THE GIFT OF 
 
 MAY TREAT MORRISON 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 ALEXANDER F MORRISON
 
 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS
 
 COMMON S E N ^ 
 
 IN 
 
 POLITICS 
 
 BY 
 
 JOB E. HEDGES 
 
 NEW YORK 
 MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 
 
 1910
 
 Copyright, 1910, by 
 JOB E. HEDGES 
 
 All Sights Reserved 
 Published October, 1910 
 
 THE OUINN 4 BODEN 00. PRESS 
 RAHW»r, N. J.
 
 w 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. The Reason for This Book 
 
 II. The State of the Nation . 
 
 III. Some Americanized Traits 
 
 IV. Political Parties, Political Or 
 
 GANIZATIONS, BOSSES, PATRONAGE 
 
 V. Reform, Reformers, and Remedial 
 Legislation .... 
 
 VI. The Press Agent 
 
 VII. Office Seeking and Office Hold 
 
 ing 
 
 VIII. The Press 
 
 IX. Law and Morals .... 
 
 X. The Public and Public Opinion 
 
 XL Political Corruption 
 
 XII. Political Honesty 
 
 XIII. A Final Reflection . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 49 
 
 75 
 
 107 
 121 
 
 133 
 151 
 165 
 179 
 205 
 229 
 237 
 
 ft <looc:^
 
 DEDICATED 
 
 TO THE MAN WHO DOES 
 
 THE BEST HE CAN, AT ALL TIMES, 
 
 WITHOUT HYPOCRISY 
 
 AND REGARDLESS OF APPLAUSE
 
 THE REASON FOR THIS BOOK
 
 COMMON SENSE IN 
 POLITICS 
 
 THE REASON FOR THIS BOOK 
 
 More nonsense has been written and orated 
 on the subject of American politics during 
 the past ten years than in any decade of 
 the nation's history. In spite of this, much 
 progress has been made. Important legisla- 
 tion has been effected, rights protected, rem- 
 edies established, and a general betterment 
 brought about. While these results were 
 being accomplished the country has been 
 treated to the most remarkable outpouring 
 of heated discussion, denunciation, and dis- 
 crediting of motives that has ever been in- 
 dulged in in so short a time. 
 
 This volume is not intended as the last 
 word on any of the topics contained between 
 its covers. The writer or speaker who claims 
 to have presented the last word on any sub- 
 
 3
 
 4 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 ject should not be permitted to write or speak 
 again. Such a claim implies so advanced a 
 case of egoism that it is an affront to in- 
 tellect. By implication it even invades the 
 domain of Providence and assumes a finality 
 of wisdom which is hypocritical and astound- 
 ing. 
 
 Eliminating the claim for final judg- 
 ment, it is, however, a benefit to have all 
 political questions continually discussed by 
 as many persons as may be; for such dis- 
 cussion provokes thought, resultant thinking 
 leads to community of ideas, and that com- 
 munity of ideas represents the composite of 
 American life. If the mind and conscience 
 of the entire nation or of a state are not 
 actively brought to bear on all public ques- 
 tions, the body politic is not performing its 
 full function. It is as if a portion of the 
 human body had become paralyzed from mis- 
 use or disuse and the remaining parts kept 
 up the appearance of normal action. 
 
 Within the limitations of constitutions, 
 statutes and judicial decisions, the expressed 
 will of the majority is, or becomes, the law 
 of the land and, therefore, the standard of 
 political conduct until changed by further 
 legislative enactment. In this interim there 
 is a constant discussion of ways and means
 
 THE REASON FOR THIS BOOK 5 
 
 for progress. The careful study of condi- 
 tions and the thoroughness of that discussion 
 is the test of the degree of progress attained. 
 Less harm arises from illogical deductions 
 drawn from actual facts than from logical 
 deductions drawn from assumed facts that 
 are not true. The former will right them- 
 selves in time; the latter serve only as a 
 rhetorical relief and can never result in a 
 condition of permanency. The first is prac- 
 tice, the second is theory. The attitude of 
 mind is quite as important in discussion as 
 the conclusions sought to be established. 
 
 Any man in this country has a perfect 
 right to his own conclusions. Such right 
 comes directly from his actual devotion in 
 principle and conduct toward his fellow-man, 
 individually or in community, and not from 
 his own personally admitted virtues. The 
 main purpose of this volume is to attempt to 
 change the public point of view while sub- 
 jects of general import are under discussion, 
 and to protest against that hypocrisy of view, 
 argument, and conduct which has of recent 
 years crept into public affairs. It is not 
 sought to establish any particular theory, or 
 to destroy any maintained theory. There is 
 no intent to reflect on any individual, di- 
 rectly or by innuendo, but rather to look at
 
 6 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 conditions, men and human nature as they 
 are, leaving the result to the good judg- 
 ment and conclusions of the people them- 
 selves. 
 
 To anticipate possible comment and, so to 
 speak, give rebuttal in advance, the author 
 has no spleen to vent, no broken word to 
 punish, no unsatisfied ambition to vindicate, 
 no axe to grind for use or display, no per- 
 sonal end to accomplish. The author hates 
 hypocrisy, selfishness and vanity in high or 
 low place, in officialdom or without it, and be- 
 lieves that most of the troubles charged to 
 the nation are directly traceable to those 
 characteristics in individuals. 
 
 It is a tremendous responsibility for any 
 human being to say to another that that other 
 is morally wrong. This implies a right of 
 final judgment on morals which is not only 
 unauthorized, but presumptuous in the last 
 degree. For one person to say that the con- 
 clusions of another are erroneous because de- 
 ductions are not logically drawn, or that they 
 have been drawn from false premises, or 
 that some essential element has been left out 
 of the problem, all these are proper forms 
 of discussion and tend to lead to a common 
 judgment. Believing this, the author cannot 
 consistently, and would not voluntarily at-
 
 THE REASON FOR THIS BOOK 7 
 
 tempt to state that anyone else is morally 
 wrong on any subject. He is willing to state 
 that anyone is morally wrong, however, who 
 believes that all who differ with him are 
 morally wrong. The assertion of the pos- 
 session of virtue does not prove it, nor does 
 the charge of immorality in another prove 
 itself without evidence. Logic is a valuable 
 and desirable process for the mind, but when 
 human life is reduced to logic and the ele- 
 ment of human nature, human frailties, hu- 
 man sentiments are eliminated, the conclu- 
 sion is apt to be as useless to the person who 
 draws it as to the person upon whom it is 
 sought to be imposed. A syllogism can never 
 take the place of a human heart beat. There 
 is, therefore, no use in discussing human 
 actions, real or desired, if from the discus- 
 sion there are eliminated the actual, normal, 
 everyday characteristics of life which govern 
 men in their relationship to each other. It 
 may be that many motives of men are not 
 what they should be. It may well be that 
 men have different standards morally and in- 
 tellectually. Living, however, with the guid- 
 ance and restriction of law, that man is the 
 best aid to the community who keeps his ear 
 close to the human heart, counts its beats, 
 lives within the knowledge of human frailties,
 
 8 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 appreciates them, and endeavors to alleviate 
 them by personal conduct as well as by di- 
 dactic methods. 
 
 It would not have been inconsistent to have 
 entitled this small volume " Political Psy- 
 chology. " It is not the purpose of the writer 
 to indulge in didactics or polemics, but merely 
 to describe things as they are in a particular 
 field of activity, and by that description 
 arouse a different attitude of mind, so that 
 more normal conclusions may be reached. 
 
 It is a waste of time to enact laws to gov- 
 ern the conduct of men if these laws are 
 based on the assumption that the men to be 
 affected are what they ought to be rather 
 than what they are. The wisest plan is to 
 study human nature as it exists, to endeavor 
 to uplift it, to legislate for actual conditions, 
 and not to put upon the statute books any 
 law which does not reflect the real consensus 
 of public opinion. Any other course results 
 only in the exploitation of the advocates of 
 the measure and, later, in its infraction, 
 which harms the public. 
 
 During the mediaeval ages and the period 
 following the Reformation thousands of per- 
 sons were put to death because charged with 
 practicing magic and witchcraft. It was held 
 that anyone who indulged in such practices
 
 THE REASON FOR THIS BOOK 9 
 
 violated the law of God and man. A belief 
 in witchcraft and magic was prevalent in the 
 public mind. Prosecution did not diminish 
 the alleged practice nor lessen the belief. 
 Putting to death merely accentuated the 
 whole situation. The thundering of the pul- 
 pit, Catholic and Protestant, and the com- 
 bined efforts of civil authorities were im- 
 potent to prevent these practices. They only 
 ceased when a few wise men stated flatfoot- 
 edly that there was no such thing as prac- 
 ticing magic or witchcraft, because there was 
 no such thing as magic or witchcraft. And 
 then it was all over. It was thus discovered 
 that the mistake was in prosecuting men who 
 were acting under a misconception, and in 
 admitting that they did that which as a mat- 
 ter of fact they could not do, and then punish- 
 ing them for it. Some of the tendencies in 
 modern legislation bear a strong resemblance 
 to mediaeval methods. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States has 
 been interpreted down to a comma, as have 
 the constitutions of all the states. Our 
 theory of government has been analyzed, dis- 
 sected, and offered to the public as a political 
 clinic. The realms of rhetoric and logic have 
 been invaded and their choicest products of- 
 fered to the general public quite as much
 
 10 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 for the purpose of the resultant applause of 
 the author as for the benefit of the public 
 itself. Leading statesmen wonder why it is 
 that other people do not all agree with them, 
 and have felt sorrow for the other people be- 
 cause they did not see the light. They have 
 simply overlooked one point and that the 
 only one of any value — human nature. The 
 actual fact is that the system of government 
 formed here after centuries of previous ex- 
 perience is destined to stand. 
 
 It is possible from an airship to see human 
 beings standing on the earth. It is natural 
 for the person in the airship to expect the 
 admiration of the person on the earth. But 
 if the man in the airship expects to induce 
 the man standing on terra firma to agree 
 to a certain course of conduct affecting them 
 both, it is desirable to have the airship come 
 to earth and its occupant at least indulge in 
 conversation with the other man. There is 
 little use in preaching to an uncouth person 
 without means that cleanliness is next to 
 godliness. The most practical plan is to find 
 out if such person really is without means, 
 then preach the doctrine to him, at the same 
 time giving him the price of a bath. When 
 a person is suffering the pangs of hunger 
 it is better to give him food than to describe
 
 THE REASON FOR THIS BOOK 11 
 
 the troubles consequent upon indigestion. It 
 is absolutely devastating to human reason to 
 preach the doctrine of prohibition when the 
 preacher's breath is redolent with the odor 
 of whiskey. 
 
 Political aphorisms minus conduct are 
 merely intellectual exercise. To do the 
 best one can and then advise others to 
 do the best they can is consistent, logical, 
 human. It apparently seems necessary for 
 those in high authority to declare continu- 
 ously what is right and what is wrong in 
 political conduct. There is no objection to 
 this if it is for the purpose only of forcing 
 people to think upon these topics. When, 
 however, it is assumed that an oath of office 
 is the line of demarcation between intelli- 
 gence and ignorance, political righteousness 
 and political unrighteousness, such an as- 
 sumption is pathetic. If the condition of en- 
 listment in the service of the State is that 
 the enlisted man shall always wear the pa- 
 rade uniform of an officer and be within the 
 hearing of the band and be the first and only 
 recipient of applause, the value of such en- 
 listment to the State is not worth the paper 
 on which the application is made. 
 
 The hope of these pages is to dispel some 
 silly ideas of general acceptance, the discus-
 
 12 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 sion of which has been fruitful only in rhe- 
 torical results. It is better far to lead a life 
 of virtue and influence without public dis- 
 covery than to be unexpectedly discovered 
 and be continuously nervous lest the pub- 
 lic learn of conscious defects. It is better 
 for a man to be what he claims to be 
 than to have people think he is what he is 
 not. 
 
 Under actual political conditions to-day 
 there is a wide abyss between the knowledge 
 of facts possessed by the occupant of public 
 office and by the unofficial citizen. The visible 
 standards of consistency of the public official 
 who claims to be a teacher cannot be accu- 
 rately judged by the average man. While 
 charges of inconsistency, maladministration 
 and graft are occupying public attention, it 
 may be pertinent to remark that the political 
 crime of the present decade is not larceny 
 but hypocrisy. 
 
 This intendedly modest volume frankly ad- 
 mits the continuing force of the Ten Com- 
 mandments, and that the Constitution of the 
 United States and of each separate state di- 
 vides the government into three parts, execu- 
 tive, legislative, and judicial. Without the 
 slightest inclination toward irreverence, it is 
 not necessary to rediscover the Ten Com-
 
 THE REASON FOR THIS BOOK 13 
 
 mandments, and it is safe to assume by this 
 time that people generally are sufficiently in- 
 formed of the fact that there are three ele- 
 mental parts to our system of government.
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION
 
 II 
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 
 
 The life of the nation is not in peril of 
 immediate dissolution. 
 
 Its political and moral health is liable at 
 all times to be exposed to the contagion of 
 corruption, evils in legislation, civic indif- 
 ference, financial panic, contentions of self- 
 ish interests, unnecessary strife between 
 labor and capital, revolts against established 
 authority, socialistic upheavals, and tempo- 
 rary relaxations of strict standards of morals 
 in political and social life. Whatever may 
 be the cause, and whether chargeable to in- 
 herent defects in our theory of government, 
 many of these conditions have afflicted the 
 body politic within recent memory. Doubt- 
 less none of these is entirely due to any 
 one particular cause. They are a result 
 of a variety of causes, and each student 
 of affairs is apt to ascribe these condi- 
 tions to that particular cause nearest to 
 his individual experience. Without refer- 
 ence to any specific question at issue, one 
 
 17
 
 18 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 reason rests in the fact of the great difficulty, 
 if not impossibility, of having all the people 
 of the entire country think upon the same 
 subject at the same time. The geographical 
 extent of the country permits of the widest 
 difference in physical and climatic conditions. 
 This necessarily causes equally great differ- 
 ences socially and commercially. In Europe 
 there are contiguous nations, with differences 
 in language and habits, which present types 
 no more strongly differentiated than those to 
 be found in the various states of the United 
 States. In the states where these differ- 
 ences appear, legislation is passed which 
 meets the requirements of those particular 
 localities. For instance, in a mining state 
 in the West there is an entirely different 
 plan of legislation from that which prevails 
 in a manufacturing Eastern state. These 
 local laws tend to create different political 
 conditions. 
 
 The number of Federal questions of 
 recent years have been reasonably limited 
 and confined to the tariff, finance, inter- 
 nal improvements, foreign relations, and 
 such typical topics. The expansion of busi- 
 ness, by its increasing size forced into 
 the form of corporations and extending 
 from each state into almost every other
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 19 
 
 state, has emphasized the necessity for exer- 
 cising Federal authority under the Constitu- 
 tion in the matter of inter-state commerce. 
 That authority was always in the Constitu- 
 tion, but the great necessity for its exercise 
 has been of recent years. Commercial de- 
 velopment has affected social conditions; 
 large fortunes have accentuated social differ- 
 ences. So many new situations in life have 
 been established through the development of 
 the country that there is a continuous cry for 
 legislation to straighten out inequalities. 
 Many of these inequalities would straighten 
 themselves out if left to the evolution of ex- 
 perience. Others are frequently of a tempo- 
 rary nature and would pass away of them- 
 selves in the course of time. State legis- 
 latures are overworked and the demand for 
 law has spread to the national capital. The 
 conditions described above resulting from 
 the neglect of the plainest laws of political 
 hygiene are no more astonishing than the 
 result of ill-health consequent upon a viola- 
 tion of the plainest rules for the care of 
 the human body. The analogy is not exact, 
 but serves the purpose of illustration. The 
 results, in a measure, are the same, because 
 there is always the civic doctor with quack 
 medicines guaranteeing an immediate cure,
 
 20 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 as there is the physician who can remedy a 
 bodily ill by a patent nostrum with which his 
 own name is intimately associated. Pneu- 
 monia was a disease much more to be dreaded 
 in years past, before the advance of science, 
 than it is now, when, if treated in time, it 
 can by medical skill be freed from fatal re- 
 sults. The advance of science, however, does 
 not justify carelessness in habits nor war- 
 rant exposure. The prosaic and somewhat 
 uncomfortable and old-fashioned habit of 
 wearing rubbers to prevent catching cold, 
 while annoying, may prevent the necessity of 
 recourse to advanced science and save life 
 without the expense of professional care. In 
 legislation less exposure and more care would 
 accomplish the same result. It takes but 
 casual observation to discover from the pub- 
 lic prints, the platform declarations of politi- 
 cal parties and the opinions of political lead- 
 ers that the nation, or a state, as the case 
 may be, is in greatest danger during and 
 immediately preceding a political campaign. 
 A well-organized imagination, supplementing 
 facts and working overtime, causes its pos- 
 sessor to see not only many things that are, 
 but more that are not. During the time of 
 warmest discussion at the periods mentioned 
 the Republic is usually hung over the brink
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 21 
 
 of the abyss of despair. The candidate, with 
 his accompanying galaxy of political orators, 
 is absolutely positive that the only way to 
 prevent the nation from falling into the abyss 
 is to permit his party, led by himself, to 
 retain or be given a firm hold, so that he 
 can draw it back and place it in a position 
 of safety upon the banks of the Constitution. 
 Such is the essence of the opposition argu- 
 ment. There is added to this the charge that 
 the administration party since the last cam- 
 paign has dealt foul blows to the Constitu- 
 tion, and that that sacred institution is in 
 the throes of agony. The administration ar- 
 gument differs in shade and not in color. It 
 announces with equal positiveness that, hav- 
 ing conducted the government during a period 
 of time without unsuccessful foreign war or 
 prolonged domestic disturbances it is better 
 qualified than the opposition to continue its 
 administration by virtue of exclusive intelli- 
 gence and practical experience. Somewhere 
 between these extremes is a region of com- 
 mon sense. In any event, it is a matter of 
 unchanging observation that the nation is al- 
 ways saved at the conclusion of a national 
 campaign. 
 
 What the contending parties really mean 
 is, that they view the questions at issue as
 
 22 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 very serious, and an intense form of expres- 
 sion is used to fix the attention of the voters. 
 There is some excuse for this method of pro- 
 cedure, because only once in four years is 
 the entire country engaged in discussing na- 
 tional questions nationally. During the in- 
 tervening time it discusses national questions 
 in the light of their effect on particular locali- 
 ties. It is impossible to overestimate the 
 value to the nation of a presidential cam- 
 paign. The fact that it somewhat tempo- 
 rarily interferes with speculative business 
 and causes doubt as to the policy of the next 
 administration weighs not at all in the scale 
 against education. 
 
 There is not the slightest excuse for being 
 pessimistic about American government. 
 There is every reason at all times to be solici- 
 tous, interested, and desirous to improve 
 existing conditions. The real safety of the 
 Republic is in that calm judgment by plain- 
 minded men, who, after hearing and reading 
 the speakers and writers on both sides, form 
 their conclusions in accordance with what 
 they feel is best. Error in judgment on the 
 part of a voter is more apt to occur when the 
 only attention he gives to public events is 
 during the heated time between nominations 
 and elections.
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 23 
 
 These suggestions are not intended to fur- 
 nish the slightest excuse for pessimism. No 
 one should be a pessimist who can read, 
 write, and remember. The intellect incapable 
 of appreciating that men and governments 
 are better than they were, and are becoming 
 better daily, is suffering from the vanity of 
 introspection. 
 
 On the other hand, optimism unaccom- 
 panied by personal effort, is merely a state 
 of mind and not fruitful. 
 
 American citizenship rises to its greatest 
 height during war or threats of war. The 
 nation is then civically at its best. This may 
 be accepted as a fact already demonstrated. 
 It stands in great contrast to the indifference 
 of many citizens to the country's welfare in 
 time of peace. It would be a rare condition 
 which would enable the President and Con- 
 gress to lead the American people into a war 
 of aggression and conquest. Up to a certain 
 point the people might follow, and then the 
 policy of the administration, except in the 
 case of a national insult that even a child 
 would resent, would be reversed at the polls. 
 On the defensive the nation would go to any 
 point of sacrifice. It does not follow that, 
 as a matter of common sense, we should not 
 be prepared for war, but we should not com-
 
 24 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 pete as a matter of pride in army and navy 
 equipment with other nations between which 
 conditions are entirely different than they 
 are relative to us or we to them. 
 
 The most threatening danger to the stabil- 
 ity of the Eepublic is from within, in times 
 of peace, and predicated on its vast popula- 
 tion and varied interests, distracting atten- 
 tion from government and making united 
 action difficult. The fundamental force and 
 cohesive strength of our constitutions and 
 laws, powerful as they may be, are not more 
 powerful than a common sentiment running 
 through the entire body politic. As the na- 
 tion increases in population and with the in- 
 tense occupation of people with their own 
 affairs, and the lack of opportunity for asso- 
 ciation one with another, cohesion in senti- 
 ment will be increasingly difficult. The prob- 
 lem will still be to get all the people to think 
 about the same subject at the same time. 
 That statesman is the greatest who can effect 
 this. His further greatness will be demon- 
 strated by allowing the people to come to 
 their own conclusions without insisting that 
 he be followed in some exclusive line of rea- 
 soning. If in addition to arousing the public 
 mind to thought upon any particular subject 
 he draws the conclusion that his view is the
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 25 
 
 only view in which safety lies, this makes 
 two divisions of the public mind; one his own, 
 and the other all the rest together. The ma- 
 jority would be entitled to rule. It some- 
 times happens that one man knows more than 
 two or three men know; it has frequently 
 happened that a single man was wiser than 
 a score or a hundred men. It has never yet 
 happened that any one man knew more than 
 all the rest put together. Therefore, if any 
 statesman assumes that he is infallibly right 
 and all the rest entirely wrong, it forces the 
 conclusion that the average intelligence of 
 the rest is at lowest ebb. 
 
 Instead of being solicitous as to the sta- 
 bility of the government, the average citizen 
 takes that stability for granted, if one can 
 judge from the fact that such citizen par- 
 ticipates so little in any of its functions. It 
 is frequently charged that the American peo- 
 ple are ephemeral, emotional, and spasmodic. 
 This may be true in our dealings with each 
 other, but not in our dealings with other 
 nations. In the latter case judgment is more 
 deliberate and sounder. In any case it must 
 be considered sound politically if it repre- 
 sents the expressed will of an actual majority 
 of those who have a right to express a politi- 
 cal opinion.
 
 26 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 In the time preceding the Spanish War the 
 imminence of that contest was appreciated by 
 a small fraction of the American people. Had 
 the majority of the citizens of the United 
 States appreciated the absolute unprepared- 
 ness of their own government for any kind 
 of a conflict with another nation, even with 
 one of the limited fighting force of Spain, 
 their indignation would have turned from 
 Spain against their own administration. 
 They would have been unmindful of the fact 
 that their own indifference to great questions 
 had left the government in that very condi- 
 tion of unpreparedness. 
 
 After war was declared interest was 
 aroused gradually, although it was only in- 
 tense along the coast frontage. In New York 
 City, in places of amusement the entertain- 
 ment was opened by the orchestra playing 
 ' ' America, ' ' the audience standing ; and later 
 the audience was dismissed to the strains of 
 the " Star Spangled Banner." Within a 
 week after the close of the war, ragtime was 
 substituted for the national airs and the war 
 was forgotten except in the public prints and 
 in the halls of the national legislature. On 
 the return of the victorious American sailors 
 to the port of New York, they were without 
 ceremony given freedom of the city and vol-
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 27 
 
 untary entertainment furnished them. In 
 many instances they were not allowed even 
 to pay for food and libation, and yet within 
 a month of that time the writer overheard 
 two sailors who had apparently overstayed 
 their shore leave, ask a person on Broadway 
 the direction of the Battery so that they could 
 get to Staten Island and reach their vessels, 
 and they were told to go north. They were 
 intentionally misdirected. 
 
 In a way, agitation, discussion, differences 
 of opinion, different views of national poli- 
 cies, state administration and city govern- 
 ments, are the life of the Republic. When 
 those are conducted along the lines of com- 
 mon sense and calm judgment, they are 
 healthful and advantageous. When they are 
 instigated for the purpose of individual ex- 
 ploitation and party advancement, and adver- 
 tisement consequent upon publicity, they 
 mark hypocrisy, they indicate the reign of 
 individualism against the welfare of the 
 nation, and, like an epidemic, cause unnec- 
 essary harm and an undesirable strain on the 
 nerves and the body of the government. 
 
 There is a difference between agitation and 
 discussion as great as the difference between 
 day and night. While the nation may suffer 
 in times of panic and financial distress, poor
 
 28 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 crops and unwise legislation, it may also suf- 
 fer from times of too great plenty, from 
 times of over-development, resulting in for- 
 getfulness of the fact that each man owes 
 a duty to all the rest and that the concen- 
 trated and exclusive pursuit of individual en- 
 terprise, regardless of community of interest, 
 is harmful to a marked degree. 
 
 That the Constitution of the United States 
 was a divinely appointed instrument no 
 thoughtful man will deny. It has always 
 seemed to the writer, however, that the spe- 
 cial manifestation of Providence surrounding 
 that instrument was in bringing the people 
 by the evolution of experience through trial 
 and bloodshed to that particular moment 
 where it furnished an attitude of mind which 
 made it possible for the founders of the gov- 
 ernment to draft that instrument along 
 broad lines of general conduct, so general 
 that they express in a way the progress 
 of the human race up to that time and 
 prescribe the limitations within which men 
 could best live and act. It is a comment 
 on the frailty of human nature, however, 
 that after the instrument was adopted by 
 the various states, the selection of the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia as the seat of the national 
 capital was arrived at by a compromise,
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 29 
 
 which alone secured votes necessary for the 
 adoption of Hamilton's financial plans re- 
 garding the national indebtedness. 
 
 There was no period prior to the time of 
 the drafting of the Constitution, or has there 
 been at any time since, when that Constitu- 
 tion could have been adopted had it been 
 deferred until the states, or rather the colo- 
 nies, had progressed a few years until they 
 occupied the relative positions of commercial 
 and other supremacy that they do now. The 
 petty egotism of individuals would have pre- 
 vented agreement on the broad principles 
 adopted and the Constitution would then have 
 been a mere adjustment and compromise 
 along lines of relative importance. 
 
 If our Constitution had grown out of the 
 single conflict of the Revolution, it would 
 never have lasted, nor would there be the 
 present union of states that there is. The 
 fact is that that contest was the final step 
 in an evolution of human experience that had 
 progressed through hundreds of years. 
 There is nothing new in saying this, and it 
 is not suggested for the purpose of adding 
 to historical deduction. 
 
 The ability of man to govern himself, the 
 principles of political democracy, of a re- 
 publican form of government, can be ac-
 
 30 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 cepted as a fact. What particular form and 
 variation we may make, what temporary 
 modification, what occasional retarding of 
 progress there may be, are merely elements 
 that emphasize existing conditions and force 
 the conclusion that the best asset of the coun- 
 try, outside of its laws, if not quite equal to 
 them, is a continually observing public, keen 
 to its own frailties, appreciative of its obliga- 
 tions, and with the consciousness that no 
 single man has done his full duty until he 
 has done everything he can. 
 
 It is not sufficient for a man to say that 
 he is mathematically but a certain portion 
 of the United States and therefore not called 
 upon for a degree of service beyond his 
 mathematical share. This reduces him at 
 once to an algebraic "X." In the practical 
 problems of American life it would not be 
 flattering for the real value of X to be dis- 
 covered. 
 
 Legally, all forms of government in the 
 United States are corporate. The Federal 
 government is a corporation. So is that of 
 the states, and so is that of the cities. Po- 
 tentially, our political and social life is a 
 partnership, in which each man has a share 
 in its assets, and is liable in a measure for 
 all its obligations. Political misconduct in
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 31 
 
 Portland, Maine, affects civic conditions in 
 Portland, Oregon, or vice versa. A good 
 administration and alertness to civic obliga- 
 tions evidenced in either one of those cities, 
 for instance, helps the other; because, after 
 all, under our form of government, it is the 
 average of life that makes actual conditions. 
 With full respect for the well-worn and 
 superlative adjectives and overworked rhe- 
 toric typical of our Fourth of July, there have 
 been nations greater than the United States, 
 because greatness is a matter of proportion 
 and relationship. Viewed from this stand- 
 point, we have been excelled in fighting 
 strength, in commercial greatness, in institu- 
 tional government, in arts and sciences. In 
 the possibilities of individual development, 
 the opportunity for each one to better him- 
 self, in the variety of activities available to 
 those who are seeking to advantage them- 
 selves, in the multitude of conditions created 
 by our mode of life, there has never been, and 
 probably never will be, a scheme of govern- 
 ment furnishing opportunities for individu- 
 ality and self-betterment as marked as that 
 under which we live. This is an element of 
 strength and an element of weakness. The 
 accumulated momentum of success, with the 
 potential advantage of specific opportunities
 
 32 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 — education, mental and financial endowment 
 — makes the race sometimes seem unequal. It 
 is unfair, however, to make the comparison 
 between the person of greatest opportunity 
 and the one of least, when the proper test is 
 between those of relatively the same imme- 
 diate social and moral environment. We 
 must not charge government with the respon- 
 sibility for innate differences between men. 
 With the marvelous mixture of social and 
 racial conditions in this country, the real 
 problem is to create a mode of life by wise 
 legislation, which shall restrict the vicious, 
 protect the weak, but make everyone un- 
 derstand that his preferment depends pri- 
 marily and finally upon his individual ef- 
 fort. The greater the opportunity, the greater 
 the talent, the greater the obligation, po- 
 litical as well as moral, from the more for- 
 tunate to the less fortunate. It is not a 
 question of political importance at all what 
 fortune an individual has succeeded in 
 gaining. It is a matter of vital importance 
 whether in gaining it he violated a legal or 
 moral right of another. It is the height of 
 silliness to say wisdom will not accomplish 
 more than ignorance. It is absurd to argue 
 that the momentum of progress established 
 by judgment, good habits and persistent, con-
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 33 
 
 centrated effort shall halt and mark time 
 until the less fortunate catches up. It is 
 anarchy to decry possession without demon- 
 strating that it was wrongfully obtained. 
 It is hypocrisy and a moral crime to cater 
 to ignorance and to destroy reasonably happy 
 lives by persuading fairly contented minds 
 that they should have what they never could 
 have in the ordinary course of events, and 
 that their lack of possession due to either a 
 lack of effort or lack of talent is the result 
 of a conspiracy framed by others. 
 
