IN THESE LATTER HUBERT HOWE BANCROF IN THESE LATTER DAYS COMPLETE WORKS WKST AMERICAN SERIES OF HISTORIES RESOURCES OP MEXICO CHRONICLES OF THE BUILDERS THE BOOK OF THE FAIR THE BOOK OF WEALTH THE NEW PACIFIC POPULAR HISTORY OF MEXICO LITERARY INDUSTRIES RETROSPECTION IN THESE LATTER DAYS IN THESE LATTER DAYS BY HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT CHICAGO THE BLAKELY-OSWALD COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 1917 CONTENTS CHAPTER I A PROBLEM IN EVOLUTION CHAPTER II APOCALYPTIC CHAPTER III INFELICITIES OF POSSESSION CHAPTER IV GERMANY AND JAPAN CHAPTER V THE STILL SMALL VOICE CHAPTER VI LIFE'S COMPLEX WAYS CHAPTER VII THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LYING CHAPTER VIII CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER IX THE AUTOCRACY OF LABOR CHAPTER X MUNICIPAL RULE AND MISRULE vi CONTENTS CHAPTER XII FALLACIES AND FANTASIA CHAPTER XIII THE ECONOMICS OP EDUCATION CHAPTER XIV TUB MYSTERIOUS HISTORY OP THE SPIRIT CREATION CHAPTER XV SPIRITUAL AND RATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER XVI AB Ovo CHAPTER XVII As OTHERS SEE Us CHAPTER XIX THE NEW RELIGION CHAPTER XX THE WAR IN EUROPE CHAPTER XXI CRYSTALLIZED CIVILIZATION CHAPTER XXII WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE AT SAN FRANCISCO BAY* CHAPTER XXIII REVIVAL OF CITIZENSHIP CHAPTER XXIV THE INITIATIVE CHAPTER XXV ASSURANCES FOR THE FUTURE IN THESE LATTER DAYS NOTE THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN AND SENT TO PRESS PRIOR TO THE DECLARATION OF WAR ON GERMANY. IN THESE LATTER DAYS CHAPTER I A PROBLEM IN EVOLUTION "TIT ~T HAT is the matter with the United States? V V We grow in strength but not in grace ; we are intelligent but we are not sensible. Our legislators lack patriotism; they are governed by policy rather than by principle ; our electorate lacks inter- est; our courts of law lack probity; our politicians lack honesty. Though apt in initiative we are insincere in execution, and are farther from judicious government than we were a hundred years ago. We are a nation, and yet not a nation; we are wise yet full of folly. We boast where we should take shame. In words we exalt our standard of citizenship ; in deeds we degrade it. We rate ourselves as the best of people with the best of governments; both propositions are still open for proof. We seem to value our heritage but take little trouble to guard it. We are evolving with some degree of inten- sity, but our progress is downward as well as upward. We claim an advance in knowledge and refinement, but our knowledge is mostly siftings and our refinement subtlety. We account ourselves civilized, whereas civilization is an eternity of evolution, whose end is ever as far away as the beginning. i 1 J l\ TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS Tin- Pacific ocean, whose waters exceed the waters of all i ther oceans, \\lm-e shores with tributary lands exc I in area ami potential wealth twice the area and natural wealth of the I'nited States, with a half civili/ed popula- tion less all told than our own, this inherited opportu- nity, this superb gift and obligation Providence la\> ;ii our feet, and we spurn it: is not that folly? And all the while we are sweeping into our coffers the world's wealth and call it prosperity, which is only a fer- tili/er for the seeds of decay implanted in our system. All the while we stand amidst the wealthiest and might- iest of earth, and none so poor to do us reverence. Our moneyed men have their many vaults filled, but they want more vaults filled; our workingmen are the best paid in the world, but they want more pay: their leaders have indeed found an easy path to follow, but they want the whole highway. All the world has gone mad except ourselves; and even we find some ways of playing the fool. We have a good enough form of government for men who wish to be decent, but we do not wish to be decent. We put bad men in office and then expect to be well governed ; is not that folly? We have in our care a huge machine of ever increasing power and intricacy, of ever increasing needs to meet ever increasing emergencies; and we place this juggernaut car of progress, of which we are once the master and the victim, in the hands of men to control, to conduct, who know little about it and care less, men insincere, incompetent, vain, self-seeking, self-sufficient, or even knavish, and expect to be safely conducted over mountain and morass to the happy hunting-ground await- ing all good citizens who have ever performed their whole duty as such, at the polls and elsewhere, and so rest con tent : is not that folly? For so it has been said, there are many and various kinds of fools in this world. The (Jerman kaiser is one A PROBLEM IN EVOLUTION 3 kind of fool, Mexico another, the United States of America still another. We have heavy war taxes to pay when we have no war. We see mounting higher every day the cost of living where there is no corresponding increased cost of produc- tion. We should be deriving some adequate profit from the Panama canal which we have built, but we are not. Its free use, equally \vith ourselves, we have placed at the disposal of rival nations, therewith the more easily for them to despoil our commerce. A few persons like the money-lenders, the munition makers, the oil and steel men, and collateral and incidental industries, have made enor- mous gains, but except the farmers the people at large are little the better for the war, while the government has stirred up rivalries and brought upon the nation general contempt. We have turned over to the Japanese our most price- less asset, the economic supremacy of the Pacific, the greatest and most opulent of oceans, in whose develop- ment is involved not only our own destiny but the destiny of all nations. After driving our ships and sailors from the sea. the administration childishly complains that it has no men for the navy; and this while our wharves are congested with goods which we cannot move, and the demand for able seamen to man our warships is pressing upon us. We cry peace ! peace ! when we should know that the worst that could happen to us and to the world would be peace without victory. We spend millions of money in preparedness to do noth- ing, to be triplicated by other millions in doing nothing. In a world crisis we submit to wrongs and outrages on every side, too timid to present a front even of ordi- nary manliness and independence. In tolerating the exploiters of the workingman, we 4 IX TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS harbor an imperium in imperio, whom to placate for votes we barter our integrity. We treat with iiulirtViviicr tin- frit-mlly advances of China, and thus throw away an opportunity for giving and receiving benefits such as has never come to any other nation,, the insidious eyes of Russia and Japan viewing our insane attitude with satisfaction. We tinker our tariff to the confusion of commerce, and by a suicidal policy bring ruin upon our merchants and manufacturers, and give advantage to our competitors helpful to them in destroying our industries. Meat trusts, fish trusts, and the manipulation of farm products, with other many and varied sorts of imposition are allowed free course by the guardians of our munici- palities, while the consumers groan under the infliction. We settle blackmail not by chastising the blackmailers, but by submitting to their demands. Women become men in extraneous life and men become women. While serving England with money, munitions, and provisions, we permit her to place a bar on our commerce. Without reason, without necessity, without benefit to anyone, but simply from the inexperience or wanton reck- lessness of office holders, or from vanity, or for self-ad- vancement fresh burdens are constantly laid upon the people. Millions of money are wrongly paid in pensions which go to the support of worthless persons in idleness; also in printing, in uselessly overloading the mails, in creating places for needy retainers, and in other like indirect ways. A frivolous and fruitless pretence of interfering in Mexico cost the nation nearly as much as the cost of the Panama canal. But with all this, and more, as the seamy side of our lives, we will truthfully acknowledge that we have much to be thankful for, all in fact that humanity is heir to. A PROBLEM IN EVOLUTION 5 Nor will we admit that we are wholly unworthy of the good gifts of the gods. Wherefore, in view of the situation, and in view of the fact that we do not claim in all things absolute per- fection, may we not ask in all reasonableness and sin- cerity, "What is the matter with the United States? Why, while enjoying the blessings of peace, while having at our command boundless resources, while possessed with ordi- nary intelligence tinctured with a bit of patriotism, why should we allow such a muddle to be made of things? The easy answer comes, We do not attend to our busi- ness, and any business not properly attended to, as we well know, will go to the dogs. We neglect our civic duties, turn to our farms and our merchandise, and let the republic drift. To any appeal to our better self from the true well-wisher of the commonwealth we answer, "Oh, yes! That is so," and go our way with our eyes upon the ground hunting acorns. For which criminal indifference to our own interests, and the interests of others we get only what we deserve. But why do we so? Call it pure human nature, if you choose, or say that we are so obsessed by a spirit of optimism that never hav- ing suffered any great calamity we will not see it coming until it is fairly upon us. Call it a love of money, which is greater than our love of liberty, or a predilection for a little brief authority which overrules within us any pre- dilection we might otherwise have for sound morality and good government. Once we would have said, if the government is at fault change the government; if the office-holders are bad put in better ones. Then we remember that the government is the people, and the people are the government, and that a government by the people, for the people is what we claim to be and are not ; or if we are we make a poor showing, one that does not speak very well for the (i IN TIIKSK ].. \TTKK DAYS - titute their place for personal gain. Thus the hollowness of form is supplemented l>y the hypocrisies tf incumbents, and indirection becomes the basic element of our government by the people for the people. Change it all, reformers say. the sort of reformers that talk but never act. But how? Elections rage, presidents come and go, a Wilson succeeds a Taft. each depth finding a lower depth. "1 stand for Americanism, for undiluted American- ism," shouts an aspirant for high office. It sounds well and the crowd cheers, though not knowing why. even (lerman hyphenates not knowing or caring for what they applaud. Does the candidate himself know whereof he speaks? For it is to be feared he may be kept long stand- ing before undiluted Americanism comes to him again in America. Americanism undiluted either with Germans or Irish, Latin, or Slav. Because for undiluted Americanism we must have undiluted Americans. Americanism! What is it and where is it ? I see can- didates for office, high and low. scouring the country for votes, bellowing like bulls of Bashan for office, laudinir their own ability and principles to the disparagement of all others. I see in office men whom no merchant would trust with his cash box, whom no husband would trust with his wife, whom no thief would trust with his part of the plunder, yet from this refuse of humanity we select a percentage of our rulers. The ideals of Americanism, of a representative denioe- racy. as promulgated by office seekinir orators are every A PROBLEM IN EVOLUTION 7 man and every woman a citizen, each with equal rights and influence in the government. How far this condition obtains in the United States we may observe and determine. Is it Americanism as it is or as it should be that our aspirant stands for? We cannot achieve renascence in a moment. There is -no Americanism, there is no America now existing of the nature or quality promulgated by the founders of this republic. The representative democ- racy of Hamilton, of Jefferson, of Washington was quite a different affair from the representative democracy of the present day. Nor can we re-Americanize America by statute. We cannot make honest high-minded citizens of grasping mil- lionaires who pose for everything that is patriotic while pinching every opportunity for more money. The time has past for making over bad material for good citizen- ship, whether we seek it in the halls of Congress, or among the lords of finance, or in the cesspools of Europe. In the bulletin of the National Geographical society one writes: "It is a fact not generally recognized that the foreign population of the United States, together with sons and daughters of parents one or both of whom are or were of foreign birth, constitute a third of the entire population of the country. "In a number of states the people of foreign birth or foreign or mixed parentage exceed in numbers those of native birth and parentage. This condition obtains in Massachusetts, where the foreign element by birth or par- entage is twice as great as the element of unmixed native lineage. That state had in 1910, 1,103,000 people both of whose parents were born within the United States, as com- pared with 2,221,000 who were either born abroad them- selves or had one or both parents born abroad. ' ' The same condition prevails in Rhode Island. That state has a population of 159,821 of native ancestry, against 372,671 of foreign birth or lineage. 8 IN THESE LATTKK DAYS "In Connecticut we find a population of native ances- try aggregating 395,000, and of foreign birth or ancestry aggregating 703,000. "In New York there is a population of native aneot r\ n-aching a total of 3,230,000. Against this there is a population of foreign birth or foreign .or mixed ancestry amounting to 5,715,000. "The balance in favor of the population of foreign birth or foreign ancestry, in whole or in part of New Jer- sey is 425,000, the population of native ancestry amount- ing to 1,010,000 as against 1,435,000 in the case of foreign element. "Illinois also falls in the list of states where the popu- lation of full native stock is smaller than that of foreign birth or foreign or partly foreign ancestry. Its popu- lation of native lineage amounts to 2,600,000. Against this there is a population wholly or partly foreign by birth or ancestry of 2,925,000, a difference of 325,000. "Michigan also falls in this class, with 1,560,000 wholly or partly of foreign birth and ancestry as compared with 1,224,000 of pure native lineage. .Minnesota has nearly three times as many people born abroad, or with one or both parents of foreign birth, as she has of sons and daughters of native stock. Her population of foreigners and their children totals 1,483,000 as compared with 575,000 for the native element. "Montana has 199,000 people of foreign birth and foreign or mixed ancestry, as against 162,000 of native ancestry. "Wyoming gets into the same column by about the same proportion. The state of Washington has 390,000 tiiotv of the foreign than of the native element, while California practically breaks even. "Taking the statistics of the male population twenty- one yeai-s of ago and upward for the entire country, it U found that only 48.9 per cent of them are of straight, white native ancestry. The negro element adds 9.1 per A PROBLEM IN EVOLUTION 9 cent to this, and the remainder, 41.3 per cent, is repre- sented by the men of foreign birth or the sons of foreign or mixed parentage. "Taking the different states we find some striking sta- tistics. In the proportion of foreign birth or foreign or mixed ancestry to native, among the men of 21 years and upwards, North Dakota takes first rank among the states with 99 per cent belonging to the former class. Minne- sota ranks next with 78 per cent, and Wisconsin third with 77.7 per cent. "Approximately two-thirds of the men in Massachu- setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and Utah are sons or grandsons of foreign lands. In New Jersey, Illi- nois, Michigan, South Dakota, and Montana the proportion ranges from 61 per cent to 57 per cent, while in Nebraska, Nevada, Washington, and California it is slightly more than half. "In Utah it falls to 58.8 per cent, in Wyoming to 45.9 per cent, in Missouri to 29.7 per cent, in Kansas to 30.8 per cent, and in Oregon to 40.4 per cent." One cause of the hatred of Jews in Russia is that they are an alien race, the chief factor of unity in the Russian empire being the Russian people. This present America, I repeat, can never be Ameri- canized. Out of such mixed material as we have a new nation may, perhaps, be made, but it will be a nation without beginning, a new birth possibly but not a bring- ing forth. We are here what we are in ebullition ; what the substance will be boiled down we cannot tell. We speak of the foreign born citizens, but such a thing does not exist. Alien born is always alien ; the unnatural can- not be nationalized however he may be whitewashed in court and called citizen. How can we teach love of country, any more than we can teach a tree how to grow? Can we train a German to love England or a Jap to love America? We have drifted out of the category of nations. 10 IN T1IKSK I ,. \TTKIi DAYS ;uul arc fast establishing ourselves in internationalim. This our early ideals of Americanism did not contemplate. the regeneration of the world and njuali/ation by lowering our own standards of civic righteousness while endeav- oring to elevate others. They might have managed well enough in reasonable numbers colonists like Stuyvesant 'N Hollanders and IVim'.s may of endless endurance, dis- aster comes, and \\v have no reason to regard ourselves immune from the common fate of nations. We should scarcely expect this republic at its present pace to run on forever. APOCALYPTIC AS TO the future of our country opinion is as free as it is _^.~A_ valueless. Naturally we look for great developments, but in what direction none can tell. Why we respect the opinion of the ultra-respectable more than that of the average citizen, in matters regarding which neither can know anything, is not because of the reasonableness of it, but because we are made that way. Our speculations regarding the future must always be qualified by a conjunction, in which case, in some instances, prognostications may be reduced to certainties. Thus we may safely say that great as are our resources, a continuance of the present extravagance and wanton waste, public and private, will lead to ruin. We may be very sure that the loss of our carrying trade signifies the loss of our commerce ; that unless San Francisco bay is made a world center of industry it becomes a way station ; that unless San Francisco dominates the Pacific, the Pacific will never be dominated by the United States. We may be very sure that if Japanese women are per- mitted to enter the United States and breed American citi- zens, that at no very distant period the United States will be more Japanese than American. Meanwhile the grim race problem glances from the rapidly increasing horde of Asiatic citizens to the rapidly increasing horde of Afri- can citizens, then waves its skinny hand over our Euro- pean concretions and mutters hybridism! We may be very sure if the government of the republic is wrested from the hands of the people at large, and 19 20 IN THESE LATTKi; DAYS allowed to fall under the control of any one of the several cliques or cabals aspiring to that honor, as labor-leaders, capitalists, socialists, catholics, that we will very soon cease to be a republic and become an oligarchy. Within the province of history we find there have been some fifty republics, about half of them still alive. Something perhaps may be learned from a glance at the fate of those which have appeared and disappeared in times past. Of the length of their existence respectively the time has varied from a few years to a millennium. Thus after decapitating royalty, with its arbitrary exac- tions, in the person of Charles T, in 1649, England enjoyed a republican period of eleven years, while the republic of Venice under the Doges dominated the economic world for 1200 years. Before Venice was republican Rome, whose rule was for 500 years, or until 27 B. C., when Octavius became emperor. More than a thousand years before Christ, at the death of Codrus, finding no one worthy to succeed him, Athens abolished royalty, and was governed by archons for 1000 years, when it fell under the power of the Romans and other invaders. Sparta, once the rival of Athens, preserved a repub- lican form of government, mixed with monarchy, until with the rest of Greece it fell before Rome, as Rome fell finally under a load of luxury and licentiousness, and ;i> the United States of America may one day fall if we do not mend our ways. Genoa became a free commercial state about A. I). 1000, and continued as such for seven centuries, until e.\- tinguished with Venice in 1792 by Napoleon Bonaparte, who was himself extinguished at Waterloo. France tried republican rule several times on and off, before settling down to a representative government as the best, first owing to the tyranny of royalty and the privileged classes in 1792, restoring monarchy in 1804, to APOCALYPTIC 21 try republicanism again in 1848, and again on the over- throw of Louis Napoleon in 1870. With its legislative power vested in a senate of 300 members and a chamber of deputies numbering 500 or 600 members elected by universal suffrage, France may be reckoned among the first class republics left alive in the world today. Switzerland, whose political integrity is respected by all nations, delivered herself from the ineubi of emperors and nobles by becoming a republic or confederation in 1352, continuing thus for 565 years, with a potential other like period of independence and happiness, provided the Hohenzollerns and Hapsburgs are properly secured and muzzled at the end of the present war. Back before Christ. Geneva, a gallic town of the Allo- broges, afterward capital of Burgundy and part of Char- lemagne's empire, declared republicanism in 1512 and joined the Swiss cantons in 1584. Then there are the small republican states of San Marino and Andorra; and in some respects the free cities of Liibeck, Hamburg, and Bremen might be called republics. Poland was regarded as a republic because her king was elective. Venice with a franchise restricted to limited aristocracy was ruled by a small oligarchy. When the seven confederated states of the united Neth- erlands renounced their allegiance to Philip II they as- sumed the form of republicanism. Venice, the most aristocratic of all ancient republics, where the franchised classes exercised their power without delegation or representation, lived the longest of any, and was the most prosperous. The fifteen semi-republics of Spanish America are all fashioned upon much the same pattern, being an abortive attempt to unite the autocracy of Spain with the repre- sentative democracy of America. They are all opposed to anything nominally monarchical; they will not tolerate in name any title or intimation of anything royal or im- perial, not to say autocratic or despotic. Howsoever near L'L' IX TIIKSK I.ATTKK- DAYS in practice they may corne to such forms, they will have only a republican government, though ruled by those whose occupation is to destroy rather than conserve. ;iv in Mexico. .M>st of them declared their independence from Spain and assumed a republican form of government during the decade from 1815 to 1825. Bolivia has three legislative chambers, and a president elected for life. Chili has a national congress, a chamber of deputies, and a president elected for five years, with a council of state and five cabi- net ministers. Suffrage is confined to persons able to read and write who pay a tax. which restricts the number of voters and renders the rule somewhat arbitrary. Colombia, formerly New Granada, has senate and n-p resentative chambers, a president chosen every two years, and four ministers. Costa Rica has a president and two vice-presidents, the legislative power being vested in a congress of deputies. Ecuador has a president, who is also minister of the interior, three other cabinet officers, and a congressional senate and house of representative And so on; with slight variations we may name Venezuela, Uruguay, San Salvador, Peru, Paraguay, Nicaragua. Hon- duras, and Guatemala. It is a good indication this struggle toward liberalism on the part of these American off-shoots from Spanish absolutism, a self -deliverance from the servitude of me- dieval monarchism, even though brought to the absurdity which Mexico now enjoys, which seems to prefer anarchic republicanism to none at all. Just as England, though loathe to let go the now obsolete and ridiculous genuhYe- tions current in the days of her royal masters, her Johns. and Henrys, and Edwards, will still have in practice her republican rule, and that of the best and highest order. It is good, I say, for these American republics thus to set forth in outward form the principles of liberty and independence, even though unable at the outset to attain the full realization of their dreams of a happy and pro- APOCALYPTIC 23 gressive commonwealth, rather than cling to the super- stitions of the past, in remembrance of their old-time servi- tude and degradation as the effete monarchies of Europe seem so to delight in. There is some excuse for the imperfections of the Span- ish Americans, where often there can be no government by the people for the people, because there are no people suitable for self-government, but rather ignorant half-civ- ilized natives or half-castes. Mexico and China are still making desperate efforts to reconcile despotism with de- mocracy, though baffled at every turn by individualism. Twice since achieving independence in 1824 Mexico was compelled to thwart imperialistic attempts, one made by Iturbide early in the life of the republic, and the other by Maximilian, of Austria, who held his ground from 1863 to 1867, both sacrificing their lives in the cause. Quite different in some instances from our modern idea of commonwealth republicanism were the republics even of ancient Greece and Rome, with the franchise embodied in a few who governed for all, both freemen and slaves. In their incipience these republics were essentially aristocratic. Somewhat less so were the medieval republics of Genoa and Venice, while the more modern commonwealths sought to achieve pure democracy. Without a proper people as a fundamental all republics must be as are those of Span- ish America, more oligarchic, or anarchic, than democratic. We all know that in principle and in practice England is more republican than monarchical. Monarchy signifies sovereign control by a monarch. Such is not George V, who is neither sovereign in control nor yet a monarch, nor yet hardly a man. What could he do had he his own living to make? Where could he find associates even were he a commoner? Though a good fellow enough, what there is of him, he is scarcely a thing for a Kitchener or a Lloyd George to bow down to or worship, even though it be but hollow hypocrisy on the part of all concerned. Yet when this worthless sprig of English royalty Jl IN THESE LATTER DAYS MS lli' Channel, batth- ships must jruard his sacred person, while my Lord Kitchener is Driven ;i hollow title and sent forth to die alone. Even while her bungling rulers wen- fighting her colon- ies over-sea, the doctrine of the rights of man, as promul- gated in America in 1776 and in France in 1798, vindicated by revolt from arbitrary rule, took root as well in the hearts of the English people, who began to appreciate the incompatibility between a system based on the will of tin- people, and a system based on a will superior to the will of the people, yet still upholding in outward show forms and furbelows which as fundamentals they abhorred. In England and Germany we find the extremes of in- herited kingcraft; in one a coward cringing behind petti- coats at home, in the other a fiend of hell going up and down the earth seeking whom he may devour. And behind each a nation of gaping innocents bellowing glory ! Indeed, such is the influence of rulership upon the rabble that even in the United States there are men, and women, who will throw up their hats for Wood row Wilson. Besides the Apis bull of Memphis the ancient Egyptians, prominent in paganism, held in reverence the cat and the dog. Why ? Besides their puppet of a king the modern Englishmen, prominent in Christianism, hold in reverence a great array of dukes and things which they are pleased to call royalty and nobility, and who, with their stolid British stare, are supported in idleness by the labor of the poor. Why? It is a social rather than a political ineumbus. the thoughtful Britisher of sound sense will tell you. who is held in contempt by these drones whom he helps to support ; whereat one would think if English high society needs such hollow humbug to make it respectable that it is in a poor way indeed. But as they all seem to like it, and are willing to pay for it, outsiders need not complain ; though but for the smudge on the bodies politic and social, we might call APOCALYPTIC 25 their government the best in the world, and their people the best people, were it not for Boston. Thus it will be seen that republics, like other forms of government, are of various qualities and grades. There are no fixed conditions by which history differentiates re- publicanism from oligarchy cfr aristocratic rule. For ex- ample the two joint kings of republican Sparta might com- mand the armies and perform public sacrifices, but their power was restricted by a senate and assembly of the peo- ple, so that Sparta might properly be called an oligarchic republic under the guise of a monarchy. The affairs of Athens were at first managed by a privi- leged class of nobles, and so was, in fact, a government by an aristocracy rather than by a democracy, though called a republic. For more than a century after the expulsion of the kings, Rome was an autocratic republic rather than a government by the people ; and so on. We are young yet, though none of the republics that came before or after us possessed the power and wealth which we now enjoy, or might enjoy under proper man- agement. Coming again to the question of relative duration, it might be well to consider the soundness and strength of the rule under the Doges of Venice, the tribunes and con- suls of Rome, and the archons of Athens and compare it with the sort of government given us by certain of our presidents, their associates and supporters, and so deter- mined which of them all is best entitled to the distinction such as we love to apply to Mexico, as being a republic in name only. Are we becoming already like republican Rome, deca- dent, demagogic, effeminate, immoral, luxurious, debased? There are worse things than war in this world. Toleration of the rape of Belgium were worse. A cowardly or dishonorable peace were worse. National dry-rot as in China; national pusillanimity L'<; IN T1IKSK LATTKK DAYS as in Luxembourg; national nonentity as in Spain \\ ! worse. A premature pi-ace in Europe, such as would leave I'rns sian rulers and professors masters of the world, were w< Monkeying in Mexico, such as the United States seems to delight in. is more to be deplored than would be a war which would bring anarchy to a quick finish. Humble submission to Japan, who is undermining our industries, flooding our country with new-born Asiatic citi- xens, impudently ordering us out of China, and dictating to us our home and foreign policies is worse than would be a war with Japan. No humane person will suggest war as a pastime, such as the Mexicans delight in; no sane person will under any circumstances advocate unnecessary war, with all its hor- rors and suffering, such as Germany has brought upon Europe ; but where all at best are so soon to die, were it not better that half the nation should die prematurely than that all should become stalemated or disgraced? Old things are passing away, all tilings are becoming new. Although out of the womb of time fresh wicked ii'^- with fresh righteousness is evolved, yet in the end the good that has been done remains while the evil disappears. There is a new departure in religious interpretations, pointing toward a new ethical internationalism. New rid- dles are ever arising for solution, in diplomacy as in all human affairs, since Machiavelli assumed the role of Christ as our teacher. We see in ourselves, for example, a great nation too timid even to think of fighting for our rights, while sub- mitting to insult and imposition. We see in old Asia a nation too sensitive to receive instruction in good manners, but not too sensitive to loot a neighbor or rob a nation. We s-.- in Mexico a nest of hyenas snarling and slashing each other for the mere love of it. \\V M6 in Knrpe ;ill Chris- tendom gone mad. hut jnt for Christ: all the saints of tin- APOCALYPTIC 27 church, all the disciples of our Lord, all the followers of the meek and lowly Nazarene, who returneth good for evil, who bless their enemies and pray for those that despitefully use them, with a kultur so high as to be out of sight, and so deep that even the profundity of the learned doctors cannot fathom it, and all for less than nothing. Since man is becoming so proficient in many things it is somewhat remarkable- that so little advance is made in self-government. Wherefore, in view of our unhappy state of mind and delirious condition, were it not well to try a change, a different sort of government. We seem ready just now to indulge in little real war on our own account. Well, blood-letting is good for congestion, and we have in our organism plenty of bad blood, and to spare. Lloyd George proposed that immediately after the war an imperial conference should be called, with representa- tives from all the British dominions, to consider the govern- ment of the empire. Let us hope that among other meas- ures the total elimination of that most farcical and absurd system of inherited rulership with its claptrap of royalty and titled nobility, and the retirement of that laughing- stock of the world, King George, may be accomplished. War and wickedness are aids to progress no less im- portant and effectual than peace and righteousness. The United States can count but two important wars in its his- tory; what would we be not having had them? First, a colony of England like Canada ; and but for. the second one, a nation disrupted, broken into fragments by civil strife. As to a different form of government for ourselves, it may some day be a subject for consideration. Great and glorious as we are, we are not all of us altogether perfect. Taft is not perfect; he never was perfect save at his boyhood home, as justice in fair round belly with good capon lined, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws and modern instances, as Jaques hath it. We cannot call Woodrow Wilson perfect, but rather pluperfect, perfect at 28 IN THESE LATTER DAYS tin- Baltimore convention. IMOIV perfect still as pedagogue tlmn as president. Both of tliese men were at the first deemed straightfor- ward and sincere, whatever their ability might prove to be; how are they regarded now in these respects? !]! ill ii Root is nearly but not entirely perfect; were he so, were his sapiency equal to his reputation, and the wreck- ing of his party at the Chicago convention which gave us the two democratic administrations could be forgotten, but for this one brilliant, but most unholy achievement he might now be president, and a very good president, too. Another proposition which may here be laid down as not inconsistent with fact is that the chief executive of a great republic should be distinguished for something besides academic learning, that he should be something different from an old war-horse on one side, or a hide-bound college professor on the other; that properly to manage the vast economic and financial interests of the United States he should possess, besides sound sense and high integrity, some practical knowledge of affairs, some business experience such as would enable him to give the people a thrifty and prosperous administration. A man of affairs does not engage a person to look after his business without taking some note as to his capabilities; the lawyer and the doctor must be specially educated for it before being permitted to practice their profession, but it seems to be the last thing thought of in choosing a man- ager for the vast interests of the United States. How fit was Grant to run the government, when before the war he could not manage a eorner grocery, and after the war must make a failure over a little book-publishing. As for Mr. Wilson, perhaps after going to school to him- self for a few terms, no one else bring able to teaeh him anything, he may learn something, though at no small cost to the republic. What we most greatly need is a school for the training of aspirants for the presidency. Southern APOCALYPTIC 29 chivalry is never ashamed of ignorance, as witness the story of high finance in old-time Washington they love to tell. Said Webster to Galhoun, "Endorse my note, and with two such names I can get the cash at the bank. ' ' Said Calhoun, "I will, if you will endorse mine." Boasting of his ignorance and inexperience, the present incumbent once said, "I never was in business and there- fore I have none of the prejudices of business," and he might have added that he had none of the common sense of business. It was indeed true that he could know little or nothing of business judging from his management of the business of the United States. While praising himself for his ignorance of business, he formulates the tariff upon such unbusiness-like basis that many food products can be purchased in the warring areas of Europe for less than in the United States. Illustrating the ill effects of such ignorance the un- known writer elsewhere quoted says: "My neighbor, who was the possessor of fifty thousand dollars, bought a piece of land for eight thousand, and built on it a house which cost him nearly all his remaining fortune. He seemed to think that the money he had changed into stone walls, fine carv- ings, and costly furniture would still be productive, would yield him an income. When he had thus improved, as he phrased it, he claimed that it was worth at least sixty thou- sand dollars ; that is, he had spent most of his money and thought he was worth much more than when he began. He has some high-priced European paintings, but he cannot eat them, and as he has nothing but his house and grounds he has had to stint his children in their education and even in their clothes and food. He wishes to sell his property, but thinks it still worth fifty thousand dollars, though it would not sell for one-third of that amount." This is a good representation of the course of multitudes of men drawn or forced into business from the learned pro- fessions, that is professors learned in everything except in the practical affairs of life. :) IX TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS Kor running the business of government, utili/ing its resources, managing of its fin.-uiees. and exercising thrift and economy in expenditures. as before said, men of busi- ness ability and experience should be employed, not some professor of something, or a successful general, or a court judge wedded to technicalities and precedents, or a politi- cal hack, and least of all a fanatic, or a sectarian. Official routine is a business, and should be conducted like any other business, on sound common sense and practical prin- ciples. For the progressive man of affairs it is easier to do the work himself than to find others to do it for him. But one man with one head and two hands does not go far in a great factory; to achieve anything out of the ordinary on. must be able to utilize the services of others. From first to last there have not been more than three presidents of the United States up to the average business man in business ability, and but few executive officers with good executive ability. Artifice, however, with erudition, finds many opportunities for the southern states to vote northern money for their extravagant expenditures, most of the large fortunes which pay income taxes being held in the north. Millions of money are every year squandered on non- essentials, and taxes increased correspondingly to cover the outlay. A very considerable war could be carried on witli tlie money thus wasted. In consigning them to their final rest were it not in- spiring to future generations if written on the sepulchers of certain of our great ones, great in inefficiency if in noth- ing else, "Here lies one but for whom the world would be better off had he never been born." "Here is stored defunct republicanism, done to death in the house of its friends, and by its brightest stars, who had they been hon- est had been honored to their full heart's desire." For our latter-day administration will ever stand Con- spicuous for doing the things it ought not to have done and leaving undone the things it should have done. It should APOCALYPTIC 31 have kept faith with the people ; should have kept the prom- ises it made at the Baltimore convention ; should have pro- tested at the proper time against the piracy of Germany in Belgium ; should have refused greedy England special ad- vantages in the use of the Panama canal; should have re- pelled with scorn the attempt of Colombia at blackmail in intimating indirection on the part of the two previous presi- dents of the United States in regard to the Panama pur- chase ; should have protected our interests on the Pacific instead of turning everything over to Japan at the instance of rapacious labor leaders, chief among whom was a mem- ber of the president's cabinet. Nor is the outlook for the future much better. Unwar- ranted extravagance still attends every movement. Mil- lions are wasted by men unaccustomed to money and know- ing not its value. New projects are started while the old promises remain unfulfilled. During the year 1915, $159,000,000 was paid in pen- sions, to three-fourths of which the recipients had no just or reasonable claim. Millions were squandered in Mexico, and nothing accomplished, and something more than mil- lions was thrown away in assisting Japan to the supremacy of the Pacific. Three-fourths of the printing paid for by the people were better never done, or if done the worthless documents were better never sent out. The Congressional Record, instead of a plain concise statement of public pro- ceedings is a political refuse van into which is pitched ex- traneous stuff as fodder for election purposes, dry speeches to gratify the vanity of ill-endowed members, extracts from books and newspapers, and tons of other worthless printed matter which were neither wanted nor read overloads the mails, thus incurring further expense to the government in the delivery. Taxes are doubled and then doubled again, the people groaning under the infliction. What said the Saturday Evening Post not long since? "We have a presidential campaign, which is traditionally unfavorable to business. Our greatest single business con- 32 IN THESE LATTER DAYS cern, the railroad system, is rather glum over the eight-hour l;i\v, ;is to the ultimate effects of \vliidi it m.-uli* nuiiiy som- IMT predictions. We have fifty billion dollars spent on the world war, and the customers who normally take three-quar- ters of our exports are doing their best to ruin one another. We have also a vigorous stock boom, predicated upon hopes that an era of still greater prosperity lies ahead of us. We have weightier augury of still higher prosperity in the state of the whole iron and steel trade, and of manufacturers in general, with pretty nearly every plant that can turn out a vendible article working at capacity and choked with or- ders which will keep it busy for many months. "And the proximate motive of this stock boom is noth- ing else than a belief that the war will continue indefinitely. For two years we were dubious about our war prosperity ; we said it must end soon. But the great flood of new war orders that set in this summer and shows no abatement at this writing seems to overbear caution. The ticker says that Europe will go on with this destruction indefinitely, and we shall get so rich out of it that all former eras of prosperity in this or any nation's history will become insignificant in comparison. American diplomacy is not particularly well equipped for any task. The unfortunate clause in the con- stitution that brings the senate in treaty making is an ob- stacle. The practice of handing out diplomatic posts as a reward for party service, or as a compliment to some admir- able gentleman with no diplomatic training, is another. Whatever becomes of this economic program, our relations with the rest of the world are bound to be increasingly im- portant. It is high time for a keener public interest in the state department, with unmistakable expressions of disap- proval for anybody who regards it mostly as a roost for de- serving democrats or deserving republicans. "Perhaps you have noticed that there has been less talk of peace lately than at any time since war began. Perhaps there is less wish for peace. In more than two years, not only has the world acquired an enormous vested interest APOCALYPTIC 33 in war, but its mind has become habituated to war; so that now the idea of peace involves something like the same dis- turbance and unknowable change the idea of war formerly involved. Last summer Wall street felt a bit lumpish because war orders already in hand were running out and few new ones were coming in, which suggested a radical disturbance of the satus quo. Since then a new bellig- erent buying wave has appeared, and the street is notably cheerful. All the machinery, the world over, is adjusted to war. Peace means readjustment, more or less disloca- tion and confusion, much uncertainty. Certainly though the war has been much bloodier and costly than anybody dreamed, there is not now the violent reaction against it that there was when it began. "This is not particularly immoral, but an inevitable product of the condition. In September, 1914, a predic- tion that the war would last two years provoked horrors. So monstrous a calamity to mankind seemed unbearable. Nowadays acute observers predict it will last two years more, and this is received quite calmly. With new bellig- erents coming in, the cost, in men and money, tends steadily to rise. Two years more would bring it up at least to eighty billion dollars and a mortality toll that would stun a world at peace. But the world accepts the prospect sto- ically. Savage experience has inured it to billions of wasted money and millions of dead." That this nation is subject every four years to a re- newal of the quality of rule it has had during the two terms last past is one of its weakest characteristics. The apostles of peace have good hearts but weak heads. Some resort to prayer; not that they expect an answer, but the thought is comforting, that with their advice the Almighty can stop the war if he will ; some pose for effect. Their comfort in prayer, the comfort of pope, preacher, and professor, lies in the fact that they have sent up to the throne of grace some pertinent facts hitherto unknown to omniscience, and that the sound arguments attending 2 :;i IN T1IKSK LATTKK DAYS tin; liiiinl)!)' petitions must convince the Almighty of the errors of liis ways and induce him to change them. These ^<>(td people would thus revise the work of tin Creator and improve upon the edicts of heaven, who know better than he how to make and run a world, who would tell him of himself more than he ever knew, who would induce him to complete his work or change his plans, are beside the situation. They do not read aright either his tory, or religion, or human nature. Man is made a fight- ing animal ; he always has fought and he always will fight. Until the economy of God is changed human nature will not change. Christ thought to change it but he did not. God seems disposed lo let things run on as usual seems to regard the present glorious slaughter in Europe with complacency. Otherwise, if what we arc told of him is true, he would stop it, for he is said to be all-wise, all- merciful, and all-powerful. The republican party, purified to some extent by Roose- velt, became more corrupt than ever under Taft, while Un- democratic party under Wilson reached the limit. Then came a new crop of republican patriots to the front, some with more money than brains, and some with neither money nor brains, making fools of themselves and a fool of their country, and so the land lapsed into another dark age of "Wilson. Ordinarily to assume that the actuating motive on entering office is the public good rather than personal ad- vantage would seem puerile. The public good is paraded for outside show to cover tin- true motive of personal ad- vantage. One's self first, one's country last, is the actual inward impulse that overrules politics and statesmanship, all office-seeking and office-holding politicians, high and low, in the United States this day, allowing for exceptions enough to prove the rule. As to a different form of government for ourselves; should we invent one, or adopt something already in vogue? APOCALYPTIC 35 There is the rule of the British denominated good, though it has neither head nor tail, the place for a king being filled by a society effigy in men's clothes. Kaiser kultur with militarism will not do, though high as heaven in its exaltation and bottomless in its profundity while attempting to reconcile the teachings of Christ with the doings of the devil. Yet it suits the German people who are made specially to fit the condition. As a German servant-girl in America was overheard to converse with a companion, "You must not say der kaiser vil vin; you must say der kaiser has vin ; for we love our kaiser, though dey kill my two brudders. " Nor would we enjoy the rule of the Mikado on his turtle-back island with his incarnated angels capering around him, even though he be a veritable god in an atmosphere of the unregenerate, when the kaiser's role is only an imitation of heathenism. For a nation of fanatics, a people of unbalanced minds taught by doctors and professors of the unknowable, kaiser rule is as good as any. France also is doing well since she has cleared her skirts of a worthless aristocracy. Eng- land, with perhaps the best government of all, and founded upon the soundest principles, is carried out along lines of humbug and snobbery, the doctrines of inherited right of royalty and rulership, nullified by the acts and inde- pendence of the real rulers, with the attendant horde of titled drones called the nobility, above occupation of any useful sort yet not above being fed and clothed by those they ostensibly despise, this with law-made religion, which is no religion whatever, is humbug, while the pretended superiority of the worthless class is snobbery. Every in- tellligent Britisher, even though swayed by the vanity of title, realizes this, and though he may feel it incumbent on him to keep standing the royal house of cards, finds in his heart small respect for a monarch who speaks in parliament as he is told, and while talking loudly and largely of his army, his navy, and the rest, is of such ::ti IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS inferior construction that in rilinir forth to battle In- i-;in not sit upon his horse. Vet withal the abh-st men of England, industrial or political, are usually honest and patriotic, while in the I'nited States individuals of that class are too often schemers, tricksters, swindlers, their superior capabilities leading them into paths of indiscretion. We do not invest our best men with office, why? Be- cause our best men do not so hunger and thirst after polit- ical rule as to come forward and present personal claims against some thousands of others equally worthy and competent, or go crying throughout the country their sup. rior merits into the ears of their fellow citizens. Nomi- nations are made by committees or self -constituted boards of political bosses, who look about among tricky lawyers and so-called statesmen with an elastic conscience, labor- leading exploiters of the workingman and Irish agitators, persons from whom are easily secured promises to be as easily broken. Then the fault is with our good citizens themselves? Exactly. But the reign of evil always in time comes to an end, else the world would settle back into its original state of nothingness. To secure that result there usually comes to the front some one man to save the people. A government that will harbor a demagogism superior to itself and of which it stands in constant fear, ignoring its frauds and impositions and submitting to its insults is indeed rather an excuse for than an example of genuine republicanism. Another of our peculiar latter-day policies is to aban- don the Philippines, the safeguard o~f our influence and interests in eastern Asia, and place these and other islands where they will be an easy prey to the rapacity of Japan. Wherefore, as our solons at Washington have done every- thing else which they promised not to do, and as we have to pay so much for war in gold and human lives they seem disposed now to let us have 1 some war, something to APOCALYPTIC 37 show for our money, and also that we may feel that we are men and not suffragettes. To harbor fear is cowardly ; and as for unpreparedness, in less than two years England recruited and trained five million officers and men before the introduction of com- pulsory service, which for the United States to accomplish in proportion to population would be equivalent to raising an army of fourteen million. During the last two years the British army has been increased eighteen-fold and the British navy two-and-a- half fold ; British industry has been placed upon a war footing and the output of munitions has been increased more than thirty thousand per cent. The finances of the empire have been mobilized, and the imperial governent has sustained the money-power of the grand alliance by loans to her allies and the dominions aggregating $800,- 000,000 ; while the British navy has kept open the seas for the transport of money, material, munitions, and men from every quarter of the globe. In one year of peace Great Britain spends 173,000,000 sovereigns ; in one year of war she spends 2,382,000,000. The munitioning of the forces led to a marvelous effort in output and organization. The nation nationalized its resources for this purpose. Before the war there were three national factories working for the army ; there were in 1916 ninety-five, and more than 4,000 controlled estab- lishments. The best business brains of the country con- tributed to the common stock. The trade unions waved many of their rules. Women of every station became mu- nition workers. Exclusive of the men employed on muni- tions for the navy, and exclusive also of the miners, were nearly one and a quarter million workmen engaged in making munitions. So the English government reports. If this is true, and if our resources equal or exceed those of Great Britain, why need we be so afraid. Un- questionably as at present guarded, falling on us sud- denly Japan could capture the Philippine and Hawaiian 38 IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS islands, and inflict serious damage on the Pacific coast; luit plenty of submarines can safely enough guard out- coasts, islands and main laud, from any force from any (jiiailcr r\vr likely to be brought against us. Besides, Japan would lost- her highly prized commercial supremacy; she would gain nothing by war with us, and would have dearly to pay for it in the end. The Japanese at the Hawaiian islands expect war with the United States soon and are preparing for it. The large island of Hawaii is occupied almost entirely by Jap- anese, having a male population of 25,000 and a plentiful supply of women. They control labor on the plantations and trade in the shops. Yet, while thinking much of war. they talk only of peace. Already the Japanese born there have organized the American Japanese association for promoting Americanism among Japan-American citizens. They wish to be our brothers, they say, and work side by side with us for welfare of the territory of Hawaii, which surely is kind on their part. Whence, it appears that Nippon entertains other plans for taking over the United States than killing off the inhabitants. A firm policy, whether in regard to Mexico, Japan, or Europe need not necessarily lead to war. In fact it were more likely to keep us out of war. Shilly shally breeds only contempt ; it does not pay. No procedure could have been more pedagogic, more damaging to California and the Pacific coast than that which sent Secretary llryan to plead the cause of the Asiatics before the California legislature. Nothing could have been done so surely to excite pagan arrogance and invite war as this show of cowardice and the desire to placate regardless of the merit of the case. A proper person in office at Washington at the time would have sent some gunboats instead of his grandmother. California would be better off had Wood row Wilson re- mained at 1'rincrton. while the world could get along on a pinch without Germany, Japan, or other predatory peoples. CHAPTER III INFELICITIES OF POSSESSION INVENTIONS and the intensity of progress character- ize these latter days to such an extent that the mind becomes bewildered in their contemplation. The utiliza- tion of oil and electricity and the application of steel have revolutionized society and upturned civilization. Home living and office work have taken a new departure. Busi- ness men no longer live in modest dwellings, walking or using the street cars on going out, but they must have for a home a fine house-front with a hole cut it in for an auto- mobile, or more often give up house-keeping and take to one of the many apartment houses which are constantly being built for them. Half of the routine work of the town, both domestic and commercial, is performed by the telephone. The play- houses are put out of business, motion picture shows tak- ing their place. The daughter of the house need no longer pound her piano ; a piece of machinery does the work for her. The dog still barks; the smart society woman leads forth her bull-pup for his constitutional, but the horse is in a measure eliminated, both in the cities and on the farms. In war the combatants no longer stand up and fight each other in a manly sort of way, but crawl around in ditches under bellowing machinery, dropping bombs from air-ships and fire explosives from under water craft, Alas! for the days of chivalry, for barbed wire and stinking gases may now put up a better defense than honest steel and gunpowder. But they are grand inventions, these and others, and show how the race is advancing in 39 lii IN THESE LATTER DAYS humanism ami refinement ; for with rapid fire guns more men can he killed in fifteen minutes than would involve a hard day's work by the old methods while at sea with high explosives a thousand innocent women and children may be sent to their death with a single shot. Is it not grand ! These many centuries of Solomon, and Plato, and Christ we have not had for nothing. Says Carl R. Fish in the American Historical Review. "The outbreak of the great war in 1914 probably sent tumbling more individual philosophies of life than any other event in history in_so short a time. Millions who did not know that they had a philosophy of life suddenly found that their whole way of viewing their relationships to outside things had been changed in a night. In Amer- ica two fundamental conceptions, the capacity of human nature for progressive improvement and the efficiency of democratic government were emphatically challenged. The small minority who had denied them claimed recognition as prophets, many of those who had doubted joined them, and the majority became doubters. The era of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars, which hung in the popular imagination as the greatest of world's calamities, was instantly surpassed by the scope and the intensity of the new struggle. The material advances of a hundred years served only to intensify the horror, and the increased efficiency of governmental organization had made it pos- sible to wring the last ounce of strength from every indi- vidual, and seemed to have hardened the heart of the com- batants to endure and to inflict injuries which the world supposed it had outgrown." Hut in due time men will tire of killing each other. while the work of the world will continue, modified first of all by the automobile and the telephone. For the man and the mistress alike must have their machine, even if bread goes up to ten cents a loaf. The production of automobiles in this country during the year ending August 1, 1916, was approximately 1,500,- INFELICITIES OF POSSESSION 41 000 cars, or more than double the production in 1915, which was 700,000 cars. In 1914 the output was only 515,000. From statistics gathered from manufacturers, it is estimated that the output in 19l7 may run to 2,500,000 and possibly to 3,000,000 cars. More and more the forces of nature are brought under the dominion of man. Stolid matter is made a thing of life. The human voice may be locked up in a box and kept fresh for a thousand years. The lightning is brought to base and made to fetch and carry human thought. By the use of the telegraph distance is shortened, space anni- hilated, and all the world are enabled to hold converse as if in one assembly. The development of photography to its present wide- spread use and the invention of the x-ray have resulted in changes patent to all. Surgeons no Ipnger grope blindly for bullets, or set broken bones in a more or less haphazard fashion. They can now by taking photographs before and after the operation proceed with almost absolute certainty. Physicians will even fill a patient's stomach with some mineral, and by photographing it be able to learn what formerly could not be ascertained without a capital oper- ation. Dentists will even have x-ray photographs taken of their patients' jaws before trying to straighten their teeth. By-^the development of another form of photography, the whole amusement or recreation of the world has been changed. Where a city formerly contained ten theatres and vaudeville houses, it now has perhaps one theatre and ninety-nine motion picture houses, varying in size from cheap store shows seating a few hundred to elaborate audi- toriums of greater seating capacity and pretensions than any of the old time theatres. The public like motion pictures because it gets far more for its money in these exhibitions than it used to get in legitimate theatres. Then, 42 IN TI1KSK LATTKK DAYS loo. (I not iiM(|iTst;m Napoleon, and proposed to prove its efficiency by blowing up some British ships lying outside the harbor, the tender- hearted scourge of Europe declined, saying that such a course was too inhuman for civilized warfare. That, how ever, was a hundred years ago, and the human monster who so spake had to be caught and caged. But a people primed with the expectancy of universal domination, a people of deep thought and broad intelligence, of high culture and superior morals, who should have learned much in the meantime, who should have made much progress in humanity, in kindness of heart, and in following the teachings of Christ, it was scarcely proper to ask of them to let the killing of a few millions of men, and the appro- priation of their property stand in the way of God's vice- gerent in the fulfillment of the righteous purpose of kaiser kultur. Furthermore Napoleon was lord only of a sec- tion, while one aspiring to the mastery of the world should know best what was necessary and honorable. Said Lloyd George, the chief stay of the British nation and hope of Christendom, in the gravest speech in }\\< career before the house of commons, on the 23d of Feb- ruary, 1917: "There is no sure way to victory without hunting the submarines from the deep. If we take drastie measures, we can cope with this menace, but if the nation is not prepared to do so disaster is before us." After thus opening the eyes of the people to the danger that confronts them, he promptly set about to proclaim a M-hedule of sweeping constructive measures. The reme- INFELICITIES OF POSSESSION 45 dies offered were to save tonnage, cut down imports, and stimulate home production. It was imperative, he said, that the nation should know what the conditions are ; that the stocks of food at that time were lower than ever, and that hand in hand with the enormous increase in the demand was an alarming decrease of tonnage. On foodstuffs alone, he said, he proposed to save 900,000 tons of shipping yearly. And as for luxuries and unnec- sary articles, not another ton or bale or case must be im- ported hereafter. Not a day, not an hour must be lost in putting the nation in shape to support itself, to cultivate every inch of soil. "There are still a few weeks," he said, "to sow spring wheat, oats and barley; to induce the farmer to plow up pasture land immediately." Then he gave a series of stringent regulations affecting imports, food prices, wages, and farming capacity. "If such a programme is carried out, England can face the enemy's worst, and that is what we ought to be prepared to do." One by one he drove his points home, speaking in a calm, 'measured voice. Now and then, when hand-clap- ping threatened interruption, he stopped applause, saying, "Wait, I am not through yet." It was a different Lloyd George from the one that two short months before addressed the same house, answering Germany's offer of peace. There was nothing of the flam- boyant or grandiloquent at this time about the man charged with the greatest burden of responsibility in England's history. No stormy ovations greeted or interrupted his speech. But the sum and substance of his message was the same, "We will hold out to the bitter end." Where in his memorable December speech he spoke along general lines, he now dealt with cold, hard facts. It was Lloyd George at his best, and in his prime. He recalled vividly the stormy days of his reign as chancellor 46 IN THESE LATTER DAYS of the exchequer when In-, and lie alone, pointed the way to the jrivat financial and economic reforms tluil built the substructure of the empire's strength and endurance. In the diplomatic box sat, among others, l.Vemier Bor- don of Canada, Premier Massey of New Zealand, who also represents Australia at the colonial conferences, and many representatives ol' entente nations and P.ritish dominions. It was visibly a painful task for the premier to an nounce in the course of his speech certain important re- strictions that would hit Britain's own allies. To increase home food production he outlined a plan for stimulating the farmer by guaranteeing good prices for commodities over a period of years. This lie supplemented by the announcement that the land owner would be forced to cultivate his land. The speeding up of the farm laborer was provided for by guaranteeing him a minimum wage of twenty-five shillings per week instead of the present four- teen to eighteen shillings. By the curtailment of imports he expected to reduce the demands on cargo space by several million tons. Food- stuffs, of which 16,000,000 tons were imported last year, would be cut nearly a million tons by lopping off certain luxuries. Paper users who already had been considerably curtailed must henceforth get along with only half the supply they were now receiving, thus saving 640,000 tons. Certain savings also would be effected in the import of ore, which now amounts to 8,000,000 tons annually, and in lumber which at present is 4,000,000 tons. Prices were to be set on food. The ;jovermncnt would guarantee a price of 38 shillings six pence for oats this year, 32 shillings for the next two years and 24 shillings for the three following years. The price of potatoes would be guaranteed for the com- ing season only at six pounds a ton. For wheat the government would guarantee the farmer the following minimum prices per quarter: For the present INFELICITIES OF POSSESSION 47 year, 60 shillings; for 1918 and 1919, 55 shillings; for 1920, 1921, and 1922, 45 shillings. Brewing will be cut down to 10,000,000 barrels annu- ally. A similar reduction will be made in the output of spirits, affecting a saving of 600,000 tons of foodstuffs. The importation of aerated, mineral, and table waters would be prohibited. Power would be given to the board of agriculture to compel land owners to cultivate their ground. The minimum wage for farm labor of twenty-five shil- lings a week represented an increase of 50 to 80 per cent over the present prevailing payment. All essential articles of food would be on the free list, but certain articles would be reduced or prohibited. The stoppage of importation of coffee, tea, and cocoa for the time would be made owing to the fact of large supplies on hand. It was necessary to get as much work as possible out of the shipyards, not merely for the mercantile marine, but for building boats to cope with submarines. Timber to the amount of 6,400,000 tons had been exported, he said, and if this tonnage was to be saved this timber prob- lem was to be dealt with. Investigation was being made as to the best methods of economizing timber behind the lines and in England. Another method was to make the army in France self- supporting. The French government already had placed two for- ests at the disposal of Great Britain, and he was afraid the government must ask the French to make further sacri- fices. A third effect was to get sufficient labor to in- crease the supply of home timber for pit props and other purposes. The importation of apples, tomatoes, and fruits would be prohibited entirely. The only exception made in the prohibition of fruit be in oranges and bananas, in which the amount ^ IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS brought in would l>e restricted i_'.~> pec cent. The same restriction would :ipply to nuts. Canned salmon impor- tations weuld IK- reduced 50 per cent. The importation of foreign tea, coffee, and cocoa was prohibited, and even tin- amount of India tea which might be brought in wa^ reduced. It was expected to save 900,000 tons of shipping yearly (ii foodstuffs. These restrictions would be imposed immediately. Steps would be taken to prevent speculative buying and if nec- essary the food controller would take control of the com- modity. When we consider the hardships endured and the sac- rifices made by the entente nations, not only to maintain their present state but to secure for themselves and the world at large conditions of safety for the future, is it not in rather bad taste for us to be continually nagging them to quit fighting, assuming a wisdom superior to their own in the management of their affairs* Little wonder that they should sometimes feel annoyed at the clap-trap of peace propagandists in America, or the sailing of a Ship of Fools across the ocean to tell them what they ought to do. Thus while Europe was undergoing the horrors of war we were enjoying the horrors of peace. We take trouble to ourselves over many things. We feel deeply for the starving millions whose sons or supporters are sent to the slaughter. We are troubled over the ever increasing mxt of foodstuffs, owing to the shipping of our products to Europe, and we are troubled from the lack of ships to carry away these same products that we may sell and get the money. We hate war and would if possible keep out of it. We are troubled in spending so much money preparing for war which is yet to bring us yet more trouble when it INFELICITIES OF POSSESSION 49 comes. We are troubled over the money we make, and are yet more troubled over the money we do not make. Some of our pacifists would go to extremes and abolish controversy which leads to combat, which is a part of man 's nature, and no more to be exterminated than any other quality with which we are endowed. Slavery and polygamy are frowned down by civiliza- tion, though nowhere forbidden in the scriptures. Nor can \ve know that the Almighty does not approve of war, if we may believe holy writ, since he established it from the foundation of the earth, implanted in the. hearts of all creatures the fighting impulse, with means for offense and defense. War is as much in vogue now as it was millenniums ago when the Lord sent Joshua across the Jordan river to kill the inhabitants and take from them their lands, though civilization has put a stop to such outrages as autos-da-fe, Bartholomew massacres, the African slave trade, and the enforcement of opium from British India on China. Also the killing of prisoners, of war, the rape of women, the spitting of infants on bayonets were as a custom for a time taboo, but now restored, in whole or in part, both in Mexico and in Europe. Let dogs delight to bark and bite, for God hath made them so, says the teacher to the infant class ; but he neglects to add that God made man that way as well, proof of which lies in the fact that since Cain killed Abel men have delighted in destroying one another, and still so delight more than ever, as witness the fields of blood the world over this day. The kind souls, male and female, who would stop this slaughter are but flies that the blood-besmeared warrior brushes out of his way. "Five years ago," says Wocds Hutchinson, "we were blandly asserting that this was the age of peace. We have had a rude awakening. The bright dream that peace could be insured by sternly refusing to think about war went up in smoke with the forts of Liege. And as, fortunately for :,(> IN T1IKSK LATTKK DAYS us. it was only our peace dreams ami not our furls that were blown up. tin- only sensible thi?ig to do is to rub our I, admit that we were talking in our sleep, and proceed to adjust Ourselves to the stern and disagreeable facts. We must ruefully admit that we really ought to have known bettor. Man has been a fighting animal for so many. man\ thousands of years, and it is hard to teach an old dot; new tricks, and even more so to make him forget old s. < >m cold-blooded scientist, Frederic Adams Woods, has made a careful and dispassionate study of the actual records and past performances of the nations of Europe in this regard for the last four hundred and fifty years. In the whole of that time there have been only two pericds, one of ten and one of seven years, in which the whole continent was five from war, and the only difference between the fifteenth century and the nineteenth is that the former devoted fifty five per cent of its time to fighting, and the latter thirty four. "And the twentieth century has slumped right back to the level of the fifteenth already, for one year of the present scientific slaughter would be the equivalent of thirty years of any form of war known to history. Indeed, the military histories show that more men hav<;been killed and wounded already in twenty months than were ever killed in Europe in two centuries before. A group of nations capable of in- flicting and bearing such frightful slaughter for the right of free colonial expansion, so far as any intelligible cause can be discovered for the calamity, is capable of crossing a dozen Atlantics to settle its respective places in the sun. So that to be prepared to defend our particular patch of sunshine is a matter of the simplest and most elementary prudence. Not to make war probable, but to make peace certain. We can have just as much sunshine as ever be- fore; all we need to do is to plan and construct condeiix.-i^ capable of converting it into sunstroke and thunderbolts for any invader. By taking thought, the same sunlight that irrows our crops can be made to shrivel the army worm if it INFELICITIES OF POSSESSION 51 crawls over our peaceful border. The same forces which make a nation prosperous in peace will make it dangerous in war by a little pre-arrangement. "As soon as we make up our mind to frankly face the unwelcome situation we find many redeeming features in it at once. First and foremost the huge physical benefits which can be inflicted upon the rising generation, in the name of war and military training. ' ' And the learned doc- tor goes on to enumerate the blessing which will accrue to the race from the European conflicts, provided there are any people left after the kaiser gets through. And this is what Theodore Roosevelt says about war : ' ' I speak to you especially of the prime duty of self-defense. I abhor unjust and wanton war. I shall always do, as I always have done, everything to secure honorable and last- ing peace. But it is folly to say that we shall never be engaged in war. The events of the past two years show that as the world now is, such an assumption by any nation is not only folly, but criminal folly. Washington, who was the very opposite of the pacifists of his day, said that this country could not expect always to avoid war. His words were true then. They are true now. If this nation con- tinues its national existence long enough it is sure at some time in the future to be involved in war exactly as at times in the past it has been involved in war. Our prime duty is so to prepare as to minimize the number of occasions when war will come, and to insure that when it does come, it shall result neither dishonorably nor disastrously for the Amer- ican people. At this moment we are not ready in any way, physically or spiritually, to face a serious foe. We owe this lamentable fact to several causes, but especially to the evil leadership given our people in high places." Of all the nations we have at hand the most money, and men in plenty, and to spare, and yet as I have said before we seem more loath than any to spend our money or shed our blood to save our lives. We would not fight for terri- tory, nor for dominion, but only for our rights, for human :>L' IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS rights, and for that prestige which conies only with honor. Kven if as economists claim, that war is a promoter of civilization, we can get along with less civilization if neces- sary. As for ignoble peace, neither in our war with Eng- land, nor in our war for the union would we make peace without victory, as our pacifists ;ire clamoring for the European belligerents to do, when- the issues are more vital to all the world, if possible, than were those in our own wars to us. Kven our Congress, weighing the chances of reelection, will not assist the peace people, as there are among their constituents two classes who are in no haste for the war to terminate, the munition makers and others who profit by it pecuniarily, and those who justly and humanely desire to see the question of Prussian militarism definitely settled. and who know that the combatants will listen to no proposal of peace until this war is fought out to a finish, the issue being life or death to the leading belligerents. In all the wide discussion of the ethics of war, there is much shallow talk. Were there not more sophistry than sense in pretending to offer an excuse for unjustifiable war. we might observe that the peace propagandists have before them the difficult task of overthrowing an unrepealed ordi- nance of the Almighty. That God does not want war to cease is clearly apparent, otherwise he would stop it. It is clearly apparent also from the fact that an all-wise and kind providence has given from the first, and continues to give every animated being some instrument or means for attack and defense, which would he irrelevant wen- not war permitted and expected. The elements war on each other, earth, air and water fight for the supremacy, as also do plants and animals, fish and flying things, insects and reptiles, and man the most voracious of all. Throughout all nature hate is as manifest as love. I have in my garden a camphor-tree. The haw- thorn planted too near it does not like it. and so throws out its branches, far away en the other side. The camphor is a INFELICITIES OF POSSESSION 53 goodly tree, and the hawthorn cannot tell why it does not like it, except that plants have their Mr. Fell as well as dogs and men. Surely God did not establish and sustain, preserving to this day this bloody arbitrament for the set- tlement of disputes, for the quieting of evil passions, for the satisfying of human as well as of divine justice with- out a purpose. War is wasteful, so is nature ; war is cruel, so is nature ; we cannot live without nature, we never have lived without war. Should we conclude to postpone for the present the pacification of Japan, we might complete our pacification of Mexico so happily begun if not indeed accomplished by our worthy president, who under the spell of exalted offi- cialism declared that he would never cease his solemn as- severations, would never withdraw his forces from Mexico, until he had given that unhappy country as good a ruler as is he himself, with a constituency surpassed only by that which was represented by his lambs of the Baltimore con- vention. In the execution of which promise we remember that he sent a fleet to Vera Cruz, hastily withdrawing it, however, when Huerta would not salute his flag. Then he sent an army into Chihuahua, where he marched his sol- diers up the hill, then marched them down again, wondering where the little rascal Villa was, and when he found him he did not want him, but left him to continue his bloody work after his own fashion. And so Mexico was pacified. Cost, lives 500; cash, $400,000,000; result, nil. Had the president and his war lords been gifted .with half the practical good sense of Porfirio Diaz, they might have landed a strong force at Vera Cruz, marched quickly and taken possession of the city of Mexico, installed as chief ruler and ministers, the best men of the republic, then have sent word to the revolutionary leaders to come forward and name for consideration the position they would like to oc- cupy in the government, offering a reward for the capture, dead or alive, of any bandits refusing to answer the call, 54 IN TIIKSK LATTKK hAYS and the conquest and pacification could both have been M eomplished with comparatively little bloodshed. The achievements of our lords of hi^li emprise, so bril- liant in promise, so puerile- or shall we sa\ so academic in performance, were supplemented by the happy reign of Carranza, while the people enjoyed such prosperity as might be expected in the land still infested from sea to sea by professional highwaymen and bands of organized revo- lutionists and cutthroats. Oh! we can fight, if necessary, fight and run away, and so live to fight another day. Carranza, whom President Wilson alternately repelled and embraced, had but a slight hold upon the government of the people, and was never of any considerable conse- quence in any way, not strong enough even for a respect- able bandit. Forgetting for a moment that with us the people and the government are one, while in Mexico they are two, we may say that the people not the government made the United States, and it is upon the people we depend for pro- tection from the rapacity of rulers, while in Mexico it is the reverse; an oligarchy rules, and there are but a few people of the governing class. I have often marveled since the expatriation of Porfirio Diaz how the censure then so unjustly bestowed should have been allowed to remain upon him with no attempt to remove it, and without a word of commendation for his long beneficient rule in view of the reign of horrors that followed his departure. Not satisfied with a benevolent despotism, under which the country prospered as never be- fore, Mexico drove out the despot and lapsed into terrorism for the people and self-seeking greed for the rulers. To this the United States made no protest, but rather ac- quiesced, for is not our sister republic a republic in name only while we are the genuine article? History points to us the fact that the tendency of re- publican government is toward oligarchic rule, but the in- INFELICITIES OP POSSESSION 55 flux from abroad has turned our oligarchy of wealth into an oligarchy of the rabble. Some of this transplanted ele- ment takes root and thrives, but as a whole it cannot be trusted, as German and Irish hyphenates are every day showing us. During the first decade of the present cen- tury ten million immigrants landed in the United States, to be followed later by other ten millions, twenty-three per cent of whom were illiterates who could not read or write in any language. That it is our duty, that it should be our pleasure or our profit to educate and refine this rabble, and to protect it from the wickedness of the world while all this time it is in no sense one with us, but seeks rather to undermine our institutions and overthrow our government, well, each of us to his taste. Four-fifths of Mexico's population of 17,000,000 are peons, Indians or mixed native and Spanish blood. The land is held in large tracts, as much as 5,000,000 acres in some instances by one man, or a whole state by a few fam- ilies, while the natives are held by debt in a state equiva- lent to slavery. For over a century the United States has been trying the experiment on a larger scale than ever before attempted, of transplantation, and growing good citizenship from alien stock in an alien soil, and the result has been denationaliza- tion. Those most familiar with the facts will admit that the thirty years' rule of Porfirio Diaz, which gave Mexico a happy period of peace and prosperity such as was never there before, and will not be seen again for many a long day, was one never excelled as a government best befitting the people governed. Critics may ridicule the idea if they choose, but is not the Diaz method nearer common sense than Woodrow Wil- son 's empty boast that he would make a stable government out of the material there existing? Look at that unhappy country now, compare the present anarchy with the happy :><; IX TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS despotism of I'orfirio |)i;i/. and if we cannot point out ;\ better plan tli:in his we c;in ;it least cra-e to villify his good name. And further, any one who knew .Mexico eouhl easily have predicted what followed, as was fully presented in my lli*lt>rij of Mexico. In warring on Mexico what do we fight? Not a people nor yet soldiers, but a ragged, half-starved rabble, ignorant and fanatical, wrought to fren/.y by their leaders in their hatred of the United States. We must butcher this poor humanity by the thousands, suffering somewhat ourselves, in order to stop the bandit raids upon our bonier and de- liver the people from their own enslavement. It is pitiful but it is necessary, the only sort of missionary work that will prove effectual in that quarter. As regards the rights of conquest and annexation be- tween Mexico and the United States there is little to choose between us. It was ordained long before we were born that the rights of the matter were with the strongest. Spaniards came and captured and converted southern America and held the lands of the people. Englishmen came and cap- tured and killed the inhabitants of northern America, and appropriated their lands to their own use, calling it their own. So that whichever side wins in any future conflict, it is only repeating a world policy, stealing stolen lands. There was sound statesmanship in the autocracy of Por- firio Diaz, statesmanship of a quality not current at Wash- ington during the past eight years, statesmanship even if not orthodox along New England lines carried with it com- mon sense and common honesty. In many phases of our representative democracy we fail to find these desirable qualities, as for example where one fresh from the halls of learning, full of pure patriotism, sincerity, veracity, and superlative moral ideals, is permitted to dictate terms to the government and rule the commonwealth. In Mexico the choice was between autocratic rule or anarchy. They have tried both and should know now which is preferable. It is not the people of Mexico. I say. with whom we INFELICITIES OF POSSESSION 57 have to deal in treating with Mexico. They are blameless in so far as they have been made rabid by bandits and revolutionists. It is not the people of Europe who are re- sponsible for the war in Europe, but the royal usurpers of the rights of the people, whom let us hope may in due time be extinguished. It is not our workingmen who are respon- sible for the impositions attending unionism, but the ex- ploiters of the workingmen. Under the rule of these pirates of industry the soaring ideals respecting labor do not reach their fulfilment. The labor leaders would give one class, the class that gives them money, a higher standard of living at the expense of their non-supporters, who must be satis- fied with a correspondingly lower standard. We have liberty, liberty to corner capital, to crush op- position in trade, to monopolize labor, to coerce, to boy- cott, to agitate, to dominate, to dynamite, to elect incom- petent or infamous judges, to support facile police systems that wink at crime and safely guard gambling dens, restau- rants with superb sleeping accommodations, and houses of ill-fame ; to contrive labor strikes, to tie up commerce and bring discomfort and ruin to millions of citizens. We enjoy that quality of honesty which permits the stealing of a convention and conducting a government for the benefit of the office-holders. The form of government is a mirror in which the peo- ple governed may see themselves. In municipal politics the labor leader has taken the place to some extent of the politi- cal boss. As Mr Moffett presents boss-rule he tells of what it was rather than what it is, though the principles of re- publicanism it contains, or rather that it lacks, are the same now as ever. He says that "every form of govern- ment develops its own types of leadership. Some forms breed demagogues, others statesmen, others military ad- venturers, others seraglio intriguers, others masterful ora- tors. Ours breed bosses. From a scientific point of view the system of boss-rule is one of the most perfect and beau- tifully complex developments of modern civilization. It is 58 IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS a conviiu-inr illustration of tin- possible stability of a pyra- mid resting on its apex. The apex of which the boss rests his pyramid of government is a body of a few hundreds or thousands of men. who agree to render him any political service required in exchange for support at the public ex- pense or protection in unlawful occupations. This force he employs to gain possession of the machinery of a party. preferably the one locally dominant. "Unless there is a rival boss in possession, this is n<>t hard, for it is an unprofitable political servant that cannot make the tour of a dozen primary polling places, and de posit at least one vote at each in the course of a day. Against such a force, an undisciplined mob of reformers, limited to one vote each, and giving politics only such at- tention as they can spare from more serious occupations, is as helpless as an infant Sunday-school class against a regi- ment of regulars. When there are two aspirants for the boss-ship, the one that gets control of the membership rules. and the counting machine of the party wins. So conclusive is this preliminary test of strength considered that the em- bryo boss who fails here generally declines to trouble him- self with the useless formality of voting his followers at the primaries, but either bolts or makes terms with his suc- cessful rival, and waits for a more favorable opportunity. "Having once carried the primaries, the new political leader finds easy sailing thereafter. He holds a convention and nominates a local ticket, which by virtue of its regular- ity commands the support of the entire party and is duly elected. The retainers who have made the victory possible are appropriately rewarded, some with c-ity offices, some with contracts or jobs under contractors, and some with police protection in dive-keeping, and other less reputable occupations, whose profits depend on a good understand inr with the governing owers. "The hold of the boss on the party machinery is strengthened by purginsr the rolls of the precinct clubs ..r associations of unruly members, and manning the organ i INFELICITIES OF POSSESSION 59 zation throughout with officers who can be depended upon to let in only the right kind of votes at the primaries, and to correct in the counting any mistakes that may accident- ally occur in the voting. The dictator is now in a position to make the political war pay its own expenses, and a hand- some profit in addition. Besides the regular percentage on salaries, which his retainers in office cheerfully pay as the skipper's proportion of the booty captured on a successful cruise, he levies assessments on rich corporations in need of official favors; on large property-holders who wish to pay small taxes; on saloonkeepers Avho desire to conduct their establishments under liberal interpretations of the law ; on gamblers, confidence men, and other followers of vicious professions ; on purveyors of public supplies ; on contractors for municipal work, and in short on everybody whom the local government can either help or harm. "His power brings in wealth and his wealth procures more power. He sends a solid delegation to the state con- vention of his party, and by judicious combinations with the friends of candidates from different sections, he allies his machine with the state organization, and through it, if successful at the polls, with the state government. He sends another solid delegation to the legislature, and mar- kets its votes on the most favorable terms. Finally, if am- bitious he exerts his power as a state leader in the national convention, and, later, under favoring conditions, his trades with the boss of the other party for local offices may de- termine the choice of a president of the United States. ' i This is the mighty pyramid that rests upon the apex of a little band of political men-of-all-work willing to devote their entire attention to the duties laid out for them by their employer. And the curious tiling about it is that this delicately balanced pyramid is in a state of stable equi- librium. When disturbed it always tends to return to its position on its point, never to one on the broad base of popular rule. If by a superhuman effort it is set squarely 60 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS upon its base, it rolls over on its point again as soon as tin- reformers who righted it let go their hold. "This apparent paradox is merely the inevitable out- come of tin- principles of human nature. The boss wins because at each stage of his proceedings his forces are stronger than those of his opponents. His drilled mer- cenaries are more effective for carrying primaries than the undisciplined levies, hampered by the troublesome im- pedimenta of conscientious scruples, that oppose them. When the primaries are carried he has at his disposal the potent force of party spirit. His fortunes in the campaign are linked with those of the national organization. " Opposition to his ticket is disloyalty to the party. When he has attained power he commands the alliance of the great interests that consider it necessary to stand well with the authorities; and all the men for whom he has procured office or other favors, together with their relatives and friends, are diligent workers in his behalf. Here, as everywhere, it is the first step that costs. The first primaries of the boss correspond to the millionaire \ first ten thousand dollars. After the foothold is gained. power flows in on one as wealth on the other. And even a complete victory at the primaries is not indispensable, un- less there is another boss to fight. When there are only unorganized reformers to contend with, the boss can win if he can control a third or a fourth of the delegates in a convention. With that force available for trading, only a few judicious combinations are needed to secure a ma- jority." There are other and yet more serious obstacles to a gov- ernment by the people for the people. Good government is not always righteous government, unless we declare as righteous that which brings the best results. Call the rule of Diaz in Mexico wicked if you like, call it selfish, unjust, give it all the bad names in your vocabulary, was it not the best the countrv has had since the exodus of the viceroys. INFELICITIES OF POSSESSION 61 and can you or even Woodrow Wilson devise a better one ? We say to Mexico, you are in trouble, and you trouble, us; let us help you, let us show you how to run a republic which is not a republic in name only. Look at our states- men and pattern after us. What are your Juarez and Diaz as compared with our Taft and Wilson, your Romero Ru- bios and Escandons as compared with our Ballinger and Barnes? Look at our flag, emblem of power and purity, salute it or we will blow you to atoms. We are too indifferent as to our most vital interests. We do not mention the eternal vigilance which as the price of liberty we have neglected; we do not say that our af- fairs are conducted, now by a broken-down war-horse, and again by a floating politician, or by a judge learned in the law, too learned in fact, with eyes sharper for quibbles and technicalities than for justice, and who would under no consideration subject a brother of the ermine to the ignom- iny of recall ; or by a schoolmaster whose class is congress, his grammar the grammar of return to office, and at a most critical time makes ministers of incompetents, and who becomes delirious over 'the wickedness of his predecessors, darkly hinting that concessions and apologies must be made to the Spanish Americans in their blackmail demands in order so to establish himself as a great and good man in the eyes of the world as shall enable him to deal properly with other powers. To escape despotism we espoused the widest liberty, which is license, until our freedom has become more des- potic than despotism. Our American national ideals have become reduced to the personal ideals of pettifoggers. Public interests are sacrificed to private prejudice. Ministers and agents are too often selected on the bipartisan plan, their action in office proving somewhat farcical. We call ourselves a free people. We are well enough off for money and are fairly intelligent. We have plenty of unoccupied lands, though not of the best quality for a poor 62 IN TIIKSK LATTKU DAYS man; we have endless opportunity for the pursuit of happi- ness; are we happy, happy in our honesty and integrity, happy in our high society and low politics? Some of u^ sometimes may think we are, but most of us fancy we are not altogether satisfied. Thus we have instead of a union of interests the dis- union of coteries of oppugnant interests, as Jews, catholics, Irish labor-leaders, hyphenated Germans, English trade monopolists, and American moneyed men and controllers of finance, each determined so far as possible to rule the others. There is the choice, a central government based on a despotic patriotism strong enough to intimidate class rule, and relegate rascality and greed, whether of capital or labor, to their kennel, or misrule, like that of the two last terms. What shall we say of a government, what name shall we give to it, that permits a hold up by organized labor under threat of a general railroad strike, that submits to black- mail under threat of ruining industry throughout the country; what shall we say of an executive who cringes before a bandit band while demanding submission to him- self from Congress? Independence is our boast ; of what are we independent ? Give us liberty or death, we cry ; we have an abundance of both. Freedom to worship God ; yes, but others must wor- ship as we do, or we will make it uncomfortable for them. