latest tribune of the -people, a man of stainless reputation. Here is also another type of -honor, the middle-aged practitioner of good family, who has one of the -best heads in town. He knows what all these other men are, and how -they make their money; yet he dines at their houses, and gets business -from them. On his left is a man much talked of ten years ago, a rare -man to be seen here. He was ambitious, and became the hope of reform.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>63</span> -But, unfortunately, he also had a talent for business. He became rich -and cynical, and you see that he is looking about, as if in search of -another disappointed man to talk to. There also is a great doctor, -visiting physician of three hospitals, one of which is in receipt -of city funds, and he knows the practice of packing the hospitals -before inspection day in order to increase the appropriation. The man -who endowed the hospital sits beyond. All these wires end in this -club-room. Now start your topic—jest about free silver, make a merry -sally on Mayor Jones. Start the question: “Why is not the last reform -commissioner of the gas works not in jail?” and see what a jovial crew -you are set down with.</p> - -<p>You will find as to any new topic, that each one requires time to -adjust his cravat to it. You are in a company of men who are so anxious -to be reasonable, to be “just,” that it will require them till judgment -day to make up their minds on any point. Nor is it easy to say how any -one of them ought to behave. Is it dishonest to draw dividends from -a corporation which you believe to be corruptly managed; to wink at -bribery done in the interest of widows and of orphans? Must you cut a -client because he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>64</span> owns a judge? What proof have you of any of these -things? Do you demand of any one of these men that he shall offend or -denounce the rest, and, short of that, what course should he take?</p> - -<p>The point here made is not an ethical one as to how any one of these -men ought to adjust himself to the corruption about him, but the -sociological point—that a civilization based upon a commerce which is -in all its parts corruptly managed will present a social life which is -unintelligent and mediocre, made up of people afraid of each other, -whose ideas are shopworn, whose manners are self-conscious.</p> - -<p>The ill-concealed dependence of these men on each other is not -resentful. They are the most good-natured men in the world. But -they are unenlightened. Without free speech free thought can hardly -exist. Without free speech you cannot gather the fruits of the mind’s -spontaneous workings. When a man talks with absolute sincerity and -freedom he goes on a voyage of discovery. The whole company has shares -in the enterprise. He may strike out some idea which explains the -sphinx. The moral consequences of circumspect and affable reticence are -even worse than the intellectual ones. “Live and let<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>65</span> live,” says our -genial prudence. Well enough, but mark the event. No one ever lost his -social standing merely because of his offences, but because of the talk -about them. As free speech goes out the rascals come in.</p> - -<p>Speech is a great part of social life, but not the whole of it. Dress, -bearing, expression, betray a man, customs show character, all these -various utterances mingle and merge into the general tone which is the -voice of a national temperament; private motive is lost in it.</p> - -<p>This tone penetrates and envelops everything in America. It is -impossible to condemn it altogether. This desire to please, which has -so much of the shopman’s smile in it, graduates at one end of the scale -into a general kindliness, into public benefactions, hospitals, and -college foundations; at the other end it is seen melting into a desire -to efface one’s self rather than give offence, to hide rather than be -noticed.</p> - -<p>In Europe, the men in the pit at the theatre stand up between the acts, -face the house, and examine the audience at leisure. The American -dares not do this. He cannot stand the isolation, nor the publicity. -The American in a horse car can give his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>66</span> seat to a lady, but dares -not raise his voice while the conductor tramps over his toes. It -violates every instinct of his commercial body to thrust his private -concerns into prominence. The American addresses his equal, whom he -knows familiarly, as Mr. Jones, giving him the title with as much -subserviency as the Englishman pays to an unknown Earl.</p> - -<p>Mere financial dishonesty is of very little importance in the history -of civilization. Who cares whether Cæsar stole or Cæsar Borgia cheated? -Their intellects stayed clear. The real evil that follows in the wake -of a commercial dishonesty so general as ours is the intellectual -dishonesty it generates. One need not mind stealing, but one must cry -out at people whose minds are so befuddled that they do not know theft -when they see it. Robert Walpole bought votes. He deceived others, but -he did not deceive himself.</p> - -<p>We have seen that the retailer in the small town could not afford -to think clearly upon the political situation. But this was a mere -instance, a sample of his mental attitude. He dare not face any -question. He must shuffle, qualify, and defer. Here at last we -have the great characteristic which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>67</span> covers our continent like a -climate—intellectual dishonesty. This state of mind does not merely -prevent a man having positive opinions. The American is incapable -of taking a real interest in anything. The lack of passion in the -American—noticeable in his books and in himself—comes from the same -habitual mental distraction; for passion is concentration. Hence also -the flippancy, superficiality, and easy humor for which we are noted. -Nothing except the dollar is believed to be worthy the attention of a -serious man. People are even ashamed of their tastes. Until recently, -we thought it effeminate for a man to play on the piano. When a man -takes a living interest in anything, we call him a “crank.” There is -an element of self-sacrifice in any honest intellectual work which we -detect at once and score with contumely.</p> - -<p>It was not solely commercial interest that made the biographers of -Lincoln so thrifty to extend and veneer their book. It was that they -themselves did not, could not, take an interest in the truth about -him. The second-rate quality of all our letters and verse is due to -the same cause. The intellectual integrity is undermined. The literary -man is concerned for what “will<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>68</span> go,” like the reformer who is half -politician. The attention of every one in the United States is on some -one else’s opinion, not on truth.</p> - -<p>The matter resolves itself at last into Pilate’s question: What is -truth? We do not know, and shall never know. But it seems to involve a -certain focussing and concentration of the attention that brings all -the life within us into harmony. When this happens to us, we discover -that truth is the only thing we had ever really cared about in the -world. The thing seems to be the same thing, no matter which avenue we -reach it by. At whatever point we are touched, we respond. A quartet, a -cathedral, a sonnet, an exhibition of juggling, anything well done—we -are at the mercy of it. But as the whole of us responds to it, so it -takes a whole man to do it. Whatever cracks men up and obliterates -parts of them, makes them powerless to give out this vibration. This is -about all we know of individualism and the integrity of the individual. -The sum of all the philosophies in the history of the world can be -packed back into it. All the tyrannies and abuses in the world are only -bad because they injure this integrity. We desire truth. It is the only -thing we desire.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>69</span> To have it, we must develop the individual. And there -are practical ways and means of doing this. We see that all our abuses -are only odious because they injure some individual man’s spirit. We -can trace the corruption of politics into business, and find private -selfishness at the bottom of it. We can see this spread out into a -network of invisible influence, in the form of intellectual dishonesty -blighting the minds of our people. We can look still closer and see -just why and how the temperament of the private man is expressed.</p> - -<p>We study this first in social life; for social life is the source and -fountain of all things. The touchstone for any civilization is what one -man says to another man in the street. Everything else that happens -there bears a traceable relation to the tone of his voice. The press -reflects it, the pulpit echoes it, the literature reproduces it, the -architecture embodies it.</p> - -<p>The rays of force which start in material prosperity pass through -the focus of social life, and extend out into literature, art, -architecture, religion, philosophy. All these things are but the -sparks thrown off the gestures and gaits, the records of the social -life of some civilization. That is the reason<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>70</span> why it has been useful -to pause over a club-house and study its inmates. The ball-room, the -dinner-table, would have been equally instructive. The deference -to reigning convention is the same everywhere. The instinct of -self-concealment, the policy of classing like with like, leads to -the herding of the young with the young only, the sporting with the -sporting only, the rich with the rich only, which is the bane of our -society. The suffocation is mitigated here and there by the influence -of ambitious and educated women. They are doing their best to stem the -tide which they can neither control nor understand. The stratification -of our society, and its crystallization into social groups, is little -short of miraculous, considering the lightning changes of scene. The -<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">nouveaux riches</i> of one decade are the old -<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">noblesse</i> of the -next decade, and yet any particular set, at any particular time, has -its exclusions, its code of hats and coats and small talk, which are -more rigid than those of London.</p> - -<p>The only place in the country where society is not dull is Washington, -because in Washington politics have always forced the social elements -to mix; because in Washington, some embers of the old ante-bellum -society survived; because the place has no<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>71</span> commerce, and because the -foreign diplomats have been a constant factor, educating the Americans -in social matters. But Washington is not the centre of American -civilization. The controlling force in American life is not in its -politics, but in commerce. New York is the head and heart of the United -States. Chicago is America. And the elements of this life must be -sought, as always, in the small towns. Find the social factors which -are common to New York, to Poughkeepsie, and to Newport, and you have -the keynote to the country. We began with a city club. But it would -have made no difference what gathering we entered—a drawing-room at -Newport, a labor union in Fifteenth Street—we should have found the -same phenomena,—formalism, suppression of the individual, intellectual -dishonesty.</p> - -<p>The dandy at Newport who conscientiously follows his leaders and -observes the cab rule, the glove ordinance, and the mystery of the -oyster fork, is governed by the same law, is fettered by the same -force, as the labor man who fears to tell his fellows that he approves -of Waring’s clean streets. Each is a half-man, each is afraid of his -fellows, and for the same reason. Each is commercial, keeps his place -by conciliatory methods, and will<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>72</span> be punished for contumacy by the -loss of his job. Neither of them has an independent opinion upon any -subject.</p> - -<p>The charge brought against our millionaire society is that it is -vulgar. The houses are palaces, the taste is for the most part -excellent, the people are in every sense but the commercial sense more -virtuous than the rich of any other nation. Wealth is poured out in -avalanches.</p> - -<p>Why is all this display not magnificent? The millionaire society is not -vulgar, but it is insignificant. The reason is, that you cannot have -splendor without personal and intellectual independence, and this does -not exist in America. The conversation on the Commodore’s steam yacht -is tedious. The talk at the weekly meeting of the amalgamated glaziers -is insipid, and impresses you with the selfishness of mankind.</p> - -<p>Now what is at the bottom of this identity? We are passing through the -great age of distribution. It is not confined to America. It qualifies -European history. All the different kinds of Socialism are mere proofs -of it. Every one either wants to get something himself, or, if he is -a philosopher, wants to show other people how to get it. Even Henry -George thought that man lives<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>73</span> by bread alone; at least, he thought -that if you only give every one lots of bread, that is all you need -provide for; the rest will follow. In America we are leading the world -in the intensity with which this phase of progress goes on, because in -America there is nothing else to occupy men’s minds. Let us return to -our social focus and its relation to the arts.</p> - -<p>The world has groped for three thousand years to find the connection -between morality and the fine arts. It may be that we stand here on the -borderland of discovery. We can at least see that they are not likely -to arise in an era of subserviency and intellectual fog.</p> - -<p>The fine arts are departments of science, and the attitude of mind of -the artist toward his work, or of the public toward his product, is -that of an interest in truth for its own sake. It is the attitude of -the scientific man toward his problems. The scientists do not waver or -cringe. They are the great bullies of this era. They draw their power -from their work. They seek, they proclaim, they monopolize truth. There -is in them the note of greatness, not because of their discoveries, but -because of their pursuit.</p> - -<p>Commercial or sexual crime or violence,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>74</span> that does not unman the -artist, ought not to extinguish art, and it never has done so. Anything -that has made him time-serving or truthless ought to show in his work, -and it always has done so.</p> - -<p>Any system of morality or conjunction of circumstances that tends to -make men tell the truth as they see it will tend to produce what the -world will call art. If the statement be accurate, the world will call -it beautiful. Put it as you will, art is self-assertion and beauty is -accuracy. Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh.</p> - -<p>Anybody can see that fiction depends upon social conditions; for it is -nothing but a description of them.