 Physical and social conditions vary so 
 greatly through the nation that it is difficult, 
 and naturally difficult, to have legislation 
 that meets the average of human needs. It 
 is a perfectly sound proposition to say that 
 the government should not furnish special 
 privileges to any class. It is as clear as the 
 multiplication table that the law should not 
 give to any one man what it does not give 
 to another. It is equally clear that those 
 laws, however, are passed by men elected by 
 other men with all human weaknesses, com- 
 ing from different parts of the country, with 
 different ambitions, and moved by the in- 
 centive of competition. Who, then, has the 
 right finally to say what is special privilege? 
 Each of the great parties, for instance, has
 
 34 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 been accustomed for years in its national 
 platform to decry special privilege and to 
 charge its opponents with being the insti- 
 gators of such awful practices. It is fiercely 
 alleged that these parties grant these privi- 
 leges to their own members, and that as a 
 result of some secret understanding or im- 
 proper inducement. The actual fact is that 
 the special privileges sought from govern- 
 ment and frequently obtained do not have 
 their inception in a political doctrine, but in 
 the desire of men or corporations, who, so 
 far as this particular privilege is concerned, 
 recognize no political differences of opinion 
 beyond that of self-interest. This is clearly 
 shown by the fact that boards of directors 
 of corporations which are supposed to be 
 enjoying special privileges are composed of 
 men of different political beliefs, and stock 
 control owned regardless of party affiliation. 
 This is not a new discovery, but merely 
 shows how far some popular ideas are from 
 the facts. In the final analysis the question of 
 party politics has as little to do with it as the 
 number of stars in the Milky Way has to do 
 with the price of milk. The desire to accumu- 
 late wealth will always exist. The method of 
 procuring it by means of government aid will 
 always depend upon the degree of political
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 35 
 
 obligation which the seeker of such assist- 
 ance recognizes toward the state or nation. 
 
 Personality will always outweigh its oppo- 
 site; capacity will always outstrip incapa- 
 city; intelligence will outweigh ignorance. 
 The mind operates nowise differently in po- 
 litical circles than in commercial circles when 
 the question at issue is solely self-interest. 
 
 When a group of men with a desire to 
 benefit themselves decide in some conference 
 that they are going to seek privilege, 
 either Federal, state or municipal, they agree 
 upon a plan to have that privilege granted. 
 Those of the particular group who happen 
 to be best acquainted and nearest in touch 
 with the party which is in power in the par- 
 ticular jurisdiction are the ones who take the 
 initiative and ask for that privilege under a 
 general argument for the benefit of every- 
 body, and insist on it by virtue of their asso- 
 ciation with the party in power. The same 
 group, asking the same privilege from an- 
 other state, will use different men from their 
 own number to go to the front and ask the 
 passage of an act, and so they ask for it by 
 virtue of their service and association with 
 the opposite party. There is nothing star- 
 tling or abnormal about this. It does not 
 represent any giant conspiracy against the
 
 36 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 Republic or the state. It represents people 
 trying to provide the means of accumulation 
 more rapidly than they otherwise would be 
 acquired, and forgetting the fact that they 
 owe a moral and civic duty to every other 
 portion of the community, which is violated 
 if that particular privilege interferes with 
 the fundamental rights of somebody else. 
 
 The only remedy is the continual prepared- 
 ness of everyone to insist on all his legal 
 rights and his alertness to discover at once 
 a threatened danger and prevent it, whether 
 by discussion through the ordinary chan- 
 nels of publicity, or by direct appeals to mem- 
 bers of the legislative body and the executive 
 intrusted with the power of veto. 
 
 The practical difficulty is that the men who 
 seek the privilege are organized and have ac- 
 quired headway in the race, as a rule, before 
 their activities become a matter of public 
 notice. This situation is the direct result 
 of our institutions. It is a source of weak- 
 ness and it is a source of strength, and will 
 never be adjusted to a final absolute standard 
 of exact justice as long as human beings 
 are the instruments which other human be- 
 ings must use to accomplish their desires. 
 It is a question of standards. It is a problem 
 that can be and will be solved with relative
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 37 
 
 success if it is looked at in a common sense 
 way and conditions are recognized as they 
 are. 
 
 It frequently happens that one group 
 or class of citizens is entirely willing 
 that another group should have a privi- 
 lege undisturbed if they can have their 
 own undisturbed, and in that case legis- 
 lation becomes a mere matter of squaring of 
 interests and trading of benefit for benefit. 
 This, too, will continue to a greater or less 
 extent until the moment of final translation, 
 and certainly as long as it is expected that 
 human conduct can be finally regulated and 
 standardized by statute, apart from the spirit 
 and practice of moral and political responsi- 
 bility between men. 
 
 Government is a thing to live under, not 
 on. It is a mere excuse by virtue of which 
 by putting certain conditions on paper we 
 state that there are certain things that men 
 shall do, and certain other things that they 
 shall not do in their relationship towards 
 each other. The more general the proposi- 
 tion, the more advantageous. The more spe- 
 cific it is, the more liability there is that harm 
 will result. 
 
 There is much truth in the declaration that 
 the country is going through a spasm of 
 
 432257
 
 38 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 over-production in law. The fact that many 
 laws passed as a remedy fail in large measure 
 in their purpose is due to the initial fact 
 that the community, as a community, is not 
 sufficiently apprised of the evil which it is 
 sought to remedy, and that they are forced 
 into the lawbooks under the pressure of a 
 temporary emergency which may of itself 
 never recur. 
 
 With the desirability of having a law repre- 
 sent the active mentality and morality of the 
 large majority of the citizens, and the diffi- 
 culty of effecting that result by virtue of 
 the fact that many are too engrossed to have 
 either the time or understanding to grasp 
 a particular problem, men are accustomed 
 to rely on the personality of individuals who 
 are advocating or opposing particular plans 
 for remedial legislation. One effect of this 
 has been that in the past few years, with a 
 tendency to hero worship at the same time, 
 people have been more inclined to follow this 
 or that individual than to advocate or oppose 
 this or that measure. 
 
 Legislation has frequently become a means 
 of attracting attention to the individual who 
 proposed it, and applause has been given or 
 withheld from him as an individual in his 
 admitted struggle, more frequently than
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 39 
 
 energy has been given to grasp the mer- 
 its of a particular measure under discus- 
 sion. 
 
 It is only common sense to say, therefore, 
 that many men, with the stimulus of applause, 
 and with the pleasure of being in the public 
 eye, from time to time advocate measures and 
 carry them through as a means of contest 
 and self-exploitation. This is not strange, 
 abnormal, or monstrous. It is merely an 
 evidence of one weakness of mankind. It 
 is not remarkable that any man prominent 
 in affairs, whether in official life or 
 otherwise, should come to feel in the heat 
 of contest that his thought should be another 
 man's conviction. When such a person ar- 
 rives at such a state of mind he unconsciously, 
 and it may be beyond all intention, creates 
 conditions and effects results that do not al- 
 ways prove of lasting benefit, because the 
 problem has come to be a personal one, rather 
 than a general one. 
 
 From the original theory of opportunities 
 for individual advancement in this country 
 and the difficulty of conveying an idea to the 
 popular mind, and the fact that it is easier 
 to discuss a man than a measure, the 
 personal equation has been accentuated to 
 a point far beyond the conception of the
 
 40 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 Fathers. Even this is not a final danger, nor 
 is it remediless. The very illustration it gives 
 of the possibilities of personal influence is an 
 invitation to others to enter the contest and 
 to dedicate themselves to the service of their 
 fellow-man, even though without invitation 
 from that fellow-man, and oftentimes without 
 his desiring it. There is no element, human 
 or otherwise, which cannot be properly used 
 and beneficially, that if ill used may not be- 
 come harmful in the extreme. Heat is essen- 
 tial to life; its wrong application destroys 
 life. 
 
 Theoretically, the people as a whole take 
 the initiative in all public matters. Practi- 
 cally, the initiative is taken by individuals 
 or small groups, and the general public then 
 appealed to for approval. The proposed 
 action may redound to public advantage. It 
 may be to the advantage only of the indi- 
 vidual. It sometimes happens that it is of 
 advantage to all concerned. 
 
 The responsibility in all matters affecting 
 the public interest rests primarily upon in- 
 dividuals who have the best opportunities of 
 ascertaining facts and who are in a position 
 to exercise great influence. This responsi- 
 bility can neither be dodged, avoided, or 
 explained away. Whether it is inherently
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION -41 
 
 selfish, or only relatively so, depends upon 
 circumstances. 
 
 The man who does not vote is not en- 
 titled to an opinion on affairs which he might 
 have affected had he voted. The man who 
 has never made an effort to correct a con- 
 dition is entitled to no grievance on account 
 of the position in which he finds himself. 
 The anomalous condition in American politi- 
 cal life is that human beings expect results 
 more than human from the human instru- 
 ments they are compelled to employ. It is 
 not possible for an individual to familiarize 
 himself, for instance, with every bill pending 
 before a legislature and inform his represent- 
 ative as to his desires regarding it. There 
 would be no time for him to do that and pur- 
 sue his ordinary vocation. He can, however, 
 keep track of many matters, and by express- 
 ing his opinion to his official representative, 
 or even by conversation with neighbors, 
 create a sentiment which would make his 
 representative hesitate before taking a final 
 position without knowing that he did repre- 
 sent the average of his constituents. 
 
 The nation is not in need of great geniuses, 
 whose activities shall be accepted as final for 
 the multitude, although even geniuses have 
 their use. They have the ability to suggest
 
 42 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 new matters. They have creative ideas. One 
 of the difficulties pertinent to genius is that 
 it has so few mental associates that it is apt 
 to look upon the rest of the race as in- 
 ferior. Some great musicians have been 
 so entirely engrossed and preoccupied that 
 they have not allowed themselves time to ob- 
 serve many of the conventions of life, with 
 the result that their hair has grown longer 
 than the length recognized as proper in the 
 community. Sometimes persons of moderate 
 musical capacity, seeking the applause ac- 
 corded genius, imitate the length of its hair 
 in their own, in the hope that they will have 
 the same applause. So it is with the passion 
 to be in the full light of publicity. Seeing in 
 some great emergency that a particular 
 statesman has touched the popular chord and 
 has expressed himself in a popular manner, 
 they formulate some plan of action and then 
 look for the line of discussion which will put 
 them in the position before the public that 
 the more learned man occupied, regardless of 
 whether the public needs the proposed reform 
 or can appreciate the discussion. Vocifera- 
 tion does not make an orator any more than 
 long hair makes a musician. 
 
 Nothing is more humorous than to see men 
 with second-rate minds servilely following a
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 43 
 
 real leader of thought, to give the impression 
 of their own independent ratiocination. Self- 
 imposed intellectual servitude should provoke 
 laughter, not applause. Admitted intellectual 
 superiority in another, with no claim for 
 more than one has, is honest. 
 
 These comments are offered because the 
 conduct of public men often displays char- 
 acteristics from which the only deduction 
 is that no one else knows anything. It 
 is unnecessary to repeat even the aphorism 
 of Lincoln on that subject. More good is 
 accomplished by a man who is not certain 
 he is right but thinks he is and does the best 
 he can, than by a man who assumes that 
 everyone else errs and, therefore, he must 
 be right. More harm is done by discussing 
 remedies for political diseases, without per- 
 suading people to agree first that there is 
 a necessity for a remedy, than sometimes 
 comes from the disease itself. It could read- 
 ily happen that a particular kind of an as- 
 sault committed, which was not covered by 
 the Penal Code, had shocked and outraged 
 the public. It could equally readily happen 
 that persons desiring to prevent such a con- 
 dition in the future should at once enter into 
 a discussion as to the penalty. One man 
 could urge forty years as a proper punish-
 
 44 COMMON SENSE LN POLITICS 
 
 ment, another twenty. The first one could 
 say that such an outrageous crime could only 
 be properly punished by forty years of im- 
 prisonment. The other could admit this aca- 
 demically, but contend, with a degree of pun- 
 ishment so great, it would be more difficult 
 to get convictions, and that the better course 
 would be to prescribe a penalty of twenty 
 years and take away the right of pardon. 
 
 Such discussion carried on, with the gen- 
 eral public as jury, might fail of result and 
 similar assaults be invited by the failure to 
 agree upon a punishment. The tendency to 
 leave public functions to individuals has, 
 therefore, an advantageous and a disadvan- 
 tageous side. Initiative thus usually taken 
 by individuals, and left to them entirely, re- 
 sults often in the adoption of an individual 
 view, rather than a composite conviction 
 which represents the intelligent thought of 
 an appreciable number of citizens. 
 
 It is quite easy to comment upon and criti- 
 cise these particular characteristics or activi- 
 ties. It is difficult to prescribe a remedy. The 
 main purpose of this discussion is to empha- 
 size the fact that in the realm of politics, 
 as in any other, common, ordinary, everyday 
 sense should control conduct, and that people 
 do not differ any more in politics, except from
 
 THE STATE OF THE NATION 45 
 
 the effect of applause on the mind and the 
 pleasure of exercising power, than they do in 
 any other walk of life. 
 
 There is not the slightest question of the 
 ability of the American people to govern 
 themselves or to decide important questions 
 and decide them rightly; the difficulty is to 
 arrive at conclusions without the admixture 
 of partisan advocacy. It is a perfectly plain 
 tendency in life not to decide matters or 
 questions until under pressure of great 
 necessity, or within the shadow of a threat- 
 ening disaster. As a groundwork for the 
 settlement of problems there is frequently 
 stirred up an agitation so that the question 
 under discussion will take the color of na- 
 tional import and of commanding influence. 
 This does not create a wholesome condition, 
 nor result in final benefit. The fact is the 
 alleged perils may not be national at all, but 
 merely matters of local inconvenience. When 
 they do become actual perils, the people will 
 meet them bravely and wisely. 
 
 Pending the decision, the nation may suffer 
 great financial loss, and it may take much 
 time for recuperation. This is a lesser evil 
 in the long run, than premature, improperly 
 digested legislation. Different interests, not 
 national in their importance, while contend-
 
 46 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 ing with each other, may bring about con- 
 ditions which cause great temporary disad- 
 vantage resulting from that contention. It 
 is a question of reaching the golden mean of 
 common sense judgment. With the public 
 mind not alert to public questions, individuals 
 have a special opportunity of seeking their 
 own advantage. Fortunately, there is an in- 
 herent resiliency in American temper, and 
 the country is possessed of such vast wealth 
 that it has so far quite readily overcome tem- 
 porary setbacks. 
 
 There can be no final substitution of legis- 
 lation for moral responsibility.
 
 SOME AMERICANIZED TRAITS
 
 m 
 
 SOME AMERICANIZED TRAITS 
 
 The author has entire respect for the wis- 
 dom of the Fathers. He recognizes that they 
 were learned men, and feels deeply indebted 
 to them for the rights they assured to the 
 American people by the Constitution they 
 framed and the sacrifices they made in their 
 behalf. He feels indebted to their patriotism 
 and their depth of learning. He does not be- 
 lieve that their utterances must be taken as 
 a perpetual guide for all modern conditions 
 of which they could not have had knowledge 
 and which they could not even have imagined. 
 
 Intellectual life during Revolutionary days 
 differed as much from present intellectual 
 life as the rules of fractions differ from in- 
 tegral calculus. Commercial conditions were 
 as simple then, compared with conditions 
 now, as addition is compared with the bi- 
 nomial theorem. Many of the sciences were 
 in their infancy, and many which contribute 
 to-day to the luxuries and necessities of life 
 
 49
 
 50 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 were then unknown. Transportation and the 
 diffusion of knowledge have reached a point 
 never conceived by the Fathers. During 
 Washington's second administration he ex- 
 pressed confidence that the mails would some 
 day be carried from Philadelphia to New 
 York inside of twenty-four hours. He was 
 laughed at by the people and ridiculed by 
 the press for this prophecy. To-day the mail 
 is carried from Jersey City to Philadelphia 
 in ninety minutes. Had Jules Verne written 
 at the time of the Revolution his imaginings 
 would have been deemed to border on witch- 
 craft. To-day his romancing has merged 
 into realization. Trains run under rivers 
 and through the earth; men fly through the 
 air ; messages are conveyed by electricity and 
 are sent through the air without physical 
 medium. The human voice can be heard over 
 hundreds if not thousands of miles of dis- 
 tance, and whispers are easily distinguish- 
 able. Creature comforts have been multi- 
 plied, and what was a luxury a century 
 ago is now discarded as of no use what- 
 ever. 
 
 The grand result of these and a myriad 
 other circumstances is a fevered condition of 
 mind, a passion of haste, desperate competi- 
 tion and accomplishment, adverse to delibera-
 
 SOME AMERICANIZED TRAITS 51 
 
 tion, preventive of calmness of judgment, 
 and conducive to loss of perspective. Pres- 
 ent characteristics are therefore not to be 
 wondered at, but are to be accepted merely 
 as complicating many of our problems. It is 
 fair to let the Fathers rest peacefully in their 
 graves and to take the responsibility for 
 straightening out our own affairs. 
 
 In the political arena to-day there seems 
 to be going on a contest novel and fierce. 
 There are more combatants than are usually 
 seen. So many, in fact, and so great the 
 noise, that it is difficult for the spectators to 
 see, hear, and always understand what actu- 
 ally is going on. Above the general noise, 
 however, are frequently heard the words 
 " graft," " bosses," " classes," " masses," 
 " parties," " vice," " reform," and like 
 words too numerous to mention. The major 
 part of the people, to continue the simile, are 
 sitting around the arena, some keenly observ- 
 ing, some leaning forward to get a more dis- 
 tinct look or more clearly to hear what is go- 
 ing on. Many are indifferent, and those in the 
 rear rows applaud after those in the front 
 rows start it. Occasionally a defeated con- 
 testant is carried out, or a victorious com- 
 batant permits himself to be carried around 
 the ring on the shoulders of partisans whom
 
 52 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 he has summoned for that purpose, modestly 
 acknowledging that he is a victor. 
 
 What does it all mean, and why is it that 
 from pulpit, press, and platform there is such 
 excitement? It means, politically speaking, 
 that within a few years hitherto unthought 
 of questions have arisen, new opportunities 
 been created. Men have increased in num- 
 bers until particular ideas, held formerly 
 only by individuals, are now embraced 
 by a thousand times as many people 
 as formerly held them. It means that 
 there has been an awakening of the public 
 mind to conditions toward which it has here- 
 tofore remained indifferent, and that instead 
 of having one or two engage in combat for 
 the edification and entertainment of the rest, 
 the combatants have increased, and the spec- 
 tators are called upon more frequently to 
 turn down the thumb of disapproval or to 
 applaud success. Those in the arena and on 
 the spectators' benches are just as human 
 as they ever were before and have the same 
 traits of character. The difficulty of know- 
 ing exactly what is the situation is increased 
 by the dust and noise and the intensity of 
 the conflict which is accentuated by cries and 
 blows. The qualities of mind and heart which 
 make for honesty are the same now as they
 
 SOME AMERICANIZED TRAITS 53 
 
 were a hundred years ago. The same motives 
 and lack of morals, which made for dishon- 
 esty, are no different than they were a cen- 
 tury since. The complications of life, social, 
 commercial and political, simply furnish more 
 opportunities for the disregard of the one 
 or the practice of the other. To understand 
 the requirements of the multitude is to first 
 understand the disposition of the individual. 
 We are primarily discussing the common 
 sense of political life which appears under 
 our particular form of government, where 
 everything is magnified unduly by the pub- 
 licity given to political affairs, and the effect 
 on the mind resulting from political power 
 and publicity. A man need not become en- 
 tirely metamorphosed because he is part of 
 a political movement. It does seem, how- 
 ever, that he sometimes loses his perspective 
 and the coloring of the picture is so 
 changed that relationships assume entirely 
 different forms from those intended. If men's 
 motives could always be accurately judged 
 by their conduct, the problem of government 
 would be much easier of solution. The 
 spoken word, unfortunately, does not always 
 proclaim the real purpose, nor does the overt 
 act always indicate consistency in conduct. 
 To ascertain just what are the facts of the
 
 54 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 problem, just what conditions must be met 
 and changed for the common good, is as diffi- 
 cult as the discovery of the proper remedy. 
 Nevertheless, men in relatively the same 
 sphere of life do not differ so much from 
 each other as they sometimes think. If men 
 actually knew what their neighbors thought 
 of them there would be many a rude awaken- 
 ing. If neighbors actually told what they 
 thought of one another, they would cease to 
 be neighbors. If men could persuade their 
 business associates to believe them as great 
 as they persuade their families they are, they 
 would hardly be recognized in business 
 circles. 
 
 Only in the arena of politics is vitu- 
 peration in this country carried to its 
 greatest extent. There people seem to en- 
 deavor to prove their own virtue by decrying 
 that of others. During campaigns things are 
 said and done which at any other time would 
 seem absolutely monstrous. And yet, in a 
 measure, it is not without public benefit that 
 opinions which are restrained during the rest 
 of the year are expressed, and the mind is 
 relieved to that extent. Nothing is so fatal 
 to mental tranquillity as an unexpressed 
 opinion. This does not mean that vitupera- 
 tion can wisely be carried on for the benefit
 
 SOME AMERICANIZED TRAITS 55 
 
 of an individual or a community without 
 limit during campaigns or during the heat 
 of political discussion at any other time. It 
 does mean, however, that any man or party 
 which expects to lead and influence public 
 opinion and conduct the administration of 
 affairs must expect to be criticised and com- 
 mented upon by that very same public which 
 such party or individual expects to lead. 
 Politics are a desperately personal proposi- 
 tion. 
 
 It ought not to be, but it is a fact that a 
 personality is more interesting than a propo- 
 sition of conduct, and men will discuss an 
 individual when they will not take the trouble 
 carefully to discuss what that individual 
 claims he stands for. So it is that the ques- 
 tion is frequently asked, " Do you agree with 
 the President or differ from him? " " Do 
 you agree with the Governor or differ from 
 him? " and men become friends or enemies 
 of public officials without considering the 
 principle advocated. It is not a question 
 whether we agree with a President or a Gov- 
 ernor. The proposition is whether that Presi- 
 dent or Governor is endeavoring to carry 
 out policies with which the citizens agree or 
 disagree, and not whether, as an individual, 
 he should be given the meed of praise for
 
 56 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 a conflict carried on against some of the very- 
 people whom he is expected to represent. 
 The rewards of public approval are so flat- 
 tering, and the homage paid to success so 
 exhilarating to the mind, that the individual 
 frequently considers himself a principle. His 
 followers, therefore, divide the public be- 
 tween friends and enemies of a President, 
 Governor, or Mayor. 
 
 In the City of New York some years since 
 it was a part of the platform of one of the 
 parties that candidates for the Assembly 
 were pledged to carry out all the policies of 
 the Governor then in office. It seemed not 
 to occur to anyone that the men so elected 
 were to take an oath before entering upon 
 their office to obey the laws of the nation and 
 state, and to perform their legislative func- 
 tions according to their oath and their con- 
 science. It is quite possible that they might 
 have differed from the executive of the state 
 as a matter of principle and without any 
 moral turpitude. Yet in conversation and 
 in the public prints, in the pulpit and upon 
 the platform, members of the legislature who 
 acted according to their convictions were de- 
 nounced as traitors to the public good and 
 without moral standard. 
 
 At the national Capitol the situation is
 
 SOME AMERICANIZED TRAITS 57 
 
 the same. If the press, individuals or cir- 
 cumstances have given rise to public dis- 
 cussion of a particular question, and the dis- 
 cussion hinges around the passage or non- 
 passage of a proposed act of legislation, the 
 measure seeming reasonably popular whether 
 wise or not, and Congress does not act at 
 once, regardless of many other duties, the 
 President is called upon to force it to vote 
 favorably upon that bill. 
 
 Even the Presidential use of patronage 
 at that time is condoned, which at other mo- 
 ments would be condemned. 
 
 Every thinking man knows that the Presi- 
 dent's duty is done when he expresses his 
 opinions in his messages to Congress. The 
 fact remains, however, that the public is a 
 desperately human entity, and if it is satis- 
 fied that the result to be accomplished is of 
 general benefit, judged in the light of the 
 moment and the particular stress it is under, 
 it doesn't stop to consider ways and means, 
 and gives its approval or disapproval of a 
 President or a Governor, according to his 
 success in forcing action by legislators who 
 are bound by as sacred an oath of office as 
 either a President or a Governor. One of 
 the reasons for all this is that the affirma- 
 tive of a proposition usually gets its argu-
 
 58 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 ments started first, and before the merits 
 or demerits of a particular measure are 
 fully understood it is well under way 
 in the public mind. That momentum being 
 established, the conclusion is instantly drawn 
 that anyone who opposes it is morally wrong. 
 Take, on the other hand, a bill introduced 
 after careful study only by the man who in- 
 troduces it, and its general features or pur- 
 poses not fully understood by the public at 
 large; the fate of that bill depends largely 
 on the first guess made by the public, with 
 or without thought as to its merits. And if 
 the public guesses " No," the introducer is 
 not charged with lack of wisdom, but with 
 lack of morals. 
 
 All this simply goes to bear out the illus- 
 tration first used in this chapter. The com- 
 mon sense of it is a legislator or an execu- 
 tive is still a human being with ordinary 
 everyday tendencies and temperament, and 
 should be no different when in office than 
 when out of it. Being clothed with authority, 
 however, and his actions reflected through 
 the tremendous light of public discussion, his 
 importance is unduly magnified and the prin- 
 ciples of human nature are for the moment 
 overlooked. Threats do not convince; they 
 may induce ; and a law passed under pressure
 
 SOME AMERICANIZED TRAITS 59 
 
 and without calm personal discussion accom- 
 plishes no more for the body politic than 
 food gulped and unmasticated does for the 
 physical body. Vituperation and threats may 
 change a condition, but they accomplish no 
 permanent good result. The ability to ana- 
 lyze and explain results is rarer than the 
 ability to merely understand. There is such 
 a thing, however, as analyzing so closely that 
 nothing practical is accomplished. 
 
 The situation will always remain the same, 
 because human nature will always remain the 
 same. To decide what a man of given men- 
 tality and morality ought to do, then wisely 
 to discuss that, is an intellectual luxury. To 
 find out and understand what men are, then 
 to persuade them what they ought to be, think 
 and do, and to move them to do it, is to bene- 
 fit the human race. The trouble is, men want 
 applause immediately. The moment they 
 make an effort they turn toward the public 
 for approval. They long to have that ap- 
 proval, whether it comes from the press or 
 from the handclapping of the crowd. This 
 is not unnatural; it is merely human. The 
 greatest man is he who is willing to have the 
 results of his principles and conduct re- 
 ceive approval only when they are worked 
 out to their finality, even if that approval
 
 60 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 come after he has left office or after his de- 
 cease. 
 
 It is safe to say that few there are who 
 do not instinctively desire to benefit them- 
 selves, though they may not know in just 
 what manner this may best be accomplished, 
 nor have the strength for such accomplish- 
 ment. The more freedom of action they may 
 have to work out individual betterment, the 
 more apt is it to be worked out. 
 
 The United States claims to furnish the 
 fullest and freest channel for individual im- 
 provement, and since its organization has 
 stood with doors wide open inviting all who 
 wished to enjoy its opportunities to enter. 
 The invitation has been accepted eagerly, un- 
 til to-day we have a civilization representing 
 the globe in composite form and all under the 
 guidance of a system of laws which at their 
 inception could not have looked forward to 
 present conditions. It was never within the 
 imagination of the Fathers that the nation's 
 limits would be what they now are, or that 
 in variety and extent the nation's resources 
 could possibly develop as they have, or 
 have created conditions which, commercially, 
 could have divided the people so widely 
 in benefit. All this has raised unusual 
 and intricate questions and demands the
 
 SOME AMERICANIZED TRAITS 61 
 
 very rarest judgment for their equitable 
 solution. 
 
 That solution, however, will be best worked 
 out through the domain of morals with the 
 assistance of law, rather than with the edict 
 of statute and the embellishment of morals. 
 Law, in a way, stands as the arbiter between 
 individual interests in competition and is pre- 
 sumed to insure rights and enforce obliga- 
 tions. Unfortunately for idealism people 
 who are supposed to be directed and pro- 
 tected by law are the same people who are 
 to make the law through their represent- 
 atives, and without the final test of morals, 
 laws are apt to work in a circle. Modern 
 laws are supposed to be the antithesis of ab- 
 solutism, and to substitute human rights in 
 place of imperial favor. After centuries of 
 force and that very imperialism written on 
 every page of history, it is just as natural 
 as ever for individuals to enjoy the adulation 
 of the populace and to wish to influence con- 
 ditions as before. It is a change in degree 
 as well as kind and form and method and 
 will be so to the end of time, whether in 
 village or city, state or nation. It is hu- 
 man to desire potential influence and to par- 
 ticipate in shaping events. 
 
 With these thoughts in mind, a solution of
 
 62 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 many of our political questions is easier. Ab- 
 solute democracy is an intellectual dream 
 springing up in overheated logic, but results 
 in a rude awakening when tested by experi- 
 ence. It is neither dangerous nor unpleasant 
 to walk in sleep in a room where there is 
 no furniture. Approximation is the best that 
 can be expected from finite beings differing 
 both mentally and morally. As long as there 
 are human beings, there will be some who 
 are seeking what they are not entitled to. 
 There will always be some who follow the 
 doctrine of expediency rather than fixed 
 standards. There will always be some who 
 will do things if they don't expect to be 
 detected who would not do the same thing 
 with a witness. Men do not forge if anyone 
 is looking on. Men do not knowingly take 
 marked bills if the taking is to be a proof 
 of larceny. 
 