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, but if we gain the whole world and lose our own souls we are none the better off, for so holy writ affirms; while theologians, those who have studied the subject and should know, say that the law was made and our souls lost before we were born, that is to say before there was any soul. Politics should have a new course of procedure and pre- cedents, a new standard of ethics. Too often the chief magistrate has but little regard for promises made previous to election, as was more especially the case with the last two. INFELICITIES OF POSSESSION 63 Taft never had any policies; Wilson changes his every day. Wherefore we may ask is this your much vaunted re- publicanism in these latter days, so superior to beneficient despotism, so superior to the course of a republic which is a republic in name only; is this Hamilton's idea of a rep- resentative democracy, or Lincoln's conception of a gov- ernment of the people, for the people, and by the people ? For political gain, my patriots, is there any principle you will not surrender that stands in your way? Choose your name from any of the rulings of nations. Shall we say the government of a master, like that of Por- firio Diaz in Mexico, of a schoolmaster, like that of Wood- row Wilson, backed by submissive southerners in Congress, or of a society figure-head fitting the sham nobility and gentry of England, or of the devil himself like that of the German kaiser. The quality of self-government depends upon the qual- ity of self. Bad men do not want good government, and good men will not have bad government. Selfishness in office-holding, a craving for continuance in office to the ex- clusion of others as deserving and as competent is not a noble quality. Candidates demean themselves in this re- spect at every election. The republican party under Taft, and the democratic party under Wilson, one following the other, and both coming immediately after the reform rule of Roosevelt, show what the greatest of republics is and what may fur- ther be expected from it without change of regime. Let us not forget, however, that all that i^ evil may be remedied, and probably will be in time if good citizens will see the necessity and rise to meet the emergencies, en- couragement being given by the many beneficial measures secured during the present century, and nowhere more than in California. The remedy should be simple, namely more care as to character in the selection of candidates for office; all the 64 IN TIIKSK LATTBB DAYS lower offices to be appointive, and so removed fartlifi away from the evil influence of demagogues and pothouse politi- cians, the higher officials to remain in office during good behavior removable by recall, except tin- cxrcutivo officers who shall be limited to one term, the length of which to be -<, i m> what extended. CHAPTER IV GERMANY AND JAPAN DOES the emperor of Germany imagine that the world takes him seriously when he assumes the air of mar- tyr? The' stupendous peace bluff put up by him deceived only those who wished to be deceived. It afforded the Ger- man war lords an opportunity still further to excite the German people against their alleged oppressors, and gives German hyphenates and sympathizers in America food for further discussion, all the while ignoring the hypocrisy of the kaiser who now in enforced tears goes about sorrowing for the fearful retribution which awaits the abandoned wretch who started this most diabolical of human conflicts. Unfortunately the president of the United States in his efforts for peace, now affected not to know who started the war, or on which side was the right. There are many things our worthy president does not know, some of which he is now learning, though at no small cost to the nation. One question the peace propagandists seem never to have troubled themselves about, namely, can Germany fur- nish the necessary bonds to secure the world against the repetition of a world war? Of what value is the word or the written pledge of a person who scouts at the idea of regarding the terms of a treaty whenever he chooses to break it? In view of the circumstances it would seem to require some degree of assurance on the part of the kaiser to ask for a renewal of the treaty of 1799. Yet with Teutonic impudence, which is only insult, the kaiser demands as 3 65 fif, |\ TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS the price .if peace without victory a iriiarantee against heing again attacked ! Tin- sudden outburst of .Japan from centuries of an- cient barbarism into a position of power and consideration among nations is one of the marvels of the ape. Dai Nip- pon, (treat Nippon, the land of the rising sun. thougli small in extent with rather diminutive inhabitants, though witli powers of quick perception, success in war with weaker nations, and a reckless disregard of life that lias brought to the front as fighter of battles no less than conquerors of commerce and industry. Of hara-kiri they have ceased to see the significance and would now prefer practicing it on their enemies rather than on themselves. Originally the office of mikado was confined to spiritual functions, the temporal authority being vested in the sho- gun; at present the mikado of divine origin and agency, is sole ruler, temporal and spiritual. Accustomed to war and priestcraft as the only manly occupations, agriculture was formerly left to women and serfs, while even commerce was lield in low estimation, though now regarded of high respectability and vast im- portance. They are ingenious, polite, and plausible, but suspicious, clannish, and vain with the vanity of conscious inferiority. Withal it is clear that Japan is a force to be reckoned with. Hut not as we of late have fallen into the way of reckoning with forces. We are not yet ready to admit that we are a craven nation, though our policy would seem to point that way. We protest and we profess, pretending that we are above fighting, until, whether we deserve it or not, we are rele- gated to the category of the world's (Jreat Afraid. afraid of in some way being hurt, hurt in our person or our pocket; afraid of our lives, perhaps, when we have so soon GERMANY AND JAPAN 67 to die at best, and when to live in constant fear is to die daily. While all the world is up in arms battling for their rights, for their principles, however wrong or fallacious their ideals may be, we stand by boasting with humiliating pride that we can keep ourselves out of war. But cowards or not, the fact is clear that we have lately become afraid of this little bunch of barbarians, whom we have so lately veneered with* our western civilization and clothed in modern apparel, we who boast our hun- dred million of mixed humanity and wealth without com- pare, who still shout in July and give thanks in November. Nothing so invites bullying as timidity ; nothing quicker brings war than a show of cowardice. Every time a scare appears in the United States, Tokio tells us not to be afraid. "Be calm," says the prime min- ister, ' ' we will not hurt you. ' ' The foreign policy of Nip- pon they say is essentially pacific, which assurance we may take for what it is worth. The foreign policy of today can .be changed tomorrow, and will be changed whenever Japan feels strong enough to win a\ war. It were amusing were it not serious. We covet most what is beyond our reach. The Japa- nese place a high value on their dignity ; their sensitiveness also is great. All of their many and profuse protestations of friendship are provisional that their vital interests and dignity are not encroached upon. They will be friends with us if they can have everything their own way. It depends upon what they regard as vital interests, and the price they ask for their dignity whether we wish to purchase or not. If to loot China is a vital interest, we should say no. If to Americanize themselves, own and oc- cupy our lands, fill our free institutions of learning and be- nevolence, crowd themselves into the best residential parts of the city to the disgust of the people and to the dam- age of property; if to mingle with us in society, breed in our midst American citizens, mix races, become recreated, IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS anew into the so-r;illr IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS object being to gather jocmiffiercia] information for tin- pur pose of improving tlic trade between Japan ;itul those countries. Two of the most powerful Japanese steamship companies are developing their service along the west coast of South America. Prior to the war these companies had no regular schedules, but they now maintain a monthly service of steamers having a tonnage of from 15,000 to 20,000. One Japanese line has also concluded negotiations for the purchase of five Chilean steamers." Results great or small follow effort. If the results measured by the capability of the individual are enough, they may be called success; if only half is accomplished of what should be, we could hardly call the result suc- vsful. Japan made the effort, and with eminently suc- cessful results. Are the Japanese so superior to us in every respect, in progress, in war, in trade? No wonder they think so. China and America; where is the difference? Both are food for Nippon, all in good time. As the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle observes: "While we are selling heavily to Japan of the raw material of munitions of war, payments made by the belligerents through this country for the finished material are so large that exchange on Japan is heavily against us, and we are shipping gold to that country by every steamer. Great Britain is financing all her allies except Japan, and for obvious reasons uses our facilities as a medium for payments. Probably no one now imagines that the Japanese are not smart. If there are any such they err. We do not recall a single instance in history in which a nation, with almost no loss of life, made a lot of money by engaging in a great war. But that is pre- cisely what Japan is doing. By going to war on the side of the allies, she established herself in Germany's place in China, arid, so far as we know, the only Japanese sol- diers killed or injured in the war were the small number lost in conquering the Shantung peninsula. Japan is not, like Great Britain, borrowing money to lend to her allies GERMANY AND JAPAN 73 on whose soil the fighting is going on. On the contrary, her people are occupied in the manufacture of munitions which she sells to Russia for net gold at war prices. And she is using the gold to build up her own merchant marine, wherewithal she is seeking to get as nearly as possible a monopoly of the commerce of the Pacific, which is thus far the one really safe ocean to sail ships on. And by a stroke of luck which no country had reason to expect, Japan has been mightily helped by legislation which is practically excluding American ships from competition on that ocean. Such a combination of fool luck and national wisdom has not, we are sure, been before this heard of among men." In commerce, in manufactures, in transportation Japan is forging ahead while California remains comparatively idle, absorbed in talk, in talking of the great things we should do, and can do, and are going to do, and yet afraid to talk upon certain plain, practical, common-sense sub- jects without the proper settlement of which there can be no adequate prosperity or progress. What a reflection on our people, our government, and the manipulators of labor that the Japanese can come over here and in their own ships carry away our raw material, to be returned in manufactured form and undersell us at our own door! Thus they handle cotton, wool, silk, pulp wood for paper, and are fast covering a long list of less staple articles. It is scarcely to be expected that the Japanese will con- tinue their phenomenal development indefinitely. Already they are deteriorating physically, while their mentality has about reached the limit. It is the fate of all primitive nations that they fade, or are obliterated in the attempt to put on a superior civilization. In her frenzied effort for recognition as a people equal to the best, Japan is apt to fall into, mistakes that will .lead to her downfall. They differ from us not only in physical characteris- tics, in form, in features, and color, but in mental and 74 IN TI1KSK LATTER DAYS nun-ill <|iinlities; in religion, consei.-nee. and sens.- .if right and \vmntr. We need not trouble to convert them t< our ways; they can take care of themselves, or Buddha may care for them; we certainly do not wish to adopt th.-ii ethics or idiosyncrasies. As Mr. Metcalf of Oberlin says: "Among the civilizations of the world positive antagonism to eugenics is hardly to be expected. Buddhism is too contemplative to push anything. Shintoist ii- Huddhistie- Christian Japan, with her readiness to adopt new concep- tions if they look to national advantage, may perhaps be among the first to grasp and enforce eugenic ideals. Hut for its real growth eugenics seems, as a matter of fact, if not of philosophy, to be dependent chiefly upon Christian civilization. It is wholly Christian though not exclusively so, and nothing less seems truly and adequately Christian." Said Nippon yesterday, "Move up on your school bem-h and give our lusty fellows room beside your little girls. Change your laws, sell us your lands, and let us be one of you, we, gentlemen Japs, even as the most favored nations or tell us why not." Today having appropriated our commerce and Feeing over the hills of the turtle's back preparedness looming, Nippon says to Samuel, "We want your friendship, kind sir; be calm, we will not hurt you," while Toyokichi lyenaga soberly asserts, "But be careful: our rulers may not be able to restrain the people"; and so from the rule of the Japanese rulers we must be gov- erned in our policy by the brave jinrikisha boys and the chop-stick feeders on the farms. It was at once an insult and a threat, this warning of Toyokichi lyenaga, and one which never would have been made had not our appan-nt cowardice led the pagans on to speak in that way. Your so sensitive Japan under your so silly gentleman's agreement are flooding the country with the spawn of pagans, whose votes every one will be equal to the vote of the president who with impressive ostentation sallies forth to the polls to deposit it. We should say to Russia and Japan, \ve do not want GERMANY AND JAPAN 75 war, we covet nothing you possess, but you must keep your hands off from China and leave her to her indepen- dence. And w r e, claim for ourselves the same rights we demand for China, the right to own and operate our country to suit ourselves. Better fight Japan now than a peace pact such as the present administration would make, which would bring upon us further humiliation and loss and final disaster. We should say to Japan once for all, We have no quar- rel with you ; we do not want war with anyone, but if you want to fight we are ready at any time. Of one thing, however, you may rest easy, we will suffer no interference in the management of our affairs by reason of the super- sensitiveness, or gentleman-diplomacy, or kaiser kultur^ or any other fad or foolishness of anyone. If the children of Nippon desire the still plainer truth, and will profit by it, they can have it. It is this. We do not want them as settlers in California, and will not have them. We do not hold them our equal ; we will not meet them on equal terms, or mix races, or grant them such privileges as are accorded the most favored nations unless we choose to do so, and we do not thus so choose at present. A democratic congress declines to maintain a suitable fighting fleet on the Pacific lest sensitive Japan may regard it an unfriendly act. Well, sensitive Japan may regard it as she likes, the fleet will be kept there all the same, whenever we get a congress worthy of the honor and dignity of the nation. We tremble before the preposterous claims of the Japa- nese, and by placating invite still further demands, instead of notifying them plainly, No, we do want you settling on our lands, or mixing races, or breeding for us American citizens. We have given you freely of our civilization, the free use of our schools, of our libraries, of our universities, of our hospitals, of our courts, and of our penitentiaries; 76 IX TIIKSK LATTKR DAYS further than tliis we do not choose to go; now what ;nv you going to do about it? "Do we want war <>r peace?" asks our worthy execu- tive. And the answer is jrnuluall.v assuming shape in the American mind and heart, "We prefer Roosevelt war to a Wilson peace." "Do we want war with Japan?" "Thrice over yes, if peace means an influx of this vermin to sap our industries, fill our institutions of learning and benevolence, appropri- ate our lands and settle themselves under our very nose." But let us not be afraid, or be too ready to barter our declaration of independence. Should Japan now attack the United States she would lose her supremacy in the Pacific, her most valuable asset. Wherever enmity against our country exists there may be found the Japanese and the labor leaders joining hands, for both are enemies of the United States. Japan has her labor unions, here as well as at home. Also her office of watchful waiting, held of late by Baron Suzuki, who is also a labor leader, for our little yellow friends are quite as ready to copy our bad ways as well as our good ones. The baron says the United States needs looking after, that our laws do not all of them altogether please his people, that they are unfair, ridiculous, and irritating, and we must change them. This was a grievous error, our making such laws, a very proper cause for war,' for we should not irritate sensitive people! Meanwhile they may be seen early Sunday morning wending their way to the public parks to take and hold possession of such play-grounds as they may fancy, tennis courts, golf links, and base-ball fields. They crowd white children out of their seats at the free schools, claim as a right the free use of all our institutions, and avoid as far as possible any payment for the support of the government, even through the help of the laborites shirking the insignificant poll-tax. ' ' The change in the relations between Europe and Asia GERMANY AND JAPAN 77 in the last thirty years," says H. V. Hyndman, the noted English writer and philosopher, has been so marked, and yet so rapid, that we scarcely understand the effect which has been produced already, and will be still more notice- able in the near future. "One result of this terrific war, ending as it must in the serious weakening of all the European powers which have possessions in the eastern continent, will be to increase the relative power of Asia and to secure for her at an earlier date that greater influence in world policy which she would have obtained later in any event. We are slowly returning it would seem to something near the estimate of Asiatic importance which was formed by the old voyagers and ambassadors. After 400 years of successful commerce, piracy, and conquest, from the date of the foundation of the short-lived Portuguese empire of Goa, in 1508, the tide is now turning in favor of the older civilizations. China, Japan and India, with a population nearly double that of all Europe, including Russia, can no longer be regarded as the happy hunting ground for adventurous individuals or grasping nations of the white race. This possibility has long presented itself to the more far-sighted politicians. In the early fifties W. H. Seward, whose statesmanlike management of the Trent affair averted war between England and America ten years later, directed the attention of his countrymen to China as the empire which would play a decisive part in the destinies of the human race. During the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 Sir Henry Maine conjured up a vission of 40,000,000 Chi- nese, raised and trained and armed on the Prussian model, inviting the western barbarism to try conclusion with them in an Armageddon of the east. But this was far from being the common view. Even now most European na- tions think and act as if their present superiority could be maintained permanently, in spite of all recent develop- ment on the shores of the Pacific ocean. "It is a strange position indeed, the claims made by 7S IN TIIKSK LATTKR DAYS Japan that .Japanese immiirrants should In- treated MM iM|iial terms with Ameriean riti/ms in the United States. Things an- very different from what they were in 1879, when the United States and the British colonies carried matters with a high hand against Chinese immigrants. "China itself has undergone a com|>lete political trans- formation. The Mongols have gone. Pigtails, the sign of subservience to the Tartars, have disappeared. The Chi- nese race proper is in control of its own territory. Rail ways, chiefly constructed with foreign capital, and for the time under foreign control, now connect many of the great eities and their ports. "But Chinese engineers and managers are steadily re- placing the outsiders, and projected lines, deprived by tin- war of their skilled superintendents from Belgium and other European countries, are now being carried forward by Chinese engineers. Mines and other industries are be- ing developed. Armies also are being raised and armed and trained according to European systems. "The eagerness for progress is being manifested in all directions. Much as they dislike the Japanese, the Chi- nese are ready to learn from them, and thousands of Chi- nese students flock to Japan for that purpose. Thus 400,- 000,000 of this remarkable people, all reading the same language, are now moving along the same lines which have brought the very differently constituted island em- pire to its dominant position. Whether China acts under Japanese leadership, or under the guidance of her own educated class, the whole question not only of Chinese emigration but of Chinese influence generally must ere long be seriously considered by western nations. "At the time of the Tae-Ping rebellion a sort of prov- erb was current in the Chinese cities. First the Tae- Pings, then the Mohammedans, and lastly the foreign dev- ils. The Tae-Pings and Mohammedans have long situ been swept away. It is quite possible the turn of the for- eign devils may be close at hand.' GERMANY AND JAPAN 79 What is civilization, may we ask? Is Germany civil- ized? What is Christianity? Are the Germans Christians? Is civilization a development of the better or the worst qualities in man, or both, or simply humanism, an evo- lution of mind or morals, or something mechanical, as im- proved machinery? Is Christianity all prattle and priest- craft, or an entity achieving results, such as changing the heart and mind of man into something different from what God made them? Is civilization a transforming entity, or only acquired cunning for inventing life-giving and death-dealing mechanisms? And in the use of these life- giving and death-dealing mechanisms in what way do the Germans differ, in what way are they superior to the Turks of Asia or the savages of darkest Africa? Will we require by reason of the strange antics of religion and humanism in these latter days a new vocabulary, one with words to fit the meaning, or with some proper meaning to give the words? For here is a bag of conundrums for the doctors and the professors to crack, concerning which we shall perhaps know as much when they have finished as we do now. One thing we may know, however, with- out further circumlocution ; if Germany is Christian and civilized, then hell is full of civilized Christians. Germany and Japan are much alike, though the former is older in the sins of civilization, while the latter just emerging from barbarism and quick to catch the wanning tricks of advanced development has some things yet to learn. The chief difference in their professions and policies is that the Germans have kultur with their mikado, while the Japanese mikado comes direct from the celestial shore bringing with him an atmosphere of heaven filled with attendant spirits and all the requisites for the manufac- ture of his own kultur as it is needed. They are well constituted to work together in any raid- ing enterprises, having similar tastes in blood-lust, vandal- ism, and robbery, and may be expected to be seen hunting in company many times during the next mellennium. "Psy- -ii IN TIIKSK LATTKi; DAYS rhologically, in these two rapacious nations, extremes meet ami unity. Soul structure and sentient principle, in so far ;is they exist, seem planted upon much the same plane and operate along similar lines. Thus we fail to find in either what we understand as conscience, that is a moral sense distinguishing right and wrong. Neither has an\ regard for the rights of property or the rights of man. Neither has any regard for plighted word or written obli- gation wherever fancied interests are involved. In war neither has any regard for honor, humanity, or decency; either with a cowardly blow will strike down a weaker nation and trample it under foot. We have yet to see the first chivalrous act, or hear expressed the first noble sentiment by any things Teutonic in connection with this war in Europe, and as for Japan's treatment of China, it is treacherous, cowardly, and con- temptible. Standing forth in bold and bloody perspective, through- out all coining ages, as the crime of crimes, the sum of all crimes, wholesale murder, rape, robbery, piracy, lying, treachery, wanton and merciless cruelty making of the (Jerman name and nation an abomination, hated by all peoples, is the assassination of Belgium. We are filled with horror as we read of the human sarrifice of the ancient Aztecs, some sixty each year; yet how insignificant as compared with the sacrifices of human life by the kaiser-ghoul of Germany in the twentieth cen- tury of our Lord, seven millions of men, in the three years the flower of Christian Europe, whose lives he is responsible for, besides the laying waste of many prov- inces and the unutterable misery inflicted on the innocent inhabitants. We have thought and talked of the war, its present. past and future, until we tire of the subject, and so we are now beginning to turn our attention to what is likely to happen after the war. Not only in trade and finance, in commerce and industries, new sources will appear and GERMANY AND JAPAN 81 new channels marked out, but there will be a realignment in religion as well. Both Germany and Japan dream of world wide domi- nation, but the dream neither of one nor of the other will ever come true. It is more likely that both are even now at the summit of their power and greatness. Both are feared today more than they ever will be feared again. Even now Germany is having drawn her serpent's tooth, while Japan has in her system the seeds of national disease and death, being still not far enough removed from sav- agism to escape the law a too sudden rise always demands. Baron Takagi, speaking of the physical condition of the Japanese nation, says that the physique of the Japa- nese people has been falling away in recent years. Fig- ures and statistics show the tendency of a steady decline. The death rate he estimates has increased 0.3 per thousand as compared with previous years, the figures holding true both for men and women. The modern manner of living is causing the trouble, the habits and customs imported from the west not being suitable to the Japanese nation and doing much to weaken the physique of the people. What was German's gain by the war? Nothing. Her loss is beyond computation, and is irretrievable ; loss of honor, loss of life, loss of money, prestige, power, and the respect of mankind. Farther than this, instead of ruling the world, the kaiser has sounded the death knell of royalty. Under the emperor William the Germans are a sadly deluded nation, among whom the emperor himself is chief of hypocrites or of fanatics. "I would love to descend with you into the ditch," he tells his soldiers, "and help with the killing, but God has willed it otherwise. He has given me my special work, which is to stand back in some safe place and direct the butcheries. My life is too pre- cious in his sight to be risked like yours. He needs me for such work as I did for him in Belgium, and on the IN TI1KSI-; LATTKK DAYS i-ean with my submarines, to send yet more thousands of innocent persons to their death hy a single shot." Not only is Japan dominating the Pacific, hut with Russia would take possession of China, and in due time with half a billion trained Asiatics wipe white civili/.atiou from the face of the earth. England also is prepariiiL' for a huge trade war to be leveled against the I'nited States as well as against all the rest of the world. America for Americans," said Bolivar, echoing the Monroe sentiment; and now we hear the refrain from <'\er-sea, "Asia for the Asiatics." Quite a different matter, as Japan well knows, for while the present so-called Americans came from Europe, bringing their civilization with them, came hither to es- cape such wrongs as the Nipponese delight in inflicting, Asia for the Asiatics points to the conquest of China hy the Japanese, a soldier's training and discipline for her 400,000,000 inhabitants, the centralization of power, and the final dominion of the yellow over the white throughout the world. In view of the alleged profundity of German wisdom and foresight the many mistakes of this war are remark- able, some of which a bystander can see that the kaiser and his followers do not appear to realize, for example, in allowing a superb egotism to get away with them: in setting a trap for other nations only to fall into it them Delves; in placing themselves in a position from which they could not recede if they would; in counting so surely on the assassination of Paris before an adequate force could be brought forward to oppose it ; in reckoning so positively upon baseness on the part of Belgium, being herself wholly without honor or integrity in international affairs; in calculating on the unpreparedness of England: in dreaming of a world suzerainty, and in other like hal- lucinations. GERMANY AND JAPAN 83 The kaiser expresses sorrow for him who has this war upon his conscience. It can scarcely be the kaiser, lie having no conscience. Nor Germany, whose people and professors see only righteousness in robbery and morality in murder. The kaiser is making a great mistake. German pro- fessors, and very deep doctors, and all the German people are making the mistake of their lives if they think that posterity will have any doubt as to who caused the war, or entertain other than feelings of horror and aversion for the dastardly part Germany has played in all these most foul and murderous proceedings. Assuming divine functions, the place and power of God on earth, in his stupendous arrogance and egotism William II of Hohenzollern made himself a monster, be- side whom all the whilome scourges of Satan, the hitherto Alexanders and Caesars and Napoleons or even Attila the Hun were angels of light and mercy. Indians who used poisoned arrows and fired from be- hind a tree were not regarded by Germans as the most chivalrous of combatants. Now they do not consider it an indication of cowardice to dig ditches for their greater safety, use the Zeppelin bomb and poisonous gas, or even throw vitriol. The use of poisoned arrows by savages was long ago denounced as inhuman warfare, but this was a mild and humane method of murder as compared with the asphyxi- ating gases introduced by the kaiser. Whatever may the outcome of the w r ar the power and prestige of the kaiser, and the rule of the Hohenzollern and Hapsburg are doomed. The Germans invent new methods of murder, new im- plements for the destruction of human life, and claim their right to use them whenever their fancied interests are at stake, regardless of any rules or customs appertaining to civilized warfare. They may raid an unprotected coast, sink merchant vessels without warning, leave their victims 84 IN THESE LATTER DAYS to perish, use poisonous gases and employ any of the ways of savagism to inflict pain or injury and still talk of honor and German kultur. Necessitas non habet legem. Necessity has no law. To Germany all things are necessary. Germany therefore knows no law. Whatever Germany lacks or covets is nec- essary; a nation here, a city there, an undefended shore where women and children resort, a passenger steamship with the lives of a thousand non-combatants, gold for ! pleted coffers, women for licentious officers, these and other like luxuries are with the Germans necessities. Et neces- sitas non habet legem. Beside the curb placed on Prussian arrogance the suc- cess of the allies signifies the return of the Turk to Asia, leaving Europe all Christian, if indeed there are any there entitled to the name, if indeed any of Europe was ever Christian. Let this be understood by all our people, that neither Japan nor Germany are to be trusted, that their smiles are as the smiles of Satan, and their protestations and promises not worth the paper they are written on. Thou- sands of German hyphenates who had sworn allegiance to the United States displayed an active disloyalty to their adopted country during the European war. Germany, always keen for a fight, may this time be congratulated on getting the worth of her money. Though her militarism should fail of its purpose, she manages to bag a goodly few of the enemy. It is not unlikely that Japan may some day follow her example, and with simi- lar results. But the kaiser and his supporters propose in Prussian supremacy not only in Europe but throughout the world, a supremacy founded on the vicious morality of kaiser kultur and sustained by Prussian militarism, a sort of su- premacy the manipulators' of labor aim at and are fast attaining in the subordination of labor and the control of government and the economic interests of the country. GERMANY AND JAPAN 85 What England is fighting for, as Sir Edward Grey asserts, is a free Europe, a Europe free from Prussian tyranny, just as we in these United States will fight for a free America, free from every sort of tyranny, whether of Japan or Germany, whether of the money lords or of the labor lords. The thirty years we in California suffered, and from which we were delivered by Hiram Johnson, is the last of its kind, but a worse imposition than this is upon us, the tyranny of the exploiters of the workingmen. In answer to Sakatani's intimation that after the war Japan would renew negotiations for the free emigration of her people into the United States, Senator Phelan said : "In diplomacy, these hints of contemplated action fre- quently are given out to test public sentiment and to elicit comment. It would not be right to defeat their purpose by remaining silent. It should be made perfectly plain, north, south, east, and west that the United States shall not relax its opposition to Oriental immigration and the ownership of its soil by aliens. This goes to the very life of the republic, and therefore is not a justiciable matter. It is as deep-seated as the instinct of self-preservation. It cannot be repeated too often, however, that while racial considerations are of great importance the economic ques- tion is perhaps paramount. The men of Europe who have created this republic have attained a degree of civiliza- tion and an equality of rights which would be jeopardized by the influx of Asiatic coolies, and under no circum- stances would the people of this country suffer without resistance to any such calamity. Washington knows this, and Tokio should know it. It is an impertinence to at- tempt to force one's self into another man's house, and I regret that Admiral Perry's expedition was not repelled. When he opened Japan, he opened a Pandora's box. Japan has a great destiny in Asia, and I believe she will wisely confine her activities to that home sphere for centuries to come." Japan wants to stand on an equality with the most N IN T1IKSK LATTKK DAYS favored tuition. Such recognition, first of ;ill. can be of no benefit to her unless she can sustain herself in such a position. Arc her men equal to the task, socially and po- litically; arc her women equal in refinement and intelli- gence to the women of England and 1 Vance? Well, as to favored nations, what nation have we most favored? Let us say the Africans. We rescued them from cannibalism, made them our gentle bondmen, taught them Christianity and obedience, spent millions to secure for them their freedom, and then gave them the ballot. Now. if they would fly away and forever disappear, we should be satisfied. Could Japan ask more? "The United States fortify; by and by we take." is the position and sentiments of the Japanese residents of Hawaii, according to S. I). McCray. resident engineer. "The Japanese there expect war between the countries within two years and are preparing for it," said McCray. "I am most familiar with conditions on the largest island. Hawaii, although everywhere the same conditions prevail. There are about 25,000 Japanese men on Hawaii, all of them former soldiers. Women and children swell the pop- ulation to about 65,000. They mix with nobody. The Hawaiians hate them worse than the Americans do; the Chinese hate them worst of all. They have everything under their control, from labor on the plantation to the smaller stores and other industries. Hawaii is Japanized. We might as well wake up and admit that the islands an- not American, they are Japanese in everything except the government and the business of the very largest hou<- and banks. The laboring element is of no value to the country, buying everything from Japan and living on rice and dried fish. That is the reason why I. like many other Americans, have left. There is no longer a chance for a man with a white skin." In the Tokio Nichinich-i. upon the authority of Count Okuma, are given the terms of an alleged treaty between Russia and Japan which indicates the potential trend of GERMANY AND JAPAN 87 affairs in that quarter. The article goes on to say that Russia shall cede to Japan that section of the Manchurian railway between Chang Chun and a certain point near Harbin. This will afford Japan's south Manchuria rail- way an easier access to the Russian metropolis in Man- churia. Japan shall supply Russia with arms and ammu- nition as long as the war in Europe lasts. Russia shall accord liberal treatment to the Japanese residing and en- gaged in business in eastern Siberia and north Saghalien, as well as in the railway zone of north Manchuria, and Russia shall throw open to international commerce the harbor of Vladivostok, and shall not increase the arma- ment of. the port to such an extent as would cause appre- hension on the part of Japan. Russia and Japan shall respect each other's interests in Manchuria and Mongolia. Should disturbance arise in the Russian shere of influ- ence in these territories while Russia is engaged in the war against Germany and Austria, Japan shall, upon Russia's request, undertake to pacify the country. In case Japan is obliged to take necessary measures to preserve the peace and open-door in China, Russia shall not hinder the exe- cution of such measures. Should a third power or powers obstruct such measures, Russia shall, upon Japan's re- quest, take common action with Japan for the removal of such obstruction. Such a treaty, of course, would be simply a treaty of alliance." ' ' We shall have to face the issues in the Pacific sooner or later," says George Bronson Rea. "We cannot always play the ostrich without a severe loss of national prestige. If we have any interests in the Pacific it is high time that we wake up and pay some attention to them. There is every evidence that the Russo-Japanese alliance is directed against America. Our government alone is on record that we cannot recognize any impairments of existing treaties as applied to China. One week after the receipt of the warning, Japan compelled China to sign two treaties and exchange fourteen notes, which did impair the treaties, 88 IN THKSK LATTKR DAYS infringed the sovereignty of China and made scraps of paper of the open-door deelaration. Tin- alliance is th.-P- fore aimed at us, and we arc foolish it' we believe tin- specious pleas advanced to conceal its real meaning. 1 1' we don't wake up now, we may regret it later. I have received information from the highest possible British au- thority that when the war is over Great Britain will call Japan to account for the violation of treaties in China. As we are on record, we cannot fairly shirk our duties and permit Britain to shoulder alone the responsibilities involved. I am furthermore convinced that Japan will attempt to consolidate her power over China while tin- war lasts, and while America is preoccupied with the presidential campaign, so she can face the powers after the war with accomplished fact. The officials at the head of the present Chinese government will have to pay their bill to Japan for the assistance rendered in punishing Yuan. The demand for a riew cabinet in Japan headed by Count Terauchi who gave the coup de grace to the inde- pendence of Korea means that the miltarists and bureau- crats want a man who can carry through the same pro- gramme in China. The only thing that will hold Japan in check is public opinion and publicity. If she succeeds in dominating China at this time it will be difficult to dislodge her and the day will be hastened when she will determine to settle other issues pending with us. I am trying to present the American viewpoint. This is the sole object in sending you these articles. Japanese pub- licists in America are certain to deny what their astute, ambitious statesmen are evidently planning to do. I am basing all my articles on the admission of the Japanese themselves so I cannot be misinterpreted." Should Japan and Russia form an alliance, and take over China, centralizing her power and training her people in the arts of industry and war, America and Europe will have their hands full attending to their affairs at home. And for neglecting our opportunities and failing to assert GERMANY AND JAPAN 89 our manhood, reposing meanwhile in a fool's paradise of peace let posterity anathematize us. Ernst Haeckel voiced the true opinion of the better class of German scholars regarding military selection, by which the best young men of the nation are led forth for slaughter while the unfit are left unmolested, but which sentiments they were all obliged to retract upon their en- forced conversion to kaiserism. Haeckel said: "This in- famous militarism, the cancer of contemporary Europe, has assumed an absolute and unprecedented preponder- ance since universal military service, a republican insti- tution, has been united, forming the most monstrous of hybrids, with the permanent army that serves absolutist and dynastic ends. If anyone should dare to propose to put to death at birth, as the Spartans and the redskins did, imperfect infants of whom a miserable existence could surely be predicted, our self-styled humanitarian civiliza- tion would righty give a cry of indignation. But this same humanitarian civilization finds it quite natural that with each explosion of war hundreds and' thousands of the most vigorous youths should be exposed to the chances of battle. And why, I demand, is this flower of the popu- lation massacred? Generally for ends that have not the slightest thing in common with the aims of humanity, and which should be removed from the path of every really civilized people, in many cases for purely dynastic inter- ests, which have nothing to do with the real happiness of the nations that have been hurled against each other." Says George Brandes, the Danish critic: "From a few words I recently wrote in a Norwegian magazine, in which I expressed a doubt as to this being the last war on earth, and hinted that the madness in Europe might fail to usher in a reign of true justice, several of the newspapers have concluded that I consider it hopeless to struggle against war. Indeed, that I look upon war as a beneficent force. I merely remarked that human nature evolves, but only 90 IN THKSM LATTKK DAYS very slowly, for tin- better. Man is by natuiv hut a higher sort, of beast of prey. MM evolved ape. But this rcmaik docs not imply that I believe luiinariity will never be able to fid itself of war, or of the fashion to prey. Yet one tiling is certain. The methods which the European na- tions have been using of late will not bring them very much nearer to their goal. The allies claim, in chorus. that their object is to crush Prussian militarism. But as surely as two and two make four, militarism cannot be crushed by militarism. All attempts to do so have been fruitless, insane even. Hut there is no reason to infer that militarism will never be eradicated. Merely that it will be accomplished in a totally different way." Lord Beresford remarks in regard to Germany's la-k of foresight: "I wish people had listened to me before the war. I think it might have been averted ; anyway we escaped a most appalling danger. If the Germans had attacked us first without a declaration of war, and sent what they could have sent, 140 cruisers and armed merchantmen on to our unprotected trade routes, we would have been brought to our knees in a couple of months ; they would have put down a thousand ships in the first week, and if we had had three times the number of dread naughts it would have availed us nothing. In pointing this danger out for years, I have always told my country- men as I have told you, that an empire, like a man, can be killed as easily by cutting an artery as by a stab in the heart. I have always thought that the (Jerman emperor could not have been in Berlin at the moment the Junkers had made everything ready for this war: if he had he would have sent for Tirpitz, and on telling Tirpitz that the British neither would nor could not fight, Tirpit/. would have replied: 'I have got to think of what they may cr may not do. Do not go to war for another three weeks; give me time to get all our cruisers and armed- merchantmen on the trade routes; if the British do not fight we can order our vessels home: if the British do 91 fight we have got them.' If the Germans had caried out that plan they could have got into Paris, compelled peace with France, and then been in St. Petersburg in a short time and become the dominant power of Europe and the world possibly for a century." To the allies the situation looked dark indeed at times, but they seemed always determined as ever not to talk of peace without victory, never to lay down their arms without sufficient guarantee against a repetition of the horrors of the last three years. And as for William of Germany, his name will go down in history to remotest ages as the greatest fiend in human form that ever offered a prayer to the God of Israel over a holocaust of innocent victims. CHAPTER V THE STILL SMALL VOICE A ND he said, go forth and stand upon the mount before /~\ the Lord. And behold the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind ; and after the wind an earthquake, but -the Lord wa!B not in the earthquake ; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire ; and after the fire a still small voice." It was the same still small voice that Elijah heard, as he lay cast down and discouraged in his cave, which was breathed into the aching hearts of our people during tin- silent nights that followed the earthquake and the fire, which should be those of the cataclysm that came to San Francisco in the year 1906. For while thanking God for the safety of loved ones, family and friends, the bald fact stared them in the face that there was nothing to eat; with merciless insistency, more and more each hour, 'the fact returned to them that they were ruined ; yet the bread-winner must wear a brave front before wife and children, and smile on going forth to mingle with the other thousands bankrupted in a mo- ment like himself through no fault of theirs. To them s I take the still small voice. Tt was not the loss of property that hurt. Many more before this had met with greater loss and had laughed to scorn any idea of giving up, had braced up and gone forth to double their former wealth. But here was a dif- ferent matter. Only the charred earth for miles around 92 THE STILL SMALL VOICE 93 marked where yesterday stood a proud, prosperous city, now ashes like their hearts. With varying fortunes hith- erto they had made and lost, but they had always had enough to enable them to bestow upon those dependent upon them the comforts and blessings of life. The city at the time of its destruction was half a cen- tury old, many of its builders were of that age, some older, some younger. Many had passed away, leaving a little fortune, seldom out of debt, to inexperienced women and minors, who too often made short work of it, spending, scattering, listening to the advice of friends, and making bad investments. To begin life anew after reaching middle age, after having started on the downward grade, is a serious matter ; to so begin without money is almost sure to invite failure. Such a man is handicapped. He has experience, but expe- rience opens for him no bank account. He can serve, and work, and give sound advice, but he is eyed askance by the young and enterprising, to whom the world of for- tune belongs. "Old men are only in the way; give us something that can get around lively," forgetful that but for what these old men had* done for them they would be poorly off indeed; that instead of riding high in pride and arrogance they would be sweating in shirt-sleeves, jf indeed they ever so much as existed at all. These so lately happy and well-to-do citizens of middle age or more, artisans, shop-keepers, merchants and manu- facturers perhaps, respectable and respected, the bone and sinew of the commonwealth, numbered by thousands, each possessor of a house and lot, let us say, the house partly paid for and insured, the lot mortgaged. The fire takes the house and the builder takes the money, leaving a naked lot mortgage for more than it will sell for as the total assets of this so lately prosperous citizen, who is now without place or occupation. Such was the situation of a large proportion of the people of San Francisco after the fire. And what could '') IN TIIKSK LATTKi; DAYS they do? How many of them started forth courageously to build and establish themselves again only to fall by the way? How many bright prospects disappeared, how many expectations were wrecked by unhealthy habits, how many minds were overturned and hearts broken by des- pair? How many went down to their death, when all within was long since dead, meeting their misfortunes with calm ness, and performing all their duty as best they were able to the last moment? None will ever know. We make our boast that but few were killed by the earthquake, but of the many who died from broken hearts no record was made. Let us hope that by them, by those who fell to rise no more as well as by those who had strength given them to gird up and renew the battle of life, let us hope that the still small voice was heard giving courage and consolation. Hope lost, all is lost. Despair is the end of effort. With good name preserved, old age and illness still in the distance, loss of property is no serious affair, and so young and lusty San Francisco rose from the ashes, though many good souls were burled beneath them. Of the many more fortunate ones who of their time and substance gave to those who had nothing; of the many devoted men and women who sheltered the houseless, fed the hungry, nursed the sick, who perchance having noth- ing else to give gave themselves, hath not the recording angel their names all written in his book ? I was asked at the time to write the history of this freak of fate, but I said, "No, let us forget it. " Often it is more profitable to forget than to remember, though it may be sometimes more difficult. As for the psychol- ogy of God's providence as displayed in the scourgings of humanity, let the German professors and spiritualistic teachers of Harvard talk on about it. What they say does no particular harm, as few students of sense take them seriously. Of cities in general, however, and of San Francisco 95 in particular, 1 might here say that it is now ten years and more since the grand catastrophe, and that while there are still many vacant lots of ghastly aspect where once worked busy bees of industry, there are many fine building in places which the fire did good service in clear- ing away. While we had only a little earth's disturbance as the origin and attendant on our fire, many of the great con- flagrations of the world have had the horrors of pestilence to endure as well. Thus in St Louis, in 1849, when the business district of the city was burned, the Asiatic cholera was raging, resulting in 5,000 deaths out of a population of 60,000; which however did not delay the court-martial of John Charles Fremont for misdeeds in California, and who but for the love of Jesse Benton would later have come to still greater grief. Nor did it prevent Isaac H. Sturgeon at the same time from introducing resolutions which were passed by the city council calling a national convention for considering the project of a Pacific railroad, at which Douglas Thomp- son of Indiana and Benton made flamboyant speeches. "Let us beseech the national legislature," cried Ben- ton, "to build the great road upon the great national line, which suits Europe and Asia, the line which will find on our continent the bay of San Francisco at one end, St Louis in the middle, the national metropolis and great commercial emporium at the other end, the line which will be adorned with its crowning honor, the colossal statue of the great Columbus, whose design it accomplishes, hewn from the granite mass of a peak of the Rocky mountains, overlooking the road, the pedestal and the statue a part of the mountain, pointing with outstretched arm to the western horizon and saying to the flying passenger, there is the east, there is India!" " Benton 's attitude was grand, says an admiring lis- tener, as he delivered this peroration; but the statue of Columbus is not yet hewn, and the statue of Benton him- !fi IX TIIKSK LATTKH DAYS self, in the beautiful La F;iy.-tt<> park of St Louis, j^ looking down at a scroll, instead of having his <-n-<-t ;itti tude and impressive presence, as he stretched out his ;mn at the close of one of the most brilliant spetvh. ^ of his life." How wide flies the arrow from where it was aimed! Directed toward Washington this dart of providence fell into a shop at Sacramento where it struck steel in tin- person of Collis Huntington. This Pacific railroad convention held amidst the debris of a calamitous season, was one of the aids in educating the American people, but when thirteen years later, Con- gress acted on the question, the civil war threw the line north of the city, and for years after its completion, St Louis was practically ignored by the enterprise, which it had been most persistent in urging upon the attention of the country. There had been some discussion as to improving and beautifying the city of San Francisco prior to the catas- trophe of April 18th. Landscape architects had been con- sulted, proposals considered, and preliminary plans drawn. Therefore when on that day the city was swept by fire, obviously it was the opportune moment for the requisite changes in the rebuilding. For a brief period enthusiasm waxed warm. It helped to mitigate the blow, this fencing with fate. Let the earth shake, and fires burn, we will have here our city, better and more beautiful than ever, and more valuable, an imperial city of steel it shall be, and thus will we get even with the misfortunes of this day. Reform in the rebuilding was needed, whatever should be the scale of beauty or utility decided upon. Fifty years ago the elevating influences of tasteful environment were not so highly appreciated as now, and all large cities are fifty years old or more. All large cities, as a rule, had their beginning with narrow. <-rooked streets and mean houses. In Europe and Asia there are aggregations of humanity whose domiciles have remained unchanged, one THE STILL SMALL VOICE 97 might almost say uncleansed, for hundreds or thousands of years, or ever since their mythical beginning, save only for the covering of the debris of dead centuries. These ancient towns, mostly offspring of feudalism, begun under castle walls and continued after walls and castle had crumbled, as their area enlarged, with some improvements, perhaps, in the suburban parts, still retained this patch of medievalism, until obliterated by war, or fire, or later by modern progress. Look at Edinburgh, for example. With all its Scotch thrift and neatness, there yet remains the ill-conditioned and once filthy quarter, beside which rise the old-time ten-story houses built into the hillside, while in the modern part of the city in sharp contrast are broad streets and open squares and fine buildings. In America the birth of towns is quite different. Here are no plantings of trembling poverty under lordly walls, but bold pioneering, forecasting agriculture and com- merce; no Babel building, with "Go to, let us build here a Cleveland or a Cincinnati," but rather, "Here for the present we will abide." If, however, serfdom and medie- valism were absent in New World town-planting, so also were aestheticism or any appreciation of the beautiful apart from the useful. Old cities require reconstruction to make them what modern taste and intelligence demand ; settlements in their incipiency are dominated by their sturdy founders, who usually have other things to think about than beauty and adornment. In this day of great wealth and wonderful inventions we realize more and more the value of the city to man- kind, and the quality of the city as a means of culture. Cities are not merely marts of commerce ; they stand for civility; they are civilization itself. No untried naked Adam in Eden might ever pass for a civilized man. The city street is the school of philosophy, of art, of letters; city society is the home of refinement. When the rustic visits the city he puts on his best clothes and his best manners. In their reciprocal relations the city is as men 4 IN TIIKSK LATTKI, 1 DAYS make it, while from the citi/cn one may determine the Duality of the city. The at mospheiv of the city is an eternal force. Then-fore as \ve value the refinement of the human mind, the enlargement of the human heart, we shall value the city, and strive so to build, and adorn, and purify, that it may achieve its ultimate endeavor. Civic betterment lias long been in progress among the more civilized communities through the influence of cul- tured people capable of appreciating the commercial as well as the esthetic value of art. Vast sums have been spent and great results accomplished, but they are nothing as compared with the work yet to be done work which will continue through the ages and be finished only with the end of time. And not only will larger wealth be yet more freely poured out on artistic adornment, but such use of money will be regarded as the best to which it can be applied. For though gold is not beautiful it can make beauty, even that beauty which elevates and ennobles, which purifies the mind and inspires the soul. Progress is rapid in this direction as in many others. A breach of good taste in public works will ere long be adjudged a crime. For al- ready mediaeval mud has ceased to be fashionable, and the picturesque in urban ugliness is picturesque no longer. All the capitals of Europe have had to be made over, Hauss- mannized, once or several times. Our own national capital we should scarcely be satisfied with as its illustrious founder left it. It is a hopeful sign amidst some discouraging ones that wealth as a social factor and measure of merit is losing something of its prestige; that it is no longer regarded by the average citizen as the supreme good, or the pursuit of it the supreme aim in life; there are so many things worth more than money, so many human aspirations and acquirements worthy of higher considerations than the in- ordinate cravings of graft and greed. Hoarded wealth THE STILL SMALL VOICE 99 especially is not so worshipful today as it was yesterday, while the beautiful still grows in grace the beautiful and the useful, compelling improvement, always engendered by improved environment. Some cities are born in the purple rare exceptions to the rule. San Francisco is not one of these. Petrograd, the city of palaces, of broad avenues and granite-faced quays, whose greatest afflictions are the occasional over- flow of the Neva and the dynamite habit, was spoken into being by a monarch. Necessity stands sponsor for Venice, the beautiful, with her streets of water-ways and airs of heavenly harmony ; while nature herself may claim mother- hood of Swedish Stockholm, brilliant with intermingling lakes, islands and canals, rock hills and forests, rendering escape from the picturesque impossible. Penn planted his Quakers about 1682, long before many of the present large cities in America were begun, yet Philadelphia was one of the few sketched in such gener- ous proportions that little change was afterwards necessary to make it one of the most spacious of urban common- wealths. With this example before him came in 1791, more than a century later, the father of his country, who per- mitted his surveyors so injudiciously to cover the spot on the Potomac which he had chosen for the capital city of the republic as to require much expensive remodeling later. Yet what American can drive about Washington now and say it is not worth the cost? Further, as an example, the repeated reconstruction and adornment of the national capital by Congress are priceless to the whole United States, the government therein bearing witness to the value of the beautiful. And if of value on the Potomac, is it not equally so at the portal of the Pacific? A few other cities there have been which have arisen at the command of man, potentate or pirate, besides those of the quaker Penn and the tzar Peter Alexandria, the old and the new, with Constantinople between ; the first by or- der of the poor world conqueror, at the hands of the archi- 100 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS tect Dinocrates. t\vo or three centuries he fore Caesar, (Men patra, ;m and charming environment * we have all that earth can give, and therewith should be content. Cities have been made as the marquis of Bute made Cardiff, by constructing a dock and ship canal, and con- verting the ancient castle into a modern palace. Many towns have been started as railway stations, but few -of them attained importance. Steamboat landings have been more fortunate. Some cities owe their origin to war, some to commerce, and not a few to manufactures. Fanati- cism has played a part, as in India and parts of Africa, where are nestings of half-savage humanity with a touch of the heavenly in the air. Less disciplined are these than /don-towns, but nearer the happiness of insensibility the white-marbled and jeweled Taj Mahal, Agra on the Jumna, and Delhi, making immortal Jehan the builder, with his pearl mosque and palace housing the thirty-million-dollar peacock throne ; Benares, on the Ganges, a series of ter- races and long stone steps extending upward from the THE STILL SMALL VOICE 101 holy water, while rising yet higher in the background are temples, towers, mosques, and palaces, all in oriental splen- dor. Algiers, likewise, an amphitheatre in form, might give San Francisco lessons in terrace construction, having hillsides covered with them, the scene made yet more strik- ing by the dazzling white of the houses. After the place became French, the streets were widened and arcades es- tablished in the lower part. In fact, the French believe in the utility of beauty, and in Paris at least they make it pay. The entire ex- penses of the municipal government, including police and public works, are met by the spendings of visitors. To their dissolute monarchs were due such creations as the Tuileries, the Louvre, and Versailles. Have we not dis- solute millionaires enough to give us at least one fine city ? London and Paris stand out in bold contrast, the one for utility, the other for beauty. Both are adepts in their respective arts. The city proper of London has better buildings and cleaner streets than when St Paul was erected ; otherwise it is much the same. Elsewhere in Lon- don, however, are spacious parks and- imposing palaces, with now and then a fine bit of somthing to look out upon, as the bridges of the murky Thames, the Parliament houses, the Abbey, Somerset house, and Piccadilly, perhaps. Chil- dren may play at the Zoo, while grown-ups sit in hired chairs under the trees. Three times London was destroyed by the plague, and five times by fire, that of 1666 lasting four days, and cov- ering thrice the area of the San Francisco conflagration ; yet it was rebuilt better than before in three and a half years. Always the city is improved in the rebuilding; how much, depends upon the intelligence and enterprise of the people. Paris is brilliant with everything that takes the eye palaces, arches, Bon Marche shops, arcades, colonnades, great open spaces adorned with statues, forest parks, ely- loa sian driveways, and broad boulevards cut through media- val quarters in every direction, as well for air as for protection from the canaille blockaded in the narrow streets. San Francisco may have some canaille of her own to boast of one of these days; canaille engendered from the scum of Europe and Asia, and educated at our expense for our destruction. Over and over, these two cities, each a world metropolis, have been renovated and reconstructed, the work in fact going on continuously. For some of the most effective of our urban elabora- tions we must go back to tin- first of city builders of whom we have knowledge. The Assyrians made terraces, nature teaching them. On the level plain building ground was raised forty feet for effect. Like all artists of precivili- zation, the Assyrians placed adornment before convenience, as appeared in Nineveh on the Tigris and Babylon on the Euphrates. At Thebes and Palmyra it was the same, their palaces of alabaster, if one chooses to believe what is said, covering, some of them, a hundred acres. The fashion now is to build upward rather than outward. Besides this alabaster acreage there are to be taken into account the pyramids, artificial mountains, and endless tower-towns, supposed to be an improvement on whatever existed before their time. Around the Mediterranean and over India way were once hundreds of charming palaces like the Me- ga ra suburb of Carthage and the amphitheatre of Rhodes, prolific in classic art and architecture, precious gifts of the gods. But before all other gods or gifts comes Athens, where the men were as gods and the gods very like the men. Encircling the Acropolis hill most ancient cities had their eentral hill the city owes its grandeur to the many tem- ples dedicated to the Olympian deities by the men who made them, made both deities and temples, that long line nf philosophers the sublimity of whose thoughts civil i/.a tion fed on and found expression in the genius of now and then a Pericles or a IMiidias. THE STILL SMALL VOICE 103 Twenty times Rome suffered, each time worse than ever befell an American city, the debris of destruction over- spreading her sacred soil some fathoms deep, yet all the while mistress of the world. The Moors in Spain reconstructed and embellished many cities, and built many entire. To them Spain owes her finest specimens of art and architecture, as Seville, Cordova, and the Alhambra. In Naples the mediaeval still overshadows the modern. The city needs cleansing, though she flourishes in her filth and volcanic belchings. Nice, like Paris, plans to please her guests. Berlin was a little late with her reconstructive work; the town walls were not removed till 1866. Though dating from 1190, Glasgow is practically modern, having been several times renovated by fire. Antwerp, burned in 1871, was quickly rebuilt. The Hague is charming as the city of peace. Munich, on the Isar, is every day drifting into the beautiful, not to say aesthetical. Pekin is a city sui generis, with its Kin-Ching, or pro- hibited city, sacred to royalty; its Hwang-Ching, or impe- rial city, exclusively for court officials ; its Tartar division and Chinese division, all completed according to the grand khan and Confucius. Happy Celestials ! There is nothing more to be done, nothing to reconstruct, nothing to im- prove ; it stands alone, the only city in all the world that is absolutely finished and perfect. But of a truth our public works sink into insignificance beside those of the ancient barbarians, the great wall and canal of China, the pyramids of Egypt, and the brilliant cities of Assyria and Palmyra. The cities of Australia Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide in common with all those of the British colonies, are laid out along liberal lines, with broad streets, parks, public squares, and beautiful modern buildings, requiring little change for many years to come. The English part of Calcutta is a city of palaces, built from the spoils of sub- 104 jugation. Yokohama was a small fishing station when Comiiiuiloii- Perry called there in 1854. In the New World as in the Old, from John Cotton to Joseph Smith, religion with cupidity inspires. <>n< William Blaxton in 1630 lived where Boston now is, ami invited thither Winthrop and his colonists. When ban- ished from Massachusetts, Roger Williams stepped ashore on the bank of the Seekonk, on a rock where is now Provi- dence. The French built a fort where Marquette camped in 1673, and there is now Chicago. Buffalo was a military post in 1812. St Paul was an Indian trading station prior to 1838. The building of Fort Washington was followed by settlers and Cincinnati was begun. Henry Hudson touched at Manhattan island in 1609, and the Dutch fol- lowing, New York was the result. Brigham Young, jour- neying westward, came to the Great Salt Lake, where, as he told his followers, he was instructed by divine revela- tion to plant the City of the Saints. It proved more per- manent than might have been expected, as zion-cities usu- ally are quite ephemeral affairs. Boston, the beneficial, swept by fires, smallpox, witch- craft, quakerism, snowstorms, earthquakes, and proslavi-ry riots, still lives to meditate upon her own superiority and to instruct mankind. Much attention has been given of late in Boston and suburban towns to artistic effect in street architecture. Until recently New York lias given but little thought to pleasing effects. Broadway was not broad, and Fifth Avenue was not striking. Of late, how- ever, the city has become imperial, houses, parks and drive- ways being among the finest in the world. New Orleans has survived at least a dozen great yellow-fever crises since 1812, population meanwhile increasing twentyfold. After the enforced construction of the levee, the idea came to some one that the top of it would make a line driveway, which in due time was extended from the river and bayous to the lake, thus becoming the most attractive feature of the place. Though not without natural attractions, Chi- THE STILL SMALL VOICE 105 cago was not made by or for her things of beauty. Be- ginning with low wooden houses along dirty streets, trans- formations were continued until systems of parks and boulevards with elegant edifices came into view, which shows that, however material the beginning of American towns may be, if prosperity comes the aesthetical is sure to come with it. A contrast to Chicago may be found in St Louis, for a long time trading-post town and city, which would be of more importance now were her people of a different quality. Even her chronic calamities, tor- nadoes, floods, and epidemics, fail to rouse her energies, so that Chicago, starting later and under more adverse circumstances, outstripped her in every particular. Cleve- land was laid out for a fine city, so that as she grew little alteration was found necessary. The streets are wide, 80 to 120 feet Superior Street 132 feet and so abundant is the foliage, largely maple, that it is called the Forest city. As an instance of modern aesthetic town construction one might cite Denver, a western Yankee metropolis of ultrarefined men and women from down Boston way, breathing a nomenclature never so freely used before among mid-continent mountains, streets, schoolhouses, parks, and gardens all alive with the names of New England poets, philosophers, and statesmen. Scracely yet turned the half century in age, few such charming cities as Denver have been made with fewer mistakes. San Francisco at her birth and christening had for godfather neither prince nor priest, nor any cultured co- terie. The sandy peninsula, on whose inner edge, at the cove called Yerba Buena, stood some hide and tallow stores and fur depots which drew to them the stragglers that passed that way, was about as ill-omened a spot as the one designated by the snake-devouring eagle perched upon an island cactus as the place where the wandering Aztecs should rest and build their citv of Mexico. San Fran- KM! IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS 's ijodparents were hut common humanity, trader- iiml advniturcrs. later irold -seekers and pot politicians in telligent. hold, and tor tin- most part honest : few intending long to remain, few dreaming of the great city to arise here; few caring how the town should he made, if one were madi 1 at all. When was improvised an alcalde after the Mexican fashion, and two hoards of aldermen were estahlished after the New York fashion, and the hi^li offi- cials saw that they could now and then pick up a twenty five-dollar fee for deeding a fifty vara lot. if so be they had on hand some fifty varas, they forthwith went to work t<> make them by drawing lines in front of the cove and intersecting them at right angles by lines running up over the hills, giving their own names, with a sprinkling of the names of bear-flag heroes, not forgetting the usual Washington and Jackson, leaving in the centre a plaza. the cove in front to be filled in later. The streets \\.-ie narrow, dusty in summer and miry in winter. Spanish- American streets are usually thirty-six feet wide. Wind ing trails led from the Presidio to the Mission, and from Mission and Presidio to the cove. This was the beginning of San Francisco, which a merciful providence has five times burned, the original shacks and their successors, the last time thoroughly, giving the inhabitants the opportu- nity to build something better. All this time the matchless bay and inviting .shores awaited the coming of those who should aid in the accom- plishment of their high destiny. Situated on the Pacific relatively as is New York on the Atlantic, the natural gate- way with its unique portal between the old east and the new west, the only outlet for the drainage of thousands of square miles of garden lands and grain fields, a harbor in the world's centre of highest development, with no other to speak of within five hundred miles on either side; domi- nator of the greatest of oceans, waters more spacious than those of Rio, airs of purple ha/.e sweeter than those of Italy, hills, islands and shore lines more sublime than any THE STILL SMALL VOICE 107 of Greece all this time these benefactions of nature have awaited the appreciation and action of those who for their own benefit and the benefit of the nation would utilize them. Are they here now, these new city-builders, or must San Francisco wait for another generation? They must be men of broad minds, for this is no ordi- nary problem to be worked out. It is certain that in the near or distant future there will be here a very large and very wealthy city, probably the largest and wealthiest in the world. The whole of the peninsula will be covered, and as much more space beyond it, and around the bay shores to and beyond Carquinez strait. Viewed in the light of history and progressional phenomena, this is the only rational conclusion. Always the march of intellectual development has been from east to west, the old east dying as the new west bursts into being, until now the west is east, and the final issue must here be met. In the advent and progress of civili- zation there was first the Mediterranean, then the Atlantic, and then the Pacific, the last the greatest of all. What else is possible? Where else on this planet is man to go for his ultimate achievement ? Conviction comes slowly in such cases, and properly so. Yet in forecasting the future from the light of the past cavilers can scarcely go farther afield than our worship- ful forbears, who less than a century ago, on the floor of the United States congress, decried as absurd settlement beyond the Missouri, ridiculed buying half a continent of worthless Northwest wilderness, thanked God for the Rocky mountain barrier to man's presumption, scouted at a possible wagon road, not to say railway, across the con- tinent, lamented the unprofitable theft of California, and cursed the Alaska purchase as money worse than thrown away. In view of what has been and is, can anyone call it a Utopian dream to picture the Pacific bordered by an advanced civilization with cities more brilliant than any 108 IN THESE LATTKIi I >AYS of the ancient East, more opulent than any of tin- West? Rio do Janeiro! what have tin- Brazilians IK-CM these last decades? Decapitating politically dear Dom Pe- dro, true patriot, though emperor he came to me once in my library, pouring out his soul for his beloved Brazil they abolished slavery, formed a republic, and modernized the city. They made boulevards and water drives, tin- finest in the world. They cut through the heart of the old town a new Avenida Central, over a mile in length and one hundred and ten feet wide, lining it on either sid.- with palatial business houses and costly residences, paving the thoroughfare with asphalt and adorning it with artist ir fixtures for illumination, the street work being completed in eighteen months. Strangling in their incipiency graft and greed, after kindly dismissing Dom Pedro with well- filled pockets for home, these Portuguese brought out their money and spent hundreds of millions in improving their city, with hundreds of millions left which they have yet to spend. Thus did these of the Latin race, whom we re- gard as less Bostonian than ourselves. With this brief glance at other cities of present and other times, and having in view the part played by envi- ronment in the trend of refining influences, and remember- ing further, following the spirit of the times, that nothing within the scope of human power to accomplish is too vast. or too valuable, or too advanced for the purpose, it re- mained with the people of San Francisco to determine what they would do. It was not necessary to speak of the city's present or future requirements, as sea water on the hills, and fresh water with electric power from the Sierra ; sea wall, docks, and water-way drives ; widened streets and winding boule- vards; embellished hillsides and hilltops; bay tunnels and union railway station ; bay and ocean boating and bathing ; arches and arcades; park strips or boulevards cutting through slums, and the nests of filthy foreigners, bordered THE STILL SMALL VOICE 109 on either side by structures characteristic of their country all this and more would come to those who might have the matter in charge. The pressing need then was a general plan for all to work to ; this, and taking the reconstruction of the city out of politics and placing it in the hands of re- sponsible business men. If the people and government of the United States would consider for a moment the importance to the nation of a well-fortified and imposing city and seaport at San Francisco bay; the importance to the army and navy, to art and science, to commerce and manufactures; of the effect of a city with its broad surroundings, at once ele- gant and impressive, upon the nations round the Pacific and on all' the world, there should be little trouble in its accomplishment. And be it remembered that whatever San Francisco, her citizens and her lovers, do now or neglect to do in' this present regeneration will be felt for good or ill to remotest ages. Let us build and rebuild accordingly, bear- ing in mind that the new San Francisco is to stand forever before the world as the measure of the civic taste and intel- ligence of her people. Such was the spirit of the time. The question has been oftener asked than answered, why Chicago should have grown in wealth and population so much faster than St Louis, or New Orleans, or San Francisco. It is not enough to point to her position on the lakes, the wide extent of contributory industries, and the convergence of railways; other cities have at their command as great natural advantages with like limitless opportunity. As to location, city sites are seldom chosen by convention, or the fittest spots favored. Chicagoans assert that a worse place than theirs for a city cannot be found on the shores of Lake Michigan. New York would be better up the Hudson, London in Bristol channel, and San Francisco at Carquinez strait. Indeed, it was by a 110 IN THESE LATTKi: DAYS Yankee trick that the sand-blown peninsula secured tin- principal city df the Pacific. It happened this way. (Jciicral Vallejo, Mexican nn dinhinti residing at Sonoma, upon the arrival of the new American authorities said to them: "Let it bear the name of my wife, Francesea, and let it be the commercial and political metropolis of your Pacific possessions, and I will give you the finest site in the world for a city, with state- house and residences built and ready for your free occu- pation." And so it was agreed, and the general made ready for the coming of the legislature. Meanwhile, to the American alcalde, who had estab- lished his rule at Yerba Buena, a trading hamlet in the cove opposite the island of that name and the nucleus of the present San Francisco, came Folsom, United States army captain and quartermaster, to whom had been given certain lots of land in Yerba Buena, and said: "Why not call the town San Francisco, and bring hither ships which clear from various ports for San Francisco bay?" And so it was done ; the fine plans of the Mexican general felj to the ground, and the name Benicia was given to what had been Francesea. A year or two later, with five hun- dred ships of the gold-seekers anchored off the cove, not all the men and money in the country could have moved the town from its ill-chosen location. Opportunity is much the same in various times and places, whether fortuitous or forced. More men make opportunity than are made by it, particularly among those who achieve great success. Land being unavailable, Ven- ice the beautiful was built upon the water, while the Hol- landers manage to live along the centuries below sea level. The builders of Chicago possessed varied abilities of a high order, not least among which was the faculty of working together. They realized at an early date that the citizens and the city are one; whatever of advantage they might secure to their city would be returned to them by their city fourfold. THE STILL SMALL VOICE 111 ' ' Oh, I do love this old town ! ' ' one of them was heard to exclaim as, returning from the station, his cab paddled through the slushy streets under a slushy sky. He was quite a young man, yet he had made a large fortune there. "It's no credit to us making money here," he added, "we couldn't help it." So citizenized, what should we expect if not unity of effort, a willingness to efface self when necessary, and with intense individualism to subordinate individual ideas and feelings to the public good? In such an atmosphere rises quickly a new city from the ashes of the old, or a fairy creation like the Columbian Exposition. Imagine the peninsula of San Francisco covered by a real city equal in beauty and grandeur to the Chicago sham city of 1893. The typical West-American city builder has money created, not inherited, wealth. But possession merely is not enough ; he gives. Yet possessing and giving are not enough ; he works, constantly and intelligently. The power which wealth gives is often employed in retarding progress when the interests of the individual seem to clash with those of the commonwealth; it is always lessened by the absence of respect for its possessor. But when wealth, intelligence, honesty, and enthusiasm join hands with pa- triotism there must be progress. Time and place do not account for all of Chicago's phenomenal growth, nor do the distances from the world's centres of population and industry, the comparative iso- lation, and the evil effects of railway domination account wholly for San Francisco's slow growth toward the end of the century. For, following the several spasms of de- velopment incident to the ages of gold, of grain, and of fruit, and of the advent of the railway incubus, California for a time betook herself to rest, which indeed was largely paralysis. Then, too, those who had come first and cleared the ground, laying the foundations of fortunes, were pass- ing away, and their sucessors seemed more ready to enjoy than to create. But with the opening of a new century 112 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS California awoke and made such progress as was never made before. Coming to the late catastrophe, it was well that ton much dependence was not placed on promises regarding rehabilitation made during the first flush of sympathy; the words were nevertheless pleasant to the ear at the time. The insurance companies would act promptly and liber- ally, taking no advantage of any technicality; congress would remit duties on building material for a time, and thus protect the city-builders from the extortions of the material men ; the material men roundly asserted that there should be no extortion, no advance in prices, but, on the contrary, all other work should be set aside and precedence given to San Francisco orders; eastern capital- ists were to cooperate with the government in placing at the portal of the Pacific a city which should be a credit to the nation and a power in the exploitation of the great ocean. None of these things came to pass. Indeed it was too much to expect of poor human nature until selfishness and greed are yet further eliminated. Never to be forgotten was the superb benevolence which so promptly and so liberally showered comforts upon the poor, the sick, the hungry, and the houseless until it was feared that the people might become pauperized. But that was charity, whereas busi- ness is business. The insurance companies, themselves stricken nigh unto death, paused in the generous impulse to pay quickly and in full and let the new steel city arise at once in all its glory. They began to consider, then to temporize, and finally, with notable exceptions, to evade by every means in their power the payment of their obligations. The loss and the annoyance thus inflicted upon the insured were increased by the uncertainty as to what they should finally be able to do. Congress likewise paused to consider the effect the proposed remission of duties would have on cer- tain members and their lumber and steel friends. Thus THE STILL SMALL VOICE 113 a hundred days passed by, and with some relief half a hundred more. Outside capital was still ready, but San Franciscans seemed to have sufficient for present needs. Capital is con- servative and Califomians independent. Even from the government they never, asked much, though well aware that since the gold discovery California has given a hun- dredfold more than she has received. Her people were accustomed to take care of themselves, and managed on the whole to get along. A general conflagration was not a new thing. Six times during the gold-digging days San Francisco was destroyed by fire, and each time new houses were going up before the ashes were cold. True, there was not so much to burn in those days ; but it was all the people had;- there was not so much to rebuild, and there were no insurance companies to keep them back. San Francisco would be grateful, and it would be a graceful thing for the government to do, to keep away the sharks until the people should get their heads above water again, not as charity, but for the general good. The exaction of duties on lumber from British Columbia was simply taking money from the San Francisco builders and thrusting it into the plethoric pockets of the Puget Sound people, who at once advanced their prices so as seriously to retard building and render it in many cases impossible. Later was another advance in the price of lumber, owing to the apathy at Washington and elsewhere, after twice before raising the price to the highest limit. Meanwhile, in and around the burned district, traffic never ceased. The inflow of merchandise from all parts continued. Upon the ashes of their former stores, and scattered about the suburbs, business men established them- selves wherever they could find a house to rent or a lot to build upon. Shacks were set up in every quarter, and better structures of one or two stories were permitted, subject to removal by order of the city at any time they should appear to stand in the way of permanent improve- 1U IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS Some business houses were extinguished, but other ;ind larger ones arose in their ste;id. Rebuilding \v;is slow because of the debris to In- removed and the more suhstan tial diameter of the permanent structures to be erected. Around the hay continued the hum of industry. The enimtry teemed with prosperity. Never were the servie.-s of the city needed so much as now. Tin-re were no finan cial disturbances; money was easy, but more would he required soon; claims were not pressed in the courts. Any San Francisco bonds thrown upon the market were quickly taken by local capitalists. Customs receipts were larger than ever before, and there was no shrinkage at the clear- ing house. Land values remain much the same; in some quarters land depreciated, in other places it increased in price ; buyers stood ready to take advantage of forced sal.-. Labor was scarce in both city and country ; wages wen- high and advancing. Five times the number of mechanics present could find profitable employment in the city, and it would be so for years to come, as there was much to be done. With the advance of the labor wage and of lumber. rents advanced. Mills and factories were running at their full capacity. Orchards and grain fields were overflowing. and harvesters were found with difficulty. Merchants' sales were never so large nor profits so good. Prices of everything ruled high, with an upward tendency, the de- mand at the shops being for articles of good quality. Ori- ental rugs and diamonds were conspicuously in evidence. Insurers were paying their losses to some extent, and many people found themselves in possession of more ready money than they ever had before. They were rich, though they may have had no house to sleep in. It was a momentary return to the flush times of the early fifties, though upon a broader and more civilized scale, and without their un- certainty or their romance. In view of the facts it seemed superfluous to discuss questions regarding the future of San Francisco. That is 115 to say, such questions as were propounded by chronic croakers : Will the city be rebuilt ? If so, will it be a city of fine buildings? Will not the fear of earthquakes drive away capital and confine reconstruction to insignificance? We hastened to assure our friends that the day of doom had not yet come to this city; that the day of doom never comes to any city for so slight a cause, or for any cause short of a rain of brimstone and fire, as in the case of Sodom. Whether of imperial steel or of impe- rial shacks ; whether calamities come in the form of such temblores as are here met occasionally in a mild form, or in the far more destructive form of hurricanes, floods, pes- tilence, sun-striking, and lightning, so common at the east and elsewhere, and from which San Francisco is wholly free, there will here forever be a city, a large, powerful, and wealthy city. Every part of the earth is subject at any time to seis- mic disturbance, and no one can truthfully say that Cali- fornia is more liable to another such occurrence than any other part of the United States. Indeed, it should be less so, the earth's curst here having settled itself, let us hope, to some centuries of repose. Never before has anything like this been known on our Pacific seaboard. Never before, so far as history or tradition or the physical features of the country can show, has California experienced a serious earthquake shock that is to say, one attended by any considerable loss of life or property. Nor was the earth- quake of April so terrible as it might seem to some. Apart from the fire there was not so very much of it, and no great damage was done by it. The official figures were : 266 killed by falling walls, 177 by fire, 7 shot, and 2 deaths by ptomaine poisoning 452 in all. The property damage by the earthquake was scarcely worth speaking of, being no more than happens elsewhere in the world from other causes nearly every day ; it would have been quickly made good and little thought of it but for the conflagration that followed. 116 IN THESE LATTER DAYS Compare San Francisco casualties with those of other ritics. Two hundred and sixty deaths ;is the result of tin- greatest calamity that over happened to California! Not to mention the floods, fires, and cyclones common to St Louis, Chicago, (Jalveston, and all mid-continent America, the yellow fever at New Orleans and along the southern shore, or the 25,000 deaths from cholera in New York and Philadelphia in less than twenty-five years, or the loss of 1,000 ships on the Atlantic coast in the hurricane of August, 1873 not to mention the many extraordinary dis- plays of vindictive nature, take some of the more common- place calamities incident to most cities except those along the Pacific coast. Every year more people and more property are de- stroyed by lightning, floods, and wind-storms on the At- lantic side of the Rocky mountains than are affected by earthquakes on the Pacific side in a hundred years. Every year more people drop dead from sunstrokes in New York. Baltimore, Philadelphia, and other eastern cities than are killed by earthquakes in San Francisco in a thousand years, so far as we may know. Yet men and women continue to live and build houses in those cities without thought of running away. Nor can California claim the whole even of United States earthquakes. In 1755 all New England was shaken up, and Boston housetops and walls were set dancing, the horror coming in "with a roaring noise, like that of thun- der," as the record has it, "and then a swell like the roaring sea"; and yet, and notwithstanding the great fire later, the city still shows vitally, the people are not afraid, and property is valuable. And so in regard to New York and London and all cities. In Missouri, in 1811, the earth shook almost continuously for several months along a stretch of three hundred miles, throwing up prairies into >and hills and submerging forests. Chicago and New York, and all the country between, were visited by earthquakes in 1870. Then there are Virginia and the Carolinas, Ala- 117 bama, Texas and Colorado there is not a state in the union that has not had a touch of well-authenticated earth- quakings at some time in its history. To one who knows the people and the country, the people with their magnificent energy and ability, their indomitable will and their splendid courage; the country with its boundless natural wealth and illimitable poten- tialities ; the city, key to the Golden Gate, which opens the east to the west and west to the east ; the bay, the mistress primeval, through which flows the drainage of six hun- dred miles in length of interior valley, the garden of the world; to one who has here lived and loved, assisting in this grand upbuilding, thoughts of relinquishment, of les ser possibilities, of meaner efforts, do not arise. What would you? If there is a spot on earth where life and property are safer, where men are more enter- prising and women more intelligent and refined, where business is better or fortunes more safely or surely made, the world should know of it. The earth may tremble now and then, but houses may be built which cannot be de- troyed; fires are liable to occur wherever material exists that will burn, but fires 'may be controlled. As for the city, its life and destiny, there is this to be said. The few .square miles of buildings burned were not San Francisco, they were only buildings. Were every house destroyed and every street obliterated, there would still remain the city, with its commerce, its manufactures, its civilization, a spiritual city if you like, yet with mate- rial values incapable of destruction an atmosphere alive with cheerful industry; also land values, commercial re- lations, financial connections, skilled laborers and profes- sional men, and a hundred other like souls of things. In a thousand ideas and industries, though the ground is but ashes, the spirit of progress still hovers over the hills awaiting incarnation. Dependent on this pile of ashes, or the ghosts thereof, are fleets of vessels sailing every sea ; 118 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS farms and factories along shore and back to and lieyond the Sierra; merchants ;ind mechanics here and elsewhere; mines .mil reclamation systems. ;mnee the cry was all for religion. The end justifies the means. Stolen money will buy as much salvation as honest LIFE'S COMPLEX WAYS 129 gains. Now it is all for the nation ; and still the end justi- fies the means. Honor, humanity, all must go to save in- glorious self. In a government by the people for the people, should not the ballot be submitted in a fair and honorable man- ner ? We say of elections in Mexico that they are not fair. Are they fairly held with us? Is it fair for the president to run the government for the purpose primarily of reelecting himself and his party to office ; of using the patronage and machinery of the government not for the good of the people, but for his own benefit? Instead of serving their country, instead of giving their time and attention to the welfare of the people what are our legislators and office-holders at Washington doing? Simply serving themselves, studying and struggling to maintain party influence and secure re- election; snarling over petty personal details, employing old tricks and inventing new circumventions, or scouring the county and filling the air with blatant cries of their own virtues and their opponent's villainy. Now with all these blessings passed down to us by the sharpers of our civil war, should not our hearts be singing with joy? But alas! they do not sing; all the good old maxims are turned topsy turvy. We are virtuous but we are not happy. We are honest, but we find it too often a poor policy; we do unto others as they would do to us, but we do riot always do it first, so that in some way they seem to get the better of us. We are drawing near our fate, preparing to follow the advice of Job's comforters, to curse our luck and throw up the sponge. There are the wrongs of modern industrialism, the horrors heaped upon the poor toiler, who for three or six dollars a day whiles away his eight hours before his regular visit to the drinking- shop, there to fill himself with poisonous whiskey and in- dulge in incendiary talk of the socialistic order, the tyranny of capital and the glorious freedom of boycott, strikes, and the facile courts of law. There is a writer of obviously socialistic proclivities, 130 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS who ill tin- interest of tin- single tax theory, advances many unsound arguments for reducing the long and short haul freight transportation on railways to one rate, like letter postage, one of which he fails to mention, and perhaps the most pertinent and apparent, that it costs appreciably no more to carry a letter across the continent than across the hay, while for freight every extra mile is an extra expense With no leaning whatever towards socialism. ,r single- tax fadism, one still may claim some of the rights of equity in the participation in the gifts of nature. The earth is tin- Lord's and the fullness thereof. The gold was not all made for Morgan, nor the oil for Rockefeller, nor the iron for Carnegie, nor all the wisdom for Woodrow Wilson. Prop- erty has its rights and should be protected in them, but not by subverting the rights of the people. No one man has the right to hold from the occupation and use of his fellow man a million acres of this earth, simply because he had the opportunity or cunning to acquire them, acres not made by himself but by the Almighty for the use of all his people, and this to be regulated without resort inir to any single-tax or communistic methods. Those who expatiate on the felicities of old age as a rule have never tried it. I have lived longer than I expected, and have found happiness and contentment, yet I must say that with a few exceptions one's last days are not one's best days. Not that I would quarrel with fate, or be so tied to this world that I could not leave it if I would ; but only this, that while the pathway of life is none too smooth in any part, youth has its compensation which old age has not. Farther than this, the victim of old age has death continu- ally staring him in the face, and though he may not fear the grim monster unduly the fact remains, and unless this world has become a place of more than ordinary pain, death is a nuisance and altogether unlovely. It breaks all connections, scatters old ties, and disorgani/es matters gen- erally. LIFE'S COMPLEX WAYS 131 Yet there are many who enjoy their later days, finding in them the most pleasurable period of their lives. Jolly old fossils they may be, bald-headed, red-faced, carrying a scant crop of hair, teeth tusky, eyes bleary, throat-skin loose and flabby, rather a thin frame withal, though with a liberal paunch and altogether loveable. Grandma when she is good is delightful, the 'pride of the household, the joy of the children, telling them stories and entering into all their plays or whatever most interests them. She is never in evidence except when well groomed and properly ar- rayed. Her infirmities are laid aside not to be spoken of in her charmed circle, but kept concealed for the doctor. However, when all is said, there is not much pleasure sim- ply in being old, in being relegated with many aches and pains, by friends and family, to the top shelf. Kindness, ah, yes! the sweetest solace of all; but man does not live by kindness alone ; for all the same an old man is of no account, and an old woman of still less account. For the world be- longs to the young; the old have little further use for it. Whom the gods love die young, for thus they escape infelicities of the ever approaching end. Which would imply the less of life the better, or may be none at all were better still. In some respects, and under certain conditions, however, full maturity may be better than youth, the last of one 's existence better than the first of it. As old age comes on apace the aspect of life changes. Joy is less joyful; sorrows are easier borne, wisdom con- centrates with age and experience; so does folly; there never at any one time were more fools in the world than now. Old age may have its compensations but not every one is fortunate enough to find them. As one grows old life is seen through the reverse end of the telescope, and affairs which at one time seemed of paramount importance assume insignificant proportions. The battle for wealth or prestige is over ; the prize if won is worthless to the win- ner, however it may be valued by those destined' to enjoy it. The primary satisfaction we get in this life is in what we 132 IN THESE LATTKK DAYS do for others; our chief enjoyment is in seeing those we love enjoy. If man's happiness nits any figure in the economy of life one would think reversal of the order of youth, man- hood, and old age might bo better; that is to say, let old age come first and have it over, and childhood and enjoy- ment come afterward, following New England thrift, sav- ing the best for the last. Since boyhood I have ever been disposed to rid myself of the unpleasant as quickly as possible, and always in the early part of the day, and keep the best for the afternoon. With a few of the more fortunate life is always afternoon. If I felt constrained to utilize the whole of my none too perfect apple, I must eat the worst part first. So with my past all before me, I must say that were I to make and people a world, I would bring forth my humanity in a com- pleted condition, with all the attendant aches and pains, as well as the wisdom and experience of full maturity, thenceforth to have ever before them an increase of joy with consequent diminuation of woe. Not that I would intimate in all this for myself an un- happy old age. I have all this world can give, with some fortaste of the next. There are many diseases I have never had; there are some sins I have never committed; many blessings have come to me, more than I deserve ; for I can- not claim with Mr Ford, the peace-maker, that I never in- dulged in a wrong act in my life. I have done many wicked and foolish things, and like our worthy president have been able to get away with them. He is the exception rather than the rule, the old man who can look about him and see only the best of children and grandchildren, who on looking back upon an active life can see amidst the errors and mistakes common to human imperfections much that is good, much that will prove useful and beneficial to those who come after him, with no serious lapses into devious ways; give this man a mind at rest and money sufficient for his needs and that is LIFE'S COMPLEX WAYS 133 all this world can do for him. That happiness is mine. Add to this the fixed conviction that awaiting him in the world to come is an eternity of delight even though this conviction is based on ignorance and vain imaginings, and even though the stultified intellect is satisfied with hollow fancy in the place of reasonable facts, and he has here on earth such a foretaste of heaven as should make him eager to depart, though of tener he is willing to wait his maker 's time. That happiness is not mine, nor do I want it. Another picture is not so pleasing, a pauper whose aching bones are racked by incurable disease, alone, all, all alone here and hereafter. A friendless old age with sick- ness and poverty makes easy the transition to the undis- covered country, makes us rather than bear the ills we have fly to others we know not of, even if such others exist. To sit in the corner and con over the sins and short- comings of a long life, and consider the many promises of holy writ of a hot hell fire for each one of them is not specially conducive to happy reflections or a green old age. Or if our temperament is such that we can see no glaring evil in our past life, in which case we are indeed deluded, and begin to rate ourself as a fool for having missed so many fine chances for cheating, there comes in a new line of regrets. Conditions conducive to relatively comfortable old age may be easily summed up, easier given than secured. First of all temperament, not to say temper, has much to do with it. To direct temperament and dislodge temper, one must begin the work long before reaching old age. The only escape from the ills of advanced life is Chris- tian science, which gives us the happy assurance that there are no ills in life ; a remedy not invented so very long ago, and to be administered in doses with Emanuelism and the attendant fabrications of devotees. A book might be writ- ten on how to find happiness in old age, the writer himself being least able of all to profit by it. Asked if I had no fears for the future, I said No, why 1:'.I IN THKSK LATTKK DAYS sliould I have? I know of untiling to fear. ;unl to fear knowing nothing is to fV;ir nothing. As to tin- place set apart for evil doers, I fear I should be lonely if kept out of it. Furthermore, as some one beautifully assures us: What does it matter since we may not know Whence we came or whither we must go, What does it matter since this truth is clear We are in the self-same hands there as here .' My destiny is fixed ; however it may be I cannot alter it. then why bother? My life has been as I myself am, as I myself was made, a mixture of good and evil. There it must rest. One word of warning I would give, and but one. to those approaching the decline of life. Beware of having nothing to do. To one who has led an active life, with many cares and responsibilities, with many persons to provide for and direct, nothing is so deleterious to mind and body as idleness, idleness and insipid pastime. This book, for example, never would have been written if I had had any- thing else to do. And for like excuse many books are writ- ten, and the empty shelves of the Carnegie houses are being filled, mostly with trash little better than that on Doctor Eliot's five foot shelf. Fortunate is he who dies in the midst of a useful career, dies without having to be separated from the work in which he found the greatest pleasure, and drag out weary years pinned like a museum butterly to a board. A humorist turned sour, as is reported of Mark Twain, does not present the most pleasing picture of old age. He experienced quite enough, however, to make him cynical in the losses by deaths in his family, and the loss of his life savings of $100,000 in a book-publishing business. Were there any higher powers, he thought they showed a callous indifference to the fate of humanity. Improvising a Satan he makes him say of the deity: "A God who could make good children as easily as had. yet preferred to make bad nes; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their LIFE'S COMPLEX WAYS 135 bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it ; who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body ; who mouths justice and invented hell mouths mercy and invented hell mouths golden rules, and for- giveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of hon- orably placing it where it belongs, upon himself ; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to worship him ! ' ' "He giveth his beloved sleep," saith the scriptures, and to those who are not his beloved he giveth hell. Do not even publicans and sinners the same? Never anything comes to us the second time as at the first ; catch it then as it flies. With the incoming twentieth century marvels increased with such rapidity and intensity as almost to revolutionize science and society as I have be- fore mentioned. The inconceivable came forward with be- wildering force in the form of electrical inventions, tele- phones, automobiles and the rest. Evolution, ah, yes ! that inexorable machine of ever moving perpetuity, the great evolver, whether of a germ toward organism, or of atoms to a universe. An unfolding, it may be toward something higher or lower, better or worse, but ever a development. Whether to progress is with us simply a moving forward or an advancement toward a higher or better state depends upon the foot we put forward, the quality of our ideals, and the quantity of lies we' tell. Half the world is sham, and the other half is mostly sham. Although honesty does not seem always the best policy, yet in the long run it proves itself so. For either a man is honest or he is not, and as he is he will be rated bv his felloAvs. i\ TIIKSK LATTBB DAYS Tin- superstition that in every land when- royalty ob- tains is a worshipful order of humanity set apart by heaven and earth to rulr ami forever to be kept apart by non- inteivoiirse and intermarriau'e is so seiiM-less that the only accounting for its continuance among people of average intelligence lies in tin- fear of disruption of society and the abolition of tin- large class of nobility and gentry that derives its importance by hanging on to the skirts of roy- alty. Where now is the fancied superiority of the royalty and aristocracy of England? Royal (Je rire. the pampered puppet of a caste-ridden commu.'ity, outs a poor figure be- fore Welsh (Jeorge. forty years ago the puny son of a schoolmaster's widow, the true king "f England and first nobleman in Kurope. HI i tided by egotism \\liat may In- gen- en. us|\ called the refined and semi refined product of this distillation, the city holds alluring prizes of American citi hip. All municipal and county offices, save possibly the mayoralty and judgeships, are easily accessible to, one might almost say exclusively reserved for, the quickly stim- ulated political ambition of the first or second generation of aliens who are eager to turn their suffrage into material gain. These positions of honor and emolument are not free- will offerings of friendly welcome, but are the fruits of coercion by dictating nationalities in the muddy arena of local statecraft, Germany, Ireland, Bohemia, Sweden, Italy. these exotic units, learning the power of compromise and combination with outer forces, here in Chicago project themselves \\ith telling effect into our political life. Doubt- I' NX this is a more or less transient phenomenon, for immi- gration laws in the future must exclude like inferior classes, and descendants of these cohesive countrymen will in time be scattered and absorbed in broader social bounds. ' Extremes meet when the Harbary coast and Burlingame fall into the same methods for extracting fun from the lower levels. Both classes will curtail dress, shortening it at top and bottom, and display as much of their person as the men will permit ; both classes drink, smoke, gamble. indulge in lacivious dances, and follow up amusements along these lines to the end of the ten commandments. Classifying in colleges and elsewhere women as the equal of man; equal in mind and mental and physical endurance; equal in vice as well as in virtue; equal in the political strife and legerdemain attendant on all government, does not make them so. The dear creatures get as much flattery now from those who desire their votes as formerly they received for charms of person which they were supposed to Nine times in ten if a child goes wrong the fault is with the parents. Heredity is something, but environment LIFE'S COMPLEX WAYS 139 with precept and example is more. A foolish mother, a neglectful or injudicious father, and the evil is accom- plished. For example, of what can a fond mother be thinking who sits placidly by and sees her charming young daughter, in full undress, hugged to the bosom of some counter-jumper and whirled about in a dance of demorali- zation better befitting a midnight function at the court of Mauretania ? It is the fashion. Yes, as high society family disruption, divorce, and subsequent misery are the fashion Strange, I say, that chaste mothers will give their chaste daughters into the arms of unchaste men to be close pressed in a voluptuous whirl. The mother whose primary object in life has been to see her daughter happily married, weeps none the less freely when the child takes her departure after the wed- ding. But her tears are not tears of woe, nor yet alto- gether tears of joy; there is the mother's aching heart that tells her she has lost her child, who can never again be the same to her. Parents seldom consider the question of compensation in bringing up their children. As a rule all other emotions are swallowed up in their love for them, in their care for them, in their present comfort and happiness and in plans for their future. If pay is contemplated, along these or any other lines, it must be looked for while they are yet young, and dependent, and trustful. Women talk no end of nonsense about their rights; what they will and will not have, what they will live for and what they will die for. Now my sweet sisters, some of you sixteen, but more toward sixty years of age, and not too attractive in any form, you should know that this frantic beating of the air is wholly unnecessary. No one objects to y"ou having your rights, but many object to hav- ing them, hence these so frequent divorces. You may sing bass if you like, play policeman, wear short skirts asd spread eagle hats and strut and straddle, vote and make stump speeches, swing your arms, chew gum, talk loud and 140 IN TIIKSK I.. \TTKi; DAYS niaiiisli. an. I make ton N ot' yourself ^em-rally. Kvery one of you. dear crrat HITS. t your last.