</p> - -<p>Take his clubs and his routs away from Thackeray, his hunting away from -White-Melville, his peasantry away from Scott, his street life away -from Dickens, and where would their books be? Vigorous and picturesque -individuality must precede good fiction. The great American novel, -except as the outcome of a vigorous social life, is the dream of an -idiot. You must have an age of ebullition, where the spontaneous life -about the novelist forces itself into his books, before you can have -good fiction. Architecture depends so plainly upon social<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>75</span> life, that -we have only to look at our country houses from Colonial times down, -to read the hearts of the inmates. And so with the other fine arts and -decorations, they are mere languages.</p> - -<p>It is thought that our modern life is more complex than that of the -eighteenth century, because the machinery by which it is carried on is -expanded. Transportation, newspapers, corporations, oceans of books -and magazines, foreign cables, have changed the forms by which power -is transmitted. But the manifestations of humanity in government, in -social life, and in the arts proceed upon the same principles as ever. -Everything depends as completely on personal intercourse as it did in -Athens. The real struggle comes between two men across a table, my -force against your force. The devices which political philosophy has -always approved, are those which protect the spirit of the individual, -and enable it to grow strong. The struggles for English liberty have -been struggles over taxation. The rights of the sovereign to seize -a man’s property, or imprison his body without form of law, were -abolished. This comparative financial independence of the English -subject has been valued as the basis of spiritual<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>76</span> independence. It -has no other claim to be thought important. Yet while we have been -praising our bills of rights and bulwarks of liberty, commerce in the -United States has been bringing power after power, battalion after -battalion, to bear upon the integrity of spirit of the individual man. -Here is a situation which no legislation can meet. Civil liberty has -been submerged in the boss system. But this is a mere symptom. It is -valuable only because it brings strikingly into view the intellectual -bondage it denotes. It is valuable only because it gives us a fighting -ground, an educational arena in which the fight for intellectual -liberty may be begun.</p> - -<p>It is unnecessary to go over the steps of the argument backward, and to -show how our citizen movements are a mere sign that the individual is -becoming more unselfish. How, partly through the settling of commerce -into more stable conditions, partly through revulsion in the heart of -man against so much wickedness, a reign of better things is coming. -The Christian Endeavorers, the University Settlements, the innumerable -leagues and propaganda which bring no dogmas, but which stand for -faith—speak for multitudes, affect every one. Their influence<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>77</span> can -already be traced into business, into social life, and out again into -every department of our existence. The revolution is going forward on a -great scale, and the demonstration is about to be worked out throughout -the continent as if it were a blackboard.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The man who has subscribed $1,000 to the reform campaign, the man -who has worked for the cause, and the man who has voted the ticket, -have met. This personal meeting, this social focus, exists and is -indestructible. These people who have been kept apart by the old -political conditions, by the boss system, and the capitalist; these -men whom every element of selfishness and corruption fought with the -instinct of self-preservation to keep separate, have come together. -The downfall of the old social system, and the redistribution of every -force in the community, is inevitable. In the first place, every -individual in the community has talked about the movement with an -intensity proportionate to his power of good. Our form of government -throws the moral idea with terrible force, as a practical issue, into -the life of each man. “Thou art the man.” The extreme simplicity of -our social fabric<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>78</span> makes it impossible for any one to get behind his -institution, his class, his prejudice. There is no one who cannot -be shown up. We are as defenceless before virtue as we were before -selfishness. Our politics can be worked as effectively by one passion -as by the other—but we are only just beginning to find this out.</p> - -<p>Free speech and the grouping, classing, and mingling of men according -to intellect, and not according to income, have begun already. They -are not more the outcome than they are the cause of these citizens’ -movements. They are the same elemental thing. The love of truth is the -same passion as the veneration for the individual. It is impossible -to really want reform and to remain socially exclusive or socially -deferential. And so, a social life is beginning to emerge in New York, -based on the noblest and the most natural passion that can stir in the -heart of man The results in the field of practical politics, will be -that “society”—at least such of our drawing-rooms and dinner tables -as any one, whether foreigner or native, knows or cares anything -about—will resume the political importance which such places have -always held in civilized times, and of which nothing but extraordinary<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>79</span> -and transient conditions have deprived them. Let any one who doubts -this, compare the club talk and dinner table talk of to-day, with the -talk of ten years ago. It would be childish to guess the positive -results on the arts, theatres, novels, verse which will follow; but you -can no more keep the spirit of freedom out of these things than you can -keep it out of personal manners. These are changing daily. The decorums -and codes of behavior, the old self-consciousness and self-distrust -are dropping off. Steadily the flood of life advances, inspiring all -things.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>80</span></p> - - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>81</span> -<p class="center p180" id="education_froebel">EDUCATION: FROEBEL</p> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider2 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>82</span> -</div> - -<h2 id="iii">III<br /> -<span>EDUCATION: FROEBEL</span></h2> - -<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>83</span> -<span class="smcap">I have</span> -two boys, aged seven and four. They required a governess and I -got one. After a couple of months during which the usual experiences -in the training of young children were gone through, I discovered that -it was I who was being educated. My mind was being swayed and drawn -to a point of view. I was in contact with a method so profound that -it seemed as if I were dealing with, or rather being dealt with by -the forces of nature. I was in the presence of great genius. What was -it? The text book on Froebel by Hughes in the International Series on -Education made the matter clear.</p> - -<p>Froebel was an experimental psychologist who used the terms of the -German philosophy of his day. But the facts of life, the thing he was -studying, was never for a moment absent from his mind. He lived in an -age when the ideas of evolution were in the air, and before they had -received<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>84</span> their conclusive proof by being applied to morphology.</p> - -<p>This application has for a time killed philosophy, for it has -identified the new ideas with the physical sciences, and led men to -study the human mind in psychology and from without. Whereas the mind -and its laws can, in the nature of things, be studied only through -introspection. Froebel had a scientific intellect of the very first -calibre; he had the conception of flux, of change, of evolution to -start with; and he took up introspectively the study of the laws of the -human mind, choosing that province of the universe where they are most -visibly and typically exposed,—the mind of the growing child.</p> - -<p>The “laws” which he states are little more than a description of the -phenomena that he observed. They are statements of the results of his -experiments, and the language he employs can be translated to suit -the education of almost any one. His attention was so concentrated -upon fact that his terminology does not mislead. It can be translated -into the language of metaphysics, of Christian theology, or of modern -science, and it remains incorruptibly coherent.</p> - -<p>His method of study was the only method which can obtain results in -philosophy,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>85</span> self-study unconsciously carried on. He observed the -child, and guessed at what was going on in its mind by a comparison -with what he knew of himself. He was anxious to train young children -intelligently, and he found it necessary to describe and formulate -his knowledge of the operation of their minds. It turns out that he -made a statement of the universe more comprehensive, a philosophy more -universal, than any other of which we have any record.</p> - -<p>But this is not the most important thing he did. He devised a method -based upon his experiments and set agoing the kindergarten upon -its course in conquest of the world. If it had not been for this, -he might never have been heard of, for the world has small use for -systems of philosophy, however profound, expressed in terms which have -been superseded and are become inexpressive. But Froebel started a -practice. He showed the way. He put in the hands of persons to whom his -philosophy must ever remain a mystery, the means of working out those -practical ends for which that philosophy was designed.</p> - -<p>The greatness of Froebel lies in this, that he saw the essential. What -sort of an animal is man, asks the morphologist, for he is<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>86</span> beginning -to reach this point in his studies, and before he has asked it, Froebel -has answered him.</p> - -<p>‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength.’</p> - -<p>It may be said at once that the substance of everything Froebel says -was known before. Solomon and Orpheus, Marcus Aurelius, Emerson, and -all of us have known it. Otherwise Froebel would be unimportant. It is -his correlation and his formulation of the main facts about human life -that make him important. It is as a summary of wisdom, as a focus of -idea, as a lens through which the rest of the ideas in the world can be -viewed, that he is great.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The laws he discovered may be stated in a paragraph. The child is a -growing organism. It is a unity. It develops through creative activity. -It is benefited by contact with other children and is happy in -proportion as it is unselfishly employed.</p> - -<p>Let us assume for a moment that these things are true, that they are -the most important truths about the child; and let us see how they -must affect our views of life, of politics, sociology, art, religion, -conduct. There is of course no moment at which the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>87</span> child ceases to be -a child. The laws of its growth and being are not at any discoverable -time superseded by any new laws. Man as a creature, as an organism, has -here by Froebel, and for the first time in history, been ingenuously -studied, and the main laws of him noted. With the discovery that he is -a unity, there vanishes every classification of science made since the -days of Aristotle. They are convenient dogmas, thumb rule distinctions, -useful as aids in the further pushing of our studies into the workings -of this unity. Take up now a book of political economy, a poem, a -history: this thought of Froebel’s runs through it like quicksilver. -The scheme of thought of the writer is by it dissolved at once into -human elements. You find you are studying the operation of the mind of -some one, whom you picture to yourself as a man, as a unit; you are -interpreting this by your own experience. It is all psychology, you are -pushing your analysis. The universe is receiving its interpretation -through you yourself. We are thus brought to the point of view of the -mystic, as the only conceivable point of view.</p> - -<p>“That the organism develops by creative activity.” This might have -come as a deduction from Darwin. It is an expression<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>88</span> in metaphysical -language of the “struggle for life.” Froebel discovered it -independently. The consequences of a belief in it are so tremendous, -that no man who is not prepared to spend the rest of his life -completely dominated by the idea, ought even to pause to consider it.</p> - -<p>Your capacities, your beliefs, your development, your spiritual -existence are the result of what you do. Active creation of some sort, -occupation which takes your entire attention and calls upon you, -merely incidentally and as a matter of course, for thought, resource, -individual or original force; this will develop you and nothing else -will.</p> - -<p>The connection between this thought and the previous one is apparent. -It is only by such creative activity that the organism as a unit gets -into play. If you set a man copying or memorizing, you have occupied -only a fraction of him. If you set him to making something, the minute -he begins, his attention is concentrated. Willy nilly he is trying to -make something significant, he is endeavoring to express himself, the -forces and powers within him begin coming to his succor, offering aid -and suggestion. Before he knows it, his whole being is in operation. -The result is a statement of some<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>89</span> sort, and in the process of making -it the creature has developed. But when you say “significant” you have -already implied the existence of other organisms. He is not expressing -himself only, he is expressing them all, and here comes Froebel with -his third great discovery, that it is by constant personal intercourse -with others that the power to express is gained. And on top of this -comes the last law, so closely related to the third as to be merely -a new view of it, but discovered by experiment, tested by practice, -announced empirically and as a fact, that the child is unselfish and -only really happy when at work creatively and for the use and behoof of -others.</p> - -<p>This conclusion throws back its rays over the course of the argument, -and we are compelled to see, what we have already known, that -unselfishness and intellectual development are one and the same thing, -that there is no failure of intellect which cannot be expressed in -terms of selfishness, and no selfishness that cannot be expressed as -intellectual shortcoming. Criminology has reached the same point by -another route.</p> - -<p>The matter is really very simple, for anything self-regardant means -a return of the organism upon itself, a stepping on your<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>90</span> own toes, -and brings self-consciousness, discomfort, pain. Self-sacrifice -on the other hand brings fulfilment. The self-sacrifice is always -illusory, and the development real. This becomes frightfully apparent -in ingenuous and unhappy love affairs, for the organism robbed of -fulfilment returns upon itself.