 The whole question finally resolves itself 
 into whether each person recognizes a moral 
 and legal obligation to all the others, as 
 shown in his personal conduct toward them. 
 One of the silliest doctrines preached is that 
 questions can only be settled in this country 
 by being kept out of politics. Outside of a 
 man's duty to his Creator, there is hardly a 
 question in the United States that can be
 
 SOME AMERICANIZED TRAITS 63 
 
 raised that is not a political question. The 
 reason is that every law is the final result 
 of the casting of a ballot. The enforcement 
 of every law comes through a human being, 
 and the selection of that human being is the 
 result of the casting of a ballot by a human 
 being. The laws of health, the enforcement 
 of the Penal Code, the building of a house 
 in which a man lives, the clothes he wears, 
 the money with which he purchases, the serv- 
 ices for which he is remunerated, all are af- 
 fected by law and are only finally disposed 
 of when actually cast into the hopper and 
 ground out after public discussion. 
 
 Questions are settled by being taken to the 
 people, not by being kept from them. 
 
 Whatever we may deem our rights and our 
 obligations to be, someone will always have 
 to be doing something for another. In each 
 case, both profit by the experience. There is 
 an unquestioned tendency to trust too much 
 to legislation and too little to personal effort. 
 The activities surrounding such legislation 
 from the inception of the movement leading 
 up to it, and the enforcement of it thereafter, 
 embrace the whole range of political life in 
 this country. 
 
 The words " politics " and " politicians " 
 have come to have far other than their nat-
 
 64 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 ural meanings, and are interpreted accord- 
 ing to the stress on the public mind at the 
 time and the strain of the effort to accom- 
 plish desired results under a system of gov- 
 ernment where all are at least supposed to 
 have equal opportunities before the law. 
 This is apart from the question of woman 
 suffrage. Whatever may be the derivation 
 and meaning of the word ' ' politics, ' ' it prac- 
 tically signifies influencing the people in the 
 aggregate without the use of force. A poli- 
 tician is one who is engaged in such an 
 effort. It accomplishes nothing to cast slurs 
 on the one or the other. It merely clouds 
 the situation. Characterization of either 
 should always be accompanied by qualifying 
 adjectives according to the end sought and 
 the methods employed either in politics or by 
 politicians. If this were always done, half 
 our political difficulties would be at an end. 
 A statesman is merely a man accepted as 
 more learned than a politician. Satire, ridi- 
 cule, and denunciation of individuals merely 
 on account of their political activities accom- 
 plish nothing more than giving mental relief 
 to him using those particular forms of de- 
 scription. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States was 
 founded upon the belief that all citizens
 
 SOME AMERICANIZED TRAITS 65 
 
 would be politically active at all times. 
 In present-day discussions it has come about 
 that to be politically active invites condem- 
 nation as a matter of course, and the reward 
 of virtue is often placed upon the brow of 
 a man because he has never taken part at 
 all in politics, and therefore was necessarily 
 without guile and possessed of virtue. 
 Praise often comes to the man who calls the 
 other man a liar first. Political character 
 frequently is what we think the other man 
 should have. Not to be interested and par- 
 ticipate in civic affairs should be a badge of 
 disgrace. The fact that public life and po- 
 litical activities furnish many opportunities 
 for self-aggrandizement and aid in life 's com- 
 petition, has nothing to do with the question. 
 There should not be, but always will be, 
 graft. Graft is not indigenous to public office, 
 although it thrives there with particular 
 fruitfulness. Graft is larceny by a man act- 
 ing in a representative capacity. It exists 
 in the degree in which the principal who em- 
 ploys the representative watches the conduct 
 of his representative. When a principal be- 
 lieves his representative is virtuous because 
 the latter claims he is, and the latter is not 
 held up to his literal responsibility, graft 
 increases.
 
 66 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 When a man who has been politically active 
 commits a crime, punish him for that crime 
 and not for his activity. The fact of such 
 crime and punishment is no excuse for any- 
 one else to deny himself participation in poli- 
 tics which is clearly his own duty. If the 
 minister of a congregation should be expelled 
 from the pulpit for personal frailty, it would 
 not justify a member of the congregation in 
 giving up his religion. If the result of matri- 
 mony is incompatibility of temper, or the un- 
 lucky selection of a mother-in-law, it isn't 
 necessary at once to violate the laws of God 
 and man. 
 
 This nation represents, as near as may be, 
 a workable democracy. Its laws are the 
 means to an end. The progress of human 
 society still depends upon the inculcation and 
 practice of morality. It is not strange that 
 laws instituted and enforced by human beings 
 should be subject to the weaknesses of hu- 
 man judgment and conduct. Opportunity 
 has much to do with determining con- 
 duct. As already stated, the desire for ap- 
 plause is natural, the desire for influence not 
 abnormal, the seeking of public preferment 
 and public office desperately human. The 
 moral harm is doing any or all of these with 
 a declaration that none of them is undertaken
 
 SOME AMERICANIZED TRAITS 67 
 
 under the impulse of any of those thoughts 
 or temperamental conditions. The latter is 
 mere hypocrisy. The former is at least hon- 
 est. Men hold public office because they de- 
 sire it. Alleged self-immolation upon the 
 altar of office-holding is mere cant, nonsense, 
 and egotism raised to the Nth power. There 
 is no public office in the United States to-day 
 that cannot be filled by another as well as by 
 the present holder. Anyone who openly 
 stated that he alone was best fitted for 
 such position would become a laughing-stock. 
 The best reforms that have been instituted 
 in administration or in remedial statute have 
 been the result of conflicts between the ambi- 
 tions of honest-minded men. The greatest 
 failures have arisen from the cant and hy- 
 pocrisy of men who have not had the real 
 courage to admit their natural character- 
 istics. The most pathetic case is that of 
 a man who thinks he is in himself a moral 
 reform. The Almighty has never yet given 
 an irrevocable power of attorney to a human 
 being. How silly it is, therefore, not to recog- 
 nize the limitations of human nature, instead 
 of substituting individuals for principles. In 
 times of war men rise to their proper 
 stature. If men participated in politics, 
 — the business of the nation, — in times
 
 68 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 of peace with the same devotion they 
 display in times of war, the life of the Re- 
 public would be one of continuous progress. 
 Selfish interest, utterly apart from principle, 
 commands this course. It is better to give 
 selfishly than not to give at all. It is better 
 to assist another for the purpose of being 
 discovered in the act than to withhold all as- 
 sistance. Someone will profit. 
 
 Political office properly opens the door of 
 individual betterment in many ways. Many 
 of the choicest prizes in professional and 
 business life are awarded to those who have 
 had experience in public office. Public office 
 is often sought for that reason. This can 
 be done without hypocrisy and without harm 
 to the public if the individual while in office 
 gives adequate service with entire honesty. 
 Occupancy of executive and administrative 
 positions furnishes more experience within 
 a few years than individuals ordinarily 
 get in half of or even an entire life- 
 time otherwise. For men to say that they 
 hold public office only and exclusively and 
 entirely for the public benefit is to fool them- 
 selves as well as the public. It accomplishes 
 nothing to indulge in hypocritical criticism 
 of public officials, except to lessen the re- 
 spect of the public for their own represen-
 
 SOME AMERICANIZED TRAITS 69 
 
 tatives and to render their services less 
 efficient. 
 
 This subject has been gone into at this 
 length only because the public mind seems 
 to be largely occupied with the administra- 
 tion of public office, and that too is as it 
 should be. No occupant of a public office, 
 however, should imagine that he is the public, 
 for then he serves only himself. If the occu- 
 pant of a public office feels overburdened in 
 his service and that the sacrifice is too great, 
 there is no prohibition in the Constitution or 
 statute to prevent his resigning. Men, as a 
 rule, are theoretically democratic by pro- 
 fession and desperately personal by instinct 
 and practice. 
 
 When power and influence are sought 
 merely for exhilaration and regardless of the 
 rights of others, it is undemocratic and merits 
 only condemnation. It takes judgment and 
 common sense to decide along what lines 
 particular men are acting. It will be much 
 easier to come to a conclusion and to give the 
 awards of approval, or to administer proper 
 condemnation, if, in forming our judgment, 
 we understand poor, plain human nature as 
 it is. 
 
 There has never been so much discussion 
 of public topics as now, with the exception
 
 70 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 of the times immediately before and after 
 the Revolution and surrounding the scenes of 
 the Rebellion. It is sought here to make that 
 discussion a public benefit by furnishing pos- 
 sibly a different point of view, even if that 
 point of view is not adorned with metaphori- 
 cal flowers and pictured with elaborate rhe- 
 torical finish. 
 
 Americans have such confidence in their 
 present and in their future, and believe their 
 institutions so much superior to those of 
 other countries, that they are apt to indulge 
 in invidious comparisons. 
 
 We inconsistently criticise many things in 
 others. We criticise Europe because there 
 they have social classes. We have them here, 
 as a matter of fact. Theoretically, we have 
 not. We criticise other nations because of 
 the great disparity between the rich and the 
 poor. The disparity in Europe between 
 wealth and poverty is scarcely greater than 
 in this country. It is no crime to desire to be 
 rich. It is no evidence of moral obloquy. It 
 is a moral and legal crime to seek those riches 
 by criminal and illegal methods. There are 
 men in this country so wealthy that they em- 
 ploy men to help them give away their money. 
 It is sometimes asserted that it is a disgrace 
 to die rich. It is safe to say, however, that
 
 SOME AMERICANIZED TRAITS 71 
 
 the men who have uttered those statements 
 have drawn their wills. 
 
 What is the use of all this nonsense? 
 There isn't any. We all want all we can get, 
 whether in material advantage or popular 
 applause, and we are all seeking to obtain it. 
 The important question is: How are we go- 
 ing to get it! 
 
 What are our political principles?
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES, POLITICAL 
 
 ORGANIZATIONS, BOSSES, 
 
 PATRONAGE
 
 IV 
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES, POLITICAL 
 
 ORGANIZATIONS, BOSSES, 
 
 PATRONAGE 
 
 The traveler who enters the political for- 
 est, partly timbered with party principles, 
 with a sturdy second growth of party organi- 
 zation, dense undergrowth of bosses and 
 trailing vines of patronage, must pick his 
 way carefully to avoid getting lost and to 
 emerge unharmed by falling limbs and un- 
 discerned briars. Before entering he must 
 protect his eyes from the light of too intense 
 partisanship and must walk without fear of 
 hobgoblins or giants. If he is to observe 
 wisely, he must be without nervousness and 
 without fear for his personal safety. If he 
 intends to give others the benefit of his ob- 
 servation his investigations must be carried 
 on without any preconceived theory. If his 
 vision is clear he will see the dark forms of 
 thwarted ambitions, disappointed hopes, 
 wrecked careers. He will hear the angry 
 
 7G
 
 76 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 voices of the spirits of controversy. He will 
 be fortunate, indeed, if he emerges without 
 having fallen over some hidden trunk of po- 
 litical tradition or pierced his flesh with the 
 thorn of selfishness. If, however, he pro- 
 ceeds calmly, with common sense and un- 
 biased judgment, he will find a multitude of 
 things of substantial value. 
 
 This metaphor has been drawn with par- 
 ticular care. It seeks to satisfy the lugu- 
 briousness of the man with a predilection to- 
 wards funerals, who can see nothing for the 
 Republic but dissolution. It also aims to 
 strengthen the confidence of the cheerful op- 
 timist with Utopian hopes for the Republic's 
 millennium, whose sole contribution toward 
 that outcome is words. 
 
 Political parties, popular notions to the 
 contrary, are any two or more individuals 
 acting with a common purpose. The size of 
 the party does not change the proposition, it 
 merely extends the degree of influence. 
 
 Political organizations are the standing 
 committee of parties, charged with their in- 
 ternal management between conventions and 
 during campaigns. 
 
 Bosses are persons of official or unofficial 
 authority in party organizations whose posi- 
 tion is due to their own capacity, or to the
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE 77 
 
 quiescence of those over whom their influence 
 extends. 
 
 Patronage, in political parlance, refers to 
 appointments to public office by an executive, 
 the successful candidate of a party, as a 
 reward for party fealty. 
 
 The author has read many of the acknowl- 
 edged leading works on the theory and prac- 
 tice of American government. The great 
 principles have been set forth with a 
 skill, knowledge, and embellishment beyond 
 his capacities. Our literature is rich in dis- 
 quisitions on the Constitution and the Amer- 
 ican system. It is equally rich in discussion 
 of present-day problems. Some of those 
 problems have taken the form of practices 
 not anticipated in theory and, therefore, may 
 be better appreciated by people familiar with 
 the practices when expressed in the language 
 of everyday understanding. 
 
 Everyone knows that parties were formed 
 almost immediately after the Constitution 
 was adopted. People do not always ap- 
 preciate that those parties were formed 
 without any reference to the laws but 
 as a result of the inherent differences in 
 men. The minds of some men are sug- 
 gestive, creative, resourceful in expedient, 
 and bent toward the satisfaction of accom-
 
 78 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 plishment. The minds of others are more 
 timid, more conservative, more given to an- 
 alysis, more given to objection, keener in de- 
 scribing reasons why a proposed plan should 
 not be adopted than in ability to suggest an- 
 other. These differences make political par- 
 ties. They apply equally to principles advo- 
 cated or the best methods of putting them 
 into practice. Add to this the disturbing ef- 
 fect of ambitions, the struggle for personal 
 gain, the conflict of motives, the differences 
 in moral standard, and a comparatively satis- 
 factory perspective may be obtained. The 
 popular understanding of party springs pri- 
 marily from contact with the established 
 Democratic and Republican parties, or with 
 others shorter in life and fewer in numbers. 
 It is frequently said that the modern politi- 
 cal tendency is to act beyond party lines and 
 for the individual to be governed by his own 
 preferences more than by the suggestions of 
 anyone else. This view is accurate if it means 
 that men are less inclined than heretofore to 
 think and act within the lines laid down in 
 the platform utterances of those parties. It 
 is not accurate if it means that men are more 
 inclined to act regardless of any party affilia- 
 tion, when the word party is taken in the 
 meaning already described. If an individual
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE 79 
 
 insists that he is not a member of either the 
 democratic or republican party, he then is 
 a member of a party made up of all the peo- 
 ple who do not believe in the principles ad- 
 vocated by either of these two parties. This 
 must be so, because if not in accord with the 
 principles of either of these two, he is op- 
 posed to them, and as there is more than 
 one in such opposition, it makes another 
 party. It cannot be that outside of the two 
 great established parties all men agree among 
 themselves, and they therefore break up into 
 cliques or groups, according to particular 
 lines of thought, and these groups or cliques 
 later develop into parties with the customary 
 committees, leaders, conventions, and plat- 
 forms. It is entirely inaccurate, politically, 
 to deduce a condition of mental independence 
 unless you know that after having broken 
 one allegiance these men have not formed 
 another. If having broken one and not 
 formed another they are not independent, 
 they are purely negative, and, therefore, non- 
 combatants in political struggles. To go even 
 a step further, these non-combatants likewise 
 form a group, and, under the definition given 
 above, a party, minus only the visible action 
 from which physical and mental vitality could 
 be argued. They are citizen mannikins, not
 
 80 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 necessarily unpleasant to look upon, but of 
 no value whatever to the Bepublic, except as 
 examples of what should not be emulated. 
 They are a dead weight to all others. They 
 accept with complacency the benefits of citi- 
 zenship, making no return therefor. They 
 are drones in the hive. By virtue of their 
 numbers they mathematically reduce the ad- 
 vantages that ought to belong to the rest. 
 They demand police protection, when as a 
 matter of fact they should be indicted, con- 
 victed by the jury of public opinion, and sen- 
 tenced to expulsion from the country. Not 
 to exercise the right of franchise should en- 
 tail its loss. 
 
 It is wise to urge men not to blindly and 
 servilely follow others. It stimulates the 
 mind to act independently, and that continued 
 exercise develops strength and force. If in- 
 dependence means indifference, however, and 
 justifies the acceptance of benefits as a mat- 
 ter of right, without entailed obligation to 
 others, it is far better to servilely follow 
 some aggressive and moral mind engaged in 
 endeavoring to solve the problems of man- 
 kind. 
 
 When men argue against party allegiance, 
 they really argue against too strict an alle- 
 giance.
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE 81 
 
 Could the citizens of the United States be 
 assembled once a year in a single room, a 
 majority vote would be sufficient to instruct 
 their lawmakers and administrators for the 
 ensuing year. Unfortunately this cannot be 
 done. In order to create concerted action, 
 men of the same beliefs, in whatever part of 
 the country they may live, must send repre- 
 sentatives to some agreed point where those 
 representatives may construct a platform, de- 
 claring their common principles and provide 
 ways and means to carry them to a fulfill- 
 ment. Such gatherings constitute a conven- 
 tion and evidence a party. The authority 
 delegated by that convention takes the form 
 of a party organization. This organization 
 takes charge of party affairs between conven- 
 tions and arranges for and has charge of the 
 conduct of campaigns. All this is very 
 simple, and is not offered with the slightest 
 claim for novelty in discovery. It is only 
 presented because there has recently been an 
 appeal made to the public to do away with 
 conventions as something inherently wicked 
 and devised for robbing the people of their 
 liberties, and as an institution growing solely 
 out of t lie machinations of evil-minded men. 
 The facts are so much to the contrary and 
 the reasons for a political convention so
 
 82 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 simple and so entirely analogous to the repre- 
 sentative principles in our government that 
 it seems necessary to reduce it to its final 
 analysis, so that it may be entirely clear 
 to the most educated mind. Simplicity and 
 directness in procedure in the election of 
 delegates to conventions is an entirely differ- 
 ent subject for investigation. It ought not 
 to be, but is the fact that delegates in con- 
 vention assembled differ physically, mentally, 
 socially, educationally, and morally. They 
 even differ as to the best expressions to use 
 in stating their political principles, and tem- 
 peramentally differ as to the relative impor- 
 tance of the various principles they meet to 
 declare. This results in precedence among 
 the delegates themselves in the actual work 
 of the convention, because experience and 
 knowledge of themselves create influence. 
 Supplement this with the factors of acquaint- 
 ance and friendship and you have all the ele- 
 ments of a convention. Other features are 
 merely expressions of human weakness. 
 
 Having in mind the adjectival denunciation 
 of the workings of conventions and the 
 spasms through which men go in discussing 
 them, it may be a relief to understand that 
 bodies of men gathered in political conven- 
 tions do not differ from similar bodies gath^
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE 83 
 
 ered for other purposes. They are simply 
 more so. 
 
 Heated controversy has arisen over the 
 method of electing delegates to conventions. 
 The more direct and primary the mode of 
 electing delegates may be, the better for all 
 concerned. No particular plan is direct and 
 primary simply because so denominated. The 
 final element to be considered must always 
 be the individual, and no particular plan can 
 be ultimately beneficial which is not devised 
 with full knowledge of the characteristics 
 of individuals. The primary is the first 
 visible action taken which leads up to the 
 convention or to the selection of party man- 
 agers. The test of the right to vote at the 
 primaries is either prescribed in the rules 
 and regulations of the party itself, or pro- 
 vided by statute. When the latter, it re- 
 quires a declaration by the party member in 
 some official way stating to which party he 
 belongs. The day for holding the primaries 
 has become generally a matter of law to in- 
 sure definiteness and equality of opportunity 
 to the voters. In primary reform there are 
 two things that must be accomplished if that 
 reform is to be real. First, to cause the in- 
 dividual who lias the right to vote to desire 
 to do so, and, second, to induce him to cany
 
 84 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 out his desire. The first of these is beyond 
 the possibilities of law and the second could 
 only be approximately accomplished if it were 
 possible to pass a law which provided that 
 if a man did not vote at a primary he lost 
 his right to do so thereafter. This might 
 be an inducing cause, but it is apparent that 
 it would be impractical and might be uncon- 
 stitutional, according to the way the law were 
 drawn. The most that the law can do is to 
 simplify the method of voting. Anything 
 more than that is a mere question of human 
 nature and the willingness to act. The elec- 
 tion of delegates at a primary is conducive 
 to less excitement than the conduct of a con- 
 vention; and the conduct of a convention of 
 less interest than a general election. It 
 should be different. It is not. To borrow a 
 figure already used, if all the party voters 
 in the political division where a primary is 
 to be held would meet in a single room and 
 discuss the merits of the persons to be elected 
 as delegates or committee members, the prob- 
 lem would be easily, expeditiously settled, 
 and with little expense. In this instance there 
 are sufficiently small subdivisions so that men 
 could do it. The fact is, they do not. The 
 further fact is, they will not. There must, 
 therefore, be a contest, or, if not one, an
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE 85 
 
 acquiescence in election of persons perfunc- 
 torily nominated. Assuming a contest, some- 
 one must suggest names for the ticket. That 
 person is usually the local district leader. 
 If those selections are not to be acquiesced 
 in, someone else must ask someone else to 
 meet somewhere and agree upon a set of 
 names to be voted for. Who is to do that? 
 Answer : Anyone who wishes to and will take 
 the time and bear the expense. Much has 
 already been done for the primaries by 
 statute in the State of New York. The 
 statutes covering general elections contain 
 many regulations providing against fraud at 
 the polls. Equally careful penal provision 
 covering the conduct of primaries would re- 
 move most of the objections raised against 
 present methods. 
 
 The recognition of these few general prin- 
 ciples of primary directness would do much 
 to simplify present discussion. 
 
 Delegating to a committee functions to be 
 performed theoretically by an individual, and 
 then requiring the ratification of the commit- 
 tee's work by all the individuals, is neither 
 direct nor primary, but indirect and second- 
 ary. 
 
 One thing is certain, whatever our indi- 
 vidual suggestions may be as to what is
 
 86 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 needed in the way of political reform, this 
 reform, in order to be practical and far-reach- 
 ing, must start at the primaries. The first 
 step in such reform must be a belief on the 
 part of every voter that a reform is needed. 
 He must next believe it is his duty to con- 
 tribute toward the reform ; thereafter he must 
 so contribute. These three convictions of 
 mind, even under the disadvantages of the 
 present law, will work more for reform than 
 an ideally perfect law will work without them. 
 The common possession of these convictions 
 will bring about the law. 
 
 Speaking very generally, Americans are 
 essentially partisan. They like contest ; they 
 take sides mentally in competitions in which 
 they do not participate; in any matter of 
 general understanding they argue pro and 
 con with all the intensity of participants. 
 They are free with advice and quick in op- 
 position. They are rarely passive observers. 
 Politically they have these same character- 
 istics. Their interest is only lessened by 
 their meagerness of knowledge of the points 
 involved and a belief that somewhere there 
 is some mystery. This idea is heightened 
 by the virulent discussions they hear or read, 
 carried on by people who are supposed to 
 have special opportunities for information,
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE 87 
 
 and a peculiar capacity derived from that 
 information that makes the efforts of anyone 
 else futile. The fact is, the whole thing is 
 simplicity itself when subjected to the slight- 
 est analysis. A man, an idea, a vote — and 
 the problem is at least partly solved. A 
 majority of men acting together, a majority 
 of votes — a result obtained. 
 
 To be effective the desire for reform must 
 be accompanied by visible effort. 
 
 In politics as in physics, two bodies can- 
 not occupy the same space simultaneously. 
 To secure reform, the " undesirable citizen " 
 must be ousted and the desirable citizen sub- 
 stituted in his place. A desirable citizen is 
 one who knows conditions from his personal 
 contact with them, who understands men 
 from genuine brotherly interest, who recog- 
 nizes his sacred duty to the State and is 
 persistent in his endeavors to perform that 
 duty. This calls for action, action means 
 contest, contest means votes, a majority of 
 votes means success. 
 
 Criticism without effort is stupid. Such 
 stupidity is inexcusable. Inaction which 
 makes crime possible is itself criminal. Men 
 guilty of crime should be deemed political 
 pariahs, to be avoided as spreading con- 
 tagion. No sophistry can excuse political in-
 
 88 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 ertia. No refinement in learned discussion 
 can take the place of conduct. 
 
 The measure of a man's virtue, spiritual or 
 political, is the sacrifice he will make in or- 
 der to live up to his principles. The test of 
 generosity is not what you give, but what 
 you have left. 
 
 The practical management of political or- 
 ganizations has a direct effect on the con- 
 fidence in the principles declared by the party 
 whose management may be under discussion. 
 If that management is intelligent, if it is 
 conducive to putting those principles into 
 practice, if it reflects the average sentiment 
 of the members of the party, it is commend- 
 able and useful. If it is employed for the 
 personal aggrandizement of those in posi- 
 tions of responsibility and mirrors only their 
 individual ideas, its utility is confined to the 
 few and the principles of the party suffer 
 in direct consequence. This is the reason, 
 but ought not to be, why criticism of party 
 management results in derogation of party 
 principles. This is a reason why men break 
 their party allegiance, but need not be, and 
 leads to that general confusion and breaking 
 of party lines which prevent the carry- 
 ing out of platform declarations. This 
 is not logical, but is human, it is a fact.
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE 89 
 
 The only answer possible is a vote at 
 the primaries and a vote on election 
 day. After party managers are selected 
 and until such time as they could be dis- 
 placed by a vote at the polls, their moral 
 responsibility for the principles of their 
 party must be judged by a stricter standard. 
 They have now become trustees. They have 
 been unindividualized. They were not forced 
 into the positions they hold, and they have 
 no right to complain if their cestui qui trust 
 criticises their management up to the time 
 when such management can be changed by 
 votes. If, then, the management is not 
 changed, the managers have a right to as- 
 sume that their conduct has met with ap- 
 proval. The degree of opposition demon- 
 strates the degree of disapproval. Politics 
 is a man's game, not a child's. It requires 
 the courage of convictions ; it waves aside the 
 protest of words and demands the protest of 
 the ballot; it respects philosophy and learn- 
 ing; it responds to conduct. 
 
 It is inherent in character for men of simi- 
 lar beliefs to congregate. It is equally inher- 
 ent for them to have faith in their represent- 
 atives chosen by themselves until such repre- 
 sentatives prove unworthy of trust. Organi- 
 zation and the centering of responsibility has
 
 90 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 become an affirmative force in every activity 
 of life. It is so in politics, naturally. It is 
 more so in politics because in politics there 
 is not only the native inclination but the 
 clearly defined example of commercial and 
 industrial life. There is no justification for 
 being startled and outraged, therefore, in 
 finding such a high degree of influence exer- 
 cised by individuals in party management. 
 The surprise would be justified if the reverse 
 condition existed. 
 
 When men in responsible positions of 
 party management are truly representative, 
 they are in name and fact leaders. These 
 leaders are entitled to commendation, ap- 
 plause, and all proper honor to which the 
 party may see fit to advance them. When 
 they deviate from the standard of leadership 
 and reflect only their personal opinions and 
 exercise their delegated authority without 
 reference to their representative capacity, 
 they are properly designated as bosses, with 
 all the opprobrium attached to that word. It 
 does not mean necessarily that a man is a 
 boss because he is called a boss. The reasons 
 for his conduct are not always known. Am- 
 bitions that might have been satisfied through 
 his aid and without which remain unfulfilled 
 frequently are the first cause for criticism.
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE 91 
 
 The assistance which a political leader can 
 render through his wide acquaintance in 
 the representative position he occupies 
 forces many demands upon him. His ability 
 to bring about nominations, his endorse- 
 ments, which secure appointments, and the 
 multitude of instances in which he may be- 
 stow favor render him peculiarly liable to 
 attack. When party feeling is not running 
 high the personal equation is apt to control. 
 AVhen the number of disappointed exceeds the 
 number who anticipate personal advantage, 
 the so-called boss is dethroned. This leaves 
 out of consideration the question of financial 
 honesty. Because of the very number of op- 
 portunities to make money from his knowl- 
 edge of conditions and his demand for recip- 
 rocation of favors conferred, the leader, or, 
 rather the boss, is liable to a severer criti- 
 cism than that accorded men in a less public 
 position and with less responsibility. This 
 may or may not be just. It is a fact. It is 
 a risk that the leader or boss assumes, and 
 one which it is childish and unmanly for him 
 to seek to avoid. A common sense view taken 
 of the conduct of leaders and bosses would 
 remove much of the hysteria that attaches 
 to the use of these two words. 
 
 The author aims to argue in favor of the
 
 92 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 principles of organization and their prac- 
 tice. He recognizes possible and actual 
 abuses, deprecates them, but believes that 
 those abuses are not inherent in the principle 
 itself, but merely in the human agents some- 
 times selected to carry out those principles. 
 The stigma attaching to these individuals 
 should be confined to them and not accorded 
 to the entire body, of which they are but a 
 part. 
 
 When leaders and bosses resent and be- 
 come peevish at criticism which is not merely 
 captious but emanates from members of their 
 own party, they justify that criticism. A 
 democrat is always violently disturbed by 
 the internal condition of the republicans; a 
 republican with equal frankness criticises 
 and satirizes the internal management of the 
 democratic party. This is for the benefit of 
 the general public. By the same sign one 
 opposed to both of these parties criticises the 
 management of each and by contrast seeks to 
 build up another party on a different declara- 
 tion of principles. On account of their promi- 
 nence individuals receive much of the criti- 
 cism directed against parties of which they 
 are members, and which is really intended 
 for the parties. 
 