-. The men do not nhj.-ct. nor do they admire; they do not even like to look at you. "Slaves:" eries the militant suffragette, pointing the finger of scorn to her better tahaved sisters. Yes, we are all slaves, women slaves of the men, men slaves of the women, and the world of humanity slaves to folly and superstition, "(live me that woman who is n!' it, it is a contemptible tiling, marking a defect and showing depravity, whether in man f religion for the fullest results, and of religion using medicine for the same purpose. Ministering to a mind diseased and to a body diseased are both good work, but I preferred my from separate vials. Honestly to speak the truth. It certainly was a sort of honesty that proved a good policy with the Mayos; thoroughly to diagnose, giving the patient the exact situ- ation, with the chances of failure and the prospect of re- i y. . r "verned in this neither by profit of money or reputation, nor of an interest in some sanitarium, hospital, or other outside influence. Neither is it honest in a doctor to follow the example of the builders of the Central Pacific railroad, some of whom bear to this day and will always bear the reputation of malefactors, whose custom was to charge all or more than the traffic would stand. It is right and fair to charge the rich more than the poor, but to steal from the rich man. in the form of an exorbitant fee pay for the poor man, meanwhile calling work for the latter charity on the part of the physician is not honest. If a physician has made a wrong diagnosis, or a mis take in an operation, should he confess it? R. C. Cabot "finds him subject to little or no professional condemna- tion until recent times. Those friendly to the proposition ask. What is the good of getting everybody down on usT Those unfriendly will rarely regard it as his duty to con- With regard to veracity, medical standards in gen- eral demand that the doctor shall never lie for his own benefit, but that in dealing with patients he shall be gov- erned only by the patients' best interest. If those inter- THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LYING 147 osts seem to the doctor to demand that the truth be colored, shaded, or suppressed, it is then deemed right for him to save the patient rather than the truth, especially re- membering, as he muddles accuracy with honesty, that the unpleasant truth which is suppressed may turn out to be no truth at all. Veracity is tempered in the doctor's mind by his dominant desire to help and comfort the patient, above all things to do no harm. He is unwilling to make a fetish of truth-speaking and very keenly aware that he may not possess the truth at all. There was much good-natured chuckling in medical circles a few years ago when a hide-bound medical truth-teller steeled himself to the task and broke to a sick confrere the aAvful news that he had tuberculosis, only to discover a week later that the supposed truth was false. The sick doctor rapidly con- valsced and readily forgave the mistake, but the wise pun- dits of the medical profession ended their chuckling with grave warnings about, 'You see what it comes to, this truth business.' We don't know it all by a good deal yet. The distinction between veracity and correctness is blurred among all sorts and conditions,but perhaps nowhere so persistently as in medical ethics. That the most ignorant and therefore incorrect speaker may be utterly truthful and honest is a distinction which is ignored by many, especially when one is trying to defend the benevolent lies of the kindly doctor. The dominant tendency of med- ical ethics is confessedly to subordinate everything, even honesty, to- the patient's private interests, as the doctor sees them. But against this dominant tendency two slight counter currents are beginning to make themselves felt. Both of them mark the direction of a force which makes for the doctor's emancipation from the servile dependence on his patient. They come from modern surgery and modern scientific medicine, which, invading the field of traditional medicine, tend to breed in the physician a habit of looking for truth and depending on the verdict of reality, whatever his own or others' wishes may say. IN TIIKSK LATTBB l>.\vs " Formerly the doctor who could not win the favor of his neighbors when they called him in sickness, must starve i-k other work. If the sick man and his family were afraid <>f open windows, the windows must be kept shut yen in pneumonia, when the open window is the patient's best medicine. The )nte the victim of a disastrous liability. ' We have waited a long time for a better world, from Cain with his elub to the kaiser with his Krupp guns and submarines. We must not always measure the piety of the congre- gation by the parson's salary, lest we wrong the church's poor; but half of the churches in Christendom might well take shame to themselves for the salary paid their preacher, and the preacher might well take shame to himself for following such a business. Lying as an accomplishment of nature and of man is probably the most evenly distributed of any characteristic throughout the world. It is indigenous everywhere. I'ntil man is remodeled and formed anew, lying is as much an easential of progress as war or any other wick- THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LYING 151 What is lying? We know what it is, we have all prac- tised it enough to know. It is to falsify, misrepresent, utter falsehood ; it is to speak or act knowingly that which is not true with intent to deceive; to create a misleading or deceitful impression. Millions there are of vicarious liars. Full of restless deceit are the sordid souls who struggle for prominence in society, made up of sham and selfish- ness whose pride is supremacy in the smart or silly set. Our trusted and trustful Saint Peter, after his big falsehoods backed by oaths, and a period of repentance, true or false, might unblushingly, rightfully and religiously slay both Ananias and Sapphira for their misstatement about the amount of their poor little property which they were giving over to the none too meritorious apostles. Besides a weariness, lying shows lack of strength, and as women are weaker than men they are more facile in fibbing. Further, as table-talk and parlor conversation becomes more and more in vogue, speech grows looser, scandal sending it forward with a rush. Madam will roll you off a basketful over her knitting, while the charming daughter paddles her canoe between chewing-gum and giggles over a sea of lies without missing a stroke. When company is present, and tongues wax loud in clatter, the impossible child, not yet trained in the school of duplicity is sent out of the room. I remember certain conscientious ladies of the old regime who were careful in their speech to tell the truth, but they have all long- since passed away. Caught in a sin of omission, the good old lady now exclaims "Too bad! I am not quick at pre- varication. " " Pardon me, madam, you do yourself an injustice." There are all sorts and grades of deception ; lying in the first degree, with intent; accidental lying; lying with no thought of deception ; incidental lying ; constitutional lying, and so on. With some lying is a. necessity, with others a luxury. 1.VJ IN THKSK I.ATTKi; DAYS Throughout tin- vast empire of deception we wind our \\a\. some of us lying to live, others living to lie. \Ve none of us like \n appear exactly as \ve are; in our reading, in our religion, in all polite intercourse we seem in some decree to prefer fiction to fact. We punish a child for lying some mothers do; does the child ever punish the mother for the same offense? And yet that same mother will tell the child ten lies to the child's one. "You lied to me! You lied to me!" I heard a bright boy with tears in his eyes shout to his mother on her return the morning after a party to which she assured her son the night before she was not going. God's mercy on such a mother! Better face Lucifer with a hundred lies than deceive your little one with a single falsehood. To lie to your children is the height of baseness. To stand before a little child a monster of deceit posing as the embodiment of truth and integrity makes you a double dyed offender, it cheats yourself and cheats the child. As a rule the father who never told his child a lie will get no lie from the child ; the mother who brings up her daugh- ters on household lies and social scandal will get in return as she gave. Four hundred years ago Falstaff found the world greatly given to lying, and among liars himself the chief. "Lord, Lord" he says "how subject we old men are to this vice of lying!" Hamlet assured Guildenstern that playing the pipe was as easy as lying. Yet with some lying comes hard, attended by self-abhorrence and abasement, while with others, as with mercy, the quality of lying is not strained, it drop- peth as the gentle rain from heaven, or as Parroles express- eth it, there are some that will lie with such volubility that you would think truth were a fool. s Jean Jacques Rousseau, not noted himself for truthfulness, "It is evident to the last degree that the learned societies of Europe are no more than public schools THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LYING 153 of falsehood; and there are certainly more errors propa- gated by the members of the Academy of Sciences than are to be found among a whole nation of savages." Lest we forget; all men are liars, and all liars shall have their part, in hades, the Bible says, and many believe the Bible to be true, or say they so believe, and lie when they so assert. In story books we read of boys who always speak the truth like G Washington. "Father, I cannot tell a lie, I didn't do it." But in real life boys who so speak and are caught at it are seldom seen. All liars shall have their part and so forth, saith the scriptures. Is this true? Is there such a lake, and if so are all liars consigned thereunto ? If such be the case then there is elsewhere no heaven or hell, no other eternal abode for humanity, for hath not the same scriptures declared that all men are liars ? Satan, methinks, is maligned when called the father of lies, else alas! where can he store us all? His lake of fire and brimstone must needs find place somewhere beyond the cosmic space of the present dispensation. As the world progresses lying assumes the supremacy. It is not now an incident, but has become an every day affair. A lie is no longer too good a thing to be wasted, but is used for common purposes every day, and all day. The house servant uses it, glibly; the madam and her maids use it, glibly, and the daughters, who practise it with plentiful giggling, and the little children of the house- hold, to whom it is administered with their mush and milk and Sunday school lessons, employ it; the merchant, his clerks and customers use it, glibly; lawyers, doctors, and divinity preachers find it their chief stock in trade; in the newspapers we read little else; rulers and diplo- mats glory in their machiavellism. There were Indian tribes on Peace river and the Co- lumbia, famous for their mendacity, though they never could quite equal white men in this accomplishment, even though the Northwest Company gave voice to their factors If.t IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS and servants. " We do not thank any of our people for I.-. riving tin- Indians." No longer we hear the exclamation. < >h Lord how this world is ijiven to lying! but is rather Oh Lord can I not find absolute truth any whore T Are novels lies? It depends. They surely are not gospel truths; they are mostly of no kind of truth what soever. My grandfather tolerated the malodorous ne^ro because he hated slavery; and because he loved the blaek man lie believed Uncle Tom's Cabin to be true, for so un- truth attractively arrayed in prejudice will always find believers. lust where to draw the line between the various orders of lies, as lies social, lies political, and simple plain lying, that is the question. And alas! how many lies does love tell whispered into the ear of the charmer. There is necessary lying, mean lying, and noble lyinir. Lying is a vice; yet all the same we must admit that the man who always tells the truth is a fool, and the woman impossible. Lying achieves its greatest victory when it converts the liar into believing to be true his own lies,' lied so often and so well as to make of himself a convert to their truth. " In the which women still give the lie to their conscience." Think truth and you will speak truth, for as a man thinketh in his heart so is he. The wise man profits by the lies of others rather than by his own. The habit-forming precepts inculcated in our child- hood are the last to be abandoned as the chrysalis of the the mind emerges from its native aboriginal shell to the broad light of open day. As the unchaste woman among chaste women clamors m'.st loudly in defense of her chastity, so the notorious liar is sensitive to the accusation, and resents being called a liar, whether the charge laid to him be the lie circum- stantial or the lie direct. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LYING 155 Like money, lies are of economic value only when they will pass current. Religion comes in for its share, as we have seen. What precentage of all that was taught by priest or propagandist two or three centuries ago, two or three millenniums ago. is true; how much of what is taught now in schools and colleges, or preached in the churches will stand the test of truth a hundred or a thousand years hence? Christ condemned lying, though for himself he must stand ar- raigned until he makes good his pretentious. How many preachers believe to be true what they shout so lustily from the pulpit? If any such there be they are to be pitied for their ignorance and stupidity and promptly pensioned. Next to lying, praise is a mighty power on earth and in heaven. Praise is the primary incentive in all the walks of life, and in the after life. Animals like it, babies like it, lusty manhood lives for it and the soldier dies for it. The poet sings for it, the sailor swears for it. Deities and devils are overcome by it. Praise services are held in the churches, and concluded with the hymn, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." Yet in prais- ing we are often as far from the truth as in condemning. After all, telling one lie is only a small part of it; it must have a score of others ready to support it. Once ac- quired a reputation for lying and it is difficult to establish the truth, as the boy who cried ' ' wolf ! ' ' learned to his sorrow. How many are the maxims of truth brought forward which tend only further to deceive. Truth is mighty and will prevail, sometimes ; at other times it miserably fails, and is mighty only to deceive. Truth is stranger than fiction, yes, because fiction is so common. Why do we read a novel with so much interest amid heart-throbs and tears knowing that it is an airy nothing, or is it that because as it passes into our brain and heart it becomes fact as the bread and wine of the eucharist IN THESE LATTER DAYS became tin- veritable body and Mood of Christ as it passes out of sight, where proof cannot follow it? Half of th<- space in newspapers is taken up by lies, and balf of the remainder by domestic infelicities and high society silliness, in attempts at wit for babes, and in brutal sports and criminality. Refreshing indeed will be the return of journalism to important news items with honest sensible comment and the claptrap omitted. Advertising is the prolific source of streams of lies, any and all sorts of advertising, commercial, professional, and financial. Barnum's lies about the greatest show on earth brought him in millions. The quality of lying, at one time largely in the hands of diplomats and proselyters, has become so extended and popularized as to constitute, like laborism, an integral part of our social and political life. Is falsehood ever profitable to a man in public life, or to a political party? Some men can lie outrageously and as Mr Pinchot says of our president, get away with it. Mountebanks and men like Barnum sometimes make it pay. But as a rule the chronic liar is a failure. Few men succeed permanently by falsehood. He who uses it comes to a bad end. There is no political success, no future, for a man or a political party guilty of falsehood. Frank truthfulness is wisdom and strength. Pretense and con- cealment are folly and weakness. There never was a cause strong enough, or good enough, to sustain the injury of lying and dishonesty on the part of its supporters or advo- cates. Probably Germany in time of war offers the best world illustration of a lying nation, especially when an English- man has the telling of it. In an open letter to George lirandes, William Archer says: "Is it possible you do not see that this war, mad and monstrous though it be, is a war in which everything turns on the question of right and wrong? You say that each of the great powers 157 declares that the war it is waging is a war of defence. They have all been attacked ; they are all fighting for their existence. For all of them murder and lies are necessary means of defence. Then, since none of the powers, by their own showing, wanted war, in heaven's name let them make peace! ''What is truth? said jesting Pilate and took up an attitude of ironic neutrality. But in this matter there is a truth and there is a falsehood; and the merits of the present situation, as of the whole war, depend upon the question, Who is the liar ? If Germany is telling the truth, if she was the victim of an unprovoked attack then we, in carrying on the war,, are merely piling crime on crime. Even in that case Germany would not be entirely justified. Nothing could excuse her invasion of Belgium, nothing could cleanse her hands of the blood of that unhappy country. But many of her other proceedings would wear a very different aspect. Much may be pardoned to a man \vantonly attacked and fighting for his life, which would be unpardonable in one who was himself the aggressor. Submarine ruthlessness, inidiscriminate civilian-slaying, poison gas and liquid fire, are not pretty or chivalrous methods of warfare; but a man set upon by assassins is not to be severely censured if, in his defense, he hits below the belt. Even he, however, is not entitled to bludgeon a third party, an innocent passerby, and one, moreover, whom he has sworn to protect. "Can you deny, in the first place, that Germany was the one country in the world which made a deliberate cult of war? The brilliant and, as it seemed, highly profitable success of her arms between 1864 and 1871 was the joy and pride of her heart. Her public places were crowded with statues of swaggering soldiers, and their counter- parts in flesh and blood swaggered through every depart- ment of her daily life. She spent vast sums in organisa- tion and preparation for war, and devoted a great part of her technical talent and industry to perfecting the 158 IN TIIKSI-: LATTKU DAYS i of destruction. The ^em-ration it' isTO felt, ami transmitted to their children the feeling, that life held no experience so splendid as that of a series of swift. smashing victories. Her philosophers philosophised in the interests of the military state, her historians wrote their histories to bring peace and the love of peace into con- tempt. She was under the practically autocratic rule of a monarch who was no mere official head of the military establishment, but who loved to fancy himself as an actual warrior, and to rattle his sabre, both literally and meta- phorically. on every possible occasion. Can you doubt that the theatrical imagination of the war lord was constantly dallying with lure of what his hopeful heir-apparent gloat- ingly described as the real thing? "Another characteristic in which you see no distinc- tion between the belligerent nations is that of mendacity. They all declare that lies are necessary means of defence. Let us look into this a little. I have already tried to show that on the grea't fundamental questions as to who willed the war, the German government, with the deliberate in- tention of deceiving the German people, has lied itself Mack in the face. Upon that great fundamental lie we need not return. But the question of minor mendacity is also not without its interest. "As soon as war breaks out, the whole world becomes one vast lie-factory; of that there is no doubt. The air is alive with lies, quivering like motes in a sunbeam. Many, we must conclude, are deliberate fictions; some seem to come into existence by spontaneous generation, without any assignable parentage. A case in point was that amazing myth of the Russian army passing through England which took possession of the English mind in the autumn of 1914. All the neutral capitals are teeming hot-beds of lies. The public of all countries is insatiably hungry for news; the governments of all countries dole out news very sparingly; and when true news run short, the ingenious journalist supplies its place with false news. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LYING 159 He may not ahvays consciously invent, but he seizes on and magnifies every vague, irresponsible rumor, though he may know very well that the chances are a hundred to one against being true. If you tell me then that war is a terrible breeder both of mendacity and credulity, I cordially agree with you. "But when we come to the question which side has systematically, and as a matter of deliberate policy, manu- factered and circulated lies, I say that Germany holds an unapproachable preeminence. Here, if anywhere, her genius for onganisation is beyond praise. Through her official and her underground news-agencies, she has fed the neutral world with lies to a point unprecedented in history, from the moment when, at the beginning of the war, she circulated a full report of a speech which John Burns did not deliver, at a meeting which never took place. That her policy has been in some measure effective, is proved by your present attitude. In spite of your keenly critical habit of thought, a good many German lies have apparently crept past your defences and en- trenched themselves in your mind." Lest I should be deemed delinquent in failing to give our own country her meed of mendacity, we may read what the editor of the Metropolitan has to say upon the subject : ' ' The charge against Mr Wilson is that he has poisoned the wells of truth. The one man of all Ameri- cans who ought to be candor incarnate he has made the written word of the president of the United States a laugh- ing stock for all the world. No amount of usefulness in other directions, no eleventh-hour repentance can alter the ignominy which he has put upon the United States, and the slur that he has cast upon democracy. For the president cannot abandon truth himself without impairing the truthfulness of the entire nation. Habit blunts the edge of our sincerity. In the beginning we were amazed by the quickness with which Mr Wilson ran away from his promises. After a time the great public comes to 160 IN TIIKSK LATTKi; DAYS regard tliis behavior as natural and hardly blameworthy. The blandishment nf Mr Wilson's phrases lias a surf of narcotic influence on the nation's sense of right and wrong. And like most opiates it undermines not only the charac- ter hut the intelligence. When cleverly worded buncombe takes such hold of a great people we begin to despair not only of ourselves but of democracy. "Mr Wilson's recent efforts to catch the progressive vote by forcing through progressive legislation have tended to draw away attention from the depths to which he had sunk in his foreign policy. We have to thank the visit of a German submarine to our shores for calling attention to the lamentable weakness of the president and awaken- ing, at least in some quarters, the national self-respect. In February, 1915, Germany's submarine campaign against merchant vessels was announced, and in the same month Mr Wilson warned Germany that he would hold her to strict accountability for the loss of a single American life through submarine attacks on unresisting merchantmen. During the following twelve months Germany paid no attention to this warning and scores of American lives were lost. Mr Wilson has had no accounting from Ger- many and he has taken no action of any sort whatsoever to get that accounting. The American lives lost through attacks on the Gulflight, the Falaba, the Lusitania, the Arabic, the Persia, the Ancona, to mention only the most notable cases, remain utterly unavenged. Mr Wilson has written note after note, using all sorts of strong phrases, but with no effect whatsoever. After the Lusitania, he promised to omit no work or act in order to prevent such assaults on American lives. Then he said that any further sinking would be regarded as a distinctly unfriendly act. He used all kinds of harsh phrases, but he could not make a more definite statement than the wording of the original note of February, 1915. And no man could possibly have failed more deliberately to stand by those words than Mr Wilson. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LYING 161 "After the torpedoing of the Sussex this spring, when it appeared impossible that Mr Wilson could any longer eat his words, he suddenly abandoned all his demands for atonement for outrages committed and avoided action by obtaining a promise from Germany to abandon her existing methods of submarine warfare. The agility and cleverness of this evasion would hardly have satisfied the country a year earlier. But Mr Wilson had so bamboozled the mob by his indignant phrases and his close escapes from action that the whole issue had become stale, and the country, sick of being wrought up to successive pitches of excitement, had begun to think that perhaps the best thing after all was to keep out of war at all costs. This feeling became all the stronger on account of the growing prosperity which it would have been a pity to curtail. It is unfortunately true of human nature, that habit will gradually destroy even a sense of shame. So it came about that when, after the Sussex outrage, Mr Wilson finally forsook every pledge he had made to the people to get atonement for American lives, and accepted instead a promise from Germany for the future, his followers thanked heaven the war was again averted and applauded Mr Wilson's great diplomatic victory. But that victory was not merely won by a base betrayal of American rights; it was not even a victory at all. Germany made a promise which she has not kept, and Mr Wilson has shut his eyes to all breaking of the promise. ' ' In his various notes on the submarine issue Mr Wilson contradicted himself several times but on one point he made himself sufficiently clear, and that was to the effect that submarine warfare against merchant vessels could only be carried 011 lawfully if ships were warned and searched and the safety of the passengers and crew pro- vided for before any sinking took place. Those were the rules which Germany finally promised to observe after the Sussex controversy last spring. Tho'se rules she has not observed. Repeated official reports have been made 162 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS in (itvnt Britain showing that merchant vessels, both allied ainl neutral, have been sunk without warning and that lives have heen lost in consequence. And v.-t Mr Wilson gave out this statement on (October 9th: The country may rest assured that the (id-man government will be held to the complete fulfilment of its promises to the government of the United States. I have no right to question its willingness to fulfil them. This statement is perhaps the most viciously false thing that Mr Wilson has been guilty of. He has every right to question Germany's willing- ness to fulfil her promises. The reports of the British government have been publicly made. They refer not only to British but to neutral merchant vessels that have been sunk without warning. Mr Wilson has not denied these official reports, he has taken no steps to deny or confirm them ; he has simply ignored them. If he regarded them as he reasonably might, as coming from a prejudiced source, he could have consulted those neutral government- whose ships have been sunk. He has simply ignored the reports because they effectually dispose of his great diplo- matic victory over Germany. His own state department indeed has itself disposed of the victory by assuring the public from time to time that no action would be taken by the United States government unless American lives were lost. Therefore, it is plain that Mr Wilson does not care and never has cared whether Germany lived up to her promises so long as the immediate danger of war was removed. He has deliberately fooled the people by his claims of victory, and the people on the whole have wanted to be fooled. In reference to the raid of the U-53 off Nan- tucket the New York Times says the country is safe in .Mr Wilson's hands because 'if crimes are committed against the laws of nations and humanity he will be prompt to act.' The Times knows that Mr Wilson has not been prompt to act when such crimes have been committed, and that Mr Wilson will not be prompt to act in the future. It knows it is lying, and it glories in the lie because it THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LYING 163 has now become possible to issue the worst falsehoods without even incurring ridicule. ' ' We need not again go over the long series of tergiver- sations in regard to Mexico except to show how amazing is the capacity for swallowing falsehoods now exhibited by this great democracy. Mr Wilson boasts that he will never interfere with another nation in its struggles toward liberty. Yet he interfered to throw Huerta out of Mexico, and did so on account of evidence against Huerta that would not hang a cat in this country. And at the very time when he is pealing out this doctrine of non-interfer- ence he is actually administering the affairs of Hayti and San Domingo. Either policy might be right or wrong, but the man who declares for one and denounces the other while carrying out both, is plainly not a truthful person. Even more blatant is the lie about keeping us out of war with Mexico when we have twice within a period of two years and a half waged war in Mexico. It would not be so bad if only Mr Wilson indulged in falsehoods and broken promises. The worst part of the business is that he has an enormous following in this insidious habit. "We wish indeed that Mr Wilson's chief opponent had himself a sturdier sincerity. It will be entirely the fault of Mr Hughes if he allows Mr Wilson to be reelected. His attack has been feeble and misdirected. Why waste time in attacking the child labor law and the eight hour law bill because they are imperfect pieces of legislation? We are quite willing to admit the hollowness of Mr Wilson's progressive professions. He never raised a finger to help the child labor bill during his first congress. Nor was 'it until the importance of winning the progressive vote was borne in upon him that he urged the passage of the bill. For more than three years he had been president before he discovered that society was in favor of the eight-hour day. And we cannot quarrel with Mr Wilson's critics when they maintain tha"t he never would have discovered it if the four brotherhoods had not held a pistol at his IN TIIKSK LATTKK HAYS lif;nl. \Vi- hiivc in-vcr regarded Mr Wilson as an cnlight- 1'iird ivf>nmT. and we r the Japanese. Yet Asia alone would not satisfy them; like (lermany they want the world. A Japanese publicist, speaking recently before the Commonwealth club of San Francisco, suggested as a basis of future friendly relations between the United States and Japan that a mutual policy of hands off in Asia and America be adopted. He avowed that Japan on the one hand conceded the leadership of the United States in Amer- ican affairs. He insisted, on the other hand, that the power of Japan places upon her the burden of maintaining and defending Asia from exploitation from other continents. While the Japanese people insist that in their relations with America they must prevent racial discrimination for the sake of preserving their own national pride, it is con- ceivable that they might trade even the passage of an obnoxious immigration law for the sake of drawing the United States into a mutual agreement that would recog- nize Japanese hegemony in Asia. For the opportunities for Japan for colonization in Asia are much greater than they could ever possibly have in America. And a free hand in China would give the island empire an opportunity for growth and would also free it from the menace of pos- sible Chinese attack. Such an agreement, however, would invoice a trade of appraently untradeable things. The United States would have to abandon the open door in China and concede to Japan the privilege of excluding from eastern Asia not only American business men but also American teachers and American missionaries. It would involve a limitation of our stay in the Philippines. On the part of the Japanese it would require a curbing of their instinct for migration not only to the United States but also to Mexico and South America that might greatly strain the popularity of the government. They are chafing even under the present gentlemen's agreement. It might, finally, mean that Japan would expect our moral CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 167 backing, if not material support in her inevitable struggle with Russia in Siberia and England in India. "It is doubtful," said Chester Rowell, "whether as yet either the United States or Japan is ready to concede mutual exclusion from Asia or America. The new reports of extension of Japanese influence on the Asiatic main- land will probably not cause any change of attitude on the part of the United States government. They should, however, strengthen the determination of the American people to have a strong, vigorous American policy on this continent. It would be almost hopeless for this govern- ment to intervene to save for China its suzerainty over the vast sparsely populated territories of Manchuria and Mongolia. China has been unable so far to rule herself. So she has little chance to claim dominion over adjacent lands. Japan is succeeding, where China has failed, at imperial- ism. Moreover, Japan has immediate need for waste land on which to place her people. China as yet hardly has na- tional consciousness to know what her own needs or her own capacities are. But while we are admiring Japanese spunk and national cooperation and aggressiveness, we should take good care that those admirable qualities are not to be turned against us, and they surely will be if we do not cultivate our own national spirit. That is what we mean by Americanism. It does not mean anti-Germanism nor anti-Briticism nor anti-Nipponism. It means national organization to put America first in all those activities in which nations rather than individuals compete. We must not shut our eyes to the fact that America's world competitor, for good, or evil, is Japan. By strengthening mutual respect and our own national capacities, we shall make sure that we compete for good rather than for evil." This is as it should be ; yet it is well for us always to bear in mind that plausible and hypocritical throughout, not a word of what the Japanese say may be relied upon. The stronger they assert the less are they to be believed. As Roosevelt says of Woodrow Wilson, their acts do not IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS s|ii;irv with their words, and their words do not square vith eaeh other. For an opinion as to what may be ex- pected from the now prime minister one has only to see his face, which is essentially Asiatic and barbaric, and withal sinister. As to mixing races with Asiatics the idea is abhorrent. The cringing attitude hitherto assumed by us has had the worst possible effect on them. In attending to our own business, regulating our own affairs, and making our laws to suit ourselves they claim that their rights and their dignity are infringed, which sentiments never would have arisen in their minds had we conducted ourselves as we should have done. "China has a friendly feeling for you," says Li Yuan Hung, the new president of China. "China wants Ameri- can brains, American ability and American friendship. China needs American capital." This message was brought to us by Julian Arnold, commercial attache to China and Japan, who says, "We must bring the United States in all its varied meanings to the awakening people of China. On account of the relations between the two nations, there is an unparalleled opportunity not only to trade, but to exert the best influ- ence on all that goes to make life. No people on earth are more friendly to us than the Chinese. It is a friend- ship which we should extend and cultivate. What we have done and are doing is but a beginning. The next fifty years will witness changes in China which have no counterpart in history. America is in a position to help. It can be the greatest friend that the Chinese have known. It is particularly appropriate that there should be a club here in San Francisco to join in all that is best in the coming movement. This is the gateway to the Orient, the American gateway. Your schools should pay more atten- tion to China, to Chinese history, to Chinese development. The Chinese language should receive attention. It is one of the coming world languages. Your club should not only devote itself to creating a better understanding, but it should be foremost in preventing any misunderstand- ings. ' ' China wants Americans to go over there. They are welcome everywhere as the best friends of China abroad. Americans need not fear Japanese aggression in China, Arnold assures us. The Chinese want the American and will give him the preference, always. There is a great market in China for cotton, and for mining agricultural electrical and manufacturing machinery. Mr Arnold goes on to say, ''Our great asset in China to-day, is the friendship of the Chinese people. No other people on the face of the earth occupy so warm a place in the hearts of the Chinese as do the people of this country. From the president down to the humblest peasant, this friendship is expressed in no mistakable terms and is genu- ine. The Chinese people appreciate this country's kindly attitude toward theirs. Our staunch advocacy and support of the open-door policy and return of a substantial portion of the boxer indemnity were acts of justice for which the Chinese people are deeply grateful to the United States. China now asks us to assist her in developing her great resources. "What are we doing to avail ourselves of this position of advantage which we occupy in China? While China's import trade has increased fourfold in the last twenty-five years, her imports from the United States have not as much as doubled during this same period ; in fact our trade with China during the past ten years has remained stationary. It is true that what we have lost in some lines we have gained in others. What we have lost in trade in piece goods, and flour we have gained in kerosene and steel products. The Standard Oil company has greater interests in China than has any other foreign company. It is the pioneer of big modern business organization there. "Although the customs returns of the trade of China with the United States during the past decade do not show 170 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS substantial incivaN.-N \,-t iii many ways this country's trade ami prestige have gone ahead considerably. Tin- number of people from tin- Tinted Stairs in luisiui'ss with China has iloiilih-il during the past ten years. In Shanghai we ha vf today a community of nearly 1500 people from this country. We can boast of an American chamber of com- meive. an American Asiatic association, an American bar association, an American volunteer company, an American woman's club, and American missionary association, and American university club in this great oriental commer- cial metropolis. These organizations are thoroughly awake and conspicuously active in advancing United States inter- ests in China. Partially through the labors of these organ- i/.a lions, Congress was induced during the present session to provide for funds for the purchase of the beautiful site now occupied by the American consulate general, the United States court and the United States postoffice in Shanghai. "A great mistake made by manufacturing men, ex- porters, bankers, and capitalists in considering China as a field for activity is their failure to see the China of ten and twenty years hence rather than the China of today. We must remember that China is potentially one of the richest countries on the face of the earth. It is China's great store of undeveloped resources which should engage our attention. This, coupled with a dense popu- lation of industrious, peace-loving people, just emerging from a middle age civilization, just at the dawn of a mod- ern western development, makes for the future of our trade prospects. China is still an agricultural nation. When her tens of millions of industrial people, able now to live MI a few dollars a month, properly embark upon an in- dustrial development, no stretch of the imagination can conceive of the possibilities for trade. Japan is by nature a poor country, yet modern industrial development gives her a foreign trade eight times as great per capita as that of more backward China. China's population is six times CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 171 that of Japan. China 's wealth of natural resources is hun- dreds of times greater than that of Japan. Modern knowl- edge is coming to China, and coming fast, and a few years hence this great nation will embark upon a development which will make present-day trade figures seem insignifi- cant in comparison. ''China has 6,000 miles of railways. She needs 200,000 miles. China has 1,000,000 spindles and 5,000 looms. She will have twenty to thirty times these numbers some day probably not far distant. China has four blast furnaces. Her rich ore deposits can provide material for scores. China imports millions of dollars' worth of coal, yet she possesses a wealth of coal deposits unequaled elsewhere in the world. Tens of thousands of dollars are now invested in coal, iron, zinc, tin, copper, and antimony mines in China. A few years hence tens and hundreds of millions of dollars will be attracted to China's great mineral wealth. Flour mills, oil mills, steel works, power plants, telephone, and telegraph installments, textile factories, chemical works, smelting works, water works, electric lighting plants, sugar mills, saw mills, shipbuilding works, paper mills, match factories, glass factories, and tanneries are spring- ing up, indicating the transition from a pastoral to an industrial society. "The one great essential to these developments is cap- ital. If native Chinese capital is depended upon, the devel- opments in these directions will be slow indeed. China needs other capital than her own and she. knows it. With it will also come technical skill and materials from other countries. The peoples furnishing the capital will also furnish the technical skill and the materials. Thus trade follows the loan. United States trade in China has lagged behind that of other nations because United States bank- ers, and financiers have not actively interested themselves in China loans. British, German, French, and Japanese capital has gone into China in a large way and the trade 172 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS ivnYcts the results to the trade of th-s,- investments in China. "China has extended an especially eordial invitation and continues to invite United States capital to partici- pate in her developments, yet our capital seems shy of China. Now that the European war has placed the United States into the list of creditor nations, prepared to look abroad for investments of large amounts of capital, it is time that the opportunities in China engage her serious attention, more especially so because of her position of vantage which she occupies there by virtue of the friendly feeling of the people of the country toward America and things American. "A new China is rapidly forcing out the old. We are educating in our colleges and universities hundreds of young Chinese each year, who are returning to their country prepared to mold into the new China the lessons which the west have to teach. The preceding president made the fatal mistake of leaving out of consideration the young China. He failed in the four years of opportu- nity presented to him because he did not avail himself of the forces in his own country making for progress. He should have taught the young, impetuous supporters of the republic self-control and wisdom and directed their energies and aspirations along paths of progress. Nation- alism and love of country have long been dormant in China. They are awakening. The past ten years have witnessed great strides in this direction. We shall make no mistake by responding whole heartedly now to the generous invitation extended to us by the Chinese people to come to her assistance with capital, thought, and mate- rials, in the order named. The Panama canal has pulled <>ur Atlantic ports around on the Pacific in our trade rela- tions with China and it is on the Pacific that the world is to witness its greatest commercial development and expansion. ' ' Wu Ting Fang, the newly appointed foreign minister CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 173 in the Chinese cabinet, who was for several years Chinese minister at Washington, is a man of exceptional ability, a warm friend of the United States, and probably more familiar with American affairs than any other Chinese statesman. Thus we see that even with the change of rulers there is no change in their loyalty; their friendship remained the same. The death of Yuan Sfaih Kai brought to a peaceful end a controversy which otherwise might have involved years of civil war in the settling. On his death bed Yuan expressed regret for his seizure of the imperial title, an act into which he had been misled, as he said, by his advisers, both Chinese and American. His successor, Lu Yuan Hung, formerly vice-president, is regarded as a thorough republican, and is believed to be satisfactory to all the provinces recently in rebellion. Some of these provinces had demanded the abdication of Yuan Shin-Kai in favor of Li Yuan Hung. Four of them sig- nified their allegiance to the government, and others were to follow. Li was educated in Japan. He was one of the leaders of the successful anti-Manchu revolution of 1911. General Feng Kwo Chang, a prominent supporter of president Li Yuan Hung was elected vice-president of the Chinese republic by parliament. He was governor of Nanking and one of the better known officers of the Chi- nese military service. He was director of the miltary council on the Chinese board of war in 1907 and director- in-chief of the general staff in 1909. When the revolution broke out against the Manchu dynasty General Feng Kwo Chang was in command of the First Imperial army at Wuchang, and was successful in recapturing Hanyang from the revolutionaries in No- vember, 1911. For this he was rewarded with the rank of baron of the second class. Any appeal to the Wilson administration was useless. Says the San Francisco Examiner: 171 IN TIIKSK LATTKK MAYS "It jjivcs tin- American blood ;i thrill to read that American business enterprise has started to secure for this country the ever-ripening results of eonniiereial enter- prise in China. One day we read that Americans are to huild thousands of miles of railroad to develop the re- sources of the long-sleeping land. The next day we are told that $100,000,000 of American money is to take hold of. clean up. and moderni/e the longest canal in all his- tory, the grand canal of China, dating hundreds of years before the Christian era. Here is the enthusiastic for- cast of what this latter enterprise means to San Fran- cisco, to the United States, to the world. Restoration of the grand canal, started five centuries hefore Christ, so that it may be the foremost commercial factor in the Orient. Disappearance of the old junk in the wake of the swift motor boat. Substitution of scientific methods of labor and transportation, of horse power for coolie power, from Peking to Shanghai. Methodical irrigation of millions of acres of the best farm land in the Orient. The American versus the Jap for control of the busi of China's richest provinces. Opening of the world mar- kets to the products of more persons than there are in the whole United States. "Establishment of intimate commercial relations be- tween the Pacific coast of the United States and China. Doesn't it make the heart leap to feel that it is our own Americans who are thus putting in their energy and their capital to accomplish industrial and commercial wonders? But after they have put in their energy, their brains, their money, after they have risked health and life to bring to their home land the profits of trade with the gorgeous east, what is going to happen to the energy, the money, the lives of the intrepid men who venture so much? "At the first sign of trouble with Russia, or Japan or Chinese bandits are these forward-thinking developers and lnisiness men to be told by their home government that they eaii e\pe-t no protection for their investments, their CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 175 lives and the lives of their wives and children? Are they to be robbed and murdered and their dependent women and children ravished while a coward home government tells them it is too proud to fight? Are they to be told to run for their lives, and then are they to be officially sneered at by their president as adventurers and exploiters ? Surely this other side of the picture does not give the American heart a thrill or stir the American blood to cheers." And this in regard to Japan's grip on China: "When Japanese intrigue procured the assassination of Juan Shi- Kai and his son it was predicted that within a short time Japan would stir up a local disturbance somewhere in China, and seize the made-to-order excuse to send the troops she had in readiness for that purpose to take virtual pos- session of China. It has all happened according to pro- gramme. Japanese soldiers have been attacked by Chinese at Cheng Chiatun. As an indemnity for this outrage Japan demands that China hand over the government of Inner Mongolia, a territory about a third as extensive as the United States. As Japan reports that ten of her sol- diers were killed in the attack, the indemnity she demands for each one is 64,000,000 acres. Evidently the Japanese government is not hampered by undue modesty in esti- mating the value of a dead Japanese soldier. "We suppose it is waste of time to talk sense about this Japanese invasion and seizure of China. Nothing but an immediate display of firmness by our government, coupled with a plain intimation that we will use force, if necessary, to make good eur obligation to maintain Chinese integrity and the existence of the open door can possibly stop Japan's meditated seizure of China. And one might as well expect such a manly policy of a cotton- tail rabbit as to expect it of the administration now in power. The Japanese statesmen make no secret of their conviction that Mr Wilson will confine his utmost daring to writing a series of high-sounding humanitarian notes for which Japanese statesmen will have about as much 17C IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS id jis fur tin- singing of a canary bird. The Japanese press repeatedly and sneeringly assert that Americans will never fight under any provocation, and point to Mexico .is the proof. They are not at all backward in adding that it would not be a bad thing for Japan to whip the United States without waiting too long to do it. The worst of it is that this Japanese insolence and these Japa- nese sneers are followed up by action. The Japanese are deliberately proceeding to shut the United States out of the orient. They make no secret of an alliance with Russia for the conquest and division of Asia. And they make little pretense of concealing the fact that Russia and Japan have agreed to drive our trade from China. And in the midst of all this intrigue and hostile preparations in the very shadow of these thick clouds of menace and danger, our present government contents itself with mak- ing pretty little speeches about the beatitudes and the hu- manities. God help us; together with the courage of our fathers we seem also to have lost our national common sense. ' ' From Peking one writes later that China's parliament is setting down to work in a way which will meet with strong American approval, especially among those who regard freedom of religion as an essential of democracy. The house of representatives has resolved that the article inserted into the constitution during the presidency of Yuan Shih Kai making Confucianism in effect the state religion of China is to be omitted. Deletion of this article restores freedom of religion in China. Not content with this, a bill was introduced abolishing all the ceremonies connected with the worship of heaven and the worship of Confucius. The Chinese progressives dethroned Confucianism as a state religion in the face of considerable opposition on the part of Confucian scholars, headed by Kang Yu Wei, president of the Confucian society. Kang, although he has retired from politics to devote himself exclusively to Confucian research, has been CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 177 a prominent figure in Chinese public life, since the July days of 1898, when, with Liang, his disciple, he inspired the reform decree of the late emperor, Kung Hsu. Kang is a, scholar who has retained many of the ideals of old China, while his pupil Liang, was the father of modern journalism in China and the brain force to the movement which began in Yunnan at the beginning of last winter, and which culminated in the peaceful succession of Li to the presidency. His last pamphlet translated into all the important modern languages, The People's Will, has been, distributed all over the world. The Chinese printing presses in all parts of the country worked night and day to supply the national demand. Kang Yu Wei sent a telegram to the house of repre- sentatives protesting against the elimination of the article in the constitution making Confucianism the state religion of the Chinese people. The telegram was read but no one supported it. Liang did not publicly announce his posi- tion during the present discussion for the reason that it was not necessary for him to take open issue at this time with his former friend and chief. His views, however, were well known, and were in accord with the decision arrived at by the members of parliament. China's toughest prob- lem now is how to disband the army raised during the revolution. The government, hard pressed for money, will have to raise at least $30,000,000 to pay off the 800,000 men under arms; and unpaid soldiers are always a menace in China. Coolies regard military service as a very desirable occu- pation. Once enlisted it is difficult to persuade them to retire. They riot and become troublesome if an attempt be made to disband them without liberal payment. The commanding officers are frequently as mercenary as the soldiers. When the government fails to give its soldiers what they regard as adequate pay, the troops frequently become bandits. Each province has its own military governor and a 17s |\ TIIKSK I.ATTKU DAYS distinct military nrgam/at ion. presumably under control of tin 1 Peking authorities, but actually independent in most v Consequently, the Peking government is forced to deal diplomatically with the military organi/ations in the provinces, particularly in the remote ones. \c\vton \V. (Jilliert. vice-governor-general of the Philip pine islands hears witness as follows: "Our chance to ^mre the greatest trade in the world, in China, has been lost. China is awake and wants all the agricultural and manufactured products that it can get. German competi- tion is prone ; English trade is crippled. It is no secret that the Chinese distrust Japanese and will pay one dollar for American goods rather than ninety cents for the Japanese commodity. They want to build railroads and American hankers intended helping them with a loan. But the whole project was discouraged by Wilson, who, however, is now characteristically in favor of it. We stood idly by. Now we talk about South American trade, forgetting that the South Americans do not like us, while the Chinese were kindly disposed. We had the start of a merchant marine in the Pacific. Now the Japs control the Pacific trade. They give seventy-five per cent of their bottoms to Japanese shippers, if this be needed, for the Japanese government controls the shipping. When Wilson was elected, capital- ists, who had during the two years previous poured into the islands $12,000.000, took the democrats' word that they would scuttle out of the Philippines. They have not done so and they will not. Lawyers over there now band to- gether to prevent their clients from suing each other, suits being ruinous at such a time. We need the islands. We have an obligation there to perform, for the natives did not ask us to drive out the Spaniards. We need a depot in the Orient and a military post, and the natives themselves, without executive ability, are utterly unable to manage their own affairs. "Equally serious is the Japanese situation. The six power loan to China, which Wilson caused to fail, was most CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 179 emphatically not a scheme for unfair exploitation. It was the one hope that China had of avoiding the sphere project of Japanese domination. Its failure was a blow to peace and civilization. Full statements of this have been pub- lished in Japan. How has President Wilson met the issue ? By concealing the facts, in the attempt to put off the troublous question." Said Judge Dooling, in regard to the wife of a Chinese merchant threatened with expulsion, "I cannot but feel that she has not been accorded that fair hearing upon her application to which she is entitled under the law." Thus we see that the business men of China look to the United States for their future market. They consider this as the only country which can help them, and which has no territorial aspirations in China. The development plans of the American International corporation, including the reopening of the grand canal and the building of railroads, is looked upon in China as one of the most potent factors for the furtherance of friendly relations between the two countries. In the opin- ion of C. K. Wong, it will require $100,000,000 to put through the project. Japanese influence is making itself aggressively felt in China. The Chinese say that the Japanese cannot hope to compete with the Americans commercially, but that they are seeking a degree of political control that will enable them to exclude all outside competition. The Japanese and the Russians, they say, resent the recent American loan, while the British, although secretly favoring it, are not in a position to say so because of their alliances. Said a wealthy Chinese merchant : ' ' The Americans are our only friends. The British pretend to be ; they come to us with the Bible in one hand, while with the other hand they compel us to buy their opium." China is assuredly waking up. Says the Peking cor- respondent of the Shanghai North China Daily News as quoted in the Literary Digest: "The president's visit to 1M IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS I'aotinirfn \estenlay is suggestive of tin- proems of develop ment slowly but surely taking place in China. A thousand students graduated at tin- military academy in the old Capital of Chihli, and tin- president went one hundred miles by train to attend the graduating exercises, leaving at 9 A. M. and returning at 4 P. M. Therein are contained three facts, remarkable because they are indicative of a state of things inconceivable in China a generation ago. The least significant fact is that it is possible to journey a hundred miles from Peking into the interior, to do a solid business at cne's destination, and return to the capital, all within a few hours. Next comes the fact that one thousand young Chinese of the better classes have just completed a military education of a modern character, fitting them for commissioned rank. Thirdly, the ruler of the state calmly walks in and out of his palace, drives along streets in his motor, brushes through the crowds at railway stations, makes a popular address to a crowd of lads, and all the time is doing what everybody thinks natural and proper. Truly, the times are changing. This trip of the president is indicative of nothing less than a revolution of which the possibilities are equally endless and changing." Professor Alfred Forke of Berkeley says that wonderful business possibilities in China are awaiting the coming of young Americans who can speak and read Chinese, and lucrative positions are to be had almost for the asking. Berkeley, he says, is fast becoming the Mecca for young men desirous of preparing for a career in the Orient, in business, engineering, the professions, the consular or cus- tom service, and missionary work. The University of California is one of the two American universities where students can learn to speak and read Chinese, and its fame has reached far beyond the limits of the United Statev The steady increasing size of the classes in Oriental languages is taken as a sign that young men are awakening to the great opportunities offered in the Orient. The United CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 181 States consular service in the past has offered a highly attractive career to a number of students. The study of Chinese also opens the way for admission to the maritime custom service of the republic. Those profi- cient in Chinese win rapid promotion to the coveted post of commissioner of customs. To read native newspapers and be able to talk to natives is a tremendous asset in carrying on business. Now is the time for young Americans to step into China. While the European nations are forced to relinquish much business on account of the war. Europe has no money to invest at present and American capital and brains, have the greatest opportunities over offered in the way of trade development. The infamous ten years opium contract with England lias terminated, and China is now free from the tyranny of the drug, and is determined always to remain free. It is said that a new treaty between the United States and China, designed to make San Francisco the greatest trade port in the world, is sought by the Chinese of Amer- ica. In cooperation with Wu Ting Fang, who now is sec- retary of state of the republic of China, the Chinese Six Companies here have launched a movement to bring about better commercial relations between this country and their own. Renewal of the treaty between the United States and China which expired in 1904, and promotion of kindlier feelings between the two countries is the ambition of Wu Ting Fang and prominent Chinese in San Francisco. It is their desire that the United States take advantage of the immense trade opportunities offered by China. Chinese business interests are knocking at our gates for admission, says the Six Companies, and there is no reason why we should not admit them before the war in Europe ends, and the nations abroad give them welcome. There was no cause, there is no excuse for the expulsion 182 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS of tin- ( 'hinrsr. < ) f ;ill tin- iiliciis tliiit ever came to America they are tin- least objeetionahle and tin- most useful. Their good qualities arc imputed to them as faults: their industry is slavishnoss; their thrift, niggardlinflM ; their economy, parsimony. They were timid, our ways being strange to them; they were inoffensive, unretaliative before insult and injury, therefore mean and cowardly. It is true that they herded in places apart, as did the sewage of American citizenship, the Russians, Austrians, Scandinavians, Portuguese, Turks, Greeks, Finns, and others from the slums of Europe, where filth and vice were far greater than in the unique Chinatowns of California. And better far thus to herd than to scatter themselves throughout white residence districts, as the Japanese delight in doing, to the disgust of the inhabitants and the ruination of their property and homes. We will work with the Asiatics, but we will not eat with them nor sleep with them. It is true that they do not assimilate, do not try to proselyte or win disciples for Buddha, do not trouble our wives and daughters, do not love to agitate, do not demand alleged rights under treaties, do not care to meddle in our politics, or run the government ; better for us were there more like them in these respects. It is true that in the early mining days some of them smoked opium, though never to the extent alleged, but for which idiosyncrasy all the same we damned them daily. Then of their own accord they gave it up almost entirely, seeing the ill effects of it as their rulers had seen long before, fighting its introduction into their country ; so that in the chief cities of Christendom more of the stuff was used by Europeans than by Asiatics, while in California with the Chinese element eliminated the importation of the divine drug was greater than ever. Few Asiatics at present are enslaved by its use, far less than with all our Keeley urcs there are white men wrecked by nun. It was in 1840 that Great Britain perpetrated that in- famous act of forcing opium upon the Chinese, notwitli- CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 183 standing the emperor's edict of 1796 prohibiting its impor- tation, and the long and strenuous efforts of the imperial government to keep away the poison which they feared and so heartily detested. As for intemperance, with its loathsome exhibitions, I have lived an eye-witness of their habits in California for over half a century, and I have never seen a Chinaman drunk on the street, or in any way disorderly, or standing at the bar of a drinking saloon, where hundreds of thousands of Americanized toilers con- gregate daily for intellectual improvement and generous living. I have never seen a Chinaman begging, anywhere or in any way, while one constantly encounters on the street lusty white men asking for money with which to buy food, thus in these and other ways falling below in man- liness and decency the despised Asiatic of the cheaper wage. It is not true that the Chinese are filthy in their habits, inefficient in their work, or untrustworthy. As cooks, domestic servants, launderers, and for orchard and vege- table garden work, they have no superior. They are dili- gent, respectful, honest, and reliable, which can be truth- fully said of but few others. It is not true that the Chinese take work from better men ; there are no better men for their work. The assump- tion of the Irish that in the United States scheme of redemp- tion they should take precedence is somewhat ludicrous; the Chinese were a cultured nation while yet the inhabitants of the emerald isle were anthropophagi. Nor was this republic founded especially for the Celts, to make places for them as policemen, labor leaders, and drinking-shop politicians. If by better men the average mechanic was meant, still the assertion is not true, for the average me- chanic will not attempt the humbler work of the Asiatic at any price. We cannot reasonably say that this man is more worthy of our consideration than the other, as we declare that all are born free and equal. There are four hundred millions IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS who prefer Chinese paganism to German ( 'hristianitx : examine tin- reeo rd ,nn| you will find that tin- former live nearer the teachings of Christ than tin- latter. The Irishman would doubtless claim superiority tin- Chinaman, but it, would be difficult for him to prove it. I If is a better agitator, dissension i si. and dema.'o:ue. but far inferior as house servant, fruit-grower, or factory oper- ative, and as between the two I prefer in my family a good cook to an agitator. As for government under Irish regime, nothing could be worse, unless it were miltaristic rule under the Germans. It is not true that there was danger at any time that the Chinese would swarm over and fill this country like locusts, as was said. The Japanese might do this but n\ politicians, newspapers, and office -Imlders all along the line up to the highest positions. Obsessed by evil inspiration, an Irish drayman in the San Francisco dunes mounted a box and shouted "The Chinese must go ! " Seeing spoils in it. demagogues, sup- ported by the public press, took up the cry, which rever- berated tli rough the city, through the state, until crossing the continent it reached congress, where it was safely pre- served in the spoils-box of electioneering assets. Wherefore at the instigation of the worst element in our country we adopt the pagan policy which we so lately shouted down at the door o/ pagan Asia. All honor to Dennis! the grandest Irishman since St Patrick: Dennis with his dinner pail and dray upon the classic sands of Market street; he shook with his voice the foundations of the republic, so firmly established by Ham- ilton, and Jefferson, and Washington, stirring to frenzy the politicians, from policeman to president, because of pap and patronage! The Chinaman had no champion : his wrongs were never recited ; the lies that were told of him fell on listless ears and were never refuted. So that now it is the vague but general impression throughout the land that the Chinese are an undesirable factor in the economic interests of the country. Of course the solons at the capital knew, the president knew, all their henchmen and whippers-in knew well enough the true and only cause of his offending; this celes- tial had no vote. Though respectable and responsible, his was an off color. For so discriminating had become our perceptions in pass- ing upon material fit for citixenship that we could deter- mine it by the tint of the skin; anything white or black would do, but yellow was taboo. Yet there was a distinction even in the yellow; the Japanese, a far worse element than the Chinese, were per- CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 187 mitted to enter freely long after the latter had been pro- hibited. There was, alas ! no Dennis on the sand-hills then to raise the cry, The Japanese must go ! Here is another of those lost opportunities which fate held out to the makers of this republic, an opportunity to employ o\ir young wisdom in resuscitating and redeeming for progressive humanity the oldest and largest of earth's nations, an opportunity that any European power would have most effectually embraced. Think of it ; as I said before, if the chance had been Germany's, there would never have occurred this beastly butchery of humanity in Europe, however doleful the consequences might have been to China. Lost through our lovers of votes, the greatest oppor- tunity of all for doing good, for doing the greatest good to ourselves and to others, to an unwieldy mass of par- alyzed humanity four times the present population of the United States crowded into an area two-thirds as large, one-fourth of all the people in the world, and of a nature so apathetic that all the proddings of little Japan have thus far failed to prick them into manliness. We had simply to remember our precept that these were men, not apes, equal to us in creation, equal to any in regard to our obligations; or if to our diluted citizen- ship this sentiment had lost force, one can but consider how easily our sphere of influence might have been ex- tended over all China, and what that influence would be worth to us, at present in money, and later in power, when the strength of the nation becomes centralized, and disciplined under competent leadership to meet the great issues and conflicts of the world. Assimilation, amalgamation, as a scheme at once benefi- cent and profitable has not proved always and altogether befitting. In a new country with vast areas of untenanted lands, a good quality of incomers to form partnership with the original stock, under well considered restrictions, might 188 IN THKSK LATTKK DAYS have proved pnpitious; hut as a dumping-ground for the refuse of effete nations tin- intermixture is fatal to the welfare i.t' a progressive people. In our own case the custom as applied during the last ha If -century has destroyed representative democracy as originally existing, and blotted out any possibility of a pure Anglo-American race in the states united by the founders of the republic. The doctrine of assimilation sounded pleasantly in Puri- tan ears. It \vas beautiful in theory, but theories and ideals are not everlasting in practice. Up to a certain point the free admission of aliens was profitable, but \\ith the incoming age of graft they only added to the general cor- ruption. A factory for turning out ready-made citixens. where native land and love of country are lacking, does not show the best results. Of every thousand inhabitants in the United States, 351 they or their parents are foreign born ; 107 are negroes ; while less than half of the remainder are descendants of the four million colonists of 1790. In Massachusetts, the keystone of Yankeedom, there were in 1910, 117,000 Kus -ians. 89,000 Italians, 48,000 Scandinavians, 35,000 Aus- trians, 30,000 Germans, 26,000 Portuguese, 16,000 Turks. 11,000 Greeks, 10,000 Finns, with 100,000 aliens still com- ing in every year. Of whites of native parentage in New York city there are only 19.3 per cent, and in Chicago 20.4 per cent. Of the 13,000,000 aliens arriving since 1900, over half of them were Catholics. And now that every able bodied man in Europe is re- quired for the butcher, future immigration from that quar- ter is not likely to improve in quality. There are communities in the south where three-fourths of the population are negroes, and there are midcontinent communities of alien dolts, many of whom cannot speak the English language, and who have as proper conception of American institutions and ideals as so many mules, yet all fit and proper for American citizenship. CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 189 Obviously another of our lost opportunities; for, as before intimated, had we economized our lands and limited our citizenship we might now present in place of this un- happy hybridism the finest race on earth, with public wealth enough to pay all the expenses of government to the end of time. Of a truth we ought not to curse the Chinaman for declining American citizenship but rather to bless him, to bless his coppery skin, his eyes aslant and his worshipful pigtail; his clattering feet, and swinging market basket, and his sanctimonious Joss before whom he prays to his thirty thousand devils. Let us thank him that he does not envy our Irish rulers, does not want to be congress- man, or run labor unions, or bribe supervisors, or hold nihilistic seances, but just to do faithful, humble work and take his small earnings back to China to make happy the diminutive slave-wife and little demijohns forever after; or should fateful death overtake him to have his little bundle of aromatic bones returned over-sea to their original dust, carefully guarded for the Stygian journey, lest peradventure there should set in amalgamation with those of the Christian devils. In the early gold-digging days, with the criminal ele- ment from every nation we absorbed England's Australian convicts, with such of Russia 's Siberian population as could make their escape, amalgamating these with the rest, all of them who were not hanged or driven away by the vigi- lance committee. And never a voice from Ireland on the classic sand-hills "The Sydney ducks must go!" Assimilation ! Something of a fiasco after all is it not ? We begin by assimilating and end by being assimilated. We begin by absorbing low-grade people from Europe and end in being absorbed by them. We pass out freely our naturalization papers until we bring upon ourselves dena- tionalization. There is no longer an Anglo-American republic; the race of the founders is fast disappearing, and we have only 190 IX TIIKSK LATTKR DAYS to make the h.-st of the heterogeneous humanity that has taken its plarr. Assimilation, how glorious! Imported citizens, patriots, lovers of country, plentiful and cheap. Before the present inhuman conflict brought out in bloody relief the true mind and character of the Teutonic race we regarded German immigrants as among the best material for American citi- /niship. and we must still differentiate between the loyal Americani/ed (Jcrmans who. they or their ancestors, were among the builders of the nation, and some of the later hyphenates who are false to their sworn allegiance, traitors to the land of their adoption, bomb-planters and incen- diaries, worthy disciples of the kaiser. We may further note the similarity in the methods of the murderous German sympathizers and the murderous labor leaders in attaining their ends. There are Germans who would fight for the land of their adoption, just as Anglo-Americans would fight Eng- land again if necessary; there are many Germans among the later hyphenated who would not. As to the Germans who had developed under militarism and kaiser kultur, they are of a different order of humanity from anything elsewhere existing. This they thmeselves claim, and we willingly concede it. The kaiser is their god, and a very bad god too ; as unscrupulous as a medieval robber baron ; and as blood-thirsty as a pirate of the Spanish main ; their ideals are hellish, their acts the worst conceivable by man. They love murder for murder's sake, cruelty is a pastime and pleasure, and terrorism the first principle of their war tactics. And yet Berlin journalists wonder why Germans are not loved! The question itself shows a dementia, shows a total absence of any moral sense. The Germans are a race apart, just as hyenas are a class by themselves, and might as well wonder why they are not loved. To tell the Ger- mans why they are not loved, why they are hated and abhorred by all nations is not a difficult task. Does civil- CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 191 ized humanity love savage beasts or poisonous reptiles, whether in the form of divine kaiser or unified professor? Do men of honor love lies and trickery, foresworn faith and broken promises? Do men of morals love the ethics of brute force, void of conscience, void of humanity, void of any sense of right and wrong? Look at Belgium, Oh tearful Teutons ! and consider the Lusitania; consider your butcheries of defenceless men women and children, your rapes and robberies, you wanton cruelty and injustice at every hand, then ask not why all nations hate Germany! And how about entering a neutral nation, and through a contemptible system of espionage, bomb-planting, and as- sassination yield up your last scrap of tattered honor ? Learned doctors and professors, whom we have hith- erto accredited with deep thought and sound logic, are apparently as enslaved by their Teutonic superstitions as the ignorant soldier in the trenches fighting for he knows not what. Or is it that they must hold with their kaiser or cease to be Germans and quit the country ? At all events, whatever it is, whether stupidity or. hypocrisy, it is not a proper element of progress, nor yet a fertile soil in which to plant the true beautiful and good. It is not alone the cruelty, brutality, and injustice of the Germans that shock the civilized world, but that the learning and refinement of this great nation should be given up to defend, or even to praise such fiendishness shows an astounding depravity such as the world never could have imagined and can never forget. Germany, these wiseacres are wont to say, has of late contributed more than any other nation to the progress and enlightenment of the world. Whether this be true or not they might correctly add that she has also contrib- uted more to the villainies and brutalities of the world than were ever dreamed of as possible since Christ was here preaching peace. We can well spare Germany from the family of nations, with all the good she has done, if !!_' IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS sin- will hike with her tin' wrongs she has committed against the souls as well as the bodies of men. The truth is that a large percentage of the hyphenated in America, Germans 'and others, never have really amal- gamated and never will, the amalgam adhering only during fair weather or when profitable. Time will test further the loyalty of Americanized aliens. As to the dependence which may be placed upon union labor, and the devotion of its members to the country tlu-y live in and from which they derive support, we have an example in England, where they not only refuse to fight, but resort to strikes for less work and more pay, thus crippling British arms in the nation's dire extremity. Again, to avoid conscription necessary to save their own dear native isle from the destroyer, Irishmen are fleeing to America, though the kaiser promises them independence to spite England as soon as he has made their country like Belgium. When conscription comes to America will they and their brother hyphenates fly back to their potato patch, or hasten farther west to China ? Other good qualities attend the Chinese worker in Cali- fornia. It was not the lowest grade of laborers that came hither; the infamous coolie system never obtained in the United States. John is no time-server, this little fellow from the celestial hills, nor pauper. He does not demand like the children of Nippon by virtue of their high heath- enism the best of everything and all for nothing. He does not crowd out the white residents from the better streets nor force himself into public schools ; he requires but little hospital service, as he has his own doctor and appliances. He is of less expense to the government than any other alien. Even in court short work is made of his case, as he is either quickly hanged or sent to prison to work his way through. Even to-day, after sixty years of bad treatment on mir part, China still holds open her door and invites us to CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 193 enter and take possession industrially. "Others will do so if you do not," says Minister Chow Tzu Chi, "but we prefer Americans." How can we refuse? Yet how can we accept while driving these worthy people from our shores, thus adopting the barbarism which we forced them to discard half a century ago. The Japanese are quite a different affair. Germany and Japan are predatory nations; one the world's exem- plar in blood-lust, the other an apt imitator; one old in sin and civilization, the other still instinctively wild and immature. In the absence of any ethical conception the morals of both, or what stands for morals, are founded on force, brute force the only measure of right and wrong, of which militarism is the essence and exponent. Under such tutelage, and with the skill therefrom acquired, Japan call well afford to reiterate expressions of friendship for the United States, as no nation ever before played so com- pletely as ours into the hands of a relentless competitor and natural and unscruplous rival. Then why is it, or rather why was it in the first in- stance, before the concocting of an obstructive treaty, that after excluding the Chinese, the Japanese, the more dis- turbing and unwelcome element were admitted? Because, first, there was no exile of Erin on the San Francisco sand-lot to sound the tocsin of the demagogues so succes- ful as applied to the Chinese? Then we were amused and pleased to see how ready the little pagans were to throw off the outlandish toggeries of Buddha and put on the paraphernalia of our civilization. And they were so polite and plausible withal, so sublime in their pretensions, so artful in their impudence, which after all was but the im- pudence of ignorance, permitting us to profit a little by them while they profited much more by us. Moreover, their arrogance and adaptability were fortified with guns, which they learned to shoot, never the while being con- cerned about death, a matter they left to the gods. A.dd 7 194 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS to tliis our indifference, the inattention of the disciples of Dennis. ami the alertness of the Japanese, and we have the situation pretty fairly before us. Surrounded by the influences into which young Japan is unfolding, where as Kipling says "there is no crime, no cruelty, no abomination that the mind of man can conceive which the German has not perpetrated," to what heights of greatness may the Nipponese not attain in an- other half century? The hopes and expectations of the Germans are vested in a Christian kaiser, those of the Japanese in a pagan mikado, the one a necessarian the other a faltalist, with little to choose between them ; both are special envoys of the Creator, and endowed with his wisdom and goodness. The arrogance and impudence of the pagan is exceeded only by the stupendous pretensions of the Christian. The individual subject is as potter's clay in the hands of these rulers. Thus may be seen at a glance the prostitution of Christian ideals and the paganism of kaiser kultur. Predatory peoples are pirates; their ethics the ethics of pirates, their pledges the pledges of pirates, their re- ligion the religion of pirates and of pagans, their conscience the conscience of the Apache, merit in murder. Germany's one excuse for broken faith, "it was necessary." It was necessary to kill, it was necessary to steal. Never a prom- ise with Korea did Japan keep, never a treaty with China. Germany breaks her word and disregards treaties ; Nippon does the same. Germany loots Europe ; Nippon loots China. Germany is Christian, God save the mark ; Nippon is pagan. Both are alike barbaric ; each sees in its chief ruler the divine essence incarnate; he is invincible and can do no wrong. And as intimidation is the primary principle of pred- atory warfare, best to intimidate cruelty, intrigue, treach- ery, and every possible phase of infamy is employed without restriction. The art is the same as that employed by savages of tin- \v<><'L> IX TMKSK LATTKK DAYS declaration of principles, which was as follows: No dis- crimination shall bo made against any man because of his membership in any society or organization. Subject to any rights under contracts existing between them, it is the privilege of both the employer and the employee to terminate their relations whenever either sees fit to do so. Since the employer is responsible for the work turned nut 1>\ his workmen, he must therefore have full discre- tion to designate the men he considers competent to per- form the work, and to determine the methods under which that work shall be performed; the question of the compe- tency of the men, and the number of foremen, apprentices, helpers, and handy-men to be employed to be determined by the employer. Employees will be paid by the hourly rate, by pre- mium system, piecework, contract, or otherwise, as the employer may elect. No limitation by fellow employees, or any organization, of the quantity or value of work an employee may accomplish in a given time will be tolerated. Foremen shall be the agents of the employer. In the operation of any system of hours or wages now in force or to be extended or established in the future, this association will not countenance any conditions which are not just, or which will not allow a workman to earn a wage proportionate to his productive capacity. In 1916 the members of the Detroit employers' asso- ciation numbered nearly two hundred, and these firms employ more than one-half of the working population of Detroit, more than 100,000 men. Kvery week the mem- be IN of this association distribute in pay envelopes over $1,000,000. It has established a reputation for fair deal- ing with its workmen, no discrimination in employment, the best of wages, splendid shop conditions, and reason- able hours. The steady influx of desirable workmen from all sec- tions of the country, even when times are prosperous else- where, is the best indication that wages here are attractive. THE AUTOCRACY OF LABOR 203 A recent careful survey among the manufacturing indus- tries, involving over 75,000 workmen, discloses the fact that 64 per cent of these men work less than ten hours a day, and that the great majority have in addition to these reasonable hours the benefit of the Saturday half- holiday. The association maintains an efficient employment bu- reau, the largest and most successful of its kind in the world. Through this office the man out of a job is promptly put in touch with plants where there are vacancies for which he is qualified. He applies in a scruplously clean, light, well-ventilated, commodious room, is treated with courtesy, questioned as to his experience, the length of his service with his last and previous employers, and with- out any question, in normal times, as to his affiliation with a labor union or any other organization or society, is di- rected to a firm with whom he is most likely to secure employment. During the first six months of the year in this manner 20,691 men were placed in positions to their liking. Of this number only six per cent were men of no skill, or of the class termed common labor. In addition to the activities of the association toward the securing of a just workmen's compensation act, it has for years urged the modification of the labor laws of the state to the extent of permitting a young man to appren- tice himself to a trade when he has reached the age of sixteen years. The law as it originally stood practically prohibited his employment in any shop until he became eighteen years old. At the last session of the legislature an amendment, prepared by the association, was offered, under which the employment of the boy at sixteen, at work and under conditions bearing the approval of the state labor commissioner, is permitted. In addition it pro- hibits the employment of any child at any work until he has completed the sixth grade of the public school. During the first or second year of the association's 204 TN TIIKSK L ATT Kit DAYS existence its executive cumin it t recommended, and in this the membership unanimously concurred, that the fifty- five hour week be established and maintained as far as practicable. It was suggested that during the spring, summer and fall months the working hours be so arranged as to give tin- men the benefit of a half-holiday on Satur- days, in other words, ten hours per day for five days of the week, and five hours on Saturday. This was in a great many instances found a most satisfactory arrangement, and the majority of those firms who observed it during the summer made no change when the cold weather came on, but continued with the Saturday half-holiday through- out the year. A recent careful canvass of the association's member- ship, in all lines, including the building trades, indicates that 35 per cent of the firms operate on the basis of from 48 to 50 hours a week; 35 per cent running 55 hours; 30 per cent from 55 to 60 hours. In the instance of the shops which operate more than fifty-five hours, it is generally considered that the men are willing to work the longer day, that is, up to ten hours, because of the peculiar prod- uct or conditions existing in the plant, and also because it gives them an opportunity to earn larger wages. This is particularly true with that large proportion of these workmen who are on a piece-work basis. The fifty-five hour, half day a week holiday arrangement appeals to a great many workmen. It is one of the conditions in De- troit that are so attractive to men in other communities who are seeking to better themselves. The best indication that wages in Detroit are better than in other similar communities, is the desire and wil- lingness of mechanics in all crafts to go there. Men are attracted first by the wages they can secure; second by comfortable living conditions, and third by opportunities for enjoying that part of their income which they may set aside for rest and recreation. To sum it all up, the reasonable working hours preva- THE AUTOCRACY OF LABOR 205 lent there, the satisfactory rates of wages, the comfort- able, well-lighted, clean sanitary shops, that are offered to men who would work in Detroit, have come not as the re- sult of enforced demands of organized labor, but from the desire on the part of the open shop proprietor to have a contented, efficient working force. The case against the closed shop is this: It denies the right of the American citizen to hire or be hired without artificial restriction ; it prefers force to reason ; it hampers enterprise and sanctifies efficiency, establishes faction, ac- centuates class, and breeds monopoly. All this is to be remembered if we would know exactly what the open shop means to America as distinguished from the closed shop. Freedom of action is the very soul of our liberty loving people. Only when it has been demon- strated that it is indisputably necessary for the general welfare is any curtailment of personal liberty condoned or permitted in America. The theory of the open shop guarantees liberty in in- dustry and freedom of action. It denies nothing but mo- nopoly and coercion and class rule. It does not deny the right of the wage-worker to join a union, or to bargain with his employer individually or collectively. It does not deny the right of the employer and the wage -worker in each case to conduct their relations in the particular way that suits them best. It does not deny the right of the wage-workers to strike when they deem themselves oppressed and believe they can secure redress in no other way. It does not deny the right of the wage-worker of excep- tional skill and productiveness to earn more than the wage-worker of less ability. It does not deny the right of any institution to pro- duce its maximum output, nor does it deny that efficient management and operation is a benefit to the community and to the nation. jni; IN T1IKSK LATTKK DAYS It docs not deny tlic right of jippivntices to learn tin-it- trade ;is rapidly and thoroughly as possible. It does not deny tin increasing tendency of public opin- ion to secure for labor just consideration in the matter of \\a-res. hours, and shop conditions. It docs not deny the power" of persuasion nor exalt the power of compulsion. It does not deny the right of capital to organi/r in restraint of trade, and grants the same right to labor. Practice is more convincing than theory. There are instances where the open shop has been tried and found wanting. Employers who take advantage of the open shop to depress wages and overwork their men may expect to confront difficulties sooner or later. It is in human nature to resent exploitation, and union labor is ever ready to lead the attack. Even employers who accord their men everything demanded by the labor unions, or more, as in the automobile industry of Detroit, have been openly de- nounced by the American federation of labor because they refuse to operate their shops for the exclusive benefit of members of the unions. The closed shop takes the selection of employees out of the hands of the employers, and places it in the hands of the men themselves. The test of selection then becomes the possession of a union card instead of the possession of skill and capacity. The employer is further handi- capped by the obstinate opposition of the union to meth- ods of production which will increase the efficiency of the plant, or permit the payment of unusual wages to unusual men, as witness the special provision made by Congress to prohibit an increase of efficiency in United States arsenals. Likewise the employer's supply of labor is further reduced by the unions to countenance any ade- quate system of apprenticeship that it does not control and retard. Like the German kaiser, they repudiate their agreements at their pleasure, as in the car strike in De- THE AUTOCRACY OF LABOR 207 troit, when the union ignored its own signature to a con- tract guaranteeing arbitration of such disputes as were then at issue. At other times the closed shop fosters a system of graft and blackmail by which employers must buy from union bosses protection against strikes, as in Chicago, where a coterie of the bosses were indicted. It was under the auspices of the closed shop that the Los Angeles massacre was made possible under the alleged direction of the McNamara brothers. It was the closed shop that brought about the conspiracy concluded at In- dianapolis by the imprisonment of a squad of union lead- ers. And it is rare indeed that any single union has shown a disposition to purge itself of such offenses or of the men responsible for them. It was in the name of the closed shop that the famous Danbury hatters went about the amiable business of ruin- ing one firm through a boycott, and was made to pay a burdensome fine for violation of the anti-trust law, though without any help from those who assured them that help would be forthcoming, and who raised such large funds for the defense of the offenders at Los Angeles. It was in the name of the closed shop that laws were passed in a dozen states, and taken seriously until knocked out by the supreme court, prohibiting discrimination against union men in the matter of employment, though not a single law was enacted prohibiting discrimination against non-union men. It is in the name of the closed shop that the American federation of labor, representing only some 2,000,000 wage- workers in the United States, is bending every effort to the enactment of federal laws that will create a monopoly of employment for organized labor exclusively, and let business take the consequences. It is the ideal of its presi- dent that the American congress should compel every wage- worker to join a union and then remove every vestige of public control from the unions, besides enslaving labor JMs IN THKSK LATTKK DAYS ,iii.l passing tin- government of the United States over to tin- pirates of industry. "Permit mo to say." remarked Senator liorah. "to th-- man of labor, that it has never ln-en a matter of very nnieh concern to the man of great wealth under what form of government he lives. In the hour of lawlessness, when disorder and erime prevail, he finds a way to protect him- self. Hut there is only one sure and certain protect ion and safeguard for the poor, and that is a government of just and equal laws, faithfully enforced and universally obeyed. He finds his protection in a free, open republic, in whose supreme power and honor all may share, and whose orderly justice all may enjoy." Let the man of labor learn that lesson. He is enjoy ing to-day two-thirds of the fruits of industry, as the inves- tigations of the national civic federation show. In the gradual democratization of industry he will have more and more influence and a larger security. His hope is in work- ing with capital, and not against it : in encouraging the investment and expenditure of capital, not in driving it into hiding; in helping new enterprises, not in worrying em- ployers to distraction. His best weapon is not force, but reason. Once it is quite clear to him that the open shop is not one and the same with hatred of labor, as certain of his leaders would have him believe, his perplexities will begin to dissolve. Once he has seen clearly the social aspect of tin- open shop, he will understand that he cannot promote his own interests unless he promotes the interests of his country. And once it is firmly established in the public mind of America that the open shop means nothing more or than a reaffirmation of the ancient American doctrine of individual freedom, and the revaluation of the measure less American asset of individual initiative, the closed shop will take its proper place in the distant limbo of forgotten heresy. "There is no mystery concerning the specific demands THE AUTOCRACY OF LABOR 209 of the American federation of labor," says Mr. Irvine, manager of the employers' association of Washington. "They would repeal the law of conspiracy against labor unions, abolish the injunction, stay the arm of every gov- ernor, prevent the use of the militia in labor riots, legal- ize the boycott, and do some twenty other acts in the line of class legislation and against the rights of man." Nobody denies the right of laboring men to combine into unions for lawful and proper purposes, to shorten the hours and conditions of their employment to obtain higher wages, and above all to increase their earning power by the adoption of modern scientific methods. We never hear of combinations of the unions for the purpose of realizing their ambitions without violence, or to realize legitimate ambitions in any manner whatsoever. The labor monop- oly is operated on the rule or ruin policy. Argument and moral suasion have long ago been abandoned for the boy- mott, the bludgeon, and the coercion of legislators. By becoming the absolute master of the labor market the labor trust hopes to dictate the terms under which pro- duction may go forward, to regulate hours, wages, quan- tity, and quality of the finished product which each work- man shall produce in a given time. This sort of domina- tion would give the results seen in England, where unions have long been almost untrammeled. The British printer and machinist do less than half the work of an American artisan in the same line. The employer thus becomes a nonentity, an automaton at the mercy of the union which makes the restrictions. The union thus becomes the des- potic commander of his employer. The next step will be for the workman to help himself to what he produces, under the theory that labor is entitled to all it produces. Regardless of supply and demand, regardless even of the needs of the country itself, whose very existence may be at stake, as in England to-day, the tyrant in control of the labor monopoly may defy the government and snap its finger at penal codes. 