</p> - -<p>It makes little difference what province of thought we begin with in -applying these views to the world. They give results like a table of -logarithms. They do more than this, they unravel the most complex -situations, they give the key to conduct and put a compass in the hands -of progress. They explain history, they support religion, they justify -instinct, they interpret character. They give the formula for doing -consciously what mankind has been doing unconsciously in so far as it -has been doing what any one of us in his soul approves of or cares to -imitate.</p> - -<p>Let us take up the most obvious deductions. If people develop according -to their activities, their opinions will be a mere reflex of their -conduct. What they see in the world comes out of what they do in the -world. Here in a mere niche of Froebel we find the whole of Emerson.</p> - -<p>The power and permanence of Sainte<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>91</span> Beuve are due to his having applied -this theory to the interpretation of literature. He is not content till -he has seen the relation between the conduct and the opinions, the -conduct and the art of a character.</p> - -<p>Or take Emerson himself, why was it that being so much he was not -more? How came it that after his magnificent prologue in the Phi Beta -Kappa address, which is like the opening of a symphony, he relapsed -into iteration and brilliant but momentary visions of his own horizon? -He kept repeating his theme till he piped himself into fragmentary -inconsequence. The reason is that he had learned all he knew before he -retired to Concord and contemplation. Active life would have made him -blossom annually and last like Gladstone.</p> - -<p>Or take Goethe: all that is questionable in him results from his -violation of two of Froebel’s laws of psychology. He fixed his -attention upon self-development and thereby gradually ossified. Every -moment of egotism was an intellectual loss. His contact with people, -meanwhile, became more and more formal as he grew older, and his work -more and more inexpressive.</p> - -<p>Give me a man’s beliefs, and I will give you his occupation. What has -happened to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>92</span> that radical that he seems to have become so moderate and -reasonable? You find that for six months he has been clerk to the Civil -Service Reform Club. Why is the mystical poetry of this intellectual -man as vacant as the fashion print he edits for his daily bread? His -employment has tracked his mind to these unearthly regions. He is dead -here too.</p> - -<p>There is no such thing as independent belief, based on evidence and -reflection. The thing we call belief is a mere record left by conduct. -If you sincerely go through the regimen of Loyola’s manual, you will -come out a Jesuit. You can no more resist it than you can resist the -operation of ether. This man is an optimist. It means that he has -struggled. That man is a pessimist. It means that he has shirked. -Here is one who has been in touch with all movements for good during -a dismal era of corruption, and yet he has no faith. It means that -the whole of him has not been enlisted. His conscience has drawn him -forward. It is not enough. There is compromise in him. He is not an -absolute fighter.</p> - -<p>Here is the most excellent gentleman in America, an old idealist -untouchably transcendental, an educated man. To your<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>93</span> amazement he -thinks that it is occasionally necessary to subsidize the powers of -evil. He was bred a banker.</p> - -<p>Here is a village schoolma’am who from a rag of information in a county -paper has divined the true inwardness of a complicated controversy at -Washington which you happen to know all about. She has been reforming a -poorhouse.</p> - -<p>A is a clergyman, good but ineffective. He relies on beneficence and -persuasion. He does not know the world better than a club loafer knows -it. The only entry to it is by attack, the only progress by action.</p> - -<p>B is a good fellow, yet betrays a momentary want of delicacy which -gives you a shock, and which you forgive him, saying: “It is a -coarseness of natural fibre.” It is no such thing. There is in every -man a natural fibre as fine as a poet’s. His coarseness is the residuum -of an act.</p> - -<p>You meet a man whom you have known as a court stenographer, and whom -you have supposed to be drowned in worldly cares. At a chop house he -gives you a discourse on Plato’s Phædrus which he interprets in a novel -way. The brains of the man surprise you. This man, though he looks -sordid, positively must have been sending a younger<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>94</span> brother to college -during many years. There is no other explanation of him.</p> - -<p>The nemesis of conduct then stalks about in the form of a natural law, -not as the pseudo science of fancy, but as a mode of growth, modestly -formulated by a great naturalist.</p> - -<p>Take the matter up on its other side. You can only discover in the -universe, try how you will, strain your eyes how you please, you can -only see what you have lived. Out of our activity comes our character, -and it is with this that we see beauty or ugliness, hope or despair. It -is by this that we gauge the operation of economic law and of all other -spiritual forces. It is with this that we interpret all things. What we -see is only our own lives.</p> - -<p>We are all more or less in contact with human life. We live in a -pandemonium, a paradise of illustrations, and if we have only eyes to -see, there is enough in any tenement house to-day to lay bare the heart -and progress of Greek art.</p> - -<p>But the worst is to come—the horror that makes intellect a plaything. -By a double consequence the past fetters the future. Once take any -course and our eyes begin to see it as right, our hearts to justify it. -Only fighting can save us, and we see nothing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>95</span> to fight for. Thraldom -enters and night like death where no voice reaches. The eternal -struggle is for vision.</p> - -<p>How idiotic are the compliments or the contempt of the inexperienced. -Nothing but life teaches. Hallam thinks Juliet immodest, and he had -read all the literatures of Europe. If you want to understand the Greek -civilization you have got to be Sophocles. If you want to understand -the New Testament you have got to be Christ. If you want to understand -that most complex and difficult of all things, the present, you must be -some or all of it, some of it any way. You must have it ground into you -by a contact so wrenchingly close, by a struggle so severe, that you -lose consciousness, and afterwards—next year—you will understand.</p> - -<p>Here is the reaction familiar to all men since the dawn of history, -which makes the man of action the hero of all times. It goes in -courage, it comes out power.</p> - -<p>This reaction, this transformation goes forward in the very stuff that -we are made of, and if we come to look at it closely, we are obliged -to speak of it in terms of consciousness. There are so many different -kinds of consciousness, that the best we can do is to remind some one -else of the kind<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>96</span> we mean. The hand of the violinist is unconscious -to the extent that it is functioning properly, and as his command -over music develops, this unconsciousness creeps up his arm and -possesses his brain and being, until he, as he plays, is completely -unself-conscious and his music is the mere projection of an organism -which is functioning freely.</p> - -<p>But this condition of complete concentration makes us in a -different sense of the word self-conscious in the highest degree, -self-comprehending, self-controlled, self-expressing. And it is in -this philosophical sense that the word self-conscious is used by the -Germans, and may sometimes be conveniently used by us, if we can do so -without foregoing the right to use the words conscious and unconscious -in their popular sense at other times.</p> - -<p>The discovery of Froebel was that this mastery over our own powers was -to be obtained only through creative activity. The suggestion, it may -be noted, is destined to reorganize every school of violin playing in -Europe. For we have here the major canon of a rational criticism. We -find that in the old vocabulary such words as genius, temperament, -style, originality, etc., have always been fumblingly used to denote -different<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>97</span> degrees in which some man’s brain was working freely and -with full self-consciousness. A deliverance of this kind has always -been designated as ‘creative,’ no matter in what field it was found.</p> - -<p>Approaching the matter more closely, we see that the whole of the -man must have responded in real life to every particle of experience -which he uses in his work. An imitation means something which does not -represent an original unitary vibration.</p> - -<p>Goethe puts in the mouth of the mad Gretchen a snatch of German song -in imitation of Ophelia. The treatment does not fit the character. It -has only been through that part of Goethe’s mind with which he read -Shakespeare. As a sequel to this suggestion, the peasant of the early -scenes has lavished upon her all the various reminiscences of the -pathetic that Goethe could muster. It is moving, but it is inorganic. -It is not true.</p> - -<p>For note this, that while it takes the whole of a man to do anything -true, no matter how small, anything that the whole of him does is -right. Hence the inimitable grotesques of greatness, the puns in -tragedy. These things belong to the very arcana of nature. By and by, -when the reasons are<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>98</span> understood, nature will be respected. No one will -attempt to imitate genius, or to reproduce an artistic effect of any -kind.</p> - -<p>If we look at recent literature by the light of this canon, we find the -reason for its inferiority. It is the work of half minds, of men upon -whose intelligence the weight of a dogma is pressing.</p> - -<p>The eclipse of philosophy was of course reflected in fiction. There is -the same trouble with Herbert Spencer as with Zola. Each of them thinks -to wrest the secrets of sociology from external observation. Their -books lack objectivity and are ephemeral. Kant and Balzac did better -because their method was truer.</p> - -<p>Everything good that has been done in the last fifty years has been -done in the teeth of current science. The whole raft of English -scientists are children playing with Raphael’s brushes the moment they -leave some specialty. There never lived a set of men more blinded -by dogma, blinded to the meaning of the past, to the trend of the -future, by the belief that they had found new truth. Not one of them -can lift the stone and show what lies under Darwin’s demonstration. -They run about with little pamphlets and proclaim a New Universe like<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>99</span> -Frenchmen. They bundle up all beliefs into a great Dogma of Unbelief, -and throw away the kernel of life with the shell. This was inevitable. -A generation or two was well sacrificed, in this last fusillade of the -Dogma of Science—the old guard dogma that dies but never surrenders. -Hereafter it will be plain that the whole matter is a matter of symbols -on the one hand, knowledge of human nature on the other.</p> - -<p>Herbert Spencer has been a useful church-warden to science, but his -knowledge of life was so trifling, his own personal development so -one-sided, that his sociology is a farce.</p> - -<p>This canon of criticism explains in a very simple manner the art ages, -times when apparently every one could paint, or speak, or compose. The -art which is lost is really the art of courageous action. Neither war -nor dogma nor revolution is necessary, for feeling can no more be lost -than force, and the power to express it depends upon an interest in -life. The past has enriched us with conventions, and whenever a man -or a group of men arises who uses them and is not subdued to them, we -have art. The thing is easy. To the doers it is a mere knack of the -attention.</p> - -<p>We had almost thought that art was finished,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>100</span> and we find we are -standing at the beginning of all things. Froebel has found a formula -which fits every human activity.</p> - -<p>Let us take the supreme case, the apogee of human development, and what -will it be?</p> - -<p>The sum of all possible human knowledge is, as we have seen, an -expansion of our understanding of human nature, and this is got by -intercourse, by dealing with men, by getting them to do something. In -order to make them do it, in order to govern, you must understand, and -the rulers of mankind are the wisest of the species. They summarize -society. Solomon, Cæsar, Hildebrand, Lincoln, Bismarck, these men knew -their world.</p> - -<p>But if a virtuous ruler be the prototype of all possible human -fulfilment, there is no other art or province of employment to which -the same views do not apply. When any man reaps some of the power -which his toil has sown, and throws it out as a note or a book or a -statue, it has an organic relation to the human soul and is valuable -forever. There is only one rule of art. Let a man work at a thing till -it looks right <em>to him</em>. Let him adjust and refine it till, as he -looks at it, it passes straight into him, and he grows for a moment -unconscious again, that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>101</span> the forces which produced it may be satisfied. -As it stands then, it is the best he can do. In so far as we completely -develop this power we become completely happy and completely useful, -for our acts, our statements, our notes, our books, our statues become -universally significant.</p> - -<p>Once feel this truth, and you begin to lose the sense of your identity, -to know that your destiny, your self, is an organic part of all men. -It is they that speak. It is themselves that have been found and -expressed. It was this toward which we tended, this that we cared -for—action, art, intellect, unselfishness, are they not one thing?</p> - -<p>The complete development of every individual is necessary to our -complete happiness. And there is no reason why any one who has ever -been to a dull dinner party should doubt this. Nay, history gives proof -that solitude is dangerous. Man cannot sing, nor write, nor paint, nor -reform, nor build, nor do anything except die, alone. The reasons for -this are showered upon us by the idea of Froebel, no matter which side -of it is turned toward us.</p> - -<p>This philosophy which seemed so dry till we began to see what it -meant, begins now to circumscribe God and include everything.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>102</span> For -Christ himself was one whose thoughts were laws and whose deeds are -universal truth. Shakespeare’s plays are universal truth. They are the -projection of a completely developed and completely unconscious human -intellect. They educated Germany, and it is to the study of them that -Hegel’s view of life is due. The great educational forces in the world -are proportioned in power to the development of the individual man in -the epochs they date from. Here and there, out of a hotbed, arises -a personal influence which directs thought for a thousand years and -qualifies time forever.