 The distribution of appointments to office
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE 1)3 
 
 by an executive furnishes a direct leverage 
 over the conduct of organizations which may 
 almost prove a controlling force. As the in- 
 dividual voter in a party organization looks 
 toward his immediate local leader as the 
 means for his personal preferment, so the 
 local leader looks to him next higher in au- 
 thority as his means of advancement. So 
 on through the various steps of precedence 
 and authority does each one look to his su- 
 perior until the one in highest authority is 
 brought in contact with the person with 
 power of appointment. When a candidate 
 nominated in convention accepts such nomi- 
 nation upon a platform of declared principles 
 it is only naturally expected that he will 
 make appointments from among those hav- 
 ing the same political beliefs. Whether logi- 
 cal or not, whether wise or not, this has come 
 to be a common understanding. If it is not 
 the intention of the to-be-executive to act 
 in accordance with that understanding he 
 should not accept the nomination, unless first 
 declaring a different position. 
 
 The executive thus elected, whether in a 
 state or the nation, holds no office as a rule, 
 and certainly not while President, in the so- 
 called party organization. It would be fool- 
 Mi to claim that if such executive could not
 
 94 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 find among the members of his own party a 
 man fit to fill a particular public office he 
 would not be entitled to go beyond the party 
 lines in making a selection. When he does 
 so, he should give the real reason for so do- 
 ing, and if that reason is sound it will be 
 accepted by party members with even a 
 modicum of common sense. 
 
 It frequently happens that in the conduct 
 of an election groups of men not previously 
 affiliated with a particular party, and refer- 
 ring now to the successful one, have aided 
 that party for reasons of their own by their 
 votes, and even may have proved a determin- 
 ing factor in the result. Speaking from the 
 tenets of the doctrine of party advantage, 
 it is proper that the confidence in such men 
 should be shown by sometimes appointing 
 them to office. If that appointment is used by 
 the appointee to the disadvantage of those 
 with whom he is newly affiliated there is just 
 ground for complaint. If his new official 
 position is made the instrument for keeping 
 alive the principles of another party at 
 variance with the one of his adoption, 
 he is inconsistent and the appointment 
 thus made fails to accomplish its intended 
 effect. 
 
 In the matter of endorsements by party
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE 95 
 
 leaders for public appointments by an ex- 
 ecutive there appears at once the terrify- 
 ing shibboleth of party regularity. Aca- 
 demically, party regularity should be con- 
 sidered that consistency of conduct and per- 
 sistency in it which tends toward the estab- 
 lishment of common political principles and 
 their carrying into effect by legislation and 
 administration. Practically, regularity de- 
 pends upon the personal attitude of the par- 
 ticular leader toward the particular person 
 who seeks preferment. Judgment is fallible, 
 and it is too much always to expect that a 
 party leader in awarding his endorsement 
 should not seek an endorsee who bears the 
 test of orthodoxy in party principles and at 
 the same time will act in particular co-opera- 
 tion with the leader who gives his endorse- 
 ment. This ought not to be, but is, and al- 
 ways will be in greater or less degree as long 
 as endorsements have any influence whatever 
 in securing appointments. Influence in se- 
 curing appointments magnifies according to 
 the degree of desire for appointment. The 
 use of patronage is frequently employed as 
 the reward for personal favor and personal 
 service rendered, as well as a means of pun- 
 ishment of those who have dared to differ 
 from particular leaders in their opinion as
 
 96 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 to what would best conduce to party suc- 
 cess. 
 
 The potential power of appointment to 
 public office is so enormous that party organi- 
 zations respond to it directly, and those who 
 may not agree with its particular exercise 
 find themselves only in the penumbra of 
 events, shadowed by the lack of official favor. 
 There is no reason why an executive who 
 necessarily cannot by personal knowledge be 
 familiar with the capacities and party loy- 
 alty of every individual should not consult 
 and confer with party leaders who either 
 have that knowledge or are in a position to 
 obtain it. There is every reason why an en- 
 dorsement of a particular candidate to an 
 executive by a party leader should not be 
 considered as final by the executive. The 
 executive is more familiar with the charac- 
 teristics and talent demanded to be possessed 
 by the man to be appointed and he has a 
 right to request and demand from those who 
 certify names to him that they represent in- 
 dividuals possessed of the capacities required 
 in the judgment of the executive. Not to ac- 
 cept this theory is to make an executive a 
 rubber-stamp official, to reduce his influence 
 in the estimation of the observing public and 
 to bring ridicule upon the party for which
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE !J7 
 
 he stands. Undue addiction to indiscrimi- 
 nate endorsements to the executive by party 
 leaders leads logically to the development of 
 the principle of civil service, in the adminis- 
 tration of which it was thought there could 
 be no possible bearing on the carrying out 
 of party principles, which were subjected to 
 a line of demarcation and appointments made 
 after a competitive examination. That prin- 
 ciple carried to extremes defeats its own pur- 
 poses, and somewhere within the limits of 
 advocacy is a common sense mean which will 
 at least assist in a solution of these problems, 
 honesty always to be assumed. 
 
 Public preferment as a reward for per- 
 sonal service and not party service is a para- 
 dox. What is party service and what is per- 
 sonal service remains for determination in 
 each specific case. Its wise determination 
 does much to prevent those personal antago- 
 nisms which, starting in disappointment, as- 
 sume the light of a party controversy and 
 often result in militating against the carry- 
 ing out of party principles. The feature of 
 personality thus frequently is the real issue 
 when another is stated, and is equally im- 
 portant in political discussions, as far as 
 party management is concerned. 
 
 Some years ago in the City of New York
 
 98 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 a primary contest was held and opposition 
 developed to the local district leader because 
 he held the position of executive member 
 (leader) and chairman of the assembly dis- 
 trict committee. It was charged that was 
 too great a concentration of authority and 
 prevented the proper development of the dis- 
 trict organization. The leader of the opposi- 
 tion was successful, and immediately was 
 elected to fill these two positions as had his 
 predecessor. The result was satisfactory to 
 the majority of the voters because they pre- 
 ferred the personal qualities of the new in- 
 cumbent to those of the old one. Not even 
 a humorous reference was made to the in- 
 consistency of the result. It is not remark- 
 able that the judgment of a political leader 
 should be warped by the flattery of his 
 friends and adulation of those who expect to 
 profit through his assistance. He is supposed 
 to reflect the opinion of the majority of his 
 subordinate leaders; if he does not, and he 
 insists upon his own at the expense of theirs, 
 and the result of a nomination made by him 
 proves unsuccessful, he need not be surprised 
 if opposition develops at the next primary. 
 The local leaders who surrendered their own 
 opinions, which they believed were right, the 
 results justifying their belief, need not be
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE 99 
 
 surprised if they perceive a waning confi- 
 dence in their judgment among their follow- 
 ers. A leader to insure the continuance of 
 his authority must be able to sense in ad- 
 vance two things : the majority opinion of his 
 followers and the majority opinion of the 
 voters on election day. 
 
 The continued exercise of authority by an 
 individual warps his own judgment, unless 
 he is prepared to be guided in a substantial 
 degree by the majority sentiment of his sub- 
 ordinate leaders. Of the number entitled by 
 registration to vote on election day, a con- 
 siderable fraction fails to exercise the right. 
 Of those who are entitled by enrollment to 
 vote at the primaries an inconsiderable frac- 
 tion actually votes. It therefore happens 
 that the use of patronage, that is, the activi- 
 ties of men holding public office, contributes 
 in the largest degree to success at the pri- 
 maries. Men who recognize an obligation to 
 their leader for assistance in procuring them 
 office are apt to respond to the leader's re- 
 quest to canvass the enrolled voters and in- 
 duce them to vote. Unless some important 
 question is to be voted upon at a convention, 
 or there is an active contest by candidates 
 for delegates to gain an important nomina- 
 tion, the primaries practically go by default.
 
 100 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 As local leaders are expected to elect dele- 
 gates who will follow in convention the wishes 
 of those of acknowledged authority in the 
 organization, their success in securing such 
 delegates establishes their own position with 
 those in authority. When they are in accord 
 with the policy at the head of the organiza- 
 tion, they are in a position to call for the 
 assistance of that leader in securing endorse- 
 ments for the appointment of their subordi- 
 nates, who in turn are the measure of their 
 own strength. The relations of the head of 
 the organization with an executive who has 
 appointing power are important, not only for 
 his continuance in influence, but to all those 
 who admittedly act in concert with him. 
 Through the whole gamut of primary activity 
 runs the question of patronage. 
 
 Academically, this ought not to be so; 
 actually, it is. It always will be in some 
 degree as long as a service rendered to some- 
 one else can bring an advantage to the per- 
 son who renders it. An ideal but impossible 
 condition this side of heaven would be where 
 every man preferred to have nothing him- 
 self, and thought of other people before his 
 mind was allowed to dwell upon his own de- 
 sire. To expect this condition other than 
 approximately is to waste time in thinking
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE- im : 
 
 of it. When any man has succeeded in elect- 
 ing his immediate friends and co-believers as 
 delegates from any particular subdivision to 
 a larger one, he becomes in popular parlance 
 " the head of the delegation." He is con- 
 sulted as to his and their vote, it being as- 
 sumed that they will act in concert. The 
 practical endeavor is to secure patronage and 
 distribute it with fair equality among the 
 various local districts, say, in a county. If 
 the appointees are men who receive their re- 
 ward exclusively on account of personal serv- 
 ice rendered to the local leader in carrying 
 the primaries, the organization becomes 
 purely personal and represents nothing but 
 a combination of self-interests. 
 
 An equally valid claim for preferment 
 arises from efforts made to elect can- 
 didates by services during a campaign. 
 Such appointments are of real advan- 
 tage to the party and are recognized 
 by discriminating leaders. Unfortunately, 
 political issues are not always so clearly 
 drawn that men aggressively divide re- 
 garding them. The nearer those questions 
 approach merely to that of administration, 
 the nearer is the contest one between the ins 
 and outs. If at the primaries delegates were 
 to be elected to a convention which was to
 
 102 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 decide whether the party were to instruct its 
 members in Congress to vote for or against 
 a declaration of war, men's minds would be 
 centered on that proposition and not on pat- 
 ronage. When the questions involved are 
 confined chiefly to the wisdom or unwisdom 
 of administration, which does not attract so 
 much general attention, recourse is had to 
 the traditions of the party for the purpose 
 of interjecting some sentimental element 
 with which to arouse public interest. 
 
 When party influence and party leadership 
 are used as the inducing cause to force the 
 incumbent of public office to act contrary to 
 his opinion of right or wrong regarding what 
 is really a principle and not a non-essential, 
 they are subversive of good government. 
 Parties are judged by their representatives 
 in public office. Credit for wise appointments 
 should be given to the party at large as well 
 as to the individual who appoints. The op- 
 probrium of unwise appointment should be 
 borne by the party at large, but is usually 
 charged to the executive alone. 
 
 No special claim for wisdom is made by 
 the author in these discursive comments. 
 These are matters of common knowledge. It 
 seemed wise, however, to indulge in a mod- 
 erate analysis to show how political questions
 
 PARTIES, BOSSES, AND PATRONAGE 103 
 
 are affected by the personal equation, as are 
 all other questions pertaining to human life, 
 and how main issues may be obscured without 
 this knowledge. 
 
 With these facts in mind and the ballot in 
 hand any voter can contribute toward a bet- 
 terment of conditions, and the degree of im- 
 provement will be in direct ratio with the 
 degree of intelligent effort and time em- 
 ployed. 
 
 There is no magic or witchcraft involved 
 in any of these points discussed. They are 
 merely human nature in individuals empha- 
 sized by temperament and reflected in the 
 light of a particular circumstance. They all 
 yield to common sense analysis and common 
 sense conduct. A question decided in anger 
 is never solved. A knowledge of fundamen- 
 tals in politics or otherwise is a necessary 
 preliminary to a wise conclusion. If the con- 
 clusions do not follow logically from the 
 premises, they are not conclusions, but mere 
 opinions. Political parties, political organi- 
 zations, bosses, patronage, are only indicia 
 of a system of government depending upon 
 the wishes of the people expressed by means 
 of a ballot. If there is no ballot cast there 
 is no adequately expressed wish. Logic or 
 il logic, wisdom or unwisdom, selfishness or
 
 104 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 unselfishness, political morality or political 
 immorality, the ballot is the final arbiter and 
 the majority of those ballots show the com- 
 posite of American opinion and conduct.
 
 REFORM, REFORMERS, AND 
 REMEDIAL LEGISLATION
 
 V 
 
 REFORM, REFORMERS, AND 
 REMEDIAL LEGISLATION 
 
 Reform is a betterment of conditions ; a re- 
 former is a man who endeavors to secure 
 that betterment; remedial legislation is one 
 of the means employed to effect reform. Not 
 counting those in jail, there are few men who 
 would declare they did not desire reform. 
 There is hardly a condition in human experi- 
 ence that is accepted as a finality. The laws 
 governing health are subject to constant 
 change owing to the advance of science ; edu- 
 cational methods and systems are daily im- 
 proving as the result of study, and our public 
 school system is superior to many of the 
 colleges of a century ago; modes of trans- 
 portation, the transmission of information, 
 the development of industry, life incident to 
 crowded communities, all these are contin- 
 ually creating new conditions, and those new 
 conditions call for new provisions and regu- 
 lations. These lead up to a demand for 
 
 107
 
 108 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 further reform. Essentially, therefore, every 
 man is a reformer. This deduction applies 
 as much to questions within the realm of 
 politics as elsewhere. 
 
 The word " reformer," however, in 
 everyday conversation has acquired a sig- 
 nificance which is not fair or just, and 
 which does harm to the general idea 
 of reform itself. A reformer is sometimes 
 thought of as a busybody, mingling in 
 every other person's affairs and endeavoring 
 to create a general disturbance for his own 
 advantage. This has been brought about 
 largely by the heat of political controversy, 
 and largely by the fact that some men who 
 devote themselves honestly to the public wel- 
 fare and become intensely interested in one 
 particular line of thought, do not understand 
 why others with less information do not in- 
 stantly follow their lead. This is due not 
 to a lack of knowledge of the conditions 
 sought to be reformed but of the elements 
 of human nature incident to the controversy. 
 It does not aid reform for a reformer to 
 assert that the man who opposes him is an 
 obstructionist inimical to the morals of re- 
 form and of unclean motive. This is as im- 
 proper as it is for others in their controversy 
 with the reformer to dodge the real issues
 
 REFORM AND REFORMERS 109 
 
 and oppose the proposed reform because they 
 do not happen to like the proposed reform's 
 advocate. On account of the multitude of 
 human activities and the variety of interests 
 in a community, reforms, as a rule, come 
 singly and are the natural evolution of ex- 
 perience. 
 
 It may be discovered, as was recently the 
 case in New York City, that numbers of petty 
 merchants were selling from undersized 
 measures and doctored weights. That sub- 
 ject has been taken up by itself, a more thor- 
 ough inspection ordered, false weights and 
 measures destroyed, and endeavors made to 
 inaugurate a more honest system. That par- 
 ticular reform was not held in abeyance un- 
 til the cumbersome system of taxation in the 
 City of New York could be remodeled. An 
 abuse may be brought to the attention of the 
 public as to the manner in which a chattel 
 mortgage is foreclosed upon the sewing ma- 
 chine of a poor woman. Public indignation 
 is properly aroused and a reform in the pro- 
 cedure of the foreclosure of chattel mort- 
 gages is demanded. While this demand is 
 going on, however, the general public only 
 has in mind the particular incident, we will 
 say, an extreme case of hardship. The pub 
 lie willingly follows the lead of the reformer
 
 110 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 and demands a new law, although that re- 
 former is seeking a statute which repeals 
 the procedure of a number of years and sub- 
 stitutes a new method unduly intricate. It 
 may be that this very intricacy prevents the 
 sale of machines to persons who can only 
 purchase by installment. The fact is over- 
 looked that in the incident under discussion 
 the brutality may not lie in the law but in 
 the agent who executed it without any con- 
 sideration whatever for human feelings. 
 The result of this may be the passage of 
 legislative enactment which in experience 
 proves cumbersome, later requires an amend- 
 ment, and gradually goes back to the original 
 situation or worse. 
 
 An honest desire to perfect a reform 
 with the best motives in mind, hastening 
 to an accomplishment without thorough 
 study of a sufficient number of special 
 cases thus often does not prove of substan- 
 tial benefit. As a rule no law furnishes a 
 generally permanent benefit which is not con- 
 sequent upon the most careful examination 
 and study of the entire field in which the 
 single incident has attracted the public at- 
 tention. Unless the general public has pe- 
 culiar cognizance of the demand for change, 
 the law becomes without effect, its enforce-
 
 REFORM AND REFORMERS 111 
 
 ment a cause of irritation, and its non-en- 
 forcement a positive moral harm. 
 
 In political activities reforms are thought 
 of chiefly in connection with administra- 
 tion. The development of corporations and 
 the tremendous changes they have brought 
 about in commercial enterprises, the fierce- 
 ness of competition, has resulted in combina- 
 tions in business, which, growing out 
 of the desire for a speedy accumula- 
 tion, has affected the price of com- 
 modities in greatest demand by persons 
 of more limited means. Practices of this 
 nature are most difficult to deal with. 
 There are on the one hand to be considered 
 the rights of contract and property and on 
 the other hand the modification of modes of 
 life, which necessarily are changed by the 
 inability to purchase and have at prices to 
 which people have been long accustomed. In 
 the fierceness of these discussions it is diffi- 
 cult for the general public to understand 
 where the real equities are, after being 
 aroused by agitation to a point of angry 
 protest. This, if it lasts until election day, 
 results in the selection of legislators pledged 
 to extreme modification, which would ulti- 
 mately be as detrimental as the conditions 
 sought to be improved.
 
 112 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 It has been stated before in these pages 
 that the thing most difficult of accomplish- 
 ment in American political life is to have 
 the mind of all the public directed to a single 
 thought at the same time. Except in cases 
 of positive national danger this rarely occurs. 
 It naturally follows that from time to time 
 men pursuing their ordinary desire for 
 change, look about to discover an excuse for 
 a possible reform. The discovery they make 
 may or may not be of a serious nature. To 
 enable them to carry out their plans and 
 have the satisfaction of accomplishing the 
 reform, it is necessary to persuade the people 
 that they are abused. Many are thus made 
 unhappy and discontented who were living 
 in a manner comparatively satisfactory to 
 themselves, and who were unconscious of the 
 disability with which it was claimed they 
 were affected. It is a peculiarity of the 
 forced reform that the man who brings it 
 about usually demands his reward at once at 
 the hands of the public, and that reward is 
 frequently in the form of public office. There 
 is no objection to this even, providing there 
 was a real wrong to be righted, a real abuse 
 to be remedied, and the mode of appeal to 
 the public was truthful and temperate. It 
 is impossible to expect perfection, and little
 
 REFORM AND REFORMERS 113 
 
 would be accomplished if there was not some- 
 where some hope of reward. Usually there 
 are sufficient thoughtful, resourceful men in 
 a community with means, given to the broad 
 study of conditions, and who are prepared 
 to give the wisest conclusions from their in- 
 vestigations. These broad-minded philan- 
 thropists furnish the sieve through which are 
 sifted the incongruities which grow out of 
 agitation and the seeking of too speedy re- 
 sults. 
 
 In densely crowded centers the demand for 
 reform legislation is of almost daily occur- 
 rence. Regulations as to the construction of 
 buildings, provisions to prevent fire, protec- 
 tion of the public safety against criminals, or- 
 dinances governing traffic and violation of 
 the laws of health, all these and a hundred 
 others are constantly demanding thought and 
 remedy. The opportunities they present for 
 unwise agitation equally demand thoughtful 
 and serious consideration. Usually the exist- 
 ing laws, almost forgotten, or their execution 
 left in abeyance, would suffice. The inclina- 
 tion toward novelty demands new regulations 
 which of themselves must be experimental. 
 There is thus continuously a state of resl 
 lessness full both of harm and advantage. 
 The time of legislators, apart from that they
 
 114 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 should give in perfecting the laws regarding 
 the administration of the great departments 
 of the State, is encroached upon not only 
 with demands for specific enactments, but for 
 decision as between a variety of remedies 
 suggested. The limit is reached when the 
 question is asked not whether a particular 
 remedy shall be applied to an existing evil, 
 but whose remedy shall be adopted. Many 
 a valuable proposed reform has been de- 
 feated by unwise advocacy. Many an alleged 
 reform that later proves to be insufficient has 
 been put upon the books through the honest 
 but unwise advocacy of men whose charac- 
 ters stood the test of sincerity. 
 
 In making these comments the writer can 
 accomplish nothing more than to direct his 
 reader's attention to a general situation in 
 the hope that in all efforts toward reform 
 every thoughtful man will give his best en- 
 deavors with calm and discriminating judg- 
 ment, aided thereto by a possibly clearer 
 knowledge of the motives of the men inter- 
 ested. Many of the best reforms experienced 
 by the public have been the result of honest 
 ambitions of men in competition for the ap- 
 proval of the public. It is not consistent for 
 political parties to exclusively claim the right 
 to inaugurate and institute reforms and to
 
 REFORM AND REFORMERS 115 
 
 criticise the efforts of those outside the or- 
 ganization any more than it is for those who 
 are outside to charge existing conditions ex- 
 clusively to the party which may be domi- 
 nant at that particular time. 
 
 It is popular to assert that this or 
 that question should be kept out of poli- 
 tics. 
 
 As a matter of fact, under a system of un- 
 restricted male franchise, all questions prac- 
 tically, apart from religion, are political 
 questions. Even the question of taxation of 
 church property through assessments for im- 
 provements is a political question, because 
 that policy has to be determined by the voter 
 who expresses his opinion through his repre- 
 sentative in the legislature. The question of 
 j)rotection of the public health, while not a 
 party question at all, is a political question. 
 The inspector who examines a spot of con- 
 tagion is appointed by a mayor who is se- 
 lected through the medium of the ballot. The 
 fire-escape, means of safety at the moment 
 of conflagration, is inspected by a man sub- 
 ordinate to an official appointed or elected. 
 The price of commodities is affected politi- 
 cally in so far that voters are to pass upon 
 the selection of legislators who are to pass 
 laws governing combinations which seek to
 
 116 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 control prices. Until the people appreciate 
 these simple facts and understand what is 
 almost too evident to require statement, that 
 laws are made by men and enforced by men 
 and the makers and enforcers are selected 
 by other men casting their ballots, there can 
 be no genuine reform. It is most desirable 
 that individuals or parties or associations or 
 organizations of whatever kind should busy 
 themselves in the study of conditions capa- 
 ble of improvement. It is desirable that 
 the facts brought out by such investigation 
 should be constantly kept before the public 
 mind and the public constantly called upon 
 to pass its judgment upon them. All this is 
 a part of the doctrine and practice of self- 
 government. Mental and moral and political 
 enervation prevent not only progress but 
 even the demand for reform. There is a 
 wide distinction between reform and a re- 
 former, whether the alleged reformer is as- 
 sociated with a political party or not. In 
 popular discussion there is a clear difference 
 between a reformer and a person interested 
 in the reform. This latter distinction comes, 
 not illogically, from the misunderstanding of 
 men and motives during a political campaign. 
 When a man claims to be a reformer per se, 
 he should expect to have his motives sub-
 
 REFORM AND REFORMERS 117 
 
 jected to the strictest scrutiny. When a re- 
 former insists that a particular reform can 
 only be properly administered by himself, his 
 position is untenable. When those in a posi- 
 tion to make laws covering a particular re- 
 form refuse the necessary legislation because 
 the reform is advocated by a particular in- 
 dividual, their position is equally untenable. 
 The main difficulty in effecting reform by 
 legislation is the insistence that it shall be 
 done at once and that the judgment of par- 
 ticular investigators shall be instantly ac- 
 cepted as final. The party managers at that 
 time are appealed to for their assistance, and 
 if it is not rendered without question they 
 are apt to be characterized as obstructionists 
 of the public will. The fact is, the public has 
 not really expressed its opinion on the ques- 
 tion involved. A legislature and particular 
 advocates acting in advance of the public's 
 real knowledge are endeavoring to solve 
 questions for that public. In case the reform 
 is not passed, each side asks the public to 
 condemn the other. If the party in power 
 acquiesces in passing a reform the contro- 
 versy still continues, the question then being 
 which is more important, to have thought 
 of the reform first or to pass the law for 
 it. That parties and individuals are so jeal-
 
 118 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 ous of the approval of the general public, 
 so desirous to appear to serve it and to actu- 
 ally serve it, is the best protection for the 
 public and the best guarantee of improve- 
 ment.
 
 THE PRESS AGENT
 
 VI 
 THE PRESS AGENT 
 
 The necessity for publicity in politics has 
 produced almost a new vocation in that of 
 the press agent. 
 
 Competition in business requires publicity 
 to apprise the public of the value of the mer- 
 chandise offered for sale. Goods and wares, 
 whatever their intrinsic value, kept on the 
 shelves without advertisement yield little 
 profit. 
 
 The conduct of individuals and of parties 
 in their relationship to the general public 
 would have their influence much lessened if 
 the public were not fully informed of their 
 objects and what it was claimed was being 
 done for it. Ordinary newsgathering does 
 not always indicate the ideas sought to be 
 conveyed. 
 
 Men who are looking for preferment from 
 
 the public and men in official and semi-official 
 
 positions frequently employ press agents 
 
 whose business it is to furnish to the news- 
 
 121
 
 122 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 papers special information. The duties of 
 this position are sometimes carried on simul- 
 taneously with those of a secretary. Some- 
 times they are performed by a person 
 occupying another position. As a rule they 
 are recruited from the ranks of newspaper 
 reporters. There is every reason why news- 
 gatherers are best fitted for this field of ac- 
 tivity. With their professional experience 
 the range of their information is remarkably 
 broad. They are necessarily keen observers. 
 They are usually shrewd judges of men. 
 Their duties bring them into association with 
 men in every walk of life from the highest 
 to the lowest. They instinctively know what 
 is of human interest and know how to pre- 
 sent it in a form that will hold that interest. 
 In reporting their observations they run the 
 gamut of human experience. When their 
 specialty has been reporting political events 
 their advice is frequently sought both by 
 their editors and others who are looking for 
 special knowledge. They are able to antici- 
 pate, in many instances, whether the public 
 would be likely to approve or disapprove of 
 a given line of political conduct. 
 
 When these reporters are assigned to the 
 national or a state capital or to a city hall 
 in a large city, they sometimes become as
 
 THE PRESS AGENT 123 
 
 familiar with the questions of legislation and 
 administration as those charged with the 
 actual responsibility. 
 
 In recent years appointments to political 
 positions of high importance have been made 
 from the ranks of reporters and usually with 
 admitted success. Their knowledge of men 
 enables them to handle men, and they have 
 met the demands of practical administration. 
 However wise the acts of an administration 
 may be, if the public does not know the actual 
 facts the effect is lost. A wise administrator 
 sees that these facts are furnished. Pros- 
 pective candidates and those in charge of 
 political movements frequently employ these 
 press agents to keep constantly before the 
 public their own virtues and accomplish- 
 ments for the instruction of the public and by 
 much reiteration try to gain its approval. 
 The press agent from his training as a news- 
 paper reporter understands what is recog- 
 nized as news by a city editor and is nat- 
 urally able to get much matter into print 
 which would be rejected had it been pre- 
 pared and presented by one less experienced. 
 The very fact of the nature of his employ- 
 ment opens up opportunities for information 
 which are denied to the average reporter. 
 
 Prospective candidates and candidates who
 
 124 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 cannot afford a press agent are at a great 
 disadvantage. So interested is the public 
 at the time of a campaign that the large daily 
 newspapers usually assign reporters to the 
 duty of accompanying candidates on their 
 tours, so that they can report not only what 
 is of general interest and which would ordi- 
 narily go over the Associated Press wires, 
 but can add items of peculiar personal inter- 
 est. These particular items are not infre- 
 quently furnished by the candidate. At the 
 time of the campaign the public is especially 
 entitled to know as much as possible about 
 those persons between whom it must make 
 a selection. Not infrequently campaigns are 
 conducted quite as much around the qualities 
 of a candidate as they are around the issues 
 declared in the platform. Public officials are 
 not required to draw upon their own purses 
 for this luxury, as the same result is accom- 
 plished through a public appointment. It 
 has come to be recognized in practice that 
 a newspaper man can wisely be appointed to 
 fill an office closely associated with that of 
 the executive, as, for instance, that of secre- 
 tary. The attitude of the press toward an 
 executive is not unaffected by the tact and 
 judgment of the reporter-secretary. Many 
 of the wrinkles caused by the curt and tact-
 
 THE PRESS AGENT 125 
 
 less personal manner of executives are 
 ironed out by that same secretary. It is 
 more than human to expect that reporters 
 who are compelled by the direction of the 
 city editor to seek interviews and to gather 
 information in that pursuit from public of- 
 ficials should not be influenced by the man- 
 ner of those officials in this intercourse. The 
 press bureau thus established by an execu- 
 tive becomes of great importance both to 
 him individually and to his administration. 
 Rumors of this or that fact caused to be 
 printed evoke comment editorial and other- 
 wise, and the public pulse is taken. If rumor 
 develops favorable comment, the actual con- 
 dition will later develop. If the opposite 
 occurs, some contemplated project in legis- 
 lation may be abandoned. The same press 
 agency is used as a practical means of dis- 
 paraging the motives and conduct of those 
 who disagree with the policy or the adminis- 
 tration of an executive. It is a tribute to 
 the sensitiveness of men in political activity, 
 whether official or not, that they are pecu- 
 liarly and properly keen to the attitude of 
 the public toward them. They know that a 
 wrong impression instilled in the public mind 
 may react at the polls and their continuation 
 in official life be terminated. It is entirely
 
 126 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 natural that public men should wish to have 
 their best efforts emphasized and their errors 
 in judgment minimized. While a certain de- 
 gree of self-exploitation is not only natural 
 but proper and desirable, it may be carried 
 to too great an extent. Sometimes this tend- 
 ency is carried to a ridiculous degree, and 
 men are not satisfied with the publicity given 
 to their official acts but indulge in undue ex- 
 ploitation of their personal characteristics. 
 It is carefully noted that up to the early age 
 of ten they had never even tasted whiskey, 
 and from then to the age of fifteen they 
 had never struck their parents. The in- 
 nocent prattle of childhood is quoted as 
 having been prophetic of some future great- 
 ness. If it is desired to demonstrate to the 
 public that the man is self-made, viewed in 
 the light of his meager opportunities, the 
 public is quietly informed that in early years 
 he went without food to buy books, and, con- 
 scious of the great future before him, in or- 
 der that he might be particularly available 
 for use by the public, he indulged in none 
 of the ordinary pastimes of life. Every mo- 
 ment was used in preparing for his lifework. 
 It takes but little reflection with these things 
 in mind for a seeker after light regarding 
 candidates or officials, if he has any knowl-
 
 THE PRESS AGENT 127 
 
 edge of human nature himself, to make 
 proper allowances for these weaknesses and 
 come to a relatively correct conclusion. The 
 abuses of exploitation are shown when a 
 candidate or official with opportunities to get 
 matter printed through the resourcefulness 
 of his press representative deliberately starts 
 what he knows are only rumors to the dis- 
 paragement of an adversary. The public is 
 then treated to harrowing tales of supposed 
 early misconduct. It is told, especially if 
 there is a prohibition sentiment in the com- 
 munity, that this opposing candidate once 
 became drunk when only six years old, and 
 that in the face of a maternal prohibition he 
 actually smoked cigarettes before arriving at 
 the age of ten. A mistake in counting change 
 when employed as a clerk is magnified into 
 a defalcation, and a genuinely wholesome 
 character is sacrificed on the altar of contest 
 with practically no means or time to meet 
 the charges; the public must still be the 
 deciding, discriminating judge. Whether the 
 practice referred to shall continue or not, 
 depends upon the conscience of the men in 
 a position to instigate it. 
 