210 IN THESE LATTKK* DAYS How ran iiiiy state expect to develop its resources if invested capital, which is a logical part of every industrial activity, is thus crippled by extortion, inefficiency, and the iron rule of the labor trust? How can young men hope for a future in a state where they are forbidden to learn a trade, where they are outlawed under their country's flag? Regardless of the original principles of the unions, or the character of their founders, the American federation of labor has become a great labor monopoly, a menace to the nation. I'.ascd on a false conception of the rights of man, and depending for its success on the surrender of individual liberty, it cannot permanently last under the American flag. Its employment of the methods of barbaric warfare such as the strike, the boycott, picketing, and class legis- lation enforced by coercion, is contrary to every ethical conception of the square deal. But this country abounds in examples of outrageous conduct by members of unions who are ordinarily deemed to be good citizens. In Seattle and many other cities throughout the United States thousands of men marched and cheered for the McNamara murderers, while they were on trial and before they had confessed their guilt in the ease where they were indicted for destroying more than a score of human beings by dynamite. No question of hours or wages was involved. The murders were a part of the program to force the closed shop on the country. The fact that men may become so misguided and fanat- ical as to carry banners reading, "If the McNamaras are guilty so are we," should warn us of the dangerous extent to which the doctrines of the American federation of labor may go toward destroying every patriotic ideal in the American republic. But if every demand of the American federation of labor were based on the immutable princi- THE AUTOCRACY OF LABOR 211 pies of justice, the means they employ to enforce those demands would discredit the organization. "Join my union or starve to death !" is the basis of the entire union movement in the United States. With in- creasing boldness the demand is made in every city and industrial centre that if any man shall refuse to join their union, he shall not eat. This is an attack on the funda- mental right to life itself. No end can justify a policy so brutal, a rule so tyrannical. The employers' association of Washington is engaged in forwarding a great educational campaign, although the organization itself is still in its infancy. Their task is to convince the country that their opposition to the program of labor is not from selfish motives, but because they know that coercion and violence can never promote the general welfare of the people of the United States. Contrary to a prevailing opinion, too, business men are not only not working against the labor monopoly for sel- fish motives, but the business men as a class are not organ- ized and are not working at all. This is the pity of it. If the business interests of the country were really united in the sense that organized labor is united, the unions would be reformed or destroyed within twenty-four hours. Regardless of the fact that the rank and file of union men may be good neighbors and good friends, their poli- cies are against gocd morals, against good citizenship, and in opposition to the peace and dignity of society, and con- trary to every conception of human rights. We cannot sanction the program of any organization whose main purpose is to destroy free labor, the right to earn an honest living without the consent of any man or union of men. Opposition to the labor trust is most log- ical and effective when aimed against legislation which exempts the unions from prosecution for violence. In imitation of what they see, whether for good or evil, the Japanese have their labor unions throughout the JPJ IN THESE LATTKK DAYS rountry. with their federation of labor, and tin- rest. About the bay of San Francisco are nine unions, tlie Japanese day workers' union of San Francisco, the fruit cleaners' union of San Francisco, the bakers' union of San Fran- eisco. the tailors' union of San Francisco, the day worU.-r-' union of Berkeley, the laundry workers' union, the shoe- makers' union, the garden workers' union of Alameda and the Japanese farm laborers' union. This embraces the Japanese farm laborers employed in the bay district only. The idea is to federate all the Japanese laborers in Cali- fornia first into a strong central body, the organization to be extended gradually to take in all the Japanese la- borers in the United States, a happy preparedness on the part of Japan for the coming war. After a permanent organization is effected, the Japa- nese federation will seek affiliation with the American fed- eration of labor, on understanding that the two bodies may work together for the common objects. The Japanese long-shoremen at Honolulu strike, and the white men join them, one of our lessons to the heathen brought home to us. What is this American federation of labor, this great dragon, an empire within an empire, thus gnawing at the vitals of the commonwealth ? The federation consists of 110 national and international unions, which are subdi- vided into 22,000 local unions. They employ 1,800 paid organizers of locals and publish 540 weekly and monthly pa pel's. Their paying membership is two millions; their total membership possibly half a million more. Large sums are annually raised by dues, assessments, tines, and donations. They are ruled by suggestions and imperative commands. They are a well-disciplined and unified militant force, one in thought and action, always ready for instant battle. Their organizers are sleepless, devoted, tenacious. They are fanatical in their hatred of capitalists, employers, and non-union men. Workmen who refuse to join the union are pursued with a ferocity that often finds expression in deeds of bloody violence. Even THE AUTOCRACY OF LABOR 213 in times of peace they are held up to scorn, denounced as snakes, rats, and scabs. Theh* object is to command the labor markets of the world by forbidding any except their members from work- ing in any field of human endeavor. By extending their work among farmers they aim to control the production and distribution of food products. For more than three years Congress has annually appropriated $500,000 for the enforcement of the Sherman anti-trust law, with an express prohibition that no portion of this sum shall be used to prosecute any combination of laborers or agriculturists. Was ever greater cowardice seen on American soil than this treasonous surrender of human rights? Cowardice, or a bid for democratic votes, which? In other words the American federation of labor may commit with impunity acts which it would be criminal for any one else to commit. Thus Congress makes this a government by ignoble blackmailers, this the land of Jef- ferson and Lincoln, of Bunker Hill and Gettysburg! Returning to our mutton, that is to say to the mutton- head makers and executors of our laws, should it not make the blood of an American boil with indignation to witness the action of our courts, thus to see all common sense, fair play, and decency swept aside by cowards, who yield to the coercion of a labor lobby representing less than three million of the hundred million people living under the American flag? The Sherman anti-trust law reaffirmed in statutory form a decision of the supreme court of the United States which held the boycott an indictable conspiracy. Senator Edmunds, the real author of the Sherman act, specifically declared that it was directly aimed against boycotting as much as against any other illegal act. The enforcement of this law would settle matters. But the legislative program was the' exemption of labor organi- zation from the civil and criminal penalties of the Sher- man act, the repeal of the law of conspiracy for labor I'll IN THESE LATTER DAYS unions, the abolition of all injunction proceedings during lalior disputes, the destruction of the power of courts by having jury trials in contempt cases, Icgalixing the boy- cott, regulation of the hours of labor, the prevention of efficiency methods in the public service, the prevention of government from dealing with firms whose products are manufactured under efficiency methods, and the legal- i/ation of the strike and the boycott with all the cireum- M a i ices attending their use against employers. To obtain these ends labor opposes its foes in cities, states, and na- tion. All candidates and members of legislative bodies are closely questioned in writing as to their views on labor measures, and efforts are made to elect union labor men to office. Bills formerly referred to the judiciary com- mittee for technical analysis are now hastily rushed through the committee on labor, where they are approved. As a result of the federation's activities in other sections of the United States no less than fifteen members of the house of representatives hold union labor cards. Such is I'nited States justice. In February 1908 Senator Albert Beveridge wrote as follows: "Organized labor has an efficient lobby here at all times. Measures proposed by them, while at first re- ceived with coldness and hostility, finally assume the pro- portions of a movement, and great numbers of senators and eongressmen vote for such measures through fear. And all the legislation thus fostered by the well organized unions, and forced so vigorously as to inspire congressmen with tern.r is vicious and unjust, wholly opposed to the spirit of fair play and the genius of our institutions. Having secured a federal compensation act against acci- dents, they wanted something similar covering sickness which if obtained would diminish the number of able men at work materially." Leave the laborites alone and they will destroy" the commonwealth and themselves in time, as expenses grow THE AUTOCRACY OF LABOR 215 faster than wages. The union label and boycott infamies are only two out of twenty ways they have of imposing upon the community. By the use of a union label they would prevent, so far as possible, the sale or consumption of any goods or articles not made by union labor. By employing the boycott they would drive out of business and ruin, if possible, all shops, merchants, and restaurants that do not conduct business according to the dictations of labor leaders. Union labor opposes whatever lessens its strength and influence. It opposes profit-sharing because it is a form of increasing wages in which the labor leaders have no hand, and can derive for themselves no profit. They pre- fer permanent increase of wages under the old system of coercion. Profit-sharing is for the open shop. If to give the workman a share of the product is necessary, then the workman should share in the losses as well. The labor lords would establish unionism in Mexico, in Japan, everywhere in the world, that through their mechanism they might rule the world by ruling labor, and turn their monopoly of industry into economic militarism. And this, though they are generally advocates of peace. They are opposed to war of any sort, or for any purpose, as it touches their personal interests, taking the working- men from their control and diverting their influence over their proteges. They foster the idea that there is a con- flict of interests between labor and capital, between the laborer and the employer of labor, in a word that the two are natural enemies. Strikes are a crime against the community, an unjust imposition upon innocent persons, besides bringing hun- ger, disease and death to the- workingman and loss to the employer. This I have long contended, that strikes are a crime, and I am satisfied that the time is not far distant when they will be so declared by law. As Mr. Lovett of the Union Pacific railway says : "It seems inconceivable that a nation as dependent as 216 IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS upon railroad transportation should permit a strik- In oecur. It sooms to me that one of tin- plainest of the national government, not merely to the railroads hut to the whole people, is to provide means for settling disputes between the railroads and the trainmen likely to lead to such strikes. Men cannot be compelled to work against their will, and no one suggests it, but men can lie forbidden to enter into and carry out a conspiracy to inter- fere with and suspend interstate commerce." While the department of labor at Washington was racking its brain for a solution of the problem of the unemployed, laborites were enjoying the income from the hold-up of one-third of the wage-earners in the United States by the machinations of the closed shop infamy, meanwhile throwing all the work at exorbitant rates to their proteges, that is to say to those who paid them. If there is no other way to settle differences between employers and employees but a resort to force, then let us know it and have laws made to meet the emergencies. No legislative body has any right to dictate to the people how many hours they shall work, or what shall be their pay, or what they shall eat. or drink, or wear. It is a re- turn to the sumptuary laws of feudalism. Machine made industry is no better than machine made morality. In regard to forcing an eight-hour law through Con- gress under threat of the labor leaders to tie up long lines of railroads, opinion was divided as to who was most to blame, the strikers for their contemplated crime against the country, or the president in lowering the honor and dignity of the nation by cowardly submission. In work- ing the measure through Congress the president displayed his usual pedagogic spirit, and his class that of good boys obedient. A petition enjoining the federal district attorney and labor leaders from putting the Adamson eight-hour bill into effect was filed in the federal district court of Kansas i-ity. in the name of the Atchison. Topeka, and Santa Fe THE AUTOCRACY OF LABOR 217 railway. The bill recites the circumstances surrounding the passage of the Adamson law and claims that it is a mere arbitrary increase in wages. The law, says the bill, is unconstitutional, and void because it is not a regulation of interstate commerce, that it is a mere experiment in- tended as a basis for further legislation ; that it deprives the company of its liberty of contract and right of prop- erty without due process of law, and that it is unworkable. Mr Ripley of the Santa Fe declared that Congress, hastily acting under a threat of four leaders of labor organiza- tions, enacted a so-called eight-hour law, which is nothing more nor less than an advance of twenty to twenty-five per cent in the wages of the best paid men in the railway service. It is only fair to our employees and the public to say that the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railway does not intend to comply with the law except as and when ordered by the court of last resort. "Should the courts finally decide that the increase must be paid there will be an immediate demand from the re- maining classes of labor, resulting in entire inability to pay without heavy increases in rates to be paid by the public especially the farming class. ' ' Farmers as a rule were strongly opposed both to the law and to the manner of its enactment. It was sim- ply a further and wholly uncalled for tax upon the people, made by a president too proud to know anything of busi- ness. Here is the farmer's view of the situation by Henry N Pope, president of the association of state presidents of the farmers union. The farmers stand for a fair wage to both labor and capital engaged in handling the prod- ucts of the soil from the time they leave the hands of the farmers until they reach the consumer. This applies not only to transportation, but to all industries engaged in serving the agricultural interests of the nation. "If the government is going to fix wages for any one class of railroad employees it should fix them for all IN TI1HSI-: LATTKi; DAYS vs. iiiid if it has powers to increase wages it must have to decrease rates, and Congress should review the comparative inequalities between the different classes of railway employees and make such adjustments as wisdom dictates and do it without fear or favor. I want to make a special plea for the 350,000 section hands who walk their heats in storm and rain, and whose brawn and brain make possible our ^reat transportation systems. Their compensation is not sufficient to feed and clothe their fami- iles. and their children are sentenced by American civili- zation to a life of ignorance and poverty. Next to them is that class of underpaid shopmen and others whose loy- alty and faithfulness to the hand that feeds them and whose consideration for the public welfare entitles them to recognition by Congress. And last, but by no means least, there is one class of citizens whose condition is worse than that of the most lowly railroad laborer, and that is the farmer. We find the highest paid laborers in the world, making three times more money than farmers, demanding a 25 per cent increase and Congress hastening to their relief. This increase must in the end rest upon the backs of the farmers, and will reduce their incomes while increasing their hours of labor." Thus it is that now while the British parliament de- clares strikes illegal, the American Congress bows before the blackmail of the laborites who threaten to tie up the nation's industries unless their demand is complied with. The depth of national degradation and humiliation is reached when a band of labor leaders, with the help of a craven Congress, accomplishes the coercion of the United States to yield its sovereignty under threat of criminal disaster. They have abundance of money, these pirates of indus- try wrung from the poor toilers, as they call them, for either good or evil purposes; and it must be admitted that THE AUTOCRACY OF LABOR 219 in the legal profession money will buy the most effective talent for evil purposes. As a strike fund, that is to say a fund to enable the workingman to fight his employer, a fund drawn from the laborer to enable the labor lords to fight their fellow citizens, to fight those from whom they derive most of the blessings of life, the labor leaders manage to gather from the toilers and hold from ten to twenty millions of dollars. This does not speak well for a government, that it should be necessary for the toilers to maintain a coterie of the worst men in the country to secure for them common justice. The railroad commission works well in regulating pub- lic utilities, why not give it charge of labor interests as well? Strange indeed that the influential business men of a great American city, should sit quietly by and see the vital interests of their city destroyed, its brilliant prospects wrecked by bad men, who have no interests at stake and care for nothing but to increase their usurped power and ill-gotten gains. And strangest of all that the enterprising and progres- sive people of San Francisco, where the evil rages highest should so tamely submit to the infamy. "San Francisco is perhaps the strongest union-labor town in the United States, "are the words in which E. G. Lowry records our disgrace in Collier's. The employers of labor in San Francisco should unite in an agreement that a walk-out should mean a stay out, which might in some degree help to check the exodus of industries to new quarters across the bay or elsewhere where labor con- ditions are less fatal to manufacturers. For unless some- thing is done to check the arrogance and insolence of these pests of progress the economic future of this city is beyond control. In conclusion we may take this for our heart's consola- tion, that labor unionism of the old dominant, dynamite IN TIIKSK LATTKK KAYS stamp is doomed. That or the I'liitnl States must tfo, and of the two the latter is the stronger. It is the fate of radical unrighteousness to fall through acts emanating from its own ignorance and intemperance, and it is plainly to be seen that the labor leaders have passed the limit, and that their influence is on the downward grade. In tin- sky above us it is written in letters of fire that neither capital nor labor shall rule America, that we will have a government by Un- people for the people or no government at all. CHAPTER X MUNICIPAL RULE AND MISRULE 1VTEVER a state had a better government than Califor- JL i nia in these latter days. Never a better man gov- erned a state than Hiram Johnson. Constitutionally honest, open and direct in all his ways, with surpassing ability and endurance, we search in vain the pages of history for his superior. Never a state has there been some of whose towns, cities, and counties were worse governed than may be found in California. In some of our municipalities there are as earnest, honest, conscientious, and patriotic men at the head of affairs as may be found in the world; in others there are as great rascals as ever went unhanged. When towns- men are bad they are very bad, worse than the demogogues of the cities, because in the cities office-holders are more in evidence, more closely watched and the people are less afraid and less stupid. Where the town officers and the county supervisors are mainly self-seeking designing men it is almost impossible for a newly elected incumbent to retain office with honesty. At the same time in every large city is a coterie of professional law-breakers, conspicuous among which are the labor-leaders, who if not watched and frustrated in their evil efforts would take possession of the place. Consider the disgraceful spectacle of an otherwise charming place resting under the incubus of misrule, un- der the influence of ill-balanced minds, of men either stupid in their ignorance and inexperience or downright evil- minded, or both. 221 L'L'L' IX TIIKSK I.ATTKII DAYS I know ;i place highly favored by the gods, but so marred by man that few self-respecting persons will dwell there. Tin- ff the failure of our earlier municipal institutions. I'nderh itit: the apparent varimiHiess of our early city charters is one staring fact, common to them all, the failure to fix definite responsibility for the conduct of the city government. They were all fundamentally influenced by the check and balance theory of our state and national institutions. In the con- fusion of mayors, two-chamber councils, elective adminis- trative officers, council committees, state-appointed boards and commissions, the unhappy citi/en could hardly fail to be at a loss as to the why and wherefore of his government. There was endless opportunity for one official to hide be- hind another. The long list of obscure offices to be filled by popular election supplied the best of opportunities for the political slate-makers. It has long been a well-known fact that crime and darkness go together. This is no less true of the political crimes of the gangster and grafter than of those of the thief and the thug. The complication of municipal administration furnished the shadows in which political crime might be safely perpetrated. "The first efforts to escape from this situation found expression in increased power for the mayor. It was very natural for the people to turn, in the city as they have done in the state and nation, away from the legislature to the elected executive as their peculiar representative. This tendency has been very marked in the last quarter of the century. Its culmination was perhaps reached in the Bos- ton charter of 1909. By virtue of this charter the mayor is practically an elective dictator. He makes all appoint- ments, and has complete charge of the executive branch of the government. He has the sole power of initiating prop- ositions for the expenditures of money. lie has a veto over the acts of the city council. The council may decrease an appropriation recommended by the mayor but cannot in- crease one. Indeed there is very little to be done with AirXKMPAL RULE AND MISRULE 227 the Boston city council except to put it out of pain. This form of government has given Boston much more satis- factory results than the more complicated one which pro- ceeded it, although it is engineered by the same class of men who formerly dominated its politics. The clear and definite concentration of power and responsibility in the hands of a single official inevitably makes for a higher class of ad- ministration. One defect of this form of government is that between elections there is no effieetive check upon the vagaries and whims of the executive. Furthermore, there is no assurance that the man elected by the people to be their ruler will possess any special qualification for his task. The only thing which a popular election demonstrates, as far as the personality of the elected officer is concerned, is that he has a certain amount of skill in getting himself elected. This skill is obviously not the same kind of skill as that of an efficient administrator. ' ' The second method of escape from our unhappy muni- cipal condition was the commission form of government, first given prominence by its adoption in Galveston, Texas, following the flood of 1900. Under this form of govern- ment all the powers of the city, legislative and administra- tive alike, are concentrated in the hands of a commission of five men. Each of the five is assigned to the headship of a department or group of departments of the city govern- ment. In their individual capacity they are the working executives, and in their collective capacity the legislature of the municipality. This system, also, has shown a clear advance over the older forms of city government. As com- pared with them it is simplicity itself. It has been very widely adopted and no fair observer would deny that, by and large, it has accomplished much. It has at least made city government really representative and really responsible to the people. "Perhaps its greatest achievement has been to convince the American people of the possibility of city government conducted upon a highly practical and efficient basis. It IN TIIKSK LATTKJJ DAYS has itself, however, fallen short of this ideal of efficiency. The actual \vnrkintr heads of tin- depart incuts arc not t-X- perts but men selected primarily for their repr.^eiitativc qualities. The commission plan confuses as does much of our American political thinking, the functions of repre- sentation and administration. For purposes of representa- tion we require laymen, who will reflect the real desires of their constituents. They should be something like fa it- samples of the community. They do not require special training in the problems of municipal administration. It should be their function to determine the policy of the city government. It should be the function of the adminis- trator on the other hand to carry out that policy. He does not need to reflect, in his personal thinking, the wishes of the community; he should, however, possess the special training and technical qualifications to enable him to carry out the policy laid down by the representative in the most efficient possible manner. "In other words, he should be an expert. Popular election only accidentally produces experts. The result is, therefore, that commission government gives us adminis- tration by amateurs, and in general, mediocre amateurs. The salries paid are too small to attract really capable men, except in rare instances. ' ' Another defect of the commission form of government is that we have a five-headed executive. In America we have never been able to accomplish good results with a multiple executive. Another defect which has manifested itself, is that the commission as a whole is not a competent critic of the conduct of its individual members. "The third and last phase of modern municipal reform is the city-manager form of government. It has grown nat- urally out of the commission system. The resemblance of the commission of five men to the board of directors of a corporation naturally suggested, instead of having the in- dividual commissioners execute the city policy the em- ployment of a manager to do it for them. The manager MUNICIPAL RULE AND MISRULE 229 bears the same relation to the council or commission that the manager of a private corporation bears to its board of directors. He suggests policies, it is true, but the council determines upon their execution. When it has spoken, the manager as a ministerial officer carries out their be- hests. The manager, relatively speaking, is well paid. He is selected in every instance with at least some reference to his possession of special qualifications for the task. There is, of course, no absolute certainty that the council will select an adequate and competent manager, but the chances of their doing so are excellent. The responsibility of a high officer in whom all the executive authority is concentrated is a sobering one, and so far as we now know no council has proven false to its trust in this regard. "Under the manager plan there is a single head to the city and through him the work of all departments is co- ordinated. Generally speaking, the men selected as man- agers have been men professionally interested in city man- agement. Their personal advantage lies, not in doing as little as possible, in evading responsibility and in covering up defects in their administration, but in producing the best results for the community. A manager will not play petty politics with the offices at his disposal because he knows that the important thing for himself is success, not in holding his job, but in doing his work. He knows that to lose his job because he does it well will only mean ad- vancement in his profession. "The city-manager form of government is not a novel thing in our experience. The private corporation, the city school district and most of our great state institu- tions, such as state universities, have a form of organiza- tion almost identical with it; that is a lay board acting through a single responsible executive. The plan is ra- tional. It appeals everywhere to the sound sense of busi- ness men. The only class bitterly opposed to it is the professional politicians, who find themselves out of a job because of its introduction. One should not expect for _':;<> IN TI1KSK l.ATTKK DAYS it tjuite the same definite ;m',. l-'rederick L. Hoffman, life insurance statis- tician of Newark, New .Jersey, says our murder death rat' for tin- period 1909-1913 was 6.4 per 100,000 of population. The rate for England and Wales \vas 0.8; for Prussia, 2.0; for Australia, 1.9; and for Italy, 3.6. In other words, the number of murders in the United Slates at the present time. proportionate to population, is about 100 homicides for every thirteen committed in England and Wales, thirty in Australia, thirty-one in Prussia and fifty-six in Italy. It admits of no argument that among the civili/ed countries of the world the United States stands to-day in deplorable eontrast as regards the security of the person against tin- risk of homicidal death. "In addition to the statute extending the privilege of avoiding self-incrimination, in tenderness to the weakness of those who may have been in some degree compromised. 21 out of our 48 States have either by constitution or st.it ute reduced the trial judge in jury cases to a mere mod erator by forbidding him from advising the jury on tin- facts 01- expressing his opinion on questions of fact, not- withstanding that all questions of fact in jury cases are left to the jury's sole and ultimate determination. This took away a judicial right and duty which every English and federal trial judge exercises to the public advantage. In 15 more of our states the state courts of last resort have by judicial decisions suppressed or abdicated their trial judges' right and duty to act as judge's and have reduced them to mere moderators. "Other results of statutory shelters to the guilty, statu- tory privileges of crime and statutory tenderness to the weakness of the compromised, accompanied by the trial judges in a majority of the states being forced to act as moderators and abdicate their inherent functions as judges to advise the jury on the facts. Between 1882 and 1903 lynchings aggregating 3,337 were reported in 44 of our 49 continental states and territories. In other nations lynch ing now exists only in parts of rural Russia where the laws 243 provide an inadequate punishment for horse stealing. Lynching does not now exist anywhere under the British. French, Dutch, or German flags, although all these nations have frontier and mixed race conditions in their colonies, dependencies and possessions, which if either mixed races or frontier conditions were primary causes of lynching, would lead to an amount of it in excess of anything we have ever known. It is quite true that Anglo-Saxon popular tribunals and lynching originated in the marches of Scot- land in the days of the border wars and was practiced also by the vehmgericht in Germany in the days when the power formerly exercised by the Hohenstaufen emperors had been usurped by the robber knights ; also that it was used in expelling tories and desperadoes and confiscating their lands during the lawless times of and following the Ameri- can revolution. Cutler, Lynch Law, 5-10, 13-36, 59-76, 88- 89; Bancroft, Popular Tribunals, I. 2-7. To understand popular tribunals and lynching, the attitude, of the vigi- lants and their responsible supporters and neighbors is of more weight than that of the outlaws or the formal legalis- tic critics of the vigilants who confine their activity to de- structive criticism and make no attempt to remedy the un- derlying causes that have led to popular tribunals, popular justice or extra legal criminal justice in 44 of our 49 con- tinental states and territories. " Hubert Howe Bancroft's Popular Tribunals justifies the two San Francisco vigilance committees of 1851 also of 1856, as well as the other responsible vigilance commit- tees of the Pacific coast and what are now the Rocky moun- tain states before the civil war, on the ground of necessity, because the state and territorial governments had alike ab- dicated their primary duty to preserve life and enforce pub- lic order and security, also their duty to punish crime. Popular Tribunals, II, 666, 675-93. Bancroft was the con- fidant of the leading vigilants and had the free use of their archives and records. Bancroft says, Popular Tribunals I. 748-9, that there were but sixteen executions in thirty I'll IN THESE LATTER DAYS ye.-irs. djit in<,' from 1S47, the opening year of Yerba Buena's aspirations. Th<-e. \\itli the four hangings by the Vigi- lance Committee dt' 1S.">1, and four by that of 1856, com- prise the catalogue. Millions of money had been paid by the citizens to keep running criminal courts and police regu- lations these thirty years, and hundreds of men were all the time at large whom the law pronounced guilty of death. As to the citizens composing the committee of 1856, they have calmly stood by and seen and heard of some fourteen hundred murders .in their city in six years, and only three of the murderers hanged under the law, and one of those a friendless Mexican. I have given in this volume many ex- amples of popular tribunals, but the half has not been told. It is safe to say that thus far in the history of these Pacific States far more has been done toward righting wrongs and administering justice outside the pale of law than within it. Out of 535 homicides which occurred in California during the year 1855 there were but seven legal executions and forty-nine informal ones. Of the latter terf occurred in the month of January, not one of which would have been consummated if left to the machinery of law. So it was in Nevada ten years later: to 150 homicides there were but two legal executions. It was the Augustan age of murder. "Bancroft quotes the London Times' view that if Cali- fornia's lax criminal law enforcement was so serious an evil as to need a vigilance committee to supersede the law of the land in open day to restore public order, it could have no possible difficulty in amending the administration of this law, had they directed their efforts to such purpose instead of dispensing with law altogether. Strong trial judges of the British or federal type, or a strong California criminal procedure of the English, Canadian, or Australian type, which convicts the criminal instead of manumitting or enlarging him, was the last thing the Californians of 1851 to 1856 seemed to desire. "William T. Coleman, president of the 1856 Vigilance Committee, wrote his executive committee: 'Keep all 245 cases in California from judges, but have juries in all cases.' Bancroft, voicing the vigilant view, says that popular tribunals and the right of revolution were the vigilant ideals. Here on this coast had been law without order for years, and at last the people were determined to have order without law, if necessary. Law had become criminal, and must be put upon trial by the people for dereliction of duty. For some few centuries yet the iron-bound dogmatism of ancient societies will continue to condemn the action and principles of popular tribunals. They will continue to see no difference between a mob and a committee of vigilance, between a turbulent, disorderly rabble, hot with passion, breaking the law for vile purposes, and a convention of virtuous, intelligent, and responsible citizens with coolness and deliberation arresting momentarily the operations of law for the salvation of society. "But the time will come when intelligent men every- where will acknowledge the superiority of this principle. It will then be seen that that government is most stable which is founded on rectitude and independence, which relies for its support on the will of a virtue-loving people, and not on tradition or inexorable law. It will then be seen, more clearly than now, that all power vests in the people, whether they chose to use it or to remain bound by superstitious veneration of shadow, that even after law is made and execution provided, the executive has no power except such as daily and hourly continued to him by the people. Bancroft, II, 670-1. In California the trial judge in jury cases is a mere moderator, and is not allowed to advise the jury on any question of fact. Bancroft points out that Macaulay's prophecy of 1857 as to America's future danger was clearly inspired by San Francisco's two vigilance committees. Either some Caesar or Napoleon will seize the reins of government with a strong hand, or your republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid* waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as was Rome in the fifth ; with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals who L'lii IX TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS ravaged Rome came from without, and that your Huns and Viindals will have been engendered within your country ly your own institutions. I'opiilur Tribiumh. II. 747." The vital features in which the English. Australian. and Canadian criminal procedure differs from that of tin- majority of American criminal courts are the following: The British, Scotch, Canadian, Australian, South Afric.-m. or Indian trial judge is a strong judge, not a mere modera- tor. He gives the jury the benefit of his experience and skill by advising them in difficult cases respecting the weight and effect of the evidence, what he believes the evi- dence had shown, but he also informs the jury that they are the sole judges of the facts and are at liberty to disre- gard his advice. The distinctive feature of Anglo-Saxon jury trials is a strong and experienced trial judge aiding and advising the jury, but leaving the ultimate decision of all disputed questions of fact to the jury, instead of acting as a weak and opinionless moderator, as the trial judge must do in three-fourths of our states. In Canada the judge may try most criminal eases without a jury where a jury is waived by defendant. Trial by combat and dueling are obsolete, but there yet remain connected with law courts and law practice, crudi- ties and absurdities to be discarded. We prefer courts of justice to popular tribunals, but if we cannot have the for- mer we will have the latter. We prefer peace to war, but better war than a display of cowardice at home or submis- sion to injustice abroad. It is impossible to transform medieval superstition into modern fact. Religion tried it, and still tries it, anil su we have preached from latter-day pulpits, and paraded at latter-day altars the soul of the auto-da-fe and the mum- meries of the inquisition, the realities of the unreal, as miracles, revelations and all the church mechanism for the enforcement of ignorance and blind belief. Law retains it in every film- of its constitution, to find vent in legislative THE DECLINATION OF LAW 247 proceedings and in the antics of the so-called courts of jus- tice. The cure for our courts is to blot them out and estab- lish something new. The railroad commission, indeed, as far as it goes is a wonderfully efficient system, w y orking perfectly in all its parts ; and the hope is that this or some- thing like it will in due time be extended over all litigation, over all issues such as now appear in courts of law. The difference between the two systems is that one is dominated by the great god Sham, while in the other Equity rules; in the one case arrayed in robes of fustian adorned Avith quibs and technicalities, law sits enthroned, whereas in the other, truth and the right are of the first consideration. But it were perhaps more profitable to consider what the railroad commission is than what the courts of law are not. The Railroad Commission of California is a department of the state government which supervises and regulates the rates, service, facilities, extensions, issues of securities, and transfers of property of all public utilities in Cali- fornia. It has jurisdiction over railroads, street car and express companies; over car, steamship, gas, electric, and water companies ; over telephones, telegraphs, oil pipe lines, wharves, and warehouses. Every corporation or individual serving the public by any of the above means is subject to the control of the commission for the public good. Only utilities owned by cities and operating within those municipalities are ex- pected, as the municipal railway of San Francisco and the Los Angeles aqueduct. The work of the commission is organized into six de- partments, as f ollows : Administrative ; Legal ; Statistics and Accounts ; Rates ; Engineering ; Stocks and Bonds. Each department is subdivided into such bureaus as are necessary. In the rate department, for instance, are bu- reaus devoted to railroad, water, gas and electric, tele- IMS IN THESE LATTKK' DAYS phono and telegraph, warehouse, ami wharf rales. In the engineering department are lull-cans devoted to elect riral engineering, hydraulic engineering, and to general service and safety work. The nature of the matters submitted to the commission for adjustment are such as to render speedy determinations imperative. Stock and bond issues must be handled cx- peditiously. Rate inconsistencies must not be allowed to continue longer than can be avoided. The commission has, therefore, adopted the policy of proceeding with as much speed as accuracy and full justice will demand. On the matters coming before it since the adoption of the public utilities act, requiring formal hearings, the commission has rendered its decisions at the rate of ten per week. In these formal cases, the average time from the filing of the papers to the decision has been 34 days. The average time from the filing to the hearing has been 12 days ; and the average time from the hearing to the decision has been 22 days. Despite the large number of matters before it, the commis- sion has kept abreast with its calendar, and those cases now undecided represent merely the normal calendar accuma- tion. The commissioners travel about the state, holding hearings where the greatest convenience of the people sug- gests. For thirty-three years, from 1879 until 1912, from the creation of the commission until an awakened public zeal altered its form and spirit, there were but three members. These were elected in districts. The commission 's juris diction during this time was solely over steam railroads of the state. During this period, emliracing the greatest growth in railroad building, in population and wealth, not more than a dozen cases were brought forward for adjudi- cation. No single important principle affecting the rela- tion of the railroads to the people w^as ennuicated. No rates were lowered effectually. Chosen by an unrepresenta tive method, not for fitness, but generally for political purposes, the commission was without real authority, and THE DECLINATION OP LAW 249 lacked the confidence of the people. It was a mere lay figure in the governmental and economic life of the state. The people were entirely without adequate remedy against the exactions and extortions of the railroads. Not until political progress had ended the reign of corporations over the people, and had elected a legislature representing the desires of the people, were these conditions changed. The general results accomplished by regulation since January, 1911, when Governor Johnson assumed office, may be divided into two divisions, moral and economic. It is the practice to lay stress particularly upon the economic accomplishment. It is true that the decisions of the com- mission have resulted in the saving to the people of the state of approximately $6,000,000 per year. More deeply rooted, however, and more essential to the permanent welfare of the state is the moral effect. The achievement of greatest moment through the medium of the railroad commission has been the establishment perma- nently of the people's control over public utility corpora- tions in the state of California. Before the present state administration took office, it was an accepted fact that large public service corporations controlled the government of California, and that this control was vested particularly in the largest public service corporation of the state. The primary idea in the minds of those who gave to this railroad commission its extensive powers, was the overthrow of the dominance of these public service corporations. The com- mission believes that the control of the people over these public service corporations has been so positively fixed and determined that not even the most arrogant of these great corporations now doubts it. In March, 1912, went into effect the Public Utilities act under which the railroad commission is appointed by the governor, and the number of commissioners were increased to five, jurisdiction being given not only over steam -rail- roads but over all public utilities in unincorporated terri- 250 IN THKSK LATTKK hAVS lories. By act of the legislature. effective in August, 1!K>. this jurisdiction was extended to incorporated cities ;m the making of extensions, both within and without the limits of incorporated cities and towns. 251 The commission now controls and regulates the utilities of more than 200 cities and towns, besides the whole extent of the state outside of them. Over 1,000 utilities filed their annual report with the commission during 1915. The commission handles matters before it by formal and informal methods. Formal proceedings necessitate public hearings, while informal proceedings are handled in person by a commissioner, or by correspondence, and there is no public hearing. Even in the formal matters, parties in- terested need not employ attorneys, and the commission is not bound by technical rules of evidence, as in courts, but seeks to administer justice by ascertaining all the facts. Since the commission was given jurisdiction over all public utilities, 3,500 formal decisions have been rendered by it. The increase year by year is indicative of the constantly growing work of the commission. But a trifle over one per cent of the decisions of the commission for the past twelve months were appealed from, and none 'of these decisions was reversed by the courts. With its enlarged scope, and behind it the will of the people to make amenable to their rights and wishes the conduct of the public service corporations, the commission began at once, either upon its own initiative, or upon the complaint or application of others, an investigation into the rates, rules, and service of the utilities. The commis- sion has made itself the guardian of the interests of the people in their use of the utilities. It stands between these corporations and the public, and compels those who furnish the people with these necessities and conveniences of life, to deal fairly and promptly with their customers, and to make rates just to the people as well as to the utilities. The confidence in which the public holds the commission was indicated by the increased power given it by the legis- lature and the direct vote of the people. A third of the cities had voluntarily voted their utilities under the com- 252 IN THESE LATTER DAYS mission, and seeing the effects of this control, the people of nil the state made it unanimous. Through its informal department the commission en- ables any citizen of the state, by the use of merely a two- cent stamp or a postal card, to lay any matter before it. The humblest citizen without expense has, therefore, the full privilege of calling the commission to his aid where his grievance is justifiable. Every informal complaint thus received is given the same careful attention that attaches to a regular case. In this manner the commission is able to attain a high degree of use 1'ulncss to the people. The least influential citizen in city or country, who makes a complaint against a public service corporation, ob- tains a prompt hearing and a prompt remedy. No request for investigation is unheard. In pursuance of this plan the commission journeys all over the state to hear complaints and requests. So great has grown this work that a few months ago, upon the action of the legislature, three exam- iners were authorized to aid the commission. These exam- iners take and report to the comsissioners the evidence in cases assigned to them. It is thus possible and occasionally happens that eight hearings will be in progress at the same time in various parts of the state. More and more have the people of the state come to look upon the commission as the guardian of their interests with the utilities. Besides about 3,000 applications filed with the commission since its re-birth, more than 10,000 informal matters have been adjusted and remedied. Many of these have been made in person, but most of them by letter; or even by telegram or telephone. These have been promptly adjusted by correspondence, or by personal visit of one of the commission's experts, and a satisfactory conclusion reached in the large majority of eases, obviating the n- sity of formal proceedings. These informal complaints and requests take many different forms. They range from the request of a householder for speedy installation of gas or THE DECLINATION OF LAW 253 water service to the complaint of a community of unsatis- factory transportation facilities. A great factor in reducing these complaints, and one of the main achievements of the commission in the four years of its new existence, has been the insuring to utilities monopolies in the fields they serve so long as such service is adequate at reasonable rates. This means that utility fields can not be divided by unjust competition, which, splitting up perhaps among several corporations the pos- sible earnings, prevents adequate service. Many public utilities, being by their very nature monopolies, the com- mission laid down the principle that these ultilities should have protection against such competition if they satisfied their patrons and grew with the needs of their territory. Another striking result of the commission's concern for the average citizen has been the establishment of a uniform set of rules governing the service of gas, water, electric, telephone, and telegraph utilities. Each of these corpora- tions had formerly enforced its own arbitrary system of rules and deposits from customers, and extensions of serv- ice to them. The state at this date assumed this power under the commission 's decision, and fixed standard regula- tions for the entire state. An examination had been made by the commission into the practices of a thousand corporations, and nearly a year consumed in the inquiry. A million dollars held by the utilities as deposits to guar- antee payment by customers is being given back to the public. By this ruling the questions of extensions and connections, of payment of bills, and of installations, are upon a plain and firm basis for all the corporations, and the companies compelled to put in telephones, meters, and service connections at their own expense, and not that of the public. As the desire for municipal ownership gains in California, the commission's power to set the figures at which cities may condemn and buy their utilities will be exercised more and more. Special attention has been paid to the needs of the jr. I IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS .iirricultnral communities of tin- state. P>y investigation and resulting orders, it has been able to advance conspicu- ously for large increases of crops and of population in com mnnitics where the lack of water service hindered progress. The commission's decision that the California Develop- ment company is a public utility was appealed to the supreme eourt whose judges refused to upset the decision. This company has a practical monopoly of water sources for the entire Imperial valley, and is regulation is im- perative for the expansion of profitable farming in that dis- trict. Over 30.000 acres of agricultural land in Placer county were given water by the commission, after a seem ingly effectual barrier to the growth of this section had been erected by the power company's refusal to meet the demands of the farmers. The company, determining to build additional power houses below the lands needing irrigation, refused to distribute any more water, limiting cultivation to eighteen thousand acres and leaving two hundred land owners without water. The commission found that the claims of these farmers superseded those of the corporation for more power to sell abroad. The measure- ment of irrigation water by standard device is encouraged wherever possible. The public utilities act makes it necessary for the con- sent of the commission to be obtained before a railroad crossing may be constructed. It gives the commission the right to abolish and close grade crossings. This includes not only the crossing of one railroad by another, but also all crossings of streets by railroads, or vice versa. Under this authority the commission has declared its policy t<> grant permission for as few grade crossings of railroads as possible, and as speedily as can be to end their existence in California. The revenue of express companies in California was reduced $750,000 a year, and the profits of Wells Fargo & Company cut down from 136 per cent to 22 per cent. Long distance telephone rates were established saving the con- THE DECLINATION OF LAW 255 sinners $500,000 a year, while the annual reduction on railroad passenger and freight rates was not less than $<>.000,000. More than 700 miles of railroad have been constructed under the authorization of this commission, and power projects have been initiated or carried forward embracing 100,000 additional horse power for the state. Fifteen new railroad enterprises, embracing an expenditure of $20,- 000,000 have either been launched or carried forward al- most from their inception. English capital to the extent of $5,000,000 has come into California under the jurisdiction of the commission for the construction of a new oil pipe line from the fields at Coalinga to San Francisco bay. A new ferry service be- tween Contra Costa and Marin shores has been inaugurated under the commission's supervision and jurisdiction. NeAV telephone, water, and warehouse enterprises, scattered throughout the state, have been made possible by commis- sion regulation. At the same time all other public utili- ties have gone forward w r ith prospects of expansion and development involving the expending of more than $150,- 000,000. Not only has every legitimate business in the state been stimulated by the readjustment of freight, power, and tele- phone rates, but the utilities have almost uniformly made an improvement and a better financial showing under the jurisdiction of the railroad commission than heretofore. Despite the regulation of the ultilities, the frequent reduc- ing of their rates, the curbing of their arbitrary treatment of the public, and the disciplining of dishonest companies and officials, the railroad commission has been an aid to general development and is favorably considered in finan- cial circles. Under the old order in California, communities of men were made to serve the purposes of individual men. The long continuance of such a relationship means the destruc- tion of individual independence and initiative. With the 856 IN THESE LATTER DAYS overthrow of the politic:)! power of these jrreat i>ublic nrviee em-porations, and their subjection to the control of the people, must come that re-assertion of individual independence and initiative \\lii.-h makes for the better- nifiit of mankind. This more than all else makes the work of the railroad commission worth while. CHAPTER XII FALLACIES AND FANTASIES HOMILIES are promulgated upon the beneficial uses of adversity, but the benefits of prosperity find expression in enjoyment rather than in sermonizing. 'I for one will say frankly that I have no use for adversity. ' ' Sweet, ' ' the poet calls it ; then let the poet have it. Pleasure without pain were unknown if the soothsayer may be believed; then let both be eliminated. Which brings us to brutism, a state preferable to certain agonies of mind and body which a kind providence scatters among his best beloved. Human nature is a complex machine, with an endless variety of hearts and heads, of temperaments, dispositions and idiosyncrasies, all alike, yet no two the same since the appearing of the first man and woman. A moderate amount of money, so far as affecting any comforts or blessings this world can give, is better than many millions whose only compensation is the ignoble pride of possession". Few believe this, however, and few of those believing will act upon it. It is a case where truth and right judgment are not wanted. Yet, withal, when the rain of riches falls upon us, comes the infatuation to scatter them, in which operation the good sense of mankind does not appear at the best advan- tage. The city of New York, the most conspicuous of all communities at the present time, is rioting with money obtained primarily from supplying Europe with imple- ments of death, by passing on to them the poison for their self-extermination; meanwhile with orgies and flaunting 9 257 IN TIIKSK LATTKIi DAYS extravagance revelling in their death dance which is to command the envy and admiration of all mankind. Where does the benefit of this so-called prosperity come in, a prosperity which indeed i* nothing less than eating from the same poisonous loaf which we are so generously administering to the starving suicides across the water? And in the after-damp, before and after the deadly vapor is somewhat blown away, and with a realization of it all reflection comes, what are we to think of it, and of our- selves, and of the pleasure we have derived from the mis- fortunes of these many nations? Sweet are the uses of adversity, let us remember. By it men are made manlier, stronger, better able to cope with obstacles which impede progress toward Ihe higher life. Shameless too often are the uses of prosperity, enervating to mind and stimulating to immorality, inducing vanity, inanity, and all sorts of mental, moral, and physical deteri- oration. Should we not be thankful therefore that so few of the blessings which flow from Europe's madness have reached California? Western civilization is rapidly dispelling eastern super- stitions, and will continue so to do untill all the cults of the present day dissolve in thin air. I think I may safely say that as a rule we of the west do not envy the east their wealth and prosperity ; we do not envy them their frills and furbelows, their play-houses and palaces, their so high society with its shams and hypoc- risies, its witless men and made-up women; nor their so low society with its poverty and misery, its rank smelling negro quarters, its foul-air colonies of gibbering Italians, Portuguese, Scandinavians, and Slavs. Let New York remain America's celestial heights until a new firmament appears with the sun resting over San Francisco bay. No man, if he be a man, will go through life without some useful occupation which will be to him a career, a life-long effort in which he may hope to excel ; otherwise, 259 though he may be the possessor of millions he is simply a loafer, a cumberer of the ground from which he sucks substance giving nothing in return. Indecision is the worst of all bad habits. Better do the thing and do it not quite right, then do it again and do it right, than to do nothing, sitting idly waiting for the repavement of hades with good intentions. To the European gentleman the privilege of wide dis- crimination is barred by custom; his choice of a profes- sion is limited to three, the government, warfare, and the church, none of them being in the way of benefits to man, but rather explorations in the fields of wickedness, in sub- duing or preventing vice and crime, a police autocracy. And from the king and high priests down to the poor pro- bationer, the more exalted his position the more worthless lie is, save only in the government, where the aristocratic system is in some respects superior to the democratic. We Americans are full of fads, which give us pain until they find expression. Prominent among others in these latter days are the benevolent efforts of the peace propa- gandists, who would stop a dog-fight by talking nonsense to the dogs. Jane Addams takes her knitting-work and goes to Eu- rope to ascertain by whom the war was started; on her return she soberly assures her admirers that it is a thing no fellow can find out, yet there were many here in Amer- ica who could have told her what she wished to know before she went away. Mr Ford, among the several compartments of whose brain we cannot find one well equipped for dealing in inter- national affairs however expert he may be in making auto- mobiles, trusts to his money, which he is right in regarding as a powerful agent for good as well as for evil. So he fills a ship with peace-making fanatics who are at war among themselves before they are half-way across the Atlantic. I'liO IX TIIKSI-; LATTKK hAYS Time was wlini David Slat 1 .Ionian was an-ivditrd with his lucitl intervals, but not since leaving his office to a better man to assume the empty honor of lord high chancellor of the university, the better to become an apostle of peace and draw pay from Stanford's stolen millions, while as the Nobel prize flits away in the distance he sinks into retirement. "Blessed are the peacemakers," said Jesus, "for they shall be called sons of God." Well, we have plenty of peacemakers at Washington and throughout the country, and Miss Addams, Mr Ford, and Mr Jordan should feel signally blest if Christ's words are true. And surely it was no fault of theirs that they did not succeed, and are now not called sons of God, the same that William the kaiser calls himself. Even Woodrow Wilson did not euc- ceed, though he strained the moral sense of all the nations in his efforts to do so. Blessed are the peacemakers, even though peace comes through war, that the scriptures may be fulfilled. And blessed is peace. For pleasant indeed it is to sleep in peace while others fight; pleasant to pillow our head upon the wave of prosperity and dream of further inflowing millions from the man -kill ing machinery sent across the water. Hence it was when after the rape of Belgium I wrote in my Modern Fallacies, some two years ago, "Better the United States should join the allies than that Germany should win," the words were regarded as somewhat san- guinary, and not to be taken too seriously. Many who form societies and pose as instructors and regenerators of the race we can scarcely regard seriously. Some of them, however, those with the least mental equi- poise are undoubtedly sincere, however infatuated they may be. Others see in it notoriety, and the plaudits of sen- timental women and brainless men ; or should some of the combatants happen to be overcome during their contests great would be their glory for having achieved martyr- FALACIES AND FANTASIES 261 dom, while peace-medals would be struck off by the thou- sands. They should know, these good kind men and women, and many of them do know, that what they advocate is impossible, or were it not so that the accomplishment of their purpose at this juncture would be the worst thing that could happen, as in a premature peace all that has been done for the honor and rights of humanity would be thrown away, and the present game of carnage would have to be continued at no distant day. True benevolence insists upon a continuance of this conflict between right and wrong until certain issues are established which shall prevent its immediate recurrence. And do any of our aspiring peace-makers suppose for a moment that the Ger- man people, their doctors, professors, and war-lords, in their present state of disordered mentality, are ready, at the request of alien sentimentalists, to restore the lands they have stolen, make some sort of reparation for the wrongs they have committed, abandon their system of militarism and give substantial assurance of future good behavior ? Or do they suppose that England and France, with the example of Belgium and the many other atrocities before them as to their fate under German supremacy, do they suppose for a moment that England and France will submit to a further intensifying of the reign of blood and iron inaugurated by Bismarck, to denationalization, degra- dation, and slavery as long as there is left a man among them who can fight? Finally the kaiser himself makes what he calls an offer of peace, whereat all the women in pantaloons and petti- coats clap their hands and cry halleluiah ! And what is this offer of peace ? Why, let him keep certain of his loot, and be given a guarantee that he should not again be attacked, and he would stop the slaughter, talk at once insincere and insulting, subterfuge too shallow to deceive a school-girl. Yet all Germany believes in it, believes that IN TIIKSK LATTKH DAYS tin- kaiser did not bring on the war hut was f.nv.-d into it. Then what is it? Is William of (Jennany ;in arch hypocrite, yet silly enough to think he ean deceive the world with such talk, or is he really insane? He pretends he is a con lueror, yet he sues for peace. He pretends he is the vic- tim; he knows he was the aggressor at the start and all through the war. He now sees that his case is hopeless, while this pretended peace offering only binds the allies still firmer in their determination to hold together and fight it out. "Has the prospect of a future permanent peace been strengthened or weakened by the present world war?" asks the editor of the Copenhagen Vcrdcn Og Vi. The answer is simple and conclusive. If fought to a finish, and Germany safely bound to proper terms, yes; if not, no. What President Wheeler of the university says of it is this: "Bethmann-Hollweg's proposals, I believe, repre- sent a genuine effort to open negotiations looking toward the end of the war. Unless a beginning is made somewhere and at some time, the war will drag on for years of inde- cision and misery. Every friend of civilization must de- sire the end of this wretched strife, which was from the beginning perverse and devoid of all clear and straight- forward purpose viewed from either side. No one, how- ever, who desires the end of the war will separate from that desire the conviction that all will be practically vain. both war and peace, unless a plan can be devised and made a part of the peace wherein nations never again can trip blithely or slide so recklessly into war as did the nations of Europe in midsummer 1914." Were not Germany crowned with folly she would now secure peace on the best terms she could get, for she knows that she is doomed, and should know that a prolongation of war will only add to the final penalty she must pay. Compare the present and what may be expected after the Knropean war with the conditions shortly after our war FALACIES AND FANTASIES 263 for the union. As one writes in the seventies, in reference to the period then just past: "The increase of wages for all kinds of manual labor was very great, but comparatively few of the workingmen saved anything. They imitated the profusion of their employers and guides. Economy was deemed unnecessary, stupid, and mean. New wants were invented, prudence and simplicity of life went out of fashion, and habits were formed and sentiments adopted which have wrought most important changes in the char- acter and aims of the workingmen of this country. The sheer wastefulness of that period, if it could be adequately portrayed, would appear incredible to all who did not wit- ness it. A curious feature of the time was the fact that for so many men all foresight seemed to have become impos- sible. They were intoxicated with their fancied prosperity, and were confident that it would last forever. Into these conditions was suddenly plunged a population which had no sufficient moral safeguards whatever. The transition to dishonesty had been prepared for among all classes, and was already partly accomplished. ' ' I observed much complaint lately of the difficulties in- volved in universal suffrage. They are doubtless great. If the world were wholly different we might do fine things. But we must have methods that can be used as things are, to begin with, at least. The age is probably the most un- teachable since the revival of learning. But we can work to-day only where we are. We are shut up to this univer- sal suffrage organization of society, and must find out how to make it serve the ends for which society exists. The franchise is not likely to be narrowed greatly in our time. If America were a jungle of human tigers, still it is our country and the country of our children, and its people, however undeveloped and intractable are our neighbors, brethren, and fellow-citizens." As through evil alone' good can come, so through war may we hope for ultimate peace. Fads and fancies are quite as necessary to our present 264 IN THESE LATTER DAYS system of social economics as lying, or to the science of government as necessary as political legerdemain. The world must have something to do, something to alter or reform or it gets into mischief. So Satan prowls about the habitations of the rich and restless, one pocket filled with deviltries for the men and the other with easy divorce papers for the women. Yet after all a man or woman without a passion, for good or for evil, is but a cabbage. And as for our inex- orable environment, are we not all slaves under its influ- ence, doomed to sloth or to energy as the gods shall direct, and is it not better to die overdoing than to attempt noth- ing? Then give the young man his fad, and should it in the end prove more than passing fancy he and you will be the gainer by it. The fadless youth, the youth without as- pirations or ambition is not a profitable investment for ad- vanced education, nor a promising subject for high dis- tinction. The person 1 without any further purpose in life than simple existence and enjoyment, how is he better than a poodle, a dog which sometimes displays intelligence ? For the faddist may be a fool or a sprouting genius ; he cannot tell, so he comes to you with his rimes written on soiled paper, and you do not like to talk to him of Tennyson. A scarcely logical feature of the patriotic sentiment we find in the dictum, "See America first," and in Sir Walter's extravaganza, "Breathes there a man with soul so dead," etc. "Why should I see America first?" "Because it is your own country." "But my country may or may not be better worth seeing than another ; I may be a better man than another ; because I am me and the country mine proves nothing, proves not even the presence of a bogus patriotism." Then there is the race situation, in regard to which \\v are less a concrete community than ;m abstract conun- drum. A mixture of races is demoralization for both sil< s. 265 besides being disgusting even to think about. Polygamy is not so bad as polyandry, but this idea which certain Asiatics entertain of amalgamating ^all the peoples of the earth into one race were better postponed until all but one race dies out. How shall the eugenicists who organize societies for birth-control and the improvement of the race have the courage to continue their efforts in the face of the constant enlargement of the factories for making American citizens out of base material ? ' ' It is proper to point out, ' ' says an expert upon the subject, "that birth-control is not, as the public seems to suppose, an integral part of the eugenics propaganda. Many eugenicists advocate it; many others oppose it. In either case, it must be regarded as a fact with which eugenics must deal. If one section of a com- munity limits the number of births, and another section does not, it is easy to calculate how soon the latter section will supplant the former, and there are plenty of object-lessons in the old colonial stock of New England. The eugenicist is more interested in the quality thar in the quantity of the population. ' ' The yellow peril at the present time consists not in the potential invasion of an Asiatic horde of fighting men, but in the actual invasion of a Japanese horde of rapid-breed- ing women who are flooding the country with baby Nip- ponese, presently to appear at the polls as American citi- zens. Gentlemen Japs of property too they will be, for their fathers are even now vesting in their name the title to lands which the laws of California forbid them to hold in their own. There is no danger of hostile attack from the Japanese so long as we give them the carrying trade of the Pacific, as a few submarines would make short work of destroying their ships, even though we invite war by appearing before them in the humble attitude of a coward nation. Fighting or no fighting, the United States must take an active part in the world's affairs or cease pretensions as -'Hi IN THKSK LATTKK DAYS a first class power. (Jet-many must not In- allowed to dmii inate the world, nor must Japan be permitted to steal China or control the Pacific ocean. China docs not want America and Japan finds it profitable to let us live a little longer. With our present Congress in power she has too good a thing of it as it is. Japan may take a lesson from Germany. The Germans regarded their war lords invincible. The world was at their feet and they thought to pick it up. Japan aspires to simi- lar thievery. Germany began by picking up little Helgium. And where and what is Germany now? Millions of her finest specimens of manhood slain, millions of homes made desolate, millions of money squaadered, honor lost, colonies lost, the crown itself wabbling on the kaiser's head. And what has she gained ? The everlasting hatred and contempt of all mankind. Wherefore if great Germany could not pick up little Belgium without such dire disaster, little Japan can scarcely hope to capture great America and live happily ever after. What is this so much talked of living wage? It is a wage that will enable the recipient to pay his exploiter a liberal sum monthly to drive away other laborers who may be starving for work which they would be glad to get at half of his living wage. It is a wage which would enable him to help pay an army of labor leaders to work for the election of law-makers and judges easy to bribe, who will support any wrong or injustice that will give the exploiters of the workingman the whip hand over the employers of labor. It is a wage such as would give the poor toiler one- quarter of his time to spend in a drinking-saloon, filling himself with poisonous rum and fouling the air with rant- ings against good men and good government. It is a wage which will enable him to give his lady daughter piano les- sons while her mother does the housework. It is a wage which will enable him to send a doltish son through college without pay; which will enable him to raise a family of im- FALACIEft AND FANTASIES 267 pencunious snobs; which will give him access to free hos- pitals, free penitentiaries, and enable him to avoid pay- ing even the little poll-tax of two dollars a year in support of the government, which was to guarantee him all the blessings of life and liberty, and a good old Irish burial at the end. Champions affecting the high wage and generous living for workingmen, how muchsoever credit they think to bring upon themselves for benevolent thought and humani- tarian ideals, present only one side of the subject. No white man wants white workingmen to live like the poorer classes of Europe Asia and Africa, but- it is lack of thrift rather than lack of pay that bars the way of our people, the saloons and a thriftless household; for moderate pay with proper economy will go farther than large pay with extravagance. Before I was born my father took a contract for build- ing a portion of the first canal in central Ohio. My mother accompanied him, and while keeping his house, cooking for his men, and caring for her two first-born babes, the returns from braiding straw for bonnets were greater than her con- sort 's profits in his canal work. That mother was a Vermont farmer's daughter, a New England woman of the best type, intelligent, benevolent, with a lively interest in all public affairs, piety, duty and deep-seated principle actuating every step in life, a heart full of loving kindness, ah, God ! how shall one speak of one's mother, as much superior to the bedizened dames of high society as gold to tinsel. It is plainly apparent that the high cost of living never will be lessened until the cost of production of essential articles is lessened, and this can never be done with only high cost labor. The consumer has now to support a per- centage of inefficient workmen, and a horde of labor-leaders who suck their substance from labor, living luxuriously on what they secure. IX TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS What a thing is fame ! David Lloyd-George and Joffre are just now famous, as not long ago were Lord Kitchener and Admiral Dewey, whose greatness quickly disappeared in smoke. In like manner the great villain and the athletic brute are for the moment famous. I was asked the other day to hand in some names of persons fittest to be enrolled in a hall of fame, already un- der consideration being John 0. Fremont, Joaquin Miller, and Bret Harte. I asked for instructions as to the stand- ard of greatness to be employed, whether great goodness or great wickedness, great in achievements beneficial to the race or great in fantastic follies. The truth is Fremont was a fraud, as history fully establishes, though we find his name posted freely on school- houses and other public places by unsophisticated educa- tors. Joaquin Miller was a mountebank rimester of the Oregon backwoods, discoverable only in England, while my friend Harte was a writer of charming burlesque as applied to the early California gold-diggers. If any of these were of the quality of fame they required for their hall they could not do better than to make their choice accordingly. There is Susan B. Anthony, a great man, or would be were she not a woman ; also Mrs Eddy, the new messiah. The name of William the kaiser will go down in history as the greatest of Christian devils, while Taft and Woodrow Wilson but enough, I am getting beyond the mark. Some might regard Abraham Lincoln better as an example for everlasting fame than the keen-edged Hunt- ington, and if the most worthy of the west are wanted I should mention William T. Coleman, James King of Wil- liam, John M. Eshleman, and high above them all, when his time comes, Hiram M. Johnson. Next after Washington and Lincoln, Theodore Roose- velt was our best president, and notwithstanding the sneers of the money-changers and the oaths of the politicians, his- tory will confirm it. And Hiram Johnson, whose turn may come in due time, is not far behind him. Roosevelt and FALACIES AND FANTASIES 269 Johnson are alike in these respects, they are both men of innate honesty, sincerity, integrity, and ability,, with a patriotism ready to sacrifice self for the good of the country if necessary. Timid women and men will say that Roosevelt is too ready to fight, but the solid men of America must know by now that the United States must fight when the time comes or go out of business. Let the sighing sentimentalists an- swer one or two plain questions. Would they rather be like China or fight ? Would they rather be like Belgium or fight ? Would they prefer a kaiser rule to a Roosevelt rule ? Should they see their women treated as the German officers and soldiers treated the women of France and Belgium, after despoiling their homes, would they fight ? But Roosevelt would have brought on war, they still harp on. That is not proved, nor is it at all probable. A manly policy, commanding the respect of all nations, were less liable to invite attack then a timid one, displaying fear if not cowardice. Further than this, if Theodore Roose- velt brought war on the United States, we may be very sure that the first duty of the United States would be to fight, and fight hard. As well censure Washington and Lincoln for bringing on war, as indulge in such speculative rot. Besides, we are yet to see how much war Mr Wilson will keep us out of before we are free from him. Most senseless of all are the blessed lambs of the propa- gandists who go bleating about the world for peace when they should know that they themselves are the greatest enemies to peace. Better the cry, Let us have war ! until these European horrors once for all are settled. Even China adopts republicanism and bristles up before Ger- many. Hail to tliee old Cathay! Art awake at last? Many are ready to answer blithely, though not always satisfactorily, the question, What are some of the principal causes that impede the progress of this commonwealth? Morally, I mean, we are prosperous enough materially ; too 270 IN THESE LATTER DAYS prosperous in fad. Will any one tell us why after fifty yea i-s of good behavior tin-re comes a defection from the ethical ideals of the founders of the republic like that, for example, at the Chicago convention of 1912'.' Money was not the Root of all evil on that occasion, for the convention was not bought but stolen, the looters, however, getting only a wrecked party: wrecked reputation, wrecked hopes of am future political influence or prestige, and the contempt of all right-minded men throughout the republic for their pains. One writing in the Literary Digest thus compliments our state: "When our northern cities are in the grip of blizzards, the orange-groves of California are resplendent with golden fruit, and gardens in southern California are fragrant with flowers. Later, towards the end of March. California is a land of blossoms, not surpassed by the famous cherry blossoms of Nippon herself. Here is found not the heat of the tropics, but a balmy and yet invigorat- ing air, long famed for its health-giving qualities. This climate, combined with the attractive scenery and fruitful- ness of the land, has caused vast numbers of families from the east to make California their permanent home. Of late years the tourist charm of the" Golden State has been height- ened by the rapid extension of a motor-highway system of extraordinary excellence. California is spending millions for permanent roads. From almost every tourist centre radiate motor-drives either along the sea-shore, through the fertile valleys, or to the mountains. These automobile trips form important adjuncts to the rail routes and make it pos- sible to see many places heretofore inaccessible. Whether California is entered by the southern or northern gateway, the trip from the east may be made by diversity of attrac- tive routes, disclosing the natural wonders and material re- sources of this great nation." While in the potential mood attention might be called to many other things, as the equable distribution of wealth, the savings banks showing three accounts for every five FALACIES AND FANTASIES 271 adults in San Francisco ; a per capita of wealth in San Francisco of $2,368 ; in California of $3,560 ; unlimited eco- nomic power possibilities from water, electricity and oil. The Pacific coast has five-elevenths of the standing tim- ber of the United States and twenty per cent of California 's area is in forests. At the present rate of cut, California lias a visible supply for 140 years of redwood and for 350 years of mixed timber. In minerals California is the fifth state in output; but in the opinion of leading geologists is first in the variety and value of its mineral deposits. The state has deposits of practically every mineral known in America. What lies under the snows of Alaska no man knoweth. California ! Uo we not know that we are living in the best country in the world? Do we not know that were we enjoying the aches and pains of old age anywhere else we would say let us go to California and get rid of them ? And this, not in a provincial spirit of narrow-minded egotism, self-praise, and vain glory, but as citizens of the world, knowing something of all countries, and appreciating the best when we see it. Let those who fail to know California, if any such there be, read what the editor of Collier's says: "California, as it stands to-day, is the most successful experiment in human society that has ever existed on earth. It has no poverty; it has no slums ; it has the maximum of political freedom ; the wealth is generally distributed. The average family liv- ing in California to-day has access to comforts and mate- rial pleasures such as are utterly unknown to large portions of the population, not only of Europe, but of eastern United States ; and as for the romantically idealized civilization of Florence, Rome, and Greece, hardly the meanest Cali- fornian would have cared to be a patrician among the Caesars. To some extent, of course, this is due to climate ; to some extent to soil ; but some folks think a good deal of it is due to the intelligence with which the affairs of human L'T'J IN THESE LATTKK DAYS society have been treated in California for some years past." There were the roaring forties and the recessional fifties. and so Anglo-California came into being. With what pride we recall certain episodes of our beloved California's ado- lescense. But alas! we did evil in the sight of the best men of the republic at the last presidential election. At a critical time we reflected to office a proved incom- petent, a man of shifts and indirection, probably the most ill-fitted for the position of all our presidents. Yes, we did it. And we take shame to ourselves for do- ing it. Although we elected him worse luck and lest I may be prejudiced in my estimate of the man's character, or lack of character, or lest I allow lese majesty to interpose and prevent me from speaking the truth, feeling keenly as I do the wrongs he has brought upon the United States, and especially upon California and this Pacific seaboard, let Gifford Pinchot tell what sort of manhood he sees in Woodrow Wilson, which is the same as seen by the most cbservant Americans, even by many of those who voted for him. "For many months after his inauguration," said Pin- chot in the autumn of 1916, "I thought well of President Wilson. In many respects I liked what he said about what he was going to do.. He talked well and made a good im- pression. It was only when I began to check up what he said by what ho did that I was forced to change my view. In the end I came to see that he has a greater power than any other man in public life to say one thing but do an- other, and get away with it. "The facts which justify this statement are common knowledge. We have all heard him tell Germany publicly that she would be held to strict accountability, and have learned afterward that he had actually let her know secretly at the time, by the mouth of his secretary of state through FALACIES AND FANTASIES 273 the Austrian ambassador, that what he said he did not mean. We have all seen him prove that he did not mean it by his total failure to exact reparation, apology or even disavowal for the murder of Americans on the Lusitania. " I do not say that Wilson should have thrust us into the war. There was no need of war. But there was need of courage to give us peace with self-respect. If Wilson had shown courage this country would not have skidded from one crisis to the next, again and again narrowly escaping disaster. We have all heard him declare against interven- tion in Mexico, while actually intervening to dictate who should and who should not hold office there, and denounce war against Mexico while actually engaged in war. "With war on every side of us we all heard him, in his second annual message, solemnly assure the country that we had not been negligent of national defense. It was not true ; and later on he himself proved that it was not true by proclaiming aloud the need for what he had solemnly as- sured us we already had. "For more than a year after the world- war began Wil- son did not raise a finger to put us in a condition of defense. Only the proverbial good luck of America has kept us from paying the bitterest price for his unforgivable neglect. "We have all heard him ridicule the idea of a greater navy, then declare for incomparably the greatest navy in the world, and then go back on that. "We have all heard him declare for exempting our coastwise trade from tolls in the Panama canal, and have seen him show our own people and the English that he did not mean it. ' ' We have seen him elected on a platform which pledged him to a single term as president, and then become a can- didate for another term. ' ' We have all heard him declare for the conservation of our natural resources, and have seen him neglect that policy and refuse his help to defeat the Shields waterpower bill, L'7-l IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS the must dangerous attack on con>ervat ion since liallinger's effort to turn Alaska over to the Guggenheims. "We have all heard him declare for efficiency in gov- ernment, and have seen him set the pork-barrel first and throw efficiency away. I have known official Washington from the inside for six administrations. In that lime the government business has never been so badly done and so extravagantly as it is now done under Wilson. "We have all heard him announce himself as the chain pion of civil service reform, and have seen him turn the government departments over to the spoilsmen as no other I > resident has done in twenty years. "We have all heard him declare for pitiless publicity, and have seen him conduct the most secret administration of our time. "We have all heard him announce himself as president of the people, and have seen him as the most partisan presi- dent of his' generation, flout and oppose the progressives, whom now, because he needs them, he seeks to conciliate and enlist. "Worst of all is this: When every principle of free- dom and equality for which our fathers fought was at stake in the great war, when our whole country eagerly awaited the leadership of the president, Wilson dodged. He refused to take sides on the greatest moral issue of our time. He advised our people to be neutral even in thought, undecided between right and wrong. While our friends abroad were fighting for the principles we held equally with them he taught us that profits and ease were better than self-respect. President Wilson has done our nation the most serious injury that any leader can do to any people by making us flinch with him from a great moral decision. "Having led us wrong on the ground that we must be neutral in the face of the deliberate breaking of the world's peace, he has just reversed himself again and in his speech at Shadow Lawn now assures us that no nation FALACIES AND FANTASIES 275 can any longer remain neutral as against any wilful dis- turbance of the peace of the world. "It is bad enough that Wilson's foreign policy has left us, as the war draws toward its end, without a friend among the great nations of the world, and without the respect of any one of them. What is worse is that he has kept us from standing up for what we know to be right. "In what he has said, done and left undone the record shows Mr Wilson steadily dominated by political expe- diency. These facts and many others like them, have forced me to see what Mr Wilson says is no sign of what he has done or of what he will do. The one thing his record shows is that what he stands for now he is not likely to stand for long." Some of Wilson's worst acts were in pandering for the labor vote. His true opinion on the subject the following will show. In 1907, at Princeton, he said, "We speak too exclusively of the capitalistic class. There is another as formidable an enemy to equality and freedom of opportunity as it is, and that class is formed by the labor organizations and leaders of the country." Again in 1909, "I am a fierce partisan of the open shop and of everything that makes for individual liberty, and I should like to contribute anything, that might be possible for me to contribute to the clarification of thinking and the for- mation of right purposes in matters of this kind. "You know what the usual standard of the employee is in our day. It is to give as little as he may for his wages. Labor is standardized by the trade union, and this is the standard to which it is meant to conform. No one is suffered to do more than the average workman can do. In some trades and handicrafts no one is suffered to do more than the least skillful of his fellows can do within the hours allotted to a day's labor, and no one can work out of hours at all or volunteer anything beyond the mini- mum. 276 IN THESE LATTKK DAYS "I need not point out how economically disastrous such a regulation of labor is. It is so unprofitable to the em- ployer that in some trades it will presently not be worth his while to attempt anything at all. He had better stop altogether than operate at an inevitable and invariable loss. The labor of America is rapidly becoming unprofit- able under its present regulation by those who have de- termined to reduce it to a minimum. Our economic su- premacy may be lost, because the country grows and grows more and more full of unprofitable servants." "I have been assailed," said Roosevelt, "because I have criticised Mr Wilson. I have not said one thing of him that was not absolutely accurate and truthful. I have criticised him because I believe he has dragged in the dust what was most sacred in our past and has jeopardized the most vital hopes of our future. I criticise him now because he has adroitly and cleverly and with sinister ability ap- pealed to all that is weakest and most unworthy in the American character, and also because he has sought to lead many men and women, who are neither weak nor unworthy, but who have been misled by a shadow dance with words. He has kept the eyes of the people dazzled so they know not what is real and what is false. In the face of the world he has covered this nation's face with shame as with a garment." Perhaps no episode in Mr Wilson's career caused more general indignation and sorrow than his scholarly peace notes to the belligerents in Europe wherein every academic sentence rang false. When he said that "The objects which the statesmen of the belligerents on both sides have in mind in this war are virtually the same," he knew that he was not speaking the truth, and he knew that all the world knew it, yet his assurance enabled him to brazen it out. He knew that Germany's object was rapine and rob- bery, brutal blood-lust, piracy, and universal domination, 277 while that of the allies was to defend their lands and deliver the world from the power of a great people turned to devils incarnate. A wave of humiliation and disgust swept over two continents while every right-minded man in the United States was filled with shame at such misrepresentation by the chief magistrate of the republic. It was unfortunate diplomacy, as cruel as it was contemptible, this truckling to Germany; it was an insult to England and France, an outrage upon Belgium, and a crime against civilization. Says a stricken father, speaking for a 'million stricken fathers and mothers, "As one who has lost his only son on the battle field, I cannot say much, but I am entitled to say plain things. It is a strange wrong against the moral sense of mankind when President Wilson puts un- happy Belgium on the same moral level as her violators, and glorious France on the same moral level as the Turks. I for one would rather lie with my dead son than for a moment to accept this statement which President Wilson cannot have meant to give the pain and surprise it gave to every man on this side of the Atlantic who knows what this fight for freedom means, and what are its everlasting issues between right and wrong. ' ' The indignation of the allies was aroused, and justly so. "We protest against assumption by the president of the United States," they said "that the sufferings of his country are in any sense comparable with ours, or give it in the discussion of terms an equal place with nations which have shed their best blood and borne unheard-of agonies that a just and permanent European peace might be established. And we resent with all indignation the comparison of the governments of the allied nations with the powers that invaded Belgium in cynical disregard of treaties to which your government was a party, shot to death innocent hostages, looted the Belium banks, and fined the population or reduced it to slavery. It is with amazement that we read even the suggestion of such a com- 278 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS parison from the hand of the president of a country whose men, women, and children were slain on the f^tsHnnin." To which the editor of Collier's remarks: "Whether this definite and precise, kmg-eonridered and carefully weighed reply to the hollow impertinence of the peace note will quiet Mr Wilson's nervous activity remains to be seen. In his relations with foreign governments and his discussions with Carranza the president has shown little capacity for understanding the kind of spirit that ani- mates the allied nations. He may fail to appreciate tin almost religious feeling that impels them to declare that they are fighting to safeguard independence, right, and humanity, to liberate Europe from the brutal covetous M.