</p> - -<p>The division of the old ethics into egoism and altruism receives the -sanction of science. The turning of the attention upon selfish ends, -no matter how remote nor how momentary, hurts the organism, contracts -the intellect, dries up the emotions, and is felt as unhappiness. The -turning of the attention toward public aims benefits the organism, -enlarges the intellect, and is felt as happiness. There is no -complexity possible, for any mixed motive is a selfish motive.</p> - -<p>All the virtues are different names for the injunction of self-mastery, -by which the internal struggle is made more severe, and the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>103</span> force -cooped in and controlled until it is released in the functioning of the -whole man.</p> - -<p>In any sincere struggle for right, then, no matter how petty, we are -fighting for mankind, and this is just what everybody has always known, -always believed.</p> - -<p>It is thrown at us as a great paradox, that somebody must pay the -bills; that if you live upon charity and can succeed in getting -yourself crucified, you are still a mere product of thrift and -selfishness somewhere. But the paradox is the same if put the other -way, for selfishness would never support you.</p> - -<p>The question is purely one of fact, what thing comes first, what thing -satisfies the heart of man. He may support himself merely as a means to -help others. A man may start a pauper and die a millionaire, and yet -never think a thought or do an act which does not add to the welfare of -man. It is a question of ultimate controlling intention.</p> - -<p>Man the microcosm is a kingdom where reigns continual war. Now he is -a furnace of love, the next moment he is a mean scamp. We know very -little about the mechanism by which these microcosms communicate with -one another. It seems likely<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>104</span> that every iota of feeling must be either -transmitted or transformed; that if a spasm of selfishness be conveyed, -or some part of it, even by a glimpse of the eye, it must leave a -record of injury and start on a career of injury, just so much loss to -the world. On the other hand it may be transformed into the other kind -of force and expended later in good.</p> - -<p>The thing is governed by some simple law, although man has not yet -been able to reduce it to algebra. What is most curious is this, that -the tendency of any man to believe in the reaction as a law, is not -dependent upon his scientific training, but upon his moral experience. -The best heads in physics will still betray a belief that a man must -be able to afford to be unselfish, that selfishness often does good, -that it is a muddled up affair, and a thing outside of science which -they will get round to later. Everybody sees a few degrees in the arc -of this law. Read the index on the quadrant and you will have his -character. Now and then some saint swears he sees a circle.</p> - -<p>Let us press the inquest. It is not likely that life itself is duplex -or consists of two kinds of force, one egoistic, one altruistic. The -likelihood is the other way. There is<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>105</span> only one force which vibrates -through these organisms. It is absolutely beneficent only when it -completely controls one of them, so that the whole thing sings together.</p> - -<p>This music is the highest, but the notes that go to make it up are -everywhere. Altruism does not arise, is not imposed from without, at -any period or by any crisis, by progress or by society. The spiral -unwinds with the unwinding life upon the globe. It is the form of -illusion under which all life proceeds. It is the law of mind. The -eye treats space and color as entities. It cannot see on any other -terms. The stomach digests food, but not its own lining. We are obliged -to think in terms of the objective universe. We are not wholesome -unless we are self-forgetting. There is no cranny in all the million -manifestations of nature where you can interfere between the organism -and its object without representing disease.</p> - -<p>And man is more than a mere altruistic animal. At least the religions -of Humanity have never expressed him. At those times when he is -entirely unselfish and therefore entirely himself, when he feels -himself to be one single well-spring, all unselfishness, all love, -all reverence, all service to something not himself, yet something -personal,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>106</span> he has faith. The theologies are attempts to formulate this -state of mind in order that it may be preserved. It is clear enough -that every mind must speak in its own symbols, and that the symbols -of one must always appear to another as illusions. Yet each man for -himself knows he faces a reality. This is a psychological necessity. -Destroy the belief, and on the instant he changes. Show him that he is -the victim of an illusion, and he is divided, a half man. A man whose -mind is divided, as, for instance, by the consciousness of a personal -motive, cannot believe. He stands like the wicked king in the play of -Hamlet; unable to pray. It is a psychological impossibility.</p> - -<p>The concern of mankind for their forms of doctrine is gratuitous. Faith -re-appears under new names. You cannot convince a lover that he is bent -on self-development, nor any decent man that he does not believe in, is -not controlled by something higher than himself. The question is not -one of words.</p> - -<p>We may trace this reverent attitude of mind upward through the acts and -activities of the spirit, and it makes no difference whether we regard -religion as the source and origin of them all or as the summary of them -all.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>107</span> -In Shakespeare’s plays we see a cycle of human beings, the most living -that we have ever met with, and the absence of mystical or emotional -religion from many of the plays is one of the wonders of nature. -There is no God anywhere, and God is everywhere; we are not offended. -The reason may be that the element has been employed in the act of -creation. Religion has been consumed in the development of character. -It is felt in the relation of Shakespeare to the characters. It is here -seen as artistic perfection. The same is true of the Greek statues and -of the Sistine Sibyls, and of other work left by those two periods, the -only other periods in which the individual attained completion.</p> - -<p>Observe that in all this philosophy there is no dogma anywhere, no term -whose definition you have to learn, no term which makes the lying claim -that it can be used twice with the same connotation. Froebel had the -instinct of a poet and knew his language was figurative. It was this -that freed him from the Middle Ages and gave him to the future. He took -theology as lightly as he took metaphysics. He did not impose them, he -evoked them. He lived and thought in the spirit.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>108</span> -If you turn from Froebel’s analysis of human nature to Goethe’s, there -seem to be a thousand years between them. The one is scientific, the -other is mediæval. The one has freed himself from the influences of the -revival of learning, the other has not. The one is open, the other is -closed. The one is free, the other is self-conscious. But Froebel has -not yet set free the rest of the race, and of course the literature -and practices of the kindergartners are full of dogmas. The terms of -Froebel are a snare to those whose interest in childhood came later -than their interest in education and whose attention is fixed upon the -terms rather than upon the child. He is easy reading to the other sort.</p> - -<p>But more important than Froebel’s formulation of these great truths -was his formulation of subsidiary truths. I do not mean his labored -systems, but his practical suggestions born of experience as to how to -help another person to develop. It was these methods, this attitude -of the teacher towards the child, of the individual towards his -fellow, that came at me in my own house unexpectedly, emanating from -some unknown mind, which seemed so great as practically to include -Christianity.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>109</span> -“Do not imagine,” he says at every moment, “that you can do anything -for this creature except by getting it to move spontaneously. You have -not begun till you have done this, and remember that anything else you -do is just so much harm.”</p> - -<p>He was never tired of suggesting devices for doing this. The following -passage gives in a few words the answer to the most important practical -question in life: how we ought to approach another human being. The -thing is said so simply, it seems almost commonplace, yet it comes from -one greater than Kant.</p> - -<p>“Between educator and pupil, between request and obedience, there -should invisibly rule a third something to which educator and pupil -are equally subject. This third something is the <em>right</em>, -the <em>best</em>, necessarily conditioned and expressed without -arbitrariness in the circumstances. The calm recognition, the clear -knowledge, and the serene, cheerful obedience to the rule of this third -something, is the particular feature that should be constantly and -clearly manifest in the bearing and the conduct of the educator and -teacher, and often firmly and sternly emphasized by him.”</p> - -<p>Beneath this statement there lies a law of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>110</span> reaction. The human -organism responds in kind. Strike a man and he strikes, sneer and he -sneers, forget and he forgets. If you wish to convince him that you -are right, concede that from his point of view he is right, then move -the point and he follows. If you keep your temper in teaching a child, -you teach him to keep his temper, and this is more important than his -lesson.</p> - -<p>The difficulty we find is to resist the reaction in ourselves to -some one else’s initiative. The affair is outside the province of -reason, and results from a transfer of force by means which we do not -understand. The command to “turn the other cheek” is a picturesque -figure for the attitude which will enable you to prevail the quickest -and by the highest means, and which Froebel enables us to see in its -scientific aspect.</p> - -<p>But it is unnecessary to illustrate further what any one who comes in -contact with a kindergarten will, through all the mists of dogma and -ignorance which overspread the place, discover for himself. We have a -science founded upon human nature, applied to education. Mr. Hughes in -his closing paragraph uses the language of theology, but he makes no -overstatement:—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>111</span> -“When Froebel’s ethical teaching has wrought its perfect work in the -homes, the schools, and the churches, then his complete ideal, which -is the gospel ideal in practice, will be the greatest controlling and -uplifting force in the world.”</p> - -<p>One word more about the relation between Froebel’s thought and current -science.</p> - -<p>The view of man as an active animal, a struggler, alive and happy -only in activity, falls in naturally with what we know of the animal -kingdom. The philosophers are at war over science and religion, -over the origin of the non-self-regarding instincts. By an external -consideration of the animal hierarchy they have come to certain -conclusions which they strive to apply to the highest animal, man. -There is great boggling over him; because these non-self-regarding -instincts, which are not very apparent from the outside, seem to -conflict with certain generalizations relative to the conservation -of species. The scientists look into a drop of water and see animals -eating each other up. What they have not seen is that all this ferocity -goes forward, subject to customs as rigid as a military code, and -that it is this code which conserves the species. The “struggle for -existence” as it is commonly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a>112</span> conceived would exterminate in short -order any species that indulged in it.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Froebel, beginning at the other end of the scale and studying -life from the inside, has established certain facts, certain laws, -which have as great a weight, and deserve as much to be carried -downward in the scale, as the generalizations of the naturalists (very -likely imperfect) have to be carried upward.</p> - -<p>The animal man is unselfish. It is impossible to make his organism -vibrate as a unity except by some emotion which can be shown to be -non-self-regarding. At what point in the scale of nature does this -quality begin to manifest itself? Is the dog happy when he is selfish; -do the laws of psychology outlined by Froebel apply, and to what -extent do they apply, to the horse or the monkey? These things must be -patiently studied, and the corrections must be made. In the mean time, -in dealing with man himself, we are obliged to rely upon the latest -scientific report of him, however imperfect, and until Froebel’s laws -are destroyed, we need not attempt to adjust our ideas of man to the -dogmas developed by the study of the lower animals.</p> - - - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>113</span> -<p class="center p180" id="democracy">DEMOCRACY</p> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider2 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>114</span> -</div> - -<h2 id="iv">IV<br /> -<span>DEMOCRACY</span></h2> - -<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115"></a>115</span> -<span class="smcap">The</span> -system of choosing public officials by popular vote is properly -enough called Democracy. The terms of tenure and nomenclature, -etc., are matters of detail. If we are to seek any test as to what -constitutes a Democracy, we may as well take as a test the formal -setting up at a particular time of some scheme of government by the -popular will. England has been a democracy since the Act of Settlement, -and if it be said that universal suffrage was not then known, the -answer is that it is not known now, and never can be known. The -exclusions of women and non-naturalized residents or even of criminals -and lunatics are matters of convenience. It is a question of degree.</p> - -<p>Again, it is impossible that all the officials should be elected, and -the assignment to the elected officials of the power to appoint the -others is a matter of convenience. The very simple expedients adopted -by the framers of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116"></a>116</span> the United States Constitution were the result of -English experience and French theory. The intellect of France had, -during the eighteenth century, put into portable form the ideas that -had been at work in England’s institutions. The theoretical part of -it, the division of government into three departments, had been worked -out from European experience going back to Greek times. The written -constitution was a mere expansion of the Bill of Rights. Our Framers -were men who had had personal experience in governing under the -English system in force in the colonies, where the power of practical -self-government had been developed by isolation. They received from the -French a scientific view of that system. They had learned by experience -that a confederacy was not a government, and they proceeded to bind the -country together by the grant of that power which defines government, -the power to tax. The extension to a large territory of a system which -was in practical operation in all its parts, was in one sense a miracle -of intelligence, in another sense it was the only conceivable solution -of the problem of unity. Philosophers speak of Democracy as if it were -the outcome of choice. It has been the outcome of events.