 The first impressions gained by the public 
 are apt to be lasting. If a prospective can- 
 didate creates the idea that he has a genuine
 
 128 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 and unselfish desire to serve the public, that 
 impression after nomination helps him ma- 
 terially at the polls. If he has a particularly 
 dangerous competitor for nomination, he nat- 
 urally desires that the public should not have 
 so favorable an opinion of his competitor as 
 of himself and employs the means just sug- 
 gested. If there is some topic of peculiar 
 interest occupying the mind of the public, 
 such as the encroachment of the corporations 
 upon individual rights, rumors are sure to 
 appear in the press that one candidate has 
 always been in favor of the general public 
 as against corporations from his earliest 
 years, and that the other is actually in the 
 pay of these corporations. The responsibil- 
 ity for starting rumors or making misstate- 
 ments by one candidate regarding another 
 is not justified by the excitement of competi- 
 tion. It is entirely allowable to argue from 
 facts regarding an individual not at that mo- 
 ment in public office that the characteristics 
 indicated by those facts will preclude him 
 from being an efficient public official. Un- 
 truth is not justifiable in politics any more 
 than it is elsewhere. Apart entirely from 
 principle, frankness and truthfulness toward 
 the public is the best policy in the long run. 
 This may not be the highest standard of con-
 
 THE PRESS AGENT 129 
 
 duct. It is better to be decent and honest 
 with a selfish purpose than not to be decent 
 or honest at all. Doubtful practice is bound 
 to be discovered, if only by political oppo- 
 nents, and through them the information of 
 it is acquired by the public in general. As 
 a matter of moral principle a man should 
 not lie. If he does not recognize morals it 
 takes but slight argument to demonstrate 
 that lying must be founded on mere vanity, 
 for this vanity assumes that a man who lies 
 is so clever and his statements so cunningly 
 made that no two men will ever compare 
 notes regarding him and discover his dis- 
 crepancies. The fact is they always will and 
 always do, although it may be at so subse- 
 quent a period that much harm has been 
 done. On the other hand, if the public 
 through press agents or otherwise finds it- 
 self justified in believing in the truthfulness 
 and sincerity of a man, it will pardon much 
 that may result from his errors in judgment 
 or unnecessary zeal. There is hardly any act 
 in life which may not be made provocative of 
 good or conducive to evil. Press agents and 
 publicity bureaus are not confined to indi- 
 viduals. Bureaus of municipal research 
 have been recently established whose very 
 wise pin pose lb to carefully examine into
 
 130 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 the results of municipal administration and 
 give those results to the public in succinct 
 and readable form at frequent intervals. 
 This course is more apt to result in just 
 opinions in the public mind when these sub- 
 jects are examined calmly than when the 
 same facts, however truthful, are only given 
 to the public when it is excited by cam- 
 paign strife. Other organizations have 
 been perfected whereby at the national and 
 state capitals similar services are performed. 
 Services rendered to the public without the 
 demand for immediate recognition of those 
 who perform them are apt to be unappre- 
 ciated, but are equally of lasting value. Pub- 
 licity is thus an instrument for good or harm, 
 according to the manner of its use. Knowl- 
 edge of its employment should enable one 
 to judge of actual conditions with reasonable 
 accuracy.
 
 OFFICE SEEKING AND OFFICE 
 HOLDING
 
 vn 
 
 OFFICE SEEKING AND OFFICE 
 HOLDING 
 
 It does not justify a claim for brilliancy 
 on the part of the writer to say that there 
 has recently developed to a marked degree 
 a tendency toward general criticism and 
 an unwillingness to accept any condition 
 without comment. This particularly applies 
 to political life. It may be that men have 
 more confidence in their own judgment than 
 they formerly had. It may be that their con- 
 fidence has been shattered. The fact re- 
 mains that the public generally has come to 
 look down on men in public office instead of 
 looking up to them. They have come to dis- 
 credit the motives of candidates rather than 
 give them the benefit of the doubt. The rea- 
 son for this may possibly be a comparison 
 of the individual with an ideal occupant of 
 the position. This tendency is not provoca- 
 tive of good, and does much to discourage 
 honest effort. Whatever may be the motive 
 
 133
 
 134 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 behind the remark, it is a common habit to 
 cast slurs on the man who seeks public office. 
 This is not justified either in principle or 
 practice. There is no reason why a man 
 believing in his own capabilities should not 
 desire to attain public office and receive all 
 the honor and dignity incidental thereto. 
 This gives him prestige with his friends, 
 makes him a potential factor in the commu- 
 nity, and responds to the instincts for better- 
 ment incident to human nature. It is not 
 more remarkable that a man should seek for 
 himself the satisfaction that he may obtain 
 from service to the public than it is that he 
 should seek to satisfy himself in business or 
 professional life. It would indicate a deplor- 
 able condition if men were not responsive 
 to such instincts. It is not more discreditable 
 for one man to wish to be elected an alder- 
 man than it is for another to wish to be 
 elected President of the United States. It 
 no more justifies disparagement of motive 
 for a man to use all honorable means toward 
 appointment to a clerkship than for one of 
 high social opportunities to desire the dig- 
 nity of a position in the cabinet which is sub- 
 ordinate to the President. The test is one 
 of motive. Competition for position of it- 
 self should increase the number of seekers,
 
 OFFICE SEEKING AND HOLDING 135 
 
 and by their very number the public lias 
 a better opportunity for selection. If the 
 award of public favor through intelligent 
 effort is not a prize worth seeking, then the 
 opinion of the public is not worth having. 
 The fact that a man seeks office through the 
 instrumentality of party influence has noth- 
 ing to do with the question. If it is taken 
 for granted that the public is worth serving, 
 and that to serve the public is a laudable am- 
 bition, there will be no cause for captious 
 criticism of those who entertain that ambi- 
 tion. If this is admitted, an important ele- 
 ment now contributing toward restlessness 
 in political affairs will be eliminated. If it 
 is laudable to desire public office, it is not 
 laudable to seek it when pretending not to. 
 It is, of course, more flattering to a man to 
 be discovered by the general public and 
 to meet a request on the part of that public 
 to enter its service. It rarely occurs that an 
 individual is so generally known by virtue of 
 his talents and experience that the public 
 makes such a demand. He is ordinarily 
 brought to the public's attention through 
 some accidental circumstance in connection 
 with a public question. If he then demon- 
 strates his capacity, the opportunity de- 
 manded follows. The fact that he responds
 
 136 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 to it and does his duty does not mean that 
 he has been martyrized for the public. It 
 means that he has acceded to a demand that 
 meets his desires. If he claims to be doing 
 all this at constant disparagement and loss 
 to himself, either that service is not ingenu- 
 ous and altruistic or he is not giving his 
 service in the spirit he claims. Ingenuous 
 service furnishes its own reward. On ac- 
 count of the difficulty of an individual in 
 bringing himself to the notice of the general 
 public, it happens that he seeks preferment 
 most usually through the medium of party 
 influence. The party is always before the 
 public, appointments have to be made by the 
 executive, the character of those appoint- 
 ments are a part of the life of the party and 
 its means for carrying out policies for which 
 it stands. As citizens cannot be always in- 
 formed of the detailed conduct of particular 
 holders of minor positions in public office, 
 they naturally look to the party of which 
 these appointees are members, and they 
 judge of the service of the individuals 
 by the general results of party administra- 
 tion. 
 
 The desire to be recognized by the public 
 is so intense that frequently men will ask 
 their friends or hire their acquaintances to
 
 OFFICE SEEKING AND HOLDING 137 
 
 stir up a public demand, and then with mock 
 modesty will yield to it. Then they become 
 convinced after a period of reflection that the 
 demand was real and feel that anyone else 
 who seeks preferment must necessarily have 
 low standards. Persons in this position are 
 annoyed at the importunities to which they 
 are exposed by others seeking subordinate 
 appointments. They have no excuse for such 
 annoyance. It is incidental to our system of 
 government. Appointments have to be made 
 by somebody, and there will always be some- 
 one wanting them. One of the chief duties 
 of high office is selecting subordinates. 
 
 It sometimes happens that a successful 
 candidate, exhausted by the efforts to obtain 
 a nomination and an election, but deeply con- 
 scious of the fact that he has attained it, 
 adds to the general public discontent with 
 office-seekers by formal addresses stating the 
 annoyance to which he is subjected by those 
 who seek his official recognition. The public, 
 ignorant of the efforts made by the success- 
 ful candidate to secure his position, and he 
 may be an entirely useful public servant, un- 
 justly gives its disapproval to the applicants 
 for minor positions, harm results to those 
 who do not merit it, and the usefulness of 
 the actual appointees is minimized.
 
 138 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 It is unquestionably far more manly to 
 declare a willingness or even a desire to 
 accept public office, if such is the fact, and 
 to endeavor by all honorable means to attain 
 it, and then to perform the duties of the office 
 with due recognition of the honor that has 
 been conferred, rather than to give the public 
 the false impression that the favor has been 
 conferred upon it. 
 
 The writer recalls an incident relative to 
 the election of delegates to the last Republi- 
 can National Convention. A distinguished 
 citizen of the City of New York properly 
 wished the honor of being a delegate to that 
 Convention, and asked a local leader to 
 do what he could to secure his selection by 
 congressional convention. The leader gladly 
 responded, gave his best efforts, and secured 
 promises from a number of delegates. Un- 
 expected conditions arose and other candi- 
 dates developed. The distinguished citizen 
 announced that his name could not be used 
 as a means of creating factional strife, and 
 his adherents were left in the embarrassing 
 position of having tried to aid him at his 
 request and then being deserted at the first 
 sign of trouble, when the proposed candidate 
 was only called upon to remain in one posi- 
 tion long enough to permit despised local
 
 OFFICE SEEKING AND HOLDING 139 
 
 leaders to gain for him the honor he sought. 
 He was willing to accept the honor, but un- 
 willing to have anyone know that he desired 
 it. The same gentleman had frequently in 
 public utterances deprecated the unseemly 
 scramble for office. He sought honor, another 
 may seek only the sure pay from public em- 
 ployment; there is no difference in principle. 
 The willingness to give the best service one 
 can to the public, and actually doing it, justi- 
 fies the motive for seeking office and conduct 
 while in it. 
 
 It is well known among party managers 
 who are accustomed keenly to observe the 
 actions of men in politics, that the sooner a 
 candidate nominated gets facts about himself 
 before the public, the sooner he gathers sup- 
 port to himself. This initial momentum adds 
 greatly towards bringing about a favorable 
 result. 
 
 Within a few years, in the City of New York, 
 another gentleman with laudable ambition to 
 hold public office, caused his name to be men- 
 tioned in connection with two separate offices. 
 With an equally laudable ambition he had in 
 mind to leave no stone unturned to secure 
 one or the other. Before the convention met 
 his lithographs were prepared with his name 
 upon them, but the title of the office for which
 
 140 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 he was to be a candidate was blank. Upon 
 his nomination the office was filled in and he 
 became an aggressive and successful candi- 
 date. In all of this the writer can see noth- 
 ing more than forehanded means, not un- 
 worthy, to accomplish an honest result. Dur- 
 ing the preliminary efforts for nomination 
 the gentleman in question exhibited a coyness 
 and diffidence that suggested that only by 
 physical force could he be compelled to take 
 a nomination. At the same time full infor- 
 mation was given to the public through the 
 press of the aggressive efforts of others to 
 seek the same nomination, and he himself 
 furnished the arguments why those others, 
 possibly his equals, would prove undesirable 
 candidates. After being installed in his new 
 position the person referred to publicly ex- 
 pressed the annoyance to which he had been 
 subjected through the merciless importuni- 
 ties of those who sought his official favor. 
 This incident amounts to nothing in itself 
 except as one of glaring inconsistency, and 
 is one of a number which keep the public 
 mind in a condition whereby it unconsciously 
 and readily yields to the general tendency 
 toward disparagement of all seekers of 
 public office. If in this instance the can- 
 didate had been frank and ingenuous, his
 
 OFFICE SEEKING AND HOLDING 141 
 
 nomination would have been secured with 
 less effort, his election would have aroused 
 more enthusiasm, and he would not have been 
 responsible for much undeserved harm in- 
 flicted on others who had as much right to 
 desire advancement as had he. It would have 
 been better for the public had he been more 
 honest in motive. 
 
 Sometimes independent movements are 
 started outside of political organizations to 
 secure nominations which arouse general in- 
 terest against a local party where the ad- 
 ministration under ordinary circumstances 
 represents a preponderance of votes. In 
 Philadelphia and in New York City this has 
 of late years not infrequently been at- 
 tempted. The discussion surrounding such 
 a movement has a great tendency to arouse 
 unusual interest, and men are stirred who 
 otherwise might have no participation in the 
 campaign whatever. Conference committees 
 are appointed and nominations that are 
 above the average result at the hands of all 
 parties. Those movements, however, are 
 represented by committees. Those commit- 
 tees have sub-committees, and the results are 
 worked out according to time-honored politi- 
 cal traditions. The strongest minds have the 
 greatest influence, and individuals of widest
 
 142 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 knowledge of conditions being most poten- 
 tial, are governing factors. The popularity 
 and success of nominations thus made depend 
 upon the ability of the men actually respon- 
 sible for them to analyze what is in the minds 
 of the citizens, and not what they think ought 
 to be there. It takes rare judgment on the 
 part of a candidate, however selected, to 
 know how to appeal to the public on behalf 
 of himself and those for whom he stands. 
 The attitude of the public toward a candidate 
 in a campaign, however faltering, and its at- 
 titude toward him when he takes official posi- 
 tion are strangely different. The public ac- 
 cepts as a rule the good faith of men of its 
 own selection at the polls, and for a time at 
 least looks up to them and listens to their 
 utterances with careful respect. What a can- 
 didate says before he is elected is discounted. 
 What he says soon after becoming an 
 official is liable to be accepted as wisdom 
 founded upon the knowledge assumed to be 
 in the mind of anyone who occupies that par- 
 ticular position. The public does not stop 
 to think that it requires time in public office 
 to acquire actual knowledge, and that what 
 is uttered early in an incumbency is merely 
 opinion. The American people have an in- 
 herent respect for official authority. They do
 
 OFFICE SEEKING AND HOLDING 143 
 
 not always pay proper respect to those exer- 
 cising that authority. 
 
 The public really by its votes only grants 
 a lease to exercise authority and does not 
 give a final title. The demand for novelty 
 and the fact that its absence may indicate the 
 inability to furnish it, and that opposition 
 can be readily stirred up, forces an official 
 sometimes to continually suggest modifica- 
 tions and experiments in law which are 
 fraught with no permanent benefit. It can- 
 not be possible that the mere taking of a 
 public office instantly insures the possession 
 of wisdom. Legislation, according to law, 
 should originate in legislatures. The execu- 
 tive has done his full duty when he makes 
 clear and explicit recommendations to the 
 lawmaking body as to what he considers will 
 insure an improvement of conditions. Upon 
 the adoption of his suggestions, if they de- 
 velop to be wise, he, of course, receives, and 
 should receive, popular commendation. Men 
 in legislative bodies are equally jealous of 
 their reputation. They may differ as to the 
 wisdom of particular proposals. If that dif- 
 ference results in a general exchange of views 
 between members of the legislature and the 
 executive, although the result may not be 
 in detail what either desires, but something
 
 144 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 that meets their common judgment, the pub- 
 lic has been benefited. If to the public view 
 the differences of opinion assume the form 
 of a fight between an executive and a law- 
 making body, and those observing the con- 
 test divide themselves between friends and 
 enemies of the executive, the effect of the 
 law, no matter what it is, is largely lost. The 
 people speak through representatives in law- 
 making bodies their opinions as to what laws 
 should be passed. The executive does his 
 best duty when he gives his full efforts after 
 recommendation to the carrying out of laws. 
 
 These statements have been made in gen- 
 eral form, as they apply as well to the capital 
 of the nation as to the capital of the state. 
 The influence of an executive through the 
 power of appointment and the solicitude on 
 the part of legislators lest the executive veto 
 some measure of theirs because they do not 
 approve proposed measures of his, have re- 
 sulted in the exercise of influence by execu- 
 tives never contemplated by the originators 
 of the Constitution. 
 
 When the public appears to demand some- 
 thing, whether it actually does or not, the 
 demand is for instant action. In the eyes of 
 the people the executive then appears as the 
 instrument for accomplishment. He is, in-
 
 OFFICE SEEKING AND HOLDING 145 
 
 deed, in a way, that instrument, and a most 
 forceful one. If his official authority and his 
 personal influence are combined, and he em- 
 ploys every leverage that he can to influence 
 those who may differ with him officially, the 
 result he seeks is apt to be accomplished. If 
 it is accomplished on account of the pressure 
 he is able to exercise on individuals, the bene- 
 fits are not permanent because there will be 
 another executive and another legislature. If 
 the results represent a combination of the 
 legislative mind and executive opinion, the 
 result will be more permanent and more bene- 
 ficial. The influence of patronage and power 
 of veto, the readiness of the public to listen 
 to the utterances of an executive, a single 
 individual, rather than to the opinions of 
 a legislator, one of a number, make his actual 
 influence tremendous. The balance between 
 the executive and the legislative branches has 
 been destroyed in practice, if not in theory. 
 Anyone who expects that an executive with 
 full knowledge of his official authority, alive 
 to all that may be accomplished by it and 
 exhilarated by public applause or demand, 
 as the case may be, can be literally and finally 
 impersonal and devoid of every human char- 
 acteristic, expects much. If the public can 
 secure an approximation to normal condi-
 
 146 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 tions it does well. The sobering effect of 
 responsible authority, the desire to merit 
 the favorable verdict of calm-minded men, 
 the level-headed judgment which discrimi- 
 nates between applause and approval, have 
 brought the general standard of American 
 executives to a level to which the people 
 " can point with pride." 
 
 The securing of capable judges is one of 
 the continued problems of American politics. 
 The Federal system has much to commend it 
 in its appointive system of tenure during 
 good behavior. There is substantial argu- 
 ment in favor of the position that the execu- 
 tive can acquire better knowledge of capa- 
 bilities for judicial responsibility than can 
 the people acting as a body. Their knowl- 
 edge must be more or less limited and their 
 opportunities for acquiring such knowledge 
 more limited. In the states the elective 
 system generally prevails, with tenure lim- 
 ited, and with higher salaries. The same in- 
 stinctive desire for professional preferment 
 applies here as it does in civil walks. There 
 is no just reason why a lawyer, honestly be- 
 lieving in his own capacity and desiring to 
 be elevated to the bench, should not seek elec- 
 tion or appointment to that honorable posi- 
 tion. Human nature does not vary with law-
 
 OFFICE SEEKING AND HOLDING 147 
 
 yers any more than it does with laymen. The 
 nominations are sought with equal energy 
 and sometimes, unfortunately, with methods 
 which cannot be as readily justified. The 
 authority of a judge is so final and so habit- 
 ually acquiesced in by the public that there 
 must be a degree of consecration which is 
 genuine and final. For a lawyer with a five 
 thousand dollar practice to seek a judgeship 
 with a ten thousand dollar salary is neither 
 unnatural nor discreditable, but when in 
 seeking this preferment he alleges that he 
 is doing it at a sacrifice, he not only deceives 
 the public but makes himself a cause for 
 laughter at the hands of those who are provi- 
 dentially gifted with a sense of humor. 
 Elected, it is not necessary for him to view 
 his former professional brethren with dis- 
 dain or sadness. Fortunately this does not 
 generally occur, but men are occasionally ele- 
 vated to the bench by accidental circum- 
 stances, who forget that their greatest assist- 
 ants are the lawyers practicing before them, 
 and this attitude of mind is indicated by un- 
 necessary and uncalled for comments. The 
 judge for the public to seek, it seems to the 
 writer, is a man not necessarily of rare pow- 
 ers so much as calm and even-minded judg- 
 ment and ability to determine what the law
 
 148 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 is before declaring it with equableness of 
 temper and an appreciation at every moment 
 that he is still human, although gowned with 
 authority. He need not complain of the irk- 
 someness of his duties because he cannot dis- 
 cover any law which prevents his resigning. 
 His utterances on every subject should be 
 guided with the greatest care, because what 
 he says even off the bench is listened to in- 
 tently by the public. It is possible for a 
 judge temperamentally unfit for his position, 
 although intellectually capable, to affect the 
 findings of a jury by a tone of voice or a 
 shrug of the shoulders, while his charge to 
 that very jury is entirely within the law. 
 These remarks are offered in the sincere hope 
 that the public will be alive for its own sake 
 to its unending responsibility in making sa- 
 gacious selections at the polls of men who 
 are to interpret the law under which we all 
 must live.
 
 THE PRESS
 
 VIII 
 
 THE PRESS 
 
 The chief political and least understood 
 element in American life is that of the press. 
 The freedom of the press is as essential to 
 the American political system as the air is 
 to the human system. If the air is pure, the 
 human system is invigorated. If the spirit 
 of the press is pure, the political system is 
 apt to be. Theoretically, the press is an im- 
 personal instrument. Actually, it reflects the 
 opinions and wishes of the individual who 
 owns it. Somewhere back of the title-page 
 is an ownership traceable to a human entity. 
 The larger the paper, the more money in- 
 volved in its development, the more people 
 there may be who contribute to its owner- 
 ship. Among these there is an individual 
 or small committee expressing the opinions 
 of the proprietors. For the purpose of 
 estimating its range of influence, the 
 newspaper is simply an individual mag- 
 nified to the number of its readers. While 
 
 151
 
 152 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 there have been many abuses by the press 
 and many issues distorted, many personal 
 ambitions helped and many individuals de- 
 stroyed, newspapers can no more be dis- 
 pensed with as a part of American life than 
 can a vital organ of the body. The power 
 of the press is beyond computation in cru- 
 sades against abuses. Prosecuting attorneys 
 are kept alive to their duties. Men in re- 
 sponsible positions are fought and overcome 
 when they commit wrong. The anti force of 
 the people is personified in the press. In the 
 prosecution of crime, in the detection of bad 
 morals, in securing punishment for evil con- 
 duct, the press acts as a unit, and its force 
 cannot be withstood. Were it not for the 
 press, influences could be brought to bear 
 aiding the commission and condonation of 
 crime against which individual prosecutors 
 would be impotent. Newspapers furnish the 
 information of derelictions without which 
 officials would frequently be unable to en- 
 force the law. The force that the press of 
 the United States can bring to bear in pre- 
 venting the continuance of an abuse, in tak- 
 ing from a man the instruments with which 
 he may do wrong, in supporting the weaker 
 against the stronger, is so tremendous that 
 it is not fully grasped by the critics.
 
 THE PRESS 153 
 
 On the other side of the problem, news- 
 papers rarely act in concert. As dissemi- 
 nators of news they act along like lines, ac- 
 centuated only by the particular genius of 
 the men in charge of the management. The 
 force of the press in political affairs in con- 
 ducting an anti crusade is as great as it is 
 sometimes impotent, in conducting a pro cru- 
 sade. No man invests hundreds of thousands 
 of dollars in a great metropolitan newspaper 
 for the purpose of passing his time or for 
 any supposed assistance in developing his 
 health. He does it for profit and seeks a 
 circulation to make its columns more profit- 
 able. No one can object to this. There is 
 nothing immoral in a man's desiring to profit 
 himself through the cashier's office of a news- 
 paper. "When, however, a newspaper prints 
 as a fact what is nothing but an opinion, it 
 commits a wrong against the community 
 which can never be entirely righted in the 
 hurry of events, because the true statement 
 of the fact may never reach the reader who 
 first saw the misstatement. If newspapers 
 were to be guided by an absolute standard, 
 they would all report the same event in the 
 same way, excepting only as its description 
 might vary according to the literary capacity 
 of the reporter. The facts would be the same.
 
 154 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 The deductions from those facts, if the news- 
 papers are to exercise their fullest and best 
 influence, should be confined to the editorial 
 column. It is the right of the editor, as it 
 is of any individual, to make any argument 
 he may desire from facts. He may advocate 
 any policy he considers best conduces to the 
 betterment of affairs. When he draws that 
 deduction from a misstatement of fact, he 
 violates the freedom accorded the press, and 
 deceives the people. In a controversy be- 
 tween an individual and a newspaper, the 
 individual is always at a hopeless disadvan- 
 tage. He cannot get his views before the 
 people in the way he has the right to expect. 
 The fact that newspapers are no more than 
 individuals is best shown in a campaign. 
 There are actually few non-partisan news- 
 papers. The meetings held by a particular 
 party are reported in the columns of the 
 paper advocating that party's principles as 
 enthusiastic and well attended. A public up- 
 rising is described, a momentum is estab- 
 lished from which a deduction is drawn which 
 is untrue and illogical. To a republican 
 paper the republican meetings are enthusi- 
 astically attended and are treated as a har- 
 binger of success. In the democratic papers 
 the same condition prevails. In a paper ad-
 
 THE PRESS 155 
 
 vocating the policies of neither of these par- 
 ties, some small gathering may be described 
 as a mighty uprising by way of protest. The 
 public reading these papers are not enlight- 
 ened as to the facts, and unless they know 
 the policy of the particular papers whose 
 columns they read, they are frequently as far 
 from the events as if they did not know of 
 their occurrence. 
 
 The moral responsibility of newspaper 
 management is one of the greatest in human 
 affairs. The newspaper is practically the 
 only means of gathering information to-day 
 for the average man. A century ago it took 
 weeks and months for a person to learn what 
 had happened in a nearby state, or in any 
 other country. The first President of the 
 United States had to rely upon the mails for 
 information, and they were exclusively ex- 
 pensive. To-day for one cent any reader can 
 find out what has happened in any part of 
 the globe within the preceding twenty-four 
 hours. When that news is reported incor- 
 rectly, or the facts of governmental adminis- 
 tration are not portrayed with truthfulness, 
 it is impossible for the public to arrive at 
 a correct conclusion which justifies action. 
 
 It will always be that the owner of a paper 
 may favor one individual and oppose another.
 
 156 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 It is entirely human, with the power at hand, 
 for an editor to favor a friend and harm 
 an opponent. There is nothing mysterious 
 about a newspaper when you consider that 
 it is only an individual speaking. His method 
 of doing it may be mysterious and the public 
 may be deceived. Strange as it may seem, 
 some particular reform, elaborated by one 
 paper, is carefully avoided by another or 
 merely noted. The quick reporting of news 
 is a proper argument for the purchase of a 
 particular paper. The clearness of descrip- 
 tion is an argument for another. Papers are 
 conducted in the manner best calculated to 
 appeal to the particular part of the public 
 which they wish to reach. If the papers of 
 the United States should unanimously agree 
 that the affairs of the country were pros- 
 perous, they would be accepted as such. Agi- 
 tation carried on by the press unsettles the 
 public mind. That uncertainty prevents unity 
 of action, and that lack of unity of action 
 prevents stability. A hint in the columns 
 of the press of an impending failure may 
 bring that failure about. An intimation that 
 the credit of an individual has been impaired 
 may prevent that individual from re-estab- 
 lishing himself upon a more substantial finan- 
 cial foundation. To repeat an insinuation
 
 THE PRESS 157 
 
 derogatory to an individual may destroy him, 
 and lie has no defense. Notwithstanding all 
 this, the public pulse can be taken through 
 the columns of the newspapers more accur- 
 ately than in any other way, because those 
 newspapers reflect in a degree the opinion 
 of their readers. Constant iteration and re- 
 iteration of a statement in the press fre- 
 quently leads to belief in the existence of 
 something which may not have existed in the 
 beginning, but is actually created by the repe- 
 tition. The very fact of discussion may bring 
 about the condition which was alleged to have 
 existed in the beginning. The competition 
 between papers for the approval of the pur- 
 chasing public is the best guarantee to the 
 public that they will not go beyond all bounds. 
 Newspapers are like an individual ; they like 
 to crush out an abuse and claim the credit. 
 They like to establish a reform or a change 
 and claim the credit for that. Such credit 
 increases their circulation. 
 