--X of Prussian militarism, and to insure a peace upon tin- principles of liberty and justice, and upon inviolable fidel- ity to national obligations. As reasons for sacrificing mil- lions of lives, these may seem vague and unimportant to one kind of mind while appearing perfectly clear and of transcendent importance to a mind differenty constituted." Thus obsessed by a sense of his own infallibility he goes on his winding way, while close at his heels is his counselor, whose limited vision sees no difference between Washington's patriot soldiery and the Mexican rabble that followed the bandit Villa. Germany, meanwhile, in a yet wilder rage of insanity, being denied peace without victory while claiming victory, sets out anew in an open campaign for the conquest of the world. Wilson's fundamental weakness, next after nature's limited endowment, is in having so many weak men about him, aspiring in his superior wisdom and strength to be himself the whole United States, with a subservient con- gress and incompetent secretaries. Can anyone imagine a more maladroit performance than the punitive expedition into Mexico at the cost of many lives and four hundred millions of money, a sum equal to tin- income tax grind for a year. Enough has FALACIES AND FANTASIES 279 been squandered in Mexico alone to build fifteen war ves- sels of the first class and fifty submarines, and nothing accomplished, except disgrace, matters being made worse by it all instead of better. Roosevelt's opinion in regard to the infamous peace note was that the president had taken a "position so pro- foundly immoral that high-minded and right-thinking Americans, whose country this note places in a thoroughly false position, are in honor bound to protest." "This is palpably false," he continued after quoting the declaration in the note that both sides say they are fighting for the same thing, and he followed this with the declaration that "it is wickedly false to say that Ger- many is fighting for the same thing as the allies. ' ' "The prediction of the president that at some future time the American people intend to safeguard the rights of small nations should be promptly withdrawn, unless it is sheer hypocrisy. That the United States is eager to guarantee the peace of the world is absurd. The spectacle of the president trying to guarantee peace to any nation with the aid of Daniels and Baker is as comic as anything ever written by Artemus Ward. "If his words mean anything," he continued, "they would mean that hereafter we intend to embark on a pol- icy of violent meddling in every European quarrel, and in return invite old world nations violently to interfere in everything American." Said Chester H. Rowell, "Think of the futility of our whole course in Mexico! We sent the army and navy to Vera Cruz to get a salute, which we did not get, and to stop a shipment of arms, which we did not stop. Then, having marched in without sufficient cause, and being pre- vented from doing the only things which justified us in staying there, we proceeded, also without excuse, to march out again. Then we invaded Mexico to get Villa. We did not get Villa and he disappeared. Therefore, having noth- ing further to do to justify us in staying in Mexico, the 280 IN' TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS expedition nevertheless stayed. Finally \'illa re-appeared, and there was something to do, but the expedition \\;' s forbidden to do it. Therefore, in order not to aggravate our self-imposed humiliation, it comes out." "President Wilson has announced himself in favor of peace without victory," again said Roosevelt, "and now he has declared himself against universal service; that is, against all efficient preparedness by the United States. "Peace without victory is the natural ideal of a man who is too proud to fight and too foolish to prepare. It is spurned by all men of lofty soul, by all men fit to call themselves fellow citizens of Washington and Lincoln, or of the war worn fighters who followed Grant and Lee. "The tories of 1776 demanded peace without victory. The copperheads of 1864 demanded peace without vic- tory. These men were Mr Wilson's spiritual forbears. But neither Washington nor Lincoln was among the men who draw the sword lightly, or who when once it has been drawn sheathe it without victory. If a righteous war is concluded by a peace without victory, such a peace means triumph of wrong over right, and neutrality between right and wrong means the support of wrong against right. "Mr Wilson asks the world to accept a copperhead peace of dishonor, a peace without victory for the right, a peace designed to let wrong triumph, a peace cham- pioned in neutral countries by the apostles of timidity and greed. "In Mexico he has accepted and is accepting such a peace, and by his policy he has brought disaster to Mexico and dishonor to the United States. His policies through- out his four years have brought woe to humanity and shame and bitterness of heart to all Americans proud of the honor of their flag. "President Wilson talks of the freedom of the seas. The basic form of freedom is to be free from murder. Yet President Wilson has not dared to secure even this ele- mentary freedom from our men, women, and children on FALACIES AND FANTASIES 281 the seas. Let him first act in the present to secure this elementary freedom from Germany before, in the inter- ests of Germany, he asks the abolition of naval power. "Let him remember that to work for disarmament on land by the great military powers of Europe and Asia is to put this non-military country at the mercy of every military monarchy, for inasmuch as we are now defense- less on land, our navy is our only safeguard against in- vasion. ' ' There is a stricture in the eyes of the president as well as in his mind and morals. "It seems to us extraor- dinary," says Conan Doyle, "that he should see no dif- ference in the ideals of the two sides, the side which in- vaded Belgium and the side which defended her." Mr Doyle should know that the ideals of Mr Wilson are in the direction of personal and party interests, and that the welfare of the world has very little to do with them. It is a little singular that we should have in succession two such products of American politics as the last two presidents, a republican and a democrat, the latter first elected by luckless chance by a minority vote, the former chosen by the out-going incumbent upon the pledge of his whole avoirdupois to maintain throughout the Roose- velt policies which had so elevated the standard of polit- ical and business ethics throughout the world. Whom shall the citizens of a republic hold responsible for its misrule ? Themselves. Though our money-changers, as well as those in whose general practice the theft of a convention is a small matter, have learned the lesson that square dealing will carry a man further and over an easier road than he shall find among any of the paths of indirection, and order their affairs accordingly, yet in well organized lines of business the old maxim caveat cmptor, is still remembered. And if in the purchase of goods it is well for the buyer to know what he is getting, how much more important it is in electing men to office. I'M' IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS Nor it is always the fault of tin- citi/en that mistakes are made, for how should ho know the aspirant to honors, who peradventure docs not know himself, and is liable at any moment to change his colors if not his character. Vet this was not the case in the unhappy return of Wood- row Wilson to the presidency. He was well enough known. The whole world could not choose hut know him. But the voters of the middle and farther west could not stomach the specimens of fossilized statesmanship the tricky manip- ulators of rotten republicanism at the east set before them for their suffrages in the place of two such men as Theo- dore Roosevelt and Hiram Johnson. From the first California has been a land of high sur- prise. We took it over because we could after a little mild fighting with Mexico, stealing it from the thief who stole it from the aborigines, and behold a gold mine which turned the heads of half the world. The soil was valueless for agricultural purposes, people thought, parched in summer and flooded in winter, yet ere long we were feed- ing people who shortly before were feeding us, first with grain and then with fruit. Politically further surprises; passing the usual terri- torial limbo while dancing attendance upon our black men, we sprang full fledged a state into the union, to be mis- ruled by southern chivalry until the northern pork-sellers arose and purified society. Then was heard the cry of the Irish drayman upon the suburban sandhills. "The Chinese must go!" and another iniquity was upon us. But never before throughout these several years of the unexpected had we aspired to determine the fate of a presi- dential election, an achievement least anticipated by those whose instrument it was. The real cause of it all lies far- ther back with certain super-smart politicians from New York and Philadelphia at the Chicago convention in 1912. playing such devil pranks while completing the wreckage of the republican party, as in any other profession would FALACIES AND FANTASIES 283 have opened the back door for them. Lying, theft, and legerdemain were among the minor accomplishments of those honorable gentlemen, which brought about their own downfall, with lasting infamy, together with the birth of the progressive party, and the infliction of at least two terms of democratic rule. Coming to the election of 1916 politics took a flight downward from the lofty regions of the east to the more placid plains of the west. At the nominating convention which should have named Roosevelt and Johnson, and who had they run as progressive republicans would probably have been elected, another aspirant was brought forward who was too much like Taft to be acceptable. The honor of turning progressive California over to a democratic president for a second term of misrule may properly be divided between certain misguided men ; first, the republican candidate himself, whom if his guardians had kept at home would have received the vote of the state r and secondly, certain self-constituted representatives of the- old guard who imagined themselves the whole show, and sought to run things accordingly. Theodore Roosevelt is a sincere, honest, capable, and patriotic man, unselfish and unafraid. He cleansed the New York police pot, fought the Spaniards, closed the Russo-Japan war episode, thereby saving one or two hun- dred thousand lives the question is were they worth sav- ing, who would at any time plot to destroy us? inaugu- rated the Panama canal which had awaited his coming for four hundred years, revolutionized commercial and polit- ical integrity in America and raised the standard of indus- trial ethics throughout the world, and many other praise- worthy measures and benefactions, and after serving two terms as president voluntarily retired, leaving his country standing higher than ever before as an opulent first class power of honor and integrity, with a man to take his place pledged to pursue his policies and carry out his benign and progressive measures, but who proved to be only a 284 IN TIIHSK LATTKK DAYS mass of flesh, that melted before the sinister influence of New York money when left to stand alone. Later Theo- dore Roosevelt, when eastern sharpers would again trick him out of place, to save his country from the disastrous consequences of another democrat!'- administration, he re- linquished all further effort for himself and gave his hearty support to his competitor, an act of pure patriotism never surpassed in this or any other country. And Hiram John- son is in every way his acknowledged peer. It is a long time since California has had at Washing- ton an honest, intelligent and efficient senator like James D. Phelan. I know of no other in these latter days. They have all been either tools of the railroad, or slaves to party, cranks, or devotees to ignorance, prejudice, or stupidity. The most serious menace to American interests at the present time, as I have said is not Japanese war but Japa- nese women, who are rapidly filling town houses and farm camps, and breeding another alien race of American citi- zens to our everlasting disgrace. Senator Phelan did what he could to avert this evil from California, but the indifference and timidity of his confreres were against him. Fight? Yes, I would fight Japan before I would admit her women, or humiliate my- self by placating her extraordinary sensibilities, or toler- ate any interference in the government of the United States such as the cowardice of the democratic congress tends to invite. We have delivered her from the chains of barbar- ism, given her the Pacific ocean, and now she wants the continent, and intends one day to get it, if not by force of arms, then by the subtler means of breeding in our midst a race to take our place. The lamentable policy of Congress in admitting Japa- nese women will soon render California undesirable as a residence for white people, while the five or ten million yel- low citizens which will in due time appear will prove a very fair beginning toward the Asiatic occupation of America. CHAPTER XIII THE ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION IT is a somewhat startling fact, but one that can be well enough established, that more time and money are spent in studies of no practical value than in those that yield an adequate return. We might go farther and say, were we inclined to be captious, that more time and money are spent in efforts that were better omitted, in studies that tend to obstruct initiative and embarrass de- velopment than in those which foster independent thought and stimulate natural ability. Half of what is taught in schools and colleges is super- fluous, and a superfluous education too often kills the bud- ding genius which otherwise might bring forth fruit of its own. In authorship no less than in business, in pur- suits which one would think would be in the highest degree benefited by the higher education, we see the best results when there has been the least training. It is true that while superlative effort in any one direc- tion tends to indifference or incapacity in other directions, yet the fact remains that whatever is to be done naturally finds its way to him who can best accomplish it. More than ever before with the ever increasing intensity of life the work of the world falls into the hands of experts, who can accomplish the most in the shortest time, that is to say of specialists, who have learned to do one thing exceed- ingly well, rather than many things indifferently well. Wherefore less university extension with more concentra- tion might be desirable. The student who fails to qualify as in some way supe- 285 IN TIIKSK LATTKIi DAYS rior to the average may consider himself a failure SO far as his college education is concerned. And how many thou- sands of that sort are turned out from our institutions of learning every year to the disappointment of their friends, and often to the wrecking of their own career, as it is then too late to take up a new line of effort, working up from the bottom with the energy and enthusiasm of youth. They might have it in them to make a Lincoln or a Lloyd- George working along other lines, even though failing in the one selected. Modern education of the exalted sort is a constant straining to lift the common people out of a state of useful- ness into a sphere of economic inefficiency. Of what prac- tical use is the large army of teachers but to teach, deriv- ing their support from the untaught? It is said that about one-fourth of college students enter with the idea of be- coming lawyers. Now there are twice as many judges and courts of law as are necessary or beneficial, and ten times as many lawyers. Hence there is here a great waste of hu- man energy and capability. Use or enjoyment may be found in a classical education, with comparative philology and archaeology, the pursuit of which if after all it cannot be put down to pastime must be in the main regarded as wasted labor. Pity the poor father who was constrained to say, "Yes, 1 longed to give my boy a better chance in life than I had. I worked, and saved, that I might pour my life's efforts into the hopper of advancement, and gather from the mills of the gods my reward ; but in the end I could only say with Aaron at Mount Sinai, "I cast my gold into the fire and there came out this calf." A century or two ago the boy who knew a little Latin was regarded as educated, though he knew nothing else. Here was concentration with a vengeance, the concentra- tion of ancient superstitions. Add to this Greek, that lie might repeat the sayings of Plato in his own language and contemplate the morality of the gods on Olympus, THE ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION 287 and he was learned indeed. Or if a prelate he would know Hebrew, the better to fathom the nature of God and the ways of man in that language. This to us seems foolishness, but just as foolish to those who shall come after us will appear the teaching of foreign languages in our schools, leaving our own but half learned, languages of which no use hereafter will be made, unless indeed some wish to study kaiser kultur and the ethics of German blood-lust and internationalism, in which case we will admit that some language other than English is neces- sary. Educators whose good taste and sound judgment find profit in German propaganda, illustrated with such examples as the rape of Belgium, should surely employ the German language. It is a favorable indication of the coming common sense to the learned men of Germany when the erudite Fritz Mauthner writes in the Berliner Tageblatt, "What do we care, what does our youth care for the absurd Greek and Roman legends and myths? The classical school has ren- dered great services to the fatherland, but its time-is over. The world does not stand still. The stern realities of the present have an imperative claim on us. Our children represent the future, and the school is the future of this future. We want facts instead of empty words and for- mulas. We want a democratic school, we ask for the boy of the workingman the facilities for becoming, one day, if he be otherwise fit for the job, military attache with our greatest embassies. And of what use are Greek and Latin for such a position ? ' ' Says Mr Lewis, high school principal of Philadelphia, "Tradition has riveted upon our children the ball and chain of foreign languages and algebra, and has impris- oned them in tedious isolation from the real world in which their instincts tell them they are to play their part. It has set them the hopeless and profitless task of mum- bling over the dead formulas of a dead past and repeating the shibboleths that pedantry has prescribed as the pass- 288 IN THESE LATTER DAYS \\ords of culture. It has dimmed the eyes, whitened the cheek, and twisted the spine of our womanhood delving among the stones of Rome when she should have been gain- ing strength for her day, informing her spirit concerning the social problems that her sweetness and sympathy fit her best to solve, and learning to bake good home-made bread. It has shoved on to the street as failures our bright- est youths because they refused to turn thrmsrlv. s into phonographs to drawl out joyless jingles." There are a do/en foreign languages, dead or alive, most of the dead ones fortunately quite dead, that is to say obsolete, their place in the college curriculum vacant, which is a good indication. Even now when Latin is taught, how much of it does the boy know six months after leaving school ; or if well schooled in if of what use will it be uiil*-^ IK- proposes to write a dictionary? Anyone can see the inconvenience and uselessness of dragging these Latin Mjunes at the tail of business, the business of the doctor, the druggist, the gardener. Our children are forever studying foreign languages and never learning them, or if they learn them never using them ; and as there is no knowledge in a language, but only sounds, the work is almost wholly wasted. In Holland, for example, many children of fifteen can speak four languages besides their own; can you find anywhere greater block- heads than in Holland? Though not a collegian, we must not infer that persons of this category are not educated. They drink in knowl- edge it may be at every pore, all that was not already theirs by intuition. They learned grammar but not the rules of grammar; geography, but not by formulas. They could not help but learn. No six months course or four years term; for them life was too short for such indul- gences. In my historical work my assistants never let an unfa- miliar language stand in their way. High Dutch or low. THE ECONOMICS 0V EDUCATION 289 Scandinavian, old Spanish or modern Russian, it was all the same. "Send me some one once or twice to give the accent and I will do the rest," they used to say. My Rus- sian, Petrof, when he came to America and entered the union army could not speak a word of English, but before the war was over he was writing for illiterates letters home in their own language. The higher education does not seem to stimulate original thought or action. How many prominent business men are there who owe their success to education; how many are there who owe their success to lack of education ? Even our greatest authors, as Howells, James, Mary Wilkins, Mark Twain, James Whitcomb Riley, Joel Chandler Harris, Frances Hodgson Burnett, H. C. Bunner, Bret Harte, George W. Cable, Frank Stockton were not college men. "If you feel you have a spark of the divine fire of creative literature in you, keep away from college, unless you are content to have its glow reduced to the ember- heat of the merely critical mind," is the verdict of Mr Ellsworth, former head of the Century company, who says further: "One trouble is that authorship is likely to be a matter of chance. The young man who goes in for technical training knows just what he wants, and gets it. And more and more young men are seeking assured pro- fessions for which they can get definite technical training. Some of the writers who had no college training are Arnold Bennett, Gilbert K. Chesterton, William Black, Rider Haggard, John Masefield, George Moore, Eden Phill- potts, and Israel Zangwill. Kipling went to the United Services college. George Bernard Shaw was a poor scholar and left school at the age of fifteen to enter a real-estate office." England's premier, David Lloyd-George, the strongest man in the British empire, was the son of a Welsh baptist schoolmaster, who died in the child's infancy, leaving the boy to ignorance and poverty, but who made a man of him- self. America's chief magistrate was brought up in a land 10 L'fM) IN TI1KSK LATTER DAYS di' plenty in an atmosphere of learning and refinement, lir.-iime an accomplished scholar and teacher, and ma. I. himself what he is. * Long ago Locke complained that the English language was not being taught in the schools, and that subjects and methods of teaching had little bearing upon actual life. He asserted that classical studies were being forced on many boys, who, on account of the lack of certain natural aptitudes, could not profit by them; that one's natural genius should be carried as far as it could, but to attempt the putting another upon him would be but labor in vain, and what is so plastered on would at best sit but unto- wardly, and have always hanging to it the ungracefulness of constraint and affectation. If then, a smattering of many things stands no chance beside pronounced superiority in one thing, may we not safely conclude that a large percentage of the work of the schools, tending as it does to widespread superficial- ness, is worse than thrown away? "In very truth," Homer Edmiston says, "the waste involved in our academic sys- tem, waste of money and energy, but chiefly of all-precious time, is nothing short of appalling. Instead of an edu- < -at ion adapted to individual needs, instead of a natural and equal training of eye, hand, and brain, every child, whatever may be his gifts, aptitudes, and future pros- pects, is put into our huge, clumsy mill, and often not taken out of it till he reaches manhood. There are not many many young men who, in justice to themselves and to society, ought not, from something like the age of six- teen years, to bestow the larger part of their time in get- ting ready for their business of life. And since it is gen- erally confessed that our collegians devote four precious years of their lives to what is called liberal culture, to pretending to learn much, that is, and actually to learning very little, there is surely a strong prima facie case against the institution which, taking from each rising generation so much of its valuable time, does not fulfill its main and THE ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION 291 ostensible purpose, but is compelled to rely on incidental advantages in order to justify its existence." "These college freaks or failures," as a practical pro- fessor observes, "are not so much uneducated as misedu- cated. Their faculties are active, but they are undiscip- lined and misdirected, and the result of their thinking is largely erroneous. For these difficulties our public school system furnishes no adequate remedy. Two things are especially to be noted in our popular school education ; it usually leads to no interest in literature or acquaint- ance with it, nor to any sense of the value of history for modern men, a very serious defect; and its most charac- teristic and general result is a distaste for manual labor. We have some good schools, of course; but great numbers of teachers and principals of our high schools in country places have for several years explicitly taught their pupils, and urged upon parents, the sentiment that in this country education should raise all who obtain it above the neces- sity of drudgery; that there are better ways of making a living than manual labor at so much for a day's work, and that these higher ways will be open to those who get an education. All this has resulted in a dainty, effemi- nate, and false view of the world as a place where only uneducated and inferior people need work hard, or engage in toilsome or unattractive employments." As a rule the boy who goes to college is spoiled for business, that is for beginning at the bottom and work- ing his way up. If an established business awaits his management, that is a different matter. Neither does a pedagogue make the best man of affairs. Our worthy presi- dent boasts his ignorance of business, though perfectly will- ing to assume the management of the business of the United States. The student in college learns only such things as were well known before ; he is not only told the facts, but he is told how to construe and apply them, or if his instructions are speculative he is told what he must believe concerning L'!IL> IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS them. On the ntlirr hand, the farmer's hoy. or tin- ML- chanie's, or tho merchant's, having been given the rudi- mi'Tits of an edncjition learns from practical experience how to determine principles and apply methods. Dating from the age of seven years, there will be ten years at school preparing for college before the average hoy lias chosen a profession or thought of specializing, the state of indefinitenrss of greater or less degree remain- ing through his college course. Half of this time at least is tin-own away; seven years out of a boy's life before he reaches manhood; it is as bad as Prussian militarism but for the subsequent slaughter. For the boy who special- izes and enters upon his life work at twelve, whether in an intellectual or a mechanical occupation, will outstrip the other nine times in ten. So settled is this idea in the minds of business men that they invariably prefer for their serv- ice a young man with only a common school education to a college graduate. Now and then we see education turning a somersault and taking a backward turn, the wickedest places and per- sons on earth to become pious and the pious to become wicked. There is Texas, and you may add Oklahoma if you choose, not long since famous as the land of fire- eaters, of cutthroats, desperadoes, and professors of the impromptu duello; and for hereditary feuds, vindictive strife and the vendetta we might include the first families of Virginia and the last families of Georgia, once notori- ous sinners, now notorious saints, as Arthur Dutton thus testifies. "Indications are numerous in various parts of the country, particularly in the middle and far west, that we are threatened with a revival of the old New England puritan spirit of the seventeenth century. Symptoms of atavism, or the recurrence in the individual characteris- tics of a remote ancestor, are found in the Texas law that forbids public card playing. Recently an old lady on a Pullman ear was interrupted by the conductor while she was playing a game of solitaire, on the ground that she THE ECONOMICS OF . EDUCATION 293 was breaking the law ; in the laws in some Texas and Okla- homa counties prohibiting public billiard or pool tables and bowling alleys ; in the barring from athletic honors of any pupil of the Manhattan high school of Topeka, who uses tobacco in any form. Such examples of a revival of the old puritanic ideas are constantly occurring. The Vir- ginia legislature has before it a bill regulating the dimen- sions of women's garb, such as requiring a maximum skirt height from the ground of four inches and a maximum low neck of three inches. Oregon has a law forbidding the selling of anything but bakery products on Sunday; a Lebanon baker was arrested for selling a can of pork and beans on Sunday. Herman Trent of Englewood, wrote a letter to the New York evening Sun, in which he said : 'If I had my way I would not only close up all the saloons and race-tracks, but I would close all tobacco shops, con- fectionery stores, delicatessen shops, and other places where gastronomic deviltries are purveyed, all low theatres and bathing beaches. I would forbid the selling of gambling devices, such as playing cards, dice, checkers, and chess sets; I would abolish dancing; I would abolish the sale of coffee and tea, and I would forbid the making or sale of pastry, pie, cake, and such like trash.' The foregoing samples remind one strongly of the old New England puritan laws, which, among other things, forbade the hus- band to kiss his wife or the parents to kiss their children "on Sunday; refused food and shelter to heretics; would permit no one but an ordained clergyman to cross a river on Sunday; cut off the ears and burned holes through the tongues of Quakers, stripped them to the waist, lashed them to the tails of carts and whipped them from the colony. The puritans had ordinances regulating the most minute details of private everyday personal life. I know whereof I speak, for my paternal ancestors were Con- necticut puritans in the seventeenth century, but they re- formed in later generations, and the doings of their fore- J!J IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS lrars were part of the folklore of my childhood. Are strange old days coming back?" The evolution of our political, educational, and indus- trial institutions has surpassed the evolution of the people, tampered as the country has been by the constant inflow of baser elements from abroad. At the same time it would si 'cm to an ordinary observer that our methods of public school management are too loose, too lavish : that they are \\.-inton and extravagant to a degree that renders the high purposes of their organization demoralizing; in a word that to pauperize schools is not the best way to good citi- zenship. There is a style of pedagogy that obstructs rather than aids learning. The pedant though he may be highly learned in some things is generally a fool in most things, and the very highly learned man is always half pedantic. No one sees or feels this more than the average professor himself. As one college president said, "the academic mind does not test its theories; it works in a vacuum. Even if a good critic of another, it is an unsafe guiilf." With no malice on my tongue, but with a tinctuiv of irony in my heart, I once remarked to an unlicked native of Boston, where culture is ground to so sharp an edge as to be invisible to the naked eye, while overlooking with real admiration some specimens of his work he was an artist of no mean repute: "You people," I said, "stand at about the top of the world in everything." "We think so," he replied demurely. That closed the argument. Every child is born into the world of knowledge know- ing nothing, and what he learns here he has to leave when he dies. Unlike money, knowledge cannot be devised or inherited. What is acquired here can be used only here. And were one to spend every moment of one's time from the cradle to the grave in gathering from the known and THE ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION 295 the unknown, the accumulated store would be but the smallest particle compared with what would be left un- touched. The super-learned man may gloat over his store as the miser over his riches; after all he is but a poor fool in most things. He cannot eat drink or sleep his learning any more than a rich man his gold. He cannot sell it or give it away; more miserly than the miser he can only drivel over it and hug it to his bosom unable to impart but the smallest modicum of it to his fellows. What good does it him ; how does -a surfeit of scholar- ship benefit one any more than a surfeit of gold ? He may head an institution of learning and pose as a teacher, but he does not teach. The successful presidents of our great universities are before all else men of sound practical com- mon sense. Youth is endowed with native ability of various grades. Some are fitted for an executive office, while those who Avould not make a first class clerk, or mechanic may still find useful employment ready at his hand. "As for intel- lectual discipline," says Mr Edmiston, "which the edu- cational theorists of our own day claim as the peculiar distinction of our formal and academic schemes, if the history of great men and great epochs proves anything, it is that the only discipline worth the name is that which comes to the mind from working at its proper and nat- urally chosen task. A mind trained along the line of its true development grows and expands as naturally as does a tree planted in the right conditions of soil, air, and sun- light. And to discipline the growing human intellect in a great variety of subjects is about as sensible as it would be to split the stem of a sapling to make it put forth branches. Intellectual discipline is the result and by- product of successful intellectual endeavor; and learning with the expectation and even the intention of forgetting, the prevailing habit in our schools of every grade, is not successful intellectual endeavor. In fine, the only good 296 IN TIIKSH LATTER DAYS excuse for devoting time and labor to learning any subject is mastery and possession, complete and permanent, of knowledge and forms of skill that prepare for the busi- ness of life. Considering that the great majority of stu- dents have their own careers to make, it is perfectly cer- tain that every year of academic education restricts their opportunities of earning a livelihood, and, if they are not going into a learned profession, wastes their time or worse than wastes it. The best learning years of life are passed before they are out of college, and have been spent almost entirely on books. It is for this reason, and no other, that such excessive numbers crowd into the learned professions." Nothing can be more beneficial than a technical edu- cation as the basis of a pursuit to be followed through life. provided it is not carried too far, so that something is left for the student to work out and accomplish for him- self. "We have generally believed," says George Kibbe Turner, "that for many years the teaching of the sciences has been on the increase in our public schools. And in the greater and more advanced cities this is so. But it is not so with our high schools as a whole. By the same figures of the commissioner of education made in 1910 for our high schools by which half of the pupils were en- gaged in taking geometry less than one-sixth were taking physics and zoology, and only one-fourteenth were taking chemistry. Not only that, but in all these and in the less commonly taught sciences, there had been a very marked decrease in the proportion of the high school pupils taking them during the previous ten or twenty years. The dead hand of the medieval scholar, who rules American high schools, was not getting weaker, but stronger. So the thing is not changed at all in high schools. It is a mere repeti- tion of the process in the grammar school below, exagger- ated. The hand of tradition still forces on our children there still more obsolete studies that they do not need, and will not take; still keeps away from them the essentials THE ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION 297 of the modern education we all know today that we should have." That there is a faultiness in our system of education as in our system of government, defects in public peda- gogy as in prescribed religion, few will deny. The first trouble is the general looseness and irresponsibility attend- ing the administration of affairs where one party gives the order and another pays for the goods. Those who clamor loudest for more, more and better, more books and better houses, more machinery to w r ork with and to play with, pay the least. All that the poor can get out of the rich; all that the laborites, who even shirk their poll-tax, and pay nothing toward the support of the government they so love to dominate, all that they can rightfully or wrongfully get out of others is so much gain to them. Meanwhile petty politicians, demagogues, and all who want the vote of the poor toiler, all who are lazy and impecu- nious rack their brains for excuses for providing for them- selves useless articles for others to pay for. Pray tell me why a school teacher should be given a pension any more than a shoemaker; does he not receive a fair salary from which he may if he chooses save suffi- cient for his future needs? If with steady employment for a period of time he declines to do this, he does not deserve public support afterward. Nor do I see any benfit to the teacher thus to pauperize him and his pro- fession. If not properly paid let his salary be increased, reducing the number of teachers for this purpose if neces- sary. While we are about it let us pension the poor lawyer, the poor doctor, the poor policeman, the so sleepy judge, the labor-leader, the suffragette, the poor president. Doubt- less Taft and Wilson would take a pension ; I am sure Roosevelt or Johnson would not. There is nothing specially arduous in teaching five or six hours a day for five days in a week, and a month or two off in the year for play, no IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS self-saerifiee for tin- public good, no work f tin- day, "The American who applauds this education of asiatics and savages in the art of destroying thr rivili/ation of the white man is a fool for laek of ordi- nary sense and foresight." And all the while that money is being squandered in superfluous education, illiteracy is increasing among the ignorant poor who are here for factory work, Greeks, Poles and Slavs, with whom we have no gentleman's agreement, and whose super-sensitiveness does not impel them to impu- ilrnt interferences in matters which should not conei-rn them. For war munitions with which to raid our towns and fight our soldiers on the border we make ^he Mexicans pay, or promise to pay, but for the knowledge of science and art which aids progress and strengthens civilization, for a knowledge of these implements and agencies to be used in our future destruction by the heathen hordes of Asia we rise up and outdo ourselves in the effort to give free instruction. Nevertheless the destiny of the ultimate west demands its fulfillment. Great as have been the industrial achieve- ments of the eastern and mid-continent states, they are small indeed as compared with the economic expansion of the future, of which, owing to her geographical posi- tion and the vast natural wealth of the shores of the Pacific within easy reach, California will secure a large share. And in this connection it is impossible to forecast the im- portance of the great work which will be accomplished by the University of California in bringing forward to a higher state of culture the region around the Pacific. Untrammeled by paralyzing precedent or by restrictive traditions, under the liberal and intelligent management such as it at present enjoys, none of the old institutions of the east or of Europe could supply its place or do its work. Probably there is no institution in the world where opportunity and enlightened effort meet for high achieve- TUP] ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION 303 ment as in the University of California under its present management. I believe that in progressive education this institution is leading the world. There may be some things that can be better studied at the east, or in Europe, or even amidst the buried glories of old Asia, but the soul of humanity is in the west. It is here that the final destiny of mankind is to develop, with the broad waters of the Pacific emblematical of its scope. Around this greatest of oceans is a special sphere of influence, requiring a master mind even to foreshadow its potentialities, and to President. Wheeler western civilization will ever owe a debt of grati- tude for laying broad the foundation for present and future development. The first work of a great university is to clear the minds of youth from the falsities and superstitions of the past, and not rivet still tighter the chains of ignorance by holding up for their imitation the half-intelligible max- ims of the half-civilized sages of Greece and Eome and Egypt and Palestine. To pick up the fragments left over by worshipers of Buddha, or the alleged sayings and doings of fishermen who followed Christ, and demand for them recognition as of specially divine origin and influence is promulgating ancient ignorance and not modern truth. It is not easy for one to conceive the mighty power for good in the near and distant future that this institution will exercise in the unfolding of a new civilization around the shores of the Pacific. Of the University extension service the California Outlook says: "One of the most useful and interesting educational enterprises in Califor- nia is the extension division of the state university at Berkeley. Probably no other organization designed to enlarge the service of the great university has had so striking a brief career. Organized a little over three years ago on a broad and comprehensive basis, this division now occupies an important position not only, in the university but in the entire state, and has won wide recognition through its many-sided social and educational activities. 304 IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS A Hirst useful and significant phase <>f this university ex- tension service is that of the bureau of correspondence instruction, one of the seven bureaus composing the exten- sion division. The extent to which this bureau is meeting a real need and the value of correspondence instruction are illustrated by the rapid growth in the number of stu- dents, the variety of courses offered, and the keen public interest as shown by the widespread demand for instruc- tion. These have literally increased by leaps and bounds. Courses are given by mail in a wide range of subjects. Tn the purely literary brandies, English composition and literature, the drama, journalism, French, German, Span ish. Italian, and Latin are taught by this method. Along lines of technology, instruction is given in mechanics, elec- tricity, hydraulics, many branches of pure and applied mathematics, freehand, instrumental, mechanical, geomet- rical, and protective drawing, and architecture. In busi- ness branches courses are given in accounting, advertis- ing, business management, commercial law, commercial arithemtic, stenography, and typewriting. In the social sciences, there are courses in history, political science, and government, municipal administration, international law, social economics, and the history of philosophy. A num- ber of courses in education are offered, including the his- tory and science of education, educational and social psy- chology, school organization and administration, and play- ground supervision. In scientific fields, there are courses in astronomy, biology, and child welfare; and in those of music and art, harmony counterpoint and the history of music and of art are taught by the correspondence method. The bureau now lias students distributed from the Atlan- tic coast of this country westward to India, and from icy Nome to the equator. Naturally, the great majority of the students live in California, but there are eager, ambitious men and women pursuing these courses in nearly half the states of the union, to say nothing of those in the canal zone, in South America, in British Columbia, THE ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION 305 China, the Philippines, and India. The giving of corre- spondence instruction is but one of seven great enterprises being promoted and directed by California's university extension division. It carries on the other six enterprises through six bureaus. The bureau of class instruction is having a year of splendid success, with . extra-campus classes in Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose and Stockton ; the bureau of visual instruction is serving a most useful cause, the use of stereopticon slides, moving-picture films, ;md industrial exhibits for educational purposes; the bu- reau of lectures is supplying communities throughout the state with a repertoire of profitable lectures ; the bureau of public discussion is conducting a most profitable series of debates and discussions ; while the bureaus of infor- mation and municipal reference are serving the state in ways implied in their names." What is to be the future of the University of Cali- fornia? It is only yesterday that the powerful weapon of ability to read and write was left to the favored few, and the world would have jeered at the ridiculously im- possible idea that the time would ever come when all men should be taught these rudiments of education. Illiter- acy has not yet been abolished in America, but the day is close at hand when the enfranchisement of a liberal edu- cation will be deemed the inalienable heritage to every American. And in addition to a liberal education equally inalien- able will be a term of training for expert skill in some particular field. There is no work to be done in the world which cannot be better done by a trained intelligence. There is no normal human being who will not be better, more useful, and happier for the possession of a liberal education along the lines of future effort. When the day shines when all Americans claim such an education as that for all their children, there will be a mul- titude of educational institutions up and down the coast 30(5 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS serving the needs of the many million who will then inhabit the shores of the Pacific. What in that day will be th- nature and functions of the University of California? Prophesy is no easy task, but the seed is of augury for the harvest. Here are sonic of the past achievements of the univer- sity. Beginning in 1860 as the college of California, a little eollege of the old New England type, devoted to the hu- manities, eight years later the University of California was chartered by the state and entrusted with the develop- ment of engineering and agricultural education, to advance which the system of land grant colleges had been estab- lished by congressional action throughout the whole coun- try. By 1896 the students at Berkeley numbered 1,500; the total enrollment in all departments of the university was 2,047 ; twenty years later, for the year ending June 30, 1916, there were 5,185 undergraduates enrolled in the col- leges at Berkeley; in all departments of the university, exclusive of the summer session, the registration was 7,951. Including the summer session, but exclusive of duplicates, the enrollment was 12,521. This included none of the uni- versity extension students, of whom there were three thousand in regular attendance on classes; none of the correspondence students in academic subjects, of whom there were more than two thousand; none of the students in agriculture, of whom there were more than ten thou- sand; nor did it include the sixty-five thousand who at- tended university extension lectures during the year, nor the eighty thousand who were advised and instructed dur- ing the year by the county farm advisors, nor the hundred thousand who came during the year to the clinics of the university hospital in San Francisco, nor the three thou- *ainl who came to the dental clinics, nor the scores of thousands who listened to lectures and addresses given in various parts of the state by members of the faculty. Dur- ing that year at least one out of five of the adults living THE ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION 307 in California received direct instruction through some one of the various agencies of this institution. That one of the primary functions of a university sup- ported by the state is the advancement of human knowl- edge has long been recognized in California. Many years ago the Lick observatory was made a research department of the university of California. Its work has been liber ally supported from the general funds of the university. The scientific discoveries made there over a long course of years has won it a world-Made reputation as one of the most productive centres of astronomical research in any land. With constantly increasing generosity funds have been provided by the state and by the United States for agricultural research by the university. Discoveries of fundamental importance have been made in regard to the maintenance of the fertility of the soil under irriga- tion, in regard to the most profitable methods of the appli- cation of irrigation waters, in regard to drainage, and in- regard to the reclamation of alkali lands, and in regard to ways of combating the insect pests and the plant dis- eases of California. Agricultural researches have been carried on in all parts of the state. In 1912 was estab- lished a graduate school of tropical agriculture and citrus experiment station at Riverside, where a staff of investi- gators devote their whole time to researches for the im- provement of the fruits and crops particularly appropriate for the semi-tropical conditions of southern California and the interior valleys of the state. In 1906 seven hundred and eighty acres of land were acquired at Davis, in Yolo county, as a university farm, and there, besides activities in agricultural education, the university has been engaged in researches as to field crops, the breeding and feeding of animals, irrigation practise, viticulture, and the decidu- ous fruits. In 1903, through the generosity of Mrs Phoebe Hearst, work was begun upon the assembling of a museum of anthropology and archeology. Her expenditures on this undertaking exceeded a million dollars. Since this IN THESE LATTER DAYS work was undertaken many count ries from which poet ions of these collecti< us came have adopted regulations strin- gently limiting or forbidding exportation! <>f antiquities, so that to-day it would he impossible to duplicate the uni- versity of California collect ions er equal them for an ex- penditure of less than four or five million dollars. As a part of this work, was inaugurated, an ethnological survey of California, and this work still in progress, has resulted in great additions to knowledge concerning the languages and ways of life of the aboriginal inhabitants of Califor- nia and the western United States. To the university has been est rusted an endowment of approximately a million dollars for the maintenance of the George Williams Hooper foundation for medical research. This research depart- ment, which forms a part of the medical school, has a staff of investigators whose whole time is devoted to fundamental researches as to the problems of disease. Throughout the scientific investigation is a primary activity. Besides the constant flow of scientific papers to technical journals in many fields, the university itself expends approximately $16.000 per annum in scientific publications. It is when scientific research is associated with the training of young investigators that it is most productive, and the research activities result not only in positive contributions to knowl- edge, but also in the training up of a great body of young investigators to follow the footsteps of the men from whom they have received the contagious spirit of scientific dis- covery. For the year ending June 30, 1896, the total income of the university was $331,965.19, for the year ending June 30, 1916, the income available for immediate use was $3,394,902.49. In 1896 the university was without a single building fitted for any permanency of use. By 1916 a great beginning had been made with the execution of the Phoebe Hearst architectural plan of the university through the erection of the campus of agriculture hall at a cost of $L>l:2,Sx:!.s:,: Boalt hall of law. $159,287.61; California THE ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION 309 hall, $271,711.33; the Sather campanile, $203,959.51; the Greek theatre, $45,000 ; the Hearst memorial mining build- ing, $644,000; the president's house, $113,868.53; the Sather gateway, $39,413.51 ; and work was in progress on the completion of the university library, at a cost of $1,- 271,700; the first unit of the chemistry building, costing $220,000; Hilgard hall, the second unit of the buildings destined for agriculture, costing $375,000; and the Ben- jamin Ide Wheeler hall, costing $727,000. All four of these last mentioned undertakings have been provided for by an issue of $1,800,000 in state bonds, voted by the people of California, through approval of an intiative measure proposed by the alumni. By 1916 a tendency was growing more and more pro- nounced for the proportion -to increase of undergraduates seeking admission to advanced standing, in the fall of 1916 one out of five of all undergraduates applying for admis- sion being entitled to advanced standing. The graduate division had risen to a total enrollment of 1,014, the per- centage of growth in graduate students for the previous ten years being 189 per cent, as compared with 111 per cent for undergraduates during the same period. If the tendencies which half a century have emphasized prevail, then the University of California will more and more become an institution for the highest possible pro- fessional training for leaders in the pursuits of mankind. Mere professional training will not be the end in view, but the training of men fitted to be innovators, pioneers, creators. The community will look to the university in ever-in- creasing measure to solve its problems. The opportunities of scientific research are illimitable. The task of finding new truth and obtaining greater mastery over processes of nature is endless. All the infectious diseases will soon have been con- quered and made only a hideous memory of the past, but there will still remain an endless amount to be done to :no IN TIIKSI-: i.. \TTKI; DAYS improve tin- mere comfort and Miiootli working of the luniian mechanism. Witli the development of synthetic chemistry, agriculture may cease to In- pra.-tis.-d as ;i source of the necessities of life, but it will eternally he beloved as a source of satisfactions, joys, and beauties. ;md cre- ative mastery of the processes of plant life will be forever enhanced and developed. Chemistry offers boundless pos- sibilities for development, that man may have at his service inexhaustible stores of energy to do the world's work and endless diversity of new products for his service and well- being. The last century has seen such a development of man's mastery over nature as had not been equalled by all the previous history of the world. But the social problems of universal opportunity, universal freedom, universal in- telligence, universal well-being remain to be solved. No matter how the world may advance along these paths, there will always be new lands to conquer and need of ex- plorers and city builders in these new realms of human rela- tionships. Nor will the university of the future be for the people of its own community alone. More and more the concord and cooperation of the whole world will be insured by intermigrations of students, so that one people may learn from another, and the universal kinship of mankind be better realized. Here on the western rim of the continent this great institution, and the increasing inspiration arising therefrom will serve as a powerful magnet to draw from all the lands which border the Pacific ardent spirits who will return to their own countries enriched by what t hex- have gathered of western learning. And this touch with other peoples and other lands will be a 'constant inspiration as well to those who dwell and work within the gateways of the University of California. CHAPTER XIV THE MYSTERIOUS HISTORY OF THE SPIRIT CREATION LTHOUGH the world at present is given to making ghosts rather than to analyzing them, yet the des- tiny of man throughout the eternity that follows his brief sojourn on this earth is a question of never failing interest and controversy. Wherefore 'in our elucidation of these latter days we cannot pass by altogether the question of creeds, or doc- trines concerning nature and the supernatural, a subject which has always commanded the serious attention of the race, and one in which opinions and beliefs are all the more strongly emphasized because of our lack of knowledge concerning either our own spiritual nature or of any super- natural beings. So strong have been these convictions of ignorance, that throughout the ages multitudes have been found as ready to sacrifice their own life in their defense as to take the life of others in enforcing them. Evolution feeds on the blood and bones of its victims. Evermore new forms of life find place and expression by the disappearance of less complex forms. And although in dealing with spirits we have little to do with blood and bones, yet the evolution of the supernatural from the abstract to the concrete follows the general course attend- ing all development. In seeking an initial point for the investigation of occult mysteries it matters little whether we go back to the fan- tastic imagery of the wild man of the woods, or consider the many mythologies of his more immediate successors, or turn to the opening lines of the sacred books, extant or 311 :irj IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS obsolete, df tin- several great reliiri' us of Ilie world, or adopt the theories of modern scientists, we arrive at the same eoiieliision, namely, that beyond a few patent realities the question is one largely of opinion and speculation. We may know, for example, how originates the idea of deities and demons; we may follow the transformation of ghosts and hobgoblins into gods and devils ; we may with a yet further enlarged imagination myriads of spirits Moating in space change into divinities lesser in number but higher in degree; we may even traverse the long dis- tance from nature-worship to polytheism and monotheism, and by thus feeling our way backward and forward with proper circumspection, from the proximate and seemingly permanent into the dark inscrutable past, we may find here and there a salient point upon which to hang a syllo- gism. Obviously there were present upon the scene no super- natures until nature had been long enough at work to make their advent possible; and even after that, time and dis- tance must be measured by eons from the imps and appa- ritions of primeval places to the gods on Mount Olympus. Entering upon the first stage of our inquiry we find that we are permitted to avoid speculation almost alto- gether, holding only to substantial facts. Following this course let us see where we will be brought up. At the very outset of our investigation we find our selves up against two opposing entities, the tendency to good and the tendency to evil. One signifies all that is bright and beautiful on this earth, love honor and right- eousness in a garden of health and happiness; the other signifies all that is vile, destructive, and degrading, as hate, wrong-doing, and dishonor in a hell of discord. However may have been the original plan of creative force, if indeed there were such a plan, we see in the consummation this fundamental principle of antagonism. This, the dualism of Zoroaster, so universally displayed in MYSTERY OF SPIRIT CREATION 313 nature, enters the supernatural in the form of opposing personalities, a deity or a demon for every unaccountable phenomenon in nature and every passion in man. This principle of duality, of antagonistic entities, two distinct impulses in gods and men, the real and the ideal, underlies all emotions. It is seen everywhere, in man, in nature, and in super-nature ; and as the economy of nature and the supernatural is established these antagonisms are es- sential to the progress and improvement of the human race. It is not claimed, however, that the economy of the universe is perfect, or that the race could not have been improved or made perfect in some happier way. As the tendency to concentrate power in one supreme being increased, the administration of the twofoldness in nature, as good and evil, joy and sorrow, was given to one personage, and the system of dualism resulted in the union of at first two in one, to result finally in the trinity, the result being endless confusion and contentions. The members of small societies alone are knit together by consanguinity and the gregarious instinct ; hate rules the rest, every tribe ready to fight every other tribe, every strange thing an enemy. And this principle seems per- manent. Civilizations may come and go, religions may rail against it, prophets of fraternity may foretell a mellen- nium of brotherhood and good-will which never comes, apostles of peace may preach against it, there it remains, growing more refined and effective with the refinement of succeeding ages, laughing to scorn all attempts to eradi- cate it. It is well known that as brutishness emerges into man, or half-man, the over-ruling influence in and around him is fear. In his blind ignorance he imagines nature arrayed against him, now to soothe and now to terrify. In all strange sights or sounds he feels the presence of an enemy. All the forces of nature, at various times and in various ways, conspire to do him injury. The first factor in bringing to man a knowledge of :H4 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS himself is fear, a sentiment found equally in th i halt m;m and the wholly brute. Even half tamed animals fear per- sonal injury and flee from the appearance of danger. Man who has learned from experience that danger does not always lurk in appearances, still fears where he does not know, and so invents places of refuge and of torment. Still the lines of demarcation between the human and the brute creations are sharply drawn, and predestination made permanent by nature, so that even now while the man knows that he is a man, the horse does not know that he is a horse. In the settlement of our middle west an epidemic of religion engendered by fear was of frequent occurrence, fear from the terrors of Calvinism Inn-led upon the set- tlers by itinerant preachers, methodists, baptists, and Scotch presbyterians, as well as the fear naturally arising from their exposed condition in the forest, fear of savage men and savage nature, these with many varied religious orgies, if indeed the convulsions of the Kentucky jerks, or the bounding and falling and shouting as at a negro camp- meeting, or the tambourine beating and singing of tin- street Salvationists can be called religion. Hate and its twin-brother fear. Throughout the realm of animated nature we notice as most conspicuous the quality of fear, which is closely allied to love and hate, love of life, love of kind, and hatred for whatever destroys or interferes with love and life. It is present in plants. which show affection and aversion, as well as in animals. Seek the cause and we cannot find it ; we can only refer to the universal elements of good and evil seen everywhere and in everything. A hateful thing it is this spirit of evil, from seeds implanted at the beginning, the fruit to remain apparently to the end, whence and for what purpose let those tell who know. It is certain, however, that this evil spirit en- gendered fear, that fear filled primeval forest with demons < f destruction, and that with fear came the genesis of MYSTERY OF SPIRIT CREATION 315 the gods, which seems to show that without fear there would have been no contentious gods and no contentious religions, which would have saved the world much misery. Wild beasts of the forest are startled by unfamiliar phenomena, manifestations of which are varied. Thus grass-eaters flee before strange sights or sounds, while the feeders on flesh bristle up in opposition. The lion roams his native wilds roaring and is unafraid ; the hind flees at his approach and hides herself. Even when tamed, while the horse prepares to run the dog prepares for battle. Go a little farther and give these beasts conscious- ness, let the nascent soul be felt, dependence then attends fear; let fall upon them a sense of forces present outside of themselves and beyond their control, powers dominant in nature, and straightway forms are given to these forces, and these forms thus engendered in the half-beast half- human brain are the embryo spirits and subsequent deities which a large part of the human race worship as gods at this day. While yet man was but half human, and consciousness was slowly permeating his brutish brain, with self-recog- nition fantastic imagery of deities and demons crept in behind appearances. At some strange sight or sound he became frightened and ran from it. Thus it was that as the physical element of his nature came forward images arose in his dull intellect to bring upon him fresh appre- hension and unrest. Enfolding the seeds of superstition, with the dawn of consciousness the soul appears, with embryo intellect, harbinger of future discrimination and responsibility, and a new being is born into the world. Prior to this period the purely animal might harbor fear, but as to-day without reason. Mind with reasoning fac- ulties then appeared and slowly assumed the functions of the hitherto purely animal instincts. To the fantastic imagery thus attending development forms and features of some sort must be given. By imps. 316 IN THESE LATTKK DAYS elves, mid devils, or other beings requiring a display of luitc or ferocity, tin- ;iniin;il world may be utilized, but for divinities of a higher order, as angels and ministering spirits, the human form is more fitting. To some of the-r aie L'iven even the wings of birds. Thus man fashions his gods from his own image, en- dows them with his own nature, gives them duality or plurality, and prescribes their attributes and occupation. Krom his own construction and condition, and from the elemental operations of nature these deities are improvised by man. first in the form of disembodied spirits, unseeable powers of good and evil, of limited spheres, some of them seeking and obtaining incarnation, later to become unite. I. three in one, two in one, a trinity, a duality, all tending in their coalescence to a mixed monotheism of antagonist ie elements and contradictory forces impossible to fathom or to reconcile. For as man has no model other than himself from which to construct his gods, the gods of men, made after the image of man, cannot develop beyond the devel- opment of man himself; and as the greater part of the gods now waiting on the affairs of men were brought into existence some centuries ago, when human nature was more brutish if possible than at the present time, they are but sorry affairs. Meanwhile the brute creation goes on in the old un- changing way guided by instincts given it in the beginning seeking pleasure, which means in the main enough to eat, and struggling to escape pain; yet amidst all its varied phases of suffering or content never knowing joy or sor- row, happiness or misery, never knowing that it exists at all. In the gorilla we see an animal which is already partly man, just as later in the same creature is seen a man that is partly animal. Descending from his tree a beast In- put on humanity and walks forth upon the ground. !!- can show you a head with ears, eyes, nose, and mouth like MYSTERY OF SPIRIT CREATION 317 a man's; arms and legs, with hands feet and fingers and toes like those of a man, all ill-finished and crude like his crude ill-finished brain. This phenomenon of the human gorilla and the gorilla human we can see and understand. It is no imaginary being, no hypothesis wrought out of the fantasies of a fertile brain. And from this point, as intelligence increases so in- creases the effort to account for the unaccountable, which though less bloody is as contentious now as at any time since the conflict began which brought to the surface a thousand cults, some of which still live, though most of them have long since departed. Thus comes to the front man primeval, he for whom were nature and super-nature. Emerging half -human from his place among the beasts, whose nature in part he is des- tined to carry with him to the end, this sense of self-exist- ence creeps in, wherewithal he finds himself of a new category in creation. As he unfolds the brute condition, and his obscure intellect becomes filled with grotesque imagery of beings beyond appearances, fear finds expression in appeals to unseen agencies, deities of good and evil, and which is the inception of the religious sentiment, and the origin of worship. These propitiatory exercises, prostrations and prayers with praise and sacrifice, and many like perform- ances are kept up to the end, or until the cause of the fright is explained or removed. And as there are in the universe many objects whose nature is unknown and whose purpose is unexplained, innumerable agencies, gods devils and spirits are created and worshiped unseen, gods of animals and plants, of birds and fishes, gods of the celestial bodies and spirits reflecting the displays of nature and the emotions of the human soul. Before the great primal cause could be elevated in the minds of humanity to become creator and ruler of the universe, man must have some knowledge of the universe, and as that knowledge increased so increased the power .'MS IN TIIKSK I,. \TTKi; DAYS and glory of God. If our knowledge of tin- universe even now is so limited; if the magnitude of Hit- world ;m the badgering of the patriarch. Prom the context it appears that God had perfect control of the devil, who was still permitted to go to and fro in the earth, ami walk up and down in it. and Job was selected for him to practise on, because he was perfect and upright, one that feared find and eschewed evil, all of which was entertainment for the deities and interesting to Job's comforters, though rather hard on the patriarch himself. About the time of Christ and for a few centuries there- after, many new sects sprang up, Mohammedanism be- coming the most conspicuous. Christ and Mohammed both claimed to be messengers of the Almighty, the one as son of God, or one with God, or God himself, the other as prophet of God. Both claimed a mission of love and peace, and the career of each alike culminated in hatred, wars, and dire injustice and distress, as witness throughout the world this day. Mohammed, whose religion was a mixture of heathenism, Judaism, and Christianism, and the followers of whose teachings numbered at one time 140 millions, was no more consistent than Moses as the founder of his faith. It is not necessary for a religion-maker to be consistent in order to be successful, for never yet was there a leader in ghosts and miracles who was consistent. The Koran, the political as well as the religious code of Islam, coeval with God, uncreated, eternal, was made up from the traditions of the Arabs, with the revelations to Mohammed, the teachings of Moses, Christ, and the Magi, and extracts from the Talmud and Midrash added, all written out in rays of light upon a tablet, standing by the throne of God. Born without signs or wonders 570 years after Christ, Mohammed received his first revelation, informing him of his mission, when forty years of age. The doctrines con- tained in his Koran were derived largely from the Hebrew AB OVO 337 Bible. One God but no son; God had no son; but Moses and Christ were great prophets. Like the Christ, he made his first proselytes among the poor and ignorant, mostly slaves. He fought all other religions as false, the outcome of ignorance and fanaticism. Their ancient gods were idols and their worshipers fools. Like the Christians, the early "Mohammedans were persecuted for their religion, later to persecute others, and many suffered martyrdom. The prophet presented himself to the Jews as their Mes- siah and was rejected. Islam charges Christianism, and Christianism charges Tslamism, as the cause of the decay of the eastern nations. All religions denounce all other religions except their own as false, and all of them are pretty nearly right. The boy Mohammed displayed no signs of a heavenly origin, except that he was troubled with fits inflicted by the demons. At thirty, the husband of a rich widow, he was an imposing figure, but not until his fortieth year did he begin to have revelations. Then he announced him- self the true Messiah, and made war for his religion. The Book of Mormon, as we have seen, written on metal plates was found by Joseph Smith in a cave on a hillside in western New York, and made by him the holy book of his religion. To a narrative of the ten lost tribes of Israel, who were the American Indians, were added the tenets of his faith, embracing the Hebrew and Christian scrip- tures, with the usual miracles and revelations. Among other incongruities we cannot but notice in the one only true God of the Jews, as well as of the Chris- tians Mohammedans and Mormons, the same that Moses established, and that was preached by the Christ of whom he was part and partner. Thus at the service of Moham- med to assist in making the world better were Adam, Noah, Moses, and Christ. All these Joseph Smith also appropriated save one, Joseph himself taking the place of Islam's prophet. Every sacred hook claims for itself tin- direct influ- ence of the creator impressed on the writers. But is not tin- direct influence of the creator impressed on all cre- ated things, not more upon St John the evangelist than upon every blade of grass that grows, on every forest flower that blooms? Kvery religionist will contend with you that his own sacred books are inspired, whereas all the others arc lies. the work of the devil. Were this true then the devil must be accredited with some good work, for in all the sacred hook is much that is good, much that is helpful to man in his .journey through life. But what is this inspiration? Primarily it means to inhale, or in theological parlance the supernatural divine influence, as exerted upon sacred teachers and writers by which divine authority is given to their writings. The sanctifying influence of the holy spirit. Which is a fair specimen of the explanation we too often get from pro- fessors and doctors of divinity taught in theological insti- tutions how best to misinterpret scripture. What is meant by the term sacred? Whatever is es- teemed especially dear to deity we are told. What deity? Is not everything God has touched sacred, Cain the first murderer upon whom God put his mark equally with an archangel? Was Eve inspired and the serpent not? God peopled heaven, and Lucifer was there; did the serpent crawl into heaven and become Lucifer; were Lucifer and the serpent one creation or two? Truly if we are to be- lieve the interpreter, for a wise and holy omnipotent cre- ator God had his troubles. Better to have killed Lucifer at once than to have hurled him headlong out of heaven alive, thereafter to afflict the children of men forever for wrongs they had never committed. Lot, vilest of all the Jewish patriarchs, was he inspired when he committed incest with his daughters, or Jacob when he cheated Esau of his birthright, or Noah when he cursed poor Ham to blackness for looking upon him when AB OVO 339 drunk and naked instead of taking blame to himself for his disgraceful proceedings ? We might ask further, and continue our interrogatories to the end of the chapter without gaining anything by it. King David wrote the Psalms and defiled Uriah's wife, was he inspired in both instances? Civilization frowns on polygamy and concubinage. Solomon wrote the Proverbs, built a temple to the Lord, and kept in addition to Pha- roah's daughter 700 wives and 300 concubines; was Solo- mon with his superior wisdom inspired in his lewdness as in his love of God ? The apostle Peter denied his master and swore to a lie, afterward, being inspired, bringing death to Ananias and Sapphira for a little fib about their property. Was Mary inspired before or after the alleged immacu- late conception? Which story does not satisfy the honest seeker after truth, as such claims do not pass current at the present day. Moses was an upright man of great wisdom and limit- less patience, but like the myth-makers of the present day he was often in error in the fashioning of his deity, as we have seen. It were better in him to have adopted the duality principle than to have set up a partisan filled with the varied passions found in humanity. For example, his creator, all-wise and all-powerful, es- tablished man, and pronounced his work good. In laying out Eden he imposed a restriction which all the while he knew his creatures would break, which he knew before- hand that he had so made them that they could not help but break it, then with obvious injustice inflicting punish- ment for the same upon successive worlds full of innocent creatures. Meanwhile the serpent appears, as the embodi- ment of evil with no accounting for its origin or purpose. All quite a simple cock and bull story. In due time this perfect and unchangeable creator, who at first pronounced his work good, tires of fighting the devil that comes from no one knows where, and looks 340 IN TI1KSK LATTKU DAYS about him for a way out of it. "I repent me that I made man," he says, and straightway set out to drown him, in which rtl'urt he likewise achieved failure, leaving one alive, who, no sooner was he out of the ark than he quickly proved, lie and his descendants, to be as bad as the antedilu- vians had been. When it came to the doings in Egypt something similar to the Eden ethics was repeated. Pharaoh's heart was hardened, which made it impossible for him to let the people go, and so afforded sufficient excuse for almighty power to inflict unmerited punishment, to the edification of his chosen people. Which was scarcely fair to Pharaoh. Then at Mount Sinai Moses must write in his ten com- mandments another blunder making a just God visit the sins of the -fathers upon the children to the third or fourth generation. At the river Jordan, having previously selected Israel for special favors, and having cursed all the rest of the people he had made, he set the Israelites on to fight and murder them, with many cruelties, all for doing what he had created them to do, and what he knew beforehand that they would do. After all, so-called sacred things and things inspired do not always present the best examples for our edification. The two horns of the dilemma seem to have arisen before all the myth-makers alike, the oneness of a being possess- ing both good and evil, love and hate, or a duality of the deity, in either case ignoring the unaccountable origin of evil. To assert, as our priests and prophets so often love to do, that God could not do thus and so, could not make pleasure without first inflicting unmerited pain, could not release the world from the evil he had unjustly placed upon it without committing another act of injustice in the sacrifice of an innocent victim, displays a knowledge of divine economy wonderful to see. CHAPTER XVII AS OTHERS SEE US I MET a Uranian the other day sauntering down from the mountain, where he had been to send a message home. He was evidently a stranger in these parts, and of such marked peculiarities in appearance as to be some- what puzzling ; rather diminutive, physically, though bright and alert of mind ; a cheery, cheerful fellow for a philoso- pher, as one friendly with all worlds, with a substratum of calm and courage in his nature ; free from excess, master of himself, clearly accustomed to an atmosphere of intelli- gence, truth, and sincerity, and always a friend of the right. He was lightly clad in some nondescript stuff thrown on after a fashion which seemed rather to emphasize the absence of fashion, indicating originality and convenience. He introduced himself as a citizen of the universal, psychologically inclined, residence Uranus, and he was now making a tour of the planets, more especially to look into the nature and operations of that strange psychical freak called religion, which he understood to be in vogue here, as there was nothing of the sort out his way. His people had never felt the need of gods and devils, he said, and consequently had never made any. "Since my arrival here," he went on to say, "I have been studying certain of your systems, notably the bio- logical and theological, the doctrine of duality and the absence of the absolute. ' ' I am greatly interested in your spirit system, you have it all so admirably worked out, ut quocunque paratus, as to make to appear real and veritable fact what strikes 341 342 IN THKSK LATTER DAYS one with mind not prepared as yours has been a mere illusion. "1 ask what it is, this that you term religion, and am told that it signifies faith and worship, devotion to rites and cults, a belief binding the spiritual nature of man to a supernatural being; that is to say opinion, a belief in something, an entity if not an actuality. "I find you greatly troubled over the unknowable, obsessed with fear, lest some great evil befall you here and hereafter. To escape the evil you have fallen into many psychological extravagances ill befitting a sane people. You make for yourselves a thousand imaginary deities, of mixed good and evil import, and fall down to praise and pray, to placate and beg protection. "I find your several systems all of them to some ext.-nt. imperfect, illogical, and not wrought out reasonably to ultimate conclusions. You deal largely in opposites, an- tagonisms, which make disputations and wars essential to progress, if not indeed to quasi-happiness. You say that without evil you cannot know goodness, that without pain pleasure is an unknown quantity, that without sin the term righteousness is meaningless. "What is sin? Sin, say your teachers of the unknow- able, is any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God. What is God ? God is a spirit, infinite, eter- nal, unchangeable, in his being wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. "To all this I receive but the one answer, we cannot understand God's ways, he who sees the end from the berriiiiiiii<* selfish brutes, every SPIRIT WORSHIP OF TO-DAY 359 man's hand against every other man, as it is now in our daily intercourse with each other, in society, in politics, in religion, and so will be until rewards are offered for better conduct adequate to meet the requirements of reform. Now the limit must sometime be reached; perhaps it has already been reached ; we can fancy nothing more con- vincing since the coming of the Messiah than the display of Christian charity on the battlefields of Christendom. Devotees will assert the contrary, but the fact is suscep- tible of proof that religion throughout the world is not in- creasing but is rather becoming less. Pure and undefiled religion, it has been called by some. Behold the results of Christ 's mission in the magnificent ditch-work of his people in Europe at the present time! Behold how the world has improved from the first man to the last ! Behold a just Jehovah holding an even balance over the works of his crea- tion! Behold the fruits of the sublime teachings of the Lord Christ ! Was Cain, the first murderer, a more vile and wicked man than William the last one, the champion man-killer of all ages? That were impossible. For Cain slew only one, his brother, while the kaiser may count his murders by the million, and attended by such cruelties and treacheries as would have caused Cain to blush for the insignificance of his little crime. Modern theology, from dogmatic anthropomorphism is now arrayed upon a framework of feeling, and as every person has his own separate consciousness to deal with/ the variety of inner convictions are infinite. About it all, about what cannot be fathomed it is profitless greatly to concern ourselves. We cannot but observe, however, that all religions are gradually leaving the human race, other forms taking their place. The appeals made to us are more drastic than convinc- ing. As a foundation we have the dogma "believe or be damned." As there are many worthy people who cannot upon the evidence, or rather lack of evidence, believe if they would, they must be damned, and so need concern them- ::ii() IN THESE LATTKK DAYS selves mi further about it. Multitudes say they believe not knowing or earing further about it. which is for all spirit- ual purposes just ;is well, Hence we have here a religion based on lies ;ui(l pretense, as all religions must be in the absence of any evidence. We may say that we have evidence in our hearts, that religion is a matter of feeling, or sentiment, rather than of reason. Individual consciousness is employed as an argu- ment. Then how about the facts, which cannot be affected by belief or sentiment; either the supernatural is with us here or it is not; and a further life beyond the present awaits us, or it does not. In the interpretation of the scriptures the Christian world was once satisfied with the dictum of pope, priest. and propagandist, in whom was vested, all through the Dark Ages, as they claimed, all knowledge of tb,e divine will ; but when intellect assumed some sort of sway, and men began to question, the only explanation of the unex- planable being the old refrain, "We cannot fathom the pur- poses of the Almighty ; he who knows the end from the be- ginning alone can tell," the answer was no longer satisfy- ing. Those who had pretended so long to know all about God, all that he knew of himself, or more, must find some- thing besides empty or irrelevant excuses in order to sus- tain the profession of teachers to persons of thought and reason. How came Moses to know so much about the creator and the creation? As Moses held personal intercourse with God perhaps God told him, in which case Moses should have made his narrative clearer. Was the beginning at the time of creation the beginning of mind or of matter, the begin- ning of this earth or of the universe? (Jod is a spirit, eter- nized he said. Had this spirit then filled the infinity of space alone from all eternity? Has it taken the world then 6,000 years to find out what Moses could have told us in his "be- ginning" namely, that this world is but an atom of du>t. our sun but the faintest spark of light as compared with the SPIRIT WORSHIP OF TO-DAY 361 millions upon millions of worlds and suns and systems? Evidently Moses did not know any more of what he wrote than the theologians of the present day, who are still at work in the vain endeavor to formulate a being to fit the alleged acts and attributes of the deity to the statements of scripture. Thus we are told that in six days God created all things, and pronounced the creation good, afterward finding it in many respects bad. Out of nothing he created the earth, and all that therein is ; the sun and moon ; he made the stars also. Was this nothing nebula, and did it contain matter, or did spirit fill all space, alone and in darkness filling all space from all eternity? All this Moses should have in- quired into, that he might inform us. If Moses, who knew so much of God, his ways and works, and who came in close personal contact with him, had cho.sen to tell us something more of the origin of the uni- verse, why and wherefore there was any creation ; was God lonely filling space only with his presence, and if so why did he wait so long, from the everlasting, just now beginning for hiself a new dispensation by interjecting time into eter- nity ? Had he told us this it had been greatly to our edifi- cation. Instead of choosing the earth as the centre of his eluci- dations had he begun with heaven, its pearly gates and streets of gold, and happy occupants; and thence had pro- ceeded to the great suns and planetary systems, thus open- ing our eyes a little to that inconprehensible infinity that environs us ; telling us something of how other worlds were made, and how occupied, this instead of employing the sun only to rule by day and the moon to rule by night, and passing over the little celestial ornaments that sparkle in the sky, their nature and origin and occupation, dismissing the subject with five words only, "He made the stars also," it surely would have been better than the long accounts he gave of the bickerings of his petted band of half-savage Israelites in their escape from bondage. 362 IX THKSK LATTKR DAYS He mi^lit have told us why \\e should call our Jehovah a God of love ratlin- than a d of hate, if it is through fear of reprisal that we avoid the latter. He might have informed us, amid so many other things that seem to us so strange, why a being all-merciful, all-just, all-powerful should establish a creation so full of misery, why he should turn the waste of waters into a world-wide gladiatorial am- phitheatre, in which throughout endless ages the myriads of inhabitants come and go having no purpose or occupa- tion save the killing and eating of each other, an arena of hell for creatures created for no apparent purpose and which had committed no crime. And like occupation for land animals, forests filled with devouring wild beasts, and cities filled with devouring tame beasts, man being the wickedest and bloodiest beast of them all. Kindly tell us Moses, why this for a God of love ? And Moses, kindly do not talk nonsense. As time passed on came a revolution of human knowl- edge and ideas. Old-time beliefs evaporated as their fal- sity appeared under the light of science. And all this time were more wars, and in them more wrongs cruelities and injustice were inflected in the fighting and massacres of Christians by Christians, than in all preceding conflicts of which we have record. Stellar spectroscopy now unveils the infinite to vaster infinities beyond, revealing millions of suns and systems, millions of millions greater and more distant than any here- tofore imagined or of which the mind of man can conceive. The Old Testament with its barbarisms and contradie- tions is now pretty generally disregarded by intelligent persons who look upon it as a bundle of myths rather than veritable history. Some disregard the New Testament also. Some of us felt it incumbent on us at one time to accept the orthodox scriptures as veritable truth, as the word of God to man, the only word he has ever spoken to us, as containing our only knowledge of him, and the only rules for the regulation of our conduct. There is nothing which SPIRIT WORSHIP OF TO-DAY 363 fastens itself so ineffaceably upon the mind and imagination as early teachings by a superior in whose word we have con- fidence; so that when out of the dark ages of the remote past an apparent light comes, which even though it be only an ignis fatuus our beloved instructor tells us is true and veritable illumination from the throne of God, we are rene- gade if we do not believe, and forever hold to such belief. Without the penalty, without the punishment religion has little effect on conduct. Hate rules where love lies bleeding. Christ preached love, which is the fulfilling of a law that was never fulfilled. Peace on earth, good will to man; and wherever Christianity was planted for a thou- sand years thereafter the fields were sowed with seeds of hate, and wars, and autos-da-fe, and Bartholomew mas- sacres followed. Nature 's laws are inexorable ; God 's laws being made by man are mutable, it seems. Thus it turns out that the longer he lives, and the more intelligent he becomes the less clever man is in the manu- facture of. his deities. The pagans are more logical in propitiating their thirty thousand devils who would fain do them evil, leaving their good gods to work out their bene- factions in their own way, than the Christians who fill their one God with all sorts of imperfections and diabolical pro- pensities and actions, and then insist that he is wholly and absolutely good, relegating all the palpable evils, all the wrongs, cruelties, and injustice forced upon us to a wicked subordinate whom he might exterminate at any moment if he would. When we hear preached from the pulpit century after century the same old heathen stories drawn from depths of superstition and ignorance and presented to an intelligent congregation of the present day, with all the hollow argu- ments advanced to prove their divine origin, we marvel at the enduring credulity of mankind in affairs pertaining to the unknowable. The time is not yet ripe, they will tell you in their mean- 364 IN THESE LATTER DAYS ingless way, and while they wait for Christianity to ripen in Christendom behold it rots. The war in < !