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117"></a>117</span> No other -system would have endured, and every formula of government that did not -embody an old usage would have been transformed in ten years by the -popular will into something that did.</p> - -<p>The reason the Constitution of the United States is the most remarkable -document in existence is that it contained so little of novelty. The -election of some officers and the appointment of the rest, that was -what the people were used to. That is democracy. There is of course no -such thing as a pure democracy, or a pure monarchy. Every government is -in practice the outcome of forces of which a very small fraction are -expressed in its constitution and laws.</p> - -<p>A constitution is a profession of faith, a summary written on a -bulletin board, and so far good. The United States had this advantage -in starting upon her career, that the bulletin was a very accurate -summary of existing customs, and was in itself an inspiring proof of -the virtue of the people. We are driven into admiring the Colonists -as among the most enlightened of their kind. It is true that the -revolution was conducted, and the Constitution adopted by the activity -of a small minority. But this is true of all revolutions. The point is -that the leaders<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>118</span> represented sense and virtue. The people followed.</p> - -<p>The moment the scheme was launched it became the sport of the elements. -In the North a trading bourgeoisie grew up under it. In the South -a slave-holding oligarchy, a society so fantastically out of touch -with the modern world that it seems like something left over from the -times before Christ, found no difficulty in making use of the forms of -Democracy. During the half century that followed, these two societies -became so hostile to each other that conflict was inevitable, and there -ensued a death-grapple in four years of war, a war to extinction. At -the end of the war no trace of the oligarchy remained upon the face -of the earth. And yet these forms of government survived and began to -operate immediately, under new auspices of course, deflected by new -passions, showing new shapes of distortion, yet ideally the same. The -only common element between the north and the south was the reverence -for these forms of government.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile civilization had been creeping westward in a margin of -frontier life, conducted under these forms. Behind this moved a belt of -farming and village life, at<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>119</span> war with the backwoods ideals, but using -the same forms of government. Then arose the railroad era and tore -millions of money from the continent, heaped it in cities, obliterated -State lines, centralized everything, controlled everything, ruled -everybody—still under these forms.</p> - -<p>Let us examine them.</p> - -<p>The problem of government is to protect the individuals in a community -against each other, and to protect them all against the rest of the -world. The power to interfere and the power to represent must be -lodged somewhere, and the question is how to arrange it so that this -power shall not be turned against the people. Democracy solves it by -election. Let the people choose their rulers. Instantly every man is -turned into a custodian, a part of him is dedicated to the public. -He is prevented by fundamental theory of law from being absolutely -selfish. Corrupt him how you will, deflect him, play upon him, degrade, -deceive him, you cannot shut him off from this influence. The framework -of government makes continuous appeal to the highest within him. It -draws him as the moon draws the sea. This appeal is one to which -the organic nature of man responds, as we have seen.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>120</span> For man is an -unselfish animal. The law of his nature is expressed in the framework -of government. The arrangement shows a wisdom so profound that all -historical philosophy grows cheap before it.</p> - -<p>If you jump from the study of psychology straight into the theory of -democracy, you see why it was that the allegiance to the ideas of -the United States Constitution endured through slavery, through the -carpetbag era, through the Tweed ring. It was not the letter, but the -spirit which was inextinguishable.</p> - -<p>It has taken a century of pamphlets to break down the distinctions -between men based upon orders of nobility, property, creed, etc. -Fifteen minutes of psychology would have levelled men and set them upon -the same footing as that upon which they walk into a hospital.</p> - -<p>The creature man is by this system dealt with so simply as he had not -been dealt with since the birth of Christ. It must be conceded that the -thing could not even have been tried, except with a people familiar -with the distinctions between legislative, executive, and judicial -power, criminal and civil law, etc. Altruistic impulse would not have -sufficed to execute itself. But the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121"></a>121</span> divisions and forms of thought -expressive of that altruism already existed, and were in operation, as -we have seen.</p> - -<p>It is thought that the peculiar merit of Democracy lies in this: that -it gives to every man a chance to pursue his own ends. The reverse is -true. The merit lies in the assumption imposed upon every man that he -shall serve his fellow men. This is by the law of his being his only -chance for happiness. You cannot find a man who does not know this. If -you examine the consciousness of any typical minion of success, you -will find that his source of inward content lies in a belief that his -success has benefited somebody—his kindred, his townsfolk—mankind.</p> - -<p>The concentration of every man on his own interests has been the danger -and not the safety of Democracy; for Democracy contemplates that every -man shall think first of the State and next of himself. This is its -only justification. In so far as it is operated by men who are thinking -first of their own interests and then of the State, its operation is -distorted.</p> - -<p>Democracy assumes perfection in human nature. In so far as an official -or a voter is corrupt, you will have bad government. Or to put the -same thing in another way, all<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122"></a>122</span> corruption is shown up as a loss of -the power of self-government. The framework of government lies there -exposed in all its parts like a vast and complex dial, recording with -the nicety of a scientific instrument every departure from virtue of -the human beings whose lives, whose standards, whose very thoughts are -registered against it. When selfishness reaches a certain point, the -machine stops. Government by force comes in. We have had railroad riots -and iron foundry riots. In Denver not many months ago thirty thousand -people, or about one-fifth of the population, engaged in a carnival of -destruction and raided a picnic given by the Cattle Association. These -ebullitions, which look like mania, are nothing but an acute form of -blind selfishness, due to the education of a period in which everything -has been settled by an appeal to the self-interest of the individual. -The Bryanism, with which we must all sympathize, is nothing but a -revolt on the part of the poorer classes against the exploitation of -the country by the capitalist, due to pension laws, tariffs, trusts, -etc. “Something must now be done for me,” says the laboring man, and -the mine owner says “Silver.” The appeal is by a little manipulation -worked up into a craze,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123"></a>123</span> with the result that property is unsafe. -The craze is a craze of mistaken selfishness. One of the weapons -with which the richer classes fought it was corruption. They fed the -element which was devouring them. There is talk of bayonets, and it is -true that either bayonets or public spirit must in such cases be the -issue. We cannot have property at the mercy of a mob, and if any single -state like Colorado were separated from the rest, and the spirit of -unreason should possess it utterly, government by force would ensue. -Elections would be superseded, and property would improvise some mode -of practical government which every intelligent man would back. The -danger of an episode of this sort is that it interrupts the course of -things. It is revolution. It is the breakdown of democracy, and tends -to perpetuate the conditions of incompetence out of which the crisis -arises. Fortunately the country is so large that one State holds up the -next. No community would tolerate a state of siege for more than six -months, and the State would return to educational methods, weaker but -alive.</p> - -<p>A military imposition of order is then the extreme case. But the Boss -system is the halfway house in the breakdown of free<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124"></a>124</span> government. -In the Boss system we have seen a lack of virtue in the people show -itself in the shape of a government, in fact autocratic, but in form -republican. Here again the loss in the power of self-government is -apparent.</p> - -<p>But there is no departure from civic virtue which can get by unnoticed. -Take the case of a voter who submits to having his street kept -dirty because he fears that a protest would make him disagreeably -conspicuous. Here also the loss of power of self-government is -traceably recorded. So much selfishness—so much filth.</p> - -<p>If we now recur for a moment to the state of things described in the -essay on politics, we see that our government in all its branches -has reflected the occupation and spiritual state of the people very -perfectly. But outside of the recurrent and regular political activity -of the country, there has grown up during the past few years a sort of -guerilla warfare of reform. This represents the conservative morality -of the community, the instinct of right government which resents the -treason to our institutions seen in their operation for private gain. -The reformers’ methods of work are necessarily democratic, and it is -here that the most<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125"></a>125</span> delicate tests of self-seeking are to be found. -These reformers desire to increase the unselfishness in the world, -yet the moment they attempt a practical reform they are told that any -appeal to an unselfish motive in politics means sure failure. They -accordingly make every variety of endeavor to use the selfishness of -some one as a lever to increase the unselfishness of somebody else. -The thing is worked out in daylight time after time, year after year, -and the results are recorded in millegrams. No obscurity is possible -because every man stands on the same footing. Our minds are not -obscured by thinking that A must be sincere because he is a bishop, or -need not be sincere because he is a lord.</p> - -<p>There is no landlord class with prejudices, no socialist class with -theories. There are no interests except money interests, and against -money the fight is made. If a man is a traitor it is because he has -been bought. The results, stated in terms of ethical theory, are simply -startling.</p> - -<p>A reform movement employs a paid secretary. In so far as he gets -the place because of his reform principles he represents an appeal -to selfishness. This is instantly reflected in his associates, it -colors the movement.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126"></a>126</span> He himself is attracted partly by the pay. By -an operation as impossible to avoid as the law of gravity he enlists -others who are also partially self-seeking.</p> - -<p>A Good Government Club is formed by X, and every member is called upon -for dues and work. It thrives. Another is founded by Y and supported -by him because of his belief that reform cannot support itself but -must be subsidized. Inside of three weeks the existence of X’s Club -is threatened, because its members hear that Y’s Club is charitably -supported and they themselves wish relief. They are turned from workers -into strikers by the mere report that there is money somewhere. -Spend $100 on the Club, and Tammany will be able to buy it when the -need arises. So frightfully accurate is the record of an appeal to -self-interest made in the course of reform, that no one who watches -such an attempt can ever thereafter hope to do evil that good may come.</p> - -<p>The system lays bare the operation of forces hitherto merely suspected. -Democracy makes the bold cut across every man and divides him into a -public man and a private man. It is a man-ometer. You could by means of -it stand up in line every man in New York, grading them according<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127"></a>127</span> to -the ratio of principle and self-interest in each.</p> - -<p>In England a man takes office as the pay for services to the -government. In America he does the same. It is part of their system, -part of our corruption. This may seem a small point, but it will work -out large. An absolute standard is imposed. That our most pronounced -reformers are far from understanding their duties gives proof of the -degradation of the times, but it exalts the plan of government. These -men will lead a reform for four weeks, as a great favor, a great -sacrifice, under protest, apologizing to business. They say public -duties come first only in war time. They give, out of conscience and -with the left hand, what remains after a feast for themselves. And -these are the saints. Tell one of them that he has not set an honorable -standard of living for his contemporaries unless, having his wants -supplied, he makes public activity his first aim in life, and he will -reply he wishes he could do so. He hopes later to devote himself to -such things. He will give you a subscription. This man lives in a -Democracy but he denies its claims. He too is recorded.