 While the press may with more or less 
 accuracy reflect the mind of a community, 
 it may not be able always to change that 
 mind. The responsibility of the press for 
 good government is vital in the last degree. 
 But it is also possible for an editor to change 
 the attitude of the public toward a man striv-
 
 158 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 ing for better things, so that whatever he 
 does finds no response in the heart of the 
 community. On the other hand, the public 
 rush to the columns of the papers to state 
 an ill-treatment on the part of officials. They 
 may cite cases of public oppression, or they 
 may refer to the unnecessarily harsh enforce- 
 ment of the law. An editorial reprimand is 
 frequently sufficient to remedy an abuse. 
 
 The press should be the audible voice of 
 the community. Whether it speaks in a whis- 
 per or in a shriek depends upon the policy 
 imposed upon the paper by its owner. It 
 is impossible to conceive of a free govern- 
 ment being carried on without the watchful 
 eye of a free press. Yet it is an everyday 
 occurrence to see criticisms in the press which 
 are unmerited and unjustified and which do 
 not warrant the conclusions drawn from 
 them. This is not the act of an impersonal 
 press. It is the temper of the individual who 
 controls the paper, and as such should be 
 judged. If viewed in this light the harm a 
 paper can do is minimized. It is not too 
 much to say that the majority of the popula- 
 tion of the United States gets substantially 
 all its information from daily or weekly pub- 
 lications. These comments are not made in 
 the expectation of changing the policy of any
 
 THE PEESS 159 
 
 paper. They are merely made for the pur- 
 pose of drawing attention to the fact that 
 a newspaper with all its power for good or 
 evil is merely the expression of individual 
 opinion vastly magnified. 
 
 If the holder of an important office received 
 a letter expressed in the same words in which 
 an editorial is phrased, he might pay little 
 attention to it. When he sees a criticism of 
 his public acts in a newspaper and knows 
 that it will be read by hundreds of thousands 
 of individuals to whom he is accountable, 
 he is more apt to realize that he is a trustee 
 for those people, and not to believe that he 
 has an inherent title to his office. 
 
 There can be no substantial progress in 
 political affairs in the United States, or in 
 commercial affairs, without the support of 
 the best newspapers. With the church, the 
 owners of newspapers have it in their power 
 to bring about the most desirable results for 
 society. It is a matter of satisfaction to 
 a careful observer that, whatever may be the 
 consistency of this or that newspaper, they 
 do more to make possible combined action on 
 the part of the people than any other single 
 instrumentality. When a newspaper is de- 
 voted to agitation for the sake of agitation 
 it keeps the public mind in a state of unrest,
 
 160 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 and its value to the community is nothing. 
 When it keeps before the community sub- 
 jects for proper deliberation and discussion 
 and furnishes the information from which 
 the public may form just opinions, it is the 
 next important factor to law in preserving 
 order. A newspaper is the exponent of per- 
 sonal views impersonally expressed. The 
 moral standards of papers are the moral 
 standards of their owners. While a news- 
 paper is a commercial enterprise, it has sen- 
 timental characteristics which it cannot 
 avoid. Prominent opinion to the contrary, 
 sentiment in one form or another is largely 
 a controlling feature of American political 
 life. It is contrary to the spirit of the Con- 
 stitution that there should be masses and 
 classes. The fact unfortunately is that there 
 are masses and classes, and always will be 
 to a degree. But what that degree is or 
 should be in the future, depends more upon 
 the policy of the public press of the United 
 States than upon any other single power. 
 The statement in a newspaper of the exist- 
 ence of a class does much to create it. 
 
 It remains with the people to decide 
 whether a newspaper shall be an instrument 
 for good or evil. They are the judges, and 
 must continue to be, whether the spirit in
 
 THE PRESS 161 
 
 which a paper is published squares to stand- 
 ard or not. No paper would long continue 
 any one policy if the editor were conscious 
 that it would alienate him from an appre- 
 ciable number of his readers. 
 
 The deduction from these comments rela- 
 tive to the press the writer hopes will accen- 
 tuate individual responsibility. The ulti- 
 mate stability of the so-called American sys- 
 tem of government rests upon the common 
 sense and sound judgment of the individual 
 citizen. The majority of those citizens can 
 determine anything they wish. When Amer- 
 ican citizenship is negative in its political 
 and moral virtue the nation is negative. 
 When it is affirmative and aggressive and 
 wise, the nation is affirmative, aggressive, and 
 wise. When a man believes in himself, he 
 believes in his country ; and when a majority 
 of citizens believe in themselves, they are the 
 country and measure the country's progress.
 
 LAW AND MORALS
 
 IX 
 LAW AND MORALS 
 
 Law is dependent on morals. Morals are 
 assisted by law. If the development of each 
 proceeded equally it would mean a millen- 
 nium. Political morality is arrived at regard- 
 less of statutory authority. Obedience to a 
 statute may prevent immoral conduct, but 
 may not indicate real morality in the person 
 who obeys the law. Originally conduct was 
 regulated by imperial edict. A ruler with su- 
 preme authority said what his subjects should 
 or should not do. The latitude given to them 
 was limited, indeed, and it took all their at- 
 tention to meet the requirements imposed and 
 avoid punishment. Many conditions now re- 
 quire statutory regulation which, at the foun- 
 dation of the government, were unknown. So 
 complex have become the regulations of social 
 and commercial life that it has been found 
 difficult to determine the duties of citizens 
 toward each other and toward the state. 
 These questions have been solved as far as 
 
 1C5
 
 166 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 may be by legal provision. The fact remains 
 that in the activities of politics as well as else- 
 where fundamental principles of morality 
 must be the substantial governing force. This 
 is so as a matter of principle and a matter of 
 necessity. No good could come to a community 
 where the guiding principle of conduct was 
 merely that of expediency. Where the line 
 of law and the line of morality cross or merge 
 provides a subject for the most metaphysical 
 discussion. The present tendency of legisla- 
 tion apart from punishing crime and pre- 
 scribing methods for exercising political 
 rights, is toward standardizing human con- 
 duct by law. This is nothing more than an 
 endeavor to substitute statutes for morals. 
 The penal code is amended each year to cover 
 new derelictions and render conviction of 
 older crimes more easy. The captions of the 
 penal code should be a fair index of political 
 and social crimes. Really, they are not, and 
 the aggregate of misconduct unnamed in the 
 code may well be of greater detriment to a 
 community than actual violations of law. The 
 theory of the penal code is to furnish a sum- 
 mary of all those acts which are admittedly 
 detrimental to the people as a whole. The 
 actual degree of morality of the entire people 
 is not measured by the proportion to the
 
 LAW AND MORALS 167 
 
 ■whole of the number who violate that code. 
 It is exemplified by the realization of the 
 majority of the citizens of their duty to the 
 State and to each other. 
 
 Every year the Secretary of the Treasury 
 of the United States submits a balance sheet 
 purporting to show the nation's strength. 
 That summary discloses the wealth of the 
 country in the aggregate and per capita. It 
 sets out the commercial development, the pro- 
 portionate savings of the people in banks, 
 and it strikes, so to speak, a trial balance. 
 This is a fair intimation of the standing of 
 the country. The actual strength of the coun- 
 try could only be disclosed by a census, which 
 would indicate the relative proportion of men 
 actuated by moral principles, and those with- 
 out such standards. Fortunately, in this 
 country through the work of the churches and 
 the inculcation of moral principles, there is 
 a constant tendency toward improvement. 
 The work of moral forces preserves to each 
 citizen his individuality, but his responsibility 
 and development depend upon himself. It 
 is weakening in a free government, founded 
 on the ballot, to curtail the development of 
 individuality through the paternalism of law. 
 Tt is a wise philosophy which decides what 
 men should not do. It is a wiser philosophy
 
 168 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 that does not prescribe what they must do. 
 Reliance upon law alone, robs morality of 
 its force. The restless seeking after change, 
 persistent endeavor to experiment in legisla- 
 tion, are not productive of the most beneficial 
 results. 
 
 The courts have jurisdiction not only in in- 
 terpreting law, but in reading into conduct 
 the equitable principles of morality. The 
 judiciary is a much better guide, as a rule, 
 than a legislature. The principles it enforces 
 are universal ; not spasmodic and not experi- 
 mental. In applying the principles of equity 
 the court has the whole range of prior hu- 
 man experience from which it may arrive at 
 a judicial conclusion. In legislation there is 
 rarely given the thought and investigation 
 required to crystallize broad wisdom in the 
 form of law. 
 
 An unenforced or unenforceable law de- 
 stroys by that much the respect for law it- 
 self. Where people are sufficiently few in 
 number to permit of their being brought to- 
 gether frequently in personal contact they 
 govern themselves by their own traditions, 
 and their minds readily agree upon a com- 
 mon mode of conduct. Men, however, are 
 so readily influenced by others, the aggres- 
 sive man has such a predominance over the
 
 LAW AND MORALS 169 
 
 man of a negative disposition, that when we 
 act in large bodies we fail to observe the 
 simpler instincts of man, and issues become 
 involved. Doubtless every sentiment here 
 expressed has already occurred to the reader 
 in his own deliberations. 
 
 In a government such as ours there must 
 be constant compromise of individual ideas 
 for the benefit of the great mass of people. 
 The public is not a body to experiment upon. 
 Public discussion, except for individual ex- 
 ploitation, amounts to nothing unless the per- 
 son who discusses exemplifies his theory in 
 his own conduct. 
 
 The United States was not organized into 
 a government for the purpose of demonstrat- 
 ing as an intellectual problem that our sys- 
 tem was wiser than any other system. It was 
 organized for the purpose of giving the great- 
 est latitude without license to an individual 
 to work out his earthly career and to profit 
 as fully as may be by his own talents and 
 energy. If an advantage is given to one por- 
 tion of a community not accorded to another 
 through the means of law, the advantage se- 
 cured is only temporary. We have been 
 taught from childhood about certain inalien- 
 able rights. We have not studied with equal 
 care the doctrine of unavoidable obligation.
 
 170 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 The man who steals from the public steals 
 partly from himself, although he may be a 
 net gainer in the amount taken. If, however, 
 that process were carried to an extreme, it 
 can readily be seen that the law would be 
 evaded, and if the majority were engaged in 
 it, the minority would be without protection. 
 A man should be moral not from fear of 
 punishment but from the consciousness that 
 by being otherwise he harms himself and the 
 rest. There is little virtue in non-perform- 
 ance. More good comes from a community 
 where aggressive instincts are kept in re- 
 straint by moral obligation, than from one 
 where men are peaceable because lacking the 
 initiative necessary to commit an overt act. 
 The test that is being placed upon American 
 citizenship is not the test of rights, but the 
 test of obligation. The doctrine of commu- 
 nity of interest is just as strong when citizens 
 are counted in thousands as when they are 
 counted in hundreds. The multiplication of 
 numbers merely obscures the issues. If a 
 man does not obey the law as a matter of 
 moral principle, he may well do so as a mat- 
 ter of selfish expediency. Most of the vio- 
 lations of law occur because the offender be- 
 lieves that he may not be detected, and that 
 his particular offense does not aifect the com-
 
 LAW AND MORALS 171 
 
 munity at large. If each man could be 
 brought to the conviction that his offense 
 might place offenders in the majority, he 
 would be less inclined to offend. No one 
 knows when his own offense may serve to 
 bring about a majority of offenders. 
 
 A crime of lasting harm to the state is 
 committed when a man votes more than once 
 at the same election. Next in harmfulness 
 is for a man who has the right to vote not 
 to exercise that right. For a man to vote 
 more than once, or for another man wrong- 
 fully to induce him so to do, is treason to 
 our institutions. The immediate effect of 
 that single duplication of votes may not be 
 felt. By the casting of an illegal vote every 
 other person has been robbed of his right 
 under the law to express himself in the 
 mathematical proportion he bears to all the 
 rest, and has been deprived of a right for 
 which there is no compensation. There can 
 be no majority rule if any one of the votes 
 out of which grows that supposed majority 
 is not representative of an actual individual 
 voter. How is it possible ever to determine 
 whether a majority of the people have voted 
 in favor of this or that policy if there are 
 more ballots cast than there were legal voters 
 at the polls 1
 
 172 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 Crimes against property and person enu- 
 merated in the penal code, while they may 
 arouse general protest, are not fundamen- 
 tally as harmful as prostitution of the ballot. 
 The history of the race may be summed up 
 in the right to the ballot. The right to exer- 
 cise the ballot carries with it the obligation 
 not to rob another of his right to have full 
 force given to the ballot he may cast. By 
 the determination of those very ballots is the 
 moral sentiment of the community expressed, 
 and that moral sentiment, working through 
 representatives, passes the laws which estab- 
 lish order. When other than moral suasion 
 or argument is used in inducing a man to 
 vote more than once, or once when not en- 
 titled to, somebody, somewhere, has been 
 robbed of his rights. Whenever American 
 affairs are subjected to the slightest analysis, 
 it clearly appears that every benefit to be 
 realized depends upon the lawful act of the 
 voter. There is nothing as important to the 
 people as establishing in the public mind that 
 no citizen is a good citizen who does not vote ; 
 that no one shall be allowed to vote more 
 than once or under improper inducement; 
 and that a different course entails the loss 
 of the means of self-government. 
 
 The writer believes there is no problem
 
 LAW AND MORALS 173 
 
 before the American public to-day, whether 
 it be that of monopoly, grinding of the poor 
 by the rich, the robbing of the public treas- 
 ury, or whatever form the complications of 
 life may assume, that equals, for a moment, 
 the far-reaching and final importance of pro- 
 tecting the method of establishing the public 
 will by an honest ballot. That ballot repre- 
 sents the strife of centuries. It stands for 
 the struggles of the human race for freedom. 
 It is the personification, or should be, of 
 American life. Not only should the casting 
 of the ballot be protected by law, but there 
 should be a recognized standard of moral 
 conduct in the community which will not tol- 
 erate the violation of the rights of another 
 by the casting of an unlawful ballot. That 
 standard should be so high on the part of 
 men of all classes that to violate it would 
 bring about immediate condemnation. 
 
 It has happened heretofore that party di- 
 visions have been such that the actual result 
 from an unlawful multiplication of ballots 
 has not always been apparent. It is fre- 
 quently found difficult to get convictions of 
 violators of the election laws because juries 
 are not fully impressed with the seriousness 
 of the crime committed by the man who votes 
 more than once. The attitude of the public
 
 174 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 on this question must come about entirely 
 apart from law. It must be the result of 
 reason and of morals. It should take but 
 little thought for anyone, to understand that 
 when one personally countenances or con- 
 dones in another violations of the election 
 laws, he strikes at the foundations of gov- 
 ernment. The fact that it may not be dis- 
 covered, or that discovery is difficult, fur- 
 nishes no palliation. In reforms sought to be 
 imposed, and in the importance of this or 
 that method, the people lose sight of funda- 
 mentals, and forget that the end does not 
 justify the means. The spirit of controversy 
 does not give excuse for using instrumentali- 
 ties that are immoral and which if persisted 
 in would threaten government itself. 
 
 There is no demonstration when a man who 
 is only entitled to vote once votes twice. The 
 offense may be known to only a few, perhaps 
 to one or two who are the instigators. Out- 
 side of a question of morals, the use of mul- 
 tiplication would demonstrate to the mind of 
 a child that the wrong is both one of kind 
 and one of degree. The writer will be en- 
 tirely satisfied if his contribution to good 
 government shall be the arousing in the pub- 
 lic mind of a keener sense of responsibility 
 for the protection of the ballot. That funda-
 
 LAW AND MORALS 175 
 
 mental proposition, as the writer sees it, is 
 that the man who has the right to vote, shall : 
 that the man who has not the right to vote, 
 shall not. 
 
 All the proposed reforms that fill the pub- 
 lic prints and cause discussion are secondary 
 to this. When the ballot is protected as a 
 man would protect the virtue of his wife or 
 the lives of his children, the ballot will mean 
 something. The man who does not vote 
 should be disfranchised. The man who votes 
 knowingly more than once should be expelled 
 from the community. The man who induces 
 another to vote more than once is upon a 
 plane lower than the illegal voter. With the 
 ballot representing the actual mental and 
 moral desire of a community and the ma- 
 jority of those ballots spelling out that moral 
 and mental desire, no one has cause for com- 
 plaint who lives under the rule of a majority, 
 and he must accept the result until it is 
 changed. If he does not approve the result 
 he can emigrate. We are progressing back- 
 wards if reform does not start on the foun- 
 dation — the ballot.
 
 THE PUBLIC AND PUBLIC 
 OPINION
 
 THE PUBLIC AND PUBLIC 
 OPINION 
 
 In dictionary phrase the public is " the 
 people collectively." 
 
 To the merchant it is all possible purchas- 
 ers. To the physician it is all who are ill. 
 To the undertaker it is all who have unsuc- 
 cessfully employed the physician. To the 
 lawyer it is all who need what he knows. To 
 the political leader it means all who will 
 probably vote on election day. 
 
 Public opinion is the aggregate sentiment 
 of the people towards any given topic. Gen- 
 erally when a man declares what public 
 opinion is, he merely describes what he be- 
 lieves the public ought to think on some par- 
 ticular subject. When he goes a step further 
 and insists that the public is demanding 
 something, he in effect constitutes himself 
 the public voice. The tendency to do this 
 marks the politician. 
 
 To obtain office or influence, the politician 
 
 179
 
 180 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 must be able to anticipate the opinion of the 
 majority. By repeatedly declaring a sup- 
 posed majority opinion lie helps to form it, 
 and the momentum thus established by re- 
 iteration frequently produces the result 
 sought. The only qualified representatives 
 of the public are those elected at the polls. 
 They represent it in making, interpreting or 
 enforcing the law, and in following the direc- 
 tions contained in the party platforms. They 
 contribute to public opinion by setting forth 
 the knowledge gained in the performance of 
 their duties. 
 
 Sometimes officials are elected without 
 reference to the tenets of any party and are 
 instructed to follow their own judgment. 
 When candidates are elected under these cir- 
 cumstances, the public has not only conferred 
 upon them the right to exercise official au- 
 thority, but has virtually accepted their 
 opinion as its own. 
 
 Any individual expressions as to what it 
 is best for the public to do should be taken 
 only as part of the general contribution of 
 ideas, to be considered and mentally digested 
 in conjunction with all others. The final re- 
 sult should disclose the composite thought 
 indicating the average opinion of the entire 
 population.
 
 THE PUBLIC AXD PUBLIC OPINION 181 
 
 Iu the world of politics practice varies 
 greatly from theory. It may be said with 
 fair approximation that in a national election 
 two-thirds of the voting population is divided 
 between those who are accustomed to act 
 with the republican or democratic parties. 
 The other one-third is comparatively indiffer- 
 ent. Of two-thirds of the membership of 
 each of these parties it may be said with 
 equal truth that they are too indifferent to 
 take an active interest in affairs, and one- 
 third furnishes all the effective activity. 
 
 When an election occurs the active third 
 of those composing each party seeks to 
 arouse the interest of the remaining two- 
 thirds; then both parties appeal to the re- 
 maining third of the voting population not 
 associated with themselves, and this remain- 
 ing third usually determines the result. The 
 number engaged in political management is 
 small in proportion to the great number en- 
 titled to vote. 
 
 With these conditions admitted, it is clearly 
 demonstrable that actual public opinion is 
 difficult to determine and that its real force 
 us Beldam made apparent. Of course, in a 
 state as distinguished from a nation, or in 
 a city as distinguished from a state, where 
 the numbers are fewer, local opinion can be
 
 182 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 more quickly aroused, crystallized, and made 
 to be more fairly expressed at the polls. 
 
 Theoretically, the entire population is al- 
 ways ready to express its own opinion. Prac- 
 tically, it not only is not ready, but has no 
 well-formed opinion to express. 
 
 Men apparently feel so much confidence 
 in the ability of our institutions to perpetuate 
 themselves, that they render little or no as- 
 sistance toward the accomplishment of that 
 desired end. They are satisfied to criticise 
 the men who endeavor, successfully or not, 
 to achieve practical results. They have 
 neither the courage nor the inclination to 
 act, but limit themselves to perturbing com- 
 ments. They seem not to realize that they 
 are a part of the militant public and propor- 
 tionately responsible for public opinion. 
 
 Political conduct is more strongly affected 
 by example than by precept. It does not re- 
 quire rare genius to frame an aphorism or 
 evolve an epigram that contains sound wis- 
 dom, but the force of both epigram and aph- 
 orism would be sadly weakened were it dis- 
 covered that the conduct of the author were 
 not in harmony with the expressed moral. 
 Nothing disturbs public confidence more than 
 to discover that those high in authority who 
 are accustomed to lay down set rules for the
 
 THE PUBLIC AND PUBLIC OPINION 183 
 
 guidance of others do not act in accordance 
 with their own precepts. 
 
 Sometimes a very estimable man is elected 
 to public office whose ideas, though highly 
 commendable in themselves, are not in har- 
 mony with those of the majority of his con- 
 stituents because they are not intellectually 
 abreast of him. Such men are never virtually 
 representative, nor can they successfully 
 make their opinion that of their public. The 
 usefulness of these officials is greatly dimin- 
 ished, and equally moral but less intellectual 
 men might advantageously replace them be- 
 cause, being closer to their constituency, they 
 would probably be able to bring about at 
 least a degree of improvement. The superior 
 man, on the other hand, is apt to defeat his 
 own ends by attempting to advance so rap- 
 idly that his public cannot follow him. What- 
 ever the proposition under discussion may 
 be, if the person who advances it has neither 
 the art nor the influence to make others de- 
 sire it, it is too much to expect the law to 
 bring about the proposed change. The ma- 
 jority must be in favor of a law to insure 
 its enforcement. A minority can be com- 
 pelled to observe it. 
 
 If the sign at the crossroads is so high 
 that it cannot be read, the traveler may be
 
 184 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 delayed in reaching his destination. If the 
 law keeps too far in advance the people never 
 catch up. Laws arc always somewhat in ad- 
 vance of the people, but need not be out of 
 sight. 
 
 When a recommendation by an executive 
 does not meet with the approval of a legis- 
 lature, the difference of opinion assumes the 
 form of a personal contest in the eyes of the 
 public, which immediately takes sides, re- 
 gardless of the issues involved. If the execu- 
 tive forces the legislature to follow his views, 
 the people applaud him as a victor. If the 
 measure fails, he is proclaimed defeated. 
 Months or years may elapse before the public 
 realizes that what it took for a contest of 
 views was merely a conflict of ambitions. It 
 may even learn that each side had invoked 
 public support by interjecting the element of 
 self-imposed martyrdom. 
 
 A large part of the public is composed of 
 immigrants who come to us in vast numbers 
 by virtue of a standing invitation, and be- 
 cause they are dissatisfied with conditions in 
 their native land. When they arrive they 
 know little of the conduct of American poli- 
 tics. To them the man in public office is the 
 one charged with final authority, who marks 
 the line beyond which they cannot go. Left
 
 THE PUBLIC AND PUBLIC OPINION 185 
 
 without the association of men who have al- 
 ready profited by being here, who are inter- 
 ested in the elevation of society, and who, to 
 the immigrants, represent the American peo- 
 ple, they fail to become imbued with the true 
 spirit of American institutions. When they 
 see pilfering in public office, when they are 
 taught that political favors may be bought 
 with money, when they observe men in the 
 highest walks of life engaged in vituperation, 
 it is not strange that they should fail to make 
 any real contribution to the public welfare. 
 The promptness, however, with which they 
 seek citizenship and learn to participate in 
 public affairs, although not always wisely, 
 should be an inspiration to emulate them 
 rather than a cause for criticism. It is better 
 to endeavor and to err than not to have the 
 courage to attempt. 
 
 Generally speaking, the immigrant in his 
 gradual progress toward a point where he 
 merges into American citizenship and helps 
 to make public opinion, seeks the advance- 
 ment of his children with rarest care. He 
 practices the greatest self-denial in order to 
 educate them and to place them upon a higher 
 plane than he himself occupies, and to insure 
 their becoming active factors in the life of 
 the Republic.
 
 186 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 It is while making this progress in develop- 
 ment that association with others than those 
 of his own class is of greatest benefit. For- 
 tunately, that these facts are being recog- 
 nized more thoroughly every day is shown in 
 the work of settlements and societies for the 
 improvement of social conditions. The immi- 
 grant is being advanced far more rapidly 
 than in past years. 
 
 In the crowded sections of large cities lies 
 the chief danger to the newly arrived, pro- 
 spective citizen. The second generation of 
 these people, finding itself better circum- 
 stanced than the first, more keenly appre- 
 ciates the benefits redounding from a strict 
 observance of our laws, and this appreciation 
 continually voiced helps mightily to form 
 wholesome public opinion. 
 
 On the other hand, long enjoyment of ad- 
 vantages dulls the sense of obligation for 
 them, and when this results in non-participa- 
 tion in the duties of citizenship the effect is 
 indeed deplorable. A man who neglects these 
 duties, morally loses the right to continue 
 to participate in the advantages. At present 
 it may not be possible to deny him his formal 
 rights under the law, but he should be at 
 least denied his claimed right to contrib- 
 ute toward public opinion. He cannot be
 
 THE PUBLIC AND PUBLIC OPINION 187 
 
 prevented from voting, but no one is 
 compelled to waste time conversing with 
 him. 
 
 A formal census of public opinion is taken 
 nationally in this country every four years. 
 That opinion is recorded in votes, and no 
 one knows in advance what it is going to be. 
 Presumably it is formed during the time in- 
 tervening between elections. If those years 
 are advantageously devoted to thought on 
 public affairs, votes are cast intelligently and 
 wisely, and society is benefited. The proba- 
 bilities are that public opinion has not been 
 rapidly forming between campaigns, and too 
 much thinking is left to the time of cam- 
 paign excitement. People have a general 
 idea of what is going on, but frequently the 
 real facts from which they could draw con- 
 clusions are not within general knowledge. 
 Leading statesmen are so busy in disparag- 
 ing each other and in enjoying the satisfac- 
 tion of apparent authority that the public 
 is apt to be overlooked. The result is that, 
 during the heat of political controversy, while 
 the public is continually appealed to for its 
 approval it has not the means of distinguish- 
 ing between facts and the opinions of the 
 contending leaders, who are often more inter- 
 ested in the prospective pleasure of serving
 
 188 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 up the public than they are of having the 
 public well served. 
 
 The public has so far successfully reserved 
 to itself the right to think, however imper- 
 fectly it may do so. It is attracted by force- 
 ful personality; it responds to the magnetic 
 qualities in men; it applauds with spon- 
 taneity and emphasis; it is given to hero- 
 worship. Instinctively, however, the public 
 maintains control over its own mental proc- 
 esses and permits no individual long to usurp 
 its exclusive attention. What happens in 
 practice is that men or parties seeking pre- 
 ferment in the conduct of affairs make vari- 
 ous plans for the public, and on election day 
 seek approval of themselves, or, to be more 
 accurate, disapproval of their opponents. 
 The public necessarily speaks last, as it 
 speaks through the ballot, and no man, how- 
 ever distinguished, can be assured that the 
 citizens generally will follow his lead for an 
 indefinite period. Often the period of leader- 
 ship has extended over an appreciable num- 
 ber of years. The ability to suggest new 
 topics, to appear before the public in differ- 
 ent lights, to be able accurately to voice the 
 ideas of the many, lengthens the duration of 
 leaderships. 
 
 The turning point in the effective leader-
 
 THE PUBLIC AND PUBLIC OPINION 189 
 
 ship of an individual is apt to occur when 
 the force of his own self-appreciation as a 
 leader dulls his judgment and causes him to 
 foist his personal views upon the public, in- 
 stead of continuing to act as its spokesman. 
 The public may appreciate his views, but 
 does not consider them its own. He then 
 becomes a suppliant for its good will rather 
 than its representative, and finds himself at 
 once one of an increasing number competing 
 for public favor, rather than alone enjoying 
 the favor already obtained. 
 
 Many one-time influential men have lost 
 their influence by failing to appreciate that 
 the public is not impersonal. It is just as 
 personal as the individuals whose aggregate 
 form it. The wisest and most effective mold- 
 ers of public opinion are those who maintain 
 at least the appearance of acting with the 
 people, rather than insisting that the people 
 shall act with them because they may have 
 accurately voiced public sentiment in the 
 past. Tact and discretion are qualities 
 quite as valuable as wisdom and forceful- 
 ness. 
 
 With the increasing population the general 
 public is at a greater distance from the center 
 of affairs, and succeeding years will augment 
 this distance.
 
 190 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 The public is easily aroused by scandal and 
 slowly moved by argument. Agitation dis- 
 turbs its nerves, but agitators are ultimately 
 destroyed by its nerve. The public punishes 
 with tremendous force any infidelity to trust. 
 It also rewards with the intoxication of ap- 
 plause those who may temporarily gain its 
 favor. Irregularly and captiously made 
 charges, not proven to the satisfaction of 
 the public, cause much temporary agitation 
 but result in final contumely for the agi- 
 tator. 
 
 Prominent statesmen and politicians cry 
 " go to the public." The practice is to keep 
 away from it. The men claiming to speak 
 for the public roar about the necessity of 
 taking the public into their confidence. They 
 know better. They know that they only tell 
 the public what they think it is wise for it 
 to know. It may properly be urged that 
 there often are questions, for instance, con- 
 cerning international matters, where only re- 
 sults can be given. This is true. But it 
 does not excuse the habit of telling the public 
 that it is receiving all the facts when it is 
 not. There is every reason why an executive 
 or a person in any representative capacity 
 should say frankly to the public that he is 
 engaged in working out the details of an in-
 
 THE PUBLIC AND PUBLIC OPINION 191 
 
 tricate problem, and ask that public opinion 
 be held in abeyance. If his reason for with- 
 holding the facts is clear, and there is faith 
 in the integrity of his motives, the public 
 can be trusted to postpone its criticism. If 
 the public thinks it has been given all the 
 facts in a controversy it will for a time follow 
 the man who purported to place it in posses- 
 sion of them. The multitude is apt at first 
 blush to accept as true what it is told. Its 
 suspicions are usually awakened when one 
 man competing for its favor shows that an- 
 other has misrepresented. Crime may be 
 condoned; hypocrisy should never be for- 
 given. 
 