-rmany was atti-iitlril 1>\ nioiv dastardly deeds than were ever dreamed of in so-called barbaric or biblical times. Answer to the question are there more Gods than one? "There is but one only the living and true God. " "How many persons are there in the godhead? Three, the father son and holy ghost, and these three are one God the same in substance, equal in power and glory." Thus the one God is quickly divided into three, under title of godhead, to which term no adequate explanation is given. Why is he more a fool who says there is no God than he who says there is a God, one knowing as much about it as the other, neither knowing anything? Because there is nothing but opprobrium to be gained by denial, while he who shouts with the multitude receives praise and profit. Peter made nothing by swearing himself free from Christ, but when he wept bitterly he was given the keys of heaven and Godship for his earthly successors. The English are honest enough to apply the correct term to their holy "liv- ings," the burden for whose support rests heavily on the workingman, though the incumbent has no more religion in him than the hunting-parson's hounds. The strange part of it is that Christians in the midst of ever-increasing knowledge and intelligence should so long retain a ritual which makes a monster of their deity, clos- ing their eyes to the absurdity of creating an omnipotent being who is not omnipotent, a creator of all, but not of all. No, no, they say, God cannot be the author of evil. Then who is the author of evil, pray ? Though civilization is always in advance of religion, forcing it to better behavior; though it sometimes seems slow in accomplishing its work, it conquers in the end, slowly uprooting one falsity after another until the whole present system of clap-trap and hypocrisy in the face of common sense falls to the ground. SPIRIT WORSHIP OF TO-DAY 365 The trouble with regard to Christianity is that the peo- ple who adopted it have outgrown it. Being of the most advanced civilization they no longer tolerate the dogmas of the Jews, or the cruelties excesses and injustice of the God of Moses, while in the later dispensation they find that in practice the teachings of Christ do not fit his theories, while as to his promises and pretensions he has in a measure failed to make them good. As government is given according to existing necessity, so it is with regard to religion. First fear demands it then love; fear and love being satisfied we imagine we can do without it. We have now an opportunity to try, being satisfied to leave Asia to the Buddha, and Europe to the Christ. The scared volume contains no strictures against slavery or polygamy, no condemnation of the cruelties and injus- tice of the Hebrews in their wars and intercourse with other nations, no criticism of the economy of God and the quality of his rulership, the cruelties and injustice of an alleged holy, kind, and righteous being. The miracles in Egypt, eminently deceitful and unfair to Pharaoh were formulated long after their alleged occur- rence, and the credence to which was easily established. The same policy Avas pursued with Pharaoh in hardening his heart, thus making obedience impossible and then pun- ishing him for disobedience, and in which punishment great cruelties upon the innocent were inflicted. God's instructions to Joshua in regard to the conquest of Canaan could not have greatly differed from his in- structions to the German kaiser in the conquest of Belgium. One would think that Noah should have been punished for his drunkenness so soon after God had singled him out as the only person of his creation worth preserving in an ark instead of cursing poor Ham for only looking upon the disgusting object and consigning his posterity to an ineffaceable black skin forever, no matter how white the soul, the most pathetic in all humanity. After all Noah ::tiii IN THESE LATTER DAYS was only celebrating; and how could the delertablr Slimi and Japhet have known that tlii-ir father was nakr.l if they had not looked at him? Moses taught as much below the standard he set up for his deity as Christ taught above it. Neither were consistent in the elucidation of the divine character, nor in presenting the logical results which should flow from it. The God of the Christians two thousand years later was a different being. Though qualified as unchangeable he had greatly changed, being now all love. Instead of visit- ing the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations, he was now pronounced as pitying thrni as a father pitieth his children. unchanging yet changed, all-powerful, yet powerless to save. How much in orthodox Christianity of all that was once believed to be true, or to be necessary, has been already given up ; while to the discarded part constant additions are being made. It is scarcely to be expected, and the result proves it, that we should find in a narrative of the Almighty, his ways and works on this earth, his character and idiosyn- crasies, written by different persons at widely different times a clear and consistent account covering a hypothet- ical period of six thousand years. In the alleged books of Moses God is introduced as the ever-existing, ever-existent, omnipotent, omniscient, un- changeable and beneficent creator of the universe. These characteristics are maintained in appearance throughout the entire Hebrew and Christian scriptures of the Old and New dispensations, yet in reality, it may be uncon- sciously, God is portrayed as the author of evil yet power- less to eradicate it, as fickle, impolitic, changeable, unjust, and cruel. He makes man unable to resist evil, and lays upon him a command which God previously knew the man would break, introducing for that or some other pur- pose the principle of evil in the form of a serpent, knowing before-hand that he should unjustly consign to eternal pun- SPIRIT WORSHIP OF TO-DAY 367 ishment an innocent posterity for this man's alleged sin. Instead of giving his creatures and continuing them in holiness and happiness, like himself, if indeed God is happy, they are infected with the vilest passions, seeing which God exclaims, "I repent me that I made man," and sets about destroying his people with a flood, in which effort he fails, Noah proving afterward as wicked as ever. Pleased with the inhumanity of Abraham, who offers to sacrifice his son at God's command, he adopts his prog- eny as a favored people, promising them a Messiah, all the rest of the world to be regarded as enemies, whom it were right and praise-worthy to destroy at pleasure. Thus God's troubles continue, the Jews proving to be no better than the others. When Christ came the Hebrew God of hate and re- venge was transformed into a God of love, pitying his people as a father pitieth his children, yet professedly powerless to deliver them from the sufferings he himself had imposed. Under the Christian dispensation the char- acter of God became so much further involved as to reduce the whole scheme to an absurdity. God could not get the world out of its troubles, they said, without inflicting some sort of punishment for forced indirection and for sins never committed. An innocent victim will answer the purpose, and so through the so-called immaculate con- ception of a virgin, an only begotten and well beloved son is improvised and made to suffer for the sins of the world. Then came the concoction of the trinity, and after 2,000 years more of worse contentions and cruelties than ever the ethics of Jesus finds fruitage in Germany. It. is strange, the doctrine that infinite power could find no other way out of the dilemma than by begetting a son, to be given as a sacrifice to satisfy the wolves of his creation, the said son failing to make good his pre- tensions or to keep his promises. For a heart overflowing with tenderness, love and for- giveness was it not rather uncharitable to forbid Lazarus :ti;s IN TIIIOSK LATTKR DAYS to give tlu- rich m;m in hell a drink of water, and that simply lieeanse he was rich. Think of Vanderblit, Astor, Carnegie and the many oil and steel barons, the munition makers not to mention the railroad robbers and the ras- cally pnliticiaiis who would sell their souls to be president or steal a convention, think of them thirsting and Lazarus laughing at them. There are few, even among labor-leaders, who would refuse to give Rockefeller a drink of water if they saw him broiling below and rather enjoy it. Herein, too, Christ tacitly admitted the existence of a veritable hell, which most of his alleged followers now deny. Why could not Christ have remained a few days or a few moments longer and wiped out all suffering, all sin and sorrow, which he might easily have done in a single breath if he was truly as he pretended to be, particular in regard to the injustice and atrocities which are nowhere censured in the Bible, and would not be abolished to this day if left for religion to do it. Slavery was retained and defended up to the last moment by nearly all the people of the southern United States ; it was defended alike by clergy and laity as a divine institution, and so it was if everything that God made is divine. Slowly the God of Israel is undergoing reconstruction by his votaries without their knowing it. Yet in ten or twenty thousand years from now there will probably be remnants of the Christian faith still awaiting the cominir of Christ and the fulfillment of his promises. The mummeries attending religious exercises are every day becoming more and more offensive to healthy minds, and attendance thereon is becoming less and less, both in numbers and respectability. The truth is with us and will not be put down. With the seeds of righteousness are implanted the seeds of evil ; under an outward display of love of peace and happiness are hidden hate, discord, and revenge. To these entities forms are given, and names as Gabriel, the Serpent, Luci- SPIRIT WORSHIP OF TO-DAY 369 fer, servants of omnipotence yet whom omnipotence, though greatly disturbed by them, could not or would not exter- minate. If Christ was as he said, veritable God, one with the creator, omniscient, the same in mercy, justice, and holi- ness, why should he have any dealings with the devil whatever ? If bringing to life dead Lazarus, if making the blind to see and the lame to walk was the sort of work to satisfy divine justice, and the Christ could do that and nothing more, why before he went away with a promise to return, which he did not keep, why did he not spend a few days more and rid the world of sin, and woe, and death? Few now believe in everlasting fire for the millions upon millions who have never accepted the Christ ; none but the most credulous believe in miracles. Thus one after another of the dogmas of Christian faith crumble, until for reasonable beings there is nothing left. The dogma of a personal devil has been abandoned by the more intelligent members of the church, yet Satan stands forth on the record in propria persona in the New as well as in the Old Testament. Even those who still cling to the plain words of the inspired writer do not half believe them. Which is better to wholly believe half the Bible or half believe the whole of it? The course usually pur- sued by orthodox divines, is to stoutly affirm as true one part and explain away the impossible parts with illogical verbiage. In one place Christ is given over to be tempted by Satan, who roams the earth like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Why does not some all-powerful lover of mankind strangle him? The Jehovah thus formulated and worshiped as the supreme deity is first of all impossible because his char- acter, his words and acts as promulgated in the Bible, the sacred book alike of Jew Christian Mohammedan and Mormon, "the word of God as contained in the scriptures 370 IN THESE LATTER DAYS of the Old and New Testament and the only rule whereby \\v may know him," are not consistent one with another. The mistake made by every devotee is that out of the scores of conflicting systems of faith and worship his i- the only true one. What evidence have we to offer, what reason have we to give why our religion should be accepted by all the world as the only true one that the Hindu has not to give why his religion should be accepted by all the world a> the only true one? It is no easier to believe the Lord God of Moses to be the creator of the world than it is to believe in Vishnu as the creator, except as we have been taught. The Mo- hammedans spurn Christ as the son of God as Christians spurn Mohammed as his prophet. The evidence in one case is no better than the evidence in the other. How many of the learned divinity doctors and profes- sors who spend their lives in defending the legerdemain of the Old and New Testament, who claim the .alleged supernatural occurrences set forth in the Bible to be verit- able miracles, special interpositions at the hand of the creator in asserting or subverting the course of nature in dealing with certain personages for weal or woe, how many of these special pleaders are there who do not heap ridicule on these who speak and write to prove true the tricks of modern spiritualism? The stale disseminations from the pulpit are mostly false doctrine illogically presented. Were it true, all the alleged miracles and petty bene- factions of Christ for which the world pays with millen- niums of adoration and praise, performed we will say in order to prove his divine origin and power, of what avail to a world of suffering humanity? For if with a breath he could command the cure of one disease of one person, he could with a breath command the cure of all diseases for all time; if with five loaves and two fishes he could SPIRIT WORSHIP OF TO-DAY 371 feed five thousand, with no greater power he could feed a starving world throughout the ages. The time is not ripe, they will say, which is fallacy, for any time is ripe for rescuing a world in woe; any time is ripe for Christ to stop the slaughter of his people throughout Christendom, to heal the suffering of a dozen nations arising from his' failure to keep his promises. As to life after death, that is a matter of pure specu- lation ; there is no evidence of it whatever ; and as the feeling or sentiment which prompts propagandizing in one person may not exist in another discussion is useless. All those who can derive comfort from the thought, by all means let them entertain it. Should they never awake in another world they will never know they were in error here. CHAPTER XIX THE NEW RELIGION WE hear talk of a new religion, of the new dispen- sation which must come as the spirits of primeval- ism take their leave. "Old things have passed away," saitli the scriptures. "Behold all things have become new." Yet not quite all. There are left in plenty rem- nants of ancient faith and superstition. Not all have yet passed, but all are passing. And of what color and consistency will be the new religion? We do not know. We may know that it will not be brought upon us, as all dogmas and doctrines have hitherto been presented, as the work of one person,, or personage, of any one entity or nonentity, but will arise from human necessities to meet human wants as experi- enced in this world, leaving out vain imaginings and spec- ulations as to a potential hereafter. As Maurice Maeterlinck says, "We have arrived at a stage of human evolution that must be almost unprece- dented in history. A large portion of mankind, and just that portion which corresponds witli the part that hith- erto created the events of which we know with some cer- tainty, is gradually forsaking the religion in which it has lived for nearly twenty centuries. For a religion to become extinct is no new thing. It must have happened more than once in the night of time; and the annalists of the end of the Roman empire make us assist at the death of paganism. But until now men have passed from a crumbling temple into one that was building; they left one religion to enter another; whereas we are abandoning 372 THE NEW RELIGION 373 ours to go nowhere. That is the new phenomenon, with the unknown consequences, in which we live." The question of religion is still troublesome in these latter days, as it always has been, though not as much so as it once was; in war times the fate of the soul is subor- dinated to the fate of the body. Yet religion is destined to remain a vexed question until cults die or Imman nature changes. And for the latter we find little encouragement; sound the depths of the human heart as we may and we can discover no psychological difference in the murder of his brother by Cain and the murder of Belgium by the kaiser. Over this ever-entangled phantasmagoria, emblem of peace and happiness, more quarrels have arisen, more cru- elties have been perpetrated, more persecutions have found place, and more bloody battles have been fought than from all other causes put together. And were it not for the firm hand civilization lays upon religion, we should still be enjoying as aids to proselyting the rack and thumb- screw, chains and dungeons, autos-da-fe and inquisitions. For religion is ever coercive up to the limits of its capa- bilities. At once, upon the very threshold of sane investigation we encounter an obstacle which with the greatest difficulty is overcome and seldom entirely eradicated. Blind belief, a huge monster, stands insolently staring us in the face, to whom we must pay tribute before proceeding farther. Whatever may have been our early training, whether as Parsee Christian or Confucian, it was then implanted upon our plastic mind the necessity of accepting as truth whatever our parents or teachers told us was true under penalty of punishment here and eternal torment hereafter. Thus a variety of ineradicable and all-devouring convic- tions arose among the nations, and flourished through suc- ceeding generations, as to the reality of ancient myths and superstitions, all equally false, but for the veracity of which each was ready himself to die, or to kill any who 374 IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS ditVerently. And in spirit such conditions so re- uiain to this day. With ;i in i n< I cleared from tradition and superstition it is not difficult to trace from cause to effect the devious ways of a thousand religions, and plainly to perceive the origin and nature of the fetters of belief which bind the spiritual nature of man to a supernatural being. Where- fore, without speculation or propaganda, may we not con- sider this matter for a moment from the view-point of palpable fact? We find ourselves marooned upon a speck of sand in the midst of innumerable worlds whirling through Limit- less space. So far we are conscious. And struggle we never so wildly we can get no farther. Fill the earth with our cries and the heavens with airy speculations and no answer comes to an inquiry of whence and whither. The new religion should be one which helps man to live rather than to die, in which latter adventure he indeed requires no help. Before Buddha Christ or Mohammed, before Moses and the prophets, before Manu son of Brahma were the ape- man, and the half-man, and the primitive wild man all gathering material, making myths, and laying broad the superstructure upon which all nations have established their faith, and built their hopes of a future state of re- wards and punishments. One only proposition it is necessary to propound to the founders or supporters of any or all religions. Let them truthfully answer that and all is answered. What has your religion done for the race; are its accomplish- ments up to its teachings? It will not do to credit your cult with the natural results of evolution. If you read your history aright you are forced to admit that civili- zation is and always has been the primary factor in the redemption of man, curbing religion in the cruelties and injustice which have ever marked its progress. Chris- tianity, the religion of brotherhood and love, is to this day THE NEW RELIGION 375 the most relentless in its hate; Christians, themselves per- secuted at first, became the crudest and bloodiest perse- cutors the world has ever produced. Good Queen Isabella, one single example, see her with her Torquemada, her torture chambers and her autos-da-fe, driving out the Moors, killing Jews, and converting Indians with fire and sword. The progress of religion follows the natural law. Orig- inating a crude conception in the wild man's brain, in all its long journey from its sylvan cradle to the city cathedral it never rises superior to its environment. It is a created rather than a creative force. It is a flame which burns only as long as it is fed. Born of fear it fears always; remove the fear and it disappears. It cannot live on love; love plays no part in its endurance. Love is an abstraction; to love an imag- inary thing is to make an imaginary thing of love. Love is a free and independent entity, and comes not at the fiat even of the Almighty. Neither love nor hate has any part in binding the spiritual in man to the supernatural; only fear is dominant, fear of injury, or of loss, that and the desire of gain. The command to love God under penalty for failure of severe punishment is impracticable. Love is not an article subject to the command of either gods or men. Above all, how force a free intelligent being to love an airy and impalpable abstraction, a shadowy spirit, born of the imagination and fashioned after his own faulty self. What is love? A complex emotion. It is easy to say we love, if thereby we may escape the threatened punishment. The truth is we are still in bondage to fear and depen- dence from which the soul must find release. We are as much the slaves of superstition as ever were the naked savages of the woods. We dare not say that God is the author of evil ; we fear that punishment would come from such temerity. We must not so believe, yet we must believe 376 IN THESE LATTKR DAYS that God is the author of all things. All the same the remnant df the IN THESE LATTER DAYS Suppose in our new religion, in place of so much love and adoration of an abstraction, so many laws and regu- lations ill-fitting our nature, so many prophecies and reve- lations, so many miracles and marvels, so many such achievements as immaculate conceptions, making wine of water, and the like we infused in our dealings, social and commercial, a little more honesty; in our professions of piety a little less cant and hypocrisy; in our politics a little patriotism and a good deal less lying cheating and chicanery would it not be an improvement? The test of unreason cannot withstand the truth forever. Repudiate the divine authorship of evil if you like, but what will you do with the facts? Knowing beforehand that his commands would be broken, that his creatures were so constructed that any otherwise were impossible, yet the Almighty gave the com- mands, with the unjust penalty that endless torment should be the lot of millions for the inevitable act of a single per- son on whom was played this direful trick of omnipotence. Never yet has there lived a man burdened by the nat- ural passions implanted by the creator, who has not broken every command of the creator, the Almighty knowing that such would be the case beforehand, as witness murder, adul- tery, lying, hate, revenge, and the rest. Closing their eyes to the truth teachers and preachers prate on, God cannot be the author of evil; he doeth all tilings well ; like as a father pitieth his children the Lord pitieth us. Yet he made all mankind wicked, Israel as bad as any, but Israel, his chosen people, he sought to save, visiting dire destruction upon all others, with no hope in them of escape. In his loving-kindness he implants poison in the hearts of his first creation, implants the prin- ciple of evil, knowing beforehand in his omniscience that it will accomplish their destruction, and the damnation of the entire human race. This in his infinite justice ; and though unchangeable, we are told that he becomes dissat- isfied with his creation, and exclaims "I repent me that THE NEW RELIGION 383 I made man," and straightway goes about to destroy him. The God of the Jews and Christians is impossible as formulated by Moses and Christ, and by the prophets and psalmists intervening, the alleged sacred record passed upon and accepted as the veritable word of God by a com- mittee of theologians under the auspices of King James of England, and preached in the orthodox pulpits of Christendom at the present time. Yet surely these august judges of inspiration and divinity must have seen that there is not a single attribute bestowed upon the God of Israel by his votaries that is not denied many times in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Thus we see that the government by God as God is created, and his government interpreted by man is not altogether perfect even if professors and preachers assert the contrary while reciting the imperfections and attempt- ing to excuse them. The new religion must be one of substance and not of shadow, of fact and not altogether of fancy; a religion not founded on ghosts and ghostly stories such as are used to frighten children, of wine-making miracles, trinities and immaculate conceptions. Your actual true religionist is an actual true nonentity, still ruled by blind fear and the promise of brilliant com- pensation. Without care, with no trouble over proof or evidence he may simply say credo, accept what he is told to accept, what ancient naked superstition has told his teachers to accept, under penalty of punishment here and eternal torment hereafter, and the thing is done. He may be the vilest of the vile, as ruhtless a murderer as the German kaiser, yet he is safe. "The fool hath said in his heart there is no God." Granted. But is he not equally a fool who asserts know- ing nothing as he who denies knowing nothing? "Better believe in ghosts than abandon the spiritual," say eminent divines, who talk much but teach us nothing. Be it so; everyone to one 's taste ; for myself I prefer truth to inven- 384 IN THESK LATTKK DAYS tion. .It is a wicked lie t<> say In- is an atheist who cannot accept the impossible deity eoneoeted by the Jews and Christians, any more than he can accept the impossible deities concocted by the Hindus and Chinese, who lived ages before their competitors and should know as much of the unknowable as they.. What is belief? Opinon, you will say, mental assent, rational conviction. Can there be belief, rational convic- tion without evidence? I cannot see how. Man is given his mind for use. not for ornament, and in the ordinary affairs of life he is accounted a fool who does not use it. And yet in the most momentous issue attending his exist- ence he is thrown upon a blind belief, or so-called belief, mental assertion or assent if nothing more tangible can be produced, as the only deliverance from eternal torment. "I believe in God the father maker of heaven and earth," repeats the seeker after salvation. Why? "I feel it in my soul, in my inner consciousness; God through his holy spirit speaks to me and my heart responds." Very good, if such evidence or blind assertion is sufficient to determine the future, whether throughout endless ages there is to be happiness or misery, why not employ it in your every day life where such an attitude would be laughed to scorn? Yet with all our repudiation of the myths and fables concocted during the dark days of ignorance and attached to worship there to be retained to the present time, we still find ourselves standing alone in the midst of a vast universe of wonderful creations, equally lost in awe and admiration whether regarded as the work of an omniscient designer or the evolution of blind physical force. To make a perfect creator all that was good in all pre- vious gods was utilized, but the work was so bunglingly done as to be full of impossibilities and contradictions. Christ says love your enemies. God says I love those that THE NEW RELIGION 385 love me, and I hate those who hate me. To make a per- fect creator required a perfect man for a model. Why of all religions Christianity is the most irrational and illogical is partly because it is made up from so many other religions, and because such a large part of it must be accepted by faith or not at all. Thus those who say it is not necessary to pray to a merciful, just God, beseech- ing him to be kind and do right, for this he will do of his own accord, else he is not good righteous and just; so the pagan prays to his evil deities to placate them, and for every town he has a tutelar divinity. As it is now what have we to feed on? Husks which do not satisfy even our swinish cravings; stuff we are told we must accept and believe to be true under pain of eternal torment. Christianity is now challenged to show on what ground it can claim the further allegiance of rational beings. Orthodox Christianity has too many unsafe tenets upon which to found a permanent church. Sooner or later they must give way, as many of them have already given way. "I know that my redeemer liveth" says one. You are fortunate. How do you know, and from what redeemed? ' ' By faith, the evidence of things not seen ; my heart and inner consciousness affirm my redemption from sin." And how about the many millions who have not that inner conviction, or who have been sent to perdition never having heard of your redeemer 1 What is God? "God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, un- changeable, in his being wisdom power, holiness justice, goodness, and truth." Qualities scarcely sustained by the evidence. Then comes the most diabolical doctrine of the church. "God having, out of his mere good pleasure, elected some to everlasting life," the rest are consigned without cause to endless torment. And scarcely in accord with the teachings of Christ is the complacency with which the elect sitting by an open window in heaven regard the torments of the damned in hell. 13 386 IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS What is soul? The question has never been answered, or, rather, it is too much answered. We do not know what it is. We do not what we ourselves mean when we speak of it. Soul comes with consciousness and goes out with unconsciousness. When it first appears we are half- man ; when it disappears we are no man. Conventions have been held to solve the mystery. Shortly after the conquest of America a convention of church dignitaries was held in Spain to pass upon the question whether or not the Indians had souls. The learned ecclesiastics had their own interpretation as to the meaning of the word, and also as to the possession of the article by the brute cre- ation. They concluded that the Indians had souls, though how they ascertained the fact is not stated. It may be that their decision was influenced somewhat by certain col- lateral facts, as that in case of the declaration that the Indians belonged to the brute creation the females could not be used as mistresses by the conquerors, nor the people at large for conversion by the priests. It is plain enough to all who wish to see that neither the governments nor the religions, in any of their various forms and purposes which humanity thus far has adopted, have accomplished the end for which they were created, and that new governments and new religions must be invented and carried into execution before man can go forward to the full accomplishment of his high destiny. Even now in Europe we see what may be the beginning of the end, participation in which may ere long be the lot of America. On every count religion has failed to carry out its promises or accomplish its purposes, while the ab- surdity, not to say the enormity, of inherited rulership, kingship by divine right is felt more and more, and we may rest assured that the system is doomed. We are in bondage to sin, they say. not our own sin but Adam's sin. Now Adam did not sin; he did what his maker made him do; or even were it so, how could we sin, or commit any overt act prior to our existence? Yet with the THE NEW RELIGION 387 subtle serpent, and the woman, and the man we stand ac- cursed. All along the centuries the struggle continues to justify the creator by reconciling the existence of evil with the alleged power and goodness of God but without success. Either the Bible is true or it is not. Theologians say that it is true, and then try to overthrow such parts of it as do not fit their theories. A God of infinite power, the author of all, is subordi- nated to evils and evil beings of his own creation, and in the contentions which follow, under the influence of the basest passions becomes a demon of cruelty, revenge, and in- justice, to which his devotees feel constrained from fear to blind their eyes and see in him only holiness justice lov- ing-kindness and truth. And this while a world in agony lies waiting, hoping, trying for their soul's eternal rest to believe what they are told to believe even though they know it cannot be true. Looking at it from any point of view we may and it is equally unthinkable, this universe the work of a creator such as religionists invent, or blind chance as in the evolu- tion of matter. In the form of prayer Christ gives us in which to sup- plicate the father, it says, ' ' Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation." Would God then otherwise entrap us as he did Adam and Pharoah? And if we are forgiven only as we forgive, how many would see salvation? Wherefore we are constrained to hold opinion that of all the gods ever emanating from human conceptions, the deity en- throned by the Hebrew and Christian theodicy is the most involved and contradictory, being a bundle of antagonistic elements the fruits of which seem to be more disastrous than open devil-worship. Jesus as an eternal force still lives, but Christ as in- 388 IN THESE LATTKi; DAYS carnated truth and holiness, a recreator of inaiikiml, 1'ailrd in the accomplishment of his mission. How many of his pretensions were made good; how many of his promises were kept? A prodigy perhaps, ever < \liorting his followers to achieve the impossible, it was easy to fabricate the story of his birth and parentage, and attribute to him as miracles some of the legerdemain of the day. How many of the precepts of Christ it is impossible for man to obey. Is it kind, or considerate, or wise, to make such demands? Love your enemies, Christ says. Does God do that ? Never since Christ came has a single person ever lived up to his teachings ; then what is the use of such teach- ing? However illogical and beyond human experience, we still cling to the hope of life everlasting, that is to say those of us who desire it, and that is all mankind with a few exceptions. ''My peace I leave with you." The peace of Belgium. "Forgive as you would be forgiven." Then never was yet one forgiven. ' ' Do as you would be done by. ' ' Under the economy of God such an order is absurd, as is also the command, "take no thought for your life," and scores of other injunctions impossible except for a different order of beings from poor weak imperfect man. Such a religion can scarcely endure forever. What then has Christianity to rest upon as a ground- work for belief? Let us go over the whole situation and sum it up. Theorem: The God of the scriptures is not the God of their interpretation. We find before us the holy book of the orthodox church, the Bible, the sacred scriptures of the Old and New Test- aments, written by inspired men, and revised and accepted by a commission under King James of England. With this book the church tells the people what they are to do and to believe. Answering the question, What is God? we are told that THE NEW RELIGION 389 God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, in his being wisdom power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. What rule hath God given for our direction ? The word of God as contained in the scriptures is the only rule given us. Here, then, is the whole proposition; we have simply to consult the record for our full enlightenment. Turning to the sacred volume we find that in six days God created the heaven and the earth, and all things therein; that at the time of creation all was dark, so he made the sun moon and stars, and light, and all was very good. He made man, male and female, placed them in a garden, and gave them dominion over all his works, with one restriction. This first pair were unsophisticated and pure. They knew no evil, knew not evil from good. For so God had made them, and designedly, for God does nothing without design. Omnipotent, omniscient, all-powerful, all-knowing, God knew beforehand that this first pair would break his only command, and that he would curse them for it, curse them for doing that for which he had made them, and which they were powerless to resist. God knew and foreordained all this, else he was not the Lord God of the scriptures. God also predestinated that for this sinless sin of Adam he would curse his innocent posterity, -establish a world of woe, and finally consign the inhabitants to a hell of endless torment. So he introduced into the garden in the form of a serpent, the spirit of evil, a thing of his own creation as he created all things, and the result was as he had previously determined it should be. The man and woman fell into the trap; they and their posterity were cursed in consequence, the result being a short shift of a world wailing in misery followed by an eternity of hell. Here was the first great mistake of Moses, as before indicated, in not bringing forward from somewhere a veri- table devil to combat what he might then have sustained as 390 IN TIIKSK LATTKi; DAYS tin- righteous efforts of a benevolent being to save his people. Instead of which In- leaves his God of love ami holiness a monster of cruelty ami injustice, H character sustained not only throughout that portion of the scrip- tures written by Moses, but by all the inspired writers that followed him, in both the Hebrew and Christian dis- pensations, the flat assertions of Christ and his followers to the contrary notwithstanding. Later Satan is brought forward in propria persona by the author of the book of Job and permitted to bargain with God on equal terms for the badgering of the patriarch, though nothing is given of the devil's origin or antecedents except what he said of himself, that he was in the habit of walking up and down in the earth and taking in a general sense of things. In God's treatment of Pharoah, when he hardened the Egyptian's heart so that he could not if he would let the Israelites go, afflicting unjustly an innocent people in con- sequence, no mention is made of the devil. Saint Matthew, however, in his account of Christ's so-called temptation rep- resents Satan as a free and independent personage. As a specimen of the incongruities attending the throw- ing together of bundles of ancient myths of divers nations and calling them a sacred book, the veritable and direct word of God to man, we have the Chaldean story of the flood, as elsewhere mentioned, in vogue a thousand years before Moses was born, and utilized by the Hebrews as a part of their religion. It was a cruel conception, a monstrous charge to lay upon a just and holy being, a manifest hatred of his im- perfect work in making a world full of humanity predes- tined to Almighty vengeance as displayed in the promis- cuous destruction of men. women, and children the innocent and the guilty together. Such a being as Moses presented, as Christ extolled, as Jews Christians Moham- medans and Mormons now worship in ten thousand THE NEW RELIGION 391 churches, could not possibly exist, being in himself an end- less contradiction. Moses was a good and great man according to his lights. He saw that the people in his charge required something more than human influence for their management, and he therefore brought to his aid the supernatural, as spiritual leaders have done from the beginning even to the present time. He was also injudicious in laying down a higher law for his still brutish proteges, and in throwing off polytheism and adopting monotheism before they were ready for it, before indeed they were fairly clear of idolatry. They could better have understood the situation had there been another deity for them to wrestle with, a king of evil, as well as a king of goodness. The Israelites caused God much trouble, though he chose them as a people specially to favor, and helped them in their wars with other nations, urging them on to every atrocity, to kill the inhabitants, men women and children, to the last person, and take possession and occupy their lands. The unchecked doings in Europe of the kaiser, self constituted vicegerent of the Almighty, call to mind the doings of Joshua at the river Jordan. The God of the Jews was a God of violence and blood, as was indeed the God of the Christians ; yet it was the same God to whom Christ gave quite a different character. Many times God lost patience with the Jews and punished them severely. They are still without name or country, . waiting the fulfilment of the promises made to Abraham and the coming of their messiah, having repudiated Jesus of Nazareth as such. The God of the Christians has not yet lost his taste for blood, if we may judge the wars for Christ's sake since Christ came, and the present doings of his people in Europe and throughout the world. Christ was an idealist, and his ethics were applicable only for an ideal humanity. His maxims have never been taken seriously by the great mass of mankind, and are not IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS taken seriously or applied practically either liy the Chris tian churches or the Christian people, of the present time. Man's nature is little changed since Cod made it, and Christ's attempt at its reconstruction failed. In all the 2,000 years sinee Christ came we cannot tin. I one man who has lived up to his teachings. Such teach- ings may be applicable in founding a new school of idealism, but of their practical benefit to mankind the result shows unfavorably. Further than this, Christ attempted to change for us the nature of God. Ignoring the imperfec- tions, the passions and evil propensities of the God of Moses, he presented for our adoration a being all goodix s^. all love, all powerful to save, which character the mad doings of his people from the very first and all through the Dark Age down to the present ditch work in Europe do not sustain. In the dogma of the trinity, improvised or invented long after Christ took his departure, we have the most puerile, and incongruous subterfuge of all. An omnipotent, omnis- cient being who made man, pronounced his work good, then introduced an element to overthrow the good, unjustly inflicting punishment on millions of innocent people, could not remove that evil influence and restore man to his original purity, could not even eradicate his bad work and create anew as once before he had attempted to do. without some personage on whom as a scapegoat he could pretend to lay the blame and so retain his reputation for perfection. To obtain a proper scapegoat this immaculate creative spirit must in some way beget a son, how or by- what means is not stated, and to improvise another holy spirit to act as agent or instrument, by which a virgin is made to conceive and bring forth a child, which being made one with and equal to God, constitutes a proper personage on whose innocent shoulders to lay the alleged sins of the world. And this with other like heinous doctriii' taught as truth and accepted as such by persons of supposed ordinary human intelligence at the present time. THE NEW RELIGION 393 Nor are the appeals of propagandists very complimen- tary to the creator, whom they are constantly reminding of neglected duties, and coming to his aid with their mis- sionary work. The rational alone is God-like. If there be God within us, it is the God of reason. This God-like attribute, which alone raises man out of the category of the brute creation, was given us for use, not to be lightly thrust aside for mean- ingless dogmas of the dead past, and for our proper or im- proper use it will be our reward or punishment, now and forever. The improvisation of the God of the Hebrews and the Christians by Moses, or by whomsoever formulated the attributes and doings of the Almighty, is faulty and un- fortunate, being so full of contradictions and absurdities as to make their acceptation impossible by persons of or- dinary thought and intelligence. Here is a being set before us for our imitation and adoration as faultless yet full of faults ; a personage in his being wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, yet in his deeds unjust and merciless ; omnipotent, yet un- able or unwilling to prevent evil; perfect, yet the creator only of imperfection; all loving-kindness, yet filled with hate and revenge. He makes a world, the larger part of it a waste of water filled with living things whose only use or occupation is de- vouring one another ; on land the same, a waste of wilder- ness inhabited by wild men and wild beasts, who likewise live to kill ; this perfect creation a world shambles, the whole earth a bldody charnel house. Then religion in endless forms springs up and promises relief, but does not give it. In the face of all this a merit is made of blind belief, the only sort of belief possible, the soul's salvation turning on faith. ''The evidence of things not seen." Is not that some- what involved ? Not only of things not seen, but that never 894 or had existence. All empty words, employed to captivate the simple. Then is the little child and the stupid adult the most meritorious of humanity, to be given the crown of righteousness and a seat at God's ri^ht hand, for they are most of all the easiest convinced and the most stubbornly established in their convictions. There is neither truth nor wisdom in asserting dog- matically the alleged facts or falsities regarding matters of which nothing is known by anyone. And of those who hold the scriptures to be true it is wrong or irrelevant to question. Why does not the Hebrew messiah come as was promised? Why does not the Christian messiah return and complete his work as he promised? "A little while," he said. Are two thousand years a little while? It scarcely can seem so to the millions upon millions who have come and gone, cast into a burning hell, waiting for this little while until one sees no reason for further trusting to this promise. For omnipotence to permit is to achieve. Here is the predicate and corollary of Christianism ; this is what the alleged holy book and its self-sufficient interpreters say that we must affirm as our belief or rightly receive eternal punishment: A creator, all-powerful yet powerless in part ; perfect, yet the author of imperfection ; unchangeable, yet ever changing ; hating evil yet permitting it ; affecting only loving-kindness yet inflicting upon all creatures for all time, with a modicum of pleasure and happiness, the most horrible atrocities; then, with all these unfulfilled pretensions and impossible conditions, to endow this creator with perfection so exalted and dignity so awful that he must not bring blame upon himself for his bungling work, but create for the occasion a scapegoat in the shape of an alleged son, born of an alleged virgin, to suffer in the place of the real delinquent, could there be concocted anything more absurd not to say insulting, or placed before human intelligence for compulsory belief, and kept alive by blank- assertion t Yet millions continue to believe, or pretend to believe, THE NEW RELIGION 395 at least to swallow it, all sugar coated, and go their way rejoicing in their irrational ignorance and stupidity. For not one half of the church-goers believe to be true what they hear preached from the pulpit, nor do half of the half who pretend to believe allow their conduct to be in the least influenced thereby. Is Christianity then a failure? No, because it never achieved success; it never fulfilled its pretensions and promises. The ethical teachings of Christ never found ex- pression in human life. It is a somewhat singular fact, but one easily estab- lished, that since the coming of Christ preaching peace more crimes have been committed, more wars, more mur- ders, more cruelties have been perpetrated by Christians, or in and for the name of Christ, than by all other persons or from all other causes put together. Deliverance from dangers and relief from suffering are often cited as proof of the goodness and mercy of God, but seldom is use made of the danger and suffering brought on or permitted by the Almighty as proof of the evil- mindedness and cruelty of the deity. In their arguments the defenders of the church use chicane and hypocrisy, if indeed their mental faculties are not sadly warped by education and environment. What are those to do lacking a personal interpretation or an internal heart or mind illumination ? He is fortunate indeed who can truthfully say and derive comfort from it, "I know that my redeemer liveth, " that is if he knows from what he is redeemed and is satisfied with illuminating fantasy in place of the truth. The senselessness of the whole scheme is so stupendous that it is strange how ra- tional beings can entertain it for a moment. Indeed, they do not ; but to quiet their intelligence are led off into some fantastic realm of feeling where reason is dethroned and fancy made to take the place of fact. When the editor of a New York Weekly was asked to give a reason for his belief in the immortality of the soul, :WG IX TIIKSH LATTKK DAYS he said that whatever man most earnestly longed for he generally received; which in tin- iirst place is not true, and secondly is fallacy; for where then would we 1><: in cast- we did not happen to long for immortality? Belief in or longing for a thing does not affect the fact. Either then- is or is not a future state, regardless of man's desires. "He doeth all things well." He did up Adam pretty well, and threw in posterity for nothing. With Job he played fast and loose for the edification of Satan, lie did Pharoah finely, forcing him against his will to continued disobedience while punishing him therefor, turning the river to blood so that the fish died, while the waters did stink; up from the river then came frogs and entered the houses and sat upon the beds. And after the frogs were lice; and after the lice, swarms of flies; then a murrain was sent upon the cattle, then boils upon the people, then hail, then locusts, and finally came the slaying of the first born of man and beast, and all for the entertainment of his pet people the Israelites. In these cruel conceptions Moses assuredly did his supreme deity injustice. Yet these evil examples seemed to continue, as when at the Jordan river God set on this Israelitish band of Adam's sons to kill and rob other sons of Adam, the bloody butcheries there begun at the fiat of the Almighty contin uing the world over to this day. All this time the monstrous threat of visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third or fourth generation was being carried into execution ; not however without a slip here and there, as when the sin of good King David, the sweet singer of Israel, in the murder of Uriah and the appropriation of his wife was visited on his son Solomon by giving him a thousand women to keep him quiet. Let us not forget, however, that in this present writing there is no complaint or criticism of the- ways and works of the actual Creator or First Cause, of which we know THE NEW RELIGION 397 nothing, but only a presentation of the subject as given us for our enforced belief by our instructors. For this is the sum and the substance of the Christian Bible and of Christian belief. This is what Moses and the prophets, what Christ and his followers make of the supreme being : He made all things, and all very good ; he did not make all things, and some things he made were very bad ; he made Satan and sin ; and man, his crowning work, he filled full of wickedness. He made all things, and as a perfect being all that he made was perfect; he did not make all things, he was not the author of evil ; he does not tell us who made the devil, or how he came into the world, or why he permits him to live. A perfect being, he could not create imperfection, and yet the world is full of imperfections. Hating evil, he yet preserves it ; omnip- otent and merciful, he cannot or will not drive out sin. All merciful and just, he predestinates innocent man to misery, death, and eternal torment for sin he never committed, for being and living as God perforce made him to be and to live. While thus tormenting man we are told that he orders man to love him, to adore, to praise, and pray to him. After thus playing fast and loose with his people for 4,000 years, accepting and denying, promising without perform- ing, saying one .thing and doing another, his authorities concoct a scheme to divide his personality Into three parts, one of them to improvise a son, who is to be sacrificed to satisfy divine justice, as it is called, or in other words to relieve the creator from the odium arising from his imperfect work. All this is but an inkling of what might be said, yet quite enough to confound mankind. Here endeth this none too clear exposition, in which respect it is not unlike all that has been given in all ages for the edification of mankind by professors of the un- knowable. :i!s IN THESE LATTER DAYS And tin- summary is: "God made all things." "Yes; but he did not nuike tin- devil and sin." "Then he did not make all things. Who then made the devil and sin?" "I do not know; I only know that God is not the author of evil." ' ' How do you know ? ' ' "Were he so, he were not God." "Very true; yet so it is written." "What then can I do; what must I do to be saved?" "Believe" saith the spectre. "Believe what?" "Oh, anything, everything; just believe, believe or be damned." "I believe in the eternity of truth, the immutability of justice, and the omnipotence of righteousness. Of gods and devils I believe nothing, knowing nothing. As to what I am, or where I am, and for what purpose here, or for what destination hereafter I know not, nor does any one know." CHAPTER XX THE WAR IN EUROPE SATAN, solus. "So! Is it so, my children "? and he smiled, plying his tail with complacency. "Is it thus I find you amusing yourselves as Moses found his people on coming down from the Mount? only I see nothing in your gambolings quite so rational as making for yourselves a golden calf to worship. A somewhat freer indulgence in blood-lust and malevolence than the occasion calls for, is it not? Christian Europe, in the most humane age of the world dehumanized, imbruted, all ablaze in a frenzy of wrath, your songs of happiness turned to hymns of hate, and this, four thousand years from Abraham, two thousand years from Christ. An advance in moral uprightness and refinement, truly! though seemingly a profitless industry breeding men for manure. I am surprised, -and pleased, though I take shame in that I have no entertainment to offer you surpassing this. ' ' Or is it only an infernal festival I see, a celebration per- chance of your vaunted civilization, your worshipful Chris- tianity? Kindly interpret to me these terms, for in their significance I can discern nothing more than a thin veneer of culture and courtesy over raw human nature as exem- plified in your illustrious predecessor Cain ; the one, the evolution of the ages, the unfolding of intellect along lines always significant of its origin ; the other a blind following of ancient fantasies the effluvia of ignorance and supersti- tion. ' ' For you say, ' Ever the best remains, ' ' The purest only to be permanent.' Wherefore after these many several 399 400 IN THESE LATTKK DAYS centuries of effort and endurance we have before us in Iliis highly intellectual and refined performance a specimen of your best and purest. " 'Love is the fulfilling of the law,' saith the scriptures. Behold how these Christians love one another! "Again, 'By their fruits ye shall know them.' This, then, that I see, is the fruitage of Christ's ministrations among you; this the application of his divine teachings to your daily lives. I seem to remember in times past some- thing of discordant doings among the elect resulting in many battles and butcheries, Christians killing Christians for opinion's sake, Christians killing pagans for Christ's sake, proselyting and purifying with fire and sword, not to mention inquisitions, autos-da-fe, torture chambers, Bar- tholomew massacres, and a thousand other crimes com- mitted in the name of the meek and lowly Jesus. "But all such ways of winning heaven pale before this magnificent ditch-work ; before these braying mortars that so bravely level forts and tear to shreds beautiful cities, mingling with the broken work of art the mangled remains of the unoffending inhabitants ; before your vikings of the air dropping destruction on the mothers and babes of peaceful homes; before your battleships coasting stealthily for some unprotected health or pleasure place ; before your terrible under-water engines hurling to hades a thousand souls at a single blast. "Great days these of electrical industries, of iron and oil creations, of ever yet more powerful explosives, of ever yet more efficient death-dealing machinery; and now that all these good things might not run to waste the demons of Christian civilization are let loose and all Europe goes off in an ecstasy of mutual slaughter. "Founded on superstition and militancy, which find expression not in the teachings of the sacred books but in the base passions of rulers, religion becomes a factor in the oricrin and continuance of the war. Statesmen, diplomats, learned professors who chop logic to make the worse appear THE WAR IN EUROPE 401 the better part ; preachers who blaspheme from the pulpit, and prayer-mongers who call on God to help his only true and chosen people in their ferocious doings, the quality of their petitions explained and emphasized by these orgies of human butchery, by this outbreak of piety in vindictive passion, a new demonstration in love and charity per- chance, the love of bloodshed and the charity that turns from widow's wails and orphan's cries. Me, I would not to people my kingdom resort to such sophistries. I hold to scorn these profane babblings that find expression in cruelty, treachery, revenge, loss of .integrity, loss of honor, in robbery, rape and rank injustice, the fruits by which we are to know the bright road of progress and kaiser kultur. "Ah! it is progress indeed, such progress that another thousand years of it will make of this earth a hell so hot that my abode beside it will be as the hall of Valhalla or the garden of the Hesperides. Wherefore I Beelzebub, king of kings, salute thee, William, king of Germany ! "Admit then, beloved, that the devil is not so black as he is painted, that he alone in a world of mummery, lying, self-deception, and hypocrisy dare speak the truth. Go to, then, I, Lucifer, star of the morning, will prate and pray with you in all honesty and sincerity. Listen. Let us pray. Let us all pray, of whatsoever name or nation, help us Oh Lord ! to kill ; help us to kill. Listen not to our adversaries. Curse them, good Lord, curse them; confound their pol- itics, frustrate 'their knavish tricks. Art not thou Oh God! a God of war, and is not thy church a church militant? Then help us Oh God ! only us thy servants, to kill, help us to kill. Give us peace in thine own time, good Lord, peace with mastery, only with mastery, remember, good Lord. Help us to kill, Oh Lord ! to kill. ' ' How perfectly ethical and logical is prayer ! ' ' ' The churches are impotent, ' your wiseacres say. Cer- tainly, any one can see that. 'Christianity is impotent.' How do you know ; has it ever been tried ? ' Prayer is im- potent.' Then why insult high heaven with the trash you K)J IN THESE LATTER DAYS offer it, knowing nothing, believing nothing, expecting noth- ing. And as for the prayers of belligerents, it makes us smile down our way, so tangled they become ere reaching the throne of grace. " 'It repenteth me that I made man,' saith the Lord. Wherefore ye who preach and pray for lucre, not for souls, who teach God his duty, telling him so much he never knew before, were it not well to mention his mistake about tin- Ark, in saving any one when drowning the world in water; a mistake which may now be rectified in drowning the world in blood, and this time make a clean sweep of it, for is not the kaiser the son of Noah? Then, further, were it not well to devise some other means for the betterment of man- kind than drowning the people he has made, whether in water or blood-? Were it not as well to abolish the Hajruc. burn your peace-temples, leave inane prayers and prating to women and fanatics, and get at something sensible? " 'God save the king!' I hear you cry; or if of Britain you say God save our excuse for a king. Why is this, why do you want God to save your king? Is it because he as- sumes superiority, claims divine rulership inherited from some medieval pirate or cutthroat baron? Is it because he imposes upon you unjust burdens, makes traffic of woman- hood, harnesses you to crime, forcing you to commit any iniquity his passions may dictate? "Go to, poor mites of humanity, crawling about on this little lump of earth, your necks under the iron heel of despot rulers. Of what use to you are kings, pygmies under high heaven strutting their brief lives away, presently to rot like the rest, yet whom you follow like sheep to the shambles. Of what benefit to the world are the royal drones, the vagrant nobility, the large idle class that scorn work but scorn not to live on the work of others, and which you are forced to support, besides the burdens of war, religion, and crime? I fain would wish you a better fate. Do you not know that all cultures and cults grow rank with age and die ; do you not see that your progress is downward THE WAR IN EUROPE 403 as well as upward, your wars a crime, your religion a hol- low mockery which is always harking back to the paganism of ancient Egypt and Rome, while the star of destiny is ever more radiant in the west, new light even now breaking forth over the vast amphitheatre of the Pacific with every sign of promise for the great and final development. ' ' Enough. If you are content to remain thus, even as I see you now, compelled by your gracious sovereign to crawl in ditches on your bellies and shoot men down as he shall direct, men you do not know and with whom you have no variance, so do. If not, come with me to a higher, hap- pier hell where wickedness may be enjoyed with some^de- gree of common sense and decency. ' ' With the first flush of amazement, the first wave of horror that swept over America on the breaking out of hos- tilities in Europe came sincere sorrow and sympathy for those about to suffer, for those about to die. The pity of it ! Physical endurance beyond compare, and mental distress; then the loss to humanity, the blow to faith and progress, the blow to society, to intellectual advancement and esthetic culture, reform rolled back, Christianity made contemp- tible, the return to' brute force and beastliness, all showing how thin the coating of civilization and religion that covers our earthly natures. Soon, however, and subconsciously swept in upon us a sense of satisfaction with our better lot, and finally speculation as to how we might profit by the situation. The popular idea seemed to be that prosperity, as the gentle rain from heaven, was to fall 011 all alike, without effort on the part of any ; but when the hard times following the new tariff continued, and to the income tax was added another by courtesy called a war tax, but in reality a tax made necessary by our invasion of Mexico and other inju- dicious acts, it appeared that the alleged prosperity was not to be immediate and universal. Conditions were imposed. The south could not sell its 404 IN THESE LATTER DAYS cotton, so that there was no prosperity there. Exporters of raw material in the north were likewise in a quandary. New York was deep in financial problems, and closed the Stock Exchange* to avoid panic. Chicago and the middle west were the best off of any, having food products and manufactured articles to sell. San Francisco and the Pacific coast soon shipped away the limited supply of fruit and grain, leaving ample time for the mind to dwell on the benefits of the Panama canal and the glories of the two expositions. So passed away the first months of the Euro- pean war with little appearance of great immediate profit to America. Entering the second half year of the war, times grew worse rather than better. The industrial world was par- alyzed. Men of affairs in an atmosphere of financial unrest, everywhere frenzied fighting, wars of uncertain duration, were afraid to move lest they should make a mistake. Ocean transportation was perilous, and dealings with the warring nations difficult. The earthquake in Italy added to the horrors of famine in Poland and Belgium, and among the early movements of ocean-going craft, following the first ravages of the war, were relief shipments to those coun- tries. Adding to the general embarrassment were the blockades declared by the belligerents one against the other, the war zone thrown around the British isles supported by German mines while England placed chief dependence on her fleet. But whether or not fighting continued, the world must be fed and clothed, and for supplies all eyes were turned toward America ; so that later woolen clothing, cotton knit goods, leather and rubber boots and shoes, harness and saddles, motor cars, and metal-working machinery began to move across the water at the rate of five or six millions of dollars a day taking the place of raw material exports, which for the United States was the beginning of a new prosperity, exports exceeding imports for a time at the rate of a billion dollars a year. Soon we were making cloth THE WAR IN EUROPE 405 such as England formerly made; we took from Bavaria to some extent the toy and machine industries, from France wines and women's wear, and so on. Alien immigration, however, of which a large increase was expected, fell off from the average of previous years seventy-five per cent. Great Britain made an effort to capture some of the German trade, publishing a monthly magazine entitled Made in England, but little came of it. There was little production in France other than agricultural. The famine scare increased sweeping over the world. Appeals for bread came in from every quarter, from Belgium, Poland, Servia, Palestine, Montenegro, Mexico, Samoa, and else- where, while England and Germany were trying to starve each other out. Even the United States talked of placing an embargo on wheat. Yet at that moment it was only America between Belgium and starvation. As time passed by it became more and more apparent that the effect of the war on the United States as a whole would not prove beneficial for some time to come, if at all. We saw also that it was not a war of peoples but of rulers, who filled with malignity stood aside in places of safety while prodding on their soldiers in the trenches, with little hate in their hearts, to kill, they knew not why ; and that at the bottom of it was militarism, which means applied machinery for .the slaughter of men, just as Chicago has applied machinery for the slaughter of cattle. We saw that it was not a European war alone, but a world war, one in which sooner or later Asia and America would have their part to play. It was not a passing freak of the Almighty at the hand of his chosen rulers, but a regular old-fashioned raid for blood and plunder, for loot and land, attended by the usual medieval outrages; this for Germany, while for England and France it signified in case of defeat denationalization. All the same they were rather slow in coming to the assistance of Belgium who interposed her body to check the avalanche. England is 406 not quirk to do for herself what another will do for her. She dors not dral in smt iiiimt ; shr dors not scorn to reap whrrr othrrs havr sown; yet being in for this war, whirh to her is life or death, she will fight it out thoroughly and to a finish. Fortunately neither prayers for peaee nor friendly in- terposition succeeded in terminating the war in Knrope. Did ever anyone expect it? The worst that could befall would be to establish peace before certain issues were determined, without which settlement all the blood and treasure thus far spent were worse than thrown away. It is only ignorance of conditions and shallow self-flattery that cause the occasional outburst of simple souls in wide-spread prayer and inane peace proposals. The contending forces had as yet reached no stopping place. For though ages may intervene, the full fruitage of this conflict will not appear until kings, royalties, and titled nobility with hereditary rulership are abolished, Prussian militarism exterminated, and infamous episodes like the present war made impossible. Prussian militarism; what is it? Rightly it has been called a system without a soul ; a state that is a distinct entity, without moral sense or obligation; a nation that is an army and an army that is a nation ; a force for aggres- sion, not for defense ; a huge machine for crushing peoples, into whose wheels men for cogs are fitted, the emperor of Germany at the engine and diplomats and professors at the furnace. During the brief period since this war began our eyes have been opened to evils threatening interests vital to the human race. We see the rulers of great nations, among i he foremost in intellect and culture, giving themselves up more than ever before to the science and art of human slaughter, cavalierly relegating in time of war, honor, hon- esty, integrity, and humanity to the plea of necessity. To this end the whole country is laid under contribution. To this end the boy is trained and the man must respond. To THE WAR IN EUROPE 407 this end the rulers, divine or devilish, lay heavy burdens upon the people and drive them to their death at pleasure. What matters it to the master, a few more millions slain, a few more millions starved, the wrecking of a few more cities, the laying waste of a few more provinces, prosperous towns reduced to a memory ; it 's all in the day 's work, and necessary. Every male infant born of a German mother, to become a German subject, enters the world a bondsman, as part of a mechanism whose purpose and practice is the killing of human beings. From this thraldom there is no escape save through the gates of death. At the proper age and time, boy or man, the victim is placed before others like himself, and all driven on to slaughter. It is a slavery of the soul. Doomed to the shambles from childhood by a rulership purporting to be of divine origin and agency, and sustained by learned professors trained in the same school and bound to promulgate the same doctrine, there is no crime the ruler may choose to impose that the subject can refuse to commit. Obviously the nation or nations that follow this system and handle such machinery can dominate those that do not; in a word can rule the world as it now stands. This compels others, Americans as well as Euro- peans, to adopt the same method or go out of business, which means a return to feudalism. It is therefore life or death, the total eradication of German militarism from the face of the earth. A century ago the French emperor made himself auto- crat of Europe ; his methods were bad enough, but not so infamous as are those of the German emperor today, yet England and Germany rose and drove Napoleon out. Better America should join the allies than that the world should continue as shambles with the science and art of killing men as the chief industry. As scourge of the world the German William is worse than was ever any French Napoleon or Spanish Philip. With this sort of absolutism in vogue in Europe, a peace-at-any-price people in any part 408 of the world would be among the first to suffer. A good supply of battleships, submarines, ami ail' ships are the best argument in diplomatic circles. The claim of a divine right of one man to rule over others, it is needless here to say, is an insult to human intelligence. The forcing of men to fight like wild beasts or gladiators in the arena is a form of fiemlishness worthy of a Roman Nero or a Russian Peter; the maintenance of men and machinery for inroads upon neighboring nations and the butchery of the innocent inhabitants is a crime worthy of a German William, and exceeding all other crimes. Few realized until they saw its horrible devourings what a monster high civilization was harboring. The only hope for the extinction of militarism and a long period of peace is in the final triumph of the triple entente. The cause of the war and by whom originated were topics of controversy at first, each laying the blame upon the other; but the matter was soon dropped as of small moment beside the awful realities that followed. The causes in due time appeared, and so plainly marked that few found difficulty in reaching proper conclusions despite the false reasoning and absurd deductions made by profes- sors and rulers. Preparedness, with kultur and divine kingship as a basic element; add commercial jealousy and elemental hate and we have not long to await spontaneous combustion. Germany, militarized by forty years of study, invention, ami drill, with the largest army and the most perfect mili- tary machinery which had yet been seen, took the field under the banner of reinforced barbarism, hastening the attack before the other belligerents were fairly awake to the situation in the expectation of the immediate capture of Paris, which would have been accomplished but for the intervention of brave little Belgium. Von Bernhardi outlined in his book three years before the war, as is well known, the course which afterward was followed, openly discussing the policy of a world empire. THE WAR IN EUROPE 409 With refreshing candor the kaiser claims that as vicegerent of the Almighty and divinely appointed dominator of the world, with a kultur which to have means deep conscience and high morale, he is not bound by ordinary laws or per- sonal pledges, for he alone can truly translate humanism. It is idle for professors to pretend that the kaiser and his cohorts did not want the war. Because Germany, insincere and treacherous, prepared for it long and strenuously, applying all the genius of art and industry to the construction of death-dealing imple- ments; because she plainly declared her purpose before- hand first to dominate Europe, then Asia and America; because from the beginning she everywhere assumed the offensive, springing the conflict suddenly upon the unpre- pared, breaking treaties, forfeiting honor, treating with barbarous cruelty and injustice unoffending peoples; and because of her ability at any time to have prevented or terminated hostilities, we may be sure that the odium of the bloodiest and most senseless of wars that ever disgraced the name of man will rest with the present rulers of Ger- many to the end of time. The crime of Belgium, alone an endless shame ; a peaceful, happy land, villainously entered and wantonly destroyed, then after seizing for them- selves the food supply, and imposing exorbitant ransom upon the despoiled cities, the conquerors turn their back upon the inhabitants shivering under the debris of their so lately happy homes, and seven millions survivors, old men, women, and children are left in their misery with the oncoming winter to freeze, and starve, and die. We have been taught to regard Germany as the pro- tector of culture, the guardian of the highest civilization and of the purest religion, a barrier to the inroads of the barbaric Muscovite; but when we see the rulers of Ger- many trampling under foot the teachings of Christ, assuming God's place and prerogative on this earth, and the professors of the universities defending with illogical 410 IN THESE LATTKK DAYS verbiage diabolical cruelly and injustice, we say open the gates and let the Russians in. Tlie day will come perhaps when the (Jennaii emperor will he pleased to talk peace and peace conditions. Who then will listen? Of what worth the word of one dis- honored, forsworn? Of what value the promise of one who openly declares himself void of truthfulness, void of integrity, his treaty worthless, his bond waste paper? A nation outlawed, perjured, why waste time concoct inr terms with such an one? Necessity knows no law, the kaiser alone being judge of what is necessary. War is a necessity whenever the kaiser chooses so to declare it. War knows no law ; the kaiser knows no law ; yet while breaking laws and treaties ad libitum Germany protests loudly against the breaking of international laws by others. When a country outlaws itself under the plea of neces- sity, concrete acts of infamy upheld by the German chan- cellor and sustained by the German war book how make honorable compacts with a state outlawed? And what would be the effect on the world were the kaiser's high code of ethics allowed a free course? Already foxy Japan talks of not only repudiating her promises of restoration to China of the late conquests on her border from the Germans, but is making further extortionate de- mands hitherto little thought of. For is not the Mikado likewise divine, Buddha incarnate, and can he not interpret the word necessity as well as any German potentate when- ever he wishes further lootings in China? And that is all the time; indeed, Japan would not object to taking over all of China, and may find it one day "necessary" to do so unless Germany gets in before her. It is a dangerous pre- cedent, and a fine example for pagandom, this mixture of lawless ambition with fanaticism and the divinity craze, the Teutonic blood-lust and kultur-lust with inherited rulership back of it all. And let America have a care of being caught napping. The Asiatic Frenchmen are a polite people, but when THE WAR IN EUROPE 411 Nippon protests too much then beware of Nippon. Should the United States become seriously involved in war inade- quately armed, Japan will doubtless find it necessary to take over the Philippines, and complete her occupation of the Hawaiian islands, already well begun. And alas and alack for the little Nipponese when the fierce Teutons reach the day of reckoning! For it will then be found necessary to break any terms of peace which meantime may have been made, while due chastisement is inflicted. The kaiser and his sycophants are so obsessed by a sense of their superiority, claiming for their august chief special privileges from heaven by which Germany is fated to universal sovereignty, that their mental vision becomes obscured, preventing them from seeing far beyond the limits of their horizon. With superb egotism, and a fanat- icism bordering on insanity, they openly declare their mis- sion of world dominance, of which these present wars are the initiative. And the kaiser, though suffering from his superlative excellence and high destiny still asserts that he does not want to be king of the world, but kultur and the divinity that doth hedge him about constraineth him. With brute force, and brutishness, enough and to spare, the Germans have accomplished wonders, but the time has passed when brute force can hold universal sov- ereignty, and Germany lacks moral force, lacks even a moral sense, notwithstanding the kaiser's asseverations, while denying any purpose of founding a world empire, that in the kultur, "the deep conscience, industry, and high morale of the German people, is to be found a con- quering power that will open the world for them. ' ' Germany assumes omnipotence, but despotism is no proof of omnipotence. Germany would rule the world while practising violence, but the time is past when the world can be governed by violence. More moral force with less physical force would serve the purpose better. Von Bernhardi and the -emperor of course deny any 412 IN THESE LATTER DAYS intention of world empire, but who would trust them! Who could tell what necessities might arise, what miliiar- ism might demand, or to what measures preparedness ;ml power might tempt them? Of what worth is the pledged \\.ini or the written obligation of men whose boast is that their will is superior to law, that any treaty they may choose to break is waste paper! The deep conscience and high morale of the German people were manifest in their public rejoicing over the achievements of the German admiral who sailed along the English coast firing on defenceless women and children ; and after devastating Belgium how fine the chivalry dis- played by the indifference of the raiders to the misery they had caused, not to mention the order forbidding the rescue of drowning seamen blown to destruction by their sub- marines ! The limit of sanity, however, is reached when Professor Eucken presents the ideal of the fatherland as a spiritual entity, wherein he discerns loftier manifestations since the war began, notably in the manly methods of ditch-work warfare, so superior to that of the cowardly forest savages shooting from behind trees, and in the admirable behavior of the new machinery employed in devastating Belgium by the kaiser, whose ideals of Teutonic kultur and the destiny of his people soar yet higher as he battles for the deliverance of the world. In this new idealism there is no selfishness, no lust for loot or land, no thirst for power or revenge; all men of all nations, friends and foes alike shall share it, all that is left of them after this carnival of slaughter is over. As an excuse for this war Professor Eucken, like the others, pleads necessity, a joyous necessity as he declares, resulting in a transformation of soul. Vaterland spiritualized by the new kultur, a cognate people from inner coherence made fit for the new earth and the new heaven prepared for them. Even though to ears attuned this does not sound like THE WAR IN EUROPE 413 Teutonic rot, yet it were quite as well never to put it into English. We have only to turn to Belgium for a specimen of kaiser love and kultur discipline which we can easily understand; or if we prefer peace at any price we have only, like Luxembourg, humbly to submit and our lives may be spared and our cities escape destruction. As the world's war lord, with the world before him and the Prussia that Bismarck and von Moltke had made for him at his back, his people meanwhile confident in his infallibility, there is little wonder that the emperor William, still human though not knowing it, might sometimes over- reach himself, as when he reckoned too confidently and risked too much on Italy to complete his triple alliance, and on a subservient Belgium and an inactive England, later to find himself unable to move backward or forward, but only to stand and see his brilliant anticipations fall in ruins about him. An age of gold succeeding an age of iron, then back to brute force again 'until the universe grows hazy, and the source of power, does it come from the skies or is it found in the fruitful fields of pacific peoples ? Rising unrefreshed and unenlightened from the un- fathomable depths of Kantian philosophy to the more open plain of Neitzsche, on which the present war propaganda was planted by Treitschke and Bernhardi, placing power before humanity and courage before charity, and over- whelmed by superfluous strength and mental faculties ab- normally active in making men and machinery for death- dealing purposes, perhaps the most charitable construction we can place on the course of the Germans, their ethics and their abnormities, in the prosecution of this war would be to credit the rulers and professors with some slight mental aberration. At all events the Teutonic quality of mind and morals, of evolution and progress, expressed in the word kultur, however regarded in Germany, would among the thoughtful people of America be called if not vicious at least delirious. We could not imagine, for ex- 414 IX TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS ample, a man in his rijjhl mind, as is told of the emperor, \\ondering why tin- I'nited States does not capture Canada, now that the opportunity offers! "World power or noth- ing!" is the pretentious cry of German arrojram . Then let it be nothing. That Germany will ever realize her dreams of universal empire is unthinkable. Then, if that is so, it is equally impossible for her to come victorious out of this war, for the one implies the other. It requires no prophet to see that this Prussian craze has got to be crushed, and will be though it should take ten or twenty years for its accomplish- ment. Not that the destruction or dismemberment of Germany, a fate such as she would inflict upon others, must follow, but that Prussian militarism must be utterly uprooted as a social and political cancer. Of the divine mission, the right of inherited rulership, the alleged vicegerency of Almighty God, and the boasted kultur, deep conscience, and high morale of William, em- peror of Germany, the story of this war will ever stand as a bright example. And for his epitaph let it be written, He murdered some millions of men and women and chil- dren; he also murdered national honor, civil rights and humaneness. Thus far America has profited but little from the world's wars, but has suffered loss and disturbance. The tide will turn, however, in time, for the country at large perhaps in one or two years; for California it may be in five or fifty years. For we may be sure that the great ocean was made for some important purpose, and the planting of its shores with inexhaustible wealth was for the furtherance of that purpose. It is equally certain that around the waters of San Francisco bay will one day appear a World Centre of Industry, its advent soon it is possible, but more likely not until the present generation has passed away and another quality of manhood appears. For we know that ever the star of empire has been westward, and that THE WAR IN EUROPE 415 the ultimate west having been attained, here the star rests ; but still it shines, for here is to be wrought out man's full and final destiny. Already the world's financial centre has moved from London to New York. Already a midcontinent world centre of industry is seen at and around Chicago, whose boast is the largest output of each of half a thousand useful things, and whence it is but a single leap to San Francisco bay and the broadest and most opulent of oceans. Neither the climate nor the economic advantages of this favored spot have thus far been fully appreciated ; let us hope that the many thousands of constant visitors may see things as they are and carry away true and proper impressions thereof. While the Panama canal was in course of construction there was scarcely a sea or a river port that did not expect great and immediate benefits therefrom. Some were dis- appointed. We should know by now that few are enriched without effort by any war, exposition, or canal. Many places can offer some special advantage for commerce and manu- factures, but there is no place that offers all the advantages for a World Centre of Industry equal to San Francisco bay. Centrally situated on the border of the great ocean, held to this day for the more intelligent exploitation by civilized man, and aggregating with its prolific shores and enchanting isles a coast line of more than 35,000 miles in extent, this port has immediately tributary half the world, the other half being easily reached through the Panama canal. Around the vast amphitheatre of the Pacific, and extending inland hundreds or thousands of miles are metal- veined mountains and alluvial plains which have as yet been scarcely disturbed by the hand of civilized man. It is safe to say that under the snows of Alaska, in the great mountain ranges that stretch thence southward to and far beyond the tropics, and in the fertile soils of the more habitable parts, whose opulent cities bear testimony to their natural resources, there lies more uncovered wealth 416 IN THESE LATTER DAYS than has yet been brought to light by all the nations of all time. Ami the availability of it all at our industrial centre, ami our advantages in handling it! Cheap electric power from the Sierra, oil piped from the wells to our favored port, cotton from the Imperial valley and all the way to Texas, wool from the north, wood and coal from the coast beyond, while from every part of the broad Pacific at moderate cost, say from three to five dollars a ton, raw material of every sort, all animal and plant products, all minerals and metals wrought out in the laboratories of nature during the countless ages of the earth's existence, may be brought to San Francisco bay, there to be recreated by arts and industries, and thence distributed throughout the world in forms best benefitting the use of man. Then the food conditions and cost of living; plenty to eat at moderate expense ; house rents reasonable ; healthful airs filtering through the snowy mountains and swept in from the. sea; no malaria, no indigenous diseases, no freez- ing cold in winter nor uncomfortable heat in summer. In- deed, the climate of San Francisco, perfect in its way, whether as an industrial asset or a resort for health and pleasure is just beginning to receive proper recognition. To delightful surroundings are given many benefits, cool bracing air, average temperature varying between 55 and 70 ; fewer casualties than may be found on any other spot of earth; no slaying by sunstrokes or lightning; no floods, cyclones, or blizzards; and as for the earthquake bugaboo, it is an historical fact that more lives have been lost from heat in one day on the eastern coast, or from midcoutinent river overflows, than from all the earthquakes that ever happened in California of which there is any record or tradition, be it for a thousand years back. The bay itself is a matchless body of water, sixty miles long and from four to six miles wide, and beautiful beyond description, whether in the purple haze of early morning or glowing under a noonday sun. The several large islands, THE WAR IN EUROPE 417 with the Presidio reservation, are held by the government for soldier 's quarters and purposes of defense. The borders of bay and islands, with indentations and tributary straits and rivers, give 300 linear miles or more all ready for fac- tories and warehouses with ocean vessels on one side and railway trains on the other. All the leading countries of the world have, or will have, their own lines of steamships running direct to San Francisco, lines from China, Japan, Australia, South America, and from Europe through the Panama canal, while daily scores of railway trains depart for every near and distant point. Few will deny that manufactures are essential to the prosperity of a nation, that never was a country perma- nently rich without manufactures and never was a country permanently poor with manufactures. A land poor from lack of natural products may become rich by utilizing the products of other lands and adding to their value by in- telligent labor and distribution to parts where most needed. Exports and imports are quoted as indicative of national prosperity. Perhaps less of each would be better if home industry were stimulated thereby. It is the export of manu- factured goods that indicates permanent prosperity, not the export of raw material. Therefore the first advantage to be derived by the United States from the war in Europe is in checking the exportation of raw material, thus com- pelling industrial development at home. It is only of secondary importance that the markets of the world are left open to us while the Europeans are busily employed in the most destructive of games. Spain by internal development became the greatest of nations; but when gold began to flow in freely from the New World she found it easier to buy than to make; now look at her! Therefore, we may safely say that those who will profit most by the European war are not the growers of cotton nor even of food products, but those who make 14 418 IN TIIKSK LATTKR DAYS nrrtlful articles and send forth competent agents to channels of permanent trade. This is our opportunity, there is nothing that can be made elsewhere in the world that cannot be made at San Francisco. The moment the European war is over there will be a rush to set their mills in motion again, when American gains will receive a check. Manufactures at the present time in Europe are nearly destroyed. Raw material at present is not wanted there so much as manu- factured goods, and manufactured goods we cannot get from there if we would ; so that the double benefit is thrust upon us, that while building upon our own resources to the utmost advantage the opportunity is afforded us of establishing permanent trade with all the world. And unless America adopts some more effective and aggressive industrial policy than has yet appeared Germany, when once the war is over, will soon regain her lost advantages and drive competitors from the field, because young Ger- mans are willing to learn more and work harder than others, depending for success more on their own strength and ability than on the weakness of competitors, while refusing labor limitations or any interference in their affairs by the pirates of industry. Thus endowed by nature and opportunity to assume and maintain the industrial supremacy of the world the discerning mind cannot but perceive that there is some- thing wrong somewhere, that San Francisco has thus far failed to see or make avail of her high privileges, and that with all her natural advantages California is not in the way of profiting as largely as she might from the Panama canal and the war in Europe. Instead of manufacturing for others we do not even manufacture to any great extent for ourselves, but draw largely for our requirements from the east and middle west. Of the many million dollars worth of orders now beginning to come in from Europe the Pacific coast gets but few, and will receive in the future less rather than THE WAR IN EUROPE 419 more unless we make more of the articles we would sell. Apart from horticulture we cannot claim for California an agricultural state of the first class ; our products in the mouths of starving millions are luxuries rather than nec- essities, even our dried fruit being a drug in the market and unremunerative to the grower, while wheat, once our chief product, but which now the worn-out soil refuses to grow extensively without better farming, soars high in all the marts of the world. Our commerce too, in the absence of staple products and manufactured articles to ship away must remain moderate. Foreign commerce is a nation's road to great- ness, but it is not greatness itself. Merely the handling and transporting of goods is work for the crossroads. The commerce that counts is in the sale and transportation of home manufactured articles, not in sending cotton abroad to buy back in cloth. There is no profit in pretense. No responsive thrill rises in the breast of an experienced merchant or manu- facturer at the cries of "Boost! Boost!" "Have a buy- ing day!" "Buy it now!" The shop-window petticoat marked $4.98 does not strike him as a dollar less than $5 in price. Nor do the words "croaker," "knocker," "pes- simist," have any terrors for him. No one knows better than he that factories are not operated on empty air, and that meetings and organizations for the promotion of manufactures where no provision is made for operatives of a quality and at a wage which will enable our factories to compete with those of other nations, meetings where the too timid members dare not even speak the words "cheap labor" are misleading and futile. Let those who will hitch their wagon to a star; if not securely fastened, and you are wise, you will let the other fellow get in and ride. Boost and bright optimism are pitfalls unless arising from actual conditions and sus- tained by good business sense. In business and boost as elsewhere truth is stronger than fiction. If the plain facts 420 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS regarding the superlative advantages of San Francisco bay as a World Centre of Industry do not appeal to Hi* 1 hard-headed man of a Hairs it is useless resorting to clap- trap. We should have on this coast 100 woolen mills, 1000 cotton mills, and 5000 other factories, and will have some day, these or their equivalent, hut only when condition-, appeal to capital, and mill-owners are free to manage their business their own way, yet always within the bounds of humanity and healthful progress, but without inter fereiiee from interlopers of whatsoever kind or quality. In a loose-jointed republican government extremes often meet. As between the dregs of low society and the chaff of high society there is little to choose. The inter- mediate class is the commonwealth, those who work, either with hands or head; those who do things, either with money or brain. Work is the greatest thing in the world; God's curse, man's redemption; the Creator's primal punishment, man's greatest blessing. Work is civilization, and civilization is humanity reinforced. The Panama canal and the California expositions are the apotheosis of labor, not the apotheosis of the manipulators of labor. A workless world is savagery, and the workless part of society is the worst part. Wherefore as God's best gift, though given us in anger, we hail it as divine, and place it high above principalities and powers. The workingman of to-day is the concrete expression of that form of labor which bore the primal curse for some several thousand years, whether as the slave of brute force or as the creature of capital, but which now in the more advanced countries has fairly well emancipated itself. Then gradually arose apostles of chicane and greed, who gained ascendency over the workingman to exploit him. Thus was invented and applied coercive measures, nominally for the benefit of the laborer, but really to strengthen the position of the walking delegate, as strikes THE WAR IN EUROPE 421 and incendiarism, the boycott blackmail and unionism; later came dynamite as the ultimate appeal. While the walking delegate himself did no work, he fared sumptuously every day upon the work of others. Contributions and crimes were imposed. Dues were levied and arbitrary rules established ; no' American boy might learn a trade even of his own father without obtaining permission and paying for it; any respectable citizen in the legitimate pursuit of his calling might for purposes of coercion or revenge be brought to annoyance or ruin by means of the infamous boycott. There is in nearly every large city a coterie of nonde- scripts who do not work but who live from the work of others; who exploit the workingman ostensibly for his good but in reality for their own selfish purposes ; who fill the minds of their proteges with false notions, insur- rectionary and un-American, that they have rights which others do not possess, that they have claims on their fellow men which are not reciprocal, and of which their neigh- bors are endeavoring to deprive them. To maintain these alleged rights they are justified in resorting to any means, legal or otherwise, even to coercion and crime ; in defense of which incendiary claims before the facile courts they employ lawyers, paid large fees from the pockets of the workingmen, and who hesitate not at subornation and per- jury. Called by various names, as walking delegate, boss, sponge, demagogue, labor leader, exploiter of the working- man, the toilers, as the press-panderers sanctimoniously call them, are coddled until, deprived of their natural man- liness they become as children in the hands of designing men. Unions are formed and the rights of others invaded. Business men and a pliant newspaper press submit to im- pudent and unjust demands in the management of their affairs, fearing loss of patronage ; judges, office-holders, all who live by the ballot acquiescing, for labor has votes to dispose of. In this way labor becomes a trust, a monopoly, 422 IN THESE LATTER DAYS all the work is given at a high wage to half of the work in r- iiirii, the other half being left laborless to starve. Contract work, in definance of law and justice, is given not to the lowest bidder, but to unionism. As often as otherwise, in the arrogance of ignorance, the labor leaders resort to measures unfavorable to labor, as defeating any measure for tin- public benefit if thereby tli<-y can pose as champions of labor; making the wage of class work equal, regardless of the worth or efficiency of individual workers; advancing the labor wage until it be- comes prohibitory to industry, resulting in non-employ- ment and high cost of living. Thinking to gain votes thereby they refused to grant music lovers the privilege of erecting a million dollar opera-house, not at public ex- pense but at their own cost, thus withholding from the pockets of the proteges their part of the expenditure, and leaving in the civic centre the unsightly scar of a vacant lot where might now stand a beautiful edifice. They promulgate the false doctrine not of their right to work, which no one denies them, but their right to demand that the government, that is to say their fellow-citizens shall provide them with work, whether necessary or profit- able or not, which is but another form of blackmail lead- ing to pauperism. As well might trade demand of labor profitable custom, or capital a good investment. In legislation every measure affecting patronage is stoutly opposed that does not give labor some unfair ad- vantage, some special and unjust privilege. Every advan- tage over his neighbor is his right, free schools, free hospitals, courts, and penitentiaries, while paying nothing for the support of the government that protects him in his infamies. The aims and actions of the labor leaders strike at the very heart of American liberty, giving to one class the power of coercion while depriving their victims of any means of defense. Thus laziness and inefficiency are exalted as meritorious ; to do the least possible work for the highest THE WAR IN EUROPE 423 pay serves right his natural enemy the employer, the cap- italist, or the government. The further fallacy is instilled that restriction by law to a short day's work is a gain forced from the employer, when in truth it is a direct loss to the workingman, to his worth to himself and others, which in the end rules all. The right to work ; labor demands it and the law con- cedes it. The right to work; unionism demands it for itself, but denies the right to others, the law winking acquiescence. But this is not to the point. Labor leaders demand for their proteges, as before stated, their right to demand that their neighbor, that is to say the man with money or the government, shall furnish him with work. Reverse the proposition, say that the workingman shall supply the tradesman with customers, the lawyer with clients, and the banker with depositors and the absurdity appears. Unionism demands for itself the special privi- leges it denies to others. It demands that all the work shall be given to half the laborers, while the other half is left to starve. It demands that this coterie shall have short hours and high pay, and enforces its demands upon the disobedient by means of blackmail and the boycott, judges who are elected by votes sustaining the injustice. A singular state of things, one-half of the workingmen unemployed, while all the work is given to the other half at an exorbitant wage, a wage fatal to manufactures and prohibitory to general prosperity and progress. Likewise the non-reversible absurdity that it is an obligation on the part of one class of citizens to furnish another class with work, that is to say with support, since work is their support. I am not speaking of economic policy or ethical obligations but only of the lawless arrogance assumed by unionism. Wealth is won by work, by work and economy. The same field is open to the laborer of to-day, the same oppor- tunity to utilize the natural and economic resources of the country that his predecessors had. 424 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS Instead of making avail of it tin- exploiters of labor prowl around to secure all they can from government, that is to say the people through their representatives in office who live on votes, and from capital, that is to say from those who have done their work and saved up the proceeds. Another fallacy, to give the laborer more time, not for the beer-shops but for home enjoyment and mental culture. The intellectual life is open to him who wants ii. whether his wage is three or six dollars a day. Intellec- tual loafing is not intellectual living, the former being the special province of college graduates and scions of wealth. Intellectual boozing is another sort of culture, practised alike by club-men and hod-carriers. Let us beware of an excess of kultur and conscience, lest we fall into the errors of the kaiser. There are classes of workers and there are grades of work. There is high grade work that does and should command a high wage, and there is low grade work that skilled labor will not touch, and which can be done only at low wage. It degrades no one, you cannot degrade labor, it injures no one, to give such work to the Asiatic who is glad to get it, the lowest wage in America being more than the highest wage in Asia. We can never have our World Centre of Industry without employing some cheap labor, and it is an insane policy on the part of our government in excluding it. No one objects to labor unions, but only their abuse by the exploiters of the workingmen. No one objects to unionism, but only to the abuse of it. If unionism cannot win its way fairly and honestly it would be better abol- ished ; it will never be able to sustain itself by violence. No one 'objects that labor should unionize, but only that it should not tyrannize. Why should we tamely submit to the imposition of labor any more than to the imposition of capital? Labor unions for the pleasure and lawful benefit of the members is one thing, and to this no one can object; unionism as manipulated by professional over- THE WAR IN EUROPE 425 seers for the exploitation of the workingman is quite an- other thing, and smacks too strongly of Prussian militar- ism long to be endured in America. The government is quite ready to restrict capitalism but balks before laborism. Governmental superintendence of labor is as necessary as governmental superintendence of capital, and more, as labor has more votes than capital, and an excess of votes is a fault of our republican govern- ment. Labor in all its many interests and activities, as unions, wages, hours, and strikes should be under the immediate control of the government and managed by honest and disinterested officials having equally at heart t"he welfare of the workingman and the interest of the employer, should be regulated by law as capital is regulated, and not left to the exploiter of the workingman to act as he pleases in definance of law and from purely selfish motives. Little by little they are undermining the government, in- serting their insidious policy in the laws of the state and nation, only like the railroad incubus, let us hope, to meet with like defeat in the end, when the people return to reason and to right. In no department of economics or industry, of politics or society is such criminal license allowed, such defiance of law, equity, and decency permitted to go unpunished, unreproved, as that practised by the exploiters of the workingman. That they should be permitted by the boy- cott to ruin an honest tradesman, in the legitimate pursuit of his calling, for simply maintaining his right as an American freeman to manage his business himself instead of allowing others to do it for him, the interloper in the meantime being protected by the police and sustained by the courts in this system of coercion and blackmail is infamous. Thus it is easily seen why San Francisco is not more of a manufacturing city. Labor is as essential to manu- 426 IN T1IKSK |. ATTKK |>.