</p> - -<p>The English, who gave us all we know of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128"></a>128</span> freedom, have been the first -to understand its meaning. They too have suffered during the last -century from the ravages of plutocracy, from the disease of commerce. -But they had behind them the intellectual heritage of the world. They -had bulwarks of education, philanthropy, thought, training, ambition, -enthusiasm, the ideals of man. It was these things, this reservoir of -spiritual power, that turned the tide of commercialism in England, and -not as we so cheaply imagine her “leisure class.” The men and women who -in the last ten years have taken hold of the Municipality of London, -and now work like beavers in its reform, are not rich. Some of them may -be rich, but the force that makes them toil comes neither out of riches -nor out of poverty, but out of a discovery as to the use of life. These -Englishmen have outlived the illusions of business. As towards them we -are like children. If it were a matter of mere riches we have wealth -enough to make their “leisure class” ridiculous. If there must be some -term in the heaping of money before the energies of our better burghers -are to be diverted toward public ends, we may wait till doomsday. But -the reaction is of another sort, and is very simple. Let us be just -to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129"></a>129</span> the conscience-givers. They dare not give more. The American is -ashamed to lose a dollar. He does not want the dollar half the time, -but he will lose caste if he foregoes it. Our merchant princes go on -special commissions for rapid transit, and receive $5000 apiece. They -must be paid. Out of custom they must receive pay because “their time -is valuable,” and thus the virtue and meaning of their office receives -a soil: they do not work. All this is, even at the present moment, -against the private instincts of many of them. It is apparent that they -stand without, shame-faced. It needs only example to give them courage. -A few more reform movements in which they see each other as citizens, -will knock the shackles from their imagination and make men of them. -And then we shall have reform in earnest. For with this enfranchisement -will come their great awakening to the fact that not they only but all -men are really unselfish. It is the obscure disbelief in this salvation -which has made reform so hard where it might be so easy. As soon as the -reformers shall have reformed themselves, they will avoid making any -appeal to self-interest as so much lost time, so much corruption, and -will walk boldly upon<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130"></a>130</span> the waves of idealism which will hold them up.</p> - -<p>If commerce has been our ruin, our form of government is our -salvation. Imagine a hereditary aristocracy, a State church, a -limited monarchy to have existed here during the last thirty years. -By this time it would have been owned hand and foot, tied up and -anchored in every abuse, engaged day and night in devising new yokes -for the people. The interests now dominant know the ropes and do -their best, but they cannot corrupt the sea. They cannot stop the -continual ferment of popular election and reform candidate. The whole -apparatus of government is a great educational machine which no one -can stop. The power of light is enlisted on the side of order. A -property qualification would have been an anchor to windward for the -unrighteous. At the bottom of the peculiarly hopeless condition of -Philadelphia lie the small house and lot of the laboring man. They -can be taxed. They can be cajoled and conjured with. Corruption is -entrenched.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>We find then in democracy a frame of government by which private -selfishness, the bane and terror of all government, is thrust<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131"></a>131</span> brutally -to the front and kept there, staring in hideous openness.</p> - -<p>Nothing except such an era as that which we have just come through, -during which we have grown used to absolute self-seeking as the normal -state of man, could so have glazed the eyes of men that they could not -see thrift even in a public official as a crime, or self-sacrifice even -in a public official except as a folly. And yet so sound is the heart -of man that in spite of this corruption and debauchery, the American -people, the masses of them, are the most promising people extant. We -have a special disease. It is our minds which have been injured. We -are cross-eyed with business selfishness and open to the heavens on -all other sides. For this openness we must thank Democracy. Here are -no warped beings, but sane and healthy creatures under a temporary -spell. The American citizen, by escaping the superstitions studded over -Europe since the days of the Roman empire, has a directer view of life -(when he shall open his eyes) than any people since the Elizabethans. -He will have no prejudices. He will be empirical. But he must forswear -thrift, and the calculating of interest in his sleep. No religious -revival will help us. We are religious<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132"></a>132</span> enough already. It is our -relaxation. Only the painful unwinding of that intellectual knot into -which our minds are tied,—that state of intense selfishness during -which we see business advancement as our first duty, taught us at the -cradle, enforced by example, inculcated like a religion,—can make us -begin to operate our institutions upon the lines on which they alone -can run freely, and we ourselves develop normally. This unwinding will -come through a simple inspection of our condition. Let no one worry -about the forms and particular measures of betterment. They will flow -naturally from the public acknowledgment by the individual of facts -which he privately knows and has always known and always denied.</p> - -<p>This goes on hourly. Those people who do not see it, look for it in -the wrong places. You cannot expect it to show itself in the public -offices. They are the strongholds of the enemy. You cannot expect it to -appear very often in the children of captivity, the upper bourgeoisie. -These men are easily put to sleep and will take the promise of a -politician any day as an excuse for non-activity. They give consent. -What we want is assertion, and it is coming like a murmur from the -poorer classes who desire<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133"></a>133</span> the right and who need only leadership to -make them honest.</p> - -<p>It is the recurrent tragedy in reform movements that the merchants put -forward something that the laboring man instantly nails for a lie. It -is not the loss of the election which does the harm, but this insult to -the souls of men.</p> - -<p>Let no one expect the millennium, but let us play fair. We can see that -our standards, particularly among the well-to-do, are so low that mere -inspection of them causes indignant protest. But we must also know that -when we accepted democracy as our form of government we ranked the -political education of the individual as more important than the expert -administration of government. This last can come only as a result, not -as a precurser of the other.</p> - -<p>The example of a whole people, mad with one passion, living under a -system which implies the abnegation of that passion, has laid bare -the heart of a community, has shown the interrelations between the -organs and functions of a society, in a way never before visible in -the history of the world. Everything is disturbed, but everything is -visible. We see Literature, a mere thread, yet betraying all things; -Architecture, still<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134"></a>134</span> submerged in commerce but showing every year some -vital change; Social Life, the mere creature of abuses, like a child -covered with scars, but growing healthy; the Drama, a drudge to thrift -every way and yet palpably alive. By the light of these things and -their relation to each other we may view history.</p> - -<p>The American is a typical being. He is a creature of a single passion. -In so far as Tyre was commercial she was American. You can reconstruct -much of Venetian politics from a town caucus. In so far as London is -commercial it is American. You can trace the thing in the shape of a -handbill in Moscow. Or to take the matter up from the other side: you -can, by taking up these correlated ganglia of American society, which -do nevertheless simply represent the heart of man, and are always -present in every society—by imagining the enlargement of one function, -and the disuse of the next, you can reconstruct the Greek period and -re-imagine Athens.</p> - -<p>No wonder the sociologists study America. It seems as if the key and -cause of human progress might be clutched from her entrails.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135"></a>135</span></p> - - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136"></a>136</span> -<p class="center p180" id="government">GOVERNMENT</p> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider2 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137"></a>137</span> -</div> - -<h2 id="v">V<br /> -<span>GOVERNMENT</span></h2> - -<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">When</span> -two men are fighting and agree that they will stop at sundown, -we have government. Their consent is government. Their memory of that -consent is an institution. There never was a government of any kind or -for any purpose that did not rest upon the consent of the governed; but -the means by which the consent is obtained have varied. The consent -records the extent to which the individuals are alike. It is only by -virtue of similarity in the governed that government exists. On a -ship, all men are alike in their danger of being drowned, and they -consent to dictation from the captain for the welfare of all. The aim -of the despot is to keep the population alike in their need of him -or their fear of him. After the French Revolution, the entire French -people were alike both in their desire for order and in their lack of -training in self-government. A dictator was inevitable. Gouverneur -Morris, whose<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138"></a>138</span> experience in America qualified him to judge, saw the -matter clearly as early as 1791. Napoleon kept the people alike, by the -two opposite means of giving them social order and foreign war. Henry -V. kept himself on top in England by waging war in France. Seward in -1861 thought to unite the people of the United States by declaring war -against everybody in Europe. The German Emperor is sustained to-day -by the popular fear of France and Russia. It makes no difference what -foolishness he commits; so long as that fear predominates he will be -absolute.</p> - -<p>For the converse proposition is also true, that in so far as people -are like-minded, they must be ruled by a single mind. A hundred Malays -cannot establish a representative government. They must have a boss. -The population of Russia can only be ruled by a Czar. So also whenever -under any form of government all the people want one thing, one man -does it. The reasons for it are invented afterwards, and “war powers” -are found to justify the proclamation setting the slaves free.</p> - -<p>The extent to which people are similar to each other will be recorded -in their institutions; in fact, those institutions are nothing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139"></a>139</span> but -dials of similarity. For this reason any popular national institution -gives you the nation. Moreover any ruler, any system, any consent has -a tendency to modify the future because he or it is advertised and -established. It is a factor in the consciousness of every individual. -It is the conservative. It tends to affect the conduct and mind of -every one, for any one coming in contact with it must conform or -resist. It is a challenge to the individual. It impinges upon him. -The thing changes daily in his mind, and occupies now more, now less, -of his activities. In cases where his whole external conduct has -been absorbed by one such power we have absolute rule, religious or -military, and a uniform population. If there be a single predominating -power which has not yet completely conquered, we have in some form or -another a record of its growth by a tendency toward absolutism.</p> - -<p>The American people have been growing strikingly uniform, owing to -their one occupation,—business, their one passion,—a desire for -money. They are divided by their system of politics into two great -categories, and hence we see the two opposing Bosses, little nodes of -power representing this identity<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140"></a>140</span> of consciousness in each of the two -great categories of the population, Republicans and Democrats. If you -could cut open the consciousness of one thousand Americans and examine -it with a microscope, you could set up our government with great ease.</p> - -<p>Let us concede for the sake of argument that the full development of -individual character and intellect is the aim of life.</p> - -<p>Now in so far as individuals are developed, they differ from each -other. We ought then to be distressed by any identity whatever found in -the heads of individuals examined; and greatly distressed by the reign -of the same passion manifested in the one thousand American organisms. -You would say, ‘If this thing goes on, a dictator is absolutely -certain,’ and then you would remember that you had heard a business man -remark at the Club the evening before, that he would welcome a dictator -as a cheap practical way out of it.</p> - -<p>Let us now suppose you to examine one thousand English heads. The first -thing you would notice would be that the number was not large enough -to give reliable results. Certain types would be manifest, but the -special variations would be so striking as to cloud your conclusions. -In all these<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141"></a>141</span> heads there would be spots of a density nowhere found in -America, but the spontaneous variations outside and round about them -would be magnificent. You would say, “These spots represent different -kinds of conservatism. This one is reverence for the church, that one -for the army, a third for the judiciary. They represent prejudice, but -they also represent stability, a stability that is the resultant of a -thousand positive and various forces. These spots hold England together -and give scope to free government. The world never has done and never -can do better than this. These individuals are developed. The line of -force of one man passes through one institution, that of the next man -through the next. No force, no passion, can make them all alike at any -one time. They are anchored by the Middle Ages. They are fluid and free -in the present. The only hope for freedom in the individual lies in the -existence of different sorts of institutions.”</p> - -<p>It is true that English society is like a menagerie, or rather like one -of those collections of different animals, all in one cage, seen at -the circus. Every one of these animals is trained to regard the rights -of the rest. Diversity is in itself a good. A college<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142"></a>142</span> of Jesuits is a -protection to liberty if it is set down in Denver. The Jesuits are not -money-mad. It is an education for a Denver child to see a new kind of -man. You will conclude, as some philosophers are now concluding, that -to have free government you must encourage institutions—and you will -be wrong.</p> - -<p>The fundamental reason why you are wrong is that these beneficent -institutions are what is left of the activity of people who believed in -them for their own sake. You can no more imitate one of them, or catch -the power of one of them, than you can set up a king here to repel an -invasion. You yourself believe in individualism. Go straight for that, -and leave it to erect its bulwarks in what form it may.</p> - -<p>A multiplication of institutions then serves two contradictory -purposes. It limits the individual, creates black spots of prejudice -and unreason in him; but on the other hand it encourages a free -development of the individual outside of those spots. It creates types, -and types are mutually protective. This is only another way of saying -that free government results from a segregation of the government into -provinces, which cannot all be captured, at one time, by one force.