 A man of self-admitted wisdom is never 
 literally frank with the public, because he 
 necessarily believes himself to be so wise that 
 the public could neither understand his rea- 
 soning nor the facts upon which he bases it. 
 He therefore states conclusions. If those 
 conclusions are not accepted, he is persuaded 
 of the ignorance of the public. His deduc- 
 tion is erroneous, because what the public 
 really wanted was the pleasure of thinking 
 out the problem with him, and it is not satis- 
 fied with having the result patronizingly 
 handed to it as a favor. 
 
 There is a great difference between talking
 
 192 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 at the public and talking with it. The former 
 is a pastime frequently indulged in by bom- 
 bastic gentlemen, anxious to impress their 
 hearers with a sense of their own importance. 
 Talking with the public necessitates the will- 
 ingness to impart to it whatever essential 
 knowledge may be in the possession of the 
 speaker or writer, and to answer all perti- 
 nent demands for information on the part of 
 the audience. In order to really talk with 
 the public, the speaker must be in sympathy 
 with its needs, learned from contact with 
 life. 
 
 Actually the potential creative public is 
 made up of those men who, participating in 
 public affairs as a matter of duty or even 
 of expediency seek to act for the benefit of 
 all others as well as for that of themselves, 
 whether the latter is realized in honors, ap- 
 plause, salary, or the satisfaction of a duty 
 performed. 
 
 It is the province of the general public, 
 not of one man more than of another, to 
 devise ways and means, for instance, for 
 taking care of the indigent and insane. If 
 this is not done as a matter of humanity, not 
 only the indigent and insane suffer, but the 
 general public also. Fortunately, our insti- 
 tutions furnish opportunities for so many
 
 THE PUBLIC AND PUBLIC OPINION 193 
 
 minds and dispositions, that there will al- 
 ways be some who, either from a sense of 
 civic duty or for personal reasons, or both, 
 will take the lead in these and other kindred 
 matters and by discussion and statute bring- 
 about better conditions. 
 
 When an immigrant peddler, ignorant 
 maybe of the local ordinances, is arrested for 
 vending his wares in the streets of New York 
 without a license, he considers himself abused 
 and, therefore, is against the government. 
 He has not yet reached a conception of com- 
 munity interest, and does not understand that 
 his license fee helps to provide revenue for 
 the entire city, and that he reaps the benefit 
 of improvements paid for in this way, thus 
 receiving many advantages through the very 
 money he contributes. When his personal 
 habits are interfered with by the enforcement 
 of the laws on health, he views those laws 
 in the light of a nuisance. The fact that all 
 human life is regulated in a measure by con- 
 forming to certain rules strikes him at that 
 time as an intrusion upon his personal rights 
 in this " new-found land of liberty." With 
 the multiplication of ideas born of experience 
 and observation, later he frequently accepts 
 as binding upon himself what is generally 
 considered best for the average, and in the
 
 194 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 genuineness of his conversion becomes a 
 fierce protestant against anyone else doing 
 what he himself did but a few years 
 before. 
 
 This same man becomes confused when he 
 reads in the newspapers that prominent citi- 
 zens, to whom he instinctively looks up, are 
 charged with interfering with the rights of 
 the public, in their conduct of corporations. 
 He wonders why he was arrested for his first 
 small offense, when they are not. His confi- 
 dence in the law is impaired. His respect for 
 law and order is only regained when he begins 
 to observe that the majority of men obey 
 the law, and that the practice is to punish 
 the minority who disobey it. 
 
 In discussions referring to public opinion 
 it is assumed that all men are thinking about 
 some particular topic at a given time. As 
 a matter of fact, the minds of relatively few 
 are engaged with it. These are in advance 
 of the rest. They have made investigations, 
 arrived at conclusions, and are arguing for 
 their acceptance. The medium between the 
 advanced thinkers and those who have not 
 the opportunity for original investigation is 
 the press. When the press accurately reports 
 the opinions of real leaders of thought it is 
 a public agent of far-reaching importance.
 
 THE PUBLIC AND PUBLIC OPINION 195 
 
 When the newspapers distort the opinions 
 of men given to research and reflection and 
 present them to their readers in garbled form, 
 offering the opinion of an editor as a substi- 
 tute for facts, they cloud the issue and pre- 
 vent the public from arriving at wise con- 
 clusions. Editors have unusual opportunities 
 to observe a multitude of conditions which 
 pass before them in the performance of their 
 daily duties. It is not possible, however, for 
 their judgment always to be as reliable as 
 that of an individual who gives his time ex- 
 clusively to the investigation of a particular 
 subject. 
 
 To the public the newspaper appears as a 
 lamp of wisdom, with ever-burning and 
 broadly illuminating flame. They do not 
 stop to reason that the views expressed in 
 the editorial columns are those of a single 
 man whose time is necessarily divided be- 
 tween the study of so many topics that 
 his opinion could hardly be final on any 
 one. 
 
 If the newspaper does not accurately re- 
 port the opinions of an individual who is 
 endeavoring to contribute to the public knowl- 
 edge of facts, it robs the people of the valu- 
 able conclusions of another mind, which it 
 is entitled to have for the purpose of assist-
 
 196 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 ing in forming its own ideas. This does not 
 eliminate the right of the newspaper to ex- 
 press its own opinions editorially, but when 
 an individual editor makes a statement not 
 predicated upon facts, and allows it to go 
 to the public as if it were, the conclu- 
 sions of the public will be wrong and its 
 action at the polls will be disappointing, 
 although perhaps not to that particular 
 editor. 
 
 This country is especially subject to radi- 
 cal and revolutionary ideas. This tendency 
 is fostered by freedom of speech, freedom of 
 congregation, and freedom of the press. 
 Therefore, the best thought, conduct and in- 
 fluence of conservative, conscientious men is 
 needed to offset pernicious doctrines that 
 might otherwise be adopted as the result of 
 agitation. Because of an entirely local con- 
 dition, propaganda may be instituted de- 
 manding state or national legislation. The 
 people are called upon at once to change their 
 mode of life and traditions. More are drawn 
 into the discussion, and, oblivious of its actual 
 merits, follow this or that side according to 
 the cleverness of the leading advocates of the 
 new idea. The public mind is diverted from 
 the contemplation of fundamental principles 
 to that of abstract theory, and turns from
 
 THE PUBLIC AND PUBLIC OPINION 197 
 
 what has been demonstrated to be of value 
 to that which is entirely experimental. 
 
 Action taken at a public meeting is fre- 
 quently pointed to as indicating public 
 opinion on a particular topic. The protest 
 of an inconsiderable minority is interpreted 
 as the public attitude. The fact is, the gen- 
 eral public probably had little to do with 
 the meeting. A few men, sometimes only one 
 or two, hire a hall, distribute handbills, and 
 curiosity fills the meeting-place with an audi- 
 ence. A skillful phrase introduced into a 
 set of resolutions takes the place of an issue. 
 Cleverly expressed denunciation of an evil 
 forms the basis of a protest, and the reading 
 public is apt to rush to the conclusion that 
 back of the meeting there is a condition that 
 justifies an uprising. Stripped of the para- 
 phernalia of agitation, there will frequently 
 be disclosed an individual furthering a per- 
 sonal plan, under the excuse of the demand 
 of the multitude. 
 
 The public displays its greatest lack of 
 judgment in the little attention it pays to 
 the selection of representatives. They are 
 the direct product of the primaries, because 
 on election day choice must practically be 
 made between the names on the ballots. 
 Nominations by petition require a greater
 
 198 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 outlay of expense and more time than in- 
 dividuals are apparently willing to give to 
 them. 
 
 The smaller the political division from 
 which delegates are chosen the greater the 
 opportunity to exercise care in selecting 
 them. Successful candidates really reflect 
 the character of the voters at the primaries 
 more than they do that of the voters on elec- 
 tion day. 
 
 The fundamentals in political life are few, 
 and do not vary in character from those in 
 any other walk. The power to discriminate 
 between essentials and non-essentials indi- 
 cates rare wisdom. While the tendency to 
 create mountains out of molehills is regret- 
 table, it is less dangerous than to ignore the 
 molehill and its pernicious maker, while 
 wasting time and energy upon imaginary 
 mountains. Many a case of toothache appar- 
 ently abates as the dentist's door is ap- 
 proached because the mind has been diverted 
 from the first pain to contemplation of the 
 greater anticipated pain to be caused by 
 the extraction of the tooth. The sufferer 
 imagines he is well and the ministrations of 
 the dentist are dispensed with, while the 
 tooth is allowed to continue in decay. So it 
 is with the public. Instead of fixing its at-
 
 THE PUBLIC AND PUBLIC OPINION 199 
 
 tention upon a recognized defect and eradi- 
 cating it, with slight pain, it rushes into a 
 discussion of greater possible evils, and dis- 
 sipates its energy in attacking the Quixotic 
 windmills of supposititious dangers. While 
 thus engaged the lesser but immediate evil, 
 which has been considered too petty to com- 
 mand attention, may assume serious propor- 
 tions. 
 
 Men have died in the enjoyment of poverty 
 while possessed of means ample for comfort. 
 The comparative happiness of others has 
 been turned into discontent by men deliber- 
 ately seeking to create public unrest that 
 they may be employed to allay it. If there 
 is real cause for discontent, there is also 
 a real remedy. That remedy is the ballot 
 when intelligently cast. 
 
 The politician constantly urges the neces- 
 sity of new laws for old evils. If the public 
 acted with supreme wisdom it would confine 
 the activities of the immoral man within the 
 narrowest possible limits, by general pro- 
 hibitive statutes. It would then provide, 
 with as few regulations as possible, for the 
 remainder, that they might work out their 
 own individuality. Their walk would then be 
 natural and would not assume the halting 
 step of the man just discharged from prison.
 
 200 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 where every motion had been acquired under 
 forced regulation. 
 
 The public should not act as if living for 
 this generation alone. If the Fathers had en- 
 tertained any such belief we would be living 
 under a different form of government. The 
 future cannot take care of itself. The pres- 
 ent is the guardian of the future. It is also 
 the test of whether the guardianship of the 
 past was wise. 
 
 When men discuss the public or public 
 opinion, they must include themselves. They 
 are responsible for both to the full limit of 
 their capacities. If by chicanery or sophis- 
 try they secure the public approval of meas- 
 ures that do not really represent their own 
 convictions but are merely expedient, they 
 have sinned against the public and have con- 
 tributed toward a condition that may fur- 
 nish the punishment for their own wrongful 
 acts. 
 
 Public opinion controls in the United 
 States when the majority of right-minded 
 men are expressing their sentiments. The 
 size of the majority indicates the strength 
 of the opinion. Often only the minority 
 makes itself heard. 
 
 The army, navy, militia, police — combined 
 — could not preserve order in the United
 
 THE PUBLIC AND PUBLIC OPINION 201 
 
 States for one week if public opinion were 
 not in favor of order. 
 
 The public can punish without jail and 
 reward without election to office. The closed 
 door of social ostracism can be more terrify- 
 ing than the locked door of a cell. 
 
 American life is a perpetual competition 
 within the limitations of law and morals. 
 When that competition reaches a point 
 threatening either law or morals, the rights 
 of individuals are imperiled. 
 
 No man can live his political life alone. 
 No man is a good citizen who fails to recog- 
 nize his sentimental and legal obligations to- 
 wards his neighbor and the community in 
 every act. A man's neighbors are not alone 
 those who live on the same block with him- 
 self. His real neighbors are those who have 
 the same rights and obligations. The size 
 of the country does not alter the relation- 
 ship. 
 
 American life is a mosaic made up of dif- 
 ferent surfaces, different colors, different 
 figures. 
 
 To live with full consciousness of the poli- 
 tical rights of and obligations to others is 
 the best way selfishly to insure one's own 
 rights. To repeat, for emphasis, the greatest 
 American political problem is to cause all the
 
 202 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 people to think upon the same subject at the 
 same time. The next in point of importance 
 is to cause them to express their views in the 
 only effective way: at the polls. 
 
 When this is done, there is a public opinion 
 worthy of consideration.
 
 POLITICAL CORRUPTION
 
 XI 
 
 POLITICAL CORRUPTION 
 
 Corruption in politics is not confined ex- 
 clusively to the improper use of money. Evil 
 may result from practices which, while not 
 literally legal violations, are equally harmful. 
 
 In discussions relating to corruption the 
 popular mind turns as a rule to instances of 
 improper inducement offered to legislators, 
 to evasions of the spirit of the law, to the 
 skill of men employed for that purpose, to 
 the employment of money in campaigns, and 
 to practices which are characterized by the 
 well-understood term of " graft." 
 
 In a sense, graft is political larceny. It 
 is the taking of money, or the gaining of ad- 
 vantage through the medium of official oppor- 
 tunity. Of necessity it follows that someone 
 charged with responsibility has violated a 
 duty, a trustee has proven faithless. The law- 
 making bodies are particularly susceptible to 
 the charge of corruption, because substantial 
 benefits are frequently conferred by statute. 
 
 205
 
 206 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 The public, unorganized and not acquainted 
 with the influences at work, is unable to fully 
 protect itself, and naturally resorts to the 
 cry of attempted fraud, or later, of probable 
 fraud committed. 
 
 While there may be in all legislatures a 
 small minority susceptible to corrupt induce- 
 ment, the influence of those men would be 
 unappreciable if the measures proposed were 
 deprived of party sanction. When a mem- 
 ber of the legislature sells his vote, while this 
 fact may not be legally provable, it becomes 
 a matter of general knowledge among men 
 who make it their business to keep track of 
 such conditions. It then is whispered about 
 that someone has been bribed, and from this 
 rumor condemnation is visited unjustly upon 
 many who have been pursuing their duty with 
 honest intention but unconscious that they 
 were instruments of others. 
 
 The crime of bribery, notwithstanding the 
 severity of penalties prescribed, results in 
 few convictions, from the difficulty of secur- 
 ing corroboration of a transaction which 
 secretly engages but two men equal in guilt. 
 Knowing what men are corruptible, the pro- 
 fessional legislative agent has his duties 
 much simplified and is enabled to regulate 
 the amounts a second time distributed by him,
 
 POLITICAL CORRUPTION 207 
 
 and frequently quietly retains a substantial 
 percentage of the funds intended for others, 
 reporting to his employers the expenditure of 
 the entire sum appropriated. The one who 
 first yielded to temptation is indirectly pun- 
 idied by his own cupidity, because the deter- 
 mining of his financial value is passed to an- 
 other. 
 
 The time-worn expedient of dropping a roll 
 of bills, apparently accidentally, to be picked 
 up later by clear design by the one for whom 
 the money was intended, has almost become 
 threadbare through frequent use. The ex- 
 pectedly unexpected discovery of money 
 under his pillow when the hard-working legis- 
 lator seeks restful slumber after a day's 
 work is a less novel than efficient way of pre- 
 venting proof of crime. The tribute to con- 
 science paid in the intentional loss of a few 
 thousands at a game of poker, where the 
 stakes ordinarily would not be above one hun- 
 dred dollars, would cause a smile were the 
 subject not so serious. Payment to an in- 
 spector not to discover what he has already 
 observed may avoid expense in the lawful 
 construction of a building, and it may also 
 result in the loss of life. The thousand and 
 one instances of petty bribes taken or paid, 
 and the equal number of advantages obtained,
 
 208 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 show differences in degree and not in kind. 
 The willingness to give and receive unlawful 
 inducements will continue as long as there 
 are men whose only guide is expediency and 
 whose cleverness makes detection difficult. 
 When a particular instance of bribery occurs 
 there arises at once an imperative demand 
 for a new law to prevent its recurrence. That 
 law is readily passed, and the public reverts 
 to a condition of somnolence, satisfied that 
 an evil has been eradicated. It seems not to 
 occur to the average mind that the evil was 
 an instance of a continuing human tendency. 
 Watchfulness is required as much after the 
 passage of the new law as before. The tend- 
 ency remains, to reappear again in another 
 form. 
 
 Political corruption indicates not alone the 
 high-water mark of crime, but the low-water 
 mark of indolent civic virtue. No matter how 
 vigorous may be the spoken protest against 
 it, if not accompanied by equally vigorous 
 conduct, corrupt practices will continue in 
 increasing measure. 
 
 Now and then an individual raises his voice 
 in protest against another individual or a 
 particular condition, and is at once set down 
 as a sorehead, a man with a grievance, or 
 charged with having been kept out of the
 
 POLITICAL CORRUPTION 209 
 
 combination in which he really sought to be 
 a partner. These comments are often insti- 
 tuted by persons involved, to distract atten- 
 tion from themselves. Sometimes these 
 charges are true ; meanwhile the general pub- 
 lic continues along its quiet way, unmindful 
 of the real point at issue and the actual cause 
 of discord. 
 
 It requires the use of honest money to 
 make audible a protest against the use of 
 dishonest money. It requires great moral 
 courage to institute and maintain just pro- 
 test against existing wrongs. It may mean 
 the loss of a livelihood. It may mean so 
 great disparagement to the one protesting 
 that he would seem justified in wavering. 
 When one making a charge against another 
 before the public fails to prove it, either from 
 a lack of opportunity or courage, the sym- 
 pathy of the public is apt to go toward the 
 one accused. Later-made charges against the 
 same person are discounted, and immunity is 
 thus gained from public condemnation. This 
 fact is so well known and appreciated by 
 those engaged in unlawful pursuits that they 
 frequently seek the appearance of martyrdom 
 as a cloak for their conduct, which could be 
 covered in no other way. 
 
 The idea that the public in the first instance
 
 210 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 regulates improper conditions is erroneous. 
 The public- does no such thing. It listens to 
 individuals. Those individuals appeal to it 
 for votes by methods consistent with their 
 own moral ideas, and what the public finally 
 does is to exercise its right of veto against 
 an individual or a plan for which its approval 
 is sought. Whatever idea may be involved 
 in proposed measures theoretically for the 
 benefit of all, the initiative primarily comes 
 from individuals or groups seeking the sanc- 
 tion of the voting majority. The public has 
 submitted to it on election day always two, 
 and sometimes more, propositions. It really 
 votes down all but one. That one is adopted, 
 not necessarily from approval, but because 
 it seems the least objectionable. And the 
 same thought is pertinent to candidates. The 
 successful one need not lay the flattering 
 unction to his soul that his personality has 
 necessarily met with full approval. The fact 
 may be the public has disapproved of his 
 opponent. These remarks are pertinent in 
 this place because of the means taken and 
 the money necessarily expended in a cam- 
 paign to find out what the public position is 
 to be. If men who inveigh against the 
 money corruption of politics condone it by 
 their own inactivity and seek to shirk their
 
 POLITICAL CORRUPTION 211 
 
 moral responsibility by refusing to employ 
 their weapon of offense and defense, the bal- 
 lot, corruption will continue as long as there 
 are citizens in the United States. It smacks 
 of childishness to indulge in tears and wail- 
 ings. It is the part of manhood to protest 
 by opposing effort. The utterances of many 
 public men resemble the sobs of childhood in 
 their power to remedy political evil. 
 
 The use of money in campaigns has in- 
 creased with years, and will continue to in- 
 crease. The legitimate expenses of political 
 contests are a mark of their intensity, and 
 frequently are traceable to the indifference of 
 citizens who can only be aroused to the im- 
 portance of an issue by having fireworks em- 
 ployed to attract their attention, and the 
 music of bands to hold it. 
 
 Perfectly legitimate expenses of national 
 campaigns exceed the administrative ex- 
 penses of some of the smaller states, and 
 would not suffer in comparison with the total 
 debt of the colonies at the close of the Revolu- 
 tion. Statutes regulating the expenses of can- 
 didates and restricting the uses for which 
 money may be employed tend to lessen the 
 wrongful use of money. They can never 
 eliminate it, and the argument for a par- 
 ticular proposed law, that its passage will
 
 212 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 prevent these abuses, serves to demonstrate 
 a lack of knowledge of the real causes of the 
 abuses themselves. If in addition to for- 
 feiture of office by a candidate for corrupt 
 practices on his behalf, a constituency could 
 be deprived of representation during the 
 term of that particular office, there would be 
 more practical results. The evil to the state 
 in the direct purchase of votes has already 
 been alluded to. The continuation of that 
 practice will be observed as long as honest 
 men are willing to accept office through pur- 
 chased votes. Corruption in high places can 
 never be reached and eradicated, and the 
 halls of legislation never be purified, unless 
 the evil is traced to its original source — elec- 
 tion day. The public mind is more often 
 aroused by scandal in official life than by 
 prosaic statements and figures demonstrat- 
 ing corruption at the polls, or any argument 
 for or against the wisdom of a particular ad- 
 ministration. It is easier to arouse opposi- 
 tion upon the discovery that the keeper of a 
 house of prostitution has bribed a police- 
 man than by showing that the tax rate has 
 been raised a full point. 
 
 So far as the law is concerned, there would 
 seem to be sufficiently drastic penalties to 
 prevent the corruption of voters. Unfortu-
 
 POLITICAL CORRUPTION 213 
 
 nately that is not the fact. It is difficult in 
 the extreme to obtain convictions for viola- 
 tions of the election laws. It will continue 
 to be difficult until men, apart from moral 
 principles, employ their common sense in con- 
 cluding that an unlawful vote has robbed 
 them of a lawful right. Self-protection 
 should prove an effective argument. It is 
 not upon the same plane as a moral consid- 
 eration. Practically it may furnish the same 
 results. 
 
 Compared with bribery, graft is petty lar- 
 ceny. The opportunities for advantage 
 through the favors of an administration mark 
 the standards of those charged with the re- 
 sponsibility. Most instances of official cor- 
 ruption are due to the unwillingness of citi- 
 zens to insist upon their rights and to incur 
 the trouble necessary for the exposure of 
 efforts made to secure money through their 
 own timidity. 
 
 The weaker usually yields to the stronger, 
 and men ignorant of their rights are fre- 
 quently imposed upon. When a man with 
 knowledge of his rights permits himself to 
 be imposed upon by another who socks to 
 use unlawful methods, he participates in 
 those methods and is accountable for them 
 morally as much as the one who makes the
 
 214 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 improper proposition to liiin. The influence 
 of men in public office is so tremendous in 
 creating a proper atmosphere, from which 
 may be gained a correct idea of the purpose 
 and enforcement of the laws, that no matter 
 how wise may be statutory provisions, if 
 those who are to carry them into effect are 
 not intelligently chosen the laws are largely 
 nullified. As years pass there will be less 
 and less opportunity for men of limited 
 means to successfully hope for political pre- 
 ferment, and the public is liable to be served 
 by those who use official position as an orna- 
 ment for which they can afford to pay, or as 
 an instrument to bring about their greater 
 financial advantage. 
 
 The only successful opponent of a dis- 
 honest dollar is an honest man. It may come 
 to be that the only successful opponent of a 
 dishonest man is an honest dollar, honestly 
 expended. The measure of political corrup- 
 tion is the measure of the actual difference 
 between the intellectual and moral average 
 of the public in practice and what it is in 
 theory. 
 
 Whatever topics pertaining to political life 
 may be under discussion, whatever may be 
 the title of any chapter, whatever may be 
 the line of exhortation mentally, it leads to
 
 POLITICAL CORRUPTION 215 
 
 the same result, and that is represented by 
 individuals meeting or not meeting their civic 
 duties and obligations. 
 
 It is not the intention of these pages to 
 catalogue political crimes, or to enter into 
 competitive denunciation of them. Anyone 
 of ordinary intelligence and observation who 
 reads the papers has substantial informa- 
 tion of instances of corruption, breaches of 
 trust, and violations of the duties of public 
 life. 
 
 The most corroding corruption in politics 
 is not money-taking, but is the practice of 
 hypocrisy. 
 
 The public treasury is carefully guarded 
 and amounts taken from it are relatively in- 
 significant. Even the sum of which the pub- 
 lic is robbed through official or legislative 
 assistance, while substantial in volume, of 
 itself is not so serious in effect as the viola- 
 tion of rights supposed to be assured to every 
 citizen under the Constitution. 
 
 Financial panics, it is admitted, are the 
 result of a lack of confidence. Political panics 
 likewise are the result of a lack of confidence 
 due to increasing belief in the failure of the 
 law to protect individual rights. This lack 
 of confidence is aroused when wrongs, se- 
 cretly perpetrated, come to general notice.
 
 216 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 Most violations occur through undue confi- 
 dence placed in individuals. That confidence 
 is founded upon a belief in the integrity of 
 the individual and approval of his declared 
 self-sacrifice for the welfare of the people 
 whose favor he seeks for himself. In order 
 to impress the crowd it is not necessary to be 
 a hypocrite. The permanent harm results 
 when it is later discovered that personal am- 
 bition was the guiding motive. Thereafter 
 the public becomes suspicious of those who 
 are honestly seeking to improve conditions. 
 Men of genuine worth, modest in tempera- 
 ment, are put aside, and suspicion takes the 
 place of confidence, insincerity becomes a 
 general charge. With that lack of confidence 
 ensues a lessening of the sense of responsi- 
 bility and a general scramble for selfish ad- 
 vantage takes the place of devotion to public 
 interests. 
 
 In appealing to the public " beauties of 
 declamation are too frequently contrived to 
 conceal poverty of argument." With lack 
 of detailed information the public, which 
 must express its approval by votes, is led 
 astray by frenzied speech and tirades by one 
 man against another. Issues merge into per- 
 sonalities, and the people become confused as 
 to the merits of a proposed reform, being
 
 POLITICAL CORRUPTION 217 
 
 forced to decide in practice, not whether there 
 shall be a reform, but who shall execute it. 
 Men of moderate intelligence, conscious of 
 their limited range of influence, confine them- 
 selves to selecting a champion to whom for 
 the time is delegated their own right of initia- 
 tive. When self-selected molders of public 
 opinion insist exclusively on the adoption of 
 their method of procedure and by tempting 
 phrase engross public attention, the oppor- 
 tunity of the charlatan arises; professions 
 then are taken as facts and theory takes the 
 place of practice. 
 
 It has been aptly said, " we force luminous 
 periods and splendid passages by the heat of 
 imagination, and are consequently more am- 
 bitious to be admired than understood, to be 
 quoted for manner rather than to be useful 
 for matter." 
 
 It takes real courage for the burglar to 
 rob, because he knows that his life is in jeop- 
 ardy, and that the man who kills him will be 
 commended instead of condemned. When a 
 person of social standing in a community, so 
 jealous of his own position and the esteem 
 of his neighbors that he would not commit 
 knowingly an overt wrongful act, hires an- 
 other to do it, he should receive disapproval 
 for both. The amount stolen or the privi-
 
 218 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 lege purchased is inconsiderable compared 
 with the loss to the general public in the con- 
 fidence previously reposed in him. 
 
 Conscience is a safe guide for conduct, but 
 declared standards of personal consecration 
 need not be accepted as conscience for an- 
 other. When men by self-contemplation be- 
 come so convinced of the strength of their 
 own opinions as to demand that those 
 opinions shall be the convictions of others, 
 their practical usefulness is on the decline. 
 Charged untruth does not necessarily prove 
 a man a liar. The one who charges may have 
 changed his mind. Political corruption is not 
 covered by reference to the stealing of money 
 or the gaining of special privilege. The pub- 
 lic is corrupted when it is imposed upon by 
 a false or fictitious argument deliberately 
 presented with the object of subsequent in- 
 dividual preferment. Rectitude of motive is 
 not established by charging its opposite. To 
 rob the public with one hand and bestow 
 gratuity upon it with the other always leaves 
 the giver with a balance in his favor. Men 
 are rarely morally ambidexterous. To 
 preach honesty and not practice it, to de- 
 ceive the public by sententious reasoning, to 
 profess virtue and not live it, are the real es- 
 sence of corruption in politics. To feign is-
 
 POLITICAL CORRUPTION 219 
 
 sues, to force agitation, to contribute form in- 
 stead of substance, may evidence intellectual 
 force and capacity, but result in no contribu- 
 tion to the public weal. 
 
 "When the cry of " stop, thief " is raised it 
 is sometimes wiser to watch the man who 
 makes the outcry than to follow the crowd. 
 Moral inconsistency in politics is more seri- 
 ous than statutory crime. A lie told to the 
 public is worse than a lie told to an indi- 
 vidual, politically, by the test of numbers. 
 A harsh bargain enforced by the strict word- 
 ing of a contract may be justified in law; in 
 ethics it may be execrable. In politics, when 
 the excuse of law is given for individual bene- 
 fit and the public has been deceived in the 
 passage of the law, even the court may be 
 called upon to sustain it and substantiate the 
 rights claimed thereunder. The public has, 
 nevertheless, been corrupted and robbed as 
 clearly as if deprived of property by physi- 
 cal force. The crime is the greater because 
 the public in the aggregate, without leaders 
 in opposition, is always at disadvantage. 
 The public may affect but cannot control con- 
 ditions between elections. The public can 
 punish, but cannot always prevent. 
 
 Men who are in a position to attract the 
 attention of the public and to assist in mold-
 
 220 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 ing its thought through the influence of ex- 
 ample have the responsibility of trustees. 
 
 During recent years there has been a 
 marked awakening, and men in high places 
 previously immune from even vigorous com- 
 ment have been proved guilty of secret vio- 
 lations of law. It is alleged in their defense 
 that they did not appreciate that the prac- 
 tices indulged in were violations. It was said 
 in addition that certain acts were of such 
 general commission as to be justified in prac- 
 tice. There may be some warrant in stating 
 that because one has not been prosecuted for 
 a number of years while continuing in a cer- 
 tain line of conduct, he was justified in be- 
 lieving he had public approval. This begs 
 the question. He knew, or did not know, 
 whether the particular act was in violation of 
 law and morals. 
 