\VS fart HITS as is raw matt-rial. If labor and matt-rial cannot In- had at a fair and reasonable priee home industry is tliM.m.'tl. A^ain In- it saitl, tin- first eoiisitleral ion for tliis country is maimfart ures, tin- tiist consideration for manu faetures is labor at a fair price, tin- first consideration for labor is absolute freedom, emancipation from any sort of tyranny. Tbis is the broad road to permanent prosperity and tbere is none other. And from the government, to which all good citi/ens look for redress, we get no help, for judges and rulers, all who live by the ballot-box, legislative and executive dig- nitaries as well as the vicious grafter of the municipality, are infected by the same hunger for office, and by the itching palm that actuates and makes fat the exploiters of the workingniHii and fills the coffers of the highly honorable and respected man of affairs. It is all very well, however, to rail at the government ; the fault is our own; it lies with those who prefer money to morality, who prefer personal profit to the purity of the commonwealth, who prefer ill-gotten gain to honesty and decency, who prefer in courts judges who wink at wealth never forgetting whence are to come the votes to secure their reelection, who will submit to insult and interference rather than forego profit, in a word the fault lies with the influential members of the community who are too indifferent or too timid to arise and purge their city of its defilement. The trouble is that too many of us prefer bad govern- ment to good, prefer pliant tools in office to men we cannot buy, prefer slavish labor whose votes we can control to manly citizenship in our workingmeu, prefer a small in- iquitous personal gain to the honor and interests of a great commonwealth. And withal over this small personal gain which we so jealously guard we are great cowards, the best of us even not daring to speak from our hearts, as was shown at an election the other day when over a score of evil measures put forth by the exploiters of the THE WAR IN EUROPE 427 workingman, not a word was spoken against them while under discussion before election, but at the polls they were defeated by a majority of three or five to one. To all this, however, there is a brighter side. These evils will pass as all evil passes. Nowhere are found finer specimens of liberal and chivalrous manhood than here. Ever since gold-digging days California has been proud of her people, and her people have been proud of Cali- fornia. Though with some money is preferred before morality, and bribable office-holders to honest men, these are not San Francisco; her citizens are much better than the average, more honest, more courteous, more progressive. It is a city full of joy and pleasure, wealthy and laud- ably ambitious, and prosperous to a certain extent in spite of drawbacks which let us hope are only temporary. And yet more. There will come a time when this American soil will grow men free from that inordinate craving for office, that love of power and political plunder which is the curse of this republican government, tend- ing as it does to degrade mind and morals and to sacrifice the highest intellectual gifts upon the altar of expedi- ency. There will come a time when on these shores of the Pacific there will be grown a race of men with loftier ideals concerning man and his destiny than any which have yet appeared, men who will value the honor and dignity of their country above any personal advantage, and will have too high a regard for labor to permit the true interest of the various classes of workingmen to be wrecked by, suicidal policies. Then, too, will have passed Prussian militarism, the underlying principle of kaiser kultur, the dementia of Treitschke and Neitzsche and Eucken, the deification of force, of brute force and brutishness, the deification of dishonor, of treachery, of robbery and murder, the basis of Teutonic conscience and morale, an Acheron stream bear- 428 IX TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS iujr upon its surface pretended purity and progress to the ennobling and redemption of tin- nations, militarism, a memory to be recalled with horror. CHAPTER XXI CRYSTALLIZED CIVILIZATION SOME time after the publication of my brochure Why a World Centre of Industry at San Francisco Bay? hereinafter to be mentioned, I received a communication from the eminent author Soterios Nicholson, advocating Athens as a suitable site for a World City of Civilization. "A world centre of scientific and philosophical re- search," Paul Adam calls it, "where the most notable scholars, in possession of new ideas, can readily experiment the value of the hypothesis constructed either by them- selves or by their disciples. A centre wherein a world record could be kept of the entire range of the progressive imagination of man, and where nothing usefully conceived by the human brain would be lost. A centre from which economic and practical knowledge would flow to all parts of the world. A centre and a city outside of all historical and social quarrels, of all economic and national rivalries, a centre belonging without possible exception to all. ' ' The arguments of Mr Nicholson are eminently sound and ably presented, but his plan and purpose "to house international interests and unite peoples and nations for the attainment of peace and progress upon broader human- itarian lines" are somewhat ideal, while in a World Centre of Industry I endeavored to present only that which is essentially plain, simple, and practical. Mr Nicholson says that : ' ' The project of creating a world-centre of communication and progress, as suggested very recently by a -distinguished master of the arts, Mr Hendrik Andersen, deserves the most serious attention on 429 430 IN THESE LATTER DAYS th<- part of every thinking man. We are invited to erect a permanent general shelter for humanity's best achieve- ments, and a meeting-place for humanity's best minds. Amidst all the horrors of warfare and manifestations of mutual enmity among the nations, amidst all the distinc- tions of creeds and languages, and the divisions of stairs and of races, the fundamental fact of the spiritual unity of the human race asserts itself unvanquished. Civilization has historically been a collective rather than an individual- istic product, and with the lapse of time, it is increasingly becoming a thing measured essentially in terms of social values and interests. As a fitting testimonial to the supreme truth of the solidarity of man, and as a useful instrument in the making manifest, and in the practical realization of this samo truth, the significance of a world-city would be undeniable. The question at once presents itself as to the locality of the proposed city and facilities for its erec- tion, but before we take up this very important point, it might contribute to a better understanding of the issues involved, if we prefaced our remarks with a consideration of the reasons which make the establishment of a world- city necessary and advantageous. "A City of Civilization, we have said, a city which will house the choice fruits of human progress, and furnish opportunities for still better fruition. But what is civiliza- tion; wherein has the progress of humanity consisted? Equipped with the simplest rudiments of knowledge man has slowly and painfully started on his way, through mazes of perplexity, competing against obstacles and failure, shad- owed by discouragement and confronted with the ruthless- ness and frequent hostility of the forces of human nature man, we say, since the time when the first spark of in- tellect illuminated that vessel of clay, has proceeded on- ward. But what has been his goal ? Has there really been any objective toward which his movements were directed, a shining: bfacnn-light to guide him on his path, a precious CRYSTALLIZED CIVILIZATION 431 prize for the attainment of which he has been concentrating his efforts? "The most striking fact observed is man's struggle against nature. Nature, on the one hand, is a force, or rather a group of forces, unflinching and irresistible ; man on the other hand is weak and helpless in respect of phys- ical power. But man is intelligent and man may use nature. "We need a headquarters for the army of humanity where the general staff should hold its sittings, a capital city of the world, a spot where all our energies should receive their fundamental direction, a focal point to which all roads will lead, from which all roads will start. In other words, we need an international city to serve as a pivot both for centripetal and centrifugal operations. This world- centre will at once draw unto itself results of experience and labor, correlate and systematize them, and then redis- tribute them freely to humanity at large. In sum, the world-city would be a great centre of communication in which all systems of transportation, all mechanisms of international exchange will converge. Thus it will house the central telegraph cable, wireless, railroad, ship and postal offices of the world. "Let us consider as to the more or less neutral char- acter of the site of the city, neutral in a moral rather than in a legal respect. In other words, the city should be so siuated that national jealousies be not excited by appear- ance of partiality in its selection, of favor and preference for one out of several rival nations. In this first step in the realization of the scheme extreme care and tact is called for in order that the flickering light of international sentiment be not put through unnecessary mistakes. The world-city should be capable of calling out the enthusiasm and love of men from every race and nation in equal degree, and this will not become true unless all occasion for arous- ing feelings of jealousy among rival peoples be sedulously avoided. "The geographical considerations involves questions of 432 IN THESE LATTKK DAYS fitness of climate ami situation, as such ami with respect to other countries. Since the city will attract travellers from all over the world, and since inflow ami outflow will be uninterrupted, the location of the city must be such as to afford excellent facilities of transportation. It must be so situated that distance from the various centres will be equalized and it should further be connected by railroad and steamship lines with the chief centres of civili/.ation. Since the city will serve as a place of residence as well as of pilgrimage, the location must present suitable living conveniences, both in the climate ami in the configuration of the soil. It must possess facilities for the various kinds of natural recreation, in the form of bathing, driving, and walking, and such climate conditions as will not only not undermine the health of the residents but positively sustain and promote it. "We would propose the state of Greece. To be sure the suggestion is not original .with us; the king of Italy, a ruler himself of one of the great powers, has expressed himself in favour of such a choice. There are many sites in Greece which would suggest themselves at once as geo- graphically suitable to the project in hand, such as the islands in the Aegean and Ionian seas, Corfu especially, < Mympia, Corinth, etc. But as against all others, we would name Athens the political capital of Greece now, and its intellectual capital since of bid. Athens, the mighty seal of Hellenic culture and all its fair daughters throughout the world. What advantages does Athens offer from a geographical point of view? These are indeed so obvious as hardly to need mentiqji. "Athens is situated near the intersecting point of the three great continents which made it the ancient world. Located in Europe, it almost touches the fringes of Asia and Africa. Athens is ideally located as a point of com- munication between the Occident and the Orient; it is a point of exchange for the material and spiritual com- CRYSTALLIZED CIVILIZATION 433 modities of the peoples, a meeting point of ideals from the intellectual antipodes of the world. ' ' Athens has a good climate, dry in the degree required for the maintenance of health, with a clear and beautifully blue sky, plenty of attractive suburbs adjacently situated, and fascinating coasts to serve as summer resorts. Fur- thermore it provides for the recreation of residents and visitors its immense stores of ancient relics, especially the Acropolis with its immortal Parthenon, and in larger or lesser proximity the almost innumerable sites of archeolog- ical interest studding the coast and inland, such as Delphi, Olympia, Corinth, and Delos. The visitors, too, and the dwellers in, Athens may be assured of pleasant surround- ings, and a country teeming in objects which would satisfy the most fastidious and greedy of interests, whether purely intellectual or artistic as well." Other sites have been suggested, as The Hague ; Ter- rueven, near Brussels; Montmorency, near Paris; in Switz- erland, a spot near Berne ; on the Riviera, near Frejus ; on the Mediterranean, near Rome ; and on the coast of New Jersey. Athens, I think would be preferable to any of these for Mr Nicholson's world's city. But for a World Centre of Industry, none of the places herein mentioned would answer the requirements or offer the advantages of San Francisco Bay, for the reason more fully set forth in the next chapter. Athens is old, and scarcely in the busy world at all. The Mediterranean has seen its best days ; the glory of the gods has departed. Yet for spiritual growth and intellectual culture there is no place its superior. Athens is suitable enough for thought, but San Francisco is best for action. CHAPTER XXII WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE AT SAN FRANCISCO BAY? WHY should there he in time to come a World In- dustrial Centre upon the shores of San Francisco Bay? Because Nature has prepared for it, Progress ordain- it, and History confirms it. Because among states and nations California has a unique individuality which is sure to find expression as the border lands of the Pacific unfold into the higher civilized life. Because wherever is situated the Centre of Industry there will be found the Centre of Empire. Because while the nations of Europe with their Atlantic traffic decline, the ports of the Pacific will rise into prom- inence under the impulse of superior development. Because World Supremacy may thus be placed within reach of the future occupants of the First Port of the Pacific. Because as the Orient and Occident here meet geo- graphically, they should join hands commercially as well, products from East and West standing side by side as a World Commercial Clearing House. Because if the Centre of Industry on the Pacific is not established by the people of San Francisco Bay, others elsewhere will occupy the field, and thenceforward domi- nate the great ocean, both economically and politically. Because Japan has already made distinctive advance in that direction, the United States government by its impolicy assisting. 1:54 WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE? 435 Because we prefer the white race rather than the yellow race as arbiters of our destiny. And, while appreciating beauty as an economic asset and esthetic culture as a measure of civilization, it is well to bear in mind that to develop a pretty town to play in is not industrialism. From where history begins people wandered forth, from the banks of the Nile to Arabia, from the valley of the Euphrates to Persia and the shores of the Caspian and Mediterranean. A stream of racial siftings set in down the Persian gulf, and sweeping across to India, reached the farthest east on the western border of the Pacific. There, isolated, hidden behind a wall of exclu- siveness, preferring peace yet not thereby escaping war, development languished; the people became inane, apa- thetic, and slumbered millenniums away, until at the pres- ent reawakening of the world let us hope that they also will awaken to a realization of their economic potentialities and take their proper place among nations. Meanwhile, in and around this hypothetical cradle of the race humanity seethed through the centuries in the effort to rise superior to the brute creation, and succeeded in so far as to establish industrial relations and build cities, as Thebes and Memphis, Babylon and Nineveh, though never yielding their brute love of blood-letting. One after another each centre of industry became a centre of empire. When factories crowded the shores of Phoenicia, Tyre and Sidon rose to prominence, in which Carthage, later partook, assuming commercial supremacy. India supplied cotton, while up and down the Nile was traf- fic in cattle, grain, metals, and slaves. Caravans traversed the deserts between west and east, bringing also spoils from the interior of Africa, lion and tiger skins, ostrich feathers and ivory. The cities of Greece and Italy came into the light; a busy commerce filled the Mediterannean IN THESE LATTER DAYS ports with the varied products of all countries, while Con slant inople developed as the key to Europe ;md Asia. Venice, rescued from the sea. what with fighting Turks and assist ing crusaders, held imperial sway for a thousand years, until Vasco da Gama doubled his cape. Rome took her turn as mistress of the world. The Netherlands, the Ilanseatic league, and other places and influences appeared and disappeared as the problems of progress worked them- selves out among the children of men. Many centres of commerce have arisen at various times and places in both Europe and America. Many have de- clined and ceased to be of importance, but never one with- out cause. Nizhni-Novgorod, the largest commercial fail- ground in Russia, has maintained the supremacy for a thousand years. And although there is the Volga, on the south, with 1450 miles open to steam navigation, with the best of transportation facilities on the other sides, the site is not to be compared to that of San Francisco bay. In Central and South America are notable places of both early and later days. There was the Panama of Vasco Nunez and Francisco Pizarro, as well as the Panama of to-day with its canal to guard. There were early commercial centres in Argentina, notably along the 3000 miles of road from the Atlantic to the Pacific, half of it being at an altitude of 12,000 feet. Over this road passed the silver of Potosi and the rich merchandise from across the Pacific, bringing into prom- inence such places as Buenos Aires, Salta, La Pa/., and Lima. While the world centred around the Mediterranean, the Mediterranean was the world, with its blazing barrier at the south and its impenetrable wall of ice in fne north. After that were the Atlantic and the Pacific, the mind of man expanding with the expanse of ocean. In due time came to all primitive peoples the end; with the rest into this maelstrom of humanity came youth, man- hood, old age; it is the law, and death. All that is born WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE? 437 must die, men and nations, cults and cultures, worlds and systems of worlds. So died primeval Asia, her cities buried under their own debris, her once fertile plains desolated as by the destroying angel, leaving dead lands watered by a dead sea. Whereby we may know that Europe must die, and America. All will pass as Asia has passed, and the bril- liant cities of to-day become as the cities of the Shinar plains. Then will men return and recover the waste places, or will they pass away altogether? Even now the decline of Europe may be at hand; who can tell? Already the throes of dissolution appear. And as in kaiser kultur and blood-lust the acme of infamy has been attained, so the summit of intellectual development may have been reached, now to totter and fall over into semi-insanity, as displayed in this most insane of conflicts. For if Germany wins in the present war, England, France, and .Italy will become as is Belgium, which stands forever as a specimen of kaiser rule and kaiser kultur. If Germany wins, peace propagandists will be relegated to the chimney corner, for America then must fight or become like China. If a premature peace, then will follow a period preparatory for yet greater conflicts, which will be the beginning of the end. Europe will then fall into decay, Germany, like Rome, following her victims. We will not believe the end so near, yet death, always present, seems sudden when it comes. No more thought had Sardanapalus or Nebuchadnezzar than has Rothschild or Rockefeller to-day of being spoiled of their possessions and turned out to grass. The decline of ancient culture in Asia was followed later by the lapse of Europe into the Dark Age, when men revelled in ignorance and brutism to their hearts' content for another thousand years, light finally coming in from the uncovering of a New World in the west. For while yet the dark age enveloped Europe, the leaven of progress working in men's minds presented a round 438 IN THESE LATTER DAYS moving earth, which it' true offered a western way to the eastern India of Mandeville and Marco Polo. And as the borders of the Mediterranean world enlarged, the hitherto timid mariners, creeping forth from the pillars of Hercules, no longer nuggru i..e coast at either hand but struck boldly out upon the Sea of Darkm >s. And from that day to this, indeed we may say from the beginning, the course of empire has ever been west- ward, following the pathway of the sun, from Asia to eastern Europe, from eastern Europe to western Europe, from Europe to America and across the continent, metropolitan cities marking the way, Palmyra Alexandria and Athens, Venice Rome Paris and London, New York Chicago San Francisco. Thus slowly through scores of centuries the stream of progress has continued its way, never deviating from its course until its ultimate and inev- itable end should be attained on the shore of the Pacific at San Francisco bay, where the new west faces the old east, and where ready at hand are all the requisites for high achievement. Glancing thus at the incipient stages of economic de- velopment, and following the trend of civilization to its logical limit, what have we learned and where do we find ourselves? We see that death precedes new birth as night the day, the old east dying out as the new west rises to greet the sun. We find ourselves standing on the border of a great ocean, whose waters equal all the other waters of the earth combined, and cover one fourth of the earth 's surface, while a canal cut through the continent into this ocean makes commercially all the waters of the earth one sea. More startling still, we find ourselves gazing out upon a sea whose waters mark the limit of progressional migra- tions. Here halts the star of empire ; here sets the sun of civilization, illuminating never again a new or virgin west, but rising the morrow's morn on the old, old east, with its dead sea, its blistered hills and sterile plains, its ruined cities and decayed humanity. Here then upon the shore surrounding San Francisco bay is the natural and logical place for a World Centre of Industry, where the problems of the future may be wrought out, until the sun of progress turns backward in its course, or wakens to new life the dead nations of the ancient east. And in this coming together of West and East, with only the waters between, there will be many undreamed- of developments, each as magical as any which have yet appeared upon this earth. Why is it then that San Francisco is not further ad- vanced in the accomplishment of her high destiny? Why sit we quiescent at the Golden Gate as though blind to our many advantages, blind to our geographical position, blind to the importance of our matchless climate, a climate void of the extremes of heat and cold, void of the enervating influences of the south which militates against the per- manency of extensive factories, void of the floods and famines, the death-dealing sun-blights and wind-storms of midcontinent and the east ? Is it that we fail to appreciate the economic value of such a climate as an industrial asset, aside from the health and comfort of living and working in it; more especially when with it there are plentiful food products, wharf and factory sites, bay shore enough for the world's work, ac- cessible raw material and cheap power, oil tanked in the earth, metals in the mountains, money without limit for all legitimate purposes, and the markets of the world at our feet? We have but to open our Golden Gate to show a spot singularly suitable not only for a World Centre of Industry but for a World Commercial Clearing House, such as was so long in successful operation at Venice and London, where a full t supply of the world's raw material, products, and manufactures were kept always stored for sale. At present New York harbor is the greatest of sea- 440 IN THESE LATTER DAYS' ports as I he Atlantic is commercially the greatest of oceans, hut as the far greater natural wealth of the far greater ocean isutili/ed the First Port of the Pacific should attain an eminence surpassing all others. Here is this matchless bay, which with its tidal rivers tributary offers doi-ka^e space practically unlimited, over five hundred miles of water frontage being already available for pier construc- tion, which may be further increased by dredging sloughs and reclaiming tule lands. Or is it that the choicest gift of the gods 'has fallen to our lot, contentment? Is it that with the purple hazy sunshine and delicious air, with health according to our wisdom and wealth sufficient for our needs, is it that we lack industrial energy if indeed we do not lack industrial intelligence ? No, not that. On every side are marks of laudable ambition, of a keen desire for civic betterment and economic advancement, all efforts tending thereunto save the one and only essential. What is it then that we lack? What is it that bars our progress? Why idle we time away and see others sweeping our ships and sailors from the sea, our factories from the land, using the very canal which we have made to thrust us still further aside and bring upon us the contempt of all progressive peoples? Let us diagnose the situation a bit. The first step toward civic betterment is. to see and acknowledge civic errors. Watching the play of royalty in Europe we can but conclude that the best king is he who is least a king. Watching the play of representative democracy in tin- United States of America we can but note the political propaganda that turns our ablest men into sharpers, our purest men into paths of indirection, into self-seeking demagogues and panders to party; we can but view with concern those phases of liberty which lead to libertinism, and that 'growth of power and population which tends toward the degeneration rather than the elevation of the body politic. It is a question not yet settled whether a too free democracy, irresponsible and loosely administered, can endure before an autocratic government with a constant tendency toward absolute despotism. We have examples in Mexico under Porfirio Diaz, in Germany under kaiser kultur, and in the predilections of Japan. When our forefathers, of blessed memory, found them- selves independent of England, with lands unlimited, they said, Go to, now ; let others come, the priest-ridden and prince-ridden, let all come who will ; we will give them lib- erty, homes, free schools and free religion. The cause is the cause of humanity, the cause of the poor ; we will be to them Providence, and make money by it. Which was all well enough provided they were so in- clined, and provided they had kept to themselves that inalienable gift of God, self-government, and had not flung it away to strangers, as witness the office-holders in the United States this day. The good work was begun by killing Indians and en- slaving Africans, and concluded by the expulsion of the Chinese. The irony of it our fathers never suspected. The redemption of the world being thus so satisfactorily provided for, the New Englanders came in their migrations to the Ohio valley, their eyes still turned westward. Cal- ifornia, and half way back to the Atlantic, all save a sea- board strip of Franciscan missions was primeval wilder- ness; where San Francisco now stands were dunes and chaparral where rabbits burrowed and grizzly bears were lassoed. The far-away United States was composed of a good class of people from England, Holland, and Germany, or their descendants. They were for the most part thought- ful men of probity who had come hither for a purpose. At that time our government was nearer pure repub- licanism than it will probably ever be again. It was more ably and honestly administered, if we except the admin- 442 IN TIIKSK LATTKU DAYS istrations of Lincoln and Roosevelt, than it has been at any time since. If the truth- must be told,- it- is the old, (111 story, with tin- increase of wealth and power mor- ality and integrity took a seat below the salt. Then and thenceforward our history might be written, The Land of Errors and Lost Opportunities. For among the many measures then opportune were the establishing of a government and the breeding of a race such as never before had inhabited this earth. Then too might have been accomplished the differentiation of rascality and republicanism ; the return of our Africans to the homes of their ancestors ; the conservation of our natural resources to the abolition of all taxes and imposts for all time; all this, and more, as citizens, not as socialists, whose radical ism is an abomination. We can scarcely be called a government by the people for the people, but rather a government by cliques and cabals for the benefit of their leaders, a government by office-mongers the essence of whose polity is bribery and the end corroded selfishness. Bribery, the moving spirit in our organizations, tin- essential oil of our elections, not bribery of the vulgar sort by money payment, but all the same bribery pure and palpable. I do not give my man a check for stealing a convention, or wrecking a party, or making me presi- dent, but I buy him just the same. If he prefers off ice. or political influence, something as he naively asserts that money cannot buy, I have a stock in trade of that sort of goods after election. And so on all down the line, the ballot-box and not the cash-box for bribery of high degree. And as human nature is constructed it is difficult to get away from it. It is considered no part of wisdom among practical men to expect something for nothing. even in the manipulation of pure patriotism. Yet there must be honesty somewhere, even in party politics. All the same one escapes many rascalities declining office under a republic. WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE? 443 The standard of United States citizenship was lowered by the civil war, which carried off thousands of the flower of American patriotism, not immigrants nor hyphenates, but Americans, sons of the makers of the republic, ren- dering other thousands unfit for anything but to hold office and draw pensions, and all because of the worthless African, worthless for any purpose but to adorn cotton plantations and sell their votes to the highest bidder. Grafting as a fine art also came in with the civil war, and fitted in well with government by railroads, by trusts, by monopolies, and combination of capital. This on the seamy side, signifying money ; but worst of all and of most sinister influence is the graft on industry, which came on apace, at the hand of the exploiter of the workingman, who also aspires to run the government. And as during the first half of the nineteenth century the loftier ideals of future benefits were thrown aside by our predecessors for the accumulation of wealth and for proximate enjoyment, so now during this first half of the twentieth century, we of the city of San Francisco, when duty beckons with still greater insistence turn away, mak- ing no adequate effort to take our proper place of power and influence among the great cities of the world for our own glory and the good of mankind. Is it not somewhat late in the day, the caviler may ask, to begin with your eugenics and race betterment after diluting your population from the byways of Europe for half a century ? And this in the futile attempt to manu- facture high grade citizens from base material, until you can no longer claim to be a race or nation at all, but rather a concretion of heterogeneous humanity where dissimilar elements are loosely united by weak amalgam for citizenship, each still acting for himself with little love of country or true patriotism, an incongruous mix- ture without too much consistency or conscience, It was once a proud boast, that of American citizen- ship ; a proud boast in the early fifties to be of California ; -Ill IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS now, politically, we an- out- with tin- Polish .lew. the Italian fishwife, and the wooly negro from tin- jungles of Africa. And herein is hidden a fetish. For the encouragement of faddists, however, we might say that a thousand years of intelligent effort may possibly bring back American citizenship to where it was a hundred years ago. The truth is we, run our good things to extremes, to fads and fetishism. We make a fetish of money, of educa- tion, of labor, of the negro, of immigration and assimila- tion; the exercise of our prostituted suffrage is a solemn rite. Commercial honesty is regulated by the cash register, and political integrity by the si/e and quality of the bribe. The negro fetish incarnates a false spirit, so proved by at- tempts at social equalization. The labor fetish is equally fallacious in attempting the impossible in politics and economics. The education fetish out-swells all the others. even to bursting, the inevitable tendency of all measures where one class of voters orders the goods which another class is to pay for. We also love our little fictions, even going so far in one instance as to stamp the lie upon our coin. In (lod We Trust, whereas do we not know that it is in the dollar we trust? We support newspapers with their too palpable hypocrisies, their distorted statements, and their interminable braggadocio and vulgar self-praise. Con- scienceless sheets, bribed by German influence, show the fact plainly enough on their face, and carry not the conviction they imagine, but excite only disgust. Nor should we expect profound wisdom from the paci- fists who fancy they can stop the juggernaut car of war with windy words. No harm to pose for effect, good friends, or to advertise your inefficiency, if such be your purpose ; but unless you are prepared to grant each belliger- ent his own terms, you efforts are wasted, however sup- ported they may be by a sho;il of learned cranks, or how- ever successful you may have been making cheap auto- WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE? 445 mobiles or running a sensational church or a superfluous university. As a rule an efficient man of affairs makes a better executive officer than a college professor trained within restrictive lines; for under the former, while obtaining the highest political advantage, economic supremacy is secured as well. Pedagogy, ideality, and practical politics do not assimilate. Luck takes place before discernment, though often less lasting. The higher we are carried by good fortune the greater is sure to be the fall. For learned verbiage commend me to the German doctors and professors in their impotent attempts to reconcile the teachings of Christ with the doings of the devil. Education is a good thing in reason, but like all good things is subject to abuse. Carried to excess it becomes a fad or a fetish, doing in many cases more harm than good. If continued on present lines of demagogism, wherein loud-mouthed extremists pay nothing for its sup- port, we shall presently see any lazy lout taken up and fed and clothed while old saws are pumped into him, after- ward to be set up in business and a dwelling and wife provided. From the intellectually over-fed girl comes the super-woman spoiling something better, while boys are taken from work they are fitted for and consigned to failure. Education with us is too cheap, and embellished with too many useless accessories. What costs nothing is seldom highly prized. Our foremost men are usually among those unspoiled by superfluous education. Furthermore, it stands out plainly enough to those who would see it that men and women have each their sphere of usefulness, and in which they excel, for so was made man, male and female ; it is as much out of place for women to attempt the more virile duties of men as for men to usurp the domestic functions of women. Half of our higher educating is worse than wasted in spoiling inferior material for the more useful occupations in life. Injudicious education narrows the intellect, par- M; IN THKSK LATTKi; DAYS alyzes originality, and destroys tin- initiative. Still more senseless is giving Japanese free education with which to destroy us whenever the opportunity offers. And worst of all is to permit German professors in the pay of Amer- ican universities to poison the minds of our youths with the doctrine of Prussian brutism, militarism, and kaiser kultur. Do we want America Germanized? Do we want to eliminate from our curriculum every sentiment of right and wrong and teach only the morality of murder? The sham and charlatanry attending our elections, with the pretence of patriotism, and the duty of every citizen to deposit his vote cash value by the thousand fifty cents each; eligibility determined by skin-tint; white or black, male or female, admissible, but nothing yellow ; while partly true is none the less diverting. Nor is it good polity to permit the jitney nuisance to menace the safety of a city full of people and ruin legiti- mate transportation, the only means of reaching the suburbs or of extending the city limits. A sum equal to the waste of the present congress and the public funds spent in measures to secure the reelection of its members would give us a merchant marine and army and navy, men and implements, worthy of the honor and dignity of a great nation, and at the same time furnish profitable employment for all workers. The United States is quite in demand just now. Labor wants it, socialists want it, women want it, the Catholics want it, while the Jew, the Irishman, and the notable cheap automobile maker each thinks he has it already. Mother England would regulate our commerce, while Germany is interested in watching the effects of bomb-play on neutral- ity. The administration at Washington would like to retain office for another term, for a dozen other terms, and so undertakes to straddle several fences at one time, at which effort it cuts a sorrowful figure. We must admit that the prospect for immediate im- WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE ? 447 provement in San Francisco is not flattering. However it may be with our friends at the east, however benefited they may be by the war in Europe, the Panama canal, and the now somewhat obsolete cry of peace at any price, however guarded and protected shipping interests on the Atlantic may be, we in California are not growing stronger, but weaker, both politically and economically. We cannot have true and permanent prosperity with an administration at Washington whose primary purpose is to secure its con- tinuance in office, whose injudicious measures while in- creasing taxation destroy industries, and sweep commerce from the ocean while pandering to laborism for votes, thus throwing thousands of American seamen out of employ- ment, and giving the carrying trade of the Pacific to the Japanese, who hold high carnival over our idiocy, we meanwhile maintaining the Panama canal more for their benefit than for our own. Placing in high office rabid labor leaders for the labor vote is not the best way to establish equitable relations between labor and capital, and few will deny that a more injudicious measure than the so-called seamen's bill was never before passed by a legislative body, a bill at once fatal to the merchant marine while seriously crippling the navy. By this one act of a self-serving, partisan con- gress industrial development at San Francisco bay has been set back for many years. Boomers point to midcontinent and Atlantic coast pros- perity, and quote railroads, food products, and war muni- tions, which is all very well, but where does California come in? What are the people of the Pacific coast doing to secure some of the advantages from the wonderful canal, and the so-helpful war? Nothing; there will be the overflow from the east, optimists say, which will make us rich, tourists, retired capitalists with enterprise all sucked out of them making homes here, and always lovers of pleasure in plenty; so may we content ourselves with the crumbs that fall from the tables of progressive industry II- IX THESE LATTEK DAYS o\rr tin- way. and henceforth write ourselves Tin- happy liiinl of Eastern Overflows. What can we do? Do! Any thing, everything. Abolish labor intrigue; drive laborism out of politics as Hiram .Johnson drove railroads out of politics; relegate the old- time commercial traveller back to the people that sent him, and peace propagandists to the sewing-cirele and sunday-school; then make things and sell them. Let our very best men organ i/e for establishing and promoting manufactures on the broadest conceivable basis. yet always along practical and common sense lines; estab- lish a world commercial clearing house, and invite all nations and all industries to keep a stock of their goods here for sale; establish also a commercial training-school for clerks and business men to study the ways of foreign peoples of whom they would make customers, their wants and necessities, their manners and methods, their weak- nesses and their strength, their proclivities and their lan- guages; then send out, not a boy with a carpet-bag of samples, but ship-loads of the best men obtainable for the purpose. Seems chimerical, does it? But it is not, nor half so difficult to accomplish as the magic feat of your so superb and successful fair which to-day is and tomorrow is cast into the oven. Following the age of gold and the age of grain, came to California fruit, which however welcome as a luxury does not meet the war-time necessity as a staple fowl product, and with land at $.">()(). an acre and a limited market does not pay the producer. To restore to fertility worn-out grain lands, after a half-century of non-rotated crops, is troublesome and expensive; hence for the present at least it is with us manufacturing or a dulce far niente existence. With manufacturing, commerce will follow, but where we have but little to send away there can be but little commerce. Yet further. San Francisco can attain the full measure WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE? 449 of her high privileges only by such commerce and manu- factures as can successfully compete with the rest of the world, while the builders of the canal can derive benefit and not actual loss from building it only by a merchant marine which can successfully compete with other nations in the carrying trade of the world. To bar cheap foreign goods by high duties, as some would have it, as a remedy for the exclusion of cheap labor is as illogical and absurd as to drive American ships from the ocean in order to benefit American seamen. The bald facts remain that we have built a canal for the use of all nations, and all nations are profiting by the use of it, largely to the detriment of the builders. In the main traffic between the Asiatic shore of the Pacific and the shores of the Atlantic California is left out, while Japan derives the benefit from it. Some in California saw how matters were tending from the start; some will not see them as they are even now. England and Japan should be grateful, but they are not. They smile at our government as pedagogic, and at. our men of affairs as tamely submissive; in the meantime taking all that they can get and giving for it as little as possible. Many feared a slump after the fair, but that was im- possible because there was nothing to collapse, neither ag- riculture commerce nor manufactures. The fair was mag- nificent, and accomplished a great work in making better known our country and climate. All honor to the men who conceived it and carried it forward to a successful issue. Though many houses in the city remained empty during the nine months of its continuance, and business was dull, the hotels, apartment houses, and certain stores reaped a rich harvest. But these were neither natural wealth nor economic industry. The boasts about building and bank clearances were misleading, and intended to mislead, as they were largely incident to the exposition, and not belonging to the business proper of the city. We 15 450 IN THESE LATTER DAYS should hardly consider the issuance of distorted statements good policy under any circumstances. Frolic, festivals, and fairs are not business but play, though play sometimes is good business. But if all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, all play and no work makes a travesty on business and a fool of the community. There are good business men who believe in booming, who like to look upon the bright side, who will even stretch the truth a little to make the bad appear better ; there are others who prefer looking facts squarely in the face, and meeting the situation as become strong, sensible men. Nothing is gained, either in business or journalism, by hol- low buncombe. We have become wealthy and great, not because of our government but in spite of it; we have become lax in morals, in integrity, and in patriotism, not because of our wealth and greatness, but because of civic degeneration, because of our flinging away our most precious inherit- ance, American citizenship of the quality bequeathed to us by the founders of the republic. Looking nearer home for the cause of our industrial doldrums, we can but observe that when a body of in- telligent and efficient men, prominent citizens of no mean city, meet, not once or twice but several times, for the sole purpose of organizing and acting for the promotion of manufactures; when in all their free and thorough dis- cussions, which are always along lines of experience and discretion, advantages brought forward and obstacles re- moved, and never a word spoken as to the primary essential in all economic achievement, and never anything accom- plished, we may safely conclude that there is something rotten in Denmark. For these are of our city's best, equal to the best of any city ; men accustomed to meet and overcome diffi- culties, not to give way before them; who could watch the flames devour their city without a whimper, and re- WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE? 451 build it in proportions of beauty and utility such as were never dreamed of before; who could raise for a world exposition five million dollars at the first sitting, to be supplemented by twenty-five millions more, and carry for- ward the enterprise with such wisdom and discretion, and with such successful results as to command the admiration of all nations ; and this in the face of Mexico's madness and Europe's suicide; who could subscribe off hand a million dollars of their own money for an opera house to cover a city block, even though the project be defeated by a puerile mayor for labor votes, leaving in the civic centre a ghastly scab, there long to remain as a memento of official charlat- anry and imbecility. They will stand up before the scowling Nipponese, scowling because after we have given them so much we do not give them more, while the administration at Wash- ington is shaking in its shoes from fear fear of damage to party, to the high ideals of pedagogic purity, and fling- ing away to them our dearest possession, our chief de- pendence for a brilliant future, the supremacy of the Pacific. Nor are they indifferent to the destiny of our superb bay, or imappreciative as to its glorious potentialities, or blind to the absolute necessity of general manufacturing as the chief factor of permanent growth and prosperity. They know, as history tells them, that a centre of industry not a centre of art, or of education, or of wealth science or religion, but a centre of industry is a centre of empire, and that of all great monuments to industrialism which have ever arisen by the hand of man there has never been one with conditions and opportunities at the begin- ning superior to those of their own city and bay. Sir Gilbert Parker can see from London more than some of us can see here on the ground. He says that the Panama canal will soon make the western ocean alive with shipping like the Atlantic, our world exposition meanwhile fore- shadowing the magnificence of the central port of San 452 IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS Francisco, where all this human activity is ordained by geography to forefather and concentrate its energy, while with her wonderful situation California may soberly aspire to the queenship of the Pacific in its noonday maturity. They know too, these our first citizens, as every one knows, of their city's embarrassment; they know the cause of it, and feel the humiliation and disgrace attending it, and notice how few are inclined to speak of it, that a strange reticence in this respect pervades the community. They know this yet will not see, or seeing will not touch, or touching, it is with fingers so softly applied as to soothe rather than to eradicate. They know very well that without free labor, without operatives at a moderate wage, such as will enable us successfully to compete with others we can have no fac- tories; in a word that without reasonably cheap labor we cannot engage in general manufacturing, which is an essential of our progress and prosperity. They fathom fully the bugaboo made of cheap labor, and the arrant nonsense current concerning it. They understand perfectly that more than half the work of the world is low grade, and must be done by humble workers or not at all, the higher-up toilers being too dainty for it ; that reasonably low pay to inferior laborers is as great a boon as high pay to skilled workmen, as to the low grade worker it is that or nothing, and all that stands between him and starvation; and that without cheap labor and cheap laborers millions must suffer, while farm and fac- tory work, domestic service and scores of useful and bene- ficial industries must to a certain extent be given up. They are neither fools nor sentimentalists, who would run their business as benevolent institutions. They give to all charities liberally, but they find it better to make the money first by practical and legitimate ways, and then give it than to ruin their business attempting impracticable methods. Seiitiinentalism as applied to industrial development is WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE?' 453 out of place, and the fallacies attending American citizen- ship, assimilation, and cheap labor, must be dismissed if anything of importance is to be accomplished. Even were industrialism to be conducted as a charity there were more to be said in favor of the humble worker, whose low wage means to him bread, than of the assertive artisan who pays his exploiter to secure for him a high wage and short days which give him more time and money for political agitation and. the drinking saloons. And yet these, our best men, seem content to see their highest interests sacrificed, and themselves relegated to lives of tame respectability. Writing truthfully and plainly to a friend as to the situation here at present they would say, "The greatest opportunity for great things ever before offered; but first the place needs cleaning up, politically, morally, and industrially. True, we can give our customers now, under hall-mark 'Made in San Francisco', a guaranteed article produced all by white labor at the highest wage and shortest hours, under labor lords who take their accustomed toll, and supply the goods at a price but little higher than Germany and Japan ask for a better article. No poor white trash paying nothing to the labor leaders, and nothing yellow permitted to work at any price, no matter how advantageous to the producer or to the commonwealth. Government loose ; justice facile ; morals easy ; and politics, mostly of the Irish and Catholic persuasion, as usual, rotten." Some good citizens are less ambitious, less enterpris- ing than others, or have the city's interest less at heart. These may say in all sincerity, Why should we bother? we are rich, we are inferior to none, we have everything that money can buy, ah! there is the rub. There is a nobler life that is not satisfied with what money can buy. In truth, the greater the present wealth, the less satisfied the intelligent possessor is inclined to be with what it will buy. Romulus and Remus, suckled by the wolf, glad for the 454 IN THESE LATTER DAYS nourishment were content. The half-naked Venetians, paddling in Adriatic mud, had all that money could buy. and were content, but not so the dominating: doges of the imperial city that uprose from that mud. London, a city of cities, as our city should be including all the bay shore, was content as a Thames embankment, but not so her destiny, and not so our destiny. Paris was gay Paris as Julius Caesar found it, a collection of mud huts on the banks of the Seine, and it will always be gay Paris as our city will always be gay San Francisco, but Clovis and Hugh Capet were not satisfied with the mud huts however happy their former occupants had been in their possession. It was evident from the beginning that unless some special effort was made to secure practical benefits from the Panama canal and the war in Europe those occur- rences would prove to California loss rather than profit. It is not the mill that makes the water run. In the absence of extensive staple agricultural products and correspond- ing commerce, and comparatively little accomplished toward starting up general manufacturing, the disadvan- tages have proved greater even than was anticipated. We have every facility for making anything that can be made elsewhere, that is to say cheap raw material, cheap power, cheap transportation, moderate living expenses, every- thing but labor at a fair and reasonable wage, and on this score the city is held up by the pirates of industry. Ger- many did not become strong and great cringing for votes or through subserviency to labor leaders. While the labor leaders heap curses upon capitalists for having capital, they call upon capitalists to provide for them. Capital signifies not only stored labor, but labor and economy. Were there no capitalists and no government within reach, upon whom would they then issue their demands for support ? Already two-thirds of the profits of industry go to labor, but the laborites would like the other third also. The main impediment to progress on the shores of WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE ? 455 San Francisco bay, and the only impediment, it is safe to say, is the labor situation, the capture and control of labor and the coercion of both employer and employed by exploiters of the workingman, who thus hold a mon- opoly of labor and manipulate it to their own advantage. Because of these industrial parasites preying upon the vital interests of the country enterprise is crushed, and scores of great industries are driven from our city every year. The laborites assume that employers can pay any wage they choose, and that it is their duty, and the duty of government, to give labor employment on its own terms. They teach their proteges that it is right and proper to base wages on the needs of the worker instead of following the laws of economics, which demand that the product shall not cost more than it will sell for. Another fallacy is that the man with a family is entitled to more consideration than the man without one, when in reality the former should be punished for bringing children into the world without any provision for their support. For the past fifty years we have been breeding downward in- stead of upward, and we are just now beginning to see the lamentable result and take tardy action. Thoughtful persons view with concern the rapid drift- ing of the government into the hands of labor leaders. Present at every state and national legislature are the exploiters of the workingmen active in the defeat of every measure that does not give them some unfair advantage. They also employ every possible method to warp the judg- ment of courts and defeat the ends of justice. Opportunities for successful manufacturing are as open now as ever they were but for the pirates of industry, opportunities likewise for the impecunious to labor dili- gently, if they so desire, uniting frugality with ability, and become capitalists, as thousands have done before them. No laborer ever became rich or great serving a labor leader, whose teachings are based on imposition and fraud, that is in giving the least possible return for the most possible 456 IN TIIKSK LATTEH DAYS pay, lessons in enforced inefficiency and thrift lessness. Organized industry under the regime of the laborites is organ i/ed crime. Threats and intimidation are the argu- ments employed, coercion the law, and dynamite the ulti- mate appeal. Crime is the atmosphere in which it lives and moves; strikes are a crime, boycotts are a crime. maiming and murder are crimes. The many trickeries and Jesuitic intrigues for fraudulent purposes, for obtain ing from society something for nothing, well, call it laborism, the crime of the vile and vulgar. To tolerate in our midst a labor monopoly is a disgrace to our government. It is a crime to put to inconvenience and injury an entire community that a coterie may indulge in coercion and revenge. It is infamous to ruin by means of the boycott a respectable and law-abiding tradesman, offi- cers and law courts abetting, because he refuses to obey the mandates of rapacious labor leaders. It is a reflection upon the honesty and integrity of any government that permits a clique to assume its functions and dominate at will. And if any workingman cannot work here without a keeper to stir up strife and keep industries in a ferment, let him migrate to some land which suits him better. Capital imposes upon labor as opportunity offers. It has always been so and always will be so until man 's nature changes. So labor gets the better of capital whenever it can, by fair means or foul, and will continue to do so if left to the devices of the workingman 's exploiter. It is right for labor to defend itself, fairly and legitimately, and organize for that purpose; but it is not right to retaliate in kind upon the general public, or resort to illegal means for the enforcement of its rules and policies. It is no part of the laborer's business, as a laborer, to regulate society or run the government, any more than it is the business of railroads or trusts to do so. These functions belong to the people at large, and not to any one class. Laborism in America is fast becoming like mili WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE? 457 tarism in Germany ; we may be very sure that neither will prove pleasant nor profitable. What are the labor leaders doing for workingmeii? They begin by weakening the intellect in playing provi- dence, making of them first children and then fools. They give to those who pay them for it all the work at a high rate, to the destruction of enterprise, leaving those who do not pay without work, they and their families to starve. They dominate industry, permitting no boy to learn a trade unless they are first paid for it. They mollycoddle the poor toilers, as they call them, into puerility, until they have no more manliness or independence than a Mexican peon. Organized industry is gradually undermining society and subverting government. It is a pernicious system, injurious most of all to the workingman, before whose mind is constantly kept by his exploiters the false idea that his is an injured class. It is right and proper for those who do the work of the world to possess the world, but the daily-wage man is not the only one that works. It is not that we need fear a permanent reign of labor, and this for two reasons. First, through ignorance and incompetency the policies promoted by the labor leaders are largely suicidal, such as in the end will bring destruc- tion upon themselves ; and secondly, the wonderfu^apidity with which machinery is invented to take the place of men will limit more and more the sphere of the workingman and destroy the occupation of his overseer. Delay, however, at the present time in our great industrial development is disastrous. We will give to the earlier champions of labor their full meed of praise ; we will give to the present exploiters of the workingman our just condemnation ; we will give to any community which for any reason or excuse will submit to the continued impositions of any coterie or class our unequivocal disapproval. It was a grand iliing to do, a righteous thing, to emanci- pate down-trodden labor from the tyranny of capital, from L5fi IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS the impositions of mrreenary and evil-minded men. never again to be so enslaved. It is not jjrand or righteous for liberated labor to turn on its benefactors and well-wishers, and in a spirit of hate and revenge put to the sword the comfort, peace, and progress of whole communities of whieli they are a part, and on which they are still dependent for all the blessings of life. Nine tenths of the rich men in America to-day, they or their fathers, were workingmen, as their sons may be after them, and they were neither ruled nor exploited by any labor leaders, but were free, self-respecting American eiti/ens, who elected good men to office, and managed their affairs in their own way. Nine tenths of the whiskey shops, hot-beds of debauch- ery and demagogism, are directly or indirectly kept running by laborism, labor leaders, their satellites and supporters. The term cheap labor, as applied to the Chinese, is a bogey which has fooled the United States up to the limit for a half century, and all at the instigation of a blatant Irishman with his dinner pail and dray on the drifting sands of San Francisco. With cheap labor much good can be accomplished which otherwise must remain undone. With cheap labor a forest can be cleared, a swamp drained, arid lands watered, fac- tories and mills put in operation, and thousands of benef- icent enterprises carried on, giving food and raiment to starving millions who seek not luxuries but a livelihood; at the same time solving many problems, such as high cost of living, unemployment, pauperism, and the rest. The policy of our latter-day labor leaders is the meanest and most selfish of any thing ever before invented, and totally opposed to their own interests as well as to the interests of the commonwealth, and to the purposes of the founders of the republic, which was the greatest good to the greatest number the world over. Labor imagines it gets the better of its employer by seen ring the same pay for fewer hours, but the fancied WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE? 459 advantage only reacts upon the laborer, limiting his effi- ciency to his own loss in the end. For as water finds its level, so the price of labor finds itself regulated, not by the necessities of the laborer but by the potential price of the product. Further than this the workingman should know that money obtained by indirect methods at the hand of fraudulent overseers, howsoever much food for the mind and generous living it will buy, will never make for im- proved citizenship. More than half the work of the world is low grade, as has been said, and is and ought to be done by cheap labor. More than half the farm and factory work is unskilled labor, which more than half the world would be glad to get at a moderate wage, yet the laborites forbid them, preferring to see them starve. Let cheap labor be given to the cheap laborers among us until all are em- ployed ; then as more are required bring in the best obtain- able regardless of color or creed. We need the Chinese as servants, not as masters; as subjects, not as rulers ; as humble workers at humble work, not as arrogant labor lords to corner industry, whip capital, and ruin all honest tradesmen who dare to manage their business in their own way. We do not want Asiatics to come in unlimited numbers, or to own land or settle themselves here. We do not want their children born here to become citizens, any more than we want apes born here to become citizens. Let those come only for whom we have work, which, when finished, let them be returned to their homes. Europe is fast killing off her surplus, and it is no time for America to shackle in- dustry or permit exploiters to manacle cheap labor. By cheap labor I do not mean a starvation wage, but a wage such as is paid elsewhere, and such as will enable us to compete with manufactures elsewhere. To fix a mini- mum wage is to deprive thousands of laborers of any wage at all, that others who pay the exploiter may have what work there is at a higher wage, and at the same time 460 IN THESE LATTER DAYS stop the \vheels of induslry. Tin- inexorable law of supply and demand cannot be conventionally ignored. Manufact- urers cannot he compelled by law to employ operatives at a higher wage than the value of the product will justify, or in other words to do business at a loss. They can decline business when it does not pay, which only increases the evil, adding distress to the workers. Unemployment is worse than a low wage. Successful business cannot be conducted as a charity ; even were it so, it is oftener charity to give the low grade worker his low wage than the high grade worker his high wage. The laborer needs protection from the labor leader far more than from his employer. Unemployment exists mainly because of the method of laborism, which gives all the work to half of the workers at an exorbitant wage, forbidding a low wage altogether. The first step toward solving the problem of the unemployed is to give them their fair share of the work. Labor monopoly is worse than cooperative or corporate monopoly, as the former is manipulated by irresponsible and unscrupulous persons, with nothing to lose and every- thing to gain, while the latter has at least some money or property responsibility and therefore runs the risk of loss. Cheap labor is as essential to general industry as water is to health. To deride cheap labor and moderate though healthful living is the most senseless and suicidal of policies. As well deride mule or machine labor, .cheap power, cheap food, cheap raw material ; as well denounce at once all the requirements of competitive industry and give up all at- tempts at general manufacturing. And yet more absurd is it to set up the inoffensive, plodding Chinaman as a menace to American interests while harboring Irish agitators, Ital- ian anarchists, Russian nihilists, and German dynamiters and bomb-planters. Some laborers are worth twice as much as others, but all who pay the exploiter must be paid alike by the em- ployer. Some laborers are too self-respecting to submit to WHY A WORLD INDUSTRIAL CENTRE ? 461 the commands of a keeper; these must be punished and not permitted to work at all. Some mechanics can work twice as fast as others, but the fast brick-layers must not lay a brick more than the slowest is able to do. The whole organization and arrangement is placing a premium on in- competency and fraud. Can we not have cheap labor without abusing it? And because heartless employers have abused it must we be thereby forever deprived of this primary essential to our progress ? We cannot have true and permanent prosperity so long as our prominent business men permit the exploiters of labor to run their business, rule the courts, and fill the public offices with their tools. Labor leaders are bad enough any whefe, but they are_worse in San Francisco than in most other places, far worse than at San Diego, Los Angeles, or Seattle. Summary : We cannot have a World Centre of In- dustry around San Francisco bay without manufactures; we cannot have manufactures without cheap labor ; we can- not have cheap labor of the best quality without the ad- mission of the Chinese ; we cannot have the Chinese or other cheap labor without an administration at Washington which after due consideration as to its own perpetuity, can find time for a little honest and common sense legisla- tion in the interests of the people, legislation possibly tinctured with patriotism; this, and the extermination at San Francisco of labor monopolists, and exploiters of the workingman. In this great work San Francisco bay and California are one; city and harbor, state ocean and shore are a unit; San Francisco bay signifies California, and Cali- fornia means San Francisco, all one and indivisible; each in its sphere doing its work and sharing in the pleasure and profit of it, while the glory of magnificent achievement shall fall on all alike. All this those who lay the foundations for San Fran- cisco's future, whether near or remote will have for their 462 IN THESE LATTER DAYS serious consideration. The development is sure to conn-. and along these lines; it can come by none other. And when the people of San Francisco bay are ready to unite and purge themselves of prejudice and their several cities of industrial and political demagogism ; when with energy and fearlessness they are ready to take their destiny into their own hands, determined on securing for themselves the supremacy of what rightly belongs to them, whether on sea or shore, with "Made at San Francisco" a hall-mark of merit the world over, there will be such an industrial development in this last great Centre of Industry as has never yet appeared in any age or nation. CHAPTER XXIII REVIVAL OF CITIZENSHIP PARTS of the preceding chapters, more especially those relating to a World Centre of Industry at San Francisco bay and the adverse influence to progress ex- ercised by the leaders and monopolists of labor, were pre- viously published in pamphlet form and mailed to prominent financial men, bankers, merchants, and manu- facturers in San Francisco, New York, and elsewhere. Flattering responses came in from men of various moods. At the same time slowly began to appear evidence of re- maining life in the sometime enterprising shores of the Pacific. Slowly as it seemed, yet of a truth quickly for a com- munity so overrun with demagogues and timid money- makers ; for soon it became evident that a material change had come over the industrial aspect of the city and bay shores of San Francisco. And so quietly was this change of sentiment effected, so readily were our best men con- verted to the necessity of concerted action, that the work was practically accomplished before the outside world knew anything about it. For a period previous to this most important awaken- ing, Seneca C. Beach, president and manager of the Mer- chants and Manufacturers Association of San Francisco, with a branch office at Oakland, and a strong executive board, had been issuing a monthly bulletin, and working devotedly against the inroads of unionized labor upon the vital interests of the city, and though he had much to 463 464 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS contend with In- never lost courage, but was always con- fident of ultimate success. At the end of August, 1916, Mr Beach writes: "Sub- stantial progress in establishing the open shop, or indus- trial freedom, was made during the month, though several full-fledged strikes and a number of incipient disorders were, rampant throughout San Francisco. There were no developments of a sensational character during the month, though many new allies and influences were enlisted in the movement to bring about industrial justice. "Most prominent from the public standpoint was the culinary workers' strike, which has been in progress dur- ing the month. Too much credit cannot be given those firms comprising the San Francisco Restaurant Men's as- sociation for the courage they have displayed in resisting the unjust demands of the walking delegate. The open shop for the restaurants of San Francisco has come to stay, and the victory has been a clear and decisive one. The stupidity of the culinary workers' union was further dem- onstrated when the waiters at the Commercial Club went on a strike in a deliberately planned effort to throw the Hughes luncheon into confusion. Thanks to certain friends of the open shop the abortive attempt failed completely. "During the month an alleged settlement was reached between the waterfront employers' union and the steve- dore union that precipitated the strike of June 1st by violating their agreement that had been guaranteed by Secretary of labor Wilson, a member of the president's cabinet. However, certain e fleets were apparent during the course of the month in the incipient strikes called by the walking delegates of the stevedore's union at various lumber yards and on a few lumber vessels. Small strikes oc- curred at the yards of Wilson Brothers, Hooper Lumber company and Pope & Talbot, but your association quickly provided men to take the places of the strikers, and the trouble was of brief duration. But these sporadic outbursts REVIVAL OF CITIZENSHIP 465 show what degree of dependability attaches to the agree- ment of the longshoremen or other unions. "Strikes were also in progress during the month at the plants of the firms comprising the structural steel associa- tion. The strike began on July 10th, and members of the association gave bonds to guarantee their open shop agree- ment. The central iron works, which was a party to the agreement and gave bond in the sum of $5,000, was ac- cused early in August of violating the agreement and re- verting to the closed shop. The auto repair shops are still being picketed after many months of boycotting. These shops, however, in spite of assaults upon their employees and repeated plots to destroy and injure the plants, are being conducted open shop, and have won a big victory. And out of the whole industrial crisis that has been thrust upon San Francisco's business interests by walking dele- gates, the river boats have emerged free of any handicaps and interference by the unions. The river boats are operat- ing open shop and their victory is one of the most notable in the entire list. During the progress of all these strikes and disturbances your association has rendered every pos- sible aid in addition to performing innumerable services to members and others in matters that have not reached the public." Thirty days thereafter he finds that "more progress has been made during the month just passed towards estab- lishing open shop conditions, and it is surprising to note what a determined effort on the part of the business com- munity for law and order has accomplished in creating peaceful conditions, when erstwhile during industrial tur- moil personal assaults and violence against the non-union person and property were the rule. The culinary workers' strike is practically over, and many of the former em- ployees of open shop restaurants have gone back to work wherever they could, or have left town to engage them- selves however best was possible. Then the recent decision by the supreme court of the state in an opinion regarding 466 IN THESE LATTER DAYS the injunction issued l>y .lud^re Hunt of the superior court that such was regular and within the power of the court. has put a damper upon the activities of the culinary workers' union, and will eventually stop all picketing in front of restaurants as more injunctions are issued to cover those places not included in the original service. There are now issued eighty-five injunctions to cover restaurants, test raining picketing by the culinary workers' union. "The waterfront situation remains much the same, but the victory heralded l>y the longshoremen's union officials some months ago when the Waterhouse company and the Mitsui company, both large shipping concerns, agreed under duress to the strike conditions imposed by this union, have now rescinded their action and are working with the open shop steamship interests of the Pacific coast. Lumber yards are handling the loading and unloading of the ships, cars, and wagons with open shop employees. The American Stevedoring company operating under the open shop policy, supplying men along the waterfront, reports both union and non-union men working peaceably together. This company was recently organized by the business and lum- ber interests doing business on the waterfront of this city. "Auto repair shops which were struck May 8th, are not now picketed, and are getting all the skilled and unskilled help they need, and the proprietors are pleased with open shop conditions and the fact that they can operate their plants without dictation by some foreign labor delegate. Six of the largest structural steel plants are not picketed, and are operating open shop, obtaining all the help they reijuire. both skilled and unskilled. "During the last thirty days a demand was made upon the employers by the union shipwrights for a minimum of $5.00 per day wage on new work, but after considerable parley settlement was made on basis of $4.50 per day. The leaders of labor saw that employers were prepared to meet the issue; for with the Merchants and Manufacturers' association machinery to call upon, and the law and order * REVIVAL OF CITIZENSHIP 467 committee of the chamber of commerce fully equipped to protect against violence in case of a strike, the business agents and special representatives saw the handwriting on the wall." Speaking of Mr Beach and his work, the editor of The Messenger, published by the employers association of Washington, says: "Seneca C. Beach made a speech at the national convention of manufacturers, New York, which was the talk of the convention. Mr Beach, who does not pretend to be an orator, has a forceful way of putting the question. He is a born fighter and believes in telling the truth. He was a senator for several terms in Oregon, long before going to San Francisco, so he learned the ways of deliberative bodies. ' ' As generally understood, this closed shop is a system prevailing in factories conducted under a fixed rule that none but union men in good standing shall be employed. It is called the closed shop because its doors are barred against all employees whom the union does not recognize, as it is contrasted with the open shop where both union and non-union men are employed without discrimination against either. The non-union man may be denied union member- ship ; he may have been suspended or expelled, or he may not desire membership. The open shop is the store, factory, mill, or place of business where any competent man or woman may work, regardless of membership or non-membership in a union. It is based on the theory that an honest day 's work is worth a full day's pay, and a day's pay should buy a full day's work. The closed shop is a place where none save union men and women may work. It is the mother of strikes, boycotts, picketing, and violence. There is a universal complaint that as wages are in- creased a large class of wage earners become less produc- tive, and the failure of industrial plants to make sufficient or reasonable output is preventing the realization of much if any profit from operations. The attitude of such wage- Hi* IN THESE LATTKi; hAYS earners is disappointing. Instead of Inking advantage of tin- present wonderful opportunity lo make large earnings they are netting no more than when wages were lower, the cost of living being higher. Meanwhile the whole coun- try is suffering a great economic loss through the failure of our industrial establishments to produce the volume of goods for which there is at present so great a demand. "What the business man has done" continue* Mi- Beach "the business man can do to steer the ship of state along a surer course. We of the Pacific coast are just now beginning to realize the great advantages and profits of larger and wider affiliation and cooperation. The Pacific federation of employers has been in active operation less than eighteen months. This federation includes member- ships in all the larger cities on the coast. The federation has produced organizations in cities which could not have had them otherwise. It has sustained and maintained weak organizations which would have entirely failed in their purposes without the federation." Mr Beach showed how previously money had been spent and energy wasted in a multitude of uncoordinated movements. "And always the main thing," he concluded, "has been lost sight of, namely; the right to do business and the right to labor untrammeled. To bring about this condition seems never to have been thought of by the boost, buncombe, and bom- bast organizations that never get anywhere near a real diagnosis of the disease which business is suffering from, and therefore thefe is only one way to secure results, namely, more organization not more organizations a fed eration, if you please, to, which will be called ultimately the local successes of men into a broader field where larger numbers will profit by their knowledge and acumen, and when- then the principles enunciated by our Pilgrim fathers,* and upon which our government is founded, the rights of the individual and the freedom to speak, worship, and labor will be guaranteed and safeguarded." REVIVAL OF CITIZENSHIP 469 According to a prominent educator, only one out of twenty-five thousand persons really thinks, and only five out of a hundred business men escape failure. A dem- agogue never thinks about any one but himself. There never was a time when there was a greater demand for men of brains and experience in business as well as in politics. They are particularly needed in legislative halls, yet the seats of the mighty are occupied by cheap politicians, and flashy agitators. The destructive work they have been doing must be undone. Who will prepare for the after- math of the terrible war ? We are out of the war zone now, but we are still in the world and must face a serious in- dustrial situation when the war ends. J. E. Edgerton, president of the Tennessee manufactur- ing association, put this concretely when he said : ' ' When the thinking people of this country shall come to consider seriously the demagogic prattle of professional politicians, and the cunningly devised pronouncements of political plat- forms, and attach the principal importance to the quality of their representatives in public office; when they shall assiduously endeavor to select for the administration of their affairs only those men of whatever class who are equipped with sufficient brains and character; and when they shall resolve not to tolerate or compromise with in- competency and political crookedness, they may expect more satisfactory returns from the government." Referring to the monstrous injustice of the administra- tion at Washington, John P. Irish says: "The inequality before the law of such legislation is alread} r established by the- Clayton bill, which exempts from penalty labor unions for conspiracy in restraint of trade, while all others are punished for such conspiracy by fine and imprisonment. That in itself is such an appalling act that the penalizing of non-union labor will be easily obtained from a congress capable of freeing one class of citizens from criminal pen- alties to which all others are subject." 470 IN THESE LATTER DAYS Walter (J. Merritt, of New York, counsel for the Amer- iran anti-hoycott association, visited Ilic Pacific coast in September and spoke to ciitliusiastic audiences of business men in several cities on the relationship that organ i/ed labor has to society, and in his talks showed to his hearers how the fundamental principles upon which our govern- ment is founded are being attacked by such activity on the part of the American federation of labor as the primary and secondary boycott, the sympathetic strike, the enact- ment into law through the Clayton act, called the magna charta of labor, immunizing organized labor from the operation of anti-trust laws applicable to other units of society ; enactment of anti-efficiency laws to apply in gov- ernment shops and arsenals, and in the attempt of the laborites to have enacted anti-injunction legislation so that members of organized labor may, during strike conditions, do what they desire to person and property of those who do not agree with their demands, and so escape the direct operation of the law as applied to other factors in society. Last, the enactment of a law by congress of a wage increase to employees of private firms, under the guise of an eight- hour law, thus setting up such a dangerous situation as may well affect all the activities of trade, industry, and com- merce of our country. In a public address the able manager of the employers' association of Washington remarked that the employer's problem with labor means the employer's refusal to sur- render his business to arbitrary labor unions and give the keys to the business arent or walking delegate. The em- ployer has no particular problem with the individual laborer. His trouble is with the paid agitator and trouble maker. The trouble with the majority of the unions is that they are subordinate to the American federation of labor, which is founded on the unconscionable principle that might is rijrht. thai force and violence are justifiable substitutes for the reign of economic law. The employer objects to the arbitrary restriction of the output of work- REVIVAL OF CITIZENSHIP 471 shop and field, which the unions seek, to enforce by for- bidding apprentices, by opposing modern scientific effi- ciency methods, and by such rules as that of the brick- layers' union, which warns the workman always to keep his trowel in his hand in order that both hands may never be free to handle bricks. Then there is the rule in the plumbers' trade, quoted by Charles W. Eliot of Harvard : Set only one article one basin or one tub in a day ; that shall be the day 's work for which a day's pay must be given. Why? Why the slow and shiftless ways of sloth and indifference? The entire policy of the labor leaders was curtly expressed by a Seattle agitator who exclaimed: Never mind the legislature and the courts. Make your laws in the unions and enforce them on the job! The rule against apprentices is an arbitrary interference with the law of supply and demand, an assault on the inalienable rights of man ; for the right to live means the right to earn a living regardless of cards and buttons. The restriction of apprenticeships makes outlaws of American boys beneath their country's flag. It closes the gates of opportunity and leaves open only the road to crime. If our sons are taught trades in reform schools, peniten- tiaries, or polytechnic institutions, they are denounced' as scabs by the labor unions. If they attempt to earn a living they are likely to be ostracized, assaulted, or murdered either in Seattle or San Francisco; yet the declaration of independence guarantees every free American citizen the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What is such a guarantee worth if a man must starve unless a union, whose membership is frequently composed of foreigners, gives its consent that he may eat? Worse yet, the unions arbitrarily close their membership rolls in order that they may enforce their demands for shorter hours and higher wages. A monopoly of labor being their goal, those profiting by that monopoly care nothing for the rights of anybody not within the limited circle of the 472 IN TUKSK LATTER DAYS elect. Tlu' employer objects to tho boycott and picketing. The boycott is a conspiracy whereby ;i MuiiilT of union men and women, with minds fatally bent on mischief ;iml hearts void of social duty, resolve to force their victim to accede to their demands or else to starve him. By insulting: a victim's patrons, by calling them scabs, rats, and unfair; by jostling and striking, the pickets sel- dom fail to rob the cash register of the man they pursue. The lion tears, crushes, rends. The boycott is the wolf, symbol of starvation. The employer's trouble with labor unions is that no workman is taught to strive for efficiency. It opposes every scientific motion study, every time and labor saving sys- tem of the age, this despite the fact that modern scien- tific efficiency methods are popular with workmen wherever they have been used. Why then does union labor object! Because scientific methods are based on the piece system, on bonuses, on the rule that a dollar's pay should obtain a dollar's worth of service. The union believes in loitering, in malingering, in clogging the output. The two slowest bricklayers are set at work at the ends of a wall under construction, why? Because the end workers raise the line, and until their snail-pace has called for another layer the work of intervening men must stop. This one example is the entire case of the sluggard methods of labor-leading monopolists. As a result of strike at the Winchester repeating arms company, fifty-one manufacturers united to resist interfer- ence by labor organizers. Advertisement in New Haven papers, signed by manufacturers, reads: "Under present conditions we will not make any general changes in sched- ule of working hours, nor grant any demands that are being promoted by labor agitators." Calling out of 10,000 lake vessel employes, including able seamen, firemen, oilers, cooks, and ordinary seamen, was threatened September 1st by officials of three affiliated unions unless vessel owners acceded to certain demands, REVIVAL OF CITIZENSHIP 473 the exact nature of which was to be fixed by vote of union men. The Seattle commercial club by a vote of 452 to eight declared for open shop. The Spokane chamber of com- merce by a vote of 93 per cent declared for open shop. The Indianapolis common council unanimously passed an ordinance prohibiting boycotting of any kind. W. C. Francis, secretary of the Pacific federation of employees, telegraphed affiliating clubs on August 10th, showing the changed conditions in San Francisco as con- trasted with the old closed shop tyranny. The San Fran- cisco commercial club at a luncheon meeting voted unani- mously for the open shop. Encouraging as was all this, it was clearly evident that some still more drastic measures were necessary for the full eradication of the evil, so deep-seated had become the disease which was sapping the life blood of commerce and barring the progress of the people. As Mr Beach remarked in his New York address, ' ' busi- ness men's organizations must be taught to affiliate more closely and to act together simultaneously for a common cause, else there will be no great results." ' ' The public safety, ' ' says James A. Emery, ' ' the public convenience, the public necessity, industrial and military self-defence alike require that no man or set of men may possess the power to paralyze intercourse as the means of compelling acceptance of any demand which they may make upon the carriers of the country. The present Sea- man's act hangs about the neck of American shipping as the old man of the sea clung to the shoulders of Sinbad, strangling his power and handicapping his progress. The lesson of the hour is organization for the American em- ployer, so that, conscious of his responsibilities, he may with his fellows stand shoulder to shoulder in the defence of his rights, and the study and development of sound policies of business statesmanship to meet the serious cir- cumstances of this day." 171 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS .Mr Ktnery pointed out that San Francisco lias not jrrmvii in industrial power proportionately with its physical growth, and attributed the reason to the fact that the city is "handicapped with a great unsolved labor question on its hands." "You are facing this problem as have few communi- ties," he said, "you have awakened for all time to come, and not merely for the moment. You stand upon princi- ples that ought not to be compromised, principles that will never be surrendered. In arousing yourselves to meet this condition with firmness and fairness you are fortunate in that your leadership is courageous and dispassionate. It is composed of men who will not yield, nor yet be excited into hasty or regrettable action. San Francisco will always have unions. They have filled a place and are as great as has been any force in American history. They have their rights, but the rights of the community are greater." When the Lord threatened to destroy Sodom for its wickedness Abraham asked if he would spare the city if fifty good men could be found in it. The Lord said he would. Then Abraham, who was father of the Jews, began to back and fill. Would the Lord spare the city for forty-five? Yes, for forty -five. For forty? Yes, for forty. When in his petition he came down to ten, and the ten could not be found, Abraham gave it up. One only was deemed worth warning away before the rain of brimstone and fire, and even he was a bad Lot. Now more than once one man has saved this republic. George Washington saved it, Abraham Lincoln saved it. We will not speak of Taft or Woodrow Wilson. More than once one man has saved the city of San Francisco, as William T. Coleman and James King of Wm. One man delivered the state of California from railway despotism, Hiram Johnson. So it is in every great emergency sooner or later. There appears upon the scene the man to meet it, else the race 475 could not exist. Washington achieved independence; Lin- coln preserved the integrity of the union ; Roosevelt ele- vated the standard of political and commercial morals throughout the world; Hiram Johnson not only delivered the state from railroad rule, but he instituted such deep and far reaching measures as to place it in the front rank of progressive commonwealths. And now, at a time when the most vital interests .of the city are at stake, another deliverance is at hand in the person of Frederick J. Koster, who saves us from the most threatening danger. Ably assisted by Robert Newton Lynch and others, Mr Koster has performed a remarkable work. At a time when many were in despair, when apathy prevailed, and the ever-increasing and most destructive legislation a free people ever had to contend with at the national capital seemed to nullify all our efforts, conies this deliverance. At this juncture, perhaps the most critical time in the his- tory of the city, one man comes forward to save the towns about the bay from the monopolists of labor; from the thugs who deal in dynamite, lead pipe, and the boycott ; from demagogues who exploit the workingman for their own profit, who pander to popular prejudice and passion, ignore the rights of others, dominate industry, and by filling the courts and offices with their tools made a travesty on justice. Frederick J. Koster was the one man who in this in- stance saw the evil and determined to eradicate it. Among the thousands who fully realize a danger and abhor the situation there is too often not one in whom unite the requisite qualities for success, as ability, courage, and self- sacrificing patriotism. Too often we squirm under an infliction, shifting our position to profit by it, rather than take the proper steps to throttle it. To Mr Koster and associates, therefore, the city of San Francisco is indebted for what let us hope will prove her final emancipation from the tyranny of labor leaders. The uprising which 476 IN THESE LATTER DAYS followed their efforts was such ;is has si-Mom been in any community. The ( 1 li;milrr of Commerce of San Francisco, hitherto a dull slow body of eminent respecta- bility, was roused to new life by certain members who now for the first time began to regard themselves and tin- purposes for which they were organized seriously. At last the city was awake. No longer were men afraid to speak aloud the words cheap labor, or to denounce the attitude and influence of the labor leaders. At an election held in the Spring of 1916 Mr Koster was chosen president of the Chamber of Commerce and Mr Lynch, secretary. Mr Koster accepted the office for the express purpose and with the firm determination to inaugurate and carry out a great reform. He made known his plans to the leading members of the association, and received their hearty commendation. It was quickly seen that Mr Koster 's purpose was the thing to do, now that there were present the men to do it. Their first move was to raise a fund to meet expenses; a million dollars was the proposition. Just how much and by whom contributed was never known outside of the com- mittee, but it is certain that several hundred thousand dollars were promptly paid in, many of the banks and merchants giving as much as ten thousand dollars each. Others gave, some more, some less. Seldom was ever made such a subscription to a civil requisition. In addition to the present gift of money, the perma- ent income must be increased, which could be accomplished by an increase of membership. Thereupon was organized the largest and most efficient campaign for new member- ships ever undertaken by any similar association in Amer- ica or elsewhere. Membership at this time numbered less than L'oDO. It was proposed to secure at least 5000 additional names. To the accomplishment of which, 600 members of the Cham- ber formed themselves into 200 committees, each member pledged to devote two hours a day for four days to the REVIVAL OF CITIZENSHIP 477 work of increasing the memembership. Within that eight hours it was planned to secure 5000 additional subscribers, which would be an average of 1250 new memberships each day for four days ; or for 200 committees an average of about six memberships per committee a day. In a membership campaign in Portland, where the dues were $50 a year, the first day's work of eighty committees brought in 1647 new memberships ; second day, 791 ; third day, 671 ; fourth day, 1038 ; making a total of 4207 mem- berships in four days. This insured an income of more than $200,000 a year. The Portland committee worked two hours a day on the same plan as the proposed work in San Francisco. The routine followed was business-like in every respect. The names of some twelve thousand individuals, firms, and corporations were compiled and arranged geographically in districts for the purpose of covering the city. Each committee was to devote its energies for each of the four days to the same territory. The average of about sixty names was contained in each district. This made an aver- age of about fifteen calls or visits for each of the four days. These names were arranged on cards showing ad- dress, and if a corporation, the name of the officer to ask for. The organic law of the Chamber provided for plural memberships; that is to say, individuals, firms, and cor- porations might subscribe for more than one membership. This was in accord with the practise of modern commer- cial organizations in all of the leading cities of the country. It was based upon the sound business principle that men should contribute to the cost of community work in pro- portion to their ability and their material interest in the community. Many individuals and firms, therefore, would take more than one membership. The number of mem- berships which any individual, firm, or corporation should subscribe for, was shown on the card bearing the name and address of the individual, firm, or corporation. A 478 IN THESE LATTER DAYS careful effort was made by a committee of well known in. -n to pass upon every name in tin- preparation of this membership campaign, to determine fairly ami equitably what number of memberships each individual, firm, or corporation should subscribe for, in view of the money support asked from every other prospective member. It was the duty of committees to earnestly endeavor to secure at least the number of memberships which was designated on the card. To allow one person to subscribe a smaller amount than rated for, might be unfair to the next mem- ber who subscribed for the number of memberships asked. This membership campaign, as predicted, resulted in making the San Francisco chamber of commerce the largest commercial organization in the country. The first day's work brought in a total of 1274 members ; Wednesday held the record with a total of 1282; Thursday fell down to 1036 ; while Friday exclusive of the 658 pledged members, brought in a total of 1216. The office force of the Chamber was busily engaged during the week in sending out bills and circulars to the new members. A fund of $40,000 was raised for an indus- trial survey of the city and shores of San Francisco bay. A conference of Pacific coast cities was held, at which were represented Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Diego, and others, and matters of serious import discussed. At a mass meeting which filled the civic auditorium, political reform was pledged, and the moral support of the com- munity asked. Thus in four days 4800 new members were obtained, and before the end of the year enough were secured or pledged to bring the membership up to 8000, with an estimated income of $350,000 a year. Thus as a safe- guard from the inroads of rapacious labor leaders was established the largest association of the kind in the world, the chambers of commerce of New York, Boston, Chicago, and Portland numbering a membership of only about 5000 each. "Never again must it be said," remarked President REVIVAL OP CITIZENSHIP 479 Koster in thanking the 800 committees, men who had ac- complished this great work, "Never again must it be said that the mercantile element in San Francisco has no back bone. Particularly in the work of the law and order committee let us so conduct ourselves that we can go to the working people and have them believe in us." Departments were formed for the permanent coming forward of the work; there were the departments of law and order, transportation, traffic, legislative, foreign trade, industry, charities, marine, grain trade, and grain inspec- tion, so that before autumn an organization of some ten thousand influential and determined men was at work, which for ability and efficiency was never before exceeded in any age or by any civic society. The annual banquet of the Chamber of Commerce was a magnificent demonstration of community spirit. It em- phasized the fact that San Francisco had been awakened, and a movement had been inaugurated which would result in a free city. The Chamber had received notable evidence of the entire backing of its membership. San Francisco's industrial future was the subject of the evening and was discussed in three able addresses by Mr Koster, Mr Lynch, and President Wheeler of the Uni- versity. Mr Koster spoke in part as- follows : "This is a banquet of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, a gathering of those who take leadership in the affairs of our city for the purpose of discussing her industrial future. That involves a