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143"></a>143</span> -The highly intelligent and artificial separation of our government -into the branches of Executive, Legislative, and Judicial was in a -sense an attempt to get free government by the erection of independent -institutions. But these were never strong enough to create types (we -have hardly the type of judge among us); and certainly no attachment to -any part, but the sacredness of the entire system, has preserved it. It -was the sentiment attaching to the single idea of a central government.</p> - -<p>It is to institutions that the consent to be governed is given. The -consent is always a highly complex affair. It implies a civilization. -It is qualified, limited, infinitely diversified, and is in every case -regulated by historic fact. For instance, under a limited monarchy, -it is a consent to be governed by a particular dynasty after special -ceremonies, tempered by some priesthood, subject to such and such -customs,—each and all existing in the imagination of the subject. -For government is entirely a matter of the imagination, and it is -inconceivable that it should ever be anything else. The English have -spent two centuries in impressing the imagination of India with the -vision of English power. A violation by the government,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144"></a>144</span> no matter -how strong, of the popular imagination, an assumption of power in a -field not yet subdued, always brings on riots. The Persians resented -furiously the creation of a tobacco monopoly. The Sultan had to rescind -it. The Americans threw the tea into the harbor.</p> - -<p>The forms and modes by which government is carried on are the record -of things to which people have consented, and hence become important, -become symbols so identified with power that almost all historical -writing deals with them as entities. The power of the symbols in any -case varies inversely to the power of the people for self-government, -that is, to the average differentiation between individuals; or to put -the thing the other way, the extent to which a man will permit another -to rule him depends upon his incapacity to rule himself.</p> - -<p>The great unifying forces have always been regarded as dangers to -free government. War makes a nation a unit. It cannot be conducted by -individualism. Religion condenses power. That is the reason why our -ancestors were so afraid of a State church. Commerce has generally -been thought a blessing because commerce gives scope to individualism. -It enriches and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145"></a>145</span> educates. Yet commerce itself may bring in tyranny. -Witness Venice. Commerce has centralized our government. Anything that -affects everybody’s mind with the same appeal strengthens government -and makes for unity. A nation only exists by virtue of such general -appeals. It is inside of and subordinate to this general unity of -feeling that individualism must go on. The rulers of mankind are -men who have got control of the symbols, of the institutions, which -stood in the imagination of the people as most important, and who by -manipulating them extended their range over the popular imagination. -Or to put the thing a little differently, the passions of the people -are reflected in ever-changing institutions. The people seize a man -and force him to do their bidding and rule them in such manner as to -assuage their passions. They make a saint out of Lincoln, and a devil -out of Torquemada.</p> - -<p>If a man seems to be a great man, and seems to be leading the people, -it is because he knows the people better than they know themselves. -There was never a people yet that did not in this sense govern -themselves, being themselves governed by the resultant of their -dominant passions. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146"></a>146</span> Southern Pacific Railroad has for years owned -the State of California as completely as if it had bought it from -a tyrant who ruled over a population of slaves. It was done by the -purchase of votes. In so far as virtue shall regain predominance in the -breast of the voter and set him free, virtue will replace money in the -voting, and set free the State.</p> - -<p>Universal suffrage is a mode and a symbol. Under certain conditions -of education people must have it. Under others they cannot have it. -But whether they have it or not, they will be ruled by their ruling -passion, and if this renders them alike in character, their government -will be a tyranny. If the reign of the passion be tempered, the reign -of the tyrant will be tempered. Express the thing in terms of human -feeling (and what else is there?) and universal suffrage is seen as a -<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">quantité négligeable</i>.</p> - -<p>It is thus apparent that there is no institution that cannot easily be -made to operate to a contradictory end. The criminal courts here have -been used to collect debt. There is no wickedness to which the enginery -of the Christian Church has not at one time or another been lent. The -passions of a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147"></a>147</span> period run its institutions as easily as a stream turns -any sort of a mill. To-day the United States Senate is a millionaires’ -club. To-morrow the Stock Exchange may become a church.</p> - -<p>Now what is an institution?</p> - -<p>It is a custom which receives an assent because it is a custom. Man -has always been ruled by custom. The notion that there was a time when -disputes were settled by fighting, and that arbitration came in as a -matter of convenience, stands on the same sort of footing as Rousseau’s -social contract. It is an academic <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">jeu d’esprit</i>. In looking back -over history all we see is custom, and farther back, still custom. All -the fighting of savages is regulated by custom and always has been -regulated by custom. Nay, the bees and the ants are ruled by custom. -The idea of custom is the one idea that the genius of Kipling led him -to see in the jungle.</p> - -<p>Now what is at the bottom of all this regard for custom? At the -bottom of custom is non-self-regarding impulse. Man is both selfish -and unselfish, but it makes a great difference whether we regard him -<em>primarily</em> as one thing or the other. The scientists, owing -to their study of the lower animals, have tried to explain man on -the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148"></a>148</span> selfish hypothesis and have made a mystery of him. They say “He -must eat or die; therefore, he must be primarily egoistic.” And they -attempt to explain progress by the expanding of egoism to include, -first the family, then the tribe, then the nation, and finally mankind. -Society according to them is a convention of egoism, a compromise, -a joint-stock company. Religion is a matter of ghosts and ancestor -worship, not fully explained yet. Note that this whole view depends -upon a dogma that man <em>must</em> be primarily selfish because he must -eat. It is fair enough to retort with a paradox. Man absolutely selfish -could not survive. Man absolutely unselfish would thrive splendidly. -The individuals would support each other.</p> - -<p>But let us start square and remember that it is a question of science. -Take the other hypothesis. The horse runs in herds and propagates -his species because he is fond of the species. Incidentally he gets -protected. It is through the illusion that he loves his fellows that -his own welfare is secured. Non-self-regardant impulse is at the -bottom, self-protection the result.</p> - -<p>It is the same with every human institution. Non-self-regardant impulse -is at the bottom of all regard for law. We have seen<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149"></a>149</span> that Democracy -is organized altruism, but there was never a government that did not -profess to be organized altruism. You cannot bring men together on any -other plea, nor hold them together by any other tie. It is only in so -far as altruism in conduct exists that progress is possible. If the -men will not stop fighting at sundown, they have no institutions. They -perish.</p> - -<p>The regard that every custom receives from the individual who -supports it is a non-self-regarding emotion. From the ceremonials of -savages, through the custom of the Frenchman who lifts his hat as a -funeral passes, to the feeling of Kant as he contemplated the moral -law, the element is the same. It is reverence. It is respect. It is -self-surrender.</p> - -<p>But reverence may become intensified into fear. The imagination of the -worshipper curls over like a wave. It looks back at him and frightens -him, and when this happens we call it Superstition. The pain of it, -like all pain, like the distress of insanity, comes wholly from the -fact that it is a self-regarding emotion, it is a disease. Man in -every stage of his culture is liable to this disease. Want of food or -tyranny, bad water or bad government, brings on<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150"></a>150</span> this trouble. Every -country and every age shows forms of it: and very naturally, the savage -who is subject by reason of hardships to many diseases, shows terrible -forms of this disease of superstition. This is the chief fact that the -scientists have seen in the savage. These savants, holding the egoism -of man as their major thought, have through their ignorance of human -nature been led to base their explanation of the religion of mankind -upon a disease of the savage.</p> - -<p>The opposite explanation stares them in the face. We all know in a -general way that the New Testament civilized Europe. The book is a mere -cryptogram of all possible altruism, and therefore fits the soul of -man. Give two men the New Testament—and each man sees himself in it, -and it affects each one differently. By developing and unfolding the -character and emotions of each according to the law of his individual -growth, the book differentiates them at once. The more unhappy a man is -the more he needs it. Oppress a man or put him in jail, let him lead a -life of self-indulgence, or isolation, and he grows quasi-religious; -the altruistic emotion has not been expended in intercourse with his -fellows, and it accumulates. This book then, by focussing the altruism<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151"></a>151</span> -in each individual of many generations of men, by being perpetually -rediscovered, by existing as a constant force differentiating -individuals and so undoing the tyranny of institution after institution -founded upon itself, gradually got itself enacted into international -law, into custom, into sentiment, and into municipal rule, and has been -on the whole the controlling force in Western Europe during the last -eighteen centuries. Its symbols express the constant factor in human -nature. It is only in so far as a book does this that it is remembered -at all.</p> - -<p>Of course, when a custom arises it is turned on the instant into -something that can be used by egoism, and here comes the pivot of the -matter. Custom renders men similar to each other. The letter killeth. -But the letter does much more than kill. It educates, it trains, it -transmits. Hence the two contradictory functions of an institution -which we found at work in England, the one to educate, the other to -limit.</p> - -<p>In studying the effect of institutions upon the individual, the whole -hierarchy of nature must be reviewed at once. We have nothing to guide -us in our study of the animals except our knowledge of man, but we have -much to find in that study which will enlarge<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152"></a>152</span> and illustrate that -knowledge. Every naturalist and every sociologist should receive his -preliminary training in the political arena, and every politician in -the greenhouse and the menagerie.</p> - -<p>Let us look at the social life of the ants.</p> - -<p>The ant seems to show a stage of progress in which the individuals -have grown alike through a slavish observance of certain institutions. -It is certain that the ant is a ritualistic being, formal, narrow, -intolerant, incapable of new ideas or private enterprise. He hates any -one differing from himself, whether more or less virtuous. He would -regard any suggested improvement in the arrangement of his house as -a sacrilege. He works constantly for the public with a devotion that -nothing but religious zeal can explain, and is in his own limited way -completely happy. But the tyranny of public opinion, the subserviency -to a State church goes far to make him contemptible.</p> - -<p>This is the worst that an institution can do. The individual is -crushed. The primeval reverence for custom seen in the ants has -crystallized without getting developed and specialized into its higher -form of reverence for the individual ant. He is a type of arrested -development.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153"></a>153</span> -The natural history of religion is then to be sought in a reverence -for custom that gradually specializes itself into a regard for -the individual. If these things are true, the advancement of any -civilization may be measured by the extent in which the rights of -individuals are held sacred. And this is what we have always been -taught.</p> - -<p>Government was in its origin indistinguishable from religion, and down -to the latest day of time, the fluctuating institutions of man will -record this kinship between ritual and law.</p> - -<p>The scientists, in trying to explain religion and progress as the -result of an egoism gradually expanding itself to a regard for mankind, -have been pulling at the wrong end of the cocoon. The thread unwound a -bit and then broke; unwound again and again broke. They were puzzling -themselves over a conception fundamentally unscientific and at war with -their own first principles.</p> - -<p>The genesis of the emotions proceeds like other developments from the -simple towards the complex. The notion that the egoism of man gradually -expanded so as to include the whole human race in a love which was in -reality a love of himself, assumes that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154"></a>154</span> this large love is the sum of -lesser loves. It fixes the attention on the objects of human feeling, -and not upon the character of the feeling itself. This character is -the thing to be studied. When we contrast the religious and social -feelings of the civilized man with those of the savage we see the same -specialization and complexity in the emotions themselves which is -traceable in any higher development. The forms, arguments, theories, -customs by which the feeling is expressed, show an ever-increasing -refinement of sympathy. We are not approaching a general and vague -emotion built up out of lesser regards for particular people. We are -approaching a stage of differentiation, of analysis, a stage of the -personal application of that same altruism which appears in its lower -form as blind worship and self-abasement before some fetich. The -utility of this emotion, in whatever stage of its development, is a -consideration that may justify it to the philosopher, but which is not -the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">primum mobile</i> in the breast of him that has it. The whole -history of man shows that progress comes in the shape of an increasing -tender-heartedness which can give no lucid account of itself, because -it is an organic process.