 Unrestricted criticism of individuals and 
 corporate management, carried to extremes 
 defeats its own purpose. How many critics 
 are there who in the same position as those 
 whom they criticise would have refrained 
 from taking advantage of practices which 
 give great opportunities secretly for financial 
 advantage at the expense of the public! Men 
 can put themselves to sleep morally, through 
 the opiate of advantage, as well as they can
 
 POLITICAL CORRUPTION 221 
 
 close their eyes in slumber by the use of a 
 drug. It happens, however, that many citi- 
 zens charged with these unlawful practices 
 occupy stations of such intellectual and social 
 prominence that they cannot plead ignorance 
 for their acts. They may justly resent the 
 intensity of comments made upon them ; they 
 may charge selfish motives to their critics, 
 but the fact remains that while claiming 
 prominence in the social, moral and commer- 
 cial life of the community, they failed to live 
 up to the standards professed by themselves 
 and demanded by them of others. When 
 these men are discovered, despite their own 
 ingenuity and cleverness, to have been tak- 
 ing secret advantage of the public, that very 
 public has been robbed of more than the 
 money they have gained. It has been robbed 
 not only of the money unlawfully obtained, 
 but also of the confidence which it had a right 
 to repose in those who insisted on the posi- 
 tion of intellectual and moral leaders. The 
 public has, therefore, been corrupted, and the 
 chief corruption is the lowering of ideals and 
 its loss of confidence in those to whom it was 
 entitled to look for standards. 
 
 Men who claim social precedence cannot 
 expect to maintain that position and at the 
 same time enjoy without comment the fruits
 
 222 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 obtained under cover of that reputation by 
 reprehensible means. Pride and illegal 
 profit do not mix. Precept and practice must 
 be in accord. Men must choose between 
 reputation and stolen goods. They cannot 
 consistently expect to retain both. 
 
 Most large fortunes have resulted in the 
 development and management of corpora- 
 tions. These corporations receive the right 
 of existence through privileges conferred by 
 the public through its representatives in leg- 
 islative bodies. Eights granted under char- 
 ters must be given more than a literal in- 
 terpretation. Theoretically, the public knew 
 exactly what it was doing when the fran- 
 chises were bestowed. Practically, those 
 franchises were the product of astute minds, 
 seeking all they could obtain through the lack 
 of sufficient discernment on the part of legis- 
 lators. The persons seeking these advan- 
 tages, when using them for financial profit 
 and justifying their conduct legally, forget 
 that they are a part of the granting public. 
 It is true that the country has received its 
 greatest financial development through the 
 commercial enterprise of individuals willing 
 to stake their fortunes and sacrifice their 
 efforts on these very means of progress. If 
 all were unwilling to take the initiative, the
 
 POLITICAL CORRUPTION 223 
 
 public would be deprived of many of the 
 causes of its greatest enjoyment and profit. 
 It follows politically that there must be read 
 into every contract between individuals and 
 the general public an interpretation for 
 mutual benefit. When the individuals who 
 took the chance originally, dulled in con- 
 science by the profligacy of profit, fail to 
 recognize the moral understanding running 
 with their legal opportunity, they have no 
 just excuse for being distressed by general 
 comment. 
 
 When fortunes are amassed by the aid of 
 ingeniously interpreted rights of contract, 
 and accumulations have been gained beyond 
 the demands of avarice, men turn their backs 
 upon their own procedure and condemn in 
 others what they did themselves. 
 
 Faith in the effectiveness of law is lost 
 when it is observed that the fortunes of 
 others have been gained by using it as a 
 means of oppression and to furnish unfair 
 opportunities in competition. That lack of 
 confidence confirmed in the public mind ren- 
 ders less stable the law itself. That lack of 
 stability jeopardizes the enforcement of con- 
 tracts, so that in the end the original derelic- 
 tion may be the cause for its own punishment. 
 
 Responsibility works downward, not up-
 
 224 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 ward. The resentment following deception 
 is unreasoning and sometimes ruthless. 
 Legislation aimed at particular individuals 
 may cause a community to suffer. Hypoc- 
 risy is worse even than admitted selfishness. 
 To fight an equal in an unjust cause may 
 justify the valor of a contestant. To rob the 
 public by deception made possible through 
 the inability of large bodies of men to pro- 
 tect themselves against the well-organized 
 efforts of individuals is worse than dishon- 
 est; it is cowardly 
 
 Prosecutions for crime, diligently con- 
 ducted, and the publicity incident thereto, ac- 
 complish much and are a substantial deter- 
 rent to the repetition of similar crimes by 
 others. Human ingenuity and resourceful- 
 ness do not always follow the well-broken 
 track of criminal precedent, but seek new 
 avenues. When the public is used through 
 the ballot, directly or indirectly, as a means 
 of seeking improper individual advantage, 
 with its consequent harm to that same public, 
 the stability of the government is impaired 
 and nominally free institutions fail to fur- 
 nish the protection apparently guaranteed by 
 them. If for no other higher reason than 
 sheer selfishness, the public should not be de- 
 ceived or its instruments for order corrupted.
 
 POLITICAL CORRUPTION 225 
 
 The results may not be immediate, and in 
 the multitude of concurring circumstances 
 may not even be apparent. The ultimate bad 
 effect is as unavoidable as the tide. 
 
 The State can protect itself against de- 
 clared enemies, the public can meet an open 
 attack, a community can purge itself of 
 visible wrongdoing, but political corruption, 
 working under the hypocritical guise of the 
 beneficiary stalking about with virtue on its 
 lips, deception in its heart and iniquity in its 
 practice, is an insidious enemy most difficult 
 to guard against. The threatening political 
 crime of the century is not larceny, but is 
 hypocrisy.
 
 POLITICAL HONESTY
 
 XII 
 POLITICAL HONESTY 
 
 Between " Thou shalt not steal " and 
 " Honesty is the best policy " lies the his- 
 tory of unindicted men. 
 
 The dollar will always be vigorously pur- 
 sued, whether the standard be gold, or the 
 ratio be sixteen to one. 
 
 Money stands for necessities and luxuries, 
 and the means employed to obtain it are a 
 clear index to the principles of him who 
 seeks it. 
 
 Principles are declared in definition, but 
 evidenced in conduct. 
 
 The argument for honesty has been estab- 
 lished through centuries of discussion, and 
 need not be repeated here. There is no pre- 
 vailing discussion in behalf of dishonesty. 
 The argument for honesty may, therefore, 
 be considered established. Where there is 
 sufficient mentality to appreciate an abstract 
 proposition, we can assume that either the 
 Divine command or the human instinct to- 
 
 229
 
 230 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 ward expediency is generally accepted. The 
 difficulty lies in the application of the prin- 
 ciple to concrete acts. 
 
 Stealing money is the least disputable form 
 of dishonesty, and in effect may be less dan- 
 gerous than a thousand other acts not involv- 
 ing the question of theft. 
 
 Political honesty does not differ from any 
 other kind. Political dishonesty is empha- 
 sized because of its far-reaching effect, due 
 to the fact that the one who practices it is 
 always in a representative capacity. Men 
 who would scorn to steal a dollar willingly 
 profit by deception, which cannot be char- 
 acterized as theft. Mental honesty is often- 
 times more important than financial integrity. 
 
 Intent is a necessary element of crime. It 
 is proven by the acts leading up to the crime 
 itself. The intent in mental dishonesty, a 
 moral crime, is frequently impossible of proof 
 because the only evidence that can be ad- 
 duced is the statement of the perpetrator as 
 to his own condition of mind. 
 
 The instant a man takes public office, in the 
 intendment of the law he becomes impersonal 
 and has no right to think or act except for the 
 public. It is his duty to advise the public, in 
 mental honesty, whether it redounds to his 
 personal popularity or not. It is his further
 
 POLITICAL HONESTY 231 
 
 duty, in equal sincerity, never to advise the 
 public to pursue a course of conduct in order 
 to gain personal popularity. It may be the 
 popular mind at the time may not have so 
 comprehensive or far-reaching a grasp of the 
 situation as he has. The opportunities af- 
 forded him by investigation and thoughtful 
 study, may force upon him opinions not then 
 generally entertained. 
 
 If he varies his course so as to float with 
 the current contrary to his innermost convic- 
 tions he is dishonest, because he has robbed 
 the public of the knowledge of those convic- 
 tions it is entitled to have. If he fails to 
 be literally frank in giving expression to 
 his real beliefs, he has broken his contract 
 with the people and violated his oath as 
 well. 
 
 If he advocates measures in order to create 
 popularity for himself and uses that popu- 
 larity as the reason for further preferment, 
 he is again dishonest and his services to the 
 public are fictitious rather than real. 
 
 Intellectual resourcefulness may enable an 
 official to give a reason for action to the pub- 
 lic that proves apparently satisfactory and 
 still is not the real one. The dishonesty in 
 this is greater because there is no way to 
 prove it. If, in addition to doing any one of
 
 232 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 these things, which it is plain he should not 
 do, he charges others with insincerity of mo- 
 tive or improper conduct, he adds hypocrisy 
 to his dishonesty and he becomes a positive 
 detriment to good government. 
 
 It is possible for men in public life, con- 
 scious of their own mentality and confident 
 in their integrity, to persuade themselves that 
 their views, because theirs, should be ac- 
 cepted as final by people generally. This is 
 a form of mental dishonesty for which there 
 is no cure. To propose a public policy with 
 the real thought in mind that its acceptance 
 will add to the preferment and praise of the 
 advocate is nothing more or less than a fraud 
 upon the public, which has a right to assume 
 that the proposed plan was entirely ingenu- 
 ous. The dishonesty arises from the with- 
 holding of the real but unadmitted reason for 
 self-advancement. The reward would come 
 just as clearly, consistently, honestly and 
 surely from the public, if the latter under- 
 stood the underlying motive. 
 
 It is strangely anomalous that the more 
 consistent the man of influence considers him- 
 self, the more satisfied he is that men who 
 differ from him are not unwise, but unmoral. 
 The public suffers from this because unable 
 to analyze the ulterior motives of men who
 
 POLITICAL HONESTY 233 
 
 stand before it, apparently acting only in its 
 behalf, and yet actuated by the same intent 
 for self-preferment which they condemn in 
 others living in the more humble strata of 
 life. 
 
 It is, of course, dishonest, politically and 
 otherwise, for men to be elected to legislatures 
 or Congress for the purpose of representing 
 and protecting interests. It is infinitely more 
 dishonest, mentally and morally, while doing 
 this to disclaim their real purpose. The pub- 
 lic can protect itself against the one and is 
 impotent against the other. 
 
 Platitudes on honesty, not directed toward 
 individuals and specific acts, are as useless to 
 the Ship of State as is the wind to a vessel 
 with unset sails. Ignorant honesty and in- 
 tellectual dishonesty go side by side in politi- 
 cal parade. They make an attractive picture, 
 but fight little for public welfare. Why a 
 man will be honest with an individual and 
 dishonest with a multitude, mentally or finan- 
 cially, is as yet an unanswered question. To 
 accept graciously the designation of " a lead- 
 ing citizen," carries the indication of a desire 
 to lead and an admission of endeavor to fur- 
 nish an example worthy of being followed. 
 When Buch leadership has inherent the men- 
 tal dishonesty of secret personal purpose, it
 
 234 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 is more baneful than admitted selfish wrong- 
 ful design. 
 
 The knowledge of wrong- doing, without ef- 
 fort to prevent its continuance, is mental dis- 
 honesty. Virtue which can only be expressed 
 in words has no other value than ornateness 
 of language. Honesty which can only be 
 proven by the words of the one claiming it, 
 is without civic worth. 
 
 The possession of mental faculties is not 
 the sole characteristic which divides the ani- 
 mal kingdom into the possessors of long and 
 short ears. It is better to bray and kick, and 
 to kick vigorously without mentality, than to 
 possess mentality without the courage even 
 to make a noise. Men who are mentally dis- 
 honest would steal if they had the courage. 
 It is not what financially honest and mentally 
 dishonest men do that is most harmful to the 
 State, but the fact that their spoken word 
 does not represent their real convictions. 
 Their visible conduct is mere disguise. It 
 attracts the eye. It has no permanent value. 
 It will not withstand the acid test.
 
 A FINAL REFLECTION
 
 xni 
 
 A FINAL REFLECTION 
 
 It is time for the American people to take 
 themselves into their own confidence. 
 
 We are old enough as a nation to put off 
 the bombastic clothes of childhood and act 
 with maturity, not only toward the outside 
 world, but among ourselves. 
 
 The exhilaration following the Revolution 
 naturally resulted in a rhetorical output de- 
 scribing not only the greatness of our institu- 
 tions, but our inherent greatness because we 
 happen to be Americans. 
 
 The country has developed materially until 
 the prophecies of imagination have been more 
 than realized. The possibilities of individual 
 betterment here have drawn millions from 
 the four quarters of the globe. There is 
 practically a new and entirely different social 
 life from that following the foundation of the 
 government. Our laws have gone throng]] a 
 process of evolution showing changes almost 
 kaleidoscopic as a result of commercial de- 
 
 237
 
 238 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 velopment and territorial expansion. Fun- 
 damentals, however, remain the same. 
 
 There is a wide difference between human 
 instincts and habits. Habits are affected by 
 climate and geographical conditions, but in- 
 stincts remain practically the same. It is 
 time to realize that a man is not necessarily 
 better because he is an American, although 
 the pride that he may become better because 
 of American institutions is fully justified. 
 While it cannot be said without effrontery 
 that all the fundamental principles of human 
 life have been worked out and established 
 with fair clearness, it is certainly true that 
 they are better appreciated and understood 
 than ever before in the history of the race. 
 The constant problem will always be to apply 
 these fundamental principles of human asso- 
 ciation under the form of government, to the 
 incessant creation of new conditions. 
 
 We are passing through a period of com- 
 ment and criticism. It does not require bril- 
 liancy of intellect to discover that neither the 
 race nor the American people is prepared 
 for the Millennium. If the final moment of 
 development had been reached, it would have 
 been Providentially announced ere this. 
 
 Any writer on political affairs is supposed 
 to close his discussion of existing evils with
 
 A FINAL REFLECTION 239 
 
 a remedy for their betterment. That sug- 
 gested remedy usually takes the form politi- 
 cally, of a proposed law. There is no law 
 at this time which can change what seems 
 most to be criticised in public and private 
 political life unless it is preceded by a 
 changed attitude of mind. There must first 
 be a consciousness not only of a condition 
 to be remedied, but of a feeling of responsi- 
 bility on the part of each citizen that compels 
 him to contribute toward the result. 
 
 Any discussion of political principles and 
 criticism of present conditions is usually 
 summed up in a chapter on individual re- 
 sponsibility. This is logical and proper. 
 However, a citizen who is unable to under- 
 stand without argument from another that 
 he bears an individual responsibility is in- 
 capable of grasping how he should exercise 
 that particular sense of duty. 
 
 The discussion is practically closed as to 
 the fundamental political rights of men. 
 The doctrines of democracy and self-govern- 
 ment are established practically beyond dis- 
 pute. This does not mean that our particular 
 form of government is the only one under 
 which men can successfully live. It is ap- 
 parent, however, from the most casual glance 
 at the affairs of nations as now constituted
 
 240 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 that more freedom is being given to indi- 
 viduals, and that there is a growing diminu- 
 tion of centralized authority. 
 
 With the academic discussion of forms of 
 government and an increasing appreciation 
 of i,he duty of man toward man, the theory 
 of Divine right must of itself be weakened 
 in practice. It is a good time in this country 
 now, in the general tendency toward better- 
 ment, to put aside high-sounding aphorisms 
 and to study, a little at least, prosaic human 
 nature. 
 
 While the country is large enough for any- 
 one to hide himself among its vast numbers, 
 he cannot even when alone, if he reflects, 
 divorce himself from the idea that he is an 
 inherent and important factor in our system. 
 The American Eagle may seem to us the most 
 considerable bird in existence. That is a 
 point of view. Other emblems may mean as 
 much to other peoples. Since the Civil War 
 public discourses have described the weak- 
 nesses of other nations in comparison with 
 ourselves. To-day the leaders in public 
 opinion in this country are treating the world 
 to the edifying spectacle of a discussion of 
 how bad we are ourselves. 
 
 As a nation we are not as bad as we de- 
 clare ourselves to be. Individual reputations
 
 A FINAL REFLECTION 241 
 
 are being talked up by talking down others. 
 Men seem possessed by a passion to establish 
 their own individual virtue as if they had 
 been charged with its absence, and their line 
 of argument is to point to another and prove 
 that that other is without any redeeming 
 qualities whatever, and therefore they must 
 have what virtue may be left. 
 
 The public is referred to in general phrase, 
 while men lack the courage to express their 
 own opinions and hide behind what they de- 
 clare is the public thought, when the public 
 has not expressed itself until after the hap- 
 pening of an event. The public is prayed 
 for and preyed upon at the same time. The 
 fervency of the prayer is supposed to indi- 
 cate the clerical garb of the civic preacher. 
 We talk about democracy and the fundamen- 
 tal rights of man with the glibness of a par- 
 rot instructed to repeat a memorized phrase. 
 At the same time the public furnishes suste- 
 nance, willingly or unwillingly, to the very 
 individual who proclaims himself as its 
 sustainer and lasting friend. 
 
 We decry officialdom in other countries 
 and bow before it at home with the syco- 
 phancy of a trained courtier. Men unknown 
 through public service or participation in 
 political duties, thrust into the responsibili-
 
 242 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 ties of office through changing circumstance, 
 find themselves the objects of adulation and 
 applause, sought with outstretched hands for 
 favors that they may dispense. The same 
 man with his term of office expired is passed 
 by with no other recognition than the nod of 
 common politeness. 
 
 "We harp on individual rights and forget 
 individual obligations. All this does not 
 mean that the country is receding either in 
 morality or intelligence. It is intended here 
 to mean that in the increase in population, 
 the multitude of citizens, the vastness of re- 
 sources, the only voices that are heard in the 
 conversation of a community are those of in- 
 dividuals prominent by merit or accident who 
 are seeking the favor of the general public 
 and making claim to serve it and represent it. 
 
 The false assumption is spread abroad that 
 differences between the social strata of life 
 mean differences in instinct and motive, in 
 desire and ambition. The fact is that desire 
 and ambition are increased and intensified 
 by material and social development, and 
 therefore the responsibility is greater. " The 
 people " are referred to impersonally and 
 to accentuate discourse, as if speakers 
 and writers were not a part of that same 
 body.
 
 A FINAL REFLECTION 243 
 
 The man who centers his life upon accumu- 
 lation has as engrossing a passion for money 
 when his capital is only one hundred dollars 
 as when it is one hundred millions of dollars. 
 When he has acquired an amount so large 
 that his physical and mental efforts to ac- 
 quire more have been exhausted and he is 
 unable to do anything but reflect and articu- 
 late, his remaining days are passed, as a rule, 
 in laying down rules of conduct for others 
 who may be starting out on a career the same 
 as the one closing upon him. 
 
 In political official life there seems to be 
 an apparent necessity for establishing wis- 
 dom and virtue, for lecturing those who have 
 been less successful in the accomplishment 
 of their particular line of ambition. 
 
 Criticism in this country is both an art 
 and a science. Publicity furnishes an ex- 
 hilaration and mental expansion which 
 seem to preclude an appreciation of normal 
 conditions, and the preacher of the doctrine 
 of democracy indulges in the practice of men- 
 tal exclusiveness. 
 
 Of all systems of government that of the 
 United States is most political. Equality 
 before the law only means that everyone 
 starts Legally equal. The perpetual insist- 
 ence upon individual rights has developed
 
 244 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 into a chorus so loud that the cry for indi- 
 vidual obligation is not heard. 
 
 Every opportunity to make money, to gain 
 culture, to acquire knowledge, to enjoy luxu- 
 ries, is a political question here, for the rea- 
 son that the mode and method necessary to 
 experience these things come through laws, 
 the result of action at the polls and the wise 
 or unwise use of the ballot. To kneel in 
 prayer is about the only activity in this coun- 
 try not affected by statute law, and the rea- 
 son for that is that it is assumed in the Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 For the purpose of acquiring any accurate 
 knowledge of present conditions and to affect 
 any permanency from statutory provisions 
 it must be taken for granted that temporal 
 questions are finally settled politically, but 
 that they need not be considered as party 
 questions. This has been touched on in pre- 
 vious pages and need not be repeated here. 
 
 In the history of the world we have had 
 an ice age, a stone age, an iron age, and other 
 divisions in physical evolution. The present 
 age seems to be one dedicated to the practice 
 of concealing one's real individual opinions 
 and of expressing opinions as a finality for 
 everyone else. 
 
 Can it be that because men are living in
 
 A FINAL REFLECTION 245 
 
 the twentieth century they are less moved 
 by human instincts than a century ago? 
 Have men no longer the moral courage 
 to be natural and normal? Is it possible that 
 personal virtue cannot stand upon its own 
 legs without knocking out from under an- 
 other the feet which enable him to stand 
 erect? 
 
 It is not necessary for the purpose of this 
 volume to go into detail as to existing con- 
 ditions which are the chief subject of criti- 
 cism. Before the cause for those criticisms 
 can be removed, however, and they are al- 
 most entirely political, it is only necessary to 
 recognize a few fundamental propositions. 
 
 Men like power, influence, applause, pub- 
 licity, money, personal precedence. They 
 always have, they always will, they always 
 should. It is born within them. The manner 
 of their acquirement, the method of their use, 
 and the obligations recognized toward others, 
 form the standards by which men must actu- 
 ally be judged. 
 
 If it is honorable to serve the country in 
 time of war, it is equally necessary and 
 honorable to serve it in time of peace. Ad- 
 mitting this, why criticise the man who de- 
 sires public office? That desire should be 
 applauded and not condemned. The met hod
 
 246 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 of acquiring that office and the manner of its 
 administration should be observed and made 
 the subject of adverse comment when nec- 
 essary, and proper applause when justified. 
 It certainly is laudable to desire to be 
 President of the United States when a man 
 believes that he is qualified in motive and 
 capacity to meet the obligations of that great 
 office. It is equally honorable for a man to 
 seek the humblest appointment within the 
 gift of that same President, and he has as 
 much right in law and morals to satisfy his 
 instinctive ambition in his lowly walk of life 
 as has the man born to, or who may have 
 reached a higher level in the social scale. It 
 may be annoying to a President or Governor 
 to have his time imposed upon and his tran- 
 quillity disturbed by his inferiors, but cer- 
 tainly they have a Heavenly Father in com- 
 mon and a Federal Constitution which de- 
 clares their common rights. Why, therefore, 
 hide behind the cloak of hypocrisy and en- 
 deavor to differentiate? The member of a 
 President's cabinet is ordered to go out be- 
 fore the people and instruct them politically 
 and endeavor to induce them to follow this 
 or that line of political conduct. The depart- 
 mental clerk is ordered not to, and when he 
 participates in the political activities of a
 
 A FINAL REFLECTION 247 
 
 smaller circle, notwithstanding their common 
 rights before God and man, he is dismissed 
 from public service as if guilty of some foul 
 crime. 
 
 It is true that some men are more gifted 
 than others, and some better qualified than 
 their neighbors for public preferment and 
 authority. Is that any reason why they 
 should not strive to better themselves? The 
 test is honesty of motive and belief in an 
 ability to perform an official duty. 
 
 Publicity discloses to a community the ca- 
 pacities of a man, and enables him to broaden 
 his acquaintance, to be more useful to him- 
 self and to those who are dependent upon 
 him. Is there anything abnormal in his hav- 
 ing a selfish desire to better himself if while 
 in the public service he gives full value in 
 the performance of duties intelligently car- 
 ried out? 
 
 Co-operation among men brings results 
 impossible through individual effort; hence 
 parties, hence cohesive strength, hence re- 
 wards on account of co-operative effort in 
 behalf of a common political principle. 
 When those rewards are held out as the price 
 for so-called regularity, when it is a matter 
 of common observation that political prefer- 
 ment depends oftentimes upon the ability of
 
 248 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 an applicant to carry the satchel of a political 
 leader rather than travel with a trunk full 
 of ideas of use to somebody, the argument- 
 ative nonsense of political regularity in that 
 particular instance causes animals other than 
 human to bray only because they cannot 
 laugh. 
 
 It is not necessary to go through life with 
 a perpetual grin which will result in a per- 
 manent appearance of idiocy, any more than 
 it is to assume a frown in the hope that it will 
 grow into a wrinkle indicative of profound 
 thought. It is better to be smiled with than 
 laughed at. A hypocrite can force tears 
 without detection. Honest laughter cannot 
 be feigned. If men before the public did not 
 conduct themselves with a reasonable degree 
 of seriousness it would be assumed that they 
 were not serious-minded enough for the 
 proper conduct of affairs. When, however, 
 they act behind a forced seriousness, an ab- 
 normal dignity and the constant strain of an 
 endeavor to create an impression without the 
 moral courage to be natural, they so mix up 
 their personality with political questions that 
 any normal solution of a problem is difficult 
 of accomplishment. 
 
 American life is not a principle: it is a 
 procedure. It is a procedure involving not
 
 A FINAL REFLECTION 249 
 
 only rights but obligations. The time has 
 eoine when rights are pretty clearly defined 
 and admitted. There will always be the diffi- 
 culty of securing them when they are in con- 
 flict with the rights of somebody else. It 
 is an opportune moment to take a respite 
 from the discussion of rights to the dis- 
 cussion of obligations. If there is one obliga- 
 tion imposed upon an American citizen more 
 than another, it is to be frank, manly, honest, 
 open, generous, and without reserve in 
 thought and act toward every other citizen. 
 
 The proportion of men in the United States 
 who are generally known is pathetically 
 small compared with the entire number. The 
 country is judged by those who have forced 
 their way to the fore. The great body of 
 citizens is unknown to the average observer, 
 and will be less known as numbers increase. 
 It is not a question of individual responsi- 
 bility, as those two words are ordinarily de- 
 fined. Responsibility cannot be divided in 
 this country mathematically. No man has 
 done his duty when he has only performed 
 his mathematical proportion. His full duty 
 is done when he has done all he can. 
 
 This is a country of example. The man 
 wlio demands to be followed, the man who in- 
 sists on his rights to serve the people, the
 
 250 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 man who has the temerity to speak for a 
 community, is the man who must combine 
 precept and example. When his conduct is 
 colored by hypocrisy he is a common enemy. 
 When a man insists upon being a social 
 leader his conduct must justify it. He is not 
 required to insist upon being a social leader, 
 but if he does, he must justify it. A man is 
 not required to be a political leader, but 
 when he insists that he is, the people have a 
 right to assume that he is mentally and 
 morally honest. When an admitted social 
 leader is found to be corrupt, he has exer- 
 cised a privilege but violated a duty. He 
 has placed himself where he must take the 
 fruits of one or the other, and cannot claim 
 both. 
 
 There seems to be no public discussion 
 which is not colored at some point by refer- 
 ence to the acquiring, management, and 
 transmission of private fortunes. This is 
 not to be wondered at. Why discuss it, how- 
 ever, as if it were a discovery? 
 
 To look into a mirror may be indicative of 
 vanity, and if practiced too often may result 
 in vanity. To look into the same glass to 
 discover whether one's face is soiled so that 
 the soil may be removed with a view to being 
 more presentable to others in the ordinary
 
 A FINAL REFLECTION 251 
 
 associations of life is commendable. In 
 neither case does it hurt the glass. It is 
 about time for some of our distinguished 
 citizens to sit before the mirror for a while. 
 It would not do the American people at this 
 time any harm, in the general mix-up, to get 
 before a national mirror and look at them- 
 selves. 
 
 It may seem to be a startling innovation 
 to pen a volume on the subject of politics, 
 necessarily referring to things which are and 
 ought not to be, without prescribing a rem- 
 edy. There is a certain degree of egotism in 
 asserting that a particular method of pro- 
 cedure will right a wrong. There is effront- 
 ery in insisting that only that particular 
 method will right a particular wrong. Men 
 become so exhausted in describing evils that 
 they are sometimes out of breath when they 
 endeavor to tell how they may be remedied. 
 It is possible to exert oneself so fully to win 
 a race that when across the line the contest- 
 ant may not have strength enough to receive 
 the prize. 
 
 There is only one prescription that the 
 writer would offer the Americai] people at 
 this time, and that is to stop long enough to 
 catch breath, reflect and look at themselves 
 in the mirror of their own absolute con
 
 252 COMMON SENSE IN POLITICS 
 
 sciences, instead of the reflected light of 
 what they claim they are. 
 
 Let it not be forgotten that in this country 
 men are given the legal freedom to commit 
 crime, if they are willing to take the chance 
 of bearing the punishment of imprisonment. 
 Men who are known to have, and who do not 
 claim not to have a lack of moral principle, 
 can be guarded against. They differentiate 
 themselves, and they are satisfied with the 
 rewards that come from their particular line 
 of activities. They are not guilty of decep- 
 tion in the first instance. They are not hypo- 
 crites. The man who seeks individual ad- 
 vantage to the detriment of the public, with- 
 out claiming he is not doing so, is not a 
 phenomenon peculiar to political life any 
 more than physical disease is to the body. 
 These men can be taken care of by the remedy 
 of indictment and conviction. 
 
 This volume concludes with the proposi- 
 tion with which it started: that the corrod- 
 ing evil in American political life is hypoc- 
 risy, and not larceny. That hypocrisy finds 
 its inception as much in ordinary, plain, vul- 
 gar vanity and mental selfishness as it does 
 in any other inducing cause. 
 
 A reasonable sense of humor is a Provi- 
 dential dispensation. If men who have
 
 A FINAL REFLECTION 253 
 
 lost their sense of perspective to such a de- 
 gree that they become hypocrites by practice 
 as well as by instinct were now and then 
 laughed at, as well as maligned, it would 
 have a tendency to reduce their false pride 
 and selfishness to a more normal level. 
 
 " If the devil ever laughs, it must be at 
 hypocrites; they are the greatest dupes he 
 has; they serve him better than any others, 
 and receive no wages; nay, what is still more 
 extraordinary, they submit to greater morti- 
 fication to go to hell than the sincerest Chris- 
 tian to go to heaven."
 
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