consideration of San Francisco's condition as it immediately affects her own population ; as it affects the prosperity of her immediate tributary territory; and as it enables her to perform her function as metropolis to her own state and her obligation to the nation. Her exceptional natural endowment and the circumstances surrounding her earliest development designated her as the future leading western point of con- centration and redistribution centre of finance, of hos- 480 IN TIIKSU LATTER DAYS pitalily ;ml entertainment and this endowment imposes upon her people a great responsibility; for San Knim-isco is distinctly a metropolis, a world city, and to that portion at least of the world at large, whose direct contact with our nation is through her, must needs be looked upon as representative of our national spirit and expressive of our nation's attitude. Emphasis has been given to this posi- tion of our city in world's affairs by the wonderful Expo- sition so recently closed. "I need hardly dwell upon the physical advantages of San Francisco, including those of climate, the close prox- mity of such a vast variety of things useful to man, the abundance of power to be derived from st reams that flow eternally, fed by the snows that lie perpetually upon our mountain tops, of that wealth that lies upon and that which rests beneath the surface of the favored region which constitutes our hinterland. With these you are all familiar. You know that nature has made of this an excep- tional place for the support of human life. And the qnes tion thus resolves itself into that of man's use of his oppor- tunity man's industry. "The value of all of these gifts of nature is dependent entirely upon the use that may be made of them by man. No values are fixed. The value of anything fluctuates in proportion with the degree of man's desire for that thing; and that community will be the most prosperous where there are human beings in sufficient numbers to call na- ture's gifts into use, and where there is the highest degree of skill and efficiency in converting the raw products of nature into the greatest variety of things useful to man. The industrial future then of San Francisco means her whole future. "And San Francisco's industrial future will depend upon the amount of voluntary, unselfish public spirited service which 700 odd leaders in her world of practical effort give individually and through this organization of ours. It is yours to say just what shall be San Francisco's 481 industrial future. You cannot direct her various indus- tries, but you can, through your chamber of commerce, give that leadership which shall create an atmosphere of industrial freedom, freedom from all unreasonable oppres- sion or obstruction, freedom from paralyzing legislation, from excessive taxation, freedom from unwarranted inter- ference of any kind. You certainly can establish here a wholesome, law-abiding attitude on the part of the people. "Just as it was possible to rehabilitate our city after its destruction ; just as it was possible, in the face of almost insurmountable difficulties, to bring to a most successful conclusion an Exposition which can only be spoken of in superlatives; just as it is possible to build a beautiful civic centre, and to create those other things which attract, so it is possible, under your leadership, if you apply your- selves to the task, to create here a wholesome, positive cooperative community spirit in substitution for that non- cooperative class domination from which we suffer so in- tensely ; and which, while it may not yet have substantially affected adversely our material prosperity, certainly has had a baneful influence upon the spirit of our people. "Nearly a year ago several conferences took place be- tween the officers of the Chamber and a number of San Francisco's business leaders, as a result of which a careful industrial survey of our city and the bay region was de- cided upon, with a view to developing not only the basis of the many adverse criticisms aimed at San Francisco, but with a further view of ascertaining just what lines of prog- ress could be stimulated, and that survey is now being made. A fund of considerable size was raised for the pur- pose, and the Chamber at the time that it undertook to raise this fund definitely committed itself to face squarely any issue that might arise as a result of the investigation. "The complaint was generally to the effect that the hampering conditions imposed upon industry by organ- ized labor, and the influence of organized labor upon poli- tics, stood most positively in the way of San Francisco's 16 482 IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS industrial development. That this was no idle complaint, has been impressed upon us strongly bv the circumstances surronndim,' the series of strikes which have been in prog- ress, particularly during the past few months. ;md which have caused the board of directors of the Chamber to de- clare itself unequivocally in its resolution adopted June 22nd, this year, subsequently ratified by the membership assembled in mass meeting on July 10th, and resulting in the formation of the Chamber's law and order committee and the raising of a fund adequate to meet any emergency that might arise. "I urge a most generous atttitude towards all workers. I urge you, as leaders in business, to support a program whose objects shall be to secure for the working people of San Francisco and* vicinity the most wholesome working conditions, reasonable hours, and the very best wages con- sistent with sound business judgment. "I believe that consideration should be given by em- ployers to the end that men shall not be overworked ; and on the other hand every effort should be made, and must be made, if we are to progress rationally to secure the highest possible efficiency, to oppose those things which tend to develop loafers, weaklings, and shirkers, to get away from all this soft cant about the poor, downtrodden workingman under the heel of the conscienceless employer, because those things are destructive of the vigor and con- fidence which should be part of every healthy minded per- son's makeup." Mr Lynch took as a subject : Putting our house in order for industrial development. He said: "San Francisco is looking forward to a jrreal opportunity for industrial expansion. The measure of that development and the rapidity with which it is realized depends upon voluntary commercial organization. "San Francisco is rich in strong and virile men. Ini- tiative and energy abound on every hand. However, the industrial future of San Francisco is so great that there 483 is an appeal not only to the industrial enterprise but to the combined human force of the city to meet adequately the opportunities, responsibilities, and problems that face us. The' San Francisco Chamber is using its every en- deavor to realize in the highest degree the resources and forces in this community. When our present membership campaigning is over, we will probably have the strongest commercial institution in the United States, and if the members will consider themselves as something more than subscribers, an irresistible force will be commanded which will establish San Francisco's industrial supremacy. "As to freedom, no individual or community can pos- sibly succeed however great the natural advantage, how- ever fine the contact, or however forceful the personality, if tyranny and slavery oppress that community. San Francisco may as well forget her natural advantages, may as well forget her world situation, may as well fail to reckon her enormous human forces if she is to be enslaved by unfair and unjust restrictions. Therefore, the San Francisco chamber of commerce has taken the stand of obedience to law, and the right of every citizen to sell his labor in an open market. Through insistence upon these principles San Francisco is assured a glorious freedom which will enable this community to realize on all of the advantages which is her portion and will reach her greatest industrial destiny." President Wheeler said : ' ' The fates of the great world- cities are written in terms of geography. Nineveh stood inevitably where the long trade route from China-Turkes- tan to Tyre and Sidon on the sea crossed the north-south route from Bagdad to Trebizond. Constantinople stood inevitably where the narrows between Asia and Europe, between the east and the west, crossed the water route from the Black sea and the Russian grain fields through the Bosphorus to the Mediterranean. With or without the counsels of man, the city which surrounds San Francisco 484 IN THESE LATTER DAYS bay is inevitably destined to become the Constantinople of the future. "The old world consisted in substance of the Orient and the Occident facing each other over the great rent at Constantinople from the Black sea to the eastern Med- iterranean. But the venture of Columbus in its final effect has turned this old world inside out. The old world looked inward upon an inland sea, where Europe faced Asia Minor, and the frontier citadel was Constantinople. The new world looks outward toward the great ocean, where America faces Asia, and the frontier citadel is San Fran- cisco. "Those who sit here in the seats of judgment and authority have laid upon them heavy responsibility. Men of various bloods and various heritages swarm here to- gether. We shall therefore have to learn here how to see things as the other fellow sees them, and be charitable. Variety of occupation, of standards, and of interests will meet here in conflict, and human nature will abound. More than anywhere else in all this new-and-old world of geographic destiny are we summoned here in San Fran- cisco to the exercise of human patience." To the society for the study of employment problems Mr Koster pointed out that there is hardly developed as yet in San Francisco sufficient appreciation of the impor- tance of the work for which the society was organized. There will come a time, he said, when this will be consid- ered a most important subject for the consideration of thoughtful men. The best evidence we have for the need of this society is the fact that it was necessary to create a law and order committee because of the industrial con- ditions prevailing in San Francisco. A committee on civic duty was organized with II. A. Brandenstein as president, for the purpose of securing better attendance and efforts at the polls. Soon there were 15,000 citizens who signed ' as members, and who REVIVAL OF CITIZENSHIP 485 pledged themselves to vote at every election and induce others to do the same. Regarding the foreign trade of San Francisco Mr Kos- ter said : "I am going to ask your favorable and sym- pathetic attitude upon this question of foreign trade because there is probably nothing so vital to the interests of this nation, nothing more important to the citizens of San Francisco than the development of our foreign trade. ' ' Practically every business man in this country is well aware that after the cessation of hostilities in Europe the United States will face grave commercial problems, prob- lems whose solutions may either mean the prosperity of this country or the reverse. The European nations will spare no effort to rehabilitate their crippled firfances and regain their lost commerce. "Already the British and their allies have formed a close commercial alliance having for its object the protec- tion and promotion of their foreign commerce at the ex- pense of neutral nations. They propose discriminatory tariffs, shipping laws, the practical control of raw mate- rials, favorable systems of exchange, prohibiting the in- vestment of foreign capital in their enterprises and efforts to control investments and developments in foreign coun- tries. Should their efforts be successful it would place the neutral nations in general and the United States in par- ticular at such a great disadvantage that we could not only not retain the foreign commerce we have built up since the war, but would be hard pressed to retain even that we had before." Civic expansion and improvement assumed new forms and took .a .fresh start. At the November general election picketing was emphatically abolished by a vote of the people. This most pressing and important measure thus won afforded sincere congratulations among the citizens. Men began to breathe freer, and to feel that the begin- ning of the end had come. Of picketing Mr Koster says: "This is not a class 1st; IN THESE LATTER DAYS <|iirstion. but one of civic decency. The cause of the work ing people is more seriously injured by this practice of picketing than perha])s by any other thing that is resorted to in the name of organized labor. Whatever temporary injury may be inflicted upon the business with which or- gani/ed labor is in dispute, in the long run the cause of organized labor is hurt by it in far greater proportion, and in the end the working people are the chief sufferers. Self-respecting members of labor unions resent being called upon to take part in this form of blackmail by doing picket duty, and on the other hand they resent being interfered with and spied upon in their actions by the shameless and ruffianly type that will lend itself to this un-American performance. ' ' In announcing the removal of open-shop placards from the restaurant windows, Mr Eppinger, president of the restaurant men's association, remarked: "The open shop cards were not displayed in a spirit of braggadocio, but for the purpose of making the culinary unions picket and boycott as many places as possible, rather than permit them to concentrate their boycott on a few places as the unions desired to do. By displaying open shop cards in 100 restaurants we were able to protect the weaker mem- bers of its association by preventing the unions from con- centrating their strength upon a few. Now that picketing in any form is prohibited, the members of the association do not desire to appear in the light of displaying an ani- mus against union men and women, but will conduct their restaurants on open shop principles with fairness to all." The San Francisco Commercial X< irs says that it must have become plain to the people who are trying to make San Francisco at least a tolerable place in which to attempt to earn a living that there must be concerted action amonjr the responsible, const ructive interests of the city in order to make any move to that end in the least effective. "We are pleased to note that this consciousness of the situation is at last sinking in and taking hold. The merchants and REVIVAL OF CITIZP:NSHIP 487 the shipping interests are to act together in demanding protection in the prosecution of their lawful business. Protection from the thugs and busy-bodies who hang around the scene in time of difficulty, and lend themselves to any scheme that will tend to intensify the confusion. When the body of business men appeared before our busi- ness mayor the other day and demanded protection in the removal of their material to and from the wharves they were met with an entirely partisan statement from that official, to the effect that there had been no disorder on the front since the assault made on the Wellbanks; this was made by a lot of thugs while these two merchants were hauling their produce from the wharf to their place of business." Various plans to 'construct a tunnel or bridge across the bay were brought forward at various times. One project was initiated in Redwood city and a definite im- petus was given to. the plan of a bridge at Dumbarton point at a gathering of 150 representatives of civic or- ganizations of San Francisco, San Mateo, and Alameda counties. Harlan E. Miller, one of the engineers of the proposed San Francisco-Oakland bridge, recommended the construction of a new bridge three-quarters of a mile south of the present Dumbarton railroad bridge. This, he said, could be built at a cost of from $350,000 to $400,000. He thought that the peninsula counties, which have had only twenty miles of highway from the state fund and whicli comprise twenty per cent of the population of the state, could persuade the state to pay a portion of this sum out of the proposed $15,000,000 state highway bond issue. On the 20th of September Mr Koster reports: "It is just about two and a half months ago that there was held in this room the great meeting of business and professional men which resulted in the formation of the law and order committee. The work of the committee is progressing steadily and consistently. We have been subjected to a number of attacks, and each attack has only served to IN THESE LATTER DAYS si i> nirtlii n our position. No attempt has been made to attack t IK- principles for which we stand, because that would be worse than futile ; but very positive attempts have been made and are constantly being made to persuade tin- public that back of our open shop declaration is the de- struction of the labor unions. "According to our view, the open shop is nothing more nor less than a shop which is not, by illegal, unwarranted or unrighteous coercion or domination, a shop closed to all but those who are members of and controlled by the union or unions. We are not out on any program of dis rupting the unions or to injure them in any way. They should not compel recognition through intimidation, coer- cion or any other unlawful methods. The great thing that has been so far accomplished is a complete change in the attitude of the self-respecting, law-abiding elements of the community to one of optimism and confidence. It has attracted to San Francisco favorable, attention from all parts of the United States." As a preliminary measure pointing toward a union of the bay cities the appointing of a commission or committee for a crusade in thai direction would undoubtedly pro- duce beneficial results. Public markets were started bringing nearer to each other producer and consumer, and tending to reduce the cost of living. For supplying the city with water the Hetch Hetdiy. a valley seven and a half miles long and one mile wide, lying near the summit of the Sierra Nevada 160 miles east of San Francisco will be utilized. A dam 700 feet wide and 330 feet high is in course of construction, which when completed will impound 112,000.000,000 gallons of water, a daily supply of 400 million gallons. The total area of watersheds controlled by the city is 420,000 acres, comprising Hetch Iletchy proper, the ter- ritory tributary to Lake Eleanor, and the area which drains into Cherry creek. All of these watersheds are in a region REVIVAL OF CITIZENSHIP 489 of granite mountains, practically uninhabited, which in- sures, for all time, the purity of the run-off. This water- shed area is almost within the Yosemite national park, so that it was necessary to obtain permission of the federal government to develop a supply there. The first work to be done was to make Hetch Hetchy itself accessible. An old trail steep and exceedingly rough, was the only means of access thus far. A wagon road was made, preliminary to building a railroad from Rosasco 67 miles in length. To insure the purity of the water, it was necessary to close the bottom of the valley of forests and vegetation. The water will be brought from the reservoir through a tunnel twenty miles long, and thence across the San Joa- quin valley to the coast range in a steel pipe forty -five miles long, to another tunnel thirty-two miles long to Dumbarton and the bay cities. Consolidation with San Mateo county has long been discussed. A consolidation league was formed, with mem- bers from towns along down the line half way to San Jose. Measures were taken for war defense on an extensive scale. The Faralones were to be so strongly fortified as to constitute the Helgoland of central California, with a de- structive gun range of twelve miles in every direction. This with rifled cannon at Alcatraz, Fort Mason, Fort Scott, and Fort Point, and further fortifications at Point Reyes, Point Lobos, Duxburry Point, and Point San Pedro will give absolute safety to San Francisco bay, and for twenty miles, from any hostile war machinery thus far invented, while new inventions will be met by new powers of resistance. Notwithstanding the continued suicidal policy of the government at Washington the improvement in ship-build- ing and the shipping interests has been remarkable. It was a strong incentive to action the belief that if the laborite obstruction could be broken at San Francisco the 490 IN THKSK LATTER DAYS next election would settle tile affairs of the laborite con gress at Washington. One of the most important factors in the development of San Francisco hay in an industrial way is the an hility of a wide range of raw products. Forest products. including redwood and Douglas fir, are close at hand, the former being a strictly California product with no com- petition. Douglas fir, or sugar pine, covers 22 per cent of the total area of the state. The low cost of water trans- portation has brought hither a large volume of the output of Oregon and Washington. Hardwoods are brought in from Mexico, Central America, and the islands of the Pacific. Mineral products, which have not as yet attained anywhere near their proper production, include iron ore. known to exist in thirty-one of the fifty-eight counties of the sta+e; asbestos, coal, copper, gold, graphite, gypsum, lead, limestone, magnesite, marble, platinum, quicksilver, silver, tungsten, zinc, and a host of others. Cereals, fruits, and kindred products include barley, wheat, oats, corn, rye, buckwheat, alfalfa, potatoes, hops, rice, sweet potatoes, cotton, tobacco, dry edible beans, apricots, pears, cherries. plums, berries, apples, raisins, peaches, apricots, figs, and others. The ten leading mineral substances are petroleum, gojd, cement, stone, copper, brick, borax, natural gas, silver, and quicksilver. Charles Red way Dryer, writing in The Geographical Revinc. says of the Pacific states, which he calls a land of contrasts, a strip between the mountains and the sea 1200 miles long and 300 miles wide, and possessing two of the most spacious harbors in the world, that "the only notable line of manufacture is canning and preserving. The timber and lumber now cut is but a sliver from the richest coniferous forest in the world. If the petroleum holds out, it will make up largely for the lack of coal, and if it gives out the mountain streams can furnish hydro electric power sufficient for a dense manufacturing popu- lation. From the economic standpoint cheap labor is the REVIVAL OF CITIZENSHIP 491 one thing most needed. It knocks at the doors and almost batters them down but is denied admission. The most enduring natural assets of the Pacific states seem to lie in their unrivaled forest, Mediterranean climate, and the Pacific ocean. Their foreign commerce is now a little less than that of the middle west. The total wealth is the highest per capita in the United States. "As an economic unit the region is difficult to classify, but seems to be a youthful and precocious specimen of the highest type, in which productive, constructive, and dis- tributive economies will at maturity be highly developed. It is a rough and narrow strip with small hinterland, separated by a thousand miles of mountain and desert from the rich communities of the east, to which it is artificially tied. But it faces and' must control the commerce of the Pacific, which is said to be the ocean of the future. If a recent economist is right, the Panama canal and petroleum fuel will make freight and passenger rates as low between San Francisco and Liverpool as between New York and Liverpool, the treasures of the Atlantic will be open, and the Pacific coast will experience such a boom in immigra- tion and commerce as the world has never seen. It is the big youngster of Uncle Sam's family, who is rapidly out- growing the awkwardness and bluster of adolescence, and promises to attain imposing proportions and dignity. Nev- ertheless, if I may claim the right of a mere geographer to indulge in scientific prophecy, I see no reason to with- draw the forecast made on a previous occasion, that if there are ever as many people and as much wealth between Los Angeles and Prince Rupert as between Chesapeake bay and the gulf of St Lawrence, it will be when San Francisco is the capital of Japanese or Chinese America." But whether the white race or the yellow race rules the Pacific, San Francisco bay is still destined to be a World Centre of Industry. It was our ardent hope that the American flag might again be seen upon Pacific merchantmen, notwithstanding !!' IN THESE LATTER DAYS ship subsidies, cheap labor, and every possible advantage llit- Mikado government could give his people; and not- withstanding the adverse policy of a union labor congress, and the refusal of free PJIS^IUT fur uur ships through the Panama canal, we could but feel that the monopoly of the Pacific trade was not to go to Japan without a strug- gle for it on the part of our merchants. CHAPTER XXIV SIX months had now elapsed since the sending forth of my brochure. Truly a change had come over the face of things. The spirit of purity and progress once more hovered over our beloved city. Yet crime, though intimidated, still put up a sturdy fight. The exploiters of the workingmen would not willingly relinquish their influence over their victims, nor withhold their fingers from the money of the wage-earner. But although long and bitter conflicts were before us, satisfaction sat on the faces of men as they went about their business with fresh hopes and strong determination. It was likewise encouraging to note that notwithstand- ing the evil influences at Washington the higher courts of several of the states had rendered decisions in effect that conspiracy for the purpose of intimidation or coercion was criminal; that to injure by word or deed, or obstruct or interfere in the rights of citizens by any person, clan, or coterie, as in strikes and boycotts is a crime, and subject to prosecution and punishment as affecting adversely the welfare of the community, principles I had previously sev- eral times promulgated. For when a shore line of a thousand miles or more is seized and held for blackmail, the question is not one that affects business alone, but involves the government itself, and sharply presents the question whether any group of citizens should be allowed to possess the power to impede progress and imperil the lives of the people by conspiring to block the arteries of commerce. 493 JIM IN THESE LATTER DAYS Civic improvement became the order of the day. Mar- k-1 street was transformed from a congested jitney drive of dilapidated automobiles into a splendid thoroughfare with many MOW buildings and a system of lighting which its admirers were pleased to denominate The Path of (inhl. It consists of a row on either side of the street of large clustered electric lights, on high steel stands, the rows extending from the foot of Market street to the Civic Centre. At one end is the softly shining tower of t In- fer ry building, casting a halo of glory far over the waters of the bay, at the other end the civic centre, with the high dome of the city hall rising in splendor above all around. A carnival spirit attended the opening of this illumina- tion, which was to be a permanent feature of the Pacific metropolis. On the night of October 4, 1916, The Path of Gold was first officially lighted, a unique parade with pageantry, music, and dancing following. The next night a grand masque ball was given at the Auditorium in honor of the occasion, the attendance to which an invitation was given by the city to the whole state. Several municipal lines of street railways were estab- lished and put into successful operation. To these will be added other lines as their franchises expire, until the city owns them all. The plan is for the income to pay for the roads; after that there will be a net yearly profit to the city of from one to two million dollars. The construction of a municipal boulevard system is also proceeding rapidly, which besides encircling the city will intersect it at all important points. Already completed are the Ocean shore. Twin Peaks, and Presidio drives, and Sloat, Portola, and other boulevards. Millions are spent in the Twin Peaks region, at St Francis Woods, and on the Sloat boulevard, as well as at Ingleside terrace and Forest hill. Elegant home surround- ings, including spacious grounds and properly restricted neighborhood regulations, present a new departure for the THE INITIATIVE 495 consideration of the buying public. Home conditions in this district are unexcelled in the entire bay section. Un- der present conditions these homes are forty minutes from the heart of the city, but when the tunnel is completed the time will be reduced to fifteen minutes. Over 500 homes already grace the west of Twin Peaks district; $1,700,000 has been expended in street work and civic improvements, while the total investment represents upward of $2,000,- 000. This showing affords a substantial guarantee for what promises to be a period of unprecedented home building activity. At St Francis Woods the Monterey boulevard taps the Junipero Serra boulevard and sweeps around the south slope of the mountain. Connection with Junipero Serra boulevard gives Monterey boulevard direct connection with Portola drive, Sloat boulevard, Twin Peaks boulevard, mo- tor drive De Luxe, Taraval street and Nineteenth avenue, and the less important drives west of Twin Peaks. The recently completed Miramar avenue affords a direct con- nection with Ocean avenue, which is the main artery be- tween the west of Twin Peaks and Mission districts. An ocean beach esplanade guards Golden Gate park from the inroads of the Pacific. Property owners in the west of Twin Peaks district are bearing the entire financial burden of nearly $4,000,000 necessary to build the Twin. Peaks tunnel. Operation of trains through the tunnel, which is more than two miles in length, will thus place a great residential district at the very threshold of the business section of this city. To show the trend of traffic which came to the Pacific coast on the revival of citizenship in San Francisco, I will mention a few of the many enterprises in operation, most of which sprang up under the influence of brighter prospects and a more favorable regime. Industrial California was transformed by a new state highway system at a cost of $35,000,000, other millions be- ing already secured for its continuance. 496 IN THESE LATTER DAYS The automobile, oil, and munitions business interests doubled and then doubled again. Six hundred oil wells have been opened in California thus far. An experimental farm for the cultivation and propaga- tion of the mulberry tree will be established in Golden Gate park. The silk culture society of California, which is interesting itself in the propagation of the mulberry tree, asked for permission to plant a section of park lands near the Dutch windmill. The request was granted. If the plants thrive the society will extend its sphere and begin cultivation throughout the state. "California offers wonderful opportunities for the farmer and manufacturer in the silk industry," said S. R Bellany, superintendent of the silk reeling cocoon machine, ''and is destined to share in the $200,000,000 spent an- nually for raw and manufactured silk. In this state, $50,- 000,000 worth of silk could be produced without interfer- ing with any other industry." An eastern silk manufacturer has pronounced speci- mens of California silk the best so far raised in the United States, and that it could be used for the finest quality of goods. The Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Napa valleys, and Imperial and Riverside counties are peculiarly adapted for the raising of raw silk. Should this state enter actively into this industry, more than a half million people could be employed in the factories and on the farms. An Italian machine now operating in the ferry building, the only one of its kind in the country, is spinning silk from cocoons sent down by the silk culture society at Rutherford. Attention has of late been drawn to the manufacture of steel in California. Heretofore manufacturing in the iron and steel trades has languished because of the lack of coke necessary for steel smelting. If it is found that coke is not essential, that petroleum can supply the heat required in the process, a new industry can be added. Not only has THE INITIATIVE 497 California iron ore, but the countries bordering on the Pacific, and in direct communication with the port of San Francisco, have vast quantities of the basic metal. Cali- fornia has all the petroleum needed to smelt untold quanti- ties of iron. A process that would introduce this product into the iron and steel industry would be of twofold benefit to the state. When the time comes that we find a way to smelt our iron ore economically we will show a far greater manu- facturing growth, for the smelting of iron ore is really the basis of general manufacturing. In 1904 California had 6839 industrial establishments. In 1909 this number had only increased to 7659. But in 1914 the total number of industrial establishments had increased to 10,057, which is quite a satisfactory showing, and indicates that the state is taking its place as an industrial commonwealth. The horse-power used in manufacturing shows a still greater gain, for in 1904 the total was but 210,359, while ten years after it had more than doubled, 1914 showing a use of 491,025 horse-power. The cost of material jumped in ten years from $215,726,000 to $447,475,000, and the total value of the product increased from $367,218,000 in 1904 to $712,801,000 in 1914. Yet all this should be only a beginning. With the old battleship Oregon escorting her outside the lightship, the new Pacific mail liner Ecuador, forerunner of a fleet that will restore the American flag in the trans- pacific passenger trade, let us hope, sailed in August for the Orient. The Japanese steamship company Oska Shosen Kaisha, with its 130 ships, is the largest in Japan, and one of the largest in the world. It has service to Puget Sound ports and runs two steamers to this port, with the Toyo Kisen Kaisha acting as its agent. San Francisco is now the third in shipbuilding in the United States. The Delaware river shipyards' total ton- nage under construction exceeds that of all the principal 498 IN THESE LATTER DAYS shipbuilding districts, including (ilasgow. Newcastle, and Belfast. They reported a total of ninety ships building with tonnage aggregating 419,213 gross. Other United States districts have this showing of tonnage: Great Lakes, 216,046; Chesapeake bay, 213,796; San Francisco bay, 211,- 628; Puget Sound and Columbia river, 182,090. Planning to produce 50,000 tons of salt a year on the marshes near Newark, the Schilling company, have let con- tracts for the construction of ponds and a refining plant. The company already is producing between 4000 and 5000 tons of salt a year; this new construction means a tenfold expansion. Rice is a new industry in California. It has been grown here in a commercial way for only four years, and there has been much skepticism as to our ability to grow it on a large and profitable scale; but each season has added new acreage until we now have about 50,000 acres in cultivation. At this rate there will be 100,000 acres of rice here next year. Probably as novel and important a factor as any is the discovery of extractable amounts of platinum in the Cali- fornia copper ores. As platinum is now selling at $85 an ounce, it does not take a large quantity to run into money. The virtual stoppage of immigration into the United States has made it almost impossible for the great indus- trial centres to obtain an adequate supply of unskilled labor, while the bidding by munition makers for the skilled workers of kindred industries is making it difficult for the plants engaged upon foreign business to turn out their material in contract time. The shipyards report a record tonnage ordered, with business sufficient to insure capacity operations for many months to come. It is said now that fully 27 percent of the steel ships under construction in the United States are being built on the Pacific coast, to- gether with 50 percent of the ocean-going wooden vessels thus far ordered: In the steel industry, conditions are thoroughly abnormal, most of the large mills having more THE INITIATIVE 499 business than they can handle, except on the basis of de- ferred deliveries. The local bank clearings for the week ending Septem- ber 20th, amounted to $96,940,807.81. This figure was the largest ever recorded. The former high mark was $85,- 847,696 for the week ending September 6, and the next; highest was $80,777,640 for the six days ending October 5. The gain of $33,143,294.59 over the corresponding week of last year is also one of the greatest on record. Returns from a call issued for a statement of conditions of the na- tional banks at the close of business September 12, accord- ing to advices from Washington, show San Francisco head- ing the cities of the nation in gain in deposits since May 1, 1916. Thirty-five millions was San Francisco's increase, > an amount scarcely approached among the fifty-five citic 1 - reporting. In general, the Pacific coast and mid-continrn. cities show increases while the east shows heavy decreases, \ $222,000,000 in the case of New York city. Kansas CityV ran second to San Francisco witji a $24,000,000 increase. Pittsburgh shows a $21,000,000 jump, Cleveland, $18,000,- 000 ; Omaha, $14,000,000 ; Houston, $8,000,000 ; Chicago, $7,000,000 ; Indianapolis, Columbus, Denver, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Richmond, St. Joseph, Wichita, Baltimore, Dallas, San Antonio, Detroit, Seattle, Lincoln, Atlanta, Washington, and Oklahoma City, $2,500,000 each. Of the one hundred largest banks in the United States according to a report just issued by the comptroller of the United States treasury, California possesses nine, and in this respect ranks third among the states of the union. New York state was first with twenty-five great banks, and Pennsylvania second with sixteen institutions that are in the hundred largest banks class. The California banks which the comptroller finds eligible to this class are the bank of California, the Anglo and London, Paris, Crocker, First National, Mercantile, and Wells Fargo, all of San Francisco. The other three banks are in Los Angeles and 500 IN THESE LATTER DAYS arc t In- Kirst National, the Fanners and Merchants, and the ('ili/ens National. At Newark are the Kuealyptus Lumber company, tin- salt works, the Graham stove, and other manufacturing establishments. An eastern syndicate is preparing 5000 acres for occupation at this point. During the year 1916 over 6000 building permits were issued in the transbay cities involving an outlay of some $9,000,000. At Oakland is the only cotton mill on the coast. It covers 400,000 feet of floor space and employs 1000 opera- tives. Cotton, jute, flax, and hempen products, over three hundred in number, are here made, with a total annual output of approximately 10,000,000 pounds. While much of it is taken upon the Pacific coast, there is also some eastern business, as well as export trade to South American ports, Manila, and Honolulu. California is largely depended upon to supply the raw products for factories, Imperial valley cotton and native wool being largely used. Both California and Russian flax are in demand, also Kentucky and California hemp and Indian jute. Oakland and her sister cities on the east shore seem destined to parallel the extraordinary industrial de- velopment of such cities of the east as Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo, Buffalo, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. The age of manufacturing is beginning in earnest in California and on the Pacific slope. A demand has arisen for tide lands for factories. Steps were taken to protect the interests of those wishing to pur- chase tide land for industrial use that they should not be overcharged. A China- American motorship company was incorpor- ated to carry freight across the Pacific at a low rate. The opinion seems every day strengthening that San Francisco bay is destined to a great future. We will have to compete with Europe, we may have to fight Japan. THE INITIATIVE 501 This we will do if necessary until the last manikin is swept from the turtle's back; and if it must be, let it be soon, and let the world's work here go on. The government has plenty of land left, though not o v f the best quality, to give to those who wish to establish a home. There are more than a quarter of a billion of acres yet remaining in the public domain, according to official figures recently compiled at the general land office. These acres are located in twenty-five different states, extending from California to Michigan, from Florida to Washington. All but 2,290,000 acres are in the far west, with Nevada containing the highest acreage, 55,375,077. An even dozen of the extreme western states alone hold more than 250,000,- 000 acres. The exact amount of land that is unreserved and unappropriated, according to the official figures, is 254,945,589 acres. Of this amount, approximately 92,- 000,000 acres are unsurveyed. Of the Pacific states, Cali- fornia has 20,025,999 acres of vacant land ; Oregon, 15,- 337,809, and Washington, 1,132,571. Among the other progressional movements there is ever present in the minds of the more thoughtful and intelligent the purpose of welding into a concrete whole the interests of the several communities around the bay, that is to say of uniting all the towns and cities about the bay, as out- lined in my pamphlet the previous year. Also for a union railway terminal at Yerba Buena island, with a tube thence to the ferry building at the foot of Market street. Yerba Buena island, now occupied as a naval school, was pronounced too small for a naval base site, and a suggestion was made to sell the island for a railway ter- minal and apply the proceeds for land at Hunter's point. A government shipping board was established to build up an American merchant marine. The use of the island as a union terminal would bring the bay cities closer together, and hasten the time of their consolidation. There is a coterie of rich men in San Mateo countv who fiOL' IN T1IKSK I; ATT I! I,' DAYS lo not scruple to enthrone snobbery in opposition to public weal, who oppose a union of the bay cities from purely selfish motives. We need not look for patriotism or eveu pood citi/.enship from such a source. Hamilton A. Bauer, of San Mateo thus explains the situation : "I can say with- out hesitation that they are the head and front of the old political machine that for years lias enthralled San Mateo county. The real dictator of the political situation has had almost complete control of the political affairs of San Mateo county, but has always been discreet enough to remain in the background. "The fight which will be waged is purely one with the people on one side demanding their rights and justice and advantages, which will naturally result from consolidation, while solidly opposed will be the politicians and the seekers of special privilege, who do not wish the people to have a voice in these matters. In other words this is a miniature of the fight which is being waged apparently all over the country at the present time, wherein the forces of progress are combating the forces of reaction. "They may be able to gather fair crowds. They select Burlingame as the place of the meeting so as to give the jcneral impression that Burlingame at large is opposed to the consolidation movement, this being a clever political ruse. They may be able to raise considerable money through their own efforts and the efforts of some of the millionaires of Hillsborough. They are, however, I believe, greatly in the minority in the county." San Mateo county has grown largely from the overflow of San Francisco. In 1890 the population was 10,087. In 1900 it was only 12,094. In 1910, due to the overflow from San Francisco, it was 26,585. At the present time the population is about 42,500. Over two-thirds of the present population has gone into the country in the last sixteen years, and probably 90 per cent of that two-thirds has come from San Francisco. One more question that will bear study. Why is it that THE INITIATIVE 503 the anti-consolidationists are so fearful of letting people vote on the question ? Says Henry Breckenridge, of the Pacific Hardware and Steel company: "The city that is about the bay of San Francisco is one city, one by nature, one by destiny, one in everything fundamental. Only it is true that the law which .creates the machinery of government has not recog- nized this fact. The result is the inhibition of the full and free development of the American metropolis of the Pa- cific. Though in reality our city is one, by law we are forced to set up an artificial separateness and divergence of interest which is bad for each and bad for all. It is bad from a business standpoint. It is pulling together that makes progress, not pulling apart. Separation means nar- rowness, a concentration upon the interests of the part that makes it impossible to see the interests of the whole. "The present separation is bad from a political stand- point. Thousands of citizens have every business interest in San Francisco who find it convenient to live in some other residential sections about the bay. Politically all should share in the responsibility of self-government, and if thousands of our good citizens are cut off from participa- tion in the political life of the city, that political life will be less rich and less effective. There cannot be good busi- ness long without good politics. " To be unified in one is not to belittle any, but to make each more effective for a common end and common interest. The binding together by law what is now bound together by nature will impart a spirit of unity and power that will release greater forces for progress than we can have realized to be latent in our midst." The naval fleet base in our bay will certainly prove to be a good thing for San Francisco, but it is only one of a thousand good things that in due time will come to this chosen spot. * In the estimates of property values prepared by the San Francisco real estate board the cost of 703 acres at 504 IN THKSK LATTKU MAYS the selected site would ho $3,228,000, and tin- naval hoard that reported on the siti- asked for an estimate on ^i" acres. It was found that I'Jfis aeivs could he had if needed. The faet that from five and a half to ten fathoms of water is available at this site at all tides undoubtedly has something to do with the selection by the board. There are here 12,800 men trained in the trades that could be called upon for work at a fleet base and navy yard. Once the great base is established some of the dreadnoughts and battle cruisers of the nation will be built here. . Already we have on San Francisco bay the greatest privately owned shipbuilding plant in the world. It is not beyond belief that we may have here, with the unrivaled facilities of Hunter's point, the greatest government ship- building plant in the world. Men will naturally be em- ployed by the thousands. The climate makes it possible to employ them practically the year round. This climatic fact was one of the determining features in the selection of the base site and the decision to make the navy yard the equal of any in the land. There are now employed at Mare island some 3500 men. At the new and greater fleet base this number might easily be trebled or quadrupled. So the industrial importance to the city can be seen without a dreamer's vision. Beyond this, of course, there is the commercial importance with the materials to be furnished by local business firms and the natural stimulus that will be given to many lines of business and manufacture. The arguments advanced in this connection throw some light on the advantages of San Francisco as the home of great industries. It was set forth that San Francisco is the central labor market, a sort of labor clearing house for the Pacific coast. Because of its industries this city has more skilled workmen, covering a wider field of mechanical training, than any other city. The degree of stability among San Francisco workmen is unusually high. Most of the skilled workers are married and own their homes. THE INITIATIVE 505 This city has more of the industries that would be called upon to aid and supplement the work of the naval base in time of stress than any other city. It is the distributing point of the central part of the coast, the gateway to the productive central valleys, and the commercial metropolis of the far west. Its commercial demands have built up the elements of industrial service which a navy base might require. There are here ample facilities, and deep water. It is protected from storms and strong currents. It has been demonstrated that a drydock can be built here more cheaply than anywhere else in the world where it ever has been attempted. Plenty of land is available, and an unreasonably high price to the government will not be permitted. There are other arguments which might be considered that apply to San Francisco bay as a whole, but not to the peninsula particularly. Among them are the great natural and military defenses afforded by the harbor entrance, the terminal facilities of three transcontinental railroads, the productive richness of the back country, and the geographi- cally and strategically central position of the harbor on the coast. Quite in contrast with the attitude of the Burlingame gentlemen was the splendid idea of President Wheeler's, showing a broad mind and patriotic heart, that of turning the entire university, campus and grounds, buildings and resources to the United States in the event of war. "A large proportion of our teachers have had elimen- tary training in military service," said Mr Wheeler. "Most of our male students in the case of war will naturally enlist. In the colleges of applied sciences where practically all the students are men, the professors will consequently be left free to serve the government, and such service will be rendered either as military teachers or as scientific experts. f>0f> "On HIP university grounds at Berkeley, with tin- addi tiun of available open lands in north Berkeley, can h< sembled and trained it' needed three regiments, for which a large part of the training force will be obtained from the members of the cadet regiment, and from members of the faculty. "Without entirely closing the university to instruction. the open grounds can be used and various buildings such as the Harmon and Hearst gymnasiums. North hall, shop and yards, and civil engineering laboratories. The Uni- versity farm at Davis would form the basis for a cavalry depot, say for a regiment of horses." The San Francisco chamber of commerce introduced a bill in the California legislature making the boycott a mis- demeanor, and another creating an industrial disputes in- vestigation board, and prohibiting strikes until after a Itoard of mediation has investigated and brought employers and employees together for discussion of their differences. The act relating to investigation closelv followed the one on that subject in Canada, which has been in force there since 1907, and has resulted in averting many strikes on railroads. It will relate only to strikes or lockouts in con- nection with public utilities. It will prohibit both until after a board of mediation has investigated the cause of the dispute, suggested terms of settlement, and published its findings so that the public may be fully advised of the items in dispute and of the settlement suggested. If the terms of settlement are not accepted the strike may be called, but the efficiency of this measure is that the dispute, as in tin- great majority of cases, will be settled by the force of pub- lic opinion. By the Union Iron works at Hunter's point on the 5th of January 1917 was successfully launched the lar floating drydock in the world. "There is a magnificent outlook," says A. G. Freeman. THE INITIATIVE 507 "for the development of business between San Francisco and Siberia. Siberian trade is one of the elements which Avill go toAvard making this one of the greatest cities in the world." It is now estimated that 11,000 workers will be employed for the next two years in Alameda and San Francisco yards of the Union Iron works, as the result of government con- tracts recently awarded by the navy department. Two thousand additional men will be put to work in Alameda yard and seven hundred in San Francisco. The Moore and Scott Iron works at Oakland has taken contracts for seven 9400-ton freighters for Norwegian firms. Contracts for steel were placed east. Norway has under construction in American and Nor- wegian shipyards 200 ships of various sizes? and after the war will make a strong bid for world shipping, according to prominent shipping men. A Norwegian line is to be in- augurated between San Francisco and the Orient, running also to the west coast of South America. The Chinese government has completed an agreement with the Siems-Carey company of St Paul, financed by the American International corporation, for building 2000 miles or more of railroad, to cost over $100,000,000, through the most productive parts of six densely populated and rich mineral and agricultural provinces. Preparations are being made by the California Packers' corporation the large new canned and dried foodstuffs com- bination, for a country wide sales campaign, to further broaden the already wide market for the brands handled by the company. The Moreland motor truck company is planning to con- struct a new automobile factory at Los Angeles, and the Brisco motor corporation is planning an assembling plant near San Francisco capable of turning out 10,000 cars a year. At a meeting of citizens in November the government at Washington was requested to pass such laws as would per- 508 IN THESE LATTER DAYS mit Americans to do business on tho same terms and con- ditions as their competitors in foreign trade, declaring that the Pacific coast shipping was now at the mercy of the Japanese government which handled 73 percent of the transportation. Even the United States mails are now carried by foreign ships. A wonderful boon for the Pacific coast is the great activ- ity in shipbuilding at the present time. It means the pay- ing out of vast sums of money to laboring men and brings prosperity. A lamentable feature in connection with this, however, is the fact that 75 percent of the ships launched here sail away under a foreign flag. "We do not need much government help. All we want is to be let alone," said Robert Dollar who blames the ad- ministration ^Washington for the present condition of things. In 1914 American vessels handled 29 percent of the commerce on the Pacific coast, and ships flying the Japanese flags 33 percent. To-day the Japanese are carrying 73 percent, and ships of this nation are handling only four percent. Thomas H. Rees delivered an address on the subject of the flood control of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. He gave a brief history of the Sacramento river, and out- lined several plans for the control of the flood waters. He spoke in favor of the plan which provided for movable dams and by-passes. The project, he said, would cost approxi- mately $33,000,000, and the government has been asked to pay one-third of the cost. "This plan," said K "is a practical one. It will preserve the stream as a navi- gable river, and at the same time will take care of the flood waters." The Hercules' powder company declared a dividend of 239.30 percent earnings for nine months, with $12,832,400 to divide. At Martinez, where the Shell Oil company's works are situated, and which presents a tide water front for manu- THE INITIATIVE 509 factories with rare river sea and land transportation facili- ties, extensive land holdings for factories were secured by new companies proposing to establish their interests at this point. A traffic car test run was made by the east bay cities, which seemed to foreshadow a new transportation era for those communities and the north bay sections. Under the direction of the Richmond-San Rafael ferry and transpor- tation company, a truck, donated for the test, demonstrated the feasibility of transporting farm orchard and dairy prod- uce from farms in Marin and Sonoma counties to Rich- mond and Oakland by direct route, which uses the Rich- mond and San-Rafael ferry as its connecting link across the bay. Chambers of commerce of Sebastopol, Santa Rosa, and Petaluma, and San Rafael, cooperating with the Oakland and Richmond industrial commission received the truck on its arrival at Sebastopol, where a consignment of apples was loaded for the Oakland market. The official log for the test run shows the truck left Sebastopol with a load of eighty boxes of apples at 9:15 o'clock, arrived in Santa Rosa at 10:00, left Santa Rose 10:15, arrived at Petaluma 11:25 o'clock, left Petaluma 12:15, arriving at Richmond at 3 o'clock. From Richmond to Oakland one hour was consumed. New lines of steamships were established, which with the lines already in operation give San Francisco direct communication with all the principal ports of the world. Slowly, but surely the American flag is returning to the Pacific. With a proper government at Washington, all our merchant fleet would soon rise to first importance. Even now we have more merchant vessels under construction than any other country, and while the greater part of this new tonnage is not intended for immediate use on the Pa- cific, it is probable that sooner or later some of it will be diverted hither. Japanese shipyards are taxed to the limit of their ca- ~>10 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS parities. Orders for ships from abroad have been refused, a* the yards have booked orders for .Japanese ships that will keep tin-in busy for the next two years. The builders, how- ever, are handicapped liv a lack of material, and it is an interesting fact that one large new shipbuilding company is buying all of its material from this country. Boilers, en- gines, and other fittings can not be had at very reasonable prices in Japan, for they can not be manufactured there as cheaply as in the United States and England. But in spite of all handicaps, Japan is losing no time in taking advantage of the present unparalleled opportunities. Purchases of foreign ships have been made at very high prices. Although the keel of the first steel vessel was laid in Japan as late as 1890, the total shipping tonnage of the country at the present time, including the vessels registered in the colonies, is no less than 2,518,000 gross tons. The Chinese are also busy at their yards in Shanghai and Hongkong, although, as in Japan, they suffer for want of materials. One Hongkong company is at work on eight ocean freighters for Norwegian owners. Two more of a similar type will be started as soon as facilities will permit, and there are additional contracts for five others. This company recently voted to increase its capital stock to #1. 500,000. Senator Phelan assures us that the close of the European war will find us without a friend in the family of world powers. England is showing her unfriendly attitude in many ways, and there is growing evidence of her intention to conduct a relentless trade war against us. Although Japan is in alliance with England at this time, she would not hesitate to break that for an alliance with Germany or anyone else if the achievement of her own ambitions seemed to favor it. It would require no more than the signing of a piece of paper. He does not think England is any more anxious for Japan to learn American trade secrets than she is for Germany to do so. It may be that Japan's peculiar position in world politics will prove a deterrent THE INITIATIVE 511 factor in England's aggressions on our trade. The Japan- ese question is one which we on the Pacific coast must solve alone. It is not understood in the east, and in most of the United States the people would cheerfully sacrifice Cali- fornia on the altar of peace, rather than make an inter- national issue of our land problem. For the time being we have checked the inroads of the Japanese in California, but for that reason we will have to watch Carefully their devel- opment in Mexico. We may find in time that the Mexican situation will have a different phase from what it has at present. The number of ships passing through the Panama canal in seagoing or commercial service, following the resump- tion of traffic was 80 in May, 129 in June, and 124 in July. The tolls earned in August amounted to $447,080, $225,925 from ships passing from the Atlantic to the Pacific and $191,155 from those passing from the Pacific to the Atlan- tic. The canal record states that British vessels constituted exactly one-half of the August total, being nearly three times the number of American, and nearly seven times the number of Norwegian. New York steamship companies are already ordering their vessels for general traffic from shipbuilding companies on the Pacific coast. The keel was laid at the Mare Island navy yard for the superdreadnaught California, with impressive ceremonies. The battleship Oregon, built at the Union Iron works, and famous in the war with Spain, was in attendance with a large party of spectators and officials. The Pacific Coast steamship company was merged into the twenty million dollar Pacific Steamship company which was to give daily sailings between ports of the Pacific. Not long since seven steamers from foreign ports en- tered at the Golden Gate one Sunday. On another Sunday in the distant future seventy times seven ships entering will not be an uncommon occurrence. The first arrival was the Java-Pacific line steamer Arcikan, from Batavia and the 512 IX TIIKSK LATTER DAYS ports of ciill of the company en route here. The others were the Norwegian collier T00 of whi<-h ;uv rail operated by steam, 1,000 miles by electricity, and 4,500 miles steamship and boat. The capital stock is held by more than 33,000 persons of whom about 13,000 are women. The company gives regular employment to 75,000 peo- ple, 35,000 of whom are employed in California, and to whom is paid annually in wages over $35,000,000, or nearly $100.000 per day. Out of every dollar earned from transportation in Cali- fornia, 72 cents is paid for wages, supplies, and other ex- penses, and taxes, the latter alone for state, county, school, and municipal assessments, amounting to nearly $4,400,000 per annum, or over $12,000 per day. To make the public, and especially that portion of it living east of the Missouri river, conversant with its trans- portation system and facilities as a means of reaching the Pacific coast and the advantage of coast country itself. especially California, the Southern Pacific company issued during the past year over 5,000,000 books, pamphlets, maps, and folders which were carefully distributed through thrir own agents and agents of connecting lines. The Southern Pacific was the initiator of the all-steel passenger coaches. Thirty-eight hundred miles of the steam lines or about thirty-four per cent of the company's operated mileage is protected by the automatic block signal, which was in- stalled at an initial cost of about $1,500 per mile and re- quires for its maintenance annually of about $125 per mile. Practically all of the electric line mileage is protected by the block signal to insure safety in operation. Two motor highways extending the entire length of the state, each nearly 1000 miles long, are well advanced toward completion, one along the coast, and one through tht- central valley. The war department is interested in these roads as one of the strongest features of national defense along the Pacific coast. They will be of commercial value in time of peace, and of military value in time of war. It is apparent that the state must depend oh its coast THE INITIATIVE 517 fortifications and harbor defenses, supported by a mobile army to repel an invading foe. But with such a stretch of coast as that from the Oregon line to Lower California, it is next to impossible for the government to provide suf- ficient armament and mobile forces to prevent a foreign foe from gaining a foothold. If such a force can make a landing, even though small in numbers, it would find it a comparatively easy matter to approach and possibly de- stroy the towns and cities of the interior valleys. In the Sierra Nevada however nature has provided a rugged bul- wark. In order to hold these lines it is essential to provide lateral communications by which heavy artillery and troops can be rapidly transported and concentrated at the threat- ened points. At the present time but few of the passes across the Sierra can be reached on improved roads, and the difficulties of handling troops and supplies would be unsurmountable. A proposed highway along the foothills, El, Camino Sierra, will obviously be of great military value as well as a monument of scenic and commercial importance to the state. The Lincoln highway from New York on reaching San Francisco passes into the Lincoln boulevard, and on to Lincoln Park, the terminus, overlooking the Golden Gate. Tributaries to the Lincoln highway are attracting at- tention. The Arrowhead is the name under which the old Mormon trail is to be traveled as soon as that historic route is reclaimed. The reclamation and improvement work is carried on by the Arrowhead trails association, organized at Redlands, with a membership representative of practically all southern California, Nevada, and Utah, and now numbers approximately 5000. The construction of an air fleet was ordered by the government to guard Panama and the Hawaiian and Phil- ippine islands. The new airships are to rank with the best thus far invented, monster hydro-aeroplanes and swift scouts. In this connection there will be a hydro-aeroplane squadron of regulars; the development of an aviation 518 IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS braneh of Die Hawaiian national guard; training of Ha- waiian guardsmen as aviators at tlie San Diego flying school; i'orinatioii of an aviation reserve in the islands; and DIP creation of the oilier of aviation officer in the staff of the Hawaiian department commander. These maehiurs will be divided among four new aero squadrons to be sta- tioned in Hawaii, the Philippines and the Canal zone. Each squadron will have 36 machines; 12 each for active service, first line reserve, and second line reserve. The machines will be built staunch enough to operate from the waters a round the islands of the Hawaiian and Philippine groups. They will be two-place biplanes or triplanes. with double motors and propellers. Each must have a carrying capac- ity of two men and gasoline, lubricating oil. and water sufficient for five hours' continuous flight at full speed. The great railroads of the United States and particu- larly of the west are flush with money. Cash holdings are the greatest ever recorded. Four transcontinental lines, serving the Pacific coast territory, contain in their treasuries the sum of $105,981,831. These are the Santa Fe, Union, Southern, and Northern Pacific. The three di- rectly serving San Francisco carry $Sf),84f>,500 in cash and deposits. The Santa Fe leads with all, cash $44,364,922. Never have the big carrier systems been so strongly en- trenched ; never have dividend possibilities been so alluring. Wireless telegraph service has been established with relays at the Hawaiian islands and Japan. The Japanese sending station is located at Funabashi. Marconi officials predict that before long it would be possible to establish a direct service between California and Japan, cutting out the relay. The service to be inaugurated with cere- mony here, in Japan and Honolulu, is another link in the proposed world girdling wireless circuit. The Wells Fargo express reported one of the most prosperous years in its existence. Revival of general busi- ness throughout the country is given credit primarily for greatly i net-eased earnings in the last tiseal year. In the THE INITIATIVE 519 twelve months ended June 30, this company earned $4,020,773 net from all sources, an increase of $1,682,096 over 1915. This is equivalent to 16.78 per cent on the $23,967,400 stock of the company, compared with 9.76 per- cent earned in the previous year. President Caldwell pointed out that in the haste of the country's business many shippers now send commodities by express which formerly went by freight. The recent tie up also proved a boon to the express company. A refrigerator express service is maintained by both the American and Wells Fargo companies, by which perishable products are carried to the eastern states and Europe. CHAPTER XXV ASSI -RANGES FOR THE FUTURE r~P!IIKRE are those, and not a few, who with me feel 1 assured that in the somewhat distant future there will be around the bay of San Francisco a World Centre of Industry, involving centralized civilization, a world commercial clearing house, a world city of highest culture. and in the nearer future a city as much larger than New York as New York is now larger than San Francisco. Nor are they schemers or dreamers drawing from a store of fantastic imagery who thus see and say, but men of sober thought and solid opinion based upon the logic of conditions and events, leaders of men in leading cities, as London, New York, and San Francisco. The bald facts are these, which the skeptic may not gainsay if he would. At the ultimate west lies the ultimate ocean, around whose opulent shores inexorable necessity has laid out the grounds whereupon man is to achieve his ultimate endeavor. There is no farther west, no other great ocean, no other such favored lands ; it is here or nowhere that further improvement comes to the race. And do we think that in the midst of universal evo- lution man has reached his limit? It may be so in Europe, in Mexico, most likely so in Germany; it is not so in the United States of America, nor in the state of California. Herein is no speculation. Your belief or my belief as to the affairs of this world, or of any other state of exist- ence, does not affect the facts established by destiny long before this universe was created, if indeed it ever was created. 520 ASSURANCES FOR THE FUTURE 521 We may be pretty sure that this earth will not be. taken to pieces and enlarged, or rearranged with another west, or another great ocean. We may be pretty sure that no other more favored spot for future development, or a spot with more healthful conditions, no better bay, no superior geographical situation will be found, or that from the lab- oratory of nature a purer air will be generated, or a finer overspreading sky, or a more equable temperature, or a happier environment be presented. Thus far we have to go upon the logic of the actual and of the only possible. But there is a more threatening beyond which no human being may attempt to fathom. Among the races of men that inhabit the earth, which of them all will occupy the shores of San Francisco bay when this favored spot reaches its supremacy? All that we can now say is that present indications point to a rather dimin- utive humanity, with yellow skin, high cheek bones, eyes oblique, sinister and cunning, and flatish nose. Having thus so early secured the industrial rule of the great ocean, Asia may for the present rest content, so long as we have at Washington pedagogic rule with a subservient coterie for a congress. Or it may be a mongrel race which in due time shall appear upon these happy shores, an incongruous mixture, the material for which we have accumulated much, and are rapidly accumulating more. As regards the inter- relation of races, citizenship of the great American repub- lic, it will be an interesting study as the centuries roll along, in which those who so desire may speculate to their hearts content. Either this, or the white race must prepare to hold its own, must be always and forever prepared to fight, the white to fight the yellow, San Francisco to fight Japan, even as Venice fought the Turks, for a thousand years if necessary, relegating to the infant Sabbath-school the prayers of pope and the peace-preaching of propagandists. For God made man a fighting animal, the same as the lions IN THESE LATTKK DAYS and flu- timers. ;is witness Mexico and Germany this day; and who shall question the wisdom and goodness of 1 1n- Almighty T With a few more illustrations of San Francisco's ing prosperity, not forgetting the blow dealt us by politics din-ing these latter days, I will close this volume. A purer patriotism was manifest in the increased inter est taken in public affairs by influential citizens. Not only were the immediate wants and welfare of the city eonx'nl ered, but future interests with home and manufactures and foreign trade were brought forward and made vital. Streets were repaved, municipal car lines established, tun- nels cut through the hills, and yet more and larger build- ings erected. Notable among the latter were two on Market street for the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railway offices. In this and other permanent structural work the Southern Pacific company spent several million dollars. All the towns and cities of the bay, Oakland Berkeley and Richmond, Alameda, Hayward and Newark on the eastern side; San Jose Redwood and San Mateo on the south ; Sausalito, San Rafael and Sonoma in the north, and through the Carquinez strait Vallejo Benecia and Martinez, these and a score of smaller places, destined in due time to merge into one World City such as the world has never yet beheld, now took a fresh start in prosperity and progress. When all is one, Carquinez strait and the Golden Gate will be bridged, as well as bridges or tunnels across the bay at Dumbarton, Redwood, Hunter's point, Market street, or elsewhere. Centralization of power is the shibboleth of future in- dustry, as well as of internationalism and world-cult mv. Limitless we say; limitless our opportunity, limtless our ocean; limitless our bay. limitless our resources, limit- less the money awaiting proper investment for profitable returns. The future of the Great Bay is assured. No greed of ASSURANCES FOR THE FUTURE 523 capital, no tyranny of labor can prevent its progress. There yet may be a decade in the inception, a nascent cen- tury, ten centuries for the full development, but a World Industrial Centre at San Francisco bay in the course of time is certain. . Progress has ordained it and Destiny points that way. Cast your eye around the world and show me a more fitting place for the final unfolding of humanity. London ? London like England's royalty is in its dotage. Paris? Paris is for pleasure, not for business. Berlin? Berlin is blood-drunk from the slaughter of men. New York? New York is a small island bordering a limited ocean, a hotbed whose people are wallowing in wealth wherein are im- planted the seeds of decay. Our offer is open to all of whatsoever country, color, or creed; our invitation is to all of ability, to all having the courage to dare and the energy to do. To such, and to such only, fortune sits at the Golden Gate bidding them enter. She offers no premium, she solicits no favor, but she gives a hearty welcome to enter and partake at her storehouse of opportunity, opportunity freely to labor and to serve, but not to rule. Already the question of uniting the counties of San Francisco and San Mateo has been taken up and discussed. Also unfinished boulevard and highway projects in that direction to cost $3,000,000 are in course of construction. Eastern capitalists are turning to tide-land investments around the bay for wharf and manufacturing sites. Many millions of money will be made in acquiring parts of and preparing for occupation the shores of the bay. Mean- while bank clearings are gradually making their way up toward $100,000,000. Part of the ground where the fair was held was pur- chased from the owners for a boulevard and playground to be called the Marina. The project of a million dollar opera house for the civic centre, to be built by private subscription and vetoed by a mayor pandering for union V-M IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS labor votes, will probably be renewed under more intelli- gent ;iii(l patriotic auspices. Nor \v;is the action of Oak- land 01- of Alameda county p;irt icularly praiseworthy in promising ;i million dollars to the Exposition and after- ward repudiating it, thus deriving the full benefit of the great fair while contributing nothing to its support. Plans were brought forward to make beautiful parts of the Exposition site with fountains, statues, and trees all parts of the details, each one having its own particular place and its own particular value, and the whole making up a scheme of beauty which apeals now to the imagination as it will later delight in reality. With the fine arts building in the centre, from which streets are to radiate; with the California building aglow with its traditions of the California missions, with the beautiful Marina park and the new Yacht harbor, which is certain to be made in the hear future, and Tamalpais uprising and overlooking all, who can doubt of the fas- cinations of this marvelous place! What with the Marina, the marine boulevard, the Cali- fornia building and the great mall, the palace of fine arts will become the Taj Mahal of the west. It will take its place with that tomb of India, considered by many the most beautiful structure in the world. And just as the Taj Mahal lures hundreds of thousands of travelers to its rather isolated location, so the palace of fine arts will lure hundreds of thousands to San Francisco, and the fame of the city will spread wider and farther as the years go on. The Taj Mahal is of white marble suited to its general setting. The color scheme of the palace of fine arts is equally appropriate and splendidly typical, for it suggests the land of gold, of golden hills, of the Golden Gate and the setting sun ; and in time a permanent struc- ture preserving all the golden splendor of the present building will arise on the site to continue the picture that lias already made the approving eyes of so many Ameri- cans and Californians sparkle because of the matchless ASSURANCES FOR THE FUTURE 525 beauty of the place, the product of American enterprise and California genius. In October 1916 the president of the New York electric cable company visited San Francisco on behalf of J. P. Morgan and others to arrange for the erection of a branch plant in this city capable of employing 2000 men. This company recently supplied the government with 250 miles of telephone and telegraph cable for Alaska. The San Francisco convention league have already a score and more of conventions secured which will bring to this city in 1917 and 1918 many thousand visitors. There are in the Alameda territory ten printing estab- lishments of special importance, outside of the newspaper plants, which also conduct job departments. There are three photoengraving and one lithographing plants. Fore- most in the production of chemical products is the paint and varnish industry, with seven factories in Alameda county. An international business is done by some of these firms, with an export trade including the Orient and Australia. Much of the writing ink used on the Pa- cific coast is manufactured in Berkeley. Powder, dyna- mite, borax, patent medicines, pharmaceutical supplies, chlorine, carbonic acid gas, sulphur, oxygen gas, and other chemicals are included in the list of local products. In nine years the Richmond community has placed itself permanently on. the map as an industrial centre, to be reckoned with by the older cities of the bay. The terminus of the Santa Fe railway with its car shops is here; also the Standard Oil company, with nearly 3000 employees, besides which are the following industries, the Pullman car shops, California wine association, Los Angeles pressed brick company, rock quarries, Berkeley steel company, California ca.p works, California brick company, Califor- nia chair company, Central brick company, du Pont pow- der company, Enterprise lumber company, Great Western brick company, Judson powder company, Metropolitan 526 IN TIIKSH LATTER DAYS match company, Prettolite company, Pacific porcelain war.- company. Pacific Sanitary manufacturing company. Pin nccr electric company, Richmond brick company. Richmond furniture company, Richmond Invwiiii; and malt company, Richmond machine and iron works. Richmond pottery com- pany, Stauffer chemical company, Shaw-Harrison gas en- gine company, United States briquette company, and West- ern pipe and steel company. The Honolulu chamber of commerce declared for the "pen shop, saying that it would be the fixed and perma- ent policy of the chamber to support the free right of every employer and every individual to enter into contracts of employment without interference or dictation from out- side parties or organizations, and to insist that Honolulu be maintained as an open port. The electrification of the sugar plants of the Hawaiian commercial company and the Alexander and Baldwin company at Honolulu marks the transition from steam to the cheaper and cleaner power. Mitsui and Company and Frank "Waterhousc company, two of the largest shipping firms engaged in the trans- pacific trade out of Seattle, and which have been virtually the only large companies on the Seattle waterfront em- ploying union longshoremen, notified the International longshoremen's association that hereafter they would oper- ate on an open shop basis with the rate of pay in force at non-union wharves. Seymour H. Knight, manager of the employers associ- ation of Montana, with headquarters at Helena, reports that employer! generally see the necessity of joining hands and forces to protect themselves against the methods of organized labor and against the political activity of the labor unions. There is a phenomenal growth in member- ship in the great copper-mining state, and those affiliating not only cooperate financially but personally in the work in whatever is necessary to bring results. There were more strikes and lockouts in the United States in six months ending June 30, 1916, than in the ASSURANCES FOR THE FUTURE 527 entire year 1915. In this period 1432 disputes were re- ported, while during 1915 there were 1405. In May alone 396 strikes were started. Building and metal trades showed greatest strike activity, with mining next, followed by long- shoremen and freight handlers. Machinists started 44 strikes. In Pennsylvania and New York were the greatest number of disputes. This to the everlasting disgrace of the American people. The South San Francisco steel plant enlarged its facili- ties and included munitions with its other work. Steps were taken for establishing here a yet larger steel plant which would revolutionize indirectly industry on the west- ern coast, as in Alaska and the Sierra Nevada there is an abundance of ore suitable for the purpose. During a period of six months forty-seven new fac- tories were located in the Oakland district, involving an investment of between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 and as- suring an increase in the working population of 60,000. There are seven foundries in Alameda county producing grey iron castings. One also turns out steel castings, and four produce brass and bronze castings. Pig iron from Colorado, Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom, Bel- gium, and China is used in these plants. Babbitt metal, solder, various composition metals, bar iron and steel as well as open hearth steel are also manufactured in Oak- land. There are also seven gas engine factories turning out automobile, marine, aeroplanes, tractor and other types of engine. One of the leading aeroplane engine manufac- tories is located within the county, that of the Hall Scott motor company. The largest distillate engine ever built was turned out by the Union Gas engine company of Oakland for use on a railroad ferry across the north arm of the bay. The engine was of 600 horsepower, 44 feet long and weighed approximately 120,000 pounds. The Atlas Gas Engine company and Dow Pump and Diesel engine company build diesel engines of different types :.L's IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS Mini si/es that are marketed in Australasia, Straits Settle- ments, China, Japan, and along the Pacific coast of the I'nited States. Centrifugal pumps of various si/cs as well as a new type of rotary pump are also listed among local machinery products. Since the beginning of the European war, the export business in Oakland products, already well established. has been given an added impetus. Particularly in the Orient and the antipodes, now cut off from their usual sources of supply in Europe, increase in business has been most marked. Keen competition among manufacturers for foreign trade makes difficult an accurate estimate of the shipments. At Fourth and Brannan streets, San Francisco, is the model cigarette factory of the John Bollmann company. The building is of reinforced concrete and the rooms airy and spacious and provided with every safeguard for the health and comfort of their three hundred employees. On the ground floor the raw material is unloaded directly from the cars into the receiving room. After storage for ;: sufficient length of time in a room in which the temper- ature and humidity are scientifically regulated, this mate- rial is put through a machine to be properly blended for the various brands of the finished product. From the blender it goes to the cutter and is cut to the requisite fineness, after it is ready for the manufacturing machines. These machines do everything but think. Into one side of the machine the material enters through a hopper, from which it is carried to the rolls and shapers. Simultane- ously a roll of paper has been unwinding into another side of the machine and is being carried through the different processes which print, roll, and crimp it into shape to receive the filler, and on still another side a heavier paper is being fed into the machine. All are approaching a common centre and it is fascinating to watch the precision of the operation at this point. Deftly the thin paper con- tainer is thrown into position to meet the short roll of ASSURANCES FOR THE FUTURE 529 heavier paper which is pushed into one end of it and forms the mouthpieces. Another turn and the filler is placed in the container, after which they are cut to proper length and thrown from the machine at the rate of fifteen thou- san an hour finished product. The operations of box making and packing the cigar- ettes into them are equally interesting. In some cases the cigarettes are counted, fillers made, cigarettes placed in them and slipped into the boxes, which are in turn auto- matically counted. There will be about the bay thousands of model facto- ries like this in time, whose output will be sold upon the spot to be shipped to every part of the world. The Guggenheim corporation, which operates a fleet of small vessels between Seattle and Alaska, is expecting to increase this traffic by the addition of a number of large steamships. Following the example of Harvard, in propaganda, the University of California has joined forces with the San Francisco bureau of business research, to collect, classify, and make available comparative information pertaining to various lines of business. Systems of bookkeeping and statistics for retail merchants are in use in several thou- sand stores throughout the country. In return for such information as the merchants send to the university he re- ceives comparative tables telling him what other merchants in the same line of business are doing. He learns, for instance, that the volume of sales bears a certain relation to his rent, his delivery expense, his clerk hire, etc., and best of all he receives in printed form just what the vari- ous percentages are. With this valuable information at hand he can compare the percentages given him with the figures he himself has collected. A magnesite refractories company with a capital of $200,000 was incorporated, Charles B. Stetson, president. In the manufacture of food products there are nine can- neries in Alameda county, whose output of fruits and veg- 530 IN TIIKSK LATTER DAYS etaUes is distributed far and wide. With the choicest fruit ami vegetable products of the world grown within the state, this industry has progressed with rapidity. Fruits, jams, jellies, and vegetables; sauces, vinegar, and similar products are numbered among the output. Many are pro- ducing dried fruits. Bakery products are also an impor- tant item, where the local poulation of 320,000 takes up a large part of the output. The California Cracker com- pany supplies the trade throughout the country. In addition to these lines, the San Francisco bay region has acquired a prominent position in beef, mutton, and pork products, with their by-products of tallow, wool, and lard. Prominent among the cereals are those of the Shredded Wheat Biscuit eompany, in addition to others. Candy, ice-cream, butter, and dairy products also figure largely in local production. Allan Herbert, a retired sugar planter of Honolulu, offered $1000 to the silk culture society as soon as a substantial fund can be accumulated for the promulga- ting of the silk industry in California. One Lodi farmer with 80 acres wants to take up silk culture and would like to sell cocoons to the society or to some other raw silk manufacturing company. The silk industry at Red- lands, Fresno, and San Juaquin towns, in addition to the work now carried on at Rutherford farm, is assuming im- portance. The sisters of San Gabriel convent have started the cultivation of mulberry trees and the raising of silk cocoons. A notable movement is a $25,000,000 merger of Cali- fornia canning and packing interests. The Alaska pack- ing company with a fleet of twenty deep water ships, united to the vessels of the Pacific Coast company, sends canned goods to all the principal ports of the world. With research work at San Diego and Palo Alto the indications arc that the aeronautical capital of the United States will be established in California. Meteorological conditions alone, were there no other reasons should de- ASSURANCES FOR THE FUTURE 531 terinine this. The commission for aeronautics created by an act of Congress is the most powerful silent force for the development of aeronautical science in America. Its head, and his eleven associates of the commission, are the men behind the aircraft. They gather the data and do the exact thinking presented in those algebraic pam- phlets which inventors and other practical men translate into startling innovations. The commission has been in existence one year. During this time it has done a monumental work. It has made a scientific survey of all the aeronautical resources of the world, and has collected and digested all data existing concerning aeronautics. In 1916 the commission had a fund of $80,000 for its work. It had approximately $20,000 mpre available from other sources. It is obvious that it is profitable for Cali- fornia to possess the aeronautical capital of the United States. It means the local disbursement of government funds. More than this, it makes California the most con- spicuous aeronautical centre, dominating aeronautical ac- tivities in America. This supremacy should not be taken lightly. The government is prepared to spend in its army, navy, postoffice, and other departments approximately $30,000,000 on aircraft. Most of these funds will be dis- bursed where the government aeronautical centres are located. On the western coast of San Diego bay, between the city and the ocean, was established the United States signal corps and aviation school, the most completely equipped military aeronautical training academy in the United States. The school was planned and organized for the government by William A. Glassford, in eight specialized departments, assisted by young army officers. Water front improvement is the most interesting feature in all the San Francisco bay cities. A 45 acre tract was 533 IN Til USE LATTER DAYS secured by a syndicate of Hawaiian capitalists for a sugar r. 'Hurry to cost $100,000. There arc lines (l f steamships with fine vessels already running to homo and distant ports, lu-inging near to UN the remotest comers of the earth. To Mare island has been given the construction of a superdreadnaiight which will be the greatest ship afloat of the most modern type and bear the name California. It is provided to build on the Pacific coast four torpedo boat destroyers at a cost not to exceed $4.800,000, twelve coast submarines at a cost not to exceed $8,400,000 and one high power radio station : coast guard cutters at a cost of $700,000 and a patrol boat to cost $50,000. Los Angeles harbor will receive $500,000 to prevent shoaling, and the San Diego harbor for exca- vation $220,000. , Appropriations were made for the sup- port of the naval training station at San Francisco bay; for a new station $102,000, and for the new railroad in the Presidio connecting with the established boulevard, $30,000. Appropriation was made for barracks, a permit for the Art Palace to stand on Presidio ground, and for the closing of Lyons street in order that the California build- ing might remain undisturbed. An appropriation of $50,- 000 was made to acquire the big trees property now pri- vately owned by the Sequoia national park; $75,000,000 was appropriated for new roads, to be distributed among the several states which decide to appropriate $1 for every dollar of every federal money available. The allotment is based on poulation, area, and existing post roads. Of this California will receive about $6,000,000. A million dollars a year for five years was appropriated for building roads in national parks; the California parks will be enti- tled to about $125,000 of this. In order to equip the navy yard for the construction of large warships $684,000 was appropriated for a floating crane, new ship, dredging and maintenance of dykes. ASSURANCES FOR THE FUTURE 533 There are other appropriations for machinery plant, maga- zine hospital and laboratory aggregating $65,000. Under a guarantee by the government of a definite amount of work every year the Union Iron works have constructed a drydock at Hunter's point. The dock is 1050 feet long, 153 feet wide at the tops and will accom- modate the largest war vessel in the navy. A large float- ing dock has recently been built by the Union Iron works, which will carry vessels up to 6000 tons. It is 450 feet long and 110 feet wide at the bottom, and is served by electric pumps. The Union Iron works, from the other plant at Oakland harbor, announced a $20,000,000 ship-building extension, making one of the largest and best equipped plants in the world. The announcement was made by Joseph J. Tynan, manager of the Union Iron works, at the launching of the 10,000 tons freighter at the Alameda yards on the llth of November, who said that the company had decided to double its Alameda plant, making it twice the capacity of the plant on the western side of the bay, and to install two huge slips at an angle so that vessels of 900 feet in length, the largest in the world, can be launched. These two slips are designed for the berth of great battleships. The purchase of 125 acres of flat littoral adjoining the present plant had been arranged, to be used for machine shops and other factory buildings. The plant will be enlarged until it is the most modern plant in existence, and will be capable of handling the $60,000,000 worth of contracts which are already signed up with the govern- ment for the next three years, as well as the large amount of commercial bottoms to be constructed. Among the in- stallations will be a large plate shop, 250 feet wide and 850 feet in length. Above this there will be a laying-out floor the full length of the building; ten commercial slips for building vessels up to 15,000 tons, each slip served by the new system of travelling cranes already in use at the yard ; slips for the building of six submarines at one time; two 584 IN TIIKSK LATTKK DAYS gigantic slips for the building of great battleships : a coin plete plan! for building steam turbines for both mechan- ical and electrical reduction gears; a complete plant for building Diesel and semi-Diesel engines under patent li- censes recently signed up by the company ; accommoda- tions for 6000 workmen, as it is expected that twice that number will be employed before long; a plan whereby journeymen regularly employed at the works can buy their own homes in the neighborhood of the works. The government vessels already allotted to the Alameda plant include two battle cruisers, a scout cruiser and ten submarines. There is a possibility that four more battle cruisers, at a cost of $15,000,000 each, will be allot- ted by the government to this plant. The Union Iron works having contracts involving build- ing a ship a month for three years, additional ground for a rolling mill plant was secured into which were driven 7000 piles for a new plant where with the other shops would be employed a force of 10,000 men. To the eastward .of this plant, opposite the entrance to Lake Merritt a basin 1100 feet deep and 500 feet wide is to be dredged, providing 2200 feet of berthing space for ships and making available as actual water front prop- erly many acres of newly reclaimed land desirable for industrial and commercial uses. It is claimed by the pro- moters of this enterprise that the industries and transpor- tation concerns which are to use this property have already secured their locations. The basin is to be surrounded by warehouses and fac- tory buildings and the docks supplied with a belt line rail- way from which transcontinental and local freight cars are to be taken to the main lines by barges plying through the estuary, in the same manner now in use by the Santa Fe railway at its estuary freight terminal at the foot of Madison street. This method of bringing car and ship together is to be employed also by the Alaska Packers association at its ASSURANCES FOR THE FUTURE 535 new plant in Brooklyn basin. Original estimates of $1,- 000,000 to be expended in the development of this plant have been increased to more than $2,000,000 because of late changes in the commercial programme. At the November election the efforts of the chamber of commerce were crowned with success, and picketing in San Francisco was, as I have elswehere indicated, made illegal. In relation to which Mr Koster says: "The re- sult of the election on the anti-picketing ordinance estab- lishes the fact and declares it to the world at large that there is a very positive sentiment in San Francisco in favor of law and order and of preserving the community's self-respect. The people are determined that the city's public streets shall not be used for private strife. It demonstrates beyond a question that when the right-minded law-abiding citizens of San Francisco make up their minds to do a constructive work ; they will carry their point in the face 44 |.\ TIIKSK LATTBB DAYS candidate's r.-illy. But Johnson was ;i candidate for sen ator. So \\.-is Willis Booth, republican, of Los Angeles. Crocker ami K6601illg supported I tooth. They fought John sun's campaign for the republican nomination. So Crocker ruled that Johnson should not preside at the Hughes meet- ing and that he, Crocker, should. So Johnson wasn't present. That started the Crocker-Rowell controversy, during which Rowell was credited with telling Hughes that he was in the hands of the "wolves of the old guard republicanism." P>\ that he referred to Crocker, Kees- ling, et al. During the primary campaign, Johnson nightly referred to "William II. Crocker and his inherited South- ern Pacific millions." That caused a bit of political ill feeling. "Then came tbe party conventions at Sacramento in September, dominated in the case of republicans and pro- gressives by the governor, and Keesling was deposed as chairman of the republican state central committee, and Johnson's kind of republicans were appointed on that body. All those tilings, while neither Rowell, Crocker, Keesling, nor any of the leaders of the two factions of re- publicanism in California will say so for publication, caused the defeat of Hughes in this state." As Mr Rowell reports, "What Crocker said to me was that he would be delighted to have the governor present at all social affairs participated in by the republican can- didate while he was in the state, but that he didn't want him at any political affairs. ' ' California was lost to Hughes when Crocker and Kees- ling took him prisoner at the state line and reduced him from a presidential candidate to the stalking horse of their sneaking man-hunt against Johnson. He did not under- stand the situation, but they did, and they deliberately risked republican defeat in the nation rather than permit any appearance of recognition of Johnson or of progres- sivism in California. The present republican state organi- zation has done its best to retrieve the treason and blunder ASSURANCES FOR THE FUTURE 545 of its predecessors, and Hiram Johnson has made more speeches for Hughes in this campaign than any other man in the United States, but the injury already done was so great that we were not able quite to undo it. "There was a crime perpetrated on California, the crime of treason, which may impose upon the world con- sequences untold. Who were the traitors ? First there was the Times; second there were these innocents, Francis V. Keesling, whose soul was just small enough to jeopardize a presidential election for a little limelight on his own ridicu- lous gubernatorial aspirations ; and William H. Crocker whose ignorance of politics is as complete as his inexperi- ence, and both are total. It is little consolation that the perpetrators of it have been ejected from political power. They ought to be buried so deep they can never be resur- rected, and their names ought to be execrated until they are forgotten, which will be when the names of Judas and Cataline, and Ganelon, and Fawkes, and Arnold are for- gotten or their crimes forgiven. And to this end there are men in California ready to devote time, money, and political power. Do the old guard wish to challenge it?" " Calif ornians know full well what lost this state to Hughes, ' ' said Governor Johnson. ' ' A few petty politicians acting with the Los Angeles Times and one or two others so misused Mr Hughes and his visit to California, that the injury they did we were unable to undo. When Mr Hughes came into our state Crocker and Keesling, aided and abetted by the Times and a small coterie, created a situation in which they made it appear that Mr Hughes was entirely reactionary, and that he was neither in accord with nor sympathetic with California's progress and achievement. It was not alone by their public ultimatum that Mr Hughes should have nothing to do with progressives in California, but it was the atmosphere they created about our candidate. Californians looked aghast, and unfortunately believed that the situation created by Crocker, Keesling, and the Times presented and revealed the mind of Mr Hughes, and that 5*6 IN TIIKSK LATTKR DAYS the mind thus revealed was what long ago California lia