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155"></a>155</span> -The learned classes are apt to approach a problem in its most difficult -form. Out of travellers’ tales about man in the South Sea Islands, -the sociologist evolves a theory of religion. Take up a book on the -natural history of religion and you will find enough learned citations -about the Hurons and the Esquimaux and the Thibet tribes to furnish -the library of Pantagruel. Now the regard of a savage for his idol is -a very obscure question of psychology. Ten years of youth spent among -a tribe would not be too long a period in which to lay the foundations -for an intelligent guess at the facts, let alone their significance.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, the actual genealogy of our own religious feelings is -neglected as too familiar. Yet the spiritual history of that race which -gave Europe many of its religions, is better known than any other -history of a like antiquity. The point of view and feeling about life -which has given us our own experience of religion was developed in the -Jew. The Old Testament is the place in which to study the growth and -meaning of the only religious feeling that we are sure we understand. -The history of the Jews is the history of a single overpowering emotion -which appears in its two<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156"></a>156</span> forms,—so identical in content that you -may often find them both in the same sentence, both in the same verse -of Isaiah or Psalm of David,—prostration before the Lord of Hosts, -compassion for the poor and the oppressed. This passion of altruism -which gave the prophets their terrible power is the legacy of the Jew -to the world. The emotion of self-abasement and self-sacrifice and -the emotion of love towards others, are one thing. This, in its lower -forms, leads to self-mutilation and incantations; in its higher forms, -it becomes embodied by the prophetic fury of great poets into the idea -of a Messiah who shall be both savior and sacrifice. There is only one -passion at work in all these great protagonists of human nature, in -Nathan, Elijah, Jeremiah and in the innumerable prophets who confronted -the arbitrary power of the kings. These men stood for righteousness -and showed an intensity of moral courage which nothing but compassion -has ever engendered, and nothing but faith has ever expressed. The -rags and the self surrender, the purity and the power, the belief -that they spoke not of themselves but for the Lord, have been the -same in all ages. It is impossible to feel compassion in this degree -and not express it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157"></a>157</span> in this manner. All just anger is compassion. The -terrible wrath of these men is as comprehensible as their hymns or -their triumph. There is no child that reads Isaiah whose nature does -not respond to him, because the course of feeling in him is true to -life. Between the Old Testament and the New we see a perfectly coherent -development of the same passion of the same race into its higher kind. -Both forms of it have changed. In the New Testament the love has -become specialized into that particular and especial regard for the -soul of each individual man for which we have no counterpart; and the -prostration, the adoration for God the Father, the identification of -the individual with God the Father, has received expression in forms -which one can refer to but not describe. The kingdom of heaven is -within you.</p> - -<p>That modern philanthropy which has been overcoming the world during -the last century and has put a spirit of religion into politics, is -expressed in ten thousand dogmas and formulas. These things are the -hieroglyphics of the most complex period in history, but they all read -Love.</p> - -<p>The love of man for his fellows is the substantial content of every -ideal, of every<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158"></a>158</span> reform. In so far as any political cry is valuable, -it represents this and nothing more. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, -The Declaration of Independence, Utilitarianism, Fourierism, Socialism, -Prohibition, Christian Science and the Salvation Army carry the same -message; and it is only because of this truth, and in spite of the -fact that it is always wrapped up in every kind of falsehood, that -they move the world forward. Take socialism. This thing is the logical -outcome of the passion of pity at work in men who believe that the -desire for property is the controlling factor in human arrangements. -The selfishness of the individual has been assumed as a fundamental law -in that school of thought, which has been dominating all our thought, -and which we habitually accept as final. It receives support from a -superficial view of human nature, and time out of mind has been the -belief of shallow people. But the great intellect and the great labor -of the socialists have been unable to make any impression upon the mind -of a man. We know that their reasoning is foolish. It is to the heart -that their appeal is made. Bellamy’s book sells by the hundred thousand -to tender-hearted people. It is a plea for humanity. It is Uncle<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159"></a>159</span> Tom’s -Cabin. The function of Socialism is clear. It is a religious reaction -going on in an age which thinks in terms of money. We are very nearly -at the end of it, because we are very nearly at the end of the age. -Some people believe they hate the wealth of the millionaire. They -denounce corporations and trusts, as if these things had hurt them. -They strike at the symbol. What they really hate is the irresponsible -rapacity which these things typify, and which nothing but moral forces -will correct. In so far as people seek the cure in property-laws they -are victims of the plague. The cure will come entirely from the other -side; for as soon as the millionaires begin to exert and enjoy the -enormous power for good which they possess, everybody will be glad they -have the money.</p> - -<p>Socialism was useful, but as a theory it was fated from the beginning, -because its prophets and saints are themselves spurred on by a -different motive from that which they evoke in others. They offer -us a religion that assumes that human nature is other than it is, a -religion not based upon self-sacrifice, and so not based upon an appeal -to primary passion, a religion beseeching us to make other people -comfortable. Now the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160"></a>160</span> only motive which will make men labor for the -comfort of others, is a belief that this is the quickest way of saving -their souls. If souls are to be saved only through their own unselfish -activity, then it is a lie to hold up property as a goal. The laboring -man can be made happy only by the same means as the merchant. They must -be saved together. The matter of the physical support of the individual -follows in the wake of a regard for his soul, but never precedes it. -The awakening of the spirit of individualism will bring support to the -artisan by bringing in hand work. The machine work with which we have -been content represents a loss of religion in the buyer proportionate -to the selfishness of the times. No system based on thrift will -displace it, but any movement based on self-sacrifice will tend to -correct it. While socialism is worrying out the proof that a wise -distribution of property will bring in virtue and happiness, other and -directer formulations of the truth will have seized the spirits of men -and saved the people.</p> - -<p>The balance of altruism in the people of a country, preserved in the -form of practical self-control (no matter under what name), gives the -wealth and power of the country.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161"></a>161</span> -Good government then consists in customs which differentiate people. -They represent a permission to each man to be different from his -neighbor. They are the record of what once was love, and now is law.</p> - -<p>Bad government consists in institutions which render men similar -through some self-interest, some superstition.</p> - -<p>Let us take a few examples at random from history, and see whether -everything of permanent value to the race is not merely a different -form of expression for the same ideal.</p> - -<p>Napoleon is a type of selfishness. The focus of his almost illimitable -intelligence fell within himself. He was so self-centred that he did -not precipitate all the passion which supported him upon an idea. -He did much, but he could not transcend the laws of psychology or -escape the insecurity they dealt him out. He was a great reactionary, -living in an age of progress, a great egoist in an age of altruism, -a great criminal. The whole of Europe had hardly strength enough to -shut him up. He went down finally, and yet before he went down, he had -stood for civilization in every country he touched by establishing -law. He gave France his code and his bureaux, things<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162"></a>162</span> greater than -his dynasty. He made use of the enlightenment, the expert intellect -of France to establish order, and became a great educator through -his institutions, his genius for administration. His worshippers are -so struck with this side of his character that they forgive him his -crimes. For our admiration is chained to the educator. Every great man -is a great educator, and there is no greatness but this. The great man -represents, draws out, projects, and establishes the non-self-regarding -part, the intellectual apparatus of others, and those who do it by the -establishment of law and order receive their tribute as civilizers. The -saints serve the same end. They speak a language different from that of -the law-givers, yet their function is the same. The part a man plays in -the formal government of his times depends on circumstance. It seems to -be governed by the ratio of his altruism to that of his contemporaries. -People will not tolerate a man who is too good or too bad. Had Napoleon -lived in an age of retrogression, very likely he would have died upon -the throne. Had he been less self-seeking than he was, had he possessed -for instance the imagination of Washington, very likely the French -would<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163"></a>163</span> have deposed him sooner, but in the end the memory of him would -have educated France.</p> - -<p>For this is the work of heroes. Where a leader has ideas that are -more unselfish than those of his time, he is deposed, poisoned, or -ridiculed, and his value as an educational force may be increased by -any of these things. Socrates deliberately kept out of politics for -many years, knowing that if he took part, his sense of justice would -lead to his execution, and fearing to throw away his life; he finally -expended it with such ability as to make every atom count. The scholars -have not understood his Apology because they could not fathom the -instinct of the agitator. It is the same with the martyrs, with the -Quakers in Puritan New England, with the Anti-Slavery people. Their -conduct was governed by the truest understanding of how to draw out and -develop the conscience of others. The man who dies for his country does -no more.</p> - -<p>Another gigantic educator was Bismarck. To have welded the squabbling -principalities of Germany into an Empire within a lifetime is one of -the achievements of history. But Bismarck held the trump card. He -had a cause to serve. His early work<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164"></a>164</span> must have been his strongest; -for since the war with France, patriotism has become the curse of -Germany. It is caked into fanaticism, and is being used by autocracy -to ruin intellect. This is the mystical yet relentless punishment for -the element which was not patriotism but thrift in their conduct. The -Germans must be great and unified and recover Alsace for their honor. -But what did they want with the French milliards? They mulcted France -to spare their pockets, and fastened upon themselves the personal -hatred of the French peasant, which gives them William II. for a ruler. -They looked upon property as power. Had they seen clearly that power is -nothing but sentiment, they would have sown peace.</p> - -<p>One reason why Holland lost her supremacy was because she came to -regard money as power. She grasped the symbol. For a decline sets in as -soon as selfishness has reached such a point that any of these symbols -are worshipped. Witness Spain, where the gold of Peru ruined the -Spaniards by making them individually selfish.</p> - -<p>In the long run virtue and vice contend over national wealth, the first -collecting, the second dissipating. Witness Cuba. Witness Ireland. -China is wrecked by private<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165"></a>165</span> greed. In the last analysis it is a matter -of personal virtue.</p> - -<p>The magnificent intellect and self-control epitomized in Roman -Government, took centuries to perish. Is it a wonder these people -conquered the world?</p> - -<p>The United States has been held together by English virtue, and there -was so much of it in the race, that a few generations of money-changers -could not ruin us. We had, not only the creed, but the beliefs of -English liberty. The future of England depends upon her perception of -this truth that power is sentiment. The Venezuela trouble showed her -that her selfish conduct in 1861 made her empire in 1896 insecure. The -spread of England’s empire has been due to a practice in dealing with -the imagination of others. Establish by force, develop by the organized -altruism of good government, protect by display of force.</p> - -<p>This system will not apply here. We are the youngest nation and the -most naif. We are at the mercy of wise or unwise treatment. But we can -no more be fooled than a child. No display of force could touch our -imagination or do more than irritate us. Our feelings must be directly -engaged by means not known to diplomacy or to international<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166"></a>166</span> law. Let -England take a high tone. She must not only seem but be unselfish -towards us, and she will master the globe.</p> - -<p>There is one result from the fact that government is a matter of -imagination which is wholly satisfactory. Once set up a scheme of -things which people approve of and it remains. We shall not have good -government in the United States till the people get over their personal -dishonesty; but when we do get it, it will last without effort. It will -be harder to destroy than the spoils system. Vigilance will be needed -constantly, but action rarely. The mere announcement of an abuse will -correct it.</p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="tn"> -<p class="center">Transcriber’s Note:</p> - -<p class="noi">The cover was created and placed in the public domain by the -transcriber using elements from the original book.</p> - -<p class="noi">Spelling, hyphenation and punctuation have been preserved as published